As She Wished (GL) - Chapter 2

Fu Jing felt countless crows flying through her mind, her eyes filled with despair.

She was led upstairs.

Along the way, Tao Xian smiled and nodded at familiar faces, greeting them, every gesture exuding the charm of a mature woman. Her voice was soft and sweet as she spoke to Fu Jing, “Are you really a graduate student, not a high schooler?”

Fu Jing immediately pulled something from her jacket pocket, “Here, my student ID.”

“Oh, it really is,” Tao Xian saw her earnest, innocent expression and reached out to pinch her cheek, teasing, “You look so young, and you’re scared to go to the bathroom alone. Are you sure you didn’t just pick up someone else’s card to trick me?”

Fu Jing disliked being touched by others. She stepped back, dodging, and said, “You’re the child! I’m already twenty!”

The conversation ending this way annoyed her a bit, but she couldn’t direct her temper at the unfamiliar woman in front of her. After a long sigh, she could only repeat, “You’re the child!”

Since they were already on the second floor, Fu Jing took the opportunity to adjust her emotions, trying to calm down. She looked down at the booth where the woman had been, and quietly asked, “Is that pretty woman from earlier a regular here?”

“Her?” Tao Xian’s gaze swept over, seeing Fu Jing’s sparkling eyes and flushed cheeks, and instantly understood. She changed her words at the last moment, smiling meaningfully, “She’s our top earner, Gu Qingci.”

“What’s a ‘top earner’?” Fu Jing didn’t understand. “Is she also staff?”

“Mm, of course she’s staff. ‘Top earner’ means she’s the most popular in the store,” Tao Xian played with her curly hair, looking up and giving her a flirtatious wink, “She’s even more popular than me.”

Fu Jing was unmoved, not even understanding why the latter half of the sentence was necessary.

She was only focused on asking, “Is she single? Please tell me she’s single!”

“Mm,” Tao Xian nodded easily, “She’s been single this whole time, like a long-haired monk.”

Fu Jing was excited: “What a coincidence, so am I!!!”

She wanted to ask more but was interrupted by her phone ringing.

She took it out and saw a call from Qin Ziqin, who had already sent her many messages urging her to come out. Fu Jing paused, thought about answering but didn’t. The noise level in the bar made it impossible to hear on the phone.

Fu Jing thought there would be plenty of time in the future. She said goodbye to Tao Xian and quickly ran out.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing major,” Qin Ziqin was waiting for her at the entrance, her face pale, but still composed, “For the big final project, I was lazy and asked Lu Yifan to do it for me. It passed before, but who knew now it’s been flagged for plagiarism, the whole thing is red.”

Fu Jing was secretly alarmed: “Did he download someone else’s paper online and trick you?”

“He found a ghostwriter for me, and the ghostwriter sold the same draft multiple times. It shouldn’t be a huge deal, but I need to go back to school and cry right now. After all, Professor Chen likes me a lot, and I can’t offend her, so…”

Hearing her speak so quickly out of nervousness.

Fu Jing quickly said, “So let’s go back quickly!”

••••

Fu Jing accompanied her back to school. Qin Ziqin was already quite calm, even breaking up with her boyfriend Lu Yifan while waiting for the bus. She said goodbye to Fu Jing, told her to go home early, and that she’d take her to find a date after she dealt with her situation.

Fu Jing walked a little dazedly to the front of the College of Science building.

Thinking that she was already there, she might as well take the graded assignments she had collected over the past few days to her professor so he could distribute them during tomorrow’s class.

Unexpectedly, her supervisor was in his office.

“Why are you back? Weren’t you going to find a partner?” Jiang Jianhua was also surprised to see her. He leaned his head out, “Is anyone following you? Why don’t I see a single soul?”

“I came to drop off assignments,” Fu Jing mumbled, “Finding a partner isn’t that fast.”

Jiang Jianhua chuckled, “I also said it wouldn’t be that fast, but you said you’d already found one. So, didn’t you catch them? Did they get away again?”

Fu Jing: “…”

Fu Jing: “I just found someone I like, but I haven’t started pursuing them yet!”

“Where did you find them? From our school? What’s their major?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t even talked to them yet.”

“You like their looks? Are they very handsome?”

“Not handsome, but extremely, extremely beautiful.”

“Beautiful…” Jiang Jianhua mused over the two words, “A beautiful guy?”

Fu Jing hesitated for a few seconds, then honestly confessed, “Not a guy. I like girls.”

At these words, Jiang Jianhua’s eyebrow twitched.

He raised his eyelids, looking at her through his thick glasses, his eyebrows furrowing and relaxing several times, his expression changing. Finally, he asked, “Then that beautiful girl you like, does she also like girls?”

Fu Jing: “Mm!”

“Then you have a lot of hope,” Jiang Jianhua couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. He advised, “To pursue a girl, you need to be persistent and relentless. Back in my day, I won my wife over with thick skin and a stubborn will. Don’t give up no matter how difficult it is. This is exactly the same principle as doing physics research. So you have a lot of hope!”

Fu Jing nodded repeatedly, clenching her fist, “Okay, thank you, Professor! I understand!”

This perfectly aligned with her own thoughts!

Fu Jing then asked, “Professor, don’t you think me liking girls is wrong?”

“Why would you say that?”

“Because you used to scold my senior, telling him not to act like a homosexual,” Fu Jing pointed out quietly.

“…”

Jiang Jianhua was silent for a moment, thinking, then said seriously, “At my age, it’s inevitable to have some outdated ideas. I used to subconsciously think that homosexuals were unreliable scoundrels. But now, when you say you like girls, my ideas are naturally overturned. I’ve come to understand that both homosexuality and heterosexuality are normal things. So, our generation’s mistaken ideas are updated and corrected by your new generation, which allows science to continuously progress. Isn’t that the truth?”

Fu Jing nodded: “I don’t know why, but I’m so touched.”

“Touched, right?” Jiang Jianhua suddenly smiled shrewdly, then asked, feigning calm, “I guide you academically, and I guide you on how to pursue girls. Tell me, do you consider me a good professor?”

Fu Jing: “Yes!”

Jiang Jianhua: “Can you do me a favor?”

Fu Jing: “Yes!”

Jiang Jianhua: “The undergraduate class is too early for me to wake up for, and I don’t want to teach it. Why don’t you just cover it for me for the entire semester?”

“…”

No one would willingly go to early morning classes.

Fu Jing took a deep breath for a long time: “Since you can’t wake up, why did you take the class in the first place?”

Jiang Jianhua smiled: “Because I was careless at the time and couldn’t back out, just like your current situation.”

Fu Jing: “…Oh.”

Fu Jing could only silently carry the assignments back, “Alright, guess I brought them for nothing.”

••••

Fu Jing took on the task of covering Jiang Jianhua’s classes, adding two early morning classes to her schedule each week. Fortunately, she didn’t habitually sleep until late afternoon like Jiang Jianhua’s other students, so with a slight adjustment to her timetable, it wasn’t too much trouble.

Qin Ziqin, due to her paper issue, had been keeping a low profile recently, not daring to skip classes or dorm curfew. She said she’d find someone else to accompany Fu Jing to the bar, but Fu Jing said it wasn’t necessary.

She felt it might even be easier alone.

Normally, she was quite shy with strangers, but for some reason, she didn’t feel completely uncomfortable in that bar.

Unfortunately, things weren’t as smooth as Fu Jing imagined.

She came every night for a week straight, but she never saw Gu Qingci again.

Each time, Fu Jing sat alone in a booth, ordering only tea, no alcohol, and playing on her phone.

Occasionally, someone would try to flirt with her, but she’d shake her head, and they would understand and leave.

Once, she was accosted by a drunk woman who directly pulled out a card and slapped it on the table, telling Fu Jing to go to a hotel with her.

Fu Jing found it horrifying, but couldn’t help her curiosity and asked, “How much money do you have on your card?”

When she heard there were twenty thousand yuan, she instantly burst out laughing, “Really? You have the nerve to say that with only twenty thousand yuan?”

This genuinely heartfelt remark instantly enraged the drunk woman, who grabbed a teacup from the table, intending to smash it on Fu Jing’s head. Tao Xian quickly stepped in, blocking it with her hand, and with a few smiling words, diffused the situation.

Fu Jing wasn’t scared, just bored.

After that, she would pay to have Tao Xian come sit with her, buy her drinks, and have her talk about Gu Qingci.

The chat service wasn’t cheap, and with the drinks, Fu Jing’s nonchalant attitude when paying the bill quickly made Tao Xian realize she was a rich kid, which made her enjoy chatting with her too.

Their conversations always revolved around Gu Qingci.

Tao Xian would complain, and Fu Jing would listen eagerly.

“Drinking, smoking, playing cards, she’s good at everything, but she doesn’t like anything. Nobody knows what she likes. She’s a very ascetic person. I think she might just go to a temple and become a nun someday.”

Fu Jing paused, “So, she’s a Buddhist?”

“I don’t know,” Tao Xian shrugged, taking a sip of her drink, “She just occasionally reads Buddhist scriptures.”

“Then why does she work here?”

Tao Xian’s eyes flickered, and she said vaguely, “Good money.”

“Then why doesn’t she come to work?”

“She always comes and goes as she pleases, working when she feels like it. I don’t know when she’ll be willing to come.”

Tao Xian wasn’t lying about this; Gu Qingci wouldn’t report her schedule to her. But she could actually help by asking, only Fu Jing didn’t make that request.

Besides, she didn’t really dare to go up to Gu Qingci and ask her to flirt with customers for drinks.

“How can your boss have such a good temper?” Fu Jing said, holding her teacup with both hands, leaning back on the sofa, full of resentment, “She hasn’t come for so many days, unjustified absenteeism. Her work ethic is terrible!”

Tao Xian smiled, “It is!”

Fu Jing sincerely suggested, “Can’t you deduct some of Gu Qingci’s salary?”

Tao Xian was about to reply when her gaze suddenly landed on the person behind Fu Jing. She paused slightly, then stretched out her words with a laugh, “Why don’t you ask her yourself, beautiful Gu Qingci, why did you finally decide to come today?”

“…” Fu Jing’s posture instantly straightened.

She was a bit petrified, yet she stiffly turned her head, and sure enough, met a beautiful face that was both unfamiliar and familiar.

Gu Qingci lowered her eyes, meeting Fu Jing’s gaze, her lips slightly curled, though it didn’t look like a smile: “We have no grievances against each other, so why do you want my salary to be deducted?”

At this moment, Fu Jing had only one thought in her mind.

So, fate isn’t just about seeing her when you think of her.

It can also be when you’re talking bad about her, and she’s standing right behind you.

“…”