Pretty girls often have a dark heart.

The originally noisy classroom, where students were packing their bags, instantly seemed to have a pause button pressed. Dozens of pairs of eyes turned around in unison, focusing on the tender pink, scented envelope in Chen Zhi's hand.

"Holy crap, more drama to watch?"

"The class monitor's luck with the ladies is way too strong, isn't it? He just finished drinking Miss Pei's cola, and now he's receiving a love letter?"

In the back corner, Li Jiahao, who had just been helped back to his chair by two lackeys, was grimacing in pain. Hearing this, he immediately perked up.

Ignoring the swelling and pain in his ankle, he craned his neck to look over, unable to suppress the gloating expression on his face.

Serves him right!

That's what Chen Zhi gets for flirting around!

Lin Wanwan might look soft and cute, but when she gets mad, she's a real little firecracker. Plus, if she really reported this to Chen Zhi's notoriously strict mother, Chen Zhi would lose a layer of skin even if he didn't die.

Li Jiahao felt so thrilled in his heart, as if all the face he lost on the basketball court earlier had been won back. He screamed frantically in his mind: Fight! Fight! It would be best if Lin Wanwan ran out crying on the spot, and Chen Zhi's reputation was ruined!

"Why are you yelling so loudly?"

Chen Zhi felt his eardrums buzzing and helplessly picked his ear. "Afraid others won't know, huh?"

"You still dare to be glib!"

Lin Wanwan's cheeks puffed up in anger. She slammed her backpack onto the desk, pointed at the pink envelope, and said aggressively, "Chen Zhi, you're really something! How many days has it been since school started? You're already receiving love letters! Do you still want to study? I'm going to tell your auntie that you're getting involved in puppy love at school!"

Li Zhiyi stood to the side, gripping the pencil case she hadn't had time to put in her bag. Her eyes were dim, and she bit her lip without speaking. However, her large, watery eyes were filled with grievance, making people's hearts ache for her.

"What puppy love? I don't even know who stuffed this in."

Chen Zhi also looked baffled.

He brought the envelope up to his nose and sniffed.

Wow, good grief.

Not only was it pink, but it was also sprayed with some cheap perfume that was so strong it went straight to the head.

"You're still smelling it! Are you enjoying it?" Lin Wanwan said sourly. "Hurry up and open it! I want to see which vixen has such bad taste that she'd even fall for you!"

The surrounding classmates also held their breath, craning their necks one by one, wishing they had X-ray vision.

Chen Zhi shrugged. Since everyone wanted to see, then let them see.

His slender fingers pinched a corner of the envelope, and with a ripping sound, he tore open the seal.

No dried petals or origami hearts fell out from inside. There was only a crumpled piece of notebook paper, folded several times.

Chen Zhi raised an eyebrow. This texture didn't feel right.

Are girls nowadays this half-hearted when writing love letters? They can't even bear to buy a decent piece of stationery?

He slowly unfolded the note.

The handwriting was crooked, looking like chicken scratch, and written with great force. Some strokes even pierced through the back of the paper, revealing a sense of gnashing, bitter hatred.

There was only a short line of text on it:

[After school, meet me at the small woods on the hill behind the school! Don't run if you're a man! — Zhu Jianming]

Chen Zhi: "..."

He stared at the pink heart sticker, then looked at this murderous challenge for a fight, and the corner of his mouth couldn't help but twitch wildly.

What kind of weirdo was this?

Zhu Jianming?

His memories churned slightly, and Chen Zhi remembered.

Wasn't this the sucker who had been pestering Lin Wanwan a few days ago, insisting on giving her milk, only to have it intercepted by him, who then drank the milk like water for a whole week?

So this buddy finally realized it, knew he had been played for a fool, and came to settle the score?

Settling the score is fine.

But why use this kind of envelope?

Did he really have to use a pink one, stick a heart on it, and spray perfume?

Was this a duel or a confession?

Chen Zhi just felt a chill, and goosebumps rose all over his body. This Zhu Jianming must have some serious mental issues, or perhaps he wanted to gross him out to death so he could inherit his Alipay Huabei debt?

"What did it say? Read it out loud!"

Seeing Chen Zhi's strange expression and his long silence, Lin Wanwan's jealousy grew stronger.

She thought Chen Zhi was moved by the sweet words in the love letter, or that the other party wrote too explicitly for him to read it out of embarrassment.

"I don't believe it, can it really be that poetic!"

Lin Wanwan couldn't hold back anymore and snatched the note from Chen Zhi's hand.

"Dear Brother Chen Zhi..." She subconsciously started to read it out loud in a sarcastic tone.

However, after reading only a few words, her voice caught in her throat.

Her big eyes blinked twice as she stared at the words on the note, confirming them repeatedly.

The hill behind the school... small woods... if you're a man... Zhu Jianming?

Lin Wanwan was stunned.

Her originally flushed little face instantly became even more colorful.

Her outburst of anger just now was like throwing a punch into cotton; not only did she fail to hit anyone, but she also almost threw out her own back.

"Pfft..."

Looking at her dumbfounded appearance, Chen Zhi really couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing. "Keep reading, why did you stop? Weren't you full of momentum just now? Come on, louder, let everyone hear this passionate confession from sister Zhu Jianming to me."

"You! You're so annoying!"

Lin Wanwan snapped back to reality, so embarrassed she wished she could find a hole to crawl into.

She crumpled that torn piece of paper into a ball and threw it hard at Chen Zhi. "Who told him to use this kind of envelope! What a pervert!"

The surrounding classmates, who had been pricking up their ears to listen to the gossip, were also dumbfounded.

"Zhu Jianming? Who is that? Do we have a girl with that name in our grade?"

"Girl my ass, he seems to be from Class One, the guy who comes over to deliver milk every day."

"Holy shit? A guy wrote a pink love letter to Chen Zhi? And wants to go to the small woods?"

"This is a bit too much information to process..."

The original romantic scandal instantly turned into a suspenseful drama full of bromance, and everyone's looks toward Chen Zhi became even weirder.

Li Zhiyi, who had been on edge all this time, also leaned over to glance at the contents of the note.

When she saw that the signature was a boy's name and the content was a challenge to a fight, the little girl let out a long sigh of relief, her tense shoulders instantly relaxing, and color returned to her face.

As long as it wasn't a girl, it was fine.

"Alright, alright, break it up, there's nothing to see here."

Chen Zhi picked up the crumpled paper and casually tossed it backward. The paper ball drew a graceful arc in the air and accurately landed in the trash can in the back corner of the classroom.

"Let's go, time to go home and eat, I'm starving."

He slung his backpack over his shoulders, stuffed his hands into his pockets, and swaggered out of the classroom.

"Hey? You're not going?"

Lin Wanwan trotted after him with her backpack, the blush on her face not yet faded. "He's waiting for you in the small woods, he said don't run if you're a man."

"Just because he says I'm a man means I am? If he said I was Ultraman, would I have to transform for him?"

Chen Zhi rolled his eyes. "He's an idiot. I'd have water in my brain if I actually went. With that free time, I might as well go home and do a couple more practice problems, or figure out whether I'm eating braised pork or sweet and sour ribs tonight."

"But..." Li Zhiyi whispered, "what if he keeps waiting?"

"Then let him wait. He can feed the mosquitoes and make a little contribution to the school's ecological balance," Chen Zhi said, not caring in the least.

The three of them walked out of the classroom side by side.

Passing by Li Jiahao, Chen Zhi stopped in his tracks.

Li Jiahao had been pricking up his ears to eavesdrop. Seeing Chen Zhi stop, he shuddered in fright and instinctively shrank back.

"What are you looking at? Does your foot not hurt anymore?" Chen Zhi looked at him with a faint, mocking smile.

"Hmph! Don't get too smug, Chen Zhi!" Li Jiahao put on a brave face and gritted his teeth. "You messed with Zhu Jianming. He practices Sanda, you're dead meat!"

"Oh."

Chen Zhi gave a flat response, then turned to Lin Wanwan and said, "Hear that? We've got a whistleblower over here."

With that, ignoring Li Jiahao's face turning purple with rage, Chen Zhi led his two childhood sweethearts away, swaggering off under the envious gazes of the crowd.

...

The sun set in the west, and the sky gradually darkened.

The small woods on the hill behind the school was a holy land for campus couples, as well as a prime spot for delinquent teens to arrange fights.

At this moment, deep in the woods.

Zhu Jianming was leaning against an old locust tree, striking what he thought was a very cool pose.

He had a piece of foxtail grass dangling from his mouth, his sharp gaze fixed on the small path leading to his spot.

For today's duel, he had specifically changed into a tight black tank top, revealing the rather faint muscle lines on his arms. He had also called two buddies to crouch in the nearby bushes, ready to give Chen Zhi a show of strength as soon as he arrived, teaching him the consequences of deceiving people!

"Boss Jianming, it's already six-thirty. Why isn't that kid here yet?"

In the bushes, a lackey whose legs had gone numb from crouching poked his head out, complaining while slapping a mosquito on his neck.

"What's the rush!"

Zhu Jianming spat out the foxtail grass and said with feigned depth, "That kid is definitely trying to mentally prepare himself, or he went home to find backup. Hmph, no matter who he calls, today I'm going to make him spit out all the milk he drank!"

Another half hour passed.

The sky turned completely dark.

The mosquitoes in the woods seemed to be throwing a buffet party, swarming the three of them in droves and bombarding them relentlessly.

Smack!

Zhu Jianming slapped his own face hard, killing a striped mosquito whose belly was round with blood, leaving a bloody streak on his cheek.

"Damn it! Did this kid get lost?"

He pulled out his phone to check the time.

Seven o'clock sharp.

The school gates were probably about to be locked.

That ominous premonition grew stronger and stronger.

"Boss Jianming... I'm hungry too. How about we retreat?" The two lackeys in the bushes couldn't hold their crouch any longer. They stood up and stomped their feet frantically, trying to shake off the mosquito bites on their legs.

Zhu Jianming looked at the empty path. There was only the rustling sound of the wind blowing through the leaves. Where was there even a shadow of Chen Zhi?

A cool breeze blew past.

Zhu Jianming felt his heart turn ice-cold.

He finally realized an extremely cruel fact.

He had been stood up.

And he was thoroughly ignored by that pretty boy who had drunk his milk for a week and totally captivated his goddess.

That pink envelope and that carefully selected heart sticker were originally meant for Lin Wanwan. He had wrung out every drop of ink in his belly to write a love letter full of sincerity, only to receive the devastating news that morning that Lin Wanwan was also Chen Zhi's childhood sweetheart.

Not wanting to waste it, he could only recycle the trash and stuff the challenge letter into the pink envelope.

Seeing that Chen Zhi still hadn't shown up, he felt that his entire afternoon of careful preparation and long waiting...

In Chen Zhi's eyes, probably amounted to absolutely nothing!

A massive sense of humiliation instantly shot to the top of his head.

"Chen Zhi!!!"

Zhu Jianming howled at the sky, his voice shrill, startling a whole flock of birds in the woods.

"You cowardly turtle! You have no martial virtue! I, Zhu Jianming, am totally at odds with you!!"

"Achoo!"

Chen Zhi, who was sitting at his dining table and lifting a piece of braised pork to his mouth, suddenly let out a loud sneeze.

"What's wrong? Did you catch a cold?" Zhang Guifang asked with concern.

"No."

Chen Zhi rubbed his nose, stuffed the braised pork into his mouth, and mumbled vaguely, "It's probably someone who has a secret crush on me thinking about me."

"You wish." Zhang Guifang rolled her eyes at him. "Hurry up and eat. Go do your homework when you're done. Don't think you can get cocky just because you became the class monitor."

Chen Zhi chuckled and lowered his head to shovel rice into his mouth.

As for that unlucky bastard still feeding the mosquitoes in the woods?

Who cares.

However, Chen Zhi clearly underestimated the grudge-holding capacity of pubescent boys, and even more so underestimated the speed at which the pink envelope incident would ferment around the school.

Early the next morning, the moment Chen Zhi stepped through the classroom door, he felt that the atmosphere was a bit off.

The originally bustling morning reading period went quiet for a second the instant he walked in.

Immediately after, everyone's gazes subtly drifted toward his desk.

Chen Zhi followed the crowd's line of sight.

There, sitting conspicuously on his desk, was a bottle of pink... strawberry milk?

And pressed beneath the milk was a piece of paper.

Chen Zhi walked over and picked up the paper.

It was still the familiar chicken-scratch handwriting, still that hatred that seemed to penetrate the back of the paper, only this time the content had changed:

[You can ignore my challenge, but you cannot trample on my dignity! Today at noon, we compete in basketball on the sports field! Whoever loses has to yell "I am a pig" three times on the field! — Zhu Jianming]

He intended to defeat Chen Zhi in his best field, to let Lin Wanwan see who the real man was.

Looking at the strawberry milk in his hand, and then at the challenge letter filled with eighth-grader syndrome vibes, Chen Zhi couldn't help but laugh out loud.

This guy really was an unkillable cockroach.

Chen Zhi stroked his chin.

"Quite filial."

Chen Zhi casually poked a straw into the strawberry milk and took a sip.

Huh? Why did it taste a bit weird?

Just then, a faint sound of a chair being pulled out came from his deskmate's spot.

Pei Ningxue had arrived.

She still had her usual cold and aloof demeanor today, walking straight to her seat without looking sideways.

However, when she saw the bottle of pink strawberry milk in Chen Zhi's hand, a highly peculiar look suddenly flashed through her normally placid eyes.

She stared at the bottle of milk for a full three seconds, then slowly opened her mouth, her voice as crisp as ice beads dropping onto a plate:

"That milk..."

"Oh, a trophy someone gave me." Chen Zhi shook the milk bottle in his hand, smiling radiantly. "Why, do you want to drink it too, deskmate?"

Pei Ningxue didn't reply to that.

She just took a deep look at Chen Zhi, then pulled a book out of her backpack and opened it.

Just when Chen Zhi thought the conversation was over, Pei Ningxue suddenly threw out another sentence:

"That's an expired clearance item Zhu Jianming bought yesterday. I saw it at the convenience store yesterday."

"Pfft!!!"

Chen Zhi spat out a mouthful of strawberry milk.

"Why didn't you say so earlier?"

"You didn't ask." Pei Ningxue blinked her pretty eyes.

Damn it, pretty girls all have black hearts.