Chapter 33: Play

Su Li's voice came through: "Even if the Chinese exam didn't go well, it won't drag the score down too much."

Zhao Jiu raised a hand and continued wiping his hair: "Mm."

Fortunately, no face was lost.

Gouzi was in a good mood, and Su Li said: "Boss, see you tomorrow."

Zhao Jiu: "Mm."

He hung up the phone and was just about to continue wiping his hair when he suddenly realized the dormitory was a bit quiet.

Zhao Jiu stared at his phone; how about, doing some practice problems?

Being too relaxed felt a bit wrong.

Zhao Jiu took out his workbook and started doing problems; as he did them, the messy thoughts gradually disappeared again.

Zhao Jiu felt at ease.

As a result, not long after, the phone rang again; Zhao Jiu glanced at the phone, it was Cheng Yu.

Zhao Jiu: "Mm?"

Calling in the middle of the night?

Cheng Yu's tone on the other end was a bit speechless: "Lu Zixing and the others are coming; they said they miss you and want to see you."

Zhao Jiu put the workbook back in the cabinet and sat back on the bed: "No time, not seeing them, tell them to go back."

Tomorrow is Chen Xue's birthday; if he goes to see them, Su Li would have to go celebrate someone else's birthday alone.

That would be quite lonely.

Cheng Yu nodded on the other end: "That's what I said too."

Although they grew up together and had been in the same school since kindergarten, they weren't close enough that the boss had to drop Su Li and come over the moment they arrived.

"They insisted I call; since you aren't seeing them, then I won't worry about it," Cheng Yu said.

Zhao Jiu: "Mm."

He started to sleep.

The next day.

Su Li carried her bag, packed everything for Chen Xue's gift inside, and waited downstairs at Zhao Jiu's dormitory building early in the morning; bored, she looked at the group chat, and although she knew that even if the Chinese scores were out, they wouldn't be posted early in the morning, she just wanted to check the group.

Zhao Jiu walked out: "Let's go."

Su Li looked up; the boss was still in his school uniform, even though he should have brought his own clothes.

Unlike her, she only brought the short-sleeved shirt to wear inside.

Forget it, Gouzi wouldn't think that much; he would only think that he looked handsome even in a school uniform.

"Go."

The two walked toward the school gate; Chen Xue's family car had just arrived, and Chen Xue got out from the front passenger seat and waved at the two of them.

"Come quickly!"

Qian Lei also poked his head out from the car: "Boss! Su Li!"

Su Li walked over; Qian Lei had already opened the car door and then squeezed toward Liu Jiajia, forcefully squeezing out two empty seats for the two of them.

Su Li hurriedly turned her head to look at Zhao Jiu; she forgot, Gouzi probably hadn't ridden in a car like this.

Zhao Jiu also noticed, but still said: "Mm? Not getting in?"

Only then did Su Li get in the car; as long as he could sit, it was fine.

Zhao Jiu squeezed into the car and closed the door.

Chen Xue turned her head from the front: "This is my cousin; he'll leave after dropping us off later."

The young man in the driver's seat said: "Yes, I'm just a driver today."

The car started, and Chen Xue realized belatedly; she forgot, Zhao Jiu was rich and seemed to have a driver.

Would he be unhappy sitting in such a crowded car?

She looked over through the rearview mirror, was silent for a moment, and withdrew her gaze; she seemed to have overthought it.

In the back seat, because four people were sitting there, it was incredibly crowded.

Zhao Jiu's body leaned against the door, with Su Li pressed tightly against him; his mind, which had only cleared up last night, went blank for a moment.

He took a deep breath and raised a hand to rub his brow; it must be that he didn't do enough practice problems last night.

It wasn't as if he and Su Li hadn't squeezed together before; back then, in order to meet an investor, they had intercepted a car halfway and squeezed into a vehicle with others.

At this moment, Chen Xue's cousin thought the car in front was too slow and suddenly overtook it; as the car swerved into the side lane, Su Li was caught off guard and pressed against Zhao Jiu, one hand pressing onto his leg.

Chen Xue: "Cousin, I suggest you drive slower, otherwise I'm afraid we won't survive."

Cousin: "Sorry, I'm used to it."

While they were talking in the front, Zhao Jiu froze; Su Li had pressed directly onto him due to inertia, and he lowered his eyes to look at the hand pressed on his leg, slender and fair.

Su Li withdrew her hand, turned her head to look at Gouzi, and asked in a low voice: "Does it hurt?"

Zhao Jiu lowered his head, meeting her slightly worried eyes.

Zhao Jiu: "..."

This one was worried he would deduct her wages.

Zhao Jiu leaned against the seat back, staring coldly at Su Li: "It doesn't hurt!"

Was he the type of person to deduct money over such a small matter?

Su Li felt relieved; previously, a new intern had bumped into him, and as a result, Gouzi had directly had someone deduct that month's wages from her.

She hadn't pressed on Gouzi's leg before either; as long as it didn't hurt him, it was fine.

Qian Lei and Liu Jiajia heard the sound and looked at Zhao Jiu: "Huh? What hurts?"

Zhao Jiu: "Nothing."

The two of them: "Oh."

About an hour later, the group arrived at the KTV, and a waiter led them toward a private room.

At this moment, Liu Jiajia suddenly said: "The total scores are out in the group chat!"

Chen Xue and Qian Lei immediately crowded over, looking for their own names.

Su Li and Zhao Jiu also hurriedly took out their phones and tapped to look. Su Li scored 130 in Chinese, ranking second in the class and over 90th in the grade, but because her math and English were too strong, her grade ranking was 35th.

Zhao Jiu scored 122 in Chinese, but his total score ranked 60th in the grade.

The three in front slowly turned their heads to look at the two behind them; were they even human?

One jumped from 280 to the top thirty, and the other ranked 60th after studying for only two weeks.

Su Li and Zhao Jiu felt relieved; the Midterm Exam was over, they hadn't embarrassed themselves, and they could rethink how to go back.

They had transmigrated right there, so the location definitely wasn't wrong; the difference between them and Xiao Wu was that they had fallen asleep and Xiao Wu hadn't, as it was impossible for all three to fall asleep, which would make it easy to miss important information.

Su Li thought carefully about the difference between the three of them; could it be that sofa?

But surely someone must have sat on that sofa before?

Zhao Jiu looked at the scores, remembered something, and typed a message on his phone: "When we entered the school, didn't your principal give us a badge?"

Su Li replied on her phone: "Yeah, a School Anniversary Commemorative Badge. But Xiao Wu has one too."

"Xiao Wu seemed to say back then that the materials of the three badges looked different," Zhao Jiu recalled.

Su Li: "Hm? I didn't hear that, I must have been on a call."

Zhao Jiu: "She did say it, so I just took the two that looked heavier, and stuffed the other one in your pocket."

Su Li turned her head to look at him: "Hm?"

Zhao Jiu lowered his head to type: "Yeah."

Although the other one wasn't bad either, it clearly wasn't from the same batch, so he had just stuffed it away.

Su Li: "???"

Zhao Jiu: "Was the quantity at your school not enough back then, so they grabbed some old ones?"

It seemed that because he and Su Li went, the number of alumni going to their school had increased a lot.

It was very likely the school didn't have enough commemorative badges prepared, so they used old ones to fill in.

"But the timing is a bit off too; usually these celebrations are for things like the 100th anniversary or 110th anniversary."

Su Li: "When we went, the school anniversary seemed to have been postponed for two years."

Zhao Jiu: "..."

Su Li looked up at Gouzi; why were dog paws so dexterous?

Zhao Jiu put away his phone and turned to look elsewhere.

"When is your next school anniversary?"

Up front, Chen Xue and Liu Jiajia turned back excitedly: "Huh? School anniversary? Is our school anniversary coming up? Where did you hear that?"

Zhao Jiu: "No, I was just curious."

The two of them turned back around.

Su Li whispered: "I don't remember, but it seems there was a school anniversary."

She didn't know if this was it, so they could only keep trying.

Zhao Jiu squeezed his hand: "In other words, we still have to stay for a while longer."

Su Li nodded: "There's no news right now, the school anniversary won't start within this month."

That commemorative badge must have been issued to those alumni during the school anniversary.

When the time comes, they would bring Zhao Renhe back and have him help them get two badges.

Zhao Jiu was silent for a moment and said: "Does that mean we still have to take exams?"

Su Li fell silent instantly as well, feeling a bit panicked; what if the badge wasn't it either? Would they have to keep taking exams all the way through?

Zhao Jiu picked up his phone and looked at his scores; his Chinese was dragging him down too severely.

"Let's brush up on Chinese this month."

Since they couldn't go back, he would brush up on Chinese.

Su Li looked up in confusion and whispered: "Isn't our goal just to not be embarrassing?"

"These scores are enough; if converted to college entrance exam scores, you could basically pick any good university in the country."

As long as they stayed stable, there wouldn't be any big problems; they were people who had already studied this once.

Zhao Jiu lowered his eyes and replied: "The one surnamed Jiang made me uncomfortable."

Anyway, since he couldn't go back for now, he missed his first-place position.

Zhao Jiu's goal was very clear.

Su Li: "Hm? When did you two clash?"

In Gouzi's eyes, Jiang Xiangnan shouldn't even exist.

Zhao Jiu looked down at the confused person, remembered the boys who were swearing in the School Cafeteria that day, and said: "I just find him uncomfortable."

Su Li: "..."

Fine, Gouzi had always liked to do things to the best of his ability.

"Shall we brush up?" Zhao Jiu leaned down slightly, looking at Su Li. Su Li was stunned for a moment; his eyes were focused and earnest, and she nodded as if possessed: "Brush up."

Zhao Jiu straightened up: "Yeah. From now on, during morning reading, read Chinese."

Su Li: "..."

What had she just agreed to again?

Up front, Chen Xue and the others also watched the two in silence. Just now, seeing Zhao Jiu suddenly lean down, they almost thought he was going to kiss her, but it turned out he was just talking about brushing up on Chinese.

Just...

It feels like my feelings were wasted by the two of them.

"Let's go," Chen Xue said.

Su Li and Zhao Jiu then looked at them and followed along.

When they arrived at the private room, they discovered that Chen Xue had invited others: two men and two women, three from their class, and one they didn't recognize.

Chen Xue was also stunned when she saw that girl; although she knew her, they weren't close enough for her to be invited to a birthday party.

After all, they were just in the same tutoring class.

A boy in the class said embarrassedly, "I ran into Xiao Min on the way, so I invited her along."

Chen Xue: "No problem, no problem, let's all be together."

Xiao Min: "Chen Xue, I didn't know today was your birthday, so I didn't bring a gift. I'll make it up to you when we have class next Saturday."

Chen Xue waved her hand: "It doesn't matter."

Chen Xue introduced Qian Lei and the others. Xiao Min's gaze landed on Zhao Jiu, a flash of amazement crossing her eyes, and then she hurriedly picked up her phone to tell her friend about it.

The others started picking songs, while Su Li and Zhao Jiu sat honestly in the corner, watching them sing.

She had never heard Gouzi sing and didn't know how he was, but she knew clearly that she was tone-deaf; singing for her was like ghosts wailing and wolves howling, and it was far less comfortable than just reading the lyrics.

Therefore, she would die before she sang.

At this moment, Qian Lei pulled a deck of cards from his pocket: "Su Li, Zhao Jiu, let's play Fight the Landlord!"

Zhao Jiu raised his eyes. Is this guy for real?

Su Li also suspected that he was a bit stupid.

Chen Xue and Liu Jiajia were singing a duet there. Seeing Qian Lei looking for people to play Fight the Landlord again, the corners of her mouth twitched; this was the only thing he could take out to show off.

The three of them started playing, and Qian Lei was the landlord, immediately becoming smug.

"Don't blame me for not showing mercy."

After a while, Qian Lei's hands shook. He looked in horror at the two people who were expressionless and had zero interaction; were they cheating?

Su Li spoke up: "Qian Lei?"

Qian Lei looked at the cards in his hand, furious: "How am I supposed to play this!"

Zhao Jiu: "Then I'll play."

Zhao Jiu finished the last two cards in his hand; he and Su Li had won.

Qian Lei refused to accept it: "Again!"

Su Li and Zhao Jiu looked at him helplessly. This time, Zhao Jiu was the landlord.

Qian Lei thought to himself, it's a sure thing; with these two split up, there's no way he could lose.

As it turned out, Zhao Jiu won.

Qian Lei continued to play, but either Zhao Jiu won or Su Li won; he felt like he was just there to make up the numbers, and he never got to be the landlord again.

He was depressed: "Are you two really not secretly signaling each other?"

Zhao Jiu looked at the cards in his hand: "No."

Didn't he see Su Li trying to kill him with everything she had?

Zhao Jiu raised his eyes to look at Su Li, who was frowning and pondering very seriously; he deeply suspected that she had wanted to destroy him for a long time.

Su Li silently kept track of the cards Zhao Jiu and Qian Lei had played, then guessed the approximate cards in Zhao Jiu's hand.

She brought out the state of mind she had when writing math during the Midterm Exam; today, she would strive to crush the boss right here.

Su Li played a pair, Zhao Jiu followed, and the two went back and forth. Qian Lei tried to intervene, but finally, Su Li beat Zhao Jiu down.

She felt satisfied.

Zhao Jiu: "..."

Chen Xue leaned over and said: "Su Li, aren't you going to pick a song?"

Su Li looked up; she had calculated too hard just now and felt a bit dizzy: "Not picking, I don't sing well."

Chen Xue pulled her up: "We aren't good at singing either, come on!"

Hearing this, Zhao Jiu looked up and said: "She is tone-deaf."

Su Li nodded.

That Xiao Min looked at them in surprise, then looked at the encouragement from her friend on her phone, and decided to observe a bit more.

Chen Xue didn't believe it, suspecting she was just being shy.

"It doesn't matter."

Su Li looked at the naive young girl and stood up: "Fine then."

Zhao Jiu stood up as well: "I'm going to the restroom, you guys have fun."

Su Li suspected he wanted to run away, so she said: "I'll wait for you to come back before I sing."

She still remembered him dragging her along to suffer social death.

Zhao Jiu: "..."

How deep was the grudge she held?

But since he had already said it, he had to go to the restroom whether he wanted to or not. Zhao Jiu went out to the restroom, and that Xiao Min also said: "I'm going to the restroom too."

Su Li really did wait for Zhao Jiu to return.

Outside, Zhao Jiu leaned against the wall. Seeing someone go to the restroom, he prepared to wait for them to come out before going back in.

"Zhao Jiu."

A voice came, and Zhao Jiu turned his head to see the girl; it was the classmate from Chen Xue's tutoring class.

"Something up?"

Xiao Min asked, "What is your relationship with Su Li?"

The two of them looked like they had a good relationship, and she wasn't quite sure.

Zhao Jiu was slightly stunned; he couldn't easily say it was a boss and secretary relationship, but calling them classmates seemed a bit off.

Seeing him hesitate, Xiao Min breathed a sigh of relief: "Then can I pursue you?"

Zhao Jiu didn't even think about it and said: "No."

Xiao Min hadn't expected him to be so direct, and for a moment she didn't know how to respond, so she asked: "Why?"

Zhao Jiu: "I don't engage in puppy love."

Xiao Min breathed a sigh of relief again: "Then can I..."

Zhao Jiu: "I don't accept waiting in line."

Xiao Min: "Huh?"

Zhao Jiu straightened up: "Even if you wait in line, I don't have time to date."

Xiao Min: "..."

Will this kind of person be destined to be single forever?

Seeing the person who went to the restroom return, Zhao Jiu also walked back, then pushed the door open and went in.

Seeing him return, Su Li picked up the microphone and started singing, and Chen Xue hurriedly sat up straight.

The whole room went quiet, watching in horror as Su Li, who didn't have a single note in tune but was trying hard to stay in tune, ended up with a melody that became increasingly strange.

Zhao Jiu leaned against the sofa with his legs crossed, holding a drink in one hand, looking at Su Li with a faint smile.

Xiao Min was startled by Su Li's tune when she returned, and out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly noticed Zhao Jiu looking at Su Li, his eyes filled with a smile, his expression somewhat focused.

Xiao Min was horrified for a moment, recalling how serious he looked when he said he didn't engage in puppy love; could it be that he likes her without even realizing it himself?

Chen Xue snuck a glance at Zhao Jiu; to be able to still smile while watching Su Li sing like that, truly, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.