"Well, so you've become a vicious rich girl who, after failing to win over her crush, forcefully steals a guy from the crowd. Li Xingda is a handsome and virtuous man, and he and Wang Runqiu are already a strong and devoted campus couple."
"This is such a wonderful show, even more dramatic and unpredictable than any script I could write!"
Xiang Lan gave a faint "Oh".
Why aren't you in a hurry?
She chuckled, "Because I have another discount here, which can make up for your third discount!"
"What?"
"Now, my boyfriend is the one who makes all the recipes!"
"Girl—" Deng Yifan went crazy on the phone, screaming, "How did you do that?"
Xiang Lan skipped along the paved road, "I did this and that, and he gave in! Anyway, we've already agreed that whether he comes back or I go to America, we can talk. Aren't you happy? Isn't that dramatic enough? Haha, with him around, all the rumors on the internet are just fluff!"
"Damn, you're really something!"
"I'm very proactive." Xiang Lan thinks the world is so lovely. There are gains and losses. Since she has already gotten what she wanted most, she won't care about these trivial details. "So my priority now is to work on my graduation project and the exhibition board. My family suggested that I start by working on the exhibition board to broaden my thinking. So, I'm going to work hard in the logistics office."
"I'll come find you right away."
"Yeah! I feel like my inspiration is flowing like a spring right now. Graduation projects, exhibition posters, theme paintings, all of these are a piece of cake."
Not wanting the terrible cyberattacks to affect her mood, Xiang Lan turned around and went to the logistics office. As for Xiang Yuan, she decided to let him be. However, before she even reached the office, her sister-in-law called.
"Lanlan!" Hu Li said affectionately on the phone, "You finally got through! Are you feeling better?"
Xiang Lan hummed in agreement. "Sister-in-law, my brother is afraid to call?"
"You scared him to death; he couldn't sleep all night. Serves him right—"
"That's right, sister-in-law, you should teach him a lesson! What kind of mess has he made? If he does this again, it won't just be a matter of turning off his phone for one night; I'll just run away from home!"
"Alright, I've already talked to him. But it seems that a classmate from your school named Li contacted him, saying that something troublesome had happened and he wanted to talk to you. That's when your brother realized your phone was off, and he got worried that you might do something rash."
"Oh! I'm fine, I'm perfectly alright! Don't worry, sister-in-law."
"Okay, are you going home this weekend?"
"No, I have to stay at school to do design work. My uncle is such a nuisance."
Xiang Lan hung up the phone, raising an eyebrow. Li Xingda called her brother? That was a bit strange. She took out her phone and found a text message Li Xingda hadn't read. It was very brief: "Please contact me when your phone is on." She then found Wang Runqiu's text message, as sarcastic as ever, saying, "Xiang Lan, your true colors have been exposed. What else is there to say?"
She chuckled, bumping headfirst into a hard chest. Looking up, she saw Li Xingda blocking the doorway to the logistics office, frowning and looking at her with disapproval.
Chapter Thirteen
"President?" Xiang Lan took a step back, covering her forehead. Those muscles were so hard. "What are you doing here?"
Li Xingda's nose was filled with her fragrance, a faint scent of lemon. He looked down and said, "I came to find you."
She pushed open the office door and walked in, noticing a display board against the wall. One of the boards was already mostly finished, indicating that Deng Yifan was working quite fast. "Is there anything I can help you with?"
He looked at her with some confusion. "Are you alright?"
Xiang Lan had fair skin with a rosy glow, bright black eyes, and seemed to be in a good mood, full of energy.
"It's great!" She took off her schoolbag and put it on the desk, looked around the room, and ran to the corner to look for the sketches she had carelessly thrown away yesterday.
Li Xingda leaned against his desk, his gaze following her. He saw her search the corner for a while, then run to rummage through the trash can, and asked, "What are you looking for?"
"The painting, the one I lost yesterday."
There is no dedicated cleaning lady in the office; staff members take turns cleaning and are responsible for cleaning themselves.
“They should be gone,” Li Xingda said. “Yifan and Runqiu were busy here for a long time yesterday afternoon, and then they took the trash to the public trash can outside.”
"Ah—" Xiang Lan was somewhat disappointed.
"What painting? Is it important?"
"It's alright, it's kind of like the first draft of my graduation project."
Li Xingda frowned. "This is very important. I'll go see if I can find it."
Xiang Lan stared in disbelief as he ran out. There was a large metal trash can at the intersection outside the office, which was collected twice a day by sanitation workers. If you were there before they arrived, you could indeed find the trash. She dropped what she was holding and ran after him, only to see him drag a huge black trash bag out of the metal can and squat down to carefully rummage through it.
"President, let's not look for it anymore, shall we? I'll just draw a new draft—" Xiang Lan said softly from behind him, "This isn't a good idea!"
"The graduation project is very important; once you lose your inspiration, it's gone forever." Li Xingda unfolded a few crumpled pieces of paper and placed them aside. "Take a look, see if you have any."
Xiang Lan frowned, tilting her head to look at the discarded papers. Fortunately, the surrounding area consisted mostly of office buildings, and the trash cans were full of crumpled paper and various wrappers, not rotten food. Otherwise, it would have been quite unsightly. She squatted down beside him, picked up a twig, and poked at the papers. "None of them are."
Li Xingda picked out all the pieces of paper, but after she rejected them one by one, he went to pull out a garbage bag from another trash can. Xiang Lan had no choice but to wrap her hands with two relatively clean pieces of paper and put the garbage back in its place.
"President, I can just redraw it, there's no need for that," Xiang Lan stopped her. "Besides, I have a better idea now, so I was going to redraw it anyway."
"Then why were you looking for it just now?"
"Because I'm used to collecting all my paintings."
"That's it. Stand aside, I'll help you find it, don't get in the way."
To say such things with such a cold face is truly unromantic; no wonder Wang Runqiu's four years of flirting had no effect.
Seeing him squatting on the ground with a serious expression, Xiang Lan realized he wasn't just being polite. Not wanting to stand idly by, she squatted down beside him and asked, "President, what did you and my brother talk about yesterday?"
Li Xingda glanced at her and said, "It's nothing."
"My brother is a bit of a scumbag, so don't fall for his tricks." Xiang Lan, having received a favor from someone, immediately betrayed her own brother.
“It’s alright, he’s just very concerned about you.” He looked down and separated the crumpled papers one by one. “Xiang’s apology was very sincere, and it didn’t cause me any real harm.”
"President, I'm sorry."
"You already apologized yesterday, why are you apologizing again today? Do you think I'm a petty person?" Li Xingda rarely joked.
"Of course not," Xiang Lan immediately denied, adding, "I called Yifan this morning, and she said you contacted me yesterday because of something. President, what is it?"
He glanced at Xiang Lan, hesitated for a moment, and said, "It's about Wang Runqiu."
"What's wrong with her? Is she still angry with me?" Xiang Lan said with a smile, "She called and texted me yesterday, but didn't say what it was about."
"If she contacts you again later, please do not accept any of her requests."
You have to tell me!
Li Xingda sighed, "Last night, after Yifan finished writing and returned to her dormitory, she said that her wrist was recovering well and asked me to let her participate in the work of making exhibition boards again, especially the theme paintings."
Xiang Lan laughed in exasperation, "Does Yifan know?"
He had a headache. "Yifan usually seems easy to talk to, but she has a fiery temper, so I'm a little hesitant to talk to her. You usually seem carefree and don't know how to speak properly, but you won't make any big mistakes when it matters, so I'm talking to you first."
"No way." Xiang Lan stood up and unfolded the crumpled pieces of paper. "President, we agreed beforehand that I'm only responsible for you, and no one else is allowed to interfere. A man's word is his bond, you can't go back on your word, right?"
“Of course,” he said. “I rejected her last night, but I can’t guarantee she won’t contact you privately. If she does, keep Yifan at bay and don’t confront her directly. Otherwise—”
“Otherwise, we’ll be the ones who suffer.” Xiang Lan twisted her face. “My God, her stubbornness is just unbelievable.”
Li Xingda lowered his head and stuffed all the trash except for the crumpled paper back into the trash can. He then painstakingly pieced together the various scraps of paper without minding the mess. From these aspects, it is clear that he has a very high moral character.
"She shouldn't have argued with you yesterday. Let me apologize on her behalf. Don't be angry; your family will worry—"
Xiang Lan blinked a few times. It turned out that the two of them had progressed to the point where they could represent each other. She really wanted to ask about more specific gossip, but since they were just casual acquaintances, it wasn't appropriate to ask!
"Is this it?" He picked up a scrap of paper and asked Lan. The paper had large areas of charcoal shadows and the outline of a male jawbone.
Xiang Lan recognized it at a glance. Without saying a word, and disregarding the dirt, she took the piece of paper, sighed, and nodded, "Yes."
Li Xingda felt a little regretful, so he took out a few more sheets of paper. The two of them laid the paper out on a clean surface. He said, "It's been ruined."
She didn't speak for a while, then said, "I just crumpled it up when I threw it away, I didn't tear it."
He stood up, stuffed the trash bag back into the bin, and said, "Go back and piece it back together."
Xiang Lan bit her lip and quickly put the piece of paper away. The drawing was damaged, and the lines of the figure were distorted, but from certain angles, it did look a bit like Li Xingda. She didn't want to discuss this issue in front of Li Xingda, so she just lowered her head and remained silent.
What are you doing?
Xiang Lan turned her head and saw Wang Runqiu standing to the side, her hands supporting her backpack straps, looking utterly defeated; next to her stood another student council member, accountant Xu Na, who was also her good friend.
Li Xingda patted the dust off his hands. "Xiang Lan's painting is lost. I'll help her look for it."
Wang Runqiu looked at Xiang Lan with suspicion, then at Li Xingda, without saying a word, but his face darkened.
"What painting is it? Let me see!" Xu Na asked curiously. Seeing Xiang Lan slowly close the paper, she reached out to take it. "Is it so precious that you had to dig it out of the trash?"
"There's nothing to see, just some drafts." Xiang Lan waved her hand away. "It's already broken, I can't open it anymore, I need to take it back and fix it."
"Has the president seen it? What kind of painting is it?" Xu Na looked up at Li Xingda. "Yifan always says that Xiang Lan paints well, but usually we only see her scribbling on the exhibition board. Nobody has ever seen her paint anything properly."
“I didn’t look closely,” Li Xingda replied. “I don’t understand art, so I can’t see anything special about it.”
“I’m not really a painter.” Xiang Lan wrinkled her nose. “I do manual labor in the arts, especially sculpture, which has no room for imagination. I’m a laborer.”
"You're the best at joking." Xu Na stood affectionately next to Xiang Lan and, taking advantage of her inattention, snatched the piece of paper from her hand.
Caught off guard and fearing she would tear the paper even more, Xiang Lan had no choice but to let go, saying, "Xu Na, stop messing with it—"
Xu Na smiled and said, "Just take a look, it's nothing."
She moved closer to Wang Runqiu, pieced the pieces of paper together, and her expression changed slightly.
Xiang Lan glanced at her and Wang Runqiu with a sullen face, then at Li Xingda, who was standing to the side looking a little impatient, and snorted coldly.
"Hey—" Xu Na greeted, "Xiang Lan, why does your painting look so much like the student council president?"
Wang Runqiu glanced at it twice and showed a surprised expression.
Li Xingda couldn't help but turn his head to look.
"President, are you modeling for her?" Xu Na said with a smile. "This is a rare occasion, it's a big event for our student council, we have to let everyone come and see."
“That’s not true.” Li Xingda’s expression changed as he looked at Lan. His smile vanished, and a sharp glint appeared in his eyes. “Let’s go. Don’t stand outside. Let’s go inside and talk.”
Xiang Lan said calmly, "There's no need to go inside. Let's talk outside. It's clear and open. Anyway, this is exactly what you wanted, so I'll grant your request."
Seeing her calm demeanor, Wang Runqiu said softly, "Are you angry? Xu Na was just having fun. We're classmates, there's nothing wrong with looking at a painting, right? Don't be so petty."
“Yes!” Xu Na tried her best to draw. “You drew the president so beautifully.”