When the Tsundere Rival Turns Into a Cat - Chapter 44

Li Xingcan and Fu Duosui got their meals and found a seat first. Fu Duosui went to the entrance to wait and, sure enough, soon spotted Jiang Qingyue and Lin Xie arriving together.

“Over here!” Fu Duosui waved, quickly stopping the two.

As she led them toward Li Xingcan, Fu Duosui kept chattering, “You two, coming this late? At this point, you won’t even get scraps left in the canteen.”

Lin Xie didn’t seem bothered. “We just came to check. If there’s no food, I’ll have the butler deliver our meals to my dorm. We’ll just lose some nap time.”

“I knew it. No wonder your butler is always running around the school. But no need to trouble him anymore,” Fu Duosui said with a smile, glancing at Jiang Qingyue. “Just meet us at this spot for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Xingcan and I will get your meals ready.”

Lin Xie raised an eyebrow, eyeing Fu Duosui skeptically. “Since when are you two so generous? Doesn’t Xingcan often skip meals herself?”

“You don’t have that kind of pull, of course. This is all thanks to Jiang here,” Fu Duosui said, cutting herself short as they approached the table. “Just remember what I said.”

Li Xingcan had just set out four sets of utensils and frowned at the trio approaching. “A snail just overtook you guys. What took so long?”

Fu Duosui plopped down first. “It’s just a few steps. No need to rush.”

Jiang Qingyue sat across from Li Xingcan, who found herself momentarily at a loss for words.

Just then, Lin Xie pulled a handkerchief from her pocket, spread it over her seat, and sat down. She then grabbed a couple of tissues to wipe the table in front of her.

This finally gave Li Xingcan an opening. “Mumu, you used to share a dorm with Duosui. How did you survive?”

Though Fu Duosui was tidy, her snacks invaded every corner. She was a maximalist, the polar opposite of Lin Xie.

Lin Xie shot Fu Duosui a resigned look. “I managed.”

To everyone’s surprise, Fu Duosui was the one who took offense. “Hey! You ask how she survived? Do you know what I went through? No spicy sticks, no chips, no bottled drinks, no takeout, nothing with strong smells—not even fruit unless I washed my hands and face afterward. And peels couldn’t go in the trash. The bed was—”

Once started, Fu Duosui couldn’t stop. She’d bottled this up for too long.

Li Xingcan was shocked to see Lin Xie’s germaphobia had worsened. She gave Fu Duosui a sympathetic glance, then looked at Jiang Qingyue with concern. Jiang Qingyue was neat, but this was next level.

“Are you adjusting well to being Mumu’s desk mate now?”

Li Xingcan asked Jiang Qingyue, while Fu Duosui beside them twitched her lips. She was still venting her frustrations—couldn’t they at least comfort her before moving on to the next topic?

Jiang Qingyue didn’t expect the conversation to suddenly shift to her either. She paused before nodding and glanced at Lin Xie beside her. “We’re adjusting well. We get along fine.”

Lin Xie’s probing gaze landed on Li Xingcan. “Why does your question make me sound like some kind of monster?”

Fu Duosui waved her hand and cut in, “Don’t be so modest. You’re way scarier than a monster.”

“Fu Duosui,” Lin Xie turned to her, “Do you want me to move back and share a dorm with you again?”

“No, no!” Fu Duosui immediately mimed zipping her lips. She had finally escaped that living hell and had no intention of reliving it.

Seeing this, Li Xingcan glanced at Jiang Qingyue and decided to drop the topic for now.

After lunch, it was time to return to their dorms. Li Xingcan and Jiang Qingyue’s room still hadn’t been fully arranged, so Fu Duosui and Lin Xie went to help.

When Lin Xie made Fu Duosui redo the bed for the third time, Li Xingcan kicked both of them out.

Having a careless scatterbrain and a neat-freak perfectionist clean a room together was nothing short of a disaster.

With the two gone, Li Xingcan and Jiang Qingyue finished organizing their belongings in just over ten minutes.

Sitting on their respective beds, Li Xingcan finally found another chance to revisit the earlier topic. “If you’re not really comfortable with Mumu, you can tell me. She can manage alone—she doesn’t need a desk mate.”

Jiang Qingyue knew Li Xingcan was still concerned. “We really do get along well. You don’t need to worry about me. Lin Xie’s habits are completely manageable for me, and having a desk mate is nice—we can discuss things if needed.”

Hearing this, Li Xingcan nodded, convinced she’d overthought it. “Alright.”

With that settled, Jiang Qingyue lay down first. Li Xingcan pulled her blanket over herself too, staring at the ceiling before slowly closing her eyes. Everything was fine as it was.

The two-hour nap passed in a blink. When the wake-up alarm blared, Li Xingcan felt like she’d only just shut her eyes.

Rubbing her temples as she sat up, she saw Jiang Qingyue opposite her also waking up, dazed and clearly startled by the alarm’s deafening volume.

Li Xingcan stretched. “This alarm has zero regard for human survival. Every time it jolts me awake, I feel my heart pounding. But you’ll get used to it. Hurry up and get ready.”

After hastily folding her blanket, Li Xingcan climbed down the ladder, urging Jiang Qingyue to move faster or they’d be late for class.

Jiang Qingyue recovered slightly from the rude awakening and nodded, starting to fold her own blanket.

Li Xingcan headed to the bathroom first, splashing water on her face to shake off the grogginess while changing clothes.

Once ready, she stepped out drying her face with a towel—only to walk straight into something with her eyes closed. Her chin took a hard knock, and before the dull pain fully registered, her reflexes kicked in: one hand grabbed the doorframe while the other reached out to steady whoever she’d collided with.

Jiang Qingyue was bent over, trying to open her new toothpaste, when she unexpectedly collided solidly with Li Xingcan. Her delicate nose bridge smashed against Li Xingcan’s chin, sending a sharp pain through her that momentarily darkened her vision. She stumbled back a step, only to be abruptly pulled forward by a hand. Losing her balance, she lurched forward again, her forehead striking something hard this time.

A series of mishaps unfolded in an instant. Before Jiang Qingyue could even blink away the involuntary tears welling in her eyes, she heard a muffled groan above her. Clutching the other person’s shoulders for support, she looked up—just in time to meet Li Xingcan’s downward gaze, her brows furrowed.

Jiang Qingyue blinked, a tear slipping down her cheek, finally clearing her blurred vision.

Their eyes locked, and an uncanny sense of déjà vu spread between them. Ignoring the throbbing pain in her chin and collarbone, Li Xingcan reached out, wiping the moisture from Jiang Qingyue’s cheek. Then, almost instinctively, she tilted Jiang Qingyue’s chin upward, forcing her to look at her from an even more exaggerated angle. The familiarity of the gesture sent a strange jolt through her.

Li Xingcan’s gaze drifted downward—Jiang Qingyue’s pajamas were perfectly neat, yet something about the sight felt inexplicably off in her subconscious.

Smack!

Li Xingcan’s hand was slapped away, snapping her back to reality. She stared at Jiang Qingyue’s furious glare and belatedly realized how inappropriate her actions had been.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to—” Li Xingcan hurriedly tried to explain. “I just… felt like this had happened before.”

Jiang Qingyue’s anger momentarily subsided at the apology, only to spike again at the latter half of the sentence.

As much as she hated to admit it, she had felt it too—that eerie familiarity when looking up at Li Xingcan from that angle, as if she’d done it before.

But that shouldn’t be possible. She wasn’t much shorter than Li Xingcan. Normally, she wouldn’t have to crane her neck like that unless she was stumbling and crashing into her.

A shared unease settled over them, though now wasn’t the time to dwell on it.

Jiang Qingyue quickly straightened up, took a step back, and then sidestepped past Li Xingcan into the bathroom without another word.

Li Xingcan closed the bathroom door behind her and returned to her desk, but the unsettling feeling only grew stronger. She stared at her hand—her fingertips still burned from the brief contact.

Had she and Jiang Qingyue ever been this close before?

She racked her brain but came up empty. She only remembered how they’d initially clashed, how her parents had insisted she look after Jiang Qingyue, and how they’d tormented each other afterward. Then… then something had changed. Their hostility had inexplicably melted into peaceful coexistence.

But what?

Li Xingcan knocked her fist against her forehead. What the hell is going on?