The conversation went so smoothly, completely beyond expectations. Ruan Xingmian joyfully stood up and caught up with him.
She split the pancake in her hand into two halves.
“Here, father of my child, from today on, we’ll share both fortune and hardship.”
“You eat it,” he refused, “I’m not hungry.”
“Then why have you been swallowing saliva, with your Adam’s apple bobbing up and down?” Ruan Xingmian’s line of sight happened to sweep over his throat.
Gu Xing strode forward—he was nervous.
He hadn’t yet recovered from suddenly becoming a father.
It wasn’t exactly joy, just nervousness.
Nervousness about the uncontrollable future.
“Gu Xing!” A woman’s voice called from behind.
It was that pretty halter-top senior.
She had let down her tied-up long hair, and beneath her straight bangs was a face tinged with pride.
“Hello, I’m Ji Ling.”
She had to look up at Ruan Xingmian, her eyes full of coquettishness and arrogance.
She indeed had the capital to be proud.
Her family owned a factory.
She was also an only child.
Most importantly, she possessed a formidable intellect not inferior to Gu Xing’s.
One of only two female students in the Computer School’s Artificial Intelligence Research Institute.
The first was Ruan Xingmian’s cousin—Ruan Xingyue.
The second was this young lady, Ji.
“Ling as in ‘listening,’ can you write it?”
Ruan Xingmian took a bite of the meat pancake and answered sincerely, “No.”
Ji Ling hadn’t expected her to answer like that and was momentarily stunned.
“It’s fine, I’ll teach you later,” she tried to save face, turning to look at Gu Xing. “Gu Xing, thank you for your help today. I was just saying I’d treat you to the cafeteria’s small hotpot for lunch…” But then Ruan Xingmian had barged in, disrupting all her plans.
“Senior Ji Ling, mind if I join?”
Ji Ling: “…”
Gu Xing: “…”
Gu Xing looked at her in astonishment.
Weren’t they going to eat at the buffet?
Ruan Xingmian stood on tiptoe, tilting her head slightly to whisper in his ear, “We have to raise a child from now on, so we should save wherever we can.”
As she leaned close, the sweet fragrance unique to girls wafted over—a very special scent, faint, making one want to inhale more. Gu Xing composed his expression.
Forty days apart.
Ruan Xingmian seemed like a different person.
Or perhaps, ever since that night, Ruan Xingmian had changed.
He didn’t want to admit it, but he liked this change…
Cafeteria, third floor.
Ruan Xingmian buried herself in eating.
Free food always tastes better.
This individual hotpot had a fragrant broth, served with a small basket of vegetables and various meat slices.
Unlimited rice, plus frozen plum juice!
And it only cost 30 yuan per person!
“This is actually the first time I’ve treated you to a meal.”
Ji Ling seemed somewhat emotional. Since entering the cafeteria, she hadn’t stopped talking, and even found Ruan Xingmian more agreeable now.
However.
When she noticed that Gu Xing wasn’t really listening to her attentively but was instead distracted, adjusting the heat for Ruan Xingmian,
She bit her lower lip, feeling somewhat resentful.
She had been pursuing Gu Xing since undergraduate.
Finally managing to eliminate a formidable rival, Ruan Xingyue.
And now, here came another one—physically strong but simple-minded, with a junior college diploma, lazy and gluttonous, who liked to force herself on others—Ruan Xingmian. Relying on her sister being good friends with Gu Xing, she harassed him in every way possible.
Ji Ling calmed herself down.
She absolutely could not lose to someone like this.
Gu Xing was only looking after Ruan Xingmian out of consideration for Ruan Xingyue.
“It seems you don’t have many classes at junior college.”
She put down her chopsticks, took a small sip of her drink, and directed her attack at Ruan Xingmian.
“Unlike me and Gu Xing, who have full schedules every day, even our lunch breaks are spent running algorithms and searching for topics.”
“Mhm, not much.” Ruan Xingmian didn’t hear a single word; she was staring at the lotus root slices in Gu Xing’s pot.
Each person only had three slices, and hers were already gone.
She hadn’t had enough.
But she was too embarrassed to ask.
The next second, a hand with distinct knuckles pushed Gu Xing’s pot a little closer.
“Help yourself.” Gu Xing saw through her thoughts.
Ruan Xingmian smiled, her deer-like eyes curving: “Thank you…”
She quickly bit her tongue.
She almost slipped and said “the father of my child” out of habit.
Once again completely ignored, Ji Ling: “…”
She was sitting right across from Gu Xing.
Their knees were so close together.
She was clearly so much more outstanding than Ruan Xingmian.
Why, during their first meal together,
did Gu Xing not even glance at her?
“You two eat, I’ll go settle the bill.” She stood up angrily.
“No need, I already paid with my card.” Gu Xing finally looked at her. “Thank you for your kindness, Classmate Ji.”
He had his own motives.
He wanted to treat Ruan Xingmian to this meal himself.
Classmate Ji?
Ji Ling repeated the three words.
Four years of companionship, and all she got was “Classmate Ji.”
Ji Ling felt a surge of impulse.
She wanted to confess loudly right then, to declare her claim.
But she opened her mouth, and her pride wouldn’t allow her to chase after a poor boy.
Her excellence was obvious to all.
Before his master’s graduation, Gu Xing would definitely confess to her.
This was Miss Ji’s confidence.
“That’s really too kind of you, helping me choose topics and even treating me to a meal.”
She shyly tucked her hair behind her ear, her face flushed with embarrassment.
“Classmate Ji, are you going to eat the lotus root slices in your pot? If not, can I have them?”
Ji Ling’s smile froze.
Ruan Xingmian really knew how to ruin the mood.
She should just quietly be the third wheel; why did she have to speak up and draw attention to herself?
Ji Ling was thoroughly furious.
“Ruan Xingmian, your sister is the one who truly qualifies as my classmate. You, a bottom-tier vocational college student, are really overestimating yourself…”
Ruan Xingmian paused while reaching for the lotus root slices.
She didn’t know what she had done to offend this young lady.
If she didn’t want to share, fine.
Why say such hurtful things? She didn’t seem like a petty person.
Education was always a sore spot for Ruan Xingmian.
In reality, she had never met her mother since childhood, and her father went out to work, not returning home for five years at a time.
In her hazy memories of studying, from the age of fourteen when she stumbled into middle school,
because she dressed shabbily and couldn’t speak Mandarin, she was called out by teachers to stand as punishment and bullied by male classmates.
From the first day of school, she hated studying.
She would rather follow her grandfather around, learning how to flip a wok,
than go to school, where a group of half-grown boys would surround her, pull her backpack, tug at her pants, leaving her crying with no one to care.
In reality, she dropped out of middle school early and became an apprentice in a banquet catering service.
She never hid her past.
But human nature is aggressive.
Even later, after achieving success and becoming China’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Inheritance Culture Spokesperson,
there were still many who used her education to slander her, denying all her accomplishments.
If it were her younger self, Ruan Xingmian would have been disheartened.
But now,
with a soul tempered by 28 years of trials, would she fear these children in their ivory towers?
“Classmate Ji.”
The man beside her spoke before she could.
Ruan Xingmian looked at him curiously.
She saw his brows suddenly turn cold, his eyes gleaming with protective sharpness.
“Xingmian is my girlfriend. She’s just following my lead in how she addresses you.”