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“Why does it always feel like someone’s looking at us…” Yan Luqing muttered, then glanced at Gu Ci. “It’s definitely because of you.”
Gu Ci said nothing, so she continued: “Actually, I shouldn’t have brought you inside to walk around. I should have had you stand at the entrance of the exhibition—that would’ve been called reasonable use of resources.”
At this time, the two of them had made a half-circle around and happened to return to the wall mural that Yan Luqing had participated in painting.
Yan Luqing’s mood instantly soared. She didn’t even know why—just the thought of showing off her own hard work to him made her inexplicably excited.
A strange inspiration suddenly arose. She lifted her finger toward the dozen-meter landscape painting on the wall—
“Look,” the girl’s voice was deliberately lowered, but still carried ups and downs in tone, “this is the rivers and mountains I have conquered for you.”
“Oh.” The corner of Gu Ci’s lips curved upward in a sudden smile, casual yet irresistible, perfectly fitting for the identity of one who could bring calamity to the nation. “Then I must thank Your Majesty.”
It was the script of a fatuous ruler and the enemy princess come to seduce him.
Because the lines were embarrassing, Yan Luqing spoke very softly, only loud enough for Gu Ci to hear.
Once her urge to perform had been satisfied, she had already returned to normal—but she hadn’t expected Princess Ci to still not leave the scene. He said: “However, Your Majesty.”
His Majesty asked curiously: “Mm?”
Princess Ci: “Don’t you think this rivers and mountains is a bit small?”
“……?”
To conquer a kingdom only to be despised as too small—was there any justice in that? Was this not called being spoiled and arrogant?!
Yan Luqing rolled her eyes: “If you push your luck, I’ll just take the rivers and mountains back.”
Gu Ci’s smile deepened, as if about to say something more, when suddenly a clear “Excuse me” came from beside them.
Yan Luqing froze for a moment and turned her head, seeing two long-haired girls. One wore a ponytail, the other big waves. The ponytail had a camera hanging around her neck, while the big waves had something like a work pass. Looking closely, Yan Luqing could faintly make out the characters “Photography.”
The ponytail spoke first: “Hello, classmates. We’d like to ask, are the two of you together?”
Yan Luqing gave a light “Mm.”
The big waves looked at her, then at Gu Ci behind her, and said: “We were invited here by a senior of the art club. Our task is to interview some of the visitors, then make a short edit… Could we ask if you two would be willing to accept a quick interview? It won’t take long—”
Before she could even finish speaking, Yan Luqing was still considering, but from behind came Gu Ci’s voice: “Sure.”
“…?”
Ponytail and big waves exchanged a glance, then grew overly excited and said to her: “Ahhh thank you so much! We’ll be quick, it won’t take up too much of your time!”
Yan Luqing watched as ponytail happily started fiddling with her camera, while big waves already began asking questions: “First, may I ask, are both of you students at our school?”
“I don’t really want to answer,” Gu Ci said lazily, “ask her.”
Yan Luqing was dumbfounded: “???”
He had agreed to the interview faster than anyone, and now he was pushing all the answers onto her?!
She immediately turned her head and glared at him.
She thought her action was hidden, yet little did she know the camera had recorded it all.
Soon after, Yan Luqing noticed ponytail had already stepped a little farther away, adjusting her camera and seemingly finding the right angle.
So she sat up properly and answered: “I’m a student at this school, he’s not—he’s from T University.”
“Eh?” Big waves looked very interested. “A top student from T University? Why would someone from T University come to our school’s exhibition? We never publicized it off campus.”
“Ah…” Yan Luqing thought a moment. “He came with me.”
She hadn’t wanted to answer in such an ambiguous way, but there really hadn’t been another option to choose.
“Are you two a couple?”
Yan Luqing immediately shook her head: “No.”
The word disappointed were practically written all over Big Waves’ face: “You really look like you have a very close relationship…”
Yan Luqing gave an awkward laugh: “Haha, we’re high school classmates…”
“Then are you both single?”
That question…
She almost suspected Big Waves was doing it on purpose.
Still, Yan Luqing answered honestly: “Mm… both single.”
“Classmate, just now you said he came to accompany you, so why did you come here?”
“Oh, my friend is in the art club. Yesterday we worked together to finish that mural, so I came today to have a look.”
While she was answering the questions, Gu Ci truly didn’t utter a single word, just stood beside her watching. If not for the fact that he was breathing, he was no different from an exquisite decorative piece.
The previous question had still been on a normal track, but unexpectedly, the next ones from Big Waves started veering off again—
Things like, “Have you considered when you might get out of being single,” or, “Has anyone told you that you two look very well-matched,” or, “Since you’re friends, why don’t you tell us some of each other’s good points”…
Yan Luqing felt dazed, as if she had somehow ended up in some kind of matchmaking program with Gu Ci.
By the time Big Waves was practically about to directly ask, “Do you two want to be together,” Yan Luqing finally couldn’t hold back and called stop.
“It’s just that…” Yan Luqing forced the words out after holding them in for a long while, “aren’t you really going to ask us about our thoughts on the exhibition?” She looked seriously at Big Waves, giving her a clear hint: “I actually really like the paintings in the exhibition, I have a lot to say about them, really.”
From beside her came a soft laugh.
Big Waves gave a disappointed “oh,” then extremely reluctantly started asking: “Classmate, which painting in the exhibition do you like the most?”
Now that was more like it—those earlier questions, how was anyone supposed to answer them?
What followed were all exhibition-related questions. Yan Luqing spoke fluently for two full minutes without pause. Big Waves, however, wasn’t nearly as enthusiastic as at first, and soon the interview ended perfunctorily.
As soon as the two girls left, Yan Luqing immediately reproached Gu Ci: “Why did you agree, only to leave me to answer everything alone!”
Gu Ci smiled faintly and said: “Giving you something to do.”
Yan Luqing: “???”
She wanted to say something more, but Gu Ci was already following the direction they had just been walking, moving forward. Yan Luqing quickly followed after him.
When she saw him stop at the middle section of the mural, she couldn’t help but ask: “Can you tell which part I painted?”
Gu Ci didn’t speak, continuing forward. Only when he reached the last three walls did he stop.
“Here.”
Yan Luqing sighed with emotion: “Ah… as expected, it’s the flowers you like. You recognized them at a glance.”
Gu Ci suddenly asked: “Is it what I like, or what you like?”
Yan Luqing froze: “What?”
“This was painted by you.” Gu Ci looked at her, his eyes dark and deep, the loose strands of hair at his forehead casting a shadow across his face. “Isn’t it what you like?”
“……”
Yan Luqing opened her mouth. She had wanted to say that she had actually painted it because she wanted Gu Ci to feel a sense of involvement—but saying that aloud seemed a bit too strange.
“Then let’s just say I like it. Anyway, these little flowers are pretty.”
After saying that, she continued walking forward.
Yan Luqing and Gu Ci made another half-circle around the paintings, during which they ran into Senior Bottle and Senior Little Tiger Tooth. When they exchanged greetings, Yan Luqing noticed that Senior Little Tiger Tooth seemed like he had something to say, but he was dragged away by Senior Bottle. She didn’t think much of it, gave a glance around, and said: “Looks like we’ve seen enough. I’ll go tell Little Braids, and then shall we head back?”
“Mm.”
When they got home, the Princess of the Bamboo Shoot Kingdom, busy with a thousand daily affairs, immediately took a call. Judging from his tone, it was probably his uncle.
Yan Luqing’s eyes were full of that dazzling new phone case in his hand while he was on the call.
Perhaps Gu Ci’s face could match anything—even with such a flashy color pressed against his ear, it didn’t look out of place. As she watched, she thought: truly worthy of being someone who could effortlessly pull off a hundred different skins.
After that, apart from eating dinner together, he hardly came out of his room.
Yan Luqing originally hadn’t given that daytime interview much thought—until after she finished bathing in the evening, when Little Braids sent her two links.
【Little Braids】: Wow! I just found out you and your guy got interviewed! You two are so! photogenic!
【Little Braids】: The school website uploaded the video of the event, and the interview’s been edited too—here’s the link.
【Little Braids】: Someone also posted your video on the forum, hahaha I love this thread so much, it’s killing me [link]
【Little Braids】: Share the school link on your Moments to help me promote it～Love you
Yan Moliang, having just obtained a new treasure, returned to her room and, eager to sketch bamboo, didn’t even carefully check which link Little Braids was talking about. She directly forwarded the last one to her Moments.
Then she replied “ok,” tossed her phone onto the bed, and once more immersed herself in painting.
Gu Ci finished an entire video meeting. First, he opened the monitoring software to take a glance—there were no physiological data recorded.
Then he opened WeChat, where his Moments displayed a small red dot with Yan Luqing’s profile picture.
Her post read: “Promoting a bit, very good event～”
Very official words. Below it was a shared link.
Gu Ci casually tapped into the link, and while waiting for it to load, closed his eyes for a short moment.
Five seconds later, the page loaded.
He had originally assumed it would be something like a campus website interface. He gave a rough glance at the beginning—yet realized it was actually the forum of Yan Luqing’s university.
【Topic】#Reposted a segment of an interview from the art club’s Weibo, I don’t know who these two are, but I don’t care, I’m shipping them first!!!#
1F [Original Poster]: The boy didn’t say a single word the whole time, but after watching I only want to ask, when can they get married t-t…
2F [= =]: From the video thumbnail alone I could tell this was that couple my roommate’s been shipping. Their looks are way too striking. Mainly, it’s the first time I’ve seen this type of guy—so handsome, and I really want to call him a great beauty, it’s absolutely stunning.
…
10F [= =]: Fuck, I’ve never shipped a real-person CP before, I’m stunned. Even just for their faces I have to ship them? Big Beauty and Little Beauty, hurry up and stick together!
11F [= =]: Who would believe you’re not a couple? That glare the girl gave at the beginning was way too coy, so cute! And that Great Beauty stayed calm the whole time, like, “Look at my baby struggling, how cute.” So su so su so su! [su = slang for charming/heart-throbbing]
12F [= =]: I don’t believe it, I don’t believe it, I don’t believe it (screaming and shaking head)
13F [Cilantro Tastes Awful]: Logically, knowing such a handsome guy is single should make me happy, but why do I actually feel disappointed hearing they’re not a couple…
14F [Cilantro My Wife]: +1 on disappointed. Probably because even if they’re single, it would never be my turn, so I’d rather just post kswlkswl in their thread… [kswl = internet slang, “knock me dead from shipping”]
15F [My CP Is The Realest]: Hahahahaha who doesn’t love shipping CPs? I don’t care, I just want to post I’m shipping myself to death! kswlkswlkswl!
16F [= =]: Wait wait, the girl’s from our school, the Great Beauty is from T University—T University’s good stuff flowing into our field, hahahahahaha I’m so thrilled! That girl, you’re amazing!!!
17F [= =]: This really isn’t mutual secret crushes? They’re just both too good at acting?
18F [= =]: These two seriously have a lot of people hoping they’ll get married.jpg
…
Gu Ci had originally only intended to casually read something to relax, but he hadn’t expected content like this.
He read quickly, yet here his scrolling slowed significantly. And precisely because of that, he soon saw floor posts in a completely different tone from the earlier ones.
40F [= =]: ??? So the girl’s single? And the guy’s single too? Then they can bring blessings to the masses??
41F [= =]: Word’s already spread in the science and engineering department. Last week in software engineering, a super pretty freshman girl came. I haven’t gone to see, but wow, judging from this video she really is gorgeous…
42F [= =]: Showed it to my bro, he was floored that our school’s science and engineering department could have this level of beauty. He’s getting ready to pursue her, hahaha.
…
49F [= =]: I still don’t believe it. Didn’t someone above say they know their names? Any insiders here who can tell us if they’re actually a couple or not, wu wu wu wu wu qaq
At this point, the thread stopped updating—this was the latest post.
Then, a few seconds later, below came Floor 50—
50F [.] : Their phone screensavers are photos of each other.
The replies instantly went wild.
51F [= =]: ??? Floor 50? Period-jie (period sister)? Are you an insider???
52F [= =]: Aaaaaaah each other’s photos kdlkdlkdl!
53F [= =]: Hahaha, anyone above who was planning to pursue—whether bro or sis—just give it up.
54F [= =]: Period-jie, please, more more more!
And so, the mysterious Period posted again—
55F [.] : They’ve been living together.
56F [= =]: ???!! Fuck living together? I’m shipping for real ahhhhh kswlkswl!
57F [= =]: Holy shit, I’m shipping to life and death. By the way, Period-jie, which insider exactly are you?
