Chapter 4: Broken? No, She's Just a Smart Woman
Gu Qiu scratched his head upon returning to the dorm, feeling utterly bewildered.
Wait a minute, how on earth did he end up agreeing to go shopping with her this afternoon?
Sure, having someone treat you to a nice meal was great... but he had wanted to play video games much more!
Should he... bail?
Anyway, Su Jiuyue had mentioned she needed to go back to the staff dorm to change clothes. Should he just send her a WeChat message right now and say he didn't have time this afternoon?
Just as Gu Qiu was frowning, trying to figure out how to break the news to Su Jiuyue, his bed frame suddenly creaked three times, and before he knew it, he was pinned in the middle by three gloomy-faced roommates.
"Come on, buddy, confess. Did you do something to betray the organization?"
The burly Chen Men draped his arm over Gu Qiu's shoulder, wearing a very amiable smile.
"Leninism dictates: confession brings leniency, resistance brings severity. If you explain yourself properly right now, your brothers might still spare your life."
Lin Fan pressed down on Gu Qiu's legs with a deadpan expression to prevent him from breaking free and escaping.
"Huh? What did I do? Wait, wait, wait, you guys calm down."
Just last night, his dear sons had been calling him adoptive father at every turn; how could their father-son bond fracture so severely today? This defied all logic!
Chen Chanbing pushed up his glasses. Behind the glint of the lenses were his cold, hollow eyes:
"Let's put it this way. At noon today, were you having a meal with a mature beauty? Did you hook up with some senior student? Spill the beans."
"Sometimes you think you're taking advantage of a woman, but in reality, she's devouring you, traitor! This is the twenty-first century! You need to think deeply about this!"
"Do not mess with that batch of heartless women at an age when we are most desperate for love!!!"
In just a few words, Gu Qiu, who had been completely clueless a moment ago, finally figured it out.
It turned out they had seen him eating lunch with Su Jiuyue.
The current situation was probably a classic case of fearing your bro is having a hard time, but fearing even more that your bro is driving a Range Rover.
He simply couldn't let them down!
No sooner said than done!
Putting on a solemn and righteous expression, Gu Qiu declared: "What are you talking about? She's just the new school doctor at the infirmary, not some senior student. She just happened to sit across from me, and since I had a bad cold yesterday, I asked her if I could come pick up some medicine in the next few days."
This reasoning, this excuse—it flowed as naturally as nature itself. Even he had no idea how he managed to come up with such an excuse in just a few short seconds.
"Oh... so she's just the school doctor..."
"Phew, I thought it was something else. If you're sick, you should get some good rest, A-Qiu."
"Aiya, A-Qiu, my bad. We all misunderstood you~"
The moment Gu Qiu finished speaking, smiles instantly appeared on his roommates' faces. They chuckled, patted him lightly on the chest, and then scattered like birds and beasts, sitting down at their respective desks to turn on their computers.
"Aiya, enough of that! It was just a misunderstanding. Family, log on to the game right now!"
"Little Brother Gu Qiu~"
At that moment, a melodious and captivating voice drifted in from outside at the most inopportune time.
The entire dorm instantly fell silent at the sound.
Hearing that voice, Gu Qiu's body stiffened abruptly as he slowly turned his head toward the dormitory entrance—
Standing at the door, Su Jiuyue was wearing a relaxed, casual outfit, smiling faintly as she looked at him sitting dumbfounded on the bed.
"Didn't we agree at noon? You're coming shopping with me this afternoon~"
"Hey! This is the guys' dorm, hello! How did you even get in?!"
Gu Qiu's pupils constricted, a sense of impending doom flashing through his mind.
"Huh? Aren't I the school doctor? I have a work ID. I just showed it to the dorm supervisor, explained that someone needed me to deliver medicine, and they let me right in~"
Su Jiuyue's pretty eyes curved into crescents, the corners of her mouth hooking into an alluring arc, while her white-jade-like delicate fingers kept twirling her work badge.
"A-Qiu, we always treated you like a brother..."
"Yeah, and I thought our bond was rock solid..."
A grievance-laden voice drifted out slowly from behind Gu Qiu.
Chen Chanbing even pulled out his phone and opened WeChat—
"A-Qiu, our friendship was short-lived, but... I'm really glad I met you."
With that, Gu Qiu's phone vibrated.
He had been kicked out of his own dorm chat group, and even as a WeChat friend, he had been deleted.
"Hey, no! You guys, listen to my explanation!!!"
"Let's go, let's go~ Little one, if we don't leave now, the dorm supervisor downstairs will come up to see what's going on."
Saying this, Su Jiuyue grabbed Gu Qiu's hand and pulled him out of the dorm building, leaving him with hollow eyes and a heart as dead as ashes.
Young Gu Qiu learned for the first time just how fragile the friendship between dorm brothers could be.
...
"Couldn't you have sent me a message? If you come looking for me like this, what will people think if there's a misunderstanding?"
Walking down the path, Gu Qiu looked at Su Jiuyue, who was humming a tune and seemed to be in a great mood, and felt like crying without tears.
"Hmm..."
Hearing this, Su Jiuyue pressed a finger against her rosy lips and thought for a moment.
"If I didn't come looking for you in person, little one, you definitely would have found an excuse to reject me, wouldn't you? Besides, I'm not in a teaching position, so it doesn't matter even if there is a misunderstanding, right?"
With that, she looked at Gu Qiu beside her with a beaming smile.
Damn it! He had actually forgotten that she was a smart woman.
Gu Qiu let out a long sigh, deciding he would need to properly explain things to those guys when he got back to the dorm tonight.
Otherwise, their friendship might really end at the hands of this fox-like mature beauty...
"Where are we even going shopping? What do you want to buy?"
Putting the three guys in the dorm out of his mind, he regained his spirit and asked.
"Let me think..."
"Wait, you haven't even figured it out yet, and you just kidnapped me?!"
"Little one, why are you being so fierce..."
Su Jiuyue feigned grievance, putting on a completely tearful expression.
Actually, Su Jiuyue herself wasn't very interested in shopping for clothes, because every time she went out, she attracted a lot of attention, and there were always a bunch of clingy pests coming up to ask for her WeChat.
Besides, given that kind of time, it was much more fun to order milk tea and desserts at home, watch some anime, or read some light novels.
However, today's situation seemed slightly different; Su Jiuyue was quite willing to go shopping with Gu Qiu.
She looked up and down at Gu Qiu's brightly colored red-and-green floral shirt, his unknown-brand jeans, and the ordinary canvas shoes on his feet, feeling that his looks combined with such an uncanny entire outfit was truly earth-shattering.
"How about... Big Sister takes you to buy some clothes?"
Su Jiuyue suddenly found her clear goal.
She was going to give this unkempt guy a proper makeover.
"Huh? Is that necessary? I'm just here to accompany you shopping... and now you're spending money on me..."
Gu Qiu furrowed his brow. While being kept by a sugar mommy felt great, they hadn't known each other for very long. Accepting this just like that—wouldn't it cheapen him a bit?
"It's no big difference~ We're out buying things anyway. What's the difference between buying for you and buying for myself? Money's going to be spent either way~"
"You're just distorting the logic there... Anyway, don't buy me anything. I have my own clothes to wear; just buy things for yourself."
He supported his forehead with one hand and shook his head helplessly.
"It's fine, it's fine~ Big Sister has been working for a while now~ I have money, so don't refuse~"
Once she had a goal, Su Jiuyue looked extremely happy. Even though she should have been a cold, aloof mature beauty, right now she looked like a little girl who had just gotten her favorite toy, eagerly grabbing Gu Qiu's hand.
So soft.
Really so soft.
Although he had already felt the texture of her skin when they shook hands the first time they met, now that his hand was directly captured by Su Jiuyue, Gu Qiu felt the warm, smooth texture of her skin even more vividly.
As someone who had been single since birth, he couldn't help but sigh inwardly:
So girls' bodies are all this soft...
"Are you nervous?"
Holding Gu Qiu's hand as she walked ahead, Su Jiuyue seemed to sense something, suddenly turning back to look at him with a smile.
"Huh? No, I'm not nervous at all?"
"But your hand is sweating, you know~ And you're even walking with your same-side arm and leg moving together~"
"Uh, that's just my walking habit, a habit..."
Listening to his pale and weak explanation and looking at his stiff walking posture, Su Jiuyue couldn't help covering her mouth with a light chuckle.
Isn't he much cuter than that serious look he had before?
Too easy to bully~