My Straight Girlfriend with Skin Hunger Syndrome - Chapter 29

Chapter 29

Just moments ago, Ying Yuan had been bracing for “punishment,” but now she was suddenly facing a “reward.”

Her emotions surged like a rollercoaster, plummeting and soaring along a track ablaze with sparks.

Before she could even speak, nearly everyone around her was already chanting “Do it!”

The trio was particularly fervent. Mao Mao was practically going berserk, Xiaohan’s face flushed with shy excitement yet carried a strange, knowing smile, and even Lina, who had always harbored suspicion toward Yi Shanshan, was swept up in the frenzy, shaking Ying Yuan’s arm and yelling, “Go! Go! It’s your time to shine! Aaaah!”

Yes, if this were just an ordinary knowledge competition, if the host weren’t Yi Shanshan—if it weren’t this strange, unfamiliar Yi Shanshan—then now would indeed be Ying Yuan’s moment to step forward.

Ying Yuan excelled at these competitions. Her memory was exceptional, her knowledge broad; these campus-level contests were practically tailor-made for someone like her. If it weren’t for Yi Shanshan…

If it weren’t for Yi Shanshan…

Ying Yuan loathed how often she found herself thinking this way.

The more Ying Yuan thought about it, the clearer it became how much she cared about Yi Shanshan—every word she spoke, every expression she wore, every moment she occupied in time and space, even the air she breathed.

Right now, that pair of smiling eyes, that familiar scent, were enough to send her thoughts spiraling into chaos, her senses reeling.

Ying Yuan didn’t refuse; she simply lowered her gaze.

This feeble resistance was like a speck of dust in the overwhelming torrent of the crowd’s fervor, swallowed up without a trace.

“Excellent! It seems Ying Yuan has agreed,” Yi Shanshan declared, seizing every moment of her hesitation. “Now, let the Advanced Team Competition begin!”

Behind her, the main control console responded to Yi Shanshan’s rising tone with a burst of rousing music, driving the crowd’s excitement to a fever pitch.

Yi Shanshan continued with her polished MC’s cadence, posing the first question: “Fill-in-the-blank: The May Fourth Movement promoted the union of what and what?”

She stood directly in front of Ying Yuan, her gaze sweeping across the other students but always returning to settle on Ying Yuan.

Mao Mao shoved the microphone into Ying Yuan’s hand. “I can’t think straight for these fill-in-the-blanks! You take it, you take it…”

Clutching the microphone, Ying Yuan spoke softly, “Marxism and the Chinese workers’ movement.”

“Correct!” Yi Shanshan affirmed instantly, adding a spontaneous compliment. “This classmate answered with lightning speed—truly worthy of being the team’s chosen representative.”

Ying Yuan: “……”

Silent and blushing.

Yi Shanshan posed three more fill-in-the-blank questions in quick succession. Since the microphone was already in Ying Yuan’s hand, the trio completely lost their competitive spirit. They huddled around Ying Yuan and Yi Shanshan, their eyes darting back and forth between the two as they exchanged questions and answers. Each correct response from Ying Yuan was met with boisterous cheers.

Ying Yuan answered every question correctly.

Her brief, rapid-fire exchange with Yi Shanshan was the smoothest communication they’d had in weeks.

For a fleeting moment, Ying Yuan wished that human interaction could be as straightforward as a fill-in-the-blank question, with a single, correct answer.

“One final question,” Yi Shanshan announced.

Her gaze no longer drifted elsewhere; she stared at Ying Yuan with an unnervingly intense focus, pausing far longer than normal.

Ying Yuan’s heart lurched. As she met Yi Shanshan’s eyes, she seemed to see the question poised on her lips—a question unrelated to today’s topic, the one Yi Shanshan truly wanted to grill her about.

What was Rule Eight?

The question flashed through Ying Yuan’s mind like an electric shock, freezing her breath in her throat.

Yi Shanshan: “Short answer question: Discuss the impact of the May Fourth Movement on modern Chinese social transformation and the inspiration the May Fourth Spirit provides for contemporary youth’s growth.”

Huff…

Ying Yuan heard her own breathing—a long, drawn-out exhale.

Yi Shanshan had posed such a normal question. The sword hanging over Ying Yuan’s head clattered to the ground, landing harmlessly at her feet.

It hadn’t pierced her through. Ying Yuan wanted to thank Yi Shanshan, grateful for her mercy in sparing her life.

Yi Shanshan blinked, and Ying Yuan found her extraordinarily adorable at that moment.

The surrounding classmates, however, didn’t share her sentiment:

Mao Mao: “What’s with the sudden short-answer questions?! Aaaah, how do we even grade short-answer questions?!”

Lina: “Wait, are these two separate questions? Two short-answer questions!”

Xiaohan: “The host is secretly making it harder!”

Yi Shanshan raised an eyebrow. “With a private reward, it’s only fair to increase the difficulty.”

Her casual admission drew a chorus of groans from the trio.

“It’s alright,” Ying Yuan said, speaking up for the first time today. “It’s not difficult.”

“The two questions are deeply connected. It makes perfect sense to treat them as one.”

Yi Shanshan looked at her and smiled.

Ying Yuan averted her gaze, dodging the smile that threatened to disrupt her focus, and began to calmly answer the question.

The question itself posed no real challenge to her. The only difficulty lay in converting her usual written answers into spoken words—spoken words under Yi Shanshan’s watchful gaze.

She felt like a student back in Yi Shanshan’s class, too timid to meet her teacher’s eyes, yet yearning for her approval.

She delivered a long, well-structured explanation, and the surrounding crowd fell silent.

“…to contribute our youthful strength to realizing the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” Ying Yuan concluded with a final summarizing remark: “Never forget history; forge ahead relentlessly.”

“That concludes my answer.”

Thunderous applause erupted around her. Not just the trio, but the entire class erupted in applause for Ying Yuan.

Initially, everyone had regarded it as just a game. But as Ying Yuan seamlessly traced the historical trajectory, summarizing the efforts and contributions of generations of young people in saving the nation and its people, a burning sense of heritage and the spark of legacy ignited in everyone’s hearts.

“The enthusiastic applause speaks for itself,” Yi Shanshan said, her gaze fixed on Ying Yuan, her tone warm and her demeanor earnest.

“Ying Yuan, your answer is absolutely correct. I believe if our predecessors could see a young person like you today, they would be immensely gratified.

“You deserve every reward.”

The hastily entered competition ended just as quickly as it had begun.

Mao Mao clutched a whole bag of prizes, while Xiaohan and Lina circled her on either side, chatting animatedly and pawing through the loot, the trio beaming with joy.

Ying Yuan lagged behind, her thoughts still slightly dazed, but not in an unpleasant way. She quietly savored the moment’s emotions, like a sudden sip of intoxicating wine.

They piled into a car and headed to dinner.

By the time they arrived at the restaurant, the trio was still buzzing about the day’s extraordinary events.

“Our Ying Yuan was absolutely amazing! I was already thrilled when she kept answering the questions correctly, but when she nailed the essay question, I nearly burst into tears!”

“Study for the glory of China! As soon as vacation ends, I’m going to study so hard I’ll tie my hair to the rafters and stab myself with an awl to stay awake!!!”

“I think I might have misunderstood Yi Shanshan before. She was so poised and graceful as the host today. She really knows how to be serious in a formal setting.”

“You’re just starting to understand her? I’m already obsessed! Sobbing noises… You guys don’t know—when she asked me the practice questions, she smiled so gently. My god, it was as warm and tender as my dream mother…” Mao Mao grabbed Xiaohan’s hand. “From now on, you and I are on the same team.”

Xiaohan: “Unite with you? I’m not into the gentle type. I prefer her mischievous side—that little devilish glint… 啧啧啧, so damn captivating…”

Lina: “She’s undeniably charismatic, no denying that. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be crowned our school’s new campus belle.”

Mao Mao: “I know firsthand how powerful her allure is—!”

Though deeply moved, Ying Yuan remained silent, not joining the conversation.

While waiting for their food, Mao Mao opened the gift bag and meticulously examined each item.

Yi Shanshan’s special personal reward was an exquisite fox plush. The reddish-orange fox wore a subtle smile, its fur remarkably soft and lifelike, making it utterly adorable.

“This looks expensive—nothing like the cheap ones we usually get for twenty or thirty yuan,” Mao Mao remarked, scrutinizing the plush and gingerly stroking its fur. “And its expression is so vivid, it almost seems like it could talk.”

Xiaohan reached out and gently poked the fox’s belly.

Suddenly, the fox emitted a voice: “I love you~”

The three friends nearly jumped out of their skins.

“Holy crap! It can actually talk!”

“Where did you poke it? Do it again! Poke it again!”

The three heads huddled together, surrounding the fox and peering around. Soon, the fox spoke again: “Je t’aime~”

“Holy shit, this is different from before!”

“Sounds like French? Last time it said ‘I love you’ in English—could this be ‘I love you’ in French?”

“I’ll turn on my phone’s translator. Poke it again, poke it again!”

The next time, it wasn’t French. The fox spoke in another language, but its brevity and the vaguely familiar feel suggested it was still saying “I love you.”

The trio erupted into shrieks that could only be described as wailing. They clung to each other, slapping their arms and legs, laughing hysterically through tears.

“So romantic! I can’t take it anymore! Aaaaaaaaaah!”

“How could I stumble upon something like this?! Isn’t this the kind of scene you only see in movies?”

“Knowing Yi Shanshan gave me this… the compatibility between beauty and romance is just too perfect!”

“She must have experienced every kind of romance. Something like this probably means nothing to her. Oh, heaven, I wish I could date a beauty like her~”

Ying Yuan’s heart felt like it was being gripped by a hand, its fingers slowly tightening, squeezing until her heart ached with a dull, sour pain.

Yi Shanshan must have witnessed countless expressions of love, which is why she could offer so much love so freely.

Yi Shanshan was the embodiment of “love and being loved.” This wasn’t just Ying Yuan’s observation; it was something everyone who encountered Yi Shanshan eventually realized.

Falling for Yi Shanshan was never anything extraordinary.

The trio’s wailing grew so loud that a waiter came to check on them before they finally calmed down, pressing their lips together to regain composure.

Mao Mao carefully placed the fox back into its special pouch. “We’ll study it more thoroughly when we get back. I bet it can say ‘I love you’ in tons of different ways—ten, twenty, even a hundred!”

Mao Mao suddenly touched something small and icy cold. “Huh?”

She pulled it out. “A… USB drive?”

Xiaohan and Lina crowded around again, while Ying Yuan glanced at it from a distance.

“Is that also a gift?”

“Doesn’t look like it. If it were for someone, a new USB drive would definitely come in packaging.”

“The port’s worn out. It’s definitely been used.”

“Ah, could this be the event materials for today? Shanshan must have absentmindedly tossed it in her bag and forgotten it, letting us take it by mistake!”

Panic immediately swept through the group.

“This is bad! We need to contact her right away. We don’t know if she needs it urgently or if she’s already used it.”

“Let’s find her contact info. Does anyone have her WeChat or phone number?”

“We’re not from the same college and haven’t interacted before. We’re not in any group chats together.”

“Where’s the event being held today? Maybe we should contact the Student Union?”

“I’ll check… But I don’t think any of us know anyone in the Student Union either…”

Ying Yuan’s tumultuous emotions receded completely. In her heart, her fleeting feelings of infatuation paled in comparison to any serious matter.

Yi Shanshan hosting the event was the most serious matter of all.

She stood up and walked over to Mao Mao, examining the USB drive.

It was indeed an old, red USB drive currently in use—a color Yi Shanshan would likely choose.

“I have her contact information,” Ying Yuan said.

The frazzled trio fell silent instantly, their heads snapping up to stare at Ying Yuan, stunned and incredulous.

“Do you think I should text her on WeChat or call her directly?” Ying Yuan asked.

“You have her WeChat…?” Mao Mao blurted out.

“And her phone number too?!” Xiaohan added.

“Aaaaah?! When did this happen?!” Lina exclaimed.

This wasn’t the time to answer their questions. Ying Yuan lowered her eyelashes, pulled out her phone, and made the decision herself. “It’s urgent. I’ll call.”

She dialed the phone number marked with a single, shimmering icon.

The trio stared at her like dumbstruck ducks.

The phone rang—beep… beep…—the wait neither too long nor too short. Then, with a soft click, the call connected.

Yi Shanshan’s voice came through, clear and sweet, like the lingering aftertaste of mountain spring water.

“Hello,” she said. “Who is this?”

Polite and detached, as if she had never met the person on the other end of the line.