Chapter 40
The two people who silently walked down to the fourth floor were Gu Xici and Lu Man, who had previously gone from the third floor to the fourth floor when Lu Jia was carrying Su Mo into the room. They were fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of Lu Jia carrying Lin Yin into the dorm room.
At first, Gu Xici was worried about something and wanted to knock on the door to ask. But when she heard strange sounds faintly coming from the room, she had to put down her hand that was about to knock and awkwardly chose to flee.
She never imagined that Lu Jia and Lin Yin would have such a close relationship, although this is just her guess. After all, she only heard some sounds and doesn't have any evidence to prove anything.
Compared to her cautious attitude, Lu Man next to her seemed direct and too direct. She even sighed, "Wow, I never expected they would have that kind of relationship."
Lu Man was happy, especially when she saw and heard something. Her first reaction was that she had caught Lu Jia's handle. If she had a handle, Lu Jia couldn't threaten Gu Xici's position anymore. And the important thing is that this could make Jiang Bei suffer a big loss.
For some reason, Gu Xici was excluded by Jiang Bei and others, and she was even cornered by Zhang Han. Lu Man was worried because she had so much anger and nowhere to vent it.
Now... this is a great opportunity. Jiang Bei is interested in Lu Jia, and many people noticed that from the first meeting. But Jiang Bei, unlike the decisive Li Hua, and Lu Jia, who seems isolated except for completing missions, have made no progress. Jiang Bei is probably getting impatient.
I wonder what kind of expression Jiang Bei would have if he knew that Lu Jia liked women and had a questionable relationship with Lin Yin, her roommate. Lu Man suddenly looked forward to seeing Jiang Bei's reaction.
Even though Gu Xici had some guesses about what she heard, she didn't want to expose other people's privacy. In this regard, she could control herself and asked Lu Man intentionally, "What kind of relationship?" with a tone that had a bit of schadenfreude.
As a result, Lu Man was completely confused by her words. Looking at Gu Xici's expression, she couldn't believe it. "Xici, are you joking with me?" She even inclined to think that Gu Xici asked the question in this way to ironically mock Lu Jia. She didn't want to believe that Gu Xici didn't actually hear anything.
"Lu Man, I hope you understand that if we don't have evidence, we shouldn't say things indiscriminately."
Gu Xici's words made Lu Man feel frustrated, how could this be called "making things up", since she clearly heard it, "But... I clearly heard it."
"There is no 'just', we don't have any concrete evidence to prove their relationship, and besides, I don't like spreading rumors about someone's personal life, nor do I want someone like that around me."
Gu Xici understands Lu Man's character, she doesn't have any ill intentions, but she has her own standards of good and bad, and often acts impulsively without thinking things through. Gu Xici needs someone like that, but she also needs to control it.
Lu Man understood what Gu Xici meant, but she didn't understand why. She believed that Gu Xici wouldn't defend Lu Jia, so if that's the case, what was the purpose of Gu Xici saying this? Seeing such a good opportunity, would she just let it slip away? Lu Man felt somewhat unwilling.
"Can you tell me why? Have you stopped hating her?"
"I still hate her, but now that I have the upper hand at work, I have already won against her. And I firmly believe that she cannot take away everything I have. That's enough for me. I just want to surpass her, I don't want my words to ruin her."
Gu Xici has her own confidence. She can openly mock Lu Jia, and even verbally abuse her face to face, but doing things behind her back is not her style.
This is also why she hates that everyone knows about her dislike for Lu Jia, because her dislike is too obvious. And this reason even led to her giving Lu Jia a hard time at work and spreading rumors to put Lu Jia in difficulty.
Gu Xici admits that she initially had such thoughts, with the purpose of seeing Lu Jia resist her, but she didn't actually do it. As for the reason.
The first reason is that doing things secretly with personal motives goes against her principles. The second reason is that she considers Lin Yin's situation and feels responsible for taking care of her roommate, Lu Jia.
The third reason is that she thinks this won't be useful for Lu Jia. Through their simple interactions, she can tell that Lu Jia has a noncompetitive personality and seems completely independent from everyone else. She is quiet and unnoticed, yet her uniqueness cannot be ignored.
Of course, the most important reason is that she is a girl.
They are the same kind, and if everything was fine, it wouldn't matter what she did. But now is not the right time to do those things.
Perhaps she once tried hard to be in a position of authority over girls, just to defeat Lu Jia. But now... it's clear she wants more than that.
In the quiet atmosphere, the two of them silently went down to the third floor and smoothly spotted the girl who had been eavesdropping under Gu Xici's window before.
They saw the girl linking arms with a boy and entering their own dorm room.
Gu Xici recognized this boy. He seemed to be the captain of Li Hua's team. She had seen him during a meeting, but they had no interaction because they were on opposite sides.
Following Gu Xici's arrangement, based on the principle of volunteering, male students can only enter the female dorm if a girl invites them and registers them in the logbook. After all, they can't be too strict.
Lu Man looked at Zhang Han, who was pulling the boy into the room, feeling disgusted. Especially when she seemed to glance towards them and give them a dirty look as she entered the dormitory.
"Ugh, eavesdropping is bad enough, now she's rushing to sell herself. She's really gone mad," Lu Man was so angry that she couldn't say anything. In her mind, Zhang Han was a foolish lunatic.
But Gu Xici remained calm and said, "If this person can truly protect her, then it's her skill. Let's go, I'm a little hungry."
In her view, things were different now, so there would naturally be different choices. Some people wanted to live with self-respect and independence, while others just wanted a good life. So, for those people, Gu Xici chose to turn a blind eye, as long as their methods didn't harm others.
Watching Gu Xici, Lu Man couldn't understand her anymore. She always felt that Gu Xici had many things in her head that she couldn't comprehend. Maybe that's the difference between them, she thought, and quietly followed Gu Xici in the end.
The person in 417 felt a tingling sensation on their neck, sometimes being stimulated by weaknesses can actually wake someone up.
"Wait a minute~"
"Wait~"
Just before things were about to get out of control, Lu Jia made a great effort to hit the pause button and pushed Su Mo aside.
Feeling the intense gaze from Su Mo that made her feel overly hot, she silently turned her head away and took two steps back.
The summer heat, intensified by Su Mo's gaze, seemed to exceed her imagination. Feeling the sticky sensation behind her, Lu Jia felt uncomfortable all over.
Her face turned a bit red. The rising temperature didn't have enough time to subside, and her just regained consciousness felt a bit hot, similar to the feeling of having a fever.
Now, Lu Jia had no idea what she was doing. Ever since the last time she took the initiative, her relationship with Su Mo had become uncontrollable, like a tide that swept towards her relentlessly.
She didn't hate the current situation, but rather, she didn't understand it. Looking at Su Mo's current state, Lu Jia couldn't help but feel that she was taking advantage of her vulnerability.
Eventually, overwhelmed by her troubled thoughts, she decided to calm herself down first.
"I'm going to take a shower first, you stay outside and behave."
After giving this instruction, she couldn't pay attention to what Su Mo might be thinking, and could only focus on her own situation.
Not long after, the sound of rushing water filled the bathroom.
And outside the bathroom door, Su Mo stood quietly. At this moment, she couldn't understand Lu Jia's actions and confusion, she could only feel strange. She tried hard to understand why, until the sound of water in her ears became clearer, even... ringing in her head.
In her mind, a girl standing in front of a mirror appeared. The girl had her back to the mirror, holding her long hair down her back and lifting it up.
On her delicate spine, there were vivid red marks that were about the width of two fingers. In the mirror, these marks emitted a bloody color, without any scabbed traces.
The water flowed silently beside her as the girl carefully wiped the red marks against the mirror.
Every time she touched a mark, it sent a piercing pain, even making Su Mo, who was only observing the scene in her mind, gasp for breath, although she was breathless at the moment.
Tears filled the girl's eye sockets, but she still tightly bit her lips, not making any sound, or any faint sounds that were masked by the sound of water.
However, her hands were limited, she couldn't reach the scars that were too centered.
In the end... she silently crouched down, clutching her legs tightly, choking with sobs.
When Lu Jia was washed by the cold water and regained her calm and sanity, she then, with wet hair, opened the bathroom door.
And right at that moment, the person squatting at the door startled her.
Watching Su Mo bury her head in her legs, silently crouching on the ground, trying to make herself as small as possible and holding herself tightly, this action made her feel lonely and afraid.
And the person squatting down, perhaps sensing her presence, slowly lifted their head towards her.
Watching the tears slide down her face and soak the corners of the bandages, Lu Jia had no reaction, she was frozen in place instead.
Su Mo's tears fell onto her heart like ice picks, landing uncontrollably, carving a hole in her heart, even wanting to pierce through it.
