Nine

Facing G's unreasonable demand, Ji Su suspected the other party was still nursing a grudge about that night's voice call — and had dug a pit here, waiting for him to fall in.

Typing online was one thing, but actually using Clamp Tone to call a scumbag "gege"…

Ji Su pressed his lips together and decided to deploy a classic move — playing dead.

He wasn't counting on Scumbag Senior to help him survive finals anyway, so he simply wouldn't say it.

But soon, a new message arrived from the other side.

G: [Playing dead again?]

Ji Su: "…"

G: [Is this how Mengmeng thanks me?]

Ji Su clenched his teeth, pulled back the covers, and burrowed into the blankets.

He braced himself, held down the voice button, and tried to pitch his voice up, calling out softly: "Gege…"

No good — it sounded strange.

He released to cancel the send, tried again, and this time seemed to have overshot the pitch.

Just as he was about to cancel once more, something patted him through the blankets.

Ji Su startled, his finger slipped, and the voice message went out.

"Su Su?" Qiao Jin stood by the bed, asking quietly. "Are you feeling unwell somewhere?"

Ji Su poked his head out from the blankets, seized by an inexplicable embarrassment of being caught in the act, and denied guiltily: "N-no, nothing wrong."

"Alright, I must have misheard." Qiao Jin was relieved. "Then get some sleep early."

Ji Su watched him head into the bathroom, then suddenly remembered the voice message he'd accidentally sent.

He held the phone to his ear, and a sweet, soft "gege~" played back, the tail of it trembling faintly.

His ear felt as though a kitten's paw had lightly scratched it.

Ji Su threw the phone away as if he'd been electrocuted — how had he made that sound?

The next second, the phone on the bed buzzed.

G: [Mm.]

G: [You sounded lovely calling me.]

Ji Su stared at the chat box, a suspicious flush creeping over the pale roots of his ears.

What did "sounded lovely" even mean?

He seriously suspected the scumbag was making some kind of suggestive remark, but he had no proof.

Mengmeng: [Senior! You're really so mean!]

Mengmeng: [shy_cat.jpg]

G: [Already broken?]

Mengmeng: [Hmph!]

G: [I won't let you call me for nothing.]

Ji Su curled his lip, didn't even bother with goodnight, set the phone down, and began coaxing himself toward sleep.

A moment later, the phone buzzed again.

G: [Sleepy?]

Ji Su thought about it, then replied anyway.

Mengmeng: [Mm-hmm, so sleepy, can't even keep my eyes open…]

G: [Sleep.]

G: [Good night.]

*

The next day was Saturday, and Ji Su — rarely — slept in, only getting up past ten.

The Dormitory was quiet; his roommates were lazier than him, still sprawled in bed.

After washing up quietly, Ji Su opened his laptop and sent the rendering he'd finished last night to the client.

Qiao Jin woke up too, yawning as he asked softly: "Su Su, what time is it?"

"Almost eleven." Ji Su glanced at the time on his screen. "Want to get up and eat?"

Qiao Jin grabbed at his hair haphazardly: "Getting up, wait for me."

Once he'd cleaned up, the two headed to the cafeteria for lunch.

At this hour on a Saturday, the cafeteria was sparse — students scattered here and there.

Ji Su carried his tray to a window-side seat and sat down, ready to dig in.

Qiao Jin opened with: "Oh right, Su Su, how's the scumbag-seduction project going?"

"Pretty smoothly." Ji Su replied. "Last night he even sent me a red packet and told me to order takeout."

"Damn, for real?" Qiao Jin startled. "The scumbag actually forked over a red packet?"

Ji Su gave a small shrug: "I was a bit surprised too."

"How much?" Qiao Jin pressed. "Please tell me it wasn't just a few yuan."

Ji Su: "Two hundred."

Qiao Jin's voice lifted with excitement: "The scumbag's willing to spend on you — Su Su, you've won!"

"Not necessarily, it could be a scheme." Ji Su stayed cautious. "Throw a little money to earn trust, then milk Mengmeng for more."

Qiao Jin nodded: "Now that you say it, that does make some sense…"

Ji Su smiled: "It's fine, I've been at this with him so long already, I don't mind waiting a bit more."

"Anyway, I can already picture the scumbag sobbing his heart out, hahaha!" Qiao Jin laughed. "Walk long enough by the river, and your shoes are bound to get wet."*

After lunch, Ji Su and Qiao Jin stepped off campus to shop at the nearby commercial street.

Qiao Jin had always liked buying new clothes — after all, a fashionable boy† takes image seriously.

Summer was coming, so he bought several outfits in a row, and even dragged Ji Su into trying things on with him.

Before long, both their hands were overflowing with bags.

Leaving the mall, Qiao Jin suddenly stopped mid-stride.

"What is it?" Ji Su followed his gaze and reminded him, "That's a women's clothing store, Xiao Qiao — not for you."

"I know it's not for me, but it suits you—" A mischievous grin spread across Qiao Jin's face. "It suits Mengmeng!"

Ji Su: "?"

Qiao Jin hooked his arm: "Let's go, let's go in and take a look."

"Xiao Qiao, don't push it." Ji Su warned him while pulling back. "Acting like this, you'll lose me as a friend."

"It's almost summer, and Mengmeng only has one sailor-collar dress — you think that's reasonable?" Qiao Jin wouldn't give up trying to persuade him. "What if Scumbag asks you to take new leg photos?"

Ji Su's brow creased slightly; a flicker of hesitation crossed his face.

Qiao Jin pressed on: "Would you rather photograph in a dress, or with bare thighs?"

"Xiao Qiao, you—" Ji Su, alarmed, freed one hand to clap over his mouth. "Keep your voice down!"

Qiao Jin raised an eyebrow and asked, voice muffled through Ji Su's palm: "Are we going in or not?"

In the end, Ji Su relented, shuffling reluctantly behind him into the shop.

It was a boutique women's clothing store, freshly stocked with a beautiful array of dresses. The moment they stepped inside, a clerk with immaculate makeup greeted them warmly: "Welcome~"

Seeing two young, handsome men, the clerk stumbled for a beat, then quickly recovered her professional composure and asked with a smile: "Are you two gentlemen shopping for a girlfriend, or for your mothers?"

"Girlfriend," Qiao Jin answered without hesitation. "College student, very pretty, figure about the same as this gentleman beside me."

Ji Su: "..."

Could you possibly be any more obvious?

The clerk was clearly no stranger to awkward situations — her expression didn't waver as she asked: "May I ask what style your girlfriend usually wears?"

Qiao Jin glanced at the person beside him and blurted out: "The pure-sexy look!"

"I see~" the clerk replied sweetly. "Please wait a moment~"

Soon the clerk returned, several outfits draped over her arm: "Sir, please take a look — are these the style you had in mind?"

Qiao Jin took the clothes and began examining them with great care.

Ji Su turned his face away, trying to pretend the whole thing had nothing to do with him.

But Qiao Jin wasn't about to let him off — he thrust a dress right in front of his face. "Susu, which one do you think Mengmeng would like?"

Ji Su couldn't bear to look: "Any of them..."

"Then we'll take them all." Qiao Jin waved a magnanimous hand, splurging like a tycoon. "Wrap them all up for our Mengmeng!"

"Right away, please wait~" — surprised at how easy the sale was, the clerk happily went off to package the dresses.

After paying, Ji Su grabbed the bags and marched out of the women's clothing store at a brisk pace, as though something terrifying were chasing him from behind.

But before he'd gone two steps, Qiao Jin ducked into a women's lingerie shop.

Ji Su: "Get back here!"

People will think we're perverts!

"Be right there!" Qiao Jin plunged into the lingerie shop without looking back, emerging a few minutes later.

Ji Su had a sinking premonition: "Don't tell me what you bought."

"I bought black stockings!" Qiao Jin gave him no room to escape. "Wear these and Scumbag will be reduced to an idiot, guaranteed!"

Ji Su: "..."

*

At eight in the evening, Gu Zhao pushed open the Dormitory door and walked straight to his chair.

"Gu-ge, you're back?" Wang Mingzhe pulled off his headphones and glanced at his expression. "Who pissed you off this time?"

That handsome face was colder than usual, the lowered brow bone making him look all the more severe.

Gu Zhao: "No one."

Wang Mingzhe and Zhou Yang exchanged a glance and, by unspoken agreement, chose to keep playing their game.

Gu Zhao sat at his desk with his long legs bent, his large hand turning the phone over and over, absent and idle.

Long fingers, each knuckle sharply defined; the veins on the back of his hand stood out in taut relief — a hand full of masculine force.

He couldn't have said how long it had been when the phone buzzed.

The tension in Gu Zhao's brow eased; he picked up the phone and tapped into WeChat.

Mengmeng: [Sorry, Senior, I only just saw your message~]

G: [No problem.]

G: [Went out to play?]

Mengmeng: [It's a rare Saturday, so I went shopping with my roommate~]

G: [What did you buy?]

Mengmeng: [Bought a bunch of pretty little dresses~]

G: [Let me see.]

Mengmeng: [Oh, you're so mean — I haven't even had a chance to try them on yet...]

Gu Zhao's gaze dropped; the corner of his mouth lifted, just barely.

Wang Mingzhe, catching the sight by accident, let out a shout: "Holy shit!"

The upward curve vanished. Gu Zhao shot him a sidelong glance.

"Gu-ge, did you just smile?" Wang Mingzhe rubbed his eyes hard. "I'm not seeing things, right — you actually smiled at your phone!"

"You're seeing things." Gu Zhao couldn't be bothered to explain and looked away.

"Something's off, something's definitely off!" Wang Mingzhe, like a man who'd stumbled on a new continent, pressed on relentlessly. "You've been checking your phone way more often lately, and you won't let us see — what's so good in there?"

Gu Zhao's tone was flat as still water: "Nothing."

"Now that you mention it, Lao Wang, I think Gu-ge's been glued to his phone lately too." Zhou Yang tossed it out as a joke. "Gu-ge, you aren't doing online dating, are you?"

Gu Zhao's fingers paused over the keys; his handsome brow furrowed.

"Online dating? Gu-ge?" Wang Mingzhe let loose a laugh that shook the walls. "As if! Hahaha! Gu-ge, doing online dating — as if that could ever happen, hahaha..."

Apart from reducing opposing counsel and judges to speechless wrecks in mock trial — wishing they could crawl into a crack in the floor — Gu Zhao had always upheld, in daily life, the sterling virtue of treating every word as precious.

A man who'd answer in one word rather than two, who'd use a single ? rather than tack on a right? — how could such a person possibly be doing online dating?

"Lao Zhou, you're killing me!" Wang Mingzhe, as though a button had been pressed, burst out again. "Someone like Gu-ge doing online dating — what, he's going to date with punctuation marks, hahaha—"

Wang Mingzhe's laughter cut off mid-breath as he met Gu Zhao's death-ray stare.

The next instant, Wang Mingzhe leapt off his chair: "Holy shit? Gu-ge, you're really doing online dating?"

Gu Zhao didn't answer his question; his gaze dropped to the bandage wrapped around his foot.

Zhou Yang cried out in delight: "Lao Wang! You're standing up!"

Only then did Wang Mingzhe belatedly register a searing bolt of pain; clutching his leg, he howled and dropped back into his chair: "Ow ow ow!"

Gu Zhao: "..."