At night, Su Yang could not fall asleep. Even if he managed to close his eyes, his mind started to picture what would happen if he got top 10 in English.
The other students were worried about failing, but Su Yang was worried about being too good.
‘It was all Qu Xiaomeng’s fault for setting such strange questions!’
On morning of the next day, Su Yang went to campus with extra heavy dark eye circles.
Before he reached the campus, he bumped into Chu Xia who was walking out from the campus gate with a bag of daily supplies.
Su Yang greeted her, “Mor....Yawn...ning.” He yawned when he was halfway through his greeting.
Chu Xia smiled and her eyes curved into crescent moons. “Couldn’t sleep well last night?”
Su Yang nodded and yawned again. “Yeah, I’m worried about the test.”
It was then that he recalled the scene whereby Chu Xia was talking and joking with Qu Xiaomeng. With a quick shift of his thoughts, he moved closer to her and asked, “Oh right, Chu Xia, I saw you talking and joking with Ms. Qu. Are you guys close?”
“Quite close, I suppose.”
“Can you do me a favor then?” asked Su Yang.
Chu Xia raised a long and thin brow and said, “Are you trying to confess to Ms. Qu and want my help?”
“No freaking way! I don’t have a thing for a teacher-student relationship! I just want your help to find out about the midterm results.”
Chu Xia revealed sympathy on her face and patted Su Yang’s shoulder when she knew he was trying to find out about the midterm results. “I get you.”
Su Yang responded with a confused Nick Young look. “You get it?”
Chu Sia said, “I know the questions for the midterms are quite uncommon and I think there are only a handful of students who passed, so it’s normal for you to be worried. Anyway, you shouldn’t be too concerned either. It’s just the midterms. It’s nothing serious and has nothing to do with your average level of English.”
Su Yang was speechless. He did not want to reveal his thoughts, so he played along and said, “Yeah, you are right. So, can you please help me? I also want to know how many in our class passed the test.”
Chu Xia smiled and nodded. “Sure, but on one condition.”
“What would that be?”
“I want you to accompany me to the opening of the campus singing competition this Friday,” she said.
Su Yang wanted to say “no” instinctively. “What is so interesting about it?”
Chu Xia pouted. “Deal or no deal!?”
When Su Yang saw the serious expression on her face, he compromised, “Okay, fine! I’ll accompany you.”
Her pout turned into a bright smile after he agreed.
Su Yang heaved a breath of relief after Chu Xia agreed to help to find out about the results. The girl was capable and he would be able to find out the results soon.
‘I’ll cross the bridge when I come to it. Maybe everyone else paid attention in class and passed the test. Who knows!?”
The two of them parted ways after the short meeting. There was some time left before the next class, so Chu Xia went back to her dorm to put down the daily supplies while Su Yang headed to the lecture hall first.
Su Yang was a loyal fan of the last row no matter which class he attended and today was no exception either.
After he sat down in the last row, he took his phone out and wanted to ask Deeny about the planning for the app he had proposed last night. When he unlocked his phone, he noticed a notification from WeChat.
He tapped on it and saw that it was from Lin Jiali.
‘Huh? It’s been a while since she last messaged me. What brings her here today?’
Ever since Su Yang accepted the mission to entertain her rants, he had only chatted with her once until now.
Because the chat that day had been an unforgettable one, Su Yang lost the motivation to continue the chat for the sake of the mission. After all, he was a man with dignity.
The two of them had not been chatting for over two weeks, so Su Yang was surprised when he saw Lin Jiali’s message again. He really thought that the mission would go poof.
Lin Jiali: [I’m so mad!]
Su Yang replied with a question mark: [What’s wrong?]
Lin Jiali sent a sticker of a cat trying to eat a baby. The cat’s mouth was wide and the sharp teeth made it look slightly fierce.
Lin Jiali: [I recently attended an event for my job and I got someone to rent an expensive dress for the occasion. I wore the latest design of the season to the event, but my outfit clashed with someone else! Aaaaargh!]
‘That’s it? An outfit clash? What’s the problem here?’ Su Yang could not understand Lin Jiali’s frustration.
He tapped on Weibo[1] and realized that the outfit clash was trending in the search rankings. Lin Jiali’s outfit had clashed with a first-tier actress and she was attacked by the fans of that actress online. Even her Weibo page was sieged and she was accused of leeching off the actress’s popularity.
Su Yang did some research and realized that clashing outfits was something embarrassing for an artist. It was not about who came out on top of one another. Instead, a clash of outfits would embarrass both sides at once.
‘No wonder...’
Since it was already trending, Su Yang also visited Lin Jiali’s Weibo to have a look at the situation. In his opinion, as a third-tier actress with a bit of popularity, Lin Jiali should have some fanbase defending her about this.
To his surprise, when he scrolled down the Weibo page, other than the haters scolding her, her fans also replied and garnered quite a number of likes, but...
[Please don’t get us involved. Scold Jiajia all you want. We aren’t responsible for this.]
[Actually, we aren’t hardcore fans of hers.]
[Are you guys tired? Why not try another day?]
‘Okay...this just got a little awkward...’ Su Yang started to sympathize with Lin Jiali’s situation. No wonder she was so frustrated that she wanted to ‘eat a baby’. ‘If I were in her shoes, I would eat a baby too...I mean, I’d get mad...’
Some thoughts later, Su Yang replied: [It’s fine. I have never seen the other actress before, but I believe you look a lot nicer.]
As a matter of fact, Su Yang was looking at the picture and comparing Lin Jiali with the other first-tier actress in the same outfit. Lin Jiali looked more beautiful, but she lacked the confidence and calmness of the other actress.
Even more so when the two of them met face-to-face, Lin Jiali had embarrassment smeared all over her face. She even slouched a little and the pride that she had earlier was gone.
Conversely, the other actress was a lot calmer. Lin Jiali was probably invisible to her eyes. Therefore, Lin Jiali did not even come close and was completely defeated.
However, all women loved praise. Lin Jiali replied happily: [Of course! I was so beautiful that day and left the crowd in awe. The other woman was defeated by my glamorous presence and looked grumpy for the whole event.]
Su Yang had another glance at the picture of Lin Jiali behaving like a cowardly little quail. [I am sure you are.]
After a little more chit-chat, Lin Jiali went off, minding her own business.
Su Yang finally reclaimed his peace. He looked at Lin Jiali’s mission tab and the counter increased to 2/10. He smiled.
‘One down, eight more to go! I really wish the next time will be as simple as this!’
Su Yang then called Deeny out, intending to continue the question that he failed to ask earlier.
[Deeny, how’s the app planning going?]
In less than two seconds, Deeny replied: [Huh? Planning? What’s that? I’ve finished coding the app.]
‘What the F? Deeny finished it?’
[1] Weibo = Chinese Facebook Or Facebook that’s not owned by Zuckerberg? Or The better Facebook lols