Upon hearing this, Lin Xi Chi was momentarily stunned. She looked up and met his gaze, her confusion evident.
The previously somber emotions seemed to dissipate at this moment, replaced by an indescribable feeling welling up from the depths of her heart. It fermented into a sensation that was sharp yet bittersweet.
It was a feeling she couldn’t quite put into words.
Lin Xi Chi clenched her fist tightly, and suddenly, she found herself at a loss for how to respond to him. She pursed her lips and, seeing that he remained silent, she took the initiative to speak, her voice even softer than before.
“What?”
Xu Fang’s eyes were not particularly large, with thin eyelids and double eyelids, slightly upturned at the outer corners. His eyes were slender, with deep and rarely expressive irises, giving him an air of reserved composure.
Despite knowing him for so long, Lin Xi Chi couldn’t decipher what was going on in his mind. She gradually held her breath, as if even taking a breath would make her uncomfortable.
Xu Fang’s gaze remained fixed on her, as if he wanted to probe her innermost thoughts. After a few seconds, he slowly approached her, stopping just ten centimeters from her nose.
He repeated in a low, somewhat husky voice, “Unique.”
Lin Xi Chi’s breath caught again.
After uttering those words, Xu Fang immediately stood upright, regaining the height advantage over her. He looked down at her and said, “Since your family already has three dogs, why not come to my place?”
“…?”
“I can’t promise you anything else,” Xu Fang said lazily, averting his gaze to hide a hint of awkwardness. He continued walking ahead, “But I can reserve this unique position for you.”
“…?”
Lin Xi Chi suddenly snapped back to reality, as if she had just realized how absurd her request sounded. She took a deep breath and reminded him seriously, “How come you don’t have a dog at your place? Isn’t there an old dog that’s almost twenty years old?”
“…?”
“First, you need to get rid of that dog for me,” Lin Xi Chi wrinkled her nose in disdain. “It has a terrible temper, and you need to create a good environment for me. I can’t coexist with it.”
Xu Fang was deeply disgusted by her willingness to tarnish her own image just to criticize him.
He gave her a cold glance and said, “You’re insane.”
Having changed the topic so abruptly, Xu Fang shifted the conversation to something else.
“Did you say your cup was shattered yesterday?”
Upon hearing this, Lin Xi Chi blinked and nodded, “Yes.”
“Do you know who broke it?”
“I have no idea,” Lin Xi Chi replied. Recalling the incident, her mood seemed noticeably lighter. “I found it shattered when I returned to the dormitory, and the pieces were scattered everywhere. No one had cleaned it up.”
Whoever broke it deliberately wouldn’t bother cleaning it up, of course.
Xu Fang couldn’t help but find her thoughts amusing as he continued to console her, “It might have been intentional.”
The moment he said this, Lin Xi Chi turned to look at him, her expression as if she were staring at a fool. “What else could it be?”
“…?”
“No one has come to apologize to me until now. If it were an accident, someone would have told me,” she added. “Besides, it’s not an expensive item, and it shouldn’t be difficult to admit to breaking it.”
Lin Xi Chi fell into deep thought.
Xu Fang lowered his gaze in contemplation and suddenly remembered what had happened when he went home that day. He said calmly, “Your roommate who attends English class with you came to me last Friday and asked if she could come home with me.”
This unexpected revelation left Lin Xi Chi baffled.
“Huh?”
Xu Fang hadn’t really thought much about it, but after mentioning it to her, he oddly felt a hint of guilt. He thought back to his attitude that day and replied vaguely, “Well, I just wanted to let you know about this.”
Lin Xi Chi fell silent for a few seconds before asking, “So, did you go home with her?”
She hadn’t expected that to be her first question, and Xu Fang was momentarily taken aback. However, he quickly reacted and gave a dismissive snort, casting his eyes aside and not bothering to respond.
“Ahem,” Lin Xi Chi said, taking his reaction as a confirmation. She then began to lecture him seriously, “You shouldn’t be so gullible. If something like that really happened, I would have told you beforehand.”
Xu Fang looked up at the sky, yawning lazily, clearly uninterested in the lecture.
Sighing, Lin Xi Chi continued, “So, you’re just too naive. When a girl approaches you…”
Unable to endure her endless talk, Xu Fang interrupted her with a grim expression and an irritable tone, “No, just shut up.”
Lin Xi Chi blinked, said an “oh,” and then returned to the topic of the broken cup. “Now that you mention it, it might have been her.”
“Yeah.”
“But I don’t have any evidence to prove it was her,” Lin Xi Chi said, looking distressed. “What should I do? Should I just swallow this loss?”
Xu Fang, who believed in an eye for an eye, even with someone he liked, suggested without hesitation, “You can break her cup too.”
This suggestion left Lin Xi Chi in silence, her head hanging low as she contemplated her options.
Xu Fang assumed she wouldn’t dare to do it and clicked his tongue in disapproval. “You’re really…”
Before he could finish his sentence, Lin Xi Chi lifted her head again, looking even more distressed than before. “She has two cups, you know? I don’t know which one to break.”
“…”
“One is pink, and the other is white,” Lin Xi Chi pondered for a moment. “I feel like the pink one is more expensive. Should I break the expensive one?”
“Whatever.”
Despite feeling a sense of defeat in her interpersonal skills due to the incident with her roommate, Lin Xi Chi felt relieved knowing it was Xin Zidan. After all, she spent most of her time with Nie Yue, and while she spent less time with Chen Han, she found it quite enjoyable.
Both Nie Yue and Chen Han were outgoing and warm-hearted individuals.
That left Xin Zidan, with whom she shared the dormitory but rarely spoke. Lin Xi Chi was naturally slow to warm up to others, and she didn’t initiate conversations unless someone else did. Xin Zidan had a similar personality, so even after knowing each other for more than a month, their relationship remained lukewarm.
Fortunately, they had only known each other for a short time, so the impact on Lin Xi Chi was minimal. After discussing it with Xu Fang, she pushed the matter aside.
After walking for over ten minutes, during which Lin Xi Chi had only spoken for about ten minutes, her throat was getting sore. She watched Xu Fang continue to walk ahead and complained, “Where are we going now?”
“I don’t know,” Xu Fang replied, looking at his phone. “Are you going back to school or to your grandfather’s house?”
Lin Xi Chi was still indecisive and asked in return, “When are you going back to school?”
“On Monday afternoon,” he answered. Then he glanced at her and hesitated before continuing, “But…”
“In that case, I’ll go back on Monday too.”
As they walked, unaware of the passage of time, they reached the end of a small street. The crowd here was noticeably thinner than before, with only a few scattered figures.
Lin Xi Chi pointed to an ice cream shop ahead and eagerly said, “Pipi, let’s go there to have some ice cream.”
This ice cream shop had slightly higher prices compared to the previous ones they had seen, making it a treat they considered indulgent to have occasionally.
As a result, there were only a few people in front of the shop.
The ice cream shop was elegantly decorated, with various flavors of ice cream displayed in the glass freezer, each with vibrant colors. The positioning and shape of the ice creams were carefully arranged, and the soft yellow lighting made the colors even more inviting.
Even through the glass, Lin Xi Chi could feel the coolness inside, which was a delightful contrast to the hot day.
Lin Xi Chi had seen this ice cream shop near her school before. When she and Nie Yue saw the prices at that time, they were both amazed and stood at the entrance, unable to decide whether to go in or not. Despite being drawn to it, they had refrained from entering due to the high prices.
But today was different.
Today, she had Xu Fang, the wealthy one.
Lin Xi Chi walked ahead with enthusiasm, pointing to the counter and saying, “Hello, I’d like a matcha-flavored one.”
After placing her order, she turned to Xu Fang and asked, “Do you want one?”
Xu Fang couldn’t be bothered to respond and took out his phone to scan the QR code for payment.
Since the shop was small, it had only two employees, the male cashier and another female staff member who was currently busy scooping ice cream for Lin Xi Chi.
Feeling bored, Lin Xi Chi started to chat aimlessly, “There was a time when I was really struggling because of my living expenses.”
As she spoke, she glanced at Xu Fang, adding a hint of reproach.
The male cashier at the counter also appeared quite bored, and his gaze wandered to Lin Xi Chi from time to time.
Unaware of this, Lin Xi Chi continued, “And then one day, I was so hungry that I took my last coin and planned to buy two buns with it.”
“…”
“But then, on my way, I saw an ice cream that someone had dropped on the ground…”
Lin Xi Chi had more to say, like how she didn’t notice it and accidentally stepped on it, causing her to fall. Her coin fell into the sewer, and she cried bitterly over the incident, holding a grudge against whoever had deducted her living expenses.
However, she didn’t get a chance to finish her story.
At the same time, Xu Fang stared at the male cashier at the counter and interrupted her story with an air of righteousness, “And then you picked up that ice cream from the ground and ate it.”
Lin Xi Chi: “…”
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