Chapter 338

Afternoon.

Just as Ying Chanxi was about to head to school for her competition class, Xu Yinghuan arrived at Bihai Lanting 1502, backpack on her shoulder.

According to the usual schedule, this afternoon was still Li Luo's time to tutor Xu Yinghuan and Yan Zhusheng.

But when Ying Chanxi saw Xu Yinghuan, she happily pulled her over to the coffee table to share a small gift, handing it over while emphasizing it was bought together with Li Luo in Changning.

Xu Yinghuan smiled her thanks, happily accepted it, then glanced at Yan Zhusheng.

Although Xi Xi had traveled to Changning with Li Luo, she probably hadn't realized that during the class-assignment trip, Zhusheng had already sneaked into Li Luo's room to spend the night.

But thinking about how both Ying Chanxi and Yan Zhusheng had feelings for this guy Li Luo, Xu Yinghuan couldn't help sighing inwardly.

And…

Xu Yinghuan glanced at Xu Youyu, who was sitting on the sofa, cross-legged, eating a small pudding and scrolling through her phone, and felt a pang of unease.

Since the class-assignment trip, Xu Yinghuan had read a little of I Am Really Not a Star every day, and now she was nearly caught up to the latest chapters.

After reading through it all, Xu Yinghuan had figured out Li Luo's sinister intentions.

Though she didn't know what he truly thought, in the novel, the protagonist Li Yang was undeniably stepping on three boats at once!

He was kissed secretly by Mo Qinghan, kissed Jiang Ming in a hotel room under the pretense of rehearsing a scene, and shared a kiss scene with Shen Dongdong during TV drama filming.

Aside from these three incidents, the rest of the daily interactions were restrained, yet Xu Yinghuan still found herself smiling sweetly while reading.

But after the sweetness faded, Xu Yinghuan began to feel something was off.

After all, other readers couldn't tell, but she spent every day with Li Luo and his circle—how could she not notice how many plot points mirrored real life?

Especially the everyday interactions between the male and female leads—they were exactly how Li Luo usually interacted with Ying Chanxi and the others!

But if Li Luo truly had malicious intentions, Xu Yinghuan wasn't sure.

In her view, Li Luo rarely took the initiative—whether it was Xi Xi or Zhusheng, they were always the ones drawing close to him.

Thinking this, Xu Yinghuan sighed helplessly, unsure what this guy Li Luo really thought.

It's fine in novels, but surely he wouldn't really step on three boats in real life?

That would be… too… too intense!

Xu Yinghuan stole a glance at Xi Xi, then at the senior, then turned her gaze to Yan Zhusheng, finally pulling out her phone and scrolling to a reader comment titled "Sister Kicked Me."

After reading the commenter's clear and insightful "take them all" theory, she somehow felt it made a strange kind of sense.

If it were anyone else, Xu Yinghuan would firmly oppose cheating.

But the subtle dynamic between Li Luo, Ying Chanxi, and the others, she sensed no rivalry—only sweetness everywhere.

Even now, as Ying Chanxi gave her the gift, subtly showing off her trip with Li Luo, Xu Yinghuan only thought Xi Xi was adorable, feeling no threat toward Zhusheng.

Thinking of this, Xu Yinghuan's expression turned peculiar—after reading I Am Really Not a Star, she felt her mind had gone slightly off-kilter, even imagining it wouldn't be so bad if all four of them were together.

But when she snapped back to her senses, Xu Yinghuan immediately shook her head, reaffirming her loyalty to Team Zhusheng.

After Ying Chanxi left for class, Xu Yinghuan grabbed Yan Zhusheng's arm and whispered, "Do you know what Xi Xi and Li Luo did in Changning?"

"They took a ferry," Yan Zhusheng said.

"You really know? Did Xi Xi tell you?"

Yan Zhusheng shook her head: "Because I went too."

Xu Yinghuan: "?"

"Weren't you with Aunt Yuan filming at Hulan TV?"

"Yes, but the recording finished on the 14th evening," Yan Zhusheng nodded. "Then I went to Changning with my mom for an event, and took the chance to visit Li Luo."

"…" Xu Yinghuan fell silent, then couldn't help asking, "What did you go visit Li Luo for?"

"He took me on a ferry."

"With Xi Xi?"

"No," Yan Zhusheng shook her head. "He took Xi Xi the day before, then took me alone afterward."

Hearing this, Xu Yinghuan fell silent again.

"So does Xi Xi know you went to Changning?"

"Nope."

"That makes sense…" Xu Yinghuan recalled how cheerfully Ying Chanxi had given her the gift—clearly unaware that Yan Zhusheng had been to Changning.

"What are you two whispering about?" Li Luo had just finished preparing today's lesson, pulled out the whiteboard behind his desk, and called out to the two at the coffee table, "Come over for class."

"Okay."

"Coming."

Watching the two sit at the desk, Li Luo glanced at Xu Yinghuan, then touched his face, puzzled: "Xu Yinghuan, is there something on my face?"

"No, no."

"Then why are you staring at me? Look at the whiteboard."

"I'm gazing at you with reverence, Teacher Li."

"Zhusheng, what's she on about?"

"What the hell? Where am I being crazy?" Xu Yinghuan snapped, then suddenly clamped her mouth shut: "Mmm! Mmm!"

Yan Zhusheng immediately covered Xu Yinghuan's mouth, cutting her off: "Huanhuan didn't sleep well, so she's a bit dim today."

Li Luo had no idea what these two were up to, but girls often had their little secrets—he didn't press further, tapped the whiteboard, and signaled them to get into study mode.

…

Around three in the afternoon, Li Luo was tutoring the two girls in physics and geography.

Lin Xiuhong and Cui Suling had just returned from the market, carrying a pile of groceries into the kitchen to start preparing food.

As soon as she entered, Cui Suling glanced at Xu Youyu still playing on her phone on the sofa, set down the bags, then stormed out.

But she saw Xu Youyu already seated at the desk, occasionally chiming in as she tutored Yan Zhusheng and Xu Yinghuan alongside Li Luo.

Cui Suling watched in silence, deciding not to disturb them over there; she could only point at her daughter from afar with her fingers, then waved and returned to the kitchen.

"Our girl—really, I don't know what to say about her," Cui Suling complained to Lin Xiuhong as soon as she entered the kitchen. "She won't study seriously, but she's number one at slacking off and putting on a show."

"You should say less about Youyu," Lin Xiuhong laughed. "Your daughter's top of her grade—why pick on her? Maybe she's just balancing work and rest? You probably didn't notice when she was studying hard."

In this regard, Lin Xiuhong still had authority to speak.

After all, when Li Luo had performed exceptionally well on his middle school entrance exam, he'd studied hard without either of them knowing.

So in Lin Xiuhong's view, although Xu Youyu seemed lazy at home, she must have studied very seriously at school—otherwise, her grades could never have stayed this high.

"This girl turns into a different person the moment she gets home," Cui Suling sighed, shaking her head. "She's cut from the same cloth as my old Xu—only acts serious when she's outside."

"Daughters take after their fathers," Lin Xiuhong chuckled, then asked, "By the way, you've been coming over every day to help cook this summer—how does your husband eat?"

"How else?" Cui Suling laughed. "There are several cafeterias inside Qianjiang University—can't he eat there?"

Hearing this, Lin Xiuhong also chuckled, then suggested, "Why not invite him over for dinner at night? More people means more fun, and it's not far from Qianjiang University—after eating, you two could walk home together."

"No thanks. He eats fine at the cafeteria. Two of us is enough here."

"But my husband's coming too," Lin Xiuhong said. "He recently bought a hotpot restaurant on Xijie—he's been running over there all day, and he'll need to eat dinner here too. Invite your husband—he and my husband can have someone to talk to."

"That works," Cui Suling said, thinking of Li Guohong's coming. She nodded. "I'll ask him and see if he'll come tonight."

…

In the classroom at Fuyi Middle School.

Classes start at 1:30 p. m., each lasting forty minutes, for a total of three sessions.

The first class is reviewing example problems, the second is solving problems, the third is analyzing them.

Competition problems are difficult—sometimes even a single large question takes ten or twenty minutes to solve.

If you get stuck for a moment, half an hour's gone.

So many students in the competition class sweat buckets during the second class; Teacher Sun often assigns only two large problems, and they still might not finish.

But Ying Chanxi usually finishes within half an hour, checks briefly, confirms there are no mistakes, then takes out her phone to glance at it.

Teacher Sun is used to this and never says anything.

Still, seeing Ying Chanxi's obedient and brilliant demeanor, he secretly feels regretful.

If Ying Chanxi were willing to aim for Tsinghua or Peking University, that spot would be hers for sure.

Teacher Sun would have fought hard to secure it for her during class assignments.

But Ying Chanxi clearly said she only wanted Qianjiang University. Though he didn't agree with her choice, he still understood and respected it.

So regarding class assignments, he didn't compete with Kong Junxiang—he chose to remain homeroom teacher of Class One.

After all, he still leads the math competition class; as long as Ying Chanxi achieves results, it benefits him too.

Thinking this way, he felt content.

He only hoped that, in the future, when Ying Chanxi looked back on her choice, she wouldn't regret giving up Tsinghua or Peking University.

Below the podium, Ying Chanxi clearly had no idea what Teacher Sun was thinking; she quietly pulled out her phone from her desk drawer and turned on the screen.

Seeing the photo of herself leaning against Li Luo's chest at the ship's railing, pointing at the fireworks in the night sky above, Ying Chanxi smiled softly.

Then she kept repeating the motion: turning on the phone's screen saver, turning it off, then turning it on again—her heart filled with delight.

Teacher Sun only knew Ying Chanxi was playing with her phone—he could never imagine she was just admiring the screen saver photo.

After the second class ended, Ying Chanxi pulled Qiao Xinyan, who had just finished her problems, to go to the restroom.

When they returned to the classroom, some classmates were still deep in thought over their problems; Ying Chanxi took a small gift box from her bag and handed it to Qiao Xinyan as a souvenir from the trip.

"Thank you~" Qiao Xinyan accepted the gift in surprise, opened it, and found a beautifully crafted hair clip; she immediately removed her own and put this one on.

But as she fastened the clip, bending her head, she happened to catch Ying Chanxi unconsciously checking her phone's screen saver. The next second, Qiao Xinyan froze.

She stopped adjusting the clip, leaned over to peek curiously at Ying Chanxi's phone—Ying Chanxi quickly turned it off.

"Why turn it off?" Qiao Xinyan asked, puzzled. "This photo is so beautiful—who's in it? It's not…?"

"No!"

Seeing Ying Chanxi's vehement denial, Qiao Xinyan was speechless: "I was just guessing offhand—your reaction proves it's true."

Ying Chanxi's cheeks flushed red, embarrassed. She fidgeted and muttered, "Xinyan, don't say nonsense."

"Then let me see it again."

"No."

"Relax, I promise I won't tell anyone," Qiao Xinyan whispered. "Aren't we best friends? What's there to hide?"

Hearing this, Ying Chanxi was tempted. Finally, she couldn't resist and opened her phone to show her.

"Wow~" Qiao Xinyan examined it closely and realized the photo's special charm. "So this was on a boat?"

"Mm. The sightseeing boat on Huangpu River in Changning." Ying Chanxi whispered.

"What clothes are you wearing?" Qiao Xinyan asked curiously. "Hanfu?"

"Yes. This outfit is a Tang dynasty qixiong ruqun," Ying Chanxi excitedly explained. "Li Luo's looks like it's from no specific dynasty—more like a wuxia-style martial costume. Very dashing."

"True," Qiao Xinyan studied it, but sadly the photo was a back view—she couldn't see their faces. She asked again, "Just this one photo? You two went to such lengths to wear Hanfu—didn't you take more?"

"Of course," Ying Chanxi said. Since she'd already shown it, she immediately opened her phone's album and flipped through over a dozen other photos.

When Qiao Xinyan saw Ying Chanxi completely leaning against Li Luo's chest, laughing joyfully, she burst out laughing: "You two are so affectionate."

"W-Where is that…?" Ying Chanxi realized her mistake, snatched the phone back, and blushed as she whispered, "We were just posing for a normal photo."

After over a year of being together, Qiao Xinyan had already figured out her best friend's personality. She didn't tease her further, only asked curiously, "So in Changning, you just rode a boat?"

"There was so much more," Ying Chanxi said, unable to resist sharing the joyful moments of the trip.

Of course, she wouldn't mention spending the night in Li Luo's room, sleeping in his clothes, or sneaking a kiss on his cheek.

Still, even so, when Ying Chanxi described how Li Luo, dressed in martial attire with a long sword at his waist, suddenly appeared on the boat's deck, Qiao Xinyan imagined the scene in her mind and sighed, "Li Luo is just too cool—I wonder if I'll ever find a boyfriend like him."

"H-He's not my boyfriend," Ying Chanxi whispered, correcting her. "Xinyan, don't say things like that."

"Then how about you let Li Luo go to me?"

"No way!"

"Look, look," Qiao Xinyan covered her mouth and laughed, "I was just joking, and you got so worked up—see, you're not pretending anymore."

"I—I mean…" Ying Chanxi's face flushed red with urgency, "we're still in high school now; we have to wait until university before we can date."

Qiao Xinyan just listened to her nonsense, too lazy to argue, finding her flustered, evasive cuteness amusing.

At that moment, the break ended and the third class began; the two girls smoothed their expressions and entered study mode at Teacher Sun's prompt.

…

Evening.

Ying Chanxi, Qiao Xinyan, and Zhao Rongjun returned from Fuyi High School; Li Guohong came back from the hotpot restaurant; Xu Rongsheng strolled over from Qianjiang University—all gathered at Bihai Lanting 1502.

Seeing Xu Rongsheng had come, Li Luo was slightly surprised and greeted him: "Uncle Xu, welcome."

"Li Luo," Xu Rongsheng smiled at him, then asked, "Did Tian Li accompany you to Changning? How did the talks go?"

"Very well—thanks to Lawyer Tian, progress has been smooth," Li Luo smiled. "But the contract is still confidential; you understand."

"Oh, confidential, huh?" Xu Rongsheng nodded and dropped the subject. Over the past half-year, he'd come to understand Online Novel quite well and had heard whispers about Qidian's ecosystem as the industry's top giant.

After nodding, he shifted topics, sat on the sofa, and smiled at Li Luo: "I've nearly finished writing that paper."

"Because of your earlier insights and help, I thought I could list you as second author."

"What do you think?"

Hearing this, Li Luo didn't rejoice—he paled and hurriedly asked, "You're not planning to use your real name, are you?"

"What else?" Xu Rongsheng looked at him strangely. "You don't seriously want to use a pen name? Academic papers are serious business—only real names are allowed."

"Uh…" Li Luo hesitated. "Then maybe I'll pass?"

The paper's authorship meant nothing to him—he didn't care.

But Xu Youyu, sitting at the nearby desk, chuckled and egged him on: "It's just a name—what are you afraid of?"

"Hardly anyone will read this paper, let alone care about a second author's name. You're just afraid of exposing your identity."

"Working with a professor on a paper now will help you later in university—you'll even get course credits, right?"

"Cough… you'd need to major in literature to get credits," Xu Rongsheng coughed twice to add. "This paper might get published in a journal, bring a bit of royalty, and earn a college award—but I doubt you care about that."

"So whether to list your name is up to you—I think you should."

"It's not about demanding anything—it's just that you contributed, and listing only my name feels unfair."

With Xu Rongsheng saying this, Li Luo thought it over and finally agreed.

After all, his classmates already knew—he now felt like he had nothing left to lose; adding a few more irrelevant people wouldn't matter.

Lice don't itch when there are too many.

Over this period, Li Luo's skin had thickened considerably.

After discussing this, Li Luo joined Li Guohong and Xu Rongsheng on the sofa, chatting.

Ying Chanxi took out the items she'd bought in Changning and shared them with everyone.

The two mothers cooked in the kitchen; by 5:30 p. m., a lavish feast was ready.

The TV in the living room was replaying Episode Five of "I Am a Singer."

Seeing this, Li Guohong remembered and asked Li Luo and Yan Zhusheng: "By the way, Yan Zhusheng, isn't your mom going to appear in Episode Six of this show? I recall mentioning it at the parent meeting."

"Mm-hmm," Yan Zhusheng nodded. "It's already recorded—airing this Friday."

"Oh right, this show tapes ahead," Li Guohong realized. "So the results are already decided?"

"Yes," Li Luo said. "Do you want to know? Aunt Yuan is…"

"Stop!" Li Guohong cut him off immediately. "If you tell me the result, what's the point of watching the episode? Shut up."

"Fine," Li Luo grinned, then suddenly remembered something and asked Yan Zhusheng, "By the way, what place did Aunt Yuan get? You never told me."

"This?" Yan Zhusheng blinked, glanced at Li Guohong across the table, then looked at Li Luo. Under everyone's gaze, she leaned close to Li Luo's ear and whispered the answer.

This left Li Guohong feeling miserable: "You can't whisper it privately? You have to do it right in front of me? It's still four days until Friday!"

"You're the one who said you didn't want to know," Li Luo grinned.

Laughter filled the dinner table.

Only Ying Chanxi, seated beside Li Luo, saw Yan Zhusheng lean so close to whisper to him—she pouted, poking her rice bowl with her chopsticks: "Li Luo, pass me some ribs from over there—I can't reach them."

"Oh," Li Luo didn't think twice, reached over, and picked up a rib for her.

Eating the rib in her bowl, Ying Chanxi's mood improved slightly.