Let's Do Some Questions - Chapter 66

Song Man’s fingers hovered over the screen for a while, unsure what to say. Anything felt inadequate.

Fortunately, Lingnan didn’t let the atmosphere become awkward. She said she needed to take her medicine and wished Song Man goodnight.

Song Man frowned unconsciously and sighed.

“Honestly, sometimes I don’t get it. A forced melon isn’t sweet, so why insist on forcing it?”

Putting yourself in such a humble position, being too extreme isn’t good either. Not everyone has Stockholm Syndrome.

“Hard to control, I guess.”

Chu Fengqiu replied, sitting beside her.

“I know perfectly well she brought it upon herself, but sometimes feelings are really strange.”

If Lingnan’s attitude had been smug, stubborn, and unrepentant, Song Man wouldn’t have said a word to her.

Some things, when they involve life and death, seem to become significant.

Song Man felt a sense of melancholy. Of course, she hoped for a good ending to this story, but she also knew it was ultimately a matter between the two people involved.

Song Man suddenly remembered that Chu Fengqiu knew the other female lead in the story. She leaned towards Chu Fengqiu.

“Lao Chu, has Ke Lingyu ever talked to you about this?”

Song Man was just asking hopefully, not really expecting Ke Lingyu to have said anything. To her surprise, she saw Chu Fengqiu nod.

“Holy crap, why didn’t you tell me sooner!”

Chu Fengqiu just smiled without answering the question.

“Fine, it’s okay this way too. Now I’m asking you, so tell me, okay? I promise not to tell anyone.”

If Chu Fengqiu had specifically come over to tell her what Ke Lingyu said and how, Song Man truly felt that scene would be too beautiful to imagine.

“Wait, I think you did mention it, but I forgot.”

Song Man scratched her head. It seemed like they had discussed it before, and Chu Fengqiu had said Ke Lingyu wanted to avoid it.

“Ke Lingyu is Chuanlin.”

“So it was her! No wonder she was so arrogant.”

That person was truly super arrogant.

Even writing math problems in cursive, she must be openly flirtatious!

“She told me about Lingnan, but didn’t name her.”

“Okay, I definitely won’t give it away.”

“About Lingnan, how should I put it… she hopes she can still be friends with Lingnan, but she’s also afraid of Lingnan becoming dependent on her and doesn’t want to carry too heavy an emotional burden.”

At first glance, it sounds a bit cold, but thinking about it carefully, it’s actually quite human nature.

But Lingnan went to such extreme lengths, and Ke Lingyu still wants to be friends with her?

Huh???

Alright, maybe this is the tangled web of love and hate in the adult world.

“She hasn’t contacted Lingnan for a long time, right? Why did she suddenly contact her and even come to Question Bank? Did she know Lingnan was sick?”

Chu Fengqiu nodded.

“But why contact her so late?”

She knew Lingnan was sick since she joined Question Bank, so why wait until now to contact her?

“She was afraid Lingnan would use her illness to force her.”

“That’s really… such a wicked supporting character plotline.”

Song Man had seen many such tactics in TV shows or novels, where a supporting character tells the protagonist, ‘I’m dying, can you fulfill my wish and be with me for the last part of my life?’ Every time Song Man saw such a plot, she wanted to say ‘See you never.’

However, given Lingnan’s previous behavior, it was normal for Ke Lingyu to be so worried.

“Then why did she suddenly change her mind now?”

“She was originally in Europe for a competition and planned to return and meet Lingnan at the offline event. But before that, she was injured in a robbery at a mall and hospitalized, unable to move.”

“That’s too tragic.”

What kind of luck is this? Are they arranging to meet in the hospital?

“She didn’t want Lingnan to see her injured, and since neither of them was mobile, she planned to recover and then come back to see Lingnan.”

“Hope it’s not too late.”

Song Man’s initial surge of emotion was dissipated by Chu Fengqiu’s emotionless narration. If Chu Fengqiu had just said Ke Lingyu ‘loved her,’ she might still be feeling sentimental, but Chu Fengqiu’s direct retelling ripped away the layer of sentimentality, revealing the raw truth underneath.

Besides sighing about how utterly tragic it was, she could only hope these two people could let go of each other.

Lingnan was counting down the days to see Ke Lingyu, and Song Man was also counting down the days for the end of this story.

However, what arrived before that day was the second monthly exam.

Song Man’s exam room was even further forward than before. She walked into the room casually, holding two pens.

She definitely read the test paper carefully and remembered the correct answers in her head, but what she wrote down was more casual.

She was even too lazy to calculate her score. For multiple-choice questions, she wrote down the answers she knew were correct, which accounted for a large portion of the score and could be secured. But for classical Chinese translation, she deliberately only translated the surface meaning, and her essay went off-topic as usual.

Anyway, Chu Fengqiu knew her true abilities now, so she didn’t need to force her to study, and she didn’t have to feel guilty about letting down her sister who worked hard to tutor her. Naturally, she let herself go.

Fortunately, Song Man didn’t let herself go too much, lest a significant drop in performance make her father think Chu Fengqiu wasn’t paying enough attention to her.

Chu Fengqiu had always been attentive to her, and Song Man didn’t want her parents to have a bad impression of Chu Fengqiu at all. Even a slight drop in impression was unacceptable.

So Song Man maintained her score and miraculously moved up one spot in the class ranking. She wasn’t last anymore, but second to last.

The last place was taken by someone Song Man was somewhat familiar with, Dong Xue, who sat behind her. Dong Xue’s face turned pale when she saw the ranking. She looked at Song Man in disbelief, then buried her head in her arms and sobbed uncontrollably. Anyone who didn’t know better would think Song Man had done something to her.

Song Man didn’t think much of it, but Chu Fengqiu’s face turned cold.

She gently tapped Dong Xue’s desk and placed a tissue there.

“Don’t cry. If you cry just because of one exam failure, you’ll have many more chances to cry in the future. Better save your tears, protect your eyes, and adjust your mood quickly.”

Dong Xue’s deskmate quickly pushed the tissue towards her, thinking the class monitor was indeed a goddess, so gently telling someone to protect their eyes and using a challenging tone to help Dong Xue regain her composure.

Song Man almost burst out laughing, knowing which of Chu Fengqiu’s words were polite and which were sarcastic.

She also knew what Dong Xue was thinking. She had come up from a lower-ranked class, giving the impression of being a slacker. Getting into the First Class was because her family was rich, and being at the bottom of the class, being looked down upon was normal.

But she improved quickly and wasn’t last this time. Dong Xue couldn’t accept it, couldn’t accept the fact that she lost to Song Man.

Something so easy to see through, Song Man knew, and Chu Fengqiu naturally knew as well, which was why she spoke sarcastically.

“You! Why are you humiliating me like this!”

Dong Xue looked up tearfully, pushed away the tissue Chu Fengqiu had offered, and looked indignant.

“I’m just stating facts.”

Chu Fengqiu’s face was calm, her ability to provoke reaching five stars.

Dong Xue continued crying. Chu Fengqiu turned her head and ignored her.

She was angry because this person didn’t know how excellent Song Man was, arbitrarily treating Song Man as someone she could easily step on academically, without considering if she even had the qualifications. She wasn’t even qualified to be Song Man’s opponent.

Song Man lay on her desk, hooked Chu Fengqiu’s pinky finger, winked with her left eye, and smiled, throwing a wink.

—Well done.

Chu Fengqiu received the message and nodded slightly.

—Of course.

If she weren’t afraid of attracting too much attention, Song Man would have slammed the desk and laughed.

Chu Fengqiu was too interesting, hahahahaha.

She had known this person wasn’t the gentle goddess she appeared to be on the surface, and the closer she got, the more interesting she found her.

Because of this incident, Song Man was in a good mood all day. When she got home and learned Song Qinglan would be on a long business trip, her mood improved even further.

Seeing Lingnan’s improving state in Question Bank day by day, Song Man became even happier.

The day Lingnan was supposed to meet Ke Lingyu finally arrived. The day before, Chu Fengqiu had already told her that Ke Lingyu’s injuries were almost healed and she was returning to the country.

“Hope they can reconcile and let bygones be bygones.”

Song Man opened Question Bank and saw the message Lingnan had sent her.

Perhaps because the secret was known only to a few people, Lingnan shared her happiness freely with Song Man, one of the confidantes.

【Lingnan】: She video-called me. I haven’t seen her face in so long. She asked me to turn on my camera, but I didn’t. I was afraid of scaring her, but she’ll see when we meet.

【Lingnan】: Too bad I can’t use makeup to cover it, afraid it might affect my respiratory tract.

Song Man thought about how many times Ke Lingyu must have seen her face when she was livestreaming, but Song Man had promised not to reveal anything, so she didn’t tell Lingnan. She just cheered her on.

Before leaving, Song Man saw Lingnan update her log again.

【December 14th】

Going out to see her! Waited so long, finally got to. So excited to see what the meeting will be like. Hope I don’t lose my composure too much. Will report good news when I get back.

Song Man knew what Lingnan meant by “good news.” It likely meant Ke Lingyu had forgiven her. Although the commenters below didn’t know who Lingnan was referring to, they knew Lingnan was looking forward to meeting someone and had waited for twenty-one days, and now the day had come.

Song Man smiled seeing the encouraging and happy comments.

“Just waiting for Lingnan to come back and report the good news.”

“Mm.”

Today was Saturday, a regular school holiday. Song Man sat leisurely on her bed and started playing games with Chu Fengqiu.

They played together all afternoon, and it was a bumpy ride. Either someone stole the jungler role or the support role, they’d get cocky when ahead and surrender when behind. Song Man’s head hurt, and her mood spiraled into explosion.

Chu Fengqiu remained steady, fanning Song Man in the heated room to help her cool down.

“These people… forget it… this trash game!”

Song Man took a moment to check Question Bank. Lingnan’s last login was before she left that morning. She guessed Lingnan was still out meeting Ke Lingyu and wasn’t paying attention.

After calming down a bit, Song Man continued playing, repeating the endless cycle of winning one game and losing one with Chu Fengqiu until their phones ran out of battery.

“Today was too unlucky, what the heck.”

Song Man checked the time. It was already 8 PM. Housekeeper Liu had called them for dinner earlier, but she hadn’t paid attention.

Song Man checked Question Bank again. Lingnan had said she was going out in the morning, and there was still no activity. She figured meeting someone you like must be that exciting.

“Let’s go, Lao Chu, time to eat.”

Song Man tossed her phone aside to charge. Chu Fengqiu’s phone was also charging in Song Man’s room. They went downstairs to eat together.

As a result, no one saw the phone screen light up in the darkness, displaying a message notification.

【Ke Lingyu】: I missed the last chance to see her.

The light on the screen gradually dimmed, then abruptly went out.