The morning classes ended, and there were no classes in the afternoon.
So after lunch, the small tea gathering of the group came to an end.
Ye Qingchang hurried back to the dormitory to read. Recently, she seemed to have discovered a new book that especially captivated her.
Zhu Niao really could not understand what was so appealing about the sour, musty smell those books carried. She remembered that she had asked Ye Qingchang more than once why she did not read e-books instead, especially since she was so obsessed with physical books.
Ye Qingchang said that if a book with real depth was not read in physical form, she would not be able to feel its weight and substance.
So Zhu Niao immediately told Ye Qingchang to just buy a heavier phone and read e-books on that.
Well, she still did not understand this so-called sentimentality that only dead literature nerds could comprehend. To her, it was like a fart—useless to consume, but a pity to throw away.
So she deliberately saved her farts for Gou Yuwen. After farting, she would even frown and say, “Did something burn?”
And then Gou Yu would inhale it like a storm.
Gou Yu was also busy. Today, he still had food deliveries to make.
But the noodle residue from when he choked earlier while slurping noodles seemed to still be acting up. After taking two steps, Gou Yu would cough three times, yet nothing ever came up.
Even so, the guy still smugly got on his bike, saluted Zhu Niao, and left the noodle shop.
He had originally asked Zhu Niao if she wanted to go with him, saying that if delivering food happened to be on the way, he could drop her off at her workplace.
Zhu Niao refused. The last time she went with Gou Yu to deliver food, he kept saying it was “on the way,” but they ended up delivering until late at night without ever being on the way. They even got chased by stray dogs, screaming like ghosts the whole time.
After that, Xu Nian and Yang Shuli left.
These two seemed to have gotten closer for some reason. When Zhu Niao asked about it, Yang Shuli even covered her mouth and said, “Xu Nian told me not to tell you guys.”
Coincidentally, Zhu Niao was not the type to dig to the bottom of everything, so she let Yang Shuli go and watched her leave with Xu Nian.
She heard that those two were planning to try a revolving hotpot place they had never eaten at before.
Finally, Zhu Niao stood up as well.
She even lowered her head to glance at her feet beneath the hem of her skirt, looking at the edge of the small white socks around her ankles.
She was very glad that Gou Yu was only interested in legs wearing stockings, not just anyone wearing white socks.
Otherwise, she would not know where most of the white in her sock drawer should go.
The stiff canvas shoes made a sound when they stepped on the floor. Zhu Niao always felt that this sound gave her footsteps a three-dimensional quality, making her movements feel oppressive and authoritative.
So when she wore canvas shoes, she liked to land hard on her heels, almost as if she were knocking on the ground with them, forcibly awakening her own steps.
Once, twice—then she would put on an indifferent expression, disguising herself as a mature adult.
Very good. This was what Zhu Niao usually looked like.
But be careful. With just a tiny bit of external stimulation—like a kitten or puppy on the roadside—Zhu Niao might immediately drop her “acting like an adult” mode.
If it was a kitten, she would call it Hakimi.
If it was a puppy, she would call it Gou Yu.
This was the great blessing bestowed upon Gou Yu by the mighty Lady Zhu Niao.
Humming a little tune, forgetting to act like an adult the moment she thought of Gou Yu, Zhu Niao skipped toward her workplace.
That small shop with the glass door had only a single lock hanging on it, stopping Zhu Niao outside.
“Huh?”
Zhu Niao even pressed herself against the glass door and looked inside twice, yet she could not see the shop manager sleeping behind the counter.
But today, no one had told her that she did not need to come to work.
Could it be that the manager slept too deeply at home and forgot to come to work?
After thinking about it, Zhu Niao decided to proactively make a call.
“Hello, Sister Zhu, what do you need me for?” came the shop manager’s voice from the other end.
“Ah, Manager.” Zhu Niao fiddled with the lock at the shop entrance. “Where are you right now?”
“I’m outside. I just finished attending a banquet.” The manager suddenly seemed to remember something. “Ah, I think I forgot to tell you—you don’t need to work today.”
“Ah, then what should I do now…?” Zhu Niao looked troubled.
Taking a taxi home from here would cost at least a dozen yuan.
“Can you wait for me a bit?” The manager on the phone seemed to know exactly what Zhu Niao was thinking. She called out to the driver in front to turn around. “I’ll be there soon. And I can share a really juicy piece of gossip from the banquet with you.”
“Oh, okay.”
Zhu Niao waited three seconds, and after confirming there was no follow-up, she hung up.
She was a little interested in the gossip the manager mentioned—definitely not because she was reluctant to spend the twenty or thirty yuan for a taxi ride home.
She really was a bit curious about gossip among rich people.
But the last time she heard gossip about the rich seemed to have been during history class, when she was dozing off and the teacher started telling amusing anecdotes about medieval nobles to wake the students up.
At the time, she did not think they were amusing anecdotes. She thought they were moments when humanity truly shone.
The manager really was punctual. Zhu Niao was told to wait a bit, and it truly was only a short while. Little Bird had not even had time to open a game.
“Sorry, sorry, I’m late.”
The red-brown-haired girl, wearing a formal dress and high heels, walked up to Zhu Niao, then took out her keys and unlocked the glass door.
“Did you wait long?”
“Not really.” Zhu Niao looked the manager up and down beneath the dress. She even seemed to be wearing light makeup.
And she was not even an adult yet.
Those high heels suddenly reminded Zhu Niao of the pair Liu Xie had worn at the school opening banquet, which had twisted Liu Xie’s ankle so badly it swelled up.
The crisp sound of high heels on the floor sounded far more mature than her own “acting-like-an-adult” footsteps.
Zhu Niao sighed inwardly at the fact that she actually felt inferior when standing next to an underage shop manager.
“Sister Zhu, you absolutely won’t guess what I ran into today.”
After setting her bag down and taking a seat, the manager immediately started sharing the big gossip.
Zhu Niao leaned her head in, ready to listen seriously.
“Do you remember that time you were harassed by some guy at a banquet?”
Little Bird pinched her chin and thought for a moment. “That did happen.”
“And then that guy went and provoked a fallen rich young master today, and got beaten into a drowned dog on the spot. He even took a real punch. I even kicked him once.”
The manager took out her phone and pulled up a video for Zhu Niao to see.
At first glance, Zhu Niao saw Liu Anran, and Liu Xie being protected by him. That head of blond hair was far too eye-catching.
“There’s something even better later.” The manager skipped through the useless parts of the video. “Look here.”
In the video, Liu Anran knelt on one knee and said that earth-shaking, ghost-weeping line to Liu Xie.
Zhu Niao was utterly amazed.