When the Heartthrob Meets the Cold-Hearted Ex - Chapter 13

During their university days, Tang Yeran and Su Yang lived in the same dormitory building, but their usual lecture halls were separated by an artificial lake.

Somehow, Tang Yeran had gotten hold of Su Yang’s class schedule. Every time classes ended, she would appear on the path Su Yang took back to the dormitory, creating “chance encounters.”

Su Yang noticed this but silently allowed her daily “what a coincidence” act to continue.

Over time, even though neither of them ever explicitly arranged it, walking back to the dorm together after school became an unspoken understanding between them.

One day, Su Yang’s professor was suddenly called away by the academic dean, dismissing the class ten minutes early.

Su Yang packed up her textbooks and headed to the willow tree where they usually met.

At this hour, Tang Yeran naturally hadn’t arrived yet. To make their “coincidental meeting” seem more natural, Su Yang didn’t just stand obediently under the tree.

She pretended to wander aimlessly around the willow tree, strolling a few dozen steps in each of the four cardinal directions before circling back with her books tucked under her arm, as if she had just happened to pass by.

In just over ten minutes, her step count on WeChat had already surpassed a thousand.

A girl reading on a nearby bench glanced up at her several times, her expression full of confusion.

Su Yang accidentally met her gaze but maintained her usual icy demeanor, repeating her earlier actions.

When you’re young, everyone has a bit of chuunibyou in them even someone as serious and aloof as Su Yang, the top student.

She could have simply sent a text to ask when Tang Yeran would arrive.

But she refused, stubbornly preparing for this “accidental romance” instead.

Truth be told, after the first few times when Tang Yeran had actively sought her out, Su Yang had been the one arriving earlier for dozens of their subsequent meetings.

She just pretended each time that she had just arrived, allowing Tang Yeran to greet her with a radiant smile and say, “What a coincidence!”

All serendipitous encounters are just someone’s deliberate efforts.

The two of them appeared one after the other almost every day, usually no more than three minutes apart.

But this time, Su Yang had been orbiting the willow tree for fifteen minutes. Even though early summer hadn’t arrived yet, she had worked up a light sweat.

She hesitated for a few seconds before pulling out her phone, then stuffed it back into her pocket and expanded her “stroll,” keeping her eyes and ears sharp.

This aimless search actually led her to a familiar figure.

On the open square across the artificial lake, a girl with long brown hair seemed to be arguing with a few boys nearby.

That signature light brown, wavy hair was too striking even from a distance, there was no mistaking it.

From Su Yang’s position, she couldn’t hear what was being said.

She was about to jog along the lakeside path when she saw one of the boys grab Tang Yeran’s shoulder.

Tang Yeran struggled but couldn’t break free.

The other boys closed in, surrounding her completely and making her look especially small and helpless.

At the sight, Su Yang’s mind went blank with a sudden “buzz.” Without hesitation, she stepped onto the decorative stones in the center of the lake and practically floated to the opposite shore.

“Whoa!”

The gasps around them made everyone involved in the altercation freeze for a split second.

Seizing the moment, Su Yang leaped into the air and delivered a kick straight to the back of the boy holding Tang Yeran.

The boy thudded to the ground. As he tried to get up, Su Yang crouched and struck him down again with an elbow.

“Su Yang!” Tang Yeran exclaimed in surprise upon seeing her.

“Don’t be afraid.” Su Yang stood protectively in front of her, gently squeezing her hand before raising her guard again, ready to face whatever came her way.

“What are you doing?” The other boys rushed forward to help their friend, underestimating Su Yang’s skills.

Before they could even get close to Tang Yeran, each met with a fierce counterattack.

Su Yang moved through the crowd with effortless grace, like a white crane dancing. With just four simple moves hooks, pulls, lifts, and kicks she sent all four boys stumbling back several steps.

It had been a while since she’d fought like this. Her usually neat bun had come loose during the action, with a few strands falling across her cheeks, creating a disheveled beauty that added vitality to her typically stern expression.

But the boys currently getting beaten had no time to appreciate this sight. Stung by the sudden attacks, their anger flared. Disregarding the unfairness of ganging up on one, they charged again only to serve as punching bags for Su Yang once more.

Her movements were elegant, leaping and flipping with wind-like swiftness, reminiscent of the warrior women from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

By now, a crowd of students had gathered, some even clapping as if enjoying the spectacle. A few tried to mediate from the sidelines, but none dared intervene, Su Yang’s skills clearly marked her as a trained fighter, far beyond an ordinary person’s league.

Within minutes, the boys had been knocked down multiple times, left in an awkward limbo between advancing and retreating.

As the situation escalated, Tang Yeran somehow found a megaphone and shouted toward the center of the commotion:

“Stooooop! Everyone stooooop fighting!”

Though she said “everyone,” the five human punching bags hadn’t actually had any chance to fight back. Seizing this opportunity to save face, they uniformly retreated three steps when Su Yang’s movements slowed, all looking at her with fear.

Who would have thought their school’s icy top student usually too aloof to speak more than necessary could fight so spectacularly?

Su Yang glared at them, still angry and reluctant to let it go. But remembering Tang Yeran beside her, she finally relaxed her stance.

“Are you okay?” She turned to take Tang Yeran’s hand, asking with tender concern, her eyes full of worry.

The intense exercise had brought a delicate sweat to her jade-like forehead, with stray hairs clinging to it. She remained beautiful, but the usual aloofness was gone.

This was the first time Tang Yeran had seen Su Yang so worked up, and she found it both amusing and touching.

“I’m fine, but they don’t seem to be doing so well.” Tang Yeran pointed at the recently pummeled boys nearby.

When the boys saw Tang Yeran, they wanted to approach but one glance from Su Yang made them freeze in fear.

Seeing Su Yang poised to fight again, Tang Yeran quickly pulled her back. “I think you misunderstood, we were just rehearsing for a performance.”

Su Yang didn’t believe it. “I saw him grabbing you, and the others surrounding you.”

Tang Yeran laughed. “You saw wrong. We were working out performance moves, and they were observing to learn.”

Su Yang looked around and only then realized she had just made a huge blunder.

The surrounding classmates, though mostly wearing amused smiles, made her feel unbearably embarrassed.

If only she had a shovel right now, she could dig a hole three feet deep.

But she couldn’t bury herself just yet she had to face this head-on and sincerely apologize to the classmates she had just punched.

These classmates were originally members of the Arts and Entertainment Department who worked with Tang Yeran. Now, out of respect for the two campus queens, they agreed to settle the matter privately.

What else could they do? After all, they couldn’t win in a fight anyway.

Though the misunderstanding was resolved, such a spectacle witnessed by so many couldn’t escape the notice of the academic office.

Despite the private settlement, Su Yang still couldn’t avoid a stern reprimand and a thousand-word self-criticism essay.

The dean’s disappointed words still echoed in her ears as she left: “Su Yang, you’ve always been such a sensible child. How could you act so impulsively this time?”

Who knew?

In that moment, she hadn’t had time to think things through.

As a top student with both academic excellence and moral integrity, this was the first time Su Yang had ever been punished with a self-criticism essay.

Burdened by her pride, she was too embarrassed to write it in the dorm, afraid her roommates might see. Instead, she chose a secluded corner in the library, staring at her notebook in deep thought.

She had written plenty of award-winning essays before and even contributed to academic papers as a sophomore but how was she supposed to write this self-criticism?

“Meow~”

A cat’s meow interrupted her thoughts.

Su Yang looked up, recognized the person approaching, and silently turned away, pressing her lips together without a word.

Tang Yeran, ever cheerful and persistent, believed that if the mountain wouldn’t come to her, she’d go to the mountain.

She plopped down, instantly taking up half of the small sofa Su Yang was sitting on, and grinned.

“What’s wrong? Is our top student stumped by a self-criticism? Need my help?”

“No need.” Su Yang lowered her head, scribbling furiously with her pen on the notebook.

Tang Yeran leaned in to look and saw two large, bold words written in the center of the page: Bad person!

“Pfft!” Tang Yeran couldn’t help but laugh. “Bad person are you talking about me? Are you mad I didn’t stop you in time?”

Su Yang didn’t answer, only shooting her a sidelong glance full of resentment.

Tang Yeran, knowing she was at fault, quickly tried to smooth things over.

“I was just shocked at the time! But, the way you threw those punches was seriously cool! How are you so strong?”

When Tang Yeran said “seriously cool,” her eyes shone with genuine admiration, effortlessly dispelling the gloom in Su Yang’s heart.

She wasn’t really blaming Tang Yeran after all, she had been the one who lost her temper.

She was angry at herself. The composure she had always prided herself on had shattered so easily.

But now, the very person who had made her lose control was sitting beside her, praising her for how cool she looked while fighting.

It made her suddenly feel like maybe not everything that had happened was entirely bad.

Su Yang pressed her lips together and replied with restraint, “It’s not that exaggerated. I just spent a year training at Emei when I was little.”

“Only one year, and you could take down five guys barehanded? If you trained for five years, you’d be a grandmaster!”

Tang Yeran’s shameless flattery knew no bounds, her emotional support dialed up to the max. And Su Yang, of all people, fell for it easily coaxed back into good spirits with just a few words.

Seeing that Su Yang was no longer upset, Tang Yeran grew even bolder.

She propped an elbow on the table, resting her chin in one hand as she stared intently at Su Yang’s face, her eyes curved into crescents of delight.

Su Yang felt unnerved by her gaze and sucked in a sharp breath. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I’m happy,” Tang Yeran said with a grin.

“Happy that I got punished to write a self-criticism?”

“No, happy that you actually care about me this much, that you like me.”

Faced with such a direct statement, Su Yang stammered, “W-when did I ever c-care about you or l-like you? Have you no shame?”

Tang Yeran tilted her head back, her light brown curls swinging with an air of triumph.

“People with shame don’t get girlfriends. Since we’re mutually in love now, you’ll be my girlfriend from now on.”

Su Yang: …

“Then it’s settled!”

Support When the Heartthrob Meets the Cold-Hearted Ex