Chapter 6: Fascinated

On the fifteenth of the lunar calendar, with the full moon hanging high, the moonlight seemed to carry the warmth of the human world, casting a shadow of shimmering broken jade onto the ground.

Liang Zhouyue looked up at the moon and, before she knew it, had forgotten that the person standing by her side was Jiang Li, the man she had been wary of for a long time.

There was silence for about half a minute, which was finally broken by the sound of a convenience store closing.

She gathered her wandering thoughts and finally remembered the awkward relationship between her and Jiang Li. With a slight cough to maintain a distance, she spoke with a deliberate tone, "It's so late, why are you here?"

Even more coincidentally, they had entered the same store one after the other.

Jiang Li's expression was calm, with a touch of tenderness, "It's the weekend, and I live nearby."

As long as one could provide proof of local property ownership and a direct relative's signature, Hua University allowed students to not stay on campus over the weekend. Also, the dormitory supervision was strict, so it wasn't possible for anyone to skip or substitute for the roll call.

Upon hearing this, Liang Zhouyue sounded a thoughtful "Oh" with a teacher's mindset. But within two seconds, she caught onto the key point and remarked, with an indistinct tone, "Living nearby means you must be rich."

Even though Jiang Li had the ability to read people, he couldn't quite catch the emotion behind that comment. Was she resentful of wealth, or just making an ordinary comment?

Better to wrongly kill a thousand than to let one go; he couldn't allow anything unfavorable towards him to happen.

After a pause, Jiang Li licked his lips and seriously agreed with her comment, saying, "This is Chen Dan's place. I come from a poor family, and he took me in."

"..."

A poor family... smoking cigarettes that cost 100 Yuan a pack?

Truly poor!

When money was mentioned, Liang Zhouyue suddenly remembered her WeChat payment bill. Turning it around, she presented it to him with the posture of someone collecting a debt.

Jiang Li raised his eyebrows in surprise.

"Why should I pay for your cigarettes?" Liang Zhouyue's normally charming eyes now carried a spirited air, a hint of efficiency as she continued, "It's best not to have financial transactions between teacher and student. Give me my money back."

Jiang Li wasn't short on money, but no one had ever dared to blatantly ask him for money before, regardless of whether they were owed or not. Liang Zhouyue ranked as the first to try this with him.

He shook his head, deliberately provoking her, his gaze appearing deep and unfathomable, but his words were tempting, "I don't have cash on me. Add me as a friend, and I'll transfer the money to you."

"..."

It was all a trap.

Liang Zhouyue pulled back her hand, wary, deciding to swallow the loss.

"I don't want this money, consider it a thank you for the last time you helped me."

"The last time?" Jiang Li's tone rose, sounding very puzzled, "What last time?"

The man's confused expression didn't seem feigned, and Liang Zhouyue, holding back her dying embarrassment, carefully pointed at the back of her neck, the implication clear without words: "The zipper..."

"Oh..." His tone fluctuated, and Jiang Li showed a suddenly enlightened expression yet shook his head, "I forgot."

Liang Zhouyue knew he was playing dumb, after all, on Monday he had indeed brought up the incident with the zipper, there's no way he could have forgotten so soon.

After a day of classes and a date with He Jinsheng, and now facing Jiang Li, this hard nut to crack, she felt drained and let out a heavy sigh. Her full chest rose and fell with her breath, as she tried to ease the sudden pressure by regulating her breathing.

Across from her, Jiang Li's raven-like lashes trembled slightly, and as he shifted his gaze away, the corner of his mouth curled into a meaningful, roguish smirk.

He suddenly felt somewhat troubled, annoyed with himself for losing self-control.

The convenience store closed, and the light above them slowly dimmed. Jiang Li dismissed those complicated worries, glancing sideways at the woman next to him, smiling disarmingly, "Sister, it's pretty dark now, could you give me a ride home?"

He lived close by, merely coming down to the supermarket, so there was no need to drive.

Liang Zhouyue didn't know how Jiang Li could casually say those words, regardless of how close their relationship was to the point of giving him a ride home. Speaking of kindness like offering a ride home, shouldn't it be him offering to her?

"The school gates will lock, and I won't make it back in time if I don't leave now."

Liang Zhouyue lit up her phone screen and showed him the time with a physical demonstration.

It was already 8:30 p.m.

The security post at Hua University closed at 9:30 p.m., and the doors of the student dormitories and faculty residences locked at 10:00 p.m. It would take at least half an hour to get back to school by taxi from the downtown area, so now was the safest and most appropriate time for Liang Zhouyue to head back.

Besides, even if she had the time, she wouldn't offer to take him home.

Jiang Li glanced at the time on her phone and inadvertently caught sight of her lock screen wallpaper.

"Do you like Leonardo?"

Caught off-guard by his insight, Liang Zhouyue instinctively tightened her grip on her phone, her eyes and stance defensive, warily sizing up Jiang Li as if she were a very cautious kitten.

She naturally had a delicate and soft feline-like face, pretty beyond measure.

Jiang Li's heart bloomed with delight, "Our school is so remote, isn't it a bit dangerous for a girl like you to take a taxi back alone at this hour?"

Liang Zhouyue had been comforting herself with the thought that there were still more good people than bad in the world, but Jiang Li's description filled her head with images of innocent women harmed by villains—alone in the late hours of the night, with no one to rescue them, losing their lives tragically.

Even the bravest girls couldn't hide their fear, and Jiang Li seized the opportunity to step forward, his tall figure slightly bending over as he looked down to meet her gaze, speaking deliberately, "Do you need me to take you back?"

His words trailed off with a teasing hook, carrying an indistinguishable allure. It was as though he was setting a trap, luring her deeper.

Liang Zhouyue sensed something but chose to steer the conversation away from him offering to take her back to school, "Are you also staying at the school tonight?"

She didn't want to focus on him "taking" her back to school but rather on the possibility of them "going together." She was genuinely afraid of the nighttime route. When He Jinseng had picked her up, she naturally assumed he would take her back.

However, seeing him glued to his phone the entire time, she had no desire to spend another second with him.

Now, running into Jiang Li felt like a small stroke of luck.

Seeing the rare eagerness in the woman's eyes, Jiang Li glanced down, his toes curling slightly, as his dark pupils fixated on his overly casual slippers.

And the loose gray half sleeve shirt, black shorts...

Returning to school looking like this, his roommates would surely think he had been caught cheating and had escaped back to the campus in the middle of the night.

The condition he had set for taking her back to school was that she would accompany him home to get his car, and then he would drive her back. It wasn't to enter the fashion-competitive university campus in his sloppy attire openly.

Jiang Li fell silent, carefully weighing the pros and cons.

Without his response, Liang Zhouyue's heart was utterly suspended in fear. She really didn't dare to take a taxi alone—the location of Hua University was indeed quite remote, the night roads too dark.

"Are you going back or not?" Her fingers clenched tightly around the strap of her bag, the pressure whitening her knuckles.

Her nervousness and fear, amplified by their close proximity, spurred Jiang Li's toes into action, and as if possessed, he slipped his feet properly into his sandals and lifted his chin slightly.

"Let's get a cab at the corner ahead."

"..."

Feeling secure, Liang Zhouyue obediently followed by his side, walking shoulder to shoulder with him.

The early autumn night was rather refreshing, with the moon slanted in the sky and the stars twinkling against the dark canvas.

Jiang Li made sure she walked on the inside of the sidewalk, his peripheral vision catching sight of her chunky high-heeled shoes. After quietly observing them for a moment, he thought of the man he had seen at the school gate that afternoon, presumably her boyfriend.

Not a good match at all.

Then, with a faintly disdainful smirk, he said, "Your feet must be quite uncomfortable, right?"

Liang Zhouyue looked down following his gaze and admitted honestly, "They do chafe a bit."

"One might as well discard things that don't fit." His deep gaze roamed, the secrets of his turbulent wilfulness hidden by the night as he softly chuckled, "Perhaps, the next one will be better."

Liang Zhouyue paused, looking again at her newly purchased shoes. Indeed, they were tasteless to wear, yet a pity to discard.

After all, they were new and clean. If they were dirty, she'd have a reason to throw them out.