As She Wished - Chapter 15

“All the teachers praised you for being talented?” The corner of Gu Qingci’s lips unconsciously curved. She concluded, “Looks like you wrote some shocking little essay.”

Fu Jing guiltily shifted her gaze away. “It was just… Anyway, I wasn’t lying.”

“But you didn’t tell the truth either.”

“…”

“It’s fine.” Gu Qingci laughed softly and said casually to Tao Xian, “It’s normal for children to like bragging.”

Fu Jing immediately puffed up in anger. After a few seconds of silence, she simply confessed honestly. “Fine. It really wasn’t because I wrote well. The essay topic that time was friendship, and I wrote about the relationship between two teachers, but I went off topic and made it feel a little like love. Then it spread through the whole grade…”

Halfway through listening, Tao Xian collapsed with laughter. “Pfft hahahahahaha!”

The more she thought about it, the funnier it became. She laughed so hard she could not keep pretending to be ladylike. After a long while, she raised a hand to wipe away tears and said, “You… how are you so talented? Other people write about their good friends, but you actually thought of writing about your teachers…”

Fu Jing pursed her lips and explained, “Because back then, I didn’t have any friends. My classmates didn’t like playing with me. There was only one person willing to play with me, but I heard her talking bad about me behind my back, so I didn’t want to pay attention to her anymore—then after that, I had no friends at all.”

In her heart, she had actually been very envious of the familiar, relaxed, sincere friendship between those two teachers, the kind where they constantly teased each other yet helped each other too.

Unfortunately, Fu Jing had no literary talent, and at that time, she had also never truly experienced friendship.

That was why she had accidentally written it crooked.

“…”

Tao Xian had just laughed herself tired and had not yet recovered, only to suddenly hear the story take such a desolate turn. The corner of her eye twitched, and she carefully asked, “Why didn’t your classmates like playing with you? Our little Fu Jing is clearly so cute.”

“Because when I was little, I was especially, especially withdrawn.” Fu Jing stared at Gu Qingci and said very seriously, “Silent, not talkative, and didn’t like speaking. In short, I’m completely Sister’s ideal type.”

After saying that, the corners of her lips lifted, and she looked quite happy.

Gu Qingci: “…”

For a moment, she really did not know what to say.

After a long while, she could only say helplessly, “Having friends only creates a lot of trouble out of nowhere. Just look at Tao Xian and you’ll know.”

Hearing this, Tao Xian furrowed her brows and could not help protesting, “Leader Gu, because my emotional intelligence is very high, I know you’re comforting little Fu Jing. Otherwise, your words would only hurt the innocent and wouldn’t be comforting at all…”

Fu Jing smiled and nodded. “It’s super comforting!”

Tao Xian: “…”

The waiter brought over three servings of pasta.

Fu Jing took the opportunity to ask Gu Qingci, “Sister, what were you like when you were little?”

Gu Qingci moved the pasta toward herself and said without much concern, “About the same as now.”

Tao Xian praised with an admiring expression, “She was more than just about the same. She was basically just Gu Qingci who hadn’t fully matured yet. You know Russian nesting dolls? Big and small, all exactly the same!”

“…”

Gu Qingci looked at her coldly.

Tao Xian immediately shut up and stuffed a large mouthful of pasta into her mouth. She was indeed too hungry, and after eating several big mouthfuls in a row, she finally lifted her head.

Looking at Fu Jing, she slowly added, “Don’t look at her acting so disdainful of me. In truth, I’m already the closest friend she has in this world. If I die one day, she’ll definitely buy me a burial plot.”

Gu Qingci laughed softly and did not refute it.

Fu Jing paused for a long while, not knowing what to say. In the end, she could only dryly play along. “Wow… so beautiful…”

—

The next day,

Fu Jing brought her draft notebook and went to the College of Humanities to sit in on a class. Her Chinese language level had not improved at all since graduating middle school, so she especially loved listening to Qin Zijin’s classes. All those classical particles and literary structures, systems, and histories…

Went in one ear and out the other.

They had a mysterious quality she completely could not understand, which was especially able to inspire her in physics.

So whenever she was free, she would come sit in class with Qin Zijin every now and then.

The large public classroom that seated over a hundred people was full of students.

The old professor teaching this class was quite famous and seemed to have published many literary books. Fu Jing knew nothing about this. She only knew to obey instructions and go early to save a seat for Qin Zijin. Their favorite spot was the fourth row.

When the class bell rang, Qin Zijin rushed in behind the professor with hair like a chicken’s nest.

She sat down beside Fu Jing.

—

The old professor lectured while Qin Zijin listened and seriously took notes. Fu Jing did physics calculations.

Only when the ten-minute break came did Fu Jing finally ask, “There’s clearly a projector, and the slides have words too. Why does your teacher keep writing on the blackboard?”

“Because he’s a famous calligrapher, and his handwriting is so beautiful.” Qin Zijin did not lift her head, continuing to write the notes she had not finished copying. “He just loves writing. Can you control him?”

“Oh, his handwriting is beautiful.”

Fu Jing nodded and looked at the blackboard a few more times. Yet she suddenly felt it looked somewhat familiar, as if she had seen this kind of writing somewhere before.

And the writing in her memory, though from the same lineage, was much better than this calligrapher professor’s.

Where had she seen it?

Fu Jing stared straight at the blackboard, holding her pen in her hand as if she were thinking about a problem.

Even when the class bell rang again, she still had not remembered.

She still did not give up and tried hard to think, finding it strange why she would feel such familiarity…

Clearly, she had never studied calligraphy.

It was early May, yet the tip of her nose seemed to faintly smell osmanthus flowers.

Sweet and rich, drifting over from somewhere unknown.

Fu Jing’s expression went blank. Before her eyes, many images seemed to float like illusions. Multicolored, drifting and unstable. Then there was someone’s voice, so gentle—

That person had originally been practicing calligraphy by copying, but Fu Jing pestered her so much that she had no choice but to put down her brush.

She turned around, and her brows and eyes suddenly became Gu Qingci’s.

Finally, her appearance became clear.

She listened attentively as Fu Jing chattered about the major events happening outside the palace.

Her words were full of childish opinions.

Of course, those matters were indeed major events, each one life-threatening.

No wonder they had made her so frightened.

“…”

“Jiaojiao, you can rest assured.” Gu Qingci’s long, thick eyelashes lowered, the light in her eyes restrained. Her movements as she embraced Fu Jing were gentle to the extreme. “As long as I live for one day, I will protect Jiaojiao for one day. Even if I die an unnatural death, I will definitely arrange Jiaojiao’s way out early…”

Fu Jing interrupted her. “Why should this Princess be protected by you?”

She said again, “It should be the other way around. Sister, I will definitely protect you well. As long as I am here, you are here. I will never let anyone bully you!”

Gu Qingci’s arms tightened slightly around her, holding her even closer.

“All right.”

“…”

That year, she was of imperial blood, the most noble Princess Jingxing of the Great Yan Dynasty. Gu Qingci was only a hostage from a weak country, trapped in an awkward position and surviving between cracks.

Even though Fu Jing understood that this Sister, who was nine years older than her, was deeply scheming and extraordinarily talented, she still firmly believed that Gu Qingci needed to be protected by her.

Later, until later…

The illusion dispersed, yet there still seemed to be the lingering warmth of soft fragrance in her arms.

Fu Jing stared at the blackboard in front of the podium. When she came back to herself, the images in her mind passed away like waking from a midnight dream, impossible to grasp. They were fleeting shadows, a night-blooming flower that appeared only for a moment.

“What are you thinking about?” Qin Zijin reached out and pushed her, whispering, “If you’re spacing out, then space out, but don’t stare straight ahead like that. Old Liu will call on you to share your thoughts!”

Fu Jing’s eyes were dry and stinging. After a long while, she finally remembered to blink. Her heart felt empty.

She quickly took out her phone and checked her messages.

She had sent one to Gu Qingci early in the morning, asking whether she was free and if they could have dinner together.

—There was still no reply at all.

Fu Jing rested her chin on the desk, her whole face wrinkled up. Suddenly, she hummed in an extremely aggrieved tone, “Why isn’t she replying? She’s really too much. Bad person…”

Below the podium, all the students were seriously copying the writing on the blackboard and taking notes.

Fu Jing’s sudden lowering of her head was a little conspicuous.

The teacher on the podium stopped speaking. He had long since noticed Fu Jing, who had been looking at the blackboard with special focus earlier.

He could not help putting down the chalk and saying with interest, “I saw that one of our students seems to have particularly strong feelings about this passage. Come, the girl in the second-to-last row with a ponytail, please stand up and share your thoughts. How do you see it?”

Qin Zijin: “…”

Fu Jing: “…”

They turned their heads and looked left and right. There were seven or eight girls sitting in their row, and all of them really had their hair down.

Only Fu Jing had a ponytail.

Fu Jing realized it, and in the next second, she raised her hand and took down her ponytail.

Expressionless, she acted as if nothing had happened.

She remained seated.

The people around them laughed quietly.

Qin Zijin could not bear to look and lightly pushed her. “Are you stupid? Hurry and stand up. Just say you’re from the physics department and came to sit in!”

Seeing the other students’ burning gazes turn toward them, she lowered her voice and added, “But definitely don’t say you know me. It’s too embarrassing.”

Fu Jing had originally been about to speak, but hearing this, she was startled.

Would it be embarrassing if she could not answer?

Since it would be embarrassing, she absolutely could not say she was from the physics department!

The slides were covered with words. Fu Jing looked at them seriously for a while, picking and choosing. There were almost no sentences she could understand. She furrowed her brows hard and stared at the middle of the second paragraph: “rocks as a screen… water and Jie level.”

Rocks? Water?

Since she truly could not understand the meaning of the other content,

Fu Jing calmly answered, “Rocks formed in an aquatic environment should be shale. Shale is a sedimentary rock, and sedimentary rock is one of the three major types of rock.”

After a few seconds of silence,

the old professor did not understand. He thought she had not finished speaking and encouraged her, “And then?”

There needed to be an “and then”?

Fu Jing was confused for a few seconds, then recalled the related knowledge she had learned and still remembered. “If we conduct research and analysis on the key mechanical properties of shale, through rock mechanics experiments, we can obtain the variation patterns of its strength parameters and deformation modulus.”

“…”

The old professor still did not understand, and his expression seemed even more confused than before.

He reluctantly nodded. “Anything else?”

What else was there supposed to be…

Fu Jing began to find it tricky. She did not specialize in this area of research either, so she could only estimate and say, “It should be… the parameters will strengthen as the confining pressure increases.”

Finally, the old professor did not really want to keep listening.

With a kindly expression, he nodded again and steadily concluded the question. “All right. It seems this student’s thoughts are quite special…”

Fu Jing opened her mouth and could not help interrupting, “No, I never said these were my thoughts.”

Randomly changing someone else’s research into her own would be academic misconduct!

How had it turned into this situation?

“…”

Both sides had confused expressions.

Qin Zijin weakly cut in, “Teacher, what she means is that this is only the feeling she got from seeing the poem. It isn’t a thought. There’s a big difference between thoughts and feelings.”

The old professor quickly said “Oh” and nodded. “So that’s how it is. Please sit, please sit.” He waved his hand and could not help saying again, “Hurry and sit down, student.”

“…”

Fu Jing obediently sat down. She felt that her performance had been fairly good. At least she had answered.

So she relaxed and took out her phone to play with.

Just then, a new message box appeared:

[Princess Qingci: No, I have a lot going on recently.]

Fu Jing was disappointed, but she immediately replied sensibly: [Okay, government affairs are most important!]

Princess Qingci replied instantly: […]

Qin Zijin leaned over to look. “What does your message mean?”

“I typed the wrong character.” Fu Jing was very innocent. “It should’ve been the ‘proper’ in proper matters.”

“Didn’t you say she stays at home and doesn’t work? Replying like this sounds like sarcasm…” Qin Zijin quickly saw Gu Qingci’s own message above and stopped mid-sentence. “Oh, she was the one who said she had a lot going on.”

Qin Zijin curled her lips and gave a light scoff. “She works two hours a week and still pretends to be busy?” Then she added, “Tomorrow, I’ll go with you and see with my own eyes just how impressive she is.”

“Okay, okay!” Fu Jing happily agreed. Then she thought of something, and her expression stiffened. When they had eaten late-night snacks before, she had said she had no friends.

After that, she had also forgotten to explain further.

Now, suddenly, a good friend was going to come to the bar.

Fu Jing’s expression changed several times. Her gaze became deep for a long while, then she suddenly had an idea and said lightly, “How about this? When you come to the bar, just say you’re my mom.”

Qin Zijin: “?”