Suddenly a Dad

A few days passed.

Early in the morning.

"Lu-ge, wake up."

Li Sinian shook Chen Lu awake. Rubbing his eyes, Chen Lu looked irritably at the young man leaning over the edge of his bed.

Seeing Chen Lu wake up, Li Sinian pushed up his glasses with some embarrassment and gave him a very strange smile.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Chen Lu cursed.

I must be sleeping in the wrong position. How else could I be dreaming about a guy waking me up?

What rotten luck.

Chen Lu was just about to lie down in a different position when Li Sinian pushed him back up again.

"What do you want?" Chen Lu sat up straight.

Then he picked up his phone and checked the time. It was only seven fifteen.

Why should a college student have to get up at seven when he didn't have class?

"Do me a favor. Like you did for their freshman gala, go help the club that's preparing a performance in my place," Li Sinian said earnestly. "It'll only be busier for the centennial celebration this time. I really can't handle it all."

Chen Lu glanced at Jiang Chao, who was still sleeping, and lowered his voice to curse, "Are you even human? Asking someone who hasn't come out of the shadow of heartbreak to help you."

"Come on, or you'll have to fall into the shadow of losing me next." Li Sinian looked genuinely anxious. He had probably only just received the notice.

He was obviously a fool who had fallen for the lie that "the student union is a great place to gain experience."

Even if he'd worked his way up to a leadership position, he was only a somewhat shrewder fool.

The two stared at each other for a while. Chen Lu blinked and slowly said, "Who are you? Why would losing you leave me in a shadow?"

Seeing Li Sinian's crestfallen face, Chen Lu smiled. "Call me something nice, and I'll help you."

Despite what he said, Chen Lu was already getting ready to change and get up.

"Dad! I'll treat you to a seafood buffet when it's done. Twice!"

The son came so quickly that Chen Lu jumped. "Holy shit, you're serious?"

"I really can't keep up. The school leaders keep coming up with new ideas on a whim." Li Sinian let out a deep sigh.

"That's what you get for joining the student union and wanting to toughen yourself up before taking the civil service exam. Stumped now, aren't you? I don't even know where you got that idea." Chen Lu climbed out of bed and headed to the bathroom to wash up. Li Sinian followed him like a little shadow, filling him in on what he needed help with.

"Besides, I'm doing pretty well in there, aren't I?" Li Sinian retorted, a little embarrassed.

When he saw Chen Lu, who was brushing his teeth, glance at him, he hurriedly shut his mouth.

Grinning, Li Sinian made Chen Lu's bed for him and fawned over him in every way he could.

Only Jiang Chao remained hazily lost in dreamland.

Although he treated the others quite well, "unreliable" was probably a label he would never shake off in this lifetime.

Chen Lu, on the other hand, could handle anything well, so people often came to him for help, including their counselor.

Of course, they were never stingy when it came to expressing their thanks.

For example, Chen Lu had the easiest time getting leave in the entire class, without exception.

Inside a very spacious lecture hall.

Watching the junior girls from the dance club grow more and more precise in their movements, Mo Yuqing sat by the window, a smile appearing on her face before it quickly clouded over.

She was a little lost in thought.

Although she had left the dance club in her sophomore year, she had still been invited to coach them for the performance they were preparing.

It seemed that all sides were paying close attention to the centennial celebration.

Wearing thick black stockings, Mo Yuqing casually stretched out her exceptionally eye-catching long legs. Looking at the few white clouds outside the window, her thoughts inexplicably drifted back to the past.

Ever since she was little, besides studying, her mother had often forced her to learn all sorts of other things: guzheng, electronic keyboard, dance, math olympiad problems...

Still, although she was busy and exhausted, Chen Lu had always been at her side, ready to come whenever she called, so she had managed to get through it somehow.

Every time she finished a lesson, she would call Chen Lu out to play with her, and he had never refused.

When Chen Lu spent summer vacation back in his hometown, he would even take a three-hour ride in advance to wait outside her tutoring class for her to finish.

But now, things seemed a little different.

Why had things suddenly changed when everything had been fine?

Mo Yuqing couldn't understand it.

Looking at Liu Yan, who had insisted on coming along with her only to sit off to one side grinning foolishly at a drama, she felt rather conflicted.

"Let's take a break." Mo Yuqing clapped her hands lightly. "Everyone has improved. Just keep practicing at this pace."

As her cool, pleasant voice faded, everyone finally found a place to rest, panting for breath.

No one had any objections to Mo Yuqing's coaching. After all, not only was their senior prettier than a celebrity, but her dancing was also wonderfully lifelike, as though she had stepped straight out of a painting.

But they didn't get too close to her, because Mo Yuqing was too proud. Talking to her always gave them an indescribable sense of distance.

Even though she had bought each of them a very, very expensive dessert, everyone still felt a little awkward.

At that moment, a junior girl with a ponytail walked slowly over to her.

"Yuqing, I don't know why, but the props and sound equipment we asked for still haven't been delivered. Is there any way you can help us?" The girl looked a little dejected. As a freshman, she cared quite a lot about an opportunity to perform in front of the whole school. "You used to be in the dance club, and you're a class representative too, so I thought I'd ask you..."

"I... I'll see what I can do."

Mo Yuqing spoke helplessly, deeply troubled.

Although she held the title of class representative, she knew practically nothing about these things.

Chen Lu had always helped her...

Even when she had performed onstage as a freshman, she hadn't dealt with anything apart from rehearsing and performing. Chen Lu had taken care of the rest.

The whole process had gone smoothly and easily.

Only now did she realize there were so many complicated matters to handle.

"I feel like having some milk tea. I'll go buy some. What does everyone want?" Liu Yan could see that Mo Yuqing was in a difficult spot, so she stepped forward and changed the subject.

"Sorry to trouble you, Liu Yan, but my boyfriend said he'd bring me some," the girl with the ponytail said with a soft laugh, looking a little proud.

At a glance, she was clearly a girl who had only recently fallen head over heels in love.

"Nice. That saves some effort."

With that, Liu Yan sat back down beside Mo Yuqing. She didn't have to buy any herself and could still get free milk tea, so she was happy to take it easy.

No one knew when it had started, but buying milk tea for the girls around one's girlfriend when buying some for her had become common sense.

Perhaps it was because a best friend's "pillow talk" really was terrifying.

When a guy was in a relationship, he had to support his girlfriend's entire dorm, while relying on his own dorm to support him. That was what the saying meant.

Over the past three years, she really had drunk plenty of milk tea bought by Chen Lu.

Mo Yuqing didn't join the conversation, still looking absent-minded.

Back then, Chen Lu had also come to her rehearsal carrying a whole load of milk tea. After handing it out, he had walked over to her and said gently with a smile, "The one with seventy percent sugar is yours. I only asked them to add a little coconut jelly."

Then she would feel like a princess adored by a prince who could only exist in a fairy tale;

Drawing several intensely envious gazes.

Before long, the girl's boyfriend arrived.

The young man looked around from the doorway, and the girl ran over as soon as she saw him.

Then she discovered he was carrying only one cup of milk tea.

Flustered and annoyed, she pulled her boyfriend a few steps outside.

Whether she would remind him or argue with him was anyone's guess.

Mo Yuqing watched the scene, unable to help smiling.

Hmph, how stupid. If it were Chen Lu, he would definitely have asked beforehand how many people were with me.

Could Chen Lu really be that much better than other people?

The next second, the proud smile that had unconsciously spread across her face suddenly disappeared.

The girl realized that, no matter what Chen Lu was like, he seemed to no longer belong to her.

Liu Yan naturally noticed that something was wrong with her best friend's mood. She placed a hand on her slender shoulder, wanting to say something.

"Right, don't be embarrassed to ask. If you need anything later, speak up and ask to borrow it. Be polite, then follow up often. The more embarrassed you are to press them, the more they'll neglect you, but your attitude has to be..."

Carrying a speaker, Chen Lu walked in with the dance club's vice president, who was holding a huge pile of clothes.