“Dormitory Building No.2… Ah, finally found it…”
Lin Jiaxin dragged her suitcase along. Even with a map, she still ended up entering the wrong dormitory twice before finally locating her own.
Her sense of direction wasn’t great; flat maps like this were completely useless to her…
As for why she didn’t use navigation… Because this broken navigation system only supported locating the school’s academic buildings…
—
Meanwhile, inside Dormitory 413.
“Hey, by the way, my brother’s movie sequel is coming out in a while. You guys wanna go see it together?”
“Huh? You mean that Cai Kunhe’s 749 Bureau?”
“Ahhhhh! I love him! That line ‘I’m a monster’ was so emotional, I cried my eyes out! Never thought you’d be a fan too, sis!”
“Ahhhhhhh! Really!!! Ahhhhh!!!”
—
“Creak—”
The dorm door was suddenly pushed open, and three intense battle cries came to an abrupt halt.
Lin Jiaxin, suitcase in hand, looked at the three pairs of eyes in the room that all snapped toward her in unison.
A little awkwardly, she scratched her head, set down the suitcase, and forced a dry laugh: “Ha ha, hey there. Sorry I’m late.”
But Lin Jiaxin’s proactive friendliness didn’t get a response.
The three roommates glanced at her, then immediately looked away.
They had been sitting together chatting happily just moments before, but now they scattered apart.
Without saying a single word, as if they didn’t want to be overheard…
‘What’s the deal? Did they get tired from talking?’
Lin Jiaxin rubbed her chin, not thinking much of it at first.
She scanned the room and saw that the only bed left was by the door, so she casually placed her suitcase on the desk.
The layout was bed-on-top, desk-below, so she didn’t have to worry about disturbing anyone else.
After all, that empty bed and desk belonged to her.
But Lin Jiaxin also noticed that her desk and bed were older compared to the others?
And it seemed like the desk had some relatively fresh scratches on it?
Maybe this was the consequence of arriving late.
You only get what’s left, huh. Oh well, nothing to be done.
Faced with these minor issues, Lin Jiaxin still didn’t let it bother her much.
After all, in her previous life, she had been to university too.
Back then, the dorms were eight-person rooms with bunk beds—never mind the beds.
The desks in the room were just a few beat-up school desks shoved together to form a big common table.
Eight people could barely fit their computers on it.
Having this kind of setup now was practically heaven!
—
“Hey…”
While Lin Jiaxin was still making her bed, she suddenly saw the other three roommates stand up simultaneously and head out without a word.
Wanting to build good relations with her roommates, she thought for a moment and then called out from her bed:
“Hey, are you guys heading out for dinner?”
Unexpectedly, they didn’t even glance at her this time.
They simply walked out the door and left, leaving Lin Jiaxin stunned on her bed.
‘Are these three hard of hearing? I said that pretty loudly. Did they not hear me? Are they sick or injured?’
She couldn’t help but wonder to herself, and even started to worry a little about her roommates’ health.
After all, this world was fraught with dangers; getting injured was practically a daily occurrence for people here.
But Lin Jiaxin didn’t dwell on it for too long.
She still hadn’t finished making her bed!
She nimbly climbed down to grab a pillowcase from her suitcase.
But just as she turned around, she heard faint voices coming from the hallway.
“That person sure is something, asking if we were going to dinner…”
“Yeah… having to… with her… such a poser… that bedsheet and cover are so tacky… poor… the smell’s practically leaking out…”
“Look at how rustic she is… giving her our old desk was already doing her a favor…”
‘Oh… They’re… talking about me?’
‘Are they worried about whether I’ve eaten? Whether I have money?’
Since they were too far away, and the next-door dorm was also making noise with all the moving in, the sound was quite garbled.
So Lin Jiaxin couldn’t actually hear them clearly.
But she did catch a few sentences.
Combining that with their earlier behavior, Lin Jiaxin suddenly slapped her forehead in realization!
No wonder they hadn’t answered her earlier!
They must have seen how old her bedsheet was and worried she didn’t have enough money for food, afraid to ask face-to-face and hurt her pride…
Lin Jiaxin felt a wave of warmth in her heart.
Who knew her roommates in this life could be so nice!
At this moment, when she looked down at that old, scratch-covered desk again,
Her deeply moved heart immediately conjured up a grand scenario:
Those three roommates saw that her blanket was old, assumed her family was poor, and figured she’d be too embarrassed to ask for help.
So they secretly left the best desk for her, but afraid she’d feel it was charity, they deliberately scratched it a few times to make it look old.
And they didn’t respond to her earlier because they were afraid of letting something slip and hurting her pride!
‘How thoughtful! What angelic roommates!’
Recalling the seven slobs from her previous life… playing games on speaker at midnight, shouting “mommy” nonstop into the mic during some two-dimensional shooter game, and even leaving socks unwashed for half a month until they could stand up on their own…
There really was no comparison!
Lin Jiaxin, who never second-guessed herself, conveniently ignored a very serious problem.
Before she arrived, her luggage was still in a temporary dorm.
How could the others have seen the color of her bedsheet?
Besides… to tell the truth, Lin Jiaxin’s family wasn’t short on money.
In fact, they could even be considered comfortably well-off!
In this life, her biological father was an electrician.
A very ordinary job, but his work was top-notch.
In the entire county, people had to fight for a chance to book an appointment with him!
As for her biological mother, she was even more impressive. In her younger days, she was the most famous embroideress in the whole county, her needlework nothing short of miraculous!
And later, after Lin Jiaxin was born, to make it easier to take care of the child, she quit her job and opened a tailor shop downstairs in the neighborhood, taking custom orders.
Within half a year, all the other tailor shops on the street had closed down one by one, leaving only a few street stalls that did cheap repairs like patching holes or hemming pants to survive.
In terms of needlework skills, if Lin Jiaxin’s mother ranked second locally, almost no one dared to claim first!
Lin Jiaxin’s bedsheet was also handmade by her mother.
The base was a clean, simple moon-white cotton fabric, embroidered with clusters of entwined patterns, the stitches so fine you could barely see the thread ends.
In ancient times, this kind of pattern was fit for a proper young lady from a well-bred family. It was called “Entwined Lotus,” symbolizing “endless life.”
Those who didn’t know its value naturally wouldn’t think much of it. Instead, they’d instinctively compare it to modern machine-made sheets and find it old-fashioned.
But Lin Jiaxin absolutely loved it—so much so that she brought it to college.
Not only were the patterns and motifs meaningful, but every stitch and thread was filled with her mother’s love.
Covering herself with it felt like being a little girl cradled in her mother’s arms, falling asleep peacefully, calming the mind.
Only someone lacking love would be emotionally sensitive and mentally exhausted by others’ actions.
But Lin Jiaxin, whether in her past life or this one, was an only child.
She was a pampered jewel, raised in a honeypot.
So she never realized that her three roommates were actually bullying and isolating her…
But even if she had realized, it wouldn’t matter.
Lin Jiaxin had never gotten along well with girls like them, anyway.
Having all the memories of her past life, the things she liked since childhood were different from other girls.
Besides, in this life, with QQ and WeChat gone, she no longer had that instinctive feeling or interest in female bodies like she did in her past life.
And honestly, she’d already seen enough of herself since she was a kid…
Therefore, Lin Jiaxin didn’t hope for or crave any deep bonds with them.
Saying hello and trying to earn goodwill was just to avoid unnecessary conflicts in the future—otherwise, dealing with them then would be a real hassle.
Unless absolutely necessary, she really didn’t want to isolate herself from everyone!