【15】They are surprisingly consistent in implementing the principle of loving themselves first
Ye Xin wore a wrinkle-free short jacket and a small skirt, but she exuded a sense of dejection that even her refined attire couldn't conceal. Seeing the two acquaintances appear in the elevator together, she only uttered a feeble "Ah!" and leaned against the wall, boneless, as if she would collapse from exhaustion at any moment. Liang Zhiyao then remembered that he hadn't received a response since sending the photo of Cheng Yan and Liu Siyan attending class together to his roommate that morning. It wasn't until they returned home that Ye Xin began to pour out her frustrations: "Zhiyao, I'm really screwed... I couldn't concentrate on what the other person was saying on our date tonight, and I couldn't even eat." Liang Zhiyao felt a pang of pain: "I should have known not to send you the photo. Blame my quick hand." "No, no, no! It's a good thing you did. I almost tried to test the waters by chatting with Cheng Yan on WeChat today. If I had sent it, it would have been so embarrassing." Her roommate's face flickered with fear. "Just thinking about that scene makes me dig my toes into the ground..." Perhaps Ye Xin couldn't shake her pride and reserve as a beautiful woman, while Liang Zhiyao instinctively resisted any uncontrollable relationship. In short, on this point, they were surprisingly united in their principle of loving themselves first. The roommate's breakup, which had ended before it even began, was a foregone conclusion. Liang Zhiyao decided to change the subject to prevent her from dwelling on it. "Speaking of which, we have a group project for Human-Computer Interaction this afternoon, and I can't seem to find anyone to team up with." She explained that she was assigned to a group with Tan Xu and the rugby player, prompting her roommate to exclaim in dismay. "Are you talking about Jeffrey? That muscled guy? He's notoriously unreliable. Last semester, he skipped several of Mia and her group discussions, leaving the other students to do all the work. He didn't show up once, and somehow managed to get an A." Such people are not uncommon on campus; there's even a term for them: free riders. In a group of four or five, the problem isn't obvious, but with just three, the damage to the division of labor is far greater. With Ye Xin's reminder, Liang Zhiyao specifically opened the GroupMe chat of the three group members on Tuesday morning to reconfirm the time and place for the afternoon discussion. He quickly received two positive responses, which put him at ease. Unfortunately, when the agreed-upon time finally arrived, his roommate's prediction came true: Jeffrey didn't show. They agreed to meet at the library at 4 p.m., and because they wanted to talk and discuss, Tan Xu even made an appointment in advance on the school website...
Ye Xin was wearing a short jacket and a small skirt without a single wrinkle, but she had a kind of dejection that even her exquisite attire couldn't hide. When she saw two acquaintances appear in the elevator together, she just let out a weak "eh" and leaned against the wall as if she had no bones, as if she would collapse from exhaustion at any moment.
Liang Zhiyao then remembered that after sending the photo of Cheng Yan and Liu Siyan attending class together to his roommate in the morning, he still hadn't received a reply from the other party.
It wasn't until they returned home that Ye Xin began to complain bitterly: "Zhiyao, I'm really screwed... During our date tonight, I couldn't even listen to what the other person was saying, and I couldn't eat."
Liang Zhiyao felt a little distressed: "I should have known not to send you the photo. Blame me for being so quick."
"No, no, no! I'm glad you sent me the photo. I almost couldn't help but chat with Cheng Yan on WeChat today to test the waters. If I had really sent it, it would have been so embarrassing." The roommate's expression was filled with fear. "Just thinking about that scene makes me dig my toes into the ground..."
Perhaps Ye Xin couldn't get rid of her pride and reserve as a beautiful woman, while Liang Zhiyao instinctively resisted all uncontrollable relationships. In short, on this point, they were surprisingly consistent in implementing the principle of loving themselves first.
The roommate's breakup was over before it even began. Liang Zhiyao decided to change the subject to prevent her from dwelling on it.
"Speaking of which, there's a group assignment for human-computer interaction this afternoon, and I can hardly find anyone to team up with."
She told her roommates that she was in the same group with Tan Xu and the rugby players, but her roommates cried out in disbelief.
"Are you talking about Jeffrey? The muscled guy? He's notoriously unreliable. Last semester, he skipped several group discussions with Mia and her classmates. In the end, the other students did all the work, and he didn't show up once, yet he still got an A."
Such people are actually quite common in schools; there's even a term for them: "free riders." In groups of four or five, the problem isn't so pronounced, but with just three, the damage to the division of labor becomes significant.
With Ye Xin's reminder, Liang Zhiyao specially opened the GroupMe chat of the three team members on Tuesday morning to reconfirm the time and place of the afternoon discussion. He soon received OK replies from two people, which made him feel slightly relieved.
But when the agreed time finally came, his roommate's prediction came true; Jeffrey didn't show up.
They agreed to meet at the library at four o'clock in the afternoon. Because they wanted to talk and discuss, Tan Xu also made a reservation in advance for a small closed meeting room on the school website. However, after waiting for a long time, it was already four fifteen, and the third team member still hadn't shown up. He also suddenly disappeared from the online group chat and no longer responded to any messages.
"Do you have any other contact information for him? WhatsApp or something?"
"No," Tan Xu shook his head. "I'll go out and take a look. This conference room is hard to find in the library. I might have lost my way."
He disappeared, leaving Liang Zhiyao alone in the conference room with nothing to do. After thinking about it, he simply called up the code for another course and started to finish his homework.
About ten minutes later, Tan Xu returned with a steaming cup of coffee and placed it directly in front of her. It was a flat white with more espresso and less foam.
"What is this?" She looked puzzled.
"For you," he raised an eyebrow, "You seem particularly sleepy, your eyes are bloodshot."
Of course, anyone who stayed up late to do homework last night, worked a part-time job standing in a coffee shop from 8 am to 12 am, attended classes from 1 pm to 3 pm, and had a group discussion at 4 pm would be distracted and exhausted.
Liang Zhiyao is always very tired when he has to work and attend classes at the same time.
She really needed caffeine right now, but rejecting such advances seemed to be written in her genes: "No, I'm afraid I won't be able to sleep at night if I drink it now."
Tan Xu raised his eyebrows, looking a little frustrated.
"I just met some weird teammates. A group assignment of three people has become a two-person job, and they don't even give me a chance to bribe the team leader?"
"...Okay, thank you." It was hard for him to find such an excuse.
Although Liang Zhiyao felt that he was indeed worthy of the title of "team leader", but having said that, it seemed like he was forced to do so by the other party, and he had to follow his rhythm and accept this inexplicable goodwill.
It was 4:30, and waiting any longer wasn't an option. She suggested, "Let's forget about it today. Let's schedule another time in the group chat."
Tan Xu disagreed. "That's risky. I started my internship this week and have to work from Wednesday to Friday. The athlete said he's busy on the weekends. If we wait until we can discuss it, the two-week deadline will almost be up. We'll definitely fall behind schedule and inevitably have to rush to put together a bunch of low-quality content. With your high GPA requirements, you probably don't want that, do you?"
Liang Zhiyao vaguely recalled that at Liu Siyan's birthday party, Cheng Yan asked him why he skipped classes on Friday, and he was told that he was going for an internship interview. Now it seemed that the interview was successful.
She asked, "So what do you want to do?"
"Why don't we just finalize the framework first and then assign the tasks directly to Jeffrey."
In fact, she also knew that this plan was more reasonable, but if she agreed to his plan, they would be left alone in the meeting room.
"Well, let's forget it. What if we discuss it for a long time and Jeffrey disagrees? We'll have to start over again." She lowered her head and quickly put her computer and other things into her bag, preparing to leave. "Thanks for the coffee, that's it for now—"
She was halfway through saying goodbye when her arm was suddenly grabbed by the other person. She struggled but failed to get free.
"I think I'm mistaken. You don't have a prejudice against me," he said, wanting to laugh, but choosing his words carefully. "Are you actually a little afraid of me?"
Liang Zhiyao subconsciously glared at him, not knowing whether it was because of his arrogant and self-conscious remarks or his frivolous behavior of casually pulling a girl's hand.
"What are you afraid of?"
"Who knows," he said. "You might have to ask yourself."
He didn't seem to have re-sprayed perfume today. The residual smell on his wrist was like someone walking near an osmanthus tree in autumn - if you don't pay attention, you can always smell a little bit of it with the breeze and the grass, but if you really smell it carefully, you can't catch anything.
Liang Zhiyao didn't fall for his confusing words. He pulled his arm back and found a more euphemistic way of saying, "I just have a strong sense of boundaries. Maybe we're not the same kind of people."
The implication is that he has a weak sense of boundaries, flirting with people as if it were muscle memory, which ruins his character.
"So hurtful?" He sighed, but there was no sign of hurt on his face. Instead, he smiled faintly and said, "Honestly, don't you think we have similar interests? I feel like we can become good friends."
It was a way of straightening his stance and declaring that he didn't treat her like a fish in Neptune's pond. Of course, the scumbag's words were not very credible, perhaps just sophistry.
Liang Zhiyao immediately questioned: "Have you always casually held your friends' hands?"
He said helplessly: "Unless it's an emergency - sorry, I'll be more careful next time."
The strange reconciliation between them had finally been reached, and the charming atmosphere finally dissipated. Considering the group project, Liang Zhiyao compromised and sat down again, pulling out his laptop. This time, the two of them engaged in a serious discussion, completely ignoring Jeffrey's presence.
The assignment is to create a user-friendly website. After the ideas and general content are determined, the work will be divided and executed. This will also depend on Jeffrey's subsequent cooperation.
I have to say that chatting in one's native language is much more efficient, and Tan Xu's thinking is very clear. Although he is only a CS minor, the background knowledge he knows is no less than that of someone with a professional background like her, which is unexpected.
She was generous with her compliments and said frankly, "It's really easy to talk to smart people. You are much more reliable than I thought."
"So you always thought I was uneducated and unskillful?" He keenly noticed the hidden meaning.
"Uh," Liang Zhiyao said awkwardly, "I wasn't familiar with you before, so I don't have any impression of you in this regard."
Compared to several engineering programs, their school's business school is relatively expensive and admits the largest number of international students, making it a cash cow. While Tan Xu's finance program is well-ranked, it also has several "watered-down" majors, and a large number of students just trying to get through graduation, resulting in a mixed reception overall.
She had a preconceived notion that he was a playboy and probably didn't care much about his studies, which was true.
"Let's not talk about this," Liang Zhiyao knew he was in the wrong and changed the subject. "Did you write down the case that Ed projected on the screen the other day?"
"No, he only played it for less than half a minute, so there was no time to record it."
"Oh, then you can only look at the photos I took. They're a little blurry. Let me look for them..."
Professors usually share the slides they have taught after class, but some of the content is subject to copyright, so they will cover it during the lecture and delete those pages after class before sending them out in group emails.
Fortunately, Liang Zhiyao reacted quickly and took a photo immediately, but I don’t know if he could see the small words on the screen clearly.
She swiped through the photo album on her phone a few times and said, "I found it. It's viewable, but it's a bit straining on the eyes."
"I'll summarize it in the document, you continue looking for information."
Liang Zhiyao naturally had no objection. The moment she handed the phone over, she accidentally touched the screen again and swiped back to another photo taken that morning - the one she secretly took of Cheng Yan accompanying Liu Siyan to class and sent to Ye Xin.
Without waiting for the other person to say anything, she guiltily took the initiative to explain: "Um, I was the teaching assistant for that class, and I saw that the picture of the two of them was quite beautiful, so I couldn't help but take a picture. I'll delete the photo immediately, please don't tell them."
Tan Xu had a look of doubt on his face and didn't comment on her explanation.
However, this was a rare opportunity, so she simply accepted the label of a gossip lover and tried to help Ye Xin find out: "By the way, are they really together?"
He shrugged. "I don't know."
"Aren't you and Liu Siyan good friends? Didn't she share her new relationship with you?"
"That's when you're heartbroken. Just having someone to listen to your troubles is enough. If you really find a new love, who would still remember your friends?"
The words are rough but the truth is there.
She still didn't give up: "Then... Aren't you and Cheng Yan quite familiar with each other? Why don't you keep in touch?"
He shook his head. "I've only become acquainted with him recently, and we've never discussed this topic. Like you, I just get information from WeChat Moments and Instagram."
"...Okay, I thought you guys would have a scumbag group chat or something, where you update your pick-up progress and share your success stories every day."
"How can there be such a thing?" He wasn't angry, but a little helpless. "Do I look like a scumbag?"
She was about to say something else, but her stomach growled loudly, which was especially noticeable in the quiet little meeting room. She felt so ashamed and embarrassed that she wanted to bury her head in the computer screen.
"Don't worry about other people," Tan Xu smiled and stood up: "How about we solve the problem of food and clothing first?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
