As the bell went for the end of class.
Liu Lingjun packed up and left the room quickly, and the moment she was out of the door the room descended into chaos. Xu Ye had barely started to get up before the girls in the class came crowding round from every direction, packing him in wall to wall.
“Handsome, which school are you at?”
“Handsome, how did you train your ear?”
“Handsome, which tutorials were you watching on Bilibili?”
“…”
They talked over each other, a line from one and a line from the next, and Xu Ye felt as though a swarm of bees were droning in his ear.
All he could do was answer them one at a time.
Watching Xu Ye become the moon with all the stars around it, Chen Qingqing felt the vinegar jar in her chest knocked over yet again. She slipped her small hand across to his without a sound, wanting him to take it and stake her claim while he was at it — but Xu Ye was busy fending off the girls beside him and didn’t notice that she wanted her hand held.
Chen Qingqing scrunched up her chin, reached out and dug hard at his palm, and only then did he turn to look at her and take hold of her hand.
Zhang Ruowei stepped in at that point to smooth things over. She waved a hand and said, laughing, “All right, all right, that’s quite enough from all of you. Can’t you see he’s got a girlfriend already? What, you want to usurp the throne right in front of the empress?”
“We don’t. We only wanted to ask him a few things.”
“Exactly.”
“Zhang Xiaoqian, what are you crowding in here for? Aren’t you afraid your boyfriend will be jealous?”
“Let him be jealous. Worst case I get a different boyfriend.”
“Ha!” Everyone knew Zhang Xiaoqian’s boyfriend was at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music too, and at that the girls around her all burst out laughing.
With Zhang Ruowei’s intervention the room cleared quickly. Xu Ye and Chen Qingqing walked out of the teaching building hand in hand, and the moment she saw there was nobody about, she pulled her hand back and stalked off ahead in a huff.
It was the first time Xu Ye had seen her like this. He exchanged a grinning glance with Zhang Ruowei, Shen Xinyi and Jiang Yu, then went straight after her and laid a wandering hand on her shoulder, half-embracing her. “What is it? Jealous?”
“I am not.” Chen Qingqing twisted about, trying to shake him off, but his arm was around her tightly and he was already talking her round.
“I’m innocent. I didn’t do a thing back there.”
“All right, all right, it was my fault, will that do? I shouldn’t have said that much to them. Next time I’ll keep my distance, I promise.”
Chen Qingqing gave a small huff. “There’s going to be a next time?”
“No. Absolutely not. I swear it.”
Chen Qingqing knew that what had happened wasn’t Xu Ye’s fault, but seeing a crowd of girls hem him in had made her thoroughly uncomfortable — and she couldn’t take her temper out on her classmates, so all she could do was bully Xu Ye.
Having sworn his loyalty, Xu Ye went to take her hand, and the instant he had it she pulled it back and slapped the back of his. But Xu Ye’s skin was thick enough for anything: if he didn’t get it the first time he’d simply try again.
After several rounds of that, he got his way in the end.
“All right, all right. It’s not even four yet — let’s think about where we’re going later.”
“I’m staying in the dorm. I’m not going anywhere.”
“Then wherever you go, I go.”
“Our dormitory supervisor sits downstairs. You can’t get into our dorm.”
“Then I’ll go and buy a wig and put it on. My skin’s pretty fair too — the dormitory supervisor will never recognize me.”
Chen Qingqing had already been made to laugh, but she was doing her best to hold it in, and she still came back with, “She’d never recognize you, would she. You’d look hideous in a wig.”
“You’re calling me hideous already, are you?”
“I said you’d look hideous in a wig.”
“And now?” Xu Ye stepped round in front of her and said, entirely without shame, “Am I not extremely handsome?”
“Also hideous.” Chen Qingqing lowered her head, pressing her lips together in an effort to hold the laugh in.
At that Xu Ye suddenly stepped forward and picked her clean up. At one meter seventy-one Chen Qingqing was very tall for a girl, but she weighed under a hundred jin, and once he had her up he got her over his shoulder without the slightest difficulty.
“Ah! What are you doing! Put me down, put me down right now!” Chen Qingqing’s soft little fists pounded on his back to no effect whatsoever.
Xu Ye strode on ahead with her over his shoulder and said, laughing like a bandit, “Say Xu Ye is the handsomest man in the world and I’ll put you down.”
“I won’t.”
“Then I won’t put you down. In a minute I’ll stuff you into the car and carry you straight back to the stronghold as my bride.”
It was Friday, and there were a fair number of people coming and going about the campus. Chen Qingqing kept her head down, her face burning, terrified somebody would recognize her.
She knew Xu Ye’s skin was thicker than a city wall, and that he was entirely capable of doing something this shameless.
So after weighing it all up:
She said obediently into his ear, “Xu Ye is the handsomest man in the world.”
“I didn’t hear that.”
Chen Qingqing had to say it again, though not much louder, and the moment she had she added, “If you don’t put me down I really am going to be angry.”
It was that threat that finally got him to set her down.
Once her feet were on the ground Chen Qingqing seized his hand and bit the back of it again, leaving a very clear set of toothmarks. Then she gave a huff and marched off ahead of him in a temper.
About seven or eight meters behind them:
Zhang Ruowei, Shen Xinyi and Jiang Yu had been following the whole way, and watching the pair of them flirting and squabbling up ahead, all three had doting-auntie smiles on their faces.
Seeing Xu Ye go chasing after her again, Zhang Ruowei shook her head and clicked her tongue. “Tell me this — if a boy went after a girl the way Xu Ye does, what girl wouldn’t fall?”
Jiang Yu nodded. “He really is far too good at it.”
Zhang Ruowei: “Last year those two were holding hands at the most, and now look… Qingqing is completely beyond saving.”
Jiang Yu: “Shen Xinyi, what are you thinking about?”
Shen Xinyi: “Nothing… I wasn’t thinking about anything.”
Zhang Ruowei laughed. “She’s thinking about why Qin Zhiwei hasn’t come to find her yet.”
Shen Xinyi got flustered at once. “I am not. I was just — oh, honestly — anyway, I wasn’t thinking about him.”
The more Shen Xinyi explained, the more the other two enjoyed themselves.
Seeing them both like that, Shen Xinyi huffed too and said, red-faced, “You pair of singletons. Say whatever you like.”
“Good heavens, Shen Xinyi. You’ve picked up bad habits — you can insult people now.”
“Are you still the Shen Xinyi I know?”
“Jiang Yu.”
“What?”
“Why don’t the two of us get together, then, and stop them going on about the pair of us being singletons?”
“Small chest, flat butt. You’re not my type. Even if I did like girls I certainly wouldn’t like you.”
“Bullshit.”
“You’re the one talking bullshit.”
“Don’t run. Stand still.”
“Come on then, come on. Come and catch me.”
(End of Chapter 211)