Chapter 408: Day 13 into the Mary Sue Story

Chapter 408: Day Thirteen of Being Thrown into a Mary Sue Story

Huang Fuxiao stood in place, watching her retreating figure. His frosty expression remained unreadable, but a faint glimmer of interest seemed to deepen in his eyes.

This woman really is interesting.

He didn't chase after her, nor did he bother with Ou Yanglie, who was clearly agitated upstairs. He simply raised his eyes slowly, glancing once more toward the corridor—where An Yi had already gone.

Ou Yanglie watched An Yi's back as he left without hesitation. The inexplicable irritation in his chest eased a little—for reasons even he couldn't quite articulate.

But what surged up in its place was a restlessness far harder to describe—a hollow, restless frustration, like punching cotton—irritating and impossible to shake.

He muttered a low curse, yanked at his hair, and stopped paying attention to Huang Fuxiao in the garden below. Turning, he strode off in the opposite direction from An Yi, his dark mood still hanging over him.

The students who'd been watching also left, satisfied.

That was entertaining.

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A few days later, in the glass greenhouse on top of the library of Shengjing Royal Aristocratic Academy, one afternoon.

The air carried the fresh scent of plants, mixed with the faint smell of ink and paper from the books.

The space had been set up for a small academic salon.

This cross-department academic exchange salon, organized by the student council, was modest in scale, designed to encourage the exchange of ideas among outstanding students from different fields.

An Yi, as one of the representatives selected by the Art Department, was also on the invitation list.

He wasn't early, but he wasn't late either. About twenty people were already seated in little groups in the glass greenhouse, mostly top students from various departments, chatting quietly in a focused, friendly atmosphere.

He glanced around, chose a seat, and sat down.

Outside the window were the academy's open lawns, with a faint city skyline in the distance.

A student council member quietly asked if he wanted anything, then set a cup of green tea in front of him. The green leaves slowly unfurled in the hot water.

An Yi didn't jump into any conversation right away. Instead, he pulled out his phone and checked his messages first.

His parents and oldest brother had sent their usual check-in texts, and he replied politely.

Then there was Lu Lu's messages.

An Yi scrolled through the long list of unread message notifications. He spotted one sent half an hour ago—a photo of an adorable golden retriever holding a frisbee, eyes sparkling at the camera. The caption read: [An Yi, look! Such a cute doggy!]

That's adorable.

Scrolling further up, there were lunch photos, questions about weekend plans, and so on...

In just two months, Lu Lu had sent more messages than the original owner remembered receiving from him over the past few years of their casual friendship. And the messages covered everything, down to the smallest details, with a warmth you couldn't ignore.

An Yi looked down at the screen, a tiny smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

He thought for a moment, then skipped replying to those casual daily updates. Instead, under Lu Lu's latest message—[Are you still busy at the salon? What time does it end? Should I pick you up?]—he just typed one word: [Okay.]

Almost the second his message went through, Lu Lu's reply popped up—he must have been glued to his phone: [Great!! I'll wait for your message! (Happy spinning .jpg)]

An Yi chuckled softly, locked his phone, set it aside, picked up his teacup, and took a sip.

The warm tea went down smoothly. He listened to the conversation for a while, and when the topic came to him, he joined in naturally.

Midway through the event, there was a short tea break.

Everyone got up to grab snacks, grouping together for quiet chats.

An Yi set down his teacup, nodded to a philosophy student he'd been talking to, then stood up. He wanted to step outside the greenhouse for some air—and to avoid the people clearly trying to come talk to him.

Just outside the glass greenhouse was a quiet corridor that connected to other parts of the library. One side had tall floor-to-ceiling windows; the other had dark wooden walls with oil portraits of the academy's historical figures.

Just as An Yi stepped out of the greenhouse into the corridor, someone turned the corner from the other end, about to walk in. They almost ran into each other.

An Yi paused, stepping aside half a step.

"Sorry." A soft, apologetic voice said—clear and sincere.

An Yi looked up and met a pair of smiling eyes behind thin, gold-rimmed glasses.

Behind the lenses, his eyes were warm and gentle, a soft light brown.

The guy wearing the glasses had a handsome, clean-cut face, well-proportioned features, and a calm, steady presence. He was dressed perfectly.

He was the perfect example of a well-bred, highly educated campus elite and young nobleman.

It was Shen Muyu.

The student council president of Shengjing, the one called the "Gentle Prince" among the original F4.

An Yi quickly pulled up the relevant info from his memory.

The Shen family had strong connections, closely linked to both politics and business. Shen Muyu had been raised to be the perfect heir since childhood. In academics, social skills, and leadership, he was the standard at the academy, almost never slipping up. Always graceful, always smiling, he was admired and looked up to by countless students, regardless of gender.

"It's fine." An Yi stepped aside a little, giving the other person more room, his tone just as calm.

Shen Muyu's eyes landed on An Yi's face, seeming to pause for a second. A flicker of surprise passed through his eyes behind the lenses. Then his gentle smile deepened, warmer and more sincere, like he was meeting an old friend after a long time.

"An Yi? It's been a while." His tone had just the right amount of pleasant surprise—genuine without being too much, his voice warm and friendly.

"President Shen, it's been a while." An Yi gave a polite, faint smile and nodded.

His first impression of Shen Muyu was that he was the most "normal" of the original four male leads.

At least on the surface, his people skills were flawless, his speech and mannerisms comfortable, easy to talk to—unlike certain others who had awkward energy or violent tendencies.

"No need to be so formal." Shen Muyu pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, his smile perfect, with a natural familiarity: "Just call me Muyu. Our families go way back—we even played together as kids. Even though we've been busy with school and haven't seen each other much, we shouldn't be so distant."

An Yi did find some vague memories of Shen Muyu from the original owner—their relationship had been average.

He didn't want to dwell on that, so he went along with it, nodded, and kept his smile: "Alright, if you don't mind."