Chapter 7：Dropping into the Fujoshi Pit

After a long period of consolation, Ji Chen finally managed to calm Xiaonian down.

Following that, Ji Chen painstakingly lulled Xiaonian to sleep. Throughout the entire night, Ji Chen was ridden with the fear that Xiaonian would attempt suicide. As such, he constantly went to her room to check on her and returned to his room only after he had made sure nothing was amiss. 

In truth, however, Ji Xiaonian had remained awake the entire night. As she lay in her bed, her thoughts were filled with images of Bai Yan.

Her heart still ached, and as she tucked herself within her sheets, tears silently streamed down her face.

'Does this count as heartbreak?'

In her mind, Xiaonian had already regarded herself as heartbroken, and as a result, her mood had worsened.

On the second day, Xiaonian listlessly made her way downstairs. Upon noticing that Ji Chen was waiting for her to eat breakfast together, she walked towards the table and greeted, "Morning, brother."

Ji Chen put down the newspaper in his hand and gestured for the housemaid to bring out breakfast. He then took a glance at his sister's face. However, once he saw her deep, dark, panda eyes, his heart ached.

"Rough night?"

Ji Chen thought to himself, 'She must not have slept well. Otherwise, there's no way her dark circles would be this serious.'

Ji Xiaonian lowered her head, and in a raspy voice, she answered, "I'm fine, brother. Although it's a Sunday, I'm kinda bored staying at home. While you make your way to the office later, could you send me to school? I'm thinking of returning."

Ji Xiaonian was worried that she would think back on the events the previous night if she were to linger at home any longer. After all, whenever she thought about the incident, her heart would ache.

Whenever her heart ached, she would feel like crying.

'Maybe if I return to school and have fun with my friends, I'll forget the incident last night. Who knows, I might even forget that man completely!'

'Since I'm completely absent within his heart, I should kill this dream of mine as well.'

After a brief moment of silence, Ji Chen agreed to her wishes, and with a nod, stated, "Alright, I'll send you to school once we finish breakfast. But, Xiaonian, are you certain that you're fine?"

He was still worried about the little girl before him. After all, throughout her entire life, she had never faced adversity. As such, he was extremely worried that Ji Xiaonian's heart was still wounded by Bai Yan's cruel remarks, and that she would be unable to live a normal life.

Female college students committing suicide was all the rage in recent news.

'As the precious jewel of their family, should anything happen to her, I'll never be able to make it up to my parents!'

"I'm fine!"

Ji Xiaonian forced a smile before lowering her head and continuing her breakfast in silence.

She was a mature lady, and naturally, as to not worry her brother, she would not carry out any silly acts.

After finishing breakfast, Ji Chen personally drove Ji Xiaonian to Ning University.

Likely due to it being the weekend, there were not many people around the university. After dropping off his little sister and making sure she had entered the campus grounds, Ji Chen then drove back.

Ji Xiaonian immediately headed to her dorm.

As it was the weekend, Ji Xiaonian had originally assumed that her friends were already off somewhere having fun.

Contrary to her expectations, however, she was greeted with the sight of her dormmates lying in bed and scrolling through their phones on who-knows-what.

Ji Xiaonian plopped herself onto her bed and then asked her neighboring dormmate, "Why aren't you guys going out? It's finally the weekend, don't you think it's a waste to spend it in the dorm?"

Since Ji Xiaonian returned home every weekend, she had not expected her dormmates, who never returned, to spend their day in the dorm.

"Quiet! Quiet! I'm trying to watch my Ye Xiaoer here." Tang Caiqi waved her hand, dismissed Ji Xiaonian, and continued to stare into her phone.

'Ye Xiaoer?'

Ji Xiaonian scrunched her brows in curiosity. 'What's that thingamajig?' 

Ji Xiaonian then walked to the bed opposite hers, and with a smile, made conversation by asking, "Xiao Xiao, what are you girls so engrossed in? What are you girls watching?"

She hopped onto Xiao Xiao's bed and with widened eyes, stole a glance at the contents of Xiao Xiao's phone.

Xiao Xiao twisted her head around and smiled. She then brought her phone forward and put it in front of Ji Xiaonian's face. "I'm reading a novel! It can be found on QQ Reader. Girl, A Smile that Crushes Morning's works are just amazing! Right now, we're reading her finished novel, 'Love After Marriage: The Two-faced Husband and the Ridiculously Cute Wife'. I'll let you in on a secret, the male protagonist is so darn cool! I love him so much!"

"The female protagonist is also pretty cute, though," Tang Caiqi interjected.

"What I love the most within this novel is the gay couple, Ye Jinyang and Jin Shangyu. Ahhhhh, I adore them so much!" Fang Miaoling spoke as if she was talking about something extremely exciting and stared at Ji Xiaonian with wide eyes.

"My dear Xiaonian, you should give it a read as well. The novel is seriously great. I guarantee that once you read it, you'll love it so much that you'll forget to eat."

"…"

Seeing as her dormmates had abandoned their outdoor entertainment in exchange for the novel, Ji Xiaonian was beginning to grow curious about the novel, especially since all her dormmates had praised it. 'Just what kind of novel has managed to make my dormmates addicted?'

She brought out her phone and realized that she had forgotten the novel's name. She then asked, "What's the book called again?"

"Love After Marriage: The Two-faced Husband and the Ridiculously Cute Wife, it's written by A Smile that Crushes Mornings. You'd better not search for the wrong thing!" The dormmates cried out one after another.

Ji Xiaonian smiled as she turned on her handphone. She then opened up her QQ Reader app to search the novel, and as expected, the novel popped up.

In order to forget about the events of the previous night along with that man, Ji Xiaonian forced herself to read the novel while lying on her bed.

She read the novel at a relaxed pace, and before long, she had become addicted to it.

For the rest of the week, be it in class, after class, while eating, or while sleeping, she constantly held her phone by her side. She was completely and utterly addicted to the novel.

So much so that even when she slept, she would dream of the novel's contents.

After a week of being engrossed in the novel, Ji Xiaonian had finally come across the gay couple, Ye Jingyang and Jin Shangyu. Ever since then, perhaps due to her engrossment with the novel, whenever she encountered a pair of males walking together, she would have a strong suspicion that they were a couple.

Her dormmates had even joked around and said that she had dropped into the fujoshi pit.

Initially, Ji Xiaonian was unsure of what the word, 'fujoshi' meant. However, after a quick search online, she finally understood. It was a word that referred to those who liked reading Boys Love novels. In other words, it was a term to describe girls who liked to imagine homosexual dealings between males.

Ji Xiaonian thought to herself, 'I've really become a fujoshi.'

Due to the trance that the novel had put her in, the incident involving Bai Yan had completely disappeared from her mind, and her mood had improved.

Another week had passed, and Ji Xiaonian was preparing to return from her visit to the bookshop near her school after buying several Boys Love novels. 

Just as she left the shop, however, her phone rang.

She dug out her phone, and upon realizing that it was from her brother, she immediately answered it.

"Hello? Brother, aren't you coming to pick me up today?"

Usually, when her brother was not out on a business trip, he would personally come over to pick her up every Friday. However, even after visiting each of the campus' entrances, she still found no signs of her brother's vehicle.

"Xiaonian, the company's holding an anniversary celebration today. So, I won't have the time to come and fetch you. Should I send someone to bring you to the office instead? There's some pretty good food here."

Once she heard that there would be good food, Ji Xiaonian immediately smacked her lips with hungry eyes. She vigorously nodded her head as she answered, "Yes! Yes! I'll give you a call once I reach your office."

"Deal."

The moment she hung up, Ji Xiaonian immediately spotted a cool-looking sports car. It had stopped right in front of her, and immediately after, someone poked their head out and asked her with a smile, "So, you're Ji Xiaonian?"