“Did you pack everything?” Early in the morning, Zhu Niao peeked her head out and looked toward Gou Yu.
Gou Yu was momentarily stunned by the question. “Is there anything we need to bring?”
“I don’t know, I just always see people carry big bags when they go on trips or outings,” Zhu Niao said, shaking her head.
“Okay, let me rephrase: we’re broke as hell. What do we even have to bring? That half-eaten pack of Weilong spicy strips I shoved in the fridge last night?”
Then he paused, looking thoughtful. “Actually, we should bring those.”
Zhu Niao waved a hand. “No need. I got hungry around midnight, so I got up and finished them.”
And just like that, the two of them headed out the door light and carefree—armed with nothing but their phones and amusement park tickets.
These tickets worked sort of like parent-child tickets—those require the holders to be a parent and child, and these couple’s tickets required the users to be… well, a couple.
After thinking it over, Zhu Niao realized that among all the guys she knew, Gou Yu was really the only option to use it with.
“You know,” Gou Yu said, holding his own ticket high and letting it catch the morning sun, “we can pretty much ride anything in the whole park. This ticket’s kind of a great deal.”
“I checked last night. This set’s actually not cheap,” Zhu Niao said with a cheerful grin, like a kitten that had just found something shiny outside.
Her lightly tousled hair shimmered in the warm sunlight, making her look extra soft and fluffy—tiny and round, like a little bundle.
“By the way, what made you suddenly want to go to an amusement park with me?” Gou Yu asked, still holding up the blue ticket to the light.
“I just felt like it, okay?” Zhu Niao puffed herself up, trying to sound confident, though her eyes avoided his completely.
Gou Yu, ever straightforward, stopped walking and turned to stare at her.
He even tugged on the collar of her hoodie to stop her from walking ahead.
The oversized white hoodie she wore covered her skirt’s hem, leaving her bare legs fully exposed to the air.
Gou Yu noticed that Zhu Niao no longer resisted wearing girly clothes like she used to. In fact, he’d even passed by her room a few times and caught glimpses of her holding up clothes in front of the mirror, checking herself out.
“Is that so?” Gou Yu folded his arms, eyes locked onto Zhu Niao’s evasive gaze.
“Actually, the tickets were a gift from the manager, and it’d be wasteful not to use them…” she mumbled awkwardly. “Anyway, the whole story is just… kinda complicated.”
Gou Yu leaned in closer, casting a looming shadow from above that weighed down on the little “bird.”
“Tell me the truth.”
He still felt uneasy about his sister, who always had her own ideas and took it upon herself to handle things for him, afraid she might have done something unnecessary.
“It’s actually because the manager lady seems to be suspicious of our relationship, so she wanted me to go out with her brother,” Zhu Niao admitted her honest guess.
Gou Yu suddenly relaxed and laughed.
Zhu Niao, having told the truth, began to mutter, “I don’t even have him as a friend online, and there’s no way I’d sell myself out just for this job, right? One mustn’t be swayed by wealth or hardship.”
“Old Dog, are you even listening?” Zhu Niao tiptoed, trying to rest her hand on Gou Yu’s shoulder.
“Why do you care so much? You didn’t do anything wrong. If you had given in, that’s when I’d look down on you,” Gou Yu said, reaching out to ruffle her hair.
Of course, if Zhu Niao had really caved and asked the manager for that guy’s contact info…
Then Gou Yu would have lost it.
“I was bored last night and studied the map. There’s this one road with not a single traffic cop,” Zhu Niao said from the back seat, pushing herself up with her hands on Gou Yu’s shoulders.
“Lead the way,” Gou Yu said, turning to strap the helmet onto her head.
“The general takes this narrow path.”
Suddenly, the acceleration kicked in, and Zhu Niao, unsteady, leaned backward—
But Gou Yu, riding one-handed, grabbed her waist with one hand and pressed her firmly back onto the seat. “Don’t move around. Sit still.”
“Okay…”
Zhu Niao looked down at that wide, strong left hand gripping her waist.
“Um… how long are you planning to keep holding me?” Her voice had softened, not quite as assertive, since she had made the first move.
That soft, gentle tone finally matched her delicate and pitiful appearance.
Gou Yu blinked, finally realizing his hand was still on her waist—and reflexively gave it a light squeeze.
It felt too good. For a moment, he even forgot how inappropriate the gesture was.
Then Zhu Niao, helmet and all, rammed her head into Gou Yu’s back in protest.
That sudden jolt made him lose control momentarily, and he quickly let go of her waist to steady the bike.
But the instability made Zhu Niao grab Gou Yu’s waist in return, her whole body pressed against his back.
Which somehow… made their posture even more ambiguous.
Zhu Niao’s arms, wrapped around Gou Yu’s waist, froze slightly. Even though the bike was stable again, she only dared to slowly retract her hands and put a bit of distance between them.
The cold wind stung Zhu Niao’s delicate face a little, but when she leaned close against Gou Yu’s back, the wind couldn’t reach her.
The wind roaring past her ears was noisy, but nestled against his back like this, all she could hear was the steady thump-thump of his heartbeat—deep and calm.
Just like the past two times—when she got into trouble, Gou Yu was always the one standing in front of her. And what he left her with was always this view of his back.
“Bro—Bro, stop leaning on me,” just as Zhu Niao was starting to feel flustered for no reason, Gou Yu began to complain. “The helmet on your head is hard, okay? If you wanna use my shirt to wipe your mouth, at least take the helmet off first.”
Zhu Niao let out an annoyed laugh. And just like that, her face started hurting from the wind again, and the rushing air around her ears was once more annoyingly loud.
She raised her fist, wanting to give Gou Yu a couple of punches, but remembered he was still driving, so she forcibly stopped herself.
“Hmph!”
And just like that, she stayed in passive-mode on the back seat until they reached the amusement park entrance.
It turned out the Friday morning crowd wasn’t as large as she’d imagined. Maybe it was because the weekend hadn’t officially begun yet.
“Hey, wait a sec. Let Old Two send over the check-in code first—gotta mark attendance,” Zhu Niao said as both she and Gou Yu came to a stop. “It’s just a filler class. The professor doesn’t actually check who’s there.”
*****
Meanwhile, Liu Xie, who had just sent over the check-in code, saw Zhu Niao’s reply: ok.
Then she looked up at the podium.
“Looks like everyone’s here,” the professor said. “Let’s start by having two students answer a question—how about Zhu Niao and Gou Yu?”
Liu Xie’s face stiffened. She glanced at the dorm leader on her right, who was asleep, then stood up stiffly with Ye Qingchang, who was on her left.
“You two don’t know? It’s an easy one. Fine, we’ll switch—Liu Xie and Ye Qingchang, then.”
“These two… didn’t show up?”
“Okay, then I’m marking them absent.”