Jiang Li and Wen Wan’s conversation caused the girl named Rongrong’s face to darken instantly. She snorted and began placing her belongings on the last empty bed with exaggerated movements, making loud crashing sounds. It was clear that she was venting her dissatisfaction.
The expressions of the middle-aged couple also soured. The father walked up to Wen Wan, shifting from threats to persuasion, “Girl, if you agree to switch beds with Rongrong, we can give you some financial compensation.”
Wen Wan shook her head without hesitation and softly replied, “I don’t need them.”
“Don’t be in such a hurry to refuse,” the father persisted. “The annual dormitory fee here is 1,400 yuan. We can give you 700 yuan, which would effectively halve your cost. How about that?”
“I don’t need that,” Wen Wan repeated, shaking her head again. This family was so odd that she didn’t even want to interact with them anymore.
The mother frowned and said, “If you think the money is too little, just say so. We can negotiate, as long as you don’t ask for too much.”
Hearing this, even the soft-spoken Wen Wan could no longer hold her temper. She picked up a small, unopened jar of face cream from the table and said, “This jar of face cream costs more than 3,000 yuan.”
Her meaning was clear: her face cream alone cost over 3,000 yuan, so she clearly wasn’t short on money and certainly did not need strangers to ‘subsidize’ her a 700-yuan dorm fee.
The mother glanced at the brand label on the jar, curled her lip, and said nothing further. She recognized the brand, but this girl dressed too shabbily to use such expensive products, so it must be a counterfeit!
The father, on the other hand, was still unwilling to give up. He looked at Wen Wan and said mockingly, “If you’re going to brag, at least plan it out better. A 3,000-yuan face cream—does it make you younger or something?”
Seeing how unreasonable they were, Wen Wan simply stopped talking. It was pointless to argue with them anyway, so she’d rather stop wasting energy.
Noticing her silence, the father assumed Wen Wan felt cornered and began speaking even more arrogantly. He accused her of being vain and selfish for being inconsiderate of her roommate’s needs.
Wen Wan had never been good at arguing, especially with such unreasonable people. A wave of anger washed over her, causing her face to redden, yet she couldn’t find the words to respond.
Jiang Li shifted her gaze to the father and warned, “If you are so fond of talking to yourself, could you at least lower your voice?”
“How is it any of your business whether I lower my voice or not?” The father frowned at Jiang Li.
Jiang Li replied coldly, “Because you’re disturbing us. If you continue, I’ll have to call the dorm supervisor to handle this.”
Upon hearing the mention of the ‘dorm supervisor,’ the man finally quieted down. He wasn’t particularly afraid of a mere staff, but he didn’t want his daughter to suffer if they left a bad impression and the supervisor made things difficult for her.
After the man quieted down, his wife also stopped talking. Only Rongrong continued to angrily throw her things around, venting her frustration. Her father, clearly doting on his daughter, fussed over her, calling her ‘baby’ and ‘darling’ over and over, but his precious baby completely ignored him.
It seemed that the parents didn’t realize how poorly their daughter treated them. Before leaving, they gave her a long list of reminders, telling her to take good care of herself while at school.
After the couple left, no one paid attention to Rongrong anymore, let alone fussing around her, and she eventually calmed down on her own.
Wen Wan finally breathed a sigh of relief. She pulled out her phone and opened the school forum, eager to check what was on topic among the senior students. Less than a minute later, her expression turned to surprise. “Jiang Li, people are talking about you!”
Jiang Li was startled. “Talking about me? What are they saying?”
Wen Wan excitedly moved closer. “Well, it’s the beginning of the school year, they mostly are talking about the first years. In this most popular thread, the seniors are discussing how the school’s most beautiful and most handsome ranks are about to change.”
Jiang Li glanced over the screen and immediately saw that someone had posted a photo of her and Tong Yi eating in the cafeteria, claiming that they were the most attractive pair in the school and that there was no need for a contest—this boy and girl were clearly the new ‘school beauty’ and ‘school prince.’
Jiang Li: “…”
Back in junior high, people mostly talked about how many points she scored higher than Qin Zheng on exams, the awards she won in competitions, or how strong her combat skills were. Hardly anyone discussed her looks. Coming high school, she was well-established as ‘Prodigy God Jiang,’ a legendary, deity-like existence. Talking about her appearance was pointless, since her achievements already took so much limelight. Everyone in school agreed that no one was good enough for her, so there was no idle gossip that paired her with a boy.
During her three years at Minjiang First High School, there had never been any talk of who the school beauty was. However, Qin Zheng was frequently ‘throned’ as the school prince, and as far as she knew, a lot of girls had crushes on him, whether openly or secretly.
Jiang Li took Wen Wan’s phone and scrolled through the replies in the thread. Around ten comments in, someone recognized her and Tong Yi as this year’s entrance exam top scorers. Many senior students had already heard that Jiang Li had been admitted to their school, but they hadn’t realized that Tong Yi had also come.
Wen Wan peeked through Jiang Li’s shoulder and couldn’t help but exclaim when she saw a bunch of people shipping Jiang Li and Tong Yi as a ‘divine couple,’ “Tong Yi must have come to our school because of you! That means I wasn’t wrong to ship you two!”
Jiang Li smiled in response, “Well, you’re actually wrong. Tong Yi isn’t attending our uni. He applied to Capital University, and he just came over today to have lunch with me.”
Wen Wan was momentarily stunned but quickly responded, “No problem! Capital University isn’t far from ours. It’s a quick walk! He definitely chose that campus for you; otherwise, he could have picked Huaxia University, which is a bit farther away.”
Jiang Li flicked her forehead. “Let me officially announce something: Tong Yi is my big nephew, and I’m his aunt. It’s impossible for us to date.”
“Are you two related by blood?” Wen Wan asked in surprise. If they were related, they should have the same last name, but clearly, Jiang Li and Tong Yi didn’t.
“No, we’re not,” Jiang Li shook her head.
Wen Wan pouted, “If there’s no blood relation, all the ‘brothers and sisters’ are just being flirts. The same goes for aunts and nephews with no blood ties—just like Xiaolongnu and Yang Guo!”1
Jiang Li chuckled, shook her head, and no longer tried to reason. She had already noticed that while Wen Wan was shy around strangers, once she got comfortable, she became quite the chatterbox.
The girl named Rongrong overheard their conversation and couldn’t resist pulling out her phone to check the forum post that Wen Wan had mentioned. After glancing at the photos in the original post and the first few comments, she sneered. Seeing Wen Wan’s excitement, she muttered softly, “The guy is indeed good-looking, and he’s a top student at Capital University. I bet lots of girls are after him. What’s the use of shipping them?”
Wen Wan turned to look at Rongrong and quietly retorted, “I wasn’t talking to you.”
Rongrong shrugged. “I wasn’t talking to you either. I was talking about the idiots in the post obsessing over shipping a CP.”
“You… you’re being unreasonable,” Wen Wan’s face turned red with anger. If Rongrong had only said something about her, she wouldn’t have been so upset. But Rongrong’s mocking tone toward Jiang Li because of the shipping really infuriated her.
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