It was the first big class of the morning in the lecture hall.
The professor hadn’t arrived yet.
“So, you just sold yourself out like that? Pfft!” Gai Gai propped her elbows on the desk, covering her mouth, her small shoulders shaking. “I can’t hold it in, let me just laugh for a bit~~”
Liu Xia rammed her elbow into Gai Gai’s supporting arm and said fiercely, “It’s a miracle you’ve lived this long without someone killing you.”
Hao Yan also smiled, though discreetly, her focus on her freshly manicured nails. Her slender fingers were exquisitely shaped, and the rhinestones on the tips sparkled with tiny light.
Liu Xia could barely tolerate Hao Yan’s smile, but Gai Gai was simply asking for a beating.
Hao Yan slowly started, “Why didn’t you talk to us before you did that?”
Liu Xia coughed lightly, her eyes drifting. “That was a spur-of-the-moment decision.”
If she hadn’t genuinely been at a loss for what to do next, she wouldn’t have volunteered herself as a joke for them to laugh at.
Hao Yan glanced at her, raising an eyebrow. A good ‘Ji-you’ (gal pal/friend in a lesbian context) sees through you but doesn’t expose you.
Gai Gai finally stopped laughing and wiped her tears. “If you had told us, we definitely would have stopped you. You took the decision yourself and got snubbed—who’s there to blame?”
Liu Xia retorted, “You talk as if you know her well.”
Gai Gai said, “Whether we know her or not, at least we know her family is super rich.”
Liu Xia looked up at the ceiling, speechless and tearless. “But she doesn’t look rich at all.”
Hao Yan clicked her tongue and chuckled, “After only one night, you’ve developed a lot more holes in your brain, haven’t you?! These days, the less money people have, the more they show off; the richer they are, the more low-key they are. Don’t you understand this?”
Liu Xia disagreed. “That’s a small probability. Most rich people are still recognizable.”
Gai Gai said, “Anyway, her family is super rich, richer than you can imagine.”
Hao Yan added, “You can understand it as: they’re so rich that money is just a string of numbers to her!”
Liu Xia raised an eyebrow at them. “Really?”
Hao Yan snorted, “Believe it or not~”
This made Liu Xia even more depressed. “So she’s that rich, yet she only tried to brush me off with 50,000 yuan?!”
Hao Yan glanced at her with a half-smile, continuing to admire her sparkly nails.
Gai Gai knocked on the table. “Is that the point?! The point is you’ve already sold yourself. What do you plan to do now?”
Liu Xia said miserably, “I came to ask you two because I don’t know…”
She had already taken Gu Lingluo’s money. Was she really going to stay outside the 50-meter radius forever?
She wondered if it was too late to back out and return the money.
She truly wished she could go back to yesterday and choke her ‘mysterious confidence’ self.
Tossing her wine-red wavy hair over her shoulder, Hao Yan slowly said, “It’s not impossible for us to help you, but… next time, you can’t act without our consultation. Otherwise, all our advice will be useless.”
Gai Gai chimed in, “Exactly! We’re mostly here to watch the show and have a laugh, but when we give advice, we’re being completely sincere. You can’t be so stingy. Aren’t good Ji-you supposed to be a source of entertainment? When I was chasing my first love, didn’t you two laugh at me just as much?”
Gai Gai made a lot of sense. Remembering how heartily she had laughed at her friend, Liu Xia offered a deep self-critique.
“I’m sorry, I was wrong. Go ahead and laugh; my heart is as firm as gold!”
Hao Yan and Gai Gai exchanged a glance, which looked slightly malicious.
Hao Yan said, “If you know you were wrong, treat us to a meal.”
Gai Gai added, “And next time, you must tell us everything in detail. Burning yourself to illuminate your Ji-you is the truly moving sisterly bond~”
Liu Xia: I feel like these two ‘plastic flowers’ have calculated me again…
Liu Xia said, “Alright, alright, I agree to all your conditions. Now, what should I do?”
Gai Gai wiggled her eyebrows. Her melon-seed face and almond eyes made her look incredibly mischievous.
“According to the firsthand information I’ve gathered, Gu Lingluo absolutely hates people who break their promises, but she is also very respectful of teachers.”
Liu Xia was expressionless. “So what?”
Gai Gai lowered her voice, speaking mysteriously. “Also, according to what I know, there are a total of 268 students—freshmen and upperclassmen—in the German class.”
Liu Xia remained expressionless. “Are you saying the numbers 6 and 8 are auspicious? Or are you saying there aren’t enough seats in the lecture hall, and if we’re late, we have to bring our own stool?”
Gai Gai hit her on the head in frustration. “Forget about the holes in your brain for a moment, can you at least drain the water out of those holes?”
Liu Xia scratched her nose. “I understand what you mean. The total number is exactly even, so everyone can form a CP, and there won’t be odd numbers or groups of three. If I don’t find a CP, the professor might assign me to her. But…”
Liu Xia sighed slightly. “Like you said, she’s the top student and the campus belle. There are tons of people who want to partner with her. I doubt she’d wait for the professor to force a CP; she’s probably already partnered with someone.
Besides, I wouldn’t be the only lonely one without a group. Even if she doesn’t have a CP, the professor might not assign her to me specifically.”
Hao Yan smiled. “That depends on whether you act quickly enough and are willing to put in the effort and the money.”
Liu Xia asked, “How so?”
Hao Yan lightly licked the corner of her lips, her red lips alluring and her gaze tempting. She leaned in close to Liu Xia, whispering slowly.
“You just need to do this, and this, and then this~~”
A week passed in the blink of an eye, and Mr. Seider’s German class arrived as scheduled.
Hao Yan and Gai Gai lived on campus, so they were always early. The glorious task of holding seats had always been theirs.
“Over here! Liu Xia!” Gai Gai spotted her first, waving from the back row.
Liu Xia was beaming. She was about to head over with her bag when a chilling gaze cut through the crowd, giving her a Sprite-cold chill straight to her core.
At the two o’clock position to the right of Hao Yan and Gai Gai, Patron Mom was holding a pen and flipping through her notes, her eyes fixed on Liu Xia.
Liu Xia took one step up the stairs, and she stared. Took another step, and she was still staring. Continuous walking, continuous staring, until all the hairs on Liu Xia’s back stood up.
What was the meaning of this?
Surely she wasn’t prohibited from being within 50 meters of her even in the classroom, right?
That was too unreasonable!
However…
Considering the crucial moment that was about to arrive, it was best not to challenge Patron Mom’s temper now.
A step back leads to boundless prospects.
Retreating to the classroom doorway, she smiled sweetly at the boy sitting in the first row closest to the edge. “Excuse me, classmate, could you possibly switch seats with me?”
The boy quickly gathered his things. Liu Xia watched him walk to Hao Yan and Gai Gai’s section, waving an acknowledgment to her friends.
Gai Gai shook her head, speechless, and moved her own things to sit right next to Hao Yan.
Liu Xia cautiously stole a glance at Gu Lingluo. Patron Mom had already looked away and was flipping through her notes as if nothing had happened.
Sigh!
“Only women and small men are difficult to deal with.” The ancients did not deceive me.
Even now, Liu Xia still couldn’t quite believe that Patron Mom was a rich second-generation heir.
So she didn’t use a mobile phone because she was… rich? Wilful?!
Liu Xia sat down miserably. The boy next to her kept glancing at her. She could ignore it once or twice, but by the seventh or eighth time, she couldn’t take it anymore.
She smiled and turned her head. “What is it, classmate? Is something wrong?”
The boy, who was above average in looks, leaned back in his chair and ran his hands through his short hair, striking what he thought was a handsome pose.
“I thought you wouldn’t remember me anymore.”
Liu Xia: What?!
She continued to smile. “Do I know you?”
The boy’s face instantly stiffened, but he managed to hold it together. He continued, “Last year at the New Year’s Gala, we were backstage waiting to go on, and we exchanged a few words. Remember?”
She remembered the event, but she didn’t remember the person.
That was Liu Xia’s first time performing on stage, and she had only signed up because she lost a bet with her sister. She was incredibly nervous before going on stage. How could she have time to remember what the person next to her looked like?
The important point to note was that her guitar performance failed spectacularly. She was so nervous that she was not only off-key but also missed several notes. Consequently, for a long time, the whole school spread rumors that she was an arrogant ‘flower vase’—how dare she go on stage with such little skill?
The past is too painful to recall. No wonder her Campus Belle title was so easily taken by Patron Mom. Public standards were too high now. To be the Campus Belle, you had to be beautiful and have at least one outstanding skill among the eighteen martial arts (a metaphor for various skills, like music, chess, calligraphy, and painting).
For example, Patron Mom: High-Altitude Flower (unapproachable beauty) plus Top Student skills—the perfect Campus Belle configuration!
Although she still couldn’t recall what the boy who had spoken to her looked like, since he brought it up, he must be the right person. Liu Xia’s smile became genuine; after all, he was someone who had once told her, “Don’t be nervous.”
“Oh, it was you. What a coincidence.”
The boy smiled, his look strange. “Coincidence. Yes, a real coincidence.”
Liu Xia suddenly felt that something was off.
Wait!
He couldn’t possibly think she deliberately sat next to him, could he?
No, he wouldn’t.
They only met once. She must be overthinking things.
Just as she was lost in thought, Mr. Seider walked in with his books. The noisy classroom instantly fell into pin-drop silence.
After a simple opening, Mr. Seider flipped through the group list and began speaking in stilted Chinese.
“The students have been very proactive, and the professor is pleased. Now, only two students remain ungrouped. One is student Gu Lingluo.”
Mr. Seider looked up and scanned the room. “Who is that?”
Gu Lingluo carefully held the chair to tuck it in and stood up.
“That’s me, Professor.”
Mr. Seider nodded slightly.
“And the other is student Liu Xia. Who is that?”
Liu Xia was mentally prepared. She also carefully tucked in her chair, avoiding the loud clash from the previous class.
“That’s me, Professor.”
The classroom instantly burst into an uproar, with constant whispering.
Everyone vividly remembered the public “confession” from the last class. They never, ever would have thought that the former campus belle had actually succeeded!
Some were heartbroken, others excited.
Since these high-value beauties were unattainable to them anyway, rather than let other ‘pig trotters’ (slang for undesirable men) benefit, it was better that…
Campus Belle × Former Campus Belle…
Hehe. ‘The Orange is Set’ (a slang term indicating a same-sex outcome is confirmed), just waiting for the show.
Mr. Seider knocked on the table. “Sei still! (Be quiet!)”
Completely oblivious to the bored, gossiping hearts in the quiet classroom, he maintained his serious face and said word by word, “Since only you two are left, you will form one group. Study hard and supervise each other.”