Ming Ying was still in a daze, shocked by this idea.
Mark had already gotten up, beginning to teach his martial arts secret manual.
“Chatting can’t be limited to just text. It needs the support of pictures and sounds.”
“Pictures can’t be too simple either; they need a little finesse.”
As Mark spoke, he actually picked up his phone to demonstrate.
He arched his back, lifted the hem of his round-neck t-shirt with his left hand, and angled his phone downwards with his right hand, taking a very blurry yet direct selfie of his abs.
At the same time, he provided his own commentary with a sultry voice: “Your voice has to be like this, not too thin, not too rough, but a hint of sexiness nestled within a delicate coarseness…”
Ming Ying: “…”
Clearly, Ming Ying felt the level of drama Mark was suppressing could rival the two guys in his childhood friends group.
“Ming, how’s that? Not bad, right?” Mark raised an eyebrow at Ming Ying. “I’ve never failed with this move.”
Truthfully, as a top-tier flirt, Mark’s live demonstration was vivid and expressive. But Ming Ying pulled at the corner of his mouth, scratched his head, and laughed, “This… isn’t it a bit inappropriate? Wouldn’t it be a little disrespectful?”
“Tsk.” Mark sat back on the sofa and sighed, speaking almost earnestly, “Dear Ming, being too much of a gentleman won’t win you the girl. You need to be a little bit of a tease. Believe me, if your girl has feelings for you, she won’t mind at all. On the contrary, she’ll even be happy you did it. It shows she’s attractive, right?”
“Don’t forget, your girl is a sought-after blonde-haired, blue-eyed hot chick!”
Ming Ying coughed. Damn. He really had almost forgotten—XI was a foreigner!
Would she actually prefer Mark’s direct style…?
Student Ming Ying fell into deep self-doubt.
At that moment, the phone buzzed again with a ‘weng’.
Ming Ying put down the fine notice and picked up his phone. The screen showed a familiar scenic campus profile picture—it was a message from XI!
Probably out of a guilty conscience, Ming Ying’s heart suddenly started racing.
He tousled his hair before opening the phone. He saw the other party had sent a compressed video file.
XI: [Video.zip]
Ming Ying frowned instinctively.
Just as he was still wondering why XI would suddenly send him a compressed video file, Mark leaned in from behind. He glanced at the screen and asked, “Your girl sent you a video? What is it?”
Ming Ying frowned and shook his head. “Don’t know.”
Mark clapped his hands. “That’s easy. Don’t download it yet. I’ll reply for you.”
“Huh?”
Ming Ying was stunned. In a flash, Mark had snatched his phone away.
Hearing Mark’s fingers tapping away on the phone’s keyboard, Ming Ying finally snapped back to reality and hurriedly got up. “Mark, don’t mess around! Can you even read Chinese?”
“Oh ho! Sent successfully!”
After hitting send, Mark placed the phone on the coffee table and laughed, “My mission is complete. The rest is up to you, Ming!”
A feeling of ominous foreboding instantly sprouted in Ming Ying’s heart. He picked up his phone skeptically and looked. Immediately, his eyes widened in disbelief!
The dialogue on the screen read:
XI: [Video.zip]
Mingo: “What is this? Is it the p.o.r.n I want?”
Mingo: [Puppy wink.jpg]
!!!
Holy crap. Ming Ying couldn’t help but curse out loud.
He looked up and yelled, “Mark!”
At that moment, Mark had already moved towards the entrance hall, ready to go out. He turned back to flash Ming Ying a toothy grin. “Ming, good luck to you~”
Ming Ying felt he must have lost his mind to let Mark, that British guy who’d romanced his way across countless fields of love, give him ideas!
But what was even more awkward was that, after scrolling up and down the chat history and opening that video, he despairingly discovered that XI had simply packaged a tutorial video on how to prevent false fire alarms for him.
The resounding first line of the video: “Three methods to prevent accidentally triggering your apartment’s fire alarm.”
“…”
Ming Ying was practically spitting blood. The other party was so upright, sending him an educational video, and he had replied with that kind of talk… The image he had painstakingly built was ruined in an instant!
Karma!
It had to be karma.
What was he supposed to do now?
For the first time, Ming Ying wanted to embrace religion. Could God save him?
No. A successor of socialism had to rely on himself!
First, Student Ming Ying agonized. His first reaction was to recall that message, but clearly, Mark, as an N University student, had at least that much foresight. The time limit had passed, and it couldn’t be retracted at all.
So, Student Ming Ying held his forehead. He drafted and redrafted his words, trying to organize his language, but nothing sounded right. So he exited the page, attempting to play dead. But his conscience wouldn’t allow it, so he could only open the chat interface again. Switching back and forth three times like this, even his phone couldn’t take it anymore and suddenly popped up a notification: Battery below 20%! Please charge promptly!
Finally, Student Ming Ying sighed. After failing to salvage his image, he deployed the last resort: the art of burying his head in the sand—he sent over a dozen more puppy stickers after that sentence.
It seemed he was attempting to drown the other party with puppy stickers…
This directly caused the phone in the inner pocket of Silas’s suit jacket, who was currently in a meeting at the Law School, to buzz “bzz bzz bzz” over a dozen times…
The N University Law School always started early. Fortunately, this wasn’t a lecture but an internal discussion meeting, so Silas didn’t need to speak. Because the vibration was so noticeable, he frowned briefly and raised his hand to take out his phone.
Upon opening it, there was only one sender.
However, there were over a dozen messages. Silas’s gaze moved upwards from the bottom, one by one.
Mingo: [Puppy shaking head.jpg]
Mingo: [Puppy wagging tail.jpg]
Mingo: [Puppy spinning in circles.jpg]
Mingo: [Puppy withdrawing from the world.jpg]
Mingo: [Puppy sighing.jpg]
…
When he saw the line in English at the very top, Silas narrowed his eyes slightly, then let out a soft laugh.
His laugh was very light, almost just a breath of air, making it impossible to tell his mood.
But it was still heard by Catherine, who was sitting nearby. So, Secretary Catherine subconsciously moved her rear end a little further away.
As everyone knew, Mr. Aston was a very proper and gentlemanly person, and he valued etiquette greatly.
Under such circumstances, for him to laugh aloud despite etiquette, it was probably because some clueless fool had provoked him again.
Secretary Catherine silently prayed in her heart that it wasn’t those idiots from the School Board, otherwise she would have to stay up late working overtime cleaning up the mess again.
…
On the other side, Ming Ying waited for XI’s reply as if awaiting his sentence.
He sprawled on the sofa, staring at his phone. Suddenly, in one instant, one blue checkmark became two!
Ming Ying shot upright.
However, XI didn’t reply.
He waited for a while longer; still read but no reply.
This was far worse than a verdict.
Ming Ying tossed his phone away and buried his face in the sofa, leaving only his spiky hair to accept judgment.
After lying like that for a while, Ming Ying thought, this wouldn’t do.
So he lifted his head again, picked up his phone, took a deep breath, and began typing with a smile, as if XI could see him from the other side.
Mingo: Sorry, XI. I had my phone in my pocket this morning and accidentally triggered the screen, sending a bunch of stickers. Just ignore them.
It was a clumsy excuse.
But the phone buzzed once. Then again.
Ming Ying’s hand trembled.
XI: Mn.
XI: You accidentally triggered quite a lot of areas.
Damn damn damn damn…!
Ming Ying held his head. Did she see it or not?
Just as he was agonizing, another message popped up on the screen.
XI: How did you accidentally trigger the fire alarm this morning?
Ming Ying blinked, not understanding how the topic had jumped. But since she wasn’t pressing the issue, did that mean she hadn’t seen it?
Whatever, just chat about anything. The more said, the better, to bury what was above.
Mingo: Cooking ><
Mingo: I can’t cook, haha. Just messed around making something myself.
Mingo: Who knew it would suddenly trigger the fire alarm.
Mingo: Really stupid, right?
Mingo: I didn’t want it to happen either.
Mingo: Ah, you know cooking is so hard…
He was about to type more to send when the other side suddenly interrupted him.
XI: Ming. Don’t spam.
“…”
Damn. Ming Ying’s movements halted.
This seemed to be the first time she had added his name while chatting…
What was this? Why did it suddenly feel like his name sounded quite nice?
But what did telling him not to spam mean?
So she knew he was intentionally spamming? Meaning, she probably saw it after all?
Then if she saw it, why didn’t she ask him why he sent that? Wasn’t she curious?
The small amount of good mood Ming Ying had sank again. He felt agitated, buried his face in the sofa for a moment, then sat back up.
He decided to throw caution to the wind and sent: You saw it, right? What I sent? That crude remark.
This time, the other side took about ten minutes to read it and reply.
Ming Ying secretly squinted at his phone.
XI: Yes, I saw it. Did you not want me to see it?
Damn it.
Mingo: I’m sorry, XI. It was a prank by my friend. I’m really sorry.
Mingo: Please forgive me.
Buzz.
XI: It’s fine.
XI: I didn’t say I minded.
