By the time Jiang Mian set down two trays piled high with food and casually picked a seat to sit at, the live-stream chat of the food blogger Xiao Ni had already been flooded with rows of question marks.
After a long while, a single line finally drifted across the screen.
Could it be that the fairy’s true form is Taotie?
[Taotie… a fairy?]
[Is Taotie female?]
[No no no no, you’re misunderstanding. You can tell at a glance that this amount of food isn’t meant for one person. The fairy has a kind heart. She must have helped her friends get their meals too. There’s no way I, a male high school student who studies sports, could finish this much food, let alone a fairy…]
Jiang Mian picked up a piece of braised pork knuckle and started eating, without the slightest intention of waiting for any so-called “friends.”
Bullet comments: ??????
What followed looked exactly like those sped-up extreme eating videos they often watched in compilations.
The girl took bite after bite after bite.
Jiang Mian’s eating manners were pleasant to watch. Or rather, with such an ethereal, fairy-like face, nothing she ate could really look unappealing—even when she was gnawing on a pork knuckle.
By then, food blogger Xiao Ni and all her viewers were watching Jiang Mian eat, staring in stunned disbelief.
Inside the library not far from the Third Cafeteria, at a window-side table, a man and a woman sat facing each other. Whether in looks and demeanor or in the way they were dressed, the pair looked perfectly matched.
The lingering glow of the setting sun wrapped gently around them, as if a soft-focus filter had been laid over the scene.
Envious and admiring gazes kept drifting their way from the surrounding area, yet the two seemed long accustomed to such attention and continued doing their own things.
The boy was reading, while the girl quietly scrolled through her phone.
“Ah!”
At that moment, a small cry of surprise slipped from the girl’s lips.
In an instant, not only did the boy sitting across from her look up at her, but even the other students nearby all cast startled glances in her direction.
Noticing this, the girl first offered an apologetic smile to the other students she had disturbed. Only then did she turn her gaze to the boy sitting opposite her.
“What’s wrong, Qianqian?”
The boy was the first to lower his voice and ask.
Hearing his question, the girl who had looked full of surprise just moments ago met his eyes, but her expression suddenly turned troubled.
After hesitating for a moment, she seemed to make up her mind. While pulling the boy by the hand and leading him outside, she lowered her voice and said, “Xingming, come with me…”
Yes, these two were none other than the male lead and the female supporting character of the novel 《A Galaxy of Ten Thousand Miles》, Xu Xingming and Lin Qian.
At this moment, standing in the stairwell, Lin Qian thought for a moment before telling her boyfriend about the news she had just seen on the Evergreen Tree campus forum.
“Actually, I only found out after seeing the gossip just now. I had no idea that Feiyang is planning to confess to Mianmian tonight…”
As she spoke, Lin Qian kept a close eye on her boyfriend’s expression. When she saw his brows unconsciously knit together, her heart immediately sank, though nothing showed on her face.
She knew it. Jiang Mian held a special place in Xu Xingming’s heart. But no matter how special that place was, what did it matter? In the end, he was still Lin Qian’s boyfriend.
With that thought in mind, the girl’s face instead filled with obvious surprise and confusion.
“You’re surprised too, right, Xingming? I really don’t understand how the two of them got together. Their only interaction before was just having one meal with us. Could it be that they already exchanged contact information behind our backs back then? If that’s really the case, Mianmian is being a terrible friend. She secretly started dating without telling me, her best friend. She definitely didn’t tell you either, right?”
Lin Qian put on a show of anger and reproached Jiang Mian with a few words.
Yet at that moment, she noticed that Xu Xingming’s brows had drawn together even more tightly.
Seeing this, Lin Qian reached out and tugged lightly at Xu Xingming’s sleeve, a probing smile on her face. “What’s wrong, Xingming? Why do you look unhappy? Is it because you think Feiyang looks a bit roguish and unreliable? Don’t worry. If those two really do get together, I won’t guarantee anyone else, but if Zhai Feiyang dares treat Mianmian badly, I’ll be the first to go after him!”
Hearing his girlfriend say this, Xu Xingming might have felt that his displeasure was rather groundless. The tightly knit frown on his brow gradually relaxed, and he raised his hand to lightly flick Lin Qian’s nose.
“Why are you worrying about this? Jiang Mian is already an adult. Whoever she wants to date is her own choice. We’re just her friends. Do you think we can really stop her from making her own decisions?”
The corners of the boy’s lips lifted slightly. His normally cold and stern face was like spring snow melting under sunlight.
Lin Qian caught herself flashing a look of infatuation at the sight.
Actually, even if Xu Xingming did not have a father who was the richest man in Hai City, this face alone was enough to make her quite captivated…
No, better not think that way. Without Father Xu, Xu Xingming would never have been within her range of choices in the first place, let alone become her boyfriend.
Lin Qian’s rationality quickly returned, yet her fingers slipped apart and threaded themselves into Xu Xingming’s, clasping his hand in an intimate, interlaced grip.
“Then should we go take a look at the confession scene? After all, both sides are our friends. How could we possibly not be there for something this important, right?”
Based on her understanding of Jiang Mian, that timid coward, only if Xu Xingming personally saw her tangled up with another boy would she retreat completely out of inferiority, cutting off those secret feelings of unrequited love in her heart for good. Only then would there be no possibility whatsoever for Jiang Mian and Xu Xingming to continue developing anything between them.
She loathed having her possessions coveted by others.
Even if that possession had originally been snatched from the other person through a bit of scheming on her part.
Lin Qian smiled gently.
Hearing this, Xu Xingming thought for a moment, then released the fingers he had been holding. “Alright. I’ll go back and pack up our things. Wait here for me.”
“Mm!”
With a bright smile, Lin Qian nodded vigorously and stayed where she was, watching Xu Xingming head in the direction of the reading room.
Only after his figure had completely disappeared beyond the door did she turn her head to look at the glass of the fire hose cabinet to the side, where her smile was reflected.
Staring at the glass, she slightly adjusted the upward curve of the corners of her mouth.
It seemed to be lifted a bit too high, making it look somewhat fake. Next time, this angle would be absolutely perfect.
Facing the fire hydrant’s glass, the girl revealed a sweet and impeccably practiced smile.
*
In barely fifteen minutes, Jiang Mian’s stunning food live stream had already come to an end. She actually wanted to eat a bit more, but this body simply could not keep up, so she had no choice but to call it quits.
Through the phone camera, viewers could see that the plates the fairy had finished eating from looked as if they had been rinsed with water. Even something as notoriously dark a dish as durian stewed with eggs was no exception.
In an instant, every netizen in the livestream felt a sincere sense of respect toward this unknown big shot.
A fairy was truly a fairy. Even the way she ate was so unrestrained and unconventional, completely different from everyone else.
Seeing that the fairy had finished eating and was about to return her trays and leave, the crowd of viewers in the livestream hurriedly urged the food blogger Xiao Ni to rush over and strike up a friendly conversation with the fairy.
Xiao Ni only realized what was happening after reading the comments. Seeing this, she immediately ran in Jiang Mian’s direction.
Unexpectedly, just as she was about to go down the stairs, she failed to notice her footing and stepped squarely onto a patch of grease on the ground.
“Ah!”
The girl let out an instinctive shriek. In the next instant, she was about to tumble face-first down the stairs, and even her phone flew out of her hand.
At the same time, the livestream’s bullet comments rapidly filled with row after row of warnings to be careful. Some die-hard fans even dared not keep watching, after all, the stairs were about a meter high. How could anyone fall from that and not get hurt?
At the critical moment, a slender, fair arm wrapped around Xiao Ni’s waist just in time, pulling her back with a sharp tug before she could fall.
Then, still holding her, the person spun once smoothly, and with the other free hand, caught the phone that had been flung into the air.
The entire sequence flowed seamlessly in one continuous motion. Forget the viewers in the livestream who saw everything clearly. Even students from the film academy who happened to pass by stood frozen in place.
The pain she had expected never came. Shen Ni instinctively opened her eyes and lifted her head, only to meet a pair of clear, limpid eyes.
“Are you okay?”
Jiang Mian steadied her on her feet while handing her phone back to her.
At this moment, in the livestream that was still ongoing, after a brief moment of blank silence, the barrage of comments exploded across the screen.
[Ahhh, big sister, you’ve killed me.]
[Mom, this time I’m really in love.]
[Wuwuwu, I really hope big sister’s gender isn’t set in stone like this!]
[Is fairy big sister a student from the film academy? Have you ever thought about debuting? Will you join a talent show? If you do, I’ll definitely pick you ahhh!]
[Streamer, streamer, Xiao Ni streamer? Oh no, look at the streamer’s eyes. The streamer has fallen…]
[Streamer, you ironclad straight girl, why are you blushing like a boiling teapot!]
Shen Ni only felt that in her entire life, her heart had probably never beaten this fast before. Before this, she was absolutely, definitely, one hundred percent sure she was straight. Now, she was suddenly not so sure anymore.
‘Ahhh, she is even prettier up close, damn it!’
She had always known that the campus belle of Yanjing Film Academy was Lin Qian, but now it seemed that everyone who voted in the whole school must have been blind. How could they not choose such a stunning fairy!
Seeing confusion rise in Jiang Mian’s eyes, Shen Ni immediately straightened up, her cheeks flushed red. “I’m fine, big sister… you’re really beautiful…”
“Huh?”
Jiang Mian froze for a moment.
“No, I… I didn’t mean it like that. I mean, thank you, big sister, for saving me, and also… also this. This is for you too!”
In her panic, Shen Ni fumbled awkwardly and pulled a bottle of drink out of the cloth bag she carried with her, her expression extremely embarrassed.
Even she did not know how she had just blurted out what was on her mind. Wuwu, it was all the fault of that beauty’s overwhelming visual attack, which had left her speaking without thinking!
Hearing this, Jiang Mian reached out and took the drink, giving it a small shake. “Thanks. If you’re fine, I’ll be heading off then. Be more careful next time when you’re walking.”
As she spoke, Jiang Mian patted Shen Ni on the shoulder and headed off in the direction of the dormitory building.
Watching her leave, Shen Ni was still murmuring to herself, “She’s so gentle, and she even told me to be careful next time…”
At this moment, the viewers in the livestream were frantically urging Shen Ni to go ask for Jiang Mian’s name and find out more about her, but unfortunately, all of it was ignored by her.
Left with no other choice, the bullet comments started flooding the screen.
[It’s over. A perfectly good girl, and she bent just like that!]
Unaware that her instinctive, casual act of helping out, a habit from her days in the post-apocalyptic world, had managed to attract a little fangirl, Jiang Mian noticed on her way back to the dorm that people were continuously running toward the area below the girls’ dormitory building.
Out of curiosity, Jiang Mian grabbed a passing classmate whose face was full of excitement and asked. Only then did she find out that someone was actually confessing downstairs at the dormitory tonight.
Although in her previous world Jiang Mian had been perpetually single, a true king of singledom, that did not stop her from getting excited about this kind of pure, youthful campus romance that she had not witnessed in over a decade.
Driven by the deep-rooted national instinct of loving to watch the excitement unfold, Jiang Mian did not even bother to throw away the empty drink can in her hand and eagerly hurried over.
When she arrived, good grief.
Everyone was here to watch the drama!
The confession had not even started yet, and the crowd was already packed three layers deep inside and out.
With a scene this big, who would dare confess without at least a touch of social bravado?
Jiang Mian got even more fired up. She hurriedly squeezed forward along with the other students who were equally enthusiastic about spectating, pushing her way inward. The moment she finally reached the innermost circle, a burst of cheers immediately erupted from within.
Jiang Mian joined in with a cheer of her own. For a moment, those youthful, joyful voices made her feel as if she had come back to life all over again.
Without realizing it, a huge smile spread across her face.
Driven by the mindset of enjoying the spectacle without fearing things getting bigger, or perhaps wanting to add a bit more atmosphere to the confession, Jiang Mian directly raised her right hand, curled her pinky, and blew a loud wolf whistle.
A sharp “whistle” rang out, and very quickly, the people around followed the sound and turned to look at her.
When they saw the dazzlingly bright smile on Jiang Mian’s face, everyone nearby froze for a moment.
At this point, Jiang Mian had not yet noticed that the situation had taken a turn and was still happily enjoying herself.
Until the crowd suddenly parted, and a red-haired youth wearing a white shirt and looking quite presentable stepped out. Holding a bouquet of pink roses, he walked straight up to her, his gaze tender, then dropped to one knee.
Jiang Mian: ?
“Jiang Mian, I didn’t expect you to be just as eager as I am. I hadn’t even called your name yet, and you already took the initiative to come downstairs…”
Jiang Mian: ??
“Since that’s the case, Jiang Mian, I like you. Be my girlfriend!”
As he spoke, the boy extended the bouquet toward her.
Jiang Mian: ???
‘Wait, hold on. What the hell is this?’
Jiang Mian hurriedly glanced at the barely restrained, gossip-hungry looks of the people around her, then at the man in front of her putting on an affectation of deep affection. The smile on her face slowly faded away.
“……”
‘Damn it. Turns out the clown was me all along.’