"Of course not!"
Zhang Zhaomu hurried to assure her. "I'm just a figurehead of a class monitor anyway."
"A figurehead? Class monitor, I don't think you have a clear idea of yourself at all," Duan Chan'er said with a smile. "You're held in really high regard in our class."
"That's only because I helped everyone with their looks," Zhang Zhaomu said.
"No." Duan Chan'er's tone grew a little more serious. "Even without the makeovers, if everyone voted again, you'd still be class monitor."
"Our class never needed the kind of class monitor who keeps an eye on everyone all day. Most of us are specialty students, after all. Even the teachers can't keep us in line, let alone the class officers. What everyone needs more is someone who can be the face of Class Nine."
"And as it happens, you're exceptionally good-looking, so you're perfect for the role."
It was the first time Duan Chan'er had complimented him so directly, and Zhang Zhaomu felt a little secretly pleased. "In that case, wouldn't you be a better fit? You're much more famous at school than I am."
"There are a lot more girls than boys in our class." With a single sentence, Duan Chan'er ended the contest.
Zhang Zhaomu found he couldn't argue with that.
"Besides-" Duan Chan'er blinked. "Neither I nor anyone else really wants to deal with our homeroom teacher every day."
Zhang Zhaomu: "..."
So that was the truth.
He had been a duck forced onto a perch when he became class monitor, after all. And over the past week, he had realized that even if he didn't want the job, he probably couldn't get out of it.
After all, Chen Yongchao had even let him off lightly for skipping the flag-raising ceremony.
Their chat suddenly petered out, and a somewhat awkward silence settled over them. Zhang Zhaomu took out his phone for a look and was startled. "It's almost one already?"
Zhang Zhaomu felt a little awkward about staying so late at a female classmate's home. He hurried to his feet. "I'll head back, then. If anything unexpected happens, contact me anytime."
"Okay." Duan Chan'er nodded. "I have you on WeChat."
Although they hadn't exchanged a single message since adding each other.
After seeing Zhang Zhaomu out, Duan Chan'er walked back over to the cardboard box and looked at the puppies inside.
Now that they had been cleaned up, the colors of their coats were visible. Both were black and white. One had more white fur, with two neat black circles around its eyes like a panda's. The other was just the opposite, with more black fur and white only on its legs, tail, neck, forehead, and muzzle, a bit like a border collie's coloring.
She teased them with a finger, and the puppies instinctively nuzzled against it.
"They're so cute!" Duan Chan'er couldn't help letting out a little cry. "I'm going to melt from the cuteness!"
"Little ones, you're lucky too. If the class monitor hadn't had sharp ears and found you, you would've had to leave this wonderful world just after arriving in it."
She murmured to herself, "Should I give you names?"
"But the class monitor and I found you together. It wouldn't be right for me to name you on my own. I should discuss it with him."
Because of the puppies, Duan Chan'er didn't feel sleepy at all. After washing up, she sat back down in front of her computer.
The author assistant interface on the screen was still blank. She typed with practiced ease:
"I found two abandoned puppies today, so I lost the time I had for writing. I'm taking a day off."
Not long after she sent it, group messages began popping up like crazy.
"That dog author is taking another day off? Didn't you just take one a couple of days ago?"
"Other people's authors update ten thousand words a day, but Bing Chan can't even keep up four thousand a day! Do you still want our monthly votes or not?!"
"I believe Great Bing Chan. Usually, whenever he takes time off, he just does it without giving a reason. This time he actually explained himself, which means it really happened."
"Come on, he even came up with finding abandoned puppies as an excuse. Anyone who believes him is a puppy."
"..."
Duan Chan'er wasn't surprised by her readers' reactions. Her credibility with them had long since fallen below zero. It was the fact that someone actually believed her that surprised her.
She clicked on the profile picture and saw the nickname "Jasmine Meow." At once, she was no longer surprised.
After all, the other person was one of the rare girls among her readers. Over the past few days, she had been happy to chat with her whenever she had the chance.
After giving it some thought, she picked up her phone, took a picture of the puppies' cardboard box, and sent it in a private message.
"I really wasn't lying to everyone. Thank you for believing me."
At that moment, Zhang Zhaomu was lying on his bed, bored out of his mind and playing on his phone. When he saw the private message, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Of course he believed her. He had been with her just a little while ago, after all.
But his online identity was different from his real one, so he gave a perfectly proper reply: "The puppies are so cute!"
Bing Chan: "Right?! They're super cute! I don't know what kind of people could be so heartless as to abandon them."
Jasmine Meow: "It's a good thing they ran into someone as kind as you, Big Brother Bing Chan!"
Bing Chan: "Not exactly. It was the young man next door who found them."
"Didn't you suggest last time that I talk to my daughter? She also felt she really should make some friends. They happened to run into each other today, so my daughter took the initiative to invite the young man next door out for a late-night snack, and they found the puppies on the way."
Zhang Zhaomu raised his eyebrows slightly.
No wonder Duan Chan'er had seemed a little different lately. They had enjoyed chatting before too, but Duan Chan'er had always respected boundaries and had never been this forthcoming about her life.
She had even been willing to let him into her home.
He ventured, "Then it sounds like things are going pretty smoothly?"
Bing Chan: "Anyway, it's been a long time since I've seen my daughter as happy as she was tonight. It's wonderful that she's made a friend."
Zhang Zhaomu looked at the message in silence for a moment.
Duan Chan'er didn't know that Jasmine Meow was him, which made what she said seem all the more sincere. Was the literary girl really this happy about making a friend?
He couldn't really feel the same emotions she did. Though he didn't have many friends either, he and Chen Zhenzhen had been hanging out since middle school.
At that thought, Zhang Zhaomu felt a headache coming on again.
I really must have pissed Chen Zhen off tonight.
It wasn't as though they'd never argued before. Most of the time, they would sulk at each other for a couple of days, then naturally start playing games together again.
That was more like a little friction between buddies, nothing that would hurt their friendship.
But this time was different. Once he'd said those things, it felt as though something less than pure had crept into them, turning it into a conflict between a boy and a girl.
And he was entirely at fault.
Zhang Zhaomu sighed.
I'll think of a way to make it up to her tomorrow.