Tan Qingze was annoyed beyond measure.
Why wouldn’t Jiang Lezhi ever let up?
It was bad enough that she had annoyed him so much he hadn’t slept well all night. Now she even dared to come and wander around in front of him!
This time, Tan Qingze couldn’t be bothered to deal with her. It wasn’t nighttime, and they were at school. What could possibly happen?
Besides, who knew whom she had come to find?
In any case, he absolutely would not leave the room today and let her pester him!
Seeing that Tan Qingze remained unmoved, Lin Zhiyang couldn’t help clicking his tongue.
“Hey! What does Jiang Lezhi even see in you?”
Seeing that he couldn’t get Tan Qingze to move, Lin Zhiyang ran back to the balcony. When he looked down again, his tone was noticeably more urgent.
“Damn! Jiang Lezhi’s been surrounded!”
The others in the dormitory crowded over as well. “What’s going on?”
“It’s too far away. I can’t tell what they’re saying. Why don’t we go down and take a look? There are several guys. What if they bully her?”
After washing his face, Lin Zhiyang returned from the balcony and saw that the dormitory door was open.
“Did someone go out? Why wasn’t the door closed?”
The other person, who had witnessed the entire process, silently pointed toward Tan Qingze’s bed.
Lin Zhiyang followed his gesture. The bed where Tan Qingze had been sleeping just moments ago was now completely empty.
Lin Zhiyang: …I have no words! What a poser!
Jiang Lezhi was surrounded by several male students. She kept waving her hands, her face flushed bright red.
“Jiang Lezhi, who are you looking for? We can help you find him!”
“Was that post from last night true?”
“The stuff in that post was fake, right? Tan Qingze really dumped you?”
Jiang Lezhi wanted to take a couple of steps backward, but she was surrounded on all sides and had nowhere to retreat.
To make matters worse, she couldn’t speak at the moment. She couldn’t explain anything to them and could only continue waving her hands.
She had been waiting downstairs for a long time. In fact, after last night’s post went up, practically everyone knew that Jiang Lezhi had come to find Tan Qingze.
And now that Jiang Lezhi had waited downstairs for so long without Tan Qingze appearing, it showed that Tan Qingze didn’t care for her all that much either.
So as they continued speaking, they became less restrained than they had been at first.
Some even spoke with a faintly mocking tone. “Jiang Lezhi, stop looking for Tan Qingze. Can’t you see he doesn’t care about you at all? The three of us aren’t much worse than him.”
“Exactly. But who would’ve thought that Jiang Lezhi, who’s famous at our school for not paying attention to anyone, would actually take the initiative to kiss someone—and then get rejected?”
At that, they laughed lecherously.
“Jiang Lezhi, kiss me. I definitely wouldn’t push you away like Tan Qingze did!”
Their laughter grew louder and louder, sounding increasingly disgusting.
Jiang Lezhi’s brows drew tightly together. She felt sickened. Clenching her fists, she suddenly shoved the person who had spoken with all her strength.
The man staggered from the force of the shove, his expression turning unpleasant. He reached out to grab Jiang Lezhi’s clothes.
“What are you putting on an act for? You—ah!”
Before his outstretched hand could touch Jiang Lezhi, someone grabbed him from behind by the collar and flung him aside.
When the group saw Tan Qingze’s gloomy expression, they instinctively felt guilty.
The other two pulled the man up from the ground and ran.
Only after they had gone some distance did Tan Qingze withdraw his gaze and look at Jiang Lezhi.
“With strength like yours, you still tried to push someone? You’d have been better off saving your energy and kicking him between the legs.”
Jiang Lezhi steadied her breathing. Now that Tan Qingze had come downstairs, she suddenly felt at a loss.
When she lowered her head, she noticed that Tan Qingze had come down wearing only a pair of slippers. They were fur-lined slippers, but his heels were still exposed.
The outdoor temperature was so low that his feet would surely freeze.
She tugged at Tan Qingze’s sleeve, then pointed at his feet.
Tan Qingze cleared his throat awkwardly, his ears instantly turning red. He took a step back.
“Did you need something from me?”
Jiang Lezhi nodded.
“Can you finish saying it in five minutes?”
Jiang Lezhi nodded, then thought about it and shook her head, looking at Tan Qingze hesitantly.
“Wait downstairs for two minutes.”
After saying that, Tan Qingze turned and headed back into the dormitory.
Lin Zhiyang had stayed by the balcony the whole time, watching what was happening downstairs. Seeing Tan Qingze come back up so quickly, he was shocked.
“You finished that fast?”
Tan Qingze shot him a look, quickly washed up, pulled on a black down jacket, and went back outside.
The moment Tan Qingze left, Lin Zhiyang and the others burst into uninhibited laughter.
“Okay, okay, did you guys see that just now? I’ve never seen him so nervous!”
“Our brother has finally fallen this time!”
Jiang Lezhi kept watching the time. Two minutes had already passed, but Tan Qingze still hadn’t come out.
Could it be that he wasn’t coming back out?
She stared at the tips of her shoes and nudged the bits of snow on the ground with her foot.
In truth, she had been feeling terribly anxious too. She hadn’t planned to come looking for Tan Qingze today in the first place.
Now that she knew how to restore her ability to speak, the most important thing was to build a good relationship with him first, preferably reaching an understanding with him.
To suddenly bring up something like this—anyone would think she was crazy!
Taking things step by step was the best approach. That had been what she initially intended to do.
After all, she had already lived as a mute for so long. A little more time wouldn’t make a difference.
But when she woke up this morning, she saw the messages her parents had sent…
After learning that she had regained her ability to speak, they had bought plane tickets and come over. By now, they were probably almost at this city.
If she went to see them while still mute, they would only end up celebrating for nothing again.
No one understood better than she did what it felt like to have one’s hopes raised for nothing.
So Jiang Lezhi had no choice but to come to Tan Qingze’s dormitory and try her luck.
What if Tan Qingze was really willing to help her?
When Tan Qingze came downstairs, he saw Jiang Lezhi staring blankly at the tips of her shoes. She was clutching her scarf tightly, her little face scrunched up into a ball.
She was even frowning now…
“What is it you want to say? Hurry up.”
Jiang Lezhi took out her phone. While waiting downstairs just now, she had typed out a lot of words, but no matter how she wrote them, they all felt wrong. In the end, she deleted everything.
Her fingers tapped at the screen.
“Grrr~”
Jiang Lezhi covered her stomach with one hand and awkwardly took a step back.
“Forget it… I’m hungry. Let’s find somewhere to eat, so I don’t get made into a joke and posted about again here!”
Jiang Lezhi put her phone back into her pocket and silently followed behind Tan Qingze, keeping a neither-too-close-nor-too-distant distance from him.
Tan Qingze found a quiet restaurant and skillfully gave the server the names of several dishes. Then, remembering that Jiang Lezhi couldn’t speak, he turned around and asked, “What do you want to eat? Write it down.”
Jiang Lezhi pointed at the QR code on the table.
She had already scanned it and chosen her dishes.
Tan Qingze: What the hell was the point of asking?
Jiang Lezhi noticed that Tan Qingze seemed unhappy again. She glanced at the prices on the menu and paid in advance for the dishes Tan Qingze had just ordered as well.
Then she smiled ingratiatingly at Tan Qingze.
Tan Qingze didn’t want to look at her. This was the last time—truly the last time—he would help her. If anything happened to Jiang Lezhi after this, he absolutely would not pay her any more attention!
She was unbelievably troublesome!
“Why did you come looking for me?”