Chapter 317: Unexpected Allure

They both looked at Xiao Heqing, staring in a daze at this beautiful, youthful, and adorably clueless girl.

One of his good buddies asked numbly, “Classmate, who is this girl? She must be your sister, right?”

Lin Zheng Ran chuckled and replied, “You can tell we don’t look alike, so of course she’s not my sister.”

Before he finished, Lily with her golden twin tails tied up walked over with one hand behind her back. Her ponytails bounced with each step as she said, “Where’s Han Wenwen, Heqing? Where did she run off to just now?”

Xiao Heqing held her milk tea and said, “She went to the restroom and should be back soon.”

“Alright.”

Lily also stepped up to Lin Zheng Ran, her cheeks a bit flushed as she extended the lemon water in her hand.

“Here, Zheng Ran! Heqing got you milk tea, so I got you lemon water instead to quench your thirst.”

The guys around Lin Zheng Ran froze again, gazing at the petite and lively Lily.

They grew even more puzzled, staring blankly at Lin Zheng Ran: “Classmate, who is this one?”

Lin Zheng Ran just grinned.

He was getting tired of explaining.

Soon, Han Wenwen walked over from the side, sipping her fruit tea with no second cup in hand.

She approached the group slowly, and Lily asked curiously, “Han Wenwen, where’s the drink you got for Zheng Ran? Didn’t you forget it at the tea shop?”

Han Wenwen took another sip and wiggled the cup that was now a fifth empty. “Nope, it’s right here,” she said with a tilted head and a smile, one hand covering her face.

“Mainly because you two already got some, if I got more, Zheng Ran brother probably couldn’t finish it all. Might as well mix things up a bit.”

She took another sip.

As her lips parted from the straw,

a thin strand of saliva glistened in the sunlight like a spider’s thread before breaking.

Han Wenwen looked at Lin Zheng Ran with a seductive glance and said, “Drinks taste best straight from the source, right, Zheng Ran brother? So let’s share this one. I even put on a bit of lipstick first.”

Lily: “.”

Xiao Heqing blushed and her heart raced: “. I feel like Wenwen is getting bolder by the minute, with all these people around.”

This time, it wasn’t just the enthusiastic guys around Lin Zheng Ran—even the boys from Class Three farther away were grinding their teeth and glaring at him.

The whole freshman class had only a few pretty girls like this!

This guy was hogging them all—wouldn’t he get a stomachache from all the good stuff?

Han Wenwen noticed the guys around Lin Zheng Ran and whispered to Lily, “More boys coming to chat up Zheng Ran brother?”

Lily covered her mouth and whispered back,

“Chat up? That’s not it. It’s just guys making friends. Zheng Ran looks friendly and has great presence. If it weren’t for us three, he’d probably have plenty of guy friends.”

Xiao Heqing said guiltily, “So it’s our fault that Lin Zheng Ran doesn’t have more friends?”

Lily rolled her eyes. “Well, it’s not wrong to say that, but it’s a bit self-inflicted too. Who told him to have so many girlfriends?”

The guys around Lin Zheng Ran watched the stunning and charming Han Wenwen offer him a half-drunk drink,

and their teeth ground together in jealousy and resentment.

But one of them stayed calmer than the rest, veins bulging on his forehead yet holding back his emotions.

He clenched his fist and said with a forced smile,

“Classmate, I get why no one talks to you much. You have great luck with women, but clearly, you don’t have many guy friends, right?”

Lin Zheng Ran paused, and the three little ones all turned to look: “Guy friends?”

“I mean male friends!”

“Ah, yeah, that’s true,” Lin Zheng Ran admitted.

The guy smirked without really smiling: “See? So no big deal. I don’t know what your deal is with these three pretty girls, but that doesn’t stop us from being friends.”

It was the first time Lin Zheng Ran met someone who still wanted to be friends after seeing Heqing and the others.

But with the guy’s next words, Lin Zheng Ran figured it out.

The guy said,

“Though these three are pretty, I don’t envy you at all because among the freshmen, there’s one girl who’s the prettiest to me—the absolute top of the freshman girls.

So I won’t get mad like others just because you know these three. And you should know, the girl I like ignores all guys; she’s the real campus beauty, so untouchable!”

Han Wenwen, listening nearby, chimed in:

“Wow, classmate, you talk so smoothly. You must be a good student. But do you like the cold, aloof type?”

The guy turned, puzzled, and suddenly felt uneasy: “How did you know?”

Han Wenwen blinked her fox-like eyes and smiled: “Just a guess. I bet the girl you think is the prettiest is her, right?”

She pointed a slender finger at Jiang Qian walking over in the distance with her flowing black hair.

And Fang Meng.

The guy felt something was off.

His heart pounded in despair.

“No,” he said, sensing the worst but refusing to believe it. “This can’t be happening. It’s impossible. I don’t believe it.”

But as Jiang Qian and Fang Meng stopped in front of Lin Zheng Ran, the guy shattered like a statue.

The second miss’s face flushed slightly as she handed over a cup of electrolyte drink and said coolly,

“After training, this water replenishes fluids faster. Here, for you.”

Fang Meng placed a bottle in front of Lin Zheng Ran, her eyes meeting his.

Her gaze seemed to say,

“Lin Zheng Ran, remember what I told you at the high school graduation? I regretted not giving you water during that training, but if there’s another chance, I’d make sure to be one of the girls bringing it. So here I am.”

Amid the shock of all the guys, girls, and coaches around,

on the training ground, the five prettiest freshman girls stood neatly together.

Each one brought a different drink for Lin Zheng Ran.

Those guys who had been friendly to Lin Zheng Ran, and even the one who’d held back, now blended into the crowd

as they slowly stood with dark expressions, like time had frozen, and joined the others in distancing themselves from him.

They kept far away.

They wanted to isolate him, to completely cut him off from any guy friends for stealing all the freshman beauties and leaving his life full of gaps!

Lin Zheng Ran looked up at the five of them.

Han Wenwen glanced at Jiang Qian and Fang Meng, asking curiously,

“We’re all old high school classmates, sure, but Jiang and Fang, aren’t you two being a bit too direct? Bringing water for Zheng Ran brother right in front of us?”

Lily stepped forward warily: “Yeah! Why are you two giving Zheng Ran water?”

Jiang Qian and Fang Meng hesitated, then Fang Meng pulled out three more bottles: “We got some for you three too.”

Xiao Heqing saw through it and whispered, “Buying for us three is just an afterthought, right? The main one is for Lin Zheng Ran.”

Fang Meng: “.”

Jiang Qian said flatly, “No, you’re all our old classmates. We’re treating everyone the same.”

Lily flushed and shot back, “Who believes that? It’s obvious who you’re really here for!”

In the distance, Jiang Jingshi approached with a few people carrying boxes of drinks.

Jiang Jingshi said, “Class Three classmates, everyone get a bottle of water. It’s on the teacher.”

The Class Three students thanked the counselor and lined up to grab their drinks.

While everyone was getting refreshments, Jiang Jingshi took a special drink and walked over to Lin Zheng Ran.

But she saw he was already surrounded by girls.

The three little ones and her own sister were there.

Surprised, Jiang Jingshi went back for five more cups before returning and quietly stepping up to him.

She placed the drink in Lin Zheng Ran’s hand: “Here, this is yours. The teacher picked it up for you.”

Lin Zheng Ran’s drink was different from the others, with special ingredients Jiang Jingshi had added herself.

After that, maintaining her teacher persona in front of everyone, she added, “And one for each of you. The teacher got them for you.”

The five girls stared at Jiang Jingshi, their eyes full of meaning, silent.

In a way, this pair of sisters delivered drinks in the same straightforward style.