As soon as the lunch break started, Wen Yao walked out of the administration building holding a blank volunteer form for the class.

She had just taken a few steps when someone called out to her.

"Wen Yao." Deng Ningxuan jogged up to Wen Yao.

"Are you heading back to the classroom? Do you need me to help you carry that?" Deng Ningxuan smiled as he approached, reaching out to take the form from Wen Yao's hands.

"Thank you, but it's not heavy. I can manage it myself." Wen Yao deftly avoided Deng Ningxuan's hand.

Deng Ningxuan smiled awkwardly but didn't leave.

He followed her, casually asking, "By the way, I saw that Jiang Shuyi seems to have sat next to you."

"Mm." Wen Yao continued walking forward, her tone indifferent.

Deng Ningxuan kept up with her and asked, "Is she bothering you?"

"No." Wen Yao continued walking, giving a bland response.

"Is that so..." Deng Ningxuan's expression darkened upon hearing Wen Yao's answer.

Next to the administration building was the basketball court, which was now packed with students who had finished lunch.

Wen Yao had to walk against the crowd.

"Go for it!"

"——Pass the ball!"

Sounds of basketballs and people echoed from the court.

"Pass quickly!"

"Pass it to me!" Jiang Shuyi's energetic voice rang out.

Wen Yao's footsteps paused slightly as she turned her head to look toward the court.

Deng Ningxuan, noticing Wen Yao had stopped, followed her gaze to the basketball court.

Jiang Shuyi was playing basketball with her classmates, sidestepping and snatching the ball from an opponent, then jumping to shoot it into the hoop.

"Jiang Shuyi seems quite good at sports." Deng Ningxuan stood beside Wen Yao, forcing a smile.

"Mm, indeed." Although Wen Yao's tone sounded indifferent, there was a hint of agreement.

Hearing her response, Deng Ningxuan pursed his lips. Adjusting his glasses, he looked at Wen Yao's profile and said, "It's just that her grades are too poor, and she likes to stir up trouble."

Wen Yao didn't react much to this comment.

"Grades don't represent everything."

Deng Ningxuan couldn't help but frown in contemplation.

"Wow, she scored again!!" Cheers erupted from the crowd.

Seeing Jiang Shuyi score again, Wen Yao didn't even realize that the corners of her mouth had curved up slightly.

Deng Ningxuan watched her expression, feeling a bit sour as he clenched his teeth.

"......There are too many people here, I'll head back to the classroom."

Wen Yao naturally didn't stop him.

"Okay." She replied indifferently, her eyes still on the game involving Jiang Shuyi.

Deng Ningxuan couldn't articulate his feelings and walked away through the crowd toward the teaching building, feeling frustrated.

During the lunch break, many people gathered outside to watch the excitement, cheering and shouting, and the crowd grew larger.

"Go for it, Senior Jiang!" someone shouted loudly behind Wen Yao.

After hearing the cheer, Wen Yao paused in silence for a moment. Just as she turned to leave, a hand grasped her wrist.

She looked back, somewhat annoyed.

"Wen Yao! Are you here to watch me play?!"

The Alpha's voice was bright and clear, like sunshine.

---

At the end of October, the ginkgo trees in front of the teaching building had formed a golden carpet on the grass.

The autumn sun was warm, making one feel comfortable.

"Let go." Wen Yao said softly.

"Oh," Jiang Shuyi smiled brightly at Wen Yao, releasing her grip and wiping the sweat from her forehead with her sleeve. "I recognized you at a glance."

Jiang Shuyi was still wearing the school's formal uniform, and as she moved, she became hot and breathless, sweat trickling down her forehead and slowly sliding down to her collar.

Jiang Shuyi took off her blazer and tie, draping them over her arm. "What made you think of coming to watch me play basketball?"

"I came to collect the class volunteer forms, I was just passing by." Wen Yao glanced at the sweat on Jiang Shuyi's fair neck and silently averted her gaze.

Her tone was very calm, as if she had never stopped here at all.

"Is that so?" Jiang Shuyi glanced at the volunteer form in Wen Yao's hand, her tone becoming a bit disappointed. "If you're not busy, why don't you stay and watch for a bit?"

"If you're worried about not understanding the rules, I can explain them to you..."

After a while, Wen Yao still hadn't spoken. She slowly raised her head to look at Jiang Shuyi, just about to say something when—

"Senior, are you thirsty? I have bottled water here."

A junior Jiang Shuyi didn't recognize ran up to her eagerly, handing her an unopened bottle of mineral water.

Another Omega junior also came over. "Senior, take mine, I have a sports drink..."

Jiang Shuyi smiled politely and waved her hand, sending the water back. "I have my own, you keep yours and don't let it go to waste."

After dealing with the juniors, Jiang Shuyi turned back to Wen Yao. "Wen Yao, you—"

Wen Yao looked at Jiang Shuyi and said firmly, "The teacher still needs me for something, I have to go back to the classroom."

Her voice sounded a bit impatient.

Jiang Shuyi looked at Wen Yao, feeling disappointed. "Oh... If you have something to do, then I can't stop you. Go ahead."

Wen Yao turned and left without another word.

Jiang Shuyi slumped her shoulders, thinking that with the expression Wen Yao had just shown, she would have thought she would agree...

---

After returning to the classroom, Wen Yao walked to the blackboard and erased the notes left by the teacher from the morning class. She then wrote the format for the volunteer form and began organizing the class log from that morning.

The last class of the morning was physics, but the physics teacher had forgotten to sign it and left.

She took the class log and walked down the stairs, just in time to run into Jiang Shuyi, who was coming up the stairs.

Jiang Shuyi stared at her intently. "Wen Yao..."

Wen Yao turned her head away, feeling a bit uncomfortable.

"Wen Yao, wait a moment." Jiang Shuyi caught up with her.

Wen Yao stopped and looked at her. "What's the matter?"

Having just finished her game, Jiang Shuyi carried the warm scent of lemon balm. As she approached Wen Yao, she reached out to touch Wen Yao's forehead.

Jiang Shuyi had a unique, refreshing plant fragrance that seemed to invigorate every nerve ending in the air.

Looking at the slender, pale neck of the Alpha and the breath carrying the scent of lemon balm, Wen Yao's fingers trembled slightly.

She leaned back against the wall in surprise.

"What are you doing?"

"Don't move." Jiang Shuyi brushed the chalk dust off her forehead.

Jiang Shuyi opened her hand to show Wen Yao the dust on her palm. "Look, you have chalk dust on your forehead."

Jiang Shuyi smiled as she patted the stray hair from Wen Yao's forehead, gently smoothing it down. "All done, it's clean now."

Wen Yao stood still, her shoulders stiffening.

Jiang Shuyi thought this person was always so meticulous and flawless. Seeing her in this careless state made Jiang Shuyi chuckle. "You can be careless sometimes—"

Before Jiang Shuyi could finish her sentence, Wen Yao swatted Jiang Shuyi's hand away, clutching the class log and quickly walking up the stairs.

"—too, huh..."

Jiang Shuyi looked at her hand that had been swatted away, feeling bewildered.

---

Jiang Shuyi sat at her desk, staring blankly at her hand that Wen Yao had swatted.

After a while, seeing Wen Yao return with the log, Jiang Shuyi straightened up. "Wen Yao..."

Wen Yao pretended not to hear and sat down.

"Wen Yao..." Jiang Shuyi poked Wen Yao with her pen. "What did it mean when you swatted my hand away just now?"

Wen Yao didn't respond.

Not answering her? Fine.

With policies above and countermeasures below.

In the few days that Jiang Shuyi had been sitting next to her, she had realized that Wen Yao wouldn't refuse classmates who asked her questions.

Wen Yao pulled out a practice book and slid it in front of her. "Can you explain this problem to me?"

Wen Yao glanced at the problem in the practice book and turned her head away. "......The chemistry teacher is in the office."

"......"

Was she implying that she should go find the chemistry teacher instead of asking her?

Jiang Shuyi stared at Wen Yao in disbelief.

At that moment, a classmate behind Wen Yao called out to her.

Wen Yao turned around, and Jiang Shuyi casually glanced over.

To her surprise, Wen Yao was explaining the problem to that person.

—Is this what preferential treatment looks like?

—Making me go ask the teacher while she explains problems to the classmates behind her?

—What happened to this person's so-called fairness and impartiality? What happened to her so-called strictness?

—Wen Yao!

—I'm writing this down in my little notebook!

---

Fuming, Jiang Shuyi stood up from her seat and walked over to Zhou Jingtang, Wen Yao's former desk mate and middle school classmate, pulling him out of the classroom.

A few minutes later, after explaining the whole situation, Jiang Shuyi leaned against the vending machine on the first floor.

"...It was just helping her brush off some chalk dust. Is that really worth such a big reaction? She wouldn't even explain the problem to me?"

A bottle of soda dropped from the vending machine, and Jiang Shuyi handed it to Zhou Jingtang.

Zhou Jingtang looked at her with the expression of someone who had been through it all. "Miss Yi, you might not know, but Wen Yao has a cleanliness obsession..."

Hearing this outdated information, Jiang Shuyi hesitated and glanced at Zhou Jingtang.

"But she doesn't need to react like that..." Jiang Shuyi said slowly.

"Miss Yi, let's be fair..." Zhou Jingtang opened the drink Jiang Shuyi had handed him and took a sip. "You just finished playing basketball, and you're sweaty and covered in dirt. In the mind of someone with a cleanliness obsession, you might not be cleaner than chalk dust..."

Jiang Shuyi looked at Zhou Jingtang in disbelief, her expression crumbling. "......Is that so?"

So in Wen Yao's mind, she wasn't even cleaner than chalk dust?

Feeling unwilling, Jiang Shuyi lowered her head, sniffing her sleeve as she walked back to the classroom.

How come she didn't smell anything foul?

Back at her desk, she hugged her coat and took a deep breath.

The scent of clean laundry detergent.

"Mm, I actually think it smells pretty good..." Just as she spoke, Jiang Shuyi felt a gaze on her.

She stiffly raised her head and looked beside her.

Wen Yao was staring at her school uniform in her hands, glanced at her expression, then silently turned away to focus on her work.

Seeing Wen Yao's polite and distant actions made Jiang Shuyi's throat tighten.

— Great.

In Wen Yao's mind, she probably still looked like a weirdo hugging her clothes and sniffing them.

---

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