Bai Ningning left, and Qin Xin stood in place, still feeling a bit uneasy.
In her view, someone like Senior Ningning, who rarely smiled and could even be considered indifferent, suddenly smiling early in the morning seemed off.
When others smile, it's like a spring breeze; when she smiles, it's like the wind from the underworld, cold and somewhat ominous, carrying a hint of (already darkened) feeling.
She looked good, but it made people worry.
"Second Miss, why are you standing here?" Aunt Zou came over and said, "Breakfast is almost ready; why not go eat something?"
Qin Xin glanced towards the front door and couldn't help but say, "I saw Senior Ningning leave this morning, and it seemed a bit strange."
Aunt Zou was slightly taken aback: "What do you mean by strange?"
Qin Xin hesitated for a moment and said honestly, "She was smiling."
"Isn't that a good thing?" Aunt Zou gestured for the maid to bring out breakfast. "Young girls should smile more."
There's a saying that goes, girls who smile a lot won't have bad luck.
"But Senior Ningning rarely smiles, let alone when she's alone," Qin Xin's expression was slightly odd. "And last night when she came back, my sister and she... that."
Aunt Zou understood: "Then she might be smiling out of happiness."
This time it was Qin Xin's turn to be stunned: "Happy?"
"It could also be pride or satisfaction; in any case, it's possible," Aunt Zou said.
Qin Xin couldn't understand: "But how could that be? Clearly... I mean, she is the one who was... was on the receiving end."
Aunt Zou carefully glanced towards Qin Yue's room: "Second Miss, do you think it matters who is the master and who is the one being acted upon?"
Qin Xin frowned slightly, thinking that if that didn't matter, then what was important?
"Look at it now; the only one up is Miss Ningning," Aunt Zou said. "Since Miss Ningning moved in, it's always been like this."
Qin Xin recalled that fleeting smile: "So she is happy and... proud?"
"If she feels she has won, then naturally she would be proud."
"Won..." Qin Xin felt something was off, "But did she really win?"
Aunt Zou thought for a moment and replied, "From my perspective, the eldest lady is pleased, while Miss Ningning has won."
Qin Xin felt a tightness in her chest and had no words to say.
......
A few days earlier, the president of the Lingyin Club had sent Bai Ningning the location, and today she could go directly.
Lingyin had applied for several activity rooms; aside from the one usually used for informal activities, the other rooms had distinct functions and were very close together. Walking through the flowerbed path in the west area of the school, the three rooms were all activity rooms for the ACG club.
The outermost small room was a transitional space, with a resting sofa and a fridge full of snacks. Walking further in, one would enter the multimedia room of the video production division under the ACG club.
When Bai Ningning walked in, there were still quite a few people in the multimedia room, with the fans in the computer cases whirring, making it seem less like a multimedia room and more like a server room.
She didn't expect so many people to be here on the weekend, and judging by their serious and focused expressions, it seemed they were working overtime.
A girl was walking back and forth in front of the rows of screens, occasionally saying encouraging words to everyone: "Look at what you've made; pull up the frame and look at it individually, I thought it was from Meitu!"
"I've said it countless times, rendering requires patience. Why are you in such a hurry? Are you rushing to celebrate the seventh day for the old club?"
"Don't blame the website's bandwidth every time. Is it possible that you made a mistake with the encoding? Just a guess, it might not be wrong."
"There are fools right in front of me, but I won't say who they are."
"With your level, you still want to make it to the top hundred? I might as well pack you up and send you to Bermuda!"
This could be considered quite inspiring.
Bai Ningning walked past the middle, and just then, a girl turned her head.
"You are... the campus beauty Bai Ningning? I heard someone mention you at the last club meeting."
"Yes," Bai Ningning stopped and nodded, "That's me."
The girl walked up to introduce herself: "As you can see, this is the activity site of the video production division. I am the division head and also the former president of the original video production club, Lu Qin."
As Bai Ningning looked closer, she realized the girl was quite pretty, with a gentle appearance, resembling a well-behaved and quiet neighbor girl.
Thinking back to her inspiring words earlier, hmm...
Since it was still early, Bai Ningning wasn't in a hurry to find Lingyin inside, so she sat down to chat a bit.
Dr. Chen had said that in life, one should seize opportunities and chat with people more; it not only helps improve oneself but also allows one to learn normal ways of speaking from others.
"Lu Qin, I've heard about your original club," she said, "How did it end up being merged?"
Before graduating in her last life, Bai Ningning had heard of the video production club, which had several well-known UP masters. Not only were they famous, but they also had the skills; the school's anniversary videos in previous years were all made by them.
Lu Qin tugged at the corner of her mouth: "There's nothing we can do; this year is special."
Bai Ningning tilted her head, expressing her confusion.
"You've seen us; we have high hardware requirements. For graphics processing and video memory... let's just say it plainly, we need good graphics cards," Lu Qin said helplessly, "But the machines aren't exclusively ours; many people use them. Earlier this year, someone secretly took them to mine, and they're basically all ruined."
Bai Ningning seemed to understand: "Does the school not provide you with new ones?"
"That's not entirely the school's fault," Lu Qin said fairly, "This year's graphics card market, to meet our needs, basically starts at over five thousand. Besides the graphics card, a dedicated network line is also essential; the campus network simply can't support high frame rate video uploads... We had no choice but to negotiate with the school."
As she spoke, she glanced out the window, which faced the multimedia room, specifically the esports room used by the gaming division.
"The school played a hand in internal differentiation, meeting with us and the original gaming club at the same time; they also needed better configurations. So, we argued there, and no one could come up with a satisfactory plan. At that moment, President Lingyin happened to pass by."
Lu Qin pressed her lips together: "Then, the ACG club was established, and everyone got what they wanted."
Bai Ningning was slightly taken aback.
"Alright, time for me to supervise," Lu Qin stood up and walked behind the club members. "You lazy asses—take my eyes off you for a second, and you start slacking. Slacking, slacking, slacking. The last club got killed off because of your slacking! If this one dies too, I swear I'll pack you all up as offerings and take you to the graveyard!"
After the multimedia room finished work, everyone began to busily prepare for the first official promotional video of the new club.
Meanwhile, Bai Ningning quietly walked to the end of the room, pushed open the door, and headed into the dance studio.