Zhou Jingze obviously didn’t remember her. A wave of disappointment surged in Xu Sui’s heart. Then she mustered up courage to greet him.
Zhou Jingze was generous with his spending, directly taking them to the small restaurant on the second floor of the dining hall for a special meal. Throughout the entire meal, it was mainly Hu Qianxi and Sheng Nanzhou bantering back and forth, with Zhou Jingze occasionally responding nonchalantly.
Hu Qianxi didn’t like eating celery. Sheng Nanzhou insisted on making her eat it, even transferring all the celery from his bowl to hers, asking: “Do you know why your family’s husky looks so ugly?”
With educational intentions, Sheng Nanzhou waited for Hu Qianxi to ask why, but she ignored him, so he directly lectured that it was because the dog was picky about food. Hu Qianxi picked out all the celery and said seriously: “Because it looks like you.”
“You—” Sheng Nanzhou was too angry to speak.
“Uncle, don’t you think so?” Hu Qianxi sought Zhou Jingze’s judgment.
Zhou Jingze turned his head, glanced at Sheng Nanzhou, suppressing mischief: “You know what, it really does look quite similar.”
“…” Sheng Nanzhou.
Xu Sui laughed softly along with them. Sheng Nanzhou was too lazy to deal with them and turned to Xu Sui instead: “Sister Xu, I haven’t introduced myself yet. I’m Sheng Nanzhou. Xixi’s friend is my friend too. If you need anything in the future, you can come find me.”
“Psh, why would she look for you when she could find Zhou Jingze for protection?” Hu Qianxi mercilessly undermined him, smiling as she looked at the other person. “Uncle, don’t you think so?”
Although it was just a joke, Xu Sui’s heart tightened. She pretended to casually lower her head to eat, actually waiting for Zhou Jingze’s answer. Just as Zhou Jingze was about to speak, his phone on the table vibrated – the caller ID showed Bai Yuyue.
Zhou Jingze picked up the phone and held it to his ear. Xu Sui sat across from him, watching his smooth throat line. His left hand rested on the table edge, occasionally flicking the pull tab of his carbonated soda, ice mist clinging to his slender fingertips.
Brief words like “mm” and “something wrong” resonated in her ears. Not knowing what was said on the other end, Zhou Jingze let out a very light chuckle.
Xu Sui sat on pins and needles, just feeling tormented.
“Hanging up,” Zhou Jingze said.
After hanging up, Sheng Nanzhou teased: “Tsk tsk, Master Zhou is amazing. His girlfriend actively calls him ten times a day, but I’ve never seen him call back once.”
“Speaking of which, your girlfriend is actually in the same dorm as me, but she doesn’t seem to know about my relationship with you. You didn’t tell her?” Hu Qianxi said.
“Lazy,” Zhou Jingze threw out one word.
While they were eating in the dining hall, a classmate of Zhou Jingze’s called Da Liu came over. Seeing the well-behaved and proper Xu Sui, he teased: “Changing girlfriends so fast? Changing tastes?”
Xu Sui felt somewhat awkward being teased, and this scene happened to fall into Zhou Jingze’s eyes.
Da Liu sat nearby. Zhou Jingze pressed his tongue against his left cheek and smiled, reaching forward and gesturing for him to come over.
Zhou Jingze’s slender fingers rested on the pull tab. Da Liu leaned down with an expression ready to hear gossip, his other hand resting on Zhou Jingze’s neck. With a “pop,” the tab was pulled open, and white bubbles gushed out, covering Da Liu’s face.
Da Liu immediately struggled. Zhou Jingze leaned back against his chair, easily holding him down with his other hand. Da Liu was made a complete mess, bubbles covering him so much he couldn’t even open his eyes. Only after Da Liu repeatedly begged for mercy saying “I was wrong” did Zhou Jingze let him go.
The bubbles quickly evaporated into water, flowing wetly down his face – he couldn’t have looked more pathetic.
“Guess,” Zhou Jingze smiled roguishly, looking completely like a dandy.
“Hahahahahaha.” The people around laughed until they were doubled over.
This was Zhou Jingze’s way – when talking to you nicely, he’d use little tricks to make you understand that this wasn’t appropriate, that you should respect others.
Da Liu understood from his expression.
“You’re something else,” Da Liu knew he’d gone too far with his joke. Just as he was about to apologize, Xu Sui handed him a tissue to wipe his face.
Da Liu felt even more embarrassed: “Sister, I’m sorry, I was just joking with this guy.”
“It’s okay,” Xu Sui’s soft voice revealed her good temper.
“Alright, get lost,” Zhou Jingze said with a laughing curse.
After the group finished eating, Xu Sui accompanied Hu Qianxi back to Zhou Jingze’s dorm to get something. When passing Beihang’s playground, a group of muscular male students in green training uniforms were spinning on fixed rollers to train their resistance to turbulence, or to enhance their physical fitness while running and shouting: “Soar through the skies, defend our territory!”
The evening sunset was blazing. Sweat dripped down their faces as powerful, resonant slogans echoed across the playground.
Hu Qianxi stared straight at them. Sheng Nanzhou snapped his fingers in front of her: “Still looking? Your drool is about to flow out.”
“Two ready-made handsome crew cuts right in front of you, but you insist on craning your neck to look back there,” Sheng Nanzhou said.
“Pah.” Hu Qianxi brushed away his hand.
Zhou Jingze walked ahead with one hand in his pocket. Suddenly, he encountered an acquaintance and nodded: “Senior.”
“How are you adjusting after being here for over a month?” The senior familiarly patted his shoulder – they seemed to have known each other for a long time.
Zhou Jingze nodded. The senior smiled: “You really made a splash as the student representative at the school opening ceremony. Even students from our year are discussing you. That was an excellent speech.”
“Just talking nonsense,” Zhou Jingze nonchalantly curved his lips.
After the senior left, Zhou Jingze led the two girls into the male dormitory but didn’t let them go upstairs, having them wait downstairs.
Just as Zhou Jingze was about to go upstairs, male students chatting by the second-floor railing saw two beauties standing downstairs, especially Xu Sui who looked fair and soft, seemingly easy to tease, and started whistling at her.
Zhou Jingze, hands in his pockets, looked up at them from below. His gaze was calm but conveyed the meaning of “that’s enough.”
Seeing it was Zhou Jingze, the male students on the second floor all looked sheepish and didn’t dare whistle anymore. Only then did he go upstairs.
Ten minutes later, Zhou Jingze threw a gift box into Hu Qianxi’s arms and jerked his chin toward both of them: “Let’s go.”
On the fifth-floor balcony, Zhou Jingze had a cigarette between his lips, his jet-black eyes fixed on the figures of the two people below, especially focusing on the girl in the white dress.
Sheng Nanzhou flicked open his lighter case to light Zhou Jingze’s cigarette. Seeing his thoughtful expression, he teased: “Already taken with her?”
Zhou Jingze bit the cigarette and turned his head toward that cluster of orange flame. He took a drag, held the cigarette in his hand, and asked back: “Do you think I’d like someone like that?”
He never touched such good students.