In the blink of an eye, a month had passed.
This month, Jiang Cheng’s life had been terrifyingly regular. Every day, apart from attending class, she either teased Su Mengyao or accompanied Ye Xiqiu on her live streams. Now that the transformation time limit had been relaxed, she could even manage two venues in one day—heading to the live streaming room in the afternoon as Dongxue, then transforming into White Snow and slipping into Su Mengyao’s bed at night.
Jiang Cheng felt she was practically a time management master.
As for Lin Shuangxue, though she had forced Jiang Cheng to move into her home, the room right next to her own bedroom, she was far too busy—too busy to even attend class, and Jiang Cheng rarely saw her at home.
Only occasionally, when work tired her out, she would drag Jiang Cheng into her room for a solid sleep, then bounce back to full health.
‘Speaking of which, am I some kind of magic replenishment tool…’
Ding-a-ling—
The class bell rang. Jiang Cheng quickly packed her things and sat waiting for the crowd in the classroom to disperse.
Whether it was an illusion or not, Jiang Cheng felt like more and more students were showing up in her classroom, with people from other classes constantly coming to audit.
According to Zhang Mei, who sat behind her, these auditing students even had a shift system among themselves—one would come today, another tomorrow, to avoid overcrowding and taking seats from the regular students.
Was Aidelisha’s class really that high quality to make so many students willingly cross over to freeload?
“Jiang… Jiang Cheng…”
After the crowd had thinned out a bit, a petite girl with brown hair approached Jiang Cheng. She was half a head shorter than Jiang Cheng, her oversized pink hoodie covering her entire hand with room to spare, the sleeves dangling and swaying gently with her movements.
Jiang Cheng looked at her.
No matter how you looked at it, wasn’t she deliberately dressed like this? Normal clothes were never this ill-fitting. The sleeves, the collar, the faintly visible collarbone—it was obviously a carefully designed “oversized” look, meant to fully amplify her petite and cute characteristics.
‘Tsk, so scheming.’
Jiang Cheng gave her professional critique in her mind.
“Jiang Cheng, can I… can I treat you to a meal?”
The brown-haired girl covered half her face with her sleeve, her eyes sneaking glances at Jiang Cheng’s expression from the corner.
They were very clear eyes, shifting restlessly like a startled fawn in the forest.
Jiang Cheng froze for a second.
Then she grabbed her backpack and dashed toward the door.
“Sorry, I’ve got something to do!”
Before her voice even faded, she had already disappeared around the corner of the hallway.
The brown-haired girl stood there dazed, her extended hand still hanging in the air.
‘Why…?’
She looked down at her outfit for the day. A pink oversized hoodie that fell to mid-thigh, a light pleated skirt below, revealing a sliver of thigh. Her hair was tied into a side ponytail, curled into fluffy waves with a styling iron. Her makeup was a carefully studied “no-makeup look”—seemingly bare-faced, but actually foundation, concealer, blush, and highlighter were all in place.
‘I was super cute today, wasn’t I…’
‘Why wouldn’t she even let me finish speaking before running away?’
The brown-haired girl trudged dejectedly toward the front row.
By the window in the front row sat a girl wearing glasses. She was bent over, a pen in hand, filling out something on a densely packed form. Even after class, she showed no sign of leaving; a notebook lay open beside her, covered in colorful marks.
“You failed?”
The glasses girl didn’t lift her head, her pen tip continuing to move across the paper.
“…Yeah.”
The brown-haired girl plopped down into the seat in front of her, turned around, and leaned her back against the backrest, chin resting on her hands.
“She ran off before I could even finish my sentence, like I was some kind of monster who’d eat her.”
She let out a sigh. The sleeve slipped from her wrist, revealing a pale, slender finger.
“I dressed up like this and everything. I spent so long picking out these clothes, spent so long on my makeup… and it still didn’t work.”
“You’re not alone.”
The glasses girl adjusted her frames and picked up her pen again.
“Don’t take it too hard.”
“That’s easy for you to say…” the brown-haired girl mumbled.
“But getting rejected in the moment still hurts. And I really do want to have a meal with Jiang Cheng. When she smiles in the classroom, she looks so pretty, and her voice is so nice…”
“Do you still want to keep trying?”
“Yes!”
The brown-haired girl shot upright, and the sleeve traced an arc through the air.
“Of course I do! Next time I’ll dress cuter and make her unable to refuse!”
The glasses girl glanced at her.
Then she pulled a form from beneath her notebook and scanned it.
“This month is already full.”
“…Huh?”
“If you want to invite Jiang Cheng to a meal, it’ll have to be next month.”
The glasses girl turned the form over—the back had a whole other page of names.
“And next month already has people in line. The earliest available slot right now is… the Wednesday after next.”
The brown-haired girl’s mouth formed an O.
“H-how are there this many people?!”
She reached for the form, but the glasses girl slipped it back under her notebook first.
“Because of what happened a few days ago.”
“A few days ago?”
“Jiang Cheng went to the KTV with a few classmates.”
The glasses girl pushed her frames up.
“Someone recorded it and posted it on the campus forum. Then that recording got shared to the Cat Station, and now the views are…”
She glanced at her phone.
“Three hundred thousand.”
The brown-haired girl gasped.
“Three hundred thousand?! Just a recording of her singing?”
“Yeah. The comment section is all saying her voice is too good and wanting to know who the singer is. Someone on the forum identified her as Jiang Cheng from this school, and then…”
The glasses girl paused.
“Even more people lined up.”
“But,” the glasses girl changed the subject, “Jiang Cheng’s voice really has changed a lot.”
“Changed a lot?”
“Yeah. Compared to last month, her voice now is more…”
She stopped, seeming to search for the right word.
“There’s a kind of reassuring strength. Can’t quite describe it, but once you hear it, you want to keep listening.”
“Yes, yes, yes! That’s exactly it! Even when she talks casually and sometimes has strange little verbal tics, it still feels so gentle…”
As she spoke, her voice trailed off again.
“That’s why I want to have a meal with her…”
The glasses girl didn’t respond. She picked up her pen again.
The brown-haired girl leaned on the backrest, swinging her sleeves, then suddenly lifted her head again.
“Is it really completely impossible? Isn’t there some… special channel? Like if someone cancels last minute, or if Jiang Cheng happens to be in a good mood and wants to invite one more person…”
“It’s not completely impossible.”
The glasses girl’s pen stopped.
The brown-haired girl’s eyes lit up.
“Really?! What can I do?”
“Jiang Cheng recently applied for a slot at the psychological counseling room.”
The glasses girl’s tone remained flat, as if reading aloud from a manual.
The brown-haired girl froze for a moment, then shot upright from the backrest, almost whipping the glasses girl in the face with her sleeve.
“The psychological counseling room? So Jiang Cheng isn’t in a good state right now and really needs someone to comfort her? Then I can—”
She clenched her fists, eyes determined.
“Take advantage when she’s vulnerable!”
“That’s not what it is.”
“…Huh?”
“Jiang Cheng wants to open a psychological counseling room. She’d be the therapist, providing psychological counseling to others.”
The brown-haired girl blinked.
“Jiang Cheng… knows how to do that too?”
She thought about it and realized it wasn’t that surprising. After all, Jiang Cheng’s voice was so nice, and she spoke gently. Doing psychological counseling seemed reasonable enough.
“When can I go? I want to sign up!”
The glasses girl lowered her head, pulled out a new form from the stack, and scanned it.
“Oh, found it.”
“The counseling room opens this afternoon. But—”
“But what?”
The glasses girl looked up.
“Based on the current number of people in line, it’ll take about half a month before it’s your turn.”
“?”
The brown-haired girl’s sleeve slipped off her hand, revealing her fully spread fingers.
“Half a month?! A counseling room that hasn’t even opened yet also has a half-month wait?!”
“Because a lot of people signed up. After all, being able to have Jiang Cheng listen to you one-on-one is a bigger temptation than having a meal together.”
The brown-haired girl opened her mouth to say something, but finally just buried her face in her sleeves in defeat.
“Ugh… why is it so hard just to talk to Jiang Cheng…”
The glasses girl glanced at her and said nothing.
She lowered her head and added one more line to her notebook.
That line was her own name—second place on the counseling room appointment list, right after this afternoon’s slot.
Hmm, the class president had to be first.