Chapter 314: Boyfriend

“Cross-dressing?!” Wang Lan’s eyes shot wide open, round as saucers, and his voice jumped an octave. “Commercial gigs? Photoshoots? Bro, are you a model? Or an actor?”

Li Zhe pushed his glasses up again, his gaze behind the lenses filled with curiosity. ‘After all, he started taking commercial gigs back in high school and still managed to do so well on his exams. This roommate really is multi-talented.’

Chen Mo, however, wasn’t too surprised. Considering the other guy’s appearance, temperament, and what he had just said, the answer seemed perfectly reasonable.

“A bit of both, I guess. Mostly print modeling and event staff. Sometimes I do some cosplay,” Shen Xinghe replied as he opened his suitcase, his tone as placid as ever, as if he were talking about something completely ordinary.

He took an exquisite makeup bag and an assortment of skincare bottles and jars out of his suitcase, then began to arrange them on his desk with practiced movements.

The sight of cosmetics, clearly meant for women, appearing on a desk in a men’s dormitory created a strange sense of contrast.

Wang Lan stood with his mouth agape, unable to utter a word for a long moment. He was clearly dazed by the shock of having a cross-dressing master for a roommate.

His earlier fantasy of feasting his eyes on the girls in the opposite dorm was instantly obliterated. In its place was the image of his living, breathing male roommate, who was prettier than most girls. He realized that if this roommate were to cross-dress, he would be more of a feast for the eyes than ninety-nine percent of women out there.

He suddenly felt like the world had become a bit surreal.

Chen Mo watched Shen Xinghe methodically organize his things. His focused, calm profile looked exceptionally gentle, and his entire being radiated an unusual, androgynous aura.

‘The makeup of this dorm,’ he suddenly thought, ‘is far more interesting than I imagined.’

‘A hearty giant, a refined bookworm, a mysterious cross-dressing master, and me, a former criminal investigator-turned-medical student… The next few years of dorm life probably won’t be boring.’

…

Su Yuqing’s room was also a spacious and bright four-person dorm. It had beige walls, light-colored floor tiles, and brand-new loft beds with desks underneath that gave off a faint scent of wood.

Sunlight streamed in through the large balcony window, filling the room with warmth.

Just like with Chen Mo, when she arrived at the dorm, two of her roommates were already there. One of them was busy moving in with her family.

The girl on the bottom bunk to the right of the door had fair skin and her hair up in a perky bun. She was nimbly stuffing clothes into the wardrobe.

A woman who looked to be her mother was chattering away beside her, “Make sure you hang the mosquito net properly! The mosquitoes are worst when the autumn heat really kicks in… Oh dear, why are you stuffing your clothes in so messily again!”

The girl stuck out her tongue but didn’t stop what she was doing.

When she saw Su Yuqing come in, she immediately broke into a radiant smile, her voice clear and tinged with excitement. “Hi there! New roommate? I’m Lin Xiaoxiao, but you can just call me Xiaoxiao!”

“Hello, I’m Su Yuqing,” she replied with a smile. Lin Xiaoxiao’s enthusiasm was like a little sun, instantly dispelling the slight unease she felt as a newcomer.

“Hello, Yuqing.” The girl on the bottom bunk to the left, near the balcony, also turned her head and greeted her in a soft voice.

She had a quiet temperament and wore thin-rimmed glasses. She was carefully placing stacks of books onto her bookshelf.

“My name is Zhao Ya. You can call me Xiaoya.” Her voice was gentle, with a hint of shyness.

“Hello, Xiaoya,” Su Yuqing said with a smiling nod.

‘It really is easier for girls to get close,’ Su Yuqing thought. ‘Using more intimate versions of their names immediately closed the distance between them.’

Su Yuqing looked at the remaining beds. She faced the same choice as Chen Mo had, and naturally, she could only choose the one not next to the bathroom.

Su Yuqing walked over to her bed and desk, only to see them covered in a thin layer of dust.

She immediately put down her suitcase and prepared to start cleaning.

“Let me use this to give it a quick wipe for you, otherwise it’s too dusty.” Lin Xiaoxiao’s mother was very warm-hearted. Seeing that Su Yuqing was alone and that her own daughter’s area was already clean, she immediately came over with a damp cloth to help. “Young lady, did your parents not come with you?”

“They’re busy with work. Thank you, Ma’am.” Su Yuqing immediately thanked her politely and reached for the cloth. “It’s okay, I can do it myself.”

“It’s no trouble, I’ll do it. I just finished wiping down my girl’s area, so I’m already in the swing of it. I’ll give it a first pass, and you can do the detailed cleaning later.”

As she worked, Lin Xiaoxiao’s mother glanced at Su Yuqing. “Your parents are quite laid-back. You’d think they’d take a couple of days off, no matter how busy. It must be worrying, letting a pretty girl like you come here all by yourself.”

Hearing the compliment about her looks, Su Yuqing smiled bashfully and said, “I didn’t come alone, actually. My boyfriend got into the same major as me, so we came together.”

‘Speaking of the word “boyfriend,”‘ Su Yuqing suddenly realized, ‘this is the first time I’ve officially used that title for him to anyone since Chen Mo and I got together.’

Saying it so casually out of the blue sent an unexpected flash of sweetness through her heart.

“A talented man and a beautiful woman,” Lin Xiaoxiao’s mother immediately praised. “What a lovely couple.”

After all, getting into the eight-year clinical medicine program required some seriously high scores.

“Wow, Yuqing, you already have a boyfriend? I’m so jealous! I want to find a boyfriend too,” Lin Xiaoxiao said from the side, a look of envy on her face.

“Oh, you,” her mother said, rolling her eyes at her daughter. “You go through ten boyfriends a semester. I’m telling you, young lady, you’d better behave yourself at this university. If you’re going to date someone, do it seriously. The boys here are all going to be high-quality. If you’re really interested, then take your time and choose wisely. No more just playing around like you did before!”

She had been against her daughter dating in high school, but the more she objected, the more rebellious her daughter became, going out with a new boyfriend every other day.

It nearly drove her mad.

She only found out later that her daughter was doing it all on purpose just to provoke her.

While this was infuriating, it also came as a relief. At least her daughter wasn’t serious about it and wasn’t likely to be duped by some boy.

But now that she was in university, things were different. It was time to start thinking about the future.

Everyone who got into this college was a top talent. If she was truly serious, it wouldn’t be a bad thing for her to date someone and bring him home.

“That was just to get a rise out of you. This time, I really do want to find someone seriously,” Lin Xiaoxiao said, sticking out her tongue.

“You’d better be.” Her mother shot her a look and went back to helping Su Yuqing clean.

After wiping everything down, top to bottom, and making sure all the dust was gone, she turned to Su Yuqing with a smile. “Alright, now you just need to go over it again with a dry towel to wipe it dry, and it should be pretty much clean.”

“You’ve really gone to too much trouble. Thank you, Ma’am,” Su Yuqing said, bowing again to show her gratitude.