Little Mahua: “No way, Your Majesty, some people strike with heavy fists in the game, but in reality are timid and cowering, getting trampled and only daring to complain to me, not daring to strike back!!”

Yan Luqing: “……”

Her initial thought hadn’t been for that reason, but with Little Mahua’s string of words, her emotions were unconsciously stirred along.

Yan Luqing temporarily refused: “I don’t know his class schedule, nor his classroom, it’s useless.”

“……” Consort Mahua slapped her thigh. “My boyfriend is at T University! Why would you need to worry about that?”

And ten minutes later, Yan Luqing received the class schedule Little Mahua sent her on WeChat.

Gu Ci’s last class today ended half an hour later than hers.

If she left after her own school and then went over there to pick him up, the timing would be just right—perfect.

Heaven’s timing, earth’s advantage, human harmony.

All aligned.

Beside her came Little Mahua’s words: “Going, darling? Your Majesty? Charging into T University, making Gu Ci the great handsome guy ‘lose all face’?”

“……”

In the end, Yan Luqing couldn’t hold out, and relented: “Go then, go!”

*

When Yan Luqing walked out of the teaching building, she still held on to her previous idea. But by the time she reached the school gate, she suddenly grew timid again.

Just as she was about to send Little Mahua a message saying she didn’t want to go pick him up, she got into the car, and the driver asked: “Miss Yan, will you be going home first, or to T University?”

“……”

Yan Luqing thought again of Gu Ci’s class schedule.

He finished class half an hour later than her. What the driver meant was, go to T University now to wait for him, or go home first.

Yan Luqing thought, going home first wasn’t very good. Gu Ci had waited for her at mealtimes so many times, and if she went there now, at most she’d only be waiting ten minutes for him.

So she said: “Go to T University.”

Absolutely not because she wanted to pick him up from class, absolutely not.

She was just going to wait outside the school gate for him.

Yan Luqing sat in a daze looking out the window at the scenery. Ten minutes later, T University’s beautiful school gate appeared before her eyes.

The thought she had tried so hard to suppress now stirred again.

Gu Ci was in class here.

Such a beautiful campus was right before her eyes.

Why not go! Why? What was she hesitating for?

Besides, she had a plan.

Yan Luqing thought it through like that, directly opened the car door, and unable to hold down the cheer in her voice, said to the driver:

“I’ll just go in and stroll around.”

……

When Little Mahua returned to the dormitory, she happened to receive a message from Yan Luqing.

【Runaway Saintess】: I’ve arrived at T University!

【Runaway Saintess】: This school is way bigger than ours. I had to ask several people before I found their building for the specialized courses.

Little Mahua was delighted, immediately typing to ask: How is it? Have you already reached the classroom door?

【Runaway Saintess】: I’m on the same floor of the corridor as their classroom.

Little Mahua sent an “ok” gesture: Once you see Gu Ci, tell me right away, then I’ll post in their school’s gossip group. Today we’ll let the physics department’s great handsome guy “lose all face”! /thumbs-up

【Runaway Saintess】: …Alright, lose all face! /strive

*

Yan Luqing said she had reached the classroom door, but in truth she was too embarrassed to actually stand right in front of someone else’s classroom door.

Because as she had observed along the way, she found that the classroom doors here had windows. If the lecturer inside was tall enough, a single glance could see the person standing outside.

Classes usually ended with a bell. She planned to stand there only after the bell rang.

Yan Luqing leaned against the wall at the corner, dazed.

Unexpectedly, coming to another’s school to pick someone up after class, turned out to feel like this.

For her, this was a completely unfamiliar place, yet it was Gu Ci’s school. It seemed that just this little reason alone stirred in her a great desire to understand this place.

Moreover—Yan Luqing realized, she seemed to have convinced herself to come here under the guise of a plan, but once truly here, she was even more expectant of what kind of expression Gu Ci would have upon seeing her.

Surprise?

Or shock?

Yan Luqing inexplicably felt that she had originally wanted to come—when Little Mahua brought it up, she was moved.

Why was that?

Like when Gu Ci had set her photo as his phone wallpaper, perhaps as a gesture of reciprocity, she wanted him to experience it once as well?

While she was lost in such wild thoughts for three or four minutes, suddenly the dismissal bell rang in her ears.

Yan Luqing immediately stepped out from the corner, and one by one found the classroom door shown on the schedule.

During this time, other classrooms’ doors opened successively, students’ conversations spilling out. But only Gu Ci’s classroom remained completely quiet, without the slightest movement.

After several more minutes with still no movement, she couldn’t resist tiptoeing closer to look—and then her eyes widened in surprise—this was an empty classroom!

Yan Luqing was baffled. She repeatedly checked the schedule, and she really had found the correct classroom.

“……”

The nearby classrooms along the corridor had almost all emptied.

Yan Luqing had actually already forgotten how to retrace her way back. She didn’t know if Gu Ci had changed classrooms, or if T University had two classrooms with the same number. Thinking it over, afraid he might already have left the campus while she was still here waiting, she simply dialed Gu Ci’s phone.

The call connected within seconds. After less than a day, Yan Luqing once again heard his familiar voice.

“Hello?”

She asked directly: “Gu Ci, which classroom are you in?”

“Mm?” He seemed to be slightly stunned, then answered, “Today’s a special case, I’m in the laboratory classroom, so I’ll be later.”

While speaking, Gu Ci was also removing the other glove from his hand.

The class bell had already rung, the report had been shown to the professor, and after taking them off, he turned to leave the laboratory.

For several seconds on the other end, Yan Luqing still didn’t speak.

Seeing her call, Gu Ci had already basically guessed the reason.

—After the driver picked her up from class, he would come to his school next. Her call was probably because she was in a hurry.

But then, Gu Ci suddenly thought of what she had just asked.

Why would she suddenly ask, “Which classroom are you in”?

“You wouldn’t happen to be…” Gu Ci had just spoken four words when the previously silent Yan Luqing immediately seized the thread of his words.

“Yes, I’m at T University.” Her tone was calm, yet carried a hint of reckless defiance, like breaking the pot to pieces. “I originally came to pick you up after class.”

Gu Ci’s footsteps suddenly halted.

“But I…” before he could speak, Yan Luqing bluntly added, “got lost.”

“……”

Picking someone up only to get lost?

Indeed, this was exactly the kind of thing she would do.

If she managed to pick someone up smoothly and successfully, then she wouldn’t be the Yan Luqing he knew.

A smile unknowingly spread in Gu Ci’s eyes. He switched the phone to the other hand and walked toward the original classroom. “Where are you now?”

As expected, Yan Luqing reported the original classroom for his class.

In truth, it was in the same building as the lab classroom, just two floors apart.

Gu Ci soon saw Yan Luqing waiting outside the classroom.

Perhaps because the weather was turning colder, she wore a thick-looking top. Short, very cute, which made her legs look even slimmer. At this moment, she was tilting her head up, staring intently at the wall of famous alumni posted in the corridor, her wide eyes making her look unusually serious.

Though she hadn’t succeeded in picking him up, since she had come to his school, it still turned into him coming to pick her up.

But seeing Yan Luqing standing outside that classroom door, in that instant, an exceptionally pleasant emotion surged through him.

Gu Ci looked at her for a while, then walked toward her.

In the quiet corridor with few people, his footsteps sounded very clear, and Yan Luqing quickly turned her head toward the sound.

Since the exit was closer to his side, Yan Luqing walked toward him.

The two moved toward each other, and soon stopped in their steps.

On Gu Ci, it always seemed to be only black, white, and gray. The light of the setting sun shone from behind him, yet oddly melded with the cool tones on him.

The atmosphere and background were like a scene from a manga, and his face was perfectly worthy of being its male lead.

After staring for a short moment, Gu Ci blinked, and in that instant, many images from last night flashed through her mind—Yan Luqing suddenly thought of herself lying on his lap, and her heartbeat sped up abruptly. She quickly turned her gaze away.

Afterward, it was he who broke the silence.

“Why did you suddenly want to come pick me up, Master of the House?” Gu Ci spoke with a smile, using the form of address he had called her many times last night. Then, without giving her a chance to respond, he continued: “It’s rather touching.”

“……”

The aftereffects of last night—now whenever Yan Luqing heard the words “Master of the House,” she felt her whole body unwell, restless from the bottom of her heart.

The more she thought, the more it went astray. She barely forced herself to shift her attention, thinking: No… I didn’t sincerely come to pick you up.

But since Gu Ci had even said the word “touching,” she couldn’t just say that.

Aside from the so-called plan, many reasons for picking him up flashed through her mind.

Perhaps she had been moved by the interview video in that CP-shipping thread.

Perhaps it was simply her brain short-circuiting…

But still, one reason was the most reliable.

“Reciprocation.” Yan Luqing lifted her head sharply, speaking with meaning: “Gu Ci, aren’t you the one who understands this idiom the best?”

Her gaze was strikingly direct, even seeming to carry a searing heat, locking straight onto him.

For once, Gu Ci was caught off guard by her words. Yan Luqing, seeing this, felt secretly delighted—when suddenly, the classroom door beside them rattled. A few seconds later, three male students burst out, their eyes landing squarely on her and Gu Ci.

The classrooms here were close together, and the subjects overlapped, so the looks they gave made it obvious they knew Gu Ci, as if they had taken classes together.

Among them, one who looked the most astonished, eyes wide like copper bells, called out to him familiarly: “Ci-ge? This is—?”

Yan Luqing watched as the expression he had worn just now was put away. He turned his face toward the three and smiled: “She came to pick me up from class.”

His tone seemed like a joke.

Yet at the same time, it held the faintest trace of boast.

Yan Luqing: “……”

So Gu Ci never avoided it at all.

What “losing face”?

His reputation—he simply didn’t care!

Those boys all seemed lively in temperament. The moment they heard Gu Ci’s words, they immediately began heckling.

“Wuhu~! Pick-up after class~!”

“Already in university and there’s still a tradition of picking up after class—damn it, I need to get a girlfriend too.”

“Got it, got it! Hahaha, sis is here to claim sovereignty, huh?” One boy clicked his tongue twice. “I’m green with envy here.”

Yan Luqing: “…………”

Good heavens.

So in the end, it turned into her coming to declare sovereignty!!!

On the front of Gu Ci’s clothes was a strap—his school bag. It had no decorations, a pure black, moderately sized single-shoulder bag.

Just as she was at a loss for words, Yan Luqing saw him suddenly smile at her.

That smile made her heart speed up, and at the same time, alarm bells rang wildly in her mind—

Then, Gu Ci tilted his head slightly, and with one hand suddenly slipped off the bag slung across his back, holding it in his hand.

“Didn’t you say reciprocation?” He handed the bag right in front of Yan Luqing, the corners of his eyes lifting. “Shall we run through the pick-up process?”