An hour ago, at the commercial building.
As the campus belle, Lin Yanran not only captivated a large crowd of male students with her looks, but she also excelled academically far ahead of the pack. Rumor had it that her family background was extremely prominent, and she simply kept an unusually low profile.
Therefore, wherever Lin Yanran went, a swarm of pursuers was never far behind. Just a moment ago, she had turned down yet another male student who had boldly stepped forward to confess his feelings.
"Yanran, you really are too popular! Every single day, handsome upperclassmen and underclassmen come to confess to you. Unlike us—we haven't seen a single pursuer in a whole year," a girl teased, clutching Lin Yanran's arm.
"Exactly, Xiaoling is right. If so many people came to confess to me every day, I'd be so excited I wouldn't be able to sleep half the night," another girl chimed in, cupping her cheeks with a look of pure envy and daydreaming.
"Xiaoling, Huanhuan, stop making fun of me. I'm sick of it! People come to confess every day, and some even send random gifts and deliveries downstairs to the dorm building. The dorm supervisor has already chewed me out over it a few times—it's not like you guys don't know."
Seeming to recall something else, Lin Yanran let out a soft huff and added:
"Hmph, and what's even more infuriating is that even though they know I don't eat late-night snacks and rarely stay at the dorm, someone actually orders food delivery for me late at night straight to the downstairs entrance. The dorm supervisor ends up calling me down to pick it up every single time!" By the end of it, Lin Yanran was so angry that her chest heaved up and down.
"Hehe, alright! Don't be mad, Yanran, don't be mad. You might not eat them, but Xiaoling and I do! Don't worry, we can handle however many come—right, Xiaoling? And if we get fat from eating them all, we'll just make you, our campus belle Lin, take responsibility! Besides, I don't want to work hard for the rest of my life anyway—Yanran, why don't you just support us?"
Faced with these two lovable troublemakers—her best friend Zhao Xiaoling and roommate Xu Huanhuan—Lin Yanran was entirely speechless.
Yet despite always teasing her, whenever any guy tried to pull a fast one or make inappropriate remarks about her, the two of them would be the first to stand up and unleash a united, frantic barrage of defense.
Zhao Xiaoling and Xu Huanhuan were not only Lin Yanran's classmates but also her roommates. Though theirs was a four-person dorm, it was a bit unusual.
Aside from the three of them, there was a senior student named Wāng Yán. Perhaps due to preparing for internships and graduate school exams, Wāng Yán rarely returned to the dorm—she was hardly seen even once a month—so the other three naturally grew much closer.
A class period flew by in a flash.
Once class ended, Lin Yanran intended to ask her friends to go to the restroom together, but Zhao Xiaoling and Xu Huanhuan still had unfinished notes to wrap up, leaving Lin Yanran with no choice but to go by herself.
However, she had barely stepped out of the first-floor classroom door and walked a few paces when she spotted a thoroughly detestable person at the restroom corridor intersection: Chen Haoxuan.
Chen Haoxuan was known as one of the four campus heartthrobs. Relying on the fact that his father was the chairman of Jiangzhou City's leading enterprise, Chen Group, and his uncle served as a deputy district chief in Jiangzhou City, he threw his weight around everywhere at school. He pursued the girls he liked relentlessly, stopping at nothing.
In private, he even boasted that there wasn't a woman in the school he, Chen Haoxuan, couldn't have, and rumors circulated that he had murky relationships with certain female teachers.
Even so, many students dared only be angry without speaking a word, terrified that offending him would ruin their future prospects. It was precisely this that allowed him to act even more tyrannical and unbridled across campus.
The moment Lin Yanran caught sight of Chen Haoxuan, she was reminded of the scene a few days prior when he had confessed to her:
After receiving her definitive rejection, Chen Haoxuan had sworn up and down that Lin Yanran would inevitably take the initiative to seek his forgiveness, because no one could possibly reject him.
The mere thought of this filled Lin Yanran with sudden disgust. Having originally intended to use the first-floor restroom, she instantly spun around and headed straight for the second-floor restroom on the east side.
What happened next unfolded exactly as XiaWenbin's System had predicted.
Just as Lin Yanran prepared to use the restroom, a sudden chill and cramping sensation gripped her lower abdomen. After catching her breath with a few sharp gasps, she realized that her period had arrived ahead of schedule.
Yet she hadn't prepared for it at all; right now, she had only two tissues and her phone on her.
Lin Yanran unlocked her phone at once, intending to call her best friend Zhao Xiaoling and ask her to bring over some sanitary pads for an emergency. However, accompanying a flicker of the screen and a series of "buzz... buzz..." sounds as the phone lit up, it shut down due to a dead battery.
How could her phone, which she had bought not long ago, run out of battery just like that? Why was she having such terrible luck today? Not only had she run into someone she loathed, but her period had come early too! And right at the crucial moment, her phone was dead. What should she do? What on earth was she supposed to do?
At that moment, Lin Yanran truly felt a wave of helplessness and bewilderment.
Did she really have to just walk out like this and sprint back to the dorm? But she was wearing a white skirt today! What if someone happened to see her along the way? Wouldn't that be mortifying beyond words?
At this thought, Lin Yanran hurriedly shook her head to banish such a bold idea.
"Forget it, I'll wait a little longer! Maybe another girl will come to the restroom, and I can ask her for help or borrow her phone." Lin Yanran began to comfort herself, urging herself to wait patiently a bit longer.
Yet who could have guessed that she waited and waited until her two fair, tender legs grew almost numb from squatting, and still not a single soul appeared.
When the class bell for the commercial building rang out, Lin Yanran felt genuine despair! Was really no one having class on the second floor of the commercial building today?
It seemed no one was coming. Was she truly going to have to run out wearing that skirt? Forget it, she had no other choice.
Just as Lin Yanran gritted her teeth and made up her mind to stand up and race back to the dorm, she discovered that her calves had already gone numb from squatting, and she couldn't budge an inch.
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At that moment, within the eyes of her exquisite, celestial face, tiny, glistening tears welled up and spun endlessly.
Thud—clatter!
The restroom door was pushed open abruptly.
No! It looked more like it had been rammed open by something.
At that instant, Lin Yanran seemed to see a glimmer of hope. She hastily blinked back the tears threatening to spill from her eyes and called out, "Hello, classmate. I'm Lin Yanran from the sophomore economics and management major. Could you please... do me a... favor?"
Yet the other person didn't seem to have time to listen to her finish, walking straight into the adjacent stall next to hers.
When Xia Wenbin had burst in, his face was masked, which was why he had accidentally bumped into the door.
Fortunately, as soon as he entered, he heard Lin Yanran's pleasant, oriole-like voice, allowing him to instantly confirm her location. Guided by the peripheral vision outside his face covering, he walked straight to the stall right next to hers.
Thinking the other person hadn't heard her clearly, Lin Yanran simply cut straight to the point and spoke to the next stall: "Classmate, could you please help me buy a pack of sanitary pads?"
Having found the target location, Xia Wenbin didn't care about any requests Lin Yanran might have. He shoved a whole pile of sanitary pads—pack after pack—straight through the gap beneath the partition into her stall.
Xia Wenbin didn't care what brand, size, or level of comfort Lin Yanran liked... anyway, the more the better, and surely one of them would suit her. As long as he completed the mission and secured his reward, that was all that mattered.
As for Lin Yanran at that moment, she was utterly dumbfounded by the scene unfolding before her.
She had just wanted to ask the person to help buy a single pack of sanitary pads, and while she was still waiting for a response, the next stall began shoving pack after pack of various brands and styles of sanitary pads right under the partition.
"Ah, this... it's too much! Thank you... thank you, classmate, you've given me way too much, I have more than enough..."
What Lin Yanran couldn't figure out was: which girl went to the restroom carrying this many sanitary pads? Could the young lady in the next stall happen to be bulk-buying them for herself or her roommates? Surely nobody bought them in such quantities just for personal use!
While Lin Yanran was still pondering why the girl next door had brought so many sanitary pads to the restroom, her only response was the sound of Xia Wenbin's hurried footsteps departing.
"Um, classmate... classmate?" Lin Yanran called out persistently, but by then there was no one left in the next stall.
She found it very odd: she hadn't even managed to thank the person, so why had that girl rushed off the moment she delivered the items, without even using the restroom?
"This person is so strange. Who could it be? Somehow, it feels less like she came to use the restroom, and more like she was specifically sent here to deliver sanitary pads to me."
With a dazed expression, Lin Yanran quickly pulled herself together. Once the feeling returned to her legs, she left the restroom full of vigor and returned to the classroom.
Back in the classroom.
"Yanran, where on earth did you go? You weren't in the restroom, and your phone couldn't get through either! If I hadn't known this was a school where nobody would dare harm you, I would've almost called the police," Zhao Xiaoling said anxiously upon seeing Lin Yanran return safely to the classroom.
"I was in the second-floor restroom the whole time. My phone died—do you have a power bank?" Lin Yanran replied, casually taking Zhao Xiaoling's power bank and showing her the bag in her hand, which was filled entirely with various styles of sanitary pads.
She couldn't be bothered with Zhao Xiaoling and Xu Huanhuan's endless whispering about why she had bought so many sanitary pads—were they planning to contract out the entire dorm's supply for the year?
The only thing on her mind was still the person who had delivered the pads to her, especially since she had caught a glimpse of that pair of worn-out sneakers, which didn't look like a girl's shoes or size at all.
"But would a guy go into the women's restroom? How could he happen to know my period started early? How could he happen to know where I was and bring them to me?"
At that thought, Lin Yanran felt a creepiness creep over her, and a chill involuntarily ran down her spine.
————
"Ding—Congratulations to the Host for completing the Binding Mission within the allotted time. Campus belle Lin Yanran will officially become the Host's Bound Tool."