Right after getting dumped, He suddenly learned that his best buddy was the legendary cold-as-ice school beauty. - Chapter 51

Ji Qingqian climbed to the third floor in one breath, head bowed.

She stopped in front of her dorm and took a deep breath.

So humiliating.

The moment she saw the dorm supervisor, she almost wished she could dig out an entire four-room apartment with her toes…

Then her phone buzzed with a message.

[YibeiNorth]: Heroine, you didn’t even say goodbye to me.
[YibeiNorth]: Disappointed.
[YibeiNorth]: Leaving things unfinished—today’s outing feels so incomplete.
[Qingqian]: …
[Qingqian]: Goodbye!
[YibeiNorth]: Saying goodbye isn’t done with words. You need to say it properly.
[Qingqian]: ?
[Qingqian]: You have way too many requirements.

She took another deep breath, pressed the voice button, and softly spoke into the phone:

“Goodbye.”

[Qingqian: ))1s]
[YibeiNorth: ))5s]

Ji Qingqian tilted her head, curious.

She tapped the audio message from Lu Yibei.

“Mm, I’m happy too. I might even be a little happier than you.”

Whish.

His words struck her like an arrow straight to her tiny heart.

Cunning.
Devious.
Shameless.

And all with such ease, teasing her heartstrings.

Ji Qingqian forced herself to type calmly.

[Qingqian: You better be.]

Then…

[Wang Jue is inviting you to a WeChat call…]

Ji Qingqian: ?

She ended the call and opened the dorm door directly in front of her.

Wang Jue was inside, phone now away from her ear.

Before she could even say “I won’t answer…” Ji Qingqian stepped in:

“What’s up?”

“Oh, it’s raining so hard, and you weren’t back yet, so we were worried…” Ma Jiaojiao started.

She barely got halfway through before the words stuck in her throat.

All three girls in the dorm sized up Ji Qingqian at once.

It was as if her face was glowing with color.

Ji Qingqian found this strange.

She had consciously controlled her facial muscles; she shouldn’t have shown any odd expressions.

Then she noticed why.

Ah… she’d forgotten something.

Instinctively, she raised her arm; the sleeve of her shirt hung a full segment past her hand.

Then she touched her head—her baseball cap was still perched atop her skull.

The hat and the shirt hadn’t been returned to Bei.

“Ahem.”

Ma Jiaojiao’s cough broke the suspicious silence in the dorm: “Qingqian, what did you and Senior Lu eat?”

She had guessed with eighty percent certainty before—but now she could be one hundred percent sure it was Lu Yibei who went out with Ji Qingqian.

She’d never seen this shirt before.

It matched the hat Lu Yibei had worn on his previous outings.

Ma Jiaojiao knew her well.

Ji Qingqian had no choice but to answer honestly: “Haidilao hotpot.”

“Not bad~” Ma Jiaojiao laughed. “How was it?”

Ji Qingqian: …

Unsure how to respond, she paused and replied concisely:

“Pretty good.”

Ma Jiaojiao was more than satisfied.

She nudged Chu Chu, whose face was nearly like a Sima mask, on the shoulder: “See? I told you.”

She had previously tried convincing Chu Chu that Ji Qingqian’s date was Lu Yibei, but Chu Chu had still doubted.

Not that she didn’t believe Ji Qingqian could conquer Lu Yibei—just that the newly crowned campus belle’s personality was ice-cold.

It had only been a short time since the semester started.

How could she be “taken down” so quickly without betraying her aloof aura?

Now, the hat was proof.

The icy flower of romance was indeed beginning to bloom…

Chu Chu stared in disbelief at Ji Qingqian.

What had gone wrong?

Ji Qingqian shrugged off Lu Yibei’s plaid shirt and tossed it onto her bed:

“I’m going to shower.”

She had already washed before, but after hotpot, she needed a proper rinse.

Then the girls noticed Ji Qingqian’s outfit for the first time—a JK uniform they had never seen before.

After Ji Qingqian entered the bathroom with a basin and towel, Ma Jiaojiao whispered to Chu Chu:

“Not quite what I expected!”

In her imagination, the senior had been chasing Ji Qingqian relentlessly…

But this JK outfit said otherwise: she was just as enthusiastic.

“Senior Lu… really knows his stuff,” Ma Jiaojiao sighed.

Chu Chu ignored her speculations, flopped onto Wang Jue’s shoulder in despair:

“Jue Jue! Now there’s another traitor in the dorm. You can’t leave me alone!”

Previously, Chu Chu had called Ma Jiaojiao a “traitor” because she was the only one in the dorm with a boyfriend.

Ma Jiaojiao pushed up her glasses, lenses glinting:

“Now it’s 2v2—who the traitor is, nobody knows!”

“Jue Jue, we must resist! Never give in to these lovebirds!”

Chu Chu glared at Wang Jue’s side profile: “…You’re not secretly dating either, are you?”

Wang Jue shook her head: “I’m not…”

She didn’t think anyone would want to date a girl like her.

“Jue Jue, you truly are my most loyal teammate—” Chu Chu gushed.

She then picked up her phone to launch Chicken Dinner Elite.

“Hey Ma Jiaojiao, how did you and your boyfriend get together? Give me some tips—what should I say when I open my mic?” Chu Chu asked.

“You’re the real traitor in this dorm!” Ma Jiaojiao scolded.

While reassuring Wang Jue of her loyalty to singlehood, she simultaneously tried to extract online dating tips from Ma Jiaojiao…

They played two rounds together.

In the first, both ended up dead immediately.

In the second, they tried a stealth strategy but still got sniped before the final circle, landing an awkward sixteenth place.

Afterward, the two girls leaned on each other, seemingly enlightened beyond the mundane.

“That was cheating, right?” Chu Chu asked.

Ma Jiaojiao didn’t answer.

Chu Chu grew more certain:

“Definitely hacks. My movements were perfect, hiding spots precise, footwork flawless—no way they could’ve hit me otherwise. It’s definitely hacks.”

Ji Qingqian emerged from the bathroom, towel drying her hair, interrupting Chu Chu mid-rant.

“Chu Chu, you’re from Chaoshan, right?”

“Mm, yeah. Why?”

“The hotpot there’s really good, right?”

“Not exaggerating. Our Chaoshan beef hotpot is unparalleled—nothing else comes close.”

“Can you recommend some places? I want to try next time.”

“Recommend? If you come to Chaoshan, I’ll just take you there myself,” Chu Chu said.

Ma Jiaojiao tugged at her skirt.

Chu Chu glanced at her, then at Ji Qingqian, who looked a little embarrassed.

She remembered this afternoon when Ji Qingqian wanted to eat out and had politely refused her offer to join…

Only for her date to go off.

Now, the moment mirrored that earlier scene.

Chu Chu sighed, twisted open a bottle cap, and pressed the bright red disc to her nose, asking Ma Jiaojiao:

“Do I look like a clown?”

Ma Jiaojiao looked serious:

“The circus would have to give you a raise.”