A crisp notification sound pulled Chen Ming from his swirling memories back to reality.
On the phone screen, a red message was particularly glaring.
— — [The recipient has rejected your transfer]
Immediately after, Xiao Qingyue sent a message, her tone distant and innocent, like a passerby inexplicably harassed.
[What are you talking about? I don't understand.]
Alright, playing dumb, are we?
He activated his most practiced "scumbag" defense mode, tapping a line of extremely flippant words onto the screen.
[I gave you a chance, but you didn't take it.]
After sending it, he tossed his phone onto the nightstand, turned his back, and closed his eyes.
In another dorm room, however, the atmosphere was completely different.
Xiao Qingyue looked at the phrase "I owe you" on the screen, which also reminded her of her senior year of high school.
Tears fell without warning, one drop, two drops, soon forming a stream.
"Wuu... Fei Fei..."
She threw herself into Lin Fei's arms, who had leaned down from the top bunk, and the long-suppressed grievances finally burst forth.
Amidst Lin Fei's clumsy comforts, she haltingly revealed everything about her and Chen Ming, from falling in love to breaking up, and then the secret about the "universal membership card."
Lin Fei listened, wide-eyed, her expression changing from gossipy at first, to shocked in the middle, and finally to indignant.
"Damn it! There's such a thing?" After hearing the whole story, Lin Fei slammed the bed board in anger. "This Chen Ming, how dare he! Who does he think he is? Transferring money to you after breaking up, what does that mean? Who is he trying to humiliate?!"
She looked at her Best Friend, who was crying uncontrollably in her arms, feeling incredibly distressed. She immediately made a decision, officially promoting herself from "wingman" to "commander-in-chief."
"No! I can't swallow this!" Lin Fei rolled up her sleeves, looking ready for a fight. "This man, he must be won back! And then dumped hard! ...No," she reconsidered, changing her mind, "Win him back and have a good relationship! Why should other seductive sluts benefit?!"
Meanwhile, in Chen Ming's 404 dorm room, a large-scale "information leak" was underway.
Zhou Ye, Li Mo, and Su Zhe were still relishing last night's social gathering, especially the part where the campus belle actively chose to make eye contact with Chen Ming. Zhou Ye had already embellished it, boasting it into an epic tale: "Our Brother Ming's kingly aura leaked, and the campus belle immediately bowed down."
"Let me tell you, at that time, tsk tsk, the campus belle's eyes never left our Brother Ming!" Zhou Ye lay on his bed, frantically relaying information to Lin Fei on the other end of the phone. "Our Brother Ming is just that awesome, but he does have a few quirks, for example, he only drinks sugar-free Coke, saying he's afraid of getting diabetes, it's hilarious. Oh, and I have his class schedule for next week, I'll send it to you..."
On the other end of the phone, Lin Fei flattered Zhou Ye with "Wow, you're so amazing!" while quickly taking notes.
In just a few words, she extracted that Chen Ming had a college-wide public lecture at 9 AM the next morning, in the fifth-floor lecture hall of Building A, and his unchangeable exclusive throne was the window seat in the third-to-last row.
Done, mission accomplished.
Early the next morning, as dawn was just breaking, Xiao Qingyue was dug out of bed by Lin Fei.
"Quick, quick, my dear, the battle is about to begin!"
Under Lin Fei's "armament," Xiao Qingyue shed her usual cool and elegant demeanor.
She changed into an off-white dress that Lin Fei had ordered overnight and had flash-delivered that morning. Its exquisite tailoring perfectly accentuated her slender waist.
Lin Fei also forced her to put on light, translucent makeup, and her usually casually draped waterfall-like long hair was loosely tied up, revealing her gracefully curved swan neck.
As she stood in front of the dorm's full-length mirror, morning light streaming through the window onto her, she was so beautiful she seemed to glow.
"Perfect!" Lin Fei snapped her fingers, satisfied with her masterpiece. "Go, my Moon Goddess! Let him know what it means when the treasure he once discarded is now beyond his reach!"
8:55 AM.
Chen Ming and his three roommates slipped into the back door of the huge lecture hall just as the class bell rang.
"Quick, quick, our usual spot!" Zhou Ye led the way, and the four of them, familiar with the route, headed towards their usual corner in the back row.
Just as their butts touched the chairs and before they were fully seated, the back door of the classroom was pushed open again.
A small commotion, starting from the doorway, quickly spread like ripples.
The person who entered was Xiao Qingyue.
Under the gaze of nearly a hundred pairs of eyes, she ignored the large empty seats in the front rows, and also ignored the girls from her department waving vigorously at her from nearby. She walked straight through the crowd and ascended the steps leading to the back rows.
Her objective was so clear that everyone held their breath.
Zhou Ye, Li Mo, and Su Zhe's mouths simultaneously formed an "O" shape, watching as this new campus belle walked, step by step, towards their direction.
Finally, she stopped beside Chen Ming.
The air in the entire classroom seemed to freeze, hundreds of eyes focused on this small corner, and the gossip radar buzzed.
Xiao Qingyue leaned slightly, her soft hair gently brushing Chen Ming's cheek, bringing a faint, sweet scent.
"Excuse me, is this seat taken?"
The seat was empty, everyone knew that.
Her question, rather than an inquiry, was a gentle, undeniable declaration.
Chen Ming was completely cornered.
Under the watchful eyes of the entire audience, he looked up, meeting her almond-shaped eyes, which were filled with "I'm doing this no matter what."
In those eyes, there was none of yesterday's vulnerability or probing, only the firm resolve of someone who had burned her bridges.
The words of refusal stuck in his throat like a fishbone, impossible to utter.
Before he could answer, Xiao Qingyue had already gracefully sat down beside him, taking out her notebook and pen from her bag, spreading them on the desk, as if she had always sat there, as if this was only natural.
The air in the entire lecture hall was instantly ignited by an invisible current.
Zhou Ye turned his head blankly and whispered to Chen Ming, "Brother Ming... I think... I accidentally sent your class schedule to Lin Fei yesterday..."
Chen Ming: "..."
Thank you so much.