But wasn’t this a bit… disrespectful to Tan Jing?
He Siheng quickly stopped himself: Don’t send more. What I mean is, I can’t help, even if I wanted to.
He had originally wanted to say Tan Jing already had someone he liked, but on second thought, that was Tan Jing’s privacy, and it wasn’t good to tell others casually.
Plus, the person Tan Jing liked happened to be him, so he really couldn’t say it.
Fortunately, his refusal worked this time. Little Strawberry didn’t insist and pitifully replied: Okay then QAQ
He Siheng turned off his phone and breathed a sigh of relief, but his mood didn’t lighten much.
Little Strawberry felt a bit off to him.
But what was even stranger was his own mood—like he’d been punched but couldn’t punch back. It felt stifling.
Little Strawberry had been polite the whole time, just a bit too familiar, and generously shared photos of the person he liked. Why did he feel stifled?
He Siheng lay in bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep, his mind full of this.
Just as drowsiness finally came and he was about to fall asleep, he suddenly sat up like a carp, an inexplicable anger surging several feet high in his heart.
“Wait, how did Tan Jing let him take so many photos? What exactly is their relationship?”
Ever since Little Strawberry said Tan Jing was warm-hearted and used to teach him problems, He Siheng couldn’t help but pay attention to Tan Jing’s break-time interactions.
He didn’t know if it was because he hadn’t noticed before or because finals were approaching, but quite a few classmates came to Tan Jing for help with questions.
Even Zhou Yu, who was usually quite afraid of Tan Jing, came over with questions.
He Siheng felt this was an invisible betrayal and interjected discontentedly, “Why not ask me?”
Zhou Yu gave an awkward laugh. “Heng Bro, your steps for explaining problems are only clear if you already know how to do it.”
But if you already knew, you wouldn’t need to ask.
He Siheng pressed his front teeth together and quietly observed Tan Jing’s explanation. He reluctantly admitted that Tan Jing explained more thoroughly than him.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t solve the problems; he just wasn’t as good at gauging others’ thought processes or as patient as Tan Jing. Steps he thought were simple enough to skip might be stumbling blocks for others. And sometimes, when he skipped steps himself, he got points deducted for incomplete work.
Once Tan Jing clarified his thinking, Zhou Yu thanked him gratefully and happily returned to his seat.
Seeing Zhou Yu’s enlightened, overjoyed expression, He Siheng couldn’t help but think if Little Strawberry had often looked like that too.
Little Strawberry’s cutesy Omega style with emoticons everywhere—maybe in real life, he spoke even sweeter, with a wavy tone.
He Siheng could almost picture a sweet little Omega smiling shyly as he thanked Tan Jing.
He spoke coolly, “You’re pretty warm-hearted. No wonder so many people like you.”
Tan Jing put away his scratch paper and looked at him. “Does that ‘so many people’ include you?”
He Siheng paused, then lightly snorted. “Don’t be narcissistic. I only have strong, pure rivalry toward you.”
He added emphatically, “My eyes are only on first place.”
Tan Jing raised an eyebrow. “Looks like I have to take first in finals this time.”
He Siheng’s first reaction was that this was a provocation, and he was about to fire back when the guy drawled on: “So that your eyes are only on me.”
The provocative words stuck in his throat, and He Siheng choked until his face turned red.
How did this guy always say such flirty things!
He Siheng turned his face away, refusing to look at him, and forced his attention back to the physics problem.
Suddenly, a box of fruit candies was handed over from beside him—a cute glass jar with pastel colors.
“Want some?” Tan Jing asked.
He Siheng originally wanted to refuse, but then thought refusing would make him seem embarrassed, so he unceremoniously took one, unwrapped it, and popped it in his mouth.
“Your candy jar is pretty girly.” He was actually a bit surprised Tan Jing would buy something with such packaging.
Tan Jing said casually, “Someone gave it to me.”
He Siheng froze, then saw him pull out a pink sticky note from his desk.
Tan Jing handed it over for him to see.
The sticky note was written in a very cute font: A little token of appreciation. Hope you like it~ (/v＼)
Signed with a simple strawberry doodle.
He Siheng immediately guessed who it was from. Besides that overly sweet Little Strawberry, who else would use emoticons like that?
Tan Jing took back the sticky note and smiled. “Isn’t it pretty cute?”
His brows and eyes lifted lightly, the smile in them gentler than usual.
“…Yeah.” He Siheng responded lowly.
This was the first time he’d heard Tan Jing call someone cute. Maybe Tan Jing and Little Strawberry really were close.
The bell rang, and He Siheng silently crunched the candy in his mouth.
Sea salt lemon candy, the taste spreading on his tongue—aggressively sour.
Qinan City’s winter was too cold, so Boss He had bought a property in Coconut City. As was their custom every year, once He Siheng was on winter break, the whole family went to Coconut City for the winter.
The day the final exam results came out, He Siheng had just flown into Coconut City. As soon as he turned on his phone after landing, he saw in the group chat that his ranking had dropped to second. He’d held first place for nearly a semester, only for Tan Jing to snatch it.
That wasn’t enough to make him mad—the real kicker was Tan Jing seemingly afraid he wouldn’t see the class group message, specially screenshotting the first and second place names and sending it to him.
He Siheng didn’t reply, fuming as soon as he got to the villa. He pulled out his tablet, loaded the electronic test papers from the class group, and reviewed them all afternoon, checking where he’d lost points he shouldn’t have.
Compared to his low pressure, He Yunlang was beaming with joy that day. At dinner, he dove straight into the minefield: “Son, finals results out? How’d you do?”
He Siheng’s chopsticks froze mid-air, his face full of grievance. “Second in the grade.”
After a pause, he added unwillingly, “First is Tan Jing.”
He Yunlang usually emphasized the competition between He Siheng and Tan Jing, but this time he waved it off grandly. “No big deal! You’ve taken first so many times. Let him have this one.”
He Siheng was shocked. “How are you suddenly so magnanimous? Possessed?”
