18

Lin Tiao truly, truly, truly didn't expect that by just grabbing casually, she would end up being seen as acting flirtatious.

The delicate feeling in her palm was clear and unmistakable.

She lifted her gaze to meet Jiang Yan's teasing and mocking eyes, not knowing what to say or do, even forgetting to pull her hand back.

She remained in an awkward position.

The atmosphere grew silent and awkward.

It wasn't until the warmth in her palm became increasingly uncomfortable that Lin Tiao finally realized something was wrong. She carefully withdrew her hand, feeling somewhat awkward, and nervously touched her ear, lowering her voice as she stammered, "I-I-I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to. I just wanted to grab you down…"

Who knew that her casual gesture would turn out to be so serious.

Jiang Yan looked at her, embarrassed yet trying to stay calm, and said slowly, "Whether you meant it or not, I don't care. But in all my life, no one has ever touched my thigh—"

Lin Tiao suddenly looked up at him.

Jiang Yan rested his arm on the desk, propping his head up with his hand, and tilted his head to look at her, continuing from where he left off, "So you need to take responsibility."

"?" Lin Tiao thought, this person must have lost his mind.

"I'm a pure and innocent young man, and you've insulted me in such an inhumane way. I'm having a hard time accepting it," Jiang Yan added.

"..."

Hearing his words, Lin Tiao felt like she had wasted her past ten-plus years of life.

She had never met someone so annoying.

"I think you shouldn't be called Jiang Yan."

The class was almost over, with only five or six minutes left. The English teacher had stopped teaching, sitting on the podium and looking at her phone, not paying much attention to the students.

Lin Tiao held her breath and looked at Jiang Yan, saying word by word, "You should be called Jiang Flirty, the particularly flirty kind of flirty."

"..." Jiang Yan continued to look at her, seemingly tired with a slight redness at the corners of his eyes from not sleeping well last night. The sunlight streamed in through the window, casting shifting shadows.

He stared at Lin Tiao for five seconds, then suddenly burst into laughter. "Changing a name is a big deal. I need to ask my family before I can do it."

"Besides, that's not the point. The point is, you touched me, so you need to take responsibility."

"..." Lin Tiao was ready to curse, but the next second, "Damn it, when did I touch you? It was just an accidental brush."

"Who knew you'd be so flirty, and wearing ripped jeans."

Jiang Yan relaxed his arm and looked down at his ripped jeans. "How does wearing ripped jeans make me look flirty?"

Lin Tiao didn't explain further, just muttering two words, "Flirty."

He looked quite determined.

"Alright." Jiang Yan didn't insist on an explanation. He picked up his phone from the desk, unlocked it with his thumb, and began typing quickly with both hands.

In less than half a minute, before Lin Tiao could react, he held up his phone, showing her the brightly lit screen.

Lin Tiao glanced at it.

"..."

Damn.

Jiang Yan's phone was a new model from the fruit company, with a huge, high-definition screen. On it was the chat window for the class group chat of Class 28.

The input bar at the bottom contained a message.

"I, Jiang Yan, for the first time in my life, have been touched by my deskmate during class. It is the greatest humiliation of my life."

Lin Tiao didn't understand why such an unexpected incident could become so embarrassing when he put it this way.

"Classmate Jiang, I think you need to be more calm and rational."

If she weren't afraid of him accidentally sending it due to trembling hands, she would have already started to grab the phone. But right now, she didn't dare.

She cared about her own face.

Touching the boss's leg during class?

If this spread, could she still survive in the school?

With the reputation of the bully in school, she might not even be able to get out of Class 18.

Seeing Jiang Yan silent, Lin Tiao tentatively asked, "How about we discuss how to take responsibility?"

Jiang Yan raised his hand to rub his forehead, feeling like his status had risen, and nodded. "Alright, how do you plan to take responsibility?"

"..."

I have no idea.

Lin Tiao frowned, unable to think of how to make things right with Jiang Yan. Besides, it was really just an accidental touch!

How could this person be so demanding?

Seeing Lin Tiao's distressed expression, Jiang Yan was about to speak when the class bell rang.

The English teacher picked up her textbook, said "class dismissed," and left.

The classroom immediately became noisy as students grouped up and headed out for lunch.

Jiang Yan, holding his phone, was about to delete the message from the input bar when Xu Yichuan suddenly dashed from the back of the classroom, shouting loudly, "Let's go! Time to eat!"

Startled, Jiang Yan's hand shook, and the message was sent.

"..."

Damn.

Surrounded by people, Jiang Yan took a quick glance at his deskmate, and as she wasn't paying attention, he discreetly averted his eyes and long-pressed the message to retract it.

Then, he quietly retracted it.

The class group remained quiet, as if no one noticed that the usually quiet class leader had sent out a juicy piece of gossip.

After successfully retracting the message, Jiang Yan calmly put away his phone, patted Lin Tiao's shoulder, and said with a tone of barely concealed guilt, "Let's go eat."

Lin Tiao was still preoccupied with how to take responsibility, "I can't eat. I don't want to. I can't think of how to make it right with you."

"Ah… about that." Jiang Yan seemed to ponder for a moment and then said, "How about you just write my homework for a week?"

"That's it?" Lin Tiao was somewhat incredulous. Was it really worth causing such a fuss over such a minor request?

"That's it." Jiang Yan lightly tapped her on the head with his phone, "Otherwise, do you want to start dating me?"

"That's impossible. I've said so."

"I'm absolutely not dating early."

Lin Tiao muttered, "I'd rather date your mom."

The group of five wandered around outside the school and finally ended up at Chen's Diner. While waiting for the food, Lin Tiao went to the restroom.

Jiang Yan sat nearby, looking at his phone.

As soon as Lin Tiao was out, Hu Hanghang stood up and blocked the door, while Xu Yichuan and Song Yuan each took a chair and sat on either side of Jiang Yan.

Jiang Yan, still a step behind, looked up in confusion, "...? What's going on?"

Xu Yichuan sat backwards on his chair, resting his arms on the back and leaning forward. He glanced at Song Yuan, "Old Song, read what you saw."

Song Yuan nodded, took out his phone, and read aloud, "I, Jiang Yan, for the first time in my life——"

"Damn!"

A sudden hand flashed in front of Song Yuan's eyes, and his phone was snatched away.

The next second, Jiang Yan was holding the phone.

Jiang Yan glanced at it. It wasn't a group message, just a screenshot. He let out a sigh of relief.

Scared the hell out of him. He had just realized he had mistakenly thought he had retracted the message instead of deleting it.

With that thought, Jiang Yan stopped pondering and, with his gaze lowered, tapped a few times on the screen.

He deleted the image.

Then, Jiang Yan looked up at the three nosy people in the room and said lightly, "You didn't see anything today."

"No way." Xu Yichuan was the first to disagree. This was a major explosive news story, and if it got out, the whole school would be in an uproar. "If you don't clarify things with us today, we won't let it go."

Song Yuan, the least afraid of Jiang Yan among the three, kicked Jiang Yan's calf and said, "What kind of little romance were you having with Sister Lin during class? I'm practically blind from watching."

He and Hu Hanghang were sitting right behind Jiang Yan and Lin Tiao.

They were close enough to see exactly what was happening.

During class, Song Yuan had seen Lin Tiao place her hand on Jiang Yan's leg.

The gesture was too familiar.

"Let's title this 'The Cold-faced School Tyrant and the Soft-spoken Deskmate's Hidden Classroom Romance'."

Jiang Yan, "..."

"Damn it."

Hu Hanghang glanced outside, noting Lin Tiao's absence in the hallway, and leaned in, "Bro, tell us honestly—do you like Sister Lin?"

Actually, he wasn't sure if it was like or dislike.

Their first encounter was in the school's small supermarket. At that time, Jiang Yan thought her attitude of arguing with everything was amusing.

The second time they met was unexpectedly in the exam hall.

After the exam, he saw her stumble in front of him and instinctively reached out to help, with the words slipping out of his mouth.

It was probably because there were too many people that she didn't get a chance to show her usual argumentative side and just walked away.

When they arrived at the restaurant outside school, Jiang Yan felt a strong connection with her.

Later, when they were reclassified into the same class for the new semester, and then became desk partners, their daily interactions were lively and full of banter.

Jiang Yan even wondered if they had some unresolved fate from a past life.

He and Lin Tiao hadn't known each other long, and if he were to say he liked her, Jiang Yan himself wasn't sure. His upbringing had been different from most, making the concept of "liking" feel distant to him.

But it was undeniable that Lin Tiao had become a very special person to him.

Jiang Yan snapped out of his thoughts, his gaze unfocused. He stared at the vase on the table, his mind drifting, his voice distant.

"Like? Hell no."