Watching Xu Shuai put on an act,
Long Aotian shot him a disdainful glance. "Cut the act, kid. I saw you and Wang Lijuan taking the subway together. Where’d you go?"
At those words, Xu Shuai seemed to recall something wonderful.
He couldn’t help but break into a smile—a blissful one at that.
Huang Fei and Li Longlong exchanged glances. They noticed everything, yet for some reason, it felt oddly grating.
"We were just..."
Before Xu Shuai could finish, Huang Fei and Li Longlong waved him off. "Stop. We don’t wanna know anymore."
Xu Shuai paused, then turned to Long Aotian. "Hey, Aotian, where’d you and that aloof campus beauty from next door go today?"
Leaning in with a sly grin, he added, "I even saw you holding hands."
Seeing Xu Shuai’s unmistakable gossipy expression, Long Aotian chuckled. "Take a guess."
Xu Shuai wiggled his two thumbs suggestively.
Long Aotian suddenly stood up. "Did you get it on recording?"
"Huh?" Xu Shuai stared blankly. "Get what?"
"Hold on, quiet." Huang Fei made a shushing gesture, and the dorm fell silent.
With a tap on his phone, Huang Fei played back Xu Shuai’s voice, dripping with mischief: ["Heh heh, I saw you holding hands..."]
"Damn it, you bastards!" Xu Shuai lunged like a tiger, tackling Long Aotian. "I treat you like sworn brothers, and you pull this crap on me!"
"Serves you right for showing off. I’m sending this to Shen Mengjie so she can show Wang Lijuan."
"No, don’t!"
"Three cups of fruit tea. Extra ice."
"Fine, I’ll get them right now."
Watching Xu Shuai flip them off from the balcony, Long Aotian and the others burst out laughing.
Amid the laughter, Li Longlong suddenly sighed. Turning serious, he looked at Huang Fei and Long Aotian. "Honestly, I kinda envy Xu Shuai."
Huang Fei patted his shoulder. "Pursuing a girl takes persistence. You’re giving up way too soon."
"What’s going on?" Long Aotian asked, curiosity piqued.
"After you guys left, we got bored in the dorm and tried chatting up Shen Mengjie and Han Xiaojing, maybe even arranging a meetup." Huang Fei gestured for Li Longlong to continue.
"No luck," Li Longlong muttered, exhaling heavily. "She’s just... cold toward me."
"Cold? Maybe she’s just shy?" Long Aotian said. His impression of Han Xiaojing was of a quiet girl—hardly the type to come off as distant.
"I knew you wouldn’t believe me, but it’s the truth."
Li Longlong pulled out his phone and showed Long Aotian the chat log.
His messages were at least two lines long each.
Han Xiaojing’s replies, however, were mostly: ["Mhm"], ["Okay"], ["Got it"].
The longest one? ["Who else is going?"]
Just glancing at the screen, it did seem a bit frosty.
Noticing Long Aotian’s expression, Li Longlong turned to Huang Fei. "Show him your chat log."
"How many times do I have to say it? Stop calling me 'Old Huang.'" He pulled out his phone. "Our convo’s simple too, but at least there’s some emotional feedback."
He opened the chat, and Long Aotian’s eyebrows rose slightly. "Yeah, I guess there’s... some emotional value here."
["Mhm (playful emoji)"], ["Okay (winking happy emoji)"], ["Thanks (adorable emoji)"], ["Can’t, I’m busy (sad emoji)"]
"See, Longlong? Once you learn to read girls like I do, you’ll get that emotional payoff from Han Xiaojing too." Huang Fei grinned confidently.
"Uh..." Long Aotian sucked in a breath, at a loss for words.
Huang Fei was clearly enjoying this. In this state, anything he said would fall on deaf ears—or worse, strain their friendship.
"Honestly, Shen Mengjie seems nice, but I’m not sure if—"
"Right?" Huang Fei beamed. "You think so too, Aotian? I knew it—"
Long Aotian opened his mouth but didn’t finish. Some lessons had to be learned firsthand. And who knew? Maybe Huang Fei was onto something.
"Ugh..." Li Longlong sighed again, taking his phone back. "At first, I just thought Han Xiaojing was pretty. But the more we talked, the more I liked her personality too."
"But at this rate, I’ve got no shot."
"Early on, even a single ['Mhm'] from her would make my day. But over time, I got greedy. She never changed."
"I think I just got dumped... without even dating."
Long Aotian patted his shoulder. "Look at it this way—no start, no breakup. The campus is full of youth and possibilities."
"And how long have you known her? Really known her? How many times have you met or eaten together? Don’t compare yourself to Xu Shuai. Not every girl is Wang Lijuan."
"Thanks, Aotian. That makes me feel even worse." Li Longlong let out a half-laugh, half-groan.
Long Aotian didn’t know what else to say. From his perspective, it was all too rushed. This wasn’t the fast-paced dating scene of a decade later. Taking things slow was more sincere.
"Your glorious sworn father has returned!" Xu Shuai kicked the dorm door open, arms laden with four cups of fruit tea, two six-packs of beer, and a bag of skewered snacks.
Spotting the beer, Long Aotian nudged Huang Fei. "Let’s drink."
Between sips and bites, Xu Shuai caught up on the situation.
"No big deal. I’ll talk to Lijuan, and we’ll set up another dorm hangout. Worst case, we stay friends."
"Exactly! Maybe Han Xiaojing’s just a slow burn," Huang Fei added, hiccuping mid-sentence.
"Whatever. I’m over it. I’ll play it by ear. I’m not some Adonis, but I’m not ugly either. There’s no way I won’t find a girlfriend!"
"But... thanks, guys."
Li Longlong said it with a rare kind of coolness—not the superficial kind, but a liberated one.
Long Aotian raised his can and clinked it against Li Longlong’s. "Don’t get emotional. As your sworn brother and one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Dorm 147, it’s our duty."
"Hahaha..." Huang Fei and Xu Shuai both nodded with laughter, showing their approval.
Li Longlong rolled his eyes but still downed the drink in the end...
Cheng's father told him he was getting remarried—to a wealthy woman. Cao Cheng realized his time had finally come: he was about to become a second-generation rich kid. Sure, it might be a watered-down version, but hey, at least he'd have status now, right? The wealthy woman also had four daughters!! Which meant, starting today, Cao Cheng gained four stunning older sisters?? But that wasn't even the whole story... "My name is Cao Cheng—'Cheng' as in 'honest, smooth-talking gentleman'!"
+【Epic Battles!】 "Your Highness, they say Linxi Temple is miraculous. Won’t you make a wish?" "A wish? It should be making wishes to me." "That may be so, but since you’re already here..." "..." "Fine. Then grant this princess a consort to play with." "He must be obedient, devoted, and utterly infatuated with my body—so much so that he’d kneel and kiss my feet." "Your Highness, that’s not a consort. That’s a dog." "Then add clever, witty, heroic, ambitious yet pragmatic..." "Hmm, that’s enough for now. I’ll add more later." After tossing out these words half in jest, Princess Anle departed the temple—only to catch a fleeting glimpse of the Bodhisattva statue smiling at her. Meanwhile, Yang An, fresh out of university, was having a very bad day. Good news: He’d transmigrated into another world with a cheat granting tenfold combat power. Bad news: He’d immediately fallen into the clutches of a certain villainess. Good news: Said villainess possessed peerless beauty and royal status. Bad news: She was absolutely monstrous!!! In the frozen wilderness, Yang An knelt beneath Qin Guo’er’s feet, drenched in sweat despite the cold. Desperately clutching her porcelain-perfect foot—the very one poised to crush his throat—he could only think: How do I survive this?! Need answers NOW!
e school belle recognized by the whole school, a genius girl from the kendo club. She also has a hidden identity, the youngest legendary demon hunter. Chen Shuo just transmigrated and found himself turned into a weak, helpless little vampire. He was caught by Su Xiyen and taken home at the very beginning. Since then, Chen Shuo's life creed only had two items. "First, classmate Su Xiyen is always right." "Second, if classmate Su Xiyen is wrong, please refer back to item one." Many years later, Chen Shuo, who had turned back into a human, led a pair of twins to appear in front of all the vampires to share the secret of how he turned back into a human. "It's simple, I tricked a female demon hunter into becoming my wife!"
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
