Chapter 217 - 130: Sunset, Basketball, Akagi Haruko

Chapter 217: Chapter 130: Sunset, Basketball, Akagi Haruko

"He told me no one at school likes him."

"Your brother is lying to you. You have no idea how popular he is at school. He probably didn’t tell you because he didn’t want to make you jealous."

"Hah! What’s there for me to be jealous of? Hey, you keep talking about my brother. What’s your deal? Do you have a crush on him? You better not have any ideas, or we’re through. Got it?" ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"I’m just jealous, that’s all. I think your brother is so good to you. Last time it snowed, he even came all the way here just to take you home."

"Well, of course." Wenwen puffed up with a little pride.

The bus stopped at Anyang Middle School. After getting off and entering the campus, Wenwen kept her head down, firing off one WeChat message after another to Su Ran.

[So Huang Tingting from the student council used to chase you, huh? Didn’t you say you two were just so-so? Did you like her back then?]

[And Zhang Xue from Class 3, Wang Siqi from Class 2, and Liu Ke from Class 8... My classmate told me everything today.]

Soon, she received Su Ran’s reply: [That’s not all. There’s also Wang Xiaoyue, Zhou Fangfang, Gao Xiao, Zhang Ping, etc....]

’Aaargh!’

It was because all of these were older girls at school who had been especially nice to Ning Wenwen. It turned out they were all just trying to get to Su Ran.

How could Ning Wenwen endure such ’deception’? She stormed back to her classroom, fuming, and decided to ignore Su Ran.

Meanwhile, Su Ran had just woken up. He chuckled as he read the WeChat messages, replied, [Study hard], and then went with his roommates to the cafeteria for breakfast. Along the way, Cao Wo was putting his "certified pervert" credentials to use, analyzing the figures of the older female students they passed. He commented on whose boobs were big and would feel great to squeeze, who had a nice ass, who was a slut, and who was innocent.

’Sigh... It’s women, women, women every single day.’ Su Ran was truly sick of hearing about it. Lately, he just wanted to be a quiet Divine Rich with no women in his life.

"Hey~ Qingning~"

As they walked into the cafeteria, Cao Wo was the first to spot Shen Qingning. As expected of a scumbag, his eyes were the quickest to find a pretty girl.

"Don’t come any closer. I have a cold, I’m afraid I’ll infect you."

Shen Qingning, looking haggard, put on a mask and took two steps back, then walked around them and left.

"Have you taken any medicine?" Su Ran called out after her.

"I have, thanks, Class Rep." Shen Qingning waved from the stairwell, holding her food container as she headed back to her dorm.

Naturally, the guys’ conversation turned to Shen Qingning. Sometimes, boys could be bigger gossips than the old women at a village entrance; they’d talk about whoever had just left. Of course, that was only if it was a girl they were interested in.

However, Shen Qingning was their classmate, so even Cao Wo didn’t dare say anything too out of line. Most of the comments were about how pretty she was, how she hadn’t gone home for New Year’s Day, and how she was always working part-time to earn money. After a semester together, everyone genuinely admired this self-reliant girl. Even Cao Wo, who was determined to be a scumbag, couldn’t bring himself to mess with such a pitiful girl. He felt like doing so would surely bring divine retribution.

Cao Wo: "...I’m actually really curious about something. It’s perfectly normal for college students to work part-time, but the way Shen Qingning does it... it feels like something’s up. She works herself to the bone to earn money, but she’s so frugal with her food and clothes every day, always just getting one meat and one vegetable dish. I really don’t get where her money is going. Class Rep, do you know?"

Su Ran shook his head. "I don’t know either."

...

「Morning Class.」

Su Ran walked into the classroom and sat down next to Shen Qingning. He glanced at her, dozing on her textbook with a pale face. "Still not feeling better?"

Shen Qingning weakly opened her eyes. "The medicine made me drowsy." As she spoke, she shifted away to keep her distance, not wanting to infect the Class Rep.

"If you’re sick, you should go back to the dorm and rest."

"I probably caught a cold during the outdoor photoshoot yesterday when it was so cold. It’s fine. Exams are coming up soon. If I don’t pay attention in class, I’m going to fail..." HUFF... She took a deep breath, forced herself to sit up straight, and opened her book. Her head felt heavy, so she propped it up with her hand, half-listening to the lecture and half-dozing off.

’...’ ’I really don’t get this girl,’ Su Ran thought. ’She’s clearly sick, but she insists on coming to class. This way, she isn’t absorbing the lecture and she isn’t getting any better. It’s the worst of both worlds. Why be so stubborn?’ But he didn’t say anything more. He just picked up his pen and focused his attention on the blackboard.

Today’s lecture was on—tombs.

Zhou Haiping, a renowned archaeology professor in the province, was lecturing from the podium. "There are good tombs, and there are ordinary tombs. Some tombs are frequently plundered by grave robbers, while others remain perfectly preserved to this day. When archaeologists enter one of those, they get incredibly excited."

"Does anyone have any questions about tombs?" Professor Zhou asked, looking out at the students.

Wang Dachui: "Professor Zhou, I have a question about tombs. In *Tomb Raider’s Chronicles*, the character Zhang Qiling has extraordinary fingers and is a master of Acupoint Exploration. Our Class Rep’s index and middle fingers are also long and flexible. Does that mean he would also be as amazing at Acupoint Exploration as Zhang Qiling?"

"..." Su Ran was speechless. He subconsciously hid his hands.

Professor Zhou: "I often say that novels aren’t reality. *Tomb Raider’s Chronicles* and *Ghost Blowing Light* are works of fiction. Many of the things they describe don’t actually exist, and what you’re referring to is also fictional. As for our classmate Su Ran’s exceptionally flexible index and middle fingers, I have heard about that as well. By the way, classmate Su Ran, don’t tell me you got so engrossed in *Tomb Raider’s Chronicles* that you diligently practiced Zhang Qiling’s finger Acupoint Exploration, did you?"

All the students turned to look at the Class Rep. Even the dozing Shen Qingning opened her eyes. The male students were interested in the question, but the female students were even more curious.

Su Ran gave a wry smile and shook his head. He stood up and began to spin a yarn with a perfectly straight face. "I used to work on an assembly line at a factory in my hometown. Every day, I just sat in a chair and used my fingers to hook screw caps. Over time, practice made perfect. Eventually, I could doze off and my fingers would just shoot out automatically to pick the screw caps by habit. A lot of the aunties there were really nice to me, especially the factory manager’s wife, Aunt Wang. She probably thought I was diligent and sensible, because she wanted to adopt me as her godson... But then one time I hurt my hand, and Aunt Wang never mentioned the godson thing again... sigh..."