Jiajia the Interrogator
The door to Zhou Qingchi's bedroom remained closed for more than ten minutes before opening again.
When Nie Jiayuan looked over, she saw that the two of them were stuck together side by side. She had a strange feeling that her house had been invaded, and asked warily, "What are you two doing in there with the door closed?"
The two people at the door spoke at the same time.
"Puzzle."
"Try on clothes."
Nie Jiayuan's hand, which was supporting her on the sofa, suddenly slipped down. She slumped onto the cushion, her head spinning for a few seconds before she jerked her head up. "Huh?"
Zhou Qingchi turned his head away and coughed awkwardly.
Bai Yixia nodded and hummed in agreement, staring at Nie Jiayuan's scrutinizing gaze as she forced a smile and said, "Yes, we were playing with a jigsaw puzzle before, and then when the package arrived, we switched to trying on clothes."
No one says these two things can't be done in the same place, right?
"Wait, wait." Nie Jiayuan stared wide-eyed in disbelief, her mouth agape in exaggerated disbelief. She pointed at Zhou Qingchi and exclaimed, "You were trying on clothes in his room?"
"Yes."
Nie Jiayuan slumped down, "Right? This isn't right!"
Zhou Qingyan, who was standing next to him, patted his sister Jiajia on the shoulder sympathetically, "Your version is outdated, sister Jiajia. They are not what they used to be."
"What do you mean?" Nie Jiayuan propped her head up.
Zhou Qingchi raised his hand and put it on Bai Yixia's shoulder. "We're together now."
The room remained quiet for a full minute.
Bai Yixia first smiled happily, but seeing Nie Jiayuan's blank expression, she became somewhat confused, "Jiajia, don't you know?"
Nie Jiayuan asked helplessly, "Should I know? Did either of you inform me?"
She seemed to have drifted away in a daze, asking, "When did this happen?"
"Not long after, around Lunar New Year's Eve."
Nie Jiayuan glared at the two of them through gritted teeth and sneered, "I hope at least one of you understands that a cell phone can be used to send messages, instead of waiting for me to come back and be shocked."
Zhou Qingchi grunted and then suddenly looked down at the ground.
"..." Even with her ears covered, Nie Jiayuan knew what he was going to say and quickly interrupted, "Stop, stop, stop. I was wondering why you didn't argue with me today. Was it just bad timing?"
Zhou Qingchi, who was actually feeling a little guilty because of what had just happened, stiffened and didn't answer. He just silently rested his head on Bai Yixia's shoulder.
Bai Yixia smiled and ruffled his hair, asking suspiciously, "I remember telling you, didn't you send it?"
She took out her phone and scrolled through her chat history. When she saw the message, she broke out in a cold sweat. Only half a sentence had been sent in the chat box; the most crucial word was missing.
Bai Yixia couldn't remember what had happened, but seeing the more than thirty voice messages on the other end, she could guess that the two of them were so excited about gossiping that they hadn't remembered anything.
She glanced at Nie Jiayuan and saw that she was also holding her phone and looking away, and she understood.
The two met eyes and chuckled.
If it wasn't one person who made the mistake, then it wasn't a mistake.
Nie Jiayuan sighed, "So you're finally together? Hmm?"
Bai Yixia nodded, "In the end, all the planning was useless; acting on a whim is still the most efficient."
The information contained in those words was not simple. Zhou Qingchi heard the key words, looked up and glanced at Bai Yixia, raising an eyebrow, "A scheme?"
She knew she would have to tell Zhou Qingchi about those things sooner or later, and Bai Yixia had no intention of hiding them. Taking advantage of the conversation today, she simply told Zhou Qingchi everything about her previous plans.
From the initial probing before National Day to the preparations before my birthday, I didn't go into details, only briefly mentioning the arrangements.
Zhou Qingchi still reacted strongly. He slowly straightened up, and his grip on Bai Yixia's shoulder tightened unconsciously. The more upset he was, the more indifferent his expression became; those who didn't know him well would only think he was angry.
Ke Bai and Xia grew up together, and she knew his little temper well enough.
Knowing that he was blaming himself for not realizing his feelings sooner, Bai Yixia tugged at his fingertips, "I didn't realize it either, so we're both guilty."
Her eyes crinkled with laughter, and the smile that played on her lips was more effective than anything else; Zhou Qingchi couldn't help but laugh along with her.
Their eyes met, and it was as if there was a barrier around them, preventing anyone from getting in.
Nie Jiayuan and Zhou Qingyan were stuffed with a mouthful of dog food (a Chinese slang term for witnessing public displays of affection), and both turned their heads away in disgust.
"Oh, right." Nie Jiayuan suddenly remembered something, "Wait for me a moment, I'm going back to get something."
-
The four people in the photo have youthful faces and exude a vibrant energy. The two on the left have their hands clasped together, hidden behind their school uniforms, while the girl on the right has a bright smile and is holding the hand of the boy next to her, raising it high.
Nie Jiayuan pointed at Zhou Qingchi's face, "Look, look, this is what your brother looked like in high school. Sometimes I really don't know how Xiaxia could have fallen for him."
She was just making a casual remark, but she knew in her heart that over the years, Zhou Qingchi had only applied double standards to Bai Yixia, and all those occasional moments of indifference that he was too lazy to pretend to show had been revealed to her.
But looking at the boy's gentle gaze towards Bai Yixia in the photo, Nie Jiayuan silently changed her words. Zhou Qingchi's gentleness was indeed an act for Bai Yixia, but when he looked at Bai Yixia, his gentleness was always from the bottom of his heart.
Thinking about it, she glanced at Zhou Qingchi beside her and secretly grinned.
It seems that Zhou Qingchi had feelings for Bai Yixia back in high school. But Bai Yixia was focused on "not dating too early" at that time, and the two were never on the same wavelength.
"Pfft." Nie Jiayuan couldn't help but laugh out loud, and Zhou Qingchi looked at her like she was an idiot. "..." Heh, serves her right.
The two exchanged glances across Bai Yixia.
Nie Jiayuan: If you had spoken to me nicely back in high school, I might have put in a good word for you with Xiaxia, and we might have started dating back then.
Zhou Qingchi glanced at her indifferently, then looked away without a care in the world. If you looked closely, you could see that he rolled his eyes with great restraint.
Nie Jiayuan had no choice but to let out a cold laugh.
Bai Yixia was unaware of the undercurrents between them. She flipped through the photo album with great interest and found that almost all of them were photos she had taken of Nie Jiayuan. Some were deliberately posed shots, while others were casual snapshots. At the beginning, most of the photos were group photos of the three of them. It wasn't until after the second year of high school that another boy appeared.
"Oh, I took this picture of you two when you were together?" Bai Yixia asked, pointing to a Polaroid photo.
Nie Jiayuan peeked over and said, "Yes."
"Actually, I only grabbed the photo album because I remembered it."
Bai Yixia was a little envious. She usually took a lot of photos, but most of the photos were of other people.
Just then, Nie Jiayuan suddenly grabbed her hand and suggested, "Why don't you and Zhou Qingchi take some photos too? There's an art exhibition in a couple of days, let's go see it together, and I'll be the photographer."
Bai Yixia was very tempted. She turned to look at Zhou Qingchi, who had always supported her decision.
But this time he seemed a little hesitant. He asked Nie Jiayuan, "What number?"
“Number seventeen, please. What, you don’t want to?” Nie Jiayuan said.
Zhou Qingchi shook his head. "No. But my roommate is coming to see me."
As soon as he finished speaking, Zhou Qingchi noticed that the three people in front of him were looking at him in surprise. He was completely bewildered. "What's wrong?"
Nie Jiayuan clicked her tongue, "I just didn't expect that. I always thought that you, with your bad temper, wouldn't have any friends in college."
Zhou Qingchi laughed in exasperation, "What's wrong with my temper?"
"Hey, hey, hey, you said it yourself!" Nie Jiayuan hurriedly shifted the blame.
She touched her nose. "In short, to sum it all up, don't you really have any self-awareness at all?"
"?"
Nie Jiayuan glanced at Bai Yixia, didn't say much, just shrugged, "Never mind, it's really nothing, you're fine the way you are."
Zhou Qingyan naturally kept quiet, pretending to be very interested in his older brother from high school, and stared at the photo.
Now only Bai Yixia was left. She pretended not to have heard the previous conversation and asked, "Is it your roommate who broke her leg?"
“Hmm? No, it’s someone else,” Zhou Qingchi explained. “He wants to bring his girlfriend here and wants me to be his tour guide.”
Nie Jiayuan's lips curled up subtly. "You want to be the tour guide? Why don't you let him make better use of smart tools?" she suggested. "How about this, you ask him if he'd like to join us? If he doesn't mind, we can go to that exhibition together. I have plenty of tickets."
Zhou Qingchi nodded and immediately sent a message to his roommate to inquire. His roommate, who was obviously online 24/7, immediately agreed.
With things arranged in this way, Nie Jiayuan happily carried the photo album home.
Bai Yixia, holding her package, was blocked at the door by Zhou Qingchi. She thought Zhou Qingchi was still angry about what had just happened, so she stood on tiptoe and kissed him on the chin. "Don't be angry, Jiajia was just kidding."
Zhou Qingchi didn't care at all about what Nie Jiayuan said, and to be fair, she wasn't just talking nonsense. He knew very well that he wasn't an easy person to get along with; it was just that Bai Yixia had influenced him.
But that's not what we're talking about right now. Zhou Qingchi gave Bai Yixia an ambiguous smile and pulled out the white dress from the pile of clothes. "Didn't we agree that I would wash this?"
A small corner of the damp fabric peeked out, and the erotic memories from not long ago in the room surged back. Bai Yixia blushed and smiled, saying in a drawn-out voice, "Alright then, I'll leave it to you."
She was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly smiled mischievously, "If you're going to use it for something else, you'd better not let me know."
"What—?" Zhou Qingchi was stunned. By the time she realized what was happening, Bai Yixia was already laughing and running back home with the clothes in her arms. Zhou Qingchi stared incredulously at the bundle of fabric in her hands. "You actually..."
But he quickly came to terms with it. After all, it was Bai Yixia. What couldn't she say?
"Ahem." Zhou Qingyan suddenly spoke up, a hint of disdain in his eyes. "Although I may know everything, can't you care that I'm still a minor?"
Zhou Qingchi folded the clothes and carried them on his back, looking at him with approval. "Okay. So, underage student, you should go do your homework."
Having failed to make fun of his brother and instead caused trouble for himself, Xiao Zhou returned to his room in resentment.
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