Chapter 26

As soon as the bell rang, Du Ruo packed up her books and stood.
Xia Nan and He Huanhuan’s classes were just two rooms over, perfect for the four of them to grab lunch together.
Heading out, she unexpectedly spotted Jing Ming leaning against the wall, spinning his phone idly.
She slowed for half a second, then picked up pace and headed over.
Jing Ming stretched out his long leg, blocking her way.
Du Ruo stopped short, looking up at him.
Jing Mingchao jerked his chin at the classroom, commanding, "Go get Li Wei for me."
Du Ruo: ???
What is this idiot on? Didn’t he say they’re supposed to act like strangers at school?
She flat-out ignored him, arching a delicate brow, and walked right past without a care.
Jing Ming’s leg blocked her off again, stopping her cold: "Did you not hear me? I said call him."
"You can’t do it yourself?" she finally snapped, rolling her eyes rudely and about to walk off.
"Hah, " He raised a brow, turned, and blocked her path with his whole body.
Huh. Since when did this girl start talking back? Wasn’t she always quiet, eyes down, never daring to even look at him?
He jerked his chin at the classroom, this time sounding downright irritable: "I told you to go, so go!"
She looked annoyed, but seeing how close he was to throwing a tantrum, she couldn’t be bothered to argue. Grudgingly, she strode to the classroom door and called, “Li Wei, someone’s looking for you.”
Mission accomplished, she headed off with a scowl, refusing to give him even a glance.
Jing Ming dropped his gaze, just catching a glimpse of her grand exit out of the corner of his eye. His own mood soured further.
All semester, they’d barely interacted, and every time they did, it was weird as hell,
What’s this girl’s deal?
Li Wei strolled out with his backpack, surprised to see Jing Ming. "Whoa, gracing us with your presence, huh?"
Usually, if Jing Ming wanted something, he’d just text him to meet up. It’s not like this prince has the patience to hang around outside a classroom. Must be snowing in July.
They headed to the stairwell together.
Students poured down the stairs between classes. Du Ruo and her three roommates led the pack, chatting and laughing.
Jing Ming said, "Next month’s robotics competition, you're in charge."
Right now, Prime’s main focus was autonomous driving. School competitions? He didn’t have time to babysit for extra trophies.
Li Wei got it. "No problem… You want me to handle everything, or do you still want to approve the plan and track progress?"
"I’ll review it," Jing Ming replied.
"Got it." Li Wei nodded, then remembered something: "The lab’s been slammed lately. I was thinking about bringing on an assistant. What do you think?"
Jing Ming glanced over.
"You see, we’re busy with our own projects, but the school’s got us running around for all kinds of robot contests. Soon, we’ll have to start handling external affairs, conferences, exhibitions, the works. I think we need an extra set of hands so we don’t drown."
Jing Ming: "Fine, but don’t bring in just anyone."
"I’ve already chosen, our class belle."
Jing Ming gave him a sideways look, lips curling in a scoff. "You think this is some student club or an internship program?"
Li Wei: "No, but Du Ruo’s top of our class."
"Top of the class means what, exactly?"
Li Wei snorted. "Look who’s talking! How many classes did you fail last semester? And with midterms coming up, how many more are you planning to bomb?"
Jing Ming shot him a “so what, deal with it” look: "This isn’t a study hall, if I recall."
Li Wei sighed, surrendering. "Whatever you say."
Every Prime team member was a champion or prodigy he’d already recruited for the lab’s core.
"But if we really need someone else, honestly? Out of all the students at our level, Du Ruo actually is the best pick." He paused. "And don’t underestimate her, she did a stint with Professor Yang before winter break, too."
Now Jing Ming’s brows shot up, genuinely surprised.
Li Wei pressed his case. "And she’d only be helping out. Not like she’d be in charge of anything huge."
Jing Ming, impatient: "You want to ask her, go ahead. But if she’s not up to scratch, I’ll toss her out."
"Deal."
Jing Ming took a few steps down, then added, "What’s her attitude like? I can’t deal with princesses."
Li Wei broke into loud laughter. "With your attitude, who are you to talk? We’re hiring a helper, not a girlfriend."
Jing Ming didn’t respond. He walked out of the academic building, squinting into the golden light in the treetops.
April, spring light blazing bright.
Way up ahead, Du Ruo and the girls were already vanishing into the distance.
Honestly, these girls hustle harder getting lunch than most people do at work.
…
By the time Du Ruo reached the cafeteria doors, she was practically out of breath.
He Huanhuan always turned into a drill sergeant at mealtime, herding the whole dorm down to the canteen at turbo speed, like if they didn’t get there fast enough, someone would steal the very last egg roll on earth.
Not that she minded. Early birds got all the choices, and plenty of empty seats.
The four of them grabbed food and snagged a table, eating and chatting.
Right beside them was another empty four-top.
Li Wei and the boys came over, sat down, and gave Du Ruo a friendly smile.
Du Ruo smiled back, but when she noticed Jing Ming behind them, she looked away fast. In her peripheral vision, she saw him carrying his lunch tray, jeans slung with a blatantly yellow Off-White belt, the kind with black block letters, hanging so low it practically brushed his calves. Wild, careless, and cocky as ever. That bright yellow strap dangled right past her table as he slipped into the seat across from Li Wei, directly beside her, separated by just a narrow aisle.
Du Ruo: "……"
Ugh. This pest sitting so close, how's she supposed to enjoy lunch now?
She scooted over a little on her bench, angling away, when Xia Nan (who sat opposite) piped up at Jing Ming: "Long time no see! Busy with something these days?"
"Studying," Jing Ming replied, casual as can be.
"Studying?" Xia Nan couldn’t hold back a laugh. "Yeah, right."
"Seriously." Jing Ming kept a deadpan face. "With midterms coming, I don't want to take any more make-up exams. It's exhausting."
That cracked Xia Nan up; she got mock-serious. "Is that so?"
Li Wei rolled his eyes, teasing him: "Keep acting. As if you touch a textbook. I'm about to lose it over you, not one non-major book has even been opened. If you actually fail, what are you gonna do? What, hope some magic note fairy saves you again?"
Du Ruo, mid-bite, crunched down on an eggshell shard.
Xia Nan: "Note fairy? Say what?"
Li Wei: "He flunked Politics last midterm, but some girl made notes and secretly slipped them into his backpack. He calls her the note fairy, mysterious, timely, softly glowing or whatever."
Well, there went Du Ruo’s appetite.
"So what about this time?"
"Gone. The note fairy moved on." Li Wei grinned, clearly enjoying the show.
Jing Ming seemed unbothered, tossing off a joke: "Guess she got bored of me."
Du Ruo: "……"
Just her luck, young and stupid, pulling that mortifying move back then.
Please don’t ever find out it was her. She’d actually die of shame.
Xia Nan chimed in: "Maybe it was a guy."
"Nope." Jing Ming shook his head with total certainty. "That's definitely a girl's handwriting."
He Huanhuan, always ready for rom-com gossip, leaned in dreamily: "So, if you did find out who she was, what would you do?"
Jing Ming looked up.
Du Ruo’s heart skipped. She clenched her chopsticks tight.
"Me?" Jing Ming tapped his chopsticks, pretending to think, then deadpanned, "I’d give her a hundred bucks, ask her to copy over more Politics notes for me."
Du Ruo: "……"
He can go to hell.
She unapologetically snatched a chunk of crispy cartilage from He Huanhuan’s plate and chomped down hard.
Jing Ming started eating too; the conversation died down.
Out of all of them, Xia Nan was the only one on familiar speaking terms with Jing Ming. If she didn’t talk, no one else would either.
Halfway through the meal, Li Wei finally remembered the real reason he was there: "Hey, Du Ruo, are you super busy with studies these days?"
“Huh?” Du Ruo hesitated, unsure what he wanted from her. “I’m not too busy, I guess.”
“Come help out in the lab. My team’s short-handed,” Li Wei said.
Du Ruo was caught completely off guard, her face full of surprise. She glanced over at Jing Ming, who kept his head down, eating, like he hadn’t heard a word.
“Me? You guys do seriously technical stuff, I’d probably just mess things up.”
“It’s nothing complicated, just some assistant work. There’s a ton of odd jobs piling up in the lab. Du Ruo, our team covers all kinds of fields, you’d get to learn things from lots of different disciplines.”
Tempting, honestly.
Du Ruo poked at her rice with her chopsticks, thinking, then finally said, “I think I’ll have to pass.”
Jing Ming’s chopsticks paused in midair.
Li Wei hadn’t expected a refusal. “Hey, this is a great opportunity, Du Ruo.”
He’d tried to get a few friends into the lab before, but Jing Ming had shot all of them down. And now she was turning them down herself.
Wan Zi’ang tried to persuade her too. “Du Ruo, just think about it. The pace you’d learn at our lab is next level.”
With everyone pressing her, Du Ruo felt awkward. After a brief struggle, she answered uncomfortably, “The thing is, I’m already helping out at my senior’s lab, so I can’t really do both at once.”
“Senior? Which one?”
“Senior Yi Kun and Senior Wu Zhengbo’s lab.”
“Orbit?” Li Wei’s eyes widened. He could hardly believe it.
“Mm-hmm.”
“Yi Kun’s got ridiculously high standards. He takes freshmen?”
“Uh? I don’t really know.” Du Ruo was flustered now, fingers fidgeting with her chopsticks. “Senior Li Qinghe took me. I-I haven’t really done much, just helped them fix some broken sensors, that’s all.”
Li Wei fell silent, exchanging a look with Wan Zi’ang, then glancing at Jing Ming.
Jing Ming just kept eating, not even looking up.
On the other side of the table, Qiu Yuchen cut in, “Li Qinghe took you there?”
“Hmm?”
“When did that happen?”
“Winter break.”
“That was months ago. How have you never mentioned this?”
He Huanhuan grinned mischievously. “No wonder you and your senior have been texting nonstop this term, you’re living it up, huh?”
“It’s not like that.” Du Ruo shot her a glare, her bangs dipping into her eyes. Annoyed, she swept them aside, tugged at her long hair draped over her shoulder, and asked, “Should I get a haircut? We should go together sometime.”
“Don’t cut it,” Qiu Yuchen said. “It looks great like this.”
“Yeah, you seriously suit long hair,” He Huanhuan agreed.
“It’s driving me crazy,” Du Ruo muttered to herself. She set down her chopsticks and raked through her hair with both hands. “I’ve never grown it out this long before, ”
Suddenly, her elbow got jostled, someone bumped right into her, nearly sending her crashing into the table.
Jing Ming had stood up with his lunch tray, brushing right past her outstretched arm, not too hard, but not gentle either.
He glanced down at her, while she tipped her head up at him, her expression saying loud and clear: Was that you bumping into me, or me into you?
Jing Ming clearly had the upper hand, looming over her, his face stormy, barely suppressing the sharp edge of irritation flickering in his eyes.
Du Ruo shrank back, nervously pulling her elbow in. “Sorry,” she muttered.
He finally walked away without a word.
Watching him go, she grew more and more unsettled. Wait, she thought, wasn’t it him who bumped into me? And yet he acts like I owe him an apology, all with that killer mood.
God, how is someone like that even real?