Chapter 485: Xu Youyu: Still Trying to Trick Me?

The next day, April 30th, Saturday.

Unlike previous Saturdays, when matches were always held in the afternoon.

The finals of the three major ball sports were a school-wide event.

Whether they were Gao Yi, Gao Er, or Gao San students, everyone came to the gym to watch.

Thus, the finals were scheduled for the morning, replacing the usual Saturday morning self-study session.

Morning self-study from seven to half past seven remained unchanged; after half past seven, the familiar exercise music rang out across the campus.

All classes lined up in their usual order for morning exercises, then marched en masse toward the gym.

As student council members responsible for maintaining order and members of the rock club, Li Luo, Ying Chanxi, and Yan Zhusheng had already left their classrooms during morning self-study and arrived at the gym.

First, they arranged personnel to transport the rock club's equipment to the first-floor stage.

They also confirmed the entry order for each class at the gym's entrance points to ensure no mistakes later.

"Sigh, watching the Gao Yi teams compete in the finals, I suddenly feel old," Li Luo said, gazing down at the court from the stands' steps, to Ying Chanxi beside him.

"How old are you, talking like an old man?" Ying Chanxi rolled her eyes. "Old? We're mature."

After chatting a bit, they went back to their tasks.

Soon, it was half past seven; class lines were already on their way.

Li Luo suddenly needed to urinate and went upstairs; after using the restroom, he passed by the rock club's activity room and found Yan Zhusheng still there.

"Didn't they all go downstairs to prepare?" Li Luo walked into the room and asked. "Why aren't you going down?"

"I tested the microphone—no problem," Yan Zhusheng said, seeing Li Luo enter, then grabbed his hand and leaned into his chest. "Before singing, I like a moment of quiet."

"Then keep being quiet—I'll go down first?"

"No." Yan Zhusheng pouted, looking up at Li Luo. "Now I have one more habit before singing."

"What habit?"

"This."

Yan Zhusheng rose onto her tiptoes.

Ying Chanxi was still downstairs maintaining entry order, but if she looked up at the activity room's window, she could see the two silhouettes merging as one.

But Li Luo didn't linger long in the activity room; he soon returned to his post, guiding the Gao San classes into their seats.

When the last student from Class 16, Gao San, entered the stands, Li Luo finished his task and leaned casually against Xu Youyu's seat.

"Tired?" Xu Youyu smiled up at him.

"Not really—I'm not as weak as you, Yu-jie," Li Luo shook his head, only resting his hand on the back of the chair.

Xu Youyu's eyebrows shot up at his jab; she snorted. "If you can't speak properly, don't speak. Don't think just because there are so many people around I won't deal with you."

Hearing that, Li Luo immediately stepped away, afraid she'd pull another stunt.

But Li Luo wasn't the only one who understood; even Xu Youyu's classmates nearby now wore strange expressions.

After all, some people didn't just do strange things with Li Luo in private—they'd written plenty of it in their books too.

Yet neither Li Luo nor Xu Youyu noticed this oddness.

After chatting with Xu Youyu a while, Li Luo descended the steps to the basketball court's stage and took the guitar from Yan Zhusheng's hands.

As the host announced the opening, the finals' ceremony officially began.

The rock club performed "The Sky Has No Limits," wishing all competitors the best results.

For these Gao Er club members, this opening performance was likely their final official appearance before the entire school.

After this semester ended, they would enter Gao San, leave the club, and pass the stage to the younger Gao Yi and Gao Er students.

Thinking of this, Li Luo glanced back after stepping offstage, feeling a quiet pang.

Since his rebirth, nearly two years had slipped by like this.

Time really did fly.

As Li Luo reflected, student council members swiftly moved the instruments away, clearing the stage.

The stage now returned to the athletes.

Li Luo had little interest in watching the games; fulfilling his student council patrol duties, he patrolled the Gao San stands.

Only after the badminton and table tennis matches ended was he relieved from duty and free to move.

He assumed Yan Zhusheng had returned to Class 8's stands and headed that way.

But as he neared the Gao Er Class 8 stands, he spotted Yan Zhusheng—then noticed Zhang Guohuang and his group whispering in a corner.

Curious, Li Luo crept closer behind them and faintly caught their conversation.

"Xu Xuejie seems about to finish," Ren Zheng said. "Her updates have been getting slower lately—sometimes she just drags out the plot."

"Is dragging the plot bad?" Zhang Guohuang chuckled. "Have you seen what she uses to drag it?"

Hua Xiuxiu blushed slightly at this, too embarrassed to respond.

Ren Zheng spat. "Aren't the screenshots circulating in the group chat enough? You guys have such a weird taste—fine if you just read them yourselves, but why screenshot and share them?"

The boys chuckled lowly; some blushed and lowered their heads in embarrassment.

After all, someone had been stuck writing lately, especially near the end, dealing with reforms in China's film industry—she'd nearly gone bald.

So she'd resorted to padding with "daily interactions" between the male and female leads, just to take a break.

Even so, she was now fishing two days and sunning three—barely updating every two or three days.

But even at this pace, she'd likely finish officially by May.

Yet when Li Luo heard Zhang Guohuang's conversation, his face showed shock.

He thought he'd misheard—maybe they were just talking about the book "Literary Era"?

But his Memory Palace faithfully recorded every word spoken, clearly hearing them call her "Xu Xuejie."

Though there were surely many Gao San girls surnamed Xu, the "Xu Xuejie" Zhang Guohuang and the others mentioned—could it be anyone but Xu Youyu?

But...

Li Luo's expression turned strange; he silently stepped back two paces, then deliberately planted his feet firmly to draw Zhang Guohuang and the others' attention.

His face hardened, Li Luo approached the seat of Class 8, Grade 2; Ren Zheng noticed his figure and immediately changed expression, then signaled with her eyes for the others to fall silent.

"What were you talking about?" Li Luo asked casually.

"We were just saying how good that last shot was!" Zhu Yufei turned around, saw Li Luo, and hurriedly said, "That forward from Class 8 is pretty strong."

"Oh, that guy's from our rock club."

"No wonder he's under the class monitor's wing!"

Li Luo found their clumsy acting amusing, but after thinking it over, he decided not to expose them.

I wonder what this "group" they're talking about even is?

Do people really form QQ groups just to discuss reading?

Li Luo sat back down in the empty seat left for him, his mind turning as he pondered when exactly Youyu's secret had been exposed.

Could it have been during the winter break annual gathering, when that group photo was seen by Zhang Guohuang and the others?

That's just too much of a coincidence.

Who would waste their time constantly watching Wenxue Group's official Weibo account?

But aside from that, Li Luo truly couldn't think of any other place the leak might have come from.

After much thought, Li Luo decided he'd tell Xu Youyu when he got home.

It wasn't his own social death, after all; Li Luo chuckled slightly, even looking forward to Youyu's reaction.

I wonder—is this knowledge limited to just Zhang Guohuang and the others, or has it already spread through the whole school?

Given Zhang Guohuang's "tight-lipped" personality, Li Luo really couldn't say.

Carrying these thoughts, Li Luo watched the rest of the basketball game with a complicated mood.

After the match ended, as a student union member, he had to stay behind to clean up, and also asked others to help move the rock club's instruments from the gym to the library.

"I already called my uncle and told him to prepare some bubble tea," Li Luo said to Yan Zhusheng after the final match ended. "He said he'd deliver it to the school gate—go pick it up and hand out a cup to everyone who helped move the instruments."

"Oh." Yan Zhusheng obediently went to the school gate to pick up the bubble tea.

But when he arrived at the school gate, he saw a black Audi parked by the roadside.

Li Luo's uncle, Lin Xiufeng, rolled down his window and waved at Yan Zhusheng.

The passenger-side door opened simultaneously; Jian Chun stepped out, turned to the trunk, grabbed two large bags of bubble tea, and walked to the school gate to hand them to Yan Zhusheng.

"Thank you, Senior Jian," Yan Zhusheng accepted the tea and politely thanked her.

Jian Chun smiled and said, "We still have to go back and watch the tea shop, so we're leaving now."

"Mm, bye."

After seeing off Lin Xiufeng and Jian Chun, Yan Zhusheng headed toward the library, where he saw Li Luo holding a guitar, helping other student union members carry the instruments into the library, and joined the group.

"My uncle came with Senior Jian," Yan Zhusheng said, turning his head. "And he drove a new car."

"Oh, so his Audi's finally out?" Li Luo reacted, raising an eyebrow. "Where did Senior Jian sit?"

"Front passenger seat."

"Tsk tsk," Li Luo clicked his tongue twice.

He hadn't paid attention to his uncle's love life in a while—looks like buying the car brought some new developments?

But for now, the urgent matter is still telling Youyu.

Watching Yan Zhusheng hand out bubble tea to the classmates, Li Luo pondered how to tell Xu Youyu.

But when he returned home in the afternoon, he found Xu Youyu was napping again.

Li Luo thought this matter was more important than Youyu's nap, so he knocked on the door, entered her room, and closed it behind him.

"Youyu," Li Luo shook her gently, whispering near her ear, "our classmates seem to know you write novels."

"Don't wake me," Xu Youyu rolled over in bed, pulling the blanket over her head. "I'm still sleeping—go play somewhere else."

"Your classmates might know you write novels!"

"You think I'm three years old?" Xu Youyu stuck out one foot from under the covers and kicked him, laughing coldly. "Tricking me once or twice is fine, but now you want to trick me three or four times? Get out! Don't disturb my nap."

Li Luo: "..."