第二十三章 没钱(▼皿▼#)

"...You're treating me to street food?"

After staring silently at the plate of fried noodles placed before her for a moment, Lin Xiaoyi raised her head speechlessly.

"You didn't think I'd specifically take you to some restaurant just to treat you to a meal, did you?"

Rolling his eyes, Bai Zhi casually grabbed a pair of chopsticks from the table.

"Come on, I'm poor. Restaurant food is way too expensive. How can it compare to street food's value for money?"

"But the sun here is so hot..."

Looking at the blazing sun outside, Lin Xiaoyi looked deeply conflicted.

"Let's eat at a small restaurant instead, okay? They have air conditioning."

"Oh, then suit yourself."

After tossing out those words, Bai Zhi began eating on his own.

Lin Xiaoyi: "..."

That lunch had been incredibly difficult for her. Lin Xiaoyi dared to guarantee that from childhood until now, she had never had a lunch as unforgettable as this one.

She had changed into new clothes, put on light makeup, and happily come out to ask someone to lunch. Yet after the meal, not only had their relationship failed to improve, she had been left drenched in sweat. Worst of all, he had never even properly looked at her once...

His behavior was simply too infuriating, so after returning to the Dormitory, Lin Xiaoyi viciously chugged three whole bottles of Mineral Water in one go.

Ever since childhood, others had always been the ones pursuing her. She had never actively pursued anyone herself. She had originally thought pursuing someone would be easy, but she had never expected to keep running into walls. It had ended before it had even begun.

—Compared to how relentlessly he had pursued her before, he was now completely and utterly a block of wood.

"Ah... this just isn't going to work..."

Lying facedown on the Bed with her face buried in a pillow, the Campus Belle looked rather dejected.

"After dealing with that strange thing that latched onto me, he completely turned his back on me. Does he really have to be so heartless? If he doesn't have money, I do..."

The moment she recalled the scene from lunch, Lin Xiaoyi's expression darkened.

Just then, the Dormitory door was pushed open. Wearing a sunhat, with her long hair tied into a Ponytail behind her back, Xia Wen walked in from outside looking utterly dazed, repeatedly muttering things like, "A million, a million..."

"Hm? What's wrong, Xiao Wen?"

Clearly noticing that something was off with her Roommate, Lin Xiaoyi lifted her head from the Bed and asked curiously.

"Where did you go earlier?"

"Doggy, I was wrong."

Turning to look at the Campus Belle sitting on the Bed, Xia Wen sat down in the chair before the Desk and sighed.

"What you said earlier may very well have been right."

"Huh? What did I say?"

Sitting up, Lin Xiaoyi became even more curious.

"Didn't you say earlier that you were going to eat with Bai Zhi? As your best friend, I naturally couldn't just stand by and watch you get hypnotized and fall into the Abyss of depravity."

Xia Wen sighed again.

"Based on the information I'd gathered before, that Bai Zhi guy is completely broke. The only reason he looks for Girlfriends is to get at their money. He lives entirely off women. Now he's got his eye on you too—he's definitely after your money. Doujinshi often describe this kind of thing: a scumbag gets his girlfriend pregnant, then openly seizes her family assets. To wake you from his hypnosis, I risked getting hypnotized myself to follow him... Doggy, look how good I am to you!!"

Holding her head high and chest out, Xia Wen looked extremely proud.

"Read less Doujinshi, you pervert with nothing but dirty thoughts in your head."

Lin Xiaoyi's face darkened.

"Do you think I read Doujinshi for dirty stuff!? No, it's for! Art!! For exploration!! As the famous scientist Lu Xun once said, the closer we get to the Origin of things, the more boring they become. Don't use your filthy thoughts to judge my great conviction in pursuing art!!"

Waving a hand, Xia Wen looked righteously indignant.

"...Lu Xun never said that. Nietzsche said it."

"Huh? Really? I always thought Mr. Lu Xun said it?"

"Yes."

Looking at Xia Wen's surprised expression, Lin Xiaoyi answered with a slight twitch at the corner of her mouth. To avoid being dragged off-topic by her, she decisively changed the subject.

"By the way, you hadn't finished what you were saying. You secretly followed Bai Zhi, and then? What did you see?"

"Oh, at the time, I was sitting in an air-conditioned restaurant by the street, eating lunch while watching two Sand Sculptures across the road eat fried noodles."

Xia Wen nodded solemnly.

"The air conditioner felt wonderful. I was refreshed and content. Happiness really does come from comparison."

"..."

Lin Xiaoyi silently picked up the Rabbit pillow on her Bed, then slowly and firmly kneaded it into a ball...

"Cough, cough, cough... After that, I put on my hat and secretly followed that guy. I wanted to secretly take some Photos as evidence that he was deceiving both your feelings and your money."

Seeing that she was about to be pelted, Xia Wen hurriedly coughed a few times and continued.

"Then, as luck would have it, I saw him heading into a bank to withdraw money. Faced with such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, there was no way I would back down or give up..."

"And then?"

Seeing Xia Wen stop there, Lin Xiaoyi could not help urging her on.

"Before that, there's one question I need to confirm."

Xia Wen held up one finger before herself, her expression grave.

"Doggy, you didn't give that guy a single cent, right?"

"Isn't that obvious? If I had given him money, do you think we would have eaten at that street stall at noon?"

At the mention of this, the Campus Belle's words were still filled with resentment.

"I did want to give him some money, but I couldn't find any excuse. Even eating at a small restaurant would've been better than eating fried noodles at a street stall in that scorching weather, right? He doesn't have much money..."

"No money?"

With a rather strange expression, Xia Wen pulled out her phone, found a photo in her gallery, and handed it to Lin Xiaoyi.

"Mm, he really doesn't have money. After all, there was only one million left in his Bank Card..."

Lin Xiaoyi: "???"