BSBA 7

The Obsessive Young Master and His Little Attendant (Part 7)

“Is that all? That self-introduction was way too plain.”

Ning Shu heard someone whisper that from below the platform.

He couldn’t help but laugh in his heart. He wasn’t like his younger twin brother, Ning Xi, who was always adored and welcomed wherever he went, nor did he have that sunny, lively temperament. People often mistook him for Ning Xi. “Are you two really twins? You’re nothing alike.”

Ning Shu had always been the quiet one, the kind who could sit in a corner for an entire day with just a book.

There were moments he envied the ease with which Ning Xi drew attention and affection. Yet whenever eyes turned his way, Ning Shu felt only a helpless, creeping awkwardness settle over him. He supposed he had simply never been made for crowds.

Like right now, for instance. The entire classroom had its gaze fixed on him, and the girls nearby were whispering amongst themselves, their voices low but unmistakably buzzing.

Ning Shu could feel his face beginning to burn.

Mercifully, the teacher cut through the awkward stillness. “You… Go ahead and sit next to Sun Wei.”

Ning Shu followed the direction of the teacher’s gesture. A slightly pudgy boy was curling his lip with mild indifference, his hands idly folding a paper airplane.

Ning Shu withdrew his gaze and nodded.

The chubby boy’s seat was in the last row, and as luck would have it, not far from where Gu Chen sat.

The boy was leaning back lazily in his seat, giving half-hearted answers to whatever the classmate beside him was saying. Those phoenix-shaped eyes, however, clung to Ning Shu like a shadow that wouldn’t leave.

Just as Ning Shu drew near, Gu Chen casually stretched one leg out into the aisle, blocking the aisle as if unintentionally. He propped an arm on the desk behind him and replied to his classmate with a faint, unreadable smile. “Mm, Class 3’s basketball isn’t bad.”

Even such a small movement carried effortless elegance. That innate aristocratic aura was unmistakable.

Most of the class hadn’t noticed what Gu Chen had done, but Ning Shu, right in front of him, felt confused.

He didn’t have the nerve to ask Young Master Gu to move his leg. After a long moment of hesitation, he decided simply to step over the outstretched leg. 

But at that very moment—

The boy’s leg shifted ever so slightly.

In the instant he lost his footing, Ning Shu was fairly certain Gu Chen had done it on purpose.

He had barely leaned forward when the leg hooked against his leg, redirecting his fall.

A faint, cool scent reached him just before he found himself colliding with a firm chest.

His slender waist was caught and held in Gu Chen’s arms. A barely audible laugh brushed against his ear, making it feel as if a dandelion had grazed it, sending a shiver down his spine.

Ning Shu’s hands braced against Gu Chen’s chest. For one suspended moment, the whole classroom fell into stunned silence for a heartbeat, and then a sharp intake of breath rippled through the students.

He looked up, cheeks flushed a deep crimson.

The one responsible merely raised an eyebrow. “How can you be so careless?”

Ning Shu drew a slow breath. He hadn’t expected the elegant, aloof young master to hide such a devilishly playful side beneath that refined exterior.

He quickly straightened up, deeply uncomfortable by such intimate contact. Biting his lip, he murmured in a voice barely above a whisper, “I’m sorry, Young Master.”

He didn’t dare look at anyone’s expression around them. He tidied his disheveled appearance, bowed his head to Gu Chen in apology, and continued toward the seat assigned to him.

But just then, the boy spoke up. “Teacher, let him sit next to me.”

The moment the words fell, the girls around them widened their eyes in disbelief.

Gu Chen’s status was different. Even though he seemed elegant rather than cold on the surface, the bone-deep indifference he carried made it so that the people allowed near him could be counted on one hand. The young master of the Li family was an exception, and now, it seemed, there was one more.