It Seems Like My Senior Seems to Like Me - Chapter 33.2

Was she tired? Of course. She hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in a long time. She was barely holding herself up with coffee, a hollow shell.

Today was the “Chinese Hero” finals. After today, she would have one less major task to handle. So, she pushed herself to walk into the auditorium. Her gaze swept across the stage and then stopped, fixed on a certain cyan-colored figure.

Ye Wanjia was wearing the host’s dress, a cyan cheongsam. Her hair was tied up high with a hair clip, revealing her long, elegant neck. Ye Wanjia was tall, and the cheongsam accentuated her graceful figure, with a slender waist and long legs that were revealed as she walked. It was the reserved beauty that only East Asian women possess.

In an instant, her fatigue vanished.

The day Ye Wanjia wore a cheongsam for the first time was also the first time she hosted. It was wonderful that both things happened in her 18th year. The stage was an unfamiliar place for her. In her entire 18 years, her only contact with a stage was a few acceptance speeches for scholarships.

It wasn’t easy to host a school-wide competition and control the flow and rhythm of the entire event.

“No, no, you can’t be shaking like that.” During the last live rehearsal, the head of the hosting club shook his head repeatedly and then turned to the male host beside her. “Didn’t you guys practice the script last night? Why is Wanjia still fumbling?”

The male host looked troubled. “We did. She was perfect in private, but once she got on stage…”

The head of the club sighed. “How about this? You read this part, too. Ye Wanjia, you can just stand beside him.”

The transitions and the opening would be handled by the male host. In the whole script, Ye Wanjia had less than five lines, including the shared “Good evening.”

The president of the Literary Society, being very protective, quickly said that wouldn’t do; Ye Wanjia would be nothing more than a side character. The head of the hosting club wouldn’t back down, stating that a performance like that on stage would embarrass the hosting club.

The words were a little harsh. The Literary Society president immediately got angry. “What do you mean ’embarrassing’? Our Wanjia is here to save the day, isn’t that good enough? Besides, if your host hadn’t had a problem at the last minute, would we even need someone from the Literary Society to host?”

The head of the hosting club was not to be outdone. “Your person is not good enough, and you won’t even let me say it? I’ll say it again: a performance like this on stage is an embarrassment! Not just for the hosting club, but for the entire school!”

The two of them were in a heated argument when a calm voice interrupted them, like a snowflake falling into a bustling marketplace.

“What’s all this noise about?”

Pei Suye’s voice was sharp. There were no curses, but her words, as sharp as a blade, instantly silenced the two. The empty auditorium was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

She walked unhurriedly, placed her shoulder bag on the seat with the name card “Pei Suye,” and turned to face the group, who had unconsciously straightened up. Her gaze was cold.

“The competition starts in one hour. Literary Society, notify the participants to enter and begin the final on-site rehearsal. Hosting club, practice the script as you have planned. Etiquette team, after you’re ready, take your positions at the entrance. Student Life and Publicity Departments, assist the Literary Society with setting up the venue.”

After saying that, she paused, her eyes falling on the cyan-colored figure on the side. “Ye Wanjia, come with me.”

Ye Wanjia followed her backstage. In the small space, there was only the buzzing of the motor and an occasional surge of current that seemed to create a sealed shell over her eardrums.

Ye Wanjia leaned against a table, her shoulders slightly hunched, her head bowed, her eyes obscured by her raven-like lashes.

She had disappointed Pei Suye again. And it happened at such a clumsy, embarrassing moment, with Pei Suye there to witness it.

Pei Suye was scary when she was angry. She didn’t throw things, she didn’t curse, and she didn’t shout. Even her footsteps on the stairs were light. But being in that small backstage area with her, Ye Wanjia’s heart felt like it was frozen, too tense to even beat.

“Little Yezi.” She didn’t scold Ye Wanjia. In fact, her tone was a little gentle.

Ye Wanjia looked up in surprise, gazing into her eyes in the faint light.

Pei Suye stared back at her and said slowly, “I prefer the way you looked when you were doing cheerleading. Because back then, you said you weren’t afraid of hard work, only of all your efforts going to waste.”

Ye Wanjia’s eyes trembled, and her memory flashed back to those passionate days when, even though her body was so tired she couldn’t lift a finger, she still gritted her teeth and stayed at the forefront of the team.

Pei Suye’s tone became more serious as she continued, “There are many turning points in the world that divide people into different paths. Some forks in the road you can get past by gritting your teeth. Others require a lot of effort to push through. If you can’t push through, you’ll be washed downstream by the current. And water always flows to the lowest point.”

Ye Wanjia, she couldn’t let a moment of stage fright ruin all the hard work she had put in for so long.

After the initial shock, Ye Wanjia fell into deep thought. The strange fear in her heart dissipated like a thick fog in the sunlight, revealing a statue sitting in the bright center, bathed in golden light.

She pursed her lips and looked at Pei Suye, a deeper thought settling in. Pei Suye was always so amazing; she could see right through her inner struggles.

Pei Suye had worked in the student union for a long time, had seen many students, and was used to handling emergencies, so she could see through her in an instant.

In that moment, Ye Wanjia was incredibly greedy—she wished so much that the reason for all this was that Pei Suye liked her.

“Thank you.” The naturally shy Ye Wanjia had a mischievous thought. “I feel so much more motivated now that you’ve said that.”

Then, she opened her arms wide and said generously, “Can I have a hug? To recharge.”

Pei Suye smiled faintly, took a step forward, and embraced her.

With her goddess’s hug, Ye Wanjia was fully recharged. When she stood on stage again, her back was straight, her shoulders were back, and her face was confident and calm. Her whole body radiated the light of youthful vitality.

The “Chinese Hero” final began smoothly at 7 p.m. Ye Wanjia held the microphone and walked onto the stage, a picture of grace in her light cyan cheongsam. The traditional Chinese makeup enhanced her elegant demeanor, and with her hair pinned up with a hairpin, she stood on the stage like a pure lotus blooming out of mud.

No one was more familiar with the host script than she was, especially when it came to the “World of Poetry” segment, which she was in charge of. She immediately spotted a typo when the answer appeared on the big screen.

At that moment, the male host had already announced the answer. “I’m so sorry, our contestant answered incorrectly! The line before (a drop in the ocean) should be (like a flea in the universe).”

The contestant was disappointed, and one of them wanted to argue, but the male host had already started reciting the transition lines.

Only Ye Wanjia stood up. She asked the male host to wait and then picked up her microphone, saying to the more than 500 people in the audience and the contestants on stage, “Wait, his answer wasn’t wrong. It was a typo made by the staff backstage.”

“What?”

“No way?”

“Really? We won’t be penalized, will we?”

The male host quickly pulled on her sleeve—exposing a mistake in the questions during the competition was a big taboo.

He laughed awkwardly and tried to smooth things over. “Well, the question shouldn’t have been wrong. It’s just that—”

Ye Wanjia picked up the microphone again. “—The line should be I’m certain because I wrote the questions.”

After she had finished writing the questions, she had given them and the answers to the student from the Publicity Department in charge of making the PPT. The student had made a mistake when manually entering the final answer.

(pífú) and  (fúyóu) are two very similar words, but the small difference affected the tight scores. In that moment, Ye Wanjia was radiant. She handled the unexpected situation with grace and confidence. “To be precise, we’ll have the staff check. But please, the person in charge of scoring, stop for a moment and don’t deduct any points yet.”

Thirty seconds later, the correct answer was confirmed. It was indeed (fúyóu), just as Ye Wanjia had insisted. Instantly, the audience erupted in applause, not for the resurrected contestant, but for the composed and knowledgeable female host.

“Hey, Lao Pei.”

Afterward, Xu Qian, the head of the Student Life Department, walked back to the dorm with Pei Suye. On the way, it was clear her mind was on something else entirely. She looked at Pei Suye with a questioning look. “Come on, tell me. When are you going to confess?”

Pei Suye was also taken aback. “Confess about what?”

Xu Qian said self-righteously, “I saw you two hugging backstage!”

Pei Suye gave a wry smile, took a deep breath, and gazed at the starry sky, murmuring, “She doesn’t like me yet. I have to wait.”

“Wait? I think she likes you a lot. Otherwise, would she hug you?”

“She was just nervous. I was comforting her.”

Xu Qian’s fantasy was shattered. “Oh? That’s too bad… I thought she liked you, too, and that’s why she found a way to hug you…”

On the other side, Ye Wanjia, who was walking back to the dorm with Wei Xiaoxiao, was in high spirits and boasted, “Today, I was a little scheming.”

Every year at the end of the year, the city of Nanzhou holds an annual provincial university teachers’ badminton tournament. This year, it was Nanzhou University’s turn to host, which meant the campus was about to have a lively weekend.

At the same time, they needed twice the number of etiquette ladies. One for each university, a total of 102. The school team didn’t have enough, so they put out a wide recruitment notice for female students over 165 cm tall.

Ye Wanjia signed up. Besides meeting the height requirement, there was one most important reason—a 100 yuan subsidy.

“Oh, Wanjia, you look so pretty today. Are you going on a date?” Xu Qian from the dean’s office teased.

Only the two of them were in the office, so Ye Wanjia explained, “No, it’s the etiquette team interview today. I’m going after my shift.”

The room with the air conditioning was a comfortable 25 degrees. In the warm air, Ye Wanjia wasn’t wearing her coat. She had on a white sweater with a light gray sleeveless dress over it. Her whole demeanor was cool and subtle, like a thin layer of ice on a window in winter.

This dress was her mother’s. When her mother was young, she was a beauty, but she later developed uremia, and her right leg became lame as a result. She walked with a limp, and her figure had changed due to the disease, so she couldn’t wear this dress. She had a tailor alter the size and gave it to Ye Wanjia.

Xu Qian took her documents and left, sending a message to a certain someone: “Only Judy Hopps is in the dean’s office.”

Sure enough, ten minutes later, Pei Suye, who was supposed to be in the library, appeared at the door of the dean’s office. She was carrying a laptop in one hand and a stack of documents in the other, walking with a brisk, professional gait, as if she was only there to work.

Then, during a break from her work, she “accidentally” noticed Ye Wanjia’s dress, and her gaze softened.

“Senior, are you also on duty?” Ye Wanjia was visibly happy, her fingers dancing a tango on the keyboard.

Pei Suye hummed and seemed to just notice her dress. “You look beautiful today. Are you in a good mood?”

Given the same change in clothing, Xu Qian’s “date theory” and Pei Suye’s “good mood theory” moved Ye Wanjia infinitely more.

The corners of Ye Wanjia’s lips turned up, and a dimple formed slightly. “Yeah, I’m going to an interview for the etiquette team later. They said the school’s requirements are strict, and we have to wear high heels and fitted clothes for the interview, and they’ll have us practice walking.”

Indeed, the heart is biased. When faced with Pei Suye’s question, she would talk more to explain why she was wearing a dress.

The air grew still, falling asleep in the intense emotions of midsummer.

Ye Wanjia was writing an article according to her outline, but she was a bit distracted. She would get halfway through a sentence and get stuck on an adjective. The part of her brain that thought about words became numb. She’d stare into space, then snap back to reality, her eyes staring at the reflection of herself on the blacked-out screen of the laptop next to her.

Pei Suye was so beautiful when she worked. Her hair was tied back with a clip, with a single strand hanging down the side of her face. She was looking down, making notes on a proposal.

Her thumb on the spacebar moved slightly. She hastily reined in her thoughts, typing a sentence that made no sense, and her fingers slowed down again. Her eyes seemed to have a mind of their own and fell on the screen again.

Pei Suye’s nose bridge was very straight and high, like a continuous mountain range. Her eyelashes were also thick. When she looked down, her raven-like lashes fluttered with each blink, like a cat’s paw scratching at Pei Suye’s heart.

Phew…

She repeatedly adjusted her heart rate, feeling that at this rate, she wouldn’t finish a single article all day.

So, she saved her work and closed the public computer.

“Senior, my time is almost up. I’m leaving now.”

It was less of a departure and more of an escape. To get away from this carnivorous flower that smelled of love.

“Little Yezi.”

But just as she got up, before she could even touch the door, the carnivorous flower called out to her from behind. She even walked over quickly, her hands resting on Ye Wanjia’s shoulders.

Ye Wanjia’s heart started to pound. “What’s wrong?”

Pei Suye lowered her voice. “Your dress is stained.”

At such a close distance, Ye Wanjia’s scalp tingled. “Is it? Where?”

Pei Suye’s tone was not good. “On the back, a little blood.”

At 1 p.m., a bicycle carrying two people hurried through the Ginkgo Avenue. The dappled light cast by the tree branches quickly flashed across their figures, all speaking of their haste.

Ye Wanjia’s health had never been very good since she was a child. In middle school, her period didn’t start until her second year, making her the last in her class. Even now, her cycle wasn’t very stable; sometimes it was half a month late, and sometimes a full week early.

After staining the dress, she was filled with guilt because it was a dress from her mother. And it was the only dress she had that she could wear for an interview.

By the time she hurried out of the bathroom, Pei Suye had already found a solution. “It just needs to be fitted, right?”

And so, she unexpectedly stepped into Pei Suye’s dorm room.

Pei Suye lived in the Metasequoia dorms. Although it was a six-person dorm like hers, it had a loft bed, a desk underneath, and a private balcony and bathroom.

Pei Suye often wore dresses in the winter. The one she lent her was her favorite British plaid suspender dress. It had a brown leather belt at the waist and a length that fell to her knees, making her figure look tall and slender.

Ye Wanjia was even thinner than Pei Suye, but luckily the belt cinched in the extra two inches. The sweater she had on underneath was neither too thick nor too thin and fit snugly.

“Here are some shoes. See if they fit.” Pei Suye took out a pair of brown leather boots from her shoe cabinet that matched the dress.

When the bicycle rode into Ginkgo Avenue again, the speed slowed down. It was before the end of the twelfth lunar month. The branches of the full, tall ginkgo trees intertwined and extended, casting a rich, golden beauty everywhere. The east wind blew, rustling the leaves, and the sunlight was kneaded into the look of an oil painting.

Ye Wanjia sat on the back seat, holding her old shoes in a bag with one hand and grabbing the fabric on the side of Pei Suye’s waist with the other.

Thump!

The wheel rolled over a speed bump, and both people on the bike jolted.

“Hold on tight,” Pei Suye’s voice was carried away by the wind.

“Mhm.”

Ye Wanjia hesitated with the hand holding the fabric, then, gathering her courage, she let go of the clothes and wrapped her arm around Pei Suye’s waist.

One second, two seconds, three seconds… Ye Wanjia counted in her head, waiting for Pei Suye’s reaction—no rejection.

And so, she, who had succeeded in her little scheme, wrapped her arms around Pei Suye’s slender waist, feeling the afluttering of her abdominal muscles with every push of the pedal.

The corners of her lips were suppressed over and over, but she couldn’t stop them from turning up. Finally, she remembered that the other person couldn’t see her, so she let out a full laugh, her dimples deep and her teeth white.

She didn’t know that the person riding the bike also had the corners of her lips turned up where she couldn’t see them, and her calm eyes were curved, reflecting the endless sea of ginkgo trees.

Each had their own thoughts and rejoiced.

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