“Yaoyao, come find me later at the Old Place in the library.”
The Old Place in the library?
Su Yao paused for a moment, but quickly recalled exactly where that was.
After replying “Okay, okay,” she bit her lip lightly, struggling to suppress the happiness that was almost bursting out.
The Old Place was where she and Mu Nanqiu used to meet.
It was also where they spoke their first words to each other offline—though it had started because she secretly took a photo.
At the time, Su Yao thought she was doomed, but the senior had only deleted the photo and didn’t make things difficult for her.
Su Yao was relieved to have saved herself from trouble, and then something she never expected happened—she and the senior ended up together.
Curious about how Mu Nanqiu came to be here, she asked directly.
“Senior, what are you doing here?”
“Because I’m a Judge. Surprised?”
Surprised, but not too much.
Su Yao thought it made sense for Mu Nanqiu to be a Judge.
She then grew curious about the judging criteria and asked.
“Senior, how is the scoring done? Do you think our class’s performance can make it to the stage?”
“That depends on what comes next. Usually, those performing earlier have an advantage. As it gets later, creativity tends to overlap, and impressions are formed early on.”
“Oh… I see. Then, senior, you said last time that taking photos could earn rewards—can I choose mine?”
As they chatted, Su Yao’s tone suddenly shifted.
Online, Su Yao was more outspoken, unlike her usual soft-spoken self who barely managed to say a few words.
She typed quickly, sometimes so fast her brain couldn’t keep up, spilling out things she hadn’t fully thought through.
She immediately regretted the question the moment she hit send and was about to retract it, but knowing the senior was surely watching, retracting was pointless.
So she hurriedly added,
“Just ordinary rewards will do.”
She neither wanted Mu Nanqiu to buy flashy things for her nor to make any difficult-to-fulfill wishes.
If it didn’t work out, Su Yao would just say she wanted Mu Nanqiu to watch a movie with her.
She had never been to a movie theater before—always watching alone at home, downloading resources from the internet.
There was no one to discuss the movies with; watching was just watching, as if she hadn’t seen them at all.
Anyway, Su Yao’s wish was simple; she wouldn’t ask for anything expensive.
“That’s fine, so Yaoyao, you better work hard~”
The message ended with an adorable cat emoji.
With Mu Nanqiu’s approval, Su Yao was overjoyed and already thinking about what reward to ask for.
The two chatted casually, and before she knew it, time had flown by.
The rehearsal ended, and the audience began to applaud.
Su Yao quickly put down her phone and grabbed her camera to snap a few shots of the performers from their class bowing and thanking the audience.
When it was time to pack up, Su Yao took out her phone again and glanced at the messages.
“Waiting for you.”
Those two words made her heart feel warm.
She turned to look at the Judges’ table, where Mu Nanqiu was holding a pen, writing something on a sheet of paper.
Gazing at her beautiful profile, Su Yao was lost in thought—until Luo Yu pulled her back to reality.
“Su Yao? Senior is pretty, but don’t overindulge~”
Luo Yu teased with a smile.
Su Yao frowned slightly, about to say something, but noticed Zhang Li already leading the team toward another exit.
Luo Yu followed right after speaking.
Su Yao pressed her lips together and glanced back at Mu Nanqiu.
After hesitating briefly, she hurried to follow.
They exited through another door and circled back to the original waiting hall.
The class atmosphere remained lively—the applause had been truly encouraging, and the positive feedback naturally energized everyone.
“Let’s take a group photo here.”
Zhang Li stopped and called everyone to gather, then walked over to Su Yao.
Feeling a bit wary as Zhang Li approached, Su Yao felt nervous—as if Zhang Li might do something to her.
Fortunately, Zhang Li stopped two meters away and told her what they needed to prepare for.
Su Yao didn’t object to the group photo, but she didn’t want to take off her camera.
“Su Yao, don’t you want to join everyone?”
Su Yao kept her head down, silent.
Seeing this, Zhang Li sighed helplessly and said,
“Fine, then Su Yao, you take the photos. Is that okay?”
Su Yao nodded in agreement.
Zhang Li was quite frustrated.
She originally wanted someone from another class to help take photos, but Su Yao refused without explanation.
When Zhang Li said she would take the photos and Su Yao should just join the group, she still refused.
Only when Su Yao was told to take the photos herself did she agree. It was maddening.
Zhang Li had no idea what was going on in Su Yao’s head—it was baffling.
Actually, Su Yao hadn’t thought much; she just didn’t want others touching the camera.
It was lent to her temporarily by Mu Nanqiu. Because of its value and because it belonged to Mu Nanqiu, she was unwilling to hand it over.
Click.
Over thirty people stood in the spacious hall, smiling for the photo.
Su Yao thought it turned out pretty well.
Back in the activity classroom, after the initial excitement, what awaited them was the anxiety over the judging scores.
It was just like waiting for results to be announced—at first, she thought their performance was good, but on reflection, there were flaws and mistakes.
The more she thought about it, the more uneasy she felt.
For now, the results were unknown, so she didn’t know whether to keep practicing.
All she could do was wait in the classroom.
Zhang Li was just as anxious, constantly checking her phone every eight to ten seconds, afraid to miss the message.
But the information she wanted never came, and her impatience grew.
Anxiety—intense, urgent—but this was something that couldn’t be rushed.
With no news and mealtime approaching, Zhang Li finally let them go eat.
Su Yao hurried to the library.
At this time, there weren’t many people around besides their class.
As soon as Zhang Li finished speaking, Su Yao rushed out.
Descending to the first floor of the corridor, she was immediately stopped by a few girls.
Looking at them, Su Yao furrowed her brows deeply, feeling an impulse to lash out—but she held back and timidly asked,
“What do you want?”
“Hehe, we just want you to take some photos for us.”
One girl smiled and grabbed Su Yao’s arm, winking at her.
Too bad it had no effect.
The photos from the past two days were sent to Zhang Li via computer after Su Yao got home, who then forwarded them to others.
The remaining photos were stored in a cloud drive.
Each photo was quite large—about ten megabytes each—so anyone interested could download them.
Seeing their eager faces, Su Yao really wanted to escape, but almost the entire Girls’ Group from the class was surrounding her, making it nearly impossible.
“Come on, just take a few photos for us. It won’t take long.”
“Ugh, okay… okay, just a few.”
They were too many, and Su Yao feared that refusing would lead to being torn apart.
Setting a limit on the number was a small concession, so she agreed.
What she didn’t expect was the heavy price she’d pay for this choice.
The class had twelve girls total.
Luo Yu had slipped away, two hadn’t come down earlier, so there were nine left—among them, Yun Qing, who was currently the leader of the Girls’ Group, riding high.
She was hiding in the back, wearing a triumphant smile.
Sneaky smile, huh?
No need to guess—it was definitely her stirring things up, encouraging the girls to ask Su Yao for photos.
Just wait, you little troublemaker!
Su Yao’s anger quietly built up, but she couldn’t do anything to Yun Qing just yet.
She had to wait until Yun Qing blew all her gold coins first.
Once the shooting started, Su Yao regretted it a little.
It was fine at first, but then they formed groups of two or three in various poses, changing scenes and dragging Su Yao to different spots.
They laughed nonstop and looked happy, but Su Yao remained expressionless the whole time.
Still, not far away, two boys—one tall and one fat—cast envious glances at her.
The tall one spoke first.
“Look over there, isn’t that our class’s girls?”
“Seems like it. The one with the hat looks like Su Yao.”
“Su Yao’s a girl, right?”
“No, she just looks like one… anyway, I remember she’s not.”
“Tsk, tsk. It’s just a camera. Is it necessary to be surrounded like that?”
Their words were dripping with envy.
If they could, they would want to be surrounded by a group of beautiful girls too—especially in summer, with those fair arms and legs.
It was enough to make one want to lick and taste.
The melodious voices circled around them.
Tonight, they’d surely have sweet dreams.
Seeing Su Yao squeezed in the middle of the girls, they were dying of envy.
“Ah, you just don’t get it. I heard that anyone who can play photography at that level must come from a wealthy family. Su’s camera looks like an XX brand, XX model, worth about this much!”
The tall one showed two fingers, then said,
“Not bad, about twenty thousand.”
The fat one rolled his eyes and laughed.
“Anyway, here’s what you need to know: if you want to be surrounded by women, first you need money, second you need to be handsome, third you need to be a woman yourself, and fourth is your personality.”
After struggling for a while, Su Yao finally broke free from that group of demons—not easy at all.
During this, she was even asked if she was a girl.
It seemed everyone was starting to pay attention to this, though they didn’t say it outright to her face.
Su Yao knew her time was running out.
Wang Jing had told her before that Mu Nanqiu might be able to solve her identity problem.
Su Yao believed it, but didn’t know how to bring it up.
When Su Yao arrived at the library and reached that familiar spot, she saw a beautiful figure exuding literary elegance.
A cream-colored coat hung on the back of the chair.
At this moment, she was wearing a coffee-colored knit sweater paired with an elegant light gray long skirt.
Under the warm lighting, Mu Nanqiu sat relaxed, reading an English book.
The only sound was the rustle of turning pages.
Everything was so peaceful and beautiful.
Click.
Su Yao lifted her camera and captured this scene.
Then she composed herself, took off her hat that covered her head, and quietly approached Mu Nanqiu.
She carefully pulled out a chair with both hands and sat down opposite her, making no sound.
Mu Nanqiu showed no reaction to her arrival.
She was completely immersed in her book, seemingly oblivious to her surroundings and unaware of Su Yao’s presence.
Su Yao also sat quietly, but after a while, loneliness welled up inside her.
She wanted the senior to speak, to do something with her.
So she called out softly, “Senior,” but all she got was silence.
Su Yao began to panic, thinking she might have done something wrong.
She hurriedly searched for reasons within herself.
Was it because she was late?
Or because she had secretly taken photos of female classmates and made the senior angry?
Just as she was doubting herself, Mu Nanqiu pulled out the chair beside her.
This gesture confused Su Yao, but within three breaths, she figured it out.
She quickly stood and sat down next to Mu Nanqiu, afraid if she moved too slowly, the senior would dislike her.
The moment Su Yao sat down, she heard a voice very close to her ear.
It was Mu Nanqiu’s voice.
“Yaoyao, closer.”
“O-okay…”
They were already sitting close, so how much closer could she get?
Blushing shyly, Su Yao lowered her head, lifted her butt off the chair, slid it a bit closer toward Mu Nanqiu, then settled back down, leaning against her.
By now, she could smell Mu Nanqiu’s fragrance.
The two were so close their shoulders touched.
Su Yao felt something brush against the hand hidden in her sleeve.
Looking down, she saw it was Mu Nanqiu’s hand.
She quickly took off her glove, placed her small hand in Mu Nanqiu’s, which immediately held it tightly.
Su Yao’s hands were always cold, but to her, Mu Nanqiu’s hands were warm and soft.
Being held like this made her feel very comfortable.
The face that had been stiff and pale from the wind outside now flushed warmly.
Su Yao whispered,
“Nanquiu.”
“What’s wrong, Yaoyao?”
Mu Nanqiu had said before that in special important moments, she wanted to be addressed affectionately.
So now, Su Yao called her that.
“N-nothing… I just missed you…”