After saying this, Lu Xun casually wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, glanced once more at Qian Wei, and walked off, cactus in hand. The commotion finally settled, the onlookers dispersed, and Qian Wei finally let out a breath of relief. It was around lunchtime by now, and feeling a bit hungry, she headed straight for the cafeteria.
“Qian Wei!” Qian Chuan had finally fully processed what happened. Worked up, he caught up to her in a few strides and cornered her at a table. “Tell me—do you have a thing for that pretty-boy Lu Xun too?”
Qian Wei rolled her eyes while chewing on a piece of sweet and sour pork rib. “You have no idea what kind of humiliating mess you just narrowly avoided.”
“What humiliating mess? You think I can’t beat a pretty boy like him?”
“You definitely can’t beat him.” Qian Wei said disdainfully. “Don’t assume that just because you’re an athlete you’re automatically stronger than him—Lu Xun’s the type who looks slim in clothes but’s actually built underneath, you know.” In her previous life, when Qian Chuan had provoked Lu Xun, not only had he failed to gain the upper hand, he’d nearly been beaten to a pulp. Lu Xun, mild and reserved as he seemed on the surface, was as dark as a lump of coal underneath, and when he fought, he specifically targeted places on the face and body that hurt without causing lasting damage—completely different from Qian Chuan’s undisciplined brawling. Afterward, Qian Chuan had sported a face bruised in every color of the rainbow and hadn’t dared show his face in public for a month, and that was how the unresolvable feud between them began.
“You’ve seen it before?” Qian Chuan asked angrily.
“Can’t I imagine it even if I haven’t seen it?”
“You really do have a thing for that pretty boy.” Qian Chuan smirked sarcastically. “No wonder you were sucking up to Lu Xun so unusually today. What role model? I’ve known you for nineteen years and never once seen you take studying seriously. You’re late to every single class, can’t even manage to get up on time, and suddenly you have an academic idol?”
“Your mind is so filthy, isn’t it? Lu Xun is absolutely not my type, okay?” Qian Wei set down her chopsticks, the image of the twenty-eight-year-old refined-yet-wicked Lu Xun surfacing in her mind. “I like men who are pure and unpretentious. That flashy, seductive type like Lu Xun—I couldn’t handle him.”
“Flashy and seductive??” Qian Chuan was unfamiliar with this future slang. “I might not like the guy, but you shouldn’t slander him for no reason either. How is Lu Xun flashy and seductive? He dresses clean and simple, his face is spotless—I’m a guy too, but even I’ll admit he’s pretty good-looking…”
“You don’t get it at all.” Qian Wei tapped her tray. “Lu Xun has that bone-deep sultry quality underneath—you have to look past the surface. Look at how much he already attracts admirers now, and though his face still looks innocent today, give it a few years and that inner seductiveness is bound to surface.”
“Cough, cough cough cough cough.”
“What are you coughing for? You haven’t even eaten anything—how’d you choke on your own saliva like that? And your eyes—why are you blinking so fast, did you get a cramp?” Qian Wei glanced at Qian Chuan, who was suddenly coughing violently and blinking rapidly, utterly baffled.
She clearly hadn’t caught his warning gesture, and it wasn’t until Lu Xun appeared in front of her with a stony expression that Qian Wei sensed danger.
“This… I can explain…” Talk about bad luck—even lunch in the cafeteria couldn’t spare her from running into Lu Xun. “Lu Xun… I misspoke, let me treat you to a meal, hear me out…”
Unfortunately, Lu Xun’s expression didn’t ease at all. “I’ve just decided what I want as compensation.” His voice was icy. “You want to treat me to meals? Fine, then treat me—for a month.”
Qian Wei let out a sigh of relief and was about to nod in agreement when Lu Xun’s devilish voice continued.
“One month of breakfasts.”
“…” He definitely did this on purpose! Qian Wei wanted to cry inside. He must have overheard Qian Chuan’s comment. Knowing full well she was absolutely incapable of getting up early—she was even late to class every day—yet he was making her fetch breakfast for him for a month. A University’s cafeteria breakfast was extremely popular precisely because it was so good, which meant if you didn’t line up early, you’d never get any.
Qian Wei tried one last desperate plea. “Breakfast is really hard to snag lately. Can we shorten it a bit? How about half a month? A whole month is really asking too much…”
“No.” Lu Xun’s expression remained flat, his tone indifferent. “After all, I’m the flashy, seductive type—and we flashy, seductive types like being unreasonable.”
“…”
“Your phone number?”
“Do… do we really need to exchange numbers?”
Lu Xun glanced at her. “Are you overthinking this? Thinking this is some romantic drama where you’re about to say, ‘Woman, you’ve caught my attention’? Rest assured, my eyesight and taste are both excellent, no need for an eye exam. Without your number, how am I supposed to tell you in advance what I want to eat the next morning?”
Lu Xun—just as insufferable at nineteen as at twenty-eight! But driven by her desire to please her future boss, Qian Wei swallowed her anger and dutifully handed over her phone number.
“So do I bring breakfast and wait for you in the cafeteria afterward?”
“Why would you wait for me?” Lu Xun said, as if it were obvious. “Just deliver it wherever I am, isn’t that simpler?”
Lu Xun, you skinflint! Not only did she have to get up early to fetch breakfast, now she had to deliver it too? Drop dead!
After lunch, Qian Wei got a to-go order and stopped by a stall outside campus to buy a new cactus before finally heading back to the dorm.
Liu Shiyun, as expected, still hadn’t gotten up. Qian Wei opened up the takeout container, and Liu Shiyun crawled out of bed like a zombie drawn by the smell of flesh, following the scent of the food.
“Is that soy-braised chicken drumstick? Smells so good…”
After finishing her meal, Liu Shiyun finally remembered her precious cactus. She looked at it and grew suspicious. “Is this really my cactus? Why isn’t it yellow anymore, the spines aren’t soft, it’s plump and even seems to have grown a bit bigger?”
Qian Wei answered without missing a beat. “Everything grows with sunlight. You know how Qian Chuan got to be 6’1″? From soaking up the sun. It’s not weird that your cactus got a growth spurt from a little sunbathing.”
Liu Shiyun had a sudden realization. “Then I’m never wearing sunscreen again—saves money and helps me grow taller!”
Qian Wei shot Liu Shiyun a guilty wink and climbed into bed for a nap, but just then her phone screen lit up with a notification.
“Chinese Legal History makeup exam!”
Those seven characters sent a jolt through Qian Wei’s whole body, resurrecting the old terror of being tormented by Chinese Legal History. The professor for that class was surnamed Qiang, given name Li, nicknamed “Qiang Ge,” notorious for his devilishly tricky exam questions, earning the legendary reputation of “when Qiang Ge marches out, nothing survives.” Nearly 80% of the class had failed, even most of the top students hadn’t been spared. In her previous life, Qian Wei had also failed Legal History, barely scraping through the makeup exam by cramming furiously in the last week before the start of sophomore year. But now… Qian Wei wanted to scream. She hadn’t studied at all! Whatever legal history she’d once known, she’d long since forgotten!
Fortunately, Qian Wei was quick on her feet in a crisis. She racked her brain desperately and finally managed to recall, however vaguely, the two essay questions from her previous makeup exam. Unfortunately, there was too much material and not enough time left to actually memorize it before the exam. After some thought, Qian Wei decided to go for broke—she closed her textbook and rushed straight to the makeup exam classroom.
A University’s makeup exams were relatively relaxed; students could enter fifteen minutes early and sit wherever they liked, as long as they left one seat empty between each person.
The moment she entered, Qian Wei picked a relatively secluded seat and began writing a cheat sheet on the desk, planning to jot down her vague recollection of the two essay question answers so she could cheat off them.
“What are you doing?”
Just as Qian Wei was busily scribbling away, a clean, cold male voice sounded above her head.
Qian Wei looked up, utterly astonished. “Lu Xun? Did you fail too?” Even a top student like him had been failed by Qiang Ge—Qian Wei felt a mix of sympathy and vindication.
Having resolved to butter up her future boss, Qian Wei decided not to waste this opportunity. She smiled warmly at Lu Xun and pointed at her desk, whispering conspiratorially, “I’m writing a cheat sheet. Today’s makeup exam has two essay questions at the end—if it were anyone else, I definitely wouldn’t tell them.”
Lu Xun glanced at the densely scribbled notes on her desk. “This makeup exam is supposed to be strictly confidential. How do you know the last two essay questions?”
“I have an extremely accurate sixth sense.” Qian Wei raised her eyebrows proudly. “Never mind, you probably won’t believe me no matter what I say now, but once you get the exam paper, you’ll see I was right. Why don’t you hurry and copy the answers to these two questions onto your desk too—even if they don’t come up, you lose nothing.”
Lu Xun remained unmoved, and just as Qian Wei was about to persuade him further, he stood up and walked toward the podium.
“Ten minutes until the exam begins. Please place your books, review materials, and phones on the podium.”
Qian Wei: ???
“Because Professor Qiang had a sudden matter come up, I’ll be proctoring this makeup exam.” Lu Xun spoke slowly and deliberately, every word landing on Qian Wei’s heart like a slow execution.
Right, how could she have forgotten—someone like Lu Xun would never fail a class! Even if the professor was ruthless, he was more ruthless still!
Qian Wei’s heart pounded with anxiety, but at least Lu Xun had already started unsealing the exam papers without mentioning her cheat sheet. Just as she began to relax, she saw him flip to the essay section at the back of the paper, glance at it, then look up at her.
“Now, please everyone stand up and switch seats.”
This monster!!!
And just like that, Qian Wei’s cheating scheme was foiled in one stroke.
Cheating wasn’t honorable, but directly reporting a classmate for cheating was considered deeply uncool too, and the reporter usually ended up ostracized. Even an idol-type figure like Lu Xun would take a hit to his reputation and be looked down upon for it. Qian Wei had assumed Lu Xun wouldn’t expose her cheat sheet outright—she just hadn’t expected him to be this sneaky about it. He’d clearly figured out that she’d correctly guessed the last two essay questions, which was exactly why he wanted to switch the seats! And she’d just spent all that effort writing an entire desk’s worth of notes, all for nothing!
Qian Wei felt her heart bleeding. She wanted to beat her chest like a gorilla in regret. But what could she do? She had no choice but to swallow her pain and quickly wipe away the pencil marks on her desk. If she couldn’t use them, she certainly wasn’t going to let someone else benefit from them either! And she absolutely couldn’t leave evidence for anyone to find out she’d made a cheat sheet in the first place!
But just as she’d finally wiped the desk clean and stood up to change seats, Lu Xun spoke again.
“Never mind, the exam’s about to start. No need to switch seats after all—everyone, please sit back down where you were.”
Qian Wei looked up angrily, and sure enough, found Lu Xun watching her with an expression somewhere between amusement and mockery. “Do you have a problem with that?”
Sneaky! So sneaky!
This brute had clearly anticipated her every move, sending her emotions on a rollercoaster ride. What’s the most regrettable thing in life? Failing to cheat successfully? No! It’s having a perfect chance to cheat right in front of you, and then destroying it with your own hands!
Qian Wei mentally flipped Lu Xun off a thousand times over, but out loud, all she could manage was three docile words.
“No problem.”
So mad, but gotta keep smiling. 🙂