The afternoon quickly arrived, and it was almost time for Jiang Xiao’s daily message.
Song Qiuyu was still buried in her exercises, already sweating all over.
“Hoo.”
“Finally solved it!”
Song Qiuyu sighed in relief, her face full of excitement and accomplishment, and lazily stretched, loosening up her muscles.
She glanced at the time on her phone, thinking Jiang Xiao should be coming by soon to retrieve his phone for a bit, but when she turned her head, Jiang Xiao was nowhere to be seen.
Where did Jiang Xiao go?
She immediately asked Xie Zhuran and Lin An sitting across from her.
“Lao Jiang probably went to get some hot water, right?”
Xie Zhuran was also working on problems, thought for a moment, and looked up to answer. “Didn’t he say goodbye to you when he left, Qiuyu? He even took your cup and said he’d help fill it with hot water too.”
Lin An, also busy with his work, pushed up his glasses and said, “[He definitely said so before leaving.]”
Song Qiuyu was stunned.
Huh?
Was she too focused on her problems and completely missed it?
Ah…
But if she thought back carefully.
Jiang Xiao did seem to say something to her, but at that time she was in the middle of working through a particularly tricky calculus problem—the very one she had pestered Jiang Xiao to explain three times already.
Jiang Xiao had always been good at predicting exam questions even in junior high; he could get nine out of ten right, so this time he also picked a few questions for them.
This was one of those questions.
“Lao Song, do you need to find Lao Jiang for something urgent? Why not just contact him on his phone?”
Xie Zhuran said, also finding it strange, “But it’s weird, isn’t it? How is he taking this long just to get hot water?”
Song Qiuyu silently glanced at Jiang Xiao’s phone in her hand, pursed her lips, and sighed.
Jiang Xiao probably didn’t have a spare phone.
Without hesitation, she stood up and went looking for him. Jiang Xiao was never the type to dawdle.
If he hadn’t come back after so long, something must have held him up.
Hopefully nothing had happened to Jiang Xiao.
But just as she finally found Jiang Xiao, she saw that he had actually been surrounded by a pair of Twin Sisters!
“Handsome, do you have any plans for Christmas? Want to hang out with us?”
The younger sister batted her eyes at him, every smile as foxy and charming as could be.
“I already have plans.”
Jiang Xiao spoke coldly, “My Roommates are still waiting for me. Could you please let me through?”
“Oh—could it be that you have a girlfriend and you’ve got a date with her?”
The older sister of the twins blinked, her voice soft and sweet, enough to make a man’s bones melt just from hearing it.
Song Qiuyu’s brows furrowed tightly—annoyed, very annoyed, extremely annoyed.
This is a headache.
She suddenly suspected that with Jiang Xiao going out for his morning runs every day, he probably got harassed by girls a lot, maybe even stalked!
They were apart for just a little while, and these Twin Sisters already latched onto him.
Asking Jiang Xiao to hang out for Christmas—could they be planning for a “passionate triple queue on Christmas Eve”?
Song Qiuyu’s gaze turned resolute.
She felt it was her duty to rescue Jiang Xiao. His virginity couldn’t just be wasted on these gaudy women!
It had to be a good woman she approved of.
Granted, Jiang Xiao’s heart was already set on two people, so these two probably wouldn’t get in, but if by chance they squeezed in and led Jiang Xiao astray…
She, who was living with Jiang Xiao, would be in real danger!
If Jiang Xiao were still the introverted, withdrawn type, he wouldn’t even talk to them, let alone be polite.
Now that he was speaking to them nicely, it was all because she’d worked too hard—how annoying!
In just a few breaths, Song Qiuyu had already started reflecting on herself, found the root of the problem, and came up with countless reasons to step in and save Jiang Xiao.
“Jiang Xiao, so here you are!” Song Qiuyu strode forward.
“A girl’s voice?”
The Twin Sisters turned at the sound, and upon seeing Song Qiuyu, their eyes lit up.
The older sister teased, “Handsome, is this your girlfriend?”
Jiang Xiao ignored her.
He turned his head and looked at Song Qiuyu striding toward him, her cheeks sweet and lovely, which made him daze a little.
Song Qiuyu was clearly about to clarify their relationship, but just then, the younger sister suddenly shook her head.
“No way! Sis, that’s Song Qiuyu, I know her. She’s just this handsome guy’s friend, Roommate, and close buddy. They’re perfectly clean—not boyfriend and girlfriend.”
Song Qiuyu closed her mouth.
Jiang Xiao saw her reaction, and his expression shifted slightly.
“So she’s not your girlfriend, huh!”
The older sister of the twins smiled, squinting as she appraised Song Qiuyu, and then, with no sense of boundaries at all, enthusiastically hugged one of her arms.
“On closer look, this handsome one’s really attractive too! Pretty and handsome, with a bit of cuteness!”
As she spoke, Song Qiuyu’s hand was deliberately bumped a few times by the other’s chest.
If it were before, this kind of closeness might have made her blush and her heart race, but now, she only twitched her lips slightly.
Sorry, the hardware’s gone, sis can’t give you the happiness you want.
And stop thinking about Jiang Xiao, will you? Just look at your own tacky behavior, and you think you deserve to ask Jiang Xiao out? You’re not even worth a single strand of Sang Tian’s hair.
But then again, they only verbally teased Jiang Xiao, but with her, they started getting handsy. Did she just look that easy to bully?
“Even if I’m handsome, it’s got nothing to do with you. Besides, we’re not close, so don’t be so shameless. Don’t you know to have a bit more self-respect?”
She quickly pulled her arm free, took a few steps forward, grabbed Jiang Xiao, and hurriedly dragged him away.
The Twin Sisters stared at them blankly, feeling like Song Qiuyu’s words were more like a mom’s scolding!
How did a fine little pretty boy get tainted with mom vibes?
“Song Qiuyu, you seem pretty popular.” Jiang Xiao happily looked at the soft, white hand holding onto his, a smile curving at his lips.
“Of course, I’ve always been very popular!” Song Qiuyu enunciated every word.
Jiang Xiao’s smile froze slightly, and he stared at her seriously. “Just how popular are you?”
“Well, I’m way more popular than you. From grannies in their eighties to little girls of eight, there are loads of people who like me!”
Song Qiuyu was full of confidence.
After saying that, she let go of Jiang Xiao’s hand, turned around, and took her water cup from him.
For some reason, after hearing how popular she was, Jiang Xiao’s smile grew even brighter.
Song Qiuyu was speechless.
Does this guy know how handsome he looks when he smiles? Is that why he’s always smiling at her?
So annoying.
“That’s great.”
Jiang Xiao clutched his now lonely water cup.
“Song Qiuyu, since you’re so popular, it shows I have great taste.”
At these words, Song Qiuyu’s eyes widened, and she froze for a moment, then hurriedly looked around.
Did anyone hear that?
Seeing this, Jiang Xiao squeezed his hand, took a deep breath, stepped forward half a step, and secretly pinched her soft cheek.
A girl’s cheek was so smooth and tender, even more so than a freshly peeled egg in the morning—truly addictive.
He was curious about her reaction and wanted to look a few more times, but Jiang Xiao knew exactly what he should do next.
So, after pinching her, he quickly walked toward the Reading Room where his two Roommates were, opened the door—
Then paused in the doorway, purposely turned to look at the girl still standing frozen in place, and softly said,
“So soft.”
Song Qiuyu stood there dumbfounded, her mind buzzing, and suddenly remembered a line of poetry: “As if we’ve met before, the swallow returns.”
The bonus update has arrived immediately!