Prince charming, your persona has collapsed!

Lu Lin was indeed more mature than her peers; she knew what she wanted and what she didn't, so truthfully, Li Qiang's crude techniques of pursuing girls did not impress Lu Lin, nor did she deign to respond to Li Qiang.

That's why she completely ignored the messages sent by Li Qiang.

She just opened Zhou Yuwen's chat window and looked, but didn't speak.

Li Qiang waited for ten minutes and saw that Lu Lin did not respond to him at all.

It was strange, they had good conversations just a few days earlier.

But lately, for some unknown reason, Lu Lin had not replied to any of his messages.

Once when they met in reality, Li Qiang, who couldn't hold back, asked, "Lu Lin, why don't you respond when I message you online?"

It was during mealtime in the cafeteria, with several dorm mates around, including a few girls from the female dormitory.

Li Qiang's question actually made Lu Lin quite uncomfortable.

Lu Lin hummed, saying, "Oh, I don't check my phone much."

With Lu Lin's explanation, a smile finally returned to Li Qiang's face, "Oh, when do you usually use your phone then?"

As of now, Lu Lin was still ignoring Li Qiang. Initially, Li Qiang thought Lu Lin just hadn't seen her phone, but by the end of the afternoon training, Lu Lin still hadn't acknowledged Li Qiang.

This certainly left Li Qiang feeling annoyed and restless.

Near bedtime, Li Qiang couldn't hold back any longer. He wrote and deleted a paragraph over and over, multiple times, but ultimately, he could not compose a version that satisfied him.

He wanted to say he knew Lu Lin was short of money.

Brother Zhou had already told me you asked him to borrow money.

"Lu Lin, have you encountered some trouble?"

"Speak up, we'll solve it together."

"Lu Lin, although I don't have much money at hand, you should be able to feel my sincerity."

"Right now, I have eight hundred yuan. Besides, I have applied for a scholarship, which is three thousand yuan. I just need to keep five hundred yuan for myself; I can lend you the rest."

"Lu Lin, I really like you. Can you give me a chance?"

In the moonlight outside the window, Li Qiang hesitated and rewrote this line of text several times, revising it substantially.

For example, initially, he said 'give' the money.

Latter, fearing that Lu Lin might not acknowledge the money if it was given, he said he would 'lend' it.

Moreover, Li Qiang had no intention of confessing to Lu Lin initially, but then he thought, since he was giving the money, he might as well let her know his feelings, right?

So Li Qiang read the text over and over again.

It seemed okay.

Although it meant betraying Brother Zhou.

But it was a reluctant choice.

Biting the bullet!

Click send!

When Lu Lin saw the message, she did indeed pause for a moment.

The more she read, the deeper her frown became.

Li Qiang's text was too clumsy, too purposeful.

At first, Lu Lin hadn't expected Zhou Yuwen to spread such details indiscriminately, but from Li Qiang's text, it was clear that he didn't know the full story.

He only knew about her asking Zhou Yuwen to borrow money.

Lu Lin, alone on the balcony, went through Li Qiang's message again and again, questioning whether Zhou Yuwen was the type to spread people's issues around.

Was he spreading it around in the dorm?

Lu Lin sent a message to Chang Hao.

"Are you there?"

"What's up, Sister Lin?"

Chang Hao felt that he was still quite popular, since Lu Lin had taken the initiative to approach him twice. Could she really like him?

It must be because he looked too handsome when he was the class leader.

"Can you lend me some money?" Lu Lin asked.

Receiving this message, Chang Hao was first stunned, then asked, "How much do you need?"

"Forget it, it's nothing."

"???"

Chang Hao was baffled, but he didn't broadcast this incident in the dormitory, only mentioning it once while chatting with Zheng Yanyan.

"She asked you to lend her money?" Zheng Yanyan was curious.

"Yeah, when I asked her how much she needed, she suddenly said it was nothing, so bizarre," Chang Hao muttered.

Zheng Yanyan found it strange too, saying Linlin didn't seem like someone short of money, couldn't understand it.

Unable to resist, Chang Hao asked, "Hey, do you think, she likes me, and just found an excuse to talk to me?"

When Chang Hao brought this up, he couldn't help but curl his lips into a smile.

Zheng Yanyan rolled her eyes, saying, "Don't dream."

"She likes Zhou Yuwen, not a chance she'd like you."

"Damn, what's so good about Zhou, anyway?"

Chang Hao was unconvinced.

The whole incident was bizarre and ended just as oddly.

However, one thing was true, after this incident, Lu Lin never approached Zhou Yuwen again, sometimes when they bumped into each other, they didn't even say hello.

Li Qiang talked a lot to Lu Lin, but she always maintained a cold silence.

That night, Li Qiang confessed his true feelings, but Lu Lin still didn't respond to him.

Until after 2 AM.

Li Qiang couldn't sleep at all.

Finally, he sent another message:

"Lu Lin, could you please pity me, just send me one message, I truly like you."

"From the moment I saw you, I fell for you, I've never seen a girl as beautiful as you. Chang Hao said in the dormitory that you smoke, you're not a good girl, but I think, you must have some unreleased sorrow to smoke, just like when you asked Zhou for money. Whatever trouble you have, you can talk to me, I might not have money, but I can take part-time jobs, make some money.

Don't keep everything bottled up inside, okay, I can share your burdens."

No matter how many messages Li Qiang sent to Lu Lin, they went unanswered, as if vanished into thin air.

By the next morning, the sleep-deprived Li Qiang had bloodshot eyes, looking back at what he said last night, he began to regret it.

He continued sending to Lu Lin: "I was over my head last night, let's pretend I never said anything."

This, between Lu Lin and Li Qiang, was their business, others weren't aware of it, nor did they have the mood to concern themselves with their affairs, as military training continued, the September sun tanned every training student into a darker shade.

Speaking of pigs, someone remembered roast suckling pig, crispy on the outside, tender inside. It felt as if it melted in one's mouth.

"And our Teochew beef meatballs, that burst spraying juice when you bite down."

"Hey, what's that compared to what we have back in Beijing? For sophisticated cuisine, nowhere beats us. Donlai Shun in the Third Ring, Wangfujing's Peking Duck!"

People merely had a brief chat in the dormitory, but couldn't stop salivating endlessly.

Twenty days had gone by. For twenty days, there had only been white bread rolls and rice, the vegetable dishes were oily alright, but repeating the same few dishes daily ever leads to ennui.

Only then did they feel, how joyful it was to be at home during summer break, daily doses of KFC and McDonald's, chicken legs with coke, playing video games in an air-conditioned room.

"Sigh, Brother Hao, when will this end?"

"Hang in there, just two more weeks until it's over."

Talking about food at night was a mistake, after that, feeling the hollowness in their stomachs, even lying in bed, they couldn't fall asleep.