Luo Qing’s homework was simply overwhelming. By the time the other four had finished, Luo Qing was still writing furiously. It reached the point where Luo Qing watched them play with tears in her eyes, huffing and puffing as she wrote. This person was truly a genius; no matter how noisy it was outside, it didn’t matter. Wen Qianshu was filled with admiration to the point of envy.
But they had only played one round of cards, and the time for their reserved room was almost up. Luo Qing looked down at her watch, threw down her pen, and wailed, “I’m not writing anymore, I’m not writing anymore! I’ll just pretend the problems are too hard and I can’t do them.”
She gathered her papers, capped her pen, and said excitedly, “I heard a new hot pot place opened, and it’s delicious. Want to go together?”
2333, on its deathbed, sat up with a start, its CPU spinning wildly. “Go! Host, hurry and take the female lead with you! What a great opportunity to cultivate your relationship!”
Wen Qianshu had just finished gathering her cards, her leg propped up as she leaned against the sofa. In the last round of the game, she was the murderer, yet she had calmly and collectedly tricked the remaining players into suspecting each other.
Wen Qianshu tilted her head and glanced at Shen Ting. The little cutie was biting her lip, a hesitant look on her face.
Wen Qianshu withdrew her gaze and smiled. “I won’t go. I have too little pocket money. I’m afraid I’d have to sell myself to afford one hot pot meal.”
She lifted her chin and asked Shen Ting, “Will you keep me company and eat at the cafeteria with me?”
Shen Ting breathed a sigh of relief and nodded quickly.
2333 wanted to cry but had no tears, feeling like dropping dead on the spot. However, Jiang Mingyue suddenly said, “Let’s all go. My treat.”
2333: “!”
2333 wished it could conjure a megaphone and roar in Wen Qianshu’s ear, “Go! You better go!”
It even had a burst of inspiration. “Otherwise, I’ll play a soccer match for you while you’re doing your homework!”
Wen Qianshu shivered and raised both hands in surrender. “Alright, alright, I’ll go, I’ll go.”
“Oho,” on the other side, Luo Qing shouldered her schoolbag, so heavy she could barely breathe. “Mingyue’s treating? Then let’s go. Mingyue got first in the grade this time. If we don’t eat her out of house and home, it’d be an insult to the tears we shed for the midterm exams.”
Fang Wenyuan: “Give me a break. You’re not even part of this ranking. What tears are you shedding? The ones drooling from your mouth?”
Luo Qing jumped up. “Fang Wenyuan!”
Fang Wenyuan darted away at once, hiding behind Wen Qianshu and Shen Ting. “Hey!”
The two of them were just like crosstalk comedians. Shen Ting found it amusing and was busy laughing, while 2333 squatted in Wen Qianshu’s mind, worrying about when Shen Ting would get familiar with the male lead.
Beside it, its unreliable host continued to be unreliable. Standing between the male and female leads, she ignored them, craning her neck to praise Jiang Mingyue, “First in the grade, that’s so amazing!”
Jiang Mingyue: “Just lucky.”
“Luck is a part of strength too,” Wen Qianshu said. “That’s first in the grade, you know.”
Although No. 1 High School only included Class 6 in the rankings for the final exams, which cut out a whole group of people ahead, getting first in the grade was still not easy. No. 1 High School was a key high school and had even produced a provincial top scorer. Both its teaching staff and student body were excellent, so every exam’s ranking was a battle of the gods.
Forget the top hundred in the grade; even the top ten in the class was never fixed, changing like a roll of the dice, with huge ups and downs. To emerge as first in the grade amidst all this—
“It’s like raising a Gu,” Luo Qing summarized precisely, then exclaimed in admiration, “Congratulations on becoming the new Gu King.”
The group packed their things, walked out of the building, and went to the roadside where Fang Wenyuan hailed a taxi. But Wen Qianshu suddenly realized, “Wait, my bike is still parked here.”
A taxi had already stopped on the road. Fang Wenyuan asked, “How about you guys take the car, and I’ll ride your bike over for you? It’s on my way to the bookstore to buy a workbook anyway.”
Wen Qianshu, happy to not have to ride her bike, was naturally delighted. “Sure.”
2333’s spirits lifted, feeling like everyone was a wingman today. “Quick, quick, convince Shen Ting to stay behind and go with Fang Wenyuan. This is such a great chance for them to be alone!”
But it turned out that wasn’t the case. Luo Qing shattered its beautiful dream with a single blow.
She tossed her schoolbag into the taxi and poked her head out. “Do you know the way to the hot pot place?”
Fang Wenyuan paused for a moment, then rubbed his chin. “I know the general location, but that specific place you mentioned… I’ll have to look for it when I get there?”
Jiang Mingyue: “I know the way.”
Fang Wenyuan: “Luo Qing knows the way too, so she can take the people in the car. You can stay behind and give me directions?”
2333: “…”
2333 wept.
However, Jiang Mingyue spoke again. “Okay, Wen Qianshu and I will go together.”
Fang Wenyuan: “Huh?”
Wen Qianshu, who was digging her bike key out of her schoolbag: “Huh?”
2333: “?”
Jiang Mingyue: “I happen to need to go to the bookstore too.”
Fang Wenyuan felt that something wasn’t quite right, but the driver honked the horn, directly interrupting his train of thought. “Are you guys going or not?”
“Hey students, I can’t park on the roadside for too long.”
Jiang Mingyue: “The book’s title.”
Fang Wenyuan quickly recited it, and Jiang Mingyue nodded. “Go on.”
So, Fang Wenyuan got into the car in a daze.
Wen Qianshu said to Shen Ting, “You go on ahead and wait for me there?”
Shen Ting nodded obediently.
After the car drove away, Wen Qianshu, with her bag on her back, led Jiang Mingyue to find her beat-up bicycle. The old bike was parked outside the shop. Perhaps because it was an eyesore, someone had moved it aside into a corner.
Wen Qianshu unlocked it and pushed it out. “My dear deskmate, you’ve made me go from taking a car to riding a bike.”
She even sighed, “I’m already tired from riding my bike this morning. My legs hurt.”
2333: “…”
You really have Schrödinger’s leg pain【1】.
Jiang Mingyue: “Then I’ll ride, and you can still sit.”
Wen Qianshu immediately said, “Okay.”
Wen Qianshu held the handlebars and made a “please” gesture. She had slightly upturned eyes, long and smiling. Her eyelashes lowered and then lifted as she looked at Jiang Mingyue. “Do you really know the way or are you pretending?”
Jiang Mingyue took the handlebars. “I really know it.”
Wen Qianshu nodded and pointed to her jacket pocket. “Then do you want to give me your phone so I can check the navigation for you?”
Jiang Mingyue paused, glanced at Wen Qianshu, then took her phone out of her pocket, unlocked it, and gave it to her. “Search for the bookstore first.”
2333: “…”
So you also have Schrödinger’s sense of direction.
Wen Qianshu laughed, sat on the back seat, and held up the phone to search for the bookstore. “Why’d you bring your phone today? Planning a rebellion?”
Jiang Mingyue started to pedal. “Class 6 allows phones. I’ll leave it with Luo Qing later.”
Jiang Mingyue rode the bike steadily, but occasionally there was no bike lane, so they had to ride on the brick path. This kind of path was never content to be just a stable road; on rainy days, it was a surprise box that could splash water with a single step, and on sunny days, it was an invisible wok that would jolt people at every turn. Wen Qianshu, sitting on the back of the bike, was jolted several times, so she reached out an arm and hugged Jiang Mingyue.
The bicycle stopped for a moment but quickly continued forward. Wen Qianshu didn’t notice, assuming someone had blocked the path ahead.
On the slightly warm afternoon, the wind lifted Jiang Mingyue’s hair. Brilliant, golden sunlight scattered down, feeling toasty. Wen Qianshu tilted her head slightly to avoid the strands of hair, leaned against Jiang Mingyue’s back, and recited along with the electronic voice, “Turn left in one hundred meters.”
“It’s the next intersection.”
They went to the bookstore to buy the workbook for Fang Wenyuan. At first, Wen Qianshu helped look for it, but later she found herself standing in front of a pile of pretty notebooks, unable to walk away.
2333 discovered that this person didn’t have an “eye for beauty” but rather an “eye for coveting beauty.” Her error correction notebook had to be good-looking, her pens had to be good-looking, and even after using an eraser, she would wipe it whenever she had a spare moment, insisting on rubbing the blackened parts clean again to make it—in Wen Qianshu’s words—a “spotless eraser.”
The artificial intelligence found it strange. Why did an eraser need to be spotless? Wouldn’t it just get dirty again the next time it was used? But Wen Qianshu’s poor reading comprehension did have its advantages—her ability in sophistry was unparalleled. “This isn’t a futile effort; it’s a Sisyphean【2】 tragedy.”
The artificial intelligence: “No, I don’t think so.”
You’re just purely bored.
Jiang Mingyue had already found the workbook and returned to see Wen Qianshu lingering in the stationery section. “Which one do you like?”
Wen Qianshu hesitated. “Umm—”
After much deliberation, she showed two notebooks to Jiang Mingyue. “Which one do you think looks better?”
Jiang Mingyue: “Take both.”
“Good idea,” Wen Qianshu smiled. “But I already have blank notebooks. Buying more would be a waste if I just let them sit around.”
Jiang Mingyue: “You’re only a first-year. You’ll need plenty of notebooks later on.”
Wen Qianshu: “Aiya, you don’t know, I’m so fickle. I like whatever looks good.”
Wen Qianshu weighed the notebooks in her hand, reluctant to put them back. “I’m sure I’ll see ones I like more later. The ones I buy now will definitely just gather dust.”
Jiang Mingyue: “Take them.”
“If you don’t like them later, I’ll use them.”
Wen Qianshu: “!”
Wen Qianshu immediately hugged both notebooks to her chest and followed Jiang Mingyue to the checkout, beaming with delight, her face practically blooming with a smile.
2333 felt that this repairer was way too easy to bribe and was already a lost cause.
Leaving the store, Wen Qianshu was in a great mood, even seeing her little beat-up bike as a celestial beauty. “You’ve been riding for so long, are you tired? Want me to take over in a bit?”
Jiang Mingyue: “No need, I’m fine.”
She handed the plastic bag to Wen Qianshu. “You can just carry this.”
Wen Qianshu: “Alrighty.”
She hooked the bag over her finger and reached for the phone again. “Navigate to the hot pot place?”
Jiang Mingyue: “Mm.”
Author’s Notes:
OOC Skit:
2333: “This is a great opportunity to cultivate your relationship.”
Jiang Mingyue: “Roger that.”
2333: “?”
Notes:
【1】An adaptation of “Schrödinger’s cat,” a thought experiment proposed by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. In this thought experiment, a cat is in a superposition of being both alive and dead due to the random nature of a preceding event. Here, 2333 is mocking Wen Qianshu, saying her leg both hurts and doesn’t hurt.
【2】Sisyphus is a figure from Greek mythology who was punished. His punishment was to be forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only for it to roll back down every time it neared the top, repeating this action for eternity. In Western contexts, the adjective “Sisyphean” describes a task that is both endless and futile. — Wikipedia
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