Chapter 25: One-handed Unbuckling

A flicker of confusion flashed across Ye Zhou’s brow.

Why did Lin Shulan suddenly bend down under the table?

“Senior Lin, what are you doing?”

“The strap is loose…”

Ye Zhou glanced down. The laces on the black Doc Martin boots wrapping Lin Shulan’s dainty feet were clearly intact.

“Fine, go ahead and laugh at me all you want.”

Lin Shulan straightened her impressive chest slightly, looking as if she had resigned herself to her fate.

“Laugh? Why would I laugh at you, Senior Lin?”

Ye Zhou tilted his head, truly confused. “While my appetite isn’t as large as Zhihan’s, it’s still bigger than the average person’s.”

“However, I didn’t seem to have much of a stomach for breakfast today, so I bought too much.”

“If it’s alright with you, could you help me finish this, Senior Lin?”

“After all, wasting food is shameful.”

With that, Ye Zhou picked up the remaining half of a Shouzhuanbing with his left hand and gently pushed the untouched Jianbing Guozi over with his right.

Lin Shulan hesitated for a moment before picking it up.

Her brain, currently occupied by hunger, unceremoniously borrowed the kind of phrasing Chen Yuhe usually used.

“As Chen Yuhe often says, when a Junior is in trouble, it would be wrong for a Senior Student not to help. Is that what you mean?”

“Of course!”

Ye Zhou pressed his hands together, a faint smile on his lips. “I would be truly grateful.”

—

Lin Shulan was indeed starving. She choked the moment she took a bite.

Seeing this, Ye Zhou hurriedly poked a straw into the other untouched cup of Sweet Soy Milk and handed it to her.

However, after a few gulps, she found no relief.

She knitted her brows tightly and pointed toward her back.

Ye Zhou understood and immediately reached out to pat her. After just a few hits, he heard an extremely strange and crisp snap.

Fortunately, Lin Shulan finally managed to swallow.

She stood up unhurriedly, covering her chest with one hand and her back with the other.

“I need to go to the restroom for a moment.”

Even if he hadn’t experienced it personally, Ye Zhou had at least seen enough to know what happened.

He looked down at his right hand, completely dazed.

‘No way? When did you secretly awaken the ability for one-handed unbuckling behind my back?’

Three minutes later, the restroom door opened. Lin Shulan walked out slowly, pulling up the zipper of her black leather jacket, which had been hanging open.

Ye Zhou hurriedly waved his hands to explain. “I’m so sorry, Senior Lin! I really didn’t do it on purpose. I don’t know how that happened…”

“I know you didn’t do it on purpose.”

“Returning to the topic, didn’t I tell you earlier that my strap was loose?”

Lin Shulan sat back in her seat.

This time, having learned her lesson, she held the Jianbing Guozi and the Sweet Soy Milk, chewing in honest, small bites. Her cheeks puffed out occasionally, making her look almost like a hamster.

Ye Zhou clapped his hands in realization.

“Oh! So the strap you were talking about was that one?”

“I thought you meant your shoelaces.”

“With a misunderstanding like this, I feel like nothing short of ritual suicide could clear my name.”

—

At that moment, the door to the President’s Office opened.

Jiang Yingxue poked her head out. Her unbundled silver hair fell across her shoulder. Her left cheek was puffed out in annoyance before slowly deflating.

“What are you two chatting about so excitedly?”

“You’re being loud enough to disturb me while I’m doing my homework.”

Ye Zhou scratched his head and laughed. “Nothing. I was just talking to myself.”

“Hmm? Is that so?”

Jiang Yingxue’s gaze swept back and forth between Ye Zhou and Lin Shulan, her eyes filled with lingering suspicion.

If the person chatting excitedly with Ye Zhou had been Chen Yuhe, it would have been somewhat normal.

But it happened to be Lin Shulan.

Anyone who knew Lin Shulan knew her reputation.

She was genuinely frigid.

To put it bluntly, she found it nearly impossible to feel even a shred of interest in the opposite sex.

Jiang Yingxue then spotted the half-eaten Shouzhuanbing at Ye Zhou’s seat.

She walked straight over, picked it up, and asked, “Ye Zhou, is this your breakfast?”

Ye Zhou blinked, then nodded.

In the next second, Jiang Yingxue took a bite without any hesitation. While chewing, she asked, “It tastes good. Where did you buy it?”

“From the place downstairs… wait, no!” Ye Zhou replied honestly.

Jiang Yingxue took another bite. “What do you mean No?”

Ye Zhou was instantly dumbstruck.

“That… that’s the one I was eating, President Jiang.”

“If you wanted some, I could have just brought you one another day.”

Jiang Yingxue licked the crumbs from the corner of her lips and raised an eyebrow.

“Why wait for another day? I didn’t have time for breakfast this morning either, and I’m starving. I have to eat something now.”

“What? Are you saying I’m not allowed to eat it?”

Ye Zhou couldn’t help but press his palm to his forehead. For some reason, he suddenly missed the version of President Jiang who had a fever.

Once she returned to her normal self, her mischievous nature was bound to act up.

“Even so, there was no need to eat my leftovers. It has my saliva on it. It’s dirty.”

“Huh? What? Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

Jiang Yingxue finished it in a few bites and licked her slender fingers, speaking at a leisurely pace.

Ye Zhou’s eye twitched uncontrollably.

“President Jiang, please stop teasing a pure college student like me. I’m no match for you.”

Acting as if she hadn’t heard him, Jiang Yingxue picked up the half-finished cup of Sweet Soy Milk on the table and drained it in one go.

Ye Zhou sighed. “I drank from that too.”

Jiang Yingxue wiped the milky white liquid from the corner of her mouth with a tissue.

“Well, what a coincidence.”

“But I’m full and satisfied now, so I won’t hold it against you.”

“I’m going back to finish my homework. You two take your time chatting.”

“By the way, Ye Zhou, you’re not allowed to leave. Let me think… come to my office in about thirty minutes. I have something important to tell you.”

Ye Zhou nodded with a look of utter despair.

He complained inwardly, ‘President Jiang really is like a snow fox coming out to forage. Once she’s fed, she slips right back to her den.’

He then remembered that the Drama Club had recently received a new shipment of stage props, which were currently sitting in the Prop Room with no one to organize them.

Could the important matter the President mentioned be that?

If so, he was just plain unlucky.

‘Oh, heavens! Please don’t ruin my precious Saturday!’

If he had known, he would have dropped off Senior Lin’s breakfast and made a run for it.

But the urgent problem was that he wasn’t full yet. What should he do?

At the thought, Ye Zhou’s peripheral vision caught the last remaining Shouzhuanbing. However, its position was awkward, as it was over by Lin Shulan.

“Ahem… Senior Lin, this is a bit embarrassing to ask, but could you share one-third of that Shouzhuanbing with me?”

“Don’t worry, my eyes are like a ruler. I guarantee it won’t be a bit more or a bit less.”

Lin Shulan had already finished her Jianbing Guozi. Without even wiping the grease from her lips, she picked up the Shouzhuanbing and ruthlessly took a large bite.

Ye Zhou’s lip twitched. Was Senior Lin surprisingly protective of her food?

“Because I have already bought them, they are mine.”

“Bought them?”

Lin Shulan’s matter-of-fact statement left Ye Zhou with more confusion than wrinkles on an old woman’s face.

He watched as Lin Shulan took out her phone and tapped on it.

Almost simultaneously, a sound came from the phone in Ye Zhou’s pocket.

He knew that ringtone very well; it was the notification from his webnovel author dashboard.