Chapter 76 The Love-Brain Female Lead Awakens 19

There really was a reason so many people were obsessed with competitive sports. Even though Sang Ruo didn’t understand a thing, she still found herself fired up by it. She even forgot to take the duck neck she’d lifted to her mouth and bite into it.

Goal.

Sang Ruo cheered.

Yi Chen’an held his cola and laughed under his breath.

“What are you laughing at now?”

“The one who scored just now was on Iran’s team.”

“Really? I thought the player who scored was pretty handsome too.”

Yi Chen’an laughed again.

That was the kind of exchange they kept having, completely talking past each other.

It seemed like cultivating a shared interest would be hard, but the process itself could still bring people closer.

At the very least, when they had free time, Yi Chen’an would now take the initiative to talk with her about things other than eating and drinking. Their conversations had started to include a bit more substance.

For example, when he saw her memorizing so much material that she looked wilted even while eating, he asked, “How can studying make you this miserable? You don’t like your major?”

Sang Ruo majored in International Economics and Trade. It wasn’t really a matter of liking it or not. Back then, Zhou Yan had applied for that major, and since her family was in business, it was loosely related, so she signed up for it too. She had simply been following the usual path and studying it step by step.

“Have you ever thought about what you want to do after graduation?”

That question really stumped Sang Ruo. She genuinely had never thought about it.

Some upperclassmen in the same major went into related fields, joining foreign trade companies, shipping companies, or taking exams for customs positions.

Others ended up doing work completely unrelated to the major. If nothing unexpected happened, she would probably just go with the flow after graduation, find a fairly respectable job, and work like everyone else. Or maybe she’d go home and help her parents run the family business.

The Sang family ran an Embroidery House. They had their own mulberry grove and also dealt in silk thread. Their Embroidery House was a century-old establishment. It had shut down for a time during the sixties and seventies of the last century, then slowly came back to life after the reform and opening-up¹ period. In the past, it took more overseas orders, but in recent years, with the revival of traditional Chinese fashion, business had grown bigger and bigger.

Sang Ruo told Yi Chen’an what she was thinking.

As she spoke, she felt a little guilty, as if she were some clueless airhead with no mind of her own. No one had ever guided her to think about these questions, and her parents were even less likely to. As long as she was happy, they thought anything was fine and praised her without reservation. As a result, even after two years of college, she still had no clear idea what she wanted to do after graduation.

Yi Chen’an didn’t criticize her. It had only been casual conversation to begin with.

“From what I’m hearing, your current major doesn’t really attract you. If you force yourself to keep studying it, or even work in a related field, you’ll probably be miserable.” He even suggested, “Graduation is still a long way off. You can use your spare time to get exposed to different kinds of work and see what you actually like. Whether you want to start your own business, take over your family’s, or find some other kind of job, it’d be good to start preparing early. But you don’t need to put too much pressure on yourself. You’re still young. If you still can’t figure it out in the next couple of years, you can try switching directions and take the graduate school exam. If you haven’t made up your mind yet, having another degree is always a good thing.”

He really was treating himself like one of her elders, thinking a twenty-year-old was still a child.

Old Sang was the same. Every time, he would say things like, “My daughter’s still little.”

Anyone who didn’t know better would never guess from that tone that his “little daughter” was already over two hundred months old.

Sang Ruo rested her chin in her hand and looked at Yi Chen’an.

What was she supposed to do? She seemed to like him even more now.

How did he manage to be sharp and dazzling one moment, then like an elder the next, like a well-traveled guide showing a lost wanderer the way through the fog?

Sang Ruo felt that Yi Chen’an was right. She really should start thinking about her future.

Her family’s financial situation was fairly comfortable, so she didn’t bear the pressure of earning money to support the household. And compared to people who spent their entire lives muddling along in one industry without direction, she really was still young. With her future still undecided, she could try out more fields and jobs and do her best to find something she genuinely liked.

When she left this time, someone had stuffed a pack of mosquito-repellent patches and a bottle of anti-itch mosquito relief liquid into her backpack. They had a grassy, woody fragrance that was quite distinctive, and they worked better than floral water.

The corners of her mouth kept lifting. Looks like she’d really been fussed over.

Then her hair was ruffled again. “Study hard and try to at least pass.”

Who exactly was he looking down on?

Once the tightly packed round of exams came crashing down on her, she had no room left to think about anything else.

After finally surviving that hellish exam week, Sang Ruo slept in her dorm room like the dead. She felt like she’d lost half her life. She didn’t even have the desire to go downstairs to pick up takeout, so she waited for Yin Xiaoxin to bring it up when she came back.

“Get up, stop sleeping, stop sleeping.”

Sang Ruo sat up with her hair a mess. “Has the takeout arrived?”

“What takeout? Forget that.” Yin Xiaoxin climbed onto Sang Ruo’s bed and lowered her voice. “Guess who I just saw?” Without waiting for an answer, she said mysteriously, “Chi Qing and Zhou Yan.”

“What’s so strange about that? Did you only meet them today?” She was about to get out of bed to eat when Yin Xiaoxin pressed her back down.

“No, I saw them kissing. And I heard from some other classmates that on the day exams ended, someone saw the two of them go out and get a room. I even asked around, and Chi Qing really didn’t come back to the dorm that night.”

“Are you done? Can I go eat now?”

“Why aren’t you shocked at all?” Yin Xiaoxin pulled her back again.

“I already saw them before, downstairs by the dorm. Zhou Yan was walking Chi Qing back.”

Yin Xiaoxin raised a thumbs-up. “Girl, you’ve got class. Seriously impressive.”

While opening the packaging on her food, Sang Ruo listened to Yin Xiaoxin ranting about a trashy jerk and a fake innocent schemer².

“It doesn’t really have much to do with us. As long as it doesn’t affect us, it’s fine.”

Yin Xiaoxin clicked her tongue. “It’s just that seeing Chi Qing around every day is kind of irritating.”

“Come on, I’m the one directly involved, and even I haven’t said much. What are you getting so worked up for?”

“Because after she fought with you, every time we run into people from her dorm on the road, they all look down their noses at us. They probably think of us as imaginary enemies.”

Sang Ruo said, “Then just ignore her.”

“True.”

Once the counselor finished the class meeting in a couple of days, students would start leaving campus. Sang Ruo was worrying over how to use this long summer vacation to push her relationship with Yi Chen’an a little further.

But while she was racking her brains over it, she happened to see that the school’s Employment Association public account had posted a summer job recruitment notice. The hiring company was a major corporation, a comprehensive entertainment company. This time, the position they were advertising was novel review. They said that in order to cooperate with inspections from the authorities, they needed a large number of people to review all the original novels in their platform’s backlog.

This company was usually hard to get into, but this time they were in a hurry to hire, so the entry requirements had been lowered. On top of that, the pay was generous, calculated by piecework, thirty cents per chapter.

Could something this good really exist? Getting paid to read novels, even trashy ads wouldn’t dare write it like that. At her reading speed, Sang Ruo felt that even if she couldn’t read the platform into bankruptcy, she could at least squeeze a car out of it.

It was also an industry she had never had any contact with before, so she wanted to give it a try. She actively submitted her resume and waited for the review and interview.

Old Sang called to ask when she was coming back and whether he should come pick her up, but Sang Ruo refused. Along with that, she also turned down a bank internship that Old Sang had asked someone to help arrange for her, saying that she was also trying to look for something here and hoped to rely on her own efforts first.

Comrade Old Sang was deeply gratified and even praised her, saying, “My daughter’s amazing.”

He was basically just a soulless praise machine. Still, he said the bank internship would be kept for her for now, and if she wasn’t satisfied here, she could go back.

The hiring process for the novel review position moved along quickly, and the interview wasn’t nearly as difficult as she had imagined. With Sang Ruo’s extensive experience reading web novels and her clear, logical thinking, they gave her the result on the spot.

It looked like they really were desperate for people.

When she told Old Sang the news, there was naturally another round of praise.

That night, her mom even called specifically to complain about Old Sang: “Your dad’s telling everyone he meets about your internship. A lot of people know now that his daughter got into an internship at a major company in her sophomore year purely through her own ability, without relying on connections.”

“…”

That really was exactly the kind of thing Old Sang would do.

The internship notice said she had to report to the company a week later for training, and only after passing the assessment could she officially start work. Sang Ruo planned to use that week to go home and see her parents.

Before leaving, she bought groceries and planned to visit a certain soccer fan who had been tormented by the World Cup.

The newly dried lychees finally came in handy. She made a pot of pork rib soup, light, sweet, and perfect for beating the summer heat.

Yi Chen’an only started serving himself rice after drinking two bowls, saying, “I didn’t expect this stuff could be used in cooking.”

“You thought it was going to be another one of my culinary horrors at first, didn’t you?”

“Not that bad.” He quickly changed the subject and asked, “When does your school let out for break?”

“It already basically counts as break, but the dorm building won’t close until next week.”

“What day are you going back? I’ll take you to the station.”

Qingyan City, where Sang Ruo’s family lived, was right next to Qingyang. The high-speed rail went there directly, and the trip only took two or three hours, so it was very close. It would also be convenient for her to come back for the internship.

“Mhm, my ticket’s for tomorrow afternoon. But I found an internship.” She gave him a rough introduction to the position, then deliberately added, “I’m worrying about something right now. The dorm closes next week, and when I come back, I’ll need to find a place if I’m going to do the internship.”

The enemy showed no movement, so she added more fuel to the fire and said in an especially innocent tone, “How about I stay at your place? It’s not that far from MX, and there’s a direct subway line.” MX was the major entertainment company where she would be interning.

“No.” He refused decisively.

Sang Ruo pouted. She hadn’t really expected to succeed anyway. Being able to come over once in a while under the excuse of improving his meals and freeload a bit was probably already Yi Chen’an’s limit. Still, being rejected left her somewhat disappointed.

Of course, a magical girl warrior³ wasn’t so easily defeated. She downplayed the important part and tried to liven up the slightly awkward atmosphere, saying, “It’s not like I wouldn’t pay you rent. Just think of it as renting the place to me. I’m just too lazy to go apartment hunting in this heat.”

Yi Chen’an sighed, put down his rice bowl, and looked at her as if he were looking at a troublesome child who didn’t know any better. “Sang Ruo, I’m an adult man. You frequently coming and going from a single man’s home, or even living with him, do you know what that means?”

Sang Ruo froze. She hadn’t expected him to bring the subject out into the open so directly.

The man continued, “It wouldn’t be good for you.” He lowered his head. “During this period, I haven’t kept the proper boundaries. Your father entrusted me to take care of you, not to teach you things I shouldn’t.”

Sang Ruo leaned forward and asked him, “You, the way you’ve been good to me… was it really only because Dad asked you to, just taking care of me like an older brother would?”

“Yes.” The man lowered his head, seeming as if nothing were amiss.

“Look me in the eye and say it!”

Those eyes were too deep. Sang Ruo couldn’t read them. All she could see was her own accusing reflection in his pupils. He still said, “Yes.”

“But that’s not how I feel!”

She had wanted to boil the frog in warm water⁴, but this frog was far too alert. Before the water had even warmed enough, it already wanted to leap out of the pot.

“I’m not. I don’t only see you as some older brother I turn to for shelter, I…”

Sang Ruo’s words were cut off by the man, his voice rising slightly. “Sang Ruo!”

“You’re yelling at me!” Sang Ruo accused.

“I’m not.”

Biting her lip, Sang Ruo still finished what she had been about to say: “Yelling at me won’t help. I just like you…”

Translator’s Notes