“…”
Indeed, she couldn’t compete with Xufang at all.
Because of what Xufang had said, for the rest of their time together, Lin Xiche didn’t dare to provoke him anymore, fearing that he might suddenly lose his temper again. She lowered her head and silently ate her meal, quickly finishing the plate of food in front of her.
Xufang put away his phone and glanced at her. “Finished eating?”
“Yeah.”
“Let’s go then.”
The two of them walked out of the cafeteria.
There was still about an hour left before the evening self-study session.
This time was quite awkward. Going back to the dormitory seemed troublesome, and going to the self-study room too early didn’t make much sense. After thinking it over, Lin Xiche decided to go to the basketball court with Xufang.
The school had both indoor and outdoor basketball courts.
Xufang was leading her in the direction of the gymnasium, not the basketball court where Lin Xiche had encountered him last time.
The outdoor basketball court was mostly for students’ recreational use, while the school basketball team’s training was mostly held in the gymnasium to avoid bad weather affecting their practice.
“By the way,” Lin Xiche turned to him and asked, “Butt, how did you end up joining the basketball team?”
Xufang casually replied, “Bored.”
“But aren’t the military students supposed to have training three times a week, and early morning exercises on Mondays?”
“Yeah.”
“So, with basketball team training on top of that, don’t you have training almost every day?”
“Probably.”
“Ah,” Lin Xiche looked at him sympathetically, “I feel like your life is just filled with training.”
Upon hearing this, Xufang glanced at her again. “There’s something else.”
“What?”
“Money.”
“…”
The distance between the gymnasium and the cafeteria wasn’t far, taking about ten minutes to walk.
Lin Xiche had been at the school for nearly a month, but she had visited the gymnasium only a few times. Besides coming here to collect her military uniform, she had also sought shelter from the rain here during military training one day when it was raining.
Inside the gymnasium, the wooden floor gleamed, and a group of boys in white jerseys stood in the middle, while a few girls were scattered in the stands.
Xufang took Lin Xiche to the stands, pulled out his own basketball jersey from his backpack, and then casually threw his bag into her arms, saying in a calm tone, “I’ll go change.”
Lin Xiche responded with an “okay,” placing his bag on an empty chair next to her and taking out her phone to check the time.
It was still not even 7:30.
Evening self-study started at half-past eight and lasted until ten o’clock. The self-study times for each department could vary depending on the arrangements made by the academic advisors, typically occurring two or three times a week.
Calculating the time, Lin Xiche decided to head to the self-study room at eight o’clock.
At that moment, Xufang returned after changing into his basketball attire. His tall and straight figure, along with his slightly tanned skin from military training, retained its rugged and masculine charm.
Xufang tossed the bag containing his clothes onto his backpack and handed a bottle of water, which seemingly appeared from nowhere, to Lin Xiche without saying a word.
Lin Xiche received it but was about to ask if the water was for her to drink or just for her to hold when someone gently tapped her shoulder from behind.
She turned around.
It was an unexpected person.
Xin Zidan.
She had been sitting behind Lin Xiche for who knows how long, her cheeks flushed, her thick eyelashes fluttering with a hint of surprise. “Xiche, you’re here too?”
Lin Xiche was also somewhat surprised. “How did you end up at the gymnasium?”
“I just wanted to come and watch the basketball team practice.”
Xufang stood by the side, listening to their conversation without saying a word. After a few seconds, he clicked his tongue impatiently and urged, “Hurry up.”
Lin Xiche turned to him, puzzled. “What?”
He pointed at the bottle of water in Lin Xiche’s hand, a somewhat arrogant tone in his voice. “Open it.”
“…” Lin Xiche was speechless. “Can’t you open it yourself?”
Although she said this, Lin Xiche obediently unscrewed the cap and handed it to him.
Xufang took it without a word, took a sip, and then said slowly, “What time is your evening self-study?”
“I’ll go at eight.”
With someone in front of her and someone behind her, Lin Xiche couldn’t keep up with both of them. She wanted to urge Xufang to hurry to practice when she suddenly remembered that she hadn’t introduced her roommate to Xufang. She turned and pointed to Xin Zidan. “Butt, this is my roommate, Xin Zidan.”
Xin Zidan greeted in a soft voice, “Hello.”
Xufang nodded politely, his expression calm, and he didn’t seem inclined to engage in any self-introduction.
Although she knew that Xin Zidan had already known Xufang’s name, Lin Xiche symbolically introduced them, saying, “And this is my friend, Xufang.”
At this point, Lin Xiche stole a glance at Xufang. Seeing his sideways glance, she gathered her courage and added, “Xufang, but you can call him ‘Butt.’”
Seemingly anticipating that she would say something like that, Xufang just curled the corner of his mouth and didn’t bother to argue with her.
He threw the water bottle back into the open mouth of his backpack and used his other hand to ruffle her hair, saying with an emotionless tone, “You’re getting bolder and bolder.”
Lin Xiche pushed his hand away with some force, her expression nonchalant, as if she were inviting trouble. “Well, when you can’t get fat, you can only rely on your courage.”
After that, Xufang went to join the group for practice, and Lin Xiche watched him as he stood in the back row. After the roll call, the teacher led the group of students to run laps around the basketball court to warm up.
It seemed like he had boundless energy to spare.
As soon as eight o’clock arrived, she and Xin Zidan promptly left the gymnasium.
Lin Xiche took out her phone and checked the sports department’s group chat, then sent a message inside: [I’ll be heading to evening self-study at ten.]
She put her phone back in her pocket and took a shortcut to the teaching building.
The night sky was particularly bright tonight, the air cooler than usual. The gentle evening breeze rustled the leaves, and unidentified insects danced within the lampshades.
Standing next to her, Xin Zidan suddenly asked, “Xiche, is this how you usually interact with boys?”
“What do you mean, ‘this way’?”
“Just like what just happened,” she smiled, her voice still soft, devoid of any malice. “It seemed like you were very intimate with your friend.”
Lin Xiche didn’t understand why Xin Zidan would have such thoughts, and the more she heard, the more uneasy she felt. “You shouldn’t think that way.”
Xin Zidan blinked. “Huh?”
“I am indeed very close with him.”
“…”
For some reason, after Lin Xiche made that remark, she felt like the air around her had suddenly become heavier. But when she looked at Xin Zidan’s expression, she didn’t seem upset.
Lin Xiche didn’t think too much about it.
After the evening self-study session, Lin Xiche hurried to the A canteen closest to the teaching building and found a table in the corner where her fellow department members were gathering.
Since not everyone had arrived yet, Yu Ze hadn’t started discussing the meeting’s agenda. The group of people chatted enthusiastically about various unrelated topics.
Lin Xiche took a seat next to the Vice Minister, Wen Jingjing. Across from her were He Ruliang and Ye Shaowen.
He Ruliang had a calm expression and was engrossed in playing a game.
After watching him for a while, Lin Xiche suddenly didn’t understand his behavior.
If he loved playing games so much, why did he join the department?
Wasn’t that a waste of his gaming time?
Ye Shaowen, as if hearing her thoughts, asked without reservation, “Ruliang, you love playing games so much, why did you join the department?”
He Ruliang’s fingers swiftly tapped on the screen without responding.
Wen Jingjing, who had been silent until now, spoke up, “He’s roommates with Yu Ze.”
“Ah? Roommates with the department head?”
“Yes.”
Ye Shaowen immediately understood and patted He Ruliang on the shoulder. “Ruliang, I knew it. A gaming pro like you must be really loyal. Just a word from your roommate, and you’re willing to give up your gaming time to join his department.”
“Not exactly,” Wen Jingjing said with a smile. “The department head recruited him with gaming equipment. He thought that He Ruliang could help him recruit many active members, so he asked him to join. But in the end, he only recruited one person.”
Ye Shaowen was curious. “Who did he recruit?”
Lin Xiche suddenly remembered something and looked at Wen Jingjing blankly.
Hearing this, He Ruliang finally looked up and said languidly, “Only the one who’s easy to fool.”
“…” Lin Xiche was speechless. Had he completely forgotten that the person he recruited was her?
Lin Xiche felt a bit down for a few minutes after realizing that she had been recruited into the sports department just for a gaming equipment.
However, she quickly recovered her spirits.
But because of this, when she saw He Ruliang and Ye Shaowen sitting side by side, Lin Xiche surprisingly found Ye Shaowen, who had often treated her as a scapegoat, somewhat more likable.
After everyone had arrived, Yu Ze stood up and began to discuss the theme of today’s meeting. “Here’s the thing, your first department activity is coming up. We’re going to organize a freshman basketball tournament next week. It’s an annual event for the freshmen, and the dates will be from the 16th to the 18th, from 2:30 PM to 6:30 PM.”
“Is it a competition between different classes?”
“No, it’s one team per department. You don’t need to worry about that; we’ll inform the student union sports department, and they’ll provide us with the team lists.”
“Isn’t that a lot… the school has over 30 departments, right?”
“Six faculties, and they compete within their faculties. Apart from the Faculty of Engineering, which has more departments, the others are manageable.” Yu Ze clapped his hands. “Anyway, I just wanted to give you a heads-up. The upcoming period will be quite busy, so let’s give it our all!”
Afterwards, Yu Ze emphasized that they needed to prepare a proposal within two days. So for the next two days, the department members who were free after 7 PM would gather here with their laptops.
Everyone nodded and then returned to their dormitories.
Due to a lack of sleep last night, Lin Xiche immediately went to bed after taking a shower. One night’s rest had completely restored her energy.
Today, Lin Xiche had a dissection experiment class. To give the students some psychological buffer, the first class involved dissecting a dead earthworm, a rather large one.
Before enrolling in this major, Lin Xiche had done some research and was mentally prepared, so she didn’t show any change in her expression when she saw the large earthworm in front of her.
Nie Yue began to wail, “Damn, is it too late for me to change majors now?”
Chen Han said mercilessly, “You can only change after you finish dissecting this.”
Lin Xiche suppressed a smile and, holding the dissecting scissors, carefully cut along the back of the earthworm, slightly off-center from the midline of its back. She followed the steps she remembered, one by one.
Soon, Lin Xiche had finished the dissection.
She looked at the dissected earthworm pieces on the wax tray, feeling a great sense of accomplishment.
The first person who came to her mind was Xufang.
Lin Xiche washed her hands on the side, and when the teacher’s attention was on other students, she secretly took a photo of her handiwork and sent it to Xufang.
Lin Xiche: [I’m so happy!!!]
Lin Xiche: [The result of my first dissection!!! It’s really, really amazing!]
Lin Xiche: [Take a look!!! [Image]]
In the picture, a gigantic earthworm had been dissected, with several parts pinned down with dissecting needles. It revealed pale yellow sacs and deep purple insides, looking quite sticky.
It was rather disgusting.
Xufang, who was about to have breakfast, sighed. “…”
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