Finally, lunch came.Zhou Lei had his master plan of how to make Lin Hanying jealous.
That plan was called "Plan J: Jealousy Quest"!
First of all, Zhou Lei took out two lunchboxes. One that he prepared himself, and one that he prepared for Lin Hanying. This wasn"t part of the plan, he just readied this on a whim since his best friend looked like she really wanted him to cook her something.
He headed to Lin Hanying"s desk. The girl was in the middle of taking out her own lunch from her bag, when a hand grabbed her arm.
"Ying, wait." Zhou Lei pulled a chair from the desk in front of Lin Hanying"s, since the one seated on it wasn"t here anyway.
Lin Guiying froze for a bit and looked up, seeing a serious look on Zhou Lei"s face. She took her hand out of the bag and put on a facade, smiling brightly. "Lei, what"s the matter?"
The youth before her took a seat swiftly, now facing her directly. He let go of Lin Hanying"s arm as he sensed that something was wrong with his friend"s expression.
"Where were you yesterday? I waited for you the whole day at the arcade!"
"Whole day at the arcade?" Lin Guiying"s feelings became more conflicted. "I know you"re lying."
"Really? Sorry, I didn"t have time last night." It didn"t show on her face, but her trust in Zhou Lei decreased.
"You should"ve at least told me that you weren"t coming." Zhou Lei was slightly grumpy at Lin Hanying, but it wasn"t much.
At that point, Lin Guiying felt guilty. "My man mother took my phone."
"It"s fine..." Zhou Lei wasn"t really the type to hold grudges of any sort. He had even forgotten about his bullies lately since they didn"t even think about bullying him anymore. "Anyways..."
And the first step of the plan begins!
"Who is your favorite celebrity?"
What an abrupt change of subject! That wasn"t a smooth segue at all!
"...What?" Lin Guiying had no idea what her friend"s intentions were, so she just answered honestly. "Out of everyone I"ve worked with, the most friendly and down-to-earth one is..."
"It"s Hou Heng... What for-"
Zhou Lei didn"t let Lin Hanying finish as he interrupted, "Well, for me..."
With her getting interrupted, Lin Guiying was quite irritated at Zhou Lei, but she didn"t take it to heart.
"It"s Lin Guiying!"
Second phase of the plan: START!
Zhou Lei was almost a complete otaku. And if watching so much anime, reading so much manga and light novels, and playing so much dating simulators and visual novels taught him anything, it"s that when you praise some other girl in front of one, she would get jealous!
"Invoking jealousy is so easy!"
What he didn"t notice was that there was another prerequisite for this plan to work, and it"s that the girl should, at the very least, have a crush on the person saying it to her.
Unfortunately for Zhou Lei, Lin Guiying hadn"t a crush on him.
And even more unfortunate for him was the fact that Lin Guiying and Lin Hanying was the same person! So...
Lin Guiying widened her eyes a little.
"You already know that Lin Guiying is my favorite celebrity."
A tinge of red appeared on Lin Guiying"s cheeks.
"She has a lot of positive qualities about her. Her elegance, her beauty, her talent, and her intelligence!"
That red spot spread throughout the girl"s face like a plague.
"In fact, I doubt that any girl on the planet can beat her in any field!"
At this moment, Lin Guiying turned her head down to hide the fact that her face was completely flushed red.
"That"s how high I regard her in my mind..." Zhou Lei smiled confidently.
He was just waiting for that "Ting!" from System to appear in his head.
"Any second now..."
Only now did he notice that Lin Hanying"s head was lowered. "Ah, s.h.i.t. Did I go too far?"
This youth thought that he angered his friend by speaking too many praises about someone else.
To placate her anger, he spoke, "Well, you aren"t too far off..."
Lin Guiying raised her head a little bit. Zhou Lei thought that this small movement was kind of cute.
He put the two lunch boxes down on her desk as he said, "Well, don"t think too much about it..."
The girl felt her embarra.s.sment rise. "You"re the one who brought up the subject in the first place!"
Still, she knew that Zhou Lei held her in high regard, but she didn"t expect it to be to this extent...! An inexplicable feeling rose in her heart, replacing the distrust that was planted earlier.
Maybe it was guilt, or maybe it was obligation to a fan. Whatever it was, it erased any kind of resentment she had toward her friend.
After thinking about all of this, she spotted two rectangular things in Zhou Lei"s hand.
He placed one of them on his side of the desk, while he put the other on hers.
"What is this?" Lin Guiying saw that there was food inside — "Was this a lunch box? For me?"
"Well, I kind of thought that you wanted to eat some of my cooking. I could tell from... your expression yesterday." Recalling the scene the other day, Zhou Lei felt a little embarra.s.sed for his friend.
Lin Guiying wasn"t any different. She remembered that she licked every nook and corner of Zhou Lei"s spoon, which prompted him to use her spoon.
The two had a short awkward silence between them before they got back to talking.
Zhou Lei opened his lunch box, Lin Hanying following him. The scent of the two lunch boxes spread throughout the cla.s.sroom, and even through a small part of the stairs.
As such, every single person inside the cla.s.sroom, as well as everyone just outside, were all attracted by the unnaturally hunger-inducing smell coming from Lin Hanying"s desk.
Drool almost leaked out of Lin Guiying"s mouth, just from the scent. She felt a little jealous of how good Zhou Lei"s cooking was...
"Ting!"
"Congratulations for completing the quest. The reward of 10 upgrade points and 1 Lottery Ticket ready to be received."
Hearing this, Zhou Lei felt relieved. "Phew! I thought it would bug out and render my Plan J: Jealousy Quest a fruitless effort. That delayed reaction... is probably a bug."