"Accompany me to the movies this afternoon, how about that?"
"I've got plans this afternoon."
As he spoke, Gu Qiu finished off the food on his plate.
Are you kidding me? Having to go out with this mature beauty every single day—where was he supposed to find the time to rank up in the dorms?
For a man of his half-sigma mindset, game tiering definitely ranked number one in his heart.
Movies? Women?
These simply couldn't fulfill his spiritual needs!
Especially since this woman's intentions remained entirely unclear.
"It's fine~ I checked A-Qiu's schedule~ You don't have any classes this afternoon~ And you haven't joined any clubs or the student union, either~"
Su Jiuyue seemed thoroughly prepared. Her alluring face broke into a sly smile, as though she had anticipated Gu Qiu's response all along, while her eyes held a trace of eager expectation.
She would have preferred it if Gu Qiu had agreed to her invitation of his own accord.
He fell silent for a few seconds.
"Can't I have other plans... like calling my family or something..."
"Well, nothing to be done then~"
Hearing this, Su Jiuyue sighed.
"I heard Genshin is dropping version 4.0... and the Raiden Shogun is getting a rerun... I was even thinking of maxing out her constellations and weapon for you, too..."
"I'm in."
Gu Qiu nodded lightly, the expression on his face instantly turning rock-solid.
"Accompanying the school doctor to the movies is my absolute duty."
Seeing him agree, a smile blossomed at the corners of Su Jiuyue's lips.
Even though it wasn't a spontaneous agreement on Gu Qiu's part, hearing that promise of "I'm in" made her smile seem all the brighter.
"Shall we head out, then? You're already finished eating, right, A-Qiu?"
"Pretty much."
Gu Qiu rubbed his slightly bulging stomach, suddenly realizing something felt a bit off.
How on earth had he so naturally gotten used to her calling him A-Qiu?
...
Leaving the campus, Gu Qiu and Su Jiuyue walked together to the shopping mall located in the university town. To cater to the leisure life of college students, there was a movie theater situated right inside this mall not far from the school.
"A-Qiu~ Are there any good movies out lately?"
With a pretty smile on her face, Su Jiuyue walked alongside Gu Qiu, tilting her head to glance at his profile.
Movies, huh...
This genuinely struck right at his blind spot.
Gu Qiu frowned. Lately, he hadn't been paying much attention to which films had good word-of-mouth. After all, this month was a battle of the gods for new anime releases; he barely had time to watch his shows, let alone pay attention to movies.
After racking his brain for ages, he finally gave up and sighed:
"I'm not really sure... How about... we take a look once we get to the theater?"
"Mmhmm~ Whatever A-Qiu says goes~"
Su Jiuyue said with a giggle.
She hadn't lowered her voice.
As soon as those words left her mouth, Gu Qiu felt countless sharp gazes of envy, jealousy, and hatred instantly land upon him.
"Cough, cough, cough... Don't say things that are so easily misunderstood... Everyone's going to think I'm some scumbag stringing you along..."
Those gazes, practically sharp enough to kill, made him extremely uncomfortable. To ensure his personal safety, Gu Qiu quickly lowered his voice, trying to minimize his presence.
"But A-Qiu, aren't you a scumbag stringing me along anyway? Especially when I've been so proactive..."
In that instant, Gu Qiu felt as though every single male compatriot around him had hardened.
Their fists had all hardened.
"If you've got something to say, feel free to say more!"
Gritting his teeth, Gu Qiu grabbed Su Jiuyue's little hand, eager to escape this place of trouble right away.
This mall was mostly filled with students from the same school. If some gossiping guys and girls took photos and posted them on the campus forum, it would be an absolute nightmare of a headache.
Seeing him take the initiative to hold her hand, the corners of Su Jiuyue's mouth curved up slightly.
Gu Qiu seriously suspected that if he stayed a moment longer, he might be summarily executed right here on the spot.
The top headline on tomorrow's campus forum would be: *SHOCKING! A certain Gu-surnamed male actually takes out a stunning female school doctor and—*
And so, the two of them threaded their way through the crowd, quickly arriving at the cinema.
Gu Qiu's breathing was a little ragged. He raised his head, just about to ask Su Jiuyue if she was tired and needed a rest, only to see her standing there with her arms crossed, looking around, completely unfazed and without even the slightest flush on her face.
"?"
His mind went blank.
Setting aside his physical fitness for a moment, as someone who never failed a single physical education exam, he was definitely at the average standard of a normal male college student.
They hadn't been running for their lives just now, but they had certainly kept up a brisk power-walk, aggressively marching three or four hundred meters straight.
Even he was left slightly out of breath, whereas she was standing there as if nothing had happened at all, the look she gave him tinged with a faint hint of concern.
"A-Qiu? Are you okay?"
Su Jiuyue delivered the very line Gu Qiu had intended to say.
"I, I'm fine..."
Regulating his breathing, the last remaining shreds of a man's dignity prompted Gu Qiu to straighten his posture while he secretly glanced sideways at the mature beauty.
He... felt like he was understanding her less and less.
"So, what movie does A-Qiu want to watch~"
Seeing that Gu Qiu had caught his breath, Su Jiuyue took him by the hand and excitedly pulled him over to the ticketing kiosk to check today's screening schedule.
Facing the dazzling array of movie titles, Gu Qiu's indecisiveness flared up. After hesitating for a long time, he turned his head and asked, "What do you want to see?"
As long as she picked what she wanted to watch first, the rest would be easy.
"Hmm~ Let me see, then~"
Resting her chin in her small hand and furrowing her brow slightly, Su Jiuyue began to read through the list attentively.
That adorable expression left Gu Qiu momentarily dazed.
You had to hand it to her; with her looks and figure, any outfit just worked.
Clearly a full-blown mature beauty, today she was wearing a JK uniform with over-the-knee socks and little leather shoes, paired with a high ponytail tied up in her hair. Yet there was zero sense of awkwardness; instead, it added an abundance of youthful energy, making her look genuinely like an upperclassman from some university.
If those dime-a-dozen social media influencers tried to pull off the same outfit, it wouldn't be normal streetwear anymore—it would look like a fetish costume.
"A-Qiu? A-Qiu?"
Su Jiuyue's voice snapped Gu Qiu abruptly back to reality.
"Huh? You picked one?"
Noticing that he had clearly been staring at her in a daze, Su Jiuyue felt a secret surge of delight, her eyes crinkling with a smile: "What were you looking at? So entranced?"
"Uh... Uh, I was just thinking about which movie to pick, it's nothing. You just pick whatever you want."
As he said this, Gu Qiu's eyes drifted away, feeling a tiny bit guilty.
A fatal beauty, truly a fatal beauty...
How on earth had he gotten so lost looking at her...
And right in the act, too.
How mortifying.
Su Jiuyue let out a soft laugh, sparing him from calling out his painfully obvious lie, and simply pointed to a romance movie on the screen—
"I want to see this one."
"Great, I'll go watch this one, then."
Seeing that she had made her choice, Gu Qiu let out a sigh of relief, reached out with a deadpan expression, and pointed straight at a sci-fi movie playing in an entirely different theater at the same time.
"That settles it, then. We'll start watching at the same time, and meet back here when it's over."
"???"