Chapter 7: Knowing Everything (Part 2)
An Baili had been waiting on this unavoidable path. Seeing Lu Li, she pretended to bump into him, “Ah, Lu Li, Chu… Class Monitor Chu, good morning~” She probably didn’t even remember the class monitor’s name, did she? And they shouldn’t be this familiar at this point, right?
Lu Li gave a lukewarm greeting, his mind racing for a way to escape.
An Baili’s attire was that of a typical country girl. Her demeanor was gloomy, and her personality was withdrawn. He didn’t know what had influenced her to be like this. An Baili never mentioned her family, and even her parents didn’t show up at their wedding in his previous life. Maybe her extreme personality was due to her family?
“Ah, An Baili, hello.” Chu Jingyi truly had the demeanor of a well-bred young lady. She was gentle, elegant, and poised. Her smile was incredibly infectious, and he didn’t know how many naive boys had been misled by this smile, falling into one of the ten biggest misconceptions in life.
However, An Baili’s eyes, hidden behind her thick glasses, were fixed on Lu Li. Her gaze was like a hungry tiger spotting its prey. She concealed it well, and this look only lasted for a moment before she said with a smile, “What a coincidence, I didn’t expect to run into you two here? By the way, are you going to school together?”
Chu Jingyi didn’t notice the slight chill in An Baili’s tone and started to explain in a flustered manner why she was going to school with Lu Li. Maybe nothing had happened between them, but under Chu Jingyi’s clumsy explanation, An Baili’s gaze became even more undisguised.
Looking at the two of them, Lu Li felt a sense of helplessness. He was helpless about the class monitor’s cluelessness and An Baili’s persistence.
Let it all burn. I’m tired.
He shook his head, leaving the two girls behind, and walked towards the classroom alone. An Baili immediately ignored Chu Jingyi’s rambling and followed Lu Li, but she didn’t try to talk to him. She just obediently trailed behind. She knew Lu Li like the back of her hand and knew that he wasn’t someone who liked to be restrained. Deliberately approaching him would only annoy him.
It was precisely because she knew Lu Li too well that Lu Li chose the most passive resistance in his previous life. Because he knew that apart from a signed document, he couldn’t resist An Baili at all. To Lu Li, An Baili was like a flying drought demon, who had him, a mere mortal, completely under her control.
Sitting in the back row of the classroom, Lu Li listened to the two girls behind him chatting idly, and another children’s song came to his mind:
“Under the big tree in front of the door, a group of ducks swam by, quacking and quacking, unable to find their mother~”
“What are you singing?” Chu Jingyi couldn’t help but frown.
“A children’s song, isn’t it nice?”
“It’s awful.”
He could only shut his mouth and continue singing in his heart.
The homeroom teacher held a class meeting, announcing that there would be a diagnostic test tomorrow and telling everyone to go back and prepare. What diagnostic test? It was clearly a ranking and classification meeting for the class’s micro-ecosystem. Those with good grades would be grouped together, those with bad grades would be grouped together, those with good family backgrounds would sit in the front, and those with poor family backgrounds would squat in the corner. The little bit of attachment Lu Li had to school was completely eradicated by reality.
No wonder love was humanity’s eternal pursuit. In the face of such a terrible world, everyone needed love as a buffer. It was just a pity that true love only existed in imagination. In reality, there was only the grave of love. Lu Li’s mind was filled with chaotic thoughts, his thoughts drifting away with the birds outside the window.
After pretending to attend class for the morning, Lu Li went to the cafeteria to get his lunch. As expected, the food in the cafeteria was still so expensive, thirty yuan for a meal. And many students looked down on such student meals, unaware that in Lu Li’s eyes, such a meal was no different from one made of gold. When he was at his worst, he had to eat steamed buns for lunch.
He found a secluded seat and sat down. After taking a few bites, he saw Class Monitor Chu carrying her tray and sitting across from him, while that woman An Baili sat diagonally opposite, only Chu Jingyi failing to notice her.
“Class Monitor, you going to school with me, eating with me, it’s easy for people to misunderstand.” Lu Li said helplessly.
Chu Jingyi had gotten used to Lu Li’s teasing. Her face only flushed slightly as she sat down, “Firstly, I’m not the class monitor anymore, the class officers haven’t been elected yet. Secondly, I’m sitting here to talk to you about something, it’s not something that would cause a misunderstanding!”
“What is it?”
“You’re just too amazing!” Chu Jingyi’s eyes were sparkling. “That plot yesterday was so exciting, I felt my scalp tingling just thinking about it on the way back! Especially the part where the protagonist invites the invisible guest to his home. I thought it was just one good ghost, but when I thought about it carefully, I realized there was more than one! When I was reading it, I was just captivated, but thinking back on it now, it’s terrifying!”
Lu Li also became interested in talking about it, “That’s right, I deliberately arranged for the player to make a lot of choices at this stage. If the player doesn’t realize the truth, they will keep triggering bad endings. And the players who do realize the truth will be drawn into the horror atmosphere. This is more effective than directly creating a horror atmosphere. Who says horror game screens have to be dark and gloomy?”
Chu Jingyi was so excited that she couldn’t even eat, “You’re amazing! Just this script alone, it’s not just good enough for a game, it’s good enough for a movie!”
“…Not really. If it’s adapted, the process will be different. At least with an indie game, I can keep my ideas intact.” Lu Li thought of the past, and couldn’t help but feel a little melancholy. He had sold the adaptation rights to a game in his previous life. The producers said they wanted to cater to the female market, but they ended up changing the plot beyond recognition, and it was met with a lot of criticism.
“So, are you willing to join my small team?”
“How many people are in your small team now? I don’t like working with strangers…” Chu Jingyi calmed down and stirred the food in her plate with her chopsticks, a conflicted look on her face. It was obvious that she really wanted to participate in the production of this game.
“Just you and me. Congratulations, you’re a founding member!”
A smile bloomed on Chu Jingyi’s face, but then she deliberately put on a stern expression, “But you can’t use this as an excuse to skip class, and I won’t go easy on you because of this!”
Lu Li chuckled and didn’t answer.
An Baili carried her tray and sat down next to Chu Jingyi, asking curiously, “What are you guys talking about? You seem so happy?”
Chu Jingyi noticed that An Baili’s tray only had a portion of cabbage and rice in seaweed soup, and couldn’t help but exclaim, “Baili, why are you only eating this much?”
An Baili was a girl after all, unlike Lu Li who could shamelessly admit that he had no money. She lowered her head and said, “…I’m on a diet.”
A diet? Lu Li lost his appetite. He couldn’t bear to see this woman’s self-abuse. He deliberately lowered his head to avoid looking, lest his soft-heartedness act up again. It was the same in his previous life. Because of his soft heart, he and An Baili were tightly bound together.
An Baili had a weak stomach and suffered from dysmenorrhea, which were all root causes from high school. She couldn’t take painkillers because they would aggravate her stomach problems. Every time she ate something slightly spicy, she would turn pale and squat on the ground, unable to move. How could Lu Li not know An Baili like the back of his hand?
“Don’t eat rice in soup.” Lu Li said with his head down. “It’s not good for your stomach.”
An Baili obediently said “oh” and actually put down her chopsticks, looking at the crown of Lu Li’s head like a good little girl.
Chu Jingyi looked at the two of them strangely. She felt that the atmosphere between them was very odd. This kind of conversation, like that of an old married couple, was so natural, as if they were very familiar with each other.
Was it just her imagination?
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