“Rourou, wake up.”
“…Why are you here?”
Bai Yurou reluctantly opened her eyes and found Ning Mu standing by her bed.
“Look at the time.”
Ning Mu’s face was helpless.
“If you don’t get up, you’ll be late for the 8 AM class, so I came to call you.”
Half believing her, Bai Yurou felt around for the phone beside her.
Black screen.
She turned to look at the nightstand.
The cord hung off the edge of the table, the plug not in the socket at all.
Last night, after getting back to the dorm from the banquet, she had showered and lain down to sleep, completely failing to notice that her phone hadn’t charged, so the alarm she had set for this morning never went off.
Forget it. Ye Hui has a power bank. I’ll just borrow it from her in a bit.
Anyway the tablet still has battery. I won’t need my phone for a while during class.
“You go out first. I’m changing.”
Bai Yurou’s hair was a bit messy from sleep, and her voice was soft too, like a little kitten that had only just woken up.
“Alright.”
Ning Mu looked at her like this and smiled, then added another line when she reached the door.
“Remember to take your medicine. Xiaotong and Ye Hui are both outside.”
Although there was already no need to hide in front of Ning Mu, Bai Yurou still didn’t want the other two roommates to know.
Ning Mu found it a bit strange and really couldn’t see what there was to hide.
But if Rourou wanted to hide it, then she would let her.
In truth Bai Yurou herself didn’t know what meaning there still was in hiding it from her roommates after her illness had been exposed to Ning Mu by Dad.
Maybe it was just a bit of stubbornness in her heart.
Bai Yurou quickly finished changing and washing up and came into the living room.
Her roommates were already waiting for her.
“Ye Hui, can I borrow your power bank? My phone didn’t charge last night.”
“Okay.” Ye Hui took a power bank out of her bag and passed it over.
Only when the green charging icon popped up on the screen did Bai Yurou feel easy enough to stuff the phone and power bank together into her own bag.
“Thanks.”
Ning Mu handed her two bags from the dining table, one holding soy milk, the other holding a steamed bun.
“Yurou, this is your breakfast. We’re going to be late. Eat it when you get to the classroom later.”
“Thanks, Mumu.”
At this moment Bai Yurou had already forgotten about yesterday afternoon’s decision to unilaterally give Ning Mu the silent treatment, and thanked Ning Mu in her usual somewhat spoiled tone.
She couldn’t eat youtiao, her appetite was small, and one steamed bun was enough for breakfast.
At 7:58, all of 401 arrived at the classroom without real incident.
They found a long table and had Bai Yurou sit on the innermost side so she could secretly eat breakfast once class started.
Ning Mu sat beside her, then Cai Xiaotong, and Ye Hui sat on the outermost side.
Cai Xiaotong and Ye Hui seemed already used to the two of them’s daily way of getting along and had no particular reaction to Bai Yurou’s tone.
They had just sat down when the time jumped to eight o’clock exactly.
Check-in complete.
Head teacher Li Fang was already standing on the podium and starting class.
Bai Yurou hurriedly opened the bag and took a bite of the steamed bun.
It was still warm.
“Eat quick.” Ning Mu lowered her voice and quietly urged Bai Yurou.
After a while, Bai Yurou was looking down and chewing in small bites when the back of her hand was suddenly pinched.
“What are you doing!” She almost cried out.
Tears were about to be pinched out of her, and she turned to look at Ning Mu with a face full of grievance.
Then she saw Head Teacher Li Fang walking this way, about to reach their row any second.
Bai Yurou understood at once, hurriedly hid the steamed bun and soy milk in the drawer, then sat up straight and put on a look of listening attentively.
Li Fang walked up, swept Bai Yurou a glance, and smiled at her.
That smile made Bai Yurou feel a bit chilled and called back unpleasant high school memories.
Fortunately Li Fang didn’t stop and walked straight to the table behind them, which let Bai Yurou let out a breath.
There were four boys at the back table.
Two were catching up on sleep, two were secretly playing games, with not the slightest attention to what was happening outside.
“Classmates, what are you playing? Want me to join in?”
Li Fang punished all four of those boys.
Only after she walked back to the podium and continued the lecture did Bai Yurou carefully say,
“That was close just now. Thanks, Mumu.”
“Actually the head teacher already saw you just now, but she probably chose to look the other way,” Ning Mu said only then.
Compared with Bai Yurou eating in class, it was probably those four boys sleeping and playing games in the back who were more blatant.
On top of that Bai Yurou was a girl, so Li Fang had let her off.
For the rest of the half period Bai Yurou didn’t dare touch that bag of steamed bun again and sat honestly until class ended.
The first short period of the 8 AM class was over as well.
Bai Yurou checked her phone, which had charged to 80%, powered it on, then pulled the power bank off and returned it to Ye Hui.
She added a line in passing.
“Thanks.”
“No need.” Ye Hui took the power bank and put it back in her bag.
Bai Yurou felt the steamed bun and soy milk she had put in the drawer again.
Both were cold.
Uneatable.
Although it was a bit wasteful, there was nothing she could do.
Bai Yurou could only pick up the bags, walk out of the classroom, and throw them into the trash can.
When she came back, she saw Cai Xiaotong asking Ye Hui whether she could borrow her notes to copy.
Although Cai Xiaotong hadn’t slept during class just now, and hadn’t played games either, she had zoned out looking at the blackboard and let her thoughts wander off onto drawing.
That drawing had hit a bottleneck, and as she thought and thought, class ended.
The head teacher’s class also wasn’t the kind of slacker class you could skip listening to with no problem.
If she didn’t make it up she would probably fail at finals, so now she could only beg Ye Hui to lend her notes.
Ye Hui’s face was icy, and she seemed a bit put on the spot.
She had just wanted to speak when Cai Xiaotong cut in.
“Ye Hui, if you don’t want to, then forget it. I’ll find someone else to borrow from later.”
As she said this, she quietly lowered her head, seeming to feel she might have crossed a line, her tone carrying a trace of inferiority as well.
“I… didn’t say I was unwilling.” Ye Hui still maintained that iceberg face, but agreed to her request.
“Thanks.” Hearing Ye Hui agree, Cai Xiaotong was a bit pleasantly surprised, but her tone still wasn’t as energetic as usual.
Bai Yurou more or less noticed that although Cai Xiaotong often stood in the dominant position socially and looked carefree, she actually cared a lot about other people’s feelings, even paying so much attention that she became a bit insecure.
Last time at the comic convention, a single questioning joke from her had made Cai Xiaotong explain worriedly.
It was the same with Ye Hui this time.
Because she saw Ye Hui’s somewhat icy face, she was afraid of being refused and thereby affecting her relationship with Ye Hui.
Put plainly, she wasn’t confident enough in the friendship between them, wasn’t sure where the social boundary was, and often worried that crossing a line would affect her interpersonal relationships.
Bai Yurou didn’t know what to do about this kind of thing with Cai Xiaotong either.
She figured that after getting along a bit longer she would trust the people in the same dorm more, and know that friendship wasn’t so easily shattered by a sentence or two.
While thinking that, Bai Yurou sat back in her own seat and opened her mouth in passing. “Perfect timing, Ye Hui. I didn’t listen much in that class just now either. Can I borrow your notes to look at?”
“Same here.” Ning Mu poked her head out too. “Ye Hui, your notes are more complete than mine. Lend them to me to fill in.”
Although she had listened seriously in that class just now, she hadn’t focused the whole way through like Ye Hui and always had places she missed.
“Okay. I’ll just send them to the dorm group.” As Ye Hui spoke, she sent the notes from that class just now into the WeChat group named “Moon U 401.”