Chapter 51

The KTV room was lit with dim ambient lighting; the space was large and not crowded. Those whose turn it wasn't to sing were sitting on the sofa, heads bowed, playing on their phones. No one cared if the singing was good or bad; the atmosphere was very relaxed.

Seeing the people arrive, Xu Zhouyuan and Zhou Mingyu proactively gave up the middle seats, "Brother Qin, come over here."

Xie Qin just glanced at the messages on his phone without replying, turned off the screen, walked to the sofa, and sat down, placing his phone casually face-down on the table.

Xu Zhouyuan and Zhou Mingyu immediately leaned in, smiling maliciously, "…Tell us what happened, a man and a woman alone, comforting each other for so long, did you hug?"

Zhou Mingyu: "Did you kiss?"

Xie Qin crossed his long legs, picked up a bottle of opened alcohol from the table with a lazy posture, and took a sip, "Asking so much, are you bored and have nothing to do?"

As he spoke, his gaze inadvertently drifted toward a certain spot.

Shen Li was sitting in an inconspicuous, quiet corner.

Zhang Zixin brought some food over, looking her up and down, "Not bad! Shen Li, Xie Qin even let you wear his jacket."

"Are you okay? Why were you crying earlier?"

Shen Li told her without much emotion in her tone, "I'm fine, I lost my wallet."

"Oh, I see! Where did you lose it? Do you want us to help you look for it?"

Shen Li lowered her long lashes, looked at the floor, and said softly: "I don't remember."

"I see… that's really annoying. Do you have enough money on you now? Do you want me to lend you some first… but it's best to tell your family. Did you lose a lot?"

"It's okay, it wasn't much."

"That's good then…" Zhang Zixin continued: "Just after we finished eating, you went to the restroom, and Xie Qin and the others went to buy cigarettes and bought you a smoothie on the way, but… it all ended up in Xu Zhouyuan's stomach."

"You can eat something else first."

Zhang Zixin handed her a small cake, "Eat something sweet, it'll make you feel better."

Shen Li took the small cake; the top layer was covered in pink cream, and there was a white cream strawberry in the middle, "Thank you."

"What's there to thank me for." Zhang Zixin laughed and told her: "We bought all these ourselves, just eat it. They don't like snacks anyway; if you can't finish it, just take it back to the dorm."

Shen Li: "Mm."

"Can you sing? Should I go pick a song for you?"

Shen Li shook her head: "I can't sing."

She asked again: "Do you… have any other hobbies? For example, dancing or playing the piano?"

Shen Li paused for two seconds, then told her seriously, as if it were a well-considered answer: "Doing practice papers, does that count?"

Zhang Zixin: "?"

She was stunned for a second and couldn't help but laugh out loud, "Hahaha… I can't take it. Shen Li, how do you manage to say such abstract things with such a straight face."

"Are you telling me a joke?"

"I can't!"

"Xu Zhouyuan was right; he thinks the… funniest thing about you is that when you tell jokes, the serious look on your face is especially funny."

Shen Li pursed her pink lips, looking at her laughing while clutching her stomach with a confused expression.

She was telling the truth.

When she was studying before, whenever she was in a bad mood, she liked to solve problems so that her heart could calm down and she wouldn't think about those bad things.

…When she was in a good mood, she also liked to solve problems because her thinking would be very clear then.

Perhaps Zhang Zixin was laughing too loudly.

It caught the attention of the boys nearby.

Several gazes turned over.

Xu Zhouyuan: "…What joke is so funny? Tell us so we can all have a laugh."

The boys who had been sitting on the middle sofa suddenly moved over.

Zhang Zixin was laughing so hard tears were coming out; she controlled her emotions slightly and repeated the conversation Shen Li had just had.

Half a minute later.

In the inconspicuous corner, a burst of laughter immediately erupted.

"Hahaha…"

"Hahahaha…"

"…"

Even Xie Qin wasn't spared. The young man's eyes reflected her figure, and hearing those words, he smiled, his lips curling in a lazy posture.

The one laughing the loudest was Xu Zhouyuan, "Vice Class Monitor, that's not a hobby, that's an addiction to studying…"

"And it's not just an ordinary addiction."

"Hahaha…"

Zhou Mingyu: "That's right, if this goes on, it won't do… this needs to be broken…"

The laughter drowned out the singing.

Other classmates were curious but didn't dare to approach them.

Because it was actually very hard for others to fit into Xie Qin's circle; from the start of school until now, he was still with the same iron brothers from high school.

No one else in the class was particularly close to him.

Everyone knew Xie Qin was rich, but no one knew why, with his ability to get into a good private university and buy a degree with a little money, he had chosen to come to this inconspicuous public vocational college.

The annual tuition wasn't expensive, and even if you were from out of province, you could get in with the lowest scores on your transcript.

Shen Li thought their sense of humor was low.

But the train of thought of those few people was that someone who treated doing practice papers as a hobby.

Had actually come to a trash vocational college like Chengde.

What kind of situation was that?

What kind of stuff had she been reading.

They didn't take it seriously either.

Xu Zhouyuan: "Vice Class Monitor, I just like how you like to tell jokes with a straight face. These words are only funny when you say them; no one else has that effect."

Shen Li: But… everything she said was true.

After someone finished singing.

The accompaniment for the next song started.

"Who picked this song?"

Zhao Zhouyuan stood up, "My song." She stood up and took the microphone from someone else's hands.

This song had a melody everyone was familiar with; the soothing prelude washed over the heart like warm water.

"Those Years."

"Back to the original starting point, your green face in my memory."

The noisy chatter in the room suddenly went quiet.

Even the laughter in the corner gradually faded, and all eyes shifted to her.

Soft whispers arose around them.

"I didn't expect the Class Monitor to sing so well."

"Yeah, it's really quite high-level."

"…"

Zhao Zhouyuan's voice wasn't stunning, but her breath control was steady, like moonlight covered in a thin mist, gently overlaying the melody.

She stood there without any unnecessary movements, standing on the side, looking at the lyrics on the screen.

Her gaze still quietly looked at a certain place, as if she were singing to the air, or perhaps to that figure in the corner.

"We finally reached this day, the old photo under the desk mat, countless memories connected."

Xu Zhouyuan couldn't help but praise, "She sings well! Better than that what's-her-name who sang the lullaby. Last time she pinched her voice like she hadn't eaten, it was so uncomfortable to listen to."

The song reached its climax…