Chapter 23
Jiang Yuan quickly looked around. Only after seeing that no one else had noticed that side did she relax.
Yu Qingshi carried her bag and looked straight toward the teaching building. It was unknown how long she had been waiting.
Jiang Yuan took out her phone and sent her a message.
[Qingshi? I saw you. How long have you been waiting?]
[It’s too hot outside. Go inside the building first.]
She lowered her eyes and stared blankly at the profile picture on the screen.
The two of them had already changed their profile pictures.
Yu Qingshi had used the little cat hugging the moon that Jiang Yuan had drawn during the pilot episode Q&A as her profile picture.
And in yesterday’s published letters, Jiang Yuan had drawn a crying puppy.
Yu Qingshi had asked Jiang Yuan to change to a hand-drawn profile picture too.
The black-and-white cat and dog were one on the left and one on the right. The brushstrokes and style were similar, making them look like matching couple profile pictures drawn especially for them.
Jiang Yuan raised her head to look at her.
She saw Yu Qingshi take out her phone, lower her head, and begin typing, but she did not seem to have any intention of leaving.
The phone buzzed. A message came.
Jiang Yuan tapped it open and saw a line of words.
[But they’re all waiting here.]
Yu Qingshi did not explain who “they” were.
Jiang Yuan followed Yu Qingshi’s gaze and looked over. There were indeed some people beneath the trees. She had been too focused on looking at Yu Qingshi just now and had not noticed them.
Those people were lowering their heads and playing on their phones, paying no attention to the movements around them.
Jiang Yuan’s fingertips quickly tapped, afraid that the blazing sun would scorch Yu Qingshi.
[Those people are all waiting for their girlfrien—]
When she typed up to this point, Jiang Yuan suddenly froze.
The professor’s words still echoed beside her ears: “No matter whether it was summer or winter, she didn’t care about the heat or the cold. She would stand beneath the window where I could see her.”
“No matter how I tried to persuade her, it was useless. She only wanted me to see her the moment I looked up. How should I put it? It was a kind of indescribable happiness that rose from the depths of my heart.”
“I truly hope all of you will have the chance to experience it too someday.”
“Aiyo—” The students below began to hoot.
“I won’t talk about it anymore, I won’t.” The professor brought the topic back and continued teaching from the textbook.
But Jiang Yuan’s thoughts drifted past the glass along with those words and landed on the person beneath the tree.
For the rest of the class, she did not hear a single thing.
“Ring, ring, ring, ring.”
The dismissal bell rang.
“All right, class dismissed.” Professor Ji packed up her course materials but did not leave the podium.
Her fingertips tapped against the desk as she waited for the students’ questions.
But among the sea of people heading out the door, not a single person was coming toward her in the opposite direction.
The professor found it strange. Her gaze swept toward Jiang Yuan’s seat, only to find that it was already empty.
The only person who would come to her with notes in hand to ask questions had already left.
“Eh? Where’s Student Jiang?” Professor Ji muttered softly.
She pushed up her glasses and caught Jiang Yuan’s hurried back in the crowd, slipping away faster than a rabbit.
“……”
Professor Ji silently picked up her phone, opened WeChat, and sent a voice message.
“Wife, wuwuwu, I didn’t teach well today…”
Jiang Yuan quickly ran beneath the tree. She pulled Yu Qingshi into her arms, blocking the gazes of the crowd.
Yu Qingshi followed the force and rested against Jiang Yuan’s chest. Beside her ear, the heartbeat thumped loudly, as if the heart might leap out at any moment.
She could not help laughing. “Yuanyuan’s heart is beating so fast.”
As soon as those words fell, the thumping inside that chest became even more intense.
“Qingshi…”
Jiang Yuan stopped her. Her voice, full of shyness, traveled through flesh and bone, sounding muffled.
Yu Qingshi raised her head from Jiang Yuan’s arms and rested her chin on Jiang Yuan’s shoulder, her voice light. “Did I say anything wrong?”
They were too close. Jiang Yuan could see Yu Qingshi’s smiling eyes through the sunglasses.
Her breath brushed over Jiang Yuan’s face. It felt as if, by lowering her head, she could pass through that breath and kiss her lips.
Jiang Yuan’s neck immediately stiffened straight. She was rigid beyond belief, not daring to move at all. Her voice almost squeezed out from between her teeth.
“No.”
The person who had always been obedient actually gave a rare reminder. “Qingshi, we’re… too close.”
“Mm?” Yu Qingshi turned her head and looked at the arm around her. The other person’s hand did not dare rest on her waist and only hovered there loosely.
She signaled with her gaze. “Wasn’t Yuanyuan the one who hugged me first?”
“Oh, oh.” Jiang Yuan choked, hurriedly lowered her hand, and instead became the one apologizing. “Sorry, Qingshi.”
“It’s fine.” Yu Qingshi smoothed her messy hair and smiled faintly.
“Why did Qingshi come?”
Before the two could chat more, the surrounding crowd slowly began moving closer. The clicking sounds of phones taking pictures kept interrupting them.
Jiang Yuan had clearly forgotten.
Now that she was participating in the dating show, she attracted even more attention than before.
No matter who the person in her arms was, it would create a hot topic.
Realizing this, Jiang Yuan immediately took Yu Qingshi’s hand, parted the crowd, and ran out of this still relatively small encirclement.
They ran all the way to the school gate and got into the familiar black car.
Yu Qingshi’s breathing was unsteady. She exhaled deeply to calm herself a little, then began answering the question. “My work engagement ended early today, so I came to pick Yuanyuan up and go back to the house together.”
“But judging from the show’s current popularity, this will probably be on the trending searches again.”
Jiang Yuan responded by opening her phone.
The lock screen was filled with Weibo notifications. At the very top was the dog-cat Super Topic she had specially followed. The notification bar displayed three words in all caps:
DINNER IS SERVED!!!
From the moment Jiang Yuan took out her phone, Yu Qingshi had naturally leaned against her arm.
Because of that, Jiang Yuan had no way to avoid it. The situation on her screen was completely seen by the other person.
“Is this where Yuanyuan eats?” Yu Qingshi teased.
“……” Jiang Yuan silently closed her eyes. She had followed every Super Topic related to Yu Qingshi, so of course she had not missed this one.
She braced herself and answered in a muffled voice, “Mm.”
“Is it tasty?” Yu Qingshi clearly did not intend to let her off so easily.
Jiang Yuan’s cheeks flushed red. “It’s tasty…”
Yu Qingshi took the phone from her hand. The process was easy and effortless; the other person did not use any strength at all and obediently let go.
She first opened the Super Topic notification.
The phone automatically jumped to Weibo, and various posts spread out in front of the two of them.
The location was A University, and the event had happened just now. The photos showed the two of them from all kinds of angles.
In the pictures, the two of them were embracing. The girl in sunglasses was raising her head, focused entirely on the person before her.
They were extremely close, as if they would kiss in the next second.
Looking at the photo, Jiang Yuan’s thoughts drifted for a moment. Only belatedly did she think:
So they really had been that close just now.
The comment section was already full of CP fans going wild.
[Wuwuwu, doggy and kitty, long time no see. Yesterday Qin Yiting shut off the livestream and nearly made me wait to death.]
[Picking her up after class. [chin in hands, happy smile]]
[Looks like Jiang Yuan still hasn’t gotten used to it. She probably thought it was like before, when no one recognized her, so she instinctively pulled Yu Qingshi into her arms.]
[I can imagine how the two of them got along before they were exposed. Satisfied, leaving.]
Yu Qingshi first skimmed over those comments, then exited and went to the personal homepage.
Jiang Yuan widened her eyes from the side, but she did not dare stop her in the slightest.
She could only stare blankly and helplessly as Yu Qingshi opened the list of followed topics.
The specially followed Super Topics spread open.
Yu Qingshi’s thumb moved slightly as she scrolled through the screen and looked at them all.
There was nothing special, but they all shared one thing in common—Yu Qingshi.
Whether it was Super Topics for the roles she had played or all kinds of endorsements, Jiang Yuan had followed all of them.
Yu Qingshi’s fingertip paused on a three-character Super Topic.
She was surprised. “Little Cat Emperor?”
“Yuanyuan even follows the Little Cat Emperor Super Topic?”
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