Camping

Fu Liangxia was rooted to the spot by his resounding confession.

Fu Haoyao's eyes were red, and he said sulkily, "I don't want to like you either. You attract so much attention, liking you is bound to be stressful. But I'm useless! When I found out you were holding hands with my brother, I was so jealous I went crazy. When I heard someone asking for your WeChat, I was so angry I wanted to hit someone. When you don't care about me, I'm so upset I want to cry!"

Fu Liangxia could feel his sincerity. It would be a lie to say she wasn't at all moved.

The young man's gaze was fiery, looking at her with an intensity as if she were his whole world.

But she didn't understand how someone with only seventy-something Affinity Points would confess. In those system novels she'd read before, didn't it only count as really liking someone when it hit 100?

As if hearing her question, the System explained: [Affinity Points calculation is very complex and cannot fully reflect a person's emotions. Generally, a score above sixty means they hold enough affection for the person; above seventy means a strong desire to date; above eighty means they're willing to spend their whole life together.]

The System added: [But data is fixed, while people are different. Due to differing personalities, the same Affinity Points manifests differently in each person.

For a target like this one, who is simple-minded and has never been in love, even at seventy-something Affinity Points, the weight in his heart is already close to a state of "wanting to spend a lifetime together."]

Fu Liangxia roughly understood.

Fu Haoyao, having blurted everything out in one breath, now regretted it.

His voice wasn't low, and almost everyone around had been drawn to him, but he only stared at Fu Liangxia. As if just realizing what he'd done, his ears slowly turned red, and the fierceness in his watery blue eyes gradually faded, leaving behind a hint of fluster.

Even more like a dog.

Fu Liangxia, unlike Fu Haoyao, didn't feel embarrassed about being watched while being confessed to.

Young men and women of seventeen or eighteen, in the prime of their youth, simply standing there was enough to brighten one's mood.

Youth means impulse.

There was nothing to it.

Fu Liangxia chalked this confession up to Fu Haoyao's hormones running high, and her method of dealing with it was simple.

She'd never lacked for admirers—secret crushes, open confessions, love letters, gifts, coercion, and bribery were all commonplace.

Fu Liangxia's attitude toward all of it was: if it wasn't brought into the open, she pretended not to know.

And when it was brought into the open, like now—

"You like me?" Fu Liangxia looked at him.

Since it had already come to this, Fu Haoyao didn't care about repeating it. Ears red, he said with reckless abandon, "So what if I do?!"

"You want to hold my hand? You don't want me to give my WeChat to others? You want me to care about you?"

With each question she asked, Fu Haoyao nodded heavily, his ears growing redder by the second.

Seeing this, Fu Liangxia smiled and asked him, "Can you tell the difference between liking and possessiveness?"

Fu Haoyao was stunned.

He felt like the direction of her words was off, running contrary to what he'd wanted to hear.

Fu Liangxia: "Fu Haoyao, you—"

"Stop!"

Fu Haoyao cut her off before she could finish. He gently fluttered his long lashes, pressed his thin lips together, and his Adam's apple bobbed quickly before he said, "I said that with no other meaning. I'm just informing you: I like you. Don't feel pressured. I know you're focused on your studies right now and don't have time to consider these things."

"Besides, you're my tutor. If we started dating, my brother would be the first to object."

"So don't rush to answer me. We haven't known each other long enough for you to truly understand me."

Fu Haoyao, feeling Fu Liangxia's gaze on him, turned his head away awkwardly and muttered, "You can wait until after we graduate to consider it..."

He paused, then suddenly thought of something, turned back to glare at her, and said with a show of bravado, "But if you ever want to date, you have to consider me first... okay?"

Promising the moon? Who couldn't do that?

Fu Liangxia agreed readily: "Okay."

Fu Haoyao, who had been looking anywhere but at Fu Liangxia, snapped his head back, eyes fixed on her, a smile tugging at his lips. "Deal."

Fu Liangxia nodded.

While the atmosphere between Fu Liangxia and Fu Haoyao was just right, not far away, Wang Xixi was scowling at Bai Xin's silent profile. "Since you're watching so intently, why don't you just go join them?"

Bai Xin glanced at her indifferently, didn't respond, but actually did start walking over there.

Wang Xixi was momentarily stunned. When she recovered, she was furious. "Bai Xin!"

She chased after him.

Meanwhile, Wang Hansheng, whom Wang Xixi had been looking for all this time, returned from the restroom. Seeing her, he strode over.

"What do you want to eat on the camping day? I'll buy it and bring it along." Bai Xin walked over, gave Fu Haoyao a nod, and asked Fu Liangxia.

Fu Liangxia smiled at this. She didn't mention that Fu Haoyao would be grilling, and replied, "Anything's fine."

It was Fu Haoyao himself who couldn't hold back, telling Bai Xin, "No need to prepare anything for her. I'm bringing a grill to barbecue that day."

Bai Xin heard his answer but said nothing, just gave a slight nod and said naturally, "Then I'll join in. I can help with the grilling."

He casually inserted himself into their plans, and Fu Haoyao couldn't exactly say anything to stop him.

He made one last attempt: "Aren't you bad at this sort of thing?"

Bai Xin casually rolled down a fallen sleeve. His posture was straight, his gaze cool—an otherworldly, ethereal look—yet he said, "I can learn."

Wang Hansheng, standing nearby, looked at Bai Xin, then at Fu Haoyao, and raised an eyebrow slightly.

Why did the atmosphere feel a little off?

He glanced at Wang Xixi beside him and saw his sister's eyes practically shooting fire.

Wang Hansheng's expression turned thoughtful.

Then Wang Xixi suddenly spoke, looking at Bai Xin with a smile. "It's rare to hear you say you'll cook. I want to come too."

"You're not even in our grade. This is a sophomore activity. What business do you have butting in?" Fu Haoyao said bluntly.

Wang Xixi shot him a glare. "I'm talking to Bai Xin, not you. What's it to you where I go?"

The childish back-and-forth made Wang Hansheng hold his forehead. He shot Wang Xixi a warning look. "It's their grade's activity. Why are you going? College entrance exam is in a year. Focus on your classes, don't end up scoring in the three hundreds again and embarrassing yourself."

"Whose brother are you?!" Wang Xixi glared at him fiercely, then turned back to Bai Xin, looking at him with hope in her eyes, waiting for him to speak.

Bai Xin remained as calm as ever: "As you wish."

Still that demeanor, as if nothing could affect him.

Fu Haoyao said nothing more. If Wang Xixi was going to cling to Bai Xin, that was fine by him—it gave him the chance to sneak in.

With that thought, he was pleased again.

Just then, Fu Haoyao's phone rang. He picked it up and saw it was a message from his brother, brief and to the point, just two words: [Come down.]

He turned and told Fu Liangxia, and the two prepared to leave.

Before leaving, Fu Liangxia waved at Bai Xin and said, "See you tomorrow," then turned and followed Fu Haoyao away.

The items they'd picked out would be delivered to their homes later.

Watching the two leave, Wang Xixi's face darkened completely. She turned and frowned at Bai Xin. "What do you mean? What do you mean 'as I wish'?"

Her tone was furious, clearly holding back pent-up resentment.

Bai Xin: "Your life is yours to decide."

Wang Xixi was speechless. "Am I talking about that?! If you don't want me to go, just say so. I won't get in your way!"

"But you heard it too—Fu Haoyao likes her. Are you going to like a girl your good friend likes now?"

Bai Xin said nothing, his calm expression concealing whatever was going through his mind.

Wang Hansheng, who'd been listening for a while, was almost dizzy from all the tangled threads. Finally, he made a time-out gesture. "What's all this 'you like, I like' nonsense? Are we filming a drama? Since my brother-in-law said 'as you wish,' it means 'as you wish.'"

He pulled Wang Xixi aside and said in a low voice, "You know what Bai Xin's like. You talk to him this much, and he probably didn't even take any of it in."

Wang Xixi: "Then what should I do?"

Wang Hansheng wore an expression that said "leave it to me." "Let me handle it."

...

The weather had turned cool, but the capital's skies remained bright. When the day of Saintland Academy's sophomore camping trip arrived, it was the warmest day of the week, with not a cloud in the sky—perfect outing weather.

Most people in Fu Liangxia's class had voted for the beach, and the destination was finally revealed on the camping day: a resort in Country A, famous for its tropical island charm.