### 436. Classroom Antics
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Lin Nan slapped her thigh, excitement radiating from her face like she found a treasure: “I’m in!”
“Go, you leg!”
Chen Yao scowled, standing between Tu Junhui and Xiong Da, who were both behind a junior. Without a second thought, he shoved the skinny junior aside and grabbed Lin Nan to leave.
But the junior yelled after them, “Senior! Think it over and come find me at the anime club before noon the day after tomorrow! Five hundred bucks!”
“Got it, got it!” Lin Nan replied happily, looking up at Chen Yao. “Five hundred bucks, you know!”
“Are you sure you’re not blinded by cash?” Tu Junhui couldn’t help but roast her.
“Honestly, I really want to try cosplaying! Just look at me, I’m so handsome! Cosplaying as Kirito would be no problem, right?”
Typically, pretty girls who cosplay male characters do it way better; today’s male anime characters often have pretty, androgynous looks. You can’t tell if they’re a guy or girl just by giving them long hair.
Chen Yao paused, sizing Lin Nan up from head to toe, then scoffed, “You’re more suited to cosplay as Aqua.”
“Who’s that?”
“A goddess from an anime, super pretty! Fits your vibe perfectly.”
Lin Nan swelled with pride at the compliment, swaying happily beside Chen Yao. “Right, right!”
Tu Junhui and Xiong Da woke up early—well, more like they stayed up all night gaming and hadn’t slept yet.
Initially planning to skip class entirely, they were caught off guard when Chen Yao barged in, yanked them downstairs without a word, leaving Xiong Da with a messy hairstyle that he didn’t have a chance to fix.
I mean, it really was a disaster.
Lin Nan kept peeking at Xiong Da’s head, used to seeing him meticulously styled; he usually slathered hair gel on his sparse hair to puff it up, or at least wore a hat. But today? His forehead was shinier than a Chinese emperor in history class.
Xiong Da stared blankly at Lin Nan’s impolite stares, not bothered by them at all. In fact, he thought her expressive face was kind of cute.
“Xiong Da, is this a genetic issue, or do you just burn the midnight oil on mobile games?” Lin Nan asked with genuine curiosity.
“Probably genetic… My dad, my uncle, and grandpa are all thinning up top.” Xiong Da sighed, “My family has a line of baldies.”
Lin Nan clicked her tongue in fascination. “That’s rough! You should get a wig. A long one! Maybe throw on a dress…”
“See? I told you Lin Nan would turn her harassment tactics on you guys next!” Tu Junhui interrupted, dramatically throwing his hands in the air. “And you guys didn’t believe me!”
He said this while noticing Lin Nan and Chen Yao seemed chummier lately.
“Isn’t it you harassing us?” Chen Yao thought about that horrible day and shuddered.
Tu Junhui leaned in close to Chen Yao, a smirk on his face. “So, you guys are getting past first base now?”
“Huh?” Chen Yao blinked then immediately registered the implication, gazing at Tu Junhui in disdain. “You’re disgusting!”
“Come on, what else should guys talk about?” Tu Junhui shrugged, throwing an arm around Chen Yao.
Lin Nan, trailing behind and engrossed in her phone, overheard their convo and looked puzzled. “What’s first base? I feel like I heard you guys say that before.”
The group fell silent, an unspoken agreement not to respond. Lin Nan, wide-eyed, thought it sounded like something shady.
When they reached the classroom, there were only five minutes before the bell rang. Half the class was already seated; the slackers were either late or opting out.
Finding a spot without students, the four squeezed in together and started to mind their own business.
Xiong Da and Tu Junhui laid their heads down on the desk, prepping to take an impromptu nap for the morning’s lessons, while Chen Yao eyed Lin Nan with concern, whispering, “Can you stop interacting with that junior? Don’t you think he likes you?”
“But we keep running into each other for some reason.” Lin Nan grumbled. “I don’t even play games with him anymore, and I deleted him off QQ and WeChat.”
Chen Yao’s concern deepened.
Sure, the school was vast, with students only moving through the dorms, classrooms, or cafeteria, but why was she always running into him?
Is that junior stalking Lin Nan?
What kind of psycho does that?!
Chen Yao’s expression turned serious, determined to warn Lin Nan, “I’m telling you, those seemingly innocent types are usually the most twisted!”
“Uh?”
“Those guys are often smooth talkers, dressed to the nines, but inside? Total wolves in sheep’s clothing. You remember that news story? That dude who murdered his wife but acted all nonchalant about it? Everyone thought he was just a charming guy until months later when the truth came out.”
Lin Nan, squinting, glanced over at Xiong Da, now snoring on the other end, “You realize you’re blasting an artillery shell toward Xiong Da’s direction, right?”
Xiong Da already had the ‘nice boy’ vibe down.
“Anyway, I don’t trust that junior.” Chen Yao pivoted. “If you want to cosplay, we’ll just buy the outfits ourselves and find Liu Xuefei to do the makeup.”
“But I wouldn’t get any cash doing that…” Lin Nan mumbled, but then her eyes lit up. “Wait! If I dress super pretty for the anime convention and people want to take pictures with me, charging ten bucks a snap? How’d that business model sound?”
“…” Chen Yao went speechless.
“Feels like a money-making scheme! When people are taking photography, I’ll just jump in! After they snap, I’ll ask them for cash!”
Doesn’t that sound like extortion?
He snapped back to reality after a while, “Isn’t that illegal?”
“Seems like it, yeah.”
And wearing a cosplay outfit at a convention, with everyone staring at her? Lin Nan felt she’d definitely implode from embarrassment.
Yet she wasn’t ready to abandon her potential cash cow: “How about you do it instead? Wear a dress, look all cute, take pics at the convention, and I’ll collect the cash! If we get caught, you just do a few days in lockup!”
Chen Yao’s face darkened; how did this conversation circle back to him? He pointed indignantly at his face, “You think I’d look pretty in a dress? Don’t you think I’d need cosmetic surgery first?”
Lin Nan let out a sigh, flopped onto the table, and began searching online about her new obsession.
What exactly is ‘first base’?
She’d heard her roommates mention that term previously, but now it felt particularly relevant to her.
Chen Yao peeked at her phone screen, suddenly alarmed. “Lin Nan, I think charging for photos might actually work!”
If Lin Nan found out Tu Junhui was discussing these topics with him, he suspected she’d get so furious, she’d make him drink porridge for days.
“Eh?”
“We just won’t force people to pay.”
“But I don’t like being stared at.” Lin Nan muttered in refusal, clicking on a search result only to discover it was a baseball term.
Seeing this, Chen Yao quickly shoved his phone toward her. “I saw a pair of shoes recently, can you help me decide? Only two thousand bucks.”
“Two thousand bucks? No way!” Lin Nan exploded, “What’s wrong with shoes that cost two or three hundred?”
“But they’re limited edition!”
“Go buy a knock-off!” She got caught up in the debate, promptly forgetting the previous topic, “Let me find out how much a replica would cost!”
