Of course, the scene was not only populated by freshers, but also by trick-loving senior students like the three rascals from his own dorm, who were lying in wait like hunters. Besides them, students from other schools had wandered over to join the fun.
Tonight, not just the Business School, but quite a few schools at Zhonghai Jiaotong University were holding welcome parties, as today marked the end of the freshman military training.
As expected, the welcome party was as boring as ever—so boring that Kong Liu wanted to head back to the dorm right now to study. However, his three good "sons" felt differently; they were tirelessly discussing which girl at the scene looked the prettiest.
Over the course of the evening, these three guys had fallen in love with at least a hundred girls, yet not a single one of them had the guts to go up and ask for WeChat IDs.
Kong Liu vaguely remembered Du Hongyuan boasting with absolute confidence back in the dorm that he would let him witness his superb flirting skills. As it turned out, his idea of flirting was just sitting there discussing which girl had the highest facial score.
Watching his three blockheaded roommates, Kong Liu couldn't help but wear a kind, fatherly smile, and then he did something utterly mischievous:
"Hey, pretty lady in front! My roommate wants your WeChat!"
Kong Liu's loud roar caused quite a stir. The girls turned their heads one after another and looked in the direction of the four of them.
The three guys had been deep in discussion when they were suddenly targeted by a group of staring girls, and they instantly blushed so hard they were too embarrassed to say a word.
Although Kong Liu's method was simple and crude, it was genuinely effective. After that single shout, a few bolder freshmen who looked quite decent actually ran over to hand over their contact info.
Except... they were all looking for Kong Liu.
Kong Liu politely declined them and instead introduced his three good "sons" to the girls who had come up to add them. His three roommates were dumbfounded by Kong Liu's maneuver.
Still, they managed to get the freshmen's WeChats just as they had wished, which meant tonight the dorm would likely be filled once again with the harmonious chorus of "hearing echoes of 'daddy'."
"Next, let's welcome with the warmest applause the Vice President of the Business School Student Union, Shen Xia, and the Head of the Student Union's Entertainment Department, Gu Chenxi! The two senior students will now bring us our grand finale, the song 'One Like Summer, One Like Autumn'!"
"Clap, clap, clap—!"
When the names of Shen Xia and Gu Chenxi were announced, the crowd erupted into thunderous applause.
One was the Business School belle, and the other was known as the most beautiful and aloof Campus Belle Gu. This pairing certainly lived up to the enthusiastic applause of the crowd.
Kong Liu, who had originally been utterly bored, now focused his full attention on the stage.
***
Chapter 21: The Attention Seeker
*[If not for you, I wouldn't believe]*
*[That friends can be more steadfast than lovers]*
*[Even if I'm busy with romance and put you on ice]*
*[You wouldn't resent me, just scold me a few times]*
*[If not for you, I wouldn't be certain]*
*[That friends know how to listen better than lovers]*
*[My unspoken words, my inadvertent slips]*
*[I can't leave my darling, and I can't leave you even more...]*
On the stage, the two great beauties sang the chorus face-to-face. The audience below burst into wave after wave of cheers, the shrill screams of the girls even drowning out those of the male compatriots.
Some fans were even wilder, shouting right out loud: "Sister, I want to marry you! Give a lesbian a chance!"
True to the lyrics, the two on stage were polar opposites: one like a passionate, fiery summer, and the other like a mature, steady autumn.
Shen Xia wore her natural, flowing big waves and a striking dark red off-the-shoulder hip-hugging dress, looking hot and sexy.
Gu Chenxi had her long hair swept up in a bun and wore a grey-blue long dress. Under the stage lights, her hem glittered with starry, brilliant specks of light, making her look cold, elegant, and noble—much like a fairy untainted by the mortal world.
With personalities, habits, and even styles of dress that were completely opposite, a video of these two beauties performing on the same stage would surely go viral on the campus wall of Zhonghai Jiaotong University for quite a long time.
Before it even hit the campus wall, people from other colleges had already been attracted to the scene by their melodious singing, while others came by fame after seeing the news posted in various school group chats.
The normally modest lawn in front of the Business School was now packed to the brim by curious onlookers.
Fortunately, the four guys in Kong Liu's dorm were clever and had long since staked out a decent vantage point, so their view wasn't blocked by the suddenly surging crowd.
Kong Liu stared unblinkingly at Gu Chenxi singing on stage, thinking to herself: "This girl is always so cold when she talks, but her voice is actually quite sweet when she sings."
At this thought, Kong Liu couldn't help but break into a smile.
Seeing Kong Liu looking so entranced at Gu Chenxi on stage—with the corners of his mouth turned up even harder to suppress than an AK-47—Du Hongyuan immediately tapped the other two to look at Kong Liu's lovestruck expression.
Wang Qi exchanged a glance with Du Hongyuan and remarked, "This guy claimed he had nothing to do with Campus Belle Gu."
Chen Zhirui, however, said with some worry, "After tonight, Campus Belle Gu's fame around Zhonghai Jiaotong University is going to be even bigger. Brother Kong is in a tight spot..."
"Can you even talk!"
Du Hongyuan clapped Chen Zhirui on the head.
Holding his head, Chen Zhirui said with a wronged expression, "I—I'm just stating facts!"
"Tsk."
Du Hongyuan stroked his chin and clicked his tongue, feeling that this kid made a certain amount of sense. After pondering for a few seconds, he said, "No good, we have to help old Liu!"
The other two looked at him and said in unison, "Huh? How do we help?"
While the three were talking, the song on stage was coming to an end.
Shen Xia and Gu Chenxi bowed to the audience at the front of the stage at the same time.
Then, holding the microphone, Shen Xia said loudly, "The cheers from the crowd are so loud! Thank you, junior brothers and sisters, for giving us such a great face!"
As soon as those words left her mouth, the cheers of the crowd reached a whole new height. With that deafening roar, anyone who didn't know better would have thought a celebrity had come to the school to hold a concert.
"Shh!"
The moment the music stopped, Shen Xia suddenly made a gesture for quiet, and the roaring waves of cheers from the crowd receded like the tide.
Once it was quiet, Shen Xia continued, "First of all, on behalf of the Business School Student Union, I welcome all junior brothers and sisters to Zhonghai Jiaotong University to become part of our Business School..."
The content of this formulaic closing speech was pretty much the same every year. In past years, most of the crowd would have trickled away by this point, but tonight was vastly different; not a single person who had been watching the performance left, and everyone quietly listened to Shen Xia finish her closing remarks.
"So, this freshman welcome party..."
"Beauty Shen! Look over here!"
"Classmate Shen Xia!!"
"President Shen, look at us!"
Just as Shen Xia was about to utter the words "concluded successfully," three conspicuous figures suddenly stood out from the quiet crowd, bouncing up and down while shouting at the top of their lungs.
These three were none other than Kong Liu's roommates.
Shen Xia naturally noticed the three of them, and from afar she even recognized Du Hongyuan, who was dressed quite flashily.
This kid Du Hongyuan was always pulling stunts in class, and she had no idea what he was trying to pull by suddenly jumping out now. Faced with this sudden situation, Shen Xia felt a pang of tension.
If he dared to cause any trouble, she would definitely make trouble for him afterward, Shen Xia thought to herself, but on the outside, she remained calm and collected as she raised the microphone and asked, "Do the three classmates have something else to add?"
"My roommate, Kong Liu, wants to sing a duet with Goddess Gu beside you!"
Kong Liu sang very well, but usually he only hummed tunes around the dorm. Whenever they went to KTVs with him, Kong Liu hogged the mic every single time. His three roommates naturally knew he had this skill, or else they wouldn't have been foolish enough to toss Kong Liu onto the stage to make a spectacle of himself.
"???"
Sitting on the ground, Kong Liu stared at the three of them in utter bewilderment. Before he could even recover his wits, the three of them grabbed his limbs and hoisted him up in a squatting position, carrying him all the way to the front row of the stage.
Gu Chenxi had already turned off her microphone, waiting just for Shen Xia to finish her final sentence so she could drag her backstage. This sudden development caught her completely off guard, and her expression instantly turned cold.
Shen Xia nudged her gently with her elbow, signaling her not to worry—she would handle this issue.
Yet watching Kong Liu being carried to the front of the stage by his three roommates in such a comical posture—his face a picture of pure confusion mixed with a hint of foolishness—Gu Chenxi's originally cold face suddenly broke into a lovely smile.
Just as Shen Xia was about to brush them off with the excuse that "no accompaniment tracks were pre-loaded," Gu Chenxi suddenly reached out and blocked her microphone.
Shen Xia looked at Gu Chenxi in surprise. Gu Chenxi simply flashed her a smile, turned the microphone back on, and asked, "You want to sing a duet with me?"
"No—!"
"He wants to!"
"Right!"
"He thinks about it day and night!"
Kong Liu opened his mouth to refuse, but his mouth was clamped tightly shut by the hands of the three guys. He shook his head frantically, trying to let Gu Chenxi know he was unwilling.
Watching Kong Liu shaking his head frantically with his mouth covered, Gu Chenxi smiled again, and this time the smile was even prettier.
The guys, seeing the aloof campus belle smile from such close range, froze slightly. Kong Liu, watching her smile, felt a bad omen rising in his heart.
Gu Chenxi said indifferently, "Alright then!"
***
Chapter 22: You Owe Me a Song
Kong Liu was shocked.
The audience was shocked.
Even Gu Chenxi's good friend Shen Xia was shocked.
No one had expected Gu Chenxi to actually agree to the duet request.
Only the three attention-seekers exchanged triumphant glances before tossing Kong Liu directly onto the stage.
This bizarre entrance focused the gaze of everyone present squarely on Kong Liu.
Kong Liu pressed his lips together, standing up with a bitter expression, and nodded slightly to Gu Chenxi and Shen Xia as an apology.
Looking at the somewhat reluctant Kong Liu, Shen Xia asked, "Can you pull this off?"
Before he could answer, she added, "Never mind, it's too late now. Even if you can't, you have to."
Gu Chenxi looked calmly at Kong Liu and asked, "What can you sing?"
Kong Liu scratched his head. "I... anything is fine."
"Tsk." Seeing Kong Liu still putting on a brave face and bragging in front of her at a time like this, Gu Chenxi clicked her tongue and said, "I'm asking you seriously. Don't make a fool of yourself in public later."
Gu Chenxi had actually misunderstood him; Kong Liu wasn't just puffing himself up to look big.
He genuinely had a musical foundation. When he was little, his mother wanted to turn him into a child star, so she hired all sorts of tutors to teach him singing, dancing, piano, guitar, chess, calligraphy, and painting. Without caring whether he wanted to learn or not, she signed him up for everything all at once.
His mother loved to make a fuss, and since he had plenty of idle time, he obediently learned all these miscellaneous skills despite his lack of real interest.
It was from that time on that Kong Liu displayed an extraordinarily high aptitude for learning, actually mastering all of them.
He was practically on the verge of being pushed out to become a star by his mother when an abduction incident occurred. His family refused to let him expose himself to the public eye, and the whole plan fell through.
After that, his mother stopped teaching him the arts and switched to martial arts instead...
Shen Xia chimed in, "Do you know 'Dimples'?"
Kong Liu nodded. "I do."
Shen Xia's gaze shifted to Gu Chenxi. "How about this one, then?"
Gu Chenxi nodded as well, indicating she had no objections.
Picking up the microphone, Shen Xia announced, "Fellow students, this person right here... 'Dimples'! Let's give him a round of applause!"
After saying a few brief, polite remarks, Shen Xia handed the microphone to Kong Liu and stepped off the stage.
Following a round of applause, the accompaniment for "Dimples" began to play over the speakers.
The first verse belonged to the male vocalist. Gu Chenxi had initially worried that Kong Liu, performing on stage for the first time, might get nervous and miss his cue—after all, performing on stage was entirely different from humming tunes in the dorm.
*[I am still searching...]*
But the moment Kong Liu opened his mouth, Gu Chenxi's worries vanished instantly. His magnetic voice was rich, low, and smooth, exuding a sexy charm that felt incredibly comforting. Listening to his singing brought an unprecedented sense of security to Gu Chenxi's heart.
At that moment, Gu Chenxi was once again reminded of the boy who had rescued her when she was little, and the song he had sung to encourage her that night—"Little Bug's Flight."
And at that very moment, the look Gu Chenxi gave Kong Liu grew somewhat peculiar.
Kong Liu didn't notice Gu Chenxi's strange gaze.
Since it was his first time singing in front of so many people—and he had to take the lead—Kong Liu felt quite nervous. Because of this, he sang with extra care and sincerity, leaving him no spare mood to check on Gu Chenxi.
As Kong Liu's part ended, Gu Chenxi raised her microphone.
*[Happiness begins to show its signs...]*
Kong Liu's gaze fell upon Gu Chenxi's face. Tonight she wore a gorgeous makeup that made her naturally pretty features look even more delicate.
Her voice lost its usual chill when she sang, and her melodious, beautiful tones lingered in Kong Liu's ears, as well as in the heart of everyone present.
Then came their duet.
*[Dimples, long eyelashes, are your most beautiful mark...]*
Their voices harmonized back and forth, the sweet melody flowing like clear spring water laced with honey through the hearts of every listener. In the span of just a single song, most of the single dogs in the audience were filled with the sweetness and bliss of being in love.
Their occasional eye contact during the song made everyone in the audience green with envy.
People off stage whipped out their phones and started recording and taking pictures.
If nothing else went wrong, after tonight Kong Liu would be famous at Zhonghai Jiaotong University, likely earning dozens of different versions of the nickname "the singing senior."
Everyone was so entranced that even after the music stopped, the venue remained completely silent for several seconds before suddenly erupting into enthusiastic applause and wild cheers—a lively scene that rivaled the carefully prepared grand finale.
As for the cheers themselves, Kong Liu's three roommates were currently standing in the crowd in a frenzy, stripping off their shirts and waving their arms to cheer for him.
Gu Chenxi turned to look at Kong Liu and remarked, "Your three roommates are really good to you."
"Ha." Kong Liu gave an awkward laugh.
Looking at these three troublemakers who loved nothing more than a good spectacle, Kong Liu felt utterly miserable inside—when it came to asking for the freshmen's WeChats, not a single one of them had the guts, but when it came to tying him up and dragging him onto the stage in front of everyone, they were happier than anyone else.
Gu Chenxi said to him, "I accompanied you in a duet just like I wanted, so now you have to promise me one thing!"
"Huh?"
Kong Liu was slightly taken aback and started to explain, "I didn't even want to sing a duet with you..."
Yet Gu Chenxi seemed unwilling to give him a chance to speak, instead continuing in an imperious tone: "Once the party is over later, you're going to sing me a song."
"What song?"
"I'll tell you later."
With that, Gu Chenxi grabbed Kong Liu's hand and pulled him off the stage, leaving the remaining cleanup work to Shen Xia.
Watching Gu Chenxi holding Kong Liu's hand as they walked off the stage with an air of dominance, the audience below burst into another round of frantic shrieks.
Shen Xia watched the two walking off hand in hand with a mischievous smile. "Still saying nothing is going on between you two? Who are you trying to kid? Fine, now the whole Business School... no, the whole school knows you're dating."
"I can't be bothered arguing with you!"
Gu Chenxi shot Shen Xia a sideways glance, shoved both microphones into her hands, and dragged Kong Liu away.
"Hey, hey, where are you dragging me?" Kong Liu asked, looking somewhat dazed as he was led along by Gu Chenxi.
"To a quiet place so you can sing me a song!"
Just as Gu Chenxi finished speaking, a large mob of freshman fangirls swarmed over, blocking her right behind the stage—the female fans were simply too wild, leaving the male fans to watch from the outer circle.
Before Gu Chenxi could keep her grip on him, Kong Liu was squeezed out of the group. By then, Kong Liu was likewise surrounded by a crowd of freshman girls who had been won over by his singing just moments before.
Fortunately, Kong Liu had his three good roommates. The three of them carved an opening straight through the crowd and hoisted Kong Liu away from the scene—truly carrying him out.
Before leaving, Kong Liu cast a glance back at Gu Chenxi. Gu Chenxi's mouth moved as she said a few words to him, but the surroundings were too noisy for him to catch what she said. He could only guess her meaning from the shape of her lips:
"You owe me a song!"
***
Chapter 23: "Little Bug's Flight"
Today was Saturday, a day Kong Liu could have spent lazily sleeping in.
Early in the morning, however, he was woken up by the ringing of his phone. Picking it up, he saw it was an unfamiliar number.
Kong Liu answered the call with a hint of morning grouchiness. "Who is this?"
On the other end of the line came a cool, aloof female voice: "Where are you right now?"
Hearing that voice, Kong Liu froze for a second before snapping back to reality. It was Gu Chenxi's voice; her voice was far too distinctive, and considering they had just sung a duet together last night, how could Kong Liu fail to recognize it?
Kong Liu glanced at the number on his screen, rubbed his eyes, sat up in bed, and said, "I'm in the dorm. How on earth did you get my phone number?"
Instead of answering his question, Gu Chenxi cut straight to the point: "Get downstairs right now and sing me a song!"
"???"
If it were an ordinary young guy who received an early morning call from the campus belle telling him to come downstairs for something, he probably would have run down there all giddy and eager. After all, the other person was a rich and beautiful campus belle; for her to proactively come wait for him outside the boys' dormitories, how fortunate must he be!
Yet Kong Liu happened not to be an ordinary guy. Hearing Gu Chenxi's demand, he was simply dumbfounded.
After a few seconds of blank shock, he retorted, "So you called and harassed me this ungodly hour just to make me go downstairs and sing to you?"
With some impatience, Gu Chenxi said, "Hurry up. Ten minutes, I'll be waiting for you downstairs at the boys' dorm."
"Are you out of your mind? Go ahead and wait if you want, I'm going back to sleep."