Plop.
"Yang Zai, did you finish your bandit-style char siu today? It was terrible, wasn't it? The stuff they make in the school cafeteria just looks decent, but it's completely inedible. How do they have the nerve to charge 28 RMB for a bowl? Why don't they just rob people?"
"I think it's okay... Brother Li, maybe you're just used to eating gourmet food, so you can't stand the cafeteria's offerings. To be honest, I could eat Huangmen Chicken every day for half a year."
"…Damn, you're something else."
As the door creaked open, the voices of two boys drifted into the dorm room.
"Oh, isn't this our Qing? A rare guest! Why are you back in the dorm today? Missed us, didn't you?"
Seeing an extra person in the room, the flamboyantly dressed boy in a floral shirt quickened his steps, arriving behind Lu Qing's chair with a familiar smirk.
This guy was quite tall and full of swagger, his name was Li Mingshi, a slanted bedmate of Lu Qing's. He hailed from Ha City in the north and was a bona fide rich kid, his father a developer of Mingshi Real Estate, somewhat renowned in the real estate circle.
With a wealthy background, Li Mingshi had been showing off since day one on campus. Whether in class or interacting with classmates, he would inadvertently exude an aura of nouveau riche.
"Cut it out, this overly affectionate smile makes me uneasy."
Lu Qing put down his phone, glancing over his shoulder with a calm expression. Beside Li Mingshi stood a short-haired guy with an ordinary face, dressed sloppily, and a mole on his face.
This person was named Zhang Yang, a bedmate of Lu Qing from Suzhou. His family conditions were average, his parents running a small business. Every Saturday, they would drive over to help him clean up and tidy his bed. Since Zhang Yang and Lu Qing were dorm mates from different classes in the same department, their relationship was a bit more distant than that with Wen Le.
"How's it going, Lu Ge?"
Zhang Yang walked over, making small talk. However, the weird smell emanating from him made Lu Qing wrinkle his nose uncomfortably.
"I'm alright, but Yang Zai, how many days has it been since you last bathed? We need to pay attention to hygiene."
"Just eight days, just eight days."
Zhang Yang chuckled innocently, then took a few steps back, seemingly indifferent to this aspect.
"Hahaha, haven't you heard? A little dirt never hurt! You must be out of practice since you haven't been back in the dorm for so long! People like me who live here all the time can't smell it." Li Mingshi came to Zhang Yang's defense.
"By the way, it's been a while since I last saw you. What do you say? Wanna go out with the guys tonight? I've booked a KTV, and I can set you up with a party."
"?"
"What kind of look is that? Qing, let me tell you, you're almost thirty, and you haven't even found a girl to relieve your stress! Forget about chastity, your level of abstinence is unhealthy on a physiological level for men!"
Li Mingshi joked around, speaking without reservation. It was clear that if Lu Qing agreed, he would really drive his buddy out to "see the world."
Many people would envy such a roommate, but for Lu Qing, Brother Li's "alcohol and lust aura" was too strong, easily affecting him.
He knew that once a creator succumbed to alcohol, lust, and indulgence, truly tasting the pleasures of women, it might be impossible to generate pure inspiration again.
It wasn't worth it.
So he shook his head and politely declined, "I appreciate the offer, but I'll pass this time. I have something to take care of tonight. By the way, I'm only 20, not 29."
Lu Qing half-joked, not closing the door completely. He knew Brother Li was all about face, and a direct refusal would make this big shot feel uncomfortable.
"Haha, alright, alright. Let me know whenever you get the urge. I know a lot of good places, and don't worry about the money, I'll treat you the first time."
Brother Li grinned, releasing the chair back and strutting to his bed with the swagger of a rock star.
As a northerner, Li Mingshi's character was quite distinctive—he occasionally liked to show off, but once he considered you a brother, he wouldn't care much about spending. Especially when dining out, he almost always insisted on paying, and if you argued with him, he might even get angry.
"Hey, Brother Li, I remember you just said you were dating someone, right? How come you're already planning a mixer a few days later?"
Wen Le suddenly took off his headphones while playing a Galgame, turning around to ask.
"Hey, what would you know, you otaku."
Li Mingshi glanced at him, speaking in an experienced tone, "Dating is one thing, but that doesn't stop me from going out to sing.
When I go out singing and meet a bunch of girls who come on to me, what can I do?
Since they come on to me, as a gentleman, I can't just slap them and tell them to get lost.
If I can't send them away, then inviting them to sit down somewhere... is just common sense."
"?" Wen Le slowly typed a question mark, "You are indeed a gentleman."
"Brother Li, you're still the best." Zhang Yang chimed in.
Li Mingshi plopped onto his bed, quite pleased with himself, "That's right! Keeping the home flag flying while the colorful flags flutter outside—that's true skill, you know? My new girlfriend is alright looking, but compared to the senior sister from the adjacent performing arts department, Mu Xia, I'll be blunt, she's at least a million miles away."
"Senior Sister Mu Xia..." Wen Le looked up, his face filled with admiration.
Finally, he nodded in agreement, "That's true."
"Senior Sister Mu Xia? Who's that?"
Lu Qing was baffled by his roommates' gossip.
He felt like an old man from the mountains, completely out of touch, his two-point-one-line life making him completely unaware of the various celebrities on campus. His three roommates all turned to look at him in surprise.
Oh, my Lu Ge, you don't even know this? She's the campus belle of Tianhe City Arts University! The goddess of the performing arts college's pop vocal major, the acknowledged number one beauty among the seven universities! The student council president and a debut singer! She's won full scholarships every year, was exempted from entrance exams, and is a ten-talent all-rounder, the Mu Xia heiress!!
Mentioning the goddess, Zhang Yang immediately perked up, quickly introducing her like a walking encyclopedia.
"…Wow."
Lu Qing listened carefully, only to feel that this description was exaggerated, a bit like the unrealistic perfect heroine in a campus novel.
Beautiful, good at studies, no worries about family conditions, personal career on track, and known by everyone on campus, right?
He chuckled, glancing at the small mirror on the corner of his desk, suddenly feeling a bit like Qin Shi Huang.
Seeing his skeptical expression, Li Mingshi was disappointed and said seriously,
"I'm not joking with you, guys. Even if you don't mix in my circle, you should understand at least a little, the difference between 'online celebrity' and 'goddess'. There's at least a layer of 'socialite' in between."
He gave a knowing look, "I know exactly what my girlfriend, Wang Meng, wants. Nothing more than for me to spend more money on her, buy her a few bags worth tens of thousands. If I took this relationship seriously, wouldn't I be an idiot?"
He sneered, showing disdain, "Many people think second-generation rich kids are debauched, fools, but let me tell you, second-generation rich kids won't do stupid things like throwing money out the window. On the contrary, they know better how to spend money wisely, how to squeeze money out of others. This gold-digger wants to use me, so naturally, I won't be a sucker. So, I play around outside, what's it to her? Haha, Qing, don't you think so?"
"…"
At this point, Lu Qing didn't know how to respond.
After all, calling oneself a second-generation rich kid was quite something. He couldn't tell if Li Mingshi was confident or just frivolous.
"I can't really comment on this, just don't get taken advantage of."
Second-generation rich kids have different values from ordinary people. After all, their upbringing and the conditions provided by their families are different. If such a background didn't produce different results, that would be strange.
Lu Qing changed the subject, "But Brother Li, since you're so keen on the senior sister from the adjacent department, why don't you break up with the current one and go after her?"
In his view, clear admiration was worth pursuing. Given Brother Li's financial situation and decent looks, surely he must have some competitive edge?
However, Brother Li gave a bitter smile and explained without any confidence: "Qing, you know how it is - the more outstanding a woman is, the more admirers she attracts. I'm not afraid to compete with regular admirers, but Senior Mu Xia's situation is just ridiculous... Her admirers... they're all rich and handsome!
It's way beyond what normal people can pursue. Even I can't hold my head high in front of her. If I remember correctly, her family runs a business empire, and her grandfather is supposedly the chairman of some financial group..."
"...Wow, is she really that mysterious?"
Lu Qing was speechless.
After briefly imagining it, he still thought such an image seemed too fantastical to believe.
"Anyway, Senior is widely known as an unattainable flower, so it's understandable that Brother Li doesn't dare pursue her," Wen Le chimed in. "Even from my anime perspective, her quality is completely dreamlike - like someone who walked straight out of an animation. Most guys probably wouldn't even have the courage to speak to her."
"Alright then. Yang Zai, what do you think?"
Lu Qing turned his gaze to Zhang Yang, the most honest one.
"Me? Well..." Yang Zai scratched his head and smiled sheepishly, "I don't aspire to that. I'm content just watching female streamers. Dating and relationships - I can't afford it, and they wouldn't be interested in me anyway."
He sat at his desk, opened his grimy laptop, and fixed his eyes on the "Tiger Y" streaming platform.
Unlike Wen Le, Zhang Yang was completely focused on the real world. During breaks, he loved watching livestreams - MC shouting, dancing girls, cute voices, and heavily filtered competitive streams. In Wen Le's words, it was "lowbrow stuff that only losers watch."
However, Zhang Yang didn't mind this assessment, often joking: "I'm just a common dog, this is what I like."
So in their dorm room, conversations like this often occurred:
"Can you turn down the volume of your female streamer's flirting? At least wear headphones? Are you seriously playing it on speakers?"
"Come on, Brother Wen, what's the point of looking at anime girls all day? Let me recommend some real female streamers to you."
"Are you sick? Real female streamers are all borderline inappropriate. You can tell from their faces that many of them are former adult entertainers trying to find rich guys to marry. Don't you know that? With my refined tastes, how could I watch that?"
"But aren't there real people behind those anime characters too? What's that called again? Zhong... something?"
"Voice actors."
"Haha, right, voice actors! See, I know something. In my opinion, you're just watching streamers who don't show their faces. How's that any different from what I watch?"
"Damn it, 2D is 2D, 3D is 3D! How can they be the same??? Enough, Zhang Yang, don't say I didn't warn you... Compare your streamers to my favorites again, and I might have to hit you."
"Alright, alright, my bad, Brother Wen. You're not playing fair - you're high-class, I'm just a common dog who likes looking at pretty legs."...
Lu Qing had heard similar debates so many times his ears had grown calluses, but it fully demonstrated to him the diversity of human nature.
So, in their dorm room, he concluded that Wen Le's viewpoint was often the most aloof, Brother Li's was the most realistic, and Zhang Yang's was the most down-to-earth.
The three roommates had three different perspectives, but regarding Senior Mu Xia... they surprisingly reached a consensus, all agreeing that she was "beyond what normal people could reach."
"Fine then."
Having gossiped enough, Lu Qing shrugged, turned his chair around, and opened the "Endpoint" novel platform on his laptop, deciding to use what little remained of his lunch break to check the rankings.
...
At the entrance of Tianhe City Arts University.
A black Rolls-Royce was parked directly in front of the school's stone monument, its doors tightly shut.
Inside the tinted windows, the white-gloved driver respectfully reminded the passenger in the back:
"Young Miss, there are seven minutes and thirty seconds until class starts. You should be walking to Room 301 in the Design Building now, not hiding in the car reading novels."
If anyone had been nearby, they would have been surprised to discover that the dignified driver was actually a young woman, appearing no older than 24.
"Oh, Gao Ban, when it's just the two of us, don't be so strict. There are only three pages left in this chapter, I'll run over there afterward," said a tall girl in the art school uniform, smiling from the back seat.
Unlike other female students at the university, while she wore the standard knit sweater and plaid skirt uniform, her jacket was adorned with an exquisite blue pin indicating her position as student council president.
Her meticulously styled waist-length hair and subtle makeup, combined with her strikingly beautiful features, might make people mistake her for a celebrity filming on campus from a distance.
"Young Miss, I don't mean to pry, but you seem very absorbed in novels lately..." Driver Gao Ban said worriedly. "If it were world classics or skill-building books, that would be one thing, but if I'm not mistaken, what you're reading... is web fiction, isn't it?"
"Ah ha, they're actually quite high-quality stories from the internet. Well, you're not wrong to call them that," the beautiful girl guiltily tucked her phone back into her skirt pocket, wearing an innocent expression.
"Sigh... Miss, please don't forget, you're the Mu Corporation heiress, an emerging mainland star. For someone of your status, reading such things... if the Master finds out, he'll be furious! This puts me in a difficult position..."
The driver turned to look at her, somewhat troubled.
"That's exactly why I read them in the car~ Gao Ban, you're so kind, you wouldn't tell on me, would you? You won't betray me, right?"
The young miss leaned closer to her face with a coquettish tone. The sudden attack of beauty made Driver Gao Ban's pupils quiver, as if something had struck her heart, creating rippling circles.
After a moment, she turned back with complicated feelings: "Alright, I really can't say no to you..."
"Hehe, I knew you'd unconditionally tolerate my willfulness~"
Mu Xia smiled triumphantly, licking her full, glossy lips, and stated in a casual tone as if discussing the weather: "So I'm sure you can also keep secret that I just secretly used my card to send him a Silver Alliance membership, right?"
"?"