"Brother Qi, this is Yiyi Sister," Tongtong introduced her new "idol" happily.
"Hello, Liu Yiyi."
"Hello, Shao Qi." They nodded to greet each other.
Liu Yiyi turned her gaze to Tongtong, slightly raising the food tray in her hands, and said to her, "I'm heading back to eat."
Tongtong said, "Oh right, Yiyi Sister hasn't finished eating yet. I'll contact you on chat later then."
"Mm." Liu Yiyi nodded, said goodbye to the family and Shao Qi, and returned to her dining table.
Seeing the person who had "disappeared" for a long time return, Shang Hui stared at Liu Yiyi and asked, "Were you just chatting with Shao Qi?" Looking at the food in Liu Yiyi's hands, she added, "And why do you have so much food? It's not fair."
Liu Yiyi picked up her spoon and ate under her gaze without replying.
"Yiyi, can you possibly eat all this? You just ate a bowl of noodles earlier," Shang Hui said, watching the slender girl with suspicious eyes as she finished the food in her plate bite by bite.
She gave a thumbs-up and said, "You're amazing, I'm impressed." Then she added, "Yiyi, let's add each other on chat. I already added Tongtong just now."
Liu Yiyi recited her number again and added Shang Hui. After finishing her meal, she sat at her seat to rest for a moment, looking at the signatures in her hand—she had already collected close to sixty.
"Yiyi, let's go get signatures at Shao Qi's table. They haven't left yet," Shang Hui said, pointing her finger at one of the tables.
Liu Yiyi looked in the direction Shang Hui was pointing and saw Shao Qi's table, where several other people were still waiting for signatures. Not wanting to wait in line, Liu Yiyi said to Shang Hui, "Let's go ask the other senior students first. There's still a queue over there." With that, she took her notebook and set off again to collect signatures from the senior students.
Hoping to get all the signatures today and then focus on her own affairs, Liu Yiyi felt that this signature-hunting method was a complete waste of time. She and Shang Hui went to other tables first. Whether it was just Yiyi's imagination or not, getting signatures went exceptionally smoothly.
At this point, Shang Hui whispered, "Yiyi, I think because you taught that gang a lesson, the senior students are being so accommodating and didn't make us do anything." Liu Yiyi felt that the signature collection should be wrapping up soon; it was already one-thirty, and they had to gather at two-thirty.
Liu Yiyi still lacked fewer than ten signatures. "Yiyi, the crowd at Senior Shao Qi's table has almost cleared out. Let's go over," Shang Hui's voice rang out. Liu Yiyi glanced at Shao Qi's table and followed Shang Hui over.
Approaching the senior students at Shao Qi's table, they introduced themselves. Shang Hui excitedly said, "Senior Shao Qi, I'm a fan of yours. Could you please write your big signature on this piece of paper?" Carefully opening her notebook, she flipped to a blank page and handed it over.
Just as Shang Hui was about to hand Liu Yiyi's notebook to Shao Qi along with her own, a discordant voice rang out: "You must be the junior who beat up Dan Qing. You look pretty cute, but I didn't expect you to be so ruthless." One of the senior female students spoke while holding her phone, her tone dripping with sarcasm.
Liu Yiyi looked at the senior student who had spoken. She sported a champagne-colored, one-length blunt bob, heavy makeup, and fiery red lips, looking thoroughly arrogant.
"Hey, the junior was just acting in self-defense. Don't be too hard on a freshman," another senior said. Liu Yiyi heard their words and didn't care in the least.
At that moment, Shao Qi reached out, crooked his finger, and said, "Your notebook."
Liu Yiyi handed her notebook over, and the senior students signed their names one by one. When it came to the senior who had mocked Liu Yiyi, she finished signing Shang Hui's notebook, stopped, and said to Liu Yiyi, "Junior, if you want my signature, you need to do one thing: apologize to those seniors and say 'I'm sorry' out loud three times."
Liu Yiyi looked into the senior's fierce eyes, reached out under her gaze, and took back her notebook. "Senior, I have enough signatures."
"You—" the senior slammed the table in resentment and stood up. "You must make this apology!" Just as she was about to continue, another voice interrupted her.
It was Shao Qi. "Enough, Dan Ge. I know about this matter; it was your brother's fault to begin with. Don't go too far." He was spinning a pen in his hand.
Liu Yiyi glanced at Shao Qi, then refocused her gaze on the senior named Dan Ge. No wonder she was picking a fight with her for no reason—they were related. Just as she was thinking this, Liu Yiyi's phone rang. Seeing that it was a call from Zhang Lin, she turned away a few steps and answered.
A stream of rapid-fire chatter burst from the phone: "Yiyi, how was your first day of school? Was it fun? Did you see Shaoshao? Is it hard to fit in? Is the food good, are you getting used to it?"
Liu Yiyi replied in Chinese, "You said so much, where am I supposed to start?"
"Start with Shaoshao." Liu Yiyi glanced back at Shao Qi and replied, "I saw him, but we didn't talk much."
"Judging by your tone, something seems a bit off."
Tone? That was right. Whenever she had too many bothersome things on her mind, her voice would drop. Since Zhang Lin was a longtime friend of hers, picking up on it was easy. "It's nothing, I can handle it."
"Yiyi, you mustn't push yourself too hard. I'm really scared that thing will happen again," Zhang Lin said, dropping her playful tone for one of concern.
"Mm, I know. How is Qiyu? Go keep him company when you have time."
"Don't worry, I'll take good care of Qiqi. I'll talk to you first if anything happens."
"Xiaolin, thank you." During her time in country T, Zhang Lin was the only friend she could trust.
"Yiyi, we're childhood friends. If you're going to be so polite, I won't help you anymore," Zhang Lin said with a hint of anger.
"It's so good to have you."
Zhang Lin's mouth hung open wide enough to swallow an egg, utterly shocked. This was the first time Yiyi had ever spoken such gentle words to her. "This is the first time you've ever spoken to me like this. If we were face-to-face, I'd be moved to tears."
"Alright, I still have some business to finish up, I'm hanging up." Liu Yiyi couldn't bear Zhang Lin's sentimental mush; it was too cheesy.
"Yiyi, if anyone bullies you, just beat them up—you still have me! Hanging up, bye." Zhang Lin ended the call.
Liu Yiyi turned and walked back to her spot just in time to hear Dan Ge say, "So the junior is an international student. No wonder she has no regard for the rules."
"Senior, rules are just boundaries. If people don't follow their hearts, how can anyone talk about transcending them?" Liu Yiyi ignored her, watched Shang Hui retrieve her notebook as well, and thanked the senior students before leaving.
As soon as they left, Dan Ge said to Shao Qi, "Why are you helping that freshman? We've been friends for many years." A sudden realization struck her, and she asked with a hint of fear, "You—you haven't taken a fancy to that freshman, have you?"
"No," Shao Qi said, twirling his phone. "She's very interesting," he added in a low voice.
"Good." Dan Ge let out an immediate sigh of relief, missing the rest of what he said. "Then why did you speak up for her?"
Before Shao Qi could say anything, He Xinming, the senior next to Dan Ge, chimed in, "If you provoke the junior again, we'll be visiting you in the hospital next."
"I refuse to believe a mere freshman can go up against senior students," Dan Ge insisted, refusing to concede. "She's just a freshman."
"You can't treat the junior like that just because your brother was the one who got the short end of the stick. How are you supposed to get along on campus in the future?"
"The junior isn't an unreasonable person either. Even when you said all those things to her, didn't she refrain from talking back to you at all?" another senior, Cao Han, pointed out.
"Alright, how is your brother?"
"He's fine now."
"There you go, problem solved. Tell your brother to turn the page on this incident as well. We should leave a good impression on the international students."
Seeing that none of her friends around her were taking her side, Dan Ge said very reluctantly, "I'll talk to Dan Qing." But inwardly, she thought this matter was far from over, casting a gloomy glare in the direction Liu Yiyi had walked off.