Getting Outsmarted By The CEO

The song the Sports Committee member chose was an old one.
No matter if it had a music video, karaoke parlors usually paired old songs with random MVs.

Ruan An’an couldn’t see, so she didn’t know that the other girls were not squealing over just the actor’s shirtless body, but also over the fact that he was somewhat famous.

Gu Jue’s “If you really want to see, your boyfriend could strip for you” resonated in her head.
It sounded as if spoken from the Sports Committee member’s mic, broadcasted in surround sound.

Ruan An’an gritted her teeth and thought, this guy really has no filter, spewing indecency, line after line.

The fingers on her eyelids were cold.
She tried to open her eyes but failed.
Gu Jue noticed her movements and covered her eyes even tighter, ensuring that she couldn’t peek through any gaps.

“Don’t move, it’s still his scene… wait until he’s dressed.” Gu Jue sounded dissatisfied, “Is this a f̲u̲c̲k̲i̲n̲g̲ p̲o̲r̲n̲o̲? Why is he still naked…”

Ruan An’an: … You liar, it’s probably just a scene of him working out.

Did he forget about mentioning the dumbbell earlier? Such talent for smearing something black.

Ruan An’an felt speechless.
She shifted her head.
It was loud so she wasn’t afraid of others overhearing her, “hey, why won’t you let me look?”

“I’m not stopping you from looking…” Gu Jue changed the topic, “But… this guy looks a bit familiar? I think he was in some drink commercial? No wonder the girls are squealing so hard.”

Ruan An’an: “Just let me look, I can probably recognize him.”

Ruan An’an wasn’t into celebrity culture and felt nothing for good-looking men on the screen.
After all, there is always a difference between what you see on the screen and their appearance in real life.

Her favorite things to watch were often Western, so trending or not, she didn’t really know any celebrity’s face.

She intentionally said that to see Gu Jue’s reaction.

Three seconds of silence.

“No, no looking.” He refused outright.

Ruan An’an: …

She couldn’t understand, even if the actor was good-looking and had a great figure, shouldn’t Gu Jue have more confidence being the man who landed on the front page of their school forum just with his face and waist?

“Student Gu, tell me the truth.” Ruan An’an deduced the reason behind his childish behaviors, which was very laughable, “… Do you feel that the guy is hotter than you, and was afraid that I might fangirl as much as the other girls?”

However, her hypothesis was proven to be wrong.

“Hotter than me? Him? With those fake muscles?” Gu Jue laughed at it like a joke, his voice filled with amusement, “The difference between me and him is about one hundred Hao Lians.”

Ruan An’an: …

She was wrong, utterly and absolutely.

To hell with not being confident, this guy’s dictionary is titled “Confidence”, and the first page says “I am the hottest in the world.”

By the time the actor put on his shirt again, the song was almost over, and Ruan An’an’s eyes were finally freed from their confinement.

She immediately turned to look at Gu Jue.

After being kept in the dark for so long, she was determined to get an answer, “Not this, not that, so why did you cover my eyes?”

The couple stared into each other for a few seconds.

Suddenly, Gu Jue straightened up.
Curling the corner of his lips, he leaned over.

“No other reasons, really,” he explained in a whisper, “I simply didn’t want you to see another man naked.”

…

There was a huge round of applause when the Sports Committee member finished his song.

His name was Lin Ran, but no one called him by his name.
Ruan An’an only found out when she was looking at the results of the Sports Meet.

He was popular with classmates of both genders.
For other classes, the girls usually had a common “gay best friend”, the kind with good looks and a loud mouth.
But for Finance Class 1, the girls’ best guy-friend was Lin Ran the worrywart.

Ruan An’an casually grabbed a handbell and handed a clapper to Gu Jue.
The couple cheered with the rest of the class, unenthusiastically though.

Qiu Yan just so happened to turn her head at that moment and saw this scene.

To be fair, the vibes those two had were vastly different from the rest of them.

Ruan An’an always had a smile on her face, but her beauty made her seem unapproachable.
Before you got to know her, you would think she was hard to get along with.

Gu Jue too, being so handsome and often expressionless, clearly was standoffish.

The two Gods sat there, exuding the “we’re only here out of respect” energy.
Their faces were unamused even as they cheered on the Sports Committee member.

Without any communication, somehow the couple was absurdly in-sync.

Qiu Yan took the opportunity during the bright moments between songs to snap a picture of the couple.

When people do karaoke together, most people usually start off too shy to step up, encouraging everyone but themselves to go, but once someone takes the lead, the rest would follow and even start fighting over who goes next.

Ruan An’an did not expect how much she and Gu Jue got called upon.
None of them were asking them to sing either.

“This ‘Single Love Song’ is for the most well-known couple in our class.
I want to tell them…”

“I also gift my ‘A Lone Wolf’ to that very obnoxious couple sitting over there.
It’s time you had some sympathy…”

“I dedicated this ‘Walking in the Chilling Wind’ to Mr.
and Mrs.
Gu.
I’m sure you’ve never experienced the bone-chilling loneliness of single dogs…”

“…”

Ruan An’an: (I may be smiling but I’m secretly swearing at you.jpg)

It’s all Gu Jue’s fault! He’s the one being so extra! She was also a victim who got dragged into all his antics!

Feeling wrongly accused, she kept her smile up while sneaking a hand over to Gu Jue to pinch his arm.

And…

Her hand wasn’t strong enough.

Huh?

Her mind naturally thought back to how Gu Jue criticized the actor’s muscles as being fake.
She didn’t know whether the actor’s muscles were real or not, but… Gu Jue’s definitely were.

Ruan An’an tested out the feel of his muscles again.

Gu Jue turned to look at her, “What are you doing?”

His expression was suggestive, “Are you pinching me, or…” a pause, he smiled mischievously, “seducing me?”

“…” Ruan An’an forgot to breathe for a moment.
She opened her mouth, but before her words came out, the song “Walking in the Chilling Wind” was over, and the Sports Committee member began shouting “Who else has songs for Mr.
and Mrs.
Gu? All are welcome!”

Gu Jue was the first one to step up.

With his long legs, it didn’t take many strides to reach the stage.
Ruan An’an watched as he took over the mic and made a very high-key declaration.

“If it’s like this, I’d feel bad if I didn’t show off in return for all your enthusiasm.” He said as he was poking on the screen, “Then I will do a…”

Before the last word of his sentence, he was interrupted by the Sports Committee member, who stopped his arm and grabbed the mic from him.

Gu Jue: ?

Some girls were always bursting with laughter.
The Sports Committee member cleared his throat, “Gu God, pardon us, since day one of dating your girlfriend, you’ve been torturing the single dogs of our class.
It has been going on for too long already.
There is no way we let you show up your affections in public today!”

According to their logic, the only reason for Gu Jue to attend an event like this was to show off.

And if he had to sit amidst this group of single dogs singing and enjoying themselves, unable to do anything, Gu Jue could probably implode.

As expected, Gu Jue got so angry that he sneered.
Hugging his arms, he looked at the Sports Committee member through squinted eyes, “Then why did you drag us here? Huh? To clear our ears?”

The Sports Committee member was around 180cm, but Gu Jue was still a bit taller.

To be honest, this angle, this expression, and this aura, all gave a sense of pressure.
But at least they were basketball teammates, so the Sports Committee member only took a bit to react.

“The two of you increase our class’s average attractiveness just be here.”

“…”

What a quick tongue.

Luckily, this compliment hit just the spot for Gu God.
So, even though he was rejected, he reluctantly accepted it since his girlfriend got praised.

Gu Jue never stepped on stage again.
Inside the private room, there was a fruit platter at each table.
For the rest of the event, he sat beside Ruan An’an, forking pieces of watermelon or peeling tangerines, sending them into Ruan An’an mouth whenever it was free.
He also snuck in a few kisses, annoying Ruan An’an with his clinginess.

Unbeknownst to Ruan An’an, while Gu Jue was acting like the model boyfriend that he was, their personal paparazzi, Qiu Yan, had captured plenty of shipping material for the forums.

A few more songs passed.
Two girls sat down beside Ruan An’an after singing.
Ruan An’an didn’t mean to overhear their conversation, but they were speaking so loudly that it was impossible not to.

“… Sigh, that Fire Omen yesterday was so hard! I swear it’s impossible for us F2Ps! We died so many times, I’m crying over how many Revival Elixirs I’ve used!”
TL/N: F2P = free to play, referring to players who don’t spend real-life money to buy in-game top-ups or items

“I agree! Pulling all-nighters can’t even match a 648-yuan gift pack! I’m letting them take my money tonight!”

This sounded like… Ruan An’an was intrigued.
She tapped the shoulder of the girl sitting next to her, “Hey, are you talking about a game? Online game?”

“Yeah, yeah! We play ‘6 Realms’.” The girl was visibly excited, “Do you play? Don’t tell me Gods of Studying also play online games!”

Ruan An’an laughed.
“Not yet, but I’m planning to.”

The report she sent to Lin Songbai after visiting the Fan Lin project received positive reviews.
Her idea was highly workable, so her gramps asked her to try out the most popular games on the market and compare their playing experience.
“6 Realms” was at the top of the list.

But with “6 Realms”…

At first, Ruan An’an had high hopes for this established title under the Gu Company.
Any images related to it were exquisite, and very much to her taste.
But then, she found out from her besties that it was developed by the second son of the Gu family.

Maybe it was because she overheard Ruan Lin fangirling over this guy on the phone that one time, Ruan An’an’s only impression of him right now was that he was Ruan Lin’s dream guy.

With this label, this “dream guy of every lady in Qing Cheng”/IT God/”second son of the Gu family” suddenly lost all his appeal.

Even her interest in the game was affected.

But she had already done trying all the other games.
Next was “6 Realms.”

The two girls enthusiastically welcomed her to try it out and continued discussing the instance.

Gu Jue had been feeding fruits to Ruan An’an nonstop and she also drank plenty of juice herself.
Feeling the state of her body, she decided to leave for the washroom.

The washroom was easy to find, just at the end of the hall.

The moment Ruan An’an pushed open the door, she became a bit confused and wondered if she somehow teleported back to the school.

One of the faucets was running, and the person in front of it was a familiar face.

The young lady of the Xia family.
The least annoying one of Ruan Lin’s friend group.
Xia Meng.

After meeting her the past two times, especially that time with the toilet paper, she didn’t seem that unpleasant.
Without needing to mind her words, Ruan An’an asked in surprise, “Why are you here?”

Xia Meng was washing her hands when Ruan An’an entered.
She also made a pause when she noticed her.
“Our class came here to party… You?”

It seemed like all the departments withheld the prize money until now… So, it wasn’t strange for the two classes to coincide here.

“Oh,” Ruan An’an immediately understood, “us too.”

Xia Meng smiled, “What luck.”

This smile emitted gentle goodwill, as if they were just two strangers from the same university that only met once in a toilet paper emergency.

Ruan An’an was always one for making friends.
Aside from not disliking her, just Xia Meng’s attitude and the fact that their grandpas were best buddies… Ruan An’an smiled back.

It would be hard to become friends, but at least they needn’t be enemies.
Ruan Lin was not worth it.

Ruan An’an entered a stall.
After noticing the corner of toilet paper peeking out, she didn’t pay it any more mind.
But when she tried to pull it—

There was only a short stub!

It was empty inside the opaque holder!!!

“…”

If she recalled correctly, she still hadn’t heard the door opening and closing.

Which meant… Xia Meng should still be here.

Déjà vu.

Ruan An’an clenched her jaw, “… Um, are you still here?”

“Huh?” The reply came quickly, “I’m fixing my lipstick, do you need something?”

“Cough…” Ruan An’an could feel herself blushing, but no matter how embarrassed she was, she had to face it, “I wasn’t paying attention and just realized that there’s no toilet paper left… can you pass me some from the other stalls?”

“…”

After handing the tissue to Ruan An’an and receiving her thanks, Xia Meng realized how familiar this situation was.

It was also a little uncanny, being swapped in positions.

She smiled and was on her way back to the private room when her phone buzzed in her pocket.

TL/N:
Xia Meng seems reasonable.
We’ll see a bit more of her in the next chapter/part.

(Sorry for the delay, I’ve been a bit behind on my schedule)