"Hmph." Seeing him hit it off so warmly with the surrounding passengers—especially this dance-major senior—Gu Jiashuo felt a pang of jealousy.
"Junior, do you usually use QQ?"
"He doesn't use it!" Now Gu Jiashuo was panicked.
Just chatting casually for a couple of sentences? She could bear it.
Praising other women right in front of her? She could bear that too.
How did it escalate to exchanging contact info?!
They had only known each other for a few minutes!
Could college students really be this open?!
"Big Brother!" Gu Jiashuo said, full of vexation, her eyes warning him to back off. "Go stand at the front!"
Lu Man shrugged. "Sorry, Senior. My family is strict, no QQ number."
"Ah, you two are together. My bad." Lv Na smiled, then cautiously asked, "What kind of 'family'?"
There was a big difference between types of "family."
It could mean living under the same roof, or sharing the same quilt.
At that moment, a flash of inspiration struck Gu Jiashuo's little head.
"It's fine, Senior, don't get the wrong idea. I'm his younger sister," Gu Jiashuo said, softening her tone as she looked at Lv Na.
She glanced sideways at Lu Man and raised her clenched fist in a little shake, silently warning him: *Just you dare keep flirting with her.*
Gu Jiashuo's little scheme was calculated to perfection. If Lu Man admitted she was his sister, she'd have an excuse to beat the crap out of this scumbag—who told him to never say a single honest word?
And if Lu Man said she wasn't his sister, wouldn't that mean admitting she belonged to the other kind of "family"—his girlfriend, meaning talk of a breakup no longer existed?
Lu Man was just about to speak when he caught sight of Gu Jiashuo's sneaky little expression. After a moment of thought, he said, "She's my sister. Full sister, same dad, different moms."
"Oh... wait, that's not right." Senior Lv Na was nearly spun into a daze by Lu Man.
Gu Jiashuo was so angry her teeth felt itchy. Since when did Lu Man get so smooth with his slick talk?
"Binhai Normal University North Gate station is coming up. Passengers, please prepare to disembark in an orderly fashion from the rear doors..."
"We've arrived, Senior, goodbye." Gu Jiashuo grabbed her bag and stood up. Right now, all she wanted was to drag Lu Man far, far away from Senior Lv Na.
"Well, bye-bye then." Lv Na waved at Lu Man and Gu Jiashuo. "Junior, your 'family' isn't happy, so I won't leave my QQ or cell phone number. But if you ever get the chance to visit the Arts and Design Vocational College, you're both welcome to come look for me!"
*What an interesting junior,* Lv Na thought. *And the pretty girl next to him is stunningly beautiful—it almost looks like she's chasing after him?*
She guessed this because Lu Man still had the heart to chat with another female, while the young lady beside him was anxious and fretful.
To an outsider, it looked like a girl suffering from unrequited love who couldn't keep her cool, while the pursued Lu Man remained completely unfazed.
If they had any fate in the future, being friends with them would be a lot of fun.
As Gu Jiashuo brushed past Lv Na, this accidental senior decided to offer a tiny bit of guidance: "Junior, chasing a man is as easy as piercing a veil. Be a bit bolder, go for it."
"..." Gu Jiashuo felt like crying without tears.
Clearly, until yesterday, Lu Man was still coaxing her and pandering to her every whim...
Returning to Binhai Normal University after a lapse of more than ten years, others returning to their alma mater saw a fresh new atmosphere, but Lu Man felt like he had traveled back in time, standing right at the original starting point.
The coastal sky was vast and clear, and the sunlight was three times more fierce than inland. Female students at Binhai Normal University always carried parasols when going out, gathering and intersecting at the north gate. The sea of parasols moving with the crowd looked like a cluster of colorful little flowers blown by the wind.
"It seems like they're all girls..." Gu Jiashuo stared at the coming and going college students, noticing almost no male creatures in sight.
Binhai Normal University had a staggering male-to-female ratio of 3 to 7. In individual schools like the School of Liberal Arts or the School of Translation, it could even reach 1 to 9.
She glanced sideways at Lu Man. Was this why he wanted to apply to this university?!
Hmph, men.
"Let's go get something to eat first." Lu Man's attention wasn't on Gu Jiashuo or the passing female college students at all. Back in the day, the area around his alma mater had plenty of affordable, high-quality seafood—large portions that filled you up, served right in basins.
Passing through the road leading to the dormitory residential area, underneath an overpass, two or three beggars sat on the curb, each with a red-patterned enamel cup placed in front of them.
Gu Jiashuo tucked her little hands into the pockets of her suspender skirt. The moment Lu Man saw her wanting to pull out money, he caught her wrist in one hand.
"Don't give it to them."
Gu Jiashuo stared at Lu Man's paw, her mind racing with one thought: *He finally held my hand.*
Lu Man gave her another reminder before she snapped back to reality: "Huh?"
"Beggars around here aren't necessarily real. Even if they are, they have hands and feet. We help those in urgent need, not just the poor."
"But some of them must be real, right? What if we actually help a real one?"
Gu Yan gave his daughter plenty of pocket money. Out of kindness, whenever Gu Jiashuo heard a few pleas for charity, her heart always softened and she would give a little.
Lu Man pointed at a storefront across the street: "Jiashuo, look at that yogurt ice cream shop. Read what the standing sign says."
Gu Jiashuo looked over and read aloud: "Hiring part-time, 4 yuan per hour."
"Part-time college students work hard flipping woks and ladles for half a day, and when they get back to the dorms, their arms are too sore to even lift, and how much do they make?" Lu Man said. "When we walk past these people later, take another look at their bowls and see how much money is in there. Without exaggeration, they're overflowing with wealth."
"Dropping a single cent into their bowls is a sign of disrespect to laborers."
"Mm, I'll listen to Big Brother." Gu Jiashuo obediently nodded. Outside of romantic matters, she still followed Lu Man's lead completely.
The two of them walked past beneath the overpass, turning a blind eye to the beggars around them, and hurried away.
"Umm, please..."
Just then, from the shadows in the very corner beneath the overpass stairs, came a young voice asking for help.
Lu Man and Gu Jiashuo stopped in their tracks. The person speaking was a young girl, not old, looking to be about the same age as them.
Gu Jiashuo was just about to complain that Lu Man wouldn't let her give charity to old men and women, but as soon as they ran into a young girl, he couldn't walk away.
Instead, she heard the young girl back down herself: "Um, sorry, I—I'm fine..."
Lu Man stopped and asked with an encouraging tone, "Is there anything we can help you with? It's fine, go ahead."
The young girl had straight bangs and short hair. She wore a white short-sleeved shirt with some yellowish stains around the collar.
A large pink plush heart pattern on the chest of her clothes was stained a mix of pink and gray.
The clothes clearly looked like cheap street-market goods—the kind sold as a clearance deal of three for twenty yuan.
Perhaps seeing that Lu Man had an upright appearance and that Gu Jiashuo looked pure and completely harmless, she took a breath and finally mustered the courage to speak: "I want to beg you, could you please lend me a few dozen yuan? I came out here to work, and my wallet was stolen..."
It was Gu Jiashuo's first time seeing a beggar who couldn't bring herself to speak. Her first reaction was to look at Lu Man.
Under Lu Man's continued questioning to understand the situation, the girl slowly shared her story.
The short-haired girl was named Zhao Hong, a child from the mountainous old revolutionary base areas of neighboring Yicheng.
She was also a student who had just finished the national college entrance examination, hoping to earn some tuition money before school started.
Hearing that Haiqu City had a large food factory hiring skilled workers, and knowing how to spread pancake batter on a griddle from her grandmother, she figured she was a good fit and hitched a ride on a cargo truck to get here.
As a result, once she got into the factory, the promised wages were only paid halfway, with the balance date pushed out indefinitely, so Zhao Hong quit and left. While taking a moment to step into a shop for a cup of hot water, the wallet in her pants pocket vanished.
She originally wanted to find a job nearby to earn enough for a train ticket, but employers were afraid there was something shady about her background and didn't dare hire her without seeing her ID first—yet her identification documents had been stolen right along with it.
Zhao Hong hadn't eaten in two days. The last time she ate was because she lingered hesitatingly in front of a steamed bun shop, and the owner took pity on her and gave her a few for free.
Her mindset was very simple. She had already troubled someone once; how could she have the face to go back? Besides, she wasn't good with words, and she wouldn't dare proactively ask others for money or food.