Chapter 115 113. Affection?
An Han was very certain that after completing the task of wearing the cheongsam, he had not accepted any system items, props, or attributes ever again.
It couldn’t possibly be a side effect of the “painless period” trait, right? On the surface, those two things had absolutely nothing to do with each other.
Besides, he wasn’t actually female right now. There was no monthly cycle at all, so the trait wasn’t even active. Without menstruation, there shouldn’t be hormonal fluctuations affecting his emotions or personality.
So among all the changes, the only remaining factor was that affection value—already past ninety and still steadily rising.
At eighty affection, the system upgraded. At ninety affection… maybe the system had already done something to me in a subtle way?
“Affection isn’t as simple as it looks on the surface…”
Standing in front of the restroom mirror, An Han looked at the faint blush on his cheeks as it slowly faded and muttered to himself.
“But Brother Long’s affection toward me is also over ninety. So why don’t I react to him at all?”
“Actually, it would be weird if I did react. Even though we live together every day, we’ve barely had any close contact.”
The closest interaction was probably just Long Xing patting the head of his bed every morning to wake him up.
In the past, Long Xing would sling an arm over his shoulder during casual chats. But ever since An Han’s appearance became more and more feminine, Long Xing had consciously kept his distance. Those brotherly, intimate gestures had almost completely disappeared.
On the other hand, because of the three-legged race, Su Peng had far more close contact with him.
“System, explain affection to me.”
“Affection: Please keep it below eighty. Exceeding one hundred carries unknown risks.”
As expected.
Yet again, one of those explanations or prompts that completely avoided the real point.
The previous system items were the same. It would explain the function, but never the side effects.
“Damn it, you never do anything decent!”
An Han cursed quietly, grabbing and scratching his hair in frustration before finally making up his mind.
“Forget it. At least hold on until tomorrow’s competition!”
“One or two days of mental weirdness won’t affect things too much. As long as I stay alert and snap out of it in time like just now…”
“The key thing is not letting Su Peng’s affection exceed one hundred.”
He splashed his face with water again and finally returned to a normal expression. Turning his head to look at the noisy playground in the distance, he didn’t hesitate much before jogging over to join the crowd cheering for the athletes.
Move around. Blend into the crowd.
Use the mixed smells of sweat, smoke, and body odor to deceive the senses.
An Han stopped by a sandpit, standing on tiptoe to watch athletes leaping into it one by one. Like the other spectators around him, he occasionally cheered or booed.
His attention wasn’t really on the long jump. From time to time, his gaze drifted toward the class base.
Sure enough, about ten minutes later, Su Peng’s figure appeared in his line of sight.
An Han didn’t hide. He raised his hand and hopped twice happily to get his attention. “Here! Over here!”
Su Peng jogged over and stopped beside him, asking helplessly, “Why are you suddenly watching competitions?”
“It’s the sports meet. I can’t just hide under a tree playing on my phone all the time, right?”
“That’s not what you said when you were hiding in the dorm playing on the computer.”
An Han’s mouth twitched. Pretending he hadn’t heard, he turned toward the sandpit and excitedly talked about what had just happened.
“There was this really funny guy. He actually jumped pretty far, but when he landed, he pushed backward with his hand. The judge ended up measuring the distance from his handprint.”
“And there was another guy who clearly didn’t know how to jump. He almost didn’t even make it into the sandpit!”
“Look, look! This one’s amazing! It’s like he’s flying!”
Without realizing it, he edged a bit closer to Su Peng. He stood on tiptoe, stretching his fair neck like a swan, and naturally grabbed Su Peng’s clothes with one hand, as if using him for leverage to see farther. While staring into the field, he kept chattering to Su Peng.
“This guy seems like a PE student. I saw him once during their training this morning.”
“PE students, huh. First place in the sports meet is probably going to be swept by them.”
Su Peng smiled slightly, glancing at An Han’s behavior. He suddenly felt as if he had gained an energetic girlfriend.
“Good thing my goal isn’t first place in the three-legged race,” An Han muttered. “I just want to participate normally and not embarrass myself.”
Mentioning something related to the task made his mind clear up a little. His gaze subconsciously followed his left arm down to the hand gripping Su Peng’s clothes.
“…”
He hadn’t noticed at all.
And when did I get this close to Su Peng?!
He realized he was practically leaning against Su Peng’s chest, just like a small girl nestling into her boyfriend’s arms.
The next moment, as if pressing on a spring, An Han shot backward, retreating several steps in a flash.
Su Peng’s questioning gaze landed on him right after.
But An Han didn’t dare meet his eyes. “Let’s go look at other events.”
At the same time, there were about three events going on. Aside from the long jump in front of them, there was a jump-rope competition on the basketball court in the distance, and a 100-meter preliminary race on the track.
An Han wandered around the field aimlessly, glancing here and there, his face plastered with a forced, professional smile. Su Peng patiently followed at his side the whole time.
Can you just go away?
Stop sticking to me! Don’t you have anything else to do?!
Do you seriously only have me as a friend?!
An Han screamed internally, but he didn’t dare show any annoyance on his face, afraid that Su Peng might get upset and refuse to compete with him.
“Are we training tonight?”
“Let’s skip it tonight.” An Han shook his head and came up with a reasonable excuse. “We trained too much these past two days. My feet hurt a bit.”
“That much?”
“For you, probably not. I trained with Wang Sheng too, and I got thrown to the ground several times.”
Su Peng’s gaze fell on An Han’s elbow. Although the wound there was no longer bleeding, the damaged skin was still clearly visible.
An Han muttered unhappily, “That’s because you suddenly threw a tantrum.”
“Sorry.”
“What’s there to be sorry about?”
He suddenly spotted An Kexin. His eyes lit up, and he shifted closer to Su Peng, whispering, “An Kexin probably likes you.”
“Huh?”
“Wasn’t that the deal? I find you a girlfriend, and you become my disciple!” An Han patted Su Peng’s back with a look of frustration. “Go on, go on! Don’t chicken out!”
“Uh… I don’t like her,” Su Peng said, a bit dazed and full of hesitation.
“Even if you don’t like her, you should respond to her feelings!” An Han shoved Su Peng’s back again.
Su Peng stumbled forward a few steps. When he looked up, he saw An Kexin already waving at him and running over quickly.
When he turned back, An Han had already quietly retreated and was mouthing the words: Good luck!
Su Peng could only laugh helplessly.
He clearly already had someone he liked, yet An Han was still enthusiastically trying to find him a girlfriend.
But he couldn’t reject it outright, either.
“This is too hard.”
——————
I’m going to sleep first. There will be an extra update late tonight!
I figured it out! If I don’t promise when the extra update will come, I have no motivation to write the third chapter!
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