Shi Sheng was daydreaming, but Chen Xi thought that his ‘bro’ had fallen ill or something.
“Chu-Chu, just tell me if there’s anything. I’ll help you think of something, so don’t just hold everything to yourself.”
Suddenly hearing this, Shi Sheng gave him an odd look. “Hold what to myself?”
Chen Xi, “...” ‘How would I know what you’re bottling up?’
“I’m fine.” Shi Sheng set down her chopsticks and wiped her mouth with a paper napkin. She acted aloofly. “I’m planning to be a quiet goddess for now.”Chen Xi let out a sigh of relief after hearing Shi Sheng’s reply, though he soon retorted, “You sure? I think you’d be more like a mental patient than a goddess[1].”
Shi Sheng puffed out her chest. “I’d still be a goddess-level mental patient.”
“Yeah, yeah. ‘Goddess’, you really scared me just now. I almost thought you’d fallen out of love then.” Chen Xi patted his chest in an exaggerated fashion.
“I haven’t even fallen in love yet, how would I fall out?” Shi Sheng rolled her eyes at him.
“How come you still haven’t made a move on that god of yours? I heard he’s been getting close to another girl—if you don’t act now, it’ll be too late.”
Shi Sheng’s lips twitched. ‘This guy couldn’t be talking about the ML, could he?’
Shi Sheng dug up Qiao Chu’s memories from the back of her mind, and yep, that was the case.“I’ve switched crushes.”
“Ah? To who?”
‘Just a few days ago she was telling me about this god that she’s had a crush on for several years—how come she suddenly switched to someone else??? Just what the hell happened these past few days?!’
Shi Sheng’s expression turned solemn. “My ideal man is a peerless hero who’ll ride over on a seven-coloured cloud to marry me. If not today, then he’ll certainly come tomorrow[2].”
Chen Xi’s face twitched as he got up. “Then I’m looking forward to your ‘peerless hero’ showing up tomorrow.”
‘Has this kid’s chuuni-ness been acting up? It’s certainly showing up a bit late...’
The two walked out of the cafeteria, one after the other.
“There’s a computer science class this afternoon, are you going?” Chen Xi asked Shi Sheng before he left. He was the one who picked her elective, but she hadn’t shown up even once. Every time it came to roll call, he had to raise his pitch and answer for her.
Shi Sheng shook her head decisively. She could already be a model example for this subject, why would she want to attend a class for it?
“Then I’ll be off. Keep in touch.” Chen Xi waved Shi Sheng goodbye.
After he left, Shi Sheng idly made her way back to her dorm for a short nap.
The girls’ dormitories were located close together. Shi Sheng was staying in the Year 4 dorms, so it was pretty close to the postgraduate dorms. She had to pass by the postgraduate dorms on the way back.
But she’d only just walked to the building when a group of girls rushed past and bumped into her, causing her to turn dizzy.
‘Wtf, why’re you running so fast?! Is there a ghost chasing you or something?!’
Shi Sheng pursed her lips and huffed, her gaze following the group of girls. They stopped at the bottom of a dormitory building and seemed to be discussing something very excitedly.
When Shi Sheng got closer, she heard them mention Tang Jinchen.
‘I think the ML only started courting the FL wholeheartedly after Qiao Chu bumped into them at that time...’
Shi Sheng stood on tiptoes to try and see over the crowd. A tall boy was currently standing at the base of the dormitory building, a bouquet of bright red roses in his hands.
“Who’s Tang Jinchen waiting for?” Girl A asked the person beside her out of curiosity.
“Dunno. I saw him standing out here when I came out just now.” Girl B replied.
“So handsome ah! I wonder who’s the lucky girl he took a liking to.” Girl C spoke with a lovestruck expression. “Aaaah! Why didn’t he take a liking to me?”
“These are the postgraduate student dorms.” Girl A seemed to think of something. “I believe Tang Jinchen was only in Year 2, right?”
If the girl was a postgraduate, then she would definitely be older than Tang Jinchen.
This caused the group of girls to grow agitated. They wanted to see just which ‘old woman’ had seduced their male god.
No one came out from the building. When classes were about to start, the ones who had lessons could only leave reluctantly, leaving behind those without any lessons to continue waiting with Tang Jinchen.
Don’t even try to extinguish the fire of gossip in their hearts...
“Someone’s coming out.” The gossip crowd suddenly grew excited.
A girl appeared at the entrance to the dormitory and she strode over to Tang Jinchen. “Junior Tang, don’t wait anymore. Qian’qian isn’t coming down.”
Hearing her words, the crowd grew disappointed. ‘It’s not her ah? But who’s Qian’qian?’
“I’ll wait here till she comes down.” Tang Jinchen lifted his head to look at the dormitory building as he spoke in a resolute tone.
“Whatever you say.” The girl turned around and went back upstairs.
Bzz bzz bzz...
Shi Sheng’s phone suddenly started vibrating. Chen Xi had called her.
“Hello?”
“Chu-Chu, hurry over! The new professor’s taking attendance! Those who don’t come are getting their credits deducted! And just now, everyone who tried to cover for someone had their covers blown!”
Chen Xi was probably making this call in secret, for his voice was lowered and he hung up as soon as he said this.
Shi Sheng fell silent. And then calmly put her phone back in her pocket. This school deducted credits at the drop of a hat—Qiao Chu’s credits had probably already been fully deducted, so it didn’t make much of a difference if they took away a few more...
Qiao Qian’qian came down in the end, her head lowered as she dragged Tang Jinchen towards the school’s artificial lake.
She was too quick, so most people weren’t able to see her face. And since it would be in rather bad form to chase after the two, they could only ask the people beside them whether they’d seen the girl’s face.
Without a show to watch any more, Shi Sheng continued on her way back to her dorm room.
Inside, the senior that usually spent all her time in the library was surprisingly present. Seeing Shi Sheng return, she smiled and said hi.
The senior asked her in curiosity, “Did you see Tang Jinchen when you came back just now?”
“En, yeah.”
“Guess who he’s waiting for?” The senior put on her jacket and picked up the books on the table while asking Shi Sheng.
Shi Sheng spoke without hesitation, “Qiao Qian’qian.”
The senior was surprised. “You knew? She went down?”
Shi Sheng shook her head. “Yeah, but no one saw her face clearly.”
“So how come you saw her?” The senior took her bag and had already walked to the door, stopping there to wait for Shi Sheng’s answer.
Shi Sheng smiled slightly. “Because I’m surnamed Qiao.”
The senior had a confused face. ‘So what if you’re surnamed Qiao[3]? Don’t tell me all people with the surname Qiao have telepathy between each other???’
“I think Junior Tang was in your year. What a shame about that god...” The senior shook her head. “I’ll be leaving first, no need to leave the door open for me—I won’t be coming back today.”
‘A shame? For what? For liking an older woman?’
In most people’s minds, it was only normal if the woman was younger.
Shi Sheng gave the senior an OK sign.
The Year 4 female dorms didn’t have such strict rules like the other years did—dorm rooms weren’t even checked at curfew. The only real rule was to not allow men inside.
After all, Year 4 students were either preparing for their graduate exams or were on internships, so most of them wouldn’t even be in their dorms.
Shi Sheng bathed and changed into sleepwear, planning on having a good rest.
This nap lasted more than 3 hours. By the time she woke up, it was already evening.
Shi Sheng checked her phone. Perhaps because she’d accidentally set it to silent, there were 10 missed calls.
7 were from Chen Xi while the other 3 were from the same unknown number. Shi Sheng checked it. It was from the same city. ‘Who’s this?’
Just as she was planning to call Chen Xi back, the unknown number called again.
[1] It’s one of those wordplay things that don’t translate very well. I believe I translated a similar one in arc 2.
[2] Thanks to my TLC, I think this is a reference to The Chinese Odyssey, a movie (?) loosely based on Journey to the West.
[3] There’s plenty of people who share surnames but aren’t related.
