My Upperclassman Wants me to confess my feelings - Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Trouble

“Here.” Xiaohan handed over a plastic glove.

Putting on the glove, Cheng Wu picked out a small piece.

It had a salty and savory aroma, yet the taste was sweet and spicy, making her taste buds instantly come alive. The meat was tender; with a light tug, the shredded duck meat and juices came away together.

After finishing one, Cheng Wu took another. For her, no matter how delicious something was, she followed the rule of “not more than twice,” so she stopped there.

“Is it good?” Xiaohan looked at her expectantly.

Cheng Wu nodded: “Of course! The flavor is very unique—not too spicy with a hint of sweetness. It really stimulates the appetite.”

Beside them, Ningning hadn’t started eating yet, but just watching Cheng Wu was making her mouth water. Hearing this, she quickly put on a glove, grabbed a piece, and popped it into her mouth.

The moment her tongue touched the spicy sauce, Ningning felt that life was complete. After devouring one quickly, she grabbed another, saying to Xiaohan with tears of joy: “It’s too delicious! Mama Xia is amazing!”

Watching Ningning’s reaction, Zhao Ru felt a stir of curiosity. She also put on a glove and took a piece to eat. The taste was indeed different from the duck necks sold in stores outside.

Seeing Ningning sitting there eating away, she knew Ningning truly loved it. Zhao Ru asked Xiaohan: “How does your mother make this? Can you tell me?”

“Of course,” Xiaohan said happily. She was glad everyone liked her mother’s cooking.

Today was Wednesday. There were no classes in the morning, but Zhao Ru and Ningning from the Finance department had lectures. When the time came, they said their goodbyes and headed to class.

Xiaohan stayed in the dormitory to continue taking notes.

Cheng Wu was originally previewing her lessons, but she suddenly found herself reminiscing about the taste of the duck neck. The flavor felt somewhat familiar. But thinking carefully, there were differences.

Around lunchtime, Chang Le called to say there were some matters at the Student Union. Cheng Wu escorted Xiaohan to the cafeteria before leaving.

…

Xiaohan had just sat down with her food when someone suddenly sat across from her. She looked up; it was Zhou Weiwei.

“Xiaohan, what a coincidence.”

“Mhm, a coincidence.” Xiaohan responded, but she felt strange. The Finance and Math departments were far apart, and their dorms weren’t close either. How did she end up at this cafeteria?

After sitting down, Zhou Weiwei began chatting with her. “Based on your accent, you seem like a local.”

“I am from Jiang City.”

“Really? Jiang City has so many fun places. If you have time, could you take me along sometime?”

Xiaohan hesitated: “Actually, there are many places I haven’t been to either.”

Zhou Weiwei seemed even happier: “Then that’s perfect! We can go explore together.”

Xiaohan had originally wanted to decline, but Zhou Weiwei was Sun Wenze’s girlfriend, and Sun Wenze was close to Senior, having even treated them to dinner last time. So she said: “Sure.”

After eating, they walked out of the cafeteria together. Zhou Weiwei suddenly asked: “When I entered the cafeteria just now, I thought I saw Senior Cheng Wu? Did you come together? Why didn’t she eat?”

Xiaohan seemed to realize something: “She went to eat at the Student Union. She only accompanied me to the cafeteria because she was afraid I’d stay in the dorm and order takeout.”

Zhou Weiwei was filled with envy: “Senior Cheng Wu is so good to you!”

“She is good to everyone.” Xiaohan recalled Fan Jia’s confession; even then, Senior hadn’t said anything overly harsh.

Zhou Weiwei smiled but said nothing.

She had already inquired thoroughly about Cheng Wu. Cheng Wu appeared kind to everyone, but that kindness was usually just the standard friendliness for “ordinary friends.” Aside from her roommates Zhao Ru and Ningning, this Xiaohan was the only one Cheng Wu seemed to truly care about.

However, Zhao Ru and Cheng Wu were high school classmates, so that relationship was naturally different. Out of respect for Zhao Ru and her roommates, Cheng Wu was naturally decent to Ningning. As for this Xiaohan, Zhou Weiwei was completely baffled—what exactly made her worthy of Cheng Wu’s special attention?

It wasn’t that Zhou Weiwei hadn’t thought about approaching Cheng Wu directly, but every time she looked into Cheng Wu’s eyes, she felt as if she were being seen through. This discomfort made her somewhat fearful of Cheng Wu.

Currently, Zhou Weiwei was in the School Student Union and was being suppressed by Ye Sisi every day. After this period, she finally realized that Ye Sisi had a bad attitude toward every one of Sun Wenze’s girlfriends. It would likely be difficult for her to join the presidium.

In all this time, Zhou Weiwei had only seen Ye Sisi suffer a loss once—when Ye Sisi was making things difficult for Bei Wenxin. But she knew that was only because Cheng Wu was worried about Xiaohan. On that day, she had seen with her own eyes that Ye Sisi deleted the message Cheng Wu sent to Sun Wenze.

“Weiwei, do you have something you want to tell me?” Xiaohan suddenly stopped.

Zhou Weiwei snapped back to reality and smiled: “No.”

“But to get to your Finance building, you have to cross the bridge.” Xiaohan pointed to an arched bridge behind them.

“Ah! There’s been so much Student Union work lately, I’m getting muddled! Thanks for the reminder, Xiaohan.” Zhou Weiwei’s expression shifted very naturally.

After parting with Xiaohan, she secretly decided to start her approach through Xiaohan.

…

Not long after walking away, Zhou Weiwei received a call from an unsaved number.

“Hello?”

“It’s Cheng Wu.”

Zhou Weiwei felt a bit nervous and hurriedly smiled: “Does Senior have something? Are you looking for Wenze?”

In the office, Cheng Wu looked at Sun Wenze, who was chatting heatedly with a junior from Management, and curled her lips: “Wenze is currently chatting with my new junior here.”

“He… he’s with a senior?” Zhou Weiwei unconsciously gripped her phone tighter.

Cheng Wu turned to look out the window. The young girl standing on the stone bridge looked quite tense. She said with a light smile: “I know Ye Sisi is making things hard for you. But if you truly want to establish yourself in the School Student Union, I can’t help you much. Xiaohan has a simple nature; don’t trouble her.”

“Did the Senior misunderstand something?” Zhou Weiwei suddenly felt her throat go dry, her right hand unconsciously picking at the railing of the bridge.

Cheng Wu’s tone remained unchanged: “Whether there’s a misunderstanding, you know best in your heart. However, I can give you a suggestion. Li Ya and Ye Sisi are close, but Li Ya isn’t someone who lets personal feelings interfere with official business. Furthermore, she is the President of the Student Union, but there are four Vice Presidents—one of whom is your boyfriend. You don’t need to worry about Ye Sisi, but you could try to win over the other two.”

Zhou Weiwei didn’t speak, feeling a sense of panic. Had Sun Wenze betrayed her? But even he didn’t know her plan! Why was Cheng Wu so clear about it?

Cheng Wu heard the breathing on the other end grow heavy and said one last thing: “You’re quite capable. Before Sun Wenze breaks up with you, you are fully able to handle those other two. Relying on others is never as good as relying on yourself.”

“Th-thank you, Senior.” Zhou Weiwei could only admit it in the end.

Hanging up, she suddenly looked toward the teaching building by the river—the Management department building.

…

After a full afternoon of classes, Xiaohan stretched, intending to go eat. Just as she packed her bag, Ding Ming walked over and handed her a reference book: “Regarding the question you asked the teacher just now, this book has the relevant solutions. You can take a look.”

Xiaohan took the book and flipped immediately to the page with the bookmark. Seeing the analysis, she looked up: “Where did you buy this?”

“You don’t need to buy it; I can lend it to you.” Ding Ming offered a kind smile.

Once Xiaohan left, Yang Xing walked over and looked toward the door: “Ding Ming, you don’t happen to like Xiaohan, do you?”

Ding Ming’s expression remained normal: “Not everyone is like you. Xiaohan is very smart; I feel like I can learn something from her.”

“Heh!” Yang Xing didn’t believe it at all.

Outside, Xiaohan met up with Bei Wenxin. Yang Xing suddenly got excited: “Go, go, go! Let’s eat with Xiaohan.”

There were only a few girls in the Math department. Yang Xing had tried to approach Xiaohan before, but walking with her meant discussing nothing but conjectures and hypotheses. Even as Math majors, they couldn’t take it for long. Currently, the only person who could keep up with Xiaohan’s topics was Ding Ming.

Yang Xing turned his gaze to Bei Wenxin. Although the competition was much fiercer, at least in front of Bei Wenxin, he wouldn’t feel ashamed of his own intellect.

Ding Ming agreed, thinking it was also an opportunity.

…

In the cafeteria, the four sat together to eat, but they sat in pairs like strangers who happened to share a table. Bei Wenxin couldn’t join the conversation between Ding Ming and Xiaohan. Yang Xing and Bei Wenxin discussed skincare and makeup; let alone Ding Ming, even Xiaohan looked completely lost.

After eating, the four went to self-study. Yes, Jiangda freshmen still had evening self-study. Yang Xing wanted nothing more than to take Bei Wenxin and skip, but she was the monitor for the neighboring class and had to take attendance. He could skip, but she couldn’t.

Helplessly, he could only sit in a row with Ding Ming and Xiaohan, bored out of his mind, flipping through textbooks and spinning his pen.

Finally, when class ended, Yang Xing stood up and rushed to the door of the next classroom. He saw Bei Wenxin surrounded by the boys from her class. While he was gritting his teeth in secret, Xiaohan walked over.

Inside, Bei Wenxin waved at them and quickly packed her things. “Sorry to keep you waiting.” Bei Wenxin’s smile was very beautiful; Yang Xing shook his head repeatedly, saying it was no problem.

Seeing his expression, Ding Ming suddenly made a suggestion: “Why don’t we check out the campus cafe?”

Yang Xing nodded excitedly, and Xiaohan thought it was fine too.

Bei Wenxin looked at Yang Xing and said with some difficulty: “I have some things to do in my dorm; I might not be able to go.”

“Then I’ll walk you back!” Yang Xing said impatiently.

Bei Wenxin looked at Xiaohan and eventually agreed. Once they left, Ding Ming suddenly changed his mind: “Let’s just stay in the classroom and read. I happen to have some problems where I’d like to see your solving process.”

“Sure.” Xiaohan didn’t mind; it was the same everywhere. The two returned to the classroom and began discussing the problems.

…

At nine o’clock, Xiaohan’s phone suddenly vibrated. She picked it up; it was a message from Cheng Wu. She quickly replied: I’m still in the classroom discussing problems with a classmate.

Cheng Wu rubbed her neck. She suddenly remembered that during military training, there was a boy who was often by Xiaohan’s side.

Ding Ming?

She hadn’t been able to speak with Ding Ming before. Cheng Wu felt that she might as well go over and take a look. So, she quickly typed out a line and sent it:

I’ll head over in a bit. Let’s go back to the dorm together.