Chapter 26: Not That Desperate

Chapter 26: Chapter 26: Not That Desperate

"There’s no point in being jealous. Who could compete with such a clever and handy older brother!" Liu Wei rested her chin in her hand, staring fixedly at the flowers with a faint trace of resentment in her tone.

"Whoa, I smell jealousy!" Li Zhenhuai pretended to pinch his nose before bursting into laughter.

Liu Wei scoffed. "So what if I’m jealous? I have every right to be! I’m going to the flower market to hunt for a pot myself later," she said, turning to Chen Xiuyun. "I don’t expect to grow it as beautifully as yours; as long as the blooms look nice, I’ll be happy. Xiuyun, you have to give me some pointers when the time comes."

"I wouldn’t dare call it giving pointers. We can just share tips. When it comes to growing bougainvilleas, I’m only at a beginner level," Chen Xiuyun said, hastily waving her hands.

"Are we starting an arms race now?" Li Zhenhuai yelped playfully.

Liang Fei sighed. "I can’t grow anything. I can even kill a cactus. I’m strictly limited to plastic flowers."

The group chatted and laughed until a student knocked and entered the office.

The job of a university counselor was one of extremes—when it was busy, it was overwhelmingly so, but when it was quiet, there was absolutely nothing to do.

Since the freshmen had just started the semester, Chen Xiuyun had a fair amount of work on her hands. Aside from organizing various documents, first-year students would frequently drop by. Some came to ask for time off, while others inquired about work-study programs, scholarships, or academic competitions.

Under normal circumstances, it was fine. Her biggest fear was running into unreasonable students who were impossible to communicate with. It was hard to imagine what was going on in their heads or how they had even managed to get accepted into this university.

Chen Xiuyun considered herself to have a decent temper, but seriously... sometimes, she really wanted to blow up the entire planet!

After finally wrapping up her tasks for the time being, Chen Xiuyun thought for a moment, took out her phone, and sent Chen Jingle a message.

"What made you think of coming to our campus to run? Couldn’t you just jog around the village?"

It was quite a distance from the village to the university, even if one rode an electric scooter.

Chen Jingle received the text and casually replied, "Your campus is new! Everything is brand new, including the sports field and the synthetic track. Since there’s a proper, free venue, why would I run in the village? If I ran in the village, I’d probably become the main topic at the neighborhood gossip mill within two hours. Plus, I’d have to worry about getting bitten by some unleashed dog."

Seeing his response, Chen Xiuyun almost burst out laughing, but remembering she was in the office, she quickly covered her mouth.

She typed back, "I told you ages ago to visit more often when you have time. Looking at pretty girls is a good way to relax, too."

Chen Jingle ultimately decided not to mention that he had been approached by girls that morning. He was absolutely certain that if he brought it up, Chen Xiuyun would turn it into a massive joke to tease him with, and before long, all their relatives and friends would know about it.

He knew her far too well!

"By the way, Grandma said Chen Qiyun has been running over to your house these past couple of days. What’s going on?" Chen Xiuyun asked.

"Nothing much," Chen Jingle replied. "I’ve been tinkering with some desserts lately, so I asked her to help taste-test them."

"Yikes, don’t let her eat too many sweets, or her teeth are going to rot again."

"Don’t worry, I know."

"Remember, come around here more often. Don’t just lie around at home all day. I’m seriously worried you’re going to make yourself sick from boredom."

"Ugh, you talk too much nonsense."

"Biting the hand that feeds you, huh!"

Time flew by amidst conversations with colleagues and students, as well as slacking off and chatting with Chen Jingle. Before she knew it, the entire morning had passed.

She had lunch in the cafeteria. While there wasn’t a special dining area for teachers, they did receive a meal subsidy. Two meat dishes and two vegetable dishes only cost five yuan!

Usually, Chen Xiuyun would go home to rest after eating and return in the afternoon. However, she had other plans for her lunch break today. She needed to visit the girls’ dormitories to see if there was anything that needed sorting out.

Having gone through her own student days, she knew there was always some messy drama in the dorms, and she wanted to help wherever she could. If she couldn’t, then there was nothing to be done—she was only a lowly counselor, after all.

After checking the dorms, she would most likely just head back to the office to nap. With only an hour left, it wasn’t worth the hassle of commuting back and forth. Honestly, it didn’t even matter if she didn’t sleep at noon. As long as she finished her tasks, she could slack off as much as she wanted in the afternoon!

Meanwhile.

After returning home, Chen Jingle’s first order of business was cleaning the house.

Today, the system had scheduled housekeeping rather than personal image management. To Chen Jingle, it didn’t make much of a difference. As long as the rewards were sufficient, even if it made him eat... Never mind, that wouldn’t work. He definitely couldn’t do that.

Chen Jingle pondered for a moment. "For today’s knowledge learning class, can I choose a subject other than the four core courses?"

[Yes. What would you like to learn, baby?]

"How about history?"

[That works.]

Hearing the affirmative answer, Chen Jingle secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

After several consecutive days of English lessons, he wouldn’t dare claim his proficiency was top-tier, but he could at least hold a conversation without any issues. Since that was the case, he could put it on the back burner for now.

After all, his goal wasn’t to become a translator or a master calligrapher. He simply wanted to acquire a broader range of knowledge.

History happened to be a subject he was quite interested in. Since ancient times, politics and history had been inseparable; to understand politics, one first had to understand history. All contemporary history was just ancient history repeating itself, anyway.

As a liberal arts student and a hardcore armchair politician, it was completely normal for him to be interested in these things. This was true even if his actual level of historical knowledge was only on par with a veteran web novel reader.

To put it bluntly, he only possessed a scattershot knowledge of random facts. He would absolutely never dare embarrass himself in front of an actual professional.

"That’s exactly why I need to read more!" he thought. "If nothing else, at least when I’m arguing with someone online, I’ll be able to troll them back with well-founded arguments!"

This was the fundamental professional etiquette required of any outstanding internet contrarian.

Since he had to study anyway, it only made sense to study something he actually cared about. Whenever he received a message from Chen Xiuyun in the middle of it, he would just take a quick moment to reply.

It was obvious that Sister Xiu was also slacking off at work.

Poor kid.

To Chen Xiuyun’s surprise, Liu Wei suddenly messaged her on WeChat after work that afternoon.

"Xiuyun, does your brother work locally?"

Chen Xiuyun was caught off guard by the abrupt question. "He’s back home right now, but he doesn’t work here. Hmm, why do you ask, Sister Weiwei?"

"Then what kind of work does he do?"

"He used to co-run a company with a partner in the provincial capital. He’s been back home for almost half a year now, mostly busy with getting our family’s new house built. He said he plans on taking a break for a while."

She certainly didn’t think Liu Wei was looking for a boyfriend for herself—her child was already in elementary school, after all.

"I remember you mentioning before that your brother doesn’t have a girlfriend yet, right?"

"Uh, yeah, that’s right," Chen Xiuyun replied, stunned.

Liu Wei cut to the chase. "I’ll just be straight with you. Teacher Zhang from the Student Affairs Office has been getting heavily pressured by her family to marry lately. She asked me to keep an eye out and see if I could introduce her to a decent match. My hands are tied here, so I can only ask around."

"I remember her being... in her thirties, right?" Chen Xiuyun asked hesitantly.

Liu Wei replied awkwardly, "Yeah, she’s thirty-three. She’s a bit on the older side. I told her the same thing—if she were five years younger, her prospects would be much better."

Chen Xiuyun smiled but didn’t respond.

Although her dear brother Chen Jingle was single, he definitely wasn’t that desperate.