My Years as the Pure Love Interest at the Noble Academy

Hang Feng: "...Come down."

Song Yi without hesitation: "I don't want to."

Hang Feng: "What will make you come down?"

Song Yi, sitting on Hang Feng's shoulders, her mind starting to race, "How about you promise me something!"

Hang Feng: "Go ahead."

Song Yi: "Let's be friends."

Hang Feng: "?"

Is this strange way of interacting normal between friends?

Song Yi continued explaining: "Do you know what's most important in friendship?"

Hang Feng didn't understand what she meant, but still answered: "Sincerity?"

"No, the most important thing is not breaking the law!" Song Yi said seriously: "You have to promise to just be friends with me, you can't fall in love with me! You also can't turn evil and imprison me because of unrequited love, and you can't do anything against my will. Most importantly, you can't kill me! Imprisonment is illegal! Murder is also illegal!"

Hang Feng: "...?"

What was she talking about? What was going through her head all day? He couldn't understand a single word.

While Hang Feng was hesitating for these few seconds, Song Yi started vigorously grabbing his hair, lowering her head to his ear and shouting: "Why aren't you saying anything? Hang Feng! What are you thinking? You haven't already fallen in love with me and want to imprison me, have you? Hang Feng! Why are you pretending to be deaf again? Say something, Hang Feng!"

Hang Feng: "...You're talking too fast, I can't get a word in."

Song Yi paused for two seconds, but her hands didn't stop, continuing to scratch Hang Feng's head, "Then speak."

Only after his neat black hair had been turned into something resembling a bird's nest by Song Yi did Hang Feng finally speak, "I promise, I won't."

Song Yi continued questioning him, "You won't what? Why aren't you speaking in complete sentences? Are you trying to find some loophole in the language?"

Hang Feng was silent for a few seconds, but still repeated according to Song Yi's request, "I promise to just be friends with you, I won't imprison you because of unrequited love, I won't do anything against your will, and I definitely won't kill you. I know murder is illegal."

Even after Hang Feng said all this, Song Yi still wasn't satisfied, "What if you don't keep your word?"

Hang Feng: "...May lightning strike me?"

Song Yi: "Not good enough."

Lightning might not necessarily kill Hang Feng - in which novel has a villain ever died from being struck by lightning? This still wasn't safe enough.

Hang Feng lowered his eyes and said: "If I don't keep my word, I'll die before I harm you."

Song Yi thought about it and felt this was acceptable, so she ruffled Hang Feng's hair again and said: "Alright, then I'll reluctantly come down."

The credibility of promises depends on who makes them. If it were Shen Yujing here now, Song Yi wouldn't believe anything he said.

But with Hang Feng, his words carried enough credibility.

Hang Feng slowly crouched down, and Song Yi easily got down from his shoulders.

Seeing that the first thing Hang Feng did upon standing was to rub his shoulders, Song Yi voluntarily reached out to help massage them, asking enthusiastically: "My good friend, is this pressure okay?"

Hang Feng: "..."

"Alright, let's go," Hang Feng said as he started walking.

"Okay!" Song Yi's attitude toward Hang Feng made a complete 180-degree turn, and she quickly caught up with him.

Song Yi called out: "Slow down! My legs, they're numb! They're numb!"

Hang Feng stopped walking. Although he wanted to scold Song Yi and tell her it served her right - after all, it was her own fault for causing all this trouble.

But seeing the young girl bent over pitifully rubbing her legs, a trace of sympathy crept into his heart.

Hang Feng expressionlessly extended an arm, "Hold on."

Song Yi unhesitatingly took his arm, "Thank you! My good friend!"

Throughout the entire journey, all their interactions revolved around this phrase "good friend."

Until Hang Feng escorted Song Yi home.

Before going inside, Song Yi turned back to wave at Hang Feng, "Goodbye! My good friend! Sweet dreams!"

After saying this, Song Yi didn't expect Hang Feng to respond to her "friendship," so she went straight inside.

Hang Feng: "..."

Hang Feng watched the door close, then lowered his eyes.

He opened his mouth and said softly: Goodnight.

Then, Hang Feng went home, completely unaware that the back of his head still looked like a bird's nest from Song Yi's ruffling.

*

The phone screen was lit up, with only two simple words in the Baidu search bar—

Friend.

What is a friend? This was an unfamiliar word for Hang Feng, because due to his antisocial personality, he had never had friends from childhood to now.

This was the first time someone had actively wanted to be his friend, even if the circumstances were quite bizarre.

Should his relationship with Song Yi be considered friendship?

Suddenly, Hang Feng thought of Song Yi's words from earlier that day, and the oath she made him take.

Strangely enough, when he repeated it, he had omitted one sentence, a sentence that seemed unimportant at first glance.

She said he couldn't fall in love with her.

Although this statement itself seemed odd, he hadn't managed to repeat it completely.

But thinking carefully, all of Song Yi's words were strange, as if she was very afraid he would hurt her?

This confused Hang Feng.

Although he was usually antisocial, he hadn't done anything that would make Song Yi fear him, had he?

Unless...

She had dreamed about him too? Just like he had repeatedly dreamed about the turtle?

Thinking about it this way, it seemed somewhat reasonable.

The night had grown late, and Hang Feng soon got up to go to bed.

But perhaps because this matter still troubled Hang Feng, he woke up in the middle of the night feeling thirsty.

So Hang Feng got up groggily, not even turning on the lights as he went out in his slippers to get some water.

When Hang Feng returned, in the moonlight he saw something strange on his room's floor, moving slowly.

Hang Feng was puzzled and turned on the nearby light.

When the light came on, Hang Feng saw the true form of that thing, and blood rushed to his head as he stepped back three paces.

An ugly turtle was arrogantly moving around in his room.

Looking at the turtle before him, Hang Feng hesitated for a moment but still bent down tentatively to wave at it, "Hey! Song Yi? Song Yi? Is that you?"

The turtle naturally didn't respond to him and crawled in another direction.

Hang Feng: "..."

He suddenly realized how foolish his action just now had been, but still let out a long sigh of relief and closed his eyes.

He must be dreaming, right? He must be dreaming again!

If Song Yi's dreams were this terrifying, he could understand why she had those inexplicable worries.

Because now a thought had also surged into Hang Feng's mind - he wanted to go find Song Yi and make her swear—

That no matter what, she would never turn into a turtle!!!

*

The next morning.

When Song Yi saw Hang Feng come to class with dark circles under his eyes, she asked very puzzledly: "What happened to you?"

Hang Feng didn't answer Song Yi's question, but instead asked: "Did you bring a gift for my grandmother yesterday?"

"Yes, I bought a large turtle by the roadside..." Song Yi said and then stopped, suddenly realizing: "Wait, where's my turtle?"

She remembered taking the turtle with her to the bathroom, then being so surprised at seeing Hang Feng that she forgot about the turtle she had brought.

Song Yi asked: "What happened to my turtle? Did it die? Was it hurt?"

Hang Feng: "..."

The turtle was fine, but he had nearly had a problem last night.

But under Song Yi's gaze, Hang Feng still answered: "It's fine, grandmother is keeping it."

He didn't mention the latter half of the story, as it was somewhat embarrassing.

Song Yi didn't pay much attention to Hang Feng's words, because compared to Hang Feng's dark circles and that turtle, there was something more important today—

The results of the school beauty and school prince contest would be announced at twelve noon!

At lunch in the cafeteria.

Murong Huan took Song Yi to a restaurant on the second floor and ordered a table full of dishes.

Eleven fifty-nine.

Murong Huan looked at Song Yi and asked: "Do you know why I'm treating you to lunch today?"

Song Yi thought for a moment, "Because you won first place in the school beauty contest?"

Murong Huan said: "You're half right."

At exactly twelve o'clock, suddenly footsteps sounded behind Song Yi, followed by a banner being unfurled that read—

"Warmly celebrating Song Yi winning first place in the 15th Saint Slee Academy Beauty Queen Contest!"

Song Yi: "...?"

Huh? She got first place???

And at that moment, something even more absurd happened.

Piano accompaniment started playing, and Shen Yujing and Quan Le appeared pushing a cake.

Quan Le: "Congratulations, Song Yi!"

Shen Yujing looked at her and said seriously, "You just tied with me for first place, don't get too proud."

After speaking, Shen Yujing pulled out another banner from behind him and hung it up, which read—

"Warmly celebrating Shen Yujing winning first place in the 15th Saint Slee Academy Most Handsome Contest!"

Song Yi raised her hand to interrupt them, "Wait, you already knew the results?"

Murong Huan answered, "Voting ended at eleven, and since Jiang Yiheng was the former student council president, he naturally had ways to find out early."

Song Yi was even more confused, "But would Jiang Yiheng really do something this trivial?"

"Of course not," Shen Yujing quickly answered. "We used his name to ask the Internet Publicity Department director!"

Song Yi: "..."

Well done, that's so like you all.

"But wasn't I behind Lu Qingqing before? How did I end up first?" Song Yi looked at the three of them suspiciously. "Did any of you stuff the ballot box for me?"

All three shook their heads in denial: "No, no!"

Murong Huan opened the forum link, intending to show Song Yi the results, but her expression froze.

Clearly something unexpected had happened.

Song Yi asked hopefully, "Am I not the Beauty Queen winner after all?"

Murong Huan nodded and said, "Right, you're not."

Song Yi immediately broke into a happy smile, "That's great! I knew you should be first, congratulations on keeping your title!"

Murong Huan shook her head, "It's not me either."

"Huh?" Song Yi was stunned for a moment, then said disappointedly, "Oh, Lu Qingqing then."

Murong Huan looked at Shen Yujing, "Congratulations, you won first place in this year's Beauty Queen Contest."

Shen Yujing: "?"

Quan Le: "??"

Song Yi: "??? Hahahahahahaha!"

Murong Huan explained, "Because you played Snow White at Saint Yu Academy, someone put you on the Beauty Queen list."

Shen Yujing asked in confusion, "Does Snow White in a school uniform even count?"

Song Yi was laughing so hard she couldn't stand straight, pointing at Shen Yujing, "Hahahahaha congratulations, Student Shen Yujing! You're the Beauty Queen! Our classmates really have an eye for beauty!"

Song Yi then turned to the waiter nearby, "Do you have scissors and tape?"

The waiter immediately brought them to Song Yi.

Holding the scissors and tape, Song Yi carefully cut out the three characters for "Shen Yujing" from his banner, and cut out her own name from the banner Murong Huan had made for her, replacing it with Shen Yujing's name.

So now the banner read—

"Warmly celebrating Shen Yujing winning first place in the 15th Saint Slee Academy Beauty Queen Contest!"

Song Yi was very satisfied.

However, in the next second, Shen Yujing snatched the scissors from Song Yi's hand, along with the piece of banner with her name on it, and then... stuck it onto what was originally his banner.

So this banner became—

"Warmly celebrating Song Yi winning first place in the 15th Saint Slee Academy Most Handsome Contest!"

Song Yi immediately pressed her hand on the back of Shen Yujing's neck, "What are you doing?"

If you can't take it, why drag others down with you?

But Shen Yujing wasn't annoyed, instead he looked at her enthusiastically, "Congratulations, Student Song Yi! You're the Most Handsome! Our classmates really have an eye for identifying handsome guys!"

Song Yi: "???"

Murong Huan looked at Song Yi and explained, "Also because of your performance on the Saint Yu Academy stage, everyone thought you looked cute in men's clothing too, so your support rate for Most Handsome also skyrocketed."

Song Yi: "..."