In reality, she had struggled for several years. At eighteen, her first job in the city paid three thousand, with rent taking half of that.
Later, she launched her account by selling boxed meals at construction sites, earning her first bucket of gold and tasting the sweetness of the internet.
After her grandfather passed away, she returned home for the funeral.
After handling the funeral arrangements and leaving home again, she saw her grandmother hunched over, standing alone on a small hillside, watching her leave.
She boarded the departing bus, then jumped off.
Making a sudden decision.
To stay in the village and do self-media.
She started slowly, with average learning ability. It took her half a year to master shot breakdowns and reduce unnecessary shots.
Another half a year to learn editing and operation.
But now.
She was only twenty.
Well-versed in the tricks of self-media, with limitless possibilities.
Ruan Xingmian perked up and began digging deep into topics about herself. Self-media was never short of hardworking, driven people, but few succeeded. Topics were the decisive weapon; having a topic was almost equivalent to having traffic.
Pregnancy.
Suspending studies.
Unmarried pregnancy.
Gu Xing.
Yes! Her current trump card—Gu Xing!
A genius boy from the Artificial Intelligence Major at the School of Computer Science of the country’s Top 1 university.
She, a vocational college student who couldn’t graduate, having a genius boyfriend—what wasn’t a topic about that!
Not to mention they also had a child.
First, use the topic to launch the account. Without a topic, she’d need to accumulate for over a year, but she could only go for a quick victory now. She needed money, lots and lots of money.
After successfully launching the account, update with daily relationship content.
After giving birth, switch to the mother-and-baby track.
Advertisements would come pouring in.
Ruan Xingmian thought of it and was ready to act.
She pulled out her phone and excitedly called Gu Xing.
No answer.
Ruan Xingmian quickly hung up.
Remembering Gu Xing was in class.
She calmed down, ideas flowing, already planning the first episode’s script.
If Gu Xing agreed to let her use the topic of having a genius boyfriend for filming, she’d go out to find a place to rent this afternoon.
About half an hour later, her phone vibrated.
It was Gu Xing.
He sent a self-made class schedule.
Besides graduate courses, he had self-study arrangements after class.
He was busy from morning till night.
Stars Sleep Well: 【Sorry to bother you.】
She genuinely felt embarrassed.
Scratching her head through the screen, her cheeks flushed.
He was studying; she shouldn’t be so inconsiderate.
Gu Xing: 【No need to apologize.】
Gu Xing: 【I sent the class schedule to prove I wasn’t intentionally ignoring your call.】
Gu Xing: 【Speak, I’ll reply when I see the message.】
Such overwhelming reassurance.
Ruan Xingmian smiled, her eyes curving.
【I want to make short videos for self-media. Can you cooperate with me?】 This was the most suitable way for her to start a business right now.
The other side kept showing “typing…”
Ruan Xingmian grew nervous.
Willing.
Or refusing.
It seemed like he was unwilling but didn’t know how to refuse.
She picked up her phone to type—it was fine if he wasn’t willing; she’d just find another topic.
If all else failed, she’d hire an assistant and sell boxed meals at a construction site again to launch the account.
Gu Xing: 【Okay.】
Ruan Xingmian deleted what she had typed, jumping up happily and spinning in place.
Stars Sleep Well: 【Great, you attend class. I’ll go organize the script outline.】
Ruan Xingmian pulled out her sketchbook and skillfully drew a table for the script outline.
Shot number, shot type, visual description, duration, dialogue, music.
She had to set everything in advance.
However, all filming would be best based on Gu Xing and her living together.
That way she could capture the footage.
Would the budget be enough to rent a two-bedroom one-living-room apartment?
Would Gu Xing agree to live together?
Ruan Xingmian chewed on the end of her pen.
Not living together would be fine too. If absolutely necessary, she could ask him to come reshoot a few shots.
Using his identity to create a topic was already bad enough.
No matter what, Gu Xing was a student from a prestigious university. Ruan Xingmian didn’t want him to show his face and would protect his privacy as much as possible. She only mentioned having a boyfriend from a prestigious university—there were so many boys in the Computer Science department anyway.
If they broke up due to personality differences in the future, she wanted to ensure it wouldn’t cause any disruption to Gu Xing’s life.
Ruan Xingmian never believed that having a child meant they could stay together for a lifetime.
This life was too long.
She was a typical emotional experientialist.
To feel, not to cling.
Firmly believing that career was the nourishment that kept a woman from aging.
…
“Gu Shen!”
In the large study hall, a tall boy with a buzz cut called out to Gu Xing at the very front.
Behind him, one chubby and one skinny boy packed up their bags and hurried to catch up.
All three wore slightly insincere smiles on their faces.
They were Gu Xing’s roommates from his four years of undergraduate studies.
The postgraduate enrollment rate in Artificial Intelligence was generally high.
For their major, the undergraduate curriculum was just an introduction to theory.
Core algorithms and cutting-edge technologies had to be systematically studied during the postgraduate phase.
The four of them walked out of the classroom together, heading toward the Professional English classroom.
Gu Shen, I saw someone on the forum expose that you have a girlfriend, and that your girlfriend even cursed out our department’s beauty Ji Ling. Is that true?”
The one speaking was the tall boy.
His name was Ye Hua, who had silently liked Ji Ling for many years.
“Gu Shen, don’t be angry. I just want to know what happened.”
He had gone to comfort Ji Ling but was cursed out for no reason.
Facing Gu Xing’s cold gaze, his confidence wavered slightly.
After all, Gu Xing wasn’t exactly known for his good temper.
He was also the top brain in their major, personally chosen by the department’s most formidable professor, Qin Zhen, to be his final disciple.
Even the dean’s son, Lu Tian, couldn’t compare.
All because Gu Xing had genuine talent and skill. During his undergraduate years, not only did he rank first in his major courses, but he also explained things clearly and simply, helping them a lot.
To them, Gu Xing was more like a peer teacher they attended classes with.
For the academic god Gu Xing, who was so favored by the professors, most of the boys in the class held respect.
But also, envy and resentment.
“My girlfriend didn’t curse anyone,” Gu Xing said flatly.
He didn’t want to discuss it further.
Talking to fools was mostly a waste of breath.
He quickened his pace, walking ahead.
As he strode forward, he tightened his grip on his phone, feeling a sense of concern for the first time.
He wanted to make a call.
But he was afraid he’d get nervous on the spot and fail to string together the right words.
And be seen as someone inexplicable by the other person.
Since when had he started caring about what Ruan Xingmian thought of him?
Behind him.
The trio turned into the restroom at the far end of the teaching building.
The skinniest one, Li Wei, pulled out a pack of Huanghelou and handed one to each of them.
“Asking him is worse than asking me.”
He patted Ye Hua on the back. “Brother, to be honest, you’re not that much worse than Gu Xing. Now that Miss Ji has been hurt by him, isn’t this your chance?”
Ye Hua didn’t react.
He knew his own limits.
He didn’t take Li Wei’s words to heart.
Cai Qiang, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke up: “What do you think Professor Qin would do if he found out his most prized postgraduate student was dating a vocational college student?”
“Cough… really a vocational college student?” Ye Hua choked on the smoke. “How do you guys know so clearly?”
His thoughts shifted.
He had figured it out himself.
It was most likely Lu Tian who had leaked the information.
It seemed that Young Master Lu still hadn’t given up on joining Professor Qin Zhen’s project team.
Nor had he stopped his covert efforts to isolate Gu Xing.
During their undergraduate years, almost every male student except Gu Xing had been secretly bought off by Lu Tian.
Including Ye Hua himself.
What trickled through the fingers of a rich young master—
brand-name phones, watches, luxury cars—were immensely tempting, but ultimately secondary.
What drove people like them to flock to him was Young Master Lu’s connections.
And his promise that after graduation, they wouldn’t face unemployment—direct recruitment into the globally top-500 Lu Group Company, with high salary and benefits.
“Sigh, do you think his current graduate school roommate is just like us back then, looking for opportunities to disrupt his studies and life?”
Mentioning the troubles they had caused Gu Xing during their undergraduate days, Li Wei and Cai Qiang exchanged a knowing smile, their eyes filled with smug satisfaction.
At the time, they didn’t understand why Young Master Lu was targeting a poor kid from the countryside.
But just casually tossing a few smelly socks onto his bed, annoying him, making him lose his temper—that was enough to earn the favor of the dean’s son.
They all tacitly agreed that Gu Xing was someone they could bully at will.
Not to mention,
a country bumpkin putting on airs of being fastidious, and looking so handsome at that—pretty girls everywhere calling him Gu Shen—it really invited jealousy.
Still, as the gaokao top scorer, they didn’t dare go too far, only sneaking around to cause a little mischief.
The class bell rang, and the group stubbed out their cigarettes, heading toward the Professional English classroom.