Her mood lightened, allowing her to perform more freely during the competition. In the end, Su Yue and Song Yan won the final championship.
Cheers erupted from the crowd. Song Yan moved to hug her, but she instinctively dodged, smiling as she said, "It's not appropriate."
He immediately understood and quickly apologized. They proceeded to the winner's podium, received their gold medals, and took photos.
After exiting the stage, Su Yue specifically asked a friend who was good with photography to take some solo pictures of her.
This was for managing her social media account and also for sending directly to Chen Ziming.
Men also needed coaxing, and they were easily appeased.
Showing him your beautiful and confident appearance was enough. If you wanted to make him even happier, you had to put in a little more effort.
Su Yue pondered this, then selected her best photo. Resisting the urge to post it on her own account, she sent it to him instead.
She followed it up with a message: This one is just for Officer Chen.
Immediately after, she sent a heart emoji.
There was no reply. She knew he was busy and didn't mind, chatting with friends who had come to congratulate her on her match. After tidying up, she headed back to her dorm.
However, Zhao Mo stopped her at the dormitory building.
"You didn't come to watch my competition?" she asked, letting her roommate go up first, then approaching him to talk.
"I did. Congratulations," he said, his tone seeming somewhat dejected.
Su Yue recalled that he probably found out about her situation with Chen Ziming. Yesterday, someone had secretly taken a photo of him carrying her away and posted it on the campus forum, where it had quickly become the top trending topic.
"Yueyue, are you, perhaps, dating that police officer?" Zhao Mo finally asked after a moment of hesitation.
"Yes," she replied.
Zhao Mo was the chairman of the student union. He had been pursuing her since they were freshmen. He was tall, had a sunny disposition, and enjoyed playing basketball, which made him popular with girls.
But he only had eyes for Su Yue, persistently and steadily pursuing her. He had even told her that even if they didn't end up together, it was enough for him to be able to care for her.
He was very good at maintaining boundaries, so Su Yue wasn't overly resistant. Moreover, having him around deterred other boys from pursuing her, thus reducing her entanglements. As a result, she had always maintained a rather good attitude towards Zhao Mo.
However, she had never considered dating him and had always kept her distance.
Now that he had finally asked, she decided to put an end to his hopes by telling him that she was with Chen Ziming. This would be better for both of them.
He lowered his head in defeat, "Yueyue, you'd rather choose an ordinary little police officer than be with me?"
He wasn't just an ordinary little police officer, but Su Yue certainly couldn't say that.
So she hummed in agreement again. After a moment's thought, she added, "Thank you for liking me, senior. But I truly don't like you, and I am with Officer Chen. Let's not contact each other anymore."
"I'll gather the things you gave me and return them."
She had kept them all together. Although they were all small, inexpensive items, she couldn't keep them.
"No need. It's meaningless now," Zhao Mo said with a self-deprecating smile. Then he added, "Yueyue, I will prove to you how absurd your choice to be with him is."
After saying that, he turned and left.
Su Yue was bewildered. What did his last sentence mean? What was he going to do?
She suddenly felt a sense of unease.
Carrying this unease, she attended the team dinner for the tennis competition that evening.
It was organized by the coach at a rather stylish fusion restaurant, featuring many uncommon culinary preparations that were quite interesting.
Everyone raised their glasses to celebrate; regardless of victory or defeat, the process of the competition itself was worth reminiscing.
After several rounds of drinks, the group was clearly not satisfied with just drinking. They proposed playing games.
"Let's play Werewolf. They have cards here," Su Yue suggested proactively. She drank little, with Song Yan mostly blocking drinks for her, so she was still quite clear-headed.
"Everyone's too drunk to think properly... Let's play Truth or Dare! I brought cards!" a noticeably drunk male student exclaimed.
Truth or Dare again... These people were just looking for an excuse to go wild during the game. Truth or Dare was too brutal; the scapegoat role was truly burdensome.
Just as Su Yue was about to suggest not playing, her phone rang. It was Chen Ziming.
It was already past eight o'clock. Was he only now finding time to check his phone?
She quickly moved away from the noisy table to answer the call.