Because Zhu Liheng didn't charge for his tutoring classes, Lin's Father and Lin's Mother felt very embarrassed, so they invited him to their house for meals every day.
Zhu Liheng stopped coming to pick her up.
Lin Jianzhi felt a little disappointed, but soon figured it out.
The two didn't have any relationship. How could Zhu Liheng, who was so busy, possibly have time to come pick her up from school every day?
It was already great that he was willing to tutor her despite being overqualified!
These days, she took the bus home by herself without causing large crowds to surround the school gate and spread rumors again.
In addition, after she explained the situation solemnly, her classmates also gradually believed her explanation.
But when the story spread to other classes and lower grades, the narrative changed.
"Lin Jianzhi and Zhu Liheng broke up!" was trending at the top of the campus rankings!
Rumors were flying everywhere, some rather over the top, even saying that Lin Jianzhi had deliberately flaunted having Zhu Liheng pick her up and drop her off every day, which led to their breakup.
Lin Jianzhi almost vomited blood and nearly burst into tears!
But she paid little attention to these things after scrutinizing them briefly, as she was busy sprinting towards the college entrance exam. She didn’t want to argue with these people.
On the other hand, Class Monitor Lang Shu couldn't stand it and debated with them vigorously for 300 rounds!
In the end, he was utterly defeated.
He simply couldn’t win against them!
The entire school deeply believed the reasons for the two's breakup, and agreed that Lin Jianzhi was the one at fault.
How could someone as perfect as Zhu Liheng possibly be wrong?
No matter how insensitive or disagreeable, just his face made it impossible to get angry with him.
Not to mention he was both the school heartthrob and the top scorer on the college entrance exam.
Who could possibly date him? It was laughable!
In the following days, Lin Jianzhi took the initiative to block out the rumors and gossip. Her classmates also supported her and didn't chatter about these annoying things in her ear.
She desperately suppressed her thoughts, buried her head into studying hard, doing practice questions or working on her oral English skills whenever she had free time or nothing to do.
She didn't even want to think about her crush!
After discovering her diligence, Zhu Liheng also increased the intensity and difficulty of his tutoring.
Lin Jianzhi's math scores began to improve by leaps and bounds!
In a recent mock exam, she even scored an impressive 115 points!
The moment she received the test paper, she practically sprinted home, wanting to share the exciting news with Zhu Liheng.
But when she arrived home early, she happened to catch Zhu Liheng coming out of the shower after playing basketball, before he got dressed.
When she opened the door and saw the scene shrouded in steam before her, Lin Jianzhi froze in place.
Zhu Liheng.
He.
Wasn't wearing a shirt!
Water droplets were still dripping from his wet hair, and he looked a bit surprised. After opening the door, he simply let go, allowing her inside.
Zhu Liheng: "Let me put on some clothes."
Lin Jianzhi's face turned beet red: "Okay."
After putting on a T-shirt, Zhu Liheng came back out and guided the stunned Lin Jianzhi, who didn’t even dare to move, off to the side.
He closed the door that had been left wide open.
Only then did Lin Jianzhi come back to her senses. The earlier shock had been too great, and she just stood there foolishly without even remembering to close the door.
She was so embarrassed!
Her face turned red again, but this time it was from both shyness and frustration.
Zhu Liheng's tone remained calm, however: “You’re home early today?”
Lin Jianzhi held up the crumpled test paper to hide her flaming cheeks: “Um, I scored 115 points on the math test.”
Zhu Liheng took the paper: “You still got the last question completely wrong...”
Normally, hearing this would have made Lin Jianzhi very sad without any other thoughts.
But right now, her mind was full of the earlier scene.
Let alone feeling sad, she almost had a nosebleed!
How could Zhu Liheng be...so good-looking?
Oh my god!
Lin Jianzhi truly felt she was about to suffocate. The smell throughout the room overwhelmed her senses, Zhu Liheng's scent was too strong, so strong that her whole body grew hot.
Her cheek flushed crimson, smoke pouring from her brain.
Zhu Liheng was still looking over the test paper, highlighting each incorrectly answered question and pointing out the key mistakes.
Yet Lin Jianzhi didn't take in a word he said.
Zhu Liheng quickly realized she wasn't paying attention. He turned his head to look at her.
Seeing Lin Jianzhi slightly trembling, her face red to the tips of her ears, staring down at her toes without moving for who knows how long...
Zhu Liheng was taken aback for a moment before closing the test paper, “Let’s go upstairs for dinner.”
Lin Jianzhi: “Okay.”
After the meal was their usual one-on-one tutoring session.
Lin Jianzhi once again pulled her chair far, far away, but even with the physical distance between them, her face remained flushed the entire time.
Then she began worrying—would her strange behavior at dinner tonight give something away to his parents?
As a result, she barely absorbed anything taught in that night’s tutoring session!
Zhu Liheng didn't push her and let her go to bed early.
She returned home at 10:30 PM. Lin Jianzhi locked herself in her room, burying herself under the covers for a long, long time.
She didn't know how much time had passed before poking her head out and opening Weibo.
It had been days since she last posted. She hadn't recorded anything in a long time.
Weibo was also quiet, nothing happening.
Lin Jianzhi thought it through very clearly—Zhu Liheng still had an irresistible attraction over her. No matter how she tried to numb herself, it was useless.
Blushing, she tapped the screen with her fingers.
Downstairs.
Zhu Liheng sat at his computer, spinning a pen while refreshing Weibo.
The bloggers he followed hadn't posted anything, but instead something popped up that made his eyes pop wide open.
【@ZhuJianZhiHeng: I crave your body.】
The pen in his fingertips jerked to a sharp stop, halting and placed on the table beside him.
Zhu Liheng's body straightened as he clicked into the page of the user 'ZhuJianZhiHeng.'
Latest post, one minute ago.
The last Weibo post was still the “Breathing is gentle” from a few days ago.
Putting it together, Zhu Liheng understood instantly!
So at that time, this is what she had been thinking...
Zhu Liheng raised his hand to his forehead. His eyes moved back to the latest Weibo post.
Lin Jianzhi.
You’ve got guts.
Just try saying that to his face.
On the 15th day of their one-on-one tutoring, a weekend arrived.
High school students didn’t really get any holidays, only having one day off every two weeks, still with unfinished assignments and practice questions that couldn’t be ignored.
That one day of vacation didn’t really exist.
But Lin Jianzhi still looked forward to this vacation day very much, because this way she could spend the whole day at Zhu Liheng's house.
Zhu Liheng said he would tutor her the entire time during the holiday.
Saturday morning.
Lin Jianzhi got up early and started rummaging through her closet for clothes.
She always wore her school uniform on normal days, without any opportunity to dress up. With only 10 days left until the college entrance exam.
The time she had left to interact with Zhu Liheng was dwindling. She wanted to boldly try out every tiny opportunity, even if just a little bit.
Her parents would be at work during the day and not home.
She had told them early on that she’d order takeout for lunch and dinner, wanting to study hard for a full day without interruptions.
At night, she could go home later, since her parents would already be asleep after 11 PM.
There’s no way Lin’s Father and Lin’s Mother would know what she wore today or how she dressed up.
And so.
Wearing a sleeveless dress ending at her knees, hair nicely styled into a gentle slanted bangs showing her best look, Lin Jianzhi appeared at Zhu Liheng’s door.
Knock knock!
“Coming!”
A woman's voice came from inside, sounding in her forties.
Lin Jianzhi: “!!!”
She wanted to run but it was already too late.
Swish—
The door opened wide, Zhu Liheng’s mother!
