Chapter 68: Asking Gu Shiyan If He’s in Love

Right now, Luo Xing had no desire to hear Gu Shiyan’s name. She rubbed her ears. “So what if he did? It’s no big deal.”

“I’ll show you.” Yun Cai scrolled through the group chat to show Luo Xing. “But don’t tell anyone—took me ages to sneak in and eavesdrop on the gossip.”

She slid her finger up, searching through the messages. “I just stumbled on this. Earlier, someone tagged Gu Shiyan in the group, asking if he was the one behind the blacklisting incident. Back then, I didn’t get what it meant. But now with all this about the post, it clicked.”

Luo Xing glanced at the chat, confirming that a few guys had indeed questioned Gu Shiyan about the post.

Yun Cai shook her head. “Too bad Gu Shiyan didn’t reply. So we can't be sure it was him. Otherwise, I’d say what he did was pretty gutsy.”

“Why would he help Luo Xing with something like that? I don’t buy it.” Yao Xiangming shook his head. “I’d sooner believe it was Shen Que.”

The air stilled for a moment.

Ming An looked up at Shen Que, then dropped his gaze and scratched his palm.

“What if Gu Shiyan just thinks our Luo Xing is a good person, wants to make peace? Aren’t boys all like that?” Yun Cai needled.

The two started bickering. Yao Xiangming told Yun Cai not to stir up gender wars; Yun Cai countered that men being shameless was just a fact.

Luo Xing glanced up, catching Shen Que’s eyes on her. She sighed helplessly and shrugged.

“Luo Xing, did anyone add you?” Yao Xiangming stopped arguing and asked.

Luo Xing was puzzled. “Who?”

He grinned. “A guy I played basketball with earlier. He wanted your WeChat. I gave it to him.”

Luo Xing frowned, a little annoyed at Yao Xiangming’s habit of giving out her contact without permission. But knowing how clueless he was, she let it go. “I saw. I don’t add people I don’t know.”

Since the forum incident, quite a few people had tried to add Luo Xing. At first, she accepted two. Both turned out to be there to insult her. She deleted them and stopped accepting stranger requests.

“Too bad you didn’t add him. He asked me again today.” Yao Xiangming sounded troubled.

Shen Que fetched her water bottle and refilled it. “Don’t give out your contact info so freely next time, or you’ll be kicked from the group.”

Yao Xiangming promised never to do it again.

No one thought much of the matter.

After dinner, they parted ways to return to their dorms. Luo Xing, who rented her own place, also had to head back and help out at home.

On the way, she couldn’t help but recall Yun Cai’s speculation that Gu Shiyan might have been the one to get the post deleted and blacklist the account.

She opened her phone and asked Gu Shiyan directly if it was him.

He replied instantly: it was. But only because the whole thing started because of him.

Luo Xing felt a weight lift. She thanked him.

They didn’t chat further.

It wasn’t until Luo Xing unlocked her door and stepped inside.

She collapsed onto the sofa. Outside, the sun blazed, making even breathing feel hot.

She turned on the air conditioner. Her phone buzzed with another message.

She glanced at it, pausing for a moment.

Gu Shiyan was asking if her physics competition team was still short one member.

The team had five spots. After two seniors graduated, Luo Xing had joined, but they were indeed still missing one person.

What was Gu Shiyan getting at?

Luo Xing pressed her fingertip against her nail. She replied honestly: yes.

His reply came at once, as if he’d prepared it in advance.

“I volunteer.”

Sweat from Luo Xing’s brow dripped onto her sleeve. She looked up at the air conditioner’s display and turned the temperature down a notch.

She typed a reply to Gu Shiyan, slowly. She wrote a long paragraph about how he’d never participated in these before, that this wasn’t something to take lightly. She mentioned the requirements Shen Que had told her.

After writing it all, she paused, then deleted everything and simply replied: “Okay.”

Whatever he chose to do was his business. Even if he was just joining for fun, it had nothing to do with Luo Xing. When it came time for interviews, the captain would naturally weed him out.

After that, Luo Xing didn’t contact Gu Shiyan again.

She went about her routine: study, sleep, eat. Her days revolved around the library, classroom, and cafeteria.

The only real difference was that she no longer followed behind that boy who always walked so fast she had to jog to keep up.

Meanwhile, the number of boys pursuing her seemed to grow, which she found increasingly annoying.

She noticed that when she walked with Shen Que, no one approached her for contact info. So, she made a pact with Shen Que: they’d go to and from class and to the lab together.

With the post about her and Gu Shiyan gone, new rumors began to circulate—this time, that after being dumped by Gu Shiyan, Luo Xing had gotten together with Shen Que.

Every day, after classes, Luo Xing and Shen Que had to head to the lab to discuss topics for their physics innovation project. The workload kept them so busy they barely had time to care about the rumors.

...

Luo Xing sat beside the captain, observing candidates interviewing to join the team.

It was tedious, but choosing teammates was no trivial matter—after all, they’d be working closely together for a long time, and once finalized, the lineup couldn’t be easily changed.

All four current members took it seriously. Luo Xing didn’t want to be there, but she had no choice.

She lowered her head to read the recent research article she’d just found on her tablet. The project topic was still undecided—finding a teammate was one challenge, settling on a topic another.

Beside her, Shen Que handed her a candy, already unwrapped. Luo Xing took it, squeezing the powdery shell as the sweet and tart flavor filled her mouth.

“Next.”

The final spot was for someone with strong technical skills—exceptional at simulation or programming. The hardest to find.

The captain, Xu Yan, had already interviewed a dozen candidates and was starting to sigh. “It’s tough.”

Luo Xing glanced at the last candidate as he left.

The next person entered.

He brushed past the previous interviewee, towering over him by a head.

He wore an off-white American high-street sweatshirt and graphite gray jeans. The soft, casual fabric looked crisp on him. His sleeves were rolled up to his forearm, wrist hanging loose, slender fingers gripping an Americano.

Unlike the others, who all seemed nervous to some degree, he was so relaxed he might have just come in to buy a drink.

The sound of pages turning rustled in the air. Xu Yan glanced at the name. “Gu Shiyan, you’re in the same class as Luo Xing and Shen Que, right?”

Luo Xing mumbled a vague reply, crushing the hard candy between her teeth, the crack echoing in her ears.

“Hey, you won first place in the SPC physics competition back in middle school? And you and your team took top gold in the Princeton Physics Competition?” Xu Yan sat up straighter. “A pity you slacked off in high school—never competed again.”

The word “slacked” made Luo Xing swallow awkwardly.

Gu Shiyan had “slacked” his way into Xing University...

She, on the other hand, hadn’t slept more than five hours a night in her senior year just to get in.

Xu Yan was evidently blunt and tactless, asking questions without restraint.

Most of his questions were sharp and incisive—enough to scare off any timid candidate.

“Don’t blame me for grilling you, man. We’re aiming for the national scholarship this time. I can’t have anyone dragging us down, so I have to ask a lot.”

Qi Changbo, another teammate, chuckled. “The captain barely bothered with the earlier ones, but you might have a shot.”

Gu Shiyan didn’t show any impatience, answering every question carefully.

Finally, Xu Yan asked, “Are you seeing anyone? What’s your girlfriend’s temperament like?”