After confirming two announcers, the school broadcasting station began its official operation. Every day at noon sharp, Ruan Yu would report for duty. In those brief thirty minutes, she would play a few pleasant songs, recite some poetry, recommend books, or broadcast real-time news serving teachers and students.
The response from school students was positive; some even hoped for extended broadcast time. However, Tian Cheng, considering that some students needed to nap during lunch, rejected the proposal to avoid taking up too much of everyone’s time.
For the evening broadcasts, Wang Jing took a different approach, reading stories to everyone daily. Sometimes he would read classic literature, other times he would gather various unheard tales of ghosts and mysteries, which became quite popular.
Both of them gained a considerable following of fans, especially Wang Jing. His voice was traditionally deep and rich, both charming and alluring. Young girls would fall for him just by hearing his voice and would rush to the broadcasting station to meet him.
Since the start of the semester, Wang Jing had been indulging in heavy meals at West Street daily. Without family restrictions, he gained over ten pounds. When fans saw him in person and discovered he was as plump as an inflated Baymax, completely mismatching his voice, they retreated in disappointment one after another. Wang Jing’s daily encounters with fans left his emotions swinging like a roller coaster.
After experiencing several such setbacks, Wang Jing finally decided to diet, so he started accompanying Ruan Yu to eat at the cafeteria every day. Through the broadcasting station and cafeteria visits, they quickly became familiar with each other.
Wang Jing became one of Ruan Yu’s few friends and a male friend at that.
“Today, a junior student with glasses came to the publicity office to give me a love letter. When she saw me, she was so scared she turned and ran, not even noticing she dropped the letter,” Wang Jing sat across from Ruan Yu, took a sip of the cafeteria’s seaweed soup, picked up a steamed bun, bit into it, then put it down again. “Ruan Ruan, am I really that fat?”
“Why ask me? Don’t you look in the mirror?” Ruan Yu kept her head down, focused on her clay pot dish.
“You’re right, I do have some sense of how fat I am, but do these people have to be so hurtful? Even if reality doesn’t match expectations, they don’t need to be so obvious about it. We could just exchange proper greetings, save some face for me. Even if they called me ‘fatty’ dozens of times behind my back, I wouldn’t feel this heartbroken.”
Ruan Yu was at a loss for words. She wasn’t good at comforting people, so she could only look up and give Wang Jing a sympathetic glance.
“You know what’s even more outrageous?” Wang Jing viciously stabbed his chopsticks into the steamed bun. “I read that junior’s love letter. She wrote so pompously: ‘Senior Wang Jing, I’m captivated by your voice. I want to have a relationship with you beyond just being schoolmates. No matter what you look like, it doesn’t matter.'”
Wang Jing pinched his voice, imitating the girl’s soft tone, making Ruan Yu’s stomach churn.
She silently made a gesture to stop.
Wang Jing ignored it and continued: “These people are just blatantly lying, and their true colors show so quickly. Saying it doesn’t matter what I look like – they’re expecting me to look like Teng Yi.”
Ruan Yu’s heart skipped a beat.
These past few days, she had deliberately avoided thinking about that name, but hearing it so unexpectedly now made her think of him again.
“Enough, just eat your steamed bun in peace,” Ruan Yu said irritably. “Let me enjoy my meal too.”
“Alright, alright, I’ll stop complaining. Just wait until I slim down to become a lightning bolt and blind those eyes that only care about looks.”