Chapter 98: Trap, Part Four

At first, it had only been whispered that Yufan was pursuing Qiaoxi. By yesterday, the rumor had become that the two of them were dating, and it had even been confirmed by Yufan himself. She did not want to believe it, yet she had no choice but to accept it. Still, she wanted to ask him in person. She simply lacked the courage, and so she had never gone to find either Yufan or Qiaoxi. Now, however, she had happened to see Qiaoxi, and at last she gathered enough courage to walk over.

Qiaoxi did not avoid her. She stood where she was and watched her approach, watched her stop before her.

"Hello, I'm Gu Dieyan. Do you remember me?"

"Yes." Qiaoxi nodded.

"Y-you..." Gu Dieyan did not know how to begin, and yet she truly wanted to ask something. But the moment she thought of the answer she might receive, her heart ached unbearably.

She had always been rather delicate, and after falling ill earlier, she had never fully recovered. There was still a faint fragility about her. Now, with the added news that Yufan and Qiaoxi were dating, her sorrow deepened. At this moment, the vulnerable, wounded look on her face was enough to stir pity in any boy who saw it, and even girls would find it hard not to soften.

Qiaoxi's expression hardly changed. She only asked, "What do you want to say?"

Gu Dieyan drew a deep breath and steadied herself before quietly asking, "Are you and Yufan really dating?"

"No." Qiaoxi answered.

Gu Dieyan had already prepared herself for many possibilities, but she had not expected to hear such an answer.

"You... you mean you and Yufan are not dating?"

"No." It remained the same answer. From the start, she had only been going along with him. Now that the bet was over, she could not explain what had happened before, but there was no need to keep tacitly admitting to it either.

Gu Dieyan ought to have been happy to hear this, but instead she was filled with doubt.

"But Yufan admitted it himself, and... you didn't deny it back then."

"That was then. Now, Yufan and I are only schoolmates. For me, that's all there is to it."

"Just for you?" Gu Dieyan was puzzled at first, then slowly understood. "So it's that you don't like Yufan, and Yufan he..."

"What he thinks has nothing to do with me."

"I understand. Thank you for telling me the truth." Gu Dieyan said this sincerely. But even with the answer that they were not dating, she still could not feel happy. The fact remained that Yufan had someone he liked, and that person was not her.

Qiaoxi gave a slight nod, then turned and left.

On the sports field, she ran into Dan Chouchou and Gu Panxi. They had just finished lunch.

The moment they saw Qiaoxi, Gu Panxi deliberately wore an expression full of meaning. "Qiaoxi, finished lunch with the president already?"

At noon, they always went to eat together, but Qiaoxi had not joined them. It did not take much to guess why.

"No, I was just about to go eat," Qiaoxi said.

"You haven't eaten yet? Then where were you just now?" Dan Chouchou asked.

"Nowhere important." Qiaoxi did not elaborate.

Gu Panxi and Dan Chouchou exchanged a look.

Something's off.

Gu Panxi was about to ask more when Dan Chouchou, knowing that Qiaoxi disliked being questioned about private matters, pulled her along. "You were just saying you wanted to go out. Come on, let's go."

"All right, all right, why are you in such a hurry?" Gu Panxi complained, but her feet still followed.

Qiaoxi had originally meant to go to the cafeteria for lunch, but she had no appetite, so in the end she did not go.

She wandered slowly through the campus as though taking a leisurely stroll.

With her head lowered, she walked aimlessly until she saw maple leaves scattered across the ground. Only then did she stop.

When she looked up, she saw several maple trees, and realized she had unknowingly wandered here.