A Cold and Aloof Top Student Is Relied Upon - Chapter 36

Chapter 36: Fortuna

◎Goddess of Destiny◎

The campus was quiet during evening study. The broad-leaved trees were covered in a warm, orange glaze. The streetlights along the pathways cast shadows of the trees onto the buildings, their branches and leaves intertwined, dancing in the wind. The falling leaves looked like confetti.

Suddenly, a figure appeared, her hand reaching for a low-hanging branch as if in a dance. She lifted one foot, and it arced beautifully like the hem of a dress. Her slender limbs moved elegantly, just like the tuberose flowers blooming in layers from the bottom up in the flowerbed.

Just as she was getting into her dance, a voice called out to her softly, “Li Ruoruo, it’s evening study time. What are you doing out of class?”

Caught in the act, Li Ruoruo’s spirited posture froze. She turned around like a puppet, “clack-clack.” She had thought it was their homeroom teacher, Lin Qingmei, but it was You Lili. She was about to let out an “ah” but quickly stifled it, remembering it was study time. Her face turned red, almost like a ripe tomato. “You! You scared the living daylights out of me!” she scolded.

You Lili giggled mischievously, covering her mouth. “Who told you to dance with so much energy? But speaking of which, the July 1st party is in just over half a month. How are your preparations going?”

Li Ruoruo was the Art Minister of the student council. This was a special year, and the school was taking the party very seriously. The acts had already been selected, and they were now in the rehearsal phase. She had just come back from the dance studio and couldn’t help but start dancing again when she saw the wall and stage-like corridor. She didn’t expect to run into You Lili, who was on her way to the restroom.

“They’re okay, but we’re doing a dance drama this year, and we’re still missing a pipa player. We’ve been recruiting for a while, but no one’s joined. If we can’t find one, we might have to cut the role.”

You Lili didn’t know much about these things. She crooked her finger, patted her pocket, and pointed to the restroom she had just come out of. Li Ruoruo understood, and You Lili slipped back inside.

Li Ruoruo followed her. When she confirmed no one was inside, You Lili took out her phone and opened the video she had secretly recorded of Li Ruoruo dancing with her shadow. “Look how perfectly I filmed it! Isn’t it beautiful? I’ll share it with you as a souvenir!”

The video was only a few seconds long, but Li Ruoruo played it back several times. The shadow dance gave her a huge burst of inspiration. She suddenly had an idea of what elements to add to their performance. Delighted, she gave You Lili a big hug. “You’re a genius!”

You Lili: “…” There’s no need to be so dramatic.

As the two walked back to their classroom, they ran into Bai Tan sneaking out the back door. The three of them communicated silently with a knowing look.

Bai Tan walked past them, turned, and made a cupped-hand gesture of thanks before ducking into the stairwell and disappearing.

There were still about ten minutes left of evening study, but she couldn’t sit still. Her mind was filled with Gu Zhu asking her to pick her up at the lab. After thinking it over, she decided to just leave early. The duty officer tonight was Qin Tian’ai, who turned a blind eye to her behavior, pretending not to notice.

It was good to have someone looking out for you. The feeling of being quietly protected was pretty intoxicating. She silently thanked her roommate and rushed downstairs without stopping.

The lab was on the fourth floor. The voice-activated lights suddenly turned on as she entered the area. She took the stairs two steps at a time. As she passed the lit-up lounge, she bent down and tiptoed along the window to avoid being caught by Li Jiajia, who was on duty.

When she reached the door, she knocked lightly and waited. The door was pulled open a crack, and Gu Zhu slipped out. She looked at the girl who had rushed over and reached up to remove a fallen leaf that had stuck to her at some point. “You came so fast.” She took a small sniff, as if she could smell the rich, tuberose fragrance she had picked up while running through the flowerbed.

“Because I’m coming to see you, I just can’t wait!” Bai Tan’s eyebrows curved into a smile. She always had so many good things to say in front of Gu Zhu. It was a kind of inner joy that needed an outlet. This was the first time Bai Tan had seen Gu Zhu in a lab coat. Because of her height and long neck, the girl standing in front of her in the dim corridor had a sense of solitary coldness, making her look even more detached and ascetic.

The smile in her eyes deepened, and her heart pounded. This version of Gu Zhu was like a moon on the horizon, beautiful and unreachable, yet she was within Bai Tan’s reach.

“So, are you going to give me a surprise?” Bai Tan asked with a smile. The signal Gu Zhu had sent was so clear that it had distracted her all day. Throughout evening study, she had counted the minutes, from single digits to double and triple digits. Every so often, she would force herself to do a problem, then start counting from zero again. After who knows how many cycles of endless anticipation, she finally surrendered.

Maybe it was because they were so close, but she had unconsciously picked up some of Gu Zhu’s habits. Bai Tan still wore the same digital watch, even though her drawers at home held many more expensive watches. She couldn’t bear to take it off.

Listening to Bai Tan’s heartfelt words again, even though Gu Zhu had heard similar things many times before, it still made her blush. She took out an eye mask from the pocket of her lab coat, her gloved hands still on. “You have to put this on first.”

Without hesitation, Bai Tan leaned in, tilting her face toward her. “Okay, my Fortuna.”

Gu Zhu was inexplicably immune to her strange nicknames. She took off her gloves, opened the disposable eye mask, and put it on Bai Tan. Her fingertips gently brushed against the corner of her eye, and Bai Tan’s fluttering lashes tickled her. “All set,” she said softly, then took her hand. “Hold my hand.”

Gu Zhu had only meant for her to rest her hand on hers, but Bai Tan dominantly intertwined their fingers. “Now, my destiny is in your hands.”

Gu Zhu stood still for a few seconds, then opened the lab door and led her to a relatively empty space. There was a table in front of them. She placed Bai Tan’s hands on it. “Hold on tight. When I count to ten, you can open your eyes.”

Bai Tan nodded and instinctively turned her head in the direction of Gu Zhu’s footsteps.

A sudden, strong light was faintly visible through the eye mask. In the darkness, her hearing became more sensitive. She heard the sound of a curtain being pulled along its rail, the light clinking of glass bottles on the table, and finally, Gu Zhu’s voice, like a stopwatch, counting down the numbers:

“Ten.”

“Nine.”

“Eight.”

…

Her heart began to beat faster in the quiet atmosphere. The closer she got to the number, the more nervous she became. Bai Tan gripped the edge of the table, instinctively cocking her head to catch Gu Zhu’s voice.

“Three.”

“Two.”

“One.”

The countdown ended. Bai Tan reached up and took off the eye mask. The warmth of the steam mask soothed her nerves. Her eyelashes fluttered, and her eyelids slowly lifted. When she saw the scene in front of her, she froze in astonishment.

The room was bathed in darkness. The bright lights from outside were blocked by the heavy blackout curtains. In this small, enclosed lab, she felt as if Gu Zhu had led her through a portal, taking her from an ordinary world into a fairy-tale kingdom.

She was surrounded by a starry sky she could almost touch.

Deep purples, romantic blues, and a shimmering, starry expanse filled the space. The stars revolved around her. She felt like she had truly entered a wondrous universe, with misty blue clouds drifting like a real nebula. She instantly thought of the Dumbbell Nebula she had told Gu Zhu about.

Looking at the changing, moving cloud, her mind slowly registered what was happening amid the shock. The girl who had led her in was hidden in the darkness and hadn’t made a sound for a long time.

Following the direction of the strong light, she saw the person hiding behind a tripod. In the glow, there was a petri dish fixed on the tripod, and what seemed to be a convex lens on top of it. At the bottom of a beaker, a powerful flashlight shone vertically upward.

Bai Tan wanted to walk toward her, but Gu Zhu’s voice stopped her. “Look up.”

She obediently lifted her head. The starry sky, which had only been slightly moving, suddenly flashed with a brilliant light. A “meteor shower” streaked across the night sky, bursting into a massive burst of light. She followed the meteors, watching their long tails as they disappeared, and unconsciously covered her wide-open mouth.

“Now, make a wish.”

A breeze seemed to blow from somewhere. She could even hear the sounds of cicadas, frogs, and various insects. The voice, which was so close yet so far away, seemed to truly come from the depths of the universe.

Make a wish. She closed her eyes, devoutly listening for her truest desire from the depths of her soul.

While her eyes were closed, countless meteors still streaked across above her. The flickering light illuminated her face, where a tear, more brilliant than a shooting star, fell.

The last tube of aluminum powder suspension was used up. The meteors vanished, and only the starry sky remained, suspended in the stillness.

Bai Tan opened her eyes. This time, she didn’t hesitate to walk toward Gu Zhu. On the lab table next to her were the blue copper sulfate solution and several other unidentified chemical materials, along with glass rods, syringes, and other equipment.

Using her favorite subject, chemistry, Gu Zhu had created the most beautiful dreamscape in the world for her.

For the first time, Bai Tan truly understood what Li Jiajia always said in class: Chemistry is the most romantic subject in the world.

And at that moment, her own heart was undergoing a violent reaction. It was as if a catalyst had been added, and it began to boil and burn.

Gu Zhu put down the things in her hands. The light source disappeared, and the starry sky was withdrawn from the night into the small petri dish. Because of the procedure, she was wearing a disposable mask, which only revealed her cool and beautiful eyes.

The room returned to darkness. Only the sounds of nature—wind, cicadas, and frogs—that had been recorded on an MP3 still flowed out. The returned silence made her feel a little nervous. This was the first time she had ever done something like this for someone else. Because she had prepared in a hurry, it wasn’t perfect. It was probably still a bit different from a real meteor shower.

She hesitated for a moment, about to ask, “Do you like it?” when she was pulled into a tight embrace.

Bai Tan held her tightly, as if only by holding her like this could her boiling blood find a moment of peace.

“Thank you for turning the wheel of fortune. Thank you for smiling upon me.”

“You are my Fortuna.”

You are my Goddess of Destiny.

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