Yan Luqing fell asleep with a mood both wistful and disappointed.

The next morning, she came downstairs wearing clothes she had just recently bought, a casual yet still student-like combination, and she had even put on light makeup.

This attire made the few men downstairs all freeze for a moment.

Big Black spoke first: “Are you going out?”

Yan Luqing nodded: “Starting today, I’m going to school—Grandpa asked me to.”

Big Black came to a sudden realization: “Understood, I’ll go inform the driver.”

At breakfast, Gu Ci asked her: “Didn’t you not want to go?”

“No choice,” she replied without blushing or skipping a beat, “I also have no choice but to go.”

How could there really be no choice—just pretend to be crazy and it would be fine.

Fortunately, Gu Ci did not ask further questions.

Only, when she was about to head out, she noticed that Gu Ci seemed to be following beside her all along. Yan Luqing didn’t know what he was doing, or what he was observing, so she simply walked on her own.

It wasn’t until she reached the entryway and was about to change her shoes that a bit of weight suddenly pressed on her shoulder—

Gu Ci stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. Through the fabric, the distance and force of the touch were just right: not overly intimate, yet not distant.

She turned her head back.

“After all, it’s school.” Gu Ci’s gaze swept over her two hands, the implication obvious. “At least bring an empty bag.”

“……”

Yan Luqing stuffed a notebook into the empty bag and went off to school carrying it.

During an exam, she and a girl from the same major had sat front and back. They had added each other on WeChat, and of all, she was the one Yan Luqing was most familiar with. That girl always wore her hair in braids, with the nickname Little Mahua. Just as Yan Luqing couldn’t find the classroom, she happened to run into Little Mahua dashing along the hallway.

Yan Luqing grabbed her: “Little Mahua! Are you going to class? Take me with you—”

Little Mahua turned her head, and upon seeing her face, was instantly delighted: “Ah, it’s you, pretty sister!”

After greeting her, she quickly pulled her arm and led her to the classroom.

The teacher had just arrived, the two of them slipping into seats at the back row at the last minute. Little Mahua said: “You finally came. I was just about to look for you today, wondering why after that exam you completely disappeared.”

Yan Luqing smiled, thinking that if it weren’t for wanting to quietly leave that place, she still wouldn’t be suffering at school now.

The morning’s classes were fairly normal: one Introduction to Computers, one English.

For the first class Yan Luqing came just on time. At the break, when Little Mahua shouted out, “Our department has a new pretty sister,” quite a few people came over to greet her, and very quickly the morning passed.

Noon’s schedule was too tight for Yan Luqing to go home and back, so when she told Little Mahua she planned to stay alone in the classroom, Little Mahua showed a sympathetic look: “Ah, how pitiful.”

Then her eyes turned, “Why don’t I keep you company? Just right, I slept enough last night, not planning to nap. And since we can’t fall asleep in the classroom, we could play games for a bit!”

Yan Luqing never would have thought she was actually an online-game addict too.

Two game addicts meeting—how could there still be any noon nap? The two of them sat in the classroom diving straight into King’s Canyon.

Yan Luqing usually jungled when she carried teammates. She saw that Little Mahua had Yao among her usual picks, and with the lineup suitable, she let her pick Yao to ride on her head.

As Yan Luqing played, she suddenly recalled—the last time there had been a Yao-girl riding her, that Yao-girl had been Gu Ci. And that game she had performed terribly, because she kept wanting to laugh. Princess Yao was dragged to death many times by her, while simultaneously sending the taunting dialogue, “Hehe, nicely played～,” yet still obediently rode on her head.

Little Mahua suddenly cut through her thoughts with a single sentence.

“Hey, babe, what does your ID mean?”

Yan Luqing’s fingers paused.

Her current ID, at first glance, looked like a mess of random letters. One night when she was bored, logging in to play a couple of rounds, even though her previous game ID had been quite good, after seeing it too long she got tired of it, so she changed it.

【gzcyyds】——the initials of “Princess Ci Forever God” (gong zhu ci yong yuan di shen).

Who knew what she had been thinking that night, to change it to such an ID.

However, these seven letters were probably understood only by herself in the entire world—just thinking about it felt rather thrilling.

Yan Luqing thought for a long time but still couldn’t come up with a good excuse. In the end she could only vaguely answer: “I just randomly typed a few letters, haha.”

After that, the two of them didn’t chat much, mostly focusing on the game. After a few rounds, Yan Luqing discovered that even flaming others under this ID seemed to come more smoothly.

What was this about? Was it the miraculous buff of Princess of Bamboo Country?

For example, in that round when they had Yao in the lineup, their teammates were fine, but the opponents at the start mocked Little Mahua:

[All] 【Carrying four pigs to fight against five dogs (Hou Yi)】: A trashy hero dares to be picked? Yao, this round I’ll target you, what a lousy thing.

Yan Luqing had to admit, Yao was indeed a hero that could be played to leech. She herself had been disgusted by freeloaders who played this before.

But honestly, if someone wanted to leech, what hero couldn’t they use? Wasn’t it all the player controlling the hero who was freeloading?

Yan Luqing didn’t reply right away. She focused on farming jungle creeps, and after reaching level four, she directed Little Mahua to follow her, successfully catching Hou Yi once, securing First Blood.

Only then did she open All Chat to retort.

[All] 【gzcyyds (Mirror)】: Hou Yi, after taunting for so long you thought you were amazing, and it’s just this?

[All] 【gzcyyds (Mirror)】: You’re really even more full of it than the plastic bags in the trash bin downstairs from your house.

The moment she sent this, looking at this seven-letter ID, she felt she truly had a bit of the momentum of the Princess of Bamboo Country.

Not only did Little Mahua laugh so hard she nearly cracked a rib, but even her own teammates spammed laughter, and an opponent without a heart also spammed laughter.

Later Yan Luqing practically camped in bot lane. Hou Yi was killed until he didn’t dare step out from under his tower. No problem—she could dive under the tower to kill him. Even if his teammates came it was useless. At worst she’d force an exchange.

After killing him she typed—

[All] 【gzcyyds (Mirror)】: Hou Yi, promise me, don’t queue ranked matches late at night, don’t let countless sisters witness your positioning.

In the end, when she went bot lane again to kill Hou Yi, she could even control the last bit of HP, deliberately letting Little Mahua take the kill.

Then she typed—

[All] 【gzcyyds (Mirror)】: Hou Yi got killed by leech Yao! Oh my god!

Little Mahua nearly died of laughter.

Games were the easiest to breed grudges, and also the easiest to deepen friendships. Especially when two people had good coordination, they could quickly establish a solid sisterhood. Not to mention Yan Luqing had even domineeringly flamed that useless guy on her behalf.

“This is really nothing, honestly.” Yan Luqing waved her hand. “When I play games, there’s only one situation where I’ll add someone as a friend— and that’s when I didn’t scold enough during the round.”

“Hahahahahaha—” Little Mahua laughed with a goose call, needing a long while to calm down. “No, seriously, the way you talk is just too funny. I really like you!”

The two afternoon classes compared with the morning were simply one hell, one heaven.

The first was Electrical Engineering, the second was Physics. Little Mahua said normally these two classes wouldn’t be placed back-to-back—who knew how today’s schedule was arranged.

Barely ten minutes into the first class, Yan Luqing was already done for.

Originally, when she had seen her grades, she truly thought she wasn’t bad, maybe even had some talent for science subjects—but now she recognized clearly, without a teacher like Gu Ci dangling the bait, she really didn’t have the slightest bit of talent.

Little Mahua wasn’t listening either, scribbling and drawing by the side. Yan Luqing, unbearably bored, couldn’t help leaning over to ask: “What are you writing?”

“Hehe, a love letter for my boyfriend.” As she finished, the girl’s face, usually wearing a cheerful smile, suddenly flushed red.

Yan Luqing froze for a moment.

But Little Mahua suddenly grew curious: “Hey right, I haven’t asked yet. You’re so pretty—do you have a boyfriend? This morning after I shouted, I saw a few of the single guys in our class already itching to make a move～”

“No boyfriend.” Yan Luqing immediately followed with, “But I probably won’t be dating for the time being.”

Little Mahua let out a disappointed “Ah～,” “Well, alright then. But looking closely, the looks in our class don’t really match up with your appearance anyway.”

The two of them casually complained about classes a bit more, then Yan Luqing couldn’t help but say: “Little Mahua, let me ask you something.”

“Mm?”

“What do you think it means when a boy says a girl is cute?”

“Someone said that to you?” Little Mahua counted on her fingers, “There are two explanations.”

“The first one is: boys only think the girl they like is cute, because ‘cute’ is a very special description. Only when it hits the heart do they feel it’s cute.”

“The second explanation is: when someone says you’re cute, it might be because they’ve run out of words. Since not pretty but quiet is called ‘gentle,’ not pretty and not gentle is called ‘cute’—” After saying that, Little Mahua immediately added: “But you don’t fit that.”

Yan Luqing was stunned again: “Hm?”

Little Mahua said righteously: “With the way you look, you definitely don’t fit that rule. So this ‘cute’ can only be the first one!”

Hearing the first half, Yan Luqing couldn’t help but laugh. She really liked Little Mahua’s mouth.

But…

“Like?” Yan Luqing thought for a moment. “That seems even less possible…”

“Really…” Little Mahua slyly glanced at her, probing, “Then why are you so concerned about what he said? Do you like him?”

“That’s impossible too.” Yan Luqing still firmly believed the definition she once gave herself. “My liking for him stops at… Mm, have you ever been a fan of a paper man? Played an otome game? It’s that kind of liking.”

“???” Little Mahua was shocked. “But he’s a real, living person. How could you like a real person as if he’s a paper character??”

Yan Luqing: …Because I’m a book-transmigrator.

But thinking carefully, the concept of a paper man was indeed a preconceived one. Yet when Yan Luqing read the novel, her attitude toward the other characters was more like toward paper figures. Gu Ci… she had always been sincere and heartfelt.

When she wrote all kinds of comments, when she threw lightning on the chapters he was in, she probably never treated him as a fictional person, but as someone truly alive in another world yet who had died.

That was why she felt so distressed, so addicted.

Before reading this book, she really hadn’t been like that—as a heartless sand sculpture, she didn’t even care about her real life, how could she care about a paper figure?

Gu Ci really was the first one.

After the two finished chatting, they forced themselves to listen to class for a while longer. When they were almost ready to vomit from listening, they finally endured through Electrical Engineering. After a ten-minute break, when Physics class began, they were done again.

Not only the two of them, but during the exam Yan Luqing had almost added every girl from her major, and now she saw those girls were also done for—their friend circles like wholesale, scrolling through one row after another of copy-pastes.

All sitting in the same classroom, Yan Luqing and Little Mahua also followed along and posted this line—

【Electrical Engineering and Physics, lifelong enemies.】

I want to drink happy water, and I also want to eat fried chicken.

Attached image: [Quick, a parent come pick up their kid after school qaq.jpg]

“Don’t talk about me,” after Yan Luqing sent the post, she put away her phone, “let’s talk about you and your boyfriend. After listening to these two classes the yin energy is too heavy, tell me something from the human world to warm me up.”

“Alright,” Little Mahua let out a laugh: “I’ve been dating my boyfriend for over two years now, we started in second year of high school. But now it’s a cross-school relationship, sigh… his grades are too good, he’s studying civil engineering at T University.”

Yan Luqing’s pen-twirling fingers suddenly froze.

T University? Wasn’t that Gu Ci’s school? Truly a gathering of gods of learning.

The next while, Little Mahua dutifully played the role of storyteller. It was clear she really liked her boyfriend—when she spoke of their sweet moments, her eyes shone even brighter than when she played games.

Finally, relying on Little Mahua’s sweet love stories, they at last welcomed the bell signaling the end of class.

While packing up her materials, Little Mahua said: “Speaking of T University, I once secretly slipped into one of their internal group chats. Inside were the livelier, more outgoing sisters among the top students. They often gathered there to discuss which department had produced another handsome guy or pretty girl.”

Yan Luqing only caught the word pretty girl and immediately raised her hand: “Pretty girls? I want to join too.”

Little Mahua made an “OK” gesture: “I’ll pull you in later.”

Then she continued: “Speaking of which, some time ago they had midterms. Supposedly, a super handsome guy from the Physics Department who had never shown up before suddenly came to take the exam. Everyone who saw him said he was amazing, the highest face value in history—! Unfortunately the top-student sisters were too shy to take pictures. The ones circulating in the group were too blurry, you could only tell the aura was exceptional. Otherwise I’d really want to show you… Wait—”

Because she was too happy class was over, Yan Luqing hadn’t listened carefully, only roughly catching words like “highest face value in history.”

But as Little Mahua was speaking, her gaze froze at the back door of the classroom, her tone rising in surprise: “Eh???”

Yan Luqing: “Eh what, class is over, class is over!”

“It’s just… damn, the handsome guy standing at our back door, why does he look so much like the one I just told you about?”

“Which one? The T University handsome guy?” Yan Luqing picked up her bag and stood up. “But isn’t he supposed to be at T University? You must be mistaken.”

“Saying that…” Little Mahua looked puzzled, “but that aura and outline are spot-on. I don’t think I could be mistaken…”

Sitting in the back rows, Yan Luqing was following the flow of people out. Walking, walking, until she reached the back door of the classroom—then she realized, for some reason, the movement of people around her had slowed.

Only then did Yan Luqing lift her head and look ahead. Who would have thought, in that instant, she unexpectedly saw someone who at this very moment should have been at the villa—

Gu Ci, wearing that white shirt she was most satisfied with, a simple black jacket over it. His features were dazzling, yet carried detachment. Though standing in the corridor of an ordinary teaching building, it was as if there were spotlights shining above him.

He had originally been leaning against the corridor window ledge. The moment his gaze met Yan Luqing’s, he straightened up and walked toward her, finally standing still at the back door of the classroom.

“…Gu Ci??” Yan Luqing was utterly bewildered, staring at him in confusion. “Weren’t you at home? Why are you here?”

Behind her, Little Mahua: “???”

At home—what the hell? Didn’t she say she had no boyfriend???

Before Little Mahua could think further, in the bustling corridor this super-handsome guy made an action exactly like a parent picking up their kid after school—he suddenly reached out and pulled down Yan Luqing’s bag, carrying it in his own hand.

The whole action was natural and smooth, shocking all the secret onlookers, and shocking the person involved as well.

Yan Luqing stared dumbfounded at it all. Thinking of the Moments post she’d made forty minutes ago, a ridiculous association popped into her head.

She asked again: “You… what are you doing here?”

Then she saw Gu Ci carrying her bag, a slow smile spreading across his face.

“Came to pick you up from school.”