Chapter 17: There are no fish in the Lake

“Orange, you’re so fast? You finished eating already?”

Chen Xi, sitting across from Su Cheng, pointed at the empty plate in front of Su Cheng, with only leftover bones remaining.

Su Cheng gently rubbed her slightly bulging tummy and said slowly, “There’s still training tonight, so I’m eating less.”

After eating her fill, Su Cheng took out her new phone to play with. Chen Xi was the first to notice the pink-cased phone in her hand, and her eyes lit up.

“Wow, is this the phone the campus belle gave you? Judging by its look, is it a game collaboration phone? Seems pretty expensive.”

Facing Chen Xi’s question, Su Cheng thought for two seconds before responding: “Yeah, Upperclassman gave it to me.”

Chen Xi’s envy was still plastered on her face, like a shiny frosting: “Wow, I’m so jealous, why didn’t the upperclassman give me a phone?”

Sun Xiaochen wore a suspicious smile: “Confess honestly, did the upperclassman take a liking to you? Such an expensive collaboration phone, just given away like that… could it be… she wants to be our Little Orange’s sugar mommy?”

She deliberately bit the words “sugar mommy” lightly and quickly, with the usual teasing tone between girls.

“What nonsense are you talking about! It’s not at all what you’re thinking.”

Su Cheng was like a cat whose tail had been stepped on; her voice suddenly rose slightly, and her cheeks flushed.

Lin Shiyue, sitting next to Su Cheng, showed a hint of bewilderment on her face, deep suspicion hidden in her eyes.

“Then why would the upperclassman give you a new phone?”

This time it was Lin Shiyue asking, and her question echoed the doubts of Chen Xi and Sun Xiaochen.

Su Cheng looked at Lin Shiyue beside her with a startled expression, then lowered her head slightly.

“The upperclassman was just… just out of kindness, seeing my phone fall into the water, that’s why…”

Her words abruptly stopped, as if she realized something was amiss with that answer.

Su Cheng pursed her lips, her eyes flickering as she avoided Lin Shiyue’s probing gaze, and once again lowered her head to stare at her phone screen, playing a game.

“Oh? She saw your phone fall into the water, and so out of kindness, she gave you a new phone, is that right?”

Lin Shiyue’s calm tone tried to complete what Su Cheng wanted to say, but her piercing gaze remained fixed on Su Cheng.

If Su Cheng showed even the slightest abnormal expression, she would immediately catch it.

Su Cheng nodded, saying calmly, “That’s right.”

Seeing Su Cheng’s reaction, the doubt in Lin Shiyue’s clear eyes deepened, almost becoming tangible.

“I don’t believe it.”

These simple three words, like a sharp arrow piercing through a window, startled Su Cheng.

Lin Shiyue paused for a moment, seemingly weighing her words.

“Su Cheng, did something special happen between you and the upperclassman?”

Su Cheng’s mind was a tangled mess at this moment. She stammered, “No… nothing… special… No, absolutely nothing.”

“Oh, really?”

Lin Shiyue’s tone was very light, carrying a serious note that brooked no perfunctory replies, still doubting the truthfulness of Su Cheng’s words.

Su Cheng looked at Lin Shiyue’s serious expression, cold sweat already breaking out on her back.

Su Cheng’s abruptly cut-off explanation and stammering replies just now became suspicious signals in Lin Shiyue’s eyes.

She keenly caught that Su Cheng’s reaction was more like the guilt of a secret being touched.

Su Cheng’s fingers tightened slightly on the phone she was holding, its pink casing seeming a bit glaring under the bright cafeteria lights.

She could feel Lin Shiyue’s focused gaze beside her, and Chen Xi and Sun Xiaochen’s eyes, though still smiling, were equally filled with curiosity.

The air seemed to solidify for a few seconds, with only the faint clattering of distant trays remaining.

“No… nothing special happened.” Su Cheng finally spoke, her voice lower than before, carrying a deliberately maintained calmness, “That day was really just a coincidence. The upperclassman saw my phone fall into the water, and I never expected her to come deliver a new phone to me today, really, you have to believe me.”

After Su Cheng finished explaining, the other three still looked at Su Cheng with skepticism, as if their three gazes were trying to pierce through her.

Lin Shiyue didn’t press further immediately. She noticed that when Su Cheng spoke, her long eyelashes fluttered rapidly a few times, and her earlobes seemed a little redder than before.

It couldn’t help but remind her that Su Cheng in her previous life also had this habit.

As long as she lied, her ears would get hot.

This was a detail Lin Shiyue had observed for a long time and concluded.

All these reactions appeared on Su Cheng beside her. A certain unresolved question in her heart found some fragmented answers.

‘Little silly one, you’ve exposed your chicken feet.’

Chen Xi also put away her playful expression. Not only were her doubts not resolved, but they spread wider, like ripples on a lake when a stone is suddenly thrown in.

Her tone carried a hint of distrust: “Little Orange, your explanation is a bit strange, isn’t it? Is it possible that the upperclassman dropped your phone?”

Su Cheng’s eyes suddenly widened a bit when Chen Xi hit the mark, then returned to normal in a blink, but the light in her eyes constantly trembled. All these unusual reactions were seen by Lin Shiyue.

Further proving Chen Xi’s guess was correct.

“It seems I hit the nail on the head. What’s there to be afraid of saying? It’s not like anything will happen to you,” Chen Xi said with a smile.

Su Cheng was not worried about the two roommates across from her, but about Lin Shiyue beside her.

If it weren’t for Lin Shiyue, she wouldn’t have to hide so deeply.

But in the current situation, she probably couldn’t hide it anymore.

Paper can’t cover fire forever.

“Sigh, I’m having such a hard time…” Su Cheng sighed, “It’s true that the upperclassman dropped my phone, of course she didn’t do it on purpose, it was just an accident, mainly it’s my fault for not holding onto my phone properly.”

Chen Xi continued to press: “So what exactly happened between you two that day? Tell us, we won’t spread it.”

Su Cheng sighed again, looked at Lin Shiyue’s calm expression, then at the two across from her, whose gossip souls were ignited.

“Alright, to put it simply, I was looking at the scenery by the lake, and the upperclassman suddenly appeared behind me, startled me, and then my phone fell into the lake.”

As for what happened after that, they all knew that day.

Su Cheng fell into the lake while trying to retrieve her phone, getting soaked.

Compared to everyone’s expectations earlier, after hearing Su Cheng’s words, all three fell silent.

There was no sign of the agitation Su Cheng had imagined; they were as calm as logs.

“That’s it?”

Chen Xi’s eyes widened at Su Cheng; this was much simpler than the plot she had imagined.

Su Cheng nodded: “That’s it, what else did you want?”

Chen Xi and Sun Xiaochen exchanged glances, sighing disappointedly.

“Oh my, we thought it was some amazing story. And you had to hide it so deeply.”

Su Cheng gave them an eye-roll: “What’s wrong? If you didn’t ask like that, I wouldn’t have wanted to tell you.”

Sun Xiaochen continued to twist the knife: “Why isn’t it the accidental story I imagined, where the two of you fall into the water together, and then accidentally have a kiss? Yours is just too uneventful.”

Su Cheng coughed twice, almost spitting out a mouthful of old blood.

But speaking of kissing, she did indeed have a “kiss” with a fish when she fell into the water.

“Can you two think of some normal plot, huh? At most, I just had a ‘kiss’ with a fish in the lake, how could I have kissed the upperclassman?”

“Oh my, isn’t that a good story? It feels like it would be very interesting to read.”

“Go on, get out of here!”

Su Cheng didn’t bother arguing with them. She picked up her tray and left displeased. If she continued arguing with them, it would never end.

Sun Xiaochen and Chen Xi followed closely, but Lin Shiyue sat dazedly in her seat, Su Cheng’s words from moments ago constantly echoing in her mind.

‘She had a “kiss” with a fish in the lake…’

‘But Xihua Lake doesn’t have fish…’

‘Su Cheng doesn’t know, but mistakenly thought it was a fish.’

‘Could it be…’

Lin Shiyue was startled, a shiver running through her, as if a bolt of lightning had struck her.

‘They kissed in the water?!’

Lin Shiyue suddenly stood up, her large, surprised eyes fixed on Su Cheng’s retreating back in the distance.

“Alright, alright, little silly one, no matter who you really are, I won’t repeat the same mistakes.”

“I won’t lose to her again.”