Getting Caught Up In His Cycle Of Passionate Love - Chapter 9

“Then catch up to my pace.”

When they finally exited the haunted house, Lu Que was drenched in cold sweat. Xu Tao Yue secretly chuckled—only to be caught red-handed by Lu Que.

“What are you laughing at? You think it’s funny? I’m never going out with you again.”
The moment he saw daylight, Lu Que immediately let go of Xu Tao Yue’s sleeve, secretly relieved.

A double interrogation and a mild threat—Xu Tao Yue instantly realized Lu Que had flipped his lid.

But honestly… it was kind of cute.

She didn’t dare show it on her face, so she just grinned to herself inwardly.

Lu Que during this phase? Really quite adorable.

“I wasn’t laughing because you were scared.” Xu Tao Yue waved her hand and gave him a comforting look. “Besides, it’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Even Xia Xiangyang’s afraid of haunted houses.”

Something she said must’ve hit a nerve, because Lu Que exploded again:
“How do you know him so well? Why don’t you just go hang out with him then? Don’t ask me to take you anywhere!”

At that moment, Xu Tao Yue really resembled some scumbag trying to weasel out of responsibility:
“No, no! I wouldn’t go with him! I only want to hang out with you!”

Lu Que was still sulking, and Xu Tao Yue was right beside him trying to calm him down.

Honestly, anyone would’ve found the haunted house scary.

Ye Wan quietly leaned over and asked, “What did you do to make him mad?”

Xu Tao Yue looked genuinely wronged. She tiptoed over to stand beside Ye Wan and whispered,
“Maybe he got scared and just doesn’t want to admit it.”

“Huh?” Ye Wan looked puzzled.

Lu Que’s face didn’t look great, and Xu Tao Yue eagerly ran over and offered him a piece of candy:
“Lu Que~ have a sweet~”

“You eat it.” Lu Que replied grumpily.

How did she even know Xia Xiangyang was scared?

Lu Que peeked at her and realized Xu Tao Yue had also handed snacks to the others too.

Lu Que: “…”

And you said I was the only one. Hah.
His mind was already spiraling.

“You’ve got so many people around you anyway,” he muttered under his breath.

“Huh?” Xu Tao Yue only caught part of it.
“What do you mean, ‘so many people’?”

“Nothing.”
Forget it. Xu Tao Yue was just that dense.

In the end, Lu Que basically talked himself down from the ledge and silently forgave her.

“Oh.”

She had no idea what a tangled mess Lu Que’s emotions were at that moment—like a knotted ball of yarn.
Her every word seemed to tug at something deep inside him.

It had never felt like this before.

And he didn’t like it.

Still, Xu Tao Yue had her own agenda. After saying goodbye to Ye Wan and the others, she dragged Lu Que to the arcade again.

“Haven’t you learned from last time when you spent hundreds of tokens and only caught one pig?”

Lu Que’s words were still brutally honest.

“Let me try again! What if today’s the day I catch a lucky break?”

Lu Que smiled faintly and leaned casually against the claw machine while listening to vocabulary on his phone.

“Abandon… to give up…”

He frowned slightly when he heard that word—abandon—as if he was remembering Xu Tao Yue’s words:
“But I don’t want to give up.”

Such a hard-to-understand person.

Lu Que’s eyes stayed fixed on Xu Tao Yue. Watching her scratch her head and furrow her brows was honestly amusing, so he raised his phone and quietly started recording a video.

Right now, Xu Tao Yue was locked in a fierce battle with the claw machine, determined to win that plush octopus.

It looked just like Lu Que.

That grumpy little face, the dead-eyed expression—Xu Tao Yue thought it was basically his twin.

The more she looked at it, the more she had to win it. She kept feeding coin after coin into the machine.

Lu Que quietly watched, clearly amused.

After countless tries, Xu Tao Yue was finally down to her last coin.

Lu Que was amazed. Statistically, claw machines always had a winning window.
But how could someone be this unlucky? She’d gone through dozens of coins and still hadn’t won anything.

She clutched the coin for a good five minutes, too scared to drop it in.

Then, with hands together, she made a little prayer:
“Please, please, it’s the last one—let me get the octopus!”

She solemnly inserted the coin. The machine whirred to life.
Xu Tao Yue took a deep breath and glanced at the nearby claw machine “cheat sheet”:

“Turn three times left, three times right, up down up down.”

She locked eyes with the octopus, ready to go down in glory or flames.
The claw dropped right onto the toy’s head—
—and bam, it landed in the chute.

Xu Tao Yue stood there, stunned. When she finally picked it up, she let out a loud squeal.

Seeing this, Lu Que’s lips curled into a smile. He looked at her holding the toy, turning to him—

—And then Xu Tao Yue realized—

Lu Que had been secretly filming her!

She didn’t even care about the toy anymore. She ran over and shoved it into Lu Que’s arms, fuming.

“Lu Que, you are so unethical!”

Lu Que, caught in the act, didn’t even try to deny it. He twirled his phone smugly, raising an eyebrow.

Xu Tao Yue planted her hands on her hips.
She launched into a full-blown phone-grabbing mission:
“How dare you secretly record me!”

“I didn’t,” Lu Que lied through his teeth, without blinking.

Xu Tao Yue scoffed. She knew that footage must be awful.
As a top-tier beauty, how could she let her crush keep a video of her looking that dumb?

“Lu Que. Delete. It.”

“Nope.”
Lu Que took a step back, clearly enjoying how mad she was getting.

Xu Tao Yue decided to reason with him:
“Alright, how about a trade?”

Lu Que raised an eyebrow. Curious.

“I’ll give you the plushie I just slaved over, and you delete the video. Fair?”

Lu Que: “That’s it?”

Xu Tao Yue got annoyed: “What do you mean that’s it?!”

Sure, she was planning to give it to him anyway, but still—how dare he record her without filters or prep time!

“…Alright.”

“You promise!” Xu Tao Yue shoved the octopus into his arms and watched closely as he opened the video and deleted it.

“Here you go~”

Lu Que, holding the plushie, smirked:
“School tomorrow. Let’s go.”

Xu Tao Yue was still riding high from her victory. Whatever he said, she agreed to:
“Sure! Take care of Zhuo Mi too~”

Lu Que nodded. After dropping her off at school, he pulled out his phone.

Then tapped on Recently Deleted.

Yep.
She really was a bit of an airhead.

So happy, she actually forgot about that folder.

Lu Que looked down at the plushie in his arms and laughed.

Dumb.

Just like her.

That night, Xu Tao Yue didn’t sleep well. She had a nightmare, and Ye Wan stayed with her the whole time.
By the next morning, Ye Wan had serious dark circles.

Xia Xiangyang arrived first and was startled by their zombie-like appearance:
“What happened to you two? Those eye bags are huge. What the heck were you doing last night?”

Xu Tao Yue sighed, “I had a nightmare…”

Xia Xiangyang sat down. “Details. Spill.”

Xu Tao Yue didn’t answer.
She was back in that terrifying dream—

She had watched helplessly as Lu Que walked toward his doomed fate.

His body was covered in bl00d.
Song Mo stood on a high platform with a group behind her.

Something Lu Que saw made him suddenly struggle wildly. People rushed over to hold him down.
His eyes locked onto Xu Tao Yue, filled with emotions she couldn’t decipher.

Defiance.
Fear.
And a quiet, repressed kind of love.

Xu Tao Yue’s heart sank.
She wanted to fight back.
To hug him and say, I’m right here.
She wanted to erase every wound on him.

Lu Que had noticed it the moment he stepped into the room—
Something was off about Xu Tao Yue. Very off.

He couldn’t quite explain it, but her eyes… looked sad.

And she kept staring at him, making him feel a bit uneasy.

“You’re acting weird today,” Lu Que said, frowning. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Then why do you keep staring at me?”

“When do I not stare at you?”

She flipped the question so naturally, even Lu Que got a little flustered.

“You’re really shameless, you know that?” he muttered, ears turning red.

“What’s so shameless? My eyes have always been full of you.”

Lu Que: “…”

Xu Tao Yue saw his ears turn red and really wanted to pinch them, but she held back.
Wouldn’t want to set him off and have to coax him again.

She returned to the sea of exam papers and soon handed over her freshly finished one.

“Mr. Lu, your student is ready for feedback.”

Lu Que nodded, took the paper, and graded it with visible satisfaction.

“You’re dismissed.”

“Yessir~”

Xu Tao Yue stacked the papers and buried her head in them, claiming she was “absorbing knowledge” before promptly falling asleep.

Lu Que had already guessed she hadn’t slept well from the dark circles under her eyes, so he let her be.

It wasn’t until Ms. Xiang arrived that she finally woke up.

Xu Tao Yue sat up groggily, rubbing her eyes.
“My paper…”

Lu Que handed it over. “Impressive.”

Xu Tao Yue froze. Was he being sarcastic again?

She smiled awkwardly—
Then looked down at her score.
She had actually passed.

“!!!”

“What’s with the shocked face? Didn’t I already warn you?” Lu Que was clearly enjoying her reaction.

“I thought you were teasing me again! I thought you were gonna say, ‘Wow, how are you this smart?’ or something!”

Now she was getting cocky.

“At this rate, with my brilliant brain, I’ll surpass you in no time!”

Lu Que raised an eyebrow. “Do I look like someone who mocks people?”

Xu Tao Yue shook her head. “No, no, no—except I’m not other people!”

Lu Que, secretly delighted, didn’t show it.

“Alright, little genius. Fix your wrong answers. Xiang Jie’s collecting them soon.”

Xu Tao Yue was over the moon.
She grabbed a red pen from Lu Que, looked at her vastly improved score, and said brightly:

“Lu Que, I want to go to the same university as you!”

Lu Que nodded.

“Then catch up to my pace, little genius.”