Li He stuffed things into Zhao Han’s bag, and Zhao Han carefully straightened them out. Then Li He could not help saying, “Why aren’t you refusing this time? Back then when I brought you food, it felt like I was feeding you with a fire hose!”
“Isn’t it so we can get along in friendship and harmony?” Zhao Han said vaguely, while packing the fruit and snacks into more than half the bag. “How could I let down your kindness!”
In truth, she had only noticed that Luo Qingbai was not just traveling light because of a year-long exchange, but was genuinely impoverished. She had few clothes, and as a second-year student when almost everyone already had a laptop, she still did not have one. When she went to the cafeteria, she only ordered a three-yuan vegetarian meal, and on the way back to the dorm after passing the student work office’s recruiting notice, she even took a photo of it.
Li He was very pleased to see this. “Living together is fate. Don’t make trouble.” After a pause, she said, “Xiaohan, Mom is a very open-minded person……”
“I know, you’re as open-minded as they come. There isn’t anything in this world you can’t accept! I’m leaving, don’t miss me…… oh, I accidentally saw the magazine under your pillow, wow……” Zhao Han exaggeratedly lifted a shoulder.
Li He grabbed a handful of melon seeds and was about to throw them at her daughter’s face. Then she thought that would be wasteful, so she turned back and kept cracking them. Halfway through, she realized something was off, took out the magazine from under her own pillow, flipped through it twice, and finally found the reason for Zhao Han’s “wow.” It was an illustration, comic style, boys’ love style, formal wear style, big ass style, and even a restraint style with a tie binding both hands……
If she clarified right now, saying this was the first time she had ever seen the illustration and that she had bought the book not to look at the pictures, would Zhao Han still believe her?
As an intellectual middle-aged woman, in order to care about her daughter’s physical and mental health and understand her daughter’s psychological state, what she cared about was naturally the magazine’s content. She had just bought the wrong one and ended up with boys’ love, and then felt it was a bit wasteful to throw it away without reading.
But focusing on the content was not wrong.
That evening Li He wanted to use the snacks as an excuse to have a proper talk with Zhao Han, but Zhao Han hung up after less than three sentences. “I’m in the lab, busy.”
That was not an excuse. She really was busy.
Zhao Han had originally wanted to spend a couple of lazy days drifting along like the Honghu waters before returning to the lab. Who knew that while squeezing the subway, she would be so lucky as to be summoned by her advisor.
The assignment was urgent, handed down on short notice, and she had to rush to finish it.
Even the snacks for Luo Qingbai were left on the desk, with a note for her.
It was so hard to finally have a roommate, and yet they did not even get a chance to get along harmoniously. Staring at a screen full of English papers in the lab, Zhao Han felt the malice life held toward her.
After being out of practice for a few days, she and the papers were in the middle of a “reunion” and “getting reacquainted” session when Cheng Yixue pulled over a chair and poked her head over. “Senior, where did you go to have fun over the holiday?”
“Yunnan.” Zhao Han looked away from the screen and at Cheng Yixue.
On closer look, the girl was actually quite pretty, the cute kind of pretty. Her complexion was pink-white, her eyes were large, her mouth small and slightly pursed, and she had long curly hair, as if she might suddenly start acting spoiled at any moment.
Rumor had it that she could settle ninety percent of the boys with her looks, and once she set her sights on someone, there was no one she could not get. It was also rumored that because she got along so well with boys, the girls were jealous of her, and so she did not have many female friends.
Zhao Han had no competitive relationship with other women, nor was she interested in rumors. She had no prejudice against Cheng Yixue, but she was not especially warm either.
Cheng Yixue had come knocking on her dorm room door yesterday, and now she was crowding up in front of her. Zhao Han was quite curious what that was for.
Cheng Yixue stuck out her tongue. She had a natural cute coquettishness to her, and Zhao Han felt her heart soften a little as she watched, when Cheng Yixue laughed and said, “That’s awesome, I want to go too. Several of my classmates went to Yunnan for their graduation trip, and the photos they took were gorgeous. Too bad once I got into the lab this year I got tied down, I didn’t even have a holiday!”
“The lab has a lot of projects.” Zhao Han had also spent her days and nights rushing to finish her own progress, and only got away by lying that something had come up at home.
Because of that, once she came back, other tasks were handed to her and she was a little dazed.
“Even if there are a lot of projects, they can’t use a newbie as a punch bag. Boss Gui even had me try the temperature control part. My undergraduate course was the worst on automatic control principles. How would I know how to do that?”
Zhao Han glanced at the paper on the computer again and could not quite smile. So she was unknowingly cleaning up Cheng Yixue’s mess, and Cheng Yixue was still coming to show off in front of her?
“Huh, isn’t this paper……” Cheng Yixue leaned closer to the computer. “Boss Gui gave this to you?”
Zhao Han: “……ah, he gave it to me this morning. Very urgent.”
Cheng Yixue rested an arm on Zhao Han’s shoulder. “Senior……” She drew out the two characters with eight different turns of tone, making Zhao Han’s heart tingle.
But Zhao Han remained calm and moved a little farther away. “Don’t feel burdened. Since the task was given to me by Boss Gui, I’ll do it.” She emphasized the words “Boss Gui,” and seeing Cheng Yixue on the verge of tears, she worried the other girl had not meant any harm, so she added a comforting line: “If you have any issues later, let me know early. Boss Gui is not that hard to talk to. All right, get back to work.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Cheng Yixue brightened instantly. If Zhao Han had not moved away quickly, she felt this girl might have wrapped her arms around her and acted spoiled.
Everyone had come through the newbie stage. When Zhao Han had first entered the lab, she had not known the ropes either, and her reputation was not good. She had once asked a nearly graduated senior for guidance on a problem, and that senior’s impatient tone and guarded expression were still fresh in her memory. Back then, when she returned to the dorm at night, she had felt so wronged she wanted to cry.
Fortunately, one senior in the lab took good care of her, and she managed to get through that early period when she knew nothing.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, she thought.
Before Zhao Han resumed work, she received a message from Luo Qingbai: “The snacks are delicious, thank you, senior.”
“I’ll be back late tonight. Don’t lock the door.” After sending that reply, Zhao Han had completely finished the “reunion and reacquaintance” stage with her paper, and worked all the way until eleven. She made it back before the dormitory closed at eleven-thirty.
Every dorm building always had a few couples treating a short evening separation like life and death, clinging to each other and refusing to part. The dorm aunt stood at the door, waiting to break them up when the time came. She was bored too, and made small talk with Zhao Han. “How’s your roommate?”
Zhao Han borrowed the evaluation she had given when calling her at the time. “Honest, proper, obedient, and sensible!”
The aunt shot her a glare. “Don’t fool me. I’m very good at reading people. She’s not the kind who causes trouble. You’re a young person, always going everywhere alone. How can that do?”
Zhao Han smiled and said nothing. She was not exactly going everywhere alone either. She had friends.
When she got back, the dorm lights were still on. Luo Qingbai was lying on the bed, seemingly writing something. Zhao Han casually asked, “You’re not asleep yet?”
“About to sleep.” Luo Qingbai finished the last stroke on the notebook, put it away, and lay flat again. Then she said, “Thank you, senior.” She had just written that in the notebook.
As she went to wash up, Zhao Han said, “Thank my mom later.”
Aside from that one meeting that night, in the days that followed, Zhao Han and Luo Qingbai lived under the same roof yet somehow never met again.
The reason was truly simple, busy.
At night, when Zhao Han came back, Luo Qingbai left a light on for her, but she had already fallen asleep. In the morning, by the time Zhao Han got up, Luo Qingbai had already left.
So when Li He called several times to ask whether she was getting used to life with a roommate, Zhao Han could only say she was very used to it. Whether this roommate was there or not, there was not much difference. How could she not be used to it?
Luo Qingbai did not have any bad habits. She kept her own things neat and tidy, took care of the shared cleaning areas, threw out the bathroom trash frequently, and left the sink in perfect order after use. She even watered the flowers on the balcony.
Aside from being elusive, there really was nothing bad about her.
But Zhao Han could not say what exactly was good about Luo Qingbai beyond being worry-free. In the end, she could only agree to a hot pot meal with Li He to put a stop to her interrogation. The work in her hands was expected to finish by Saturday, and Sunday should be for proper relaxation.
But unexpectedly, forty minutes after Zhao Han finished giving a positive evaluation of Luo Qingbai, she heard someone in the cafeteria evaluating her in front of Luo Qingbai’s face.
Compared with her evaluation of Luo Qingbai, that was the opposite extreme.
Their lab was on the main campus, while the dorm was on South Campus. Zhao Han had forgotten something and came back to South Campus to get it, only to run into Cheng Yixue, who had also come to South Campus. Cheng Yixue was very happy and dragged Zhao Han to the South Campus cafeteria for lunch. The two were eating when Zhao Han heard someone seem to mention her name, and only then did she pay attention.
Once she did, she heard quite a lot. The speakers were at a table behind her, four girls gathered together. Besides Luo Qingbai, Zhao Han did not know any of them.
However, the speaker probably did not know her either. Even though Zhao Han glanced at one of the girls, the other had no reaction at all. She only saw that when this girl poked Luo Qingbai’s arm, Luo Qingbai flinched away. The girl advised her with what sounded like ten thousand worries in her voice, “Qingbai, go ask the aunt to change dorms. That reason will definitely work. How can you stay there safely?”
Danger herself, Zhao Han, had a black question mark on her face. How was she dangerous?
As for Cheng Yixue, her expression immediately darkened. If Zhao Han had not held her back, she looked ready to slap the table and stand up.
Zhao Han smiled. “Eat your food.” At a time like this, even if she charged over and made a scene, how much point would there be? She was someone who had been through rumors, and she understood very well that in such a huge campus, one good way to calm things down was to let the rumors go to hell.
But with only one table between them, the words still carried over. Different voices, the same meaning, buzzed and stabbed at Zhao Han’s eardrums.
“We really aren’t trying to scare you, this got huge. Zhao Han was even punished for it before. Back then it was still a four-person room, and she could cause that kind of thing. Now you only have a two-person room. Wouldn’t it be even easier for her to make a move?”
“First off, I’m not discriminating against lesbians, but this person is really gross. I heard that in winter she would use the cold as an excuse to squeeze into the same bed with someone else, and in the middle of the night she’d say she was half-asleep and touch the person’s chest. Isn’t that harassment? And she even has that sort of thing on her computer. What wouldn’t she do? Just thinking about it is disgusting!”
“Exactly, move out early. A gentleman does not stand beneath a dangerous wall. Change dorms and you’ll feel at ease!”
Cheng Yixue’s expression shifted several times, and she wanted to step in and argue more than once, but Zhao Han stopped her every time. Cheng Yixue lowered her voice. “Senior, your roommate is way too what’s-her-name. You’re living in the same dorm, and they’re talking about you like that. She doesn’t even make a sound!”
Zhao Han smiled a little. After going through one storm, she did not set high demands on people. In a dorm there were even people who poisoned others. Luo Qingbai could keep silent and not follow along with the others spreading nonsense, and Zhao Han was already very satisfied.
Who knew the table would get even more excited. “Right, and I also heard Zhao Han say you were a gem in a broken case. That was clearly just her eyeing you. Think about how disgusting that is!”
At that sentence, Zhao Han’s chopsticks paused, but she did not stop Cheng Yixue. At last Cheng Yixue got what she wanted and slammed her tray hard onto the table, standing up to shout, “Talking behind people’s backs like that, isn’t that too despicable!”
The other side was stunned by her for a moment.
Zhao Han wiped her mouth and slowly turned around, waving at the four of them. “Hi!”
Obviously, aside from Luo Qingbai, no one recognized them, but when Luo Qingbai saw her, her thin lips pressed together, her face stern and expressionless. Zhao Han did not know what she was thinking.
The girl who had poked Luo Qingbai’s arm seemed only then to react. “Who are you?”
Cheng Yixue said with perfect confidence, “Who who who? Whoever you’re talking about, that’s who we are!” Though she said that, she still let Zhao Han stand in front.
The phrase about Luo Qingbai being a gem in a casket had been the day Luo Qingbai arrived. Zhao Han had run downstairs to get water and happened to run into Cheng Yixue. When Cheng Yixue called Luo Qingbai tacky-looking, Zhao Han had casually defended her. She had never mentioned it to anyone else after that.
And now this person was here, indignantly standing up for her.
The feeling in Zhao Han’s heart was extremely strange. She had even gotten angry because of the gossip. She said slowly, “This gossip is so explosive, where did you hear it?” She really was smiling, as if chatting idly.
But she noticed Luo Qingbai quickly glance at her, then withdraw her eyes.
“Why are you eavesdropping on us?” That girl changed her expression as though flipping a page, and rolled her eyes at Zhao Han and Cheng Yixue.
“We’re eavesdropping?” Cheng Yixue was extremely indignant and yanked Zhao Han once. “We’re the people involved, what the hell are we eavesdropping for!”
The cafeteria was a place where crowds gathered. At this rate, everyone was going to surround them and watch the excitement. Zhao Han planned to stay calm and resolve it peacefully. “We didn’t mean to eavesdrop. You were naming names, and your voices were too loud. Quite a few people probably heard you, but where did you hear this gossip?”
“Why should I tell you!”
Someone chimed in, “Exactly, exactly!”
“That version is wrong. The one who supposedly slept in the same bed and the one who supposedly had her chest touched were not the same person. Next time don’t listen to her nonsense, just come ask me directly. I’m Zhao Han.”
Everyone had heard Cheng Yixue shout two or three times that they were the people involved, but only when Zhao Han admitted it so calmly did their expressions change. Only Luo Qingbai, her lips pressed together, lifted one corner in what seemed like a smile.
Zhao Han did not have the time, nor did she want, to get tangled up in this matter. She always felt that for the sake of her Sunday freedom plan, finishing the work in hand came first. So she said to the few girls with great seriousness, “If even the gossip is wrong, whoever spread it should be invited to treat everyone to a meal!”
She flicked her long hair and turned to leave. Cheng Yixue followed, very unwillingly. “Senior, that’s it?”
Zhao Han looked back at her. She was still puffed up with anger, lips pursed, eyes glaring, even her anger was cute. Zhao Han looked at her smilingly for a while and said nothing more.
Zhao Han did not know that after she left, the people there were still discussing it. The girl who had poked Luo Qingbai’s arm let out a breath. “Holy shit!”
The girl who had rolled her eyes said angrily, “What kind of route is she taking? Is there really someone this shameless? And she even dares to admit it!”
“Exactly. What do you mean not the same person? So the whole dorm got messed up by her, then. Qingbai, move out. Same as before, a gentleman does not stand beneath a dangerous wall. We’ve got to avoid danger.”
Luo Qingbai never made a sound. Among the other three, no one knew who first exchanged a look, and just like that, the topic was brushed aside.
That night Zhao Han still returned to the dorm right at the closing time, and when she stood at the door she felt a little irritated.
About this matter, she could be ruthless toward irrelevant outsiders without a problem. Luo Qingbai was not exactly an especially desirable person to deal with, but after all they lived in the same dorm, and faced with this situation, it felt awkward. Or they would need to find time to talk.
She took a deep breath and pushed the door open. The dorm was still lit, and Luo Qingbai was lying flat on the bed without moving.
Zhao Han smiled to herself. Not having any reaction was probably a good sign too.
But who knew, maybe she looked calm on the surface and had actually already applied for a dorm change!