Then Chen Xu went to rummage through the drawers, thinking about the romantic scene from earlier. At that moment, Gao Xiaojie called out "Hey!" Chen Xu turned around and saw that she had already put on the beige down jacket. He asked, "What's up?"
Gao Xiaojie blushed and said, "My legs are cold, I need to wear underpants..."
Upon hearing this, Chen Xu quickly said, "Oh, then I'll go out and wait for you at the door."
"Ah, no," Gao Xiaojie said, "You...you turn your head away, don't go out." Hearing this, Chen Xu knew she was scared to be alone, so he obediently turned his head away. Gao Xiaojie said behind him, "Don't turn around, or I'll bite you to death." Then there was a rustling sound of clothes being put on.
Hearing the sounds behind him, Chen Xu really wanted to turn around and look, but then thought it would be too shameless, so he held back. Suddenly, there was a loud bang behind him, followed by Gao Xiaojie's scream. Chen Xu quickly turned around and asked anxiously, "What happened?"
When they turned around, they were both stunned.
Gao Xiaojie covered her head and fell onto the bed, revealing her pale thighs. Her pants were only half-pulled up to her calves, and between her two snow-white thighs, a pair of white cotton panties looked alluring and cute.
Gao Xiaojie, whether from nervousness or eagerness to put it on quickly, lost her balance while standing on one leg and fell headfirst into the wall, tears welling in her eyes from the pain. Rubbing her head, Gao Xiaojie noticed Chen Xu staring intently at her leg and let out a scream…
God is my witness, the woman's scream was louder than a dolphin's. Chen Xu covered his ears and quickly turned his head away, saying, "Stop screaming! I didn't see anything! Please stop screaming, or the wolves within a fifty-mile radius will come running!"
Gao Xiaojie covered her head, feeling like she'd hit it hard and gotten a huge bump. Her face flushed red with embarrassment, she said, "Didn't I tell you not to turn around?!" Chen Xu felt utterly wronged. "You screamed so loudly, how could I not turn around and look?" But... he'd basically seen everything. Just thinking about those white panties made Chen Xu's nose itch, and then it felt slippery, like snot was about to come out.
Chen Xu was taken aback, wondering if he had caught a cold. At this moment, Gao Xiaojie finally finished dressing and said, "Okay, you can turn around now."
When Chen Xu turned around, Gao Xiaojie was stunned for a moment, and then, ignoring the pain from the head injury, she clutched her stomach and rolled around on the bed without any ladylike demeanor.
Chen Xu inexplicably said, "Did you hit your head and damage it? What are you laughing at?"
Gao Xiaojie clutched her stomach and said, "Look at yourself in the mirror, ouch... why is your nose bleeding?"
Chapter 94, The First Night
"Bleeding?!" Chen Xu reached out and wiped his hand; sure enough! Bright red blood!
Uh oh, I actually have a nosebleed?
Why am I getting a nosebleed? Why? It's so cold, and I just ate ice cream. I shouldn't be this irritable! And I didn't bump into anything... This girl hit her head so hard and didn't bleed, but I'm bleeding without doing anything. It's outrageous!
Uh, could it be...?
Chen Xu sniffed and glanced at Gao Xiaojie's thighs. By this time, she was already wearing pants. Although they were baggy pajama pants, they were stretched taut while she was lying on the bed, and the shape of her well-proportioned legs could still be vaguely seen.
Hmm, that one glance just now... so white, so white!
Seeing Chen Xu's gaze, Gao Xiaojie let out a soft "Ah!" and scolded, "Don't look!" She finally realized why Chen Xu had a nosebleed. Ahhh, how embarrassing!
Chen Xu quickly turned his head and said, "Um, hehe, didn't you already get dressed?"
Chen Xu knew he was in trouble the moment Gao Xiaojie said that, but surprisingly, she didn't get angry. Instead, she remained silent for a while, then got out of bed, grabbed a tissue, and said, "Hey, wipe your nosebleed... um, wipe it off." Chen Xu thanked her, took the tissue, and wiped his nose. Then he heard Gao Xiaojie say, "Til your head back, that way the blood won't flow too much. That's how I used to do it when I had nosebleeds as a kid. Use another tissue to plug it. Oh dear, change your clothes once the bleeding stops. Look at all the blood on your collar, you're trying to scare me to death in this dark!"
Chen Xu chuckled sheepishly, tilting his head back as Gao Xiaojie had instructed, and the nosebleed quickly stopped. Thinking about it, it was truly unlucky; he'd actually seen a girl get a nosebleed. If word got out, his reputation would be completely ruined. His own reputation being ruined wasn't the worst part. The most important thing was that the reputation of SMMH's "First One" was also ruined, making him a sinner for all time.
Seeing Chen Xu's flustered state, Gao Xiaojie chuckled, looking particularly alluring in the dim light of the computer screen.
Chen Xu felt a tickle in his nose and immediately sensed something was wrong. He quickly looked up, thinking, "Could I be that fragile? How can this go on?" Hmm, it's probably because I've been too irritable lately. I need to exercise more, more exercise... I might as well take a cold shower tonight...
After an awkward silence, Chen Xu finally said, "Well, my nose is fine now, but what about your head? Where did you bump it?"
Only after Chen Xu mentioned it did Gao Xiaojie realize that her forehead was indeed quite painful. She pressed it and hissed in pain. Chen Xu quickly said, "Sit on the bed first, let me take a look. Is there any bleeding?"
Upon hearing this, Gao Xiaojie obediently knelt on the bed, pointed to the injured area, and said, "Damn it, what bad luck! I bumped my head like that. Yes, right here, ouch, don't hurt yourself!"
Chen Xu smiled apologetically, saying, "I'm so sorry, so sorry." Using the light from the laptop and pinching her forehead, he realized she had bumped into something quite hard. No wonder she was crying. There was also a rather large bump on her forehead. Chen Xu gently asked, "Does it hurt?"
Gao Xiaojie was about to say something pointless, like, "Try bumping into him!" But their current position was quite ambiguous. She was sitting so close to Chen Xu that she could almost hear his strong, thumping heartbeat. Then, Chen Xu's breath hit her forehead, warm and with an indescribable sensation.
Chen Xu thought for a moment and said, "Wait a minute." Then he ran to the refrigerator and took out an egg he had just bought that day. He put it on Gao Xiaojie's forehead and said, "It seems that eggs can reduce swelling. We don't have any medicine right now, so try it. I'll go downstairs tomorrow and buy you some medicine to promote blood circulation and remove blood stasis."
Gao Xiaojie took the egg and was immediately stunned. It was a raw egg. He then said, "Hey, classmate, what's good for promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis is a cooked egg, okay? You might as well just buy a bunch of tea eggs, that would be much easier!"
Chen Xu was a little dumbfounded when he heard this and said, "A hard-boiled egg? Then you wait."
Then Chen Xu grabbed a lighter and ran to the kitchen. He boiled water in the kettle and then threw two eggs into the water to boil.
Gao Xiaojie was a little stunned to see him act on his word so readily. She heard thumping noises coming from the kitchen. She wondered how many times he had bumped into tables and chairs on his short walk. Suddenly, something filled the young woman's heart.
Women are inherently emotional creatures; they can experience significant mood swings over the smallest things. I remember once asking my mom why she fell for my dad, and she said, "The most important thing to value in a man is his actions. Some people spend all day talking about how great they are, but all their sweet talk is no match for a single act of kindness."
Then she thought that Chen Xu's hasty departure to boil eggs because of that one sentence made her realize that he did have some qualities of a good man. So she decided not to pursue the matter of him almost seeing her naked earlier.
A while later, Chen Xu returned with two hard-boiled eggs in a bowl. Seeing Chen Xu constantly pinching his ears and blowing air into them, Gao Xiaojie asked curiously, "What's wrong with you?"
Chen Xu said, "What bad luck! We forgot to buy a soup spoon today, and these eggs are too far away. After they were cooked, we couldn't get them out without a spoon, so I used chopsticks to poke at them for a long time. Several times I managed to get the eggs to the rim of the pot but I couldn't get them out. In a fit of anger, I just grabbed them with my bare hands, and they were a bit hot."
What's hot? Freshly cooked eggs! Gao Xiaojie originally wanted to scold him for being so stupid, but seeing Chen Xu pinching his ear, she remembered that he was doing it for her sake. How could she bring herself to say such a thing?
Chen Xu told her not to move and then gently placed the egg on her forehead. It was cold outside, so the egg was already a bit cool by the time he got it, but Gao Xiaojie still couldn't help but cry out when he first put it on her forehead. Chen Xu quickly and anxiously asked, "Is it too hot? Should I let it cool down a bit?"
Gao Xiaojie said no need, the temperature is just right. "I'll do it myself, you go find some candles."
Chen Xu said "Oh," and handed her the bowl, saying, "Be careful. The egg on the left was taken out earlier. The one on the right is from later and is still hot. Use the one on the left first." Then, seeing Gao Xiaojie slowly roll the egg over the large bump on her forehead, Chen Xu turned and ran to find a candle.
After rummaging through drawers and cupboards, they finally found candles, but there was still no power. After Chen Xu changed his clothes, the two returned to the dining table. Fortunately, the food had just come out of the pot and was still warm. Gao Xiaojie said, "Eat quickly, it'll get cold soon."
The red candles on the table emitted a soft, dim light, creating a warm and intimate atmosphere reminiscent of a candlelight dinner. The two of them silently shoveled food into their bowls.
The room was quiet, except for the sound of the wind and the noise of the two eating. In this ambiguous atmosphere of the power outage, coupled with what had just happened, both were strangely silent, wanting to break the silence but unsure what to say.
In the candlelight, Chen Xu turned his head to look at Gao Xiaojie and found her to be truly beautiful. Her delicate face was slightly flushed; girls raised in the water towns of Jiangnan were indeed different—her skin was so supple and radiant, making one want to pinch it. Her eyelashes were long, and her eyes were dark, which, in the candlelight, gained a touch of hazy elegance. Whether it was the candlelight or what had just happened that made her blush, she couldn't tell. Her rosy cheeks were even quite adorable.
After they finished eating, Gao Xiaojie said, "Let's soak the bowls in the basin first, and wash them when the power comes back on tomorrow."
Chen Xu said "Oh," and the two carried the candles back to the bedroom. Looking at the laptop battery, it was almost empty, but it was only a little past eight. Chen Xu said, "What should we do? Should we go to sleep now?"
Gao Xiaojie said, "What should I do if I don't sleep? Early to bed and early to rise makes you healthy."
Chen Xu thought about it and agreed. He had initially considered that the laptop battery still had some charge, and watching some movies might keep him occupied for a while. But then he realized his computer only contained horror movies and porn, so he decided against it… Watching a horror movie in such an ambiguous situation. The girl would definitely accuse him of having ulterior motives, watching porn… Just kill me!
Using the light from his laptop, Chen Xu tidied up his makeshift bed on the floor and pulled out two blankets to cover himself. Since the power was out and the air conditioning wasn't on, the room was still a bit cold. Chen Xu wanted to take a shower, but hesitated because the bathroom heater wouldn't turn on due to the power outage.
She glanced at Gao Xiaojie. It turned out the girl was looking at her too, and she blushed, saying, "Why are you looking at me?"
Chen Xu chuckled and said it was nothing, he was going to take a shower. Then he quickly grabbed his underwear and a change of clothes from the closet and rushed to the bathroom.
The water heater was natural gas, and the ignition was battery-powered, so there was no problem. Chen Xu wanted to take a shower because he felt a bit too agitated; what had just happened was truly terrifying. The image of those two pale thighs and that white pair of underwear was still swirling in his mind. Chen Xu deliberately turned the water temperature down a bit. He felt that if he didn't rinse off with cold water, he might do something truly beastly if his temper flared up.
Taking advantage of Chen Xu's absence, Gao Xiaojie quickly took off her coat and crawled into bed. Although there was only one person in the room, many people thought that burying their heads under the covers would be much safer, so Gao Xiaojie was less afraid after getting into bed. Listening to the sound of rushing water outside, and thinking about what had just happened, her face turned red. Fortunately, she was covered by the blanket and no one saw her.
When Gao Xiaojie got into bed, her hands and feet were also ice-cold. Many girls are like this; they are naturally prone to feeling cold, and their hands and feet become unbearably cold in winter. So, Gao Xiaojie had two hot water bottles stuffed in her blankets, one to her feet and the other to hold in her arms. Covered by the crystal-clear down comforter and holding the hot water bottles, Gao Xiaojie felt a surge of contentment. In the dead of winter, having such a cozy place was all she could ask for, and she didn't even think about the power outage earlier.
After a while, Chen Xu came back after taking a shower and getting dressed. He yelped in the cold and crawled into bed on the floor. Actually, he really wanted to get into bed right then, not for any other reason than the thought of having a girl warm his bed in the dead of winter. That fragrant, warm bed was incredibly tempting!
Gao Xiaojie is a bit of a light sleeper, and although the Simmons mattress is quite soft, she's used to a hard bed and still finds it a little uncomfortable. Plus, she's not really sleepy, so she just rolls and rolls around on the bed. After a while, she finally says, "Hey. I'm a light sleeper, I can't sleep. Can we talk?"
From under the bed in the darkness came Chen Xu's voice: "Okay, what do you want to talk about?"
"We can talk about whatever we want during our late-night chats. Your dorm doesn't have late-night chats, does it?"
Chen Xu chuckled. Speaking of university culture, late-night chats, like classroom conversations and dating, were indispensable. Basically, before bedtime, a group of people would lie in bed, rambling on about everything under the sun, from the appearance of a girl in the class to whether Saddam Hussein stole Bush's toilet. However, Chen Xu had been in hibernation mode quite early lately, so he hadn't participated in many of these activities.
However, to be honest, boys' late-night chats are almost always about women, and inevitably involve some rather vulgar remarks. So Chen Xu thought for a moment and decided to take the initiative, asking, "What do you girls usually talk about during your late-night chats?"
Gao Xiaojie was probably really bored, so she replied, "Girls' late-night chats are usually pretty boring. We just chat about whatever comes to mind. Like skincare products, clothes, and some gossip."
"What gossip?"
Gao Xiaojie said, "Gossiping is a woman's nature. Why, do you want to know too, classmate?"
Chen Xu chuckled and said, "Gossiping is human nature. It's not just women. What do you usually gossip about?"
"It's nothing much, just seeing some handsome guy on the street today, and then some couples in the class getting together again, and those beasts in the second, third, and even fourth years, which one of them is really disloyal to come to our department and eat young grass?"
Hearing her say that, Chen Xu laughed and said, "Damn, that's true. Those bastards in the upper grades are really ungrateful. I heard they've hooked up with several of the nice girls in our class?"
“There were four!” Gao Xiaojie said. “Three were done by the sophomores, and the other was by a senior. That guy was really something. He managed to hook up with a woman in the dorm next door within a week of the semester starting. He’s a model of a pervert, a paragon of beasts!”
Upon hearing this, Chen Xu broke out in a cold sweat and said, "How come I didn't know about this?"
Gao Xiaojie said, "You guys definitely don't know as much about the news as we do. They've kept it very well hidden. That guy is the chairman of the Challengers Association. He's afraid of being looked down upon for doing something like this, so he hasn't made a fuss about it."
Chen Xu broke out in a cold sweat again and said, "Oh, it's that guy!" The Challengers Association, or Challenger Association for short, is a club within the college whose purpose is to encourage student entrepreneurship, and quite a few people have joined. Old Dong is one of them. The chairman looks quite refined, wears glasses, and speaks very passionately during meetings; I didn't expect him to be involved in this kind of thing in private.
The two laughed for a while, and the atmosphere improved considerably. Suddenly, Gao Xiaojie asked, "Hey, did you write that song 'Ginkgo, Wind'?"
Chen Xu was taken aback. He then remembered that he had copied his poem onto a greeting card and tucked it inside. He didn't know what happened after that. He thought Qin Xiao'an had asked about it once, and probably helped him submit it.
The greeting card was originally an idea their counselor, Chen, came up with out of boredom to encourage communication among the freshmen. He planned to send it out on the Mid-Autumn Festival. However, the problem was that during the Mid-Autumn Festival period in October, Chen Xu and the others were busy playing games and didn't think about it at all. Unexpectedly, the card ended up in Gao Xiaojie's hands.
Chen Xu said it was written by me. What, you got it?
Gao Xiaojie hummed in agreement and said, "It ended up in my hands. We were playing a game at the time, and I didn't pay much attention to it, so I just tossed it into the drawer. I only found it when I was packing up before the holidays. I didn't expect you to be so eloquent, a literary young man?"
Chen Xu scratched his head under the covers, somewhat embarrassed, and said that it was something he had written for fun before.
"Who is the girl in the poem? Didn't you write that our meeting was due to the bleak autumn wind? Who are you?"
Chen Xu became even more embarrassed after hearing this and said it was a girl he had a crush on in high school.
"Oh," Gao Xiaojie chuckled, her gossipy nature burning brightly. She turned to face Chen Xu and said, "You used to have a boyfriend?"
Chen Xu said, "It wasn't considered puppy love, was it? High school isn't a young age, and there was no love involved, it was just a crush, and the other person didn't even know about it until later."
"Then why don't you confess your feelings? If you confess, you still have a 50% chance. If you don't confess, you have absolutely no chance."
Chen Xu sweated a bit and said, "She and I are good friends. I'm afraid if I confess my feelings, she'll give me the friend card, which would be incredibly embarrassing, and I wouldn't even be able to stay friends with her."
Gao Xiaojie asked curiously, "What is a 'good guy card'?"
Chen Xu said, "You don't even know what a 'friend card' is? Then let me ask you, what's the most common line women use when breaking up with men?" Before she could answer, Chen Xu added, "Basically, it's 'You're such a good person,' and then when women are flirting with men, they'll say: 'You're so bad!'"
Hearing Chen Xu mimic that tone, Gao Xiaojie laughed so hard his stomach cramped. Chen Xu continued, "Besides the 'good guy' card, there's also the 'brother' card' and the 'friend' card,' which are things like, 'I've always considered you a brother,' or 'I've always considered you a good friend.' Sigh, I've received quite a few of those since I was a kid."
Gao Xiaojie laughed like a silver bell, and it took her a while to stop before saying, "I understand, I understand. This is the 'good guy card,' I never knew what it meant." Then Chen Xu asked, "Do you often give people this kind of card?" Gao Xiaojie shook her head and said, "No, I was a very good kid in high school. Besides studying, I was writing game scripts. I didn't have time to think about this. But I have seen other people get this card."
Chen Xu sighed and said that it seems men really need to be bold, meticulous, and thick-skinned, otherwise they can't get any girls.
Just then, Chen Xu suddenly heard a series of tapping sounds coming from Gao Xiaojie's end and asked, "What are you doing?" Zhan Jing chuckled and said, "I'm texting Jingjing. Oh, by the way, I told Jingjing about your 'friend card' thing."
Chen Xu broke out in a cold sweat. "Seriously? You're going to publicize something this embarrassing?!"
Gao Xiaojie laughed and said, "Don't be angry. I'll let Jingjing help you analyze it. Besides, Jingjing isn't an outsider, so what's there to be afraid of? She keeps her mouth shut!"
Thinking of Zhan Jing's quiet demeanor, Chen Xu knew she wasn't the type to gossip, so he asked, "Does Zhan Jing participate in your dorm's late-night chats?"
Gao Xiaojie shook her head and said, "No, it's so boring. She always listens to us talk. She rarely says anything herself." Just then, her phone buzzed. Gao Xiaojie picked it up, looked at it, and then said with a smile, "Hey, Jingjing replied! Want to know what she thinks of you?"
Chen Xu exclaimed "Ah!" and Gao Xiaojie began reading: "Chen Xu is indeed a good person, but like many others, he's rather indecisive and prone to anxiety when it comes to relationships. Someone like him rarely takes the initiative to confess; instead, he often uses actions to let girls see his good qualities and strengths. He hopes the girl will make the first move… Hmm, wait, let's turn the page. Hmm, Jingjing said: Your approach makes it easy to miss out on many opportunities. Hmm, her advice to you is that next time you meet a girl you like, be more proactive!"