Chapter 483: The Wolf Is Coming

After Qingming Festival, the weather suddenly turned warm, rising abruptly from around fifteen degrees to over twenty-five degrees.

On April 7th, the noon temperature even peaked at thirty-four degrees.

On Saturday the 9th, the annual Grade One three-ball tournament at Fuyi High School, organized and coordinated by the Student Union, proceeded smoothly under the blazing sun.

After the morning self-study period ended, and after eating lunch on campus, Li Luo arrived at the basketball court as scheduled by the Student Union meeting, tasked with maintaining order.

Since this was only the first round of the 16-to-8 elimination stage, most classes had only a few students particularly interested in the games come to watch, so the crowd was not large.

Moreover, most Fuyi High students were relatively well-behaved; Li Luo was technically here to maintain order, but there was little to do—he simply wandered around.

"Senior." Jiang Liuxian from Class 8-1 saw Li Luo and walked over from the edge of one court to greet him.

Beside her was another girl, Ai Kesi; Li Luo glanced at them, nodded, called out their names in greeting, then asked, "This is Class 8's match, right?"

"Yes." Jiang Liuxian nodded, then looked around Li Luo and seemed slightly unsettled, "Where are Senior Ying and Senior Yan? Didn't they come with you to watch the game?"

"I'm on patrol." Li Luo pointed to the red armband on his shoulder, marking him as a Student Union patrol member. "Ying Chanxi is president and busy right now. Yan Zhusheng is rehearsing for the finals performance—she's still at the Rock Club."

Li Luo chatted with Jiang Liuxian for a while, then simply moved to the edge of Class 8's court and watched the game with them.

At the moment, Class 8 was facing Class 16; since class divisions hadn't been finalized yet, Class 16 wasn't one of those weak liberal arts teams—they were holding their own against Class 8.

Lin Suifeng and Jiang Songhe, as members of the Rock Club, performed notably on the court, and it looked like they had a good chance of winning.

"Senior Li Luo was last year's basketball champion, right?" Jiang Liuxian smiled. "Do you think Class 8 has a chance this year?"

"I walked around a bit earlier—Class 3 and Class 10 are strong. If you beat those two, you'll probably be fine." Li Luo replied casually.

The match was nearing its end; Class 16 was down by more than ten points and had virtually no chance left.

When the referee's whistle blew to confirm the result, the lead boy from Class 16 scowled in frustration and threw the ball away in a fit of anger.

The basketball bounced off the rim and shot straight toward the sideline.

Fortunately, Li Luo reacted quickly; just before the ball was about to hit Jiang Liuxian and Ai Kesi, he reached out and gently deflected it, dissipating its force midair, then caught it.

The boy from Class 16 saw this and hurried over, bowing his head to apologize quietly.

Seeing his good attitude, Li Luo said nothing more, tossed the ball toward Lin Suifeng, bid farewell to Jiang Liuxian, handed off his patrol duties to the next Student Union member, and walked toward the activity room with Lin Suifeng and Jiang Songhe.

"I think Senior Li Luo is getting more handsome." Ai Kesi nudged Jiang Liuxian's waist with her elbow and whispered, "Aren't you attracted?"

"Attracted to what?" Jiang Liuxian sighed and tapped Ai Kesi's forehead. "Didn't I already add you to the group? Have you not seen how Senior Li Luo interacts with Senior Ying and the others? Where's the space for me to intrude?"

"Just imagining is fine." Ai Kesi clicked her tongue, watching Li Luo's retreating back with regret. "Why are we a year behind? If we were in the same grade, maybe there'd have been a chance before."

"I wonder who it was that pointed and gossiped about Senior Li Luo back when school started last year," Jiang Liuxian chuckled teasingly.

"Time reveals true character," Ai Kesi huffed. "Just now, if Senior Li Luo hadn't reacted fast, you'd have been black-eyed."

"I was genuinely startled," Jiang Liuxian touched her chest, still a little shaken. "These boys are ridiculous—it's just a lost game, and they're so reckless, so immature."

"Sigh… the boys in our class are all too childish," Ai Kesi sighed.

"At least our class monitor is slightly better," Jiang Liuxian agreed with a nod.

"You didn't know?" Ai Kesi looked at Jiang Liuxian in surprise, then whispered, "Lin Suifeng used to have a crush on Senior Yan. They say he ran every morning just to catch a glimpse of her."

"Huh?" Jiang Liuxian froze, stunned—she hadn't heard this.

But that had nothing to do with Li Luo.

He brought Lin Suifeng and Jiang Songhe to the Rock Club's activity room on the second floor of the gymnasium.

At that moment, Yan Zhusheng was leading the other members in rehearsal.

Li Luo sat down on a nearby chair and quietly watched their performance.

As soon as the song "The Sky Has No Limits" ended, Yan Zhusheng immediately dropped the microphone and rushed over to Li Luo, extending her hand without any hesitation.

"What's wrong?" Li Luo looked at the slender, pale hand extended toward him, puzzled.

"Holding the mic tired my hand," Yan Zhusheng blinked. "Squeeze it."

Li Luo stared at her in disbelief, but in front of everyone, he took her hand and gently massaged her palm and fingers.

The Rock Club members, seeing this, turned their heads away, pretending they couldn't bear to watch.

Compared to the classroom of Class 8, Yan Zhusheng was even more unrestrained in the Rock Club's activity room.

So compared to Class 8's students, the Rock Club members were actually subjected to greater shocks on a daily basis.

Mainly because Yan Zhusheng was blunt and never avoided people—she said exactly what she wanted to do, right to their faces.

Who could possibly handle that?

"Enough?" Li Luo rubbed her hand for a while, checked the time, then stood up. "Keep practicing a bit longer."

"I'm tired. You take my spot and sing for a while," Yan Zhusheng sat on the chair Li Luo had just vacated, looking up at him.

Li Luo nodded, clapped his hands to gather the Rock Club members, and signaled them to prepare: "If you're tired, rest more. Lin Suifeng and Jiang Songhe will take over—you two okay with that?"

Lin Suifeng retracted his envious gaze and nodded silently.

Soon, Li Luo's voice filled the activity room.

To be fair, although most of the time when Yan Zhusheng dragged Li Luo to the piano room at home, it wasn't serious instruction,

she still taught him real things.

But vocal technique—how to produce sound—isn't something you can quickly learn just by relying on a memory palace, since you can't see how someone's vocal cords vibrate.

Even if you could see it, you still couldn't fully control your own vocal cords to match hers exactly.

Yet with Li Luo's long-term practice, and Yan Zhusheng occasionally giving him private lessons to correct flaws, his singing had steadily improved.

Originally, in his past life, under Yan Zhusheng's training, he had already been above average among ordinary people.

Now, his vocal power and technique had become even more refined—he might even score well enough on an arts entrance exam if he went with Yan Zhusheng.

Sitting quietly on the chair, listening to Li Luo's singing, Yan Zhusheng was immersed in it, swaying gently with pleasure.

After Li Luo finished several songs, Yan Zhusheng returned to the stage and took the microphone again.

When the basketball games outside ended around four in the afternoon, Ying Chanxi arrived at the Rock Club and called for the two of them to head home together.

The Rock Club's afternoon session disbanded, and the members watched as Li Luo left the room, one girl on each arm.

"Tsk." Lin Suifeng stood by the window of the rock club room, watching Li Luo and the other three leave through the gym's main entrance, unable to suppress a tsk, his eyes brimming with envy.

Jiang Songhe patted his shoulder beside him and chuckled, "Stop staring. Didn't you already say you let it go? Or are you just pretending?"

"I just don't get it," Lin Suifeng sighed. "Senior Li is outstanding, but how can three equally outstanding girls all revolve around him?"

"Don't think so much," Jiang Songhe said. "Even if you erased Senior Li from this world, would Yan Jiejie really choose you?"

"... That's kind of hurtful."

"I'm just stating the truth."

After leaving the gym, Li Luo and the other two returned to Class Eight.

But they didn't rush to pack their bags and leave; instead, Ying Chanxi pulled out her personal camera from her bag and turned to Li Luo and Yan Zhusheng:

"I promised Zhusheng I'd shoot an MV for 'The Sun.' We still have some time this afternoon—let's go film it on the playground?"

Upon hearing this, Yan Zhusheng's eyes lit up instantly. "Will there be a kiss scene?"

Ying Chanxi: "……We'll film it multiple times. There'll be one eventually."

"Behave yourself," Li Luo whispered to Yan Zhusheng as they stepped out of the classroom. "Just film properly. Don't pull any stunts on me."

Earlier, when filming MV footage on the private beach in Qiongzhou City, Yan Zhusheng had stolen a kiss from Li Luo in front of Ying Chanxi's camera, claiming it was a misalignment.

Lin Xiuhong and Cui Suling had been present then too.

It was still too intense.

Ying Chanxi certainly wouldn't arrange too many kiss scenes for Li Luo and Yan Zhusheng; this time, they only shot simple footage. By five-thirty in the evening, they packed up, slung their bags over their shoulders, and headed home.

Zhao Rongjun and the others had arrived early and were already studying at their desks.

Lin Xiuhong and Cui Suling were cooking in the kitchen.

Hearing Li Luo and the others return, Cui Suling poked her head out and called to Li Luo: "Dinner's almost ready. Li Luo, go call Youyu."

Xu Youyu is in Gao San; the student council only assigns Gao San members to help when they're short-staffed.

So today, with the three major sports events underway, Xu Youyu had nothing to do and returned home early.

After typing for a while in the afternoon, she crawled into bed for a nap—and was still asleep.

Li Luo knocked on the door. Hearing no response, he gently pushed it open and saw Xu Youyu sleeping soundly on the bed. He stepped inside, closed the door, and crouched beside the bed.

"Youyu-jie, wake up."

"Mmm…"

"It's time for dinner."

"Let me sleep a little longer."

"Ying Chanxi and Yan Zhusheng might have found out you write novels."

"What?!" Xu Youyu sat bolt upright, eyes wide, staring at Li Luo.

But seeing his smug smile, she angrily grabbed a pillow and slammed it hard against his head. "You're trying to scare me to death! Go die! Go die, go die!"

"Hey hey hey! Who told you not to get up?" Li Luo dodged two blows, snatched the pillow away, and held it tightly, barely suppressing his laughter. "Who said this trick didn't work? Seems pretty effective to me."

"Get lost!" Xu Youyu flailed wildly on the bed, swinging her tiny fists at Li Luo—but there was zero threat in it.

"Get up already. Dinner's really ready," Li Luo said. "Otherwise, Auntie Cui will come personally to call you."

"Fine, fine," Xu Youyu huffed, climbed out of bed, slipped on her slippers, then launched herself onto Li Luo's back, wrapping her legs around his waist. "I need to use the bathroom. Ride on!"

"Someone might see you."

"The corner wall blocks the view! Hurry up!"

"You're so childish."

"You're even more childish, you liar! Get on your knees and make up for what you've done to me!"

"Alright, alright." Li Luo hooked his arms under Xu Youyu's legs, walked to the door, and had her reach out to open it. Then he carried her into the bathroom.

After setting her down on the toilet seat, Li Luo clapped his hands and walked out, saying, "Satisfied with the service? Need help with your pants?"

"Sure," Xu Youyu raised an eyebrow, stood up from the toilet, and grinned. "Come on, come on."

Li Luo couldn't take it anymore and quickly waved his hands and fled.

Watching Li Luo scramble away in panic, Xu Youyu laughed twice, then gave a light huff and shut the bathroom door.