21、
A rare weekend picnic had been planned, but the moment Qiangwei received news that her older sister was coming, she instantly wilted.
Mao Mao asked, “What’s your sister like?”
Qiangwei replied solemnly, “Legend says she started fighting people from a very young age. She once went out carrying bricks to beat people up. Other than climbing roofs and tearing tiles apart, she’s done basically everything. Lots of legends… Standard destructive power level: 5000. A nightmare. My cousin’s lived his whole life under her shadow. Speaking of which, my brother used to be pretty handsome in his younger days. These past few years… sigh, never mind. It’s nothing really… just mentally crippled twenty or thirty years early.”
“……”
Chaoyang looked horrified. “She’s only coming to watch your competition, right? She probably won’t actually do anything?”
Qiangwei shook her head gravely. “You grew up in a greenhouse. You wouldn’t understand.”
Mao Mao suddenly turned toward a certain direction. “How did we forget there’s still a hidden destructive force level ten-thousand right here among us?!”
The person currently leaning against a tree trunk sleeping was awakened by the group shouting. She opened sleepy eyes only to see three pairs of sparkling eyes staring at her with mysterious intent.
“Mm… is the food ready?”
The day Sister Fu arrived was the very next day. Everyone in Qiangwei’s dorm lined up ceremoniously to welcome her. Mao Mao and Chaoyang were there too — only Anning was absent because her project group was holding a meeting.
Honestly, A’Miao would rather have been standing there shouting “Welcome! Warm welcome!”
“Any further questions?”
The familiar official Xu-style tone rang out. Sitting at the head of the table was the consultant temporarily assigned to their group — or more bluntly, the mastermind behind everything.
Anning sat at the far end, with her two collaborators beside her. One of the guys seemed determined to challenge the man at the head seat, repeatedly tossing out tricky questions. The other party didn’t mind at all, answering calmly each time. Eventually the guy suffered complete defeat and ran out of questions.
Since he was fairly close with A’Miao privately, he started waggling his eyebrows at her in hopes of obtaining support from their “team leader.”
Anning truly wanted to tell him:
First, the moment you started asking him questions, you’d already lost.
Second, did she look like the type to deliberately pick fights?
Especially with him…
A female classmate spoke up. “Senior, may I ask a personal question? Have I seen you somewhere before?”
The guy clicked his tongue. “That pickup line is way too cliché.”
“Mind your own business!”
The girl genuinely looked annoyed now. In front of someone you liked, nothing was more hateful than having someone sabotage you.
Anning lightly tapped the table, stopping the two teammates from escalating.
The man at the head flipped through two pages of documents, swept his gaze over everyone present, then finally answered the girl:
“I wouldn’t really count as your senior. As for whether we’ve met before — we attend the same university. It’s not impossible.”
Anning felt he truly spoke flawlessly.
Yet whenever he talked to her, his words somehow always missed the point.
Well… sometimes hers did too.
“Li Anning, your information sheet isn’t complete. What happened?”
He was looking at her.
Anning snapped back to reality. “But I filled everything in…”
“Date of birth. Home phone number.”
Those details had nothing to do with the project though…
“Can I leave them blank?”
A flicker crossed his gaze, his expression growing more serious.
“What do you think?”
The male teammate immediately seized the chance to support her. “Actually it’s fine even if those fields are empty. Besides, Li Anning is our team leader.”
The implication was obvious: you should listen to her.
But Xu Moting clearly didn’t care.
“I never said she wasn’t.”
Although he answered, it was effectively not an answer at all, leaving no opening for criticism. The guy suffered another crushing defeat, forgetting that the other party came from the Foreign Affairs Department.
“Mm… I’ll add them in.”
Anning felt she was becoming the perfect definition of fence-sitting grass.
When she walked over beside him to fill in the form, she assumed the person reviewing documents wouldn’t be paying attention to her.
“Here.”
Anning froze. “Hm?”
A long elegant finger pointed to one section.
“Place of birth.”
“Oh…”
Why did even that need to be filled in?
This felt more and more like a population census…
After they finished discussing the project outline, the male teammate left first. The female teammate rushed off to see her graduate advisor. So Anning stayed behind to tidy up.
As for the remaining person—
He had closed his eyes to rest.
After organizing the revised materials, she glanced toward the man reclining in the chair. Soft lighting illuminated his face, making his complexion look almost translucent. Thinking about how his cold probably hadn’t fully recovered yet, and how he’d still come over to work the entire afternoon, guilt surged up in her heart.
“Xu Moting…”
“Mm?”
He opened his eyes and looked at her.
“Mm… is your cold getting better?”
The corner of his mouth lifted slightly. “Thanks to you.”
Today had actually been fairly harmonious.
But as they were leaving, an accident occurred.
The moment Anning opened the classroom door, she discovered people in the connected laboratory outside — a man and a woman — and…
Well…
The scene was absolutely not child-friendly.
Even though it was evening, it wasn’t exactly late-night-dark-alley hours yet.
A’Miao froze on the spot.
The person behind her wrapped an arm lightly around her and pulled her back a step. Just as she instinctively tried to make a sound, he decisively covered her mouth.
“Did you go stupid?”
His voice even carried traces of helpless laughter.
Anning had recovered her senses, but…
The breath of the person behind her brushed against her neck.
Her entire back was pressed against him.
She could clearly feel the steady rise and fall of his chest.
Somehow, Anning felt even more nervous than when she’d first seen the passionate kissing scene outside.
Moting leaned close to her ear and laughed softly. “Don’t lick my hand.”
She wasn’t!
She’d only been trying to speak…
Just as she decided to pull his hand away, the two people outside seemed to notice movement from their direction.
“Who’s there?”
Anning instantly didn’t dare move another inch.
Seconds ticked by one after another.
Listening to the breathless sounds outside that made one’s face burn red—
Please, just let her die.
The most embarrassing moment of Li Anning’s life to date.
That night, when she recounted the incident to Mao Mao and the others — naturally omitting her own side of the situation — the conclusion everyone reached was:
“X University is getting freaking more and more open-minded!”
As well as Sister Fu’s heartfelt lament:
“I was born in the wrong era.”