Chapter 26: I Suspect He Is Choosing a Consort

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While the twin sisters were still exchanging looks of fake sisterly harmony, another pair of “best friends” were whispering together nearby.

Yao Yanyan cast Tang Yu a knowing look, smacking her lips from time to time, her expression growing more and more suggestive.

Tang Yu felt thoroughly uncomfortable under her scrutiny and finally said, “If you have something to say, just say it. I still have things to do.”

Yao Yanyan gave a sly grin. “What are you busy with? Secretly dating Qin Luo?”

Tang Yu shot her a cold look but said nothing.

Yao Yanyan merely shrugged and continued leisurely, “Seriously, if Qin Luo still liked Xu Ke and was using me as a pawn to provoke her, I could understand that. My reputation has never been particularly good anyway, so it would make perfect sense for him to choose me from among the people around Xu Ke.”

“But aside from me, he actually sought you out as well. That’s what I find hard to understand. Especially you—a woman everyone praises to the skies. The fact that you somehow got involved with him too is what surprises me most.”

“What a vulgar way to put it.” Tang Yu frowned at her. “So what exactly are you trying to say?”

Yao Yanyan smiled. “The most important point is that he has already said he no longer likes Xu Ke. If that’s truly how he feels, then his reason for approaching us becomes very intriguing.”

Tang Yu furrowed her brows. “It’s true that he went to my class to look for me, but meeting him was simply a coincidence. I was planning to go to the library to deal with some work. I never expected to find him there.”

Yao Yanyan said blandly, “Then have you ever wondered why someone who hardly ever goes to the library would suddenly show up there to read?”

The moment she said this, Tang Yu’s expression became subtle.

It was true. The events of that day had been almost suspiciously coincidental. Tang Yu went to the library often, yet she had never once run into Qin Luo there.

And yet today she had encountered him—and, as luck would have it, Qin Luo had done her a tremendous favor, bringing the two of them, who had never been particularly close, much nearer together. Afterward, they had even eaten together and engaged in an unusually intimate gesture...

All at once, Tang Yu had the inexplicable feeling that someone had set a trap for her.

But after thinking it over carefully, she found the idea far too far-fetched. Conspiracy theories were everywhere in the world, but this clearly did not seem like something Qin Luo would do—the same Qin Luo who had once charged headlong down the road of being a hopeless simp.

So instead of answering Yao Yanyan, she countered, “How do you know he doesn’t usually go to the library? Have you been keeping tabs on him?”

Yao Yanyan’s smile stiffened for a moment, but she quickly answered with composure, “I like browsing online forums. Someone once kept track of what Qin Luo did whenever he wasn’t fawning over Xu Ke. People are still updating the post... You can never imagine how bored the people who make those posts are.”

Tang Yu deeply agreed with that statement and could not help nodding. Then she said, “My encounter with him today was merely a coincidence. Even if I follow your line of thinking and assume he approached us with some ulterior motive, what could that motive be?”

“It’s very simple.” Yao Yanyan narrowed her eyes, and the smile on her face suddenly vanished. Then she softly uttered two words:

“Selecting consorts.”

Tang Yu: “...”

The anciently elegant beauty said nothing. Instead, she looked at Yao Yanyan as though she were staring at an idiot.

She felt that Xu Ke was not the only person in Dormitory 606 whose thought processes were abnormal. Yao Yanyan was clearly no ordinary oddball either.

How had tiny little 606 managed to gather both Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong?

Yao Yanyan paid no attention to the offensive look in her eyes and cheerfully explained, “That was just an exaggerated way of putting it. In short, I think he really has stopped liking Xu Ke and plans to look for his next romantic target among us. You and I are merely two of his targets. And if I’m not mistaken, he may next try to get close to Xiaojin and Liunian.”

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Tang Yu showed no particular reaction to Yao Yanyan’s words. She merely replied calmly, “Although today was my first truly in-depth interaction with him, I don’t think he’s as awful as you make him out to be.”

“On the contrary,” Yao Yanyan replied. “I think everything he’s done these past few days has completely overturned my impression of him. To be fair, I think he has the makings of a playboy.”

“Whether or not he’s as awful as you think is irrelevant to me. I only regard him as a friend. And if he isn’t, then you have even less right to criticize him. He’s single, after all, and pursuing someone is his freedom.”

“Yes, yes, I understand. So you’re sure you won’t compete with me for him, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing much. I’m just afraid you’ll fall for Qin Luo. The other girls in our dorm are all rather slow, so they don’t pose much of a threat to me. But you’re different. If you competed with me for him, I really wouldn’t have much confidence.”

Tang Yu raised a brow and regarded Yao Yanyan with a meaningful look. “You like him?”

Yao Yanyan grinned. “Why not? He’s handsome, talented, and, most importantly, devoted. Xu Ke treated him like that before, yet he still pursued her relentlessly for more than three months. Why shouldn’t I like a man that good?”

At those words, Tang Yu suddenly felt somewhat uncomfortable.

Earlier, when she had asked Qin Luo whether he still liked Xu Ke and heard him say that he did not, she had felt relieved. She had thought he had made the right choice, because Xu Ke was not suited to him.

Compared with Xu Ke, Yao Yanyan was hardly any better. Tang Yu felt that she and Qin Luo were just as incompatible.

Her first instinct was to persuade Yao Yanyan to give up the idea. But after thinking it through, she realized that whom Qin Luo liked was his own freedom. By the same logic, whom Yao Yanyan liked was not something she had the right to control.

In the end, she merely sighed and said quietly, “Weren’t you just saying that he has the makings of a playboy? Still, as long as you’re happy. I only hope this doesn’t tear our dorm apart. After all... just two days ago, we were still close friends.”

Hearing this, Yao Yanyan toned down her usual cheeky expression and gave an awkward laugh. “I know. I was only saying it. Honestly, if possible, I don’t want things to become too hostile between Xu Ke and me either. I may occasionally find her irritating, but you girls are some of the few friends I have.”

Tang Yu nodded in agreement. Then, as though she had thought of something, she said in a complicated tone, “Who among the girls in our dorm isn’t like that?”

Yao Yanyan looked at her. “Not you. You have plenty of friends, don’t you?”

Tang Yu shook her head. With her eyes lowered, she said nothing, simply allowing her tangled emotions to spread unchecked.

...

Your reputation as a scumbag has become deeply ingrained in everyone’s minds. Weekly sign-in successful. Reward acquired: one hundred thousand yuan, Cooking Skill +1.

Upon hearing the system notification in his mind, Qin Luo showed no reaction and continued walking into the classroom with his three roommates.

A week had passed since he updated his “scumbag” persona.

During that week, Qin Luo had established a decent relationship with both Yao Yanyan and Tang Yu. He now occasionally went to Yao Yanyan’s classes to sit in, but nothing resembling a date had happened again.

Yao Yanyan would sometimes make suggestive remarks, and whenever she did, Qin Luo would use the same strategy to brush them aside.

After deliberately studying the methods of bad girls, he had grown increasingly adept at dealing with Yao Yanyan.

Things with Tang Yu remained proper and conventional. After their first in-depth interaction, Qin Luo occasionally visited the library, but he never ran into her again. On one occasion, however, Tang Yu specifically went to find him. She had come to discuss official business, asking Qin Luo to join the Student Union’s Arts Department.

She also told him that the university administrators were very grateful for the contribution he had made to the school and that, after the Student Union elections, they intended to appoint him deputy head of the Arts Department.

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Qin Luo had no interest in such a position, so he refused without hesitation. He had expected Tang Yu to try to persuade him to stay, but to his surprise, she said nothing more. After exchanging a few simple words, she left.

Compared with the day of their first serious interaction, Qin Luo could sense that Tang Yu was deliberately keeping her distance from him.

Although he did not know the exact reason, it made no difference to Qin Luo. His objective had already been perfectly achieved.

With Yao Yanyan and Tang Yu acting as his wingwomen, many people had now branded him a scumbag.

Those who had once regarded him as a hopeless simp and looked at him with contempt and disdain now looked at him with envy, jealousy, and hatred.

After all, both Yao Yanyan and Tang Yu were breathtaking beauties. Tang Yu in particular was the dream woman of countless male students. As a result, after the photograph of Qin Luo touching Tang Yu’s face was circulated, the university gained many refined gentlemen who felt compelled to offer Qin Luo a few choice words whenever they saw him.

Of course, most girls still treated Qin Luo with disdain. Even so, quite a few looked at him with admiration, and some of the bolder ones would take the initiative to ask for his contact information.

But toward these “common beauties,” Qin Luo maintained a polite distance. He was not overly cold, but neither did he form any sort of friendship with them.

After all, he was pretending to be a scumbag merely to milk rewards from the system. He did not genuinely enjoy being one. The combined impact of Yao Yanyan and Tang Yu was already sufficient, so there was no need to create unnecessary complications. He had not even deliberately tried to get close to the Chu twins again.

Of course, setting the twins aside, Qin Luo felt that if he added Xu Ke to the combination of Yao Yanyan and Tang Yu, his next hundred days of sign-in rewards would be secured.

In fact, he knew very well that, given his current situation, the person he should most urgently approach was Xu Ke.

Just imagine it: after relentlessly pursuing Xu Ke in the past, he had suddenly given up and stopped chasing her, then turned around and started approaching two other girls, only to interact with Xu Ke again afterward. Wasn’t that the very definition of a scumbag?

And yet Qin Luo did not do so.

Even though Xu Ke frequently sent him messages and repeatedly hinted, both openly and subtly, that he should accompany her to class, Qin Luo never agreed.

He gave her only perfunctory replies. Whenever Xu Ke lost her temper or questioned him about something, he would simply disappear on the spot. After several days, he had not faced Xu Ke even once.

Even Qin Luo himself had not realized that he was consciously avoiding her.

And even if he had realized it, he would not have thought much of it.

There was no particular reason. He simply did not want to see her. Was that not allowed?

In this state, Qin Luo passed a peaceful week. That morning, he attended two classes with his three roommates as usual.

After class, they discussed what to eat for lunch as they headed downstairs. But just before reaching the entrance of the teaching building, they suddenly saw a crowd gathered together. At the center of it, a petite figure was curled up on the ground.

That was... Chu Sijin?

Qin Luo frowned and strode forward.

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