Whatever else came of it, accompanying the two girls on their shopping trip that day had burned through a quarter of Wang Dachui's and Li Haoyang's living allowances.
They would probably be living on air by the end of the month.
At that thought, they returned to their dorm looking utterly deflated.
Li Haoyang lay down on his bed, pulled out his phone, and started chatting with Liu Bingxin.
He couldn't let that money go to waste. He had to win the girl over.
Strike while the iron was hot and bring them closer together.
Wang Dachui had also added Tang Enqi's contact information and sent her a greeting on his phone.
But...
She didn't reply at all...
Wang Dachui was puzzled.
Was Enqi busy?
In the dorm, Shen Qiao watched them and silently shook his head.
Simping never ended well.
Then his gaze shifted to Luo Ye.
He thought Luo Ye and Su Baizhou had a better chance.
It was a gut feeling.
Su Baizhou was the aloof campus beauty, yet a strange twist of fate had put her onstage singing with Luo Ye.
Usually, that sort of thing meant heaven was deliberately playing matchmaker.
(Wang Dachui: Hehehe.)
And today, he had personally seen Luo Ye add Su Baizhou on WeChat. From the looks of it, she had even accepted.
There was clearly something there.
At that thought, Shen Qiao sat on his bed and laughed aloud.
He, Shen Qiao, truly had the highest emotional intelligence. Every guess hit the mark. Unrivaled. A master detective. The man holding the script.
The other three stared at Shen Qiao as though he were an idiot when he suddenly burst out laughing.
Wang Dachui: "Dumbass."
Li Haoyang: "Have you lost it?"
Luo Ye: "What happened?"
Just then, Luo Ye's phone chimed.
His Fairy Senior had sent him a message.
Luo Ye opened their chat.
His Fairy Senior said she had finished what she was doing and asked when he would have time to carry her in a game.
Right now, of course!
Then Su Baizhou sent him her in-game ID.
Her username was... My Bear Is Big, Do As You Please.
Huh?
Luo Ye stared at the name, lost in thought.
That Fairy Senior really showed a different side in games. She had actually picked a name like that.
Maybe Fairy Senior was the type who was aloof in person but outgoing online.
In the Women's Dormitory, Su Baizhou looked at the name with flushed cheeks and couldn't help saying to Qin Yuwen, "Shameless."
At that, Qin Yuwen looked utterly confused. Then she puffed out her ample chest and asked, "Why are you insulting me? That's always been my username. You never had a problem with it before."
Then she noticed there were two people in Su Baizhou's party, but she didn't think much of it.
After all, besides being close to her roommate, Su Baizhou also had a best friend studying medicine at Jiangcheng Medical University.
She was probably playing duos with her best friend.
And... Su Baizhou had even put on headphones and turned on her mic to call the shots.
Qin Yuwen was practically certain she was playing with her best friend.
After all, anyone who could get someone with online social anxiety to speak had to be someone she knew well.
Although Su Baizhou had switched on her microphone, she still rarely spoke, maintaining her cool, detached manner.
But that was more than enough for Luo Ye. Just hearing Fairy Senior's voice left him incredibly content, even giving him a little rush of happiness.
Perhaps this was what liking a girl felt like for most boys: it took so little to make them happy.
Luo Ye played support. Although he was better at jungling, Fairy Senior had asked him to support her.
Come to think of it, Fairy Senior's playstyle was rather similar to "Senior Qin Yuwen's." As expected of roommates, they were really in sync.
They played five matches that night and only lost one.
Luo Ye remarked, "You're not bad at this at all, Senior. Nothing like Senior Qin said."
Hearing his voice through her headphones, Su Baizhou said softly, "I'm not. I'm much better than Qin Yuwen."
Qin Yuwen, who was watching videos beside her, suddenly heard her own name. She sat up, flailing indignantly. "Zhouzhou, I feel like you're insulting me!"
Her voice was so loud that even though Su Baizhou was wearing headphones, Luo Ye could hear her.
Hearing Qin Yuwen's lively voice, he smiled and said, "Senior Qin's personality is pretty different from how she acts online too. Do all girls have two sides?"
"You can think of it that way," Su Baizhou said flatly.
Although Fairy Senior sounded icy, she answered everything he said seriously.
That meant he was already Fairy Senior's friend. Otherwise, with her rumored personality, she definitely wouldn't have bothered with him.
Having gotten this far, Luo Ye wondered whether he should ask Fairy Senior out for a meal.
What would be a good excuse?
At that thought, Luo Ye opened his QQ chat with "Qin Yuwen" and asked:
Senior Qin, do you think Senior Su would agree if I invited her out for a meal?
After reading his message, Su Baizhou fell into thought, then replied:
You've known me this long, and you're asking her out first?
Luo Ye froze at the reply.
That was true. He had known Senior Qin online for a while now, and they had played so many games together. Now, by sheer coincidence, they were even at the same university.
Yet he still hadn't met Senior Qin. By any reasonable measure, he ought to ask her to meet first.
Luo Ye: Then... but wouldn't it be a little inappropriate for a guy and a girl to meet alone?
Su Baizhou replied: We won't be meeting alone. Didn't you want to meet Zhouzhou? I'll bring her along, but you can't bring any friends. Zhouzhou has social anxiety.
Luo Ye: Okay!!!
He added three exclamation marks to express his excitement, then asked: Are you free tomorrow evening? I know a really good restaurant.
It was the restaurant Wang Dachui and Li Haoyang had taken the two girls to that day.
Hotpot Lover: Not tomorrow.
Luo Ye: Huh?
Hotpot Lover: Zhouzhou is usually busy, but she's free on the weekend.
Luo Ye: No problem! Got it!
Hotpot Lover: You've only just arrived in Jiangcheng, so you don't know the area. Let me treat you. Consider it payment for helping me... and Zhouzhou rank up?
Luo Ye: How could I let you do that?
Hotpot Lover: It's settled.
After ending the conversation, Luo Ye was in a wonderful mood.
So playing games and chatting with someone you liked could make you this happy.
Still, people online always said love made you stupid.
He didn't agree. He thought he was smart as hell right now.
Filled with anticipation, Luo Ye gradually drifted off to sleep.
Li Haoyang's snores and Wang Dachui's sleep talking echoed through the dorm.
Soon, the weekend arrived.
Without telling his roommates, Luo Ye went alone to the barbershop across from campus to have his hair blow-dried and styled.
He didn't know how to do it himself.
As for why he was keeping it from his roommates... he didn't want everyone knowing before anything came of it.
After all, the person he had asked out was Jiangda's aloof campus beauty. He couldn't afford to be careless.
More importantly, from what he had observed, aside from Shen Qiao, the other two in his dorm were all bluster. They had no idea how to flirt with girls.
Rather than asking them to help plan things, he was better off doing it himself. They would only make a mess of it.
Luo Ye asked the barber to style his fringe with a side part, making his already handsome face look even brighter and more cheerful.
He looked every bit the sunny, cheerful young man.
The barber also talked Luo Ye into signing up for a membership card. Then, with the barber enthusiastically seeing him off, he left the little shop.
Today was the first weekend of regular classes after military training ended.
If you knew, you knew.
The freshmen whose hormones had stirred during military training, along with the upperclassmen who had long been waiting for their chance to ask younger students out, had practically all converged at the campus gates that day.
Everywhere he looked, boys and girls appeared in pairs at the gates. There were also a few little groups of seven or eight, with both boys and girls chatting and laughing.
Luo Ye suddenly felt a little nervous.
It wasn't as though he had never gone out with a girl before, but the only times he had been the sole guy were when he went shopping with his aunt.
Before you continue