Chapter 39: The Red Exclamation Mark

“Hm?”

“Why are you all red in the face?”

“Baby~ You couldn’t be…”

“Blushing?”

Still aggressively teasing a seemingly straight girl, the girl stopped her tickling movements, instead wrapping her arms around Situ Ling’s slender ones and pressing her whole body against her.

“Even if you’re red hot and explode today,”

“There’s no escaping the tutoring.”

“Your aunt and uncle specifically told me to help you catch up on math and chemistry.”

Clearly she was the one who started the teasing,

but she had no qualms about a hit-and-run…

and even poured cold water on the girl’s excitement about being able to live with her crush.

Situ Ling: (pulls a disappointed cat face)

…

“I think… my heatstroke hasn’t gotten better yet…”

The words on the paper—

Each one is recognizable when broken apart, but why do they become so unfamiliar when put together?

All these x’s and y’s, and those 1, 2, 3s…

These characters know me, but I don’t know them.

Situ Ling felt unusually weak;

Her brain, which had just been excited about entering Yin Xiaomeng’s room, started throbbing under the assault of math problems.

Raising her arm to cover her forehead, she tried hard to look dizzy and miserable, turning to the girl sitting beside her with what she thought was the most pitiful expression…

Trying to gain sympathy and avoid the punishment of being tortured by math problems…

“?”

“Ah, your heatstroke still isn’t better…”

“That is indeed a big problem.”

“After all, health is more important than anything else—”

Yin Xiaomeng looked at this cute girl who was obviously trying to play tricks on her.

She had promised the other’s parents that she would tutor their daughter properly while they were away on business…

But the girl still took the bait.

Her gentle expression carried concern for the girl’s health, and her caring eyes were completely genuine…

“Little Ling’er, do you feel dizzy now? Do you feel like throwing up…”

Thoughtfully pulling the “staggering” girl into her arms, she tried hard to control her expression…

Trying not to let her smile become too sinister.

Situ Ling looked at that face she sketched in her mind every night, swallowed weakly, forced down the slight guilt after lying, and nodded stiffly.

‘As expected, Xiaomeng is still beautiful even without makeup…’

Though her heart was already drooling over the other’s beauty, in order to maintain her “straight girl” persona, she could only suppress the urge to push her down and kiss her from head to toe, forcing her gaze away from that pure face.

“…”

“As expected… just an IV drip isn’t enough.”

The devil whispered.

Sensing something off about the room’s atmosphere, a bewildered Situ Ling turned her gaze back to the girl’s face.

Clearly…

Yin Xiaomeng’s smile was so gentle at that moment…

Clearly…

The air conditioner’s temperature wasn’t that low…

But the girl, who had somehow been pinned down by her shoulders and couldn’t get up, felt a chill from somewhere unknown…

That feeling of being targeted by a devil, a cold shiver down her spine, was so familiar…

Lost in beauty, even forgetting what kind of villain her “good friend” was at heart, when she saw the other pull out a small, crisp green bottle from the desk drawer…

Dead memories suddenly revived.

And pounded arrogantly on her brain.

“Sigh, indeed, I need to combine it with my method…”

The pungent, refreshing smell spread through the room the moment the cap was twisted open.

Yin Xiaomeng’s expression was still gentle with a maternal glow, but to the eyes of the poor girl about to become a victim, it was no different from the kind smile of the Black and White Impermanence.

“!”

“No, no need!”

“I think my heatstroke is actually almost better!”

“Not dizzy at all, no feeling of nausea! In fact, I’m completely refreshed!”

Struggling to get up from the other’s embrace.

Situ Ling felt what it meant to be drenched in sweat…

That’s essential balm…

“…”

Don’t think now it’ll probably just be applied to temples, philtrum, and such.

If I keep being stubborn, where will this thing be applied… I can’t even bear to think about it.

…

Well-behaved.

Sensible.

But not very obedient.

Specifically, when Yin Xiaomeng pointed at the Cartesian coordinate system and asked Situ Ling to draw the function curve of y=2^(x-3) that she just calculated,

She drew the function curve in reverse.

Of course, it’s also possible she’s just stupid.

“…”

“Are you doing this on purpose?”

“Monotonically increasing function, and you drew a quadratic function?”

“A kid like you, if put in a forbidden  hall, you’d be cosplaying a plane with both feet off the ground by now, you know?”

Pointing at the ridiculously wrong “result” on the scratch paper, Yin Xiaomeng very decisively chose between suspecting her friend’s intellectual deficiency and suspecting that her friend just needed a good scolding—

She chose the latter.

After all, no matter how you look at it, the other was a bona fide second-year high school student;

She shouldn’t be making such basic mistakes, right?

“…”

“Isn’t it… supposed to be drawn like this?”

“…Oh oh, drew it wrong…”

The girl who was passionately called out shrank her neck, glanced at the picture she just drew…

Hesitantly erasing half of the drawing, she mentally calculated the coordinate points and carefully began to draw the “correct” graph bit by bit.

Of course, if she didn’t look up at the blushing, seemingly lovestruck girl sitting next to her after every point, the overall picture might have looked better?

“…”

Yin Xiaomeng really wanted to imitate those teachers in manga—

Take this annoying kid to bed and give her a proper lesson…

Maybe after some stimulation, her brain would finally get it?

“What are you looking at me for? Do I have the correct answer on my face?”

Reaching out, she pinched the cheek of the girl who was still looking up at her reaction to check if she was drawing correctly, and spoke in a somewhat fierce tone.

“I’ve seen plenty who pretend to be dumb, but how come you’re the only one who’s genuinely dumb from start to finish?”

Looking at the pitiful expression of that blonde loli, Yin Xiaomeng, who had originally wanted to say a harsh threat…

The words died in her throat.

She now began to suspect how this idiot managed to barely pass the last competitive test.

Did she cheat?

Probably not, since the whole class didn’t do well…

It couldn’t be pure luck, that she guessed all the multiple-choice questions correctly?

That doesn’t make sense either;

She saw the test paper, and the girl had answered a few long questions.

“…”

“…If you make such a basic mistake again,”

“You won’t be able to rest peacefully tonight.”

(Meaning she’ll make her suffer with the essential balm.)

“If you can even get out of bed tomorrow, that’ll be my failure to entertain!”

(Meaning she’ll make her so sleep-deprived she can’t get up.)

(A healthy female-female homosexual relationship starts with you, him, her.)

—

Meanwhile, on the other side:

When our lovely Bai Ruoxi finally endured through her classes and waited for school to end, she cheerfully took out her phone to send a message to her cute “girlfriend” to foster their relationship…

A bright red exclamation mark froze the smile on her face.

“…”

“It must be a network issue.”

The girl took a deep breath, turned on airplane mode, quickly turned it off, and refreshed the WeChat page.

Sent the message again.

“…”

“?”

“??”