"Ah, no need, thank you." Zhang Mengfei shook her head. The place you eat at, I can’t afford. Zhang Mengfei said silently in her heart.
Huang Shiyuan didn’t say anything more.
...
Soon, school started.
Since Tianmiao and the others were all in the same major, their schedules aligned.
Zhang Mengfei left early and returned late every day, hardly appearing in the dorm during the day.
She only left a phone number for contact but was never contacted.
Sometimes on weekends, Huang Shiyuan suggested that everyone in the dorm should eat together, but Zhang Mengfei always excused herself and didn’t come. Even when Huang Shiyuan considered her feelings and said everyone would eat in the canteen, she still declined.
Over time, Huang Shiyuan and Han Ting stopped inviting her.
A month after school started, Tianmiao had undeniably become the campus beauty, the department belle. But no one dared to pursue her, because her aura was cold, obviously an untouchable beauty. Only Huang Shiyuan and Han Ting felt it was just an appearance; Tianmiao wasn’t the aloof person people said.
See, they just finished dinner, and Tianmiao was sitting ungracefully at the table in a camisole slip dress, enjoyably eating a small cake while watching a show.
"...I wish I had the ability to eat without gaining weight." Han Ting cut a lemon to make lemon water, then glanced at Huang Shiyuan, "Care to, let’s sour together."
"Yes!" Huang Shiyuan took a slice of lemon, bit into it fiercely, and her eyes instantly welled up, "It’s so sour..."
Han Ting didn’t ask Zhang Mengfei, who was reading at the side, because when asked, she would always say no, no need. So after a while, Han Ting and the others stopped asking Zhang Mengfei what she’d like to eat.
"Do you want some small cake?" Tianmiao asked, "I actually bought quite a few. If you don’t eat, I’ll finish them myself."
"Eat, why not?" Huang Shiyuan spat out the lemon, stretched her tongue, "Eat this meal, then diet."
"... Tianmiao, you’re insidious. Are you trying to fatten us up for slaughter and make sausages for Chinese New Year?" Han Ting looked at the small cakes Tianmiao took out, her eyes glued to them against her will. Because she recognized the packaging box, it was from the city’s most popular dessert shop’s themed cake of the month. The shop changed its specialty dessert monthly and limited quantities daily. If you queue up, you can only buy two per person. Wonder how Tianmiao got several. Did she go out after school today just to pick up the cakes?
"You found me out." Tianmiao smiled brightly, then turned to glance at Zhang Mengfei who was reading, "Zhang Mengfei, would you like to eat cake?"
"Ah, no, you go ahead. I’m not fond of sweets." Unsurprisingly, Zhang Mengfei still refused. Only she stole a glance at the cakes on Tianmiao’s table, secretly swallowing saliva.
Huang Shiyuan and Han Ting heard Zhang Mengfei’s refusal, looked at each other, with eyes saying, see, indeed.
Zhang Mengfei was always out of place with them, not because they excluded her, but because she didn’t accept them. Over the month, they discovered that Zhang Mengfei was a person with a strong sense of self-esteem and was very sensitive. So they often considered Zhang Mengfei’s feelings and didn’t talk about topics not suitable for her in the dorm.
For instance, discussions about skincare, makeup, clothes, bags, electronic gadgets were reserved for when Zhang Mengfei wasn’t around.