“I’m from the Photography Department. I saw you just now walking out from the event tent we organized. May I ask, did you just go in and finish watching?”

Yan Luqing nodded.

The baby-faced girl looked her over left and right, sincerely praising: “Classmate, you’re so good-looking, you must look amazing on camera! Please, could you let me do a viewing interview? Or, if you don’t want to talk about your impressions, you can also talk a bit about your parents and family—”

Just as she was speaking enthusiastically, a not-so-obvious shadow suddenly fell over from the side.

The baby face raised her head, and saw a male face that could be called flawless. He came over, lightly drawing near the young lady she wanted to interview, and then actually refused on the young lady’s behalf—

“No, thank you. She doesn’t have time.”

……

Although she herself would also have refused, hearing Gu Ci cut in with an answer, Yan Luqing still felt inwardly much relieved.

Gu Ci was half a step behind her, walking out a few paces. Yan Luqing turned her head to look at him: “You finished so quickly?”

“It wasn’t anything big,” Gu Ci answered.

Yan Luqing did not bring up what she had just watched, and Gu Ci did not ask. Unused to too quiet an atmosphere, Yan Luqing was the first to speak: “How did you know I didn’t want to be interviewed? You even refused for me.”

“Why would I know.” He said leisurely, “I only spoke the truth.”

Yan Luqing was puzzled: “What truth?”

“You didn’t have time in the first place.” Gu Ci’s speaking pace was not fast, but the content was admonishing, “Wasted an entire morning, and you still have time to accept interviews?”

“……”

“Seeing the school, don’t you feel even more nervous?”

“?”

“You’re aiming for fifty points, Student Yan. You’re not anxious, but I’m already breaking into a sweat for you.”

“…………”

How did you manage to make fifty points sound like ninety points.

Rolling her eyes, Yan Luqing got on the return car with Gu Ci, still unceasingly arguing with reason about how hard she had been working.

And Gu Ci, seeing her state as usual, opened his constantly vibrating phone. Inside, Wei Chi’s WeChat messages bombarded him one after another.

【Peach Blossom Late to Bloom】: Are you treating me like a monkey? What else could that screensaver of yours be if not Yan Luqing??

Gu Ci gave a small laugh and replied with three words.

【word】: Can’t explain clearly.

【Peach Blossom Late to Bloom】: What do you mean, can’t explain clearly?

【Peach Blossom Late to Bloom】: Living in a girl’s house, using a girl’s photo as screensaver, but with that girl you’re still just good friends?

【Peach Blossom Late to Bloom】: ???

Gu Ci finished reading, and had no intention of replying further.

Yan Luqing, sitting beside him, was still chattering away about her history of diligence: “…That day I studied so late, and then the next day? Didn’t I still get up at eight? And you say I don’t study hard? Honestly, it’s only a little bit worse than the college entrance exam.”

At the words “college entrance exam,” Gu Ci paused slightly, then said: “I never said you didn’t study hard.”

“Studying hard is right,” Gu Ci smiled warmly as he evaluated, “after all, diligence can make up for clumsiness.”

Yan Luqing: “…………”

Damn it.

“Diligence can make up for clumsiness” was a commendatory phrase, and Gu Ci looked like he was praising her, but Yan Luqing just felt it wasn’t.

Although she had just proved in every way that she was indeed “diligent,” she did not want to admit this “clumsy” in front of Gu Ci!!

Thus a new round of crushing-level war of words began.

But even Yan Luqing herself did not notice in the slightest—that wisp of gloom that had just sprouted in her heart not long ago had already, effortlessly, vanished into thin air.

After Yan Luqing returned home, without Gu Ci’s shielding presence, Makka Pakka took the initiative to contact her..

“Maria! Today you—”

“Ran into the supporting couple, right?” Yan Luqing looked calm. “What do you want to say about those two? Just tell me if I have any danger to my life, that’s all I care about, everything else I don’t.”

“At present, no.” Makka Pakka let out a sigh. “But just a little bit, just that little bit more…”

“Mm? Where was it just a little bit? What did I do?” Yan Luqing thought it over—at most she had said a few words to the green tea elder sister, why would she need to be punished?

“I can’t see the exact scene of your interactions, but you brought Gu Ci to school—that is, you let You Jing see Gu Ci. I saw that she almost had the thought of wanting to pursue Gu Ci, but that does not conform to her character development timeline! At this time she ought to have set her sights on another junior instead of Gu Ci—do you understand now?”

“……” Yan Luqing held it in for half a day, “I understand.”

So, it turned out it was Gu Ci’s wallpaper that saved her.

If not for that wallpaper, the green tea elder sister would not have thought they were a couple. If she knew they weren’t, with her personality she would certainly have made a move to obtain Gu Ci.

—It was precisely the wallpaper that made her give up.

Truly fed up with the so-called punishments of this damned system, Yan Luqing was practically moved to tears in her heart; Princess Ci, forever a god!

Finally, just before Makka Pakka was about to go offline, Yan Luqing called out to it with another question.

“By the way, that Yu Qin, why is his special effect knives floating all over his face and body? It’s simply too much for the eyes,” Yan Luqing couldn’t help but think of the male lead’s special effect of pine needles like green needles all over his body, and complained, “Why are the male characters’ special effects in this novel all so lame…”

“Yu Qin’s special effect has two reasons,” Makka Pakka said. “One is because his appearance descriptions contain many knife-related terms like ‘chiseled as if cut by a knife.’”

“There’s actually another reason?” Yan Luqing grew curious, “Tell me, tell me.”

“The second reason is, his road of emotions is simply too bumpy. Along the way, it’s all knives.”

Yan Luqing: “…………”

Good fellow, this was just too tragic.

…

After the symposium ended, Yan Luqing studied a bit more easily than the previous week. One reason was because she had had a bit of enlightenment, so she no longer needed to struggle head-on every day; for the two most difficult subjects, Gu Ci had her do a few questions each day, while the rest of her time she used to study other subjects.

Although she studied diligently, Yan Luqing treasured her hair and never burned the midnight oil.

Only, to show her determination, she painfully modified her WeChat name for the time being, from 【Runaway Saintess】 to 【A Hundred Million Parts Cultivation, One Part Harvest】. With a hundred million parts of diligent cultivation, to reap that just-over-half score—this was truly the most genuine portrayal of her during this period.

Two days before the midterm exams, Yan Luqing was still in a state of certain victory. But by the evening of the day before, she suddenly grew a little nervous, so she went to find Gu Ci, wanting him to pick out the key points and all the classic question types for her.

Gu Ci was even more ruthless—he simply made her a slide deck. The speed was fast, the content complete, everything exactly what she wanted.

Yan Luqing took the slides to Little Black to print. While waiting, she couldn’t help but praise Gu Ci once: “Gu Ci, you’re really a human cheat code.”

Feeling that this line wasn’t strong enough, Yan Luqing continued with exaggerated rainbow-flattery: “I’m serious. If you were born in that kind of chaotic world, then surely it would be, ‘Whoever gains Gu Ci gains the world’!”

Gu Ci only gave a faint laugh and said nothing.

Originally, after Yan Luqing read through the slides Gu Ci had prepared for her that night, she also pulled out the slides she had previously downloaded from the campus network. She found that she understood most of it, seven to eight parts out of ten, so she went to bed brimming with confidence.

The next morning.

Big and Little Black were perhaps infected by her recent diligent studying and came up with an extremely old-fashioned superstitious method—one fried dough stick plus two eggs as the metaphor for “100” points.

“If you eat a fried dough stick and two eggs,” across the table, Gu Ci mercilessly shattered the brothers’ fantasy, “then Yan Miss won’t even finish the first test before being sent to the infirmary to vomit.”

The two brothers instantly froze awkwardly.

After a long while, Little Black dumbly scratched his head: “Yan Miss, th-then, if you can’t eat that much, why don’t you just eat one egg instead?”

As soon as these words came out, Gu Ci, who was drinking water, suddenly choked. He set down the cup, coughing lightly as he smiled at Little Black, leaving Little Black completely bewildered under his gaze.

“One fried dough stick and two eggs is 100…” Yan Luqing was driven to gnash her teeth by his stupidity, her voice sinking, “Little Black, if I only eat one egg, then tell me—am I supposed to get 0 points?”

Little Black: “……”

Gu Ci finished coughing, and with a smile added: “Little Black, if you don’t use your brain, it’ll rust.”

Yan Luqing followed with: “I’m about to rename him ‘Little Stupid.’”

Little Black: “……” A personal attack and you’re even doing a doubles match??

After this battle, the superstition method was completely abandoned. The fried dough stick and two eggs all went to Auntie Disney.

Yan Luqing, however, was made inexplicably more nervous by this whole scene: “I can’t eat now. I’ll just buy something at school. That way I can also get to school earlier.”

There were many reasons for her nervousness: partly Yan family eldest brother’s threats, partly her anticipation of new rewards, and also—she felt she could not let Gu Ci’s teaching her for so long go to waste.

Gu Ci and she were not at the same school, so not on the same exam days either. His exams were postponed, starting even later, not until November.

So Yan Luqing was fighting a lone battle.

Yan Luqing had to set off early. Gu Ci, together with the others, symbolically walked to the entryway and saw her off for a few steps.

In truth, he hadn’t wanted to come, but ever since that morning Yan Luqing’s eyes would frequently drift his way, then quickly retreat.

It was hard to describe—those eyes seemed like they were searching for something to lean on, and when they found it, she would feel more at ease, and from time to time she would need to look again.

This kind of look of hers was very similar to those previous times when she gazed pitifully. If Gu Ci were to evaluate it, it was six words: really knows how to sell misery.

It was just a little exam, only needed to score fifty points, was it necessary?

Thinking this, Gu Ci sat on the sofa watching television. After more than half an hour, he very precisely calculated the time and opened his phone, sending Yan Luqing a WeChat.

【word】: At school?

【A Hundred Million Parts Cultivation, One Part Harvest】: Mm, mm.

【word】: What did you eat?

Yan Luqing instantly replied with a photo. Only, he had asked about her breakfast, but what she sent back was a picture of the slides he had organized last night.

【A Hundred Million Parts Cultivation, One Part Harvest】: [Image]

【A Hundred Million Parts Cultivation, One Part Harvest】: What did I eat? Of course I ate through the slides. 

Gu Ci: “……”