Chapter 041: Be Careful When Selling an Image—It Might Backfire

Evening self-study at Henghua First High School was optional, but for the sake of the college entrance exams, everyone tacitly agreed to attend. Who could have guessed that Bai Chuwei would simply run off!

Most students were in their classrooms, immersed in their studies, while Bai Chuwei slung her loosely hanging backpack over one shoulder and walked down the corridor.

A gentle male voice called from behind, “Bai Chuwei.”

Bai Chuwei paused and turned to see Xu Xingchen running toward her. With his long, slender legs, striking features, and soft smile, he was just the sort of boy who lived in the memories of girls’ youth as their ideal.

He stopped in front of her, his shirt hem fluttering in the spring breeze. The two of them standing together looked like a painting.

Duan Feihan drove into the campus and, through the car window, watched this scene from afar. His dark eyes grew even deeper.

Xu Xingchen, slightly out of breath, asked, “Bai, is there something about the school you’re not comfortable with? Is that why you’re skipping evening study? If you need anything, you can tell me.”

Bai Chuwei sized him up with interest. No wonder the original male lead attracted so much attention with looks like these.

She answered honestly, “No, I’m fine. I’m going on a date.”

Xu Xingchen choked, almost thinking he’d misheard—she was skipping evening study to go on a date?

He gave a somewhat awkward smile. “Then I won’t hold you up any longer…”

Bai Chuwei stood lazily in place, catching a blossom blown from above, and called out to the departing Xu Xingchen, “Class monitor Xu Xingchen, do you like me?”

Xu Xingchen hadn’t expected Bai Chuwei to be so direct, but he certainly didn’t like her. Bai Chuwei was beautiful, and her aura unmatched by other girls, but she always gave him a sense of being beyond his control.

Xu Xingchen smiled, “Bai, you’re mistaken.”

Bai Chuwei understood. In the future, Xu Xingchen would belong to Tong Qingyan; he wouldn’t fall for anyone right now.

She pulled a heel pad from her bag and handed it back to him. “Class monitor Xu, playing the helpful role is nice, but be careful it doesn’t backfire. The central air-conditioning type is everyone’s target.”

His smile froze, eyes fixed on the heel pad in his hand, lips paling slightly.

He treated every girl well, which had led many in the school to be interested in him. In the future, these people would become his network.

If someone wouldn’t be of any use to him, he wouldn’t bother.

But… Bai Chuwei seemed to see right through him.

She walked around Xu Xingchen, her little leather shoes moving at an unhurried pace. Stopping outside a black sedan, she was about to open the door when she caught Duan Feihan’s cold gaze locking onto Xu Xingchen in the distance.

Bai Chuwei couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. Duan Feihan truly lived up to his future role as the antagonist; he would inevitably clash with Xu Xingchen, the protagonist. Now, at the very start, Duan Feihan already disliked him.

Bai Chuwei sat in the passenger seat and, fastening her seatbelt, asked curiously, “Mr. Duan, didn’t you call a driver?”

In the original story, Duan Feihan always traveled with a chauffeur.

His gaze deepened, and he replied softly. Only when Bai Chuwei was settled did he drive off.

The black sedan moved slowly through the campus, quietly passing beneath rows of lush trees growing vigorously in spring.

Xu Xingchen stood alone, his hands unconsciously clenched into fists, eyes reddening slightly.

Clearly—he was also a child of the Duan family…

Duan Feihan and Duan Xingye could enjoy everything the Duan family offered without worry, while he could only strive to carve out a future for himself.

Heaven was truly unfair.