“Qian Wei!” Lu Xun stared at the yellowish-brown stain now on his shoe, his composure finally cracking. His voice was thick with barely restrained fury.
“Didn’t I warn you already?” Qian Wei looked utterly innocent. “I told you there was dog poop up ahead.”
“That’s it. Can you please stop following me?” Lu Xun had truly reached the end of his patience.
“I’m not following you—I’m going to the library too.”
Too bad there was only one path from here to the library, or Qian Wei had no doubt Lu Xun would sooner take the long way around than walk beside her.
“I really wasn’t tailing you. I just want to be friends.” Qian Wei put on her most sincere expression.
“You’re that desperate for friends? You have to go looking for them on the road? You won’t even leave alone someone who happens to be walking to the library the same time as you?”
Qian Wei kept a straight face. “I just really want to be friends with you. I’ve told you—you’re my role model. I feel like being your friend would make me a better person.”
“Is that so?” Lu Xun’s voice turned frosty. “Since you’re so eager to be friends with me, why is it that in the finance elective just now, when you handed out snacks, everyone got one except me? So many people around, and I’m the only one left out?”
“Well…” Sweat beaded on Qian Wei’s forehead, but she thought fast. “It’s because everyone else is just an ordinary classmate to me—so it’s fine to give them all the same snack. But you’re my idol. You’re different to me. Of course I have to treat you with more care—how could I put you on the same level as an ordinary classmate? What I gave them today were just ordinary domestic snacks. How could domestic snacks be good enough for you?! Obviously it has to be imported!”
Lu Xun bared his teeth in a grin. “Thanks.”
Qian Wei felt secretly pleased with herself. Turns out Lu Xun was no different from anyone else—he liked flattery too. See, one compliment about how only imported food was good enough for him, and he was in a good mood.
“Then bring me some imported snacks worthy of me tomorrow when you deliver breakfast.” Lu Xun’s expression was still lit with that faint smile. “Don’t worry—since you’ve built me up as your idol, I’ll definitely accept your gift.”
Qian Wei: ???
Did he not know a compliment like that was basically the same as “let’s grab dinner sometime”—just an empty phrase people used to smooth things over?
Never mind, though! Qian Wei consoled herself. At least this was a breakthrough. Wasn’t her whole goal to become Lu Xun’s little sidekick? Since she was a kid, she’d always been taught: whatever you do, do it to the extreme, do it so well no one can replace you! So if she was going to flatter someone, she’d flatter him to the extreme, make herself irreplaceable, dare what others wouldn’t dare!
“Lu Xun! Give me your sneakers to wash!” Qian Wei declared, righteous and resolute. “Regardless of anything else, it was my warning that wasn’t careful enough, and that’s what got you into the dog poop. I should take responsibility!”
Washing shoes that had stepped in dog poop—Qian Wei felt she’d made quite the sacrifice for flattering her future boss. Yet Lu Xun didn’t seem the least bit grateful.
“You’re not one of those people who likes collecting other people’s personal belongings, are you?” He eyed her suspiciously. “Now I’m starting to wonder if you put that dog poop there on purpose. Normal people don’t just offer to wash someone’s shoes. Are we even that close?”
If this had happened to the usual Qian Wei, she’d already be shouting “the hell I am, how dare you accuse your esteemed self of being a pervert.” But faced with Lu Xun, thinking of the future, she found herself shrinking back a notch without meaning to.
“I really just want to be friends with you. I have zero improper feelings toward you—only admiration! You could even let me be your errand girl!” Qian Wei said earnestly. “Doubting me is the same as doubting yourself—do you really have that little confidence in your own personal charm?”
Lu Xun considered this for a moment, studying her. “You’re after something, aren’t you? What, hoping I’ll let you copy off me on some final exam?”
“How could you think that of me!” Qian Wei protested with righteous indignation. “Though, of course, if you’re willing to let me look, that’s fine too! What do you think about criminal law? If not, jurisprudence works too!”
“I’m not willing.”
“…” A little mercy wouldn’t kill you—did you have to refuse that fast?
“As for whether we become friends, that depends on how you conduct yourself going forward.” Lu Xun gave her a look that was almost a smile, then turned and walked off.
Wait… could this be the first glimmer of hope for her relationship with Lu Xun?! Qian Wei watched his retreating figure, nearly moved to tears. She could practically see herself, years down the line, riding on Lu Xun’s coattails, raking in money hand over fist until her hands cramped from counting cash. Beautiful—what a beautiful vision!
Lu Xun! Don’t you worry! I will absolutely conduct myself well!
After Lu Xun left, Qian Wei continued on to the library to apply for the job. There were plenty of work-study openings this year, and she landed one without much suspense. Right as she finished applying, she happened to run into Li Chongwen, who’d come in to study. She seized the opportunity to ask to borrow his civil law lecture notes. Of course, she hadn’t turned over a new leaf entirely—borrowing notes was just a convenient excuse. Where there’s a borrowing, there’s a returning, which would give her a perfectly legitimate reason to invite him to dinner as thanks next time. Smooth, natural, practically flawless.
Becoming friends with her future boss Lu Xun, playing matchmaker to help Lu Xun and Mo Zixin end up together so she’d become the future boss’s wife, changing Li Chongwen’s fate so he wouldn’t repeat his illness, and working her way toward buying property—so far, in this second life, Qian Wei had been steadily making progress on all these major goals. On her way back to the dorm, she reviewed her list in her head and realized there was still one thing she hadn’t started on yet. No time like the present—might as well get to it now!
Liu Shiyun circled curiously around the pile of things Qian Wei had suddenly brought back, reading the labels off the packaging aloud.
“Zhang Guang 101… Bawang Shampoo… Qian Wei, what on earth is all this stuff?”
Qian Wei pulled a set of Zhang Guang 101 and Bawang Shampoo out from among the packages and handed them to Liu Shiyun. “Good stuff, you deserve it. This is some of the best on the market right now. For the sake of our deep revolutionary friendship, here’s a set for you.”
Liu Shiyun looked baffled. “These are all hair regrowth and anti-hair-loss products. You’ve got plenty of hair, and so do I—why are you buying this stuff? You haven’t gotten roped into some pyramid scheme selling this, have you?”
Qian Wei patted Liu Shiyun’s shoulder solemnly. “You’ll understand eventually. Studying law tends to give you a receding hairline. Better to prevent it before it happens. Trust me, young lady, you’ll thank me later.”
“And this?” Liu Shiyun fished a garishly colored card out of the pile. “‘Sunshine Fitness’? You? Someone who can barely tell wheat from weeds, actually got a membership at the school gym?” She paused, then seemed to have a sudden realization. “Wait, I get it! You’ve got your eye on some guy at the gym!”
“You don’t know anything!” Qian Wei rolled her eyes at her. “Studying law requires an absolutely rock-solid physique! A strong body means you won’t drop dead after pulling all-nighters. Plus, running—sprinting, long-distance—all essential, so you can make a quick getaway when the other party’s client corners you.”
“Ha, come on, Qian Wei, you’re definitely into someone.” Liu Shiyun laughed heartily, then turned a little melancholy. “But I’ll hang on to those hair products—I’ve got something eating at me lately, feels like I’m losing hair over it.”
“What’s going on?”
“Oh, it’s the upcoming professional skills competition. The department head put me in charge of organizing it. Honestly, who even cares about this kind of event? There’s prize money, sure, but not much—who’d bother? If only we had some kind of gimmick. Our law school’s got way more women than men—if we could get someone like Lu Xun to join, it’d draw in a ton of girls.”
“So go convince Lu Xun!”
Liu Shiyun rolled her eyes. “Forget it. There’s no way Lu Xun would join something at that level—too juvenile, too low-tier. He wouldn’t even glance at it. He only does international competitions, you know, the Jessup Moot Court Competition—all-English professional legal debate. Never mind, forget I said anything. I need to go figure out how to run next month’s skills competition.”
Liu Shiyun went off to deal with her own business, and Qian Wei didn’t waste any time either. She was a woman of action—that very evening, she headed to the gym.
In her past life, just as Liu Shiyun had said, Qian Wei had never once considered exercising—never even set foot inside a gym. This time around was eye-opening. A University’s gym, located on the first floor of the athletic center, had genuinely upscale facilities. The equipment room had a row of treadmills and step machines, though not many people were working out. On one side of the equipment room was the school’s swimming pool, the same one used for city-level sporting events, fully equipped. On the other side was a practice studio, which usually hosted yoga and ballet classes; at that hour, chattering voices and music drifted out—the student union’s culture and arts department was rehearsing a dance number for the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival. Attached to the equipment room was a lounge area with a pool table. At that hour, not many people were actually working out—the pool table was the real draw, with a crowd gathered around it. Curious, Qian Wei glanced over. The guys playing pool looked rough around the edges, sporting the trendy layered haircuts of the era, several with dyed hair in loud colors, ears pierced with studs. The one at the front had a lit cigarette between his fingers, completely ignoring the gym’s no-smoking sign. In recent years, due to enrollment expansion, A University had established a subsidiary college. Though it carried the same name and shared teaching buildings and dorms, its admission cutoff was far lower than the university’s main undergraduate program, so the student quality wasn’t great. Plenty of well-off but poorly behaved kids had been sent there by families with money, and instead of studying, they spent their days forming cliques and throwing their weight around. The group at the pool table now was very likely from that subsidiary college.
They were murmuring among themselves about something. Qian Wei paid it no mind and headed straight into the equipment room, hopping on a treadmill and starting to run.
Twenty minutes in, drenched in sweat and just getting into her rhythm, Qian Wei suddenly heard a commotion coming from the lounge.
“What’s wrong with staying to play a round with our brother Tian? Not interested?”
“Come on, give us some face, play one round, we’ll treat you to a late-night snack after.”
“No thanks on the snack. Please, move aside, we need to get back to the dorm.”
Amid the tangle of male voices, one crisp female voice rang out clearly.
Qian Wei stopped running and looked toward the pool table—and spotted a familiar face.
Mo Zixin and several other girls were being blocked at the pool table by that group of thugs. They were still in their dance costumes—apparently the ones who’d been rehearsing in the practice studio earlier.
The leader of the group, apparently called Brother Tian, grinned and swept back his long bangs, clearly pleased with himself. “What’s your name? Leave your number, let’s be friends.”
He was, of course, looking at Mo Zixin, the prettiest of the group. Her form-fitting dance outfit clung to her figure, tracing out her lovely curves. Her face, flushed pink from the earlier rehearsal, glistened faintly with sweat, striking and alluring—but her expression was pure rejection and cold disdain.
“I have a boyfriend already, sorry.”
“Having a boyfriend doesn’t mean you can’t break up. What use is a boyfriend who won’t even come pick you up at a time like this? Why not switch it up? I’ll walk you back.”
Mo Zixin had always been treated like a princess by everyone around her; faced with a shameless pest like this, she quickly ran out of patience. “Are you going to move or not? If you don’t, I’m calling the police.”
For a young punk riding a testosterone high like this one, nothing mattered more than face. Getting shot down like that by Mo Zixin in front of the other girls and his own crew, the guy calling himself Brother Tian visibly darkened. He stubbed out his cigarette and shot a glance at his cronies, all swagger.
“Tonight, you’re not just staying to play pool—you’re coming out with us afterward too.”
Qian Wei felt an itch of anxiety. Mo Zixin, Mo Zixin, couldn’t you just play along a little and defuse things? Did you have to go head-to-head with these guys? The other girls with Mo Zixin, apparently also used to being catered to, weren’t ones to back down either—they started arguing loudly with the thugs, and things quickly escalated to shoving. The situation was spiraling out of control.
Qian Wei couldn’t just stand by and watch. Unfortunately, everyone else who’d been working out in the equipment room had already left. She hurriedly called Qian Chuan. “I’m at the gym, something’s going on—bring some guys from your sports science department, quick, we need backup.”
She hung up hastily and dashed out of the equipment room, ready to head into the lounge to help Mo Zixin out of this.
“What are you rushing off to? Stay put.”
Just as she was about to burst forward, a hand grabbed her collar from behind, and a lazy male voice spoke up.
Qian Wei turned around and finally saw who it was.
On this September night, the young man before her wore a loose athletic T-shirt, clearly fresh out of the shower, water still dripping from the hair at his forehead. His pale face still carried a faint flush from the warmth of the shower, his lips full, that healthy, vivid red. His eyes were dark and bright, his lashes long, and his long legs, bare below his athletic shorts, were straight and undeniably attractive. Qian Wei couldn’t help but swallow. Lu Xun’s legs really were beautifully shaped—muscle lines faintly visible beneath his skin, masculine without being bulky, striking just the right balance, impossible to forget.
But thankfully, Qian Wei hadn’t lost sight of the situation at hand. She looked at her savior with excitement. “Lu Xun!”
Lu Xun glanced at her, lifted the hem of his shirt, and casually used it to wipe his still-damp hair. In an instant, tiny water droplets flew off and landed on Qian Wei’s face. Only then did she realize how hot her own face had gotten. Looking at his taut abdomen, revealed by the movement of his shirt, she felt her face flush hotter still, as if that single droplet of water had been vaporized the moment it touched her burning skin. The more careless the display, the more magnetic it was. At nineteen, Lu Xun sat right at the line between boyish and mature, radiating something in every casual movement. Qian Wei kept chanting silently in her head, “don’t look, don’t look,” but his abs and the sharp lines at his hips kept swimming through her mind regardless… She thought, in a scattered sort of way, that it really was a waste for Lu Xun to become a lawyer—he’d probably strike it rich faster as a host at some fancy club.