Shen Xingruo had no idea what was going on. She dreamed of Lu Xingyan last night. In her dream, he kept insisting on defending his virginity, speaking passionately and indignantly, almost as if he were going to march in the streets with a “Virginity Triumphs” banner on his forehead.
Shen Xingruo was so brainwashed that when she woke up and saw him, the words “virgin” naturally slipped out of her mouth. The two looked at each other quietly. The air was silent too. The weather was nice today, with sunlight filtering through the trees outside and casting beams of light through the floor-to-ceiling windows. The beams fell on his face, creating a play of light and shadow, making the fine hair transparent. On top of his head, it was a warm golden glow.
Suddenly, Shen Xingruo reached out and ruffled his hair. Her strap had fallen, and with this movement, it was lifted back up, revealing a snowy white half-arm.
Lu Xingyan was dazzled and his heart couldn’t help but beat faster. When Shen Xingruo finished touching his head and pulled back her hand, he stood up straight as if waking from a dream, coughed twice with his hand over his mouth, and looked around, saying incoherently, “It’s already noon, I’ve been calling you for half a day, get up and eat.”
“I know.” Shen Xingruo pretended to get up, still not fully awake, her voice a bit sleepy. Lu Xingyan didn’t dare to look at her, but he didn’t leave either. He found something to say, “Why don’t you ever close the door when you sleep? Don’t you have some basic awareness as a girl? And why do you sleep in so little clothing? It’s dangerous outside like this.”
Shen Xingruo sat up in bed, leaning against the headboard, and yawned. Suddenly, she seemed to have discovered something interesting, tilting her head and asking, “Lu Xingyan, are you shy?”
“You’re talking nonsense.” Lu Xingyan glanced at her and quickly turned away.
“You are shy.”
“What are you talking about? Haven’t you seen girls wear camisoles before?”
“Virgins are innocent.” Shen Xingruo answered her question, then lifted the blanket, preparing to get out of bed.
“Shen Xingruo, I warn you not to talk nonsense. Your brain is not clear when you just wake up, so I won’t argue with you. You’re not even a newbie pretending to be a veteran.” Lu Xingyan was a bit excited when it came to sensitive topics.
Shen Xingruo felt that he was behaving like a stubborn little chicken. If things didn’t go his way, he might peck at her. Then she remembered the scene in her dream where Lu Xingyan held up the virgin flag to brainwash her.
She compromised, putting on her shoes and saying casually, “Well, since we all lack experience, let’s not mock or hurt each other.”
Shen Xingruo suppressed her smile and educated him, “This is what we call a monetary transaction.”
“…”
“This is called fraud.”
The two walked towards the school from Xinghe Bay, chatting idly along the way. Shen Xingruo even treated him to a glass of strawberry milk. The strawberry milk cost eight yuan, and her red tea latte was twelve, adding up to exactly twenty.
As Lu Xingyan walked back to the dormitory alone, sipping on his milk tea, he thought to himself that while Shen Xingruo might be a bit short on money and sharp-tongued, she was still quite generous. She often treated him to milk tea, even though he always ended up with the basic eight-yuan variety.
When he returned to the dormitory, Li Chengfan and the others were there.
Seeing him with a pink cup of milk tea, Li Chengfan glanced up from his game and teased, “Brother Yan, you’ve become quite girly lately, drinking milk tea every few days, and such a girly flavor too.”
Lu Xingyan pretended to be indifferent. “Just ran into Shen Xingruo. She insisted I drink it.”
“You’re still pretending. Insisted? I can’t believe Shen Xingruo would force you to drink milk tea, even if you killed me!” Hebei pushed his glasses up and weakly added, “I think so too.”
Zhao Langming saw through his façade. “Stop bullshitting, can’t you hear he’s showing off?”
He stood up and snatched Lu Xingyan’s milk tea. “Let me try it too, see if I can get some of Shen Xingruo’s aura… Damn it!”
Before he could finish his sentence, he got kicked by Lu Xingyan. “Stop being ridiculous, eight yuan a cup, go buy your own.”
The atmosphere in Lu Xingyan’s dormitory was cheerful, but Shen Xingruo’s dormitory seemed unusually quiet.
Shi Qin hadn’t come over from home yet. When Shen Xingruo returned to her dormitory, only Zhai Jiajing and Li Ting were there.
She greeted Zhai Jiajing but ignored Li Ting.
Li Ting also ignored her, but he didn’t do anything strange either.
Shen Xingruo checked her belongings in the dormitory, everything was normal.
In the evening, Shen Xingruo wanted to hang out her towels, but there was no space left on the clothesline. Feeling Li Ting’s clothes, she found they were already dry. She turned around and asked, “Li Ting, your clothes are dry, can you take them down?”
Shen Xingruo had initially expected Li Ting to put on a sour face or pretend not to hear and refuse to take down his clothes. However, to her surprise, he simply put down his phone and silently collected his clothes.
The following week was much the same. They both ignored each other, but neither of them made things difficult for the other. Shen Xingruo found this situation agreeable and hoped it would continue.
Shi Qin was more easygoing. Since Shen Xingruo and Li Ting’s relationship had always been average, she thought their current behavior was normal.
Zhai Jiajing was more observant. In just a couple of days, she noticed that something was off.
On Wednesday afternoon, Lu Xingyan and his classmates had a basketball game with students from another class. Lu Xingyan managed to coax Shen Xingruo into watching the game with a week’s worth of milk tea, saying it would be more prestigious for them to cheer for the top-ranked grade. Shen Xingruo also took Shi Qin and Ruan Wen along.
Zhai Jiajing needed to do laundry, so she didn’t join them.
With both Shen Xingruo and Shi Qin out of the dormitory, Zhai Jiajing was fetching water to do laundry when she noticed Li Ting getting ready for bed. She casually asked, “Li Ting, what’s going on between you and Xingruo lately? It seems like you haven’t been talking much.”
Li Ting was fine not mentioning Shen Xingruo, but as soon as she was brought up, he became annoyed. He covered himself with the blanket and sneered, “Who wants to talk to her anyway!”
Zhai Jiajing paused in her actions of putting detergent into the bucket upon hearing this. “Did you guys fight?”
“No.” Li Ting didn’t want to elaborate, feeling embarrassed even just thinking about it.
But after stewing over it for nearly a week, she felt the urge to spill it out. Tossing and turning in bed, she suddenly sat up and recounted the incident at the parents’ meeting to Zhai Jiajing.
Of course, she downplayed the situation, only mentioning casually discussing things with Meng Feng and Shen Xingruo making a big deal out of it, even getting Lu Xingyan involved.
Zhai Jiajing listened thoughtfully. “Hmm… that’s a bit… ” She paused, then comforted Li Ting, “We’re all in the same dormitory, don’t dwell on it. Xingruo probably just misunderstood.”
“I wouldn’t dare to pick a fight with her. Plus, Lu Xingyan is backing her up! Besides, didn’t you see how her mom acted at the parents’ meeting? She’s not from an ordinary family. I, as a commoner, can’t afford to mess with her!”
“Don’t say that. Xingruo wouldn’t just do something to you without reason or evidence.”
Zhai Jiajing remembered something else. “Speaking of which, that Yang Fang from Class 2… The east gate is a blind spot, there’s not even any surveillance footage. If she had stubbornly denied it, Xingruo wouldn’t have had any evidence to make her drop out.”
“But fortunately, she didn’t have much courage and admitted it right away. Otherwise, Xingruo would have suffered, and the school might have even punished her instead.”
Wrapped in her blanket, Li Ting listened to Zhai Jiajing’s words and found some truth in them. She thought if it were her, she would have just denied ever meeting anyone, and then Shen Xingruo wouldn’t have had anything on her. If it were her…
Li Ting’s heart skipped a beat, and she pulled the blanket up a little higher, not saying anything more.