At the front of the classroom, Chen Yusheng held her phone, looking somewhat conflicted.
Yet the ripples in her cool, beautiful eyes proved that she was actually thrilled.
Su Bai's comparison to being a Sanya travel companion had sparked a powerful wave of imagination in Chen Yusheng's mind.
She did not dislike the idea. On the contrary, she was looking forward to something ambiguous happening between her and Su Bai during this trip.
Looking at the freshly deposited fifteen thousand yuan in her account, her mother's treatment expenses for next month were covered again.
That meant Chen Yusheng could visit the lab less often and get more rest.
Working at the lab was pretty exploitative anyway. Those in the know, knew.
Professors charged companies a fortune for projects, yet only gave students a tiny share.
They took advantage of undergraduates having no other ways to make money and freely drove down the pay.
There were even students so brainwashed by the grind that they were willing to pay out of pocket just to work for professors.
Thanks to the bootlicking behavior of these "good students," Professor Luo's lab required working students to clock in for a certain number of hours every week before they received their stipend.
It was basically no different from having a job.
Chen Yusheng was truly speechless at these people.
Of course, speechless as she was, Chen Yusheng had no bargaining power in front of the professors. She was indeed a genius girl, but she was only a freshman and still in the developmental stage of being a genius, restricted at every turn.
Compared to that, working for Su Bai was ridiculously cost-effective.
And that value for money clearly included Su Bai's improper intentions toward her.
But Chen Yusheng had improper intentions toward Su Bai too.
She had decided!
Next month, she would not work at Professor Luo's lab anymore.
Rather than waste her free time there, she might as well serve Su Bai and use the time she saved to write code for her own private projects.
It would be easy and fun.
So, Chen Yusheng secretly decided that during this trip, she would express a little of her interest to Su Bai. For someone as socially anxious as her, it was quite difficult, but... they would be traveling together for two or three days. If she gathered her courage, she would surely find a suitable chance.
At worst, she could just hug him and kiss him. Mm...
And her long legs in black stockings... men should all like those, right?
Chen Yusheng sank into a strange, chaotic fantasy, clutching her phone as a lovely blush spread across her slender, fair neck.
Xia Lin, standing at the podium, took all of this in.
Her beautiful eyes blinked as her interest in gossip surged.
Recently, she had also heard rumors in the student group chats about Su Bai and Chen Yusheng.
From Xia Lin's perspective, those two students were quite well matched.
But when she thought of the few short videos Su Bai had sent her, then looked at Chen Yusheng's expression of a young girl falling in love, Xia Lin unexpectedly felt a surge of jealousy.
She suddenly snapped awake, followed by deep shame.
Su Bai had merely been checking in with her for safety, as usual. As their counselor, how could she let her thoughts wander like that?!
Embarrassed, Xia Lin could only say, "Students, discuss freely. If there's nothing else, I'll be leaving first."
"Thanks for your hard work, Director Xia!" "Goodbye, Director Xia!"
Seeing their counselor leave the classroom, Chen Yusheng regained some clarity. She looked around, saw that there were not many people left, then hurried to the back of the room and walked up to Su Bai.
Chen Yusheng reached out and tugged on Su Bai's clothes. "Let's... go register."
Chu Mingzhe: ???
Chu Mingzhe's expression changed at light speed, cycling through every color imaginable.
His trembling hand reached for his chest.
Wang Haoran, who had been grinding a gacha game, sensed something and hurriedly looked up at Chu Mingzhe.
Fuck, this guy's about to croak again!
Just as Wang Haoran thought he would have to send Chu Mingzhe to the infirmary again, Su Bai asked in confusion, "Register for what?"
"Register with Director Xia. You and I will be in the same group for the trip."
"Oh, I can just tell her that. You don't need to worry about it."
"Mhm."
Chen Yusheng paused before speaking with difficulty. "The trip... I'm really looking forward to going with you."
With that, she covered her face and ran off shyly.
The people around them, especially the boys, all shot murderous looks their way.
Fuck!
They should have left the classroom with Director Xia.
Look at this, look at this. Was this even reasonable?
Classes had only started a few days ago, and Su Bai had actually hooked up with Chen Yusheng.
They had thought it was just a rumor, but it looked like Goddess Chen was actually the more proactive one.
Why?
Other than being a little better-looking, Su Bai was completely ordinary in every other way.
Several of Chen Yusheng's admirers were better-looking than Su Bai.
Those guys were genuine rich and handsome young men.
So why had they lost to Su Bai?
What Chen Yusheng had just said to Su Bai was bound to spread among their classmates and cause a huge uproar.
At this moment, Chu Mingzhe clutched his chest.
At least he could breathe normally again.
When he first heard Chen Yusheng mention registering, he thought she meant registering a marriage with Su Bai.
So it was just registration for the travel event. Hahaha.
"Brother Su Bai, I think us roommates should remain united and friendly. How about our Room 510 goes together? We can bring Chen Yusheng along and find a few more people from the Academy of Arts," Chu Mingzhe said.
"I don't mind, but are you really okay with that?" Su Bai was a little doubtful. If Chu Mingzhe saw him being affectionate with Chen Yusheng, the guy might drop dead on the spot.
"No problem!" Chu Mingzhe wore an expression of righteous resolve. "Seeing you and Chen Yusheng having sweet moments with my own eyes will help me give up completely. Sigh, actually, I've more or less accepted reality already. Now I think Jiang Qiuran is more my type. After all, she bought Sennheiser. She has musical taste!"
"Come on, Hu Ye, can you have some backbone?" Xue Tao said unhappily.
"What do you mean, backbone? I call this adapting to circumstances and playing things by ear. Besides, Chen Yusheng already has Su Bai, while Jiang Qiuran is still single and doesn't even have an ambiguous partner. Of course I should pursue a pure girl like that."
As expected of Hu Ye. What pure love.
Su Bai sighed inwardly. Actually, this was a good thing. If young people did not have a few ideals about pure love, could they all just be morally bankrupt?
"Oh, right. Chen Yusheng and Jiang Qiuran are roommates. We can ask Chen Yusheng to invite Jiang Qiuran into the group."
Chu Mingzhe looked at Su Bai with burning eyes. "Brother Su Bai, you'll help me, right?"
"Umm... that depends on what Shengsheng wants."
"Fuck! You're already calling her so affectionately. Just how far have you two gotten already?!"
Chu Mingzhe clutched his head and freaked out.
Xue Tao, however, wore a gloomy expression as he considered another possibility.
Damn it, was he really going to let that bastard Chu Mingzhe hit on Jiang Qiuran?
What if it actually worked out? It was not impossible. Rumor had it that Jiang Qiuran came from some poor place in the province. Maybe she would really long for a Magic City household registration. And Chu Mingzhe was the artsy, pretentious type. He might actually luck into it.
Xue Tao was immediately seized by a powerful sense of crisis.
So Xue Tao also decided to join the group.
When Wang Haoran saw that, he figured he might as well go too.
Before you continue