Chapter 99

◎You two got in touch first◎

The hall, separated by just one wall, was bustling with noise, while the balcony remained quiet, as if separated by a thin wall into another world.

Zhan Xinyue slowly moved a few steps over, glanced at Shi Ziqian's indifferent face, and couldn't understand how he could say something that sounded like an invitation to reminisce with an old friend while wearing that expression.

"You left without saying goodbye. Now that we haven't seen each other for so long, if I hadn't called you over just now, were you going to just walk away as if you didn't see me?"

“No,” Zhan Xinyue shook her head. “I was just thinking about how to bring it up.”

Shi Ziqian's gaze slowly slid across her face, as if assessing the truthfulness of her words: "You don't seem very surprised to meet me here."

"I'm quite surprised," Zhan Xinyue said. "I don't eat here often because it's too far from my dorm. I didn't expect to run into you on my first visit."

“That’s not what I meant,” Shi Ziqian said. “I meant when I found out I was also at this school.”

Zhan Xinyue confessed, "I met Dai Yun once before. She was also in Beijing, and she told me about it when we met."

Shi Ziqian remained silent for a long time before finally saying, "You two have only been on good terms for a few days, and you've already gotten in touch."

"We haven't been in contact much, it was just recently."

Shi Zhiqian didn't reply. Zhan Xinyue looked at the streetlights downstairs and asked softly, "How are you doing?"

Shi Ziqian seemed to be looking somewhere, his knuckles tapping unconsciously on the railing: "It's fine."

"That's good. You haven't changed much from before."

"You've changed quite a bit. Why did you cut your hair?"

"My hair got too long and it was a hassle, so I cut it."

"Yes, that's fine too."

Zhan Xinyue smoothed her hair and casually said, "By the way, I heard from Dai Yun that you took a break from school before?"

The soft tapping stopped abruptly. "You two even talk about this."

Zhan Xinyue explained, "It was mentioned casually during our conversation."

Shi Ziqian said calmly, "In the senior year of high school, we don't learn new lessons. We just review them again and again. It's so boring that we don't want to go anymore."

Zhan Xinyue knew he wasn't telling the truth, but she couldn't find a reason to press him further. As she hesitated, Shi Ziqian turned his face to her, his dark eyes fixed on her: "You care about this?"

Zhan Xinyue pursed her lips: "I heard from Dai Yun that you didn't go to school for most of the semester, but when you went back, you still got first place. I think that's pretty impressive."

Shi Ziqian scoffed and looked away: "You'll be disappointed, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Actually, it's because something happened at the school that year that had a bad impact, and the senior students' grades were not good, which affected the stock price of the entire group. So in order to ensure that our class could achieve good results, the school selected a few students from the grade to participate in closed training."

His phone kept vibrating persistently in his hand, and Zhan Xinyue saw him turn it off several times during the few words they exchanged.

"Is it inconvenient? You can answer it, I'll go first," Zhan Xinyue said.

"There's nothing inconvenient about it." Shi Ziqian hesitated for a moment before answering the phone.

The moment the call button was pressed, a clear female voice came through, standing out sharply in the silence: "Xiao Qian, I'm done with get out of class. Have you finished eating? I'll come pick you up."

Shi Ziqian moved his phone slightly further away: "No need."

"You don't want me to pick you up?" The other person's tone wasn't downcast at all; on the contrary, they were even happier. "You're not planning to come pick me up, are you? That's fine too."

Although she hadn't interacted with this unknown girl, Zhan Xinyue already felt that such a girl would be very suitable for Shi Ziqian. A cold person like him should have a girl like this, like a little sun, to brighten his day.

"Speak up! If you don't say anything, I'll take that as a yes. I'll come and get you. Wait for me a bit; it'll take me about ten minutes to get here."

“I said I don’t need it,” Shi Ziqian said.

"No, that won't do. We agreed to go home together. That's settled then, wait for me!" The other end hung up first.

Shi Ziqian stared at the screen for a while, then turned off his phone and remained silent for a moment.

Zhan Xinyue didn't want to overhear their conversation, but their words still reached her ears perfectly. Feeling a little awkward, she tried to start a conversation: "You don't live at school?"

"Hmm." Shi Ziqian twirled the phone between his fingers. "I'm with Panpan, so it's inconvenient for us to stay in the dormitory."

Zhan Xinyue looked over and asked, "You brought Panpan here?"

"I originally wanted to keep it at home, but it refuses to eat when I'm not there, so I had no choice."

"It's good to bring him along, so he can have company."

After saying that, she didn't know what to say next. They hadn't seen each other for so long, and the lingering awkwardness between them was so strong it couldn't be ignored.

But Shi Ziqian remained silent. Zhan Xinyue glanced at the time on her phone and was about to speak when Shi Ziqian spoke first.

"Looking back, we've been apart for longer than we've sat at the same desk together. I've almost forgotten everything that happened before, and I've kept my promise to you, so Zhan Xinyue..." Shi Ziqian didn't look at her, but just kept talking to himself, "I've let it go, let's just be ordinary classmates from now on. As for the dinner you just mentioned, I don't think it's necessary."

Zhan Xinyue said softly, "Okay," and then added, "I'm sorry."

Shi Ziqian didn't respond, so she continued, "It's getting late. I'll go now while you wait for me. See you next time."

Shi Ziqian finally glanced at her and let out a soft "hmm".

Zhan Xinyue turned and stepped back from the balcony, noticing Shi Ziqian unconsciously reaching into his pocket. She instinctively felt he was reaching for a cigarette, but he stopped after placing his hand on his pocket and made no further move.

She reached out to close the door again, but then she heard Shi Ziqian's voice: "I received the birthday present you sent, thank you."

"You're welcome." She closed the door.

After walking quite a distance downstairs, Zhan Xinyue glanced back. Shi Ziqian was still standing alone on the balcony, and she couldn't tell if he was looking in her direction. She paused for a few seconds to try and see clearly, but Shi Ziqian had already moved and turned to go inside.

“What social dance? I’m not going.” Yiqing said decisively in the dormitory.

"Yezi, what era are we living in? Isn't it a bit old-fashioned to still be having social gatherings?" Dudu said.

"I'm not very good at dancing, so I won't go," Zhan Xinyue said.

When Xiao Ye suggested that everyone sign up for the college's social dance, the group all clearly refused.

"There's nothing we can do. It's an old-fashioned activity that the student union has been running for years. I heard the college leaders are quite supportive, so we can't just cut it off like that." Xiao Ye also looked troubled. "We've been promoting it for two weeks, and we still haven't filled all the spots. Can you guys help us out and just fill in the numbers? You don't need to do anything else."

“I really want to help you, Yezi. But I can’t,” Yi Qing said sternly, “because I have a boyfriend.”

Everyone's mouths gaped open, shocked. "What? When did you start dating? How come we didn't hear a thing? Who is it? Is it someone from our school?" Yi Qing is quite pretty, but her daily routine is just the classroom, cafeteria, study room, and dormitory. In her spare time, apart from occasionally visiting the anime club she joined, she spends most of her time holed up in her dormitory playing games. How could such a homebody have secretly started dating someone behind everyone's back?

Yi Qing coughed twice and gestured with her chin toward the laptop screen in front of her: "Look, it's right inside."

A few seconds later, Dudu roared even louder than before: "Wang Yiqing! You actually had an online romance in the game! No wonder all you do is play games all day!"

"You've got the cause and effect wrong." Yi Qing scratched his ear. "It's because we play games all day that we started an online relationship, understand? No, it's not exactly an online relationship, it's more like a game romance, you know what romance is?"

"Fine, you're not ashamed at all, you're proud of it! I don't care about your love affairs or any other kind of entanglement, just tell me, when did you two start dating? Have you seen each other's photos? Where is the other person in real life? How old are they...? Tell me now!!"

...

After much fuss, it finally ended with Xiao Ye forcibly signing Yi Qing up for the social event with the statement that "online dating is unreliable." As for Zhan Xinyue, she was also affected. Xiao Ye earnestly said to her, "Xinyue, we can't completely avoid socializing. You see, apart from spending time with a few of us in the dorm, you spend the rest of your time alone. Just think of it as going to meet some new friends."

Zhan Xinyue said innocently, "I'm a social person. I often skateboard with people from the skateboarding club at night."

Xiao Ye: "How do you communicate every day?"

Zhan Xinyue pondered: "There's not much need for communication. Just go and skate. If someone does something amazing, we can all applaud them or something."

"Alright, Ye Zi, quickly give this person's name too!" Du Du interjected.

Zhan Xinyue met their intense gazes and relented: "Alright, I'll sign up."

“Okay, so now there are three people in our dorm who have signed up, including me. As for you…” Xiao Ye looked at Du Du with a domineering gaze.

"Fine, I'll sign up, okay?" Dudu immediately compromised. "You're the organizer, so how could I not support you? By the way, are there any handsome guys at your dance?"

Xiao Ye said, "Well, we'll have to wait until you get there to find out."

"How cunning of you!" Dudu sneered at her.

Yiqing added, "Speaking of which, do you have to wear a formal dress to the ball? I don't have one."

"No need, we don't care about that at Chinese dance parties, it's just about having fun," Xiao Ye said.

"Oh..." Yi Qing smiled knowingly and turned back with a relaxed expression.

Xiao Ye immediately became alert: "But don't come in your jeans. Dress nicely, we'll be taking pictures and posting them on our official WeChat account for promotion."

On the night of the social dance, Xiao Ye went to the venue early to set up, and the three people in the dormitory who stayed behind also started tidying up early after being bombarded with her numerous phone calls.

Yiqing may be a bit of a homebody, but she's surprisingly good at makeup. She did everyone's makeup and even styled their hair.

"Wow, Qing, I didn't expect you to have this skill. I underestimated you." Du Du stood next to Yi Qing, who was styling Zhan Xinyue's hair, and exclaimed in admiration.

"I did some cosplay in high school, and I did all the makeup and costumes myself back then."

"Tsk tsk, you really are..." Dudu sighed, looking up at the sky, "I'm going to say that again, how did you even get in?!"

The three of them got ready and went out together. There was a large mirror downstairs in the dormitory building. As they passed by, Yiqing called out, "Wait a minute, take off your coats first. I'll take a group photo to record my hard work."

In the mirror, Yi Qing wore a plain-colored Chinese-style long dress today, her long hair half-up, looking graceful and elegant. Du Du wore a bun hairstyle and a pinafore dress, looking playful and pretty. Zhan Xin Yue's hair, which was now in a medium length, was simply pulled up by Yi Qing, paired with a black velvet dress, and the two of them praised her for looking like a noble black swan.

Yiqing took a picture in front of the mirror and said with satisfaction, "I'll send it to Yezi. With roommates like us supporting her, she should be secretly happy."

The social dance was held in the small auditorium of the college building, which required walking across most of the campus. When they passed the cafeteria, Dudu complained of being hungry and dragged Yiqing inside to buy bread, while Zhan Xinyue, who wasn't very hungry, stood alone at the entrance waiting for them.

She had only been standing there for two minutes when someone walked past her and stopped.

When Zhan Xinyue looked up, she saw Shi Ziqian standing in front of her, with the curly-haired girl she had seen before beside him.

It was peak dining time, so it wasn't unusual to run into him here. Zhan Xinyue saw him looking at her and greeted him, "Are you going to eat?"

"I've already eaten," Shi Ziqian replied indifferently.

The girl next to him kept looking at Zhan Xinyue curiously, and looked up at Shi Ziqian to ask, "Is this your friend?"

“I was his high school classmate,” Zhan Xinyue answered proactively.

"Wow, high school classmate? We're from the same place!" She immediately perked up. "You were in the same class as Ziqian! That's so lucky. This is the first time I've met one of Ziqian's classmates. My name is Wu Chuni, what's yours?"

"My name is Zhan Xinyue."

“This name is easy to remember,” Wu Chuni smiled. “Then I’ll call you Xinyue, and you can call me Nini. I’m two years older than you, so you can call me Senior Nini too.”

Zhan Xinyue smiled and nodded at her. Wu Chuni, sitting opposite her, had her hair tied in a high ponytail and was wearing a tracksuit. She looked like a friendly girl next door, with a generous and gentle smile. Standing next to Shi Ziqian, she was indeed a good match for him, just as everyone said.

"Where are you going?" Shi Ziqian, who hadn't said much until now, suddenly spoke, his gaze falling on her hair as if deep in thought. "Another party?"

"More or less," Zhan Xinyue mumbled.

"Why are you asking so many questions? The junior is dressed so beautifully, she must be going on a date." She winked at Zhan Xinyue with a smile, "Right?"

Zhan Xinyue wasn't quite used to people with such an overly familiar personality. As she was trying to think of a reply, she caught a glimpse of Dudu and Yiqing standing suspiciously in their direction, whispering to each other. She immediately felt relieved and quickly said, "My friend is here, so I'll be going now. See you next time."

"Go ahead, go ahead, let's hang out sometime, Xinyue, junior." Wu Chuni waved to her enthusiastically.

Zhan Xinyue waved to her, while Shi Ziqian stood beside her with his hands in his pockets, looking at her expressionlessly.

Just as Zhan Xinyue was about to breathe a sigh of relief after escaping back to her roommate, she was surrounded by two people.

"What's going on, Crescent Moon?" Dudu put his hands on her neck, his face full of murderous intent. "You actually know the handsome guy on the confession wall and his girlfriend? How come I've never heard you mention it before?"

Yi Qing stared intently at her: "Confess and you'll be treated leniently; resist and you'll be punished severely!"

“It’s an old classmate, we haven’t been in touch for a long time,” Zhan Xinyue said.