Jiang Shun’s words left Xu Qiduo feeling completely bewildered.
The large bathhouse in Building 4?
Yet he had never…
Wait, he remembered it now.
Two weeks into the start of the new semester, a water pipe in the West Campus men’s dormitories had burst, taking about three days to repair.
During that period, the male students from Buildings 9 through 18 on the West Campus had to use the large bathhouse in Building 4 on the East Campus to shower.
Could it be that…
“Looks like you remember.” Jiang Shun watched as understanding slowly dawned in Xu Qiduo’s eyes.
“B-but I don’t remember ever seeing you anywhere.” Given Jiang Shun’s striking appearance and that eye-catching tattoo, if Xu Qiduo had seen him before, there was no way he wouldn’t remember.
“You noticed me because you were wearing such a cold, stiff expression, completely focused on washing yourself. I was right beside you, watching you wash.” Jiang Shun deliberately dragged out the final words, aiming entirely to manufacture an ambiguous atmosphere.
Yet Xu Qiduo couldn’t help rolling his eyes at him, snapping, “Are you a pervert or what?”
Put that way, Xu Qiduo actually had a vague recollection.
Back then, he had just transmigrated, and the sudden shock of transmigration, rebirth, and maintaining his character setting had left him spinning. That frosty expression had been entirely authentic.
Besides, what normal person takes a shower grinning from ear to ear?
“Too bad you never went to the Building 4 bathhouse again after that.”
Judging by Jiang Shun’s tone and expression, he genuinely seemed to find it a pity.
“The West Campus water pipes got fixed after that. Tsk! What am I even explaining this to you for? Let go of me.” Xu Qiduo snapped back to reality; Jiang Shun still had his arm around his waist, and their posture was intimately close.
“Let go of you? Weren’t you the one who pulled me over here to flirt? You were so proactive…”
“Xu Qiduo.”
Just then, a male voice interrupted their exchange.
Jiang Shun tilted his head slightly, shooting a glance at Wang Shuo, who was standing not far behind them.
Wang Shuo offered a stiff, cautious smile and called out to Xu Qiduo again.
Once Jiang Shun finally released him, Xu Qiduo turned and walked over to Wang Shuo, and the two of them left the private room straight away.
Xu Qiduo left the room for two reasons: first, to escape Jiang Shun that weirdo, and second, because he figured it was getting late and he couldn’t be bothered to stay and socialize any longer. It was nearly time for him to pay the bill and head out.
The moment they stepped outside, however, Wang Shuo asked with an unreadable tone, “What did Jiang Shun say to you?”
“Nothing much.”
Even if Jiang Shun was a creep, Wang Shuo still firmly held the number one spot on the most-hateful ranking.
“He has a special background, and if he targets you, there is really nothing we can do to stop him. Tell you what, whenever there is a gathering with him around from now on, I just won’t call you.” Wang Shuo spoke reasonably, as if he genuinely cared deeply about Xu Qiduo.
Xu Qiduo nodded in agreement, taking the opportunity to say, “Alright, then I’ll head out first today. Send me a message when you get back, okay? Just so I know you’ve made it home safely.”
Seeing that Xu Qiduo was just as nagging and fussy as usual, Wang Shuo decided his worries that evening had been entirely redundant.
Even so, to ensure certain matters went smoothly, Wang Shuo nodded in agreement this time around, and even told Xu Qiduo to have his driver take him back.
Xu Qiduo naturally had no intention of using Wang Shuo’s driver.
Once outside the club, he simply pulled out an app and hailed a ride.
After waiting about five minutes, the app showed that the driver had canceled the order.
Finding it strange, Xu Qiduo answered the call the driver happened to place to him. That was how he found out the driver’s wife was going into labor, and he was rushing home.
Such an emergency meant Xu Qiduo wasn’t about to hold it against him.
However, this location was far away from the downtown district, surrounded entirely by high-end luxury shops, making it rather inconvenient to catch a taxi.
Thus, having a momentary lapse in judgment, Xu Qiduo decided to walk his way out of the area.
Walking halfway, he started feeling thirsty and ducked into a convenience store when he passed one to buy a drink.
Only when checking out did he realize the cashier happened to be He Jin.
The two of them locked eyes, both looking rather surprised to see each other here.
Fortunately, He Jin was the first to recover, scanning the beverage in his hand.
Tonight, He Jin seemed to have reverted completely to the appearance of that junior student he had first met in the campus cafeteria.
With a slight, standard customer-service smile, he told him, “Three yuan.”
Xu Qiduo pulled out his phone to pay.
“Do you remember me?” He Jin’s smile faded slightly, turning into something resembling casual small talk between old acquaintances.
“Uh…” Xu Qiduo didn’t quite know how to respond for a second, wondering which version of “you” he was supposed to remember.
“Last time in the school cafeteria, I accidentally bumped into you. Remember?” He Jin’s round eyes flickered slightly with light, completely different from the sharp, piercing gaze he had worn when they met at the racecourse.
Watching him, Xu Qiduo found himself trying to persuade his brain to accept that this was simply a magical world.
After all, he had already transmigrated and been reborn into a book; tossing in a soul swap or spiritual consciousness transference didn’t really seem like such a big deal anymore.
Xu Qiduo nodded, preparing to go along with He Jin’s pace to see what kind of symptom he was displaying this time.
“You left with your friend later on, and I never got the chance to apologize. I’m really sorry about that, I truly didn’t mean it that day.”
He Jin apologized with absolute earnestness, leaving Xu Qiduo no choice but to wave his hands repeatedly and say it was nothing at all, and that the issue had been on his end.
“Are you heading back to school now?”
He Jin was remarkably enthusiastic during their conversation.
Xu Qiduo found himself slightly overwhelmed by this sudden friendliness.
He nodded, following the flow of conversation to ask, “Are you getting off work?”
“Yeah, I’m just doing a part-time shift, and I need to be back in the dorms by ten o’clock. So my shift is ending right now. Do you want to wait for me a moment? We can take the bus back together afterward.”
Xu Qiduo nodded again and casually asked, “By the way, may I ask why you are working part-time out here? This place is so far from the campus.”
Since he was a good kid who respected curfew, he shouldn’t be running all the way out here to work; the time wasted traveling back and forth was substantial.
This convenience store was located quite a distance from the bustling downtown area, and customers from the nearby club wouldn’t come out all the way here to buy things at a budget convenience store.
Consequently, business in this store was terribly quiet. In the entire time he had been inside, not a single other person had walked through the door.
He Jin gave a helpless smile, his lowered gaze filled with disappointment: “I wasn’t originally working here, but because of a small hiccup at my previous job, I got fired.”
Xu Qiduo naturally knew that was because of Wang Shuo…
No, wait, it wasn’t entirely Wang Shuo’s fault either; it was also because…
Not long after, another young man arrived to relieve He Jin. He Jin packed up his things and left together with him.
Had He Jin not led the way, Xu Qiduo wouldn’t even have known how much further he’d have to walk to catch a cab.
As it turned out, just a short distance away through a small alleyway lay the downtown bus stop.
Throughout their conversation along the road, Xu Qiduo discovered that He Jin was actually a guy with a wonderful personality.
That meant the bickering-enemies novel trope he’d imagined earlier was rather unlikely. It was probably more along the lines of the overbearing young master falling for the soft, cute, pitiful sweetheart.
Halfway through the bus ride, Xu Qiduo suddenly remembered something, so he said with an unblushing expression: “I suddenly remembered I have a younger sister in middle school with mediocre academic grades. You always represent the school in external competitions, so your brain must be super sharp.”
“Huh?” He Jin looked at him in confusion.
With the youth sporting that innocent, adorable face paired with those large eyes, looking right at someone like that, Xu Qiduo genuinely felt as though he radiated a protagonist aura.
The kind that makes you want to protect him the moment you lay eyes on him.
“Here’s the deal, my sister needs a private tutor. Look at how far you have to travel for that convenience store job, making barely anything for a whole day’s work. How much do you even earn a month? Come be a tutor at my place instead, I’ll pay you a proper salary.”
Actually, Xu Qiduo had just remembered that he seemed to have promised someone earlier to help them find a job.
Even though that someone wasn’t quite that someone right now, a promise was a promise.
“Actually, you don’t have to do that. I can help tutor your sister for free,” He Jin said with a smile.
Look at that—this was the kind of worldview and personality a male lead ought to have!
In his heart, Xu Qiduo firmly validated He Jin’s status as one of the male leads, while mentally trashing Wang Shuo’s private life all over again.
“Compensation is still an absolute must! We’ll calculate it based on standard tutoring rates; we can’t have your time and energy wasted. Besides, if you’re out here working part-time and trying hard to make money after classes, you must have places where you need cash, right?”
Xu Qiduo understood He Jin’s hardships.
And any hardship that could be solved with money was never a real problem in Xu Qiduo’s eyes.
He Jin remained silent for a long time before finally nodding in agreement.
However, with He Jin agreeing to it, the real question was whether his sister—who scored first place in literally every single subject—even needed a tutor… That was a different story entirely.
In the end, Xu Qiduo had to brazenly negotiate with his younger sister.
Ultimately, after conceding to a series of humiliating treaties—promising to take her out to play after every tutoring session, agreeing to buy her every newly released seasonal fashion item the moment it dropped and offering it up as tribute, and various other national-humiliation terms—
Xu Qiduo agreed to have him come over every Saturday afternoon for two hours of tutoring, without letting the rest of the family find out.
Honestly, sometimes Xu Qiduo wondered why his life had to be so hard.
What was he working himself to the bone for anyway?! Wasn’t it all for the proper progression of the plot! For the future well-being of the male leads!
…
“It’s just eating breakfast with me, why the long face of tragic fury?”
At 7:45 in the morning, inside the school cafeteria.
After slurping down a mouthful of noodles, Xu Qiduo helplessly rolled his eyes in his mind.
Regarding the fact that he kept running into Jiang Shun early in the morning, why had he never bumped into him before?
Weren’t they students at the same school? Did Jiang Shun hide himself that well previously, or had he simply not wanted to show up in front of him?
Since he hadn’t shown up before, why show up now?
And besides, where was Zhou Mengxing?!
Weren’t they supposed to be playing the role of his knight in shining armor?! How was someone burdened with a mission even lazier at skiving off than him? Could he please get on duty actively?!
Leaving him to deal with a weirdo who liked watching people take showers all by himself—he was thoroughly exasperated!