Chapter 58: Aftermath Of The “confession”
“Xiang Chuan, Xiang Chuan, what kind of buns did Classmate Ouyang and Classmate Liang Gong eat for breakfast this morning?”
“Xiang Chuan, does your club activity room have these buns?”
“Xiang Chuan, do you still have buns? I want to try some too~”
……
As soon as class ended, the students from Class Eight surrounded Xiang Chuan’s seat so tightly that not even a drop of water could leak through. Looking at the crowd of classmates around her with gleaming eyes, Xiang Chuan couldn’t help but sigh: The road to gourmet revival hadn’t gone far, but she had already raised a group of little foodies first.
“Don’t worry, don’t worry.” Xiang Chuan replied unhurriedly: “I don’t have any buns now. At noon, go to the club activity room side, same as usual, one per person.”
Having gotten the information they wanted, the crowd immediately dispersed to do their own things. Only then did Xiang Chuan free herself from the crowd, and Ouyang Yating and Liang Gong finally dared to approach her seat.
“I think you might as well just hang an announcement window directly on the blackboard, writing what things our club activity room has for sale each day.” Ouyang Yating half-jokingly proposed, “Otherwise, every time you bring new things over, you’ll probably be surrounded.”
“Hmm? But using the blackboard’s light screen without permission isn’t great…” “Go ahead and use it.”
Before Xiang Chuan finished speaking, Class President Lu Daiqing appeared out of nowhere between Ouyang Yating and Liang Gong, startling the three of them.
“After all, our class has two leaders of new clubs. This bit of special privilege can still be applied for with the homeroom teacher.”
As the class president spoke, he opened the light screen communication and contacted Zhu Bingwen, who was drinking water and eating breakfast in the office. The open-minded homeroom teacher immediately replied with a casual approval. He then immediately connected to the classroom’s light screen and looked around the class.
“Hmm… Where did those guys from the Information Technology Club run off to… Ah, Ainuo Classmate! Can you come over for a moment!”
The class president’s shout made the three from A Bite of China Club tremble with shock, especially Xiang Chuan. In her mind, she silently recited things like it’s not my fault, it’s this guy who started the joke first, and other random stuff, while involuntarily sitting up straight. Her whole body stiffened as she stared at the desk, not daring to look up. Ouyang Yating and Liang Gong were okay (after all, it wasn’t them who were embarrassed), but for the sake of their club president’s taut nerves, they still turned their gazes to each other, observing his actions.
Originally, Liang Gong thought that Ainuo Classmate, who usually seemed cool and aloof, would refuse the class president’s call, but unexpectedly, he just stared in their direction for a while before walking straight over.
Feeling an extra shadow blocking the light in front of her, Xiang Chuan dared not look up even more.
The class president handed over his light screen operation permissions to him and said: “Ainuo Classmate, you’re from the Information Technology Club, right? Can you help set up an info box in the upper left corner of the blackboard? Set it to close during class and open otherwise. As for the content, Xiang Chuan Classmate, you decide… Xiang Chuan Classmate?”
When Class President Lu Daiqing turned to look at Xiang Chuan, he discovered she had been keeping her head down the whole time. Just as he felt puzzled, Ouyang Yating stood in front of Ainuo, perfectly blocking Ainuo’s direct line of sight ahead.
“Please write: ‘A Bite of China Club activity room supplying buns at noon: Chicken Bun, Vegetable Bun, Steamed Buns, Steak Bun, one per person limit.’ Put a ‘New’ mark next to the Steak Bun.” Ouyang Yating said expressionlessly, and didn’t forget to confirm with her club president, who had shrunk into an ostrich behind her: “Club President, I didn’t get anything wrong, right?”
“Mm… Perfect.”
After saying that, Xiang Chuan directly turned her head to look at the window nearby. Even so, she still felt like this young guy’s gaze from Ainuo pierced through Ouyang Yating and locked straight onto her. At the same time, she was thinking about what material modern windows were made of—they didn’t reflect light at all, making it impossible even to secretly observe everyone’s expressions.
On the other side, Ainuo looked speechlessly at this familiar face blocking him.
He recognized this expression.
It was probably when he and Nancy were seven or eight years old. Back then, his mother and Nancy’s mother joked about arranging a child betrothal between them—this pair of nominal cousins who were actually separated by who knows how many generations of bloodline. By modern ethics, they could barely be called relatives, but genetically they were about the same as strangers—childhood sweethearts turned cousin marriage.
At that time, because the noble mothers’ circle was holding a tea party, the little lady from the new noble Ouyang family, Ouyang Yating, had come along with her mother. Not sure if Ouyang Yating misunderstood something, thinking he was going to marry Nancy right then, she got scared and dragged Nancy almost rushing out of the small park where the mothers were gathering. In the end, they got lost and were brought back by the park management AI robot. Under the mothers’ questioning, Ouyang Yating stammered out her worry, which led to the mothers bursting into laughter.
After that, probably whenever she saw him, Ouyang Yating would remember that stupid incident from back then, so she basically never talked to him. On the other hand, Nancy gradually grew close to Ouyang Yating after that and now they were like sisters, almost inseparable.
The talkative and outgoing Nancy could chat with anyone, but she didn’t have many deep friendships. Ainuo, this childhood sweetheart who grew up with her using basically the same set of infant toys, was probably just a relative to her now—truly speaking, he might not even count as a friend. Ouyang Yating, who was like attracts like, was the same. Clearly the second daughter of the Ouyang family, yet she had poise and intelligence no less than the eldest daughter. Now there were even rumors that this generation of the Ouyang family might produce two government high officials.
So when he heard a couple days ago that Ouyang Yating hadn’t joined a history or politics club, but instead chose a Ancient Gourmet Club that had been established less than three days ago—with only three members including the leader—he was shocked. Thinking about it later, it was probably Ouyang Yating trying it out due to her interest in history, and she would switch to another club later to study her future university major.
But now it seems…
Ainuo met Ouyang Yating’s face, which basically had “the person behind me is under my protection, don’t you dare cause trouble” written all over it plainly. Thinking about yesterday’s bet, he admitted he was somewhat at fault, so he obediently took the class president’s light screen and started typing up the information as Ouyang Yating said.
“Done.”
With Ainuo’s words, the classmates around Xiang Chuan’s seat all turned their gazes to the blackboard. Other clueless classmates followed suit and looked over too.
In the upper left corner of the blackboard light screen hung a simple and unadorned text box with a transparent background and white text, listing A Bite of China Club’s supplied meals. As a result, the classroom topic instantly turned into the 21st Century classic “what to eat tonight.”
Xiang Chuan couldn’t help sneaking a glance at the blackboard, and got zapped by this very engineering straight guy-style little notice. She thought to herself: She would design one herself later.
“Business done.” Ainuo returned the light screen to Class President Lu Daiqing, then turned to the three, a meaningful smile appearing on his face: “Does this count as me helping you?”
“…So what if it does?”
Ouyang Yating wanted to deny it shamelessly, but her self-respect wouldn’t allow her to do such a thing, so she gritted her teeth and acknowledged his help.
“Then help me out in return.”
As soon as he said that, Ouyang Yating and Liang Gong instantly tensed up. The Xiang Chuan blocked by the two had already started thinking whether to crawl under the desk, while instinctively covering her ears.
“It’s not a big deal. I just want to ask your club leader Xiang Chuan behind you one question.”
Perhaps catching sight of Xiang Chuan covering her ears, Ainuo raised his voice a bit, which also drew curious gazes from the surrounding classmates: What’s this? Conflict already less than a week into the school year?
The class president standing nearby panicked too and hurried forward: “Ainuo Classmate, calm down. Say what you have to say properly.”
How come the lines for persuading people haven’t changed in 30,000 years… Xiang Chuan thought, escaping reality.
“Class President, don’t worry. I’m just asking, nothing else.”
Ainuo’s cold yet polite demeanor left the class president unsure how to respond instead.
At this moment, Ainuo suddenly went around Ouyang Yating, came to Xiang Chuan’s desk, and slapped one hand on the desktop. Xiang Chuan was still in the pose of covering her ears, looking at him in a daze. Seeing this silly face, Ainuo’s anger flared up all at once, and his voice suddenly rose a few notches:
“Xiang Chuan, on what grounds did you reject my confession like that?”
Oh wow. Xiang Chuan thought with a blank mind: Time to say goodbye to peaceful campus life.
Please recommend and comment~ If you like it, throw monthly votes and subscriptions my way!
Thanks to readers Super Dangerous Flying Kick and Big Duck for the monthly votes to An Family~!
By the way, this kind of classic dramatic campus boy-girl conflict is actually my first time writing it (previously in fantasy I always avoided campus life). After writing it, it surprisingly feels pretty easy?
