Chapter 10: Forming a Team
He Siming said, “Li Yizhou, your takeout arrived. The guys from the dorm next door picked it up for you—I brought it in on the way.”
Li Yizhou was spared a trip downstairs and said happily, “Thanks! Let’s eat together, let’s eat together. This place’s grilled chicken rack is insanely good—the bones are so crispy you can eat them. I ordered spicy and cumin flavors. Which one do you want?”
Jiang Rong said, “Spicy.”
He Siming said, “Cumin.”
They answered at the same time.
Jiang Rong hadn’t expected that less than half an hour after they separated, He Siming would be back in the dorm.
He lowered his head, not daring to look too much, but the fragrant chicken rack made his mouth water. These past few days he’d actually been eating pretty healthily—everything was ordered from big restaurants by He Siming. It tasted good, sure, but the flavors were relatively light.
He Siming watched Jiang Rong put on gloves and pick up a piece of the spicy chicken rack. He wanted to say something, but held back.
They’d just done that—was it okay to eat spicy food? Wouldn’t it cause stomach trouble?
Jiang Rong took a bite and praised it nonstop. “So good.” He felt incredibly happy.
Seeing the satisfied look on Jiang Rong’s face, He Siming didn’t say anything.
Li Yizhou said, “Right? My recommendations are never wrong. There’s also fried chicken strips—try those too.”
Yao Shule said, “Our dorm has never been this complete before.”
Not to mention that even the campus heartthrob was eating takeout with them. As for Jiang Rong—since enrollment he’d always been gloomy and strange, rarely showing any friendliness. Lately he seemed to have changed a lot; when he talked to them now, he wasn’t nearly as sharp-tongued.
Jiang Rong didn’t know how to respond. He wasn’t the original Jiang Rong. He just smiled shyly, ate two more pieces, and didn’t overdo it.
Another message popped up in the class group chat—still from the diligent, warm-hearted class monitor—tagging him and He Siming.
Class Monitor: @HeSiming @JiangRong You two are the only ones left without a group for the group assignment. Why don’t you form a group together?
He Siming calmly took off his disposable gloves and replied.
He Siming: I don’t mind.
Jiang Rong didn’t mind either. Having someone willing to team up with him was the best possible outcome.
Jiang Rong: Works for me too.
As soon as that message appeared, other classmates chimed in.
Lin Nana: Missed out on a fortune—can I still change groups?
Zhou Gezhi: Missed out on a fortune—God He, carry me!
Qiu Feng: God He, you actually do assignments too?
Liang Dongdong: Wuwuwu, I’m kicking my groupmates right now.
Yao Yin: @HeSiming Which topic are you choosing?
With He Siming’s appearance, the group chat quickly hit 99+ again.
Li Yizhou and Yao Shule had just seen the messages as well.
Li Yizhou said, “You two hadn’t formed a group yet?”
He Siming said casually, “We have now.”
Jiang Rong hurriedly found an excuse. “I had something going on the past couple of days and didn’t get around to it.” He hoped the topic would pass quickly—talking about it reminded him of that blush-inducing process.
He hadn’t expected to end up doing a group assignment with He Siming. For no reason at all, he felt restless.
He Siming was about to find out his secret—that he wasn’t good at the major courses.
That evening, Jiang Rong didn’t go to the library. Instead, he stared hard at the few topic options. Why couldn’t they just finish the assignment by themselves?
What relieved him was that He Siming didn’t come to him that night to discuss the group assignment topic.
That night, everyone went to bed unusually early.
The next morning, Jiang Rong got up early according to his usual biological clock.
As expected, he ran into He Siming—who’d gotten up even earlier.
He couldn’t quite figure out why He Siming had come back to the dorm to sleep last night. He’d read about it on the forums: when He Siming enrolled, his family had bought him an apartment right next to the school, where every inch of land was worth a fortune. A classmate had overheard him mention it while chatting with Ding Yan.
He Siming had countless halos around him.
The top heartthrob of Qin University, an excellent family background, academics so strong he didn’t even need grades to prove himself—a genius in the professors’ eyes, able to accumulate enough credits to graduate anytime he wanted if he felt like it. On top of that, he kept himself clean and didn’t mess around.
Jiang Rong didn’t dare think too much about He Siming and his family background.
In their world, having a powerful family meant strict rules. In a family with a top-tier Alpha and a good background, Omegas were essentially chosen—ranked into clear hierarchies. That was why his parents had placed such high expectations on him before he even differentiated.
As long as he differentiated into an Omega and married an Alpha with an especially good family background, their family would be upgraded from commoners to nobility.
Rubbing his eyes, Jiang Rong went to wash his face and brush his teeth. Passing by He Siming, he subconsciously said, “Morning.”
“Morning,” He Siming replied, hanging up his towel.
He’d gone to bed pretty early last night. Jiang Rong noticed that He Siming looked in good spirits today—much better than yesterday.
Those three days of his heat period seemed to have worn He Siming out a bit. It was probably just his imagination.
After washing up, Jiang Rong started packing his backpack. Their schedules were packed every day, with only Friday afternoon free.
Today was another 8 a.m. class.
Students gradually filed into the classroom. People like the class monitor—active in life, active in academics, active in the student union, and active in all kinds of clubs—always sat in the front rows. Jiang Rong chose a seat in the back. He flipped through his major textbook, feeling uncomfortable all over, and sighed.
A familiar voice sounded beside his ear. “What are you sighing about?”
He Siming, one of those smart students who usually sat in the front, had taken a seat next to him.
Jiang Rong shook his head and asked, “Aren’t you sitting up front?”
He Siming took out his tablet and pointed at the five topics displayed on it. “We still haven’t chosen a topic for our group assignment.”
The five topics were: first, student course management; second, integrated banking savings services; third, a civil aviation ticketing system; fourth, a membership management system; and fifth, a foreign trade product management system.
Jiang Rong could somewhat understand topics one, four, and five. Two and three, he really didn’t get at all.
He asked for He Siming’s opinion. “Which one do you want to choose?”
He Siming said, “The foreign trade product management system. We only have three days, and I’m more familiar with that.”
His family had a foreign trade company and used their own foreign trade software—though it wasn’t developed in-house, but customized by software companies.
Jiang Rong nodded in agreement. “Okay, but…”
“But what?” He Siming asked.
Jiang Rong was just about to tell him that he still wasn’t very good at coding when Yao Shule and Li Yizhou sat down beside He Siming.
Yao Shule was genuinely cheerful today. “Is this the first time the four of us from the dorm have sat together?”
Jiang Rong wasn’t sure whether they’d done activities together before, but from Yao Shule’s tone, it seemed the four of them were rarely all present.
Li Yizhou said, “Seems like it.”
He Siming responded as succinctly as ever. “Yeah.”
Jiang Rong didn’t join the topic. He wasn’t the original Jiang Rong and knew nothing about his past or life trajectory—it didn’t feel like a pleasant topic anyway.
Yao Shule noticed the topic displayed on He Siming’s tablet. “How about you two join us? We chose course management.”
The suggestion startled Jiang Rong. He gently poked He Siming’s thigh and drew a “NO.” The poke made He Siming feel a little ticklish.
He Siming declined Yao Shule’s offer. “We’ve just figured out our framework. Next time.”
Li Yizhou said, “Alright.”
Jiang Rong let out a soft sigh of relief.
At that moment, the professor walked into the classroom and began the lecture. Everyone quieted down.
He Siming glanced at Jiang Rong, puzzled as to why he’d refused.
During the lecture that followed, He Siming stole several looks at Jiang Rong out of the corner of his eye. Jiang Rong listened for a while, then started to space out, frowning at the textbook. Over the course of one class, he made about eight hundred tiny expressions. Putting it all together, He Siming reached a conclusion: the major courses were a huge challenge for Jiang Rong.
Was Jiang Rong unwilling to let Yao Shule and Li Yizhou discover that he wasn’t doing well academically?
He Siming seemed to have found a new source of amusement. From time to time, he’d glance at Jiang Rong’s little expressions, and whenever Jiang Rong looked troubled, he’d point out the corresponding content in the textbook for him.
When he really couldn’t stand it anymore, he whispered, “Write down what you don’t understand first. You can ask me after class.”
“Mm, okay.” Jiang Rong nodded quickly twice.
He Siming was really such a good person—helping him at every turn.
And He Siming still didn’t know that Jiang Rong had quietly given him a “good person” card.
Jiang Rong had been in this world for over a month now, plagued daily by anxiety, worries, and gloom. Today, his mood finally cleared.
During the break.
Yao Shule and Li Yizhou went together to buy breakfast.
Jiang Rong and He Siming got up at the same time and went to the restroom. When they came out, they inevitably ran into each other and walked back to the classroom together.
After walking a short stretch of the corridor, He Siming suddenly slowed down and asked, “Why is the peach scent on you gone?”
