After leaving school, Lin Ran went straight to the print shop nearest the school and made copies of all the information. He also bought a few report folders, sorted the students by class, and filed them away separately.

There were six first-year classes this year, with nearly three hundred students in total—an average of almost fifty per class. That was a lot. Getting everything sorted out made things much easier, whether for the teachers or for entering the information later.

The only problem was that it took forever. By the time the copies were done, Lin Ran really wanted to ask Ye Qingqian: if these forms needed to be copied anyway, why not wait until the information had been entered and print them all at once? Wouldn’t that be much easier? Copying them one sheet at a time—damn it.

Lin Ran regretted taking the job. It was a pain in the ass, and on top of that, the print shop owner had given him an earful.

There were nearly three hundred pages. By the time they were all copied, it was already dark. Lin Ran walked home with the stuff, wearing a sour expression.

When he got home, Lin Ran didn’t feel like making dinner. He was a little hungry, but he really wasn’t in the mood. Right now, he just wanted to give Ye Qingqian a piece of his mind. Women really couldn’t be trusted to have good intentions.

But Lin Ran had completely misunderstood Ye Qingqian. It was true that printing everything after the information had been entered would’ve been much easier. The problem was that this was a special case: the information was needed tomorrow, and a teacher had only given Ye Qingqian the task at the last minute. There wasn’t much time, so copying the pages was the only option. Of course, Ye Qingqian had also asked Lin Ran for help simply because she thought it’d be a hassle. She hadn’t expected him to agree in the first place—but he had. So, really, he only had himself to blame. He shouldn’t have agreed to help.

Lin Ran wasn’t planning to eat dinner—or rather, he planned to just gnaw on a cucumber and call it a night. But there were two other people at home.

“Hey, Xiaoxue’s brother, aren’t you having dinner?” Si Qing, who was staying over, asked.

Lin Ran glanced at her, kept chewing on his cucumber, and went back to his bedroom.

Si Qing was annoyed. “Hey, what’s with you now? Did that senpai bully you or something? You still can’t take it out on us. Seriously, Brother Ran, make some food, will you? Even if you’re not eating, make a little. What if you get hungry later?”

That was all it took to figure out what was going on. Lin Ran clicked his tongue and didn’t even bother opening the door.

“If you’re hungry, go out and buy something to eat.” He shot back a single line.

Then Si Qing started complaining. “Your brother’s so awful! It’s one thing for him to go hungry, but he’s making you go hungry too!”

Hey, you’re the one who’s hungry!

“Come on, Brother Ran doesn’t seem to be in a great mood. Let’s not bother him,” Lin Ruixue said softly.

“Tch, his mood is his problem. If he takes it out on us, then he’s got no class. He’s a grown man, for crying out loud. Come on, let’s go eat out.” Si Qing huffed, then took Lin Ruixue out with her.

When Lin Ruixue came back, she brought Lin Ran a portion of noodles. But he was in one of his stubborn moods and ignored her, so in the end she could only leave the noodles on the dining table and let him know they were there.

Su Shijie didn’t come home that night either. He’d obviously gone out partying again, but Lin Ran didn’t care.

Early the next morning, Lin Ran got up and went for his usual run, munching on an apple as he headed out. Everything was just like always. He ran into Shen Qingyuan along the way, pretended not to see her, and kept going. When he came back after finishing his run, Shen Qingyuan was in the garden, giving the kitten some water and ham.

After taking a shower, Lin Ran changed into his school uniform, grabbed his things, and headed to school.

There weren’t many people at school at that hour, just a few teachers and some new students who lived too far away and had chosen to stay in the dorms. Lin Ran went straight to the Student Council office. When he opened the door and went in, he saw Ye Qingqian asleep with her head on the desk in front of the computer.

Lin Ran frowned. Had she stayed here all night instead of going home?

Lin Ran gently shut the door, then set the copied documents on the desk. He quietly took a book from the shelf nearby, sat down on the sofa, and began to read. He didn’t disturb Ye Qingqian. He’d just let her wake up on her own.

At 7:40, Ye Qingqian’s phone alarm went off. She stirred and sat up, turned off the alarm, rubbed her eyes, and yawned. Only then did she notice Lin Ran sitting on the sofa.

“You’re here early.” Ye Qingqian gave him her trademark smile.

Lin Ran closed the book and nodded. After putting it back on the shelf, he picked up the folders on the desk. “I copied everything and sorted it out for you. They’re arranged from Class S to Class E, top to bottom, so they’ll be easy to use. The six folders were two yuan each. The copies cost fifty-seven yuan and eighty cents, so that’s sixty-nine yuan and eighty cents altogether. Here’s thirty yuan and twenty cents in change.”

Ye Qingqian looked at what Lin Ran had handed her, not sure whether to laugh or cry, but she took it anyway.

“If you’re done sleeping, move aside. I’m going to keep entering the information,” Lin Ran said coolly.

“All right, all right!” Ye Qingqian stood up helplessly and moved out of the way.

Lin Ran sat down without ceremony and got straight to work.

Ye Qingqian flipped through the folders and nodded with satisfaction. Lin Ran really did have a great work ethic. Honestly, if she’d gone to make the copies herself, the most she would’ve done was sort them by class afterward. She never would’ve thought to buy folders to protect all those flimsy sheets of paper.

“Lin Ran, have you ever thought about joining the Student Council?” Ye Qingqian asked with a smile.

“Not interested,” Lin Ran replied.

“Come on, at least think about it!” Ye Qingqian kept smiling.

“...” Lin Ran couldn’t even be bothered to answer.

Ye Qingqian shrugged, suddenly getting the urge to tease Lin Ran. “Are you really sure you don’t want to think about it? If you join the Student Council, I’ll grant you one wish!”

“...” Lin Ran wasn’t swayed.

Ye Qingqian scratched her head. Seriously? That didn’t tempt him at all? “You’re really not interested? Your wish could even be for me to be your girlfriend!”

This time, Lin Ran looked up. Ye Qingqian thought she’d finally piqued his interest, but his eyes were full of disdain.

“If you’ve got nothing better to do, do it yourself. If you’re busy, then don’t bother me. I’m not interested in joining the Student Council, and I’m even less interested in you.” With that, Lin Ran went back to entering the information.

Ye Qingqian’s smile froze on her face. She couldn’t make sense of how she felt. What was this? This couldn’t be real, could it? Was she still dreaming? Lin Ran, were you serious?

But before Ye Qingqian could say anything else, Lin Ran spoke again. “If there’s nothing urgent today, don’t let anyone come in and bother me. I don’t like being interrupted over and over while I’m working.”

Ye Qingqian paused, then smiled. “No problem. No one will bother you. But I’ll have to come in to get things, so I can’t avoid that completely. I’ll try not to interrupt you.”

Lin Ran nodded.

Ye Qingqian left the office with her things.

No one came to bother Lin Ran in the office all morning. He was in a pretty good mood, and his work went faster, too. He entered nearly forty students’ information in a single morning—an output that surprised even him.

At 12:05, Ye Qingqian came by and brought Lin Ran lunch, just like the day before. Today, though, it was fried noodles... Well, supposedly.

Lin Ran stared at the chunks of sea cucumber, plump abalone, and shrimp covering the noodles in the lunchbox... Was this seafood fried with noodles, or noodles fried with seafood?

There was also a cup of pale green tea.

“Don’t you like fried noodles?” Ye Qingqian asked in confusion when Lin Ran didn’t pick up his chopsticks for a long time.

Lin Ran shook his head and said with complete seriousness, “These noodles look like they’re way out of my price range.”

“They’re not that expensive. A friend of my mom’s is in the seafood wholesale business, so seafood costs very little. One abalone only costs two yuan, and a sea cucumber’s about four. The shrimp are even cheaper. The drink is just ordinary bamboo-leaf water. This whole serving of noodles costs less than ten yuan to make,” Ye Qingqian said casually.

Lin Ran wasn’t sure he believed her.

“Besides, whenever that friend of my mom’s comes over, they bring several boxes of seafood. There’s so much that we often can’t finish it, and we end up throwing some away when it goes bad,” Ye Qingqian continued.

“The world of the rich really is different.” Lin Ran said it offhandedly, then started eating.

Just like yesterday, Ye Qingqian quickly finished her lunch and went back to work. After eating, Lin Ran washed the lunchbox and chopsticks, wiped them dry, and put them away neatly. Then he got started on the afternoon’s work.