Chapter 2 Horoscope A Pack of Black Lanzhou.
In September, the start of the school year, the green field is full of energy and the half-month military training finally ushered in the closing ceremony that all students have been looking forward to.
The process was gradually coming to an end. The school leaders gave speeches. They maintained their usual speaking skills and were as good as an old lady's foot binding. The necessary pauses gave the teachers and students some time to applaud enthusiastically. At the moment when a lot of passionate speeches were laid out to describe the future, the sunny sky suddenly became overcast. It seemed that even God couldn't stand it anymore. It started to rain in Shenzhen like a prank. The rain became more and more violent with the complaints of the freshmen, and fell to the ground on their heads.
In the midst of wind and rain, the school leader in the stands waved his hand and abruptly ended his speech on the outlook for the new semester. The carefully prepared speech turned into bubbles. A rainstorm passed by, and for a moment the entire campus seemed to be soaked in rain.
Luo Shu, usually the first to wake up in dormitory 603, was now drifting off into a daze. The hallway was bustling with voices, and the hum of a hair dryer disturbed her restlessness. She removed her eye mask and blearily drew aside the curtains. She had no classes all day. Xia Yimo had just blow-dried her long, platinum blonde hair, a striking new color she'd dyed this semester, matching the look of a girl group member. She was now fiddling with her makeup bag, apparently for a date. Hou Sisi sat at her desk, packing her bag as usual, as planned for her part-time job.
Suddenly, the balcony curtains flew up, and the sound of the pitter-patter of rain disappeared in an instant. Gu Jiaqian came trotting in with a pile of clothes in her arms. "This rain is weird. It starts to fall as soon as it says it will." She tilted her head and found Luo Shu sitting on the bed with disheveled hair and blank eyes, waking up from a nap. "Luo Shu, you're awake."
Luo Shu, who was in the power-on state, nodded in a daze and said "hmm" as a sign of agreement, but fell down again within two seconds.
The world is finally quiet.
At the same time, a new list of guaranteed admissions to graduate school was released on the university's official website, sparking a flurry of discussion on the forums. Topics like "the talented" and "the 'dad-driven'" groups continued to simmer.
She closed her eyes for less than a moment before her phone kept vibrating. Luo Shu patiently groped under her pillow, first for the hair tie, then for the headband, and finally for her phone. She turned it on and saw it was the alarm clock.
She covered her forehead and almost forgot that she had an elective course in the afternoon. After closing the phone, the notification bar showed a post published two minutes ago. When she clicked on it, it directly led to the hot topic on the campus forum.
An anonymous account named "The Only Connection in the School of Computer Science" posted: [This year, the number of guaranteed admissions to our university's computer science program has plummeted compared to previous years. Even experts are getting in. As someone on the brink of admission, I feel a sense of balance.]
No names were mentioned between the lines, but the comments were surprisingly unanimous in expressing regret for the great man's remarks, and everyone sighed.
Under the bed, Gu Jiaqian urged again: "Luo Shu, how long are you going to stay in bed? The sun is burning your butt."
Luo Shu scrolled through the comment section, which was constantly updated in real time. She sat on the headboard and naturally refuted the inconvenience of staying in bed: "How can there be sunshine on a rainy day?"
The bed curtains were pulled open with a swish, and the strong light was dazzling. Luo Shu subconsciously blocked it with her hands, and the sky outside was actually clear.
The others had left the room at some point, leaving only Gu Jiaqian. She stood with her hands on her hips, pacing back and forth under her eyes with a look of deep sorrow and grief: "Student Luo Shu, you've fallen."
"This is a university, a ladder to learning, a palace for realizing dreams. You're spending such a precious time sleeping and dreaming. Are you worthy of the decades of hard study? Are you worthy..."
Luo Shu raised her hand to interrupt and tease: "Is this your line?"
Gu Jiaqian was filled with righteous indignation: "I don't like to hear that. As a member of Shenzhen University of Technology, I have the obligation and responsibility to save students who are on the verge of laziness."
He learned the official language very well and really sounded like a school leader.
Listening to the earnest teachings, Luo Shu climbed down the stairs and got out of bed: "But didn't you say yesterday that being single is a shame for studying so hard?"
"Really?" Gu Jiaqian scratched her neck and pretended to be confused. "You remembered it wrongly."
Luo Shu jumped into her slippers and stood still. "Yes, right here." She went to the closet, opened it, rummaged around, checked the weather, and chose a short black dress. She imitated Gu Jiaqian's chest-beating and stamping gesture from last night, questioning the heavens and the earth. "Oh God, why? I have pity on you for studying so hard to get into this huge engineering school. Please grant me your soulmate. If not a campus-based male, how can I justify the nine years of compulsory education? Whether it's a simple little pup or a muscular young man with eight-pack abs, I'm not picky."
"All that's missing is to perform a ritual right here and pray to the gods for help."
Exposed, Gu Jiaqian simply stopped pretending: "Oh, so I've learned from my mistakes and decided to solve the problem from the root. Since I don't have classes today, why don't you go shopping for clothes with me and change your look?"
"Xia Yimo has changed her hair color, I want one too..."
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, what do you want? I want to go to heaven."
The bathroom door opened with a click, and Xia Yimo came out with her head held high. "If you want to get out of being single, I suggest you change your mind."
"You...you didn't leave..." Gu Jiaqian was shocked. "Also, why do you always speak so harshly?"
Xia Yimo ignored him and said, "Excuse me," brushing past Gu Jiaqian's shoulder as she passed by. She opened a cabinet full of luxury bags, picked out a saddle bag, and tried it on in front of the dressing mirror. "I'm not wrong. I've heard of Lin Daiyu falling from the sky, but I've never heard of someone losing their boyfriend. If that's not stupid, what is it?"
Then he turned around and raised his eyebrows provocatively at Gu Jiaqian behind him, "And the mouth is on my body, I am happy with it."
Gu Jiaqian was so angry that she kept calling out "you you you" for a long time without making any clear reason. She had no choice but to perform a set of military boxing at the air to vent her anger.
The love-hate dramas between these two people are simply too numerous to count. They quarrel every three days and have a big fight every five days, which happens from time to time in the dormitory. Luo Shu shook her head helplessly, picked up her clothes and turned to go into the bathroom.
The elective class was held in a tiered lecture hall in the old teaching building. There was no air conditioning, and even the fans didn't work. The dull classroom only added to the stuffiness, making the students restless. Students were either openly browsing their phones or blatantly defying the rules to sleep.
Luo Shu was no exception. She lay on the table with her hand-painted painting book as her pillow, trying to play a game of chess with Zhou Gong.
No one cares about the old teacher talking to himself on the podium, staging a one-person carnival and a group of people's loneliness.
The gentle cicada chirping that used to be like a lullaby had turned into an endless stream of complaints. Unconsciously, Luo Shu's mind kept replaying those words of pity. She suddenly opened her eyes. The sky outside the window was clear and blue, the rain had stopped. The air rushed towards her with a fierce, savage air, as if the morning's torrential downpour had been an illusion.
After finally getting through the get out of class, Luo Shu received an errand order from Gu Jiaqian on the tree-lined road. She changed her route and turned into a supermarket at the fork in the road ahead.
She walked to the freezer and asked the person on the other end of the phone what kind of drink it was. At the same time after she got the answer, an accident happened in front of the supermarket, which caused a large number of enthusiastic people to surround the supermarket in three layers. The scene was quite big, and they all raised their mobile phones to take pictures and record the scene.
Coincidentally, a couple inside also had an argument. A girl with a short hair excitedly pushed her boyfriend away and ran away: "You still say you didn't peek at others?" When passing by Luo Shu, she bumped into her arm, not sure whether intentionally or unintentionally. Without any preparation, the sketchbook and water bottle in her hands fell to the ground. The sketchbook fell at her feet, and the papers flipped several times and made a rustling sound.
Luo Shu squatted down, and in her peripheral vision, she saw the water bottle rolling in a straight line for several circles, and then stopped in front of a pair of black and white panda-colored sneakers. By the time she picked up the nearest sketchbook, the owner of the sneakers had already grabbed the bottle of water and returned it to her.
It was a beautiful finger that could definitely be called a work of art, with long knuckles and neatly trimmed nails. The black watch on the wrist set off the fair skin. She didn't even dare to draw it like that in her sketching homework.
The incandescent light above her head made Luo Shu's mind a little dazed. She reached out her hand slowly to take it. The bottle, which had just been taken out of the freezer, was still wrapped in a hint of coldness, which made her regain consciousness. She opened her eyes, and before she could utter the word "thank you", she met a pair of eyes that were calm and without too much emotion. The pupils were deep and black, and the eyelashes were clearly visible. There was a light mole on the corner of the eye, which pressed above the folds of the double eyelids, suppressing the sharpness.
In front of them was the bustling commotion of the crowd eating onlookers, behind them was the quarrel of the lovers, and there was also the faint sound of the sausages in the sausage griller sizzling and bursting with juice. One after another, the two people looked at each other without any warning in the chaotic scene.
Luo Shu blinked, completely confused by the sudden surprise, no, shock. After looking away for five or six seconds, she remembered to thank him: "Thank you...thank you."
Fang Qingzhuo said nothing, only nodded politely in response. He stood up quickly and walked towards the cashier.
"A pack of black Lanzhou."
He pulled out his phone and clicked on the payment app. Within seconds, it shut down automatically due to low battery. He felt around in his pocket for cash or anything, only to find a kerosene lighter and a bank card. He placed them on the counter and looked at the cashier, "Can I pay by card?"
The cashier was probably the first time someone had to pay by card for something under fifty yuan. He paused while holding up the barcode scanner and said, "Sorry, classmate, we don't have a card swipe function here."
The line grew longer, and the urging voices became more frequent. Just when Fang Qingzhuo was about to give up, Luo Shu, who had been waiting behind him, handed over her bottle of Assam milk tea and said, "Let's count it together."
Fang Qingzhuo remained calm until she paid for both of them. Then his expression became slightly complicated. He looked her over for a moment and then asked, "How do I pay you back?"
Anticipating that her next words would be a shy "I'll treat you" or a direct "leave me your contact information", Fang Qingzhuo's brain was working rapidly, planning to go to the nearest ATM to withdraw cash to pay her back, but the plan was aborted before he could even express it.
"No."
Luo Shu didn't understand why she had to go through the trouble of explaining. "My Mercury is in retrograde lately, and my horoscope says that helping others today will bring good fortune."
“…”
In order not to appear strange, she stared into Fang Qingzhuo's eyes and added in a low voice, "If, I mean if we meet again next time, and you still recognize me, could you buy me a cup of milk tea?"
"..." Fang Qingzhuo, feeling a sense of self-importance for the first time in his life, was slightly startled. He understood every word she said, but every word was unexpected. She didn't ask for contact information, nor did she suggest a treat. His slightly unnoticeable frown relaxed, and after a brief gaze at Luo Shu, he nodded in agreement as if possessed by a demon. Perhaps it was because there weren't so many "ifs" in the world and the initiative was his, or perhaps it was because her cautious expression at the moment was like a child who had done a small good deed and longed for verbal recognition and praise. With this unnamed psychological thought in mind, Fang Qingzhuo grabbed his belongings from the cash register and quickly left the supermarket.
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