"What? What are we celebrating? We're celebrating Liu Ruyan and Lin Feng getting together, of course!"
Zhou Cheng stared, completely failing to follow. "Didn't Liu Ruyan just confess, and didn't Lin Feng accept?" he blurted out.
People in the surrounding crowd who hadn't left yet stopped in their tracks at this exchange.
"Hey, hey, something's not right here. Let's listen in."
"One confesses, the other accepts—isn't that what getting together means?"
"No way? Could there be more to this?"
[...]
Under the strange looks of the crowd, the two other girls who had accompanied Liu Ruyan spoke up with displeasure.
"We just made a little bet, that's all—to see if this unapproachable campus heartthrob could get past our beauty's defenses."
"Sure enough, all men are the same when they see a pretty face. Just a tiny bit of teasing and they can't take it anymore."
"If we'd known the campus heartthrob was just as basic, we wouldn't have bet so much..."
Going back and forth, the two of them completely baffled everyone at the scene.
Even Lin Feng's expression betrayed a look of astonishment.
Turns out, Liu Ruyan's grand, high-profile confession...
was actually driven by a bet with her girlfriends?! What kind of person treats romance and courtship as part of a wager?
Calling it 'brainless' felt entirely too weak to do it justice...
No wonder some guys these days flat-out refuse to pursue women.
Public morals are truly going down the drain!
With that thought, Lin Feng stepped forward a few paces and asked, "So this was just a bet between you all?"
The smile froze on Liu Ruyan's face. She reached up to flick back her hair and said with a relaxed tone, "That's right. This pursuit of you was just a little wager with my girlfriends."
"A bet on whether I could bag you within a hundred days."
"As for the outcome, well, obviously I succeeded."
Liu Ruyan shrugged and giggled archly, "Don't be mad. I'm sure you can understand."
"A confession doesn't mean I like you, and it certainly doesn't mean I want to date you."
"After all..."
Here, Liu Ruyan looked Lin Feng up and down, then shook her head. "...aside from being a bit handsome, there's really nothing about you that appeals to me."
"So don't go getting any grand ideas, okay?"
As soon as Liu Ruyan said this, the onlookers came alive! "Holy crap, what kind of blockbuster gossip is this!"
"The department belle chases the campus heartthrob for ninety-nine days, and it turns out to be just a bet? Absolutely insane!"
「This alone is enough to become a legendary tale at our university, right??」
"Damn, the campus forum is going to blow up today!"
[...]
As the chatter erupted, the way everyone looked at Lin Feng completely changed.
Facing the stares of the crowd, Lin Feng simply shrugged with unconcern.
He casually tossed the bouquet of roses straight into a trash can and said, "You say your confession doesn't mean you like me."
"Well, my accepting your confession doesn't mean my heart fluttered either!"
"To be honest, my family has been driving me crazy pushing for blind dates, so I just wanted to find a girlfriend on campus to get them off my back."
"Since you've been confessing for ninety-nine days straight, I figured I'd throw you a bone and say yes."
"Seeing as this was just a bet to you, I suppose accepting another girl would be exactly the same."
*Accepting another girl would be exactly the same.*
Hearing Lin Feng say this, Liu Ruyan's face instantly dropped. She sneered, "I know our bet put you in an embarrassing spot."
"But you didn't have to invent such a lame excuse, did you?"
The rest of the onlookers shared this sentiment, eyeing Lin Feng with suspicion.
Seeing this, Zhou Cheng felt a mix of anger and guilt churn in his gut.
He was furious that Liu Ruyan and her friends were treating a confession like a joke.
And he felt guilty for playing the fool earlier and bringing up the celebration.
Yet who could have predicted these girls would blurt out the truth right in front of everyone, humiliating Lin Feng like this?
At that thought, rage flared up in Zhou Cheng.
No way! He had to help Lin Feng save face!
"Bro Feng, if you don't beat the crap out of this bitch's face, she's never going to believe a word you say."
With that, Zhou Cheng reached right into Lin Feng's pocket and pulled out his phone. "Give me your call log. Let's make certain people open their eyes and take a good look."
Waving Lin Feng's phone at the surrounding crowd, Zhou Cheng announced, "Look! Everyone look! This is the phone call Lin Feng just had with his mother."
"Auntie said the family set him up with a well-read, proper young lady, and told Bro Feng to go home for a blind date."
"Who in our generation gives a damn about blind dates?"
"That's why Bro Feng wanted to find a partner on campus and build some actual feelings first."
"And didn't our glorious department belle just happen to walk right into it?"
"Otherwise, you really think Bro Feng would've said yes to your confession?"
As soon as those words came out, someone failed to hold back a snort.
"Pfft~!"
"Hahaha! Talk about bad luck for Liu Ruyan!"
"Wait! Does that mean I have a chance?"
"Building feelings with one person is the same as another, right?"
"Lin Feng, what do you think of me?"
"Don't you dare steal him from me..."
The surrounding chatter was no longer whispers. A whole crowd of girls looked at Lin Feng with burning, intense gazes!
So Lin Feng hadn't accepted the confession because he liked Liu Ruyan after all.
He had genuinely planned to find a girl and start a relationship from scratch!
Doesn't that mean their chance had arrived?! If they could land a campus heartthrob like Lin Feng, wouldn't that prove they were even more charming than Liu Ruyan?
Liu Ruyan clearly knew what these girls were plotting.
It made her face turn a sickly shade of green and white.
"Hey, Lin Feng, what is your game?"
Lin Feng smiled indifferently. "Didn't I make it all clear?"
Meanwhile, Liu Ruyan's girlfriends snapped back to their senses and hastily tried to back out of the bet.
"Hey! Liu Ruyan, our original bet was that the campus heartthrob had to genuinely like you and accept your confession. Looking at it now, that's clearly not the case!"
"Lin Feng was obviously just looking for someone to deal with his family, and you happened to cross his path. This bet doesn't count."
"Exactly! That money shouldn't come from us—you're the one who should be paying up!"
[...]
The girls all clamored that Liu Ruyan had lost and demanded she pay them instead.
This made Liu Ruyan's face turn practically livid.
Before she could even get a word out, however, Zhou Cheng started shouting at the top of his lungs: "Campus Heartthrob Lin is looking for a girlfriend! Any interested classmates may now submit your applications!"
As his voice trailed off, with a rustling rush, Lin Feng was immediately surrounded by circles upon circles of girls.
"Classmate Lin Feng, I've liked you for ages!"
"Lin Feng, I can go home with you and meet your parents!"
"Me! Me! Me! I can do laundry, I can cook—presentable in the living room and capable in the kitchen! Please consider me!"
[...]
Amidst the shoving and pushing, even Zhou Cheng's oversized slippers were trampled off.
Watching Lin Feng completely swallowed up by a sea of girls, Zhou Cheng's jaw dropped so wide he could barely close it.
"Holy..."
Right then, the phone in Zhou Cheng's hand began to ring.
He checked the screen. An unknown number.
He looked closer—wait a minute!
This was Lin Feng's phone!
"Lin Feng! Lin Feng! Your phone!"
Pushing his way through the pack of girls, Zhou Cheng hurried over to Lin Feng's side. "Take your call first."
Then, he raised his arms and yelled out: "Classmates, to prevent certain bad actors from exploiting loopholes, a screening system is now in effect!"
"Add me on WeChat first, then send me your resumes, and I'll handle the rest!"
The crowd surged with excitement.
"Okay!"
"Hurry up!"
"Quit shoving!"
Amidst the din, Lin Feng took his phone and walked toward the outer edge of the crowd.
"Hello, who is...?"
From the other end of the line came a slightly repressed female voice:
"Hello, is this Lin Feng? I'm Lu Qingxue. Can you come to the Maternal and Child Health Hospital?"
Lu Qingxue? That name sounded a bit familiar...
Lin Feng thought about it for a moment.
Wasn't she the campus belle who had taken a leave of absence for nearly a year? Because of her inexplicable disappearance from school, the campus forum had been flooded with wild guesses, causing quite a stir.
Still... he didn't think he'd ever had any interaction with her before!
Why on earth would she suddenly want him at the Maternal and Child Health Hospital?
Isn't that where babies are born?