Chapter 6 — The Bed of Your Own Choosing

"You only saw me working for him. You never saw what he had done for me. I have boundaries; I just cannot pretend those things never happened." Shen Nianchu lifted the curtain, then let it fall. I stood behind the counter, feeling like I was sinking into a block of stone. In her previous life, Shen Nianchu rarely told this story in its entirety. She just said that Gu Cheng's family was grateful to her. At that time, I was angry and asked again: "If I have a favor, do I have to spend my whole life to repay it?" "Not in the least," she said. "I can ignore him when he is at his most difficult." None of us continued to ask Gu Cheng's "most difficult" question, so who should judge it? We also never discussed where the line between gratitude and marriage should be placed. Meng Lan walked out from behind and placed the closed school newspaper on the table. "What you said wasn't completely wrong, what she said wasn't completely wrong either." "Since when did you become a referee?" "Preparing for a career as a reporter." She looked at the door: "But you're really unfair to Shen Nianchu. You have already sentenced her; the evidence simply has not appeared yet." I bowed my head to clean up the scraps of paper. "Some things, I saw the results." "See in my dreams?" My hand stopped. Meng Lan leaned next to the counter: "The way you looked at Gu Cheng and Shen Nianchu was not normal. I don't like it, I don't hate it, it's like someone who has lost a lot of money entering the casino again." "So you think I should bet?" "First of all, I advise you not to enter the door." She took scissors and cut off the excess white border of the advertisement. "But now you're standing in front of the door. Otherwise, you would not have listened so seriously just now." A week before the competition, Gu Cheng's team had a problem. The senior in charge of engineering temporarily withdrew, and the school's exchange platform only had one set of performance pages left. Gu Cheng came to the printing shop to find me, this time without a Coke, and without a smile. "Can Du Hang come over and help me for two days? There's no need to do the complete administration part, just need to be able to run during the performance." "You asked Du Hang." "He listens to you." "He listens to himself." Gu Cheng lowered his voice: "Yanxuan, they are all from the same academy. If our team wins the prize, in the future the school will have resources, everyone can benefit." "Your prize, how will everyone benefit?" "In the future, if the project becomes big, we can do it together." I looked at him. In his previous life, Gu Cheng also said "later". He did not mean to deceive people. When he said that, he truly believed that he would make it big, and also sincerely felt that after success, he would not mistreat us.
But his "future" always needs someone else to give him the "now" first. "Your market survey is quite good, take the data and find another technical person, it may not be too late." I said. Gu Cheng's face turned cold: "You really won't help at all?" Shen Nianchu stood outside the store. Obviously she heard it, but didn't step in to help him. Gu Cheng turned to look at her: "Do you also think I shouldn't come?" Shen Nianchu held the file and was silent for a few seconds. "I feel you should ask Du Hang if he agrees or not first, not go to Zhou Yanxuan to borrow someone." Gu Cheng looked at her, as if discovering a familiar item had been moved for the first time. "Okay." He turned and left. Shen Nianchu walked into the store, placing a stack of statistical data on the counter. "I didn't do that to prove you right." She said, "I just feel like he's really wrong this time." I nodded: "I know." She looked at me, her voice still stiff: "Also, I will decide whom I go to. You do not need to decide for me first." "That's right." "Why are you so easy to talk about today?" "The printing shop charges by the minute, long arguments affect business." Finally, she smiled. The smile was very short, and reminded me of the first date in my previous life. She sat in the noodle shop, choking on chili until her eyes watered, still determined to say it wasn't spicy at all. I moved my eyes and pushed the data back to her. "Don't use your team's documents. Leave it at the competitor's place." Shen Nianchu took it. "Are you saying I will steal it?" "No." "Then why can't you let it?" "Meng Lan will see." Behind me, Meng Lan's voice immediately rang out: "Zhou Yanxuan, I heard it." Shen Nianchu smiled a little more clearly. I didn't laugh along. I know something is changing. I just didn't know then that changing a person's habits is much more difficult than changing a bed.

On competition day, we only won second prize. The first prize went to a team from the Academy of Information Technology that created an installation and laboratory-scheduling system. It worked smoothly, and its members answered every question from the judges. Our project had real orders, but it was pointed out that the model was easy to copy and the technical threshold was too low. Gu Cheng's "Meeting" won the consolation prize.