Chapter 15: The Mastermind Behind the Scenes

As soon as the question was asked, Yu Shujun immediately tucked her legs beneath the desk.

…Feeling guilty?

Wen Nan’s eyes drifted to the corner of the desk, where the uniform pants were partially hidden.

Yu Shujun drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. Despite the summer night’s heat, the air she exhaled seemed cold enough to frost over.

Still, she did not answer Wen Nan’s question. She raised her wrist to glance at her watch and said, “There are seventeen minutes and twenty-three seconds left. During this time, unless it’s a question about the test paper, I don’t want to hear another word from you. Otherwise, you’ll face the consequences.”

Wen Nan raised his hand, pressed two fingers together, and zipped his lips.

Yu Shujun lowered her head and turned her attention back to the Olympiad mock test in front of her.

Wen Nan fell silent, but he had no intention of actually looking at the test paper.

Doing problems was out of the question—he would never do them, not in this life.

He sprawled at the edge of the desk, turning his head slightly to gaze up at the girl beside him, studying her profile.

Perhaps sensing his stare, Yu Shujun’s lashes fluttered beneath her glasses, but she stubbornly refused to meet his gaze.

A silent standoff stretched between them.

At last, Wen Nan broke the stalemate again. “I have a question.”

Yu Shujun turned to look at him, her eyes clearly warning: You’d better really have a question.

This time, Wen Nan pushed the test paper toward her, pointing at the first question. “This multiple choice question—I have a problem.”

Yu Shujun glanced at the problem statement:

[Xiaowei and Xiaojun are designing an irrigation system for a hospital garden. They plan to install a central fountain in an elliptical garden; the fountain must irrigate the entire area evenly. The garden’s major axis is 40 meters, the minor axis is 30 meters, and the fountain should be placed at the focus for maximum coverage. The garden’s center is at the origin (0, 0).

Question: At which position should the fountain be placed to best optimize coverage of the entire garden?

A) (±5, 0)
B) (±10, 0)
C) (±15, 0)
D) (±20, 0)]

It was the first question on the test—a giveaway, not even requiring senior-level math knowledge.

Yu Shujun breathed deeply to steady herself. “What’s your question?” she asked.

Wen Nan pointed at the problem. “I want to know—Xiaowei and Xiaojun, are they best friends?”

The pupils of Yu Shujun’s eyes contracted. Though she tried to hide it, a flash of surprise crossed her face.

She quickly recovered her composure, masking her expression. “Do you think your question is relevant to the test?”

“It is,” Wen Nan nodded earnestly. “It’s the background of the problem. If I don’t figure it out, I’ll be bothered while solving it.”

As he spoke, Wen Nan’s gaze drifted beneath the desk, to the iodine-stained patch on Yu Shujun’s pants.

“Xiaowei scraped her knee and was sent to the school infirmary late at night. Except for the doctor on duty, the place was empty. As for Xiaojun, she should have been in the classroom tutoring Xiao Jiu, but she left in the middle and went to the infirmary. Why?

“Is it because Xiaojun and Xiaowei are best friends, and she couldn’t leave her alone at the hospital? Or… is there more to it?”

Yu Shujun gazed at Wen Nan in silence, her eyes filled with scrutiny, as if she had gravely underestimated his intelligence and perception.

Seeing she did not reply, Wen Nan continued on his own:

“If we assume Xiaojun and Xiaowei are best friends, then, as we know, Xiaowei previously left a letter for Xiao Jiu in her desk, asking her to meet at the track. But Xiao Jiu never found the letter, and missed the meeting.

“So, in theory, Xiaowei and Xiao Jiu shouldn’t have met that night. However, Xiaowei’s best friend found the letter in the classroom and told Xiaowei, prompting her to rush to the field with the note, causing a scene that became quite chaotic.

“In other words, the so-called accident at the track wasn’t really an accident—someone deliberately orchestrated it, right?”

Wen Nan concluded, looking straight into Yu Shujun’s eyes, enunciating each word: “Xiaowei’s best friend?”

At last, Yu Shujun set down her pen, turned, and met Wen Nan’s gaze. “What are you trying to say? Is it strange for Xiaowei to have a best friend? Her best friend cares for her, worries she’ll miss out, delivers her the letter, and goes to the infirmary to check on her after she scrapes her knee—what’s wrong with that?”

Theoretically, there was nothing wrong.

In the beginner’s trial area, it was normal for characters to interact. For instance, Qiqi and her aunt Lin Xuemei were closely connected, even related by blood.

If the campus belle Wu Yuwei and the top student Yu Shujun were best friends, it wouldn’t be unusual for them to step forward when the other was in trouble.

However…

Wen Nan felt that Yu Shujun’s actions now went beyond the boundaries of an ordinary character in a scenario.

That the characters had their own behavioral logic was not surprising. But Wen Nan believed that, at least for the targets he had chosen to pursue, their fundamental motivations should revolve around him.

For example, before Wen Nan showed up for their meeting, Qiqi would wait in the small flower bed outside the track for him. The fiery girl and Aunt Mei would also try to find him if he didn’t appear, hoping to complete their meeting task. Wu Yuwei’s behavior deviated a little, but still centered on “confessing to Ye Jiu.”

If the logic held, then when Yu Shujun waited in vain for “her guidance target Ye Jiu” at the back door of the classroom, she should have continued waiting, sent a message to urge Ye Jiu, or stormed off angrily. Why, then, did she go to the infirmary to see Wu Yuwei, then return to Class 2 as if nothing had happened, continuing to wait for Ye Jiu? What was the purpose behind this behavior?

In fact, it wasn’t only the trip to the infirmary.

Earlier, when Wen Nan first entered the classroom, he’d been startled because Yu Shujun’s appearance matched exactly the person described by the other two characters—a girl in the No. 7 High uniform, thick glasses, and a high ponytail.

In the fiery girl’s background info, it was noted that, not being a No. 7 High student, she shouldn’t have been able to enter the campus at all. The only reason she got in was that a bespectacled, high-ponytailed girl in a No. 7 High uniform had spoken to the gate guard for her.

The same story was mentioned by Aunt Mei—she, too, had been escorted in by a girl in glasses.

All these clues pointed to one fact—

Whether it was the smaller drama involving Liu Qi and Wu Yuwei, or the later, larger one with the fiery girl and Aunt Mei, the mastermind behind the scenes was Yu Shujun.