Love Me in Another Universe

Chapter 85. Inter-departmental Mixer (Part 1)

December 24, 1999, Friday After lunch, Guan Xuchen, Ying Congyun, and Wen Yuwei walked back to their dormitory building. Near the entrance, they noticed an open area between Buildings 170 and 171, where a chubby boy and a girl were pushing a colorfully wrapped box back and forth between them, seemingly arguing about something.

"Isn't that Tu Jingli from our class?" "Should we go over to help?" Wen Yuwei was the first to recognize the girl, and he started to step forward as he spoke.

"She doesn't look like being bullied by that boy. They're probably just teasing each other—you know, flirting." Ying Congyun held him back, saying, "Let's stay out of their business."

Tu Jingli and the chubby boy were talking so quietly that Guan Xuchen couldn't hear what they were actually saying. He only faintly caught the boy saying, "That doesn't seem right."

Then Tu Jingli snapped a couple of sharp words at him, stuffed the box into his arms, and turned to leave right away. When she saw Guan Xuchen and the other two, her face showed a mix of embarrassment and slight panic. She forced a smile, mumbled a quick "Hi," and hurried off.

Guan Xuchen watched Tu Jingli's retreating back, a confused look on his face, as he said, "Isn't she Shan Kai's girlfriend? Why is she here with another boy?"

"I think it's just Shan Kai who thinks Tu Jingli is his girlfriend," Wen Yuwei joked.

"Okay, let's head upstairs." Ying Congyun said this to Wen Yuwei and Guan Xuchen, and then the three of them went upstairs.

When they got back to their dorm room, they saw Shan Kai, Lv Runfa, and Dai Changshuai gathered around a desk, chatting and laughing. The desk was covered with small gifts wrapped in colorful paper.

Guan Xuchen walked over, picked up one of the small gifts to take a look, then asked in surprise, "Why did you prepare so many gifts? Didn't we say everyone should bring just one small gift?"

Shan Kai took the small gift back from Guan Xuchen's hand and said with a pretend serious look, "You just don't get it, do you? Tonight's the mixer event between our school the School of Physics —it's actually a battle for the honor of us guys in the School of Foreign Languages!"

"Is it really that big of a deal?" Wen Yuwei came over too, glanced at the small gifts on the desk, and said in a relaxed tone, "It's just a get-together where we can meet more friends. Why are you making it sound like we're gonna fight the SOP or something?"

"You just don't realize how serious this is," Shan Kai replied with a sophisticated look on his face, "The SOP has so many guys—if we don't prepare more gifts, all the girls in our school will be taken by them!"

"Don't use such an unpleasant word like 'take'," Ying Congyun, who was sitting on his bed reading, corrected him. "They can come to meet the girls in our school, and we can go meet the girls in the SOP too."

"But our school has way more girls than they do," Dai Changshuai grumbled indignantly. "Ugh, I really don't get why our school is so 'fated' to be paired with the SOP. Last time we had a basketball game against them, and now this mixer event is with them again."

Lv Runfa chimed in too, "Exactly! At the basketball friendly match last time, we already got made fun of by the girls. If we don't put on a good show this time, all the girls will run over to the SOP!"

Wen Yuwei turned to Shan Kai in a teasing tone and said, "Shan Kai, I think you should worry about yourself first. Just now, we saw Tu Jingli giving a gift to a guy."

"What? No way!" Shan Kai's expression turned tense, and he quickly pressed for details, "What guy? What kind of gift did she give?"

Seeing Shan Kai's reaction, Guan Xuchen kindly stepped in to reassure him, "No, Shan Kai, honestly, we didn't get a clear view of what happened. Maybe some guy tried to give Tu Jingli a gift, and she turned him down."