Chapter 267: You Dare Compete With Me for a Woman

The sky was high, the clouds light.

Autumn had settled in deep.

A gust of autumn wind swept by.

The girl in front of him tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

That casual little gesture—

Made Ge Hanwen’s heart itch.

“Jiang Ning…”

“I…”

Just as he was about to say something,

The girl raised a hand.

“That’s enough.”

“I get it.”

“Thanks for the heads-up.”

She smiled.

Those slightly curved eyes, the wind-tousled hair—

Ge Hanwen’s heart was in chaos.

Gone was the composure from moments ago, along with his usual confidence.

“No need to…”

“Um…”

Before he could finish,

The girl waved her hand.

“I’m off.”

She turned and walked away without the slightest hesitation.

Ge Hanwen had just raised his hand, only to let it fall again.

But his unwilling heart pushed him to shout at her retreating figure.

“Jiang Ning!”

“I’ll walk home with you guys after school!”

However—

All he got in response was a faintly swaying arm and the silhouette growing smaller in the distance.

“Feeling a little crushed?”

A sudden voice startled Ge Hanwen into turning around instinctively.

It was a man in his thirties whom he didn’t recognize.

Judging by his clothes and demeanor, he was probably a teacher.

So Ge Hanwen reflexively said,

“Hello, Teacher…”

And was about to leave.

But the man just smiled.

“I’m Jiang Ning’s homeroom teacher, Guo Ming.”

The moment Ge Hanwen heard those two key words, he turned halfway back and returned.

“Teacher Guo…”

“I…”

Seeing the young man’s awkward expression, Guo Ming chuckled casually.

“It’s fine.”

“So you like a girl…”

“No big deal.”

Hearing the teacher speak so bluntly,

The usually confident Ge Hanwen was suddenly at a loss.

He scratched his head and said,

“I thought the school…”

“Of course the school has rules,” Guo Ming said, pulling a cigarette from his pocket and placing it between his lips.

Grinning, he added,

“But only if it causes trouble.”

“Like if your grades start slipping, or something else happens.”

“With your situation, the school’s more likely to protect you.”

He pulled out a lighter, but before lighting up, he paused and pointed to it.

“Mind?”

Seeing Ge Hanwen shake his head,

Guo Ming lit the cigarette, took a deep drag, and exhaled a thin stream of smoke.

“Come on, since we’ve got nothing going on today.”

“Let’s chat about a certain clever little fox.”

“To be honest,”

“Even though I’m her homeroom teacher, I’m still curious what that girl’s really thinking.”

…

Miss Jiang had no idea that her shameless homeroom teacher was dissecting her personality with someone else.

At the moment, she was walking back, deep in thought, working through a plan.

According to Little Ge, he’d seen a few students from their school buying flowers at a roadside flower shop on his way in that morning.

He hadn’t paid much attention at first.

But then he heard them noisily mention Qi Wen’s name.

Knowing Qi Wen was Jiang Ning’s best friend,

He stayed alert.

He followed them.

And after eavesdropping along the way, he more or less figured out that they were planning to stop Qi Wen on the street outside school and confess to her.

So he came to tell Jiang Ning.

To be honest,

Stopping someone on the street to confess like that was borderline emotional blackmail.

Especially doing it in front of so many people on a public road—

That was just shameless.

Because based on what she knew of Little Qi’s personality,

In that kind of situation,

She probably wouldn’t reject them too harshly.

Which would give others an opening.

Miss Jiang wasn’t about to let someone steal away the little wife she’d only just started raising.

After thinking it over,

She decided—

To lay low for now.

Then dig into it properly.

Who the hell had the guts to try and steal her woman?

…

By the time Miss Jiang returned to the field,

The senior year 400-meter finals were underway on the track.

Since no one from their class was competing,

The students in the stands were all bored out of their minds.

Some were chatting in small groups, others bragging and goofing off.

A couple of boys were even huddled together doing who-knows-what.

When she got closer, she saw they were playing a Tetris handheld game.

Seeing this,

Miss Jiang glanced around.

No wonder.

Lao Guo wasn’t here.

But—

Even if Lao Guo wasn’t around, the class monitor was!

She marched over, and before the two boys could react, she snatched the Tetris game from their hands.

“You’re not supposed to bring game consoles to school!”

“Confiscated!”

“Come find me after the sports meet if you want it back!”

With that, she ignored their protests, smiling sweetly as she slipped the game into her pocket.

Then she swaggered back to her seat.

Only to be met with a helpless look from Little Qi.

“You were gone forever, and now you’re stealing people’s game consoles?”

“Jiang Jiang, how old are you this year?”

“Two. I haven’t even been weaned yet!” Miss Jiang grinned as she snuggled into Little Qi’s arms.

Only to be pushed away repeatedly in disgust.

“Don’t come to me! I don’t want you! Go find Shanshan!”

But unexpectedly, Luo Shanshan actually appeared right next to them.

“Oh, you little Wenwen!”

“Talking behind my back while I’m gone?”

At the sound of that voice,

Qi Wen visibly froze.

Even the little ginger piglet squirming in her arms was forgotten as she looked up toward the source of the voice.

“Shanshan? Qianqian? Huihui?”

“What are you all doing here?”

A brief pause.

Qi Wen looked at the girls in front of him, his expression tinged with melancholy.

“Skipping class? But I…”

“Hey, there’s a first time for everything, Wenwen~” Luo Shanshan said in a sweet, playful voice.

“Yeah, there’s always a first time, Wenwen~” Sun Qian chimed in.

“First time indeed, Wenwen~” Zhu Hui added with a bright smile.

Finally, all the girls turned their eyes toward Miss Jiang.

She blinked in surprise.

Then her face bloomed into a radiant smile.

“Wenwen~”

In the end, Qi Wen was no match for the combined assault of the Sister Group.

Before he knew it, he was following Jiang Ning and the others down from the stands.

But they had only taken a few steps when—

The class sports rep suddenly asked, “Where are you going? Chen Lan’s race is about to start!”

At the sound of his name, Miss Jiang seemed to remember something.

She glanced around.

Then walked up to the young man whose handheld game console she had just snatched.

She returned the console, then casually picked up an unopened bottle of water from in front of him.

“Borrowing this. You don’t mind, right?”

Ten minutes later.

When Chen Lan crossed the finish line in first place.

He was completely spent.

After staggering forward a few steps,

He dropped to one knee.

Gasping for breath,

Letting the sweat pour off him like water.

All he wanted in that moment was a bottle of water to quench his thirst.

But strangely,

Even with all the chaos around him,

Not a single familiar face handed him a bottle.

Instead, the runners who finished after him

Each received water from classmates, friends, even female classmates.

In that instant,

Chen Lan suddenly felt a wave of disappointment wash over him.

A sense that all his effort wasn’t worth it.

He let out a bitter laugh.

Then closed his eyes.

Took several deep breaths.

Got up,

And prepared to head straight back to the dorm.

But just then—

The crowd ahead of him suddenly parted.

And through that opening,

A figure as graceful as a startled swan, as fluid as a dragon in flight,

Bathed in the golden glow of the setting sun,

Stepped through.

With light, effortless steps, she walked up to Chen Lan.

Smiling sweetly, she handed him a bottle of water.

“Congratulations~”

“You’re the hero of Class 3, Grade 11~”

(End of Chapter)