Lin Ran had wanted to take a nap during lunch break, but Su Shijie wouldn’t let him.

“Little Ran, Xiaoxue and the others have military training next week. Don’t you have anything to say?” Su Shijie asked.

“What am I supposed to say? They can’t get out of military training.” Lin Ran answered with his head down.

“But I’ve got a feeling something’s gonna happen. Hey, why don’t you talk to Ye Qingqian and ask her to get Xiaoxue excused? That girl’s just not cut out for military training. What if something really happens to her?” Su Shijie said.

“Why do you care so much about her? Got nothing better to do?” Lin Ran was speechless.

“I’m only looking out for you. If something happens to Xiaoxue during training, you think your dad won’t beat you to a pulp?” Su Shijie said with a pout.

“Dude, what does it have to do with me if something happens to her during training? I’m not the one training her. If she’s got a weak constitution, who’s that on? Me? What’s wrong with you?” Lin Ran was beyond speechless. Sure, he’d decided to treat Lin Ruixue better, but come on—was this military training something he could change?

“You’re something else.” Su Shijie finally returned to his seat.

Lin Ran lay there for ages. Yeah, no chance of falling asleep. He took out his phone and sent Lin Ruixue a text.

[How do you feel about military training next week?]

About ten minutes later, Lin Ruixue replied.

[I don’t know]

[...]

What a great answer: “I don’t know.” It killed Lin Ran’s urge to check in on her stone dead.

[Brother Lin Ran, I want to ask for leave]

[Talk to your teacher]

...

About three minutes later, Lin Ruixue sent another text.

[Xiaoxue’s on her period, so she can’t do military training. I need to ask for leave]

Lin Ran’s head hurt. Girls were such a hassle.

[Then talk to your teacher]

After sending that last text, Lin Ran put his phone away and forced himself to nap.

There was a PE class on Tuesday afternoon. Other than running during the lesson, they were basically free to do whatever they wanted. Su Shijie had dragged Lin Ran to sit in the shade of a tree and admire the “scenery” on the field.

“Hey, you gonna go say hi?” Su Shijie patted Lin Ran on the shoulder.

Lin Ran didn’t respond. He knew Su Shijie meant Ye Qingqian. Class S in their senior year had PE at the same time, so he’d seen Ye Qingqian during class. Right now, she was playing badminton with another girl beneath a tree in the distance.

“Tsk, you, man. If I were you, I’d be rushing over to say hi to Ye Qingqian and offer her a bottle of water. Honestly, given your situation, you’ve got the best chance of anyone at our school of winning her over!” Su Shijie said.

“Why would I want to win her over? I barely know her. Can you stop spending all day thinking about how to hit on girls? Studying’s what matters.” Lin Ran was speechless.

Su Shijie was even more speechless. Studying was important, sure, but you had to enjoy life too. They were all at the age when people first fell in love. Wasn’t Lin Ran wasting his youth if he never dated? He had such a good opportunity right now, and he wasn’t even going to take it.

“Little Ran, you need to understand something. There are way more guys than girls in this world, and the really good ones are even harder to come by. If you don’t seize your chance, someone else will.” Su Shijie sighed.

“Not interested.” Lin Ran shook his head.

“Fine, keep being like this. Just wait—what’re you gonna do when you finally like a girl? Girls at school are the easiest to fool.” Su Shijie kept running his mouth.

Lin Ran couldn’t take it anymore. “If you wanna hit on someone, then go do it. Nobody’s stopping you. You like pretty girls, don’t you? Go on.”

“I’m not going! My target is Yuanyuan!” Su Shijie huffed.

Lin Ran made a gagging motion. “Give it a rest. Stop going on about Yuanyuan all the time. You know, the girl didn’t even recognize you when you went up to Shen Qingyuan to say hi.”

“What’s that supposed to mean, huh? And here I am, sincerely looking out for your love life.” Su Shijie punched Lin Ran.

“You can stop worrying about me. I, Lin Ran, will never get involved with a girl in this life, let alone fall for one. There’s nothing wrong with being alone.” Lin Ran said it calmly.

“What, you’re making a bold prediction now too? I’m telling you, once you make a prediction like that, there’s a ninety percent chance it’ll come true! I bet you’ll fall for a girl before you graduate high school. Can’t say who, but she’ll definitely be from our school!” Su Shijie said.

Lin Ran glanced at him and smiled. “So you’re saying there’s a ninety percent chance you’ll fall for Bao Xinrou?”

The moment Bao Xinrou came up, Su Shijie’s expression changed. He kicked Lin Ran and told him to get lost three times.

...

“Hey, you really won’t even take a look? What a beautiful sight. You sure you don’t wanna see?” Su Shijie tugged at Lin Ran’s clothes and nodded toward Ye Qingqian.

“Quit bugging me. What’s there to look at?” Lin Ran glanced over, annoyed.

There wasn’t much to see. Ye Qingqian was just playing badminton with another girl. Was that supposed to be so interesting?

“Come to think of it, how come the seniors still have PE? Shouldn’t PE be canceled in senior year?” Su Shijie asked, puzzled.

“They didn’t cancel it last semester, but there won’t be PE next semester. If they made everyone buckle down and study as soon as senior year started, wouldn’t they go crazy by the end of the year?” Lin Ran said. He didn’t know how other schools handled it, but that was how No. 5 High School did things. PE wasn’t canceled during the first half of senior year. As the teachers put it, PE gave students a chance to relax and balance work with rest.

“Hey, hey, she’s coming over! She’s coming!” Su Shijie suddenly slapped Lin Ran on the shoulder, excited.

Lin Ran slapped Su Shijie’s paw away and turned his face aside—but sure enough, Ye Qingqian was walking toward them with her jacket in hand. He frowned. What does this woman want now?

“Oh, what a coincidence. You guys have PE too?” Ye Qingqian said with a smile when she reached them.

“Yeah, what a coincidence. Must be fate!” Su Shijie replied cheerfully.

As for Lin Ran, he just stared at his phone.

Su Shijie was so annoyed he wanted to throw Lin Ran’s phone away.

“So, Lin Ran, are you really not going to think it over?” Ye Qingqian asked with a smile as she sat right beside him.

A light fragrance wafted over. It wasn’t cloying—just pleasant.

“The Student Council has too much going on. I don’t want to make more trouble for myself. I prefer taking it easy.” Lin Ran said without looking up.

“Strictly speaking, there isn’t that much to do. It gets busy at the start and end of the school year and around a few important holidays. But honestly, the teachers are just lazy. They don’t want to deal with a lot of things, so they dump them on the Student Council.” Ye Qingqian unscrewed her water bottle and took a long drink.

“Senior, are there any perks to joining the Student Council?” Su Shijie asked.

“Perks? Not really. But it helps you develop organizational, coordination, and communication skills. I suppose that counts as a perk. Practicing those skills in high school will help a lot in college. In the long run, it’s a good thing.” Ye Qingqian said.

“All right, Senior. Why’d you suddenly decide to recruit Lin Ran for the Student Council? Is there some secret between you two?” Su Shijie asked with a sly grin.

“There’s no secret. I just like his work ethic. Lin Ran’s much better at getting things done than the others on the Student Council. If he joined and helped me out, my life would be a lot easier.” Ye Qingqian said frankly.

“That’s true. Little Ran might act like a dumbass all day, but when it comes to getting things done, he’s serious and dependable. He’s efficient too. Too bad this guy hates trouble.” Su Shijie agreed. He had to admit Lin Ran really was reliable—he worked efficiently without sacrificing quality.

“Why aren’t you paying attention to me? Is your phone prettier than I am?” Ye Qingqian teased, leaning close to Lin Ran’s face.

Lin Ran scooted away, looking disgusted. “Back off.”

Su Shijie covered his face. This guy was being way too rude.

“Fine, I won’t bother you. But be ready to owe me one. Get your Student Council application ready soon.” Ye Qingqian smiled, then stood up and left.

Lin Ran was annoyed. Was there something wrong with this woman?

Lin Ran was so annoyed he could barely stand it. In his previous life, he’d wanted so badly to get close to girls and have a passionate romance, but no one ever paid him any attention. Worse, they’d mocked and insulted him. Now he couldn’t stand girls—he practically had the word “hate” written across his face—and yet they kept coming right up to him. What was wrong with them? Was it because he’d lost weight? Yeah, right. He knew exactly what he looked like. He wasn’t handsome enough to have girls throwing themselves at him.

“Little Ran, you don’t know how lucky you are. This is a rare chance to get close to Ye Qingqian!” Su Shijie sighed.

“Are you asking for a beating? What, do I have to find some time to tell Shen Qingyuan how Young Master Su likes to dance around in bars?” Lin Ran hit him with the big guns.

Su Shijie obediently shut up.

Lin Ran wasn’t done with him. Right in front of Su Shijie, he made a weird gesture. “Su-hey, Su-hey, Su-hey—shake it!”

“Bro, I’m sorry. Can we just leave each other alone?” Su Shijie begged.

“Should’ve thought of that sooner. You had to get roughed up before you learned your lesson.” Lin Ran smiled.

But Lin Ran had once again become famous among his classmates.

Breaking news: No. 5 High School’s campus beauty, Ye Qingqian, went to whisper to Lin Ran from Class 2-B during PE!

Some people couldn’t stand Lin Ran. How dare he hit on my goddess? I’ll beat you up!

Others admired him. “Damn, he actually managed to score that beauty. Impressive!”

Once Su Shijie had shut his mouth, he started reading gossip—and sharing it with Lin Ran.

“Ye Qingqian’s a five-star difficulty target, but for you, I’d say she’s only three and a half or four stars.”

“Hey, my Yuanyuan’s only four and a half stars? Who’re they looking down on? Let me catch whoever made this ranking—I’ll beat him up!”

“Wang Mengyue’s four stars? You’ve gotta be kidding. That idiot has no brains. Four stars? I could lure her away with a single lollipop!”

...

Lin Ran didn’t react. He just turned on his phone’s voice recorder.