Li Mingyue finished speaking and bent down to sit back in the driver's seat.
The black stockings under her professional skirt flashed briefly with her movement, and as the car door closed, the black BMW slowly drove away from the school gate.
Lu Yibei watched the car merge into traffic. Just as he was about to turn around, a loud "Damn!" suddenly came from behind him.
He turned to look.
A girl was standing not far away, holding two books, her eyes wide open. She was stunned for less than two seconds before rushing over in her white sneakers.
Zhang Zihan, a classmate of Lu Yibei.
She wasn't bad-looking, with a high ponytail and clear-cut features. She always spoke and acted straightforwardly. Any news in the class, if she heard it, usually wouldn't survive past that evening.
Zhang Zihan ran up to Lu Yibei, glanced at the departing BMW, and then fixed her gaze on him.
"You're something, Lu Yibei, hiding your true colors!"
"A rich and beautiful girlfriend, right?" Zhang Zihan didn't lower her voice at all. "A white, rich, and beautiful girl personally driving a BMW to bring you back, even getting out to open the door for you. Are you two having a secret romance?"
Lu Yibei glanced around.
Several passing students had already slowed their steps.
College students might miss elective classes or campus recruitment, but they would never easily miss live gossip.
"Not a girlfriend."
"Still pretending?"
"Really not."
"Not a girlfriend, and she opens the car door for you?"
"Politeness."
"Not a girlfriend, and she wears black stockings to bring you back?"
"That's just how she dresses for work."
Zhang Zihan accurately caught the keyword.
"Work? So you two have an office romance?"
Lu Yibei felt a headache coming on.
He realized that clarifying rumors was like pouring water into a hot oil pan; the commotion would only grow.
"I'm still a student, where would an office romance come from?"
"Then what does she do?"
"Works at a bank."
Zhang Zihan gasped.
"A bank executive woman supporting a male college student?"
"What on earth do you usually think about?"
"Aren't you the one giving me these clues?"
"I went to the bank for business, and she gave me a ride back."
"What kind of business requires a beautiful woman in black stockings to chauffeur you?"
"Private banking services."
"Private?" Zhang Zihan's eyes lit up again. "How private?"
Lu Yibei wisely shut his mouth.
If he explained further, tomorrow's campus wall headline would become "The Unspoken Story of a Male College Student and a Private Bank Manager."
"Anyway, she's not my girlfriend."
"Then who is she?"
"Client manager."
"What kind of client manager personally drives a client back to school and waves at the gate?"
Zhang Zihan blocked his way with her books, looking like she wouldn't let him leave without a reasonable explanation. The source of this chapter is g.com.
Lu Yibei moved left, she moved left.
He moved right, she followed right.
The two of them moved back and forth at the school gate like two crabs in a low-budget attack and defense drill.
"Alright, alright."
Unable to outmaneuver her, Lu Yibei casually said, "She's an employee of my family, okay? Not a girlfriend."
Zhang Zihan stopped instantly.
She looked him up and down, more shocked than when she saw the BMW.
"Wow."
"What now?"
"Young Master Lu playing the pig to eat the tiger, huh?"
"What am I playing?"
"Your family employee drives a BMW, wears black stockings, and personally opens the door for you, yet you fight with us over the 9.9 Yuan set meal in the cafeteria every day?"
Lu Yibei opened his mouth.
That did sound a bit inconsistent with the conservation of energy.
"Can't I be frugal?"
"You can, very much so." Zhang Zihan nodded repeatedly. "Rich people experiencing life, I get it."
"You get nothing."
Lu Yibei walked around her towards the school.
Zhang Zihan shouted after him, "Young Master Lu, don't forget us when you're rich!"
"Forget it, I beg you."
"I'll treat you to a 9.9 Yuan meal tomorrow!"
"Thank you for that."
Lu Yibei didn't take the misunderstanding to heart.
Until he walked over a hundred meters and looked back, he saw Zhang Zihan still standing there, her fingers rapidly tapping on her phone screen.
A sudden ominous feeling rose in his heart.
That girl was most likely not checking vocabulary.
Back in the dormitory, as soon as Lu Yibei pushed the door open, he heard Zhao Luyuan cursing.
"I'm really impressed, what kind of Aquaman is this? Not only keeping fish but also targeting the same fish to death!"
Zhou Shuhang sat nearby, his expression also a bit cold.
"To be precise, it's free usage."
Chen Jiashu sat in his chair, holding his phone, not saying a word.
He usually had a good-natured demeanor, but now he sat with his head down.
Lu Yibei closed the door.
"What happened?"
Zhao Luyuan turned around, still looking angry.
"Didn't Jiashu say Jiang Wanwan wanted to focus on her studies? I thought that reason was too far-fetched, so I asked around."
Zhao Luyuan was indeed the dormitory's intelligence director.
He asked classmates, then acquaintances from clubs, and even traced back to Jiang Wanwan's high school friends. In less than two hours, he had pieced together most of her relationship status over the past year.
"And the result?" Lu Yibei asked.
Zhao Luyuan handed over his phone.
Jiang Wanwan was leaning against a guy, the background was the seaside. The caption read, "Happy one-year anniversary."
The post date was last month.
"She has a boyfriend?"
"More than just that," Zhao Luyuan gritted his teeth. "They've been dating for over a year. She specifically blocked Jiashu from seeing her Moments, while having him do chores, save seats, and pick up packages. Meanwhile, she spends weekends with her boyfriend off-campus."
Zhou Shuhang glanced at Chen Jiashu.
"You've been pursuing her for years, and you haven't even made it into her Moments."
Zhao Luyuan continued.
"The place you couldn't enter, someone else has been coming and going freely."
Chen Jiashu's face turned even darker.
"Maybe... they're just ordinary friends."
Zhao Luyuan nearly slammed his phone on the table.
"Ordinary friends celebrating a one-year anniversary?"
"Maybe it's a joke."
"Her boyfriend's pinned post in his Moments is also about her, with the caption 'My Wanwan.' What, are they joking with the whole world and only serious with you?"
Chen Jiashu was at a loss for words.
Zhao Luyuan kept scrolling.
"Last Qixi Festival, she said there was a club meeting and had you save a seat at the library. That night, she had a candlelight dinner by the sea with her boyfriend."
Another photo appeared.
"On her birthday this year, you waited two hours to buy her a cake. She took it to celebrate with her boyfriend, and when she posted it on Moments, she didn't even change the cake box."
In the photo, the cake Chen Jiashu had chosen was placed in the center of the table. Jiang Wanwan and the guy were close, with cream from the same cake on their faces.
Chen Jiashu's lips moved.
"She told me it was just a few girls."
"Right, her boyfriend's gender is quite flexible," Zhou Shuhang said coldly.
Zhao Luyuan grew more agitated.
"When you had a fever last time, she asked you to pick up a package for her on your way. You had a fever of thirty-nine degrees, yet you delivered it to her downstairs. Where was her boyfriend then?"
"Jiashu doesn't know," Zhou Shuhang said. "He only does the work, not participate in the plot."
Chen Jiashu lowered his head, his knuckles turning white.
Those little things he once thought meant "she's willing to rely on me" suddenly took on a different meaning when strung together by those photos.
Lu Yibei didn't join in the scolding, but pulled out a chair to sit down.
"Her dating isn't the issue."
Everyone in the dorm looked at him.
"The issue is she knew you liked her, yet she deliberately kept it from you, continuing to have you do things for her."
Lu Yibei looked at Chen Jiashu.
"You can like the wrong person, but don't keep lying to yourself."
Chen Jiashu stared at the screenshot, his eyes reddening, yet his fingers continued to scroll, as if still searching for excuses for Jiang Wanwan.
Just then, his phone rang.
Caller: Jiang Wanwan.
The dormitory fell silent.
Chen Jiashu held the phone, hesitating to answer.
On the sixth ring, Zhao Luyuan placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Answer it."