Chapter 55: Do You Want to Confess Too?

"Classmate Fu, what a coincidence."

This greeting directly interrupted He Yue's ear-twisting assault on Fu Linxing. The two of them turned their heads simultaneously to look at the person who had spoken.

A straight-standing young girl looked at them with a completely serious expression. Her left arm hung naturally at her side, while her right hand raised up to wave slightly at Fu Linxing twice before returning behind her back, resting loosely in the crook of her left elbow.

She appeared somewhat aloof, yet without feeling overly cold or distant.

He Yue snapped back to her senses and gave Fu Linxing a pat. "What are you staring for? Someone is greeting you!"

Fu Linxing scratched his head and said, "It... it really is a coincidence, Tao Zizi. Are you here to visit Happy Valley too?"

She nodded with her usual microscopic range of motion, her large eyes shifting to He Yue. "Your older sister is really pretty."

He Yue immediately beamed with joy. "Oh my, such a sweet-talking little girl! You're a little beauty yourself! But I've seen all the girls in Xiao Xing's class, and it seems like you... aren't his classmate?"

"I'm in Class 2."

"Oh, oh, Class 2 is a good class." He Yue offered a few more appreciative glances, wearing a motherly smile. "Well then, little brother, go play with your classmate. I won't disturb you guys anymore, hehehe..."

"Hehehe your head! And stop messing up our seniority!" Fu Linxing helplessly watched her figure vanish into a swift escape, then turned back to explain, "Don't listen to her nonsense, she's my mom."

Tao Zizi remained entirely earnest. "Oh, I understand. Your mom is really pretty."

"Thank... um... I'll thank her on her behalf."

With that, Fu Linxing awkwardly turned his face away, suddenly finding every other object in the immediate vicinity far more fascinating.

It wasn't that he was shy; rather, he and the girl before him were genuinely unfamiliar with each other.

They had never spoken a word at school. Their classrooms were on different floors, and they didn't even ride the same school bus route—they were two people who had absolutely nothing to do with each other. Fu Linxing never expected that she would even recognize him.

However, he certainly knew who Tao Zizi was.

Middle school students in reality wouldn't be bored enough to actually vote and list a top-ten campus beauties ranking, but everyone secretly knew which classes had pretty girls.

Just in terms of appearance, Tao Zizi could undoubtedly claim the title of Class 2's sweetheart. In fact, in the eyes of many, she was more than qualified to be the school beauty.

The only thing stopping her from claiming the throne of the number one beautiful maiden was her personality.

Her temperament was simply too eccentric—so bizarre that despite carrying such a gorgeous face, it only made her fellow students keep a respectful distance.

If not for the fact that she always maintained a self-satisfied air, almost everyone would have thought she was being ostracized by the whole school.

In truth, she merely preferred solitude. When she occasionally interacted with classmates, people simply couldn't keep up with her peculiar train of thought.

Back when they first entered the seventh grade and everyone was still unfamiliar with her, quite a few boys had sent her gifts and love letters. Among these suitors were not only precocious boys from her own grade, but eighth and ninth graders who came out of sheer admiration.

Naturally, there were also those classic public confessions surrounded by curious onlookers.

Yet, after listening to each confession with absolute seriousness, Tao Zizi would respond to every single person with the exact same question:

"Do you want to make love with me?"

Hardly any middle schooler could withstand that kind of soul-searching interrogation. They would instantly blush, lose their words, and flee in panic.

However, one delinquent boy was thick-skinned enough to boldly answer, "Yeah! So do you agree to be my girlfriend?"

As a result, Tao Zizi immediately sought out that boy's head teacher and told him with utmost solemnity, "Teacher, he wants to make love with me."

Needless to say how severely the boy was disciplined afterward.

Having lost both his face and his pride, the delinquent naturally wouldn't let Tao Zizi off the hook. That very afternoon after school, he gathered a group of friends from outside the school and prepared to ambush her.

Yet, no one knew what happened inside that dark alleyway. When the thugs were eventually discovered, all of them were unconscious on the ground, covered in heavy beating injuries, their skin bruised black and blue.

When they finally woke up, they could only recount with lingering fear that the stinky bitch must have called upon some unknown backup; the moment they stepped inside, before they could even see clearly, they were viciously thrashed.

"That woman plays no fair; she definitely used a stun gun, I know that feeling all too well!" someone had complained.

The instigator had lost both face and dignity, feeling he had no shame left to remain in this middle school. Though in reality not many people looked down on him, he still slunk away and transferred to another school.

From that day on, no one ever dared to harbor any ideas about Tao Zizi again. At least not overtly.

Thus, Tao Zizi progressed into the eighth grade, simultaneously drawing attention and remaining completely inconspicuous. She had no friends, her grades were decent without being outstanding, and she rarely spoke, living quietly like an outsider.

Yet someone as extraordinary as her was destined never to be a true outsider.

Countless people gossiped about her out of curiosity, jealousy, exclusion, or simply spreading rumors about her just to follow the crowd.

She was pretty, yet rarely interacted with anyone on campus, and her words and actions always carried a strange aura. Coupled with her abnormal responses to confessions, it was obvious what kind of rumors would breed from that.

However, those powerless slurs could never erode this stubborn stone. Tao Zizi lived her days as carefree as if nothing had happened, neither refuting nor clarifying anything, as if the students were talking about someone entirely different.

Over time, those attacks directed at her began to feel pointless to their perpetrators and gradually faded away.

Fu Linxing had only heard these legends from others—half true and half false—and of course, he wouldn't casually judge a stranger based on them. Yet, experiencing direct contact with Tao Zizi at this moment, he was still struck dumb by her unique aura.

Fu Linxing fell into an awkward silence for a moment, then helplessly turned his head back to face Tao Zizi's eternally serious and earnest eyes, forced to make conversation. "Um... where are your family members?"

He instinctively assumed she had come with her family, given that she had no friends.

To his surprise, Tao Zizi calmly replied, "Dead." There was not a single ripple of emotion on her face, as natural as discussing the weather.

Fu Linxing broke into a cold sweat. "I'm sorry!"

Tao Zizi said nothing. She neither faulted him for his slip of the tongue nor showed the slightest trace of sorrow.

"Then... did you come alone?" As soon as the words left his mouth, Fu Linxing wanted to slap himself.

Would you die if you didn't speak? Why must you force a conversation on this topic...

"Yeah, I bought an annual pass and come here often."

Tao Zizi took a card out of her knit cardigan pocket, held it up with both hands in front of Fu Linxing, and even flipped it over so he could clearly see both the front and back.

Failing to understand the purpose behind her action, Fu Linxing simply gave up trying to think.

Yet he couldn't help wondering: coming to an amusement park all by herself—what level of loneliness was this!

And she was an orphan on top of that, oh god...

Deeply shaken, he stood frozen in a daze, unable to utter a word.

Tao Zizi remained standing quietly with her hands behind her back, looking at him with absolute seriousness, still saying nothing.

Fu Linxing looked back at her in confusion, once again experiencing the unnamable mystery of the universe.

What was she doing? She walked over, finished her greeting, and then stopped talking... no, she had spoken a few words... wait, those were answers to his questions... what on earth did she want?

Could it be...

"Do you want to play together with me?" Fu Linxing asked uncertainly.