Testing the Waters
As it approached nine-thirty, the dormitory building was bustling with activity.
At that moment, however, the crowd and surrounding sounds seemed to fade into a surreal background. Zhou Anran could only see the boy in front of her and hear her heartbeat, quickening with each passing second.
This was her greatest regret from high school.
Out of fear, she hadn’t dared to step forward to help him.
As a result, she could only watch helplessly as he thanked Yan Xingxi.
But now, the boy she had liked for so long stood before her, quietly asking if she would still give him a chance to treat her after two years.
It felt like a dream come true, a feeling that was hard to describe.
This was a scenario she had never even dared to imagine.
Zhou Anran felt a sudden sting in her nose, but this time it wasn’t from sadness.
She didn’t want to lose her composure in front of him again, so she forced herself to hold it back. After instinctively nodding in response to him, she suddenly remembered her promise to Bai Lingyun and quickly shook her head.
Chen Luobai’s fingers curled slightly in his pocket, and the tension in his chest seemed to rise again, but he found her reaction somewhat cute, unable to help but smile: “So does this count as a yes or a no?”
Zhou Anran felt a bit embarrassed and looked down to avoid his gaze: “My roommate’s boyfriend is treating our dorm to dinner tomorrow night.”
“There’s such a rule?” Chen Luobai paused, “He’s treating all of you?”
Zhou Anran didn’t quite catch his first question; her mind was still a bit chaotic. She instinctively answered his second question: “The other people from his dorm will come too.”
Chen Luobai’s gaze lingered on her innocent and pure face for a second: “Your roommate’s boyfriend’s dorm?”
“Yeah,” Zhou Anran nodded, unable to resist looking up at him.
The boy maintained his previous posture, one hand in his pocket, still looking at her as he had before.
Her heart trembled slightly: “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Chen Luobai asked her softly, “How about next Saturday instead? Zhu Ran has something on tomorrow.”
Zhou Anran tugged at her bag’s strap and lightly nodded in response.
*
When Zhou Anran returned to the dormitory, her three roommates had not yet come back.
With midterms approaching next week, Xie Jingyi had gone to the library after a meeting.
Zhou Anran sat down at her desk, hoping to review a bit more, but she couldn’t get into the right mindset. After adjusting for a moment and failing again, she simply gave up, setting an alarm for four-thirty the next morning, planning to make up for the lost time.
After washing up, she lay down early on her bed when her phone rang.
Unlocking the screen, she saw that Yan Xingxi had @ her in the group chat.
Yan Xingxi: [Can’t get into the study mood QAQ]
Yan Xingxi: [Anran, I’ll come to your school tomorrow to study together @Zhou Anran]
Yan Xingxi’s school had midterms in the same week as theirs.
Sheng Xiaowen’s side would be a week later, so they were out of sync.
Zhou Anran: [Sure]
Zhou Anran: [But I might not be able to have dinner with you tomorrow night]
Yan Xingxi: [Why can’t you accompany me?]
Yan Xingxi: [Could it be that you have a date tomorrow night?]
Zhang Shuxian: [What!]
Zhang Shuxian: [Anran has a date tomorrow?]
Sheng Xiaowen: [Is there progress?]
Zhou Anran: [……]
Zhou Anran: [My roommate’s boyfriend is treating our dorm to dinner tomorrow night]
Sheng Xiaowen: [Let’s disperse then]
Zhang Shuxian: [I’m going back to studying]
Zhou Anran: “……”
Yan Xingxi: [Then forget it]
Yan Xingxi: [If someone’s treating, it definitely won’t be a quick meal. You’ll at least be unavailable for two or three hours tomorrow]
Yan Xingxi: [Then I’ll come to find you to hang out after your exams next week]
Yan Xingxi: [No one’s treating you to dinner next Saturday, right?]
Zhou Anran paused for a moment.
Zhou Anran: [There is]
Zhou Anran: [But I should be able to bring you along]
Yan Xingxi: [What do you mean you should be able to bring me along?]
Yan Xingxi: [Who’s treating you next week?]
Zhou Anran touched her suddenly warm ears.
She wasn’t very familiar with Bai Lingyun’s boyfriend, so she didn’t want to make too many requests. But for next Saturday, bringing along someone he knew should be fine, right?
Zhou Anran hesitated for a long time on the screen before typing out the name that had been on her mind: [Chen Luobai]
Zhou Anran’s fingers moved again, adding another name: [And Zhu Ran]
Yan Xingxi: [！！！]
Yan Xingxi: [@Zhang Shuxian @Sheng Xiaowen]
Yan Xingxi: [You guys hurry back!!]
Yan Xingxi: [Chen Luobai is inviting you, why are you bringing me along??]
Yan Xingxi: [Do I look like someone who would want to be a third wheel???]
Zhou Anran: “……”
She knew this reaction would come.
Zhou Anran: [Don’t say that]
Zhou Anran: [Zhu Ran is coming too]
Zhang Shuxian: [!!!!!!!]
Zhang Shuxian: [So why is our school hunk Chen inviting you again?]
Zhou Anran: “……?”
Did they not see the name “Zhu Ran”?
Zhou Anran: [He said it’s to treat me for helping him during that basketball game in the first year]
Yan Xingxi: [！！！]
Zhang Shuxian: [So he heard that from Xi Xi that day]
Zhang Shuxian: [He heard it, remembered it until now, and is planning to treat you?]
Zhang Shuxian: [Is this still the same Chen Luobai who usually keeps his distance from girls??]
Yan Xingxi: [Exactly]
Yan Xingxi: [Back then, he just gave me a bag of snacks to brush me off]
Sheng Xiaowen: [Anran, I think you can start considering this more seriously now]
Zhou Anran bit her lip.
If she were to completely stop thinking about it, that would be impossible.
Just like in their second year, when he suddenly took the initiative to talk to her and offered her a Coke, she had thought about it a bit.
However, from catching a glimmer of hope to suddenly plunging into despair, she didn’t want to experience that feeling again.
So she didn’t dare to let herself think too much.
Her phone vibrated again.
Zhou Anran pulled her thoughts back.
Yan Xingxi: [I suddenly remembered I have something next week]
Yan Xingxi: [I won’t come over, let’s plan for another time]
Yan Xingxi: [I hope Zhu Ran suddenly has something next week and can’t make it]
Zhou Anran couldn’t help but smile lightly.
*
The next afternoon at six, Zhou Anran set off with Xie Jingyi and Yu Xinyue to the restaurant, Yue Ting, located off-campus.
Bai Lingyun had gone ahead with Senior Xie to arrange things at the restaurant.
The three of them hadn’t put on any makeup. First, today was just about being a supporting character and getting a free meal, and second, they didn’t have time. They had only returned to the dorm to drop off a few things before heading straight out.
Upon arriving at the private room that Bai Lingyun had reserved, Zhou Anran found that besides Bai Lingyun, there were six boys in total.
However, according to Bai Lingyun, Senior Xie was also in a four-person dorm.
Probably knowing they would be confused, Bai Lingyun took the opportunity to pour drinks for them and quietly explained: “The other two are from the dorm next to Xie Zihan’s. They knew he was treating today, so they came along with the three from their dorm. They didn’t inform us in advance, and we couldn’t just kick them out.”
“It’s fine,” Xie Jingyi said nonchalantly, “It doesn’t matter if there are three or five more people since we don’t know each other well.”
Bai Lingyun still felt a bit embarrassed: “I just didn’t want to affect your mood while eating.”
“It’s okay,” Zhou Anran tugged at her hand, “You should focus on your mood.”
Xie Zihan was also a member of the student council and a very talkative guy. He kept the atmosphere lively in the private room, ensuring there were no awkward silences.
Zhou Anran wasn’t very good at handling situations with many unfamiliar people, so she didn’t join in the conversation and instead focused on eating, just like Yu Xinyue.
It wasn’t until they had eaten about half of the meal that she suddenly heard someone call her name.
“Why hasn’t Zhou Xuejie said anything?”
Zhou Anran looked up to see a boy across from her staring at her.
He was one of the two boys from the dorm next door that Xie Zihan had introduced earlier, and his name seemed to be Gong Yongliang.
Bai Lingyun helped her respond: “Anran doesn’t talk much while eating. She’s like this when she eats with us too.”
“But before the meal, I don’t think I saw Zhou Xuejie say much either,” Gong Yongliang continued to look at Zhou Anran, “Isn’t it a bit disadvantageous for such an introverted personality? I’ve been in school for a year longer than you and am also in the student council. How about we add each other on WeChat? I can look out for you in the future.”
Zhou Anran tightened her grip on her chopsticks.
Being asked for her WeChat wasn’t a first, but it had always been in private before. This was the first time someone had asked her in front of so many people.
She wasn’t too afraid of offending anyone; sometimes, adding people she shouldn’t add could be more troublesome than just refusing outright. But she wasn’t sure about Gong Yongliang’s relationship with Xie Zihan and whether it would affect Bai Lingyun.
In her hesitation, Zhou Anran suddenly heard her phone ring.
Recently, she changed her ringtone to the song “You Give Love A Bad Name” that Yu Bingqin had sung last time.
Feeling like she had found a lifeline, Zhou Anran quickly took her phone out of her bag: “Sorry, I need to take this call.”
After saying that, she hurried out of the private room, not even glancing at who was calling.
But it didn’t matter who it was; it was probably a scam call. She just needed an excuse to step out and think of a way to refuse.
As she opened the door, she couldn’t help but think of Chen Luobai.
If it were him, he would probably know how to handle this situation well.
Last time at KTV, when that senior girl asked him for his WeChat in front of everyone, he had given her a graceful way out.
Once outside the private room, Zhou Anran heard the ringtone still ringing. Guessing it probably wasn’t a scam call, she looked down to check.
The next second, her steps suddenly halted.
The caller ID displayed only three capital letters—CLB.
Why was he calling her?
His phone number was still the one he had saved when he asked for her WeChat. That day, he hadn’t scanned her code but had directly asked for her phone number. Her mind had been almost blank at that moment; she answered whatever he asked.
After she gave him her number, he called her back, sounding casual and relaxed, saying she should save his number for convenience.
When Zhou Anran saved his number, she initially wrote his full name.
But then she thought it was too conspicuous, especially since he had just entered school not long ago and had already secured the title of school hunk.
In the end, she changed it to just his initials.
This was the first time he had called her since they exchanged numbers.
Even though they had interacted several times privately, receiving a call from him made her inexplicably nervous again. She was afraid he would hang up if she took too long, so she took a deep breath and answered right at the door of the private room.
“Hello.”
The boy’s voice came close to her ear, still in that lazy tone: “Which private room are you in?”
Zhou Anran was walking down the corridor and paused, a bit confused: “What?”
“Aren’t you eating at Yue Ting?” His tone still sounded indifferent, “My roommate and I are nearby. We bought an extra cup of milk tea to bring you.”
Zhou Anran felt like she understood but also didn’t, or rather, she understood but was afraid of misinterpreting: “You’re bringing me milk tea?”
Chen Luobai replied with a casual “Mm”: “I don’t want to take it back to school. It’ll be wasted if I throw it away. Which room are you in?”
The private room was on the second floor.
Zhou Anran walked to the end of the corridor and stopped by the window, feeling like something was subtly off.
He didn’t want to take it back to school.
Wasn’t it more troublesome to call her for the room number and then bring it to her?
Moreover, according to his words, he was with his roommate. Just one cup of milk tea—if he didn’t want to take it back, wouldn’t his roommate also not want to?
Zhou Anran’s heart raced.
Could it be that she really could think a bit more?
Could she perhaps test him a little?
Zhou Anran bit her lip and quietly asked him: “Can you do me a favor?”
“What’s up?” His voice suddenly dropped, “Did something happen?”
“It’s not that… it’s just… how do you usually refuse—” Zhou Anran stopped halfway through. She had never done this before and suddenly didn’t know how to phrase it.
Chen Luobai’s voice suddenly sounded in her ear: “Did someone confess to you?”
Zhou Anran knew he was incredibly sharp, but she hadn’t expected him to guess so quickly. She felt a bit caught off guard and instinctively denied it: “No—”
After denying it, she felt annoyed and bit her lip, then sighed in resignation.
Forget it.
Before she could even test him, she was already afraid he would misunderstand.
Even though they didn’t have any relationship at all right now.
She really couldn’t bring herself to do this.
Zhou Anran decided to just be honest with him. If she couldn’t test him, she genuinely wanted his help, especially since he was quite good at handling such situations.
“It’s just that someone wants my WeChat. He’s a classmate of my roommate’s boyfriend, and he asked in front of everyone, so it feels a bit awkward to refuse.”
“What’s so awkward about refusing? Just say—”
Chen Luobai paused.
Zhou Anran felt her heart skip a beat.
“What should I say?”
The boy’s voice came very close to her ear: “Just tell him that someone doesn’t allow you to add male friends on WeChat.”
Zhou Anran: “……?”