Sweet Gardenia - Chapter 17.1

Under the ceiling light, the scene was subtly charged. The gazes of the three individuals formed a closed loop.

Fu Yanshang wore a bathrobe, its belt loosely tied as if on the verge of coming undone. His damp, slightly curly hair fell beside his ears, droplets of water scattering like scattered beads, rolling irregularly in all directions.

He tilted his gaze slightly, looking to the side.

Lu Zhi suddenly realized.

He wasn’t talking about the peacock, but about Elu’s male assistant.

She pursed her lips and glanced over, politely asking, “Are you looking for me? Is there something you need?”

The male assistant coughed twice, as if only then snapping back to reality, and handed her a card. “Oh, right, a few of the film photos have been developed. Here, for your… reference.”

She nodded, feeling this entire exchange was unnecessarily bizarre. Flipping through the photos as she walked back into the room, she glanced up at Fu Yanshang. “Haven’t you finished showering yet?”

“How could you tell?”

She reached out and brushed her fingers against the side of his neck. “There’s still soap here.”

Lu Zhi walked further into the room, musing that knocking on her door so late at night was rather impolite and boundary-crossing. She put her earphones back on, unaware that the conversation at the door was still ongoing.

The person at the doorway stood there for a moment, unsure whether to leave or stay. The man in front of him stood with his arms crossed, waiting as if expecting him to ask something. After a brief pause, he finally asked, “Are you two together?”

The man in front of him let out a derisive laugh. “What do you think?”

“…”

“Also,” Fu Yanshang spoke up, “has no one ever taught you that it’s midnight? Even if I weren’t here with her, knocking on a woman’s door uninvited with a flimsy excuse is harassment.”

–

The sound of running water resumed in the bathroom.

By the time both of them had finished showering and were lying in bed, everything seemed to have returned to normal. They were each occupied with the work that had piled up over the past few days. Lu Zhi had it relatively easier, as Li Siyi had handled quite a bit for her.

Once she was done, she casually picked up the photos from the bedside and looked through them again. Developing film photos wasn’t cheap, and in this set, the male assistant had also appeared in the frame.  By photography standards, these would be considered wasted shots. Elu wouldn’t have specifically developed them.

So, it was obvious who had developed them.

Perhaps noticing her prolonged focus on this set of photos, she heard Fu Yanshang speak from beside her. “Haven’t you figured it out yet?”

“Huh?” She turned to him. “What?”

He lowered his gaze slightly, his chin tilting in a subtle gesture of indication. “He’s pursuing you.”

It took Lu Zhi a moment to process who the “he” in his sentence referred to. She lay back down and corrected him, “That can’t be… Does this even count as pursuing?”

“…”

Just as Fu Yanshang was about to reply, a thought suddenly occurred to him. He switched from his current screen and opened the forum of her alma mater, Su University. He had attended Su University’s affiliated high school since his first year of senior high. If he hadn’t left back then, he would have undoubtedly stayed at this university.

His old student ID still worked. Given her looks, it was unlikely she’d gone completely unnoticed at the university.  It would be normal to find a few posts looking for her. His thumb moved, typing “Lu Zhi” into the search bar.

It suddenly dawned on him that he knew nothing about her student days.

He had no idea what would come up.

The next second, the page popped up with a full five pages of content. His brow twitched slightly, thinking it might be a bug, but as he scrolled down from the first page, the word “Lu” disappeared from the thread titles, and the page automatically linked to another nickname everyone had given her.

She was more popular than he had imagined.

Her university life seemed incredibly vibrant.

【To the freshman singing “Qing Fei De Yi” under Building 8, please stop. Zhi Bao is out and not in the dorm… You’ve woken up our entire floor…】

【Important notice: Everyone coming to Booth 8 at the campus culture festival to see the excitement, please don’t block the entrance! Zhi Bao isn’t coming! She’s not!】

【To the guy who sent candy to Classroom 307 at noon today, could you tell us how to search for the purchase link? The packaging is all in German. I’ve already fallen in love after eating two pieces.】

【Wasn’t it one piece per person?】

【I was sitting next to Zhi Bao, and she gave hers to me. Sorry not sorry.】

【?】

【To the seniors from the Mechanical Engineering department… Team-building is fine, bringing your self-made robotic dogs is fine, pursuing Zhi Bao is obviously fine too… But controlling a horde of brain-dead robotic dogs to charge into the classroom like maniacs early in the morning is NOT FINE!! You scared the hell out of me! Get lost!】

【LMAO, I looked up and thought it was a zombie invasion.】

【This has officially replaced yesterday’s scene.  That guy who looked like Murong Yunhai spreading rose petals everywhere and asking Zhi Bao, “How can I measure up in your heart?”, as the most unforgettable moment of my life.】

【Thanks, this year’s most inspiring unrequited love story: someone took a double major in her field just to be closer to her and even became the class representative standing next to her while collecting assignments…】

……

Further down were the earliest posts, dated around the time she had just started university.

When a female student was secretly photographed, she dyed her hair a hazy, misty green in solidarity, sparking a trend across the entire campus.

In an old, blurry photo he found buried in the archives, a candid shot, she was holding a book, her low-saturation hair color overexposed under the light, casting a soft halo of pale gold. Loose strands framed her cheeks as she sat uniquely in the pitch-black classroom, her gaze calm as she tilted her head to flip through the pages.

That hair color was extremely hard to pull off, but she wore it beautifully. Even though four years had passed since the photo was taken and she had already graduated, the thread continued to receive replies. It had left a mark in the century-long history of Su University like a lingering white moonlight, with some calling it her legendary moment.

After scrolling through over twenty minutes of posts, he didn’t need to close his eyes to imagine the kind of sensation she must have caused on campus back then. No wonder she said that peacock’s advances didn’t even count as pursuit.  She had already experienced it thousands of times over.

Closing the laptop, he turned his head and asked her an offhand question, “You used to dye your hair green?”

Lu Zhi had long set her phone aside and was dozing off. At his words, she cracked her eyelids open a sliver. Without asking how he knew, she casually replied, “Yeah, why? Do you want to see?”

She thought about what it would be like if she dyed her hair that color again and mused, “But… wouldn’t it be a bit unlucky for you if I dyed it that color?”

“If you dye it that color, it should be unlucky for you.”

“Oh, you mean me wearing ‘green’ on my head?” she said. “I don’t care about that. Do you want to see it or not?”

“……”