Chapter 18 - Thank you, Mr. Secretary.

Cheng Mi didn’t know when she had already sat on Si Tingyan’s desk.

Her white long T-shirt was a bit short, slightly pulled up and resting on her thighs.

She touched the side of his face with her right hand, her fingertips lightly caressing: “Do you think so?”

Si Tingyan surprisingly didn’t swat her hand away, just looked at her: “What if I didn’t look?”

The light on the desk was dim, a tiny spot of it falling into his black pupils, flickering as if about to extinguish.

Cheng Mi propped her other arm by her side. She tilted her head slightly towards her shoulder, her eyes still fixed on him.

“I don’t really believe that, Si Tingyan.”

She spoke every word very clearly.

The desk surface was cool from the air, the coldness seeping into Cheng Mi’s thighs. Her gaze didn’t leave Si Tingyan’s eyes for a moment.

Word by word, she didn’t rush to ask, nor did she slow down. It was like an inquiry, yet every word carried an aggressive edge.

“Right now, in your phone’s messages, is mine marked as read?”

In the dim room, silence reigned, filling every inch of their shared breath.

Si Tingyan said: “When will you ever guess correctly?”

After he spoke, neither of them looked away.

Cheng Mi didn’t understand what he meant by that.

“Really? I wasn’t right,” she said.

Si Tingyan stared intensely at her: “You never know what I’m saying.”

Cheng Mi didn’t speak, trying to discern something from his eyes.

“Why?”

Si Tingyan, however, clearly didn’t want to talk to her anymore. He pushed her hand away, his eyes leaving her, and picked up his pen to continue his work.

This behavior from Si Tingyan was a bit unusual.

Cheng Mi watched him for a few seconds.

“Unhappy?” She reached out, wanting to touch him.

But before her hand could reach him, the sound of parts hitting the floor and a chair leg dragging preceded her.

Cheng Mi’s ankle was grabbed by Si Tingyan, and she was pulled down by him.

Her body instantly left the desk, sliding down the back of the chair, and she landed in the chair with a thump.

The force was considerable; Cheng Mi’s long hair came loose, and she let out a sharp gasp.

The chair cushion was soft, so her tailbone wasn’t numb. Beneath her sat a few of his messy white circuit diagrams.

Her ankle was still held by his distinct fingers.

After Si Tingyan pulled her into the chair, Cheng Mi couldn’t be bothered to adjust her posture. She simply leaned back in the chair, looking at him, her T-shirt hem covering her legs, not allowing for any suggestive thoughts.

Si Tingyan’s brow bone and nose bridge were very well-defined, his skin startlingly pale, and his thin lips with their prominent Cupid’s bow looked somewhat cold.

Their gazes met in the dim light.

A few strands of Cheng Mi’s hair clung to her lips as her ankle brushed against his hand.

“What, are you afraid of seeing something?”

Every word was incredibly proper, yet when spoken from her mouth, each one was explicit.

Afraid of seeing something, that’s why he pulled her down.

Her gaze was direct.

Si Tingyan’s eyes, however, were a silent, dark abyss.

Then, with a click.

Si Tingyan turned off the light, and Cheng Mi’s vision suddenly went dark.

She was instantly enveloped by unknown darkness. The environment, where she could previously see, became pitch black, not even her outstretched hand visible.

Only chaos was before her eyes. Cheng Mi couldn’t see Si Tingyan opposite her, but she wasn’t anxious.

“Why turn off the light?”

Only silence answered her.

Cheng Mi could feel that Si Tingyan was still opposite her; they were very close.

The desk lamp was actually right next to her; Cheng Mi could reach out and turn it on if she wanted.

But she didn’t.

Something stirred in the darkness.

A few seconds later, Cheng Mi, whose ankle was no longer restrained, lifted her foot and knelt on the chair, the fabric of her clothes rustling faintly.

She moved closer to Si Tingyan.

“Si Tingyan, what are you doing?”

She heard no sound, but moved closer to his breath.

Even though she couldn’t see anything, Cheng Mi could feel that he was still staring at her.

Just as she was about to touch his lips, Cheng Mi’s chin was gripped.

Her hand happened to reach the desk lamp, and with a click, it turned on.

Light flooded the room, and Cheng Mi indeed precisely caught Si Tingyan’s gaze.

He was truly looking at her, still sitting upright as before, his clothes neat, his face exuding a sense of fragility.

They were perfectly clear to each other, neither averting their gaze.

Cheng Mi’s chin was held by him. After observing his expression, she asked:

“You don’t want to?”

Si Tingyan’s thin lips parted: “How do you know I want to?”

“Yes, I know.”

She said: “You do.”

Cheng Mi was the kind of person who always captivated others with honest openness, and in this regard, she never lied.

Many people had strong feelings for her. Some were hers, but she didn’t even care for them, let alone those that weren’t.

She only cared for what could stir her own emotions.

Si Tingyan just looked at her.

After a moment of eye contact, Cheng Mi asked: “You just turned off the light, what were you doing?”

Their noses were only a few inches apart.

An inexplicable atmosphere hung in the air.

Just then, the room door suddenly knocked, and Si Huiru’s somewhat worried voice came from outside.

“Xiao Yan, why was there such a loud noise in the room all of a sudden? What happened?”

She must have been woken up by the commotion when Si Tingyan pulled her onto the chair.

Cheng Mi wasn’t surprised to hear Si Huiru’s voice outside the door.

It wasn’t that Si Huiru was being overly dramatic; it was that Si Tingyan was truly different from others, and even an insignificant noise could concern his heart condition.

If Cheng Mi remembered correctly, she hadn’t locked the door when she came in.

However, she wasn’t worried, because Cheng Mi guessed Si Tingyan wouldn’t let Si Huiru worry.

Si Tingyan did speak: “I’m fine.”

They could even hear Si Huiru sighing in relief outside the room.

“That’s good. It’s late now. Study tomorrow, go to bed early.”

“Understood.”

Soon, the sound of a door closing echoed outside the room, and Si Huiru went back to her room.

The atmosphere between them had been broken. Cheng Mi sat back in the chair, leaning against the desk, one hand propping her chin. She held her pen upside down, tapping the cap against the physics workbook she had brought.

She said to Si Tingyan: “Can you help me with a problem?”

What surprised Cheng Mi next was that Si Tingyan didn’t seem to find her strange.

Due to her personality, Cheng Mi was often misunderstood as someone who didn’t like to study. She had taken several exams since coming to Feng Gao, and when her first exam results came out, everyone in her class, including Meng Yin, was very surprised.

Although her grades weren’t comparable to the top one or two in her grade, they weren’t terribly bad either.

However, others generally wouldn’t think so when they looked at her.

Once, when Meng Yin wasn’t there, she asked their homeroom teacher, Wei Xiangdong, who was passing by her seat, a question. The surrounding classmates kept turning to look at her as if they had seen something rare.

But Si Tingyan didn’t.

He was very normal, as if any student in their class had asked him a question, without any preconceived notions.

Cheng Mi only thought this was the case, because otherwise, the other possibility was that he was very familiar with her.

Like Meng Yin, who was no longer surprised after finding out her grades weren’t that bad.

But it seemed unlikely that Si Tingyan was familiar with her.

They were in different grades and had never known each other before.

Si Tingyan asked her: “Where?”

He had stopped looking at her.

Cheng Mi’s gaze finally retracted from him. She opened the workbook and pointed her fingertip at the last major question on a certain page: “I didn’t understand the answer.”

At this moment, Cheng Mi felt the gap between Si Tingyan’s intelligence and that of ordinary people.

For a problem whose answer she hadn’t understood, Si Tingyan began explaining it after just one glance at the question.

Cheng Mi usually wasn’t very serious when she was with Si Tingyan, always trying to say something to tease him.

But at this moment, she listened attentively, asking a question when she didn’t understand.

Si Tingyan’s explanations were very clear and well-organized. Cheng Mi was sure he was explaining to her using the most conventional method of solving the problem.

Because she understood all the formulas and knowledge.

People with high intelligence sometimes operate on a different knowledge system than ordinary people.

It was already more than ten minutes later when he finished explaining. Cheng Mi used her pen to write down the last formula in the workbook.

Si Tingyan didn’t speak beside her, watching her finish writing.

After she stopped writing, Si Tingyan looked away.

It was getting late. Cheng Mi didn’t bother him any further, packing up her books and pen.

As she got up to leave, she placed a bottle of Wangzai milk on his desk, her eyes smiling.

“Thank you, Teacher Si.”

“Good night.”