What Relationship?

Fu Liangxia opened BoBo as instructed, and instantly a flood of 99+ notifications burst onto her screen—so many that she was nearly kicked out of the app.

【What the hell is going on? Isn't this Young Master Fu's account?】

【This is shocking. Young Master Fu never has female friends, right? He actually plays games with a girl? No way!】

【Damn, heartbroken. I bought the game specifically for him, practiced for a week, and asked if he could play with me—he said he doesn't play with noobs...】

【Side note, this blogger's stats are pretty impressive. Maybe Young Master Fu just likes her skill?】

【Tch, so what if she's good? Probably practiced on purpose to get close to Young Master Fu. So calculating.】

The comment section was a mixed bag, and the "scheming" theory wasn't uncommon. It wasn't just the girls who liked Fu Haoyao who were upset—the guys who wanted to cozy up to him were even more vocal, and they were the ones saying the nastiest things.

Because they all knew Fu Haoyao loved gaming, and society often saw gaming as a male domain. Now someone had gotten close to him through games, and that meant taking food off their table.

They never once considered whether it was a matter of their own skill. Their instinctive thought was, "I could do that too—if Young Master Fu didn't pick me but picked her, she must have used some trick."

【Fox spirit. Who knows what tricks you pulled to get close to Young Master Fu, and here you are posting about your "new try," how laughable. Maybe you found some skilled big brother to teach you and pretended it was your first time. Who plays like that on their first try? Don't make me laugh.】

【The comment above shouldn't be sour grapes. Even if she deliberately got close to him, it's just a gender advantage anyway. If I were a girl, I'd...】

【Has anyone found out whose account this is?】

【The blogger hid their IP, can't trace it. But they posted a photo earlier—looks kind of familiar.】

【Oh shit, I remember now—isn't this the girl who argued with Young Master Su? Did she realize she can't win over Su and switch targets?】

【Huh? How dare she?】

【No way, no way. Does she think being pretty is enough to reach the Four Great Families? Entertainment tycoon and tech giant—which one does she think she can touch? Look at herself, does she even deserve it?】

【Don't say that. She can still be Young Master Fu's little plaything...】

【But I'm the only one who finds it weird? Young Master Su is clearly the easiest to approach, yet she fell out with him. And Young Master Fu has a famously bad temper, yet she's playing games with him... In a way, that's pretty impressive.】

And the reason they thought Fu Liangxia wasn't worthy of Fu Haoyao wasn't just because the Four Great Families stood above ordinary class; it was also because of her first post—

A nursing home that didn't look glamorous or high-end. Anyone with a bit of money wouldn't choose a place like that.

Fu Liangxia quickly scrolled through a few more comments. Plenty of people were DMing her to curse her out, others asked how to improve their skills, and some asked if she was Fu Haoyao's lover.

She curled the corner of her mouth.

Not even a girlfriend—just a lowly "lover."

In a society where capital ruled, people had long grown used to measuring a person's worth by power and money.

Fu Haoyao's maternal family was old European nobility, and his father's family dominated the tech world, controlling no small number of senators in the upper house. They had both money and power.

And she, Fu Liangxia—a surname no one had heard of, a plain background photo—was naturally seen as someone with nothing.

Measuring others by their circumstances: the students of Saintland had learned that since childhood.

Fu Liedong's expression was conflicted, his voice cautious as he asked, "Sis, is what they're saying true? Did you really get involved with..."

His face carried a hint of worry, as if he could already see the outcome of Fu Liangxia being used up and discarded, but instinct told him that didn't seem like something that would happen to her.

Fu Liedong thought that, compared to men, his sister was probably more interested in money.

Fu Liangxia scooped out a bowl of porridge from the kitchen and drank it slowly, until Fu Liedong's curiosity was practically overflowing before she said, "No. It was just a way to get him to pay attention in class."

Fu Liedong was a bit slow to react: "Huh?"

What kind of method required that much complexity for tutoring?

"Anyway, the only real thing is that we played a game together—just one round, and I beat the hell out of him." Fu Liangxia looked at his dumbfounded expression, thinking that if she acted too clever, people might think she had a genetic mutation.

After all, Fu Liedong often seemed really dense.

Though his grades were decent—otherwise he wouldn't have gotten into Class 2. Even if it was only by a lot of expensive tutoring and scraping in at the bottom.

The girl drinking porridge sat upright, her expression languid. Sunlight spilled over her from the side, making her skin look even finer and paler, almost like a saintly maiden stepping out of an oil painting.

But Fu Liedong had no time to admire it. After finishing the investigation as Su-gege instructed, he lowered his head and sent him a message: 【My sister said they're not together, just played a game.】

He had no idea why the other party had sent him that link early in the morning, or why he asked him to look into it.

But Fu Liedong didn't overthink it. He was Su-gege's follower, and Fu Liangxia was his sister—so by rounding up, she was Su-gege's follower too.

Now there were rumors that Fu Liangxia was getting close to Fu Haoyao, which was essentially poaching Su-gege's turf. One follower couldn't serve two masters; no wonder Su Xingshu asked him about it.

This was doubting their sibling's loyalty!

At that thought, Fu Liedong hurriedly pledged his allegiance: 【Su-gege, I'm on your side!】

Ten minutes earlier, Su Xingshu had been having breakfast and habitually opened BoBo to handle fan comments. His band's tour was getting closer, and there were plenty of promotional matters to deal with.

He used his work account—the one bound to the Saintland Academy verification—so the moment he logged in, the algorithm automatically pushed Fu Liangxia's post to him.

Because it was one of the hottest recent posts related to Saintland; the only one matching it in heat was Bai Yan's.

He first sent a message to Bai Yan on social media: 【Did Bai Xin find his inspiration?】

The other party was in a different time zone, and Su Xingshu didn't expect an immediate reply, so he exited and went back into BoBo, where he saw Fu Liangxia's post.

It was hard to describe what Su Xingshu felt when he saw the photo of the girl's hand next to "yao" enlarged on his screen.

It wasn't exactly fury, but there was definitely some disappointment, and a bit of sourness.

When had the two of them even met?

How was it that, without his knowing, Fu Liangxia was slowly creeping into his life, getting along so well with his friends?

Su Xingshu felt his current mood was strange, and abnormal.

He had never felt this loss of control toward anyone, this feeling of being completely unable to govern his own emotions.

Su Xingshu had dated many girlfriends before—all of them beautiful. But he only ever looked at them with appreciation; none of them had ever made him lose sleep, and their actions never stirred up a whirlwind of thoughts in him.

Insecure.

He clearly realized that yesterday, his concern about Fu Liangxia and Cheng Xingzhou's relationship had perhaps been about caring for Cheng Xingzhou. But today, Fu Haoyao?

Was it just because he cared about him?

Su Xingshu couldn't lie to himself. It seemed he truly cared about Fu Liangxia.

But why?

Just because she scolded him and shook him awake from his self-pity?

Su Xingshu didn't consider himself a masochist, but he didn't know where this inexplicable concern came from.

He was still young now; he naturally hadn't come to understand that "anything you can figure out isn't love."

And at that moment, the young Su Xingshu simply opened WeChat and asked Fu Liedong if he knew what was going on.

In between, he couldn't help but tap into Fu Liangxia's chat window—still frozen at yesterday, empty, with no new messages.

Su Xingshu didn't know what he was waiting for.

When he saw Fu Liedong say the two had no relationship and had only played a game together, he couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.

But then he realized something and tapped back into the photo he'd looked at several times before. The kill count behind the account name "yao" was impressive; even Su Xingshu, who rarely played games, could tell she was very skilled.

With that thought, Su Xingshu couldn't help but furrow his brow slightly.

An outsider might not know, but Su Xingshu, who had grown up with Fu Haoyao, knew all too well—

Fu Haoyao admired strength.

Severely.

The Four Great Families each had their secrets, and one of them was that the current head of the Fu family was not legitimate. He was the child of Fu Haoyao's mother and Fu Haoyao's uncle.

Very few people knew this. Those who saw Fu Haoyao and Fu Langshu in person would never suspect they weren't biological brothers.

Because Fu Haoyao listened to his brother very much, and the two seemed to have no friction.

But only Su Xingshu, who had witnessed the whole process, knew that Fu Haoyao had been won over by Fu Langshu's display of power.

He was not only a fighter, but also dominant enough to become the nightmare of every kid in the compound.

The reason the two could go from such an awkward relationship to their current friendliness was largely due to Fu Haoyao's admiration of strength.

So, upon realizing this, Su Xingshu instinctively felt something was off.

If it were just being good at games, that would be fine, but as far as he knew, Fu Liangxia's grades were also excellent.

What comforted Su Xingshu slightly was that with Fu Langshu setting the bar so high, ordinary "strength" probably wouldn't move Fu Haoyao.

Unless Fu Liangxia could, like Fu Langshu, be a business genius.

But Fu Langshu had dominated the business world at twenty; Fu Liangxia was only seventeen this year. She shouldn't be that monstrous.

At this thought, Su Xingshu felt somewhat at ease. But Fu Liedong's next message made his expression shift slightly, turning a bit odd.

What did he mean by "I'm on your side"?

That tone of choosing a brother-in-law for his sister was way too subtle.

Yet, thinking that Fu Liedong's brain was always wired strangely, he soon let it go, and casually typed: 【I have two VIP tickets for the tour. If you're free that day, you can bring your sister along.】

If it were a date, Su Xingshu would have asked Fu Liangxia directly instead of passing it through Fu Liedong.

But he felt that if he invited Fu Liangxia himself, he'd likely be rejected. Better to give the tickets to her brother.

Given Fu Liedong's personality, he'd definitely want to go and would pester and badger Fu Liangxia—which might work better than a direct invitation.

Moreover, Su Xingshu always felt there was a line between him and Fu Liangxia. The moment he made the invitation himself, it was like losing the upper hand, the line firmly in her grasp.

He didn't like that feeling.

Those accustomed to being loved find it hard to love humbly.