Chapter 20
After Gu Qingci finished the meeting and came out, more than a dozen messages popped up on her private phone. Without opening them, she knew they were all the little girl’s daily ramblings.
She laughed softly and read them as she walked.
Between one meeting and the next, large and small, everyone’s steps were hurried, dressed in suits and polished leather shoes. Time corresponded to constantly changing numbers, and money was an unavoidable weapon—either fought over or seized away.
Fu Jing’s messages were like a shallow, clear stream flowing through deep mountains. It was hard to say whether its flowing served any purpose, but even if it was useless, it still flowed.
Sometimes it was very noisy.
Yet no one was willing to cut it off—
“…”
Fu Jing’s last message asked whether she was free to have lunch together.
After Gu Qingci finished reading, she tucked her phone back into her pocket and continued to her next appointment.
She still had no way to reply right now.
—
After meeting her advisor, Fu Jing dawdled around beneath the teaching building, hesitating over whether to go find Qin Zijin.
Coming toward her, she ran into the third-year senior she had exchanged contact information with at the bar before. The other girl was very enthusiastic, smiling and waving as she greeted her. “Do you still remember me?”
Fu Jing looked at her. Without makeup, the girl was not very easy to recognize. Half a beat later, Fu Jing nodded. “Mm.”
The girl smiled. “Do you still have class later?”
“No.”
“Then let’s go eat together?”
Fu Jing thought about it. Since she had nothing to do anyway, she said, “Sure.”
The two of them discussed it and prepared to go eat at the East Canteen in the neighboring campus nearby. Passing through the library, walking out the school gate, turning a corner, and crossing a road would get them there.
Fu Jing walked side by side with her, leaving the school gate and passing by a car parked nearby.
She passed it calmly.
The car was covered with one-way film, so people outside could not see inside.
But the person inside could see the passersby through the car window clearly.
When Fu Jing spoke to the girl beside her, those almond eyes curved. The wind swept tiny nameless flowers from the treetops, and they landed in Fu Jing’s hair. The girl helped her remove the flowers, her face carrying a smile that was beautiful and self-aware.
The two of them were around the same age.
Under the blazing sunlight, they were right in the prime of youth.
Gu Qingci quietly watched them walk to the end of the road, turn the corner, and disappear. Her phone had been in her hand the entire time. After thinking for a moment, she still sent Fu Jing a message:
[Have you eaten?]
A few steps away, Fu Jing happened to stop at the traffic light.
She took out her phone and quickly replied: [Not yet. I’m going to eat with a friend now~ Sister, what about you?]
After Gu Qingci saw it, she casually tossed her phone into her open bag, turned the steering wheel to the right, and drove away.
—
Fu Jing wore a new dress and had even fiddled with a curling iron for quite a while, giving herself little curls. Thursdays were always the days when she put the most effort into dressing up.
But her little curls became messier and messier in the wind.
As soon as she arrived at the bar, someone immediately showed concern. “Did you stay up all night and just wake up?”
Fu Jing raised a hand to grab her hair and said seriously, “This kind of hairstyle is supposed to be fluffy. It has a lazy feeling. Very sexy.”
Hearing the final three words, Tao Xian immediately gave up discussing it and nodded in agreement. “As long as you’re happy.”
She handed Fu Jing the tray on which the wine had been placed. “Bring this to your Beauty Gu.”
Fu Jing casually picked up a bottle of rice wine from the bar and placed it on the side, bringing it upstairs together.
When she passed by the booths, she saw a table of customers having a very lively time.
A woman had just stepped on something and fallen entirely onto another woman in an extremely ambiguous posture. The friends around them all started cheering, “The heavens are hinting that you two should kiss!”
Fu Jing watched the commotion for a few seconds and could not help wondering inwardly: how exactly could someone fall that perfectly?
She poured the whiskey into a glass, handed it to Gu Qingci, and said, “Try the rice wine later.”
The ice cubes shook, striking the wall of the glass with a pleasant sound.
Gu Qingci glanced at her, a smile held at the corner of her lips. “Worried I’ll get drunk?”
“No.” Fu Jing had only said half a sentence when she noticed a few half-melted ice cubes on the hallway floor. She did not know who had knocked them over.
A flash of inspiration came to her. She suddenly stood, pretending she was going to get napkins from the cabinet.
In reality, while no one was paying attention, she lightly kicked the ice cubes, trying to move them around Gu Qingci.
That way, when she walked over later, she could “accidentally” step on them and slip, reenacting the accidental fall she had just seen at the booth.
She smoothly kicked a few pieces over.
Fu Jing glanced at Gu Qingci from beneath her long lashes and saw that Gu Qingci was silently drinking, completely not noticing her little movements.
She could not help pressing her lips together, holding back a smile.
She quickly walked over and cleared her throat, just about to say something to make it look natural.
Her eyes calculated the angle and distance. Everything was just right—
Gu Qingci stood up and, for no apparent reason, suddenly moved much farther inward.
“…”
In this current position, unless Fu Jing could spread wings and fly, the most she could do was fall onto the marble tabletop.
Fu Jing’s movements paused. She lifted her eyes and secretly looked at Gu Qingci, only for their gazes to meet.
Maybe because she had a guilty conscience, Fu Jing kept feeling that Gu Qingci had an expression that saw through people’s hearts.
As if she had completely guessed what Fu Jing wanted to do.
Fu Jing swallowed, then immediately comforted herself. Impossible!
“…”
“I was wondering why you were kicking the ice cubes over.” Gu Qingci turned her face slightly, glanced beneath the table without a change in expression, and said, “So this was what you were thinking.”
“What was I thinking?” Fu Jing was badly startled, but her mouth refused to admit it easily. Then she saw that the empty seat beside Gu Qingci was occupied by a bag.
She could not help pouting gloomily. “Do you believe I’ll sit right on your bag?”
Gu Qingci suddenly laughed softly and lifted her eyes to look sideways at her. “I think what you really want is to sit on my lap.”
After saying that, she even picked up the bag and placed it on her lap.
As if specifically guarding against her.
“…”
Fu Jing glared dryly, dazed for a long while, and could only fold her arms and sit opposite her. After thinking for a while, she softly admitted defeat and asked, “Sister, do you hate it when people play little tricks?”
“You’re saying those ice cubes just now count as playing tricks?” Gu Qingci curved her lips, looking endlessly amused. “If you hadn’t said it, Sister would’ve thought you were acting foolish.”
Fu Jing: “………………”
She was speechless for a long time. Her gaze lowered, and she suddenly noticed Gu Qingci’s lip color tonight. It looked very much like the lipstick she had chosen before. A slightly light rose-pink color, making Gu Qingci’s face appear extremely fair and her eyes even darker.
In a moment of excitement, Fu Jing leaned closer. “Sister, you…”
Gu Qingci immediately pushed her away lightly.
The flashing colored lights of the bar fell across Gu Qingci’s calm, rippleless face.
Her pushing motion was not large, but the meaning was obvious.
Fu Jing felt wronged and forgot whatever she had wanted to say.
She found it strange how Gu Qingci was always neither cold nor warm toward her. Good, but also not good.
Like a mountain in the dark night, wrapped in layer upon layer of dense fog. No matter how one tried, one could not make out its outline. When Fu Jing moved closer, the mountain would even retreat.
“…”
Gu Qingci drank cup after cup.
Then she saw the child opposite her frowning, looking unhappy all over, her hands tugging at the hem of her dress again and again. If the fabric could be tied into a knot, Fu Jing would already have tied it into a dead knot.
There was a long silence.
Fu Jing looked at her pitifully. “Sister, are you in a bad mood?”
“…”
“If you’re in a bad mood, you should say so. How can drinking in silence be okay?”
“…”
The little girl Fu Jing had a good temper. She immediately forgot her earlier grievances and poured Gu Qingci a cup of rice wine, saying softly and warmly, “Anyway, they’re all alcohol. Try this kind with lower alcohol content, okay?”
As she poured the wine, Gu Qingci did not say no.
She lifted the cup and drank in small sips.
Seeing that Gu Qingci really had obediently switched to another kind of alcohol, Fu Jing immediately curled her lips, so happy she could hardly stand it.
While she was at it, she raised her hand. “Sister, I obediently applied the ointment. There’s no scar at all!” Then she shamelessly asked, “Since I was so obedient, shouldn’t you give me some kind of reward?”
Her fair, tender hand waved in front of Gu Qingci’s eyes.
Gu Qingci seemed drunk, and the guard in her heart suddenly loosened by more than half.
Her long lashes were half lowered, and the gaze she used to look at Fu Jing was hazy. After a pause, she spoke softly and asked, “What do you want me to do?”
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