"But I don't like her anymore."
Lu Bei shook his head.
As he spoke, a sense of helplessness crept into his eyes.
He found matters of the heart to be truly troublesome.
When you like someone, you make a huge spectacle of it, wishing you could let the whole world know how much you adore that girl.
Yet... the moment you stop liking her, things suddenly become so complicated.
Not only do countless aspects of your daily life and people around you inevitably involve her,
but you also have to waste time explaining things, one by one, to both casual acquaintances and familiar faces.
It felt rather stupid.
"What's the big deal? Just go confess to a new girl."
The senior upperclassman rolled her eyes.
She spoke those words without the slightest sense of responsibility.
Yet that was the initial reaction of most people at the school who didn't know Lu Bei very well upon hearing the news.
Granted, campus belle Xu Qingshuang had plenty going for her.
But Lu Bei wasn't doing badly either!
Was there really any reason why it *had* to be her?
"Is withdrawing from a competition really this much trouble? How about I just talk directly to your club president?"
Lu Bei wore an expression of undisguised headache.
Realizing she had said the wrong thing, the senior in charge of compiling the roster quickly tried to salvage the situation.
"Alright, alright, don't be like that. It's not easy for us to fill our quota... At worst, junior, you can just leave your name here. You don't actually have to go on stage even if you're signed up."
"Though, I'd personally advise you to sing a love song to another girl at the concert just to exact some sweet, ruthless revenge on her."
Hearing the senior's suggestion,
Lu Bei shook his head.
That kind of revenge tactic... truly possessed a certain childish innocence, like a child telling their parents they could live just fine without them.
Seeking a good relationship and singing a love song to confess to a wonderful girl was certainly fine.
However, the starting point should never be revenge.
Otherwise, it would taint true love.
"With only a month left, who am I supposed to find?"
Lu Bei offered an excuse to brush it off.
"Oh, great romantic Lu, you're the campus heartthrob, after all. There are plenty of girls who like you—why don't we give it a try?"
The senior pouted, directly dismissing Lu Bei's excuse.
"Count me out. Romance and all that—what's there to talk about without a foundation?"
Lu Bei shook his head.
He had never been able to understand some people's perspective on relationships.
Just for fun? Let's try it out and see?
Sounds great in theory, doesn't it?
Yet Lu Bei, a firm believer in pure love, felt that either you don't start a relationship at all, or you walk that earnest path all the way to the end.
But in a society that didn't know the meaning of cherishing things,
such sentiments would probably only go to waste.
"Feelings are something that develop after spending time together, junior. You can't just be this resistant just because of one heartbreak."
The senior muttered a few words of playful complaint.
Still, since she wasn't very close to Lu Bei,
she didn't dwell on it much, simply leaving him with a parting warning:
"Speaking of which, those roommates of the campus belle you chased are all rather petty. Watch out for retaliation, junior."
"Mm."
Lu Bei nodded, then turned and walked away.
Afterward, he opened the notes app on his phone.
"Just one class today? This major really is pretty relaxed."
Lu Bei glanced at the schedule written on the screen and muttered to himself.
Right at that moment,
the custom ringtone he had newly set for a special contact suddenly rang out.
Lu Bei hurriedly switched over to QQ and opened the app.
The message was naturally sent by that troublesome little loli who always kept him on edge.
Classmate Xiaoxiao: "Senior, did your childhood sweetheart give you any trouble at school today? (ó﹏ò?)"
Classmate Xiaoxiao: "[Cat looking confused face.jpg]"
Seeing the incoming message, Lu Bei smiled softly.
Online on QQ, Xiao Wanting seemed even more adorable than in real life.
For instance, she loved using kaomoji or sticker packs when she talked.
Lu Bei: "Stop playing on your phone at school, not even between classes."
Classmate Xiaoxiao: "???"
.......................
Classroom.
According to the schedule, Lu Bei arrived at the classroom half an hour early, carrying the books he needed for class.
Unlike middle school or high school,
university classes followed a much more relaxed model where multiple classes gathered together and moved to different lecture halls.
At mediocre schools, many professors couldn't even be bothered to take attendance, let alone care whether you showed up or not.
This naturally led to a lack of enthusiasm for attending lectures,
making skipping class a fairly common occurrence.
"Yo, Brother Lu, you're here."
Seeing Lu Bei, Wang Minghui hurriedly stood up from the back row and reached out to wave at him.
"I thought you never went to elective courses."
Lu Bei looked at Wang Minghui, smiled, and took the seat next to him.
"I was just worried about you, wasn't I? Besides, you can still play on your phone sitting in the back row—it's not boring."
Wang Minghui scratched his head awkwardly.
He was telling a lie.
Sitting in a classroom secretly playing on your phone was nowhere near as comfortable as lying in bed in the dorm.
The main reason he came out was because of his close friend's romantic troubles.
Normally... one person deciding to stop pursuing another shouldn't be a big deal.
However, if either of the parties involved happened to have too many eccentric people around them, things changed.
Anyway, based on Wang Minghui's understanding of those individuals,
that Xu Qingshuang and her eccentric roommates were bound to make a scene at school.
"Well, you know what kind of weirdos Xu Qingshuang's roommates are. Leaving that fatty aside, Xia Qiuzi in particular is extremely conniving."
As he spoke, Wang Minghui cast a nervous look toward Lu Bei.
He was somewhat worried... that Lu Bei wasn't serious about giving up on Xu Qingshuang.
This time, he had hardened his heart to stand by this brother of his.
If Xu Qingshuang were to crook her finger and Lu Bei went right back to being a simpering pushover, their friendship would pretty much be over.
"What does that matter? If I don't like her anymore, I don't like her. Is she going to demand that I *have* to like her even while she refuses me?"
Lu Bei said with a mocking tone.
Feelings were subjective after all, and the initiative rested with Lu Bei himself.
Whether to pursue someone or not was entirely his own business.
If people could still kick up a fuss over that, it would only prove how childish and ridiculous the troublemakers were.
"Brother Lu."
Wang Minghui's voice abruptly cut off.
"What is it?" Lu Bei turned his head back and gave a strange look to his friend, who seemed frozen in place.
"Nothing, I just wanted to say—you look damn handsome when you're not being a simp."
Wang Minghui hurriedly flashed a thumbs-up.
Right in the middle of their conversation,
a tight-knit group of female students suddenly walked into the classroom.
Leading the pack was none of other than Lu Bei's childhood sweetheart... Xu Qingshuang.