Why Hasn't She Confessed Yet?

Jiang Zhili x Tan Xu [The Male Lead Is a Master of Winning Himself Over]

1.

Tan Xu is the kind of person nobody around here dares provoke, a terrifying presence who makes people tremble at the mere mention of his name.

Even so, girls who want to date him line up from one end of No. 1 High School to the other end of No. 3 High School.

But lately, something has been on his mind:

His new classmate Jiang Zhili has had a crush on him for three months, and still hasn't confessed.

Tan Xu thinks

that although Jiang Zhili hasn't said it,

her feelings for him are already perfectly obvious.

The first time they met, Jiang Zhili asked for his WeChat.

After they became deskmates at the start of term, she brought him breakfast every day and insisted on treating him to milk tea.

That would be one thing, but after the midterms, when their homeroom teacher called him out for handing in a blank paper, Jiang Zhili even stood up for him. She also took a keen interest in his grades. Her intentions were blatant and unmistakable.

She often liked to toss her hair in front of him. The girl's hair carried a faint jasmine scent, so intoxicating it seemed to ensnare him without his noticing.

Tan Xu thinks she is trying to seduce him every moment of the day.

2.

Jiang Zhili rarely met anyone worse off than herself.

So when she learned that Tan Xu, who had transferred to No. 2 High School with her, was poor, came from a single-parent family, and had been dumped by the beauty from the neighboring class, she felt a kindred closeness to him.

Jiang Zhili believes no teenager is born rebellious and wayward. There are only pairs of parents who neglect their responsibilities and terrible families of origin.

So when Tan Xu stood by a bridge, worried he might jump, she shared the Mixue Ice Cream and Tea she had just bought with him. And when she found out he had handed in a blank exam, she volunteered to tutor her unfortunate deskmate.

Until one day, she saw a Rolls-Royce Phantom parked at the school gate and watched Tan Xu step out of it.

That was when Jiang Zhili knew she had been taken for a fool.

So she promptly moved away from Tan Xu's desk, deleted him from WeChat, and refused to say a word to him even when they ran into each other face-to-face.

But why, after school, did Tan Xu stop her at the gate, his eyelids drooping as he looked down at her with a resentful gaze, as if she were the faithless Chen Shimei who had seduced and abandoned him?

He actually asked her, "Why don't you like me anymore?"

Jiang Zhili: ?

"Don't you have any impure thoughts about me now?"

Jiang Zhili: ???

3.

Later, Tan Xu discovered that Jiang Zhili was the sort of person who fed every stray dog she passed on the street and scooped up an entire litter of stray cats to take home. Even if she had only five yuan on her, she'd give four to a street performer who was obviously a scammer.

Tan Xu realized in despair that, in Jiang Zhili's eyes, he seemed no different from all those cats and dogs on the street.

She was nice to him only because she was a little kindhearted and a little too full of sympathy.

So,

Tan Xu decided to make the first move.

In the morning, he bought Jiang Zhili soy milk and buns. At noon, he brought her a lovingly prepared lunch. In the afternoon, he got her milk tea. The famous Tan Xu of No. 3 High School came up with new gifts every day to win the girl's favor, but she shared them all with other people.

Even when Jiang Zhili ignored him, he just followed along behind her.

Soon, people started saying that Tan Xu from No. 1 High School was Jiang Zhili's simp.

"A simp?"

The words reached Tan Xu's ears. Leaning against the roots of a banyan tree, he crossed his long legs and folded his arms, a blade of grass between his lips as he watched Jiang Zhili laughing and chatting with the girls in P.E. class.

He said unconcernedly:

"You call a rich, devoted, handsome guy like me a simp?"

--- Synopsis for the next book, Princess ---

1.

At seventeen, Song Youqing received financial support from Old Master Pei and came to Rong City to repeat a year of school. The Pei family had a man a few years older than her, Old Master Pei's grandson, named Pei Siyan.

On her very first day, he shoved her impressive record from the past few years in front of her, his expression blank and his voice icy. "Dropped out for a year, spent three months in juvenile detention? Got zero on your last final exam?"

Song Youqing replied in earnest, "That was a misunderstanding."

Actually, it was nine points.

The teacher hadn't noticed the little tail on the zero when recording the score.

Pei Siyan, who had once ranked near the top in the college entrance exams and held himself and others to a practically inhuman standard, had always despised slackers who didn't study. His lips curled with scorn. "Be sensible and get lost on your own."

But with Old Master Pei protecting her, Song Youqing never did leave.

2.

Later, Song Youqing studied hard day and night. At long last, her efforts paid off, and she got into the top university for her chosen major with the highest score in the city.

After the college entrance exams, she prepared to leave the Pei family, having accomplished what she came for. But Pei Siyan grabbed her arm, gritting his teeth. "So all those times you called me 'big brother' this past year, you were just using me to help you with physics?"

Song Youqing: "What else?"

"Don't go." Young Master Pei lowered his eyes, his tone pleading. "I can still pay your university tuition."

Song Youqing: ?

Pei Siyan: "Do you really think I'm no use to you for anything else?!"

3.

Pei Siyan's family had a cat named Princess. They had kept her for many years.

The cat's name came from a seven-year-old girl who had appeared in his backyard many years ago.

The little girl wore a floral dress, her cheeks rosy and soft. She spoke in a sweet, charming way, and as she swung on the swing, her feet bobbed like a little fairy's.

The boy asked the little girl what her name was.

The girl smiled at him innocently, her canine teeth showing. "You can call me Princess."

(Princess and her knight)

P.S. The heroine is strong, clever, and hardworking. She's a good girl!

Theme: Calling for courage from the depths of despair.