Chapter 55

Zhou Qiwu stepped into the private room, and all eyes turned toward him.

The Volleyball Team members were especially fixated, staring at him without blinking. Some even stood up.

“Easy there, easy,” Li Tong said, waving her hands to calm everyone down. “We’re all friends here, all friends.”

Wang Tingxi turned around and spotted Zhou Qiwu.

Zhou Qiwu took a step back.

Li Tong grinned, turning to Wang Tingxi. “He just happened to pass by, and I asked him to snap a group photo for us.”

Wang Tingxi nodded. “Yeah, thanks.”

“No need to thank me.” Zhou Qiwu didn’t linger on the group, asking directly, “Whose phone should I use?”

“Mine.” Li Tong handed over her phone.

This time, things went smoothly. Zhou Qiwu clearly had plenty of experience taking photos for others. He directed everyone to scoot closer together, called out “One, two, three,” and even took a few extra shots to make sure everyone’s expressions looked good.

“All done.” He handed the phone back to Li Tong and turned crisply to leave. “You all enjoy your meal.”

Someone called out, “Come have a couple drinks!”

Li Tong smiled. “We’re all girls here—no booze.”

By the time she finished speaking, Zhou Qiwu was already out of the private room.

Tang Tianman lifted her chin toward Li Tong. “That senior brother’s a decent guy, huh?”

Li Tong pursed her lips. “He was pretty decent when he spiked that ball at me this morning, too.”

Tang Tianman burst into giggles. Wang Tingxi suddenly spoke up in his defense. “Actually, he wasn’t aiming for you.”

“Ahem.” Li Tong coughed dryly, then had a flash of inspiration. “Then why’d you still hit him for me?”

“Yeah.” Wang Tingxi said it with utmost seriousness. “I thought your directing was pretty good.”

Li Tong felt not just her eyes lighting up, but her whole heart as well.

Old Li was over the moon that day—truly thrilled. While flipping through the photos on her phone, she seized the chance to add Wang Tingxi on WeChat. She was even happier now.

The meal passed in a lively, joyful bustle.

As it wrapped up, Tang Tianman headed to the restroom. Zheng Xiyu immediately stood and followed right behind her. “Me too.”

Li Tong nearly rolled her eyes.

Once out of the room, Tang Tianman paused briefly for Zheng Xiyu to catch up. They walked side by side, and only then did she reach out with her pinky to lightly hook the back of Zheng Xiyu’s hand. “What are you, in elementary school? Gotta go to the bathroom together?”

“I’m not going.” Zheng Xiyu was blunt. “I just want to follow you.”

Tang Tianman turned her head with a laugh, hands clasped behind her back, her steps light and bouncy, practically skipping.

They headed to the mall restroom, which was crowded during the dinner rush.

Zheng Xiyu waited outside while Tang Tianman joined a short line.

Unable to talk directly, they chatted on WeChat about random nonsense, as if separating for even a second would be a huge loss.

Zheng Xiyu was focused on her phone and didn’t notice someone approaching.

Until that person stopped right in front of her and said, “What a coincidence.”

Zheng Xiyu looked up from her screen and saw Xiao Ji.

“Not really.” Zheng Xiyu replied. “Seeing an N University student outside N University’s gates? What’s coincidental about that?”

Xiao Ji smiled. “So hostile toward me?”

Zheng Xiyu nodded. “You deserve it.”

“That day at the event, Tianman bailed halfway through. She went to find you, right?” Xiao Ji eyed her. “You two are close now, aren’t you? Otherwise, you wouldn’t talk to me like this.”

Zheng Xiyu laughed. “I don’t know you.”

The implication was clear: I don’t owe you any answers.

Xiao Ji glanced down at the stream of people coming and going below in Building 9. “You sound a lot like Tianman sometimes. Since you two are together now, I guess I don’t have much to say. But I’ll ask you one thing: Do you dare to go public with your relationship?”

Zheng Xiyu frowned. “If there’s nothing to say, then don’t.”

Xiao Ji ignored her, determined to get out her barb. “Relationships that only hide in the shadows don’t last. If you don’t have the guts, don’t give her false hope.”

Zheng Xiyu paused, then fired back with a soul-crushing comeback. “Why do you talk so much nonsense?”

Xiao Ji: “……”

Zheng Xiyu: “Don’t you have any friends? If you had even one, you wouldn’t need to run up to me to say all this.”

Xiao Ji: “……”

Zheng Xiyu: “Finally, do you know how pathetic you sound? Pull out your phone and check your face right now.”

Xiao Ji: “She likes your type of personality?”

Zheng Xiyu leaned against the railing, smirking in a roguish way. “Damn right. What, does she like yours?”

It stabbed right at Xiao Ji’s heart. She pressed her lips together and fell silent.

She turned and walked away, wondering if she really was sick. She knew picking fights like this was just asking for humiliation, yet she couldn’t help it.

Couldn’t help provoking Tang Tianman. Couldn’t even help provoking the people around her.

On her way downstairs, she ran into a girl from her major. The girl rushed up, beaming as she chatted with her, every tiny expression brimming with radiant joy.

It stung Xiao Ji’s eyes.

She confirmed it then—she definitely had issues. She didn’t like girls who fawned over her this enthusiastically, but she was hung up on the one who’d never given her a kind look from the start.

The girl kept chattering away, and Xiao Ji couldn’t even remember her name.

Just before they reached the building exit, Xiao Ji stopped. “Where are you headed?”

The girl shot back, “You?”

Xiao Ji said, “Would you follow me wherever I go?”

The girl—whether it was thick-skinned nerve or stubborn honesty—replied, “Sure, I don’t have anything else going on.”

Xiao Ji narrowed her eyes, suddenly seeing shades of herself in this girl at certain moments.

Always beaming with delight in front of Tang Tianman, no matter the setbacks.

It really was annoying.

“Do you like me?” Xiao Ji asked bluntly.

“Huh?” The girl blinked, clearly caught off guard.

“Do you like me?” Xiao Ji repeated, backing her into a corner with no escape. “The kind where you want to date me.”

The girl’s face flushed visibly red, her hands and feet fumbling awkwardly.

After hemming and hawing under Xiao Ji’s unrelenting stare, she finally nodded.

Xiao Ji let out a breath of relief. “Then don’t.”

The girl looked up, her eyes brimming with tears.

“I’m going to debut,” Xiao Ji said. “I’ll be a public figure. I can’t have that kind of dating history.”

“But you’ve dated before!” The girl burst out, agitated.

“No more,” Xiao Ji said coldly. “Or rather, you’re not worth the risk.”

The girl froze in place.

Xiao Ji turned and left.

Tears streamed down the girl’s face one after another. Plenty of onlookers stared as she wiped her face and ran off in the opposite direction from Xiao Ji.

Zheng Xiyu had witnessed the whole thing.

She couldn’t hear what they said, but the sequence of actions and emotions was crystal clear.

Zheng Xiyu thought Xiao Ji was a real piece of work.

Rejected here, so she goes and bullies someone who likes her—like picking on easy targets in the game of emotions.

They always said the one who falls first loses. Lately, Zheng Xiyu kept wondering when exactly she’d fallen for Tang Tianman.

The further back she traced, the deeper it went. Sometimes, waking up to a message from Tang Tianman, she’d think they must have had some fateful connection even before they first met.

How else to explain the coincidence.

How else to explain their perfect sync.

How else could it be that when she started liking Tang Tianman, the feeling was mutual right then and there.

It must have burned through a third of her lifetime’s luck points.

She knew Tang Tianman was sneaking up on her, light on her feet.

But Zheng Xiyu pretended not to notice, still leaning on the railing and gazing downstairs.

Tang Tianman stopped a step away, then lunged suddenly, her little paws attacking Zheng Xiyu’s waist through the thick padded jacket—like a kitten giving tickles.

Zheng Xiyu grabbed her wrists, laughing as she turned and pulled her into an embrace.

Because of their height difference, Tang Tianman always had to tilt her head up to look at her. From this angle, her eyes seemed even bigger, sparkling with a unique, dazzling light.

Zheng Xiyu adored her like this.

No—Zheng Xiyu probably adored every version of her.

“Don’t you have a tickle spot?” Tang Tianman grumbled, unsatisfied.

“I do,” Zheng Xiyu said, guiding Tang Tianman’s hand back to her waist and rubbing it there twice. “See? It tickles.”

“Then why didn’t you dodge?” Tang Tianman asked.

“Because I knew it was you.” Zheng Xiyu’s words came out light and swift, the little particle at the end matching Tang Tianman’s tone perfectly—playfully coquettish.

Tang Tianman giggled happily. She loved seeing Zheng Xiyu like this; it stroked her ego immensely.

“Big Doggy.” Tang Tianman swung her arm, dragging Zheng Xiyu’s along with it.

“Little Doggy.” Zheng Xiyu held her by the wrist as they headed back.

“Aren’t I Little Kitten?” Tang Tianman asked.

“Do you like being called Little Kitten?”

“It’s not about what I like—it’s your problem. You can’t keep switching it up: Doggy today, Kitten tomorrow.”

“Little Baby,” Zheng Xiyu said.

“Ew, so cheesy.” Tang Tianman complained with her words, but her actions betrayed none of it. She snuggled closer to Zheng Xiyu, rubbing up against her again and again.

They reached the private room door. Once they pushed through that curtain, no more easy intimacy.

After dinner, they would undoubtedly part ways and head back to their dorms to rest. Zheng Xiyu had training that evening, so the next chance to meet would only be for that brief moment after practice ended.

Without a word, they both came to a stop.

Zheng Xiyu’s thumb rubbed against Tang Tianman’s wrist, slightly rough, back and forth, tickling her skin.

Tang Tianman shrank back her neck and stayed quiet.

So Zheng Xiyu asked, “How many classes do you have this afternoon?”

“Two,” Tang Tianman replied. “One elective.”

“Mm.” Zheng Xiyu nodded. “Pay attention in class.”

“Hmph.” Tang Tianman wasn’t convinced. “My grades are definitely way better than yours.”

Zheng Xiyu just smiled, gave her wrist another squeeze, and then let go.

The meal wrapped up, and sure enough, they split off into groups to return to the dorms.

Several teammates lived in the same building as Zheng Xiyu. As they walked back together, they ran into the coach.

Tan Yan greeted everyone one by one. “Where’d you all go?”

“Hotpot!” someone answered. “With two senior sisters from the Literature Academy!”

“From the Literature Academy?” Tan Yan smiled. “How’d you end up hanging out with them?”

With so many people around, someone was bound to spill. Zheng Xiyu couldn’t stop it as a voice called out, “The Literature Academy and Sports Institute can have a blast together too! Last time in H City, didn’t Tangtang go looking for Xiyu?”

Tang Tianman’s name was fun to play with—people came up with all sorts of nicknames for her.

But that wasn’t the point. The point was that Tan Yan’s gaze instantly locked onto Zheng Xiyu. She beckoned her over. “You, come here a sec.”

Zheng Xiyu stepped out of the group, and the others waved before heading off.

Tan Yan said, “Your brother came to watch the last match. Have you talked to him since?”

Zheng Xiyu answered honestly, “No.”

“Why not?”

“No need.”

Tan Yan sighed. “You should communicate more with your family.”

Zheng Xiyu said nothing.

Tan Yan circled around to the topic of Tang Tianman. “Making a good friend in your first semester of freshman year—that’s great.”

Zheng Xiyu still didn’t respond.

Tan Yan gave her a look. “Just don’t let it affect your training.”

“It won’t,” Zheng Xiyu said.

After a pause, she added, “You’ve seen my performance for yourself.”

Now it was Tan Yan’s turn to fall silent.

Zheng Xiyu had never slacked off during training, but for athletes, results in competition were what mattered.

When she first joined the team, her past achievements hadn’t impressed Tan Yan—they were just history. But now, after several official matches where Zheng Xiyu had performed well, it gave her the standing to have these kinds of conversations in the team.

Tan Yan waved her off, not pressing further. “Go on. Get some rest at noon.”

“See you later, Coach.” Zheng Xiyu turned and strode away.

No matter what was going on between her and Tang Tianman, in Tan Yan’s eyes, it couldn’t interfere with the matches.

Not interfering with matches was the team’s bottom line—not just for the coach, but for the captain and every player, who all worked to uphold it.

Before, Zheng Xiyu had thought nothing was more important than the competitions.

But now, she sometimes wondered: if she had to choose between Tang Tianman and a match, what would she do?

There was no real need to entertain such a hypothetical, but she did anyway.

She didn’t force herself to answer right then, but the question lingered in a corner of her mind, popping up now and then.

Like right now.

She lay on her bed for a nap, but sleep wouldn’t come.

A short nap was the best way to shake off fatigue—brief but highly effective. A good one would help with her afternoon classes and evening training, to some degree.

But this vague, fleeting what-if kept her awake.

Wasn’t this, in a way, already starting to affect her focus on the competitions?

Zheng Xiyu closed her eyes, trying to review the key points of the new training tactics, but her mind filled with Tang Tianman instead.

Tang Tianman smiling at her. Tang Tianman chattering on, all clingy. Tang Tianman’s body brushing against hers—accidentally, on purpose, by chance, or with calculated intent.

Suddenly, Zheng Xiyu missed her terribly.

She missed her right after they’d parted, and even when they were together. She didn’t know how to stop thinking about her.

The first afternoon class was a major. Zheng Xiyu tried hard to focus.

The second was English, which she was already bad at. On her way to the classroom, she overheard classmates saying the teacher was doing a listening test that period.

Zheng Xiyu halted, then turned on her heel and changed course.

“Where you going?” someone called after her.

“Urgent training.” She raised a hand.

Using training as an excuse to skip class was foolproof.

But using it as an excuse for Tang Tianman? That felt like a selfish, indulgent mistake of epic proportions.

Zheng Xiyu reminded herself not to fall into that abyss, but a smile crept onto her face anyway. Her fingers flew across her phone screen.

-Which classroom for your next class?

She messaged Tang Tianman.

The reply came fast:

-Zhenxin Building Room 4023.

“Wait for me,” Zheng Xiyu sent back in a voice message, her tone laced with laughter.