“Are you still afraid of me?”
Shen Huaixue’s voice was very close. Lin Jianqing could even feel the faint brush of her breath against his ear as she spoke.
On the big screen, their posture was magnified clearly: Shen Huaixue leaned slightly toward him, her hand still resting on his sleeve, with a faint smile on her face. It looked exactly like she was softly comforting a frightened date.
The crowd’s jeering hadn’t stopped. The director, probably thinking this scene had great entertainment value, didn’t cut away immediately. Instead, it seemed like he wanted to give Lin Jianqing an extended close-up.
Then the spotlight above the VIP seating swept over as well.
‘So embarrassing!’
How did it come to this? He was just brought here by Shen Huaixue to watch the superpower competition. And now he was wearing women’s clothing. This was basically a public execution.
And what if someone recognized him?
Lin Jianqing froze under the light, the tips of his ears burning hot enough to catch fire.
But he couldn’t move too much—the more he moved, the more conspicuous he became; the more conspicuous, the easier it was to be photographed; and the more photos, the greater the chance they’d circulate in some weird group chat.
Like the Linzhou University Anonymous Wall. Because he was next to Shen Huaixue, who was also a big name on campus. With her being this close to him now, it would definitely attract attention.
What he feared most was someone figuring out, “Hey, doesn’t she look a bit like Lin Jianqing?”
Even with makeup, if someone looked closely, acquaintances could still recognize him on purpose.
No… don’t think about it.
If he kept thinking, he’d die on the spot.
Shen Huaixue watched him—his ears about to turn red down to his neck—and the amusement in her eyes became even clearer.
“Still scared?”
She asked again, her tone carrying a hint of teasing, knowing full well what his answer would be.
Lin Jianqing originally wanted to be stubborn, but the person on the big screen was frozen in an extremely embarrassing posture, and beside him was Shen Huaixue—a woman who loved stirring up trouble, smiling at him while making a ‘peace’ sign at the camera.
His stubborn retort had barely reached his lips when it was drowned out by the rising waves of jeers around them.
He lowered his voice, almost grinding the words through his teeth: “Yes, yes, I’m scared, all right? Can you please stop standing so close?”
As soon as he said it, he was stunned himself.
“Oh~ Lin Jianqing, you give up that easily?”
Shen Huaixue leaned close to Lin Jianqing and said softly.
Lin Jianqing just wanted to bury himself right there, so he wouldn’t have to face this embarrassing world when he woke up tomorrow.
She had only wanted to see him blush, but Lin Jianqing’s abrupt surrender seemed to fully ignite her mischievous streak. The next second, she directly reached out, grabbed his arm, and pulled him toward her.
Lin Jianqing tried to dodge, but Shen Huaixue had already naturally linked her arm through his. Her other hand rose and waved lightly at the camera.
The move was graceful, her expression composed.
Lin Jianqing’s brain short-circuited completely.
No way, Shen Huaixue, are you crazy?! The whole audience is watching, and I already surrendered—what do you think you’re doing?!
He just wanted to bite that woman to death right there in front of him. Yes… bite her to death.
The audience’s jeers practically exploded, and some people even started whistling. Shen Huaixue turned her head, her voice so soft that only he could hear.
“Don’t tense up. The camera’s still on us. Act natural. You look too guilty—people might mistake this for a secret meeting.”
“You know the camera’s still rolling?” Lin Jianqing lowered his voice, his face steaming with heat. “Then why are you waving? And who’s having a secret meeting with you?”
“It’s already been filmed. We have to look generous about it.”
“I don’t want to be generous.”
“I can tell.” Shen Huaixue let out a laugh. “Right now, you look like you want to hide away. But the more you look like you’re trying to escape, the more people around you will focus on you. Better to act natural. Come on, give the camera a little presence.”
Lin Jianqing wanted to argue, but Shen Huaixue had a point. If he acted unnatural, it would only cause more trouble.
Was this world really so unkind to him?
When the camera finally moved away from them, Lin Jianqing immediately tried to pull his arm back.
But it didn’t budge—Shen Huaixue was still holding onto him.
Lin Jianqing turned to look at her, his eyes screaming, ‘You’ve had your fun, now stop.’
But Shen Huaixue acted as if she didn’t get it—or if she did, she didn’t care. In a very natural tone, she said, “If I let go right after the camera cuts away, it’ll look like we’re not on good terms.”
“We were never really on good terms anyway.”
“So do you want to stand up and explain that to everyone around us?”
Lin Jianqing fell silent. Shen Huaixue knew he couldn’t do that.
He’d rather that wind blade from earlier come back and hit him instead. At least a wind blade wouldn’t make him die of embarrassment on campus tomorrow.
Lin Jianqing closed his eyes and decided to be a wooden block for now.
‘I’m a wooden block… yes, a wooden block. Wooden blocks don’t feel shame.’
But what Lin Jianqing didn’t know was that on the regular audience side, a few of his dormmates had already begun questioning their sanity.
Lin Jianqing’s dormmate froze, a chip in his hand hovering in midair, his eyes still fixed on where the big screen had cut away. After a few seconds, he slowly spoke.
“Did you guys see that?”
The dormmate with glasses had a complicated expression. “Yeah.”
“That… that’s Shen Huaixue, right?”
“Yeah, from our school.”
“And that girl next to Shen Huaixue…”
“Very pretty.”
“No, that’s not what I mean.” One of them frowned, his tone uncertain. “Don’t you think she looks a bit like Lin Jianqing?”
Everyone fell silent at the same time. The silence was meaningful.
Another dormmate hesitated. “Now that you mention it… yeah, especially when Shen Huaixue took her arm earlier—the way she wanted to escape but couldn’t, that was really like him.”
“But that’s a girl, right?”
“Maybe it’s his relative? He did say he has a sister.”
“Then can his sister sit in the VIP seats with Shen Huaixue?”
“And it can’t be him, can it? Didn’t Lin Jianqing say he had something to do today?”
The group exchanged glances.
They said that, but that face from earlier really did look too much like him.
Especially the way he froze when embarrassed. The more they thought about it, the more off it felt. They couldn’t keep discussing it, though, and they all felt a little weird inside.
In the end, they had to pretend to keep watching the competition, but their focus was no longer as sharp.
Back in the VIP seating, Lin Jianqing had no idea his dormmates were already deep in a mental storm.
He just wanted the competition to end quickly so he could escape this place that was rapidly deteriorating his mental state.
Unfortunately, Shen Huaixue clearly wasn’t going to let that happen easily.
Since the big screen incident, the number of people nearby staring at them had noticeably increased.
Beautiful things always attract attention. This saying naturally applied to Lin Jianqing, especially since he was sitting next to Shen Huaixue.
To outsiders, the two of them looked like a perfect match, and it was also well-known in the inner circle that Shen Huaixue was into girls.