When the Green Tea’s Target is the Female Lead

     Xia Lan Shan's popularity in the class isn’t bad, yet she has never invited classmates over to her home. It's not because she feels inferior, but rather because she doesn't want to receive unnecessary sympathy that will ruin the initial good classmate relationship.

     After all, the school she attended belonged to the kind of school where parents wanted to send their children in regardless of the price. However, although the school was famous for its high enrollment rate, half of the class she was in were children from rich families. This was because some parents believed that if their children were around children with particularly good grades, their grades would also improve. Thus, Xia Lan Shan, who was supposed to go to the best class, came to this class.

     One can learn wherever they go, but money can't be earned everywhere.

     Therefore, most students in the class would probably be surprised that there was actually such a place.

     To be precise, the basement where Xia Lan Shan lives is an illegal building structure similar to a security booth at the parking area of an old community. The space isn’t especially crowded, it’s just no safety precautions were done. Even the lights and such were powered by an extended cord from an outlet quite far away. As for washing up and going to the bathroom, one has to go to an unoccupied room on the first floor. Moreover, if you wanted hot water, you would have to boil it yourself.

     It seems Xia Lan Shan was living a miserable life, but Xia Lan Shan was already very content. For example, the unoccupied room on the first floor, the landlord said due to the poor natural lighting, the room hasn’t been able to rent out. However, Xia Lan Shan knew if it wasn’t because of her, the room would have been rented out ages ago. Plus this place she was currently living in, the cost included the rent of the place, water and electricity, was less than two hundred a month. She also whose credit this was due to.

     Xia Lan Shan actually isn’t that poor. When her grandma's family members kicked her out, they left her five thousand yuan. In addition to her part-time job, she had already saved plenty of money. Only she didn't think it was necessary to change, because she was familiar with everyone living here and she would go live on campus after the college entrance examination. It was not unbearable to stay here until she went off to college.

     Yet, this little matter in her eyes was a big deal in others’ eyes. At the very least after her teacher came, she never was bothered about her immediately leaving school after school, though Xia Lan Shan still didn't want her classmates to know. After all, the teacher knowing was a convenience for her, but her classmates knowing would be finding trouble for herself.

     Fortunately, Shi Yin seemed to be still immersed in sadness and didn't pay much attention to the surrounding environment. Xia Lan Shan set down the schoolbag on the chair that a moving neighbor who didn't want it anymore gave her. Then, she went out with an empty water glass. After a while, she returned and passed it in front of her: "Drink some water."

     Although it was only early autumn now, it was quite cold at night. Xia Lan Shan could feel her hands were a little cold when she carried her on her back. Then when her legs stopped being numb and she walked by herself, she was still shivering due to the night wind. If she didn't pay attention, maybe tomorrow she would catch a cold.

     Shi Yin froze for a moment before taking the water glass. After thanking her, she held the water glass with both hands and took a sip. Only then did her face become a little ruddier. Since Shi Yin was sitting and Xia Lan Shan was still standing, she could see past Shi Yin's collar that Shi Yin wasn't wearing underneath this not too thick flannel pajamas. No wonder she was shivering outside from the cold just now.

     Xia Lan Shan sighed helplessly. She poured out the hot water from the water bottle to moisten a towel and handed it to her, feeling like a mother nursing her child. This was even one that she found herself.

     After Shi Yin finished washing her face, Xia Lan Shan wrung out the towel again to wash her own face. Then, she poured the wash water into a basin and sat next to Shi Yin.

     Shi Yin's eyes were still red as she stared at her blankly.

     Xia Lan Shan rolled her eyes: "Wash your feet and go to sleep, stop dawdling."

     Shi Yin nodded, she bent down to take off her socks. Only then did Xia Lan Shan realize that the socks she was wearing were those cute cat's claw socks. Her feet were rather delicate and small like even if they were made into an accessory for someone to play with in their hands, it won't make them feel obtrusive.

     Probably because the water temperature was a bit hot, her feet hovered on the water surface. Xia Lan Shan directly stepped on top of her feet and pressed down, yet subconsciously shivered due to the chilling sensation.

     "Class Monitor, it's hot."

     The other party's voice was soft and sounded a little aggrieved. Xia Lan Shan replied with an “En” and dismissed her words. Turning sideways, she picked up the English book beside her. Thinking about it, she stuffed it into Shi Yin's hand before searching for another textbook for herself.

     Shi Yin: "... …?"

     "Tomorrow morning, Teacher Li said we will write the vocabulary terms from memory during the morning session." Xia Lan Shan explained the purpose of giving her the English textbook.

     She reckoned with Shi Yin's current state and who knows how long she had been crying, she probably didn't have time to study the terms. If she crams a little now, she might not have to copy as much tomorrow. After all, Teacher Li is very strict. At that time, Shi Yin would be scolded by the teacher as well as given the task to copy down the words she got wrong. She’ll definitely cry again.

     Xia Lan Shan actually didn't have much of an impression of Shi Yin before. I mean, there are so many people in a class. Except for those with excellent grades or extremely poor grades, she doesn’t have much of an impression of those in the middle while Shi Yin happens to fall into that category. In Xia Lan Shan's memory, the other party seemed to be rather quiet. When someone comes to talk to her after class, she only smiles shyly without too much of a presence. But now her position in Xia Lan Shan's mind became clear all of a sudden— a crybaby-like soft girl.

     In short, watching people cry is always uncomfortable so it is better to avoid it if possible.

     Shi Yin sniffled. She looked at her with innocent almond eyes: "Class Monitor, what word will be tested?"

     —— It can be seen at a glance that she didn't listen carefully in class.

     Xia Lan Shan resigned herself to take out a pencil to circle a few short sentences and phrases, then continued to draw a horizontal line under some of the words before saying: "In my judgment, the circled ones should be those that Teacher Li will definitely test and the ones that might appear are the underlined. If you can’t memorize them all, just focus on memorizing the circled ones.”

     "Thank you, Class Monitor." Shi Yin blinked as she smiled at her with slightly pursed lips. Although the arc of the smile wasn’t too big, Xia Lan Shan somehow felt better. Probably because the other party finally didn't look too sad?

     When the water temperature of the footbath dropped, Xia Lan Shan had her go on the bed to continue studying while she sat at the desk and finished the rest of her homework. Granted, the supermarket part-time wasn’t that busy since she only helped with tidying up the shelves and welcoming the customers, high school students’ homework load has always been heavy. Even if Xia Lan Shan took the time to write as much as possible in between breaks, there would still be some homework left to catch up upon returning home.

     In fact, she could have saved these exam papers until tomorrow and copied other people's. It's just that Xia Lan Shan is usually serious in everything she does and couldn't accept such behavior from herself. Due to this, she has also managed to build up the speed of doing homework. On the premise of not being tired, the accuracy rate is also guaranteed. Yet, there is truly no time to check for errors or omissions, so she can only give up on those.

     Because there was another person who was still studying, Xia Lan Shan didn't turn off the big lamp that can illuminate the whole room but consumes quite a bit of electricity. She was even afraid Shi Yin reading on the bed would be bad for her eyes that she moved the lamp closer to her side.

     Huddled under the warm blanket, Shi Yin watched Xia Lan Shan, who was doing her homework with her back straight. She thought to herself: What a good girl, why couldn’t she just resist the temptation of young love?

     Isn't it better to study hard and work on her career?

     By the time Xia Lan Shan finished the exam paper, it was already past twelve o'clock. She stretched her waist and looked back at the bed, only to discover that the other party was already asleep. She went over to put away the English textbook and sat on the bed, crisscrossed until her foot was warm before sliding into the blanket.

     Based on her usual habits, she actually washes up after finishing her homework so that she’ll feel more comfortable on the bed. But there is a guest she has to accommodate now, otherwise her cold body might let her catch a cold.

     Maybe it was because she was making too many movements that Shi Yin woke up from her sleep. Xia Lan Shan felt a little fretted, because she felt her movements were already small enough. Moreover, it was more difficult to fall back asleep after waking up from sleep once. Plus, she didn't know what to talk about. What if the other party recalled something sad and started crying at night?

     Xia Lan Shan felt comforting others was much more difficult than studying.

     Fortunately, the other party seemed to be in a stable mood and even moved inside to make room for her. Her face exposed outside the blanket set off by the slightly fluffy hair had an appearance similar to a heart-warming feeling one feels for a baby animal.

     Xia Lan Shan realized for the first time that she might have a cute object complex.

     Turning off the light, Xia Lan Shan crawled under the blanket, a little unaccustomed to the strange breathing. Nonetheless, she has always been adaptable and able to fall asleep in any environment, so it didn't take long for her to feel sleepy.

     At this moment, a voice came from her side: "Class Monitor, are you asleep?"

     Xia Lan Shan was silent.

     Shi Yin wasn’t bothered. She just kept talking to herself: "My parents are divorced, why?" She let out a small sobbing sound, "They both don't want me anymore, I don’t have a home now."

     She probably thought she was asleep. Shi Yin was crying very in a suppressed manner, thinking that she didn’t make any sounds when in fact, the shaking of her body made it more obvious as they were sharing the bed together. Xia Lan Shan had no parents since she was a child. It was Grandma, who picked her up from the streets so she really didn't understand what was the big deal of parents divorcing. It’s not that she lost them forever. Though perhaps it was similar to her feeling of powerlessness when she faced her grandma's death?

     Xia Lan Shan wasn't quite sure, but she instinctively felt the other party might need comfort. After all, not everyone could be as “strong” as her. Therefore, she turned over and reached out to caress her back in an inexperienced manner.

     Shi Yin's body instantly stiffened, most likely because she hadn’t expected Xia Lan Shan to be awake. However, after a while, she gave up and wormed into her embrace, no longer trying to hide her crying.

     Xia Lan Shan's heart softened from her crying. Since young, she had truly never met such a person. After all, it was rare for someone to show weakness in front of her peers. And even if there were, it was between close people. Whereas Xia Lan Shan didn’t have the time to maintain such close friendships with others.

     Thus Xia Lan Shan, who’s encountering this kind of scene for the first time, was at a loss. She endured the discomfort and made herself calmly comfort her. Sentences like divorce didn’t mean there can’t be a remarriage or how they’re still your parents after the divorce and of the sort kept flowing out of her mouth.

     Who knew Shi Yin would feel even more miserable? She told her in irregular intervals that both her parents didn’t want her and how because she was already of age, they would give her a living allowance monthly as they were planning to leave the city, but neither would bring her with them.

     She also said they have all found their next home and were planning to marry someone else and have other kids.

     Her “one-sided story” made Xia Lan Shan furious. She thought to herself how could there be such irresponsible parents? How could they have the heart to not want such an obedient and cute child like Shi Yin? How did people like them become parents? !

     In reality, the parents of the original owner might be irresponsible but they still did give enough money. They also might have cheated, but they didn’t plan to remarry and have children. In the future, they both intended on leaving the family assets to this only child. It’s just that they each felt the other's character was corrupted and would lead her astray if left in the other party’s care. Therefore, they decided to let the child live alone and agreed to a time when they could see her together. Neither of them could come meet her alone.

     Shi Yin thought it was quite funny that this parent pair came up with such a solution, though she didn't intend to tell Xia Lan Shan the truth. She only wanted to sell this sob story to gain Xia Lan Shan's sympathy.