The next day was Saturday.
Su Ning brought Lu Xiaoran to Dormitory Building A and knocked on the door of Room 302.
The door was opened by a girl with shoulder-length short hair.
She was one of Bu Zhongyao’s close friends.
The moment she saw Su Ning, a smile immediately spread across her face.
“Ning Ning, what brings you here?”
Before Su Ning could say anything, Lu Xiaoran, ever the loyal follower, spoke first with an imposing smile.
“Last night’s party was so much fun.
Zhongyao really went to a lot of trouble.
We haven’t even had the chance to properly thank her for enriching our extracurricular lives.”
The girl’s smile looked a little unnatural.
“We’re all classmates.
Whenever we have time, we get together and have some fun.
It’s nothing.
Besides, Ning Ning used to take us out to have fun all the time too.
Deep down, we’re very grateful to you as well.”
Su Ning smiled.
“I heard your game didn’t go very smoothly last night?”
The girl suddenly shuddered.
She had been one of the people who played the game last night.
Just like the others, she had encountered strange things that she couldn’t explain.
Even thinking about them now made her feel frightened.
Seeing that Su Ning seemed completely unaffected, she couldn’t help asking, “Ning Ning, did you encounter anything strange?”
“No,” Su Ning said.
“There are so many people at this school.
What strange thing could I possibly encounter?”
She had even taken the time to pick up some trash and do a good deed.
The girl looked at Lu Xiaoran again.
“What about you?
Didn’t you encounter anything strange?”
Lu Xiaoran glanced at Su Ning.
Perhaps she had followed Su Ning for so long that she was gradually becoming an atheist too.
She said, “I was walking with the new student.
We just got lost for a little while.
How could we have encountered anything strange?
If you ask me, some people probably do too many guilty things in their everyday lives, so they become superstitious and start imagining things.”
As she spoke, Lu Xiaoran turned around and gave Su Ning another ingratiating smile.
“Just look at our Ning Ning.
She watched a horror movie last night, then went alone to the abandoned general building to find her boyfriend.
She came back perfectly fine and didn’t encounter anything at all.”
The girl gave a dry laugh.
Su Ning raised a hand and brushed back the long hair beside her ear, smiling elegantly.
“Where’s Bu Zhongyao?”
The girl stepped aside.
She’s in a really bad state.”
Su Ning walked straight inside.
Bu Zhongyao lived in a double room with two beds.
At the moment, a human-shaped lump was curled up beneath the blanket on the pink bed.
Su Ning walked over to the bed.
“It’s almost noon, and you’re still sleeping?”
The person beneath the blanket trembled.
Slowly, a face emerged.
Bu Zhongyao had dark circles under her eyes.
It was obvious she hadn’t rested well.
Her face was deathly pale, as though she had been badly frightened.
She trembled as she said, “S-Su Ning…”
Su Ning was startled by the state Bu Zhongyao was in.
“Did you see a ghost?
Why do you look so weak?”
Normally, Bu Zhongyao was always trying to compete with Su Ning.
She dressed herself up beautifully every day and had extremely high standards when it came to her appearance.
This was the first time she had ever appeared in front of someone looking so disheveled.
Bu Zhongyao’s voice was extremely weak.
“Do you remember…
you saw Zhao Yuan last night…”
Su Ning nodded.
“Of course I remember.
What about it?”
Bu Zhongyao said, “My boyfriend was in the same dorm room as Zhao Yuan.
He said…
he said Zhao Yuan had already died…”
The moment Lu Xiaoran heard this, she and the girl in the room both felt a chill run through them, and goosebumps rose across their arms.
Bu Zhongyao swallowed and said, “If Zhao Yuan had already died, then what…
what did we see last night?”
Su Ning asked, “Did your boyfriend personally see Zhao Yuan die?
Did he see his body?”
Bu Zhongyao shook her head.
“No, but…”
Su Ning said, “Do you never use Study Xi, Strengthen the Nation?”
Bu Zhongyao blinked.
“Huh?”
Su Ning crossed her arms and looked at the person huddled on the bed with pity.
“What era are we living in?
Do you understand the word ‘science’?
Hearing something doesn’t necessarily make it true, and even seeing something doesn’t necessarily make it true.
Some people deliberately spread rumors just to attract attention, and they make everything sound so convincing.
That’s all a violation of the socialist core values.”
She paused, then continued, “And taking it one step further, if there really are ghosts, why would Zhao Yuan come looking for me?
Why would he go looking for you?”
“I’m the campus beauty.
I’m the unattainable dream of countless boys.
Even if he died with resentment and turned into a vengeful ghost, it would definitely be because he never had the chance to touch my little hand in this lifetime.
What does that have to do with you?”
Everyone fell silent.
Could she be any more narcissistic?
Yet when they looked at Su Ning’s flawless face, bright, beautiful, and dazzling, they couldn’t deny that even if she simply stood there doing nothing, she would make people remember her at first sight.
Bu Zhongyao had always refused to admit that Su Ning was beautiful.
Yet after hearing this speech today, she suddenly seemed to recover her energy.
She threw off the blanket and sat upright, suddenly enlightened.
“That’s right!
Even if Zhao Yuan turned into a ghost, you should be the first person he’d come looking for.
How could he possibly come looking for me?”
The person who had been trembling in fear moments ago was suddenly full of energy again.
Lu Xiaoran stared at Su Ning in amazement.
This was the first time she’d learned that there was actually a way to comfort someone like this.
Su Ning didn’t think much of it.
“You were the one who proposed yesterday’s game.
Since everyone agreed to play, then everyone has to follow the rules.
Gu Yueshuo didn’t complete his task.
According to the rules, he has to stay in the dark room for a whole day and night.
You haven’t forgotten that, have you?”
Bu Zhongyao looked troubled.
“Um…
Ning Ning, Gu Yueshuo insists that he saw a ghost crawl out of the television.
He’s a grown man, but he’s even more timid than I am.
If we make him stay in the dark room for a whole day and night…”
Su Ning wasn’t going to soften or sympathize with him.
“If you say something, you have to follow through.
Zhongyao, you’re the second-in-command of our girls’ group.
You can’t make our group lose face.”
Bu Zhongyao’s expression became complicated.
Su Ning had come to see Bu Zhongyao today specifically because of this matter.
She needed to give this group a proper warning, lest they keep thinking about overthrowing her.
After this incident, Bu Zhongyao’s reputation in the girls’ group would definitely plummet, while Su Ning would remain firmly seated as the campus queen.
After leaving Room 302, Lu Xiaoran said with an admiring look, “Ning Ning, you’re incredible.
You shut that little bitch Bu Zhongyao up with just a few sentences.
How is she going to stir up trouble now?
Everyone knows that you’re the only one who can stay completely calm even when Mount Tai collapses right in front of you.”
Su Ning looked at Lu Xiaoran smugly.
“That’s some good flattery.
I still have a few limited-edition pieces of jewelry at my place.
Next time you come over, pick whichever one you like.”
Lu Xiaoran clasped her hands against her cheeks, looking deeply touched.
“Ning Ning, you’re so good to me.”