Right after getting dumped, He suddenly learned that his best buddy was the legendary cold-as-ice school beauty. - Chapter 80

Lu Yibei switched his Nikon to manual mode and started adjusting the camera settings.

The weather was perfect. Since he was about to shoot the marching formations, he lowered the exposure and raised the shutter speed as much as possible.

But he was also photographing people, so the aperture couldn’t be too narrow—otherwise, the images would be painfully sharp.

He twisted the focus ring on the lens, trying to balance focal length and aperture.

Still, since these photos were for the school’s public account, documentary value mattered more than aesthetics.

Lu Yibei didn’t bother much with composition or fancy framing.

He clicked a casual shot, then angled the camera screen toward Li Si.

“President, what do you think?”

Li Si looked and praised, “Not bad at all. Way better than what I shot with Xiali. Did you actually learn this?”

“Xiali was joking, but my dad really did teach me,” Lu Yibei said casually. “He used to be a reporter, so I guess I’m following in his footsteps professionally. Alright, President, I’ll shoot like this then.”

“No problem,” Li Si said, smiling. “And you don’t have to call me President—just Li Si, we’re classmates.”

Xiali chimed in, pretending to be sly:

“Brother Yibei means that when you’re working, you should use the proper title.”

Lu Yibei nodded solemnly. “Xia Tudou is right.”

Xiali immediately fumed: “Lu Yibei, what did you just say?!”

“When working, you use ‘plant,’ that’s what you said.”

“…Go away!”

Xiali kicked at him in anger, but he twisted his waist and dodged effortlessly.

Xiali and Lu Yibei were truly old friends in the classic sense—

Years could pass without meeting, but one glance would instantly bring them back to their old, silly jokes.

“Besides,” Xiali gritted her teeth, “‘Li’ is also a plant!”

“Mm…”

Lu Yibei didn’t respond. His camera was aimed at Ji Qingqian, but the focal length was still a bit short to clearly capture her profile.

“Hey Brother Yibei, you should take more shots of your girlfriend…”

Xiali’s temper flared and faded quickly. “She’s that beautiful—it’d be a shame not to get a few more for our weekly newsletter.”

Lu Yibei thought for a moment, then shifted the lens toward the wavy-haired girl next to her.

Sure, Qingqian was stunning, but a school newsletter wasn’t just about aesthetics—it was about capturing the spirit of all students in the military training. He couldn’t focus only on the pretty ones.

In plain words… he was just unwilling to let others be the center of attention.

Watching Lu Yibei so absorbed in his work, Xiali whispered to Li Si:

“See? I told you, Brother Yibei and I have only revolutionary friendship…”

Lu Yibei heard that.

Still professional, eyes never leaving the camera, he asked:

“Huh? What did you say?”

“When I invited you to help at the welcome event with a cup of milk tea, that sly fox thought there was something going on between us. Gossip, gossip…”

Xiali pouted, pretending to be offended.

Lu Yibei glanced at Li Si in slight surprise. This guy didn’t strike him as the gossiping type…

Li Si calmly adjusted his glasses, though his hands trembled slightly. He had suspected something, but didn’t expect Xiali to announce it so brazenly. She wasn’t embarrassed at all.

Oh, Xiali wasn’t embarrassed—the embarrassed one was everyone else…

“Sorry,” Li Si smiled wryly.

“…It’s fine.” Lu Yibei chuckled and returned his attention to shooting. “Xia Tudou and I have known each other for a long time. Back then, we even played with mud… I never thought of her as a girl.”

He wanted to add: We were basically just bros.

But thinking better of it, he kept it to himself. Others could joke like that—but he couldn’t. Qingqian would crush him.

After all, his relationship with Ji Qingqian… was, well, delicate before the change.

“She didn’t just ignore me as a woman, she ignored me as a person,” Xiali fumed.

“Do you know what he used to make me do?” She turned to Li Si, as if filing a complaint.

Li Si had rarely seen this expression on Xiali. He shook his head, amused.

“He took me to play basketball—yes! He took me to play basketball!”

Xiali stood on her tiptoes. Even if she grew another thirty centimeters, she wouldn’t match Lu Yibei’s height. Forget gender differences—she couldn’t possibly contest his shots. No wonder she held grudges.

“You didn’t have fun back then?” Lu Yibei asked.

“Fun, yes… but you didn’t treat me like a person!”

Li Si watched the two old friends bicker.

Lu Yibei had taken several shots already, but he kept returning the lens to Qingqian’s freshman class.

Soon, the school leaders arrived.

The formations began.

As the photographer, Lu Yibei could move freely with Li Si, snapping candid student shots and official leader photos alternately.

Busy, but not overly so.

Being a senior, Lu Yibei wasn’t unfamiliar with this final scene of military training.

Yet when Qingqian’s class entered, he paid extra attention, photographing while watching intently.

Thanks to his role, he could get very close to the formations.

The freshmen were serious. Even with his camera clicking beside them, they all kept their eyes forward, disciplined.

The leader, Ji Qingqian, especially so.

Lu Yibei chuckled.

Passing by him without a glance, she gave him a strange, almost disappointing feeling of being ignored.

But then he let it go. No big deal—after all, she usually looked at him the most.

He continued shooting.

It was like their own class’s military training years ago.

The instructor, Hou Ge, was patient and mingled well with students. Every student, wanting not to embarrass their instructor at the last moment, walked that final step with dedication.

Lu Yibei checked the photos he had taken.

There were two exemplary students: one boy, one girl.

The girl was Ji Qingqian.

The boy… Chen Wei, perhaps?

Lu Yibei recalled the boy had wanted to give his reward to the heroine.

He looked spirited. Lu Yibei smiled softly.

Immediately, he prepared to shoot the next class.

Meanwhile, the exemplary girl who had just passed the formation quietly fixed her gaze on his back.

Earlier, she couldn’t turn her head to look at him, which frustrated her.

Now, she could look all she wanted.

The boy sensed the eyes behind him and turned.

They met each other’s gaze.

For a fleeting moment, he smiled brilliantly before turning back to work.

But the smile, against the green lawn beneath and the blue sky above… Ji Qingqian suddenly felt like taking a photo of him.