Why bother with dating when you already have a cat?

"Mmm." Ai Qing couldn't help but pat her head as a reward. "Little Fish is the best."

"Hehe." Xiaoyu squinted her eyes, enjoying Ai Qing's caresses. Although she could no longer sit on Ai Qing's lap with a straight face, she felt it was still worth it.

……

Ten minutes later, the subway arrived at the station.

Ai Qing and Xiao Yu stepped out of the subway car, but unexpectedly, they heard an old man calling out to them from behind.

"Thank you so much, young lady and young man!"

The two turned around and watched as the carriage door slowly closed, and the old man's grateful eyes and the thumbs-up he gave them.

Even if he didn't know at first, after seeing these two young people stand at three stops along the way, he realized that Xiaoyu's words were a lie.

Although three stops isn't a lot, it's still a token of my appreciation.

As the carriage door closed, Xiaoyu couldn't help but wave to the old man through the glass in the door, and then happily jumped into Aiqing's arms.

"Haha~ I'm so happy, brother! I never knew helping others could be so joyful."

"As long as you're happy." This time, Ai Qing didn't push Xiao Yu away immediately, but instead felt relieved and happy. She was glad that Xiao Yu had received such positive feedback on her first time helping someone.

In this respect, Ai Qing is also very grateful to that old man.

But he didn't forget to dampen the spirits of the little fish.

“But you should also be careful in the future,” Ai Qing said. “Helping others doesn’t necessarily guarantee that you will receive their kindness in return. It’s just an extra reward, not a guaranteed reward.”

"Moreover, not everyone wants others to help them, so we also need to have a pair of eyes that can identify those who really need help."

Little Fish blinked in Ai Qing's arms, thoughtfully remembering his words.

"Okay, Little Fish understands."

“OK, let’s go then.” Ai Qing smiled and took Xiao Yu’s hand, then took out her phone with her other hand and said, “It’s a bit far from here to the school, let’s just take a taxi there.”

After exiting the subway station on Wenhai South Road, Ai Qing hailed a taxi and, after some thought, decided to go to the entrance of the school's dormitory area.

It's only a little before eleven o'clock, so there's no rush to have lunch right away.

"Let me take you to my dorm first. I don't know if my roommates are there." After thinking for a moment, Ai Qing asked in her group chat with her four roommates.

[Rise, my lord]: Are you here today to defend your theses?

As graduation approached, several of them stopped living in the dormitory.

Ai Qing went back to writing full-time, while the other three interned at the company.

The defense time is relatively flexible, scheduled for 1 pm to 5 pm every week this week, which is convenient for senior students who are interning off-campus to adjust their return to school schedule.

If no one is in the dorm right now, I might consider taking Xiaoyu upstairs to take a look.

[Lucky Man]: I'm here, you're back?

Ok.

Seeing that her roommate was there, Ai Qing gave up the idea.

Chapter 125 Swimsuit

Of Ai Qing's three roommates, only one came back this time.

The other two are still out of town and will probably be back in a couple of days to participate in their defenses.

Only the guy with the WeChat nickname "Lucky Man" is a local like him, and from a family in the main urban area, so his family is relatively well-off.

His internship during his senior year was at a company owned by his father, which means he's going to take over the family business.

Ai Qing only learned about this brother's family situation when she was a senior in college and everyone was preparing for their internships.

I'd never heard him mention it before. We usually played games together, ate takeout, and his socks would pile up for days without being washed. You'd never guess he was a local rich kid.

When people teased him, he would wave his hand modestly.

They're all small businesses, small businesses, just earning a little money through hard work.

Then they joked around and laughed it off.

In comparison, Kong Fugui was much more flamboyant, but he wasn't quite at the level of a rich second-generation villain like those in novels.

"Is this my brother's dorm group chat?" Xiaoyu asked curiously, glancing at Ai Qing and the others' chat history.

"Ahem... Don't look." Ai Qing turned her phone over, a little embarrassed.

There aren't many serious conversations in this group; it's mostly just people sharing whatever interesting things they see.

Most of them are erotic images and some kind of mysterious link.

Xiaoyu had actually gotten used to these things, because almost every day someone in Aiqing's book club would post erotic pictures.

But Xiaoyu doesn't really have a specific concept of "erotic pictures".

For cats, exposing their bodies is a completely normal thing; wearing clothes is something they need to get used to.

So when Xiaoyu saw the erotic pictures in the book club, she just thought they were pretty and didn't have any particular thoughts.

As for links, posting them in the book club is prohibited, because if you run into the internet police, the group might be shut down.

Xiaoyu has never seen this thing before, let alone knows the wonders of Xunlei.

If she saw this kind of scene and came to ask her what the people inside were doing, Ai Qing felt she wouldn't be able to say anything.

However, rather than letting Xiaoyu passively and unknowingly encounter such sensitive topics on the Internet, wouldn't it be better to proactively give her a basic biology lesson?

Thinking of this, Ai Qing made another note in the Little Fish Training Program.

[Lucky Man]: Qingqing, let's have dinner together later, and then I'll go to defend my thesis.

[Rise, my subject]: No, I have an appointment.

[Lucky Man]: Holy crap, that's ruthless! In this huge school, you still have people asking you out? I don't believe it!

[Rise, my dear subject]: If we really have an appointment, let's talk about dinner another time.

[Lucky Man]: Okay, okay, son, you've grown up and have your own things to do now. Dad knows that, and I'll give you more personal space.

[Rise, my subject]: Get out of here.

Tell me, where is there any trace of a rich kid here?

……

The taxi stopped at the entrance of the dormitory area of ​​the Finance and Economics Institute.

"My school has two dormitory complexes, both located outside the school," Ai Qing said to Xiao Yu, who was looking around curiously, after getting out of the car. "One is across the street from the west gate of the school, and the other is right here, diagonally across from it."

As she spoke, Ai Qing led Xiao Yu through the gate of the dormitory area, guiding her along the path she had walked countless times over the past four years.

"This place is so big! So many buildings. Do all the students from your school live here?" Xiaoyu asked softly, looking around at the dormitory buildings.

“Our school has several thousand students, and these two dormitory areas are shared with the neighboring school, so there are actually even more people living here,” Ai Qing said with a smile. “That’s how schools are; they bring together young people from all over the country to study.”

"If you are also an ordinary person, growing up slowly from childhood, you also have to learn step by step, take exams, break through the siege, get into university, and finally enter society, get married and have children."

Little Fish tilted her head and thought for a while, then said, "Can't Little Fish just skip the previous steps and get married and have children right away? Since Brother has already gone through it once, Little Fish doesn't need to go through it again, right?"

"What are you thinking? It's not some kind of level-based game where you have to do everything I said." Ai Qing patted her head and reminded her, "What I said above is just a step-by-step life trajectory under social discipline, but it doesn't mean that everyone has to follow this set of rules."

"Look at me, I have no plans to get married, and I'm too lazy to even date."

"As long as it's a life you like, then just live your life well. You live your life for yourself, not for others. Your own happiness is the most important thing."

"Huh?" Xiaoyu didn't hear the details of what was said, but she knew that Ai Qing said she didn't plan to get married. She immediately asked worriedly, "What about Xiaoyu? I only want to marry my brother."

Ai Qing: "...You should figure out what marriage is all about first before you talk about it."

"It's just mating," Xiaoyu said innocently, a statement that would surely shock anyone who heard it.

"With that answer, you'll have to repeat a year; you'll fail the exam."

"What else could it be?" Xiaoyu watched Ai Qing walk forward with a black line on his face, and jogged over to catch up. "Brother, aren't you planning to find someone to mate with? You can mate with Xiaoyu too, really? Don't you want to consider it?"

"Shh!" Ai Qing stopped abruptly when she heard Xiao Yu's voice getting louder and covered her mouth with her hand, telling her to stop talking. "Keep your voice down, do you really think no one can hear you?"

"Uh...uuuu..."

The two chatted as they strolled around the dormitory area.

There's really nothing worth visiting.

It was just a walk around Ai Qing's usual route to school.

"The convenience store is here. I'll buy whatever I need here. If it's not available here, I'll go to the big supermarket at the entrance."

"If I need to go to class, I'll ride my bicycle. Otherwise, it would take me twenty minutes to walk from my dorm to my classroom if I walk slowly."

As he said this, Ai Qing led Xiao Yu to stand downstairs in his dormitory building and pointed to a balcony on the fourth floor.

"That balcony over there, if I remember correctly, is the sixth balcony from the left, that's my dorm room."

"However, my roommate is inside, and the opposite sex is not allowed to go upstairs in the dormitory building in principle, so I won't take you up to see."

"Okay." Xiaoyu looked up at the direction Ai Qing was pointing. She really wanted to see what his dorm room looked like, but unfortunately, she couldn't.

"Come on, I'll take you to the school campus, and then we'll have lunch first." I glanced at the time; by the time we got to the cafeteria and ate, it would probably be 11:30.

The defense started at 1 p.m., and it was first-come, first-served. Ai Qing planned to go early so that she could finish the defense sooner and take Xiao Yu to explore the school more.

If you have time, you can also visit Baolong Plaza in the south; the food street and restaurants there are quite good.

Moreover, being located in a university town area will better suit the tastes and trends of young people.

Thinking this, the two of them had already staggered out of the dormitory area.

Ai Qing led her toward the west gate of the school.

Along the way, you can see many students coming and going from school.

Some walked together, some rode bicycles, some rode electric scooters, and some even rode on scooters.

Ai Qing had previously seen a senior student ride a skateboard to class, and she always turned heads.

All that's missing is someone wearing roller skates.

"I really like the food at this restaurant; it's much better than the school cafeteria food," Ai Qing said, pointing to a popular little restaurant on the roadside.