With that little episode, Qian Wei spent the rest of the speeches sitting on pins and needles, not even properly hearing a word of what Li Chongwen said. As for Lu Xun, once he’d read those three characters — “Li Chongwen” — clearly, he gave Qian Wei one slow-motion glance, as if turning back through the ages, then turned his head forward and never looked back again, leaving her with nothing but a view of what interns would later describe as the most handsome back of a head they’d ever seen…
Qian Wei stared at the back of Lu Xun’s head, on the verge of tears. This really was a spectacular blunder, a breathtakingly bad move — not only had she failed to properly flatter her future boss at the earliest opportunity, she’d managed to thoroughly offend him in the process.
In this daze, it was finally Lu Xun’s turn to go on stage. Qian Wei clutched the support banner in her hands, not knowing whether to hold it up or not — even if she folded away the “Li Chongwen” part now, Lu Xun had already clearly seen it was custom-made specifically for him…
“We would better embrace the exotic and different than turn hostile and defensive. Being magnanimous is at the core of Chinese culture…”
It had to be said, Lu Xun’s voice was pleasant to listen to, with genuinely authentic pronunciation, and paired with that face of his, no one would have blinked twice if he’d claimed to be a broadcasting major. His speech content, pronunciation, and stage presence were all beyond reproach — the only shame was that this particular contestant had a rather sour expression, keeping a straight face the entire time, so much so that at first glance, one might have mistaken him for reading the news on CCTV.
Once his speech ended, Lu Xun didn’t head back to the law school’s seating area at all — instead, still wearing that stern expression, he walked straight out of the auditorium.
“Hey, hey, hey! Qian Wei! Mo Tao! Mo Tao’s up!”
Qian Wei looked up to see Mo Tao’s familiar peach-blossom eyes. Perhaps thanks to the glow of love, Mo Tao seemed to be radiating light from head to toe right now. Though dressed formally, the little bee-shaped pin at his collar and his flashy pocket square gave away his flamboyant streak.
He’d gone with the British accent route, and being the star of the foreign languages college, the moment he opened his mouth, his polished London accent gave off an air of aristocratic sophistication. Curious, Qian Wei turned her head to scan the room — the foreign languages college’s support squad was formidable, with row after row of girls packed in, and she couldn’t tell which one, if any, was Mo Tao’s girlfriend, given how popular he clearly was over there too, with quite a few girls holding up banners bearing his name. When he’d walked in earlier, he’d come in with a group of several girls at once, and Qian Wei hadn’t been able to tell them apart.
Perhaps trying to impress his girlfriend, Mo Tao was in full form today, his peach-blossom eyes practically sparkling with charm, tossing flirtatious glances at the judging panel one after another — really going all out, sacrificing his own dignity for the sake of first place.
Mo Tao was among the last few contestants scheduled, and once he finished, there were only a handful of participants left.
Liu Shiyun nudged Qian Wei. “Hey, why hasn’t Lu Xun come back since he stepped out earlier? What’s he doing? It’s almost over.”
“Probably went to the bathroom.”
Liu Shiyun paused, checking her watch. “If it’s the bathroom, that’s a problem!”
Qian Wei was a bit confused. “Huh? What problem?”
“Prostate issues!” Liu Shiyun said, wiggling her eyebrows. “He’s been gone that long and still not back — must be some kind of urinary frequency or incomplete emptying situation, right?”
“…” Qian Wei thought, here we go again, wanting to disown this friend of mine.
As she pondered this, Qian Wei craned her neck to look around, and only then did she notice that besides Lu Xun being gone, Mo Tao had also stepped away, leaving only Li Chongwen and the other contestants still sitting together in the waiting area, waiting for the competition to conclude.
Just as the competition finally wrapped up, as if timed perfectly, both Mo Tao and Lu Xun returned at the same moment — but the atmosphere between them was clearly off.
Lu Xun’s face was cold as ice, while Mo Tao’s expression was one of pure fury, with a red, swollen patch on his left cheek. Yet even so, his hand was still gripping tightly onto the hand of a girl standing behind him, someone with a gentle, refined look about her. Qian Wei understood almost instantly — that had to be the neighbor girl Mo Tao had been so smitten with.
The moment he entered the auditorium, Mo Tao didn’t care who was watching — he stormed straight up to Qian Wei with an aggressive air, then turned to Lu Xun. “Fine, let’s settle this face to face! Go ahead and ask Qian Wei whether I was lying!”
Qian Wei was utterly baffled. “What’s going on?”
Mo Tao was clearly still furious. He shot a glance at Lu Xun, who was equally low-pressure. “Ask him.” He pointed at his own left cheek. “Look what he did.” Yet despite saying this, Mo Tao didn’t seem to care much about his own injury at all — his eyes stayed fixed on the girl behind him the entire time, full of anxious eagerness to explain himself.
“Lu Xun? What happened?”
In response to Qian Wei’s question, Lu Xun shot Mo Tao another venomous glare before finally speaking. “I stepped outside for some fresh air just now, and that’s when I saw your boyfriend all wrapped up in a hug and kiss with this girl.” Having said that, he glared once more at Mo Tao’s hand holding hers. “I really can’t believe people these days can cheat this openly, this shamelessly.”
That was when Qian Wei finally understood…
“Lu Xun, let me explain, this really isn’t what it looks like.”
Lu Xun raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. “What, you love him that much? Even after this, you’re still going to lie to yourself and pretend this isn’t what it looks like? What’s so great about Mo Tao anyway? Did he feed you some kind of love potion?”
Hearing this, Mo Tao was instantly displeased. “What do you mean, what’s so great about me! I’m plenty great! What’s wrong with me?!”
“Hey, hey, hey, both of you, calm down!” Qian Wei’s head was spinning. “Neither of you talk, just let me explain.” Qian Wei turned to Lu Xun. “Mo Tao — he’s not my boyfriend!”
Lu Xun looked surprised. “You two broke up?”
“No, no!” Qian Wei explained. “The two of us were actually never together in the first place!”
The whole story was a long one, and it wasn’t really the place to hash it out standing around the auditorium, so after some discussion, they all settled on a café near campus. Qian Wei spent a good fifteen minutes going back and forth, finally managing to clear up the whole situation between her and Mo Tao.
“So basically, Mo Tao and I have nothing going on between us, and he really wasn’t cheating. I’m really sorry for the misunderstanding this caused.”
With that, Mo Tao’s anger finally dissipated. He glanced at Lu Xun. “You heard her, right? I’m really not that kind of low-down guy. I’ve only ever liked Xiaoxiao. Thank goodness this got cleared up today — otherwise, all my effort to win over my girlfriend might have gone to waste because of this misunderstanding, thinking I was cheating!”
Mo Tao’s girl-next-door, Xiaoxiao, blushed a little, looking somewhat embarrassed. “I almost misunderstood you too, that’s on me, I should have trusted you more.”
Having heard the whole story, Lu Xun finally dropped his earlier hostility, though his tone remained a bit stiff. “Sorry, I didn’t realize the two of you were pretending to be a couple.”
Seeing the tension between the two finally starting to ease, Qian Wei let out a sigh of relief. Though this whole thing had turned into a farce, she felt genuinely moved inside — Lu Xun had always been fiercely protective of the people close to him. Back when they worked together, whenever she or other colleagues occasionally ran into difficult clients, Lu Xun would push back without hesitation, never once asking his employees to endure or sacrifice themselves for the sake of the bigger picture. There’d been a time when a young female intern was harassed by a manager at a long-term client firm, and Lu Xun had gone directly to bat for the intern to get justice. This time, believing Mo Tao had cheated, he’d immediately thrown a punch on her behalf without a second thought — Qian Wei couldn’t help but think even more highly of Lu Xun’s character.
Mo Tao, eager to get back to his own little world with Xiaoxiao, had no intention of lingering once the misunderstanding was cleared up, and quickly whisked his girlfriend away, the two of them lost in their own bubble.
After Mo Tao left, Qian Wei ordered a few more dishes. Lu Xun’s behavior today had been so genuinely loyal — even though the whole Mo Tao situation had turned out to be a misunderstanding, regardless, Qian Wei still felt she owed him her thanks for it.
Qian Wei had a bit of beer, feeling a bit warm all over, and warm inside too. “Lu Xun, I’ve realized you’re actually a really good person.”
Caught off guard by the compliment, Lu Xun froze for a moment before growing visibly awkward, clearly trying to keep up his usual composed front, yet unable to hide that he was pleased — his ears turned faintly red again.
“Though, you know, hitting him back there was a bit reckless.” Qian Wei patted him on the shoulder. “You’re studying law, after all. If Mo Tao had insisted on making a big deal out of it, called the police, blown it up into something bigger, that would’ve been a real headache.”
Lu Xun, however, didn’t buy it at all, raising an eyebrow. “What’s there to worry about?”
“Remember that time I nearly drowned, and you told me to always think of myself first before others?” Qian Wei glanced at him. “You should think about yourself first in critical moments too, you know.”
“I’m perfectly fine.” Lu Xun snorted. “As for you, I don’t know what you were thinking, pretending to be Mo Tao’s girlfriend. What’s so great about him? Was it really necessary to go with him? Embarrassing.”
“…” Watching Lu Xun’s indignant expression, Qian Wei didn’t dare respond. Honestly, Mo Tao was a genuinely great guy — good looking, charismatic, knowledgeable, one of the more notable handsome guys on campus. Lu Xun was probably just venting a bit of misplaced resentment after being rejected by Mo Zixin, she figured. Best not to provoke a heartbroken man any further…
Still, complaints aside, Lu Xun’s mood seemed to be holding up well, since Qian Wei noticed his appetite was quite good.
“So you’re single right now, then?” On the way back to the dorm, Lu Xun suddenly threw out the question, out of nowhere.
Qian Wei nodded reflexively. “What about it?”
“Nothing, just curious. Don’t you want to date? Doesn’t it make you envious seeing other people paired up?”
“Nope.” Qian Wei answered without hesitation. “Not at all, actually.”
Honestly, after being single for so long, a person tends to get used to the state of things, without any urgent impulse to change it and start dating. In her previous life, though she’d also stayed single all the way to twenty-eight, aside from romance, the rest of her life had been quite fulfilling, her days had passed comfortably enough, with family and friends always around her. Qian Wei never had this compulsion to date purely for the sake of dating; she never felt her life was incomplete without a relationship, believing instead that when fate arranged for love, it would come naturally, and if it never did, she wouldn’t feel anxious about it either. All in all, she had no real motivation to change her single status, because her current life was already comfortable and enjoyable enough as it was.
“Honestly, I feel like unless someone is exceptionally good, someone I really, truly like, I wouldn’t casually enter a relationship, because my current state is already great — every hour of every day is mine to spend however I want, doing whatever I feel like, without having to consider a second person at all. But dating changes all that — you have to go on dates, and that alone eats up so much time every day.” Qian Wei thought for a moment. “And no matter how compatible two people are, there’s always a period of adjustment, times when you argue and feel bad, times when your views clash, and maybe you even break up eventually — that’s just extra trouble piled on for nothing, maybe even tears and heartbreak, nothing close to as carefree as I am now!” Having said that, Qian Wei patted Lu Xun on the shoulder. “So really, being single has its own kind of wonderful too — cherish your single life while you’ve got it!”
Lu Xun fell silent for a moment before finally looking up. “So what type do you like?” He coughed. “I mean, what kind of person would it take for you to actually be willing to step out of your comfort zone and give dating a try?” His voice sounded a bit off. “Are you extremely picky about looks, or do you have particularly high standards for something else?”
“I’m someone who values substance. Honestly, I don’t really care that much about looks — as long as they’re pleasant to look at, that’s fine. What matters more is the heart, you know, like I said before, I want my future boyfriend to be understanding and considerate of the bigger picture. What I hate most are guys who are overly possessive, getting jealous over every little thing. That kind of jealousy is just so childish, completely immature.”
“…”