Sweet Temptation: After Rebirth, The Campus Heartthrob Can’t Hide His Feelings Anymore - Chapter 14

The cold winter wind carried light flakes of snow, sweeping a biting chill into the corridor.

Furious, Shen Yu cast a disdainful glance at Zhou Xuci, who stood at the entrance of the teaching building, and taunted loudly, “Who the hell are you?”

His expression was contemptuous, laced with unmistakable hostility.

Zhou Xuci held a black umbrella, his shoulders dusted with snow, and replied calmly and coolly, “Zhou Xuci, from the School of Computer Science.”

Perhaps because of the weather, Zhou Xuci seemed to carry an air of frost about him, making his entire presence appear exceptionally aloof.

Shen Yu’s gaze shifted back to Xu Zhizhi, tightening his grip on her wrist. “Xu Zhizhi, since you can’t lick up to me anymore, you’ve found someone else to fawn over?”

His words were sharp as knives, each one cutting deep.

He always knew how to say the most hurtful things in the shortest time.

Xu Zhizhi winced slightly from the pain, her gaze turning colder by the second as she looked at Shen Yu. “Shen Yu, right now, it’s you who’s shamelessly provoking me. So tell me, who’s really the one doing the licking here?”

The once docile and obedient girl had finally learned to fight back.

Like a little cat baring its claws.

Sharp and unyielding.

“From the School of Sports Science to the School of Arts, a full forty-minute walk. You must really have nothing better to do.” Xu Zhizhi curled her lips, a hint of scorn in her voice. “What, are you afraid of losing me? Or is it that you just can’t get used to life without me?”

The mockery was relentless.

Shen Yu, as if struck at his weakest point, abruptly released her wrist. “Xu Zhizhi, who the hell do you think you are?!”

Xu Zhizhi stumbled back a step but held her ground, glaring back at him.

Unlike before, she no longer felt sorrow or heartache, only regret. Regret for wasting the best years of her youth on a lovestruck fool’s obsession.

Lovestruck fools truly die fast!

Shen Yu glared at her fiercely, like a raging beast. “Do you even deserve to stand by my side? The only reason I came looking for you was to make sure you weren’t embarrassing the Shen family! Let me make this clear, you better fucking behave!”

Xu Zhizhi lowered her eyes, a faint, resigned smile tugging at her lips. “My surname is Xu. I don’t belong to the Shen family. Their reputation has nothing to do with me.”

“Besides,” she added, the cold wind lifting her long hair as she stood like a resilient rose blooming in the depths of winter, “hasn’t the Shen family’s dignity always been the one you’ve been grinding into the dirt?”

The one who’s been humiliating them has always been you.

“Between us, it ends here.”

Any more entanglement would be pointless.

With that, Xu Zhizhi adjusted the art board on her back and strode boldly into the swirling snow.

As she passed Zhou Xuci, she lowered her head, avoiding eye contact.

The situation was awkward enough, she didn’t want to acknowledge it.

“Xu Zhizhi! You-”

Shen Yu snapped out of his daze and moved to chase after her, but Zhou Xuci stepped forward, blocking his path.

“Get the hell out of my way,” Shen Yu snarled, his spoiled young master temper flaring.

Zhou Xuci remained unfazed, his tone laced with faint mockery. “Getting desperate?”

Too bad, belated affection is cheaper than grass.

“What the hell am I desperate about?!” Shen Yu shot Zhou Xuci a furious glare and sneered. “Zhou Xuci, you should know, she’s my lapdog. No matter what I say, she obeys without any bottom line.”

“For three whole years, she followed me around like a loyal dog, checking in on me every single day, practically begging to lick my boots.”

“Even a jacket I casually threw away, she picked it up and kept it, hugging it to sleep every night.”

Shen Yu grew even more brazen, raising his voice to say, “Zhou Xuci, if you like such an obedient and spineless dog, what’s the harm in lending him to you for a few days?”

Zhou Xuci’s hand gripping the umbrella handle slowly tightened, faint veins bulging on the back of his hand.

Their gazes clashed, coldness intertwining.

With a frosty expression, Zhou Xuci looked up at the fluttering snow and said quietly, “Shen Yu, you’re truly pathetic.”

He turned, holding the black umbrella, and walked away briskly.

Shen Yu stood in place, watching Zhou Xuci’s retreating figure, angrily spitting on the ground, seething with frustration and irritation.

He made a call to Hu Chen, he was going out for drinks again.

Xu Zhizhi carried her drawing board, swiftly navigating through the snow-covered campus.

She reached the pavilion by the lake, set up her board, and began sketching the winter snowscape.

Xu Zhizhi looked up at the gray-bright sky, where endless snowflakes drifted down, enveloping the world beneath the heavens.

The world was so vast.

Before, her world had been small, so small that all she could see was Shen Yu.

Only now did she realize how boundless and immense the world truly was.

In the distance, a few children were playing, laughing and shouting.

Xu Zhizhi picked up her brush, capturing the scene before her on paper.

Somehow, a little girl fell, and several boys surrounded her, pelting the isolated child with snowballs.

The howling wind and swirling snow scattered Xu Zhizhi’s thoughts, pulling her back to when she was sixteen.

Xu Zhizhi had once been just like that, helpless and bullied.

It was a drizzly summer night. Lost in her painting, Xu Zhizhi had missed the bus back to the Shen residence.

Walking home alone through the summer rain, she was cornered in a narrow alley by three heavily intoxicated men.

“Hey there, pretty girl, aren’t you scared walking home alone in the dark?”

“Want us to walk you home? We’ll keep you safe.”

“Of course, there’s a fee, just let us touch you a little, okay?”

The three drunkards surrounded Xu Zhizhi. She clutched her drawing board tightly to her chest, the overwhelming stench of alcohol nearly making her gag.

Back then, Xu Zhizhi was just a naive teenage girl, docile and obedient by nature, too timid to resist. Pushed into a corner, she could only sob pitifully, begging for mercy.

But no matter how desperately she pleaded, they showed no intention of letting her go. If anything, her distress only made her more alluring to them.

In her struggle, her coat was torn, her white blouse ripped. She tried to flee madly, but they pinned her down, a caged bird with nowhere to escape.

Just as despair consumed her, Shen Yu, passing by, extended a helping hand.

Shen Yu charged forward, his youthful strength overwhelming as he beat the three drunkards until they writhed on the ground, howling in pain.

Xu Zhizhi would never forget that moment in the narrow alley, Shen Yu, bathed in the warm glow of the streetlight, brimming with youthful vigor, striding toward her step by step.

He had saved her from the darkness.

At that time, Xu Zhizhi believed that if there truly were a heroic savior in this world, it would be someone like Shen Yu.

And from that very moment, her affection for him took root, sprouted, and flourished.

The Shen Yu of that time was nothing like the man he was now, he had radiated the unique brilliance of youth.

Shen Yu took off his jacket and draped it over the disheveled Xu Zhizhi.

Crouched on the ground, the shock gave way to uncontrollable sobs.

Shen Yu grew annoyed by her crying and bought her a cup of brown sugar pearl milk tea. He walked her all the way back to the Shen family.

It was this very experience that kept Xu Zhizhi clinging to her illusions about Shen Yu for a full eight years.

But in the end, every one of Xu Zhizhi’s fantasies slowly crumbled away.

Xu Zhizhi believed that at first, she had fallen in love with a young man who had once dazzled her world.

Yet, as time passed, that young man began to change, she didn’t even know when it started until he gradually rotted from within, decaying bit by bit…

The Xu Zhizhi of the past had refused to believe the truth of Shen Yu’s complete corruption, deceiving herself all along.

“Waaah!!!” A loud cry snapped Xu Zhizhi back to reality.

A little girl not far away had been bullied to tears, her sobs pitiful and heart-wrenching.

Xu Zhizhi stood up, about to walk over to the girl, when she spotted a black umbrella.

Then, the group of boys scattered in an instant.

The black umbrella tilted toward the little girl, shielding her from the swirling snow and wind.

Tearful eyes looked up at Zhou Xuci’s gentle expression as he crouched down, pulling a piece of chocolate from his pocket and patiently comforting her.

Watching the scene before her, a faint smile touched Xu Zhizhi’s eyes. She sat back down, picked up her pen, and quickly sketched the moment.

Stroke by stroke, she outlined Zhou Xuci holding the umbrella, his deep-set eyes, the warmth lingering in his gaze, his poised and graceful demeanor.

So, Zhou Xuci’s umbrella truly sheltered everyone.

Because, at his core, he was simply a good man.

…