My Years as the Pure Love Interest at the Noble Academy

"Little Jing, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

Uncles and aunts surrounded little Shen Yujing, teasing him with snacks and toys.

The young boy stood in the center of the crowd, his face cold and indifferent. He arrogantly tossed out a reply, "I want to be a hero who saves the world."

This statement made everyone laugh.

Someone continued to ask Shen Yujing, "But being a hero is very busy and tiring. What will you do then?"

Shen Yujing's face scrunched up like a little bun. He thought seriously for a moment but still insisted, "I'm not afraid."

Another uncle chimed in, "What if you're so busy that you don’t have time to get a girlfriend or marry? Aren’t you afraid of that?"

Of course, as soon as these words were spoken, the people around quickly interrupted, scolding him for saying such things to a child.

But at that time, Shen Yujing still shook his head and said, "I’m not afraid."

Back then, he didn’t understand what the uncle was talking about, and even when he entered adolescence and finally understood, he still didn’t care.

High school life was beautiful for Shen Yujing. Thanks to his looks, family background, and physical prowess, he pretty much ruled the school.

Many girls had handed him love letters, but at that time, Shen Yujing still had his hero dream. He believed that a true hero shouldn’t be held back by romantic entanglements, so he had no interest in such things.

As for his heroic deeds, they mostly consisted of being the school bully, occasionally leading his gang to fight at Saint Yu Academy.

His days were simple, even mundane.

Just when Shen Yujing was starting to feel bored and uninterested in this kind of life, Quan Le dragged him to see some excitement.

It started with a ridiculous misunderstanding about Jiang Yiheng wearing a skirt, and ended with his face being pressed against a table by a seemingly delicate girl.

For Shen Yujing, it was the day his "hero dream" shattered, and he lost all face in front of the entire school.

At the time, Shen Yujing thought he had lost fair and square, and he accepted it. But he swore he never wanted to see Song Yi again. From then on, they would go their separate ways...

And then he was proven wrong.

When he found out that Zhang Yong had misunderstood his intentions and sent people to cause trouble for Song Yi, Shen Yujing felt nothing but irritation.

Sure, he had been humiliated because of her, but wasn’t it even more humiliating to secretly seek revenge after losing a fight?

One thing was one thing, so Shen Yujing decided to be magnanimous and help her out just this once.

Of course, when he arrived at the scene, everything was completely different from what he had imagined.

He was in a daze the entire time, barely aware of what he said or did.

It wasn’t until he returned home and saw the hammer on his desk that he fell into deep thought.

Over the years, many girls had given him gifts, but this was the first time he had actually accepted one.

This ordinary-looking hammer...

Shen Yujing picked it up and casually tapped it against his desk. When he saw the crack appear on his top-tier, custom-made desk, he fell silent.

This was no ordinary hammer.

He couldn’t possibly keep such an expensive gift, could he?

Sure enough, that very evening, Song Yi called him.

In response to Song Yi’s request to have the hammer returned, Shen Yujing didn’t outwardly agree, but he secretly decided to modify it.

How could such a gentle-looking girl wield such a heavy tool? And the hammer itself didn’t seem to suit her at all.

After turning the hammer pink, Shen Yujing was quite pleased with his handiwork.

Of course, Shen Yujing’s "thoughtfulness" was not appreciated by Song Yi, and the hammer eventually ended up in the trash.

Shen Yujing was indeed annoyed at first, but then he heard a "shocking secret"—Song Yi actually liked him.

If a girl liked him, it wouldn’t be very gentlemanly of him to hold a grudge, would it?

And when Song Yi gave him an even bigger hammer for his birthday, Shen Yujing’s last bit of resentment disappeared.

She must have felt guilty and wanted to make up for it by giving him a bigger one. Well, since she was being so sincere, he decided to let it go.

But what Shen Yujing couldn’t understand was, if she liked him, why didn’t she try to create opportunities to meet him? Instead, she seemed to be avoiding him at every turn.

Of course, Song Yi didn’t succeed in avoiding him.

Because Jiang Yiheng, that scoundrel, decided to meddle and signed both of them up for the sports day event.

It was during this time, when Shen Yujing was pretending to have a broken leg and Song Yi was pretending to limp, that they ran into each other in the infirmary. It was then that Shen Yujing finally started to find this girl a little interesting.

After all, in this world, anyone who could come up with such a clever idea—one that matched his own thought process—was definitely no ordinary person.

On the day of the sports event, as if fate had decided to punish them for their lies, Shen Yujing actually broke his leg, and Song Yi sprained her ankle.

While in the infirmary, Jiang Yiheng asked if their "accidents" were really just accidents.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Shen Yujing had seen it happen—he knew Song Yi’s foot had tripped him.

But... she couldn’t have done it on purpose, right?

So he refuted Jiang Yiheng and covered up the incident.

In the infirmary, perhaps out of boredom, Song Yi played wheelchair races with him for a long time.

It was a game that all of Shen Yujing’s lackeys found boring, but she was willing to play along.

See? She must like him.

But this thought was quickly overturned when Shen Yujing saw the love letter Song Yi had written to Jiang Yiheng.

Shen Yujing didn’t know how to express his feelings at that moment.

How could she just casually write a love letter to someone else? Didn’t she say she liked him?

As it turned out, his decision to never get involved in romance was the right one—people’s feelings were too fickle.

Even as he tried to comfort himself with these thoughts, Shen Yujing couldn’t help but angrily replace the love letter.

At that moment, he felt like the evil sorcerer from a fairy tale, doing shameful deeds behind the scenes to ruin the beautiful love story between the princess and the prince.

At the time, he hadn’t yet realized that the real reason driving his actions was his own feelings.

It was a strange emotion that Shen Yujing himself hadn’t yet recognized, but it kept him by Song Yi’s side.

Whether it was during their interactions on the class trip or when they attended Saint Yu Academy’s anniversary celebration, their relationship gradually improved during this time.

Even though he was clumsy, he could feel Song Yi’s attitude toward him changing—from initial rejection and confrontation to gradually becoming friends.

Shen Yujing really enjoyed spending time with her.

Because Song Yi was the first person in his life who he found truly interesting.

When he was with her, even though things didn’t always go his way, he always felt happy.

And for some reason, the people he used to dislike had somehow become his friends during this time.

It must have been her influence. After all, no one could dislike her.

At the very least, he especially liked her.

So later, when Shen Yujing realized that his feelings for her were more than just friendship, he fell into distress.

Young Master Shen had always been used to getting whatever he wanted. The world revolved around him, and if he wanted something, he only had to say the word.

But now, things had become complicated.

There were more people around Song Yi, and many of them were outstanding. Compared to them, Shen Yujing felt like he had no particular advantage. If he were Song Yi, he probably wouldn’t choose himself either.

All he could offer was his heart.

But who didn’t have a heart? It wasn’t something unique to him.

To this end, Shen Yujing read five campus romance novels and carefully analyzed how to become the "male lead."

Of course, the male lead here referred to the person who would end up with Song Yi.

After a rigorous analysis of the data, Shen Yujing came to a conclusion—

It was difficult. Extremely difficult.

The novels all said that the person who ended up with the female lead had to be the most outstanding one.

Especially the cold, aloof top student and the soft, delicate transfer student—these were the most popular romance novel tropes.

Might as well just give Jiang Yiheng the title of male lead, since it clearly wasn’t going to be him.

Some novels also said that the male lead could be a lonely, brooding figure who despised the world but poured all his affection onto the female lead, becoming her only salvation.

Even if the whole world stood against her, he would betray the world for her sake. Only then would he be worthy of being the male lead.

Shen Yujing couldn’t understand why anyone would want to betray the world. He didn’t need Song Yi to save him because...

He didn’t have any tragic backstory.

Shen Yujing kept reading and found another trope—the silent, ruthless school bully. When others passed by, they would see the usually cold and menacing boss pinning the female lead against a wall and kissing her.

Shen Yujing: "..."

He seemed to talk a bit too much and couldn't quite fit the image of a cold, intimidating figure.

Could Xu Che barely qualify as one?

So, the three of them each had their own path, but he didn't?

Shen Yujing was deeply dissatisfied, so he randomly found a forum and made a post.

[Hey, does anyone know of any romance novels where the male lead is a school bully who seems bad-tempered (but definitely not cold or antisocial—he's actually pretty sunny and easy to get along with)? He might sometimes tease the female lead, but it's never intentional, and he actually likes her! I'm looking for a campus romance, thanks!]

Soon, someone replied to him.

1st floor: Huh, OP's taste is a bit weird. Isn't this the kind of outdated Mary Sue trope that was popular years ago? Who writes male leads like that nowadays?

3rd floor: Yeah, the male lead has to be strong and deeply devoted, right? How could someone like that even be a male lead?

5th floor: Honestly, I'd just skip over a male lead like that. I don't get the appeal at all.

6th floor: Boring. Next post, please.

...

Shen Yujing's expression froze, and his heart sank.

So, was he the only one who was completely ruled out? Was there really no chance at all?

Shen Yujing tossed his phone aside and decided to go to sleep.

He figured that once he woke up, he'd forget all about this. Yeah, that's right.

Much later, after he and Song Yi had officially started dating, Shen Yujing would sometimes think back to the day he confessed his feelings.

Novels are so unreliable!

Real life is real life, and it has nothing to do with novels!

If you like someone, you just like them. There's no need to consult so many "references." What matters most is being willing to open your heart to them.

And for Shen Yujing, it was Song Yi's existence that truly made him understand what liking someone really meant.

Shen Yujing had always been a competitive person, someone who cared a lot about winning and losing.

But after meeting Song Yi, none of that mattered anymore.

Because Song Yi liked him, and that meant he had already won completely for the rest of his life. He no longer needed to compete with anyone.

His dream wasn't to be a hero anymore. It was her.