As expected, all you guys are the same

Looking at Long Aotian, Shen Mengjie felt a surge of discomfort in her heart.

When Hu Yuying and the others came looking for Long Aotian, Shen Mengjie had been keeping an eye on him.

But after some indirect probing, she learned that Long Aotian hadn’t returned to the dorm all weekend. For some reason, it just didn’t sit right with her.

So now, when she saw him again, she couldn’t resist teasing him.

"Mengjie." Huang Fei stepped forward to stand beside Shen Mengjie, easily picking up on the teasing tone in her voice. He shot Long Aotian an apologetic glance.

It really was just as Shen Mengjie had said—she had a petty streak...

And it was kind of unfair to Old Ao.

"Mengjie, Old Ao spent the weekend with his girlfriend. Cut him some slack, alright?" he whispered, trying to explain.

Hearing this, Shen Mengjie snorted, rolled her eyes at Long Aotian, and walked into the classroom.

"What’s her problem?" Long Aotian muttered, baffled by Shen Mengjie’s sudden mood swing.

"Old Ao, Mengjie’s just like that. I hope you can bear with her a little, for my sake," Huang Fei said awkwardly.

Even though Shen Mengjie hadn’t outright accepted his year-long pursuit, she had at least hesitated.

Love wasn’t rational, and Huang Fei knew it wasn’t fair to Long Aotian. Still, he wanted to smooth things over between them.

Long Aotian patted Huang Fei’s shoulder. "Don’t worry about it. I’m not bothered."

There was no real connection between him and Shen Mengjie. How she saw him, or how he saw her, didn’t matter.

Honestly, he could tell she carried an air of arrogance, probably from her upbringing. But it wasn’t worth his attention.

He’d rather spend his energy figuring out how to tease his little girlfriend next time—how to tease her while also making her happy.

Those two nights… maybe it was because he’d just tasted desire, but the moment she started sweating, her cheeks flushed with that irresistible charm radiating from her very bones, he’d lost all control...

He hadn’t been considerate enough of her feelings.

That was his failure as a boyfriend.

And he needed to plan a proper confession to make it up to her.

He’d taken her without thinking, and though she hadn’t complained, he couldn’t just let it slide.

With that in mind, Long Aotian smirked at Huang Fei, who still looked guilty. "Relax, I’m not that petty."

Once in the classroom, Huang Fei scurried over to sit in the seat next to Shen Mengjie.

Even though the campus forum posts had been deleted, there was no denying they’d left a mark on Shen Mengjie.

"Honestly, Shen Mengjie’s being a bit too much," Li Longlong sighed, watching Huang Fei’s retreating back. "Even if you look at it from every angle, Old Ao, directly or indirectly, helped her. And she’s still acting like this..."

"Yeah, if it weren’t for the fact that we’re all bros, I’d have called her out today," Xu Shuai chimed in.

Long Aotian chuckled. "Oh please, you’d get wrecked by Wang Lijuan."

Xu Shuai immediately straightened up, putting on a righteous front. "That’s different! For my bro, I’d take a knife for you!"

"Sure, but would that knife be for you or for me? Let’s get that straight first."

The teasing remark hit just right, making them laugh.

Xu Shuai owed a lot to Long Aotian for helping him get with Wang Lijuan. Deep down, he wanted to stand up for him.

Meanwhile...

Huang Fei settled into the seat beside Shen Mengjie.

Even with an empty seat between them, they could still talk.

Watching Shen Mengjie lean on her hand, chewing gum absentmindedly, Huang Fei hesitated before speaking softly. "Mengjie, Old Ao’s actually a really good guy..."

Before he could finish, Shen Mengjie cut in. "I know."

That left Huang Fei speechless.

He’d been trying to highlight Long Aotian’s good points to lessen her bias, but her blunt "I know he’s good" threw him off.

"He is good. But I’m petty, remember?" Shen Mengjie laughed lightly, though a closer listen would reveal more self-mockery than teasing.

Huang Fei, however, was too distracted by her alluring smile. "We should all hang out sometime. Old Ao’s my bro, and I really want to fix things between you two..."

Shen Mengjie glanced at him, her eyes glinting with amusement. "Sure."

"Wait, you’re agreeing?"

"Mhm." She nodded. "Why not?"

"That’s great!" Huang Fei clenched his fist in excitement. Stuck between his best friend and the girl he liked, he’d been miserable.

Especially since the tension between them was partly because Long Aotian had been looking out for him.

Now that there was a chance to mend things, he was thrilled.

"Earlier, you said Long Aotian didn’t come back to the dorm... was he staying with his girlfriend?"

Shen Mengjie kept her tone casual, feigning gossip.

"Oh, yeah! Actually, Xu Shuai was the one who noticed first."

"Xu Shuai?" Shen Mengjie raised an eyebrow.

She knew Xu Shuai—the kind of guy she could easily outmaneuver.

Surprising that he’d caught onto something like this.

"Shocking, right?" Huang Fei grinned, happy she was engaging with him. Shared topics meant progress.

He eagerly recounted how Xu Shuai had noticed Long Aotian’s odd behavior, even laughing when he mentioned how "weak in the knees" Long Aotian had been.

But he completely missed the way Shen Mengjie’s expression darkened.

She shot a glance at Long Aotian behind her. "Typical men. Lustful, shameless, absolute pigs..."

With that, she ignored Huang Fei entirely.

Huang Fei was left baffled. One second she was fine, the next she’d flipped.

And how was Long Aotian’s love life his fault? He was still a pure, upstanding virgin!

At this point, Huang Fei was convinced he’d just suffered collateral damage for no reason...