Perhaps it was because of the nonsensical things a certain guy had said, but the girl had spent the night trapped in a long, restless dream.
When the alarm finally jolted her awake, she was in a complete daze. Even after getting out of bed, her ears felt like they were ringing, and lingering fragments of those “indescribable” dream sequences remained in her mind. The sticky sensation from a certain place made her heart race with a mixture of panic and shame.
Stinky blondie… so disgusting…
She cursed the “stinky blondie” repeatedly in her mind, trying to mask her guilt. Yet, she knew all too well that she wouldn’t dare say such things to Qin Nanfeng’s face. If she did, he’d likely resort to even harsher, more “vile” methods of retaliation.
In the dormitory, the other two girls were still drifting between sleep and reality. Lin Xinyuan climbed down from her bunk cautiously, muffling her footsteps as much as possible. She quietly grabbed some clean clothes from her wardrobe and slipped out onto the balcony. Once inside the bathroom, she hurriedly bolted the door and began to change.
A short while later, her expression twitchy and her face a brilliant shade of crimson, she emerged. She peeked back into the room to see that the other two were still sleeping soundly, which allowed her to finally breathe a sigh of relief.
She decided she needed to wash her undergarments immediately.
This was the dorm! With a “corrupt” girl like Li Tang around… she had to… she must destroy the evidence of such embarrassing things.
When Li Tang finally rolled out of bed, yawning and rubbing her bleary eyes, the first thing she saw through the balcony door was the girl busy doing laundry. She was about to call out a greeting when she suddenly processed the scene. Her spirit jolted, and the words died in her throat.
Early morning… and she’s abnormally washing clothes? Suspicious… There’s definitely something going on… Hehe…
She crept forward, her eyes narrowing into slits.
Perhaps because the tap was still running, the sound of the flowing water combined with Li Tang’s light movements meant that the girl didn’t realize someone had come out. Seeing Lin Xinyuan’s flustered appearance and the small blue-and-white garment in the basin, Li Tang’s eyes sparkled with mischief. She didn’t expose her immediately, instead choosing to crouch down silently right behind her, waiting for the “perfect moment.”
When Liu Qingyan woke up and found the other two missing, she guessed they were on the balcony. However, when she stepped out, she was greeted by a bizarre sight. She was about to walk over when Li Tang spotted her and frantically gestured for her to close the door and crouch down.
Confused but compliant, Liu Qingyan shut the door without a sound and crept over to join the stakeout. The two girls crouched there silently behind the girl, while Lin Xinyuan remained completely oblivious.
Having heard no movement, Lin Xinyuan continued scrubbing her delicates, occasionally glancing back at the balcony door. But in her state of guilt and panic, she failed to notice that the door wasn’t fully shut, and she certainly never imagined her two roommates would be crouched on the floor, giggling and gesturing at her like two little gremlins.
Finally, Lin Xinyuan finished washing. Being somewhat of a perfectionist, she even rinsed them a second time. Just as she turned around to grab a hanger, two figures suddenly bolted upright in front of her.
“WAH!” “AH!”
The girl let out a startled cry. She nearly dropped the freshly washed underwear; fortunately, her reflexes kicked in, saving them from hitting the floor—otherwise, the washing would have been for nothing.
But in the next heartbeat, Lin Xinyuan realized the situation. Her neck felt stiff as she slowly raised her head. Looking at the two grinning faces before her, she felt her heart stop for several seconds.
“You guys…”
Before she could even begin to panic, the two exchanged a look and stared at her with teasing expressions. Li Tang, in particular, let out a villainous laugh: “Jie jie jie…”
“A-Yuan~”
Hearing that call, Lin Xinyuan’s scalp went numb, and her brain began to buzz. Had they been crouching behind her the whole time? Did they… see everything?
The thought made her feel cold all over. She instinctively took a step back, but with the sink behind her, she had nowhere to run. She could only wear a look of terrified helplessness.
Li Tang, fueled by the girl’s obvious guilt, grew even more excited. “Could it be… that you’re ‘longing for spring’? Getting up so early to change your undies! Oho~”
Liu Qingyan remained silent, but the expression on her beautiful face was identical to Li Tang’s.
In this predicament, Lin Xinyuan felt her heart sink. She hung her head, not daring to look them in the eye. “I’m not! I… I just… the clothes were dirty so I wanted to wash them…”
Even though she’d been caught red-handed, she struggled to explain herself, putting on a front of righteousness while her eyes darted everywhere but at them. “You’re the one ‘longing for spring’! Don’t talk nonsense…”
Longing for spring…
At the mention of that phrase, the girl couldn’t help but recall the dream from the night before. Although she had been completely unconscious by the end of it, the lingering feeling of being dominated and the accompanying shyness made her skin burn.
“Ehhh~?”
Li Tang let out a skeptical sound. Obviously, she didn’t believe a word of it. The girl was terrible at lying, especially regarding such private and shameful matters. One look at her crimson, fair little face told the whole story.
However, Li Tang didn’t push her too far. After all, if A-Yuan got backed into a corner, she wasn’t a pushover either. For instance, after their last scuffle on the basketball court, Li Tang had “retaliated” against the girl, only for Lin Xinyuan to turn around and tattle to Qin Nanfeng. This resulted in her Brother Yan getting ruthlessly blocked on the court multiple times…
Ah… seriously, give me back my cute, silly A-Yuan! She’s been corrupted by a certain someone!
Even though Li Tang and Liu Qingyan stopped teasing her directly, their occasional playful glances left Lin Xinyuan both ashamed and annoyed. Not knowing how to fight back, she could only curl up like a little quail.
There were no classes that morning, and since her meetings with Qin Nanfeng usually happened at night, Lin Xinyuan didn’t plan on going out except for meals. After finishing her morning routine and returning from breakfast with the other two, she retreated to her desk to work on her web novel.
Because of the earlier embarrassment, she felt a bit stiff under the girls’ occasional gazes, but she soon lost herself in her writing. To Li Tang and the others, this was a common sight.
When they first found out the girl was a web novel writer, they had been incredibly curious, as it was their first time meeting one in real life. They had even looked up her novels and found the contrast between her “male-frequency” (targeted at male readers) stories and her soft personality to be massive—though not entirely incomprehensible. After all, the girl had lived as a boy for many years. While her personality was gentle and she had become even more “soft and sweet” after returning to being a girl, her mindset still leaned somewhat masculine.
Upon learning about her income, they were even more impressed. They envied the fact that she had a stable, decent income by her second year of university, but they weren’t jealous. In their hearts, they saw her as a true friend worth being sincere with, rather than the “superficial” acquaintances they’d dealt with in the past. Moreover, Li Tang and Liu Qingyan both came from well-off families and had received good educations. As students of the prestigious Tianbei University, they were confident in their own futures and weren’t prone to such petty jealousy.
It took Lin Xinyuan nearly the entire morning to finish her daily word count and save up some extra chapters. Just as she was about to relax and take a break, her phone suddenly rang…