Chapter 49: "Not All Guys Are Trash."

Julie was incredibly determined to make this New Year's Gala an absolute masterpiece.

Her reasoning was exactly the same as Field Day, but with a slight difference. Looking around the classroom, she saw that even the most chaotic, careless idiots like Dan Butler and Vincent Judge were being violently crushed by the pressure of senior year.

She deeply agreed with what Miss Bell had said: every single exam they endured right now was a sharp stone they had to step on to cross the river of life.

But sometimes, you just had to stop walking, look up, and watch the fireworks explode in the sky.

Be happy, my friends.

But she genuinely had zero experience running an event like this, and she was terrified of completely blind-guessing and making stupid mistakes. The next morning, when she walked out of the dorm and bumped into Warren, she aggressively locked him down for a lunch meeting to extract his wisdom. "Grab Tania and Gary! I'm treating you guys to mutton soup!"

She suddenly remembered Warren absolutely hated drinking soup. She quickly pivoted. "Me, Tania, and Gary will drink the mutton soup, and I'll buy you something else! Does that work?"

Warren didn't actually care about the food at all, but he still teased her. "It's pretty cold today. I suppose I could suffer through some soup."

"So it's a date?"

"Mm."

Julie was incredibly satisfied. Thank god Miss Bell had issued the royal decree forcing Warren to help her. But thinking about it, even if Bell hadn't said a word, given the dynamic she and Warren currently had, he absolutely never would have left her to drown.

Julie was incredibly popular. Ever since the announcement yesterday, all her close friends had come up to her, aggressively offering their services. If she needed them, they were ready to die for the cause.

Beth, Dan, and Vincent all declared themselves on permanent standby.

After the final bell rang for the morning block, Julie panicked, terrified Warren had forgotten their lunch plans. She yelled across the room, "Warren!"

Warren was packing up his desk. He turned around.

She aggressively mimed shoving food into her mouth.

He let out a laugh and flashed her an "OK" sign.

Gary and Tania sat close enough to witness the entire silent exchange. They looked at each other, both deeply conflicted. Should we actually go and be massive, glowing third wheels today?

Tania shot Gary a look: I'll follow your lead.

Gary: "..."

The four of them walked out of the classroom together. Julie and Warren walked in front, while Tania and Gary trailed a few steps behind. Listening to the two of them excitedly debate the intricate details of the New Year's party, Gary genuinely felt like he was listening to an engaged couple aggressively planning their wedding reception.

When they got to the cafeteria, they split up to conquer different food lines.

When they regrouped, Warren had secured the absolute best table—tucked away in a quiet corner, right next to the heating vents.

Julie had barely taken two sips of her soup when she heard the students at the table next to them loudly gossiping about a massive scandal on the school's online forum. She remembered that in her past life, she had been completely obsessed with the forum for a while. Her account level was actually incredibly high. But after the Gaokao, she never logged in again. It wasn't officially run by the school; it had been created by some alumni girls a few years back.

She perked her ears up to eavesdrop.

They were talking about the massive love triangle drama she and Warren had accidentally crashed the night before the monthly exams!

She burst into laughter. The three people at her table all stopped eating and stared at her, completely confused.

"Warren." Julie's eyes were dancing with amusement. She leaned across the table. "They're talking about that thing. I can't take it, I have to log onto the forum right now and see how it ended."

Whenever the school caught students dating, they always kept it totally under wraps. They never issued public disciplinary notices. It wasn't because they didn't want to make an example out of them; they were terrified that if the rest of the hormonal, restless student body heard about it, it would just encourage more people to start dating.

When she brought it up, Warren instantly remembered that chaotic night of sprinting through the dark. The spoon in his hand froze.

He hadn't actually paid any attention to the absolute garbage the three idiots in the courtyard had been screaming at each other. Looking back, the only things he remembered were the way she had slapped her hand over her mouth and glared at him, the sound of the freezing wind rushing past his ears, and the violently loud, chaotic beating of his own heart.

Gary completely abandoned his soup. "Wait, what?! What thing?!"

Julie had already pulled out her phone and logged onto the forum. Sure enough, the thread was completely blowing up.

The girl who wrote the post was absolutely ruthless, and her writing skills were incredible. She laid out the entire timeline of the drama with terrifying precision, while actively building suspense, dropping massive plot twists, and keeping the audience violently hooked.

As for the ending... since it had been two girls and one guy who got caught...

The two girls instantly formed an unbreakable alliance. When the night patrol teacher caught them, they swore on their lives they were just out for an innocent stroll, and that the guy had been aggressively stalking them! They claimed they had absolutely no idea who he was!

"This thread is an absolute masterpiece!"

Julie shoved her phone across the table for them to see. Tania took a quick glance, her eyebrows knitting together in deep disgust. Gary snatched the phone, his eyes going wide as he aggressively scrolled, constantly muttering, "Holy shit, wow."

"Disgusting," Tania said softly. "I absolutely despise guys who string multiple girls along. Not only do they ruin your ability to study, but they pull garbage like this."

Listening to the conversation, Gary stealthily kicked Warren under the table.

Warren smoothly dodged it. This garbage had absolutely nothing to do with him. He was starving. He kept his head down and focused entirely on his food.

"Hey now, not all guys string girls along," Gary announced, stepping up to act as the official spokesperson for his mute best friend. "It completely depends on the guy's character. Some guys have incredible, flawless character! Take our boy Warren, for example—"

Warren reached under the table and violently punched Gary in the leg.

Gary let out a strangled yelp.

"Leave me out of it. It has nothing to do with me," Warren said coldly.

Julie held back a laugh. Seeing Tania still frowning in disgust, she playfully teased, "Oh Tania, drink your soup! Here, let me read your fortune. Ah, I see it now. You will never, ever have to deal with a guy like this in your entire life!"

It was the absolute truth.

Tania's future fiercely devoted, doting husband was currently living halfway across the country in Beijing.

Hearing this, Tania finally smiled and playfully swatted Julie's hand, telling her she was being annoying.

"Read my fortune next!" Gary eagerly jumped in, refusing to be left out.

Julie wiped the smile off her face and looked at him deadpan. "As for you... you won't encounter this kind of drama either."

Don't worry, Gary. Because ten years from now, you still won't have a girlfriend.

Technically speaking, as her gaze drifted to Warren, she felt a sudden surge of pity for both of them. A pair of hopeless single dogs. But she didn't say it out loud. Out of the four people sitting at this table, in ten years, three of them were going to be driven completely insane by their parents' relentless, bizarre matchmaking schemes.

"Alright, alright, enough gossiping," she said, downing the rest of her mutton soup in one gulp. "Drink your soup!"

After lunch.

Julie and Warren needed to make a quick trip to the back street.

Besides the food stalls, the back street was lined with stationary and gift shops that catered exclusively to students. Since they didn't need to buy massive, industrial quantities of decorations for the classroom, there was no point in trekking all the way to the wholesale market. Julie just wanted to compare prices on balloons and ribbons. Warren volunteered to escort her. The two of them walked out the school gates shoulder-to-shoulder. After checking a few stores, they realized the prices were basically standard across the board.

"The selection is just too small."

Walking out of the last shop, Julie looked frustrated. "Maybe I should just wait until Saturday and order them online."

Warren looked down at her. He completely understood why Miss Bell had given her this job.

It was because she would take it more seriously than anyone else in the entire class.

"Aren't you going to your tutoring classes on Saturday?" Warren pointed out. "Studying is important too. How about this: leave the decorations to me. I'll look for them online and send you the links to approve."

Julie nodded instantly. "Yes! Perfect!"

The New Year's party was important, and she desperately wanted it to be amazing, but right now, absolutely nothing in her life was more critical than her exam scores.

"There's a boba shop up ahead."

Warren reminded her. "Do you want a drink?"

She had just spent the last twenty minutes aggressively haggling with shop owners. He figured her throat had to be dry by now.

"Let's check it out!"

Now that he mentioned it, she actually was pretty thirsty. The two of them walked up to the counter. Every time Julie looked at the menu board, she wanted to cry tears of joy over how insanely cheap the prices were in 2008. But then she remembered the drinks were literally just cheap powder mixed with water, and she swallowed her praise.

"What do you want?" Warren already had his wallet out.

Julie stood on her tiptoes to peer over the counter at the busy worker. "Do you guys have red bean shaved ice right now?"

Warren shot her a deeply confused look.

This is the same girl who complains every single day that she's literally freezing to death, and now she wants shaved ice in December? He genuinely realized he would never understand the female mind.

"We do!" the worker called back.

"Then I'll take a red bean shaved ice!"

Warren had exact change. He handed the worker a five-dollar bill. His movements were so terrifyingly fast and practiced that Julie didn't even have a chance to stop him before the worker took the money and handed back a coin in change.

"You bought the mutton soup," Warren said simply. "This was four dollars. Don't argue over it. We're even."

"Fine."

Julie wasn't in a rush to leave. The boba shop had a few high stools out front, so she hopped onto one. While watching the worker shave the ice, she multi-tasked, continuing her planning session with Warren. "The balloons and ribbons are just the background. The party is going to have a bunch of different segments. Did we have performances last year?"

Warren simply sat down on the stool next to hers.

His legs were so long he could easily rest his feet flat on the ground. "Yeah. People sang, did some poetry readings."

Julie literally had zero memory of what happened at her high school New Year's parties. She fired off a few more questions, and he answered them all patiently.

The worker finished the shaved ice, placed it in front of her, and handed her a plastic spoon.

She took a massive bite, instantly slapping her hand over her mouth as the brain freeze hit. "So... cold..." she mumbled incoherently.

Sitting beside her, Warren let out a low chuckle. Of course it's cold. It's literal ice.

She aggressively chewed the ice until it melted, swallowed it, and glared at him for laughing. "This wakes you up way faster than coffee!"

"I'm sure it does."

"So what you're saying is, the people who performed..." Julie tried to carefully choose her words. Warren didn't have a photographic memory of last year's party either, but based on what he did remember, the performers were either the class committee members forcing themselves to do it, or the most chaotic, hyperactive kids in class.

"You did a comedy skit with Beth and Dan last year. It was actually pretty funny," Warren added thoughtfully.

Julie froze. I did what?! Oh my god, she had completely forgotten.

Fine. She was forced to admit that even in her past life, she was one of the loudest, most attention-seeking kids in the class.

And in this life, she was somehow even worse.

"What I mean is..." she took another bite of ice. "Can I just go up to people and ask them to perform?"

"You can't force anyone," Warren said gently. The reality was, high schoolers were currently going through puberty andtheir rebellious phase. Combine those two things with the stress of senior year, and most people didn't dare provoke them. Everyone had a short fuse.

Julie: "..."

She was completely speechless. "Warren, what kind of monster do you think I am?!"

She wasn't a tyrant!

Her reputation was completely ruined! This was slander!

"But maybe," she turned her head, looking him dead in the eyes, her voice dropping into a serious, genuine tone. "Maybe there are some people out there who secretly want an audience to listen to them."

Warren's eyes widened slightly.

He stared at her. And this time, he didn't look away.

When Julie set her mind to something, she executed it immediately.

She went to every single one of the forty-something students in the class, treating it like a rigorous census. Her approach was flawless—casual, friendly, just chatting with them to subtly dig out their hidden talents. At first, some people tried to play hard to get. They acted shy, blushing and asking, "Julie, why are you asking me? Did you notice I have a really good singing voice?"

But then they realized she was literally asking everyone. The betrayal!

But because of her aggressive, sweeping approach, even the most introverted kids suddenly felt like performing wasn't actually that embarrassing after all.

Eventually, her investigation led her directly to Warren Gale.

He was just getting up to go get hot water when she physically blocked his path, a small notebook clutched in her hand.

"Warren, what's your hidden talent?" she asked with deadly seriousness.

Warren had been mentally preparing for this exact moment. "Playing basketball."

"Denied. Think of something else."

The entire school knew he was obsessed with basketball, and Julie definitely knew it. But the party was being held inside their tiny, cramped classroom. Was he just going to stand at the front of the room and aggressively dribble a ball for three minutes?!

"Playing video games?" he offered, pretending to think deeply.

"I'm reporting you to the principal," she deadpanned, knowing he was messing with her.

"Magic," he finally relented, looking completely helpless against her aggressive interrogation. "Does that work?"

Julie's eyes snapped up to his face in pure shock. "You know how to do magic?!"

"A little."

"Then show me right now," she demanded, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. "And it better not be that stupid 'old man climbing a mountain to find a monkey' trick!"

Warren laughed out loud. He handed his thermos to her. "Hold this for a second."

Julie took it, her eyes locked onto his hands, refusing to blink.

He reached his right hand out, pretending to pluck something completely invisible out of the air, and pressed it into his closed left fist. His movements were incredibly fast and fluid. A few seconds later, he reached his left hand out toward her and slowly opened his fingers.

Sitting perfectly in the center of his palm was a single, wrapped coconut candy.