Probably, to those around them, Hua Shu seemed to be the one most irritated by He Rui at that moment. In truth, however, Liu Fengying—who was looking at He Rui with a neutral expression—was at least a hundred times angrier.
The reason was not that he continued to hover shamelessly around them; well, perhaps that annoyed her to some extent too, but not enough for her to consider him someone who would be better off disappearing from the face of the earth.
So why did Liu Fengying hate He Rui so much? The answer was simple: in this life, one of the things she detested most was the breed of so-called phoenix men, and the young man before her not only belonged to that group, but had also set his sights on her friend.
Of course, she did not possess some sort of sixth sense that allowed her to detect when a phoenix man was nearby. Still, having spent almost her entire childhood in the presence of one of the highest-ranking ones—her father—she had come to know their traits quite well.
So, how had Liu Fengying deduced He Rui's intentions?
To begin with, unlike Hua Shu, who had preconceived notions, Liu Fengying was convinced that He Rui had not come for her. If she had been his target, would it have been possible for him to ignore her until then? Most certainly not—he would have introduced himself the moment he reached their table. Therefore, the only remaining possibility was that he had come specifically for Hua Shu.
But in that case, what could his motivation be? Was he in love with Hua Shu? Honestly, Liu Fengying could not see how that would be possible.
Sure, Hua Shu was a very beautiful girl, but was beauty a strong enough reason to overcome all the other problems? Not only were they separated by a significant age gap, making it seem as though they had nothing in common, but judging from the way they interacted, it was fairly obvious that their temperaments were complete opposites. Therefore, unless He Rui was secretly a lolicon or a masochist, this possibility could be ruled out.
And yet it was clear that He Rui was trying to win Hua Shu over—otherwise, why would he have offered to pay for such an expensive meal, not only for Hua Shu but also for her, her friend? Judging by his appearance alone, he did not seem like someone who had money to burn; in fact, it was rather suspicious that he had come to dine at such an expensive restaurant on an ordinary day.
Moreover, the way he behaved toward Hua Shu could only be described as humble. Honestly, Liu Fengying had been genuinely amazed to see that he managed to endure all of Hua Shu's malicious remarks.
So here was a young man courting a girl he did not even like, but whose father he knew to be extremely influential. If that was not the story of a phoenix man, then Liu Fengying did not know what else it could be.
And the cherry on top, to show just "how sincere he was," he had completely forgotten about Hua Shu the moment he laid eyes on her. Even if it was clear that Hua Shu herself was not affected by it, it was still a major sign of disrespect toward her.
Liu Fengying had to make a considerable effort to keep her composure. It could be said that this was the first time she had felt so directly constrained by the laws governing life in a modern world; had this scene taken place in her previous life, He Rui would already have been on the ground with a sword plunged into his chest.
However, even if her hands were tied for the moment, her mouth was still free—and that was enough to keep He Rui from acting up, at least for a while.
"He Rui, is it?" Liu Fengying addressed him.
Although her words were enough to pull He Rui out of his daze, he had not fully regained his composure; his state could be likened to that of a man who, while admiring a work of art, is suddenly startled to discover that it can move.
"Uh… yes, sorry. My name is He Rui…," he stammered, overwhelmed by emotion.
Moreover, the more aware he became of the situation he was in, the more agitated his mind grew; he truly did not know what kind of attitude he should adopt toward Liu Fengying.
But if there was one thing that was clear to him, it was that he had no intention of carrying out his friend's plan any further. How could he still consider himself a real man if he were to push, with his own hands, the woman of his dreams into someone else's arms?
On top of that, He Rui believed that between himself and his friend, he was the one who deserved to be with someone like Liu Fengying. Sure, his friend was wealthier than he was, but it was not as though that wealth was the result of his own efforts; the company he ran had simply been handed to him on a silver platter by his father.
Aside from that, did his friend have any other advantage? Having known each other since childhood—more precisely, since kindergarten—He Rui knew very well how superficial a person he was. Not only had he drifted through school like a duck through water, showing no interest whatsoever in his studies, but he had no appreciation for culture or art either; all that interested him were luxury products. How could such a man be worthy of a woman as refined as the one standing before him now?
Furthermore, He Rui believed he was a better match for Liu Fengying than his friend from a visual standpoint as well. From the time they were children up to the present, everyone had always said that between the two of them, he was the better-looking one. What was more, his friend was almost a head shorter than he was; since Liu Fengying appeared to be quite a tall woman, He Rui thought that his friend would most certainly look ridiculous standing next to her.
With these considerations in mind, He Rui now had two alternatives: either to cancel everything by invoking some arbitrary excuse, or to change his proposal—more precisely, to offer to move to their table instead. The problem was that each of these alternatives had its own advantages and disadvantages, so He Rui had no way of deciding on the spot which would be better.
For example, if he were to join them at the table—say, under the pretext that he did not want to inconvenience them by making them move—and focus on impressing Liu Fengying, what would happen to the plans he had made for Hua Shu? Even if he could no longer imagine himself being in a relationship with anyone other than Liu Fengying, it would still be beneficial if Hua Shu were to start developing feelings for him, because then it would be easy to convince her to lobby for him with her father. Perhaps it would not have the same effect as if he were together with her, but it would still be better than nothing.
Why did he not want to abandon his plans for Hua Shu altogether? Because he now felt an even stronger need to advance in his career and build his reputation; no matter how dreamy he might have been at that moment, he was still aware that there was little chance a woman of Liu Fengying's caliber would be willing to spend the rest of her life with a poor, obscure teacher.
However, if he tried to chase two rabbits at the same time, he would most certainly catch neither. Honestly, it would have been best to meet them separately, but while he could still see Hua Shu under the pretext of visiting her father, how was he supposed to meet her friend, the one he was truly attracted to? He could not very well take time off from school during the last days of the academic year without a solid reason, so it was impossible for him to stake out the school that she and Hua Shu attended in the hope of arranging an "accidental" encounter.
Aside from the fact that he could do little while both girls were present, there was another problem if he tried to join them at the table: his friend would almost certainly try to join as well, probably playing the victim and claiming that he had been abandoned. But how could He Rui allow him to start flirting with the girl he truly liked? A conflict between them was inevitable.
But wasn't this a very dangerous situation for him? What if his friend—or rather, now his rival in love—started talking about his intentions toward Hua Shu? In that case, his image in the eyes of Hua Shu and her friend would almost certainly be irreparably ruined, and he could say goodbye both to smoothly advancing his career and to having a romance with the girl who had captivated him with a single glance.
Of course, there were other problems as well, but these were the most important ones. Anyway, even if these had been the only issues, they were more than enough to keep He Rui wavering for quite some time.
However, Liu Fengying had no intention of giving He Rui enough time to sort out his thoughts; for her, it did not matter what he had to say, only that he was capable of understanding her.
"You seem like a fairly intelligent guy… You're probably the type who reads a lot in his spare time, am I right?"
He Rui was pleased when he heard Liu Fengying's words; from any angle, being called intelligent was a compliment.
Moreover, it made him hope that perhaps Liu Fengying was the kind of person who valued intelligence more than material possessions. Given how good-looking she was, she had most certainly had to deal with harassment from young men from wealthy families, so it would not have been surprising if she had grown tired of that type of person.
"Well, I don't want to praise myself too much. But I am a teacher, so it's only to be expected that I'm somewhat smarter than average…," He Rui decided to remain at least somewhat modest; after all, nobody liked being looked down on, so even if Liu Fengying preferred intelligent people, she would most likely not want to be with someone who considered himself vastly superior to her.
However, it could be said that He Rui was worrying for the wrong reasons; what made Liu Fengying dislike him even more had nothing to do with how intelligent he thought he was, but with the fact that he was a teacher.
'A teacher? Is someone who tries to seduce, for personal gain, a girl who is not yet an adult worthy of being called a teacher? This is no longer about my anger; it would be a service to society if he were eliminated…', Liu Fengying nearly lost the neutral expression on her face.
Honestly, she had begun to think that she had not properly prepared for her so-called emergence from seclusion; wouldn't it have been better to carry some poison with her in situations like this, when she encountered someone capable of angering her so deeply? Even if it were not lethal and merely caused unpleasant symptoms—such as a week of infernal pain, or more fittingly in this case, the loss of the ability to reproduce—it would still have made her feel better than knowing that people like him could simply return to their lives unscathed.
But although nothing could be done about it that day, that did not mean nothing could be done on another; she promised herself that if He Rui ever appeared before her again, he would no longer be lucky enough to catch her unprepared.