The closest gates between Yun University and Qing University were about a twenty-minute walk apart. If traffic was clear, it would not even take ten minutes by car.
Jiang Nian had not even finished reflecting on her embarrassing decision when the taxi had already arrived at its destination.
After getting out of the car, Jiang Nian stared resentfully at Lu Zhiheng’s back as he closed the car door.
—You’d better not let me catch you embarrassing yourself too!
By the time Lu Zhiheng turned around, Jiang Nian had already returned to her dazed, just-woken-up appearance, completely unaware that her little expression had been reflected clearly in the car window earlier.
Lu Zhiheng did not expose her. The fingertips hanging at his side curled slightly, almost imperceptibly.
Jiang Nian then took her belongings and waved her hand. “Thanks for bringing me back. Then I’m heading upstairs! You should hurry back too!”
Lu Zhiheng had only just responded when Jiang Nian had already turned and walked toward the dormitory building with light, cheerful steps.
—Yay, work’s over, work’s over!
Lu Zhiheng watched that lively figure disappear through the entrance. Only then did he withdraw his gaze. After booking a ride home, a WeChat notification popped up.
In the work group chat, Cheng Ze had already reported the latest progress, then privately messaged him:
[Brother Lu, are you and Sister-in-law okay? She’s not angry, right?]
Lu Zhiheng lowered his head and typed honestly:
[It’s fine. I already brought her back to the dormitory.]
As for whether she was angry?
Lu Zhiheng felt there probably was some, but not much.
Because Jiang Nian seemed to be… far too easy to coax.
After returning to the dormitory, Jiang Nian found that her other three roommates were not there.
Without caring about her image at all, Jiang Nian flopped onto her little bed while celebrating with System 999.
【Little Three-Nine, looks like you really do have good judgment! Look at this, I easily got ten dislike points just like that!】
System 999 was also extremely happy.
【The main reason is because Niannian performed so well! If we successfully complete the mission, you’ll get a one-billion reward, and I’ll get upgraded when I go back, hehe! I won’t be a rookie system anymore!】
Jiang Nian and System 999 happily fantasized about the future together.
After all, the original host’s setting was that she had grown up in a welfare institute since childhood. She barely had any savings and had rejected many adoptive families because she always held resentment and obsession toward her biological parents.
If she could really get one billion, then she would never have to worry again in the future.
Thinking of this, Jiang Nian asked System 999:
【Earlier you said that minor but plot-related characters like me were basically NPCs played by your coworkers, and that the previous one wanted to challenge higher-difficulty roles, so she applied for a transfer, right? Then when you officially started working, you happened to detect that my soul matched and saved me into this world…】
System 999 replied:
【That’s right, that’s right.】
Jiang Nian confirmed again:
【She already went to another world, so she won’t suddenly come back right when I’m about to succeed, right?】
System 999 immediately reassured her:
【Nope! Don’t worry, Niannian! Inserting and transferring souls is absolutely not easy. After you take over, we even have to adjust things like appearance, handwriting, living habits, and more according to you to avoid exposing flaws. One world only needs to go through this kind of chaos once. If every character awakened and decided they didn’t want to work anymore, the world would collapse!】
Only then did Jiang Nian finally feel relieved.
Today’s meeting had helped Jiang Nian understand Lu Zhiheng a little better, and she no longer viewed him as merely a paper-thin Male Lead character from a novel.
Jiang Nian sat upright, picked up the iPad beside her, and began organizing all the actions her Ex-Girlfriend character had performed in the original story, along with the Male Lead’s corresponding reactions.
She sorted them again according to what she personally could tolerate, then had System 999 memorize everything before deleting the records.
With this Dramatic Ex-Girlfriend Handbook, she definitely would not have any problems!
After organizing everything, Jiang Nian felt a little hungry and decided to head to the cafeteria in search of food.
The moment she opened the dormitory door, Su Shishi and Fang Tian—who had just been taking out their keys outside—froze in surprise. Seeing Jiang Nian inside the dormitory seemed to confuse them greatly.
“Huh? Niannian, why are you in the dorm?” Fang Tian asked first.
“I just got back.” Jiang Nian looked puzzled. “What’s wrong?”
“Then why didn’t you reply in the group chat?!” Su Shishi strongly condemned her. “We thought you were still out on your date!”
Jiang Nian was not only the beauty of their Visual Communication Design Department, but had also been voted the campus beauty of their class year.
Usually, when talking to such a great beauty, they hardly even dared look directly at Jiang Nian for fear that they would accidentally stop listening to what she was saying. But after living together as roommates for over a year, seeing that social media post had suddenly given them the feeling that their precious flower had been snatched away by some pig.
“What messages?” Jiang Nian froze briefly. She unplugged her charging phone and turned it on, only to discover that the likes on her social media post had skyrocketed. Her private messages had piled up as well, and even classmates she was barely familiar with had come asking questions.
At the very top was their pinned dormitory group chat—Early 8 A.M. Must Die (4).
Jiang Nian immediately fought to defend her innocence. “It’s not that I ignored only you guys. I ignored everyone!”
The two looked at Jiang Nian’s phone screen.
It was covered in red notification dots.
Fang Tian wrapped an arm around Jiang Nian’s and said, “Good baby, I knew you didn’t do it on purpose. But—”
As she spoke, she exchanged a glance with Su Shishi, and together they surrounded Jiang Nian.
“Confess honestly. Are you dating someone?”
While speaking, Su Shishi opened Jiang Nian’s social media post on her phone. “Who’s this dog of a man?!”
In the photo, the fingers were slender and distinctly jointed, carrying a sense of bony elegance. The hand was clearly much larger than Jiang Nian’s. Slight veins showed faintly on the back of the hand gripping the coffee cup, making it obvious at a glance that it belonged to a man.
“It kind of counts, but not really.” Jiang Nian answered vaguely. “We’re still getting to know each other, so I didn’t tell you guys yet.”
In front of Lu Zhiheng, she could work hard to put on the airs of an official girlfriend for the sake of the mission. But in front of her roommates, she still wanted to speak more conservatively.
Fang Tian and Su Shishi simultaneously dragged out their voices meaningfully.
“Oho~~~”
Su Shishi looked at Jiang Nian, who was innocent as a blank sheet of paper, and could not help reminding her, “Niannian, then you absolutely have to observe him for a longer time! Men’s mouths are full of lies. Don’t let yourself get won over too easily!”
Fang Tian strongly agreed. “Exactly, exactly! Don’t fall too hard too quickly—even if he’s handsome!”
Everyone in the dormitory knew Jiang Nian had never dated before. Plenty of people from both inside and outside their department had pursued her before, but Jiang Nian had never agreed to any of them.
Now, this was the very first man she had ever posted on social media.
Hearing their words, Jiang Nian nodded vigorously. “Mm-hm!”
—She definitely would not!
Watching Jiang Nian nod like a little chick pecking rice, Fang Tian and Su Shishi felt their hearts melt.
How had they never realized before that beneath Goddess Jiang Nian’s beautiful appearance was actually such an adorable creature?
“Alright! I’m hungry!” Jiang Nian slipped out of their encirclement. “Are you guys going to the cafeteria to eat?”
After speaking, she pointed toward the mini cake on the table. “I still have some after-meal dessert here to share with you guys.”
Fang Tian and Su Shishi answered in unison:
“Let’s go!”
Along the way, Jiang Nian also shared some unimportant information, such as the mysterious man’s age, school, and major, which more or less satisfied the two girls’ curiosity.
“He sounds pretty outstanding.” Fang Tian felt much more reassured. “But if you two aren’t from the same school, how did you even meet?”
Suddenly faced with that question, Jiang Nian hurriedly tried to recall whether she and Lu Zhiheng had ever discussed this matter during their contract-couple arrangement.
However, the Male Lead himself had zero romantic experience, while she had only wanted to use this opportunity to become Lu Zhiheng’s real girlfriend. Naturally, they had never coordinated answers for such questions.
In a flash, Jiang Nian once again remembered Lu Zhiheng’s face—the kind that was impossible to ignore.
She lowered her eyes and coughed lightly.
“Well… it was probably just love at first sight because of his looks…”