It was really because Cheng Ran was too ostentatious when he sent Zhang Jing back to the dormitory last night, and the two of them waiting and talking downstairs in the dormitory were too eye-catching. A perfect moon, an ink-like night, and a perfect couple. Did they really think that the people hiding behind the bright or dim windows in the dormitory building were blind and could not see this scene
"It's true! I'm sure I was coming from the canteen at the time. It was almost closing time, and the lady boss gave me a discount and packed a big grapefruit. I happened to run into him when I was carrying it back... Zhang Jing wrote him a note! She left him her phone number!"
"It was late at night, and the two had just returned. They lingered downstairs and refused to leave. In the end, they even gave me a note with a contact number... When have you ever seen Zhang Jing like this?"
Overnight, the news about Zhang Jing's behavior last night spread. Many girls in the dormitory were snooping and gossiping about this.
"No! I really haven't seen her... Last time the student union president was waiting for her downstairs, she was left out for quite a while!"
"Can the student union president be the same as that boy? They are just one level lower in appearance, although that boy is not my type..."
"I don't like him either. I like Takizawa Hideaki. This guy looks a lot like Satoshi Tsumabumoto. He has a lazy and unkempt temperament. I don't like this feeling. I like pure white sunshine who dresses himself up very well..."
"I heard he's a freshman from the School of Computer Science, and his dormitory is in Area A of Juyuan... He was admitted as the top scorer in the province."
College students, or people who live in groups, no matter what era or position, cannot help but absorb information around them. This is an instinct imprinted in human nature. They will instinctively be interested in the information of the network of people around them. This is the fundamental condition for survival. So gossip is actually human nature. Unless you have become a monk or suffered some kind of spiritual trauma, the so-called dislike of gossip and dislike of listening to gossip is not just hypocritical words, but it must be that the chips for gossip are not in place.
But in college, gossiping about someone next door may not be popular, but gossiping about school celebrities is something everyone wants to hear, and even those who don't participate may prick up their ears. People like Zhang Jing are more popular.
Then, perhaps someone asked Zhang Jing's roommate, and someone let out a detail. Zhang Jing kept saying that the man was there to help, but when she asked for the other person's phone number, there was a lot of noise and fighting... Until the next day, she didn't give it to her.
Sometimes rumors are so powerful, for example, a while ago, a senior girl in the senior circle abducted her classmate's boyfriend of three years. Of course, this was information that people passed back to USTC after working outside, and the parties involved were no longer at USTC, but it caused a huge uproar in public opinion among those who knew them, and even affected the circles of juniors and sophomores.
Every school has various campus legends and bizarre events. Every day, the university campus is not just a collision of ideas in the classroom, but also the world between people.
There were notes passed downstairs at night, and the roommate asked about the phone call. Combined with the previous rumors about feeding in the second cafeteria, it was easy to connect the dots.
Cheng Ran was in the dormitory. It was rare that a sophomore didn't go upstairs after dinner, but came to visit. During the visit, he casually asked, "Cheng Ran, are you and Zhang Jing from the Student Union together? It's so fast! You won the beauty of the mathematics department like this?"
The sophomore who asked the questions was usually a very active person. Plus, their dormitories were all in the Orange Garden area, so news of this kind of thing spread from there quite quickly. So the sophomore brothers who had contact with Cheng Ran were somewhat shocked.
What happened to Cheng Ran? First, she was in the sophomore dormitory and fought with Nie Chuan, the younger brother of the recognized powerful brothers. Then, in just two months, she often appeared in student union activities, making people unforgettable. Even the forum of the University of Science and Technology has been full of posts asking about this girl since freshman year. Later, everyone gradually knew Zhang Jing from the mathematics department, the propaganda minister of the student union. Was she taken down just like that
A group of toads in the Academy of Computer Science were puzzled.
Li Wei and Lao Guo from the dormitory turned around to explain to him, "No way, Cheng Ran has a girlfriend!"
"He's a top student who's even better than him, but he's studying abroad!"
This statement was very clear and to the point, and when word of mouth spread, the girls' dormitory immediately exploded.
"What? That boy has a girlfriend, and Zhang Jing still wants to interfere with him?"
"Zhang Jing is pursuing him? Tsk tsk... I can't tell. Isn't she usually very pure and innocent?"
"The other party's girlfriend said she was out of town, a top student, and the relationship was in name only..."
"This will definitely not last long! They are all rational people..."
"Which one won't last long? The boy with his top student girlfriend or Zhang Jing?"
"All the same."
…
Zhang Jing didn't know how she was surrounded by rumors. If Cheng Ran was just a bunch of boys who thought they were awesome and wanted to ask him for advice, then Zhang Jing might have been facing a situation that had almost never happened before.
She may not have always been as eye-catching as she was in college. In fact, she was a good girl in the class in junior high and high school. She used to have bangs and a watermelon-shaped head, and wore big glasses at a very early age. Her family was strict. At that time, her father was very strict, even a little abnormal in her eyes. If she brought the unpleasant things at work home to him, she would be scolded. Sometimes the words he said were so harsh that she still remembers them clearly.
As a result, she has developed a rather timid character. She spent most of her time in baggy school uniforms until she finished high school and was admitted to the University of Science and Technology of China. As a form of rebellion, she started wearing contact lenses and began to love a variety of clothes that she had not dared to wear before. She may not really have good taste in clothes, and sometimes her outfits are even rather strange, but when she took off her glasses and changed from a watermelon-style head with bangs to shoulder-length hair, her outstanding appearance that had been hidden all along was revealed.
She participated in various college activities and seemed to be reborn in college.
There is this kind of situation where something completely different blossoms after being suppressed, and Zhang Jing is such a typical example.
In college, she seemed to be hard to pursue, and many people even privately believed that she had experienced many things and that most boys could not conquer her. In fact, it was not true, but she was afraid. On the one hand, she was afraid because she had never been in contact with boys before. Of course, it was not necessarily that many boys were picky. To some extent, Zhang Jing actually had an image of an ideal boy in her heart, but most of them were put aside, and most people could not achieve it.
So she may be aloof, but not arrogant.
However, the rumors that followed portrayed her as a shameless person.
Zhang Jing cried, but not in front of others. She looked haggard recently, and many people saw her appearance, which probably further confirmed the rumors.
So the things that didn't even exist between the two people involved were fermenting outside, and since they were in the same dormitory campus, it seemed that it was almost becoming a well-known fact in the dormitory campus. Even Cheng Ran felt that the atmosphere was not right.
Then Zhang Jing called on his mobile phone. After Cheng Ran picked up the phone, she said, "Let's meet."
…
The meeting between the two was not as sneaky and secretive as Cheng Ran's roommates had imagined. It was open and aboveboard, starting from where it was born, in the second canteen where the girls in the Juyuan District usually hang out the most, and not in the stir-fry private room, but in the most conspicuous position in the hall.
The two met and got food and water, all under the watchful eyes of people around them. When getting food, Zhang Jing said, "Each of us pays for our own."
Cheng Ran was stunned for a moment, then nodded.
The two of them bought their own meals and walked to the table in the middle of the lobby.
Those who were looking into the distance naturally felt that they had gotten the answer they had been speculating about but not confirming.
"Look... they're said to be together. They must have heard rumors before, but they didn't see each other very often. Now they can't sit still anymore!"
"Hey hey... go over closer and listen to what they are saying..."
During this process, several groups of people passed by Zhang Jing and Cheng Ran. They all greeted Zhang Jing with a smile, and then glanced at the two of them. Zhang Jing also agreed with a smile. It was even obvious that someone deliberately sat next to their table, but the two of them did not frown or show any strange behavior as if they were guilty.
But what they heard when they pricked up their ears was not right.
Zhang Jing said without hesitation, "Some people have been spreading rumors about the relationship between us recently. Have you heard about it?"
Cheng Ran nodded, "I know. I have people asking me about this every day. It's hard to explain."
"So do you think that I called you out because I want to make things clear between us and have no contact with each other in the future?"
Cheng Ran looked at Zhang Jing, whose eyes were clear, and could tell that recent events had affected her. She looked a little thinner, but she looked even brighter and prettier at this moment.
Cheng Ran said, "We are all adults. We have the ability to distinguish right from wrong and look at things. We shouldn't be like this."
"Pah!" Zhang Jing slapped her slender hand on the table and nodded skillfully. "That's right, you have a girlfriend, and I don't fancy you. That's why we openly declare war on this bad atmosphere. To a certain extent, this is also a manifestation of some phenomena in society. People prefer to hear what they want to hear about many things. No matter what the truth is, they pull things in the direction of excitement and curiosity. Many news media also have this tendency! But I will not let this strange situation get away from me! Why can't we be friends? Must it be the kind of relationship they imagine? I'm not afraid, so I called you out today, and the innocent will be innocent. If you want to back off, I won't force you."
"You called me out. Doesn't that mean you already have a definite answer?" Cheng Ran smiled.
Zhang Jing stretched out her five white fingers in front of Cheng Ran, "Nice to meet you."
“Oh oh oh…” This is the inner monologue of those around who are watching the fun and enjoying the trouble.
"Want to hold hands?"
"How can you hold hands like this? That's not right."
Cheng Ran smiled, "Nice to meet you." He also extended his hand and shook hands with her formally.
What the two of them said was not hidden from the people around them, and was overheard. Even if someone didn't hear it, the handshake, which was basically between friends rather than lovers, could make many things clear.
Zhang Jing is directly declaring war on those rumors in this way.
She is truly a unique woman.
Cheng Ran really appreciates this approach.
But little did people know that an alumnus from the top ten middle schools had just walked down from the stir-fry restaurant on the second floor, and he found the focus among countless people, and then ran away excitedly.
I even went to an Internet cafe to turn on a computer, logged into CQ, and opened the group chat marked with the name of the No. 10 Middle School Alumni Association.
Then a piece of news shocked the whole country.
"In our HKUST, I'm sure I didn't recognize the wrong person. Cheng Ran and a pretty girl are already openly dating!"