MOKA felt hesitant inside, unsure whether she should tell Su Li about being blacklisted.
In the past, she wouldn’t have cared at all about the payment she owed Su Li.
After all, for her, that money could always be earned back.
But this time was different.
She had been blacklisted.
Being blacklisted meant she could no longer earn endless money like she used to.
Fortunately, she still had some money left on her.
That money could let her live a carefree life.
The corresponding price was losing her music dream.
Like those mediocre village teachers in anime shows.
Perhaps when her students asked about her story, she could tell them about her past experiences.
Of course, she could also go all in and fight with her back against the wall.
With Su Li around, maybe she could defeat the capital with her talent like some senior before her.
Although the company behind her was unwilling to support her for unknown reasons.
But there was still a path to survival in all of this.
MOKA recalled the contract terms: if she independently completed a work without relying on company resources, all profits would go entirely to herself.
She pulled out the electronic contract and confirmed this in the “independent creation” clause—as long as she avoided the company’s promotion channels and published through her personal account, all copyright revenue and tips required no revenue sharing.
This gave her the confidence for a last stand—if she could break through with her talent, she could completely escape the shackles of capital.
And with Su Li’s existence, she could succeed once again.
She hadn’t done anything wrong.
She had no scandals.
She just wrote songs honestly and didn’t do anything else.
MOKA felt that with her talent plus Su Li’s inspiration.
She believed she could become a viral sensation across the internet again.
They could blacklist her, but they couldn’t blacklist her talent.
So MOKA made up her mind—she absolutely had to set up a meeting with Su Li.
Create a song that would explode across the internet.
And ultimately live a happy life with Su Li.
She had that confidence.
MOKA looked at the chat interface with Su Li, let out a long breath, calmed her nervously pounding heart, and asked:
[Su Li, tomorrow is the weekend, I wanted to create a song with you, is that okay?]
After typing the message, MOKA felt her heart thumping wildly.
She set her phone aside and didn’t dare look at Su Li’s reply.
But inside, her blood was already starting to boil.
…
Su Li looked at the message that came through on her phone.
[1]
There was nothing going on tomorrow.
Even if Bai Huizi came to find her tonight, it wouldn’t affect the plan to create a song together tomorrow.
Not much time had passed since class ended, and the corridor was already packed with people.
Su Li didn’t rush into the crowd right away.
With Miss Cat around, there was no need to hurry.
She watched Chi Qingya walking through the crowd with her head down—the other girl seemed to sense her gaze and met her eyes.
Just like always, even though they ate lunch together, they walked the same route without walking together.
Seeing that Su Li had stopped looking at her, Chi Qingya lowered her head and continued forward silently.
She knew she could never earn Su Li’s forgiveness.
But Su Li didn’t hate her as much as before, and that was enough for her.
If only she could add Su Li as a friend, even just watching Su Li’s Circle of Friends posts from afar would be fine.
Chi Qingya quickened her pace, but instead of heading straight to the dining hall, she went to the milk tea shop and bought milk tea for the friends she ate with—four cups in total.
While standing at the entrance of the milk tea shop waiting, Chi Qingya suddenly remembered the time she bought lemon water for Su Li.
She didn’t understand why she had fantasized back then that a cheap cup of lemon water could earn Su Li’s forgiveness.
Even more laughable, she thought that a cup of lemon water was the most she could do for Su Li.
When Su Li used to do things for her over and over again—things she herself didn’t even want to do.
Seeing others walking together in groups, Chi Qingya pressed her lips together, hoping that others wouldn’t make the same foolish mistakes she did.
…
Jin Xueli had already arrived at the dining hall.
She saw Miss Cat sitting alone at a table in the dining hall, staring at the bento box in front of her as if lost in thought, so she walked over and sat down directly across from her.
“Hello there.”
“Hello…”
Miss Cat looked up at Jin Xueli, feeling that the way they greeted each other was a bit strange.
She had never seen the pooper-scooper greet others like this before.
It was a bit like those teaching videos that showed people how to recognize characters.
Miss Cat knew that this human was greeting her.
Of course, she remembered her too.
Bento No. 3.
The third person to order a bento from her.
“Sorry for the trouble, waiting so long.”
Jin Xueli found that she didn’t quite know how to chat with this girl.
This “girlfriend” of Su Li’s.
She hadn’t had time to investigate this girl’s situation yesterday because something had come up.
But today didn’t matter.
And normally, she was never like this when talking to others.
Usually, the one finding topics to talk about was the other person, not her.
But this time, information wouldn’t come to her ears on its own like before.
She could also go and find things out herself.
Miss Cat heard Jin Xueli’s words and shook her head.
Actually, she wasn’t very good at communicating with others either.
“The bento you make is really delicious.”
Jin Xueli continued.
She originally wanted to ask this girl how long she had known Su Li, but asking that would be a bit too direct.
And it would reveal too much intent. If Su Li found out, she would definitely distance herself.
She couldn’t show that her target was Su Li.
She had no choice but to start with Su Li’s girlfriend.
“Thank you.”
Miss Cat’s cheeks flushed slightly, feeling a bit embarrassed.
She found it strange—this person hadn’t even tasted her bento yet, so how did she know it was delicious?
She felt the atmosphere around her was a bit awkward and hoped Su Li would come over soon.
If Su Li helped her out of this, she definitely wouldn’t feel embarrassed.
Su Li was the best at talking to weird people like this.
“I really like the meals you make.”
“Mhm, thank you.”
“You don’t know how terrible the food at school is. Good thing you have your bento, otherwise, I really don’t know what I’d do.”
“Thank you.”
Miss Cat didn’t know if her mechanical responses were appropriate.
She felt like this girl in front of her was starting to talk nonsense.
What if…
What if her bento was as unappetizing to her as the school food?
But it seemed like she genuinely liked the meals she prepared?
Miss Cat still felt a little shy about receiving compliments.
Actually, she didn’t care about other people’s opinions.
She only needed Su Li to enjoy eating her meals.