A tree-lined boulevard.
Jiang You walked ahead, and Zhou Yu followed behind her.
The autumn sun filtered through the layers of leaves, casting dappled light and shadows. They danced across the young woman’s body and flickered in Zhou Yu’s ink-black eyes.
Zhou Yu watched her back, his eyes shifting slightly. He could almost taste a hint of sweet happiness.
They were so close he felt he could smell the sweet scent of her hair.
Black snake scales, one after another, began to cover one side of the young man’s long, fair neck. They were a luxurious black, their edges glowing faintly red as they grew hot.
When a Beastman encounters someone they like, they can’t help but begin to manifest their beast form. In other words, they involuntarily go into heat.
In this interstellar society, one’s beast form is an extremely private matter. Revealing it in public is considered rude, and it can be seen as an act of seduction—something vulgar.
Involuntarily revealing one’s beast form due to being in heat is also seen as a sign of extremely poor self-control, no different from a common animal that cannot control its own urges.
Zhou Yu seemed to realize that the scales had involuntarily appeared on his neck. His dark eyes darted down in a panic, and he quickly pressed a hand—pale and dotted with red spots—against the scaled patch of skin.
’Go away, quickly.’
’If she sees this, she’ll think I’m some kind of inferior Beastman with no self-control.’
But Jiang You never once looked back.
A part of Zhou Yu was relieved she hadn’t seen him like this, but another part found his attempt to hide it laughable. She didn’t care about him at all.
He lowered his hand. A wetness that seemed to sting his eyes glazed over his dark gaze as he looked down.
「Inside the cafeteria.」
Jiang You ordered the deluxe meal set for Zhou Yu, filled with all the most expensive items.
"So? You’ve never had food this expensive before, have you? I’m being so nice to you, you must really like me now!" Jiang You said, looking at Zhou Yu with a gaze that was both arrogant and supremely confident. "Stop playing hard to get with me."
According to the script, she was supposed to interpret Zhou Yu’s coldness and resistance as him just playing hard to get.
’I’m so beautiful, there’s no way he doesn’t like me!’
[Mission Twelve: Complete.]
Jiang You breathed an inward sigh of relief. This mission just required her to have a meal with Zhou Yu.
Hearing the mission completion notice, she relaxed and began to slowly eat her own food.
Little did she know, the words she had just spoken for the mission had stirred a massive storm in someone else’s heart, disturbing the calm sea of his mind.
Zhou Yu’s cool, damp eyes were lowered, and the one covered by gauze ached slightly. He stared at her, his hand gripping his chopsticks so tightly his knuckles turned white. His lips moved slightly. "Yeah. I like you a lot."
Jiang You was focused on her meal and froze when she heard that. Thinking she’d misheard, she instinctively looked up, only to see Zhou Yu eating, not looking at her or saying anything.
’Yep, I must have been hearing things.’
Jiang You didn’t think much of it and went back to eating.
After they finished eating, Jiang You and Zhou Yu parted ways.
When she got back to her dorm, she saw her three followers waiting for her at the door.
"Sister You, we’re back from the school next door! The food there was really good. We brought you back a peach cake!" Yu Lin said, hurrying over and holding out a small cake box.
"Thanks," Jiang You said, accepting it. She led her three followers into the dorm.
The three followers were chattering away, sharing the latest gossip.
So-and-so from that one major had confessed their feelings to someone.
So-and-so got pregnant out of wedlock and gave birth in her dorm room.
So-and-so went to their ex’s building and threatened to jump to get them back together.
...
Jiang You was quite surprised as she ate her cake and listened.
’I can’t believe so much has happened. These three really have their ears to the ground.’
The terminal on Jiang You’s wrist vibrated. She glanced down and saw a message in a ten-person group chat.
Yun Yue: @Jiang You, what do you think?
Jiang You was completely confused and instinctively replied: What do you mean, "what do I think"?
Yun Yue: Scroll up and read the chat history.
Jiang You had no choice but to scroll up, wondering what these women were talking about now.
Yun Yue: I failed. I didn’t expect that special admission student to have studied in Qingcheng before. He knew I was just putting on an act, so toying with his feelings is impossible now.
Bai Sisi: Wow. Then what about Jiang You? How’s she doing? Every time we ask, she says Zhou Yu has already fallen in love with her.
Xu Mei: Isn’t she always that ignorantly confident? She’s probably made zero progress but still claims he’s madly in love with her. I could die laughing.
Yun Yue: Don’t say that, Xu Mei. She might actually be able to win over that Zhou Yu.
Xu Mei: ?
Bai Sisi: ??
Yun Yue: @Jiang You, I’m adding another thirty million to the betting pool. If you really do win over that special admission student, it’s all yours.
Jiang You finally understood. So *that’s* what they meant!
She naturally replied with extreme confidence.
Jiang You: I’ve got this in the bag. I’ll be taking all your money!
Xu Mei: Tsk, we’ll just wait and see then.
...
Jiang You put down her terminal. ’It’s not like I can win anyway.’
Her three followers left.
Jiang You had the dorm room to herself again.
She quickly sent a message to Teacher Zhou.
Jiang You: Teacher Zhou, I have two hours free now. We can start the tutoring session!
Teacher Zhou: Okay.
Meanwhile, Zhou Yu was supposed to be working at the campus work-study shop. To tutor Jiang You, he had swapped shifts with another student whose schedule was free.
Zhou Yu went to a private study room on campus, then connected with Jiang You via voice call and started sharing his screen.
"Hello. This is a structured learning outline I’ve prepared. Let’s go over the outline first, and then we’ll follow it step-by-step for our session..." Zhou Yu’s voice was slow and earnest.
When Jiang You heard this Teacher Zhou’s voice, her first thought was that he must be quite young. Her second thought was, ’His voice is amazing. I think my ears are pregnant.’
Perhaps because it was over a voice call, the audio processing stripped away some of its familiar cool, damp quality, and Jiang You didn’t recognize it as Zhou Yu’s voice.
She only felt that the voice sounded earnest and responsible.
She had already conjured up an image of a refined, young, and responsible teacher in her mind.
"Okay, Teacher!" Jiang You agreed cheerfully.
For the rest of the session, Jiang You absorbed knowledge like a sponge.
Meanwhile, Yun Yue was sitting in a car as her driver took her home.
She had raised the stakes on the bet for Jiang You to pursue Zhou Yu simply because she wanted to see him have a breakdown—even if he had rejected her, he would still end up having his feelings toyed with by someone else.
’After all, Zhou Yu has no idea about the bet!’
Yun Yue couldn’t wait to see Zhou Yu fall apart.
However, she still had her doubts about whether Jiang You could actually win over the special admission student.
Suddenly, Yun Yue felt the car was going a bit too fast.
She couldn’t help but frown and look at the driver. "Why are you driving so fast?"
The driver had just blurted out, "Miss, there’s a problem with the driving system—"
Before he could finish, the luxury car slammed heavily into another vehicle.
Yun Yue had been in a car crash.