As She Wished - Chapter 2

Fu Jing only felt as if countless crows had flown across her heart. For a moment, her eyes filled with despair.

She obediently followed as she was led up to the second floor.

Along the way, Tao Xian smiled and nodded at the regular customers they passed, greeting them. Every gesture she made carried the charm of a mature woman. Her voice was soft and delicate as she spoke to Fu Jing, sentence by sentence.

“You’re really a graduate student, not a high schooler?”

Fu Jing immediately reached into the pocket of her jacket. “I’ll show you. My student card.”

“Oh, you really are.” Seeing her serious, dazed, and adorable expression, Tao Xian raised a hand, wanting to pinch her cheek, and joked, “You look so much like a child, and you don’t even dare go to the restroom by yourself. Don’t tell me you picked up someone else’s card to fool me?”

Fu Jing did not like other people touching her. She stepped back and dodged, saying, “You’re the child. I’m already twenty!”

Having her attempt at striking up a conversation end like this made her a little annoyed, but she could not take her temper out on the unfamiliar Sister in front of her. After holding it in for a long time, she could only repeat, “You’re the child!”

Since they had already reached the second floor, Fu Jing took the opportunity to adjust her emotions and tried hard to calm down. Looking down from above toward the booth from earlier, she asked softly, “That pretty Sister just now—is she a regular at your bar?”

“That one?” Tao Xian swept her gaze over and, upon seeing Fu Jing’s bright eyes and flushed cheeks, instantly understood. The words on the tip of her tongue made a turn, and she smiled meaningfully. “She’s the top draw of our bar, Gu Qingci.”

“What does top draw mean?” Fu Jing did not understand. “Is she also a staff member?”

“Mm, of course she’s a staff member. Top draw means she’s the most popular person in the bar.” Tao Xian toyed with her curled hair and lifted her eyes to throw Fu Jing a flirtatious glance. “She’s even more popular than I am.”

Fu Jing was unmoved. In fact, she did not even understand why the latter half of that sentence needed to be said.

She only kept asking earnestly, “Is she single? She’s still single, right?”

“Mm.” Tao Xian nodded easily. “She’s been single all this time, unchanged. She’s like a monk with long hair.”

Fu Jing was excited. “What a coincidence. Me too!!!”

She still wanted to ask more, but her phone ringtone interrupted her.

Taking it out, she saw that it was a call from Qin Zijin. Qin Zijin had already sent her many messages urging her to come out first. Fu Jing froze, wanting to answer but not doing so. The volume inside the bar was really inconvenient for a phone call.

Thinking that there would be plenty of time in the future, Fu Jing said goodbye to Tao Xian and quickly ran outside.

“What happened?”

“It’s nothing major.” Qin Zijin was waiting for her at the entrance, her face pale, though she was still calm. “It’s that big final assignment from before. I was lazy and asked Lu Yifan to help me write it. It had already passed, but who knew that now it’s been pulled out for plagiarism checking, and the whole thing is marked red.”

Fu Jing was secretly alarmed. “Did he download someone else’s paper online and trick you?”

“He found a ghostwriter for me, and that ghostwriter sold the same draft more than once. It probably isn’t anything too serious, but I have to go back to school and cry immediately. After all, Teacher Chen quite likes me. I can’t offend her, so…”

Hearing how nervous she was, speaking so fast, Fu Jing quickly said, “Then let’s hurry back!”

—

Fu Jing accompanied her back to school. By then, Qin Zijin had already calmed down quite a bit. She even broke up with her boyfriend Lu Yifan while waiting for the bus. Then she said goodbye to Fu Jing, told her to go back early, and said she would take her to find a partner again after she finished handling the matter.

Fu Jing walked a little dazedly to the teaching building of the College of Science.

Since she was already there, she figured she might as well first move the homework she had collected and finished grading over to her professor, so he could hand it out in class tomorrow.

Unexpectedly, her advisor happened to be in his office.

“Why are you back? Didn’t you go find a partner?” Jiang Jianhua was also stunned when he saw her. He craned his neck to look behind her. “Did someone follow you back? Why don’t I see a single ghost?”

“I came to deliver homework,” Fu Jing muttered. “Finding a partner wouldn’t be that fast.”

Jiang Jianhua teased her. “I also said it wouldn’t be that fast. You were the one who said you had found one. What about now? Didn’t manage to pursue them? Let them run away again?”

Fu Jing: “…”

Fu Jing said, “I only found someone I like. I haven’t started pursuing her yet!”

“Where did you find them? From our school? What do they study?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t spoken to her yet.”

“You fell for her looks? Very handsome?”

“Not handsome, but especially, especially beautiful.”

“Beautiful…” Jiang Jianhua pondered over those two words. “A beautiful boy?”

Fu Jing hesitated for a few seconds, then honestly confessed, “Not a boy. The person I like is a girl.”

At those words, Jiang Jianhua’s brow twitched.

He lifted his eyelids. His gaze passed through his thick glasses as he looked at her. His brows furrowed and relaxed, and his expression changed several times. In the end, he asked, “Then the beautiful girl you like—does she also like girls?”

Fu Jing: “Mm!”

“Then you have a very good chance.” Jiang Jianhua could not help letting out a sigh of relief and gave her advice. “Pursuing girls depends on pestering them shamelessly. Back then, your teacher here relied on thick skin and stubbornness to pursue your teacher’s wife. No matter how difficult it is, don’t give up. This is exactly the same principle as doing physics research. So you have a very good chance!”

Fu Jing nodded repeatedly and clenched her fist. “Okay. Thank you, Teacher! I understand!”

This also especially matched the idea in her heart!

Fu Jing asked again, “Teacher, don’t you think it’s wrong for me to like girls?”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because when you scolded Senior before, you told him not to act like a homosexual,” Fu Jing quietly pointed out.

“…”

Jiang Jianhua fell silent and thought for a while. Then he said seriously, “At my age, it’s inevitable that I have some outdated ideas. In the past, I did subconsciously think homosexual people were unreliable good-for-nothings. But now, when you say you like girls, my thinking is naturally overturned. It becomes me understanding that homosexuality and heterosexuality are both normal things. So the mistaken ideas of us older generations are updated and corrected by your new generation, and only then can science continue to progress. Isn’t that the principle?”

Fu Jing nodded. “I don’t know why, but I’m so touched.”

“Touched, are you?” Jiang Jianhua suddenly smiled like an old fox, then pretended to be calm as he asked, “I guide you academically, and I also guide you on how to pursue girls. Tell me, do I count as a good teacher?”

Fu Jing said, “You do!”

Jiang Jianhua said, “Can you do your teacher a favor?”

Fu Jing said, “Yes!”

Jiang Jianhua said, “That undergraduate class is too early. I can’t get up, and I don’t want to go teach it either. Why don’t you just substitute-teach for me for the entire semester?”

“…”

No one would be willing to teach early morning classes.

Fu Jing took a deep breath for a long while. “Since you can’t get up, why did you accept it in the first place?”

Jiang Jianhua smiled. “Because I was careless at the time and couldn’t refuse it. Just like your current situation.”

Fu Jing: “…Oh.”

Fu Jing could only silently carry the homework back. “Fine. I brought it here for nothing.”

—

Fu Jing accepted the task of substitute-teaching for Jiang Jianhua, and from then on, she had two extra morning classes each week. Fortunately, unlike Jiang Jianhua’s other students, she was not used to sleeping in the middle of the night and waking up in the afternoon, so after slightly adjusting her schedule, it was not too much trouble.

Because of the paper incident, Qin Zijin had recently been behaving with her tail tucked between her legs. She did not dare skip classes or sneak out of the dorm casually. She said she would find someone else to accompany Fu Jing to the bar, but Fu Jing said there was no need.

She felt that going alone might even be more convenient.

Originally, she was quite afraid of strangers, but for some reason, in that bar, she did not seem to feel the same uneasy discomfort all over.

Unfortunately, things did not go as smoothly as Fu Jing imagined.

She came every night for an entire week, yet she stubbornly never saw Gu Qingci again.

Every time, Fu Jing sat alone in a booth. She only ordered tea, did not drink alcohol, and then played on her phone.

Occasionally, when someone came to strike up a conversation, she shook her head, and the other party tactfully left.

Once, she was pestered by a drunk woman, who directly pulled out a card and slapped it on the table, asking Fu Jing to go to a hotel with her.

Fu Jing found it horrifying, but she still could not suppress her curiosity and asked, “How much money is in your card?”

When she heard there were twenty thousand yuan, she instantly burst out laughing.

“Really? With only twenty thousand yuan, you actually dare say that?”

This sincere remark instantly enraged the drunk woman. She grabbed the teacup on the table and was about to smash it against Fu Jing’s head. Fortunately, Tao Xian flashed over and reached out to block her, smiling apologetically as she resolved the situation in just a few words.

Fu Jing was not frightened. She only found it very boring.

After that, she would spend money to have Tao Xian come over and sit with her, order drinks for her, and let her talk about Gu Qingci.

The companion-chat service was not cheap, and with the drinks added on, Fu Jing’s unblinking manner whenever she paid the bill soon made Tao Xian understand that she was a child from a wealthy family. So Tao Xian also liked coming over to chat with her.

Their topic always revolved around Gu Qingci.

Tao Xian complained, while Fu Jing listened with great interest.

“Drinking, smoking, playing cards—she’s good at all of it. But she doesn’t like any of it. No one knows what she likes. She’s an especially desireless person. I think she might just go straight to a temple and become a nun in the future.”

Fu Jing froze. “So she believes in Buddhism?”

“I don’t know.” Tao Xian shrugged, picked up her glass, and drank as she said, “She just occasionally reads Buddhist scriptures.”

“Then why does she work here?”

Tao Xian’s eyes flickered. She vaguely said, “The money is good.”

“Then why doesn’t she come to work?”

“She always comes if she feels like it and doesn’t if she doesn’t. She works depending on her mood. I also don’t know when she’ll be willing to come over.”

Tao Xian was not lying about this. Whether Gu Qingci came or not, it was impossible for her to report it to Tao Xian. But Tao Xian could actually help ask. It was just that Fu Jing had not made that request.

And she also did not quite dare actually go up to Gu Qingci and call her over to coax a girl and sell drinks.

“Why is your boss so good-tempered?” Fu Jing held her teacup in both hands, leaned back against the sofa, and said with great resentment, “She hasn’t come for so many days. She’s absent from work without reason. Her work attitude is way too bad!”

Tao Xian smiled. “Exactly!”

Fu Jing sincerely suggested, “Can’t you deduct a little from Gu Qingci’s salary?”

Tao Xian was just about to reply when her gaze suddenly saw the person behind Fu Jing. She froze slightly, then could not help drawing out her tone with a smile.

“Why don’t you ask her yourself? Beauty Gu Qingci, why were you only willing to come over today?”

“…”

Fu Jing’s sitting posture instantly straightened.

She was a little petrified, yet she still stiffly turned her head. Sure enough, she met a beautiful face that was both unfamiliar and familiar.

Gu Qingci lowered her eyes. Her gaze met Fu Jing’s, and the corner of her lips tugged lightly, though it did not look like she was smiling.

“There’s no grudge between us. Why do you want my salary deducted?”

At this moment, only one thought remained in Fu Jing’s mind.

So fate did not merely mean that just as she was thinking of someone, she happened to see them.

It could also mean that when she was speaking ill of someone, that person was standing right behind her.

“…”