Chapter 344 - 281: Xiaorui, Let Go of Me

"You’re taking me?" Gu Muxue asked, blinking her wide eyes.

’Registration for the new semester is in the next two days,’ she thought. ’Instead of hurrying to his own school, Xue Rui is going to escort me personally?’

"Of course. Looking the way you do, you’re going to make mouths water all over campus once school starts. I’m afraid someone might try to steal you away from me," Xue Rui said with a completely earnest expression.

Qiu Mengze, who was in on Xue Rui’s actual plans, silently cursed. ’This bastard is such a goddamn phony. Isn’t it just because he’s going to school with Lin Ruoxi tomorrow?’

However, he then noticed Gu Muxue blush the moment Xue Rui spoke. ’Why didn’t I go with Qin Tong?’ he thought. ’Sometimes this bastard’s methods actually work pretty well.’

Gu Muxue smiled. "Is that the only reason?"

’Earlier, when they were all talking with her parents, Xue Rui had been going on about how she needed to cultivate her independence.’

And yet, here he was, making a special trip to escort her for school registration. Even though it completely contradicted what he’d said before, she was actually quite happy about it.

"Yes. You’re so beautiful it makes me feel insecure," Xue Rui said, his face dead serious.

Gu Muxue couldn’t help but burst out laughing. It sounded like Xue Rui was here today just to keep her under guard. She shot him a playful glare. "You’re never serious."

Mei Lili wasn’t having it. "Who else is like you, thinking about pretty girls all day? Aren’t college students supposed to study hard and be good at everything?"

Xue Rui shook his head helplessly. "Why do you have that stereotype?"

Of course, people like that exist, but the percentage... it’s a bit small. Besides, those students tend to just bury their heads in their books. They don’t join any school activities and have almost zero presence. Then, right before graduation, they suddenly blow everyone away, dealing a major blow to all the jaded students who spent years just messing around.

Mei Lili retorted, "You’re the one with the stereotype."

"Liking pretty girls is a stereotype? That’s not a stereotype, that’s a fact."

"Well, it’s not as dramatic as you’re making it sound," Mei Lili said disdainfully. "You’re acting like Muxue is going to be mobbed the second she gets to campus. Anyone who got into Changjiang University has to have some class."

"Who told you grades have anything to do with class?" Xue Rui said, frowning.

Top universities just provide one layer of screening, keeping those with good grades and good family backgrounds. The overall quality might be relatively high, but it takes all kinds to make a world...

Gu Muxue didn’t join their argument. She just liked watching from the sidelines. This same scene had played out countless times in high school, and it always ended with Xue Rui winning.

Qiu Mengze said to Mei Lili, "I think Xue Rui’s right. I mean, look at him. Even a guy like this managed to get into a top-tier university."

Xue Rui glared at Qiu Mengze. ’Whose side are you on?’

He chuckled. "Ah, Mengze, lots of upperclassmen go years without finding a partner. They’re just waiting for the school year to start to get their hands on this year’s fresh meat."

"You know how it is with girls. They always feel a little anxious in a strange city. Just look at Mei Lili today, she’s not acting like her usual self at all."

"When they’re all alone at school, with no one to rely on... that’s when the slick upperclassmen make their move..."

As Xue Rui laid out his reasoning, sentence by sentence, the smile on Qiu Mengze’s face slowly vanished. He remembered that Qin Tong was going to her university all by herself. He mumbled, "Holy shit, why didn’t you say this sooner?"

"You didn’t ask," Xue Rui said, shaking his head.

’Truthfully, he just couldn’t be bothered to say it. Never mind the fact that Qin Tong and Qiu Mengze hadn’t even made things official. Even if they had, so what?’

’There were too many new people and new experiences in college. If you weren’t at the same school, it was easy for someone to get stolen away.’

’Besides, if someone could be stolen away that easily, weren’t they the one at fault to begin with?’

’But this childhood friend of his always insisted on shouldering all the blame. In matters of love, the responsible one always gets the short end of the stick.’

Qiu Mengze looked down, pulled out his phone, and sent a few messages to Qin Tong. But he still hadn’t gotten a reply to his earlier ones.

Xue Rui leaned over for a look. ’Welp, he’s screwed,’ he thought. ’Just as I figured.’

’If you really like someone, even if you can’t reply right away, you should at least give them a reason. You don’t just leave them hanging with half-assed responses like that.’

He offered some advice. "Don’t hang yourself over one tree. College has plenty of crooked ones."

"Why would I have to go for a crooked tree?"

"Because you can’t hang yourself from a perfectly straight one."

"..."

As they chatted, the other passengers around them started lining up for the boarding gate, but Xue Rui remained seated.

"Xiaorui, aren’t we going?" Gu Muxue asked.

Xue Rui shook his head. "It’s not time for boarding yet."

"Then what are they lining up for? Aren’t the seats assigned?" Qiu Mengze asked curiously.

Xue Rui shook his head. "Some people want to claim space on the luggage racks early. Others just see a line and get in it."

"Herd mentality?" Gu Muxue said.

"Wow, Muxue, you’re so smart," Mei Lili chimed in. "I don’t know what ’herd mentality’ means, but this must be what they mean by the benefits of being well-read."

Xue Rui looked at her, exasperated. "If you don’t even know what it means, what are you praising her for?"

...

Only when the long, dragon-like queue had been all but swallowed by the boarding gate, leaving just the tail end, did the group leisurely get up from their seats and head toward the platform.

A pristine white Harmony Express train was waiting at the platform. The bullet-nosed locomotive attracted plenty of onlookers taking photos; back then, high-speed and bullet trains were still a novelty.

Xue Rui had bought the tickets this time, and the four of them had adjoining D and F seats.

His only luggage was a single, mostly empty backpack containing some snacks and water. He hadn’t brought anything else.

Gu Muxue, for her part, only had one small suitcase, so there was no need to use the overhead rack either.

Gu Muxue glanced around the bustling train car; it was almost entirely full of students and their parents.