Chapter 126: But Then Again

“So, can we say that we’re comrades in hardship now?” In the back row of the classroom, Zhu Niao looked at her roommate beside her and said.

“Wasn’t it supposed to be that way from the start?” Liu Xie’s tone was tinged with resentment. “After I sent out that SOS, only Xiaoniao responded.”

Ye Qingchang nearby was displeased and retorted, “Who could understand your message? You even added a game team-up invite afterward. Anyone seeing that would think you wanted to be rescued in the game.”

Liu Xie immediately raised her palm in front of Ye Qingchang. “Stop talking. You didn’t even log into the game. At least the dorm leader got in.”

Zhu Niao and Ye Qingchang were both taken aback by this.

Ye Qingchang then turned to look at Yang Shuli, who was dozing off beside them, nodding at the desk like a woodpecker.

Zhu Niao asked again, “The dorm leader even played games with you, so why didn’t you think of asking her for help?”

“No, her rank was too low to queue with me, so I kicked her out later,” Liu Xie yawned and added.

Zhu Niao was speechless.

“Then why do you call me for help, but never call the others?” That was Zhu Niao’s last question.

After all, if Liu Xie had called to her like she did with the others, Zhu Niao probably wouldn’t have cared.

“Because when I was asking them for help, the second round of the game hadn’t started yet. Once the game started, it’s inconvenient to type,” Liu Xie gave a thumbs-up. “Sorry, I can’t betray my teammates.”

Zhu Niao’s expression shifted from confusion to deep admiration. “Only someone like you deserves my points.”

“You flatter me,” Liu Xie replied.

Ye Qingchang fiddled with the small, sleepy dorm leader beside her before joining the discussion. “You all are in relatively good shape, right? At least you had someone around. When I got into trouble, I was completely alone.”

She even spoke those words with pain.

Heaven only knows how she managed to run to the nearby convenience store alone to buy necessities, then sneak into the restroom to change before calling a taxi back to campus.

The taxi driver, seeing her half-dead state, even asked if she wanted to go to the hospital.

But she forced herself back to the dormitory. When she finally opened the door, she saw the other three dorm mates playing games together, while she looked half-dead.

That made her feel even more unsettled.

Like life was inherently cruel.

No, if she hadn’t pushed her luck, at least she and Xiao Yi’an could have had some kind of close friendship—rather than her being viewed as a stumbling block in his pursuit of love. At least then she wouldn’t have been alone the entire time.

What she needed now was for Xiao Yi’an to change his impression of her—from a stumbling block to a stepping stone.

So, her current situation was, in a way, self-inflicted.

Yang Shuli, who had been idling nearby for a while, finally woke up. She instinctively grabbed the nearby book, <**’s Postpartum Care>, stood up, and pretended to pay attention in class, then asked Ye Qingchang, “What did the teacher say?”

“She’s still talking about the 40-60 split assessment for her Water Studies class. She’s spent two lessons just on that,” Ye Qingchang said as she pushed the book Yang Shuli was holding back down. “She didn’t even bring her own book. Why are you panicking?”

Liu Xie chimed in sarcastically, “If nothing goes wrong, once she runs out of assignments, she’ll start sharing her brilliant and pretty relaxed life experiences.”

Zhu Niao just glanced up, “I hate rich people.”

“So why do we even have to attend this kind of class? I feel like self-studying something useful back in the dorm would be better than listening to her ramble,” Ye Qingchang folded her arms and frowned.

A large part of her attention was already devoted to her electronic pet, which reduced her actual study time.

Of course, as the best student in the dorm, compared to the other three on the brink of failing, she was still the top one.

She just simply didn’t want to waste time here.

“Eh, not only is the class useless, but you can’t skip it either,” Liu Xie raised a finger. “Even if she doesn’t teach anything, she does fail people.”

“Don’t say any more, bro. I’m already scared,” Ye Qingchang said.

Then she looked at Yang Shuli again and rubbed the dorm leader’s small head, which felt quite nice.

“Having a guardian nearby like this isn’t so bad.”

From Yang Shuli’s words, they all knew that whenever their dorm leader got into trouble outside, Xu Nian easily took care of it.

Xu Nian not only carried sanitary pads but even personally helped Yang Shuli change.

The other three dorm mates had no complaints about this—they were even a bit grateful that Xu Nian didn’t mind the trouble and looked after their dorm leader.

Just as Zhu Niao was about to join the discussion, she caught a glimpse of Gou Yu, who was frowning worriedly.

“What’s wrong? Did the website go offline?” Zhu Niao approached, concern on her face.

If it was just a website outage, Gou Yu hadn’t yet turned pale—already showing a decent amount of resilience.

“Not exactly,” Gou Yu said as she pushed her phone across the table to Zhu Niao.

It was a chat screen from the sports committee group.

The notifications and the flood of discussion all centered on one thing.

“Basketball tournament?” Zhu Niao was stunned for a moment. “Isn’t that supposed to be for freshmen? What does it have to do with us?”

“Who knows? And it’s organized by class. Honestly, how could our class even gather enough basketball players?” Gou Yu’s face grew even more bitter.

“So what now?” Zhu Niao leaned in. “Don’t tell me we have to scramble for players?”

“Just write down some random names and forfeit,” Gou Yu gave a thumbs-up and laughed, sealing the matter.

“But if you show off on the court, you get some sort of priority in choosing partners, right?”

Zhu Niao rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “If you could stand out on the basketball court, wouldn’t that make you popular with the girls?”

Gou Yu just waved her hand indifferently.

“If they like it, then they like it. What can I do? The captain has many flights to fly—can’t worry about the Red Skull fan club.”

“I also think playing basketball is pretty cool,” Zhu Niao suddenly blurted out.

“But then again…”