Chapter 32: How About I Play Matchmaker For You Again?

At noon today, when Wang Jing was waiting for Cao Sheng in his dorm, Guan Zhi wasn't in the dorm, so he had never met Wang Jing.

But in the afternoon, when he heard his roommates say that a publishing editor from some website had come to find Cao Sheng to discuss publishing agency rights, he—

So, at this moment, seeing Wang Jing beside Cao Sheng, he guessed her identity.

Moreover, when he saw Cao Sheng and Wang Jing walking out of the first floor of the Old Street chatting and laughing, from the smiles on their faces, he guessed that the publishing agency rights they had discussed were probably already settled.

Xu Ling, who was holding his hand, was very puzzled.

Because Guan Zhi hadn't told her that someone had come to find Cao Sheng to discuss publishing agency rights today.

This kind of thing, Guan Zhi also couldn't possibly tell her.

After all, everyone has selfish motives.

As Cao Sheng's roommate, deep down Guan Zhi didn't want Xu Ling to think Cao Sheng was more outstanding than him.

Or rather, he didn't want Xu Ling to think any man was more capable than him.

So, the look Xu Ling now gave Cao Sheng and Wang Jing was rather confused.

"Cao Sheng! This is... your girlfriend?"

Xu Ling asked hesitantly.

While asking, Xu Ling felt Cao Sheng must have something wrong with his head—otherwise, why would he reject He Xinglan from her dorm? And be together with this older woman right in front of her?

Could it be that He Xinglan wasn't even as pretty as this older woman?

Although Wang Jing's image wasn't bad, the marks of time couldn't be concealed.

A woman in her thirties, no matter how well she took care of herself, couldn't look like a young girl around twenty.

Cao Sheng laughed in spite of himself, "No! You've got the wrong idea, she's a friend of mine."

After a pause, Cao Sheng asked back, "You two came out to shop? So sweet together, really makes one envious!"

Wang Jing curiously sized up Guan Zhi and Xu Ling, and asked with a smile, "Are they your classmates?"

Guan Zhi: "Right! I'm Cao Sheng's roommate, she's my girlfriend."

Xu Ling was still carefully sizing up Wang Jing. Although Cao Sheng had just denied Wang Jing was his girlfriend, Xu Ling still had her doubts.

Because she didn't believe there was pure friendship between men and women.

Even though Wang Jing looked quite a bit older than Cao Sheng, these days the phenomena of an old cow eating tender grass, or a young bull living off a woman, were already not uncommon.

The key was, when Cao Sheng and Wang Jing came out of the first floor of the Old Street earlier, they were chatting and laughing, which made one suspicious just looking at them.

Cao Sheng: "Right! Let me introduce everyone—this is my roommate Guan Zhi, this is his girlfriend Xu Ling, and the friend beside me is surnamed Wang, Wang Jing."

The four stood by the roadside. After some small talk, Cao Sheng took the initiative to say goodbye—he had to entertain Wang Jing today and had no time to chat more with Guan Zhi and the others.

Guan Zhi and Xu Ling stood by the roadside, watching Cao Sheng and Wang Jing leave. Xu Ling frowned and asked, "Hey, do you think they're really just friends? Is it because this woman is too old, so Cao Sheng is embarrassed to admit she's his girlfriend? What do you think?"

Guan Zhi: "……"

Knowing the truth, Guan Zhi was a little conflicted at this moment.

Should he explain things for Cao Sheng?

Or simply go along with Xu Ling's guess and pin this black pot directly on Cao Sheng's head?

He was a little tempted to ruin Cao Sheng's image in Xu Ling's eyes.

That way, in Xu Ling's eyes, he, Guan Zhi, would still be the most outstanding one in their dorm.

However, when the words reached his lips, he found he couldn't bring himself to say something so unconscionable. He sighed lightly and said with a complicated expression, "Don't talk nonsense! This woman, I've heard, is some kind of copyright editor at a novel website. She specifically flew over today to find Cao Sheng to discuss publishing rights agency."

"Huh? For real or not? Are you messing with me?"

Xu Ling looked at Guan Zhi in surprise.

Publishing rights agency?

Cao Sheng?

Cao Sheng could be connected to publishing rights agency?

Guan Zhi gave a wry smile, "It's true. This guy Cao Sheng, I really underestimated him before. I used to think he was nothing special except being a bit handsome. Who would've thought! Without making a sound, he wrote some novel, and it became the most popular one on that novel website. I really couldn't tell he had this kind of talent before. Sigh!"

Xu Ling: "???"

Xu Ling, her little mouth slightly open, stared blankly as Guan Zhi finished saying all this. Her mouth opened and closed, and she exclaimed, "For real? He's this talented? No way! He's just a junior college student like us! If he were really this talented, how come he couldn't even get into a proper university during the college entrance exam? Is the college entrance exam harder than writing novels?"

Guan Zhi looked at her with a strange gaze, "You're acting as if you've never taken the college entrance exam. You've never seen someone who's biased in their studies? With the current college entrance exam system, most students who are heavily biased get filtered out. Looking back now, Cao Sheng must have been seriously biased back then. His writing ability should be very strong, but because he was biased, even if he got a perfect score on the essay, he'd still have to come to junior college."

By the end of his words, there was a smile in Guan Zhi's eyes and on his face.

Quite happy.

He thought: No matter how awesome you are, aren't you still in junior college just like me?

Xu Ling nodded slightly, turned her face with a complicated expression to look at Cao Sheng's retreating back as he walked farther and farther away.

She sighed lightly, "Looks like it's really like that. If so, he's quite a pity."

……

That evening, when Xu Ling returned to her own dorm and saw He Xinglan sitting at the desk looking down at a book, she thought of Cao Sheng.

She thought of how He Xinglan had previously been willing to try dating Cao Sheng.

And tonight she had unexpectedly learned that Cao Sheng wasn't just handsome, but also quite talented. He was only in his first year of college, yet someone had already come to discuss publishing rights agency with him, and he might have quite a future.

As a woman, her way of thinking was different from a man's.

She wasn't jealous of Cao Sheng's talent, nor of his looks and physique.

On the contrary, she now quite admired Cao Sheng, but she was already with Guan Zhi, and Guan Zhi and Cao Sheng were in the same dorm room, so there probably wasn't any possibility of her and Cao Sheng being together.

And now she wanted to do a favor for both Cao Sheng and He Xinglan.

She felt Cao Sheng had a future ahead, and He Xinglan was the prettiest in their dorm and would probably do well too. If she, Xu Ling, could play matchmaker and get them together, both of them would probably be grateful to her, and both of them would become part of her network.

Thinking this, she walked over to He Xinglan, leaned her hip against the desk beside her, and to He Xinglan who looked over in confusion, said, "Xinglan, do you still remember that Cao Sheng?"

He Xinglan's face flushed slightly upon hearing this, embarrassed.

She had initially taken the initiative to express her willingness to try getting close to Cao Sheng, only to be rejected by him, an incident that turned her into a laughingstock.

Not only did everyone in their dormitory know, but most of their classmates had also heard about it.

Since then, she always felt that the way her classmates looked at her was tinged with mockery.

It seemed they were all laughing at her.

She could only make her expression colder, thereby preventing those people from bringing up the matter to her face.

She never expected that Xu Ling, her dorm-mate, would mention that person in front of her tonight.

"I don't remember!"

He Xinglan replied coldly.

She wanted Xu Ling to shut up.

Xu Ling smiled. "It's that Cao Sheng we met during our last dormitory get-together! The one from my boyfriend's dormitory. I saw him again tonight, you know? He actually wrote a novel, and today an editor from a website came specifically to discuss copyright agency with him. I think if you truly like him, you should take the initiative; he is really quite good. If you just miss out on him like this, I truly think it's a pity. How about I help you bring you two together again?"