Chatting Late into the Night

That night, Luo Ye tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep.

Li Haoyang's loud snores echoed through the dorm. They were noisy, but after half a month, Luo Ye had long since gotten used to them.

Thinking back to what had happened in the game earlier, he couldn't resist opening the chat window and sending Hotpot Lover a message.

Luo Ye: Are you an upperclassman?

Su Baizhou was tidying her room in the Faculty Apartments when she heard the notification. She read the message and replied.

Hotpot Lover: Yes.

Only then did Luo Ye realize that the two girls Gu Mingxuan had invited to play with them back then were probably his students.

That guy actually invited his own students to play games. Didn't his conscience bother him as a teacher?

But Gu Mingxuan taught computer science. Did that mean this upperclassman was a computer science major too?

At that thought, Luo Ye sent another message.

Luo Ye: Then do you know Su Baizhou?

Reading this, Su Baizhou sat down on the sofa, a faint mischievous impulse stirring inside her.

Professor Gu's younger brother, the boy who racked up kills in the game, was actually so shy and innocent in real life.

Hotpot Lover: Yes, we're very close.

Luo Ye froze for a moment.

He had only asked casually. He hadn't expected her not only to know Su Baizhou, but to be close to her.

Now that he had his answer, Luo Ye didn't know what to say. He even felt a little nervous.

When he failed to reply for a while, Su Baizhou crossed her legs. A moment later, she took the initiative and asked:

Hotpot Lover: Got a crush on her?

Even lying in his bed in the boys' dorm, Luo Ye couldn't help blushing bright red at those words.

With his looks and grades, plenty of girls had liked him growing up.

But because he had spent three years secretly pining for his dream girl, he had turned down every other girl who pursued him.

Besides, his parents had met in college, so Luo Ye had wanted to wait until college to start dating too.

Even now, he was still an innocent young boy who had never dated anyone, much less learned how to handle girls.

After a long silence, Luo Ye replied, "No."

The corners of Su Baizhou's lips lifted slightly.

One little word, and he had hesitated for three minutes.

With looks like hers, she had encountered every kind of suitor.

But this was her first time meeting such an innocent younger student.

Luo Ye: What's your name?

Su Baizhou thought for a moment, then sent him a name.

Hotpot Lover: Qin Yuwen.

The two girls Gu Mingxuan had invited into the game back then were her and Qin Yuwen.

So giving him Qin Yuwen's name now made perfect sense.

Luo Ye: What a coincidence!!

Luo Ye was certainly familiar with the name Qin Yuwen.

She was Dachui's dream girl.

At that thought, Luo Ye sent another message: My roommate likes you.

(Wang Dachui: ???)

Su Baizhou couldn't help smiling when she saw it. She found it rather amusing.

Who talked to a girl like that?

Before they knew it, the two of them had chatted late into the night.

Talking to Luo Ye always made Su Baizhou feel as if she were talking to a little kid.

She liked that feeling. His messages radiated a kind of pure, unclouded foolishness.

Still, Luo Ye had spent the whole evening asking about Su Baizhou.

Yet even by the end of their conversation, Luo Ye couldn't bring himself to ask for her WeChat.

After all, he and Hotpot Lover had always used QQ when they played together.

Meanwhile, Su Baizhou's WeChat contacts consisted almost entirely of relatives and a few close female friends.

Smiling faintly, Su Baizhou typed under Qin Yuwen's name: I'll send you her contact. We're close.

Hotpot Lover: [WeChat QR code].

But Luo Ye was so exhausted that he drifted off to sleep without realizing it.

When no friend request arrived on WeChat and her QQ messages went unanswered, Su Baizhou frowned.

"That little stammerer... did he fall asleep?"

Suddenly, she raised an eyebrow. Looking at the hundreds of messages she had exchanged with Luo Ye on her phone, then at the still-untidy room around her, she grew thoughtful.

What had she spent this whole evening doing...?

Then her brow relaxed again, and she murmured, "I'm just helping Professor Gu look after his younger brother. Adding him on WeChat is no big deal..."

When Luo Ye woke up, he casually opened his phone and saw the last two messages "Qin Yuwen" had sent the night before.

Then he saw a WeChat QR code.

"Qin Yuwen" had said it belonged to Su Baizhou.

Luo Ye was suddenly wide awake.

His Fairy Senior's WeChat?

Luo Ye tapped straight through and opened Fairy Senior's WeChat profile.

They weren't friends yet, so he couldn't see her Moments, only Fairy Senior's nickname... which was simply Su Baizhou. Plain and straightforward, she used her own name as her WeChat username.

Come to think of it, Luo Ye's username was Fallen Leaves, and his in-game name was Fallen Leaves Return to Their Roots. Though it was a play on how his name sounded, he was essentially using his own name too.

What should I do? Add her or not?

But Fairy Senior probably doesn't even know me yet, does she?

Should I say I'm the guy who sang a duet with her at the New Student Gala?

Or mention how we sheltered from the rain together on the first day?

With Su Baizhou's personality, there's no way she'd accept either of those reasons, right?

And if she rejects me, I probably won't get a second chance.

Luo Ye sat in bed, wavering.

His first class started at eight thirty. He had woken up at seven, yet somehow kept hesitating until eight ten.

"Luo Ye, what are you sitting there spacing out for? You'll be late if you don't get up," Li Haoyang reminded him.

"Huh? Oh, right. I'm getting up."

Luo Ye closed his phone and hurriedly started getting dressed.

During their first class, Luo Ye stared blankly at a WeChat QR code.

Beside him, all three of his roommates turned their heads to look at him.

"You've been staring at it forever. Are you adding her or not?" Shen Qiao asked with a smile.

"I want to, but I don't dare," Luo Ye said meekly.

After all, this was the WeChat account of Jiangda's campus beauty.

Who am I to add her?

And what if she rejects my request?

Shen Qiao glanced at the QR contact card and paused when he saw the name Su Baizhou.

Then the corners of his lips lifted slightly, and he prompted, "Luo Ye, let me ask you something. What's your relationship with her right now?"

"We're strangers."

"Then what are you afraid of?" Shen Qiao asked.

At those words, Luo Ye finally understood.

Right. What am I afraid of?

He had no chance to get to know Fairy Senior in the first place, so the worst possible outcome now was simply that nothing would change.

With that thought, Luo Ye typed his own name into the friend request. Without offering any other explanation, he sent it.

Finally, he switched off his phone.

"Why did you turn it off?" Shen Qiao asked in surprise.

Luo Ye turned to look at him with difficulty, so nervous that even his movements had slowed.

"I don't dare look. I'm afraid she'll reject me."

Shen Qiao: ...

How could a guy in college be this innocent?

No, wait. This guy was clearly still a boy.