She Ignores Me
When those words came out of the Master’s mouth, they sounded so scientific that even Zhang Xueji was stunned for a moment.
Zhang Xueji said weakly, “But when I was on my way to school this morning, I also……………”
Xie Qiaoqiao: “It’s because you’re anemic.”
Zhang Xueji was confused, “Huh? I’m anemic?”
Xie Qiaoqiao: “You slit your wrist yesterday. Even though the wound healed on its own, you still lost a lot of blood. It’s normal to have some symptoms of blood deficiency for a while. Eat more pig liver.”
Zhang Xueji nodded repeatedly—even though Xie Qiaoqiao on the other end of the phone couldn’t see him at all.
“Alright, Master, I’ve got it, Master, Master…………”
Xie Qiaoqiao: “Don’t call me Master, it sounds terrible, like some scammer.”
Zhang Xueji hesitated for a moment, then said softly, “Then should I just call you Qiaoqiao?”
Xie Qiaoqiao let out a quiet “Mm” and closed the door behind her, “I’m hanging up, there’s no signal in the elevator.”
Before Zhang Xueji could even finish saying ‘bye,’ the other side had already hung up the voice call. He stared at the screen in thought for a few seconds, then sent his location to Xie Qiaoqiao.
[Zhang Xueji: I’m having a group meeting here]
[Zhang Xueji: Going to class on the first floor later]
[Zhang Xueji: Having lunch at the Second Canteen]
After reporting his location to his reliable neighbor, Zhang Xueji felt much more at ease. He leaned against the wall and walked back to the meeting room, opened a drawer, and grabbed several packs of red ginseng to replenish his blood.
The Master was right—even though the wound had healed, the blood was really gone! For lunch today, I’ll order two servings of pig liver—Zhang Xueji made up his mind as he chewed on his supplements.
In the afternoon, there were two volleyball classes.
Boys and girls split into groups to practice bumping the ball.
While everyone else was still getting hit by the volleyball and chasing it all over the place, Xie Qiaoqiao had already finished the number of bumps the PE teacher required and went to sit on the side to rest.
By the second half of class, the volleyball teacher had gone off to chat with the badminton teacher next door, so the rest of the students stopped practicing seriously and gathered along the shady side of the net wall to rest in a row.
Qinghua Lu turned her little handheld fan to maximum and placed it between herself and Xie Qiaoqiao. Both of them had bangs, and the breeze from the fan blew their bangs and side hair up at once, revealing their sweaty foreheads.
Qiongsi Sang glanced back and forth between the two, then said to Qinghua Lu, “Did you get even tanner lately?”
Qinghua Lu was very frustrated, “Don’t mention it! It’s all because of Sanya! Ever since I got sunburned there during summer break, I haven’t been able to get my fair skin back.”
Qiongsi Sang: “Let me recommend you a face mask, it’s really good for whitening—I posted it in the dorm group already.”
The three of them sat side by side in the shade.
Qiongsi Sang rolled up the sleeve of her sun-protection jacket, showed her wrist, and complained, “The volleyball scraped my wrist raw. If I’d known volleyball was this hard, I would’ve picked badminton. And we have to bump it fifty times—I can’t even get to ten.”
“Who isn’t struggling?” Qinghua Lu saved the face mask link as she frowned, “My record is only 25 so far. At times like this, I really envy Qiaoqiao. Must be nice to have good athletic genes.”
Qiongsi Sang: “Ugh, so annoying, I don’t want to have to retake PE during Finals.”
Qinghua Lu: “How’s that part-timer guy of yours doing?”
Xie Qiaoqiao looked puzzled, “Who’s the part-timer guy?”
Qinghua Lu: “It’s Sisi’s boyfriend—the one who works part-time every weekend and holiday, rain or shine, and even insists on splitting the bill for bubble tea.”
Qiongsi Sang quickly defended her boyfriend, “He’s a medical student! If he doesn’t save up now, what will he do when he starts working?”
Qinghua Lu gave her a speechless look, too lazy to argue, and used her fan to nudge Xie Qiaoqiao’s arm, “Is your neighbor still noisy?”
Xie Qiaoqiao shook her head, “Not anymore.”
Qinghua Lu said, “That’s good. If he gets noisy again, just knock on his door and punch his shoe cabinet crooked—we’ll go with you as backup. With more people, it looks more intimidating.”
“We could even bring Sisi’s boyfriend along—at least he’s a guy.”
Qiongsi Sang shook her head, “He won’t work, he’s a skinny pup. If he shows up, people will think we’re easy to bully when they see his arms.”
Qinghua Lu:
Qiongsi Sang: “But he does have a few classmates who look pretty intimidating, we could bring them along to show some presence.”
Qinghua Lu really wanted to roll her eyes, but since Qiongsi Sang was right next to her, she held back and said, “Aren’t the skinny pup’s friends also skinny pups?”
Qiongsi Sang replied, “No, one of his friends is Grandmaster Zhang.”
This time, Qinghua Lu had to agree, “Okay, that would definitely make a good impression.”
Xie Qiaoqiao pressed her face to the fan, her voice broken up by the wind, “Who’s Grandmaster Zhang?”
“Hold on, I’ll find him for you,” Qinghua Lu took out her phone, scrolled through, and zoomed in on a photo in someone else’s Moments to show Xie Qiaoqiao, “Here, this is Grandmaster Zhang.”
“A graduate student in Applied Mathematics, good-looking, athletic, their department counts on him every year to raise their average at the school sports meet. But last year, Qiaobao, you took time off, so you haven’t seen him.”
“Grandmaster Zhang is really cool in the relay race!”
Xie Qiaoqiao looked carefully at the phone Qinghua Lu handed her—the picture was a group photo of ten guys, with Zhang Xueji standing in the back row.
Whether it was his figure or his face, he stood out from the rest, like he was on a different layer from the others.
Normally, Xie Qiaoqiao thought of Zhang Xueji as having puppy-like eyes and a clean face, but never thought of him as handsome.
It wasn’t until she saw him in a group photo with average-looking guys that Xie Qiaoqiao was surprised: Oh, so Zhang Xueji is actually this good-looking?
It was a strange feeling, like having a fixed impression suddenly overturned.
Xie Qiaoqiao handed the phone back to Qinghua Lu, “He won’t work, he’s weak too.”
She added silently in her heart: Zhang Xueji would cry if he saw a ghost, no different from Sisi’s skinny pup boyfriend—but at least Zhang Xueji can cook, likes to share, and his face is as cute as a real puppy, plus he’s ridiculously, ridiculously, ridiculously good at math, so he’s a bit better than the part-timer guy.
The bell rang for the end of class. Zhang Xueji listlessly packed his things and, out of habit, picked up his phone to report his next plans to Xie Qiaoqiao.
He always felt that the main reason he was saved last night was because he had casually reported his whereabouts to Xie Qiaoqiao.
Who knows if that female ghost would come back to force him to study Clinical Medicine, so it’s safer to keep reporting to Xie Qiaoqiao.
[Zhang Xueji: I’m done with class.]
[Zhang Xueji: That medical student friend from yesterday said he wants to treat me to barbecue, at Jiaodou Food Stall, it’s on the Student Street to the left when you leave our campus]
[Zhang Xueji: I’ll be home by seven at the latest]
The message was sent like a stone sinking into the sea—no reply, no ‘typing’ status on the other side.
Zhang Xueji scrolled up and down their chat, refreshed it after reaching the end, and realized that his chat history with Xie Qiaoqiao was really quite dull.
Xie Qiaoqiao basically never answered his questions, but would pop up randomly to ask, “What are you doing?” like some kind of chatbot.
He lay on his desk, lost in thought for a while, and couldn’t help but think of the midnight snack Xie Qiaoqiao made last night, so he sent her another message.
[Zhang Xueji: What time are you having dinner?]
[Zhang Xueji: I’ll bring some barbecue back for you]
[Xie Qiaoqiao: Five thirty]
[Xie Qiaoqiao: Bring more meat]
Zhang Xueji muttered on his desk, “Why does she only answer these kinds of questions? She completely ignores me when I ask about zombies and vampires…”
“Who’s ignoring you?”
A male voice drifted over from behind, scaring Zhang Xueji into jumping up.
When he turned around and saw it was Yuezhang Yan, he kicked him in annoyance, “Are you crazy? People can be scared to death, you know?”
Yuezhang Yan looked innocent, “I called you, I called your name several times, but you just kept staring at your phone and didn’t answer.”
“So who’s ignoring you? Look at our little Zhang, so worried, you haven’t replied to me since yesterday. The first message you sent me today was to remind me to treat you to dinner—I came out of the Equipment Room last night and didn’t see you, sent you more than ten messages, and you didn’t reply to a single one! Where did you go last night?”
Zhang Xueji couldn’t be bothered to respond, simply ignoring Yuezhang Yan’s complaints.
Yesterday and today, he was too busy studying the few messages Xie Qiaoqiao sent him to even remember there was a Yuezhang Yan waiting for him.
The events of last night were just too bizarre—no one would believe it even if he said it out loud. So Zhang Xueji glossed over it, “I suddenly found a data error last night, had to rush back to recalculate, and forgot to tell you.”
The two of them left the campus and headed straight for Student Street. Yuezhang Yan took a discount coupon out of his bag to order food, and even wanted the boss to bring two bottles of beer—Zhang Xueji refused, saying he didn’t drink.
He was afraid that if he drank too much, the female ghost would come back and force him to study Clinical Medicine again.
After Yuezhang Yan finished a bottle, his face slightly flushed with drunkenness, Zhang Xueji casually asked, “I heard you Clinical Medicine students are under a lot of pressure. There was even a senior who tried to kill herself because she couldn’t finish her thesis, is that true?”
Of course, Zhang Xueji hadn’t actually heard any such thing—he was just fishing for information.
Yuezhang Yan didn’t notice, munching on peanuts as he tried to remember, “Oh, yeah, I think something like that did happen… but that was a long time ago, and she didn’t die. After they fished her out, the school was afraid she’d try again, so they gave her a Graduate School Recommendation.”
“We were just talking about this a few days ago during the rat dissection in lab—if we can’t finish our thesis, we’ll just go for a swim in Spring Morning Lake and scare a random advisor to death, hahaha—”
Ding!
The rice cooker chimed, signaling that the meal was ready. The living room filled with the unique aroma of freshly cooked rice.
Xie Qiaoqiao put down her book, stood up, stretched, and zoned out for a moment, her mind blank.
A sudden knock on the door snapped her out of it. She lowered her arms and went to open the door, only to find Zhang Xueji, sweaty and steaming, standing at her doorstep.
He had clearly run all the way here—sweat was clinging to his eyelashes, his pupils were bright and droopy at the corners, his cheeks flushed from the exertion, looking nothing like someone who had slit his wrists just yesterday.
He raised both hands to Xie Qiaoqiao, his left holding his lit-up phone, his right carrying a bag of takeout skewers, panting as he said, “Just… just in time for five-thirty! Not a minute late!”