Chapter 30 Class Meeting
The stars are very bright tonight, but many people are still awake at night.
In the graduate dormitory of H University, a second-year graduate student looked up from a thick book. The dark circles under his eyelids were so thick that they almost reached his cheekbones. He yawned and grabbed his phone, wanting to check the school forum to refresh himself. However, he didn't expect that in the middle of the night, a new hot post would appear on the school forum. A big, red "explosive" word was hung in front of the title of the post. The strange title made him puzzled as to why such a post was a hot post.
Out of curiosity, the second-year graduate student clicked on the post and played a short audio clip in it.
A clear and ethereal voice came from the phone, humming an unknown tune. It was so distant and peaceful that it inexplicably dispelled the irritability in the second-year graduate student's heart, and even the physical fatigue caused by staying up late dissipated.
The second-year graduate student's frown slowly relaxed, his heart filled with shock. He left a new comment on the already popular post: "Useful! Thank you for sharing."
Finally, the second-year graduate student forwarded this post to his classmates who were also working late into the night, and also sent it to his group of good friends.
His friends questioned him one after another, and a few minutes later sent him exclamation marks to express their shock. The second-year graduate student smiled slightly. Although he was still a little sleepy, he stood up, stretched his arms and moved his body, then sat back to continue working hard.
The second-year graduate student didn't know that his friend had posted the message again, this time directly to a community forum that was very popular at the time.
It was a comprehensive forum whose users were no longer limited to students, but included people from all walks of life.
The post is titled: Shocking! The sleep-inducing song you can’t help but believe!
The post did not have much traffic at the beginning, but after a few people clicked in to listen to it out of curiosity, the number of comments increased rapidly, and soon there were hundreds of replies.
People posted that they seemed to hear the sound of the sea, and praised the singer as a siren. I don’t know where the post went off track, but all the replies below became “Thank you, siren.”
Chen Keai slept soundly that night, but was woken up in the morning by the incessant ringing of her cell phone.
"Oh shit!" Chen Keai fumbled for her phone with her eyes closed, extremely upset that she had forgotten to mute the phone last night.
He opened his phone in a daze and found that many people had sent him private messages on the school bulletin board and forum, asking who was singing in the post. Some people who had his contact information and were familiar with him even sent him messages directly asking about the identity of the singer.
Chen Keai fluttered up and sat up, feeling something was wrong. He clicked on his own post and found that it had been posted for hundreds of times. He followed the link shared by others and clicked on another community forum, where he found an even more popular post with thousands of replies. All the replies he saw were "Thanks to the Siren" and "Looking for the Siren".
It's over!
Chen Keai's fingertips trembled. He knew that Jiang Jinyue particularly disliked contact with people and always hid himself, not wanting to be noticed. It seemed that he had caused Jiang Jinyue a big trouble.
Jiang Jinyue was woken up by a call from Chen Keai.
He was even more sleepy than Chen Keai. He picked up the phone and only realized what had happened when Chen Keai explained it a second time. He immediately refused anxiously, "No! Don't say it was me! Don't say my name!"
Chen Keai had long guessed Jiang Jinyue's reaction and immediately assured her guiltily, "Of course I won't expose you! Don't worry, Yueyue! Even if someone held a knife to my neck, I would definitely protect your identity as a sea monster!"
It was obviously Chen Keai who caused the incident to escalate, but he was making jokes at this time and seemed like a good person.
Jiang Jinyue didn't understand, "What siren?"
He remembered that Chen Keai didn't know that he would become a mermaid.
Chen Keai said on the phone: "You haven't read those posts yet? I'll forward them to you, take a look."
After hanging up the phone, Jiang Jinyue received a post forwarded by Chen Keai. He frowned and clicked on it to check.
He originally thought that he would panic and be scared, and would find it very troublesome and not know how to solve the problem, but when he saw the words of thanks in the replies, Jiang Jinyue's chest slowly warmed up.
He read the replies quietly:
"Thanks to the Sirens. I'm a severe insomniac. I can't sleep more than three hours a day, and I still have to force myself to go to work. I've tried many methods but nothing works. I've taken three sleeping pills and I'm about to collapse. But last night I fell asleep listening to the Sirens' songs. It was a very comfortable sleep, and all the fatigue in my body disappeared. I bow down to the Sirens!"
"Oh my god, I played this song on repeat last night. I'm a very introverted person, and I always think a lot before going to bed. Plus, a lot has been going on at work lately, so I'm really irritated. But last night, that irritation disappeared! I fell asleep really fast! I even had a beautiful dream about getting rich!"
"The person upstairs had a beautiful dream about getting rich. I had a dream too, but it was a little different. I dreamed of my mother. My mother passed away two years ago. I really missed her, but she just wouldn't come to my dreams. Last night she finally came to see me. I woke up this morning and cried for a long time. I wish my mother were still here."
"I dreamed about my grandfather, too."
“I dreamed about my grandma!”
Jiang Jinyue felt relieved. After reading a few messages, he flipped through the rest and found that they were all expressions of gratitude. Everywhere he looked, there were words like "Thank the Siren", "Kneel down to the Siren", "Looking for the Siren", etc.
Jiang Jinyue had never experienced the feeling of being thanked by so many people. It seemed as if he had suddenly become very important, able to help many people and be needed by many people.
In the past, he was always the one who was hated and excluded.
Jiang Jinyue's gentle voice echoed in the silent bedroom. Gradually, the voice stopped and Jiang Jinyue stopped reading. He held his ugly bright yellow mobile phone in his hand, and the corners of his lips curled up with a hint of relief.
Everything is getting better.
At noon that day, Lu Qingmian took away Jiang Jinyue's newly opened bank card, which still had the previous 200,000 yuan in it. Jiang Jinyue told Lu Qingmian the password with great trust. Lu Qingmian said nothing and left in a hurry, taking away Jiang Jinyue's crying little pearl.
In the afternoon, Lu Qingmian returned the card to Jiang Jinyue and handed her an electronic deposit receipt. "I sold the three cans of pearls and the extra seafood, and the money has been deposited."
Jiang Jinyue took the receipt and counted the numbers on it. After counting, he thought he was dazzled and counted again several times: "Tens, hundreds, thousands, millions... one, two, three, four, five, six, seven... It's a seven-digit number, right? One million..."
"Bang." The bank card in his hand fell to the ground and Jiang Jinyue froze in place.
While Jiang Jinyue was counting his savings, Lu Qingmian sat beside him, propping up his chin and watching Jiang Jinyue at ease. Seeing the bank card fall, Lu Qingmian's eyes flashed with a playful expression, "One million is lost, aren't you going to pick it up?"
Jiang Jinyue woke up with a start, and immediately bent down to pick up the bank card, and patted the non-existent dust on it. Then he looked up at Lu Qingmian, rubbed the ground with his toes, and suddenly pounced towards Lu Qingmian, but failed to fall into Lu Qingmian's arms. Lu Qingmian hit his forehead with his fingers.
"Aren't you afraid of illusions anymore?" Lu Qingmian lowered his eyes and met Jiang Jinyue's blinking eyes.
Jiang Jinyue has become more and more familiar with physical contact with Lu Qingmian these days. Occasionally, it even triggered the stress response of PTSD, which made him somewhat addicted to the warm embrace.
There is even a trend of developing from extreme untouchability to extreme skin hunger, although it is only directed at Lu Qingmian.
Jiang Jinyue stepped back and didn't rush forward again.
He hid the bank card at the bottom of the closet, squatted in front of the closet, and began to think about how to reasonably transfer money to Wang Xiaoya.
Lu Qingmian saw through it and said, "There's no need to rush."
Jiang Jinyue had no choice but to nod and looked at the pile of empty cans again.
After Lu Qingmian sold the pearls, he brought back the empty glass jars. Apart from those three, there were nearly ten empty jars in Jiang Jinyue's house.
He couldn't help but ask, "Lu Qingmian, why do you have so many glass jars?"
Lu Qingmian glanced at him with a strange look in his eyes, "You don't want to know."
Jiang Jinyue didn't care even though he didn't get the answer. His mind was now full of the one million.
Lu Qingmian left quickly and returned to room 1303 upstairs.
Room 1303 at this time was very different from the original one. In front of one wall, the simulated human specimens that should have been neatly arranged against the wall were casually pushed to the corner by the owner and squeezed together unwillingly. A cabinet appeared in the previous position, with four round-bellied glass jars on the cabinet, and the jars were filled with moist and white pearls.
Lu Qingmian was the buyer of these pearls, so they were sold so smoothly and quickly.
He took a small pearl from a jar and pinched it between his fingers. He looked at the shimmering light on the pearl in the sunlight and sighed softly, "These are just tears, you little crybaby."
The last few days before school officially started passed quickly, and soon it was the day when Jiang Jinyue had to go to school.
The classes had been assigned when they reported, and Jiang Jinyue had also added the class group and counselor's contact information in the past few days. He was notified that he would go to school for a class meeting today to elect class leaders, register for the student union, and discuss some matters related to military training.
Jiang Jinyue studied Business Administration, which was not his own choice. Wang Xiaoya asked around and everyone said that this major was popular and easy to find a job, so Jiang Jinyue signed up.
Jiang Jinyue had no idea what major to study or what he would do in the future. After all, for him, just being able to stay alive without causing trouble to others was already an effort.
In the morning, Jiang Jinyue arrived at the classroom more than half an hour early, found a seat in the back corner, sat down, and lay on the table, waiting quietly.
Twenty minutes later, other freshmen arrived one after another, most of them traveling together. The freshmen had already moved into the dormitory, made some initial acquaintances with new friends, and formed their first small circle.
Jiang Jinyue was the opposite of them. Apart from knowing the name of his counselor, he didn't know anyone. It was as if he had just changed the place where he studied. Everything else was the same as before, nothing had changed.
The freshmen were all boys and girls around eighteen or nineteen years old, all full of youth. They had just said goodbye to high school and were liberated. Most of them had dyed their hair and dressed up carefully. At first glance, there were very few with black hair. No one was like Jiang Jinyue, who covered himself so tightly with glasses, a mask, and long bangs that his facial features could not be seen clearly. Naturally, no one would take the initiative to talk to Jiang Jinyue. Most of them didn't notice him. Occasionally, if they noticed him, they would just look at him curiously for a few seconds and then look away.
Jiang Jinyue lowered his head and looked at the lines on his pants. His whole body was tense, and he felt both resistance and fear towards the unfamiliar environment.
Soon the counselor came and talked about a lot of things that college freshmen should pay attention to and the school system, and then began the election for class leaders. Students who were interested in running signed up, and then came forward one after another to introduce themselves and give a short speech.
Jiang Jinyue was like an outsider, lost in thought throughout the entire process, and when voting anonymously, he simply wrote down a name.
Jiang Jinyue felt very uncomfortable during the class meeting which lasted for a whole hour and a half, and just wanted it to end quickly.
Finally, after the counselor announced the votes and all the class leaders were elected, she began to talk about the precautions for the military training starting tomorrow.
Jiang Jinyue did not participate in the military training, but because of the special circumstances, he did not need to sit on the sidelines and watch, and he did not listen much to the military training.
After the counselor finished speaking, he suddenly called out Jiang Jinyue's name, so that the newly elected class leaders could remember him and tell them that Jiang Jinyue did not need to participate in the roll call assessment during military training.
Although it is a very common thing, for freshmen, not participating in military training is already a special treatment, especially since Jiang Jinyue looks healthy and does not look sick.
For a moment, the eyes of more than 50 freshmen in the class fell on Jiang Jinyue.
Jiang Jinyue's breathing became lighter, and he lowered his head, feeling as if his whole body was pricked by small thorns. He even heard a few people on the other side whispering about him.
"That person looks weird, covering his face so tightly, is there something on his face?"
"I don't know. If the counselor hadn't called his name, I wouldn't have known his name. It seems like no one in the class has ever spoken to him."
Jiang Jinyue could only pretend not to hear.
Finally, the difficult class meeting ended. The counselor left with his bag first, and the classmates also walked out together, but Jiang Jinyue did not move.
There are too many people outside now, and it is easy to have accidental physical contact with others. He wants to wait until most people have left before leaving. He is very familiar with this kind of thing, as he has done this all these years when he was in school.
However, I didn't expect that there would be an even louder noise coming from outside the classroom, mixed with a few suppressed screams and exclamations, as well as giggling.
Then Jiang Jinyue heard a familiar name. Someone asked, "Are you the school idol Lu Qingmian who was chosen from the forum?"
In 2013, non-mainstream culture began to decline, but major campuses still retained the tradition of selecting campus beauties and campus handsome men. As soon as the new student registration was over, Lu Qingmian was crowned the campus handsome man of H University. Even his photos from junior high and high school were dug out and spread everywhere.
Before the military training even started, Lu Qingmian had already become a popular figure at H University, just like when he suddenly transferred to Ze County No. 2 Middle School in high school and instantly became a campus idol.
Why is Lu Qingmian here? The Computer Science Department and the Business Administration Department are not in the same building. Could Lu Qingmian be here to see him?
Jiang Jinyue looked towards the classroom door, but found that it was blocked by students and Lu Qingmian was nowhere to be seen.
He was a little dazed for a moment, as if he was back in high school. Lu Qingmian was always the focus of the crowd, while he was always isolated from the crowd.
Jiang Jinyue quietly stood up, walked to the back door of the classroom, left the classroom through the back door, and finally saw Lu Qingmian who was blocked at the front door.
Lu Qingmian was wearing a handsome denim suit, his brows slightly furrowed, a hint of impatience in his eyes. However, his good upbringing prevented him from losing his temper on the spot. He simply said calmly, "Let me pass. I'll find someone."
Blocking the front were a few lively and outgoing girls. They were holding their phones and asking Lu Qingmian for his QQ or WeChat number, with no intention of moving aside.
Jiang Jinyue stood outside the crowd, looking at Lu Qingmian, and suddenly felt familiar and unfamiliar. That was a Lu Qingmian who was completely different from the one he had been with during this period of time, but he was also the male god Lu Qingmian who he was most familiar with in high school.
They are like two parallel lines, which only intersect briefly due to an accident.
School has started now and everything has to go back to normal.
Jiang Jinyue turned around and walked away.
Suddenly, a loud roar came from behind: "Jiang Jinyue!"
This roar not only made Jiang Jinyue stop where he was, but also shut up the chattering crowd around him.
Lu Qingmian pushed through the crowd and walked straight towards Jiang Jinyue, his lips curled down with a hint of dissatisfaction: "Why are you leaving now that you've seen me?"
Along with Lu Qingmian's arrival came those inquiring gazes.
Jiang Jinyue was not used to being noticed, and even less used to being stared at by so many people. He was very nervous and wanted to turn around and run away immediately.
Seeing Jiang Jinyue lowering his head, Lu Qingmian relaxed his brows and asked softly, "Are you feeling unwell?"
He knew Jiang Jinyue's situation, so he came to pick her up.
Jiang Jinyue didn't say anything.
Lu Qingmian simply raised his hand and placed it on Jiang Jinyue's shoulder, then walked out with Jiang Jinyue in his arms, "Walk beside me, I'll block it for you."
Jiang Jinyue's eyelashes trembled, and she asked softly, "Are you here to see me?"
Lu Qingmian: "What else?"
Jiang Jinyue was puzzled: "Why are you looking for me?"
Lu Qingmian paused and realized that something was wrong with Jiang Jinyue.
He tilted his head slightly and whispered, "How can I trust a stupid fish to sneak into the crowd of students alone? What if I get discovered and turned into soup?"
The sensitive emotions that had been lingering in Jiang Jinyue's heart slowly dissipated. His expression relaxed considerably, and he imitated Lu Qingmian and whispered, "I won't be stewed into soup."
Lu Qingmian quipped, "Why?"
Jiang Jinyue said proudly, "The pot can't hold me."
Lu Qingmian: "You are amazing."
Behind the two people, there was a group of stunned freshmen.
They looked at Lu Qingmian and Jiang Jinyue, who were sitting arm in arm in an intimate pose, and asked each other what the relationship was between H University's newest school idol, Lu Qingmian, and that faceless weirdo. Did they know each other?
This little episode did not attract the attention of most people to Jiang Jinyue.
Lu Qingmian escorted Jiang Jinyue out of the teaching building and asked him, "Do you want to go to the cafeteria to try it? I'll sit next to you and won't let anyone touch you."
Although Jiang Jinyue was unwilling to interact with others, he also yearned for university life and was very curious about the cafeteria. Just as he was about to nod, a box of heart-shaped chocolates was suddenly pushed in front of Lu Qingmian.
A tall girl stood in front of the two of them. She first glanced at Jiang Jinyue with a look full of inquiry and hostility. After discovering that Jiang Jinyue was a boy whose face could not even be seen clearly, she simply ignored him.
"Lu Qingmian, right? Add me on QQ."
There was a pink sticky note on the box of chocolates with a string of numbers written on it, which should be the girl’s QQ number.
She spoke confidently and generously, with bright facial features. She was even much taller than Jiang Jinyue. When she stood in front of Lu Qingmian, she only needed to look up slightly to see Lu Qingmian's eyes.
Jiang Jinyue's gaze fell on the box of chocolates, then looked at Lu Qingmian. Seeing that Lu Qingmian did not refuse at the first time, he felt a strange feeling in his heart for some reason, as if it was immersed in ice water and floating up and down.
He quietly took a step back, then another step back, trying to leave them some space.
Unexpectedly, Lu Qingmian noticed Jiang Jinyue's retreat, and he held his arm with a little force, directly pulling Jiang Jinyue into his arms.
Jiang Jinyue almost screamed out loud, her lips tightly pursed under the mask. She subconsciously wanted to look at Lu Qingmian's face, but saw that Lu Qingmian was still staring at the girl in front of him.
After a while, Lu Qingmian finally spoke: "Are you... Kong Pandan?"
The girl raised her eyebrows, surprise flashing in her bright eyes: "Have you paid attention to me?"
Lu Qingmian's face darkened, and his tone was icy: "Why didn't you come to the first rehearsal yesterday? The senior student in charge of the rehearsal called the roll several times, but you were always absent and the phone couldn't be reached, which delayed the progress."
These students who were attending the welcome party had already held their first gathering before the school officially started yesterday, but because a girl named Kong Pandan did not show up, a lot of time was wasted. The senior student was so anxious that she looked through Kong Pandan's QQ space photos and asked if anyone could contact her.
"I overslept and my phone was out of battery and turned off. I didn't mean to do that... Besides, is this the time to talk about these things?" Kong Pandan frowned and his voice became a little higher.
She held out the chocolate in her hand again and said, "Take it."
Lu Qingmian then glanced at the box of chocolates. Suddenly, in front of Kong Pandan, he pulled Jiang Jinyue in front of him and rested his chin on Jiang Jinyue's head. "Not interested."
Seeing Lu Qingmian hugging Jiang Jinyue intimately, Kong Pandan's eyes twitched and she said in disbelief, "Fuck, you're gay!"
Jiang Jinyue was pulled in front of Lu Qingmian, so he heard the sound of "grass" very clearly.
He blinked and tried to run away again, but Lu Qingmian had one arm across Jiang Jinyue's collarbone, preventing him from moving at all.
Hearing Kong Pandan's question, Lu Qingmian just raised his eyelids and said indifferently, "What do you care?"
Kong Pandan's face immediately showed a very distorted expression. Her large eyes with delicate eye makeup looked up and down at Lu Qingmian, then looked at Jiang Jinyue. Finally, she rolled her eyes, tore off the sticky note with the QQ number written on it from the chocolate, turned the chocolate around, and handed it to Jiang Jinyue, saying:
"Here, this is for you. This chocolate is dirty. I don't want it anymore."
Jiang Jinyue was at a loss. Kong Pandan didn't say much. He pushed the chocolate into Jiang Jinyue's arms and let go. Jiang Jinyue immediately reached out to catch the chocolate that almost fell to the ground.
Kong Pandan crumpled up the sticky note and threw it into the trash can. Before leaving, she looked at Lu Qingmian and said loudly, "I'm sorry for being late. I won't be late again and hold everyone back. I'm sorry."
As soon as he finished speaking, the tall figure left quickly.
Jiang Jinyue blinked slowly, holding the chocolate in her arms, and whispered, "Lu Qingmian, you're being mistaken for a gay."
Lu Qingmian chuckled: "Really? Do you mind?"
Jiang Jinyue quickly shook her head: "How, how could it be... Then what about this box of chocolates?"
Lu Qingmian said casually: "Throw it away."
Jiang Jinyue looked at the English label on the chocolate and guessed that it must be very expensive.
Although he now has a seven-figure savings, he has been used to being poor since he was a child and is not used to becoming rich, so he always can't think about it.
Seeing Jiang Jinyue staring at the chocolate, Lu Qingmian said, "If you want to eat chocolate, I can buy it for you. Throw this box away."
According to Jiang Jinyue's personality, he should have kept the chocolate. What's wrong with chocolate? It would be a pity to throw it away.
But for some reason, Jiang Jinyue felt a strange feeling in his heart, sour and bitter as if he had eaten a lemon.
He walked to the trash can, picked up the chocolate with both hands and threw it away.
Watching the chocolate fall into the trash can, Jiang Jinyue suddenly felt a little happy.
He turned his head and suddenly found that Lu Qingmian was looking at him with a very strange look, dark, subtle and as if he could see through him.
Jiang Jinyue's heartbeat suddenly became irregular.
Lu Qingmian's expression quickly changed. He walked towards him calmly, raised his hand and placed it on his shoulder again. He leaned close to his ear and asked casually, "I'm going to play the piano at the welcome party. I'll be practicing in the auditorium tonight. Do you want to come and watch?"
After saying this, Lu Qingmian paused and added, "It's just me."
Jiang Jinyue lowered her eyes, and the tips of her ears hidden in her hair were redder than the buds of a crabapple tree.
He gently agreed: "Yes, I want to go."
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