Chapter 12

The dialog box showed "typing..." then quickly disappeared.
This repeated for a full three minutes.
Shi Zhi watched for three minutes, timing it. This was her last chance for Shen Jia. When the time was up, she blocked Shen Jia's WeChat.
She also blocked Fu Xiling.
Whatever complicated love triangle or quadrangle relationship they had, Shi Zhi didn't want to think about it anymore.
She barely slept, made herself a new study and life plan, and only closed her eyes when the sky was slightly light.
This week passed really quickly. Before she knew it, it was Saturday.
Shi Zhi called Lingling, made an excuse that she had school matters, didn't go back to help at the bar, told Lingling to keep an eye on the accounts.
She went out to clear her mind, didn't tell anyone. When she returned to school, it was already Sunday evening. In the dormitory, she heard two things.
First, Shen Jia had come looking for her.
Second, besides Shen Jia, there was another boy also looking for her.
Shi Zhi's relationship with her roommates wasn't very close.
They were just ordinary classmates who got along okay on the surface, occasionally walked to the cafeteria together or helped each other pick up packages, but almost never had heart-to-heart conversations.
Seeing Shi Zhi didn't ask who the other boy looking for her was, her roommate hesitated for two seconds, then didn't say anything more.
Shi Zhi put down her backpack, changed clothes, and prepared to go out.
Her roommate suddenly asked: "Shi Zhi, you're... planning to go where?"
They rarely had this kind of conversation.
But Shi Zhi understood and turned back with a smile: "The dormitory's stuffy. I'm going to sit by the school lake."
B University campus had a very large artificial lake. Shi Zhi sat on the cement steps, watching the breeze wrinkle the water and move the willow branches.
Her side was very quiet, few alumni passing by, so she noticed as soon as Fu Xiling walked over.
Shi Zhi didn't turn around: "What do you want?"
Fu Xiling put a convenience store plastic bag on the steps and sat next to Shi Zhi: "Last transaction was a loss. Came to collect debts."
Shi Zhi looked at the convenience store bag he'd brought, turned her head, and surprisingly made a joke: "Collecting debts requires bringing gifts?"
A plain moon hung in the sky, the night breeze slightly cool.
Fu Xiling pulled out a can of beer from the convenience store bag, opened it for Shi Zhi, and handed it over: "Went to the little bar for two days, didn't see you. No news of you at school either. Heard you broke up with Shen Jia, worried you'd do something drastic, commit suicide."
"Not that bad."
Shi Zhi took the beer: "Breaking up is actually fine. We weren't that compatible. And this matter made me feel that Shen Jia's personality is somewhat indecisive. If he could have decisively admitted he still had feelings and couldn't decide, I might have been more reluctant."
Fu Xiling glanced at Shi Zhi's wrist. That nice Hetian jade bracelet was still there. He teased: "Really willing to let go?"
Whether intentionally not answering or really coincidentally changing the subject.
Shi Zhi took a sip of beer, frowned, and looked at the logo on the bottle: "So weak?"
"In front of Shen Jia, weren't you a good girl who didn't touch alcohol? I couldn't figure out your tolerance, afraid if I bought something too strong, I'd get you drunk."
After saying that, Fu Xiling opened a can of beer for himself and drank a few sips: "...Too weak."
"Aren't you not drinking?"
"Didn't drive today."
Unlike her previous attitude of keeping people at a distance, Shi Zhi was very easy to talk to tonight.
Fu Xiling noticed but didn't immediately expose it. He turned to look at Shi Zhi: "Before going out, you told your roommate on purpose, right?"
Shi Zhi had already guessed Fu Xiling had found her roommate and guessed Fu Xiling had probably given her roommate some benefit, asking her to help keep track of her whereabouts.
"Didn't you want to know?"
"I want to know even more now—when can you take me out of the blacklist?"
Shi Zhi, without much emotional foundation, couldn't pretend to be easygoing for too long. She couldn't help asking Fu Xiling: "What's your relationship with Tao Jia?"
After asking, she felt Fu Xiling look at her very deeply, a gaze that made one feel exposed.
Shi Zhi suddenly felt the night breeze was very cold, goosebumps rising on her arms.
She rubbed her arms, thinking, had she found the wrong person?
Fu Xiling seemed overly clever. Cooperating with him, would it be like making a deal with a tiger?
But the scrutiny just now seemed like an illusion. Fu Xiling didn't express dissatisfaction and was still answering her question: "Tao Jia used to pursue me, about a year or so. Shen Jia liked her. Later she got together with Shen Jia."
Shi Zhi's face showed confusion like "Why would Tao Jia like you?" which made Fu Xiling laugh in annoyance: "What's that expression?"
"Nothing..."
Fu Xiling crushed the empty beer can and threw it back in the bag: "Shen Jia really dislikes me. You probably noticed."
Fu Xiling and Shen Jia had known each other since childhood. Due to personality reasons, they couldn't really play together.
The two families' elders were relatively close, so initially they hadn't been so hostile.
But Shen Jia was too competitive. In any competition Fu Xiling participated in, Shen Jia could only get second place. Teachers would praise Fu Xiling for being clever, but only praise Shen Jia for working hard.
"Plus there was a period when Tao Jia, I don't know what was wrong with her, kept coming around me all day. Shen Jia probably disliked me even more."
Shen Jia really, really disliked Fu Xiling.
That day at the bar, because Fu Xiling was in the neighboring booth, Shi Zhi could feel Shen Jia was in an unnatural state for quite a while, even deliberately exaggerating his actions and expressions, as if trying to show off to someone.
The relationship between the three of them was about what Shi Zhi had guessed.
She should have found the right person...
The next second, Fu Xiling directly said what Shi Zhi was thinking.
He said: "So, if you feel you can't swallow this, don't want Shen Jia to have it so easy, want to make him uncomfortable—congratulations, you calculated right. I really am a good partner."