Fang Zi was somewhat surprised. Because of the mask, his voice was slightly deep. He asked, "You know me?"
"Of course!" Xiang Lan sat down in the empty seat next to him and smelled a faint lemon scent. The fragrance was very refreshing and immediately dispelled the surrounding odors.
It's easier to get things done when you know someone, and pretending to be familiar is a shortcut. She blinked innocently and said, "There were too many people when we hung out last time, so you probably don't remember me."
"Last time?" He looked at her with pure eyes.
Despite the chill of early spring in March, she wore a short skirt under her coat. The hem of the skirt rode up as she sat down, revealing a pair of long, slender legs, above which was a flat stomach and a slim waist.
Fang Zidu's gaze didn't linger on her for long, finally settling on her face as he confirmed, "I have a very good memory, but I don't remember seeing you before. What's your name?"
"I'm Xiang Lan. Of course you don't remember me. You were surrounded by a lot of people asking you questions, and I was standing outside and couldn't squeeze in." Xiang Lan's words were vague as she changed the subject, "Since you're alone, can I use this spot? I'll pay you."
The suspicion in Fang Zidu's eyes hadn't faded, and he said somewhat apologetically, "I'm sorry, I really don't know you. Even though this spot is empty, you can't just force a conversation like this—"
"To strike up a conversation?"
"Don't understand? Your current behavior is just flirting, isn't it?" Fang Zi was completely at ease, her hands casually resting on the table, her skin white and bright, her wrists exquisitely sculpted.
Xiang Lan couldn't see Fang Zidu's face, but his eyes were narrowed into crescent shapes, clearly indicating that he was smiling.
How awful! She's beautiful, but her personality is awful! So unromantic, she deserves to be single forever.
"The place outside is already full," she said softly. "How about we make a deal? Could I borrow a seat?"
Fang Zi sat up straight, towering over her by more than half a head, looking down at her from head to toe. The meaning was clear: she had already sat down without his permission.
Those beautiful eyes, their shimmering light had lost its warmth, becoming cold and indifferent.
Rejected in silence, Xiang Lan stood up, grabbed her backpack, and turned to leave. The clasp flew off, hit the table, and bounced onto the back of his hand, instantly causing him to blush.
Xiang Lan turned around and saw him with a slight frown, rubbing his wound. She stopped and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to."
He waved his hand, "It's okay."
Xiang Lan's face flushed red as she walked out of the internet cafe with her head down. Next door was a pharmacy where she bought a tube of ointment. She felt that her behavior today was very strange.
Back at the internet cafe, she hurried through the aisle and slapped the ointment on the table. "Here, take this."
Fang Zidu seemed startled, stopped what he was doing, and turned to look at her.
She raised her chin high, "Apply the medicine!"
He looked at the ointment, then looked up at her, and remained motionless for a long time.
"Don't want it?" Xiang Lan grabbed the ointment and walked away.
Fang Zidu had just raised his hand to grab it when he saw the person run away, so he had to put it down. "Strange—"
Xiang Lan rushed to the service desk and took a picture of her ID card to show the internet cafe manager.
"I want booth number two, the one right next to booth number one." She was really going after Fang Zi.
The network administrator glanced at it and said, "Then you'll have to wait half an hour."
"Then we'll just wait."
Half an hour later, she took her internet card and walked to her seat, next to Fang Zidu's. She sat down, and while unpacking her bag, she deliberately glanced at him. He was still engrossed in his game, his profile still so cold and elegant, as if he hadn't seen her at all. Suddenly, she felt a little wronged.
Xiang Lan turned on her computer and went to the campus network. Sure enough, her picture thread was highlighted and displayed on the homepage. Looking at the page numbers, several new pages appeared. It seemed that, as Deng Yifan had said, they had started arguing.
Clicking on the last page reveals a barrage of suspicions and insults from countless female fans of Li Xingda.
"The scene in the four-panel comic strip is about my idol getting extra meat at the cafeteria. I was standing behind Li Xingda at the time. It's a true story!"
"My bicycle was stolen in the blink of an eye. My boyfriend was furious and investigated. He found it at the bicycle repair shop. It was stolen again, and he found it again. This happened repeatedly. It's a true story!"
"The heartthrob has no girlfriend and is being chased by girls, so he hides in the bathroom, too scared to come out. Here, the bathroom has been converted into a support meeting room—it's a true story!"
"They must know our idol's daily routine so well, it must be someone close to him. Let's all find them and expose this peeping tom!"
"Daydreaming may be fun for a while, but dark crushes and voyeurism will only warp your personality. OP, turn back before it's too late—"
"How perverted, how terrifying! The thought of someone secretly spying on my Xingda makes me feel dangerous—"
Xiang Lan leaned back in her booth, coldly scrolling through her mouse, feeling utterly speechless. Bringing jokes from a four-panel comic strip into real life—did she not understand the difference between creation and fiction? And to insult her was one thing, but to use it to refer to her was practically an insult to her; was she about to be expelled from the community? Even worse, Li Xingda and her beauty were worlds apart.
She pulled out her sketches and USB drive from her bag, then carefully examined the face and eyes of the beautiful woman she had drawn. The facial features perfectly conformed to the golden ratio, and the eyes were very expressive. The entire sketch used black, white, and gray to represent spatial structure; it wasn't perfect, but it was at least acceptable.
She sighed, placed the sketch on her left, plugged the USB drive into her computer, and exported the most recent images. Since it had already been rejected by Liu Nanyang, it was worthless. Posting it online to amuse her followers was a fitting end.
As soon as the new picture was posted, it received countless flowers and fawning praises, with little angels showering her with compliments to comfort her wounded heart.
As expected, Li Xingda's female fans sprang into action, flooding the chat with sarcastic remarks and cynical speculations. She watched for a while, then picked out the account that had first posted Li Xingda's photo. Clicking on it, she found the account had been registered just two days prior, and aside from that particular post, there were no other posts or replies. The ID contained a link to a photo album; following the link, she found a Tencent account. After entering its profile and checking the visitors and friends' comments, she had a basic understanding of the situation.
Having determined the general direction, she scrolled to the bottom of the webpage, where the little angels who supported her in the comments had gathered their firepower and launched a fierce attack.
"Who is Li Xingda? Never heard of him. Is he handsome? He's not even as handsome as a beautiful woman's little finger. Even if he were a person, you can't just imagine he was the model for you—"
"I know Li Xingda. He's a good person and quite handsome, but to insist on comparing him to a beauty is going too far!"
"This is just the lovely LZ's work. Why force a beautiful illusion onto an ugly reality? Those troublemakers have already been annihilated by the shockwave and can no longer distinguish the truth of this world!"
"Let's stir things up, let's do something big! This is a beauty breaking through the dimensional barrier, about to descend from the two-dimensional world into the three-dimensional world!"
"Aren't those real-life fans the ones who can't distinguish between reality and fiction?"
"He's a person too, after all, he has eyes, nose, ears, and mouth, all his facial features are there, so of course he looks like him."
Xiang Lan laughed when she saw the comment, "He's a human being too." Her sorrowful heart was instantly filled with joy; the scolding and the delayed graduation were all insignificant. Just as she was about to close the webpage, she felt a light tap on her shoulder. Turning her head, she saw Fang Zidu had moved from his seat to the side closest to number two, looking at her.
She immediately abandoned her unseemly reclining posture, straightened her back, and maintained her posture.
"Xiang Lan, is that right?"
"Okay!" Xiang Lan responded.
"That ointment?" Fangzi showed her the back of his hand; on his fair skin was a large bruise with a faint bloodstain.
She raised an eyebrow and pressed her right index finger on it. "Does it hurt?"
"It's a bit inflamed and red," Fang Zidu said, looking at her.
She stood up, took out some ointment from her bag, and handed it to him. "Do you want to go to the hospital to get it bandaged up?"
The prescription already included the ointment. He lowered his voice and said, "No need, just apply some ointment and it will be fine."
Xiang Lan watched him open the packaging, unscrew the cap, squeeze out a little ointment, apply it to the back of his hand, and slowly rub it in with his palm. As he rubbed, he looked down and saw the sketch she had placed beside him. He looked at it carefully for a few moments, then looked up and saw a clearer portrait on her computer screen.
"Did you draw this?"
"Yes!" Xiang Lan was a little embarrassed and quickly closed the drawing.
Who is the person in the painting?
“It’s not anyone.” Xiang Lan paused, looking up into his eyes. He was very tall, and when he stood up, he almost completely enveloped her in his shadow. The black jacket over his shirt was a bit too big, loose and baggy, but it looked stylish because of his tall stature. He smelled very nice, and just standing there made her dizzy. “It’s just an image I created, a person who doesn’t exist.”
"Doesn't exist?" His eyes smiled, like bright stars in the night.
Chapter 3
"Can I take a look? It looks quite interesting." Fangzi carefully put away the ointment and casually slipped it into his pocket.
Xiang Lan looked at him, feeling a little dizzy. Liu Nanyang's words kept echoing in her mind: "You should find someone to love."
"Okay." She agreed almost unconsciously, and brought up the address bar of the comic strip, "These are the comics I update online, they're all by him."
Fang Zi glanced at the prescription, nodded, and sat back down.
Xiang Lan was dumbfounded. The address bar was so long. Did that count as memorizing it?
She grabbed her schoolbag and walked around to sit next to Fang Zidu again. This time, he only glanced at her and didn't say anything.
He opened Internet Explorer, quickly entered the address string, and pressed Enter. The image appeared.
Such an amazing short-term memory.
Xiang Lan stared at him for a while, cleared her throat, and said, "You're really amazing, you remembered it after just one glance."
"This is nothing."
That's so arrogant, not humble at all.
Fangzi always chose to only view the original poster's posts, browsing very quickly. Often, he wouldn't even have time to see Xiang Lan clearly before turning the page.
"Can you even see the painting clearly like this?"
"Um!"
What is it about?
"An interesting life for a male student after entering university."
"What do you think of the drawing?" Xiang Lan asked.
Fang Zi glanced at her; her eyes were round and bright, sparkling with curiosity and anticipation, and her cheeks were a little chubby. She said, "Do you want to hear the truth?"
"certainly."
"well enough!"
A very perfunctory answer.
"The story isn't very interesting," Fang Zidu added.
"Oh!" What a fickle man. He just said it looked interesting.
"The painting isn't very moving either."
"Oh!" Then why are you watching it with such interest?
"I think it could have been even better."
"Oh!" That's enough, you can shut up now.
Continue turning the page to see Li Xingda's photo.
"Who is he?" Fang Zi straightened up.
“Li Xingda, a campus heartthrob and the president of our student council. His female fans sent his photo to my picture thread, saying that my beauty is modeled after him, and they're very dissatisfied. They're currently denouncing me.” Xiang Lan rested her chin on her hand. “Do you think he and my beauty look alike?”
“It doesn’t seem like it,” he said firmly.
"Hmm, not at all." Xiang Lan nodded. "There was someone who deliberately came to cause trouble."