The night is still not yet over for Sheng Sheng…
Chapter 22 – Yan Du Xian [Salted Pork Soup] (7)
When the two them arrived on her campus, many people and cars were coming and going in front of the graduate student dormitory.
Everyone was returning back to school today, and many old, familiar faces, flush with a rosy glow from eating, drinking, and being merry over the winter holidays, brushed past them.
After greeting a few people along the way, Gu Sheng sensed that she could not let this continue. Nearly everyone who said h.e.l.lo to her would give her a look afterwards that seemed to say, “Sheng Sheng Man, you are one lucky girl” … Toupai was walking leisurely beside her and admiring her campus, as if he did not mind in the least all those gazes that were both openly and secretly eyeing him over.
If… those fans of his in the 2-D world found out that … their very own Toupai DaRen was being ogled by so many girls, they would definitely band together and all take headshots at her, k? T T
She stopped.
Mo Qingcheng also stopped.
“Here is good enough. Thank you… um, you.”
DaRen, please don’t ask to go up and look around my dorm…
Today was the only day that the dormitory building was freely open for anyone to come and go. Please, please don’t ask, or else I don’t know how I’ll be able to refuse you, aaah …
“Alright.” He finally handed her backpack back to her. “See you next time.”
“Mm. Bye.”
At last carrying her own bag again, she turned around.
Step by step by step by step, she walked forward. Didn’t dare to look back. So wanted to look back. Didn’t dare to look back. So wanted to look back… The backpack she was hugging in front of her was honestly so darn heavy. If she had known ahead of time that Toupai would be carrying it the whole way, she would not have brought so many snacks. You glutton, Sheng Sheng Man. Look! You’ve exhausted Toupai. T T
Finally, she made it into her dormitory building, past the gla.s.s doors, where she took a couple steps to the left and then furtively turned back around. From a corner where Mo Qingcheng could not see her, she looked back out to see if he had left yet.
It seemed Mo Qingcheng had watched her enter the building, and now, he cast a glance at his watch.
“Gu Sheng!” From outside the dormitory building, Geng Xiaoxing’s voice suddenly rang out. “Who are you looking at, hiding beside the door like that? A handsome guy?!”
Let me die… Oh Heaven and Earth, hurry and send a lightning bolt down to strike me, please…
Frozen in place, Gu Sheng watched as Geng Xiaoxing bounced and skipped her way up to her. In her peripheral vision, she could see Mo Qingcheng very clearly lower his arm. With an amused expression, he cast a glance over in the direction of where she was concealed before turning around and leaving.
He must have heard. For sure he heard. T T
“Why are standing here so stupidly? You were fine on the phone yesterday.” Geng Xiaoxing beamed at her as she stretched out her hand and waved it in front of her face. “Tell me now! What happened in your meet-up with Unrivalled Allure Toupai DaRen, huh?”
Gu Sheng threw a wordless glance at her.
“Jue Mei just sent me a message in WeChat. Daren personally escorted you back to the school? Whoa, you guys are progressing really quickly …” Geng Xiaoxing’s tone was filled with all sorts of envy. “Is Toupai really that handsome?”
Gu Sheng continued staring at her in silence.
After suffering through several hours of shock and incitement, she did not have the energy to deal with anything Geng Xiaoxing had to say. All she could think about was that Geng Xiaoxing’s loud mouth had utterly destroyed the image she had tried so hard to maintain through the afternoon and evening.
Peeping out secretly at him. So humiliating.
Of the four people in her dormitory room, only the two of them were directly being admitted into postgraduate studies. The remaining two roommates had already headed off to internship positions.
They likely were not going to return until tomorrow to go through the motions of reporting back into school and then head right back to their jobs.
As a result, tonight it was just the two of them again.
Geng Xiaoxing tried several different ways of trying to probe out some information but to no avail, so eventually, she turned the focus of the conversation directly to Jue Mei. Gu Sheng finally relented and, sitting on her bed reading through her YY messages, she said, “Very tall. Um… Really domineering air. Super domineering… Anyways, as long as he’s not joking around, he has a huge amount of presence.”
And when he is joking around T T, he is like a triad boss… A cultured type of triad boss.
“Ooh …” Geng Xiaoxing climbed onto the ladder of her bed, but then stayed there, almost half-sprawling herself on the rungs while she held onto the head of the bed for support. “Tell me more.”
Gu Sheng very dutifully contemplated for a moment before saying, “How about next time you just come along with me? … You guys have been having your underground relationship for so long anyways.”
“We don’t have an underground relationship!” Geng Xiaoxing made a grab for Gu Sheng’s foot in protest.
As she rolled out of the way, Gu Sheng chortled, “It is so an underground relationship!”
Geng Xiaoxing crawled up threw herself completely onto Gu Sheng’s bed.
“Don’t, don’t!” Gu Sheng pointed at her computer. “I’m holding my computer. Don’t break it.”
Geng Xiaoxing carefully avoided her computer. Suddenly, she clued in to something. “When is the next time you’re going to meet again?”
“Huh?”
“Didn’t you say ‘next time’?”
Gu Sheng did not know why she had said “next time.” Maybe it was because Toupai had said “see you next time”?
She stammered for a little bit until she saw a message from the president of her music a.s.sociation: Sheng Sheng Man, where did you go?…… Tonight was supposed to be your night on singing duty. I’ve been holding the fort for you for half an hour already… Hurry up and come!
She was taken aback briefly but then quickly remembered. Tonight was her night on singing duty for her own music a.s.sociation, ah T T…
“I can’t talk with you now. Can’t talk now. I need to go sing…” Slipping on her headphones, she explained in a very guilty tone, “Today was my turn to do singing duty for my a.s.sociation… and I completely forgot.”
The look on Geng Xiaoxing’s face showed that she was relishing in a certain someone’s predicament, but she finally let her go.
When Gu Sheng entered the YY channel, she immediately heard the a.s.sociation president plaintively singing the song, “” [“Realization”] with a small voice filled with mournfulness. When he saw her name pop up, he instantly cried, “Sheng Sheng Man DaRen… you’ve finally come.”
Gu Sheng typed back: I forgot…
a.s.sociation president: “Head straight up onto your mike… I’m nearly out of breath from singing so much. Everyone, please wait a minute. We are going to change singers right away.”
Gu Sheng private messaged the a.s.sociation president: Um… Weren’t there supposed to be two of us on singing duty? Where’s Zou Diao’er?
The president private messaged her back: He said he had a date. He said, in his twenty years of life, this was the first time that the person professing love to him was not a male and was actually a girl. So, he absolutely, positively had to make it to his date…
Gu Sheng: …… Best wishes to him.
a.s.sociation president: I held the fort for you for half an hour. Sing as you wish for another hour and then retreat.
Gu Sheng: Okay.
The a.s.sociation president got off his microphone and started to wind down. Gu Sheng got onto her microphone and a couple of songs, casually humming along while perfunctorily collecting virtual roses. The music a.s.sociation she was in was small and did not have a fixed fan base, and hence, every week, there were two days in which singers from the a.s.sociation would sing on the a.s.sociation’s channel to try to increase popularity. Placing her laptop on the small computer desk, she seated herself properly in front of it, her legs curled up to her chest, and started to sing.
While she was singing away, she heard an alert from her mobile phone.
Still singing her song, she rapped on her bed at Geng Xiaoxing, motioning for her to hand the phone to her.
When she took it, she saw that Toupai had sent over a text message: I’ve arrived home.
She immediately sang off key.
Clearing her throat, she said, “Excuse me. I’m just going to answer my phone.”
The background music was continuing to play as she replied to his WeChat message: Good to hear that you’re home… Thank you for accompanying me back today ^^
She pressed send. For some reason, though, something did not feel quite right.
Yet, she could not quite place what was wrong… It seemed as if she and Toupai had suddenly taken a huge step forward and had progressed to a stage where they were very familiar with one another. But, besides knowing that his name was Mo Qingcheng and that he was the Internet’s famous Qiang Qing Ci DaRen, she honestly did not know anything about him at all…
She tossed her mobile phone aside and began flipping through her folder on her computer, trying to find a song to sing.
While she was still thinking, she somehow unconsciously opened up the background music to “Song Has Not Ended.”
Having listened to it not long ago, it was still deeply impressed on her mind, so she decided she might as well take advantage of this opportunity to practice it. Of course… she would definitely not be able to sing it like Toupai, with such feeling and so perfectly. She followed along with the lyrics, singing gently.
Out of the blue, she heard the a.s.sociation president’s voice excitedly interrupt, “Ah! Am I seeing things? How did we suddenly break 1000 listeners in such a short period? I’ll say… Hey girls, have you all come to the wrong channel?…”
Gu Sheng was taken aback.
“Mr. President, you’re not seeing things…” Zou Diao’er’s voice rang out. “I feel like I rushed back for nothing…… AH, AH, AH, AH! What did I just see?! My idol and G.o.d! Toupai DaRen!”
“Where, where? Where’s Toupai Daren? Daren, you really have graced us with your presence here! … Soooo touched!”
Gu Sheng instantly understood. And instantly did not know how to sing anymore…
Toupai…
Toupai came…
The problem was, she was singing “Song Has Not Ended,” the song he had just sung on the bus, AH, AH, AH, AH!
On the public comment screen, Qiang Qing Ci very simply typed a smiley face.
Straightaway, there were more than a hundred comments of “Ah, ah, ah, ah! Screen cap!” …
“DaRen, our a.s.sociation is going to be having a one year anniversary celebration concert very soon. May I invite you to it? Ah, may I invite you?” The a.s.sociation president was not able to keep his cool in the least bit…
Qiang Qing Ci typed another smiley face: If I am not too busy with work, I will likely be there.
Immediately, there were more than a hundred comments of “Ah, ah, ah, ah! Concert!” …
Gu Sheng honestly felt she could not keep herself together any longer. She let the background music play away as she buried her face into her knees. She was so embarra.s.sed she wanted to die… This entire night, she had basically embarra.s.sed herself enough to last her whole lifetime, you know, you know? T T