Close Enough To Pluck the Stars” (GL) - Chapter 9

Chapter 09

Liang Ke hadn’t quite recovered from her shock yet. In the chaos, Nao Nao’s treads rolled right over her foot, but she was too busy worrying that her “fair-weather friends” were being too enthusiastic and would scare Shu Qingchen away.

Zhao Pu turned around at that moment, ruffled Liang Ke’s messy hair, and lowered his voice to accuse her: “Look at you, wings all grown out, learning to fly solo, eh? It’s one thing to sneak off and play by yourself, but you actually kidnapped our Dr. Shu. What are you up to?”

“It wasn’t a kidnapping; watch your wording,” Liang Ke shot back, waving a sparkler at him. “Is it a crime for me to sacrifice my rest time to personally and actively care for a neglected new colleague?”

Ye Tianze, Liang Ke’s fellow student, squeezed out of the crowd and said to her, “That doesn’t sound right. No matter how I look at it, you’re using your official position to get close to a young boss who has both high beauty and strong academic power.”

“Nonsense!” Liang Ke jumped up. “When I went back, Dr. Shu was the only one left in the lab. All of you ran out to play—did any of you care about her? And now you’re all here trying to suck up.”

Zhao Pu shook his head. “That’s where you’re wrong. With a big shot who’s always so serious and unsmiling, who knew if she’d even want to play with us? Who would dare to just invite her out of the blue?”

Luo Han suddenly smiled from the side. “True. Everyone thought you were taking Professor Hu to the flower market. No one expected you to have so much ‘face’ that you could actually invite Dr. Shu out to the wild.”

Nao Nao chimed in, “No, no, Dr. Shu mainly agreed for my sake.”

Everyone had a sudden realization and let out a collective “Oh!” before completely abandoning Liang Ke to swarm around Shu Qingchen and exchange pleasantries.

Liang Ke stood on her tiptoes behind the crowd and asked impatiently, “What did you guys actually come here for?”

“To play, of course! And to strictly punish your selfish behavior of keeping the fun to yourself.” Zhao Pu snatched Liang Ke’s sparkler away. Ye Tianze stuck his head into Liang Ke’s travel bag, rummaging through it. “Where’s the lighter? Where’s the lighter?”

Liang Ke wasn’t backing down. She retorted, “How was I keeping the fun to myself? I brought Dr. Shu here to relax. Who knew a pack of wolves would ambush us halfway?”

Ye Tianze found the lighter and picked out the biggest firework wand, stuffing it into Liang Ke’s hand. “Then don’t just focus on playing yourself. Let her try too; it’s rare to get out like this.”

“Try it then!” Liang Ke held her head high, took the wand, and turned to present it to Shu Qingchen.

“But…” Shu Qingchen, who was full of decisiveness when it came to academic problems, hesitated now. Her elegant eyebrows twitched slightly; she reached out as if to take it, then dropped her hand, awkwardly adjusting her glasses.

“Come on, come on! So you’ve never played with these? What a shame,” Liang Ke encouraged her with a clenched fist. “These are the safe kind; even kids can use them. It’s a lot of fun.”

Shu Qingchen looked at Liang Ke’s bright, expectant eyes. She let out a sigh and took it with great determination.

Liang Ke beamed. “I’ll help you light it. You just need to hold it steady. Keep it perpendicular to the ground, okay?”

As she spoke, she flicked the windproof lighter and brought it close to the fuse.

“Wait, wait a second—” Shu Qingchen was a bit flustered, but the fuse had already caught the flame and was burning in rapidly. After a few sparks, gray-white smoke began to billow out.

“Don’t move! Hold it steady!” Caught off guard, Liang Ke noticed Shu Qingchen’s hand instinctively trembling and shrinking back. She immediately pocketed the lighter, stepped forward to grasp the hand holding the firework, and supported her elbow with the other.

Both of them looked up at the same time. Strings of fireworks, like miniature shooting stars, soared to their peak and burst, illuminating the darkness with dazzling brilliance.

By now, the friends had completely looted Liang Ke’s supply of sparklers. Everyone was lighting their fireworks off one another, and the riverbed quickly turned into a scene of “fiery trees and silver flowers,” accompanied by shouts of excitement. It was incredibly lively.

“Make a wish!”

Liang Ke took the lead and shouted. Ye Tianze nodded in agreement: “For science!”

“For science!”

“Great God of Science, please help me lose thirty pounds in the New Year. Just thirty!” a guy from the Institute of Biophysics shouted.

“May the Spirit of Science manifest—I want to get out of the ‘single’ life this year! End the single life!”

Nao Nao didn’t make a wish on the fireworks. Instead, it stood behind Liang Ke, turned up its speakers, and repeated: “I want new treads. New treads. New treads.”

Liang Ke turned her head in annoyance. Realizing her hands were covered in ash and dust, she quickly let go of Shu Qingchen and apologized several times.

“No need to apologize. It really is very interesting. I used to only watch others play; I never dared to try it myself.” Shu Qingchen tidied up the spent firework sticks and put them in a trash bag. “So, I should thank you.”

“Ah, haha, well, you’re welcome.” Liang Ke, immersed in Shu Qingchen’s watery, shimmering gaze, felt a bit lightheaded. Sensing a faint trace of lingering expectation in those eyes, she asked tentatively, “Do you want to play some more?”

“Yes… if that’s okay?” Shu Qingchen said a bit shyly, nodding slightly. The night wind tossed her long hair, and her star-like eyes sparkled in Liang Ke’s heart.

Liang Ke opened her mouth but forgot what she was going to say. The atmosphere was warm and subtle—unfortunately, the crowd found it hard to stay quiet. Having burned through Liang Ke’s entire stash, they were all noisily complaining that it wasn’t enough.

“The fireworks are all gone?” Liang Ke snapped back to reality. She ran back to the car to check and returned holding a nearly empty travel bag. Only a few boxes of “Little Goldfish” pop-its remained, looking utterly pathetic.

“You bandits!” Liang Ke cursed. “I was saving those for the New Year! Now they’re all gone.” She poured out a handful of the pop-its and hurled them fiercely at the feet of the ringleaders, Zhao Pu and Ye Tianze.

Zhao Pu scrambled away with his head in his hands, desperately calling for help from the girls present: “Luo Han, quickly, hold Liang Ke back! There’s going to be a casualty!”

Luo Han had no choice but to step forward awkwardly to persuade her: “Senior Liang Ke, please, calm down. We’ll buy them back for you, okay?”

“Stay out of this! Today, I’m going on a killing spree!”

Liang Ke took aim at Ye Tianze. Being quite intelligent, he immediately jumped behind Shu Qingchen, bowing repeatedly. “Don’t, don’t! If you won’t do it for me, do it for the sake of the leader! Leader, look at her!”

“Liang Ke, forget it. Even in fun, you should mind the limits.” Shu Qingchen, unable to withstand the commotion, raised a hand to stop her. “After all, everyone is having a good time.”

Liang Ke came to a screeching halt, looked at Shu Qingchen, and with great difficulty, suppressed her rage. “Fine, okay.”

“Whew.” Everyone let out a sigh of relief.

“But,” Liang Ke said, putting one hand on her hip. Everyone’s hearts skipped a beat as they waited for her to continue. She said, “My leader still wants to play. Thanks to our Dr. Shu’s presence, I’m taking you all to a great place today.”