Shen Xingruo returned to the dormitory slightly late because Shi Qin said she had ranked first in the year and wanted to treat her to a late-night snack.
Shen Xingruo hadn’t eaten dinner, and her milk had been taken, so she was a little hungry.
After finishing the late-night snack with Shi Qin, the two of them wandered around the stationery store near the school for a while. When they returned to the dormitory, there was only half an hour left until the lights out.
Li Ting was applying a face mask.
Seeing them enter, Li Ting glanced over but didn’t greet them. She continued to play with her phone, unable to see clearly under the mask what expression she had.
Zhai Jiajing didn’t walk with them today; she said she had a headache and went back to the dormitory early.
By now, she had already put on an eye mask and was lying in bed. It seemed she had already fallen asleep.
The dormitory was quiet for a moment, somewhat eerie.
Originally, Shi Qin had been sitting next to Li Ting, and their relationship had improved quite a bit recently. But today, Shi Qin overheard what Li Ting said to a few girls in class, which she found excessive. So, she couldn’t muster a friendly face and simply ignored her.
Shi Qin and Shen Xingruo took turns to shower.
When Shi Qin finished showering, Li Ting had just taken off her face mask and was washing her face at the sink.
Shi Qin waited for a moment and couldn’t help but ask, “Are you done yet?”
Li Ting replied, “Why are you in such a hurry?”
Shi Qin said, “You’ve been washing for seven or eight minutes already, I’m going to use the towel.”
Li Ting didn’t say anything and continued to splash water on her face slowly.
Shen Xingruo entered the bathroom after Shi Qin finished. At first, she could only hear the two of them whispering, probably because they were afraid of waking Zhai Jiajing.
But halfway through her shower, an argument suddenly erupted outside, and the voices grew louder.
She paused for a moment, then quickly picked up the pace of her shower.
When Shen Xingruo came out of the bathroom, the argument between the two had already escalated into a quarrel —
“You dare to say that about Xingruo in class today, how shameless can you be? What’s wrong with you?!”
“What’s wrong with me? I was just discussing grades with someone. Everyone thought she was doing exceptionally well, but when the grades came out, she didn’t perform as expected. Isn’t it natural for people to talk about it? And isn’t it because she knew her grades were a problem early on but kept quiet and pretended to be good, just to make herself look good and embarrass us for discussing grades? How ridiculous is that?”
“Shi Qin, spare me. You’re quick to curry favor with others, aren’t you? Have you ever taken a good look at yourself? Whose legs have you been clinging to? Do they even give you the time of day?”
“Me, currying favor? Me, ugly?! Li Ting, listen to yourself! Who’s the one always cozying up to those rich girls from Class Three? Who knows better who’s sucking up to whom? Have they ever given you a second glance?”
Shi Qin’s words hit Li Ting right where it hurt.
Li Ting exploded in anger and immediately reached out to grab Shi Qin’s hair, “What nonsense are you spouting?!”
Shi Qin, equally unwilling to back down, blindly clawed forward with both hands.
Shen Xingruo never imagined the two would come to blows. After a moment of shock, she shouted, “Stop fighting!”
No one paid her any attention.
Zhai Jiajing, who was usually good at mediating, lay motionless on her bed, seemingly deep in sleep, completely unaware of the commotion in the dormitory.
Shi Qin and Li Ting had no idea how long they had held onto their grievances against each other. Now, they were fighting fiercely while dredging up past conflicts, and the battleground was expanding.
Shen Xingruo, wearing only a nightgown with her hair still dripping, stood at the bathroom door. She couldn’t move forward and was forced to retreat by the two.
“I told you both to stop fighting—”
Before Shen Xingruo could finish her sentence, Li Ting suddenly got agitated, grabbed a ceramic cup from the sink, and smashed it against the mirror on the washbasin.
With a loud “bang”!
The square mirror, bought with dormitory funds at the beginning of the semester for eighteen yuan, cracked open with several fractures, and the shards flew in all directions.
“Ahh—!”
“Ahh—!”
Shi Qin and Li Ting screamed simultaneously, the sound piercing as any scream from the boutique store near the school entrance.
When they came to their senses, they saw Shen Xingruo standing expressionless at the bathroom door, a small cut on her neck either from the ceramic or the mirror, with tiny drops of blood oozing out.
Both of them turned pale.
At that moment, the dormitory supervisor heard the noise and came over, knocking on the door impatiently. “It’s almost lights out, what’s all this noise about?!”
Li Ting and Shi Qin’s faces turned even paler.
Shen Xingruo felt she had never been so wrong in her life.
Her vision blurred, but she still expressionlessly tore two pieces of paper and temporarily wiped away the bloodstains.
Then, she walked to the dormitory door and opened it.
Shen Xingruo: “Teacher, there’s a mouse in our dormitory.”
The dormitory supervisor frowned subconsciously and leaned back a bit. “Why are you afraid? It’s just a mouse… Alright, don’t be afraid. I’ll inform the head of dormitory management during tomorrow’s meeting, and we’ll arrange for pest control to come.”
Blood began to seep out again. Shen Xingruo calmly adjusted the strap of her nightgown to cover the wound.
“Okay, thank you, teacher.”
After seeing off the dormitory supervisor, Shen Xingruo closed the door behind her.
Shi Qin and Li Ting both sighed with relief, but they seemed still immersed in the shock, unable to snap out of it, standing motionless by the washbasin.
As Shen Xingruo walked back, passing by Zhai Jiajing’s bed, she noticed Zhai Jiajing’s fingers twitching slightly.
Without stopping, she walked straight to Shi Qin and Li Ting, her lips pressed downward, her expression cold.
Shi Qin and Li Ting exchanged glances.
Shi Qin cautiously said, “Xingruo, I’m sorry. Are you hurt? Do you need a band-aid?”
Shen Xingruo’s gaze swept over her, and she immediately fell silent.
Li Ting, standing beside her, looked uneasy, avoiding eye contact with Shen Xingruo.
But Shen Xingruo stared straight at her. “I didn’t try to make myself look superior because I already am superior to you both.”
“I didn’t intend to embarrass anyone or make your discussions seem ridiculous. If you had just kept quiet, none of this would have happened.”
“Having a vivid imagination can be a good thing, but please use it for geometric and spatial thinking in mathematics, not for making assumptions about your roommates.”
She knew there was an issue with her score the moment she saw her exam paper, but she hadn’t been thinking about grades today at all. If it weren’t for the gossiping in the school, she wouldn’t have even thought about going to Mr. Wang’s office.
Li Ting’s expression turned sour.
Though she knew she was in the wrong, she still stubbornly refused to meet Shen Xingruo’s gaze, and said stiffly, “That mouthwash cup seems to be yours too. I… I’ll compensate you.”
Shen Xingruo said, “Then you’ll pay 1800.”
?
Li Ting looked like she thought Shen Xingruo was seizing an opportunity to extort her.
Shen Xingruo couldn’t be bothered to argue with her any further. She didn’t even want Li Ting to compensate her. She just looked at the broken mirror and scattered shards on the ground and said, “Clean this up, use a broom, don’t use your hands. Buy a new mirror to replace it tomorrow.”
Li Ting opened her mouth, wanting to say something.
Shen Xingruo glanced at her again—
Li Ting instinctively shut her mouth and quietly grabbed a broom with Shi Qin, bowing her head to sweep the floor, not daring to speak. The dormitory, once filled with screams, finally quieted down.
Shen Xingruo found a band-aid and placed it over the small wound on her neck.
The wound wasn’t too serious, just a small cut that stung a bit. But the base of the ceramic cup had also hit her forehead with a “bang.” At first, there hadn’t been any visible marks, besides feeling dizzy, but now a small bump was starting to form, likely to bruise later.
She applied some medicine and then cut a square piece of gauze, sticking it to her forehead.
After Li Ting finished cleaning, she noticed that Shen Xingruo’s forehead was injured too. She struggled with herself for a long time, wanting to apologize to her, but suddenly the lights went out.
Lying in bed at night, Li Ting couldn’t fall asleep no matter what. She kept thinking that if she didn’t apologize, she had to compensate for the mouthwash cup. Shen Xingruo’s mouthwash cup was very beautiful and unique, with many star patterns on it, matching a teacup as a set.
She opened the shopping app, searched for it, and found the same model. The cup was named “Starry Brilliance,” described as a limited edition collaboration between the contemporary renowned painter Shen Guangyao and the Cold Fragrance Studio. It was priced at 2200 yuan, even for a second-hand one.
Mouthwash cup, 2200.
Li Ting stared at the screen for a long time but didn’t say a word. Forget it. What’s dignity compared to an apology?
That night, Shen Xingruo received Li Ting’s apology note. She was about to fall asleep but was awakened by her phone. Seeing Li Ting’s apology note, which seemed to be getting longer and longer, she replied, “If you don’t stop talking, you’ll be compensating me with the cup tomorrow.”
Finally, the world was quiet.
The next day, Shen Xingruo went to school with a small piece of gauze on her forehead, attracting attention. Many people came to ask her, and she gave the same explanation to everyone, saying she had hit the bathroom door.
During the morning self-study, Lu Xingyan appeared at the classroom door. He put down his backpack and sat down on the chair, leaning back.
Seeing the gauze on Shen Xingruo’s forehead, he jokingly said, “Miss, did you get beaten up for scoring too well?”
Shen Xingruo flipped through her book casually and said, “Yes, I told them I was Lu Xingyan’s desk mate, and he still hit me, saying Lu Xingyan was nothing.”
Lu Xingyan: “…”
During the break between the second class, it was time for calisthenics. After finishing the exercises and returning to the classroom, Lu Xingyan remembered something and asked Shen Xingruo if she wasn’t going back home this weekend, mentioning that he would be going to Huize with Pei Yuelu and Pei Yuexin.
Before Shen Xingruo could respond, He Siyue returned to the classroom and handed her a tube of ointment. “I just happened to get this from the clinic for you. I heard it works quickly.”
“Thank you,” Shen Xingruo said, taking the ointment and looking at it.
Seeing her slight smile, He Siyue smiled too. “It’s nothing. Just be more careful when walking in the future. Try not to bump into doors again.”
“Got it.”
Lu Xingyan, pretending to play with his phone nearby, glanced up at the interaction.
Huh. They had been desk mates for so long, but he had never seen that peacock give him a friendly look. She smiled like she was turning on a screen just to receive a tube of ointment.
Just then, Lu Xingyan’s roommate, Zhao Langming, came to ask him for the dormitory key. Seeing He Siyue giving ointment to Shen Xingruo, Zhao Langming teasingly said, “Class monitor, a few days ago when we were playing soccer, I scraped my knee too. Why didn’t I receive your caring attention? You haven’t balanced the scales.”
Siyue laughed and told him not to speak nonsense.
Then Zhao Langming put his arm around Lu Xingyan’s neck. “Brother Yan, give me the key. I and Wang Youfu took some time off to go back and get some stuff.”
Lu Xingyan pushed his arm away. “Key your mom! Can’t you bring it yourself? Even a pig knows to go back to its pen. What are you, a goldfish brain?”