It took Lu Qing quite some effort to successfully deflect his roommate's suspicions. Heaven knows why shut-ins always have such keen noses, able to deduce all sorts of outlandish information just from scents.
Fortunately, Wen Le wasn't the type to obsess over a single issue. He would notice something, grow suspicious, and then ask about it.
Even when Lu Qing denied it, Wen Le wouldn't make a big deal out of it. He would just mutter things like "You absolutely can't become a normie like Old Li, bro having a girlfriend would hurt me more than getting killed," and then go back to watching his livestream replays.
The morning class was making everyone drowsy.
Lu Qing, who hadn't slept well the previous night, took advantage of this time to bury his head on the desk, hoping to recover some energy.
Looking around the classroom, he was the only one napping at his desk. The female lecturer's gaze swept over his position, and she smiled without waking him up.
In the back corner near the wall behind him, a girl wearing a black mask that covered most of her face was quietly watching videos on her phone, partially hiding behind a textbook.
"Bai Xing, you dyed your hair pink recently? It looks so pretty!"
Seeing that the teacher had turned to write on the blackboard with chalk, the girl sitting next to her turned around and whispered, admiring her distinctive shoulder-length pink hair.
"...Ah, just felt like it, following the trend," the masked girl responded casually, lifting a strand of hair from her shoulder with her delicate fingers.
Her voice was sweet and pleasant, and she wore Japanese-style sweet perfume. Her trendy see-through bangs, combined with her mask and hoodie, covered almost her entire face, leaving only a pair of beautiful eyes with burgundy-colored contact lenses visible.
Even so, her aura was completely different from the ordinary female students around her. One could tell from her attire that her aesthetic sense was very ahead of the curve, and even though she tried to disguise herself, her exceptional nature couldn't be hidden.
"By the way, why haven't you been coming to the past few classes? If I remember correctly, you've already missed four times... if you miss one more time, you'll fail the course..."
The girl reminded her kindly.
"Really?"
Bai Xing's eyes narrowed at this news, as if she'd just learned about it.
"Well, since you only joined school two months after the semester started, you might not know, but in our college, each semester has 16 sessions for both required and elective courses, one session per week, spanning four months total.
In other words, if someone misses more than one-third of the classes, the lecturer will automatically fail them, and they won't even need to come for the final exam..."
"...Oh."
For this current course, Bai Xing had already missed 4 sessions, putting her right on the edge of failing. One more absence would definitely spell doom.
Unfortunately, there wasn't much she could do about it. She just shrugged helplessly and said, "I'm usually too busy and can only rest in the early hours of the morning. It's really hard for me to wake up for these morning classes."
"Then- then what are you going to do?! Making up for failed courses is such a hassle, not only do you have to return to school early during the break, but you also have to pay an extra makeup exam fee... What's worse is that if you fail the makeup exam, you might have to repeat the year and pay an extra year's tuition... That's over 58,000 yuan!"
"Mm, I know."
Bai Xing seemed unconcerned about this, as if even money couldn't compensate for her precious sleep.
"I'll figure something out. Thanks for letting me know."
After saying this, she took out her phone with its anime girl charm, opened a video-sharing site, and started watching dance videos from the cosplay dance section with a studious expression, offering no further response.
"..."
Time flew by.
When the class dismissal bell pierced through his dreams and woke Lu Qing from his deep sleep, the classroom clock already showed eleven-fifty.
The school's designated lunch break was two hours long, with afternoon classes starting at two and ending at five-thirty - quite a relaxed schedule.
After all, this was an art school, and he was already in his second year. With the third year's off-campus practical training approaching, freedom was nearly within reach.
By next semester, the five-day school week would be reduced to three and a half days, which was truly something to look forward to.
"If I have more free time to spend as I wish, I can spend more time with Su Ling."
Thinking this to himself, he got up to leave the classroom amidst his classmates' cheerful chatter.
"What are your plans now? Eating? Should we go to the cafeteria or somewhere outside?"
Wen Le bounced along behind him, asking.
"Ah... I'll just buy something from the supermarket. I plan to go back to the dorm to tidy up and sit for a while."
He wanted to use this precious break time to think about the structure of his new book, and if possible, write some outline. Otherwise, successfully starting the book would remain a distant dream.
Wen Le knew he had been writing novels before, but didn't know exactly what genre, and whenever he asked, Lu Qing wouldn't say.
Seeing his current urgent manner, Wen Le knew he must be heading back to write, and he was quite familiar with this behavior.
His curiosity piqued, he tried to probe indirectly:
"Hey, didn't you just finish your last book? Is the next one going to be something spicy? Come on, we're such close bros, why keep secrets? Tell me honestly, are you writing some anime-style romance? Let me take a look, I'll critique it, and I promise to keep it secret! I'll even donate! 648 yuan! No, no, I'll become your top supporter! How about that?"
"...No thanks, I don't do this kind of friend support. Besides, what I write is proper stuff, very wholesome content, I just don't want people around me to discover it."
Lu Qing stated righteously, unmoved even by the temptation of donations.
Of course, it wasn't that he didn't want donations, but rather that Wen Le's small donation wasn't worth the potentially devastating social embarrassment that would come from him knowing the book's title, so he simply didn't want to risk it.
"Proper? Hmm, right, those professional romance writers all say their work is wholesome and proper, looks like you're the same."
Wen Le pushed up his black-rimmed glasses, showing an expression of gradually understanding everything, and smirked, "No worries, it's fine if you don't tell me. I'm sure I can find some clues and track you down."
"Heh, really? I don't believe you."
Lu Qing walked ahead, completely dismissing his roommate's words.
"Let me think, with your fake-proper personality, you probably only publish on Endpoint Network, since it's more conservative..."
"?"
"While you're not exactly an old-school anime fan, you're not against that kind of content either, so if I search through the completed novels in the light novel or urban fiction sections..."
"??"
"Your usernames and social media handles all have the character 'qing' in them, either the 'qing' for clear or the 'qing' for sunny, so your pen name probably follows the same pattern..."
"???"
"I recently came across a romance novel in Endpoint Network's urban channel, and the writing style was particularly sweet, with a pen name that had something like 'Blue Sky' in it, which seems kind of familiar..."
"Damn it, enough already, can we go eat? Quick, let's talk about that VTuber you've been following lately, what was her name again? Star something?"
"Haha, Hoshizuki Rina!"
"Oh right, Hoshizuki Rina, Rina-chan, yes, let's talk about that, please stop thinking about my stupid book, I'm begging you."
Lu Qing, sweating profusely, hooked his arm around his roommate's neck and pushed him out of the teaching building.
There was nothing particularly wrong with Wen Le, except that he was too perceptive.
It was the kind of keen perception that came from being a longtime otaku, especially sharp when it came to certain trivial matters, with a sense of smell as frightening as a vulture that hadn't tasted a drop of dew in a hundred years.
"Hahaha, look at you, scared now! Since you're willing to check out my recommended content today, I'll let you off the hook! But in exchange, you have to become a captain-level supporter for my Rina-chan, otherwise it's not sincere! Oh, and lunch is on me!"
"Fine, it's just 128 yuan, I'll do it. At least you're still human enough not to force me to become an admiral-level supporter."
Lu Qing grumbled as he took out his phone and logged into the anime-focused website called Dimensional Wall. He typed "Rina" in the search bar and found the girl's avatar named "Hoshizuki Rina" among a long list of users, then entered her offline streaming room.
"Two hundred thousand followers? Not bad."
His fingers moved like shadows, and without even following her, he directly purchased a captain-level membership.
"...Holy crap!?"
Due to his hasty action, Wen Le couldn't stop him in time. Seeing that he had already become a channel captain, Wen Le slapped his thigh in frustration and scolded, "What's the rush, kid?! I was thinking you should wait until her 9 PM stream to subscribe, that way you could've gotten a personal thank you from her. Wouldn't that have been worth it?
This way... you just subscribed to an empty streaming room, got nothing out of it. Hoshizuki Rina doesn't even know she got a new channel captain. What a waste!"
His reasoning made sense, but Lu Qing didn't care.
After all, he only did it to shut him up and stop him from digging into personal information. It was just a formality, so there was no question of waste or value.
Little did he know, not far behind him at the entrance of the teaching building—
A cute girl with shoulder-length pink hair picked up her phone upon hearing the special notification sound. Looking at the "Channel Captain Subscription" alert on her screen, she shifted her gaze back to the silhouette of the young man ahead, slowly sinking into deep thought.
...
...