Chapter 24: Hupo and Liuli
Lu Li placed his bag on his desk. The two seats behind him were empty, one belonging to An Baili and the other to Silly Goose. An Baili had called in sick this morning and was sleeping in. Where was the Class Monitor? Lu Li felt numerous gazes on him. He turned around, and those who had been staring at him quickly looked away. This feeling was awful, reminding him of the albino gorilla at the zoo.
“Congratulations, Best Actor.” His unknown female deskmate said with a smirk.
“It was a team effort, I just happened to play that role.”
“What did the princess’s lips taste like?” She continued to smirk.
Lu Li was stunned, not understanding. “What?”
“Wen Hupo.”
Lu Li didn’t get it. Just then, the classroom’s PA system crackled with static, followed by the pretentious voice of the broadcasting club’s announcer. “Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our morning broadcast. We received a very interesting submission…” The morning broadcast usually played some pretentious music, along with some random talk shows and podcasts that no one listened to. Yet, this club somehow managed to secure a hefty budget from the school every year.
Class 1 of the second-year liberal arts program was unusually quiet today. Everyone put down what they were doing and listened attentively to the morning broadcast. Lu Li had a bad feeling about this.
“Someone sent a challenge letter to Lu Li from Class 1 of the second-year liberal arts program through the broadcasting club.” The announcer chuckled, trying to sound humorous. “To be honest, we’ve received no less than fifty similar requests. I wonder if Lu Li is listening to our morning broadcast? The president asked me to ask you, did you deliberately have people set up so many balloons so you could take the opportunity to kiss our princess? Haha… Just kidding…” A joke? It didn’t sound like one at all. The self-righteous tone made Lu Li frown.
“Let’s see what the challenge letter says. Oh, the challenger is Chen Zitao from Class 7 of the first year. He’s challenging Lu Li to a duel, be it fighting, swordsmanship, racing, shooting, even hunting. The choice of challenge is up to Senior Lu Li. The winner will have the right to be the princess’s prince, the true prince.” The announcer continued in that annoying tone. “Haha, what a spirited junior. To be honest, I also want to be Wen Hupo’s prince, but unfortunately, I’m graduating next year. This opportunity can only be left to the younger generation.”
Canned laughter played from the PA system.
It wasn’t funny at all. As the saying goes, beauty is a disaster. It didn’t mean that beautiful women were inherently bad luck, but that their beauty could arouse jealousy, resentment, and narrow-minded speculation from those around them. This wasn’t funny at all. To publicly broadcast someone’s private affairs and disrespect their dignity for the sake of entertainment and self-righteous amusement, Lu Li might not care, but had those people in the broadcasting club considered Wen Hupo’s feelings?
At that moment, a commotion came from the PA system. “This is the broadcasting room, you can’t come in!”
“Who allowed you to broadcast this kind of thing?” It was Chu Jingyi’s voice. “Turn it off!” It sounded like Silly Goose was very angry, her voice unusually high-pitched.
“You can’t—”
Someone whispered, “It’s Chu Jingyi…”
Then there was a chaotic argument. In the end, the morning broadcast ended in a messy fiasco. Not long after the broadcast ended, Silly Goose stormed back into the classroom, her face still flushed with anger, her delicate eyebrows furrowed, just like the first time Lu Li saw her. Seeing Lu Li, the anger on Chu Jingyi’s face subsided, and she unconsciously put on a pitiful expression. “Lu Li, I’m sorry, I didn’t manage to stop them…”
“Why are you apologizing? I should be thanking you.” Lu Li said gently.
She pouted. “Those people in the broadcasting club are too much, and that Chen Zitao from the first year, they’re in cahoots, deliberately targeting you. They even insisted that you and… you and Hupo did that!” The more she spoke, the angrier she became, her small fists clenched tightly, as if she wanted to punch those people.
Finally, Silly Goose looked at him with a silly expression. “You didn’t kiss Hupo… right?” There was a hint of hope and a trace of pleading in her eyes.
Lu Li’s heart skipped a beat. He didn’t want to disappoint Silly Goose, but he also didn’t want to lie to her. That night, did he actually kiss Wen Hupo? Besides him and Wen Hupo, no one knew the truth.
He said in a normal tone, “No, I didn’t.”
This was youth. They would swear eternal brotherhood over a copied homework assignment and gossip endlessly about who kissed whom. This kind of drama was a bit ridiculous, but it also had the unique bitterness of youth. Lu Li’s mind wandered. What about Wen Hupo? What was she thinking right now?
Wen Hupo wasn’t in the activity classroom as usual today. She was on the rooftop of Building Three, holding her skirt up as she climbed the stairs, gazing at the sky through the metal fence. Her fingers were intertwined with the gaps in the fence, her eyes no longer deep and serene, but filled with confusion and unease.
During the New Year’s holiday, Mr. Diplomat had called her and asked which young man from Shenzhou she had met.
He said, “My lady, I’m not bragging about my connections, but I do have some friends in Chuanhai. Perhaps that young man is the son of one of my friends? I might be able to arrange for you to have closer contact. Please note, I’m not bragging about my connections. You know, our family has a tradition of marrying into families of Shenzhou officials. Political support from Shenzhou is a very important resource for the Amber family… My lady, are you listening to me?”
What could she say? Could she say it was just a misunderstanding, an accident? She didn’t understand how the incident at that small party could spread like wildfire, reaching even Mr. Diplomat’s desk. Today, she heard many people making disrespectful speculations about her relationship with Lu Li. She also heard the broadcasting club repeatedly reading out those nonsensical challenge letters.
Wen Hupo preferred to be an observer, not a fisherman caught in a whirlpool, and she certainly didn’t want to be treated as an object to be traded and possessed.
This is terrible. She thought. Was this world truly boring and awful?
Footsteps approached from behind. Wen Hupo turned around and saw the handsome young man standing not far away. The wind on the rooftop was strong, blowing Lu Li’s hair into disarray, obscuring his eyes, making it impossible to read his expression. Wen Hupo didn’t address him as “outstanding representative” today. She just looked at him silently.
“I thought you wouldn’t care about rumors.” Lu Li shrugged and said jokingly.
“I’m human, not a statue.” Wen Hupo’s voice held a hint of resentment. Unlike the usual aloof and superior “Wen Hupo,” she finally seemed to have some human warmth. She also felt troubled, wronged, and overwhelmed. After all, she was just a seventeen-year-old girl.
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