Ye Qingchang clasped her hands together, suddenly unsure of where to even place them.
She glanced back at her dear roommates, only to find that they had completely vanished from their original seats—not even a shadow remained.
With a gloomy mood, she stepped out of the lecture hall. Hidden behind the departing crowd was a clean-cut young man wearing glasses.
He greeted her with a warm smile and raised one free hand to wave at her. In his other hand was a paper bag that looked somewhat familiar.
“President, you were absolutely right. Ever since I started sharing my daily life with her again, she’s been just as enthusiastic as when we first met. Thank you so much—I really thought I was going to lose her.”
His words carried sincere gratitude and a kind of reverent respect that Ye Qingchang, even as club president, had never experienced before.
Unconsciously, she found it a little flattering.
“It’s nothing, really—just a small favor.” She waved a hand dismissively, pretending to be at ease.
But only she knew how much effort it had taken—last night she had chatted with her original digital pet account all the way till bedtime, even responding to messages under the blanket.
She had to feign surprise at “the literature club president who had suddenly turned into a girl” as the other person described, while enthusiastically keeping up the conversation—careful not to expose her identity—just to create a clear divide between her two selves.
Only now did she fully understand the meaning of “one lie requires a thousand more to cover it up.”
What puzzled her more, however, was that after last night’s torment, she was clearly drained and low on energy—but this club member in front of her looked completely refreshed.
He didn’t seem like someone who had stayed up all night at all.
“This is just a small thank-you gift.” He smiled with that same warm and polite expression, raising the paper bag in his hand.
Ye Qingchang’s motion to refuse stopped halfway.
She had caught a glimpse of what was inside the paper bag—it was the very same two bottles of wine she had handed off just yesterday afternoon, right outside the literature club room.
“I didn’t pay much for it. The seller clearly didn’t know what they had—sold it really cheap. At first, I even thought it was fake.”
Listening to him talk, Ye Qingchang didn’t know what kind of expression she should wear.
Still, she pushed the bag back toward him.
“Don’t use this to test your club officers,” she said, shaking her head slightly.
“Oh, right.” The boy laughed a little sheepishly, glancing up and down at the current Ye Qingchang.
“Almost forgot—President, you really shouldn’t be drinking right now.”
Ye Qingchang’s expression froze.
She was about to say something to smooth things over when she looked up and caught sight of her roommates hiding just past the stairwell.
There they were—Zhu Niao and Liu Xie—clicking their tongues and shaking their heads, with that same smug, disdainful expression on their faces.
An inexplicable wave of pride suddenly surged through her whole body.
“How are you talking to me like that? I’m just trying not to take advantage of you. Don’t act like I can’t handle a drink.” Ye Qingchang lifted her head and puffed out her chest.
“Bring those two bottles to the clubroom next time. I’ll down them both in front of you during our next club activity.”
“President…” The young man seemed like he still wanted to say something to dissuade Ye Qingchang from acting on impulse.
“No need for more words,” Ye Qingchang cut him off.
“…Alright then.”
The boy with glasses paused, then took out his phone from his pocket and brought up a QR code.
“President, let’s add each other as friends. It’s a bit too formal to only be communicating by phone.” He lowered his head slightly to look at Ye Qingchang.
“And I have a feeling I’ll need to consult you a lot more in the future… about romance.”
Ye Qingchang, who had never even been in a relationship, was now being hailed as a romance guru and treated with deep respect.
But she couldn’t feel happy about it at all.
Because if she really were to become this so-called love expert, she’d have to help him pursue herself.
She’d rather not accept his compliments at all.
The worst part was, she couldn’t let anything show.
So she took out her phone, scanned the code—and then stared blankly at the screen.
Why wasn’t there an option to add him as a friend?
“What’s wrong? Did it not scan properly?”
The boy leaned toward her slightly, his voice laced with concern.
Ye Qingchang’s internal alarm blared—something was off.
Shit. She had used the wrong account.
In a flash, she switched screens and casually stepped to the side. “Ah, I accidentally used my payment app to scan it just now. Let’s try again.”
Her hands were actually trembling a little as she changed accounts.
“I see.” The boy didn’t suspect anything and simply held up the QR code again.
Only when a figure—so familiar it couldn’t be more obvious—popped up in the friend list of her alternate account did Ye Qingchang finally let out a breath of relief.
“I’ll probably be bothering you often about romance stuff going forward,” the boy said, sounding a little embarrassed. “Hope you won’t find me annoying, President.”
“No worries. Let’s just call it mutual support among literature club members.”
Ye Qingchang gave a relaxed wave as she watched him walk away.
Just as the hem of the boy’s shirt disappeared around the corner, a few figures sidled up next to Ye Qingchang.
“Ah~ I accidentally used my payment app to scan it just now~ Let’s try again~” said Zhu Niao in a deliberately shrill and mocking voice.
Ye Qingchang hadn’t even had time to flare up before Liu Xie chimed in as well, mimicking her tone: “No worries~ Let’s just call it mutual support in the literature club~”
The two of them then exchanged glances and burst into a particularly grating laugh.
Ye Qingchang found them unbearably noisy.
“Do you have a better idea, hmm?” she shot back at her two dear dormmates.
“Do you think there’s still any chance of making him lose interest in your online persona?” asked Gou Yu, who had been filled in on the situation by Zhu Niao and was now trying to help brainstorm.
“Probably not,” Ye Qingchang frowned.
“Back when his parents had that accident and he was on the verge of suicide, I was the one who reached out to him. I’m even starting to think the reason he joined my literature club was because I happened to mention I wanted to be the club president.”
For a moment, the whole stairwell fell silent—aside from the sound of Yang Shuli smacking her lips while chewing candy.
“Where’d you get candy?”
“Old Xu slipped it into my pocket when he passed by. I just found out he’s from the class next door.”
Zhu Niao paused, then turned to Ye Qingchang and said, “Wow… you really are carrying some sins, huh?”
“So? Do you guys have any better ideas now?” Ye Qingchang asked again. She really needed a solution.
“Hey, why don’t you just give your online identity a fake boyfriend?” Liu Xie pinched her chin thoughtfully. “He’ll back off once he sees you’re taken.”
Ye Qingchang froze for a moment, then looked toward Gou Yu, who was standing idly next to Zhu Niao.
“Birdie, can I borrow your Gou Yu for a bit? Don’t worry, he just needs to show a hand and say one line at most. No need to show his face.”
Zhu Niao’s face changed: “Why are you asking me? Ask him!”
“I don’t mind doing this small favor,” Gou Yu said as he took out the sports meet sign-up form.
“But in return… sign up for the 800 meters.”