Chapter 20: Under My Protection

As soon as the afternoon major class ended, Lin Ci hauled Gu Mianmian straight back to the dorm. She wanted the girl to stay there and not go anywhere.

But the girl stubbornly lowered her head and said she couldn’t skip her first day at the library part-time job.

Lin Ci figured the library was on campus, safer than some mixed-up barbecue joint off campus, so she followed along and stuck to Gu Mianmian’s side.

9:30 p.m.

Lin Ci sat bored on the couch in the corner of the library reading area.

She flipped through a foreign magazine, but her mind wasn’t on it at all.

Her gaze passed over row after row of shelves and landed on a figure in a work uniform.

Gu Mianmian was pushing a return cart, weaving back and forth between the shelves.

The desk lamp lit her profile, tracing the thin line of her jaw.

The work uniform hung loose on her, making her look even more frail.

Lin Ci shifted position, and the two weights on her chest swayed.

She irritably tugged at her collar, exposing her collarbone to the air.

‘So annoying. Why do these two lumps on my chest keep swaying every time I move?’

Especially today, with the tight knit shirt underneath, her waistline was perfectly outlined. Even with a thin trench coat over it, she couldn’t hide that cold, striking look.

When she had walked in earlier, several guys had already bumped into the glass door.

Lin Ci cursed this body’s attention-grabbing power inwardly a hundred times.

The clothes were painfully tight, and even breathing required holding her stomach in.

She had no idea how other girls put up with this torture device.

She looked up and met the gaze of a guy diagonally across from her.

The guy pretended to read, but his eyes kept drifting to Lin Ci’s legs.

Lin Ci rolled her eyes without politeness and glared back hard.

Startled, the guy buried his head in his book, his face red to the neck.

Lin Ci snorted coldly.

‘These inexperienced little brats, not even grown, and already copying others by peeping at pretty girls.’

She turned her eyes back to Gu Mianmian.

The girl worked seriously, putting each book back by its number. Her movements were slow, but she was careful.

Gu Mianmian, however, was not as focused as she looked.

Her peripheral vision stayed locked on Lin Ci in the corner.

She clearly saw those guys’ gazes sticking to her senior.

She dug hard at the dead skin on her fingertip, wishing she could find a cabinet and hide her senior away so completely that those gazes would never find her.

‘Her senior was hers. Why should anyone else get to look?’

But she couldn’t do that.

Her senior liked obedient, well-behaved girls.

She had to press those bad thoughts down deep.

Time passed minute by minute.

Five minutes to ten. The library was about to close.

Most people in the reading room had left. Only a few students were still packing their bags.

Gu Mianmian pushed the empty cart back to the return desk and bowed her head to sort the final registration forms.

A male student with glasses walked up to the desk.

He held a textbook, but instead of putting it in the return bin, he deliberately slammed it down on the table.

The sound was harsh in the quiet library.

Gu Mianmian’s pen stopped.

She didn’t look up, only pushed the return registration book toward him.

The guy didn’t sign. He leaned on the desk and moved closer.

“Classmate, do you work here every day? I’m a third-year in computer science. Want to add me on WeChat?”

Gu Mianmian still kept her head down, heavy bangs covering her eyes.

Suppressed disgust churned beneath them, and her fingers tightened on the ballpoint pen.

Seeing that she ignored him, the guy didn’t feel bored. Instead he pushed further.

“Don’t be so cold. Just making friends. I see you’re here alone every day, pretty boring. How about I keep you company on duty from now on?”

As he spoke, he actually reached out toward Gu Mianmian’s hand as she sorted the forms.

His hand was about to touch the back of her hand.

A sharp smack.

Lin Ci had crossed over in a few long strides at some point.

She slapped the guy’s hand away without mercy.

The back of his hand instantly turned red, and he sucked in a pained breath.

“Who are you? Why did you hit me?” The guy held his hand and shouted, face furious.

Lin Ci’s face was cold as she looked down at him.

Her expression held undisguised ferocity.

“She’s my roommate, under my protection. Who the hell are you, putting your hands on her? If you don’t want that hand, I’ll remove it for you.”

Lin Ci’s voice wasn’t loud, but the pressure in it came from deep in her bones.

The guy was stunned for a moment by Lin Ci’s cold, striking face.

But when he met those eyes full of violence, cold sweat broke out on his back.

He stammered, wanting to argue, but couldn’t get a word out.

Lin Ci stepped forward and grabbed the guy’s collar.

Though this body was slender, Lin Ci still had a man’s physical foundation.

She put strength into her arm, and the guy was yanked into a stumble.

“You don’t understand human speech? Get lost. Don’t let me see you again.”

The guy didn’t even take his book. He tucked his tail and fled.

Lin Ci let go and dusted her palm in disgust.

She turned to look at Gu Mianmian, who was still frozen in place.

“You really are something. You’re always so soft. Next time someone like that comes around, curse him out. Don’t hold it in.”

“The more you back down, the more those bastards push.”

Gu Mianmian stood there, entire body stiff.

Lin Ci’s words echoed in her mind.

‘She’s my roommate, under my protection.’

Under my protection.

In Gu Mianmian’s twisted worldview, those four words meant something entirely different.

Protection equaled belonging.

It meant she was already Lin Ci’s.

Gu Mianmian slowly raised her head, a sick ecstasy flickering in her dark eyes.

She clenched the return registration book hard. The paper’s edge warped in her grip, and she didn’t even notice.

“Senior, is what you said true?”

Her voice trembled obviously, the tail of her words floating.

“I really am someone you protect?”

Lin Ci was fixing the hem of her knit shirt that she had pulled messy.

Hearing that, she patted Gu Mianmian’s shoulder carelessly.

“Of course. I’m your roommate. If I don’t protect you, am I supposed to watch outsiders bully you?”

Lin Ci didn’t notice the sick obsession in Gu Mianmian’s eyes at all.

She only thought the girl was overwhelmed with gratitude.

Gu Mianmian lowered her head, the corner of her mouth curling into a strange, satisfied arc.

“Mm. I’ll remember.”

Her senior had admitted it herself.

She was her senior’s. No one could take her away.

‘If one day her senior wanted to go back on it, she would lock her senior up and hide her somewhere no one could find.’

The two walked out of the library and side by side down the tree-lined path in the night.

The autumn night wind was cool, pleasant on the skin.

Lin Ci was dressed lightly and couldn’t help sneezing.

Seeing that, Gu Mianmian quietly reached out and took hold of Lin Ci’s fingers.

Her hand was cold, but she stubbornly tried to wrap Lin Ci’s hand up in it.

Lin Ci froze for a moment and looked down at their hands.

With a straight man’s way of thinking, two girls holding hands while walking was completely normal.

She didn’t take it seriously at all. Instead, she turned the tables and wrapped Gu Mianmian’s hand entirely in her palm.

“Why is your hand so cold? Cold enough to go stiff.”

Lin Ci muttered and stuffed both their hands into her trench coat pocket.

The pocket was cramped, their hands pressed tightly together.

Gu Mianmian’s heartbeat skipped.

She greedily clung to the warmth of Lin Ci’s palm, and that milky scent.

Lin Ci pulled out earphones from her pocket and connected them to her phone.

She habitually handed the left earphone over and put it in Gu Mianmian’s ear.

The right earphone hung on her own ear.

A folk song played from the phone, its melody gentle.

Gu Mianmian leaned very close, almost against Lin Ci’s arm.

As she listened, Gu Mianmian actually began humming softly along with the melody.

Her pitch was astonishingly accurate, and there was even an ethereal quality beyond the original singer.

Hearing her low hum, Lin Ci stopped in surprise and turned to look at her.

“Huh, didn’t expect that. You can sing.”

Gu Mianmian’s ears turned red under Lin Ci’s gaze, and she quickly shut her mouth.

“Your voice is nice. Sing more from now on. Don’t stay quiet all day. It’s a waste of a good voice.”

Lin Ci praised her, even joking.

“With your level, if you can’t find a job later, you can always sing under a bridge to support me.”

Gu Mianmian lowered her head and engraved that joke deep in her heart.

Singing to support her senior.

That suggestion didn’t sound bad.

As long as she could keep her senior by her side, she would do anything.

The two walked slowly back to the dorm.

Once there, Lin Ci went to the bathroom to wash up first.

Gu Mianmian sat at the desk, pulled open a drawer, and took out a form.

It was the arts festival program registration form the counselor had handed out that afternoon.

Gu Mianmian stared at the vocal music column on the form.

A dark light flashed through her eyes.

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