“Why are you here?” Sun Jing looked shocked, clearly not expecting to see me.
I chuckled. “Why wouldn’t I be here? I go to this uni!”
“Yeah, right!” She obviously didn’t believe me but still smiled. “As if I don’t know how your grades were!”
I pretended to be offended. “You don’t believe me?”
“Alright, alright, no joking. Did you really get into Shenghua?” Sun Jing waved her hand dismissively before asking.
I nodded, scratching my head sheepishly. “Barely scraped by the cutoff score.”
“Wow, you got lucky!” she sighed.
I frowned. “What do you mean ‘lucky’? It’s called skill!”
Sun Jing covered her mouth, giggling.
When she didn’t respond, I continued, “But what about you? With your grades, you should’ve gotten into Shenghua. Why’d you go to Tsinghua instead?”
“Shenghua’s full of rich kids. I didn’t want to deal with being bullied. Plus, you saw how it was at the meeting today—your university’s students sure know how to stir things up!” Sun Jing shook her head helplessly.
She wasn’t wrong. Shenghua was a great university, but most of its students were wealthy heirs who treated university as a playground. They weren’t there to learn—their parents had already paved their futures.
Besides, Shenghua was a private university, jointly run by the Four Great Families, but its main purpose was still profit.
That said, Shenghua had excellent policies for top-performing students from ordinary backgrounds—generous scholarships, special study zones—things even Peking and Tsinghua couldn’t match.
But still, being surrounded by spoiled rich kids meant bullying was a real risk. In this world, the privileged trampling on the underdogs was as easy as pulling off a goddess’s underwear.
So Sun Jing’s concerns weren’t unfounded.
Then again, if some underdog was sharp enough to cozy up to a rich kid, that could also be an opportunity.
“Jingjing, what are you doing?” A girl suddenly walked over—plain-looking, neither pretty nor ugly.
Sun Jing turned and smiled. “Feifei, let me introduce you. This is the deskmate I’ve told you about—Xia Tian!”
The girl named Feifei looked at me with a grin. “Hi, I’m Li Fei, Jingjing’s roommate.”
“Nice to meet you!” I smiled back. She seemed nice.
“Deskmate, wanna grab a meal together?” Sun Jing asked.
I was about to agree but then remembered I had to cook today. “Sorry, someone’s waiting for me at home to make dinner, so…”
“Oh…” She looked disappointed but quickly smiled again. “The inter-university freshman meetup lasts a whole week. We’ll have plenty of chances.”
“Yeah, next time I’ll treat you!” I grinned. I really liked her easygoing personality.
“Alright, I’ll go eat now. Let’s catch up later!” Sun Jing said reluctantly.
I waved helplessly. “See you!”
After saying goodbye, I headed to the market to buy some groceries.
Carrying the bags back to the apartment, I pushed the door open to find Tang Shuyao alone, watching a zombie movie.
Seeing this, I teased her, “Didn’t expect our Miss Tang to enjoy watching zombie flicks while… you know. Your tastes are even heavier than mine!”
“Shut up! You scared me!” She jumped, then huffed, “I don’t even have one to play with, you idiot!”
That made me laugh. I walked over, sat on the couch, and pointed at Little Xia Tian hidden in my pants. “You can borrow mine for a bit if you want!”
“Go die!” She shoved me away. “Hurry up and cook! I’m starving!”
I grinned. “Alright, alright, no more teasing. Cooking time.”
Taking the groceries to the kitchen, I washed and chopped while asking, “Where is everyone else?”
“Mengdie’s reading, Ziyan’s at work, Xu Xin’s in her room, and Sister Lin’s telling Mei’er the story of *The Little Mermaid and the Seven Dwarfs*…” Tang Shuyao replied absentmindedly.
I hummed in response and focused on cooking.
In a good mood, I went all out—sweet and sour pork ribs, stir-fried veggies, even tried making braised fish (though I failed miserably).
As I plated the last dish, I called out, “Go call Sister Lin and the others! Dinner’s ready.”
“Food’s done?” Tang Shuyao mumbled, darting into the kitchen and grabbing chopsticks to start eating.
“Hey! No one else is here yet!” I scowled. For a young lady, she had no manners.
She kept chewing. “Gotta eat fast, or there’ll be none left when the others come!”
“Just go call them! If there’s not enough, I’ll make more!” I snatched the chopsticks from her.
She stared longingly at the dishes. “C’mon, Narcissist, just one more bite?”
“You’ll turn into a pig!” I rolled my eyes.
She pouted, hands on hips. “I never gain weight! If anything, it goes to my ch9st and bum!”
She wasn’t wrong. Though her chest wasn’t as big as Mei’er’s, it was still impressive for her age. And her bum? Definitely perkier than Mei’er’s.
“Just go call them!” I sighed.
With one last longing glance at the food, she gritted her teeth and ran upstairs.
I set the dishes on the table, and soon everyone gathered.
“Wow, quite the feast today?” Sister Lin remarked in surprise.
The moment she spoke, Tang Shuyao lunged for the food.
Just as I was about to eat, my phone rang. Setting down my chopsticks, I stepped away to answer.
“Xia Tian, get to the club now! Something’s wrong!” Yang Fan’s panicked voice came through.
“What happened?”
“Lin Youchen brought people to challenge us!” he said urgently. “Hurry! Senior Sister can’t hold them off much longer!”
“On my way!” Hanging up, I turned to the table. “Emergency! Gotta go!”
Without waiting for a response, I bolted out the door.