Chapter 50: Just Want to Be Friends with You

Seeing her put down her chopsticks, Gao Cheng frowned again.

“You’ve barely taken a few bites; why aren’t you eating anymore?”

Shi Kezhen looked at him, politely explaining:

“My upbringing is rather strict.”

“Not speaking while eating is one of our family rules.”

‘If you want her to eat properly, stop talking to her.’

They all understood her meaning.

A hint of amusement entered Gao Cheng’s eyes.

This woman appeared obedient and gentle on the surface, yet her words actually concealed barbs.

There was a bit of Yao’s vibe in her now.

He met her eyes.

“Eat your meal properly then.”

Shi Kezhen nodded gently, picked up her chopsticks again, and continued picking at the dishes, chewing her food quietly in small bites.

Since Gao Cheng had spoken, Jiang Chengshuo and Jiang Zhexi exchanged a glance, sensibly refraining from teasing her further.

The two of them chatted idly, drifting casually from one topic to another.

Gao Cheng chipped in with a word from time to time, but remained silent most of the time.

He appeared to be focusing on eating, but in truth, his entire attention was fixed on the person beside him.

He barely noticed what the food in his mouth tasted like; it was like chewing wax.

Shi Kezhen actually had little appetite, and the canteen food didn’t suit her tastes, dampening her appetite even further.

Added to that were three people sitting beside her with auras so powerful that ignoring them was nearly impossible, which ruined her appetite even more.

However, she had just made up her mind this afternoon to gain her weight back.

So even if she couldn’t stomach it, she still forced herself to eat as much as she could, bite by bite.

The food on her tray decreased at an agonizingly slow pace.

After about twenty minutes, she finally finished the last mouthful.

Putting down her chopsticks, she took out a tissue to dab gently at the corners of her mouth.

Then, she looked up at the three men who had finished long ago yet remained seated without leaving.

“I’m done eating; I’ll take my leave first.”

“What’s the rush?”

Gao Cheng had waited with great difficulty for her to finish.

“You said ‘no talking while eating’ just now.”

“Now that you’re full, can we chat for a bit?”

The faint smile on Shi Kezhen’s face almost cracked at his words.

‘What is there to chat about?’

‘Are we even close?’

Now she could finally be certain: these three sharing a table with her today was no coincidence—they had targeted her specifically.

She was just surprised and completely baffled as to why these three favored sons of heaven would suddenly take notice of her.

She was merely an ordinary student in Jingda’s Business School.

Her style of dress was conservative to the point of being dowdy, and her personality was dull and uninteresting.

Academically, because she had no interest in her major, she didn’t put in much effort, and her grades were exceedingly average.

She was truly unremarkable, with nothing worthy of a second glance from them.

‘Could it be because of her status as the Shi family’s daughter?’

To most ordinary students, the status of a young lady from the Shi family might hold some appeal.

But who were they?

Three of the four great families of Jingzhou.

Before their three families, the Shi family wasn’t worth a fart.

The only reason the Shi family had been able to latch onto the Jiang family was that Old Master Shi had studied abroad with Old Master Jiang in their youth.

Old Master Shi had relied on his thick skin to beg for a partnership from Jiang Zhexi’s great-grandfather.

A few years ago, both Old Master Shi and Old Master Jiang had passed away one after the other.

The Jiang family was still willing to continue partnering with the Shi family now partly out of respect for their ancestors, and partly because after years of collaboration, it had become a mutually beneficial arrangement.

Although it was a partnership, there was a clear hierarchy; the statuses of the two families were plainly unequal.

If the Jiang family ever took a dislike to the Shi family and kicked them out of the game, the Shi family wouldn’t even have a place to weep.

That was why Shi Kezhen had hurriedly stopped Jiang Zhexi when he was about to make that call earlier.

‘So, why have they set their sights on me?’

Shi Kezhen wracked her brain, but she simply couldn’t figure it out.

Yet since Gao Cheng had spoken, how could she dare just walk away?

She maintained her faint smile.

“Is there something else you need?”

Gao Cheng said:

“Nothing much; I just want to be friends with you.”

The smile on Shi Kezhen’s face stiffened slightly.

“…I don’t make friends.”

“Oh?”

Gao Cheng raised an eyebrow.

“Am I not worthy?”

“No,” Shi Kezhen hastily denied.

What a joke; she couldn’t afford to offend the Jiang family, and she certainly couldn’t afford to offend the Gao family.

This young lord was the true Crown Prince of Jingzhou’s elite circle; in their generation, not a single soul in all of Jingzhou held a status higher than his.

Even Father Shi could only bow and scrape in obsequious flattery before the Prince of the Gao family.

Gao Cheng asked:

“Then why is that?”

“I…”

Shi Kezhen thought for a moment.

“It’s my own problem; I never make friends.”

Watching the drama unfold, Jiang Chengshuo couldn’t resist chiming in:

“There’s an issue with your words.”

“What do you mean by ‘never making friends’?”

“Do you mean to say you don’t have a single friend?”

Gao Cheng and Jiang Zhexi looked at her as well, clearly assuming she was making up excuses to brush them off.

Shi Kezhen didn’t know how to explain; she truly couldn’t afford to offend them, nor could she hide from them.

Hesitating for a moment, she took out her phone, opened her contact list, and showed it to them.

“I’m not lying to you.”

“My phone only has contact information for my family members; I truly have no friends.”

All three men looked at her phone.

She didn’t even need to scroll because there were so few contacts—not even enough to fill a single screen.

They all found it rather incredible.

Was this the contact list of a normal human being?

Jiang Chengshuo voiced his suspicion:

“Most people prefer using WeChat nowadays, and even calls are done through WeChat voice.”

“Having fewer phone contacts… doesn’t seem… doesn’t seem all that strange, haha.”

Without another word, Shi Kezhen opened WeChat right in front of them and showed them her WeChat contact list.

Her WeChat contacts were similar to her phone contacts, with only a few extra people.

“My WeChat only has family members as well, plus three other contacts: our counselor, our dorm leader, and our class monitor.”

The gazes of the three shifted from the phone to her face.

Their looks were remarkably similar, as if they were staring at a freak.

Gao Cheng’s gaze, however, held a few more layers of complexity than the other two.

Shi Kezhen withdrew her phone.

“Can you believe me now?”

“It really is my own issue; I don’t like making friends.”

Gao Cheng looked at her without speaking.

Jiang Chengshuo let out a dry cough.

“Well… since people live in society, we still need friends.”

He nudged Jiang Zhexi with his elbow.

“Right?”

“Right,” Jiang Zhexi agreed with a nod.

“Humans are social animals; one shouldn’t be too antisocial.”

Shi Kezhen nodded, her smile unchanged, but the words that left her mouth remained stubborn:

“I don’t make friends.”

“Why?”

Gao Cheng asked.

“Why don’t you make friends?”

“I don’t need friends; I prefer being alone.”

Gao Cheng said:

“Can you make an exception for me?”

“Add me as a contact.”

Even though Shi Kezhen couldn’t afford to provoke them, she shook her head firmly.

“I’m sorry, I really don’t make friends.”

Gao Cheng stared fixedly at her.

Shi Kezhen did not avoid his gaze, returning it calmly with complete composure.

It was evident that while she genuinely couldn’t afford to provoke them, it was equally true that she didn’t care about them at all.

The three great male gods, the heirs of the three great families, the Prince of the Jingzhou circle.

She didn’t care in the slightest.

It wasn’t playing hard to get, much less false modesty.

She genuinely did not care.

Gao Cheng saw right through it.

It wasn’t an act.

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