A Coser Trying to Get Su Bai's Attention

Noon.

Su Bai returned to his dorm room to lie down for a brief nap.

But just a few minutes in, his phone buzzed with a notification.

Someone had sent him a friend request on WeChat.

[Strawberry Mochi Bear requests to add you as a friend]

Huh?

Who’s this?

Driven by curiosity, Su Bai accepted the request, sent a quick "Hello," and then clicked into the person’s Moments feed.

A smooth, practiced maneuver—quick and efficient.

Judging by the profile picture and nickname, it was probably a girl.

And based on Su Bai’s recent social experience, girls who proactively added him—especially those who seemed to have no real-life connection to him—usually had very "lively" Moments feeds.

You could pretty much guess their intentions without even talking to them.

Definitely not the mysterious "only visible for three days" type...

Sure enough.

The moment he opened the feed, Su Bai was greeted with a barrage of nine-grid cosplay photos.

Hiss.

Not particularly tall, but with a nice figure.

Her face? The classic internet-celebrity look—probably unremarkable without heavy editing.

Of course, "unremarkable" was relative to Su Bai’s circle of female admirers. Objectively speaking, she was a pretty little thing by ordinary standards.

He’d guess her post-makeup looks were slightly better than Liu Yuanyuan’s—let’s call it a combat power of 1.2 "Yuans."

Su Bai didn’t recognize the character she was cosplaying, so he kicked the metal railing of his bunk bed.

"Hey, dumbass, help me figure out who this is."

He handed his phone to Wang Haoran, who was sprawled on the neighboring bunk, grinding away at a mobile game with a power bank plugged in.

Wang Haoran only needed a glance.

"Probably a new character from Star Rail. Damn, cosplayers these days are dedicated—jumping on hype faster than a jungler ganking at level two," he blurted out.

"I see..."

So this set of cosplay photos was likely taken recently.

Su Bai couldn’t help but cynically wonder if this post was set to "visible for only a select few friends."

The vibe was way too suggestive—even professional cosplayers wouldn’t casually post this kind of stuff on their public Moments.

As expected, the girl soon sent a message.

[Strawberry Mochi Bear: Hi there! You’re Su Bai, right? I’m a classmate of Liu Yuanyuan’s, from the anime club.]

[Crispy White Goose: [Goose_ScratchingHead] Hey, senior. What’s up?]

[Strawberry Mochi Bear: Nothing much, really! I just heard your new car has custom anime decals, so I figured we might share some interests… Oh, by the way, would you like to join the anime club?]

Well, well.

A recruitment pitch?

Su Bai pondered for a moment.

Her reasoning wasn’t entirely implausible.

After all, it was pretty rare to find a Panamera owner who’d slap a "long-term vegetarian pig snout" meme on the rear.

For anime enthusiasts, that kind of eccentricity was like catnip—no surprise she’d sniffed him out.

Typical weeb behavior...

But her claim about getting his WeChat from Liu Yuanyuan? Su Bai wasn’t buying it.

Liu Yuanyuan clearly had her own designs on him. That much was obvious from her weird expressions during their meals together and the way she’d tried to cozy up to him at the café.

If another girl wanted to get to know Su Bai, would Liu Yuanyuan just hand over his contact info?

No way. She’d probably say something like, "Oh, it’s not polite to share someone’s WeChat without asking! Let me check with Su Bai first~"

…And then conveniently "forget" to follow up.

That’s how it would go.

Su Bai guessed Strawberry Mochi Bear had name-dropped Liu Yuanyuan just to establish rapport.

Probably, the Liu Yuanyuan-Xue Tao connection was the closest link she could use to strike up a conversation with him.

As it turned out, Su Bai’s guess was spot-on.

Meanwhile, in a certain girls’ dorm room at Jiangcheng University...

The girl with the WeChat name "Strawberry Mochi Bear" was nervously clutching her phone.

Logically, as a sophomore hitting up a freshman, she should’ve had the upper hand—confident and in control.

With inexperienced guys like Xiao Chunan, a little attention from her would have them wrapped around her finger.

But Strawberry Mochi Bear knew very well that Su Bai was no ordinary freshman.

This was the guy who drove a custom Panamera and stayed in the most luxurious suites at The Ascott.

Add to that his 185cm height and handsome face, and he stood out like a crane among chickens in a sea of average-looking guys.

That’s exactly why she’d gone out of her way to add him and start this awkward chat.

Truth be told, she wasn’t used to making the first move with guys.

Usually, it was the other way around.

With her looks, she was one of the prettiest girls at Jiangcheng University—plenty of guys chased after her.

And since she was in the anime club and dabbled in cosplay, the otaku crowd practically treated her like a princess.

But then again, even a princess had to lower her head and butter up when faced with a bona fide young master.

Right now, Strawberry Mochi Bear was staring intently at her phone, waiting for Su Bai’s reply.

Her roommate, noticing her tense posture, teased, "Who’s got you so worked up, Mochi? You look more stressed than during finals..."

"Oh, it’s nothing, really..."

"Oho, sneaky~ Lemme see… Wow, ‘Crispy White Goose’—isn’t that the Panamera guy from the CS department?"

"How’d you know?!"

Her roommate smirked. "Everyone’s talking about him. He’s Chen Yusheng’s boyfriend, but rumor has it he’s also tangled up with a few other beauties… Mochi, don’t tell me you’re trying to—?"

Hearing the suggestive tone, Strawberry Mochi Bear flushed. "What? No! I’m just inviting him to join the anime club!"

"Uh-huh. And then leveraging your cosplay charms to become one of his harem?"

"...Shut up!"

Blushing furiously, she grabbed a pillow and playfully wrestled her roommate.

But deep down, her friend had hit the nail on the head.

She loved cosplaying, adored the elaborate costumes and pretty dresses.

But those cost money—a lot of it. For a college girl with modest means and a tight budget, it wasn’t easy.

Part-time jobs? The decent ones were exhausting and paid peanuts.

As for the… less decent options? Most girls still had some reservations. It wasn’t like just anyone would dive into that scene.

Most of them dreamed of dating a handsome, wealthy guy—not jumping straight into the arms of some greasy, middle-aged sugar daddy.

And Su Bai’s appearance had set many hearts aflutter.

Rumor had it he was generous with his affections, and his looks and personality naturally drew girls in.

Even without the money, just the idea of a little romantic entanglement with him was enough to make many swoon.

If they could score some cash along the way? Even better.

Word was, those twin beauties from the broadcasting department had barely known Su Bai for a week before he took them shopping, treated them to meals, and dropped over 10k on clothes for them.

So. Damn. Jealous.

Ten grand could buy so many high-end cosplay outfits...

Those cosplay outfits had been sitting in Strawberry Mochi Bear's shopping cart for ages, but she could never bring herself to check out... Well, more like she couldn’t scrape together enough money!

So today, after stumbling upon Su Bai’s WeChat ID by chance, she nervously added him and tried to strike up a conversation.

First things first—she had to get him into the anime club. After all, the early bird catches the worm.

Take Chen Yusheng, for example. She was in the same class as Su Bai, so she had plenty of opportunities to interact with him.