Chapter 7 Love Letter Chen: [Would it be convenient to meet up?]...
Du Heng calculated that almost a week had passed, and he asked curiously, "How many lyrics have you received for this lyric contest? You must have been able to pick quite a few out of random ones."
However, the person in the passenger seat did not respond for a long time.
Du Heng glanced over and saw him holding a phone in his left hand and a water glass in his right, his posture somewhat strange, his eyes fixed on the phone screen.
His face was expressionless, frozen like a statue.
Du Heng asked in surprise, "Did you glitch my connection?"
Chen Jingchi remained silent, and Du Heng immediately misunderstood, asking, "Were you searching for yourself on Weibo? I've already told you not to go online unless necessary. How do you know if the person behind that account is a real person or a ghost? What if it affects your mindset?"
Once he started rambling on, he wouldn't stop. Seeing that Chen Jingchi didn't refute him, it only confirmed his guess. He earnestly advised, "Stop looking at it. Your Weibo account isn't active at all. Not many people speak up for you. If I say something nice for you, I have to switch to a different account and change my IP. Don't make things difficult for yourself..."
“Brother.” Chen Jingchi finally looked up at him, abruptly interrupting him.
Du Heng paused abruptly: "What's wrong?"
His gaze was piercing, and he didn't mince words: "Do you believe in miracles?"
Du Heng spoke eloquently: "Of course I believe it. It's just that Liu Qian hasn't been on the Spring Festival Gala for the past few years. Do you think it's really related to Dong Qing not hosting anymore?"
Chen Jingchi didn't respond. His gaze was fixed on the scenery outside the car window, seemingly unfocused, as if he were deep in thought.
A moment later, he looked away and replied to the email.
He never accepted his fate, nor did he believe in so-called luck. He wanted to see for himself who the person who wrote this poem was.
*
At 5 p.m., a long-awaited announcement was posted on the campus wall.
@JiangchuanCampusWall: We have received notification that the results of the highly anticipated lyric contest are in! Please check your email and contact Chen Jingchi immediately! Thank you for your attention!
The attached image shows an email nickname and a string of email addresses.
Within minutes of this post being published, someone had already decoded the email address.
The number before the QQ email address is the QQ number. After entering it into the search bar, the user information will immediately pop up. If someone finds it to be a friend on their list, they will immediately post it in the comments section.
[Isn't this Zhou Yu, a Chinese literature major?]
[Male or female?]
Is there such a person in our department? [Confused]
Is this Zhou Yu, the one who got called on by the drill instructor every day during military training?
She's a girl, and doesn't talk much.
【Huh? Zhou Yu? Really?】
[Lyrics not being made public?]
[Wouldn't the new album be leaked if it were made public?]
The discussion about Zhou Yu didn't last long. Not only did people in the college not recognize the name, but even some people in his major didn't know it, which shows how low his presence was.
A few minutes later, everyone accepted the result, and the hype quickly died down.
Two hours passed.
At 7 p.m., a subtle notification suddenly popped up in the long-dormant group chat for freshmen at Jiangbei Communication University, announcing that a new member had joined the chat.
This group was busiest before the start of the semester, with people chatting about school construction, dormitory layouts, and fellow townsfolk, exchanging thousands of messages a day. After the semester started, everyone joined their respective college, major, and class groups, and naturally, the freshman group became quiet and deserted.
XY: [Hi everyone, I'm Chen Jingchi's friend. Could you please ask if anyone can contact Zhou Yu?]
It has been a long time since the results were announced on the school wall, and few people remember the name "Zhou Yu".
Fortunately, there was no one with the same name as her in the university. Not long after, someone from the same major replied to him in the group chat.
Luo Yanghui: [Is it Zhou Yu, the one whose lyrics were selected?]
XY: [Yes, do you know him?]
Luo Yanghui: [I know him, I'll ask him for you.]
XY: [Thanks, bro]
Someone watching the play asked, "Have you still not been able to get in touch?"
XY: [Not yet]
She's busier than a big star!
The tone was sarcastic and offensive to both sides, so XY didn't say anything more.
The discussion in the group did not stop because of this.
She certainly doesn't pay much attention to people, but why didn't Chen Jingchi receive any special treatment?
Treat everyone equally, and let no one laugh at anyone else.
What is Zhou Yu's major? Is she pretty?
[If you're really going to give it your all, send me a photo first, and I'll give you my feedback.]
[Chinese literature majors are welcome to audit my class]
What kind of major is this? I've never heard of it.
[These are top-tier academic majors, almost all of which are for students who only studied general subjects; it's normal that you haven't heard of them.]
At 7:10, An Kejia was preparing for the second interview with the Student Union's Organization Department when her phone rang. It was a message from her class monitor, Luo Yanghui.
[An Kejia, is Zhou Yu with you?]
The senior student in front had already called her name, and An Kejia, eager to go on stage, replied with a voice message: "No, she should be in the dormitory. I have to go on stage for an interview, sorry!"
Since the class monitor was a boy, he had to pull out the dormitory arrangement sheet and contact the girls in the next dormitory to ask for help.
On Saturday night, many people went out to play, and there were not many people in the dormitory. Luo Yanghui asked around and finally a girl responded that she would go and check for him, but no one answered after he knocked on the door.
No one was in the dorm, so he was at a loss. He could only reply in the freshman group chat: "[Zhou Yu is not in the dorm, she might have gone out. I can't contact her either @XY]"
XY: [Thanks, I'll think of another way]
At 7:30, An Kejia finished her interview and ordered dinner to go back to her dorm. Just as she turned the corner and went upstairs, she ran into a girl from her class in the hallway. Upon seeing each other, the girl exclaimed, "Hey!" and asked, "Has Zhou Yu not come back yet?"
An Kejia was completely confused: "Isn't she in the dorm?"
"She's not here." As they passed each other, the girl said jokingly, "The class monitor was looking for her everywhere, he was just short of coming to the girls' dormitory to arrest her himself. I envy her composure, she's so calm."
Her last sentence sounded sarcastic, so An Kejia ignored her and became even more confused.
This is the first time I've seen the class monitor make such a big fuss about looking for someone. What could be so urgent on a weekend?
Back in the dorm, finding the two missing, An Kejia first messaged Zhou Yu, but received no reply. She then tried a voice call, but he didn't answer.
Thinking about how she couldn't go to the nail salon she had arranged yesterday, An Kejia guessed that Zhou Yu must have accompanied Fan Xin to get her nails done, so she called Fan Xin instead.
After trying for ages, just when An Kejia thought she couldn't get through to Makka Pakka either, Fan Xin's voice finally came through: "Jiajia, what's wrong?"
"Are you with Zhou Zhou?" An Kejia asked.
"Yeah, we just finished watching a movie." Fan Xin seemed to hold her phone a little further away, then exclaimed, "Damn, why did the class monitor message me?"
“He’s looking for Zhou Zhou,” An Kejia explained. “Are you two coming back now? You should ask Zhou Zhou to send a message to the class monitor.”
"I put my phone on Do Not Disturb mode while I was watching the movie, and Zhouzhou's phone was out of battery," Fan Xin explained. "I'll be back soon."
After hanging up the phone, An Kejia was starving and didn't care about anything else. She opened the takeout bag, found a video to watch while eating, and planned to wait for them to come back before discussing anything else.
*
When Zhou came out of the bathroom after washing his hands, Fan Xin was replying to a message from the squad leader.
Seeing that she was better, Fan Xin told her, "The class monitor is looking for you; it seems there's something he needs to talk to you about."
Zhou Yu looked bewildered: "Looking for me?"
“Yes.” Fan Xin said as she pulled her along, “I’ve already hailed a taxi, let’s hurry downstairs.”
Seeing her in such a hurry, Zhou Yu sensed the urgency of the matter. She reviewed everything that had happened in the past few days, and only after getting into the car did she ask, "Did I have a problem with my psychological test?"
On Friday morning, the college arranged a psychological health survey for freshmen. The test questions measured honesty, and Zhou Yu copied the options that An Kejia had checked. At the time, she thought there would definitely be no problem.
She might have psychological issues, but An Kejia is unlikely to.
Fan Xin exclaimed, "No way! You have some kind of psychological problem. You're such a sunny and cheerful girl."
"What is that?" Zhou Yu frowned. "My Mandarin registration failed?"
“I watched you submit it, how could it not have succeeded?” Fan Xin comforted her.
It's no wonder Zhou Yu overthinks things.
Zhou Yu had a very low profile in class. During the week of regular classes after the military training ended, she hardly interacted with the class monitor. So why did the monitor suddenly contact her today when her phone was dead?
The journey back to school took about ten minutes. After arriving at the school gate, the two scanned their bicycles and rode to the dormitory building.
Pushing open the dormitory door, An Kejia had just finished cleaning up dinner. Seeing them return, she casually asked, "What did the class monitor want to see you about?"
"We don't know yet," Fan Xin reminded Zhou Yu. "Zhou Zhou, charge your phone."
Zhou took her phone out of her bag and plugged it into the charger on her desk. She pulled out a chair and sat down, waiting for the phone to boot up.
Fan Xin hung her bag next to the wardrobe, then remembered something and asked, "By the way, have the results of that lyric contest come out yet?"
An Kejia slapped her forehead and said, "I was so busy today that I forgot about this. Let me check."
After turning on his phone, Zhou tried to open QQ, but the message reception was slow, taking several seconds to refresh, and several unread messages appeared in the message list.
She immediately saw the message sent by class monitor Luo Yanghui almost an hour ago: [Zhou Yu, are you at school now? Chen Jingchi is looking for you in the freshman group.]
When Zhou Yu caught the name Chen Jingchi, his mind went blank for a second, thinking he was seeing things.
"Zhou Yu?"
In the quiet dormitory, An Kejia's incredulous exclamation instantly pulled Zhou Yu's thoughts back to reality.
"What?" Fan Xin hadn't reacted yet. "Why are you calling me by my full name? It's too formal."
"Zhou Yu!" This time, her tone was full of surprise, and An Kejia almost jumped up. "Holy crap, it's you! No wonder everyone's been looking for you all day!"
Fan Xin belatedly realized: "Could it be that the selected people..."
Zhou Yu held his phone, looking at the two of them with a slightly stunned expression, even appearing somewhat dazed.
They quickly gathered around, and after seeing the message sent by the class monitor, they all chimed in with their own comments.
"A new student group? Let me see what they posted!"
"Zhou Zhou, check your email right now! Has Chen Jingchi replied to you?"
"Hey wait a minute, you have a friend request on QQ, it's not Chen Jingchi, is it?"
An Kejia was the most proactive; she immediately found the new student group from a long list of group chats and could see the chat history from a few hours ago with a quick scroll online.
"Oh my god, we've really been looking for you! Who is this 'XY'?"
It felt like 3D surround sound was blasting through his ears. Before Zhou Yu could even look at An Kejia's screen, his fingers tapped on the email address faster than his brain could process it.
Sure enough, there was an unread email, timed at 16:52.
The movie starts at 4:50, exactly two minutes after that.
At that time, Zhou Yu had just finished voting in the group chat on her phone. If Chen Jingchi's email had been sent a few minutes earlier, she would have seen it.
@Chen replied:
Congratulations on being selected! Add me as a friend and let's chat.
Zhou wanted to return to QQ, clicked on the friend request, and saw that the profile picture was completely white, the nickname was the same as the email address, and the verification information was displayed below:
I am Chen Jingchi.
"Really?!" Fan Xin covered the lower half of her face. "So the expert was right beside me? What did you write?"
“What did I tell you?” An Kejia said with a smug look. “Our Ms. Zhou really made that 10,000 yuan.”
Compared to the excitement and agitation of the two people, the winner himself appeared unusually quiet, as if he were detached from the situation.
Zhou Yu calmly accepted the friend request and jumped to the chat page, where he could see that the other person's status at the top showed that they were online.
She took the initiative to greet him: "Hello, I'm Zhou Yu."
As soon as the message was sent, the two people next to him immediately fell silent and came over to see what happened next.
Two seconds later.
Chen: [I've been waiting for you for so long]
Chen: [Are you free?]
"Replying instantly? Wow!" Fan Xin exclaimed. "Quickly tell them you're free."
Zhou Yu: [Yes]
Chen: [Would it be convenient for us to meet?]
Zhou's fingers, which were hovering over the keyboard, froze.
She assumed that discussing song lyrics would be done via text, or at most, through a voice call.
Unexpectedly, he immediately suggested meeting up.
"It's only eight o'clock, it's still early, let's go." An Kejia looked her face up and down and praised, "You look beautiful."
"We just met yesterday, we're very familiar with each other." Fan Xin urged, "Say yes quickly."
Zhou hesitated for a few seconds, then asked, "Now?"
Chen: [You choose the location, I'll be there in ten minutes.]
Although it was written down, Zhou Yu could imagine the undeniable forcefulness in his tone.
A note from the author:
----------------------
Thank you for the "May you pass every exam" landmine! [heart emoji]
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