When Gu Jiqing woke up the next day, it was almost noon.
Probably because they heard that he was not feeling well last night, so no one came to disturb him this morning.
Zhou Cibai was no longer around. He probably went back to his room early to avoid suspicion.
There was bread with blueberry jam and strawberry milk on the bedside.
They are all the sweet and sour flavors that Gu Jiqing likes.
He turned over lazily, picked up his phone, saw the call log, and then clicked on several messages from his former roommate asking him where he was last night, who he was with, and why he didn’t want to do group assignments with them. Only then did he roughly remember what happened last night.
Turns out rejection doesn’t feel that bad.
It saves time, is convenient, and is not as difficult as he had imagined.
But he fell into a daze afterwards and could not distinguish clearly between dreams and reality. He only remembered that in the dream it was sometimes a dog, sometimes a woodpecker, which sometimes pressed him so hard that he could not breathe and sometimes pecked him so hard that his head hurt.
What a strange dream.
After coming to this conclusion, Gu Jiqing rubbed his eyes, put down his phone, got up, washed, put on his coat, and slowly went downstairs.
Lunch was just being served in the restaurant, but Zhou Cibai was not there.
Gu Jiqing sat down in the same seat he sat in yesterday and asked Xia Qiao in a gentle voice, “How was your game last night?”
“Don’t mention it!” Xia Qiao couldn’t help but complain to Gu Jiqing when he heard it, “Zhou Cibai usually looks tall, has long legs, thick eyebrows and big eyes, and seems to be a reliable person. Why is he like this at a critical moment ah?”
What’s going on?
Gu Jiqing raised his eyes and looked towards Xia Qiao.
He vaguely remembered that Zhou Cibai led Xia Qiao to victory yesterday, isn’t that right?
Xia Qiao met his inquiring gaze and immediately became even angrier: “You know what? He actually AFK in the last game! AFK! We had a big advantage, but he suddenly rushed to the second tower on the opposite side and started AFK. Don’t you think that’s outrageous?! Although I got one star overall, this behavior is still too much!!!”
AFK?
Gu Jiqing felt that this kind of irresponsible behavior was not something Zhou Cibai would do. He was just about to say a few words on Zhou Cibai’s behalf when Zhou Cibai came out of the kitchen holding a bowl of tomato and beef brisket soup.
He tilted his head to look at Zhou Cibai and blinked to ask.
Zhou Cibai’s earlobes inexplicably turned red. He quickly placed the soup in front of Gu Jiqing, then sat down next to him, lowered his eyelashes, and whispered, “Sorry, something unexpected happened last night. I’ll help you get your points back next time.”
His attitude toward admitting mistakes was very good.
Xia Qiao felt so guilty that he waved his hands quickly. “No, no, I was just saying. Everyone has special circumstances, and you even helped me up points. It’s okay!”
Xia Qiao was as easy to coax as ever.
It’s just, why does Zhou Cibai look a little strange?
The whole person seemed to exude a sense of excited shyness from his eyes to the corners of his lips and to his ears.
Did something happen to him that he didn’t know about?
Gu Jiqing raised his eyebrows slightly but didn’t get an answer for the time being. Zhou Cibai had already served him a small bowl of soup. It smelled really delicious, so he didn’t think about it anymore. He lowered his head, held the bowl, and started drinking in small sips.
All Zhou Cibai could think about was Gu Jiqing’s initiative to increase the number of times in the contract, and that he liked it and that there was a reward. So he felt like a big dog whose owner promised him a reward of meat bones, so he kept feeling that secret and expectant excitement.
In order to achieve a good performance, he even took the initiative to take care of Zhou Zhou during the day and didn’t stick too close to Gu Jiqing. He only sneaked into Gu Jiqing’s room at night when everyone had left.
Then on the first night, they played Werewolf until 1am. Zhou Cibai sneaked into Gu Jiqing’s room, took a serious shower, and specially applied a fragrant orange blossom scent shower gel. When he came out Gu Jiqing had already fallen asleep holding the blanket.
Zhou Cibai: “……”
No problem.
The next night, they played Avalon until two in the morning. Zhou Cibai sneaked to Gu Jiqing’s room, took a careful shower, and applied some fragrant shower gel and sprayed some perfume. When he came out, Gu Jiqing had already fallen asleep hugging the blanket.
Zhou Cibai: “……”
No problem.
On the third night, everyone and the proprietress had a bonfire party until three in the morning. Then Zhou Cibai sneaked into Gu Jiqing’s room, took a careful shower, and applied some fragrant shower gel, perfume, and breath freshener to his body. When he came out, Gu Jiqing had already fallen asleep with the blanket in his arms.
Zhou Cibai, who hadn’t eaten meat for three days: “……”
There seems to be something going on.
On the fourth night…
There’s no fourth night.
The holiday is over, and they need to set off for Beijing early in the morning.
Before leaving, Lu Ping had already been in a hot relationship with the young propertress who invited him to vacation. When he turned around and saw Zhou Cibai helping Gu Jiqing with his luggage, he immediately yelled, “Look ba! Look ba! You even said that there’s nothing between you two! You never even helped me with my luggage!”
“Shut up.” Zhou Cibai said these four words with a stern face, fastened the seat belt for Zhou Zhou, closed the car door, and drove off.
Lu Ping, who was left behind, ate a mouthful of car fumes. He stood there, gesticulating, baring his teeth, and looking in the direction they left, feeling helpless and furious.
Because Xia Qiao and Shen Zhao reconciled, there were only three of them on the return trip. Gu Jiqing relaxed a lot. Seeing Lu Ping’s appearance in the rearview mirror, he curled his lips slightly and said, “I feel kind of aggrieved for him.”
Zhou Cibai hurriedly said, “No, you don’t have to care about him. He just likes to make a fuss and doesn’t think before he speaks. Don’t be angry.”
“Why should I be angry?” Gu Jiqing turned his head and blinked lightly.
“Don’t you hate when others know about our relationship?” Zhou Cibai said this with a subtle sense of grievance.
Gu Jiqing said, “No ah.”
“?” Zhou Cibai couldn’t help but ask, “But when that British man said I was your boyfriend, you denied it right away. Isn’t it because you mind it?”
“No ah, I wasn’t sure if you minded it or not.” Gu Jiqing explained in a gentle voice, “Then I felt that you seemed to mind, and I thought it might be because you are more traditional in this regard, so I thought it would be better not to let others know; otherwise, it might affect your normal relationship with others in the future.”
“No, I already have you, who else can I date?!” Zhou Cibai blurted out anxiously.
Gu Jiqing looked at him and blinked.
Realizing that he had let the cat out of the bag, Zhou Cibai hurriedly explained guiltily, “Didn’t it say in our contract that during the relationship, you cannot have emotional or physical relationships with other people?”
“But if you want to end our relationship…”
“I won’t!”
“?”
Zhou Cibai’s ears were red, and he pursed his lips and turned the steering wheel: “It’s not like you don’t know that I have a lot of energy, so… so as long as you don’t bring it up, I won’t bring it up.”
“En.” Gu Jiqing could feel that Zhou Cibai really liked his body, and other than the fact that he occasionally couldn’t keep up due to physical strength, everything else was indeed very compatible. “Then that’s good.”
The three words spoken inadvertently carried a certain psychological meaning that Gu Jiqing himself was not aware of.
Zhou Cibai’s heart tightened, and then he nervously confirmed again: “So when that British man said that I was your boyfriend, you weren’t unhappy, right?”
Gu Jiqing answered without hesitation: “En, I don’t really care about this kind of thing, I was just afraid that it would affect you.”
“……”
F*ck.
Therefore, if he had thickered his skin a bit at that time and directly acknowledged the title of boyfriend, Gu Jiqing would most likely give him the title of boyfriend out of responsibility for his reputation, and he wouldn’t have to hide like he is now.
So what kind of face does he want at that time?
But the problem is that things had already been said to that point. If he were to suddenly change his mind now, it would be easy dealing with Lu Ping. How should he give Gu Jiqing a reasonable explanation?
Thinking about how he had missed an opportunity to become Gu Jiqing’s “boyfriend” and then thinking about the difficult days he had been living these days where he had to avoid suspicion during the day and not having meat to eat at night, Zhou Cibai couldn’t help but begin to sulk.
He shouldn’t be a moral person.
He already wants a boyfriend, so why should he still care about his face?
But such opportunities are hard to come by, and even if he wants to be immoral and shameless, he may not get another suitable opportunity.
Thinking about it, Gu Jiqing, who was beside him, glanced at the message and suddenly asked, “Can you take me to the South District Dormitory first?”
“En?” Zhou Cibai came back to his senses, “What’s wrong?”
Gu Jiqing said, “I’m going to look for He Changzhi.”
After a slight pause, as if afraid that Zhou Cibai would overthink it, he softly explained, “He is our class monitor, and he didn’t give me the form to fill out.”
During college, many things may be announced in the dormitory.
Gu Jiqing will indeed face many inconveniences after moving out of the department dormitory, not to mention that it may be done intentionally by someone.
So Zhou Cibai didn’t even think about it: “En, okay, let’s send Zhou Zhou home first, and I’ll go with you.”
After settling Zhou Zhou down, Gu Jiqing discovered that Zhou Cibai had changed into a new car when he came out of the house.
A very cool Hummer, in terms of chassis and interior space, it is much higher than the previous Land Rover.
Gu Jiqing looked at Zhou Cibai, originally just wanting to ask why he suddenly changed the car.
Zhou Cibai didn’t know what was going on in his mind. He coughed uncomfortably, opened the passenger door for him, and explained, “This is a birthday present from my brother. It just so happens that the back seat of the previous car was a bit dirty. I made an appointment with the 4s shop to pick up the car for maintenance today, so…”
We all know the reason why it was dirty.
Even someone as calm as Gu Jiqing felt his ears get hot for a moment. He fastened his seat belt and said, “Let’s go.”
“Yeah.” Zhou Cibai rarely saw Gu Jiqing looking a little embarrassed like this, so he couldn’t help but smile. He closed the car door and glanced at the back seat through the rearview mirror.
As expected of a military-standard off-road vehicle, the rear seat space is much higher, so he won’t hit his head anymore. It also has excellent privacy protection features, making it very suitable for rewards.
Zhou Cibai withdrew his gaze with satisfaction, feeling nervous and shy in anticipation.
Gu Jiqing, who hadn’t remembered this at all, just pursed his lips and kept sending messages with his head down.
The car soon stopped outside the South District dormitory building.
“Do you want me to go with you?” Zhou Cibai asked.
Gu Jiqing said, “No need.”
He was afraid that someone like He Changzhi would embarrass Zhou Cibai regardless of the occasion, or right or wrong.
There was no need for him to let Zhou Cibai suffer this grievance with him.
So when He Changzhi stood at the gate and watched Gu Jiqing get out of a car that was obviously not something an ordinary rich person could buy, he frowned.
He recognized Zhou Cibai’s car, so the person in the car was definitely not Zhou Cibai. Then who was Gu Jiqing hooking up with again?
He remembered that someone had told him that they saw Gu Jiqing get into a luxury business car outside the school and was picked up by an old man in a suit. Later, they saw Gu Jiqing and the old man, arm in arm, at the door of a gay bar. His face turned cold, and he asked Gu Jiqing, “Who is that?”
Gu Jiqing replied calmly, “It has nothing to do with you.”
“He was the one you slept with on the 1st’s night?” He Changzhi’s tone of questioning was filled with irrepressible jealousy and anger.
Gu Jiqing felt that there was no need to lie, but there was no need to answer either, so he just said casually, “Can I have the application form for the Mathematical Modeling Competition?”
“You can sleep with others, but you don’t want to sleep with me. Is it because I’m not as rich as them?!” He Changzhi had obviously completely lost his mind, and the words he said were simply unbearable to hear.
Gu Jiqing suddenly thought of Zhou Cibai. In fact, Zhou Cibai also had the natural possessiveness of male creatures. He would get jealous and childishly angry, but his expressions always put him in a higher position, and he was just afraid that he would not choose him.
Instead of being like He Changzhi, who subconsciously treats the beautiful faces and bodies of young men or women as an objectified trading tool.
He didn’t want to talk too much to He Changzhi. “Give me the form.”
He Changzhi clenched the form tightly: “Aren’t you afraid that I will expose all your dirty deeds?”
Gu Jiqing didn’t care: “En, if I cared about these things, you would be the first one to become infamous.”
If he cared about what people said about him, he wouldn’t have let those rumors spread for so long.
He had long thought that the last thing He Changzhi could do was attack his private life, and these were exactly what he cared about the least.
It’s just that how could someone not care about these things? He Changzhi didn’t believe it at all, but he also knew that once Gu Jiqing told the truth about his attempt to deceive someone into marriage, he would definitely not be able to survive.
He gritted his teeth, suppressed his emotions, and handed the form to Gu Jiqing: “This competition is a school recommendation system. If you can’t even pass this final assignment, the department will not let you represent our school in the competition. The questions will be sent out at 18:00 this afternoon and must be submitted before 18:00 on the 8th. The only ones who haven’t formed a team yet are me, you, and Lao Lu.”
Mathematical modeling competitions are usually conducted in teams of 1 to 3 people. The competition lasts for three days and three nights and requires the completion of modeling, programming, and paper writing. It would be very tiring in terms of both difficulty and time for one person to do this alone.
Although this is just a final assignment, it is obvious that the department wants to take advantage of the fact that there are no classes in the final week and other exams are concentrated from the 10th to the 15th to conduct an applied mathematical modeling competition practice for the entire department.
It will more or less affect the number of school recommendation spots in this college competition.
He Changzhi knew that Gu Jiqing would care about this.
Gu Jiqing did indeed care.
However, those classmates who had a good relationship with him sent messages one after another, expressing regretfully that they all knew that Gu Jiqing was capable and wanted to team up with him very much, but He Changzhi was the class monitor, and they usually skipped classes and were absent from school work, so they were afraid that if He Changzhi was to report, it would affect their GPA or evaluation.
Gu Jiqing didn’t have too many thoughts.
He just thinks that Zhou Cibai was right.
Most of the love gained by not rejecting others cannot stand the test of gains and losses.
He knew that after the matter was over, his classmates would still express their love for him by calling him “Xiao Gu,” but when things happened, he could only rely on his own abilities.
So he indifferently said, “It’s okay. You know, mathematical modeling is not just about mathematics. Teammates with poor abilities are worse than having no teammates. So thank you for your concern, but it’s not necessary.”
Gu Jiqing turned around and said it decisively.
When he was a freshman, He Changzhi formed a team with Gu Jiqing to participate in a competition. As a result, due to his own mistakes in writing the paper, the model that should have won the first prize ended up only winning second place in the province. He Changzhi stood there, gritting his teeth and clenching his fists, his eyes full of uncontrollable shame and anger.
Especially when he saw Gu Jiqing walk to the car, open the driver’s door, and obviously bend down to kiss the person sitting in the driver’s seat, the anger in his heart had completely made him lose his last bit of rationality.
He didn’t believe that Gu Jiqing, a sophomore, could complete the proposition modeling in three days by himself.
He also didn’t believe that there was really anyone who wouldn’t care about other people’s gossip and the judgmental looks they were given.
He clenched his fist until he lost feeling, then finally loosened it. With a cold face, he took out his phone, took a photo of Gu Jiqing getting into the car, and sent a message: [Help me find an anonymous IP to post a message on the school forum, saying that the beauty of a certain college is cheating on the beauty of another college and hooking up with a rich man]
The courtyard hunk and rich man himself sat there in a daze after Gu Jiqing suddenly opened the car door and bent down to kiss him lightly between the eyebrows, as if he were so flattered that he couldn’t react.
Gu Jiqing looked at the man wearing Martin boots, a black jacket, and driving a military Hummer with his handsome hair, looking cool and badass, but with a dull look in his eyes. The original small bad mood was swept away immediately.
He sat back in the passenger seat with satisfaction, fastened his seat belt, then tilted his head to look at Zhou Cibai and asked softly, “I may need to stay up all night these days, and it’s not convenient to stay in the dormitory. Can I move to your house in advance? I’ll pay the rent today.”
Zhou Cibai, who was completely stunned by the good news, quickly said, “Of course, no rent; ah, no, that’s not it either… Anyway, no, why do you have to stay up all night? And why did you kiss me?”
Zhou Cibai quickly grasped the point and frowned seriously.
Gu Jiqing chuckled, then turned his head, looked at the white halo of winter outside the window, and said, “Because the star did not lie.”
This is a sentence that only Gu Jiqing can understand.
Although Zhou Cibai didn’t understand, but seeing Gu Jiqing’s smile, he could only look away, drive him home obediently, and think about how to ask for a reward.
And somewhere they don’t know, a post titled [Report! A famous beauty from a certain college is cheating on multiple boyfriends with luxury cars at the same time! Including Land Rover, Hummer, and Maybach! There are pictures, and there are facts!] The post was quietly fermenting.
