Chapter 988: Beautiful Girl (33)

“Senior, you really keep your promises.”

Chang Zhan simply shook his head and opened his math workbook.

When the two arrived at school and stepped out of the same car, they were naturally greeted by countless scrutinizing gazes.

After thanking Chang Zhan, Tang Guo walked expressionlessly toward her classroom, completely ignoring the contemptuous and strange looks and the whispered discussions around her.

At noon, Chang Zhan instinctively came to Tang Guo's classroom. Since she wasn't afraid of being driven home by him, she naturally wouldn't mind eating with him either.

Tang Guo readily agreed. Ignoring the odd stares from her classmates, she smiled and followed Chang Zhan to the cafeteria.

Upon reaching the top floor, they inevitably ran into Zuo Ran and Wei Liang.

When the two saw Tang Guo arriving together with Chang Zhan, they exchanged glances but didn't greet her.

At first, they merely assumed that Chang Zhan had happened to run into Tang Guo and invited her upstairs for lunch.

But as they watched the two eating and chatting together, they realized that the topic of conversation was actually mathematics, something no one else could join in on.

Out of respect for Chang Zhan, they could only eat with dark expressions and remain silent.

After Tang Guo finished eating and left, Song Zhouchen noticed that something was off and quickly dragged Bai Fei away as well, leaving the four boys staring at Chang Zhan.

Wei Liang asked, “Chang Zhan, what's going on?”

“How come you invited her to eat with us? You seem pretty close to her,” Zuo Ran demanded.

Chang Zhan remained calm.

“I invited her up myself.”

“Were you trying to reconcile us?” Zuo Ran hesitated before asking. It did seem like something Chang Zhan might do.

Still, something felt strange.

“No,” Chang Zhan replied.

Immediately, both Zuo Ran and Wei Liang exploded.

“Don't tell me you're interested in her too?”

“Or did she seduce you?” Zuo Ran said with a gloomy expression. “Chang Zhan, we've told you before. If you were interested in her, you only had to say so.”

“Tell us. Did she seduce you, or were you the one who made the first move?” Wei Liang demanded angrily, looking as though he wanted to devour someone.

Chang Zhan's expression remained cold.

“Neither. We're friends.”

“Who are you trying to fool?” Wei Liang snapped, his face dark. “It must have been her. No wonder she rejected us and got close to you instead. Turns out she wasn't against dating at all—she just didn't want the two of us.”

“That makes sense. The Chang family's influence runs much deeper than ours. There were always more girls chasing Chang Zhan than chasing us. They only settled for us because Chang Zhan acted like a block of wood,” Zuo Ran added.

Seeing how worked up the two had become, Chang Zhan merely shook his head and left with his math textbook in his arms.

Those two would never recognize their own mistakes.

Nor did they realize that what they were displaying now was nothing short of jealousy.

“Chang Zhan, you're really not being a bro!”

Hearing Wei Liang shouting behind him, Chang Zhan no longer wanted to pay attention.

Suddenly, he felt that Tang Guo not liking them was perfectly normal.

Driven by embarrassment and anger, Zuo Ran and Wei Liang began stirring up trouble behind the scenes. They spread the story of Tang Guo supposedly being kept by the two of them during the entire summer vacation until practically everyone knew about it, making it seem less like baseless rumors and more like established facts.

They even released several photographs.

In reality, they were just pictures of them hanging out together. However, because they had carefully selected the angles, the images appeared unusually intimate.

The school forum was soon flooded with “close-up” photos of Tang Guo together with the two boys.

That same day, the homeroom teacher called Tang Guo into the office.

“Student Tang Guo,” the teacher asked, “can you explain this?”