I Might Have Fallen in Love With My Childhood Sweetheart
Chapter 144 - 140: Breaking Defenses

Chapter 144: Chapter 140: Breaking Defenses

Teacher Qin left them homework and asked the four of them to help each other in private.

That meant they paired up, and while one worked on problems, the other would time them, in order to track the improvement in their problem-solving speed.

With less than a month away from the rematch, they now spend their self-study time every evening in this classroom drilling through problems.

Xie Ying’an and Qingran were a team, Li Qingmo moved to the rear desk to form a group with Fang Jin.

"This time it took 5 minutes and 13 seconds." Xie Ying’an pressed the pause button on the timer in his hand and reported a number to Qingran.

Qingran put down the pen and shook her sore wrist; she had been doing homework for several hours straight today.

The problem Xie Ying’an just did seemed to take 3 minutes and 29 seconds, tsk, nearly a two-minute gap made Qingran feel like her hand had no right to be sore.

Xie Ying’an lowered his gaze, his eyes fell on her wrist, and his eyes bore an ambiguous message: "Take a break?"

"What time is it?" Qingran asked him.

Honestly, with such a big gap between them, she really didn’t want to rest.

Xie Ying’an glanced at his watch again: "It’s 7:42 PM."

Behind them, Li Qingmo’s excited voice came through: "Yo, did I just finish the problem faster than last time by 42 seconds?"

Fang Jin nodded, praising with a serious face: "This time it only took 7 minutes and 11 seconds, that’s great improvement."

minutes and 11 seconds, and that’s great improvement?

Qingran felt she did deserve a little rest.

"Hurry, hurry, your turn." Li Qingmo took the timer from Fang Jin’s phone and started timing Fang Jin.

Qingran turned her head back, Xie Ying’an, who had just persuaded her to rest, started drawing circuit diagrams again; he seemed addicted to drawing circuit diagrams lately, almost starting whenever he had a moment of free time.

What does it feel like when someone with better grades than you is working even harder than you?

Without saying anything else, Qingran resigned herself to picking up the pen and drilling through problems.

Everyone still walked home with Ruan Ruan after school at night, but today Ruan Ruan seemed different; her eyes lit up when she saw Qingran.

Qingran knew that at times like this, Ruan Ruan tended to have "big news" she wanted to share with her.

Sure enough, after walking only two steps, Ruan Ruan started: "Ranran, before tonight’s study session, something big happened in our class..."

She deliberately paused, with the look of "Aren’t you curious? Ask me, ask me?"

Qingran wasn’t particularly interested in what big incident had happened in class; she was still thinking about how to improve her problem-solving speed.

Today, even her fastest problem-solving speed was still about a minute away from Xie Ying’an’s fastest.

The key was that Xie Ying’an’s speed could still improve, yet she felt stuck in place, as if no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get faster, which made her feel a bit frustrated and anxious.

But she still cooperated with Ruan Ruan and asked, "What happened?"

Ruan Ruan’s eyes shone even brighter. She also glanced back, as if worried that Xie Ying’an and the others would overhear.

Seeing Ruan Ruan turn back, Li Qingmo rolled her eyes at her and disdainfully "tsk"-ed, with an attitude of who cares to listen to your gossip.

After confirming there was a distance between them, Ruan Ruan leaned close to Qingran and whispered, "Today, the transfer student came to our class to vent on Wen Shiyi."

"What?" Qingran was genuinely surprised now.

Actually, Ruan Ruan had really decided to study hard lately, preparing for the finals a month away. For the sake of being able to quietly concentrate on her studies, she didn’t even play with her phone after getting home at night, and she hasn’t browsed the school forum in a long time.

But sometimes things go contrary to one’s wishes. She didn’t go looking for gossip, but gossip made its way into her class, and she couldn’t avoid hearing it if she wanted to.

"Shocking, isn’t it?" Ruan Ruan grinned, her white teeth especially noticeable under the streetlights, as she opened her chatterbox: "Not just us, even Wen Shiyi herself probably didn’t expect it, after all, she had been reconciling with Huang Qianyu lately. Who would have thought some self-righteous transfer student would come out of nowhere?"

Ruan Ruan gestured animatedly with her hands and feet: "Liang Fan came into our class with a pre-prepared written statement, read out loud on the podium the past bullying done by Huang Qianyu and other not-so-nice things she had done, even calling her a campus bully who should be condemned by society... Huang Qianyu, originally a bit of a delinquent, couldn’t tolerate this, right? Before Liang Fan could finish his speech, she rushed to the podium and started fighting him. The class was in total chaos at that moment."

Li Qingran thought about that scene and couldn’t help but twitch at the corners of her eyes.

"It was only after the teacher from class 2 came that they were separated. Ranran, you didn’t see it, the homeroom teacher’s face from class 2 was terribly unsightly."

Li Qingran felt she could imagine the scene—Teacher Liu’s face seldom looked pleasant, every time they saw Teacher Liu, she had that unattractive look as if the students owed her money.

This time, having her student humiliated in class 1, it’s imaginable how dour her face must have been.

"Up to now, we still don’t know who told the transfer student all this. Judging by Wen Shiyi’s expression, it wasn’t her," Ruan Ruan sighed, her expression full of disdain when mentioning Liang Fan: "It’s a matter between girls, and here’s a guy meddling in for no good reason!"

The truth spoken is true indeed.

But that’s how romance novels are—they always feature endless scenes where the male lead or the second male lead rush to protect the female lead, don’t they?

Now, Xie Ying’an isn’t willing to do what he, as the male lead, should be doing. Doesn’t that leave the opportunity to the second male lead?

And what Liang Fan did, after all is said and done, was still to win a smile from his sweetheart.

Although his behavior was somewhat childish.

Li Qingmo, who was leisurely trailing behind, raised his chin towards Xie Ying’an: "Hey, do you believe that Ruan Ruan is definitely telling Li Qingran some hearsay she picked up from who knows where?"

Xie Ying’an was noncommittal. They all knew Ran Ruan’s gossipy nature.

Initially, when he and Li Qingmo were the topic of gossip in the school forum due to some fujoshis exchanging rumours, Ruan Ruan was quite enthusiastic about it too.

The way home wasn’t that far, and before Ruan Ruan could enjoy the gossip to her heart’s content, they had already reached the intersection leading to her house.

As they waved goodbye, Ruan Ruan still shouted, "Ranran, let’s chat on the phone when you get home."

Li Qingmo almost rolled his eyes back into his skull.

Today, after getting home, Li Qingran didn’t feel like doing her homework at all. She felt she had entered a state of weariness, lacking both motivation and mood.

When Xie Ying’an arrived, he found her in this listless state.

Xie Ying’an stood at the door for a long while, and Li Qingran didn’t even notice someone had come in. She was completely immersed in her own world, an expanse of nothingness.

Xie Ying’an closed the door and walked over with light footsteps.

Li Qingran was in a daze, and he watched her in a daze.

Time trickled away, and the scene froze at this moment.

After a long while, Li Qingran came back to reality, and her gaze met Xie Ying’an’s across the room. Startled, she quickly sat up, her words stumbling a bit: "You, when did you come here?"

Xie Ying’an leaned down to meet Li Qingran’s gaze, his lips slowly curving into a smile, softening the sharp lines of his face. As he smiled, his dark eyes seemed to hide stars and oceans: "I’ve been here a while. I saw you were daydreaming, so I didn’t disturb you."

The young man’s voice was gentle, the scent of milk and mint spreading between them.

Li Qingran’s eyes landed on the tear mole at the corner of Xie Ying’an’s eye; with such male beauty in front of her, she swallowed involuntarily and quickly looked away: "Let’s do... let’s do homework!"

Damn it!

If Xie Ying’an keeps seducing her so unabashedly with his male charm, she’s going to break down sooner or later.

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