**07. No Way I’m Not Getting Married**
Thanks to the new instructor dragging his feet, class let out about ten minutes later than usual today.
Wen Yang got pulled aside by the instructor for a chat again, and by the time the two of them returned to the dorm after lunch, it was already nearly one o’clock.
As always, Wen Yang pushed the door open only to be blocked from entering.
“Are Shao Qing and the others back yet?”
“Probably out messing around with Wang Jie again…” Ning Chu grumbled from behind him, “Sooner or later, Wang Jie’s going to be led astray.”
Wen Yang actually envied Wang Jie’s status deep down but didn’t dare to say it in front of Ning Chu.
He fished out his keys from his pocket, unlocked the door, and stepped inside. Black Bean, the little black cat, immediately meowed and came trotting over, weaving around his feet.
Although typically it was Ning Chu who tended to this little furball, for some reason, Black Bean preferred to romp around with him.
Just as he was about to crouch down and pet Black Bean on the head, he noticed Ning Chu had already swooped in and picked up the cat.
“I feed you and take care of you every day, and I even clean up your litter! You ungrateful little beast have never shown me this much affection!”
Ning Chu berated Black Bean, a hint of crisis creeping into her mind.
What if one day Black Bean turned into a catgirl and only showed affection towards Wen Yang?
She was still dreaming about marrying Black Bean off to Zhang Shaoqing. That guy has money; he’d never shortchange Black Bean.
“From now on, you need to be nicer to Zhang Shaoqing, or how else is he going to buy you cat food?”
Black Bean didn’t have a clue what she was rambling about and wriggled free from her arms, making a dash for a corner of the dorm where he disappeared.
“Dumb cat.”
Ning Chu mumbled, torn between the idea of neutering Black Bean or marrying him off to Zhang Shaoqing.
The former would cut off any future problems, plus she could test what the punishment would be for messing with the plot. The latter, however, would give Black Bean a good home while also providing Zhang Shaoqing with a cute “wife.”
She didn’t think too much of it and wandered to the sun to wash her face, yawning as she crawled into bed.
“Taking a nap?”
“Yeah, wake me at one-fifty,” she said, sitting at the head of the bed with her feet dangling in the air, looking completely drowsy. “I can still sleep for an hour… Just keep it quiet; don’t wake me.”
“Sure, sure…”
Wen Yang watched as Ning Chu lazily stretched and dove under the covers. His mind started whirring with mischievous thoughts.
Now that Zhang Shaoqing and Wang Jie were off enjoying themselves, Ning Chu looked ready to fall asleep immediately.
There was that skill he hadn’t had a chance to play with for two months…
Not that he was particularly desperate, but a young, healthy guy always has some biological needs.
Come on, doing laundry and dreaming about inappropriate things is not fun. Plus, there’s always a cute girl around, sometimes giving off hints that are just so hard to ignore.
Wen Yang justified himself internally but felt guilty. He sat at the computer searching for materials, glancing over at Ning Chu’s bed.
If she caught him, his image in her eyes would be irreparably ruined.
“No way, not feeling it…”
He muttered under his breath, flipping through various film scripts and novels. But whether it was the panic or guilt, he couldn’t seem to muster the tiny response that usually happened at the slightest stimulus.
Could it be… he was out of practice?
Wen Yang frowned, burying himself deeper into the search.
Ning Chu, half-asleep on the bed, had initially been heavy-lidded, but the relentless clicking of the mouse yanked her back to the surface.
She squeezed her eyes shut, wanting to tell Wen Yang to quiet down, but then she worried that if she spoke, she would lose all chance of sleeping.
Ugh~
How long has she been telling him to be quiet?
After ten minutes, with sleep now completely gone, she peeked over the edge of her bed, fuming. She saw Wen Yang intensely focused on the computer, leaning forward; heaven knows what he was doing to make that much racket.
She tiptoed down, slipped on her slippers, and marched over to Wen Yang, who was completely oblivious to her approach.
Wen Yang caught a whiff of a faint girl’s scent, and with the computer screen displaying something rather suggestive, let’s just say he was… successful in standing up.
His eyes lit up, thinking he found some XP content, and hurriedly downloaded it onto his phone.
“What are you doing?”
The sudden voice from behind stiffened his body, and then a little head poked in next to him, looking at the screen and gasping, “Wow~”
“…”
Ning Chu, grinning at the awkwardly frozen Wen Yang, teased, “What site is this? Share with me! This art style is pretty cool~”
Wen Yang was already scared stiff, stuttering a defense, “I-I was just casually browsing…”
“Go ahead, it’s not like I’m against it.”
Better to check out stuff like this than to chase girls outside.
“Aren’t you supposed to be napping?”
“You and your mouse clicking are so loud, even if I tried to sleep, you’d wake me up,” Ning Chu retorted, clearly irritated.
“Uhh…”
Wen Yang quickly closed the web page, feeling super guilty and unable to meet Ning Chu’s gaze: “I’m not looking anymore, just go sleep.”
“I’ve been awake because of you!”
Ning Chu shot him a glare, resigned, and walked to the balcony: “I’m going to wash my face; then let’s game together.”
“Game?”
“Yeah, that two-player co-op game.”
Wen Yang perked up instantly, thrilled that he didn’t have to sit in prison, quickly booting up the game and grabbing a controller from Zhang Shaoqing’s drawer.
Before long, Ning Chu returned from washing her face, pulling a chair next to Wen Yang, ready to unleash her skills.
She put one foot on the chair, leaning casually against the nearby ladder, controller in hand, prepared to dominate.
“Wait! You need to work with me! Stop being such a noob!”
“Weren’t you the one being slow?”
“Are we even playing or what?!”
“This isn’t my fault; you’re just not cooperating!”
“I swear! You’re throwing me under the bus!”
When Zhang Shaoqing and Wang Jie returned with their arms full of bags, what greeted them was Ning Chu’s loud exclamations.
They pushed the door open to find the unusual sight of Ning Chu and Wen Yang bickering intensely.
These two usually got along well; what could have made them so worked up over a game?
“What are you two so hyped about? Are you on the verge of breaking up?”
Ning Chu turned around, angrily shouting, “This guy deliberately pushed me down!”
“No way, you pushed me first!”
“That was an accident!”
After a couple more rounds of bickering, she finally put down the controller, calming down enough to ask, “So, where have you two been?”
“We drove to the pet hospital to get some supplies for Black Bean,” Zhang Shaoqing explained. “Cat litter box, cat litter, canned food, cat treats, a barrier…”
Ning Chu froze for a moment: “Is that your dowry for Black Bean?”
“Dowry? What are you talking about?” Zhang Shaoqing squatted down to assemble the cat litter box. “You brought him home not even knowing what you were doing.”
Ning Chu was particularly finicky about taking care of cats. Her previous setup was just a water bowl for a litter box, some disposable bowls for feeding, and a pile of old clothes as a cat bed. Thanks to Zhang Shaoqing, it seemed all the supplies were finally being sorted out.
“Don’t just stand there; install the barriers at the front and back doors.”
“Black Bean has no choice now; he has to marry you~”
