Chapter 39: Heaven-defying Tag

Chapter 39: Chapter 39: Heaven-defying Tag

Seeing Gu Qing agree to join the social mixer, Chen Zijie and Qian Duole immediately scrambled to get ready.

First, they both took quick showers. Then, they frantically rummaged through their closets for their best clothes, taking turns preening in front of the full-length mirror on the wall.

Gao Fei, who always enjoyed dressing well, stood to the side and played the role of a temporary stylist, helping them with their hair.

As for Gu Qing...

Gao Fei glanced over at him, then waved his hand with a smile.

"Forget about you. Even if you showed up with bedhead, you’d still be the most handsome guy in the room. You don’t need to get ready at all."

Gu Qing, who was on his phone, simply raised an eyebrow and didn’t argue.

’Oh well. He really *was* handsome. He had to admit it.’

"Who says he doesn’t? We absolutely have to give Old Gu a makeover!"

Chen Zijie whipped around, his expression dead serious. "We need to make him look ugly. Otherwise, what chance will Duole and I have?"

Qian Duole threw his hands up in support. "Exactly! We have to give Gu Qing an outrageously ugly makeover. Otherwise, all the underclasswomen will only have eyes for him!"

After saying this,

the two exchanged a look and grinned.

They suddenly transformed into zombies and pounced on Gu Qing,

frantically messing up his hair.

And yet, after all their work, Gu Qing’s hair was indeed a mess, but he didn’t look bad at all. Instead, he radiated a kind of wild, disheveled beauty—a completely different style of handsome.

"Holy shit, are you kidding me? His hair is a total wreck, and he still looks handsome?"

"Dammit, it must be nice to be that handsome!"

Chen Zijie and Qian Duole were exhausted. They truly felt that the game designer for *Earth Online* must have been an orphan.

They were all players of the Human Race, so how could one character model be so perfect?

’Is this game even playable anymore?’

After nearly half an hour of horsing around, the four of them were finally ready and headed out.

They split up the tasks.

Gu Qing, Chen Zijie, and Qian Duole headed to the supermarket in the residential commons to buy snacks and drinks.

Meanwhile, Gao Fei went to find his girlfriend and pick up the props for setting up the site, like a picnic blanket and some string lights.

The social mixer was planned to take place on the school’s athletic field.

They were all students without much money, so they didn’t plan on any expensive off-campus activities.

The athletic field was spacious and quiet. The evening breeze made it quite comfortable, perfect for a relaxed social event like this.

...

Once inside the supermarket,

Gu Qing and the other two made a beeline for the snack aisle.

Chen Zijie and Qian Duole went wild, tossing things into the shopping cart. Chips, cookies, and drinks were grabbed nonstop.

Since this was a mixer with underclasswomen, they mostly picked out flavors that girls would likely enjoy.

Gu Qing wasn’t as considerate as the other two; he just grabbed whatever he felt like eating.

Before long, the shopping cart was piled high.

By the time they checked out, they had filled three large bags to the brim.

As they walked out the supermarket doors,

they passed a cake shop.

Chen Zijie gritted his teeth, dug into his own pocket, and bought a ridiculously expensive, trendy chocolate cake.

The slice of cake was barely the size of his palm, yet it cost fifty yuan.

Qian Duole saw it and couldn’t help but roast him.

"You just spent fifty yuan on nothing. That’s not even one bite for me."

"What do you know?"

Carefully cradling the cake, Chen Zijie said dismissively, "This is my ultimate move. When I find an underclasswoman I like, I’ll give her this cake. It’s guaranteed to win her heart."

Gu Qing just smiled without saying a word.

...

The campus was quiet in the evening.

Not many people were around.

The evening breeze carried the faint scent of grass and trees.

One by one, the streetlights flickered on, stretching the trio’s shadows long on the pavement.

As they were approaching the entrance to the athletic field,

Gu Qing suddenly stopped in his tracks.

He caught a glimpse of a fat rat hiding in the bushes by the side of the path.

The rat was a full size larger than a typical one.

Its fur was long and black.

It was huddled in the grass, squeaking insistently.

The moment he heard the sound, translucent text instantly appeared in his vision.

[Meat, meat, meat...]

[No meat, no meat, no meat...]

[Hungry, hungry, hungry...]

Gu Qing raised an eyebrow.

’Could it be that because those two security guards were hauled off to the police station, there’s no one left to feed the school rats raw meat? Is that why this fat rat is starving?’

’But... don’t rats eat all kinds of garbage?’

’How could it possibly be starving?’

’Did it get addicted to that chemically-enhanced meat?’

’So it can’t eat anything else?’

Gu Qing pondered it for a moment but didn’t dwell on it.

He quickly caught up with Chen Zijie and Qian Duole and walked onto the athletic field ahead.

As for the fat rat in the bushes, he didn’t make a move to get rid of it.

The school’s rats were all his informants.

He needed them to gather clues for him later.

...

The athletic field was very quiet.

The underclasswomen hadn’t arrived yet.

Only Gao Fei was there, bustling about on the soccer field as he set everything up.

He was holding a string of colorful lights, trying to hang them on the crossbar of the soccer goal on his tiptoes.

"You’re finally here! Quick, come and help!"

Seeing the three of them arrive, Gao Fei stopped what he was doing and waved them over.

Gu Qing set down the bags of snacks and walked over.

Chen Zijie carefully set the cake aside, then also went to help.

Qian Duole, ever the glutton, stood there and finished a bag of chips before reluctantly shuffling over to lend a hand.

With the four of them working together, setting up the site went much faster.

The picnic blanket was laid out.

The snacks and drinks were arranged.

The string lights were hung on the goalpost.

Gao Fei flicked the switch, and the multicolored lights instantly came to life,

blinking on and off.

The ambiance was instantly perfect.

Just then,

a burst of cheerful laughter drifted over from the distance.

The voices were clear and melodious.

They were clearly the voices of girls.

Gao Fei looked toward the sound and smiled. "Here they come. It’s my girlfriend with the underclasswomen from her department."

Gu Qing, Chen Zijie, and Qian Duole also quickly turned to look.

At the entrance to the athletic field, Gao Fei’s girlfriend was leading the way.

She was wearing a sexy black dress with a very short hemline, so short it nearly exposed the tops of her thighs.

Behind her followed five fresh-faced underclasswomen.

They were all freshmen from this year, each one youthful and pretty. They radiated a greenhorn’s energy and wore smiles that were both shy and curious.

The first underclasswoman was tall and slender, dressed in a simple white T-shirt and blue jeans. Her ponytail swung back and forth as she walked, full of life.

The second underclasswoman wore a pair of delicate, thin-framed glasses and a simple tracksuit, giving off the distinct air of a top student.

The remaining three underclasswomen each had their own distinct charms and were all very easy on the eyes.

Chen Zijie and Qian Duole’s eyes were practically glued to them. They couldn’t help but gulp, not expecting the underclasswomen attending the mixer to be of such high quality.

Gu Qing wasn’t as thirsty as the other two. His expression remained unchanged as his gaze slowly swept over the underclasswomen.

He didn’t have any particular expectations for these girls and was just giving them a casual once-over.

But very quickly, his gaze froze, locking onto the very last girl in the group.

That underclasswoman was wearing a little white dress. She was petite, with her hair in twin pigtails. Her delicate face had a touch of baby fat, giving her a soft, sweet appearance, like a girl who’d just started high school. She radiated an air of immaturity.

However,

it wasn’t her cuteness that attracted Gu Qing’s attention.

Instead, he was completely floored by the tag floating above her head.

Floating above the cute underclasswoman’s head was the most outrageous tag he had ever seen:

——[Feces]

...