Chapter 15: Tit

This kind of pretending-not-to-know while clearly knowing everything was way too addictive. Around five or six in the morning, Lu Canran groggily woke up, reached for her phone to check her chat history with Liang Yuanzheng, then fell back asleep, perfectly content.

She lost three jin (1,5 kg) in three days.

Zhu Huaxin was extremely envious and said she wanted to get into a flirtationship too. Whether it turned into love didn’t matter—she just wanted to experience healthy fat loss.

Lu Canran struck while the iron was hot. “What do you think of Jiang Si?”

Zhu Huaxin was incredulous. “Is he on sale or something? Why are all of you trying to sell him to me?”

Lu Canran: “All of us?”

Zhu Huaxin pointed, and Xu Qiao, who was sitting on the bed with her back against the wall, spoke unhurriedly, “I just think you two look good together.”

Qin Bingshuang added, “Seconded.”

Zhu Huaxin clapped her hands. “Have you all been reading too many pseudo-sibling romance novels? You think I can date Jiang Si? Let’s be real—my King of Glory smurf account is registered with his ID. If we fall out in the future, how is he supposed to help me pass facial recognition scans?”

Lu Canran seriously considered whether she should suggest Jiang Si incorporate some gaming elements into his confession.

Like, maybe he could gather five people, and the other side also has five people, and they play a game together—5v5. Only if they win would he earn the right to confess.

But judging by how frequently Zhu Huaxin scolded Jiang Si, if they went with that plan, he might end up playing from dawn till dusk and still never qualify for a confession.

If only Xinxin could eat the superpower mushroom too, Lu Canran thought regretfully. Then she would be able to experience the same feeling.

Lu Canran’s daily routine was now incredibly disciplined. Every day, she checked Liang Yuanzheng’s Moments three times—morning, noon, and night. She sent him good morning, good afternoon, and good night messages, constantly looked for new topics to talk about, had so many things she wanted to share with him, and wanted to know everything there was to know about him.

She wanted to open herself up, inside and out, for him to see, and she also wanted to read every part of him, whole and complete.

If there were such a thing as the Book of Life, Lu Canran would have flipped through Liang Yuanzheng’s copy until it was worn to pieces and memorized it by heart.

Even a simple exchange like “What did you have for lunch?” “Beef stir-fried with peas” could keep her happy for a long, long time.

She went from being satisfied with a single piece of candy to feeling full with just one tiny grain of white sugar.

At the same time, she had grown greedy. Before, just getting Liang Yuanzheng’s WeChat had made her happy. Now, she needed his goodnight message every evening.

Lu Canran had collected tons of adorable stickers, hoarding them like a little storage-happy mouse. She carefully selected the cutest ones to send to him. To avoid accidental misfires, she reluctantly deleted some of the hilariously ugly ones, even though they made her laugh.

That afternoon, Zhu Huaxin had an elective class. In high spirits, Lu Canran discussed with the two remaining roommates and discovered that Jiang Si had asked all three of them for help.

With more people came more power. The confession was scheduled for this Sunday. Xu Qiao took charge, Jiang Si provided the funding, and they quickly rented a small studio space. It was called a “small studio,” but it was actually a renovated old residential house. The courtyard and surroundings were full of beautiful flowers, and the interior was exquisitely decorated—suitable for dining and gaming. It was usually rented out for small team-building events or used by photography studios for portrait shoots.

The price wasn’t cheap either—the rental cost for one day was six hundred yuan.

After they had paid and put down the deposit, Qin Bingshuang suddenly remembered something and let out an “Aiyo!”

“I forgot,” she said. “Didn’t we say last week that we’d have a group dinner this Sunday? I already booked a private room at the hotpot restaurant in advance…”

The schedule overlapped.

It wouldn’t have been a big deal—there were still a few days left, and they could have just canceled with the hotpot place and gotten the reservation fee back.

But who would’ve thought the hotpot restaurant had changed owners, and the new boss flat-out refused to refund the money, looking thoroughly impatient.

“Do you even understand what a deposit means, huh? Do you know that deposits are non-refundable? You’re all university students and don’t even know this? What, you cancel today, and someone else cancels tomorrow—who’s going to cover my losses, huh?” The boss looked at the three female students and absolutely refused to refund them. “Calling yourselves college students—if you don’t know, go look it up on Baidu^[1]Baidu: Often referred to as “China’s Google,” Baidu is the largest Chinese-language internet search engine. It offers a wide range of services, including maps, forums, cloud … Continue reading, got it?”

Qin Bingshuang tried to reason with him politely.

“We booked a private room for the weekend. There are still several days left. It shouldn’t affect your business—”

“Shouldn’t affect me? Do you get to decide that?” the boss raised his voice, growing increasingly unreasonable. “Yesterday someone wanted to book that same room for seven people. But since I saw your reservation, I turned them down. Isn’t that a loss?”

Lu Canran could see the bullet screen floating above his head. It clearly read: [Even if I could refund it, I won’t. Just three girls—scare them a little, bluff my way through.]

Xu Qiao said, “Boss, that’s where you’re in the wrong…”

While her two roommates were busy arguing, she decisively called Chen Wanli, offering her mom’s homemade pork ribs in exchange.

He was the best when it came to arguing.

Chen Wanli showed up after just one call, bursting in with aggressive energy. From miles around, no one could outshout him—except maybe a beagle.

After giving the boss a full verbal beatdown, Chen Wanli finally turned around and asked, “How much was the deposit?”

Qin Bingshuang said, “One hundred.”

“Oh, one hundred—” Chen Wanli paused for a second, then turned to look at Lu Canran with a twisted expression, on the verge of breaking down. “Just one hundred yuan, and you made me come all the way here and say all that? Wasting my precious time—this is just, just—”

Lu Canran said, “A hundred is still money. What’s your problem?”

“I could’ve just transferred it to you! What’s all this for? Mobilizing the troops over one hundred yuan, making such a fuss,” Chen Wanli muttered as he pulled out his phone. “This is so embarrassing.”

Just as he was about to take out his wallet, the scolded boss snapped back to his senses. Without another word, he raised his phone, grumbling loudly, “Oh, spare me the act. Don’t go messing up my business here. Believe it or not, I’ll record all of this and post it online so everyone can see what A University students are like these days—”

Lu Canran tried to grab the phone but missed. Chen Wanli hadn’t expected to run into such a scoundrel and was caught off guard.

A hand suddenly covered the phone’s camera.

“Boss,” Liang Yuanzheng’s dark eyes fixed on him, “don’t you think this is inappropriate?”

The boss, annoyed, tried to yank his phone back. But the phone was gripped tightly in Liang Yuanzheng’s hand, and no matter how hard he pulled, it wouldn’t budge. Instead, the boss stumbled back a step and let go.

Lu Canran lit up with delight. “Senior!”

The boss pointed a finger and snapped, “Hey, hey, hey—oh, I get it now. You’re all in this together? First you shamelessly cause trouble in my shop, and now you’re grabbing my phone—what is this?”

He opened his mouth, about to shout, but Liang Yuanzheng raised the phone, screen facing the boss’s face. “Is this yours?”

The boss nodded on instinct, only to realize the phone’s face recognition had been activated—and it successfully unlocked.

Liang Yuanzheng calmly swiped through the phone as he returned it. “Thank you.”

The boss, fuming, reached out to snatch it back, but Liang Yuanzheng, being taller, simply took a step back with the phone in hand—

Lu Canran stepped in front of him, like a little tit with all her feathers puffed up, eyes round and fierce, loudly demanding, “What do you think you’re doing to him?”

The boss broke down. “You’re the ones doing something to me!”

Smiling faintly, Liang Yuanzheng opened the photo album and deleted the videos and pictures the boss had just recorded. Anything that captured Lu Canran, Qin Bingshuang, or the others—he wiped them all clean.

Only after thoroughly clearing everything did he hand the phone back to the boss.

“You certainly can choose not to refund the deposit,” Liang Yuanzheng said, pulling out his own phone. He tapped to a certain image and held it up briefly in front of the boss. “However, someone might post this photo online. Boss, your kitchen in the back looks pretty raw and natural—seems like the cockroaches and rats are quite comfortable there.”

The boss choked. “You…”

Liang Yuanzheng said calmly, “It’s your choice.”

Reluctantly, the boss refunded the money—but with one condition: Liang Yuanzheng had to delete the photo he had taken.

After deleting it, they had barely walked a few steps when Chen Wanli started up.

“Senior,” he said in a mocking tone, “that wasn’t very nice, was it? Just deleted it like that? Must’ve been hard to take that photo, huh? Took quite a bit of effort, didn’t it?”

“Not hard at all,” Liang Yuanzheng replied with a gentle smile. “Just pretended to take a wrong turn and snapped a photo. Didn’t take much time.”

Lu Canran’s eyes sparkled with admiration as she praised him enthusiastically, “Senior, you’re amazing! So righteous!”

Chen Wanli scoffed. “You call that righteous? How is that righteous, huh? He deleted the photo for a measly hundred yuan? If this doesn’t get exposed, more unsuspecting students are going to end up eating there. Aren’t you a doctor? Aren’t doctors supposed to be noble and save lives? Is this how you ‘save’? Let them get sick first and then step in? Wow, really doing your part for the country’s GDP.”

Liang Yuanzheng didn’t interrupt, quietly letting him finish.

“Canran,” he said, “could you send me the photo again?”

Lu Canran pulled out her phone and gave a delighted “Oh!” in surprise. “You already sent it to me earlier!”

Chen Wanli’s expression twisted even further.

“As expected of Senior,” Lu Canran said without the slightest attempt to hide her admiration. “Not only righteous, but also smart—he had a backup all along.”

Chen Wanli’s face changed. “I didn’t expect you to be such a two-faced little schemer!”

Lu Canran defended, “That’s called being clever! Adapting to the situation. Senior only promised to delete the one on his phone—he never said anything about deleting all the backups.”

Fuming, Chen Wanli argued with her, “So no matter what he does, you’re going to praise him?”

Lu Canran said, “But everything he does is the right thing.”

Liang Yuanzheng said, “Thank you, Canran.”

Chen Wanli blew up.

“Isn’t this all just to get back one hundred yuan?” he said angrily. “I could have—forget it.”

“Watching all of you lovebirds is seriously irritating, it’s so annoying,” he muttered darkly. “Oh right, that flower-ordering guy you mentioned—you’ll never guess who it is… forget it, whatever, he’s a weirdo anyway, talks like he’s in some spy movie. You shouldn’t deal with him. I’ll handle the negotiations when the time comes, so it won’t interfere with your important business.”

Liang Yuanzheng asked, “What important business?”

Chen Wanli shot him a glare and walked off, clearly not wanting to continue the conversation.

Lu Canran glanced back, then told Liang Yuanzheng, “Jiang Si wants to confess to Xinxin and asked us to help him plan it out—he ordered flowers.”

“So that’s what it is,” Liang Yuanzheng’s expression softened. “I didn’t expect Jiang Si to come to you—”

“Hey!”

Chen Wanli came backing up like a vehicle without a “please mind when reversing” warning, walking straight backward until he stood right in front of the two of them.

“Lu Canran, my mom asked me to check if you want to hire that foreign teacher I had before,” Chen Wanli said, deliberately avoiding looking at Liang Yuanzheng. “Summer break is when you need to start preparing your school application materials. This semester, your final term of junior year, you have to pass the IELTS. Oh, by the way, have you decided on your target schools? Imperial College or University of London?”