Chapter 32: Shen Qingning Feels Off-Balance
For some reason, Lin Lu suddenly felt that her body’s sound insulation was extremely poor.
Thump! Thump! She could hear her heart pounding like thunder in the noisy private room.
Cheng Zhu had merely covered the dice cup firmly, yet it managed to make her feel teased.
From the very start, he had intentionally asked her to blow on the dice and then proceeded step by step, heightening the atmosphere bit by bit. Then he had deliberately forgotten to ask her to blow on it, which left her feeling a little displeased. Finally, with a subtle move, he had stirred her heart.
Everyone’s watching you. Why are you covering it up? Lin Lu shouted in her heart, feeling even more embarrassed. I can’t really be your lucky star, where my blowing on the dice will definitely let you win.
Jiang Wanzhou watched in stunned disbelief.
Cheng Zhu, are you filming a romantic drama in a private room?! he mentally complained, barely resisting the urge to hit him with two Bone Dissolving Palms.
Shen Minglang had mixed feelings.
When Cheng Zhu first asked Lin Lu to blow on the dice, he had thought, High schoolers are so childish! Fool!
But soon after, he realized that if you really were the king of dice and could win all the time, the girl would genuinely feel involved!
Of course, the prerequisite was that she didn’t dislike you and was willing to interact with you. Otherwise, it would just be: Blow, my foot!
But the brief interaction between these two just now really gave him the feeling of: “I think I might be shipping them!”
In the private room, the two influencers looked at Cheng Zhu’s roguishly handsome face and practically squealed in their hearts.
So this is what a little wolf dog (TL note: a handsome young man with both the fierce and loyal characteristics of a wolf and the cute and playful attributes of a dog) is like! the two women thought.
If Cheng Zhu knew what they were thinking, he might not be able to hold back a sarcastic remark. “What little puppy, what little wolf dog? So stupid.”
For example, the fat Liu Hongjing felt as though he were about to crumble.
Who wouldn’t have unrealistic fantasies about a heavenly sweet girl like Lin Lu?
She’s blushing. Damn it! She’s blushing because of him!
Only Shen Qingning watched everything from afar, her cold face frowning once more.
Her gaze was as sharp as lightning, locked on Cheng Zhu and Lin Lu, determined to observe their every small interaction.
There’s something off about Jiang Wanzhou’s friend, the cold and aloof girl thought.
* * *
In the next round of the game, Lin Lu was distracted and didn’t watch with the same tense focus as before.
… Until Cheng Zhu won again and raised his left hand for a high-five. After mechanically giving him a high-five, she finally returned to her senses.
Cheng Zhu continued to tease her, subtly blaming her. “See, we barely won this time!”
This is what happens when you don’t blow properly!
This time, he didn’t show off by calling out ‘Next’ immediately. Instead, he opened the dice cup and revealed the numbers honestly, showing true skill with a narrow victory.
The game was just like that. Even with superior skill and cheating, it was impossible to win every single time.
After winning five rounds in a row, Cheng Zhu gave off a completely different aura.
Even though he was the only one left on his team and the other side still had three players, everyone felt the outcome was still uncertain!
This mindset alone was enough to show how formidable he was!
What a joke. I’m the king of dice! Cheng Zhu was long accustomed to this. What pressure? This is pressure!
“Who’s next?” Liu Hongjing asked.
“I’ll go.” A cold, calm voice rang out as Shen Qingning stood up and picked up a dice cup from nearby, deliberately not using the one her teammates had been using.
Originally, Lin Lu was a little embarrassed about blowing in front of everyone.
But when she saw that the next opponent was her best friend, Shen Qingning, she immediately broke into an ‘evil’ smile and blew fiercely into Cheng Zhu’s dice cup. “Fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh!”
Clearly, they were best friends.
Shen Qingning looked at Lin Lu, whose cheeks puffed up from blowing, and said in annoyance, “Are you a fan or something? You’re blowing nonstop!”
“I don’t care!” Lin Lu glanced at her, then lowered her head and kept blowing. “Fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh!”
Shen Qingning felt her irritation rising due to Lin Lu’s antics.
The round ended quickly.
When facing Sheng Qingning, Cheng Zhu was as ruthless as an autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves.
There was no trace of courtesy. His every move was a testament to how weak he thought she was.
Once again, he shouted arrogantly, “Next!”
He didn’t even glance at Shen Qingning’s dice, confident of his victory.
This made the aloof girl feel a bit uncomfortable, sensing the clear difference in treatment. His attitude towards Lulu and me is so different.
But she wasn’t usually like this. Normally, she wouldn’t think about these messy things at all, let alone compare herself to her good sister.
It felt strange.
Shen Qingning hadn’t expected that a simple drinking game could inexplicably make her feel off-balance.
Shen Minglang stood up and called out, “Your team only has two lives left! Haha, Sun Yue, why don’t you go next? You’re pretty bad at this!”
Sun Yue, one of the minor influencers, had sat next to Shen Minglang during dinner, and their interactions were notably close.
Sun Yue looked at Cheng Zhu with a smile. “Handsome, please let me win.”
Seeing her act like this, Lin Lu, almost without thinking, gently bumped her calf against Cheng Zhu as a warning.
Cheng Zhu chuckled and looked at Shen Minglang. “Cousin, I think she’s trying to get you to drink more.”
“No way!” Shen Minglang immediately waved his hand. “Don’t listen to her. I can’t drink anymore today!”
Cheng Zhu easily won another round and thought in surprise, Sun Yue is really as bad as Shen Minglang said.
He was experienced and knowledgeable, so he knew that many girls out for fun were actually very skilled.
If she kept losing to you, it was because she was intentionally throwing herself at you. Did you really think she was a bad player? In fact, she was playing the long game!
She would look at you with admiration and call you amazing, all while secretly plotting to take you down.
Now, only the bespectacled man, Wang Wei, was left.
From Shen Minglang’s introduction earlier, this person seemed to be helping his family with e-commerce, but Cheng Zhu didn’t know what he was selling.
Suddenly, all the pressure was on Wang Wei.
All seven of his teammates had actually been knocked out!
“We can’t lose!” Liu Hongjing even piled on pressure from the sidelines.
Cheng Zhu grinned. Psychological warfare is the way to win.
So he said, “Didn’t someone earlier say that the usual rules involve… oh, right, double!”
When he said the word ‘double’ in English, his pronunciation was particularly clear, and many people laughed.
“I can’t remember who said it,” Cheng Zhu continued. “But since the rules include a double-drink penalty, then as the last person on my team, it should apply if I win one against eight, right?”
Upon hearing this, Shen Minglang immediately became excited. He stood up and shouted at Liu Hongjing, “Yes, that’s right! If there’s a double, there’s a reverse-double! Since Cheng Zhu is our last player, if he wins one against eight, you guys will have to drink double!”
“Woohoo!” Shen Minglang no longer cared about the outcome. He felt that he had already won in terms of momentum.
Even if their team ended up with the penalty drinks, Shen Minglang would happily chug away, letting his younger teammates drink less. After all, the point was to have fun!
Meanwhile, Wang Wei felt even more pressure mounting on him.
It felt like they weren’t playing a game anymore. They were playing for the pride of their team!
—The pride of a man at the drinking table!
Over here, it was already a battle of pride, while over there, they were still flirting.
Cheng Zhu gently nudged Lin Lu, who had moved closer to him, and whispered, “There’s no need to blow anymore. You can shake this round.”
“Really?” She looked at him with eyes as innocent as a young deer and then said excitedly, “Okay!”
She shook the dice cup vigorously several times and then pushed it to him.
Earlier, Cheng Zhu had told his teammates not to look at his dice because he suspected there was a mole on the team.
But this time, he played the exception card again and said to Lin Lu, “Since you shook it yourself, you can look.”
He then waved for her to come closer, and the girl cooperatively leaned in, bringing her face near his.
Their faces side by side, they lowered their heads to look at the dice.
Cheng Zhu felt a ticklish sensation on his left cheek. Lin Lu’s hair had brushed against him.
Ah, you tickled me with your hair first. As compensation in the future, there might be a classic moment—”Cheng Zhu, you pressed on my hair.”
Shen Qingning watched from the other side, her brows furrowed. She had never seen Lulu so close to a boy before. Your faces are practically sticking together!
She slipped into a memory, recalling a conversation she had once had with Lin Lu. They had talked about whether or not to date during college.
Shen Qingning had said she had no intention of dating in college.
Lin Lu had said with anticipation, “If I meet someone I like, I will definitely date him.”
Shen Qingning calmly replied, “Only fools fall in love.”
To her surprise, Lin Lu giggled, revealing her cute dimples, and said with a tone full of longing, “I want to be a fool.”