"Tsk, tsk, Ye Fan, are you raising Xiao Xi as if she were your daughter?"
"Mm."
One dared to ask, and the other dared to answer!
Their exchange nearly caused Ning Xi, who was drinking milk, to spit it out. She forced herself to swallow the milk and pinched Ye Fan's arm with her delicate hand.
"What nonsense are you talking about?!"
"Hiss!"
This time, the girl showed no mercy, causing Ye Fan to take several sharp breaths. He immediately passed the blame to Su Ke. "She asked first! If she hadn't asked, I wouldn't have said anything. So, this isn't on me—it's her fault."
"…"
Su Ke's face twitched slightly, and she stood there dumbfounded.
How could someone say something so shameless?!
This is... absolutely outrageous!!!
Ning Xi froze for a moment before turning her head to Su Ke and complaining, "Ke Ke, don't say such random things. What do you mean by raising a daughter? That sounds awful!"
Su Ke: "…"
So unfair!
She was more wronged than Dou E!
These two…
One dared to speak, and the other dared to listen!
Fine. Su Ke had figured it out—she was born to take the blame.
Su Ke glared at the two of them in exasperation and said, "Carry on, you two. Just pretend I'm not here. Whoever talks to me, I'll fight them!"
After that, she turned away, sulking by herself.
Ning Xi was momentarily stunned before realizing that she had been misled by Ye Fan. A blush rose to her cheeks, and she glared coldly at Ye Fan, asking in a clear voice, "Do you really want to raise me as your daughter?"
"Do I want to... or not?"
Ye Fan's back tightened, and a hint of relief flashed in his eyes.
He was just a hair's breadth away from stepping into trouble.
Fortunately, he reacted quickly; otherwise, he would have completely angered this girl.
"I'm asking you!"
"Well…"
Ye Fan grabbed the milk from the table and handed it to Ning Xi, brushing the topic aside. "Class is about to start. Finish your milk first."
"Hmph!"
Ning Xi took the milk and turned away to drink it. Out of Ye Fan's sight, a faint smile appeared in her clear eyes.
Ye Fan stood up, placed his hands gently on Ning Xi's shoulders, and turned her around. He asked, "Xiao Xi, earlier, I saw you staring at your phone so intently. What were you looking at?"
"You…"
Ning Xi wrinkled her nose and replied in a soft voice, "Isn't there been a lot of protests about the Genius Rankings online lately? I woke up late this morning and didn't have time to read about it, so I brought my phone to school. Just this once! I promise I won't bring it again."
As she spoke, she started to feel something was off.
Why... was she feeling guilty?
What was there to be guilty about?
She hadn't done anything wrong. It was just bringing a phone!
Besides, Ye Fan wasn't a teacher. Even if he saw it, so what? Plenty of students in the class brought their phones to school—she wasn't the only one.
Sigh!
Ning Xi, you're truly hopeless!!!
"So it's about that," Ye Fan said.
This news had caused quite a stir online, so Ye Fan was naturally aware of it. However, after glancing at it briefly, he had lost interest.
In his opinion, this kind of thing wasn't worth paying attention to.
No matter how much noise these people made online, the Ministry of Education would never agree to their unreasonable demands.
The reason was simple: 99% of the people causing a ruckus were dissatisfied with their current situation—either unhappy with their university or dissatisfied with their current prospects.
They just wanted a reset!
But life wasn't a game. How could there be a "reset"?
And even if these university-educated individuals were allowed to compete for spots on the Genius Rankings, would that be fair to the millions of students taking the exams?
It was nothing more than a farce, and paying excessive attention to it was just a waste of time.
"Prepare well. Tomorrow is the first nationwide joint exam. Let me set a small goal for you."
"Don't!"
Ning Xi immediately refused, looking at Ye Fan with lingering fear as she complained, "Please don't set any more goals for me. Just spare me, okay?"
Seeing the girl's adorable reaction, Ye Fan couldn't help but shake his head with a smile. "Since you don't like it, I'll let it go. We probably don't have classes this morning, so take this time to review the key points I taught you at noon yesterday."
"As you command, Teacher Ye."
Ning Xi blinked playfully, then shoved the milk in her hand into Ye Fan's hands. "I can't finish this. You drink it for me; I need to hurry up and study."
Ye Fan glanced at the milk in his hand, then looked at Ning Xi, who had bent over to rummage through her desk for review materials. A sense of happiness washed over him.
As expected.
Just as Ye Fan had predicted, the teacher only briefly reminded them of things to pay attention to for tomorrow's exam and then allowed the students to study on their own. In the afternoon, because the classrooms needed to be set up for the exams and to give the students a good rest before the nationwide joint exam, they were directly dismissed.
"Ding-ling—"
The bell rang, and the students began packing up their study materials.
Following the teacher's instructions, no scraps of paper were allowed to remain in the classroom. Coincidentally, it was Ye Fan and Ning Xi's turn for cleaning duty today, and they were assigned by Lin Dejiang to clean every corner of the classroom.
In just a few minutes, the classroom became empty.
Ning Xi put down her pen, poked Ye Fan, who was reading a book, and softly said, "Hey, everyone's gone. Shall we start cleaning?"
Ye Fan nodded slightly, closed his book, stood up, and gently patted Ning Xi on the head. Then he took off the cherry hair tie from her hair, letting her silky black hair cascade down. Instantly, a faint fragrance filled the air.
Seeing Ye Fan slip the cherry hair tie onto his wrist, Ning Xi's eyes curved slightly, and a subtle emotion flickered in her crescent-like eyes.
"You… seem to really like that hair tie?"
"I do."
Hearing the girl's question, Ye Fan pulled down his sleeve to reveal the hair tie on his wrist, a sunny smile spreading across his face.
Ning Xi glanced at him and quickly looked away.
Damn it!
This guy is so handsome…
"It's just a simple hair tie. There's nothing special about it."
"Who says it's not special?"
Ye Fan raised his hand to show the hair tie, his face carrying a faint trace of pride. "This is a hair tie you gave me. It's one of a kind in the whole world—priceless!"
"You…"
Ning Xi's gaze dropped, her face turning bright red. Under the noonday sun, it looked almost crystalline.
Oh no!
She was so flustered she could barely handle it…
No! She had to stay strong, absolutely strong!!!
There were still four more exams waiting for her. She couldn't let her mind wander.
"Xiao Xi."
"…Mm?"
Meeting the girl's shy gaze, Ye Fan stepped closer to her and pointed at the unfinished physics problem on her draft paper. "Leave the cleaning to me. You focus on solving this problem. You have to finish it before I'm done cleaning. Got it?"
"I-I can help…"
"No need. Be good."
"Then… okay."
Ning Xi's eyes darted away, and she whispered so softly it was almost inaudible, "Thank you. Sorry for the trouble."
Secretly, she made a wish—that no other girl would appear by his side.