My Straight Girlfriend with Skin Hunger Syndrome - Chapter 18
Chapter 18
Ying Yuan knew these gossip sessions never ended in less than half an hour.
She could only silently set the kettle down and offer some feeble clarifications for Yi Shanshan.
“She didn’t do anything to me.”
“We just talked a bit.”
“She didn’t deduct points from our class.”
“Really…”
Her explanations were too boring; Mao Mao, Xiaohan, and Lina had no interest in them. They much preferred listening to each other’s speculative stories, their eyes gleaming as they took turns speaking.
Lina: “There are things I can’t say outright, but I’ll just say Yi Shanshan has been paying attention to Ying Yuan for a long time. We’ve seen them together many times before, and her attitude was always… so strange…”
Mao Mao: “How strange?!”
Lina: “You know… that way she acts like she doesn’t care, but you can tell she really does…”
Mao Mao: “Ooooooohhhh!!!!”
Lina: “Anyway, I think Ying Yuan is special to her.”
Xiaohan: “Tsk tsk tsk.”
Xiaohan: “So it’s no surprise she kept Ying Yuan behind alone today. At first, we thought it was because Ying Yuan looked so dazed.”
Mao Mao: “Don’t you think the spacey Ying Yuan and Yi Shanshan—that beautiful, two-faced woman—make a perfect match?”
Lina: “Eek… that’s a little creepy, don’t you think?”
Xiaohan: “Now that’s what I call exciting. They were alone in the room for ages, and when Ying Yuan came out, she insisted nothing happened. But ‘nothing happened’ means anything could have happened.”
Mao Mao: “Holy shit!”
Lina: “Speaking of which, last time at the library, they were alone together too. Ying Yuan said the same thing: ‘Nothing happened.'”
The three of them turned simultaneously, their gazes locking on Ying Yuan.
Ying Yuan: “…Nothing really happened.”
Ying Yuan: “It’s normal to bump into someone from the same school occasionally, right?”
Ying Yuan: “We exchanged a few ordinary words.”
Ying Yuan: “Who doesn’t know Yi Shanshan? She’s famous. Everyone knows her.”
Ying Yuan: “We’re not close.”
If Ying Yuan were Pinocchio, her nose would now be long enough to circle the Earth three times.
Mao Mao, Xiaohan, Lina: “Tch—just as we thought, we’ll never get the truth out of her.”
Mao Mao: “Hey, Xiaohan, did you notice the way Yi Shanshan was looking at Ying Yuan when she opened the closet? We were all so tense, but she seemed… to be smiling?”
Xiaohan: “To call it a smile… that moment when she praised Ying Yuan’s tidy desk and said she should be a model student—it was downright creepy. A hollow smile, like her face didn’t match her heart. It felt… like some kind of knowing punishment…”
Lina: “Oi—”
Mao Mao: “I don’t know what kind of mascara she uses, but her eyelashes are so curled, thick, and luscious. Up close, they’re a hundred times more striking than in photos.”
Xiaohan: “Her skin is flawless—not a single pore! Her makeup is just for fun; beneath the mask lies an even more beautiful mask. It’s infuriatingly enviable.”
Lina: “She’s undeniably stunning, but it feels like she’s using her beauty as a weapon.”
Mao Mao: “And what a lethal weapon it is! If I were Ying Yuan, I’d have fainted on the spot!”
Mao Mao glared at Ying Yuan. “You’re wasting such a golden opportunity! Not even one story for us?!”
Ying Yuan: ……
Ying Yuan simply played the part of a silent idiot.
Her phone rang—an unfamiliar number labeled “Delivery.”
Ying Yuan answered. The delivery driver said her meal was downstairs.
“I didn’t order anything,” Ying Yuan replied, puzzled.
“The note says: ‘Sparkling Compensation Meal’,” the driver replied.
Ying Yuan: !!!
Ying Yuan shot to her feet.
Mao Mao, Xiaohan, and Lina all turned to stare.
Clutching her phone, Ying Yuan hurried toward the door, desperate to avoid leaking any sound. “It’s nothing… I’m just going to… get something…”
Xiaohan: “Something’s definitely up.”
Mao Mao: “Inevitably.”
Lina: “I’m starting to think Ying Yuan is a walking storybook!”
Ying Yuan slipped out of the dormitory and hurried downstairs.
The delivery driver, carrying two large bags, shoved them all into her hands.
Ying Yuan: “???”
Delivery Driver: “8524, right? It’s all yours.”
Ying Yuan glanced down. One bag contained four oversized cups of milk tea, while the other was overflowing with cake and snacks—definitely enough for a crowd.
She froze outside the building, unsure if Yi Shanshan had meant what she seemed to imply.
Her phone buzzed twice. Ying Yuan struggled to pull it out.
The message was from Yi Shanshan, answering her unspoken question as if by telepathy: I see you got the Sparkling Compensation Meal. Your roommates seem nice. Since I scared them today, let’s make it up to them together.
Sigh… what can I even say?
She scared them on purpose, then tries to win them over afterward.
Ying Yuan let out a long sigh, finally understanding. This was Yi Shanshan’s typical way of dealing with people.
She carried the bags upstairs, fretting over how to get her roommates to eat everything and how to explain it all convincingly.
As Ying Yuan approached the door, a cacophony of screams and laughter erupted from within, signaling the climax of the trio’s animated discussion.
Pushing the door open, she was met with three flushed, excited faces turning toward her in unison. Six eyes blazed like incandescent bulbs, burning with curiosity.
“I…”
Before she could speak, their questions flowed like a river.
Xiaohan: “Who sent the gift, Ying Yuan?”
Mao Mao: “Don’t even try to say you bought it yourself. I overheard you taking the delivery call earlier.”
Lina: “I saw that surprised, dumbfounded look on your face. Something’s definitely up.”
Xiaohan: “Honestly, we’ve already guessed most of it.”
Mao Mao: “So just confess, you mysterious woman with hidden secrets!”
Lina: “Is it the Rich Lady? Is it the Rich Lady?”
Ying Yuan: “????”
Ying Yuan: “How did you all figure this out…?”
Xiaohan: “Lina’s one of us now. Besides, we only have a vague idea about a Rich Lady—we don’t know her name, her connection to you, or any specifics. It’s not exactly exposing a secret.”
Lina: “So the strawberries from last time were from the Rich Lady! I knew something was fishy!”
Ying Yuan: “……”
You guys should switch to criminology. You’re wasting your talents in materials science.
Since they’d already guessed so much, Ying Yuan didn’t bother arguing. She placed the treats on the small table where the three of them were gathered. “Here, dig in.”
Mao Mao: “Huh? There’s stuff for us too?”
Xiaohan glanced at the bag. “Holy moly, look at this spread!”
Lina: “Four milk teas! Did the Rich Lady install hidden cameras here or something?!”
Mao Mao’s eyes narrowed with glee. “Hehehe, maybe Ying Yuan is the Rich Lady’s camera! Everything we tell her gets reported back to the Rich Lady, hehehe… I’m ashamed I ever supported the ‘FlashYuan’ couple for even a second. Now I’m a die-hard ‘RichYuan’ shipper!”
Xiaohan: “She’s already bribing your roommates, Ying Yuan! You still think your relationship is just ‘casual’?”
Ying Yuan: “……”
Should I just tell them Yi Shanshan is the Rich Lady and scare them to death?
“Maybe today… the milk tea shop had a ‘buy one, get three free’ deal,” Ying Yuan blurted out, her lies becoming increasingly elaborate.
Mao Mao, Xiaohan, and Lina erupted in furious protest: “Ying Yuan! I hate that you’re such a blockhead!!!”
Ying Yuan silently took her milk tea, saying nothing.
Refueled, the trio resumed their “symposium,” each more enthralled than the last.
“I’m ashamed to admit it, but I still find Yi Shanshan incredibly alluring. Her icy, calculating demeanor in that uniform today—imagine transposing that into a 2D setting… it sends shivers down my spine.”
“She’s undeniably beautiful, but I’m still team Rich Lady. She’s so thoughtful and considerate. Dating her would be pure joy every day.”
“If I had to choose… I’d want both, hehehe…”
“Just clone Ying Yuan already!”
“Let’s install a camera on Ying Yuan so I can review her day when she gets home.”
Ying Yuan sat slumped in her chair, letting out a long sigh.
Listening to their fantasies felt like hearing elementary schoolers dreaming of getting into Tsinghua and Peking Universities.
Such vivid imaginations.
Yi Shanshan had never crossed the boundaries of friendship. She was just warm, generous, playful… and needed emotional release due to her illness.
Calling her “baby,” acting clingy and coquettish, giving gifts… it was all textbook straight-girl behavior. If anything was amiss, it was Ying Yuan herself who was the problem.
She was gay, and at certain moments, she would shamefully have a physiological reaction to it.
This is exhausting, she thought.
As the night deepened, the three of them finally grew tired of chatting.
Lina returned to her own dorm, while Mao Mao and Xiaohan collapsed lazily onto their beds.
Ying Yuan took a shower and was climbing the ladder in her pajamas when she suddenly froze.
Yi Shanshan had slept in her bed.
This very bed, right here.
She had luxuriated on it during those quiet moments, and Ying Yuan couldn’t help but wonder what images might have been swirling through Yi Shanshan’s mind.
Now, Ying Yuan’s own thoughts were in chaos.
Her reason screamed: Not again! Get a grip!
Yet her pheromones had already escaped, blurring her mind with memories—and fantasies—of Yi Shanshan’s presence here.
Ying Yuan felt a tremor deep in the most hidden corner of her heart. Just then, her phone buzzed with a new message from Yi Shanshan:
Your bed is still the most comfortable. If there were a good enough reason, switching dorms across colleges wouldn’t be too strange, right?