Chapter 164
Chapter 164
Zhao Yingguo kept her head lowered, her fingers clutching tightly at the hem of her shirt.
All she could do was watch as her roommates left one after another. There was no way for her to fight it.
From Zhao Yingguo, Qin Nan sensed a deep loneliness. Right now, she seemed to be weighed down by something heavy, her entire person dull and subdued.
Qin Weiyi had seen Zhao Yingguo before. If the Zhao Yingguo back then had still been a sweet, pretty girl when she smiled, then now, what lingered around her was far more of a gloomy air.
This point in time should have been before the incident-December 3, 2013.
“Come on, stop staring.”
A girl tugged at her companion, disgust written across her face. “What’s there to look at? Aren’t you afraid she’ll rub off on you?”
“No way, right?” Her companion panicked a little, then quickly lowered her voice. “Let’s go, let’s go. I’m not looking anymore.”
The two girls soon left. The others gathered at the doorway looked at one another, and in the end, they all scattered as well.
Though they had left, they were still discussing Zhao Yingguo.
“You really couldn’t tell. Such a sweet and cute girl-how could she be that twisted?”
“Sweet? Are you blind? Anyway, whenever I look at her, I only feel one thing: chills down my spine.”
“She’s like that now. But back when we first started university, so many boys in our class wanted to chase her.”
“True.”
“Back then, none of us knew each other that well yet. We were all fooled by her. Now that things have turned out like this, if she put on that sweet act again, would you believe it? Ugh, let’s not talk about her. Just mentioning her creeps me out.”
“I have no idea how Xiting and the others put up with it for so long.”
Li Xiting happened to walk out of the dorm just then and heard that last sentence.
The girl also saw Li Xiting and immediately smiled at her. “Xiting, it’s so good that you all moved out. Now you don’t have to be affected by that person anymore.”
Li Xiting frowned and glanced toward the dorm next door.
At that moment, Zhao Yingguo finally seemed to react. She took a few steps forward and slammed the door shut with a bang, cutting herself off from everything outside.
Li Xiting sighed softly. Then she looked at the girls who had been gossiping about Zhao Yingguo and said, “Yingguo isn’t that kind of person.”
“Xiting, you’re still speaking up for her? You’re way too kind. It’s not like she appreciates it.” Everyone was shocked by what Li Xiting had said.
Yellow Hair sighed. “Looking at it this way, Li Xiting really does seem like a good person. Or maybe she helped Zhao Yingguo out of sympathy?”
When Lin Junruo, who was beside him, heard that, she burst out laughing. “Don’t you think what Li Xiting said was very green tea?”
“Green tea?” Yellow Hair was at a loss. Was Li Xiting green tea? It didn’t seem like it. Hadn’t she been speaking up for Zhao Yingguo?
Lu Jing also looked confused and asked, “What does green tea mean?”
Lin Junruo gave the group a helpless look and shook her head. “Men’s judgment really can’t be trusted.”
Qin Nan laughed. “Miss Junruo, you can’t generalize like that. They can’t see it, but I can still tell a little of what’s going on.” After all, he had made countless commentary videos roasting melodramatic TV dramas. How could such a cheap trick fool him?
“Right now, Zhao Yingguo is basically hated by everyone. If Li Xiting says a few nice words for her, will it change anything for Zhao Yingguo? No. Zhao Yingguo’s situation won’t be affected at all. In fact, they’ll just think Li Xiting is a kind girl. Of course,” Qin Nan said with a shrug, “her skill level is too low. On one hand, she says Zhao Yingguo isn’t that kind of person; on the other, she runs away faster than anyone else. Not everyone is stupid. I bet some of the girls saw through it too.”
Not bad.
The moment Qin Nan finished speaking, the companion of the girl who had tried to chat with Li Xiting earlier tugged lightly at her sleeve and lowered her voice. “Let’s go.”
Zhao Yingguo was no saint. And Li Xiting, who had been able to put up with her for so long while still speaking in that sweet, scheming way, was probably no better.
In short, they couldn’t afford to mess with her. So they would simply stay away. Wasn’t that good enough?
Li Xiting didn’t seem to care.
After watching the two girls leave, her gaze shifted once more to Dormitory 6103 next door. No one knew what she was thinking. Then, suddenly, she let out a soft laugh.
After that-
She looked toward Jian Fan and the others and said, “Long time no see.”
Huh?
Everyone froze.
Qin Weiyi’s brows drew together.
This was already the second time.
The last time, Li Xiting seemed to have noticed him and Lu Jing as well. And this time, that “long time no see” was clearly directed at their whole group. But… Qin Weiyi’s frown deepened.
He didn’t understand.
How exactly was this timeline supposed to work?
According to their own timeline, then yes, this could indeed count as a reunion. But “long time no see”? It hadn’t been that long at all. If they looked at it according to the timeline of events, then in Li Xiting’s awareness, she had seen them at Dormitory 6103 at some point in the past, and then, on December 3, 2013, she saw them again.
In that case, her “long time no see” made sense.
But…
Why?
Why could Li Xiting see them? And why was she not surprised at all?
Li Xiting did not seem to need an answer from them.
She laughed softly and said, “I’ve been thinking about why you appeared. I already have the answer.”
Her baffling words only left everyone even more confused. After saying them, Li Xiting turned and went back into her dorm, closing the door behind her.
“What’s going on with Li Xiting?” Yellow Hair couldn’t help asking.
Qin Weiyi frowned and told everyone about what he had encountered before as well.
This situation was far beyond what could be explained by a simple overlap of time and space.
The Li Xiting before them now should be the Li Xiting living in the past timeline, not the future final boss. That was what he inferred from her words, “Long time no see.”
And then there was what she said after that. Why had they appeared? They were here because of Zhao Yingguo’s death. What answer could Li Xiting possibly have? And after arriving at that answer, what would she do?
Qin Nan tentatively put forward a thought of his own. “In the original timeline, we probably didn’t exist. So Li Xiting shouldn’t have known about us. After she discovered our existence, is it possible that she made some changes, and those changes would inevitably be reflected in the future… So, was her discovering our existence an established fact from the start, or will it directly change the direction of the future?”
“What kind of mess is that?” Lu Jing couldn’t understand at all.
Qin Weiyi was somewhat helpless and took the initiative to explain. “What Qin Nan means is this: in the world we first entered, had the Li Xiting from back then ever seen us in the past? If she hadn’t, then our time travel this time is like the flap of a butterfly’s wings. It will definitely cause changes. In that case, when we go back again, things may no longer develop the way we originally saw. If she had…”
Qin Weiyi laughed, the meaning unclear.
Lu Jing: “…”
He chose to shut up.
He didn’t understand anyway.