Chapter 276, Jealousy is the Original Sin
"Utsunomiya Shuo and His Highness Romanov have started dating" began to spread around the campus.

Thanks to the classmates who love to gossip about everything, good or bad, and thanks to everyone seeing the two of them going to school together, everyone seems to have determined that this is not just a rumor but a fact.

"Why is it Utsunomiya? Does he have any evidence against him?"

"No matter how you think about it, it's impossible. Does Romanov look like the type that can be manipulated by others?"

"Yes, but..."

"Background! Background! In fact, Utsunomiya has been hiding his identity all along. He is actually the only son of a certain chaebol. So Romanov was not transferred here by chance, but a family marriage arranged by him."

"Hey, Jiu, wake up. Even if you don't want to accept this fact, you can't use such a perfunctory excuse!"

"It's entirely possible."

"Sanwu, even you..."

"Remember that super pretty red-haired girl, and Utsunomiya's friends Yamamoto and Kanda? Think about it, is this the kind of connections that ordinary people can have? He must be the successor of a chaebol! Damn, damn rich people!"

"In your eyes, connections are divided into levels based on appearance, Sanwu, don't let your will break through your anger!!!"

...Thanks to this, whenever he had to change classrooms or had something to do and needed to leave the classroom and go to the corridor, there would always be people talking about him in a whisper, so Zhuo felt particularly uncomfortable.

"That's what I said. How could it be possible? Those guys are really stupid. They jump to conclusions without even understanding the situation. How could Romanov-san date such an ordinary person?"

"It's no use saying this now. The commotion will probably die down in a few days."

A classmate who was at a distance from the discussion said this, and his friends around him nodded and said, "Yes."

"People won't keep talking about the same topic all the time. It will be overshadowed by other topics soon."

"It would be great if that were the case. Mr. Romanov must be overwhelmed by the noise and slander!"

Zhuo sat at the desk during class break.

Even now during the break, Zhuo could hear people whispering in the distance. To be honest, he was not in a good mood.

By the way, during the break, the boys in the class questioned him for a long time, which made him very annoyed. He explained the matter, but in the end, the whispers did not decrease at all, but just changed the direction of talking about him. In just one morning, Zhuo felt that his physical strength was almost half gone. Fortunately, there was no physical education class today.

During lunch break, Zhuo, Kanda, and Jin were walking on the way to the restaurant.

"I think that from now on, there will be fewer people questioning you, but you will be surrounded in other ways." Kanda Tomokazu said as he walked in the middle.

Even though he was being watched from all directions, he was still able to smile, or rather snicker, and respond to the glances from his classmates. That was really amazing.

Even though Zhuo knew that Kanda was used to this kind of gaze and was grinning because he had Kanda as a companion, he still felt that his smile deserved a beating.

"Murder to silence the witness?" Zhuo said.

"It's too dark, Zhuo. Other girls will notice you and realize that you are a good match."

"what are you talking about."

"Although it's a bit realistic, that's how people's value increases. Regardless of whether the rumors are true or not, you have been linked to too many beautiful girls. In the eyes of other girls, they will definitely think that you must have something special that's why you're so popular. Over time, a halo will be formed."

After saying that, Kanda added with a sly smile: "Someone will come to confess~"

"But I already have someone I like."

He understood what Kanda meant.

Professionally, it is called the star effect, and amateurly, it is taking advantage of people's desire to compete. This kind of thing is actually very common, just like those luxury goods, which actually have no value at all, but the upper class uses them, so they are regarded as proof of class by those who see them, and then pursued.

One can imagine the mentality of those who confess their love through this kind of psychology.

Besides, although Zhuo didn't dare to say that he would be with Ling for the rest of his life, at least he had planned to spend the remaining years of his youth with Ling. Even if he was asked to turn his attention to someone else, he couldn't do it. In the final analysis, even if there really was a woman with better conditions than Ling, he would never choose anyone other than Ling.

Expecting Zhuo to fall in love with someone else will only trouble him.

"Love is sometimes unreasonable."

"Well, it's rare for Ren to say something like that."

"You're very rude~ But even if it's someone else's lover, you can't suppress your feelings. After all, love is just like an impulse."

Ren added, "Of course, it's not a good idea to put your impulse into action." After saying that, he looked at the girls who were gathered at the entrance of the restaurant chatting and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Zhuo looked in that direction and saw three or four girls walking together hand in hand. Everyone was trying hard to smile, and their laughter was pleasant, like the sound of a string of silver bells colliding.

Zhuo withdrew his gaze without leaving a trace and asked listlessly, "Have you made any progress with her?"

"It's okay. I went to McDonald's with Yamamoto last weekend." Ren replied, scratching his head.

"Would a normal person go to McDonald's on a date?"

So it doesn't work, Zhuo thought.

But he didn't go either. He took the little mute to Kendeji, and that wasn't a date - it was a place to purchase goods.

"The evergreen among the bootlickers, the pillar among the jokers; the mascot of McDonald's, the big boss of Gotham City; the largest number of playing cards, the big client of Batman; the Nanbo rabbit among the spare tires, the one who has a house to live in among the blacklisted ones... Do you think I would say that..." Zhuo muttered to himself as he looked at the glass door of the restaurant in front of him.

"You've already said it."

Zhuo Quan pretended not to hear and continued, "Now that things have come to this, I will no longer laugh at you, Ren."

"How did you view me before..."

"Of course we're friends." Zhuo looked at Ren, "I suggest you ask her out every week from now on. A strong woman is afraid of a clingy man, and you'll always succeed."

"Even if you suddenly say this seriously, it's not convincing. Aren't you..." Noticing Zhuo's threatening look, Ren's voice became smaller and smaller, and finally he was completely silent and changed the subject, "Oh, stop talking, I know what to do."

"That doesn't sound good. What do you think?"

"Not necessarily, Ren, you can check your zodiac sign, maybe her zodiac sign is like this."

"Hahaha, that's too much, haha..."

Zhuo suddenly met Yurina by chance and remembered this matter. Although he felt sorry for her, Zhuo really didn't know why Yurina liked him, and he didn't want her to continue to like him. If possible, Zhuo sincerely hoped that the two most important friends in his life since childhood, Ren and Yurina, could get the results they wanted.

But Ren was obviously still very immature and shy - even so, Zhuo would not laugh at him.

Who can not be immature when facing someone you truly like?

Zhuozheng was writing a poet because of his melancholy about the passing of time. When he heard Ren's words, he almost fell down on the spot.

"Don't worry, brother. I will really launch an attack this time. I pretend to be fascinated by her. This is just part of my plan. Don't say anything. I have my own rhythm."

Zhuo: “…” Kanda: “…”

"Zhuo, what should I do? Why does the situation seem a little strange to me?"

"Well, it's quite normal. It's been like this for a while. But don't worry, Yurina is not that kind of bad girl. She knows her limits."

"Was it like this before, Ren?"

"Yes, it has been like this since junior high school... well, it's a little different. Back then, when we were all young, Jin would pick wild flowers for Yurina. Now that he's grown up, he doesn't dare to do that anymore."

"Assholes, can you two keep your voices down when you talk about people behind their backs—"

Ren heard the whole thing of Kanda and Zhuo's whispering. He could no longer bear it and complained loudly, then looked down at Zhuo in a somewhat frustrated manner - that is, he crossed his arms proudly, stood sideways and glanced at Zhuo: "You sound very reasonable, but it turns out you are just guys who have never been in love."

“…My emotions are complicated,” Kanda admitted frankly.

Considering what happened today, from Ren's perspective, Zhuo could indeed understand what he said.

"Anyway, let's just stay the same as before." Ren sighed.

"On the contrary, I hope that you two will continue to attack and have a little courage~" Kanda said.

"Can three cobblers really stink up Zhuge Liang?" Utsunomiya Zhuo looked up to the sky and muttered to himself.

"…We are going to the cafeteria, right? And I don't have a bento, so I have to buy lunch in the cafeteria."

"Ah."

"Take it. What's today's daily set menu?"

“I remember it was fried chicken.”

"Wow, not bad. The fried chicken in our cafeteria has thin skin and is delicious."

Kanda chuckled, waved his wallet and walked out.

Zhuo looked at Kanda's back, thanking him for his help today, and admiring his optimism and self-control. As a famous handsome guy on campus, Kanda has never been in a relationship. This is really admirable.

"OK. I'm done."

In the cafeteria, Zhuo took up the seats for three people. After the two people who bought food came back, Kanda took over Zhuo's task of "guarding the seat".

Zhuo had already taken out his lunch box and placed it on the table, but he still needed to buy a drink, so he stood up and went to the vending machine to buy a drink.

"Can you stay away from Zero? You are really overestimating yourself..."

For Zero, who lives almost entirely alone in her private life, no one in school can talk to her, so naturally she has no friends. In other words, Zhuo is probably the only one who can be called a friend, the only one who calls her "Zero".

However, the voice that he could hear clearly despite being deliberately suppressed was not what Zhuo said. Instead, it was something that a boy who passed by him said to him on purpose.

Zhuo had anticipated the scene of being criticized, so even though he was exhausted and unhappy before, he didn't feel anything, because it was all natural. If Zhuo saw the most beautiful girl on campus being cheated away by an inconspicuous and unreliable boy, he would also complain a few words.

This is human nature.

However, such deliberately malicious words were beyond Zhuo's expectations.

After a moment of silence, Zhuo was a little angry. He thought about grabbing him and having a fight or quarrel. But he thought that doing so would only make the joke worse, so he held back. As for using his ability... others just said a few unpleasant words, and although their quality was low, he didn't think of doing that.

The boy was sitting not far away, continuing to look at Zhuo with contempt with his triangular eyes, and his mouth did not stop, saying things to his friend next to him that were not good even without being heard.

Zhuo ignored him and stood at the end of the vending machine queue.

There were quite a lot of people in the front of the queue, but there were only two vending machines in the cafeteria. Mobile payment had not yet been invented in that era, and vending machines required payment with banknotes and coins. Banknotes, in particular, were particularly troublesome to use. If there were even the slightest wrinkles, they would be spit out, and you would need to stretch them out repeatedly and keep trying.

“Eh? Is this true?”

"Of course it's true. Utsunomiya has already come out to clarify. Now it's just one-sided gossip from outside."

"It's good that it's clarified. Utsunomiya and Romanov-chan are friends. I hope there won't be any embarrassment because of this."

A familiar voice came from the front of the team. Zhuo guessed that it might be some girls in his class, but it was a bit difficult for him to tell who it was by the voice.

Looking up, I saw three familiar-looking girls from the same class, surrounding a girl with light blonde hair, chattering.

The girl with light blonde hair remained silent the entire time. She held a cup of drink expressionlessly, biting the straw as she sipped, not saying a word. She was cold and her eyes were as indifferent as snow.

The queue in front of the vending machines is divided into two rows from east to west. The leaders of the two rows face a vending machine respectively. There is also enough space between the two rows to facilitate the students who have finished buying things to evacuate.

Zhuo's team was on the left, and Ling and the others were walking out in the gap between the two teams. When Zhuo saw them, they seemed to notice him as well. Zhuo saw a girl waving at him. Although he was sorry, he didn't remember her name.

Zhuo saw that Ling didn't look up. It was as if she was living in her own world. The world was noisy, but she walked with her head down and looking at the ground the whole time.

Two steps, three steps... after more than ten steps, Zero stopped on his right without any warning, then looked up at him without saying anything, and even his mouth did not leave the straw.

"Well--"

"what? What--"

Zhuo temporarily ignored the girl's scream behind her and just stared at Ling, not knowing what she was doing.

After about two or three seconds of consideration, he realized that more and more students were paying attention to this place... There had been a lot of 'rumors' about him recently, and now it was even more lively... Zhuo thought about it, then slowly reached out his hand, grabbed the drink cup in Ling's hand, and while slurping the drink, he also pulled the straw out of her lips.

Then he stood up again, held the drink in one hand, sucked the straw into his mouth, and tasted the drink.

sour and sweet.

It's grape juice.

After taking two sips, he spit out the straw and returned the cup to its original owner.

"This is quite satisfying. Don't fight." Zhuo said something that no one else could understand.

Zero put the straw back into his mouth as if nothing had happened, nodded, and turned away.

Zhuo continued to wait in line as if nothing had happened.

The onlookers and the three girls were not so calm, especially the three girls, who all covered their mouths to prevent themselves from screaming: Didn't you just say that it had been clarified? Isn't that how it was clarified? No, no, there is nothing to clarify, bah! There is nothing to quibble about!
It's like the ebb tide before a tsunami.

After half a minute of silence, there was a sudden burst of discussions of all sizes, as lively as a vegetable market.

The boy who had come over to say mean things to him before was now sitting there alone. Even though the classmates around him had distanced themselves from him because they thought he was lying and slandering others out of jealousy, he didn't care. He looked incredulous, his eyes wide open.

(End of this chapter)