91. Clap, Clap, Clap
The three-day National Day holiday passed by quickly, and Ling Ning, despite her reluctance, had to return to school. Just the thought of two consecutive weeks of classes made her feel like she was being sentenced to something worse than death.
As she walked into the school, Ling Ning noticed something unusual—the number of eyes on her seemed greater than usual. She glanced down at herself—no wardrobe malfunctions here. She had carefully checked before leaving home; everything was in place.
“Must be that I’m even prettier than before,” she thought shamelessly.
Slowly walking into the classroom, she found the stares were even more intense. She sat down and was just about to ask Xu Qing what was going on when Xu Qing silently handed her a phone.
On the screen was the school’s forum, and there was a hot topic pinned right to the top—titled “Ling Ning’s Unspeakable Secret.” The username of the poster was a jumble of numbers and letters, clearly just someone randomly mashing their keyboard.
“Can they really post something like this on the school forum?” Ling Ning asked, her face expressionless.
“The teachers don’t get involved with the forum, so it’s managed by the student council,” Xu Qing explained.
Ling Ning let out a sigh. The title alone gave her a bad feeling. She clicked on the post, and sure enough—it was filled with photos of herself in her maid outfit. She recognized the ones from the café, though she had lost track of how many photos had been taken there. But what caught her off guard were the photos of her handing out flyers. When had those been taken?
Ling Ning examined each photo carefully, letting out a sigh of relief when she found that none of them were indecent. If they had inadvertently given out “free benefits,” she would have been utterly heartbroken.
“Oh, and you should check your Moments too—your photos are pretty popular right now,” Xu Qing said with a mischievous smile.
“My Moments?” Ling Ning muttered. Her contacts on WeChat were limited to only a few close acquaintances, and she almost never checked or posted anything in her Moments, so she had no idea what was going on.
“Here, look at mine. Even leaving out our classmates, I won’t tell you that my dad even shared your photos… and people have turned them into memes…”
Hearing Xu Qing’s words, Ling Ning almost spat out the tea she had just sipped. It was just a maid outfit, what was so fascinating about it? It’s not like no one’s seen one before. And making memes out of her? What kind of nonsense was that?!
“Whatever, it’ll all blow over soon enough,” Ling Ning decided, opting not to dwell on it.
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Thanks to her low profile, not many people knew Ling Ning at school. But after her maid photos were posted, almost everyone knew who she was.
This new popularity left Ling Ning feeling incredibly troubled. Every day, whether she was coming to or leaving school, she found herself under strange scrutiny. Even during class breaks, she sometimes ended up as an attraction, with students gathering around her. There were even classmates who asked her why she didn’t just wear her maid outfit to school.
Ling Ning was exasperated. How was she supposed to answer that? Who in their right mind would wear a maid outfit to school? This wasn’t an anime or a novel where such unscientific nonsense actually happened.
On top of that, she noticed an uptick in people confessing their feelings to her recently. Who wouldn’t want to date a stunning girl who was both a model and a maid—a beauty to dote on during the day and have passionate fun with at night?
Take, for instance, Sun Jie, who was currently standing in front of her.
Yes, it was Sun Jie—the school playboy who changed girlfriends like he changed clothes, the guy who thought he was some harem protagonist. He was also the guy who had been dumped by Li Qian after less than a week of dating.
Yes, Sun Jie had been dumped by Li Qian. After the holiday ended, she had publicly said, “Let’s break up,” and then walked away without looking back, leaving a completely baffled Sun Jie. He hadn’t even had the chance to ask why before it was all over.
Li Qian’s admirers had cheered upon hearing the news. When they initially found out that she had agreed to date Sun Jie, they had beaten their chests in despair, thinking another beautiful cabbage was about to be devoured by a pig. But the news of Sun Jie getting dumped brought them great joy—it was karmic justice at its finest.
For a guy like Sun Jie, who had always been the one to do the dumping, getting dumped in front of everyone was a devastating blow.
So, after breaking up with Li Qian, Sun Jie didn’t pursue anyone new. Instead, he spent several days contemplating a few questions: Why did things turn out this way? What did he do wrong? Why was Salty Fish so handsome?
After his deep introspection, Sun Jie set his sights on Ling Ning. Ever since seeing her in her maid outfit, he had been captivated, constantly thinking of ways to get her. She had the perfect figure, and the potential for some uniform play was simply irresistible.
After some investigation, he learned that Ling Ning loved small perks, like mooching meals off others. That made things easier—his only worry had been if she was the kind who wouldn’t be swayed by anything.
So, bright and early that morning, Sun Jie had bought a vibrant bouquet of roses from a flower shop near the school and waited at the school gate. According to his information, Ling Ning usually arrived at school around that time, and he planned to surprise her.
However, for reasons unknown, Ling Ning had woken up early today. After dropping her daughter off at school, she had entered the campus through the back gate, completely eluding poor Sun Jie, who waited until classes began without even a glimpse of her.
That small setback didn’t deter Sun Jie. If he couldn’t catch her in the morning, he’d wait for her after school. Once again, he bought flowers from the same shop and stood at the school gate.
But once again, Ling Ning didn’t appear. She had promised to pick her daughter up and still needed to buy groceries for dinner, so she left through the back gate again.
After two failed attempts, Sun Jie finally wised up. Instead of waiting at the gate, he brought the flowers straight to Ling Ning’s classroom. But…
He was promptly thrown out by Yu Wen and was then escorted to the dean’s office for a “talk.”
Yu Wen had been planning a pop quiz that combined homeroom and the first class of the day when Sun Jie barged in with a bouquet. Yu Wen, who hated disruptions, had exploded with anger, and Sun Jie’s fate was sealed.
When Sun Jie finally emerged from the dean’s office, he looked utterly defeated. Spending an entire morning being lectured was enough to break anyone’s spirit. If his family didn’t have some connections, they might have been calling his parents in at that point.
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Author’s Note:
I downloaded “3D Custom Maid 2” and really want to play, but I also need to write… Salty Fish is in a dilemma~