After hearing his words, Bella's eyes widened in surprise.
What did she just hear?
Teacher?
He hadn't even officially started tutoring her yet, so how could he grandly crown himself with that title?
She subconsciously gripped the hem of her shirt, meeting his smiling eyes.
"Ye Jinzhi, aren't you a little too eager to play the 'teacher'?" Bella steadied her nerves and muttered under her breath.
"Oh my god, who is that girl? She's so pretty!"
"Yeah, I don't think I've seen her around school before. Is she new?"
"Hey, Guimi, is she in your class? How could you not tell us about such a huge beauty?"
"She's a transfer student in our class. But... standing next to God Ye, she doesn't look out of place at all."
The gossipy gazes of the crowd swept back and forth over the two of them like searchlights.
"Look, Ye Jinzhi is actually smiling! That's so rare!"
"Not just smiling, look at his eyes... Tsk tsk, what's the relationship between these two? I feel like there are sparks in the air."
"They really match. A beauty belongs with a handsome guy. This scene could straight up be out of a high school drama."
Hearing these discussions clearly drift into her ears, Bella's cheeks burned, and she felt so embarrassed she could curl her toes into the floor.
Unable to stand being the center of attention, she dropped a quiet word to Ye Jinzhi: "Wait here."
With that, she quickly grabbed Ma Xin'er, who hadn't even reacted yet, and hurried away.
Seeing that although she looked defiant, she had ultimately agreed, the smile on Ye Jinzhi's lips deepened.
Ignoring the crowd of students still watching the spectacle behind him, he took a step with his long legs and followed her at a leisurely pace.
"Bella!!! You actually know God Ye? Confess right now, what exactly is your relationship!"
Ma Xin'er, who had been dragged into a jog, finally found her voice, her soul burning with gossip.
"Nothing! We're just classmates!"
Bella kept her eyes straight ahead, only wanting to escape this place of trouble as fast as possible.
Ma Xin'er looked entirely unconvinced, her voice raising a few pitches:
"Classmates? Then how come he doesn't act like that with other girls! Even though we aren't in the same class, as the unshakable first place in every major exam, everyone pays a lot of attention to him. I've never seen God Ye like this!"
Glancing back at the tall figure following them, Ma Xin'er lowered her voice and asked in Bella's ear:
"Did you not see it just now? The way he acts in front of you is truly different. Tell me! Are you two secretly... 'tutoring' in private?"
Bella's heart skipped a beat at her words, and she subconsciously glanced back.
She ended up looking right into Ye Jinzhi's smiling eyes. Seeing Bella turn around, he deliberately raised his hand and made a drinking gesture, as if reminding her not to forget what she had just promised.
Bella quickened her pace, pulling Ma Xin'er as they ducked into the campus convenience store.
The air conditioning in the store slightly cooled the heat on her face.
She stood in front of the cooler, scanning the rows of iced drinks, but ultimately grabbed a bottle of room-temperature water.
Seeing her grab the water and get ready to pay, Ma Xin'er caught a glimpse out the window from the corner of her eye, only to see Ye Jinzhi standing under a large tree not far from the store.
From his posture, he was clearly waiting for someone.
Ma Xin'er stood next to Bella with a look of pure delight, chuckling in a hushed voice:
"Ahaha, I never thought the day would come when such fresh and juicy gossip would appear right in front of me at such close range! And it's so delicious! It feels so good!"
"Delicious my foot, let's go."
Bella paid for the water, wishing she could sew Ma Xin'er's mouth shut.
"Don't be like that! As the dream guy of most girls in school, he's out there 'eagerly waiting,' and I don't want to miss this."
Ma Xin'er leaned close to Bella, giggling wildly. "Say, if he doesn't get this bottle of water, do you think he'll just grab you and refuse to let you leave?"
That was actually very possible, Bella affirmed in her heart.
Just as Bella was about to walk out, Ye Jinzhi seemed to sense something and turned his head to look at her.
Seeing their eyes meet, Ma Xin'er instantly found her role.
She reached out and gave Bella a gentle push from behind, causing her to stumble forward a few steps, while simultaneously shouting at the top of her lungs:
"God Ye, your girl bought the water!"
After shouting that out, Ma Xin'er didn't even give Bella a chance to turn around and glare at her. She slipped away, zipping right back into the convenience store.
She expertly grabbed a bag of cucumber-flavored potato chips from the shelf, snagged a bottle of Genki Forest, and pretended to wander around the other snack aisles.
Though she was supposedly browsing, her eyes kept peeking through the transparent glass window at the two people under the tree not far away.
In reality, the store was still quite a distance from the big tree, and Ma Xin'er didn't have super hearing, so she couldn't hear a word they were saying.
But what did that matter?
"Oh my, this size difference is absolutely perfect!"
Ma Xin'er took a crunchy bite of her chips through the glass, wearing a fond, doting smile.
"Shipping is all about the vibe! Summer, sunshine, tree shade, basketball, mineral water, two youthful faces... It's a certified high school romance blockbuster!"
Watching Bella holding the water and slowly shuffling toward Ye Jinzhi, Ma Xin'er felt like the pink bubbles in her heart were about to overflow.
A beauty and a handsome guy—even without them saying a word, just the two of them standing there enjoying the breeze was enough for her to mentally draft a hundred-thousand-word sweet romance novel.
"Miss, you haven't paid for those chips yet."
The store owner, who had naturally also noticed the good-looking boy and girl not far away, shuffled over with a popsicle in his mouth. He saw that Ma Xin'er was so engrossed in her shipping that she had casually ripped open the bag of chips.
"Ah, oh oh, I'm sorry, I'll pay right now."
Snapping back to reality, Ma Xin'er looked awkwardly at the chips in her hands and immediately ran to the register to pay.
After hearing Ma Xin'er's shout, Bella froze in place. The room-temperature water in her hands suddenly felt burning hot.
Under the tree, upon hearing the words "your girl," Ye Jinzhi paused for a moment. Then, the curve of his lips slowly widened until a soft chuckle escaped his throat. He watched with leisurely amusement as the "little snail" shuffled toward him.
Enduring his burning gaze, Bella finally shuffled her way over to him.
She didn't look up to meet his eyes, simply thrusting the bottle of mineral water forward and mumbling, "Here, your water."
"Not bad, classmate Bella is demonstrating excellent respect for her teacher."
Ye Jinzhi took it smoothly, his fingers deliberately brushing against the back of her hand.
He twisted off the cap, tilted his head back, and took a drink. Then he lowered it, pulled something out of his pocket with his other hand, and seamlessly slipped it into Bella's hand.
It was a piece of dark chocolate.
Bella stared at the item in her hand, completely stunned, her mind filled with question marks: ???
Seeing her confused expression, Ye Jinzhi's fox-like eyes curved slightly as he spoke with a smile:
"Don't look at me like that. This is a little return gift for your token of appreciation to your teacher."
"Who accepts a gift before they've even started teaching..." Bella instinctively retorted, giving the chocolate a little squeeze.
