Without any reservations, Liu Xinyu cheered along with others for Yi Qin. It felt like she was back to her university days. She hadn't even graduated for that long and yet it felt like it was ages ago.
Yi Qin's winning shot made the crowd even more loud. His team members went to hug him and made noises to celebrate their win. It was just a friendly match but they made it seem like they won a championship or something.
Liu Xinyu found plenty of girls throwing shy glances towards Yi Qin and tsked to herself. But she didn't find these girls annoying either, who doesn't appreciate beauty? Besides, when a person shines like Yi Qin, he is sure to get appreciation from those around them.
"Who is that in the black jersey?" asked a girl from the one standing beside her. "I haven't seen him before."
"You're a freshman, of course, you haven't seen the heartthrob of the Business Administration Department," answered her friend as she touched her glasses. "But he was mostly found in the Architecture department for some reason. He has graduated already. Sometimes, he would still come to see the professors though. He seems to be loved by the professors."
"Oh, so he is a senior," said the first girl with a look of understanding. "Those guys seem to really look up to him."
"He was the captain of the basketball team," told the other girl. "Not only that, but because of him our university managed to win the championship against the students from Hexi University. It was such a legendary match. I can still remember the excitement of it."
Liu Xinyu silently continued to listen to gossip related to her own father. It was such an interesting experience. Then she watched how so many girls tried to offer him water or juice but Yi Qin kept refusing with a smile. He took a towel from the side and was wiping his sweat.
Liu Xinyu thought of something and looked around. She turned to a guy who was carrying a lot of water bottles, he seemed to be friends with the guys on the basketball team. She walked to him and smiled at him as she said, "Hi! Can you give me one bottle too? I'll pay."
The guy was so startled by her smile that he blushed and lowered his head refusing to even look into his eyes. Liu Xinyu found this so amusing that she almost laughed out loud. She really thought something was weird about the era. Why were men so easily blushing here? It made her feel like she was the bad guy.
Well, she was the bad guy but she didn't need to be reminded of that everywhere too.
"No... No, you can just take the water," the boy was stuttering as he managed to say this. "No need to pay."
"I don't wanna take advantage of you," said Liu Xinyu.
"It's just water," he managed to say in a small voice.
Liu Xinyu thought about it before agreeing, "Okay, then. Thank you! It's very sweet of you."
With that, she happily took the water bottle and entered the basketball court. Once she appeared, there were a lot of eyes directed at her. Especially of the guys who couldn't look away. The girls were curious about this new face and what she was up to. Seeing how she was walking in Yi Qin's direction, they all had a knowing look.
It wasn't surprising to see that a girl was going to offer Yi Qin water but they were also used to the routine of Yi Qin refusing all these advances politely. But this time, they were bound to be disappointed though.
Someone nudged Yi Qin and pointed behind him with his chin, "Here comes another one."
At first, Yi Qin didn't pay attention since he was not interested. Everyone knew that he had a girlfriend. He never hid this fact from anyone. If anything, he was known as the romantic guy from the Business Administratio department who couldn't stop praising his girlfriend anywhere and everywhere. Not only that, he just loved showing off his girlfriend so much that everyone around him was sick of it by now.
But even if everyone knew about his girlfriend, some girls wanted to take a chance to get his attention. Not only was he young, smart, well-mannered, but also came from a good family background. And let's not even begin to talk about his looks. There were hardly any rivals of his in their university. If one had to name one, it'd be the study tyrant from the IT department, Qi Yuze.
No matter how much Yi Qin didn't like these scenes, he was still a gentleman and wouldn't show his anger. In all honesty, in all his years at the university no one has ever seen him even frown at anyone in annoyance. He was just that mild tempered that made people feel like he was pushover but he wasn't. he just had impeccable manners and didn't feel the need to throw his temper around when it was unnecessary.
Finding these jokes really boring, Yi Qin was about to get some water for himself when someone tapped his shoulder. Yi Qin looked back and seeing Liu Xinyu he paused.
"I got you water," she shook the water bottle in front of him.
Yi Qin chuckled at her and took the water bottle from her hand. As if someone pressed a pause button, everyone around him went silent for a minute. Someone even gasped inexplicably at the turn of events. This stubborn guy who always believed that just taking a mere water bottle will lead to misconceptions and rumors, was actually happily accepting water from another girl.
"Is that his girlfriend?" someone asked in the crowd.
"No. I have seen his girlfriend before. This is new face. I have never seen her before."
They didn't notice that another Mr. Popular of their school was standing behind them and could hear everything. But his eyes were stuck on Liu Xinyu's body. It was none other than Qi Yuze who was earlier being pestered by Liu Xinyu.
Just a while ago she was she looking at him with the same smile on her face and the same look in her eyes too which practically made him feel like he was the whole world to her. But once he turned around, she changed her target to Yi Qin.
Qi Yuze looked at the close interaction between Liu Xinyu and Yi Qin as his eyes narrowed thoughtfully. Now he was very curious about who Liu Xinyu was. Who didn't know in their circle that Yi Qin was a lovefool? This guy only ever had eyes for one girl and that was his girlfriend. Apart from her, he even started to keep a distance from the opposite gender as a whole all because his girlfriend didn't like it.
Someone like him had a connection with the bold, confident, and strangely shameless Liu Xinyu. This was truly surprising and quite interesting. With one last look, he fixed his glasses and turned to leave.
On the other hand, as Yi Qin drank the water, he asked, "Are you done?"
"Yeah," answered Liu Xinyu. "What are you doing here? Didn't you go to see your girlfriend? Don't tell me you came to wait for me here?"
Yi Qin scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "I had nothing to do so I decided to just come and wait for you. These juniors saw me and pulled me to play with them as they were short of a player." He took a pause before asking in a serious manner, "Did you eat lunch?"
Liu Xinyu pursed her lips and said, "I didn't notice the time as I was reading."
"What's so interesting in books that you can lose track of time?" asked Yi Qin. "I don't understand you people who like reading. How can you miss lunch?" He looked at the time and tsked, "It's late now. The food at my university cafeteria is so good but you missed the time. Now, let's go out and find something to eat. I'm also hungry after playing."
Liu Xinyu agreed with him happily, "Okay. Let's go to eat together then."
"Wait for me over there in the shade, I'm gonna say goodbye to these guys."
Liu Xinyu nodded and obediently went where he pointed at.
Yi Qin picked up his things and said to the guys around, "I am leaving now. Let's play again if there is a chance."
"Senior, who is that? Your new girlfriend?" someone couldn't resist asking.
"No," replied Yi Qin. "She is... a friend." Actually, he didn't know what to say about Liu Xinyu. They know each other for a few days and he felt like they could be considered more than just friends. Oddly, he was more comfortable with her than he had ever been with anyone. Despite her being of the opposite gender.
Who knew he'd befriend a girl one day? Even he didn't think it was possible.
"I've gotta go. My friend is hungry."