Chapter 315: Invitation Before Christmas 314
“Hey, does anyone want to eat this?”
As soon as Wang Ke returned to the dormitory, he weighed the apple in his hand and asked this.
Tang Hexing, who was sitting on the bed petting the cat, looked up: “You bought just one apple?”
Wang Ke: “This wasn’t bought; it was given by someone else.”
Fu Hanwen couldn’t help asking: “Who would give you an apple for no reason? And only one at that—so stingy?”
At this time, Wang Heng, sitting in front of the computer, reminded them: “Tomorrow is Christmas, and tonight is Christmas Eve, so that’s why the apple.”
Tang Hexing: “Now that Teacher Wang mentions it, I do remember—it seems like it’s only become popular in the last couple of years…”
Fu Hanwen: “What does Christmas Eve have to do with apples? Is it a Western custom?”
Wang Heng shrugged: “Probably because ‘peace’ and ‘apple’ are homophones? A domestic new custom.”
Fu Hanwen pursed his lips, looking disdainful: “So stupid!”
Tang Hexing: “Yeah, very stupid, but a girl gave one to Little Ke, and no one gave you one.”
Fu Hanwen: “…”
Tang Hexing looked at Wang Ke again and asked: “The one who gave you the apple is a girl, right?”
Wang Ke nodded.
Tang Hexing pointed at the apple in his hand and said: “Then why don’t you eat it yourself? This is something a girl gave you…”
“I don’t like eating apples,” Wang Ke was quite calm about it, “and I don’t like three-dimensional women either.”
Tang Hexing: “Didn’t you say before that you didn’t like three-dimensional old women? How come it’s expanded to all women now?”
Wang Ke: “Of course, aren’t two-dimensional lolis great? Why throw yourself into ugly and vulgar reality?”
Fu Hanwen: “Exactly, vulgar!”
Tang Hexing rolled his eyes at him and sneered: “You dare say you have no interest in girls at all?”
Fu Hanwen: “Life is already so hard, why do you have to do this…”
While his roommates were discussing the matter of apples and girls, Wang Heng picked up his mobile phone. He had just heard the WeChat notification sound, and when he checked, sure enough, it was from Pei Ningle.
【Tomorrow is Christmas. I just finished writing a new song today—want to come listen?】
Just as Wang Heng was contemplating a strategy, another WeChat message arrived.
This time it was from Han Yixuan: 【Tomorrow is Christmas, and I have no classes—want to go out and play?】
They collided? How to handle this?
Wang Heng fell into contemplation for a moment.
At that moment, the hamster crawled out of its cage and jumped onto his keyboard. It opened the document and typed out a string of words: 【So what do you plan to do? Gather them together like before?】
Wang Heng thought for a bit, then shook his head.
He picked up the hamster, walked to the balcony, closed the door, and said in a low voice: “The current strategy is different from the previous one. Before, it was to resist their attacks by constantly reinforcing the competitors’ presence. Now it’s to build favorability, so we should weaken the competitors’ presence.”
The hamster lay in his palm, saying lazily: “But they already know each other as competitors.”
Wang Heng asked: “Right, and you didn’t stop me back then. So do you think letting them all know about each other’s existence helps stabilize the Asura Field more?”
The hamster analyzed: “Deceiving one person for a year isn’t hard. But deceiving them for ten years, decades—that’s extremely difficult, and your goal is four people. Plus, there are the causal ripples from the previous 146 attempts. Even if you could make three shadow clones, you couldn’t keep hiding it forever.”
Wang Heng said thoughtfully: “No wonder you not only didn’t stop me before, but it felt like you were even encouraging me to let them meet and get to know each other…”
Hamster: “Yeah, otherwise, if they develop a substantial relationship and then find out you’re two-timing, it’d be even more devastating. By the way, tomorrow is Christmas—what do you plan to do about these two?”
“It’s definitely impossible to let them run into each other, but given their relationship… Wait, given their relationship, even if I reasonably arrange separate meetups, wouldn’t it be easy to give it away? Maybe it already has.”
Wang Heng’s brows furrowed slightly as he realized the matter wasn’t simple.
The hamster spread its little paws: “So how do you plan to arrange it?”
————
After afternoon classes ended, as Han Yixuan walked out of the teaching building hugging her textbooks, she saw some girls giving things to boys not far away, with a few others nearby seemingly cheering them on…
The young girl pursed her lips and looked down at her mobile phone.
The WeChat message she had sent to Wang Heng during the break still had no reply.
Why was the reply so slow? Was it because he was in class, or did he have something else going on? Or maybe, he didn’t know how to reply?
Han Yixuan’s footsteps suddenly stopped—she realized a certain possibility.
If Wang Heng hadn’t replied yet, could it be because he received invitations from others at the same time?
“Yixuan, why are you standing here?” Another girl from the same class suddenly patted her shoulder. “Still staring at your phone—what are you thinking about?”
“Nothing…”
Han Yixuan smiled at her classmate and walked aside to the roadside, continuing to look at her mobile phone. Of course, while staring at the mobile phone screen, her mind was actually contemplating certain possibilities and the appropriate strategies.
Before long, all her classmates had left, the boy and girl who exchanged the gift had also gone, and the area was sparse with people, very quiet.
Han Yixuan thought for a while, then finally called Pei Ningle.
Once connected, she asked: “Xiao Le, do you have plans tomorrow?”
There was silence on the other end for a few seconds, then Pei Ningle’s voice came, slightly panicked: “Uh, is something up?”
Han Yixuan said calmly: “Tomorrow is Christmas. I was thinking, should we go out shopping?”
Pei Ningle: “Eh, better not…”
Han Yixuan: “You don’t want to go out?”
Pei Ningle hurriedly said: “Yes, yes, I don’t really want to go out, because I’m still writing songs. You know, lots of fans are urging my new song on Weibo and Wangyu Music, and I’ve received tons of private messages…”
Han Yixuan’s tone remained calm: “I see, then I won’t disturb you. Take your time writing songs, Xiao Le.”
Pei Ningle: “Mm-hmm, Merry Christmas!”
After hanging up, Han Yixuan muttered to herself: “Sure enough, it’s her…”
Pei Ningle might have thought she could play it off, but given Han Yixuan’s understanding of her, that hint of panic in her voice was unmistakable.
So now, a very troublesome problem was right in front of Han Yixuan.
It was known that Pei Ningle had also proactively invited him, so what about her? Should she come up with some strategy?
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