Chapter 280: Whispering

She said.

“Are you tired?”

She muttered, seemingly unable to tell if she was dreaming or awake.

Even her speech was disjointed; she didn’t know what she was saying.

It seemed Gou Yu hadn’t responded, so Zhu Niao frowned, burrowed deeper into his arms, her pitch-black hair slipping through his fingers and brushing across his forearm.

“Did you finish your food?”

Zhu Niao continued to mumble, but she was too sleepy.

Gou Yu usually did the cooking; of course, they often took three or four days to finish a single dish.

“I ate.”

Gou Yu breathed in the refreshing fragrance and felt the softness in his arms.

Then Zhu Niao quieted down again.

Her breathing steadied; she seemed to have fallen asleep.

He gently patted her back, as if coaxing her to sleep.

Just as his own consciousness began to blur, Little Bird muttered as if talking in her sleep.

“Did you put the leftovers in the fridge? If you don’t, they’ll go bad by tomorrow.”

This kind of behavior seemed common for Zhu Niao.

She tried hard to say something, but she was too sleepy.

Coming out in fragments like this made her seem excessively cute.

“I know.”

Zhu Niao went quiet again, as if she was really going to sleep.

Then, as if uncomfortable, she moved her head upward, shifting her entire body with it.

Now half of her upper body was pressing on the pillow.

She lowered her head and embraced Gou Yu’s head, pressing it against her chest.

Zhu Niao wasn’t as exaggerated as Liu Xie, but she couldn’t be as flat as Ye Qingchang either.

At least Gou Yu’s nose sank into her chest.

“Don’t be so tired, okay?”

The conversation circled back to the first question.

If it had been any other girl, she might have thrown a tantrum or been upset over Gou Yu’s obvious neglect, but Zhu Niao was different.

All she thought about was that her good buddy was suffering.

She lowered her head again and placed a kiss on Gou Yu’s forehead.

Open and generous, like sunshine—love that was unashamed.

Heart racing—that was Gou Yu, who was wide awake.

Falling into a deep sleep again—that was Zhu Niao, whose energy didn’t seem enough for the next action.

Gou Yu reached out and hugged Zhu Niao tighter.

“I want to marry you and take you home.”

The room’s silence was like the unspoken thing between them, veiled like a window paper.

“I also want to marry you.”

That mumbled line was Zhu Niao’s only reply.

Everything grew quiet, and even Gou Yu’s elated mood cooled down.

If only Zhu Niao hadn’t been groggy just now but had said those words while awake.

Then again, a conscious Zhu Niao could never have said that sentence.

Gou Yu didn’t worry about it and fell fast asleep.

When the sun rose, the two of them went to school together, sat down in the seats Ye Qingchang had saved for them, and prepared to sleep.

“You two sure have the leisure to catch up on sleep at a time like this.”

Ye Qingchang looked at Zhu Niao and Gou Yu, who were dozing at their desks.

Then she turned to look at Liu Xie, who was also in a bad state, busy playing a game.

“What’s the big deal? I never listened to lectures from the start. If I suddenly started paying attention now, wouldn’t that be out of character?”

Liu Xie directly retorted, and his reasoning even seemed oddly valid.

“I’m being true to myself now. I call it staying true to my original intent.”

This remark made Ye Qingchang, who sometimes daydreamed, seem less consistent.

“Besides, it’s not even the second-to-last class yet. Even if we’re going to mark key points, it’s not time for that…”

Zhu Niao, who hadn’t fully fallen asleep yet, pulled over Ye Qingchang’s textbook that had been used to save the seat and placed it under her head to sleep more comfortably.

As Zhu Niao’s words fell, the teacher at the podium began to speak.

“Dear students, due to force majeure, the class inspector is on leave. I’m sure you’re curious why I mentioned the class inspector’s leave…”

The teacher opened the textbook and leaned into the microphone.

“Because the school’s class inspector does not allow any teaching methods that directly reveal exam content. Now that the class inspector is on leave, we can proceed with what you all like best—final review.”

Zhu Niao, who had been deep in sleep, suddenly opened her eyes.

Beside her, Liu Xie, who was in the middle of a game, instantly cleared all background apps, leaving only the camera and notes.

“But due to school regulations, during the teaching process, teachers are not allowed to include ‘marking key points.’ Please forgive me for being helpless in this regard.”

Zhu Niao’s head drooped again.

Liu Xie clutched his phone, with an expression of frustration and disbelief.

“However, students, we can mark some non-key points.”

The teacher smirked mischievously.

“Now turn your textbooks to the table of contents!”

Amid the cheers of the entire class, Zhu Niao found a pencil in the large classroom drawer that might have been from last week or even the Shang Dynasty, and began marking key points in the textbook.

Meanwhile, Gou Yu simply took out his phone and photographed the slides the teacher was repeatedly showing for review.

This was definitely the most serious class they had ever taken.

After class, everyone felt as if they had been sweating profusely.

“Little Bird, how many times have you done the campus run?”

Ye Qingchang, who was packing up, suddenly looked up and asked Zhu Niao.

“Damn, there’s that thing too.”

Zhu Niao spun around and exchanged glances with Gou Yu.

“When’s the deadline?”

“If you run once a day, you’ll need to run every day from now on.”

Zhu Niao immediately grasped the severity of the situation.

She looked at Gou Yu.

“There are some things that just have to be done.”

“I understand. I’ll carry you when necessary.”

Gou Yu nodded.

“No, no, no.”

Zhu Niao shook her head.

“I don’t want to go at all. It’s winter, wearing thick clothes and sweating all over—that’s not good.”

Zhu Niao handed her phone out.

“From now on, you’re my proxy runner.”

“Wow, human nature is truly sinister.”

Gou Yu said, but he still took the phone that already had the relevant app open.

“I’ll wait for you at the nearest starting point. Since you’re going to run a lap anyway, remember to pause the tracking on my phone when you reach the spot, so it won’t be too obvious.”

Zhu Niao didn’t have her phone, so she could only wait at the starting point for Gou Yu to finish the run.

“Then I’ll join you.”

Ye Qingchang also stood up.

“What are you going for?”

“Xiao Yi’an is running for me. This is the last time. I might as well go buy two bottles of water?”

“Okay, let’s go together.”

Next to them, Liu Xie, who had been playing games, looked left and right, then turned to see Liu Anran waiting for him at the classroom door.