Chapter 8: Damn, who can handle this.

Halfway through November, the weather suddenly turned cooler that Xu Sui wore thicker clothes. She was recently preparing to participate in a clinical skills competition, so she would go to the library every day after class, with seven or eight books and a Thermos cup.

On Tuesday, Xu Sui was studying in the library as usual. There were still two days left before the exam for the competition. She was planning to review all the content, memorizing the key points.

The library was tranquil. There were rows of figures, with everyone doing their own thing. At 10:30, Xu Sui sat at one of the library tables. She glanced outside; dark clouds were covering the sky as if it was going to rain.

She forgot to bring her umbrella when she went out in the morning, so Hu Xixi sent her a message to remind her to go back to the dormitory earlier since it would rain. Xu Sui took out her books, planning to go over the key points and head back quickly.

Suddenly, a student sat in the seat across from her, panting lightly. He took out his Thermos cup and took a sip, placing it on the table after he was done. Then, the boy took out a book and started reviewing it.

Xu Sui glanced at him casually. He was from the same major, but he was reading a book for juniors.

When Xu Sui was about to leave, the other party happened to reach out his right hand to grab something, but when he retracted his hand, he accidentally knocked the water cup. The cup’s lid was not tightened, and it fell on the table with a “bang.” The water soaked Xu Sui’s notes entirely.

Xu Sui immediately picked up her pen and notes. Shi Yuejie apologized and handed over the tissue to her. Xu Sui took the tissue and wiped her notebook with it, preparing to leave.

“I’m so sorry. How about you leave your notebook with me. I’ll help you dry it,” Shi Yuejie suggested apologetically.

“It’s okay.”

Xu Sui’s voice was unexpectedly calm that Shi Yuejie raised his eyes and glanced at her, catching a glimpse of a fair face with red lips. Xu Sui took her books and left hurriedly without saying another word.

Shi Yuejie stared at her leaving. Then, the boy on his side asked, “Is everything okay?”

Shi Yuejie shook his head and smiled: “Yea.”

It gradually started to rain, and Xu Sui hurriedly ran with a book over her head on her way back. Later, a boy walked up to her with an umbrella and asked: “Are you Xu Sui?”

Xu Sui nodded. The other party handed her a red umbrella and left. After a while, Xu Sui received a call: “Did you receive the umbrella?”

“Yes. Is the person who handed me an umbrella your friend?” Xu Sui asked with a smile.

“Of course not. That is the umbrella this young miss here paid to have it delivered to you.” Hu Xixi replied, lying on the bed, “This king couldn’t bear to have his lovely concubine get a drop of rain on herself.”

“Thank you, King Hu!”

The rain started pouring down heavier, forming puddles of all sizes. When she was close to arriving at the dormitory, Xu Sui’s trousers had already been drenched.

She was about to walk forward holding the umbrella when suddenly, the familiar orange cat jumped out. It rushed to Xu Sui and got under her umbrella.

A person and a cat just approached the corridor on the first floor. Xu Sui took the umbrella, bent down, and fed the cat a piece of bread that she had not eaten in the morning.

The cat leaned towards her palm and started eating the bread, licking the crumbs in Xu Sui’s hand. Xu Sui touched the fur on its body. She then stood up, preparing to leave, when the cat clung onto her trousers to prevent her from going.

Xu Sui gently unclasped its paw. However, wherever Xu Sui was going, the cat was trailing behind her. She finally turned around and said: “I really can’t raise you. The dormitory does not allow cats, and it’ll be troublesome if the staff finds out.”

The cat stared at her innocently.

Xu Sui glanced at the pouring rain outside the hallway and the cat whose fur was soaked and dirty.

Although she had been feeding this stray cat for a while, somehow, it was getting thinner and thinner.

Xu Sui was still so soft-hearted that she bent down and gently picked it up in the end.

She took out her phone planning to ask her roommates for permission: 【There is a stray cat downstairs, can I bring it back for two days? I’ll send it away later. 】

Hu Xixi: 【Of course.】

Bai Yuyue replied with one word: 【Whatever.】

Either way, she doesn’t often stay in the dormitory.

Xu Sui actually meant it when she asked them that if she could bring the cat back with her. When she entered, Hu Xixi stood upright from the bed and asked: “What a cute little cat! Are you really going to raise it?”

“Yea. I’ll raise it until I can find an owner for it. It shouldn’t take too long.” Xu Sui explained.

The cat was so dirty that Xu Sui helped bathe it and wrapped it around her blanket after she was done. Liang Shuang, who watched Xu Sui help the cat that sweat appeared on her forehead, sighed: “You’re like a female Bodhisattva.”

Xu Sui opened a carton of milk and poured it into a small container to feed the cat. She smiled and said, “Nope, I just think it is very pitiful.”

“And little animals are also more grateful than people.” Xu Sui said to herself.

The people in her dorm were all amiable and didn’t oppose Xu Sui’s raising a cat.

Although Bai Yuyue said in the group chat that Xu Sui could raise the cat, her expression was quite ugly when she came back to the dorm. When she saw the cat in the dorm, she dropped her books on the table, and in discontent and angry tone: “You really brought back this dirty stuff. Are there no infections or anything?” Bai Yuyue sneered, wanting to vent her anger on Xu Sui.

“Before I brought it back, I checked it with a classmate in the Department of Animal Medicine. The cat didn’t have any infections. Moreover, it won’t stay here for a long time.” Xu Sui’s tone was indifferent. Her eyelashes were raised when she spoke. “Also, the benevolent see benevolence1.”

She didn’t say the second half of the idiom, but Bai Yuyue understood what she meant.

“You—” Bai Yuyue twisted her eyebrows and couldn’t say a word back.

Hu Xixi laughed, thinking that everyone thinks Xu Sui talks politely, but that isn’t always the case. She has her own bottom line.

——

The clinical competition eventually came, and Xu Sui went to the test room ahead of time. By coincidence, Bai Yuyue and her were in the same testing room. Bai Yuyue was the last in the first row, and Xu Sui was third from the second to last row.

The examiner of the competition is a teacher and a student cadre. When Shi Yuejie was passing out the test papers, he recognized Xu Sui, wearing a thin velvet coat and her face buried in the collar.

Midway through the examination, Xu Sui was focused on answering the questions. Then, suddenly, a ball of paper was thrown from behind her, flicked on the edge of her table, and landed at her feet. Before she could open it, the examiner walked over and picked it up, in a serious tone: “What is this?”

“I haven’t had time to open it.” Xu Sui said calmly.

The teacher was irritated by her nonchalant attitude and became angry: “This is cheating. Do you take me as a joke?”

“I didn’t cheat.” Xu Sui replied in a tone that was neither humble nor overbearing. She put down her pen and commented: “If you think I’m cheating based on an inexplicable note, I can give up the exam.”

“You—”

Shi Yuejie came over and politely asked the teacher to go outside the corridor. Then, unsure what Shi Yuejie said to the examiner, he walked back in and said to Xu Sui: “You can take the exam first. We didn’t handle this matter well just now, but we’ll give you your results after the exam.”

Xu Sui nodded and resumed back to answering the questions.

After the exam, it was raining, and Xu Sui stood in the corridor looking at the rain in a daze. The people behind her were in a heated conversation with each other.

Several of their comments reached Xu Sui’s ears. Their voices were quiet but clear. “Who knew good students cheat too.”

“I couldn’t tell. I used her dissection as a model before but didn’t expect her to be this type of a person, “someone replied in agreement.

As the rain gradually subsided, Xu Sui straightened her back and walked out under the umbrella. The fact that Xu Sui was caught cheating spread throughout the student body, but she didn’t seem to be affected at all. She was either feeding the cat or studying.

When Bai Yu came back, there was only Xu Sui in the dormitory. She just finished washing her hair and was drying it with a towel. The drops of water fell on the orange cat’s back, who lazily rolled over its belly and shook itself vigorously. She sneered when she saw it.

Bai Yuyue walked to her desk with a book, and the orange cat stepped on her feet and sniffed. Bai Yuyue let out a scream, kicked the cat, and cursed: “Go away!”

The cat that was kicked aside was preparing to pounce on Bai Yuyue to bite her, who turned pale with fright.

“1017, come back!” Xu Sui ordered it.

1017 heard Xu Sui’s voice and retreated. It circled Bai Yuyue twice and made a few fierce noises at her before returning to Xu Sui’s side.

Bai Yuyue’s face turned pale, and she fell on her chair.

“Sorry. If you don’t want it to happen again, don’t kick it next time.”

When Xu Sui was about to say something else, a text message notification popped up on her phone. She glanced at it and grabbed an umbrella, and left.

Zhou Jingze and the others were in the middle of their physical training on the sports ground. When it started raining heavily, they disbanded. A group of boys then returned to the dormitory with great vigor.

Da Liu kicked open the door of the dormitory, complaining: “The rain had to pour down hard for no reason.”

Zhou Jingze walked in with his hands in his pocket. After taking off his coat, his uniform was also drenched that he decided to take it off, revealing two rows of solid, lean abs with smooth lines.

Sheng Nanzhou took a breath: “Damn, who can handle this.”

Zhou Jingze pressed his tongue against his left cheek and replied jokingly: “Won’t you know when we do it tonight?”

Sheng Nanzhou threw a white towel on him: “Pervert!”

After the boys took a shower, some went to read books while others watched movies. Zhou Jingze sat on his chair, and after listening to a voice message, Aunt Sheng said, his brows furrowed.

Sheng Nanzhou handed him a can of Coke and asked, “What happened with my mother?”

“Nothing happened. She was saying that Kratos is moody these days, breaking things in the house because he’s unhappy.” Zhou Jingze said, opening the can, bubbles surfacing on the surface.

“Why’s he moody?”

Zhou Jingze had a headache and wanted to laugh: “What do you think? He’s upset because I lost Wei.”

“Is it in heat? Of course, but Wei is a female cat,” Sheng Nanzhou commented, feeling a little strange.

“Probably.” Zhou Jingze took a sip of Coke and leaned back on his chair, “I’ll go buy him a new companion tomorrow.”

Wei was a stray orange cat that Zhou Jingze picked up two months ago when he went out to buy Kratos, his German Shepherd. Zhou Jingze was too lazy to come up with a name, and since he had to feed the cat all day long, he named it Wei2.

In the beginning, the German Shepherd and orange cat fought every day, and Zhou Jingze had to separate them every time. However, it didn’t take long for the two to play together. Their relationship started getting better and better.

But after Zhou Jingze raised the cat for more than a month, the cat ran away and never returned. The German Shepherd then became moody and unhappy. Zhou Jingze went out and looked for it a few times, but it wasn’t easy to find a lost cat.

“Let’s not talk about the dog. What happened when you sent Xu Sui back last time?” Sheng Nanzhou winked at him.

Zhou Jingze said slowly: “I asked her, between the two brothers, Sheng Yanjia and Sheng Nanzhou, who looks uglier.”

Sheng Nanzhou gently hit Zhou Jingze with his shoulder and said, “I’m serious; for some reason, I feel like Xu Sui is interested in you.”

Xu Sui’s flustered face flashed across his mind: “I’m serious too. I think she’s more afraid of me.”

“Makes sense. I wouldn’t like a scumbag like you.” Sheng Nanzhou shook his shoulder to imitate the female lead of Korean dramas.

Zhou Jingze snorted and was too lazy to refute.

There was another heavy rain in the morning the next day. After the rain stopped, Zhou Jingze went to the medical university to do something. After finishing what he needed to do, he sent a message to Hu Xixi as usual: 【 Let’s have a meal tonight. I have something to ask you about. You can bring Xu Sui too. 】

【Okay, but I don’t think Sui Sui will come. She’s in a bad mood these days.】Hu Xixi replied.

Zhou Jingze: 【?】

After explaining what happened with Xu Sui and getting accused of cheating, Hu Xixi sighed and sent another message: 【I don’t think she’ll go out recently because she’s not in the mood. There are always people talking about her. Even though Sui Sui didn’t say anything about it, I feel like it also upset her.】

It started raining again, but it was a drizzle. Zhou Jingze replied, “okay,” and put his phone back in his pocket. He was wearing a black cap, and when he raised his eyes, he saw two people not far away.

The “not in the mood” Xu Sui that Hu Xixi was talking about was standing in front of the school gate with a boy, both holding milk tea in their hands.

Zhou Jingze subconsciously squinted his eyes. The girl was slender and well-behaved. On the other hand, the boy was wearing a white coat and was quite tall. Unsure of what the boy said to her, Xu Sui’s face smiled brightly at him.

仁者见仁,智者见智 (The benevolent see benevolence and the wise see wisdom): Different people have different viewpoints on a problem. 

Wei: It’s the pinyin for 喂 which is a Chinese character that means “feed”.