“Hmm?”
Su Yichen, who was walking toward the north gate of Qingyue University, suddenly paused and pulled his phone from his pocket.
The notification read: [Hello Su Yichen, I am Shen Ran.]
‘Shen Ran… adding me as a friend?’
The friend request made Su Yichen stop in his tracks.
After a moment of contemplation, he pressed his finger against the accept button.
He didn’t know the reason why Shen Ran was adding him, and he didn’t want to meddle in other people’s business. However, that didn’t stop him from accepting the request. After all…
This girl had appeared alongside Mo Qingqiu earlier, which indicated that they likely knew each other, perhaps even quite well.
It was difficult to pry for information from Luo Yueli, but he could potentially get what he needed from Shen Ran.
A minute after the request was accepted, a message from Shen Ran popped up: [Hello Su Yichen, I am Shen Ran.]
Su Yichen: [I know, we just saw each other.]
“Eh?”
Shen Ran, who had just reached the bottom of her dormitory building, stopped.
It seemed to be going smoother than expected; the friend request was accepted very quickly.
‘What should I say next?’
‘Should I just chat about something random first? Use it as a test to see how to interact with boys?’
The idea was sound, but Shen Ran felt that using Su Yichen as a tool like this was a bit unfair, and her conscience pricked her slightly.
‘It’s better to just be direct, right?’
With that thought, she began tapping away frantically at her screen.
However, even after five minutes, she hadn’t managed to compose a complete message. It wasn’t that her grammar was poor—she was a student at the College of Liberal Arts at Qingyue University, after all; she couldn’t be that incompetent.
It was simply that she didn’t know how to express it.
Most importantly, this kind of chat would leave a history.
If she remembered it later… or saw it again, it would be awkward—extremely awkward.
[I have something I want to tell you in person. Would it be convenient for us to meet?]
[By the way, I was just thinking about how to phrase this, so I was slow to reply… I’m sorry.]
[Apologies!]
She finished editing and hit send.
On the other side, Su Yichen, who had been waiting for five minutes, felt his legs getting a bit sore from standing.
Mostly, his mind was weary.
He had originally planned to head over to Guanghan Palace to check on the situation, but Mo Qingqiu had appeared out of nowhere and delayed him for a significant amount of time.
Now, he had wasted another five minutes on Shen Ran, who was being incredibly slow to reply.
Was today just an inauspicious day on the lunar calendar? Was it not a good day to be a host?
‘Could this girl be preparing to confess to me, using her strengths as a literature student to compose a ten-thousand-word love letter?’
A ridiculous thought flashed through his mind.
Su Yichen was just thinking idly out of boredom. There was zero chance Shen Ran would confess to him.
He had sensed it during their meal earlier; Shen Ran had no worldly desires for him whatsoever.
After all, his appearance was incredibly average after being downgraded by the marginal glasses.
His height was even less of a talking point. Shen Ran was about 172 cm tall, while he was only 171 cm. In front of a girl that tall… he had practically lost all standing as a potential mate.
At that moment, the phone buzzed. Shen Ran’s message had arrived.
Shen Ran: [I have something I want to tell you in person. Would it be convenient for us to meet?]
[By the way, I was just thinking about how to phrase this, so I was slow to reply… I’m sorry.]
[Apologies!]
‘Something to tell me? In person?’
Su Yichen actually felt a spark of interest. Since a confession was out of the question, what could be so mysterious that it required a face-to-face meeting?
And…
Judging by this stiff way of speaking, it seemed Shen Ran wasn’t very good at dealing with people?
Su Yichen recalled Shen Ran’s clumsy demeanor at the Dessert House earlier.
That was it—clumsy. Compared to Luo Yueli, Tong Ya, or Mo Qingqiu, this girl radiated an aura of insecurity from the inside out.
She was like a beautiful version of a township test-taker.
While he was curious, Su Yichen didn’t want to go looking for trouble.
He already had enough on his plate: Tong Ya, Luo Yueli, the Qianxia sisters, and now Mo Qingqiu.
Except for Tong Ya, who was somewhat cute, none of these women were easy to deal with.
If he hadn’t been battle-hardened and well-read in both *The Psychology of Interpersonal Relationships* and *The Survival Guide*, he would have crashed and burned long ago. He wouldn’t have even survived the hurdle of Luo Yueli.
Both Tong Ya and Mo Qingqiu had connections to Luo Yueli, and they also controlled that unreasonable mechanic called the deviation value.
Su Yichen had already figured it out; Luo Yueli was an Elite Monster of the Evening Primrose, a green-named entity.
Provoking her was just increasing the difficulty for himself; he absolutely couldn’t get too deeply entangled with her.
As for Shen Ran… Su Yichen didn’t want to get involved, but he really needed to use her to scout for information about Mo Qingqiu.
He decided to make contact.
He remained very cautious toward that Eldest Miss from a prestigious family, who seemed heavily suspected of trying to stir up trouble.
After weighing the options for a moment, Su Yichen concluded that the benefits outweighed the risks.
[I’m at the north gate. Come find me at the Shujiao Garden at the north gate.]
Shujiao Garden was a small bookstore just outside the north gate of Qingyue University. It was very quiet, and few people knew about it.
Su Yichen had scouted several locations like this, intending to use them to meet different capture targets separately.
This was very important. Don’t ask why—anyone asking “why” clearly hasn’t experienced a devastating shura field.
As the saying goes, one grows wiser with every mistake. Asking such a question meant one likely hadn’t suffered such a loss, or simply lacked the conditions to suffer it.
Who would have thought that the secret garden he had prepared would end up being used first by Shen Ran, who was at most a supporting character.
[Okay, I’m coming right now.]
Shen Ran scratched her head, thinking everything seemed to be going quite smoothly.
She immediately slung her small bag over her shoulder and headed excitedly toward the north gate.
But as the girl approached the north gate of the university, she suddenly realized she didn’t know where Shujiao Garden was located.
‘Should I… ask Su Yichen?’
‘But would that make him think I’m too stupid? That I can’t even find a place like that?’
‘Besides, it would probably bother him and cause him trouble…’
Thinking this, Shen Ran abandoned the plan to ask Su Yichen and chose to figure it out on her own.
“Is she lost? If she can’t find the place, why doesn’t she just ask me?”
Su Yichen, who was reading a book in a small private booth inside the bookstore, had already finished two cups of tea and had even taken a trip to the restroom.
He still hadn’t seen Shen Ran.
He had even sent her the name of the private booth; there shouldn’t be an issue.
Setting Mu Qianqian aside, had he, Su Yichen, really fallen so low that even a mere supporting character would stand him up?
Or was this just standard procedure for an SSS-rank void realm?
He waited another ten minutes.
Finally, just as Su Yichen was about to pour a third cup of tea, the door to the booth was pushed open.
“I’m… I’m sorry…”
A panting Shen Ran appeared at the door. “Classmate Su Yichen, I’m late.”
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