Song Qiuyu’s pupils were shaking.
Earlier, it had only been a guess, but in this moment, a certain incredibly shameful fact felt like a blazing fire, scorching her entire being.
“And here I went through the trouble of bringing this to you both. It seems it won’t be needed after all.” Jiang Li wore a look of disdain.
“Uh… um…” Song Qiuyu was left completely at a loss.
“My parents, your parents, everyone is playing cards, watching the Spring Festival Gala, and boasting. They don’t have time to worry about you two for now.” Jiang Li stepped forward anyway and handed her the box.
“I saw this in your house before, so I remembered it. I shouldn’t have gotten the wrong one, right?”
“No… that’s not it, that… I mean…” Song Qiuyu’s brain felt deprived of oxygen, and her words became incoherent.
She looked down at the box. After a few seconds of panic, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and exhaled very slowly.
“Yes… that’s right. This is it.” Her eyes brimmed with tears of shame as she carefully reached out with both hands to take the box. She was terrified that if she dropped it, it would slow down her escape.
“I need to go back to my room and sleep!”
Jiang Li gave a soft hum in response and watched her figure flee rapidly, let out two playful grunts of satisfaction. She didn’t know what Autumn Rain Bro had just done, but seeing how the other person’s backside was practically up in the air with pride earlier, and considering she had just come out of her brother’s room, Jiang Li guessed she had done the kind of thing a bad woman would do.
‘She’s always taking advantage of how innocent my brother is to bully him!’
Autumn Rain Bro really was a bad woman.
Thinking of this, she remembered something Xia Qi had once said—bad women should be smashed to smithereens with a club.
Though the original quote had been about bad men.
‘So, Xia Qi knew Autumn Rain Bro was Shen Xi a long time ago.’ Jiang Li grew thoughtful
Returning to the room, Song Qiuyu closed the door.
She kept her eyes down as she adjusted her breathing, then looked up at the clean and tidy room before her.
Unlike her own home, Jiang Xiao’s family house was very large, so there were many empty rooms.
They didn’t have to squeeze into one room to sleep or even sleep on the floor anymore.
Recalling the way Jiang Xiao’s family members had been subtly boasting during New Year’s Eve dinner, her legs felt a bit weak.
If it hadn’t been for that fire years ago, Jiang Xiao would have been the only rich guy in their dormitory.
If Jiang Xiao had become a rich guy…
‘Would I still have met him, or developed this kind of relationship? I’ve heard rich people play around a lot!’
The idea that having thirty-two girls accompanying someone in one night was just a matter of a single sentence crossed her mind. She sat on the edge of the bed and sighed. It wasn’t that she couldn’t understand the desire to have someone on both arms, but such desires were better left in the world of fantasy.
She had enough confidence in Jiang Xiao. Even if he really became a rich guy, he would probably—at most—become an ATM for bad women!
At that thought, she glanced at the area that needed tending to, then at the box in her hand, and bit her lip. She kind of wanted to take a shower.
“Mmh…”
Pink bubbles popped up in her head one after another. She took a breath, tentatively preparing to start. At that moment, her phone chimed with two new QQ messages.
‘Could it be? Did Jiang Xiao send them?’
Song Qiuyu pulled her phone from her pocket and opened it.
It wasn’t him. The messages were from Xia Qi and Sang Tian.
[Xia Qi]: Happy New Year, Song Qiuyu! You should be at Jiang Xiao’s house right now, right? How is it? Is it big?
It was indeed very big. Song Qiuyu scratched the back of her neck, feeling inexplicably uneasy for no reason. It felt as if ants were crawling all over her.
Since becoming a girl, she had more and more things, and her life was truly getting better! In the past, she never had friends to chat with about things like this. It was a very warm feeling.
She replied to Xia Qi and then looked at Sang Tian’s message.
[Sang Tian]: Happy New Year, Classmate Song. I heard from Jiang Yu that you and Jiang Xiao seemed to have run into some trouble at the Jiang family home. Everything should be fine now, right?
‘Jiang Yu?’
Song Qiuyu rubbed her smooth chin. She felt she didn’t need to ask for specifics to know what the situation was. After all, Sang Tian had suspected for a long time that the relationship between her and Jiang Xiao was suspicious.
Now, it truly was suspicious. Except, in Sang Tian’s eyes, they were two boys, when in reality, they were a normal man and woman.
At this thought, the expression on Song Qiuyu’s face became complicated. Aside from Jiang Xiao, Xie Zhuran, and Lin An, Sang Tian was the first good friend she had made in college! She was a wonderful girl! And now, she was sincerely worrying about her and Jiang Xiao.
If Sang Tian knew she was actually a girl and had been keeping it from them all this time, how would she react? Disappointment? Well wishes? Or would she be angry?
She didn’t dare to find out right now.
Taking a deep breath, Song Qiuyu calmly replied to Sang Tian, holding onto the thought that everything would truly get better once summer vacation arrived. Just as she finished replying to both of them, her phone received several more New Year’s greetings.
Among these were messages from Lin An and Xie Zhuran, though most came from the Drama Club. The moments from the past half a year in the Drama Club flashed through her mind with the clarity of a movie playing in reverse. She replied to them one by one, the smile on her face growing brighter as she enjoyed the process.
A thought similar to the one before surfaced in her mind again. Setting Xie Zhuran aside, once summer vacation came and everyone learned the truth about her and Jiang Xiao, what kind of reactions would they have? What about the netizens who had met them through short videos and had always liked them?
After finishing her replies, she gripped her phone tightly, feeling a mix of anticipation, fear, and nervousness.
Another chime. This time, it was another message from Xia Qi.
[Xia Qi]: So you’re in a separate room right now? That’s such a shame. I heard that for young couples who spend a sweet New Year’s Eve together, every day of the new year will be even sweeter!
“?”
Song Qiuyu’s expression turned strange. ‘Why do I feel like I’m being hinted at to do a certain thing?’
Chime.
Xia Qi sent another one.
[Xia Qi]: I’m with Lin An right now. I’ll stop talking for now; I need to do something exciting with Lin An!
“2?”
Xia Qi had likely gone off to be busy, but question marks continued to pop up in Song Qiuyu’s head. ‘Something exciting? She probably means grouping up to play a few rounds of an intense game, right?’
‘It’s definitely a competitive game, right?’
Even as she tried to convince herself of that, she couldn’t stop her mind from wandering toward a different set of guesses. Song Qiuyu was a bit exasperated with herself. She slumped backward, her black hair spreading across the pillow, her eyes full of envy.
Just then, the phone vibrated a few more times. A new QQ message had arrived. Song Qiuyu lazily held up her phone and opened it.
[Jiang Xiao]: Qia’er, Happy New Year. I’ve already started to miss you.