Let's Video Chat, Okay?

Human malice had no clear standard. Once someone was perceived as a threat, people instinctively rejected them, and if they had the ability, they might even deliberately suppress them. Su Yuan found it rather dull. Why was human society filled with so many utilitarian factors?

There was no internet in the dorm, so Yang Xiaowei suggested they go together. Su Yuan raised her hand in approval, and Ji Yehao had no objections. As for Gao Jun, he was sent back to write software.

"You can't treat me like this!" Gao Jun shouted indignantly.

As if her conscience had suddenly awakened, Su Yuan felt that she had been too harsh on him. "How about we bring you something tasty when we get back?"

Gao Jun grumbled, still unwilling. Su Yuan became unhappy and kicked him in the shin.

"Hey, Su Yuan, why did you kick me!"

"Because I feel like it! What's the point of you going online? You'd be better off going back and writing software properly." Su Yuan lifted her chin and huffed.

"You're completely unreasonable!" Gao Jun gnashed his teeth in anger.

Su Yuan's dark eyes drifted over and stared straight at him. Gao Jun felt as though his punch had landed on something soft, and he raised his hands in surrender. "Fine, fine. I won't go online today, but remember to bring me back a Family Bucket."

"What? A Family Bucket? Are you trying to eat me into poverty?" Su Yuan was unwilling. She had spent quite a bit on her physical examination, and life had been tight lately. Yet this guy opened his mouth and demanded a Family Bucket, which cost seventy or eighty yuan! If she had money, she would rather save more and rent a place outside someday, so she would not have to live in constant fear every day.

"One Family Bucket can make you poor? I don't care. If you don't bring me one, don't expect me to back down!"

"Tch, look at you!" Su Yuan could tell that Gao Jun was standing his ground this time, with no room for negotiation. The problem was that she really could not bear to spend that money.

Watching the two face off, one refusing to give up until he got what he wanted, the other like a defeated rooster unwilling to admit defeat, Ji Yehao found the scene quite amusing. He coughed and cut in, "Su Yuan, just agree to it. I'll pay for the Family Bucket."

Su Yuan's eyes lit up at once. She looked at Ji Yehao as if a destitute bandit had spotted a wealthy tycoon, her gaze incomparably warm. He truly was a good brother, useful at the crucial moment.

"Yehao, you're a real one." After Gao Jun disappeared from sight, Su Yuan nudged him with her elbow. Ji Yehao smiled silently. At that moment, a breeze drifted over, carrying a faint, refreshing fragrance along with the scent of shampoo. Ji Yehao's expression went slightly dazed. "Su Yuan, what body wash do you use? It's been a whole day, and you still smell so good?"

"Smell good?" She sniffed herself. "I don't smell anything."

"Maybe I smelled wrong." The moment he realized he was discussing the scent on a man's body, Ji Yehao suddenly felt that something was off. The osmanthus trees on campus were in bloom, their faint fragrance spreading through the school on the air currents. Perhaps the scent he had smelled earlier was the osmanthus.

"What are you two walking so slowly in the back and talking about? Flirting with each other? Hurry up, or there won't be any computers left." Yang Xiaowei suddenly turned around.

"Ah! Right."

Su Yuan came back to her senses and hurriedly quickened her pace, running after them.

As she ran, she kept thinking about the matter of the fragrance. Ji Yehao's words earlier probably had not been a misunderstanding. Did she really have a scent on her? When she said she could not smell anything, she had actually been brushing him off. She raised her arm and sniffed again. There really did seem to be a faint fragrance.

Could this be a girl's natural body scent? She froze. Part of body scent came from chemical substances metabolized by the sweat glands beneath the skin, changing with one's diet. Another part was the "sexual scent" stored and released within a woman's body, pheromones released by a female hormone. It was not necessarily detected through the sense of smell; it could directly affect the other person's central nervous system.

Thinking about how she was taking female hormones, Su Yuan's heart began pounding. Modern medicine works way too fast, doesn't it?

"There happen to be three seats together over there. Let's go there." Yang Xiaowei pointed toward a corner spot by the wall, safe and secluded.

"Sure."

Su Yuan quickly chose the computer closest to the edge, leaving the middle one for Ji Yehao. Then she skillfully entered her password. The first thing she wanted to do was log into QQ. She had two accounts, one male and one female. The male account was the QQ she used in real life, while the female account was for online contacts.

"Beep, beep, beep..." Once QQ logged in, the headphones over Su Yuan's ears began to ring.

Su Yuan saw that a friend called Red Leaf had left her messages. They had met in a game.

"You there? The guild is organizing a dungeon run at six tonight. We're short on people."

"Why aren't you online yet? Are you coming or not?"

"If you're not coming, we'll find someone else."

"Damn it, Su Yao, you're done for!" A bloodied knife followed the message.

Su Yuan's expression instantly turned awkward when she saw the messages. She had already decided to stop playing Zhu Xian 2, but she had not had time to explain it to Red Leaf.

After thinking for a moment, she typed into the chat box, "Busy with real life. I don't have time to play games anymore."

"Ahem!" QQ's notification sound rang out.

Su Yuan saw that it was a friend request. Without another thought, she chose "Ignore" for the request, which contained no note or identifying information.

After hesitating for a moment, she decided she should log into the game and send a message to her friends there. Red Leaf was one of her closer friends. They had played several games together, which was why they had added each other on QQ. As for ordinary friends in the game, they did not receive that kind of treatment.

The moment she logged in, she received quite a few private messages. Red Leaf, in particular, cursed at her furiously: "Damn it, if you don't come soon, I'm going to get mad!!"

"Come quickly, we don't have enough people."

"Missy, if you don't show up soon, I'm going to steal your husband!!"

"Damn, why has your husband disappeared too!!"

A bead of sweat seemed to hang over Su Yuan's head. She hurriedly apologized to Red Leaf and once again explained that she was going to quit. Then she sent messages to her other friends in the game as well.

Red Leaf soon replied on QQ, "Quit my ass. You don't want your husband anymore?"

"No." Su Yuan typed the three words.

"Heartless!! Ruthless!!!!" Red Leaf replied quickly, in a full-on roaring tone. Then came another message: "If your Ye Huang finds out you don't want him anymore, he'll definitely be heartbroken to death."

"Ye Huang" was the rich player Su Yuan had latched onto online as Little Fox. He spent lavishly and was presumably the child of a wealthy family. Usually, Su Yuan acted cute and called him husband over and over with particular enthusiasm. It was only a game, after all. Who would know whether the person behind the computer was an adorable girl or some greasy old guy scratching his feet?

Little Fox had once asked Ye Huang whether he minded. To her surprise, Ye Huang replied, "What I care about is the process of the game. In the game, you're my wife. I don't care whether you're an adorable girl or some guy scratching his feet in real life."

That answer gave Su Yuan quite a scare. After that, she completely abandoned the last trace of embarrassment she had felt and clung to her "husband," brazenly asking for quite a bit of equipment.

"The game is the game, and real life is real life. We'll part on good terms. He understands that even better than I do, so he won't be sad!"

Su Yuan sent Red Leaf a reply.

After a long while, Red Leaf sent a message: "Did you two have a fight? (confused)"

"No!"

"Then why are you quitting, and why hasn't Ye Huang logged in either?"

"Maybe he's starting to get busy with other things in real life too." Su Yuan replied.

Red Leaf: "Hey, how about we video chat? Your big sister still doesn't know what you look like."

"No!"

"Why!!!!"

"Because I'm a man."

"!!"

Red Leaf fell silent for a few seconds. "That works too. I'm a man too!!!!"

"..."

"Stunned? I was kidding. Your big sister is a youthful, gorgeous beauty!!! Hey, you must be lying too, right? Su Yao, you're a girl, aren't you!!!"

"Yeah."

"Then let's video chat!!"

"No, I'm too ugly."

"!!!" Red Leaf exclaimed again. "Su Yao, you're finished!!!"

It was obvious that Red Leaf was about to explode with anger. Su Yuan chuckled, her delicate fingers tapping out a few words on the keyboard: "I'm at an internet cafe right now. We can video chat after I get back to the dorm, but there's no internet in the dorm yet, so we'll have to wait a few days."

"So you're at an internet cafe. Fine, I'll remember this." As if to show the magnanimity expected of an older sister, Red Leaf let Su Yuan off very easily.

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