Ding!
The elevator reached the first-floor lobby and smoothly opened its doors on both sides.
Seeing this, Yu Wen withdrew the hand that had been teasing Shen An and slowly stepped into the elevator.
Shen An followed right behind her.
“Which floor?”
Yu Wen asked softly.
“Eighteenth.”
“Eighteenth?” Yu Wen’s face showed surprise upon hearing that. “The eighteenth floor is the VIP level. Looks like the Troupe Leader is giving you some serious special treatment.”
She arched her brow slyly and teased, “Oh, by the way, just a heads-up—the Troupe Leader’s room is also on the eighteenth floor. Probably right near yours.”
Shen An replied calmly, “Yeah, I know.”
“Oh ho?”
“I just helped the Troupe Leader take her luggage to her room. It’s just around the corner from mine,” Shen An said with a light chuckle.
Yu Wen muttered under her breath, “How is my info so outdated…? Is this guy showing off to me?”
“Senior Sister Yu?”
“It’s nothing. Just a bit surprised, that’s all.” Yu Wen shot Shen An a sideways glance. “Do you know that the Troupe Leader hates it when people disturb her without reason? Especially barging into places she’s marked as her territory.”
“Territory? Sounds like the style of some feudal lord,” Shen An said with an amused smile.
“Hmm, if you put it that way, it’s pretty spot-on. She has this obsessive attachment to anything she’s claimed—perverse possessiveness, really.”
Yu Wen covered her mouth and chuckled softly. “That’s just how it is. Even we presidents aren’t allowed in her rest room without permission.”
“It’s pretty strict, but what are you getting at, Senior Sister Yu?” Shen An asked in return.
“Don’t tell me you don’t get it?” Yu Wen rolled her eyes. “If she’s that strict about a rest room, imagine how she is about her own living quarters.”
“I figured she’d carry her own bags up. We’ve gone out with her before, and she always handles her own luggage and stays in her own room.”
“Never expected she’d have you do it.”
A hint of awkwardness crept into Yu Wen’s tone. “Don’t think of it as some chore. It’s a sign of how much she trusts you.”
Shen An grumbled inwardly: If I told her the Troupe Leader even took me to her hotel suite, would she be even more shocked?
“That’s rare.”
Yu Wen tsked with a grin and patted Shen An’s shoulder. “Good luck.”
Shen An’s mouth twitched. “Why is it always that line? Every time I hear it, it feels like something bad is waiting for me up ahead.”
“No, this time it’s sincere encouragement.”
Yu Wen declared confidently, “The speed of your relationship with the Troupe Leader is beyond my expectations. Keep it up, and you might actually win her over!”
She grew more excited as she spoke. “Right now is a crucial moment. Be careful not to miss your chance, got it?”
“If something involving the Troupe Leader makes you hesitate, don’t decide on your own. Come find me.”
Shen An pursed his lips and yawned, showing no interest in joining Yu Wen’s sudden enthusiasm.
Yu Wen’s expression faltered, and she suddenly clutched her forehead. “Fair point. If you overthought everything, your relationship with the Troupe Leader wouldn’t have progressed this fast.”
“Forget it, then. Just do you—stick to your usual style.”
“Oh~” Shen An nodded indifferently.
“What’s with that look?” Yu Wen rolled her eyes again.
“Nothing. Just wondering what deep grudge you hold against the Troupe Leader to be so eager to sabotage her.”
Shen An emphasized “sabotage” with a playful tone, clearly not meaning it in a negative way.
Yu Wen pressed her lips together and said softly, “It’s not exactly sabotage… How should I put it? Ever since I met the Troupe Leader, she’s always had this lofty, superior air about her.”
“You know how it is—the first time you see that demeanor, you think it’s so cool and handsome.”
“But after a while, it twists into something else. Especially when that cool, superior person becomes your boss. Then the twisted feelings turn into outright rebellion.”
Shen An raised a brow. “Rebellion?”
“Mm-hmm, rebellion. Might sound weird to you, but it fits perfectly.”
Yu Wen continued faintly, “It’s actually a lot like how guys think.”
“Hah?”
“Heh~” Yu Wen looked at Shen An with a touch of disdain. “You guys see someone lofty and want to peek at their depraved side. See someone fiery and wonder if they’ve got an icy one hidden away.”
“Dragging good girls into the deep end, then preaching redemption to the fallen.”
Oh~
With that explanation, Shen An got it.
So it was all about that wicked curiosity for the drama.
“Uh, I think you might have the wrong idea about me, Senior Sister Yu,” Shen An said, not keen on admitting to such a weird kink.
“Pull the other one~” Yu Wen rolled her eyes at him again. “The reason I want you to win over the Troupe Leader? Same twisted mindset as you guys.”
“I just want to see if our usually lofty Troupe Leader, once she falls into the sea of love, keeps up her arrogance—or if she’ll transform completely and show a soft, watery side.”
Shen An chuckled wryly. “Senior Sister Yu, you’re really fixated on this. Willing to play strategist and all.”
“Just a clownish advisor.” Yu Wen shrugged.
“You’re too modest, Senior Sister.”
“Telling it like it is~” Yu Wen said lightly.
“Mm, so, Senior Sister Yu—mind hitting the elevator button?” Shen An pointed to the panel.
Yu Wen blinked, then pressed it awkwardly. “Did I forget…?”
She hit eighteen first, then fifteen.
“You’re on the fifteenth floor, Senior Sister Yu?”
“Yeah, rooming with Taili.”
“I thought you’d bunk with your assistant.”
“Forget it. All the presidents are paired up two by two, and they even mix department heads with their deputies!”
Yu Wen’s tone carried some resentment; clearly, she wasn’t thrilled with the arrangement.
As the elevator rose steadily, Shen An steered back to the topic. “But I heard the Troupe Leader isn’t interested in guys?”
Yu Wen gave him a weird look. “Where’d you hear that?”
“Uh… not really heard. Just something I made up.” Shen An scratched his head. “Before joining the Art Troupe, some other senior sister mentioned that the Troupe Leader loves squeezing the guys in the troupe—dumping all the dirty work on them.”
“So I wondered if she just doesn’t like men, and that’s why she targets them like that.”
And that was one reason Zhao Qingyu had a bad rep in the Student Union.
Favoring female assistants too much, being overly harsh on the males.
With the school’s skewed gender ratio, guys usually got preferential treatment in classes or activities.
But under Zhao Qingyu, it flipped.
Yu Wen snorted. “That tired old rumor again? I thought you’d be smarter, with some actual judgment.”
Shen An blinked. “I’m actually pretty naive.”
“You? Naive?”
“Ahem~” Shen An ducked his head bashfully.
“Hah.” Yu Wen waved it off. “That’s just baseless gossip. The Troupe Leader isn’t targeting guys—she targets anyone with improper thoughts about her.”
“Oh?”
“Oh, my ass. Isn’t the Troupe Leader beautiful?”
“Very.”
“And her family background?”
“Pretty wealthy, I guess?” Shen An ventured.
“There you go.” Yu Wen’s lips curved up. “Beautiful, rich, well-known—not the perfect prey in you guys’ eyes?”
Shen An shook his head solemnly. “Senior Sister Yu, you might have me wrong.”
“Fine, fine—some guys, okay?”
“Mm!” Shen An nodded. “Go on.”
“For ages, plenty of guys joined the Art Troupe not because they loved it or had the skills for it.”
“Just chasing the abundance of pretty girls.”
“So their goal was purely to satisfy their lower halves and boost their egos.”
Yu Wen’s tone dripped with contempt; she despised that sort.
Shen An looked away awkwardly upon hearing it.
Damn!
That was exactly the excuse he’d been using all along.
Yu Wen caught his sneaky glance and burst out laughing. “Relax, you’re not like them. At least you’re upfront about it and own it.”
Shen An cleared his throat lightly. “And then?”
Yu Wen dropped the teasing and continued, “It’s been an ongoing issue since the Art Troupe was founded.”
“Then we came along.”
Yu Wen arched a brow, a hint of pride in her voice. “Not to brag, but our cohort of girls—quality and quantity—is the best the Art Troupe has ever seen.”
Here, “cohort” didn’t mean just one school year.
In the Student Union, a cohort spanned four years, matching their terms of office.
That was unique to the Student Union.
Even if an assistant stepped down from their department post, they stayed on the roster, enjoying benefits like extra credits until graduation.
So the “batch” Yu Wen was referring to included not only current seniors like Zhao Qingyu, herself, and Qi Taili, but also current juniors like Xu Yijing and Chen Nannan.
It even included freshmen like Shen An.
Of course, there were distinctions. Regular assistants only served for two years, so each batch had two years on duty and two years off—essentially dividing them into new and old. This created a two-year overlap between the new batch and the old one.
Yu Wen continued, “The troupe leader back then—and the current one—are both renowned beauties at school, top-tier ones at that.”
“You’re one of them too, Senior,” Shen An said, offering a bit of light flattery.
Yu Wen covered her mouth and laughed. “Oh, cut it out.”
“Oh, right—and the current Student Union Vice President as well.”
At that point, Yu Wen teased, “You didn’t know? Back in her freshman year, the Student Union Vice President was an assistant in the Art Troupe. And she was in the Office, of all places.”
Shen An put on a look of genuine surprise. “Senior Xu? I had no idea.”
“Tsk. Plenty of people know, but they only talk about it in private.”
Yu Wen cautioned him. “Just don’t ever bring up the Student Union Vice President in front of the Troupe Leader, got it?”
“Why not? I thought Senior Zhao was the previous Office Director?”
“Which makes her Senior Xu’s old boss, doesn’t it?”
Shen An asked knowingly.
Yu Wen let out a soft, chilling scoff, her gaze turning icy. “But now she’s the Student Union Vice President.”
She seemed pretty dissatisfied with Xu Yijing.
“Hmm, sounds like there’s some inside story,” Shen An said, withdrawing his sneaky sidelong glance.
“There is, but I can’t tell you.” Yu Wen spread her hands. “It’s an absolute taboo in the Art Troupe. If you want to know, you’ll have to win over the Troupe Leader first.”
“Come on, Senior, can you stop circling back to that every time?”
“I’m just pointing you in the right direction~” Yu Wen said with a playful smile. “Get the Troupe Leader on your side, and you can find out whatever you want.”
“Fine, fine. Let’s drop it. What happened next?”
“Well, the girls in our batch were top quality, which meant our batch had the highest male recruitment rate too.”
Yu Wen added slowly, “Right up until the Troupe Leader took over.”
“As I mentioned earlier, a lot of those guys joined for less-than-honest reasons.”
“The Troupe Leader was dealing with that problem constantly back then.”
“Countless boys pursued her. Pure pursuit isn’t so bad—liking someone isn’t a crime. But hardly any of them were sincere. Plenty resorted to dirty tricks, and you could say half the reason her reputation is so poor now is thanks to them.”
Yu Wen brushed back her long hair. “Then, once she rose from assistant to director, and from director to Troupe Leader, she cracked down hard and decisively. She drove all those guys out of the Art Troupe—and it stirred up no small amount of conflict at the time.”
“After that came the rumors you hear now: that the Troupe Leader favors girls and targets boys.”
“In truth, she booted out plenty of girls too. But with so many girls at our school, kicking out boys made more of a splash.”
Shen An nodded slightly. “Sour grapes—if they can’t have her, they trash her?”
“Something like that~ Though some of the girls she expelled weren’t too happy about it either. And yeah, the Troupe Leader’s methods were a bit extreme at the time.”
“But extremes have their upsides. After that purge, the problem eased up quite a bit.”
“At the very least, the Art Troupe now is a lot cleaner than it used to be.”
Note that Yu Wen’s word of choice was “cleaner.”
“The Troupe Leader has plenty of flaws, but she’s not the irredeemable villain they make her out to be.”
“If you want to know something in the future, just ask her directly. Skip the pointless gossip and rumors. She’s not as secretive as you might think.”
“In a way, she’s pretty straightforward—the most open girl I’ve ever met.”
Yu Wen’s eyes sparkled with a unique light, and Shen An caught the unmistakable glint of admiration in them.
