Looking for her a thousand times in the crowd, suddenly turning back, and lo, the person is right at my doorstep.
Seeing the visitor, Li Hao hurriedly stood up and walked toward the entrance.
Gazing at the aloof campus belle before him, a faint curve appeared at the corners of Li Hao's lips.
Gu Qianxue was the peerless, top-ranking academic campus belle of Yuncheng No. 1 High School—on this, no one would ever disagree.
Today, she wore a washed-out, pure white dress, carried a tan canvas shoulder bag, and had her raven-black hair gathered up casually, giving her an intellectual and free-spirited aura.
Beneath her black-rimmed glasses, her dark, bright eyes revealed a flash of surprise.
At this moment, her jade-white fingers were tightly interlaced, and she seemed somewhat nervous.
Li Hao guessed that when his old man had hired Gu Qianxue, he definitely hadn't told her the truth.
Perhaps, to the iceberg beauty Gu Qianxue, he was just a dispensable, transparent nobody—she shouldn't even know who he was to begin with!
Li Hao gave a self-mocking chuckle inwardly.
After a long moment of locking eyes, Li Hao broke the silence first, his voice gentle and magnetic: "Great campus belle Gu... long time no see..."
If it were the him of his past life, he probably would have been so nervous he wouldn't know what to do with his hands and feet!
Because at school, Gu Qianxue had always maintained an icy demeanor, as if keeping everyone at a distance.
She was the goddess in the hearts of every male student in the whole school—the sacred and inviolable kind.
Yet, as a supreme powerhouse who had once reached the peak of the Martial King realm and had one foot across the threshold into the Martial God realm, even after being reborn back into his youth, his state of mind had long been as steady as a rock.
To put it simply, let alone an aloof campus belle, even if a celestial maiden descended from the nine heavens, or the Queen Mother of the Jade Pool appeared right before his eyes, not the slightest ripple would stir in his heart.
Compared to everything he had experienced—the slaughter, the destruction, the disasters, the betrayal, the death, that ultimate agony—all of this was simply a rebirth following awakening.
Carefully observing Gu Qianxue's subtle micro-expressions at the moment—her straight, jade-like legs pressed tightly together, her fingernails digging into her flesh, her slightly lowered forehead—
along with the panic that flashed briefly through her deep-pool-like water-clear eyes when she saw him, Li Hao could be certain that Gu Qianxue recognized him.
"It seems I still have quite a bit of charm!" Li Hao thought with a secret thrill.
Gu Qianxue walked into the villa on tiptoe, stealing glances at Li Hao from the corner of her eye every now and then.
"Pardon me... I think I've come to the wrong place!"
Gu Qianxue clutched her shoulder bag strap tightly and turned to leave.
"Hey, you're Gu Qianxue, right? That's right, you haven't come to the wrong place," Xiaoyao intercepted Gu Qianxue just in time and said.
"Yeah, look, this is you, isn't it?" Xiaoyao opened her phone's photo album and zoomed in on the resume photo to show her.
Seeing this, Li Hao smiled. He thought to himself: "Xiaoyao, Young Master gives you a perfect score for this assist; I'm adding a chicken leg to your dinner tonight!"
Looking at herself in the phone album, Gu Qianxue nervously adjusted her glasses.
She took a deep breath, and because of the sudden movement, her chest rose and fell in rolling waves.
Seeing this, Li Hao swallowed a mouthful of saliva with a gulp.
"Ahem, ahem..."
Li Hao decided to take the initiative: "Great campus belle Gu, since you're already here, you might as well settle in. Why rush to leave?"
Striking first to gain the upper hand, Li Hao's words pinned Gu Qianxue right where she stood.
Her back, which had originally been turned toward him, arched slightly out of tension, looking like an inflated balloon—round, full, and springy.
Li Hao walked slowly to the door, closed it, and locked it tight.
Turning back to look at Gu Qianxue, he said to Xiaoyao: "Xiaoyao, go prepare some tea and snacks; I'm going to start studying."
"You got it, Young Master." Xiaoyao skipped off cheerfully.
Looking at the double-locked door and the departing girl, Gu Qianxue felt utterly despairing.
"This is practically the definition of social death..."
Li Hao felt a wave of amusement as he watched Gu Qianxue's expression.
If her classmates could see the icy campus belle looking like this right now, he wondered what they would think.
"Great campus belle Gu, it's getting late. Come with me to my room for tutoring!"
Gu Qianxue didn't move; she kept staring in the direction of the door, as if wrestling with something in her mind.
Seeing this, Li Hao didn't waste words. He simply grabbed Gu Qianxue's left hand and strode toward the stairs.
Li Hao's overbearing move instantly left Gu Qianxue somewhat dazed, and she blurted out, "I haven't agreed yet, okay!"
"I'm not going to the room! Let's just do it in the downstairs living room!" Just as they were about to step onto the stairs, Gu Qianxue finally mustered up the courage to say.
"No way!" Li Hao refused.
"The downstairs area is for guests; I don't want anyone disturbing my studies. My apologies!"
"But..."
Gu Qianxue still wanted to struggle, but Li Hao smiled inwardly: "Little one, now that you're in my house, you don't get to call the shots anymore."
Just like that, half-pushed and half-yielding, Gu Qianxue was hauled and dragged by Li Hao straight into the bedroom.
"Click!" The bedroom door closed and was locked once more.
"Student Li, don't lock the door!" Gu Qianxue was genuinely panicked, looking like a startled little rabbit.
Li Hao reached out, took Gu Qianxue's shoulder bag, tossed it onto the bed, and closed in on her step by step until he had her cornered against the edge of the bed.
With her back to the large bed, Gu Qianxue lost her footing due to nerves, and her body tipped backward onto the mattress.
"Ah!"
A shriek echoed through the room.
Reacting with lightning speed, Li Hao hurriedly reached out to pull Gu Qianxue back, but accidentally tangled his legs with hers.
As a result, Li Hao and Gu Qianxue tumbled together, stacking on top of each other like the positive and negative poles of a magnet—firmly and tightly...
Li Hao's height of over one meter eighty brought a strong sense of oppression, instantly making Gu Qianxue feel suffocated.
Especially since their lips were pressed tightly together at that moment, and each other's breaths could be felt...
Quiet!
Utterly quiet!
The only sounds lingering slowly in the entire room were the sound of their two heartbeats and heavy gasps...
After a long while, Gu Qianxue shoved Li Hao away with all her might and scrambled up from the bed. Her face was flushed bright red like a ripe apple, so delicate and alluring it made one's mouth water.
Li Hao licked his lips, feeling a lingering sense of unfulfillment.
"What is the meaning of this? Could it be that you think I'm too handsome and wanted to take advantage of me?" Li Hao brazenly argued.
"You... you're going too far!"
Gu Qianxue glared at him in indignation, her chest heaving violently, causing Li Hao to swallow hard over and over again.
"Alright, alright! You didn't lose out either; we're even now."
Li Hao stood up, straightened his clothes, and said, "Just now was a misunderstanding. Can we start the tutoring now?"
Gu Qianxue stood there in a daze, then picked up her shoulder bag, pulled out her prepared textbooks, and said timidly, "Alright!"
Seeing Gu Qianxue's flustered appearance, Li Hao probed with a question: "How long have you been doing this gig?"
"F-First time!"
Li Hao's memories had long since merged with his younger self, and he had indeed heard rumors about Gu Qianxue's background.
Gu Qianxue's family had originally been quite well-off, but later her father also sacrificed his life in a battle against Exotic Beasts in the Lost Zone, leaving her mother grief-stricken and bedridden with illness ever since.
That was why she had no choice but to come out and take on private tutoring jobs to earn money and support her family.
Li Hao was a rich second-generation heir; his father ran Yuncheng's largest Exotic Beast materials company, and the payment he offered for tutoring lessons was bound to be extremely lucrative.
Presumably, it was this that caught Gu Qianxue's eye and prompted her to come tutor him.
"Student Li, for our first lesson we will study Martial Dao history. We have until 10 o'clock; let's begin."
"Sounds good!"
Watching the aloof campus belle give her lecture, time flew by in a flash. Before he knew it, it was 10 o'clock, and Li Hao still hadn't quite had enough of watching her.
After finishing the tea and snacks brought up by Xiaoyao, Li Hao solicitously inquired: "Great campus belle Gu, you must be getting a bit tired too. Why don't you lie down on the bed for a while?"
"N-No need!" Gu Qianxue's nerves instantly tightened again, like a startled little fawn.
"Student Li, let's just move on to the next lesson!"
"What are we studying this lesson?"
"Exotic Beast Encyclopedia."
"Oh, the Exotic Beast Encyclopedia... Right, Great campus belle Gu, I'm extremely interested in Exotic Beast reproduction. You simply must explain that part to me thoroughly!"