Trapped In Paradise
Volume 3 Chapter 38 / Chapter 543: Best Friends
Perhaps the breakup had hit him harder than anyone realized. Wang Jie had become even more withdrawn and introverted than before.
Throughout dinner in the cafeteria, he barely spoke, spending the entire meal staring at his phone. By the end of dinner, he hadn't said more than five sentences.
Lily was also shy, but she always listened attentively with bright, sparkling eyes, following everyone's conversations and occasionally chiming in with a dry, unexpectedly bold remark.
Ning Chu was a little worried about Wang Jie, but after not seeing him for a year, she didn't know how to bring it up.
"Wang Jie, want to grab a drink tonight?" Seeing right through her thoughts, Wen Yang asked on her behalf.
"I think I'll pass," Wang Jie shook his head.
"Then what are you planning to do afterward? The dorms won't let you stay much longer, right?"
Only then did a trace of urgency appear on Wang Jie's face, but he still shook his head blankly.
"I'll... figure it out later, I guess."
Ning Chu understood exactly how he felt.
Before she had transmigrated, she had been just like Wang Jie—fresh out of college, overwhelmed by uncertainty and fear about the future. She had no goals, no ambition, no motivation, simply drifting through life one day at a time.
Last year, she had found herself in a similar situation again.
The difference was that this time she had Wen Yang.
She had someone who gave her motivation and something to strive for. Although she was still uncertain about the future, she was no longer afraid of it.
That was what pushed her to actively look for work. In just a year, she had taken steady, confident steps into adult life.
"How about... finding another girlfriend?" Ning Chu suggested, trying to apply her own experience to Wang Jie.
But Wang Jie simply shook his head.
"I don't want to. It's pointless."
"Then... aren't your parents pressuring you to find a job?"
"I told them I'm still taking classes."
"...Uh... okay."
Defeated, Ning Chu sighed helplessly and shot Wen Yang a pleading look.
Wen Yang could only shrug.
"How about we find a hotel nearby tonight? None of us brought bedding back with us anyway."
"I want to sleep with Lily and Ning Chu!"
Yan Xinya, who had been busily clearing the dishes off the table, finally looked up long enough to shout.
"I'll stay with Wen Yang then?"
"They're all cheap hotels with terrible soundproofing. We can't let you two share a room! How are the rest of us supposed to sleep?"
Ning Chu's face immediately turned bright red.
"I-I'm not that shameless!"
She might be a succubus, but that didn't mean she was desperately horny every single night!
"Sleep together?" Lily looked at Ning Chu hopefully.
"It's been so long since we last met..."
"Sure!"
"What?! Why do you agree when she asks but not when I do?"
Ning Chu rolled her eyes at the wolf girl.
Lily was a soft, sweet-smelling little succubus. How could a husky-like wolf girl possibly compare?
Ignoring Yan Xinya's protests entirely, she leaned over and whispered into Wen Yang's ear.
"Then I'll stay in the same room as Lily and Xinya tonight. Will you be okay staying by yourself?"
"That works. I was planning to talk to Wang Jie tonight anyway. Just look at the state he's in."
Wen Yang glanced at the silent Wang Jie.
"Can a breakup really hit someone this hard?"
"Then what if I broke up with you?"
He froze for a moment before shaking his head.
"That's never going to happen."
After spending so many years together, he couldn't even imagine what life would be like without Ning Chu. The possibility had simply never occurred to him.
"I'm full! Burp~"
Yan Xinya held her bloated stomach and slumped back in her chair.
"The cafeteria food is still so awful~"
"Everyone else finished ages ago. We've all been waiting for you."
Ning Chu shot her a look as she stood up.
"I was thinking we could all go get barbecue together tonight..."
"Sounds good! Let's buy some beer too!"
"Then why did you eat so much?"
"I'll be hungry again in two hours. Doesn't matter!"
The wolf girl had always had an enormous appetite. Not only did she eat a lot, but she also loved good food. After starting work, nearly all of her salary—aside from paying rent—ended up being spent on eating.
Wen Yang, on the other hand, was much easier to feed. Even if every meal consisted of steamed buns and pickled vegetables, he'd be perfectly content.
"I'm heading back to the dorm."
As they left the cafeteria, Wang Jie quietly said goodbye before walking straight toward the dormitory.
Ning Chu watched his dejected figure with concern. She exchanged a helpless glance with Wen Yang, forcibly suppressing the urge to meddle, and asked, "So where are we going now? Looking for a hotel?"
"Yeah. There should be plenty just outside campus."
Although couples at this university often preferred finding secluded outdoor spots for dates, there were still small budget hotels scattered all around the campus.
The rooms weren't expensive, around a hundred yuan a night, but the accommodations were very basic—just somewhere to shower and sleep, with little in the way of comfort or luxury.
They booked two adjacent rooms, each with a large bed, and carried their luggage inside.
Standing by the doorway, Wen Yang looked at the large double bed and asked, "You three really plan on squeezing into one bed?"
"We haven't seen each other in so long. What's wrong with squeezing together?" Yan Xinya quickly kicked off her shoes and socks, slipped into the hotel's disposable slippers, and asked without even looking up, "Can't bear to spend a night away from Ning Chu?"
"I'm just worried it'll be too crowded for you to sleep comfortably."
"Don't worry about us~ I'm going to take a shower! Out!"
Yan Xinya impatiently shooed Wen Yang out and slammed the door shut. Then she turned to Ning Chu with obvious envy.
"How do you two do it?"
"Do what?"
Ning Chu looked up, confused.
"You've been together since freshman year—almost four years now—and you're still this close. Neither of you even wants to spend one night apart~"
Ning Chu privately thought that perhaps she and Wen Yang simply wanted to fool around at night.
Still, intimacy was an important part of any relationship. If their sex life wasn't going well, getting along in everyday life would probably be even harder.
Of course, she wasn't about to admit that.
She casually made something up.
"It's not that big a deal. I guess we're just... not used to being apart."
"Oh, come on~ So you two never fight?"
Sitting down on the sofa, Ning Chu rummaged through her backpack for the clothes she'd change into after showering while answering,
"Of course we do. Remember the last time he made me cry? I even called you."
"Oh, that time..." Yan Xinya rested her chin on her hands and muttered, "I thought it was pretty ridiculous. You two argued just because something went missing?"
The moment it was mentioned, Ning Chu became agitated, unconsciously raising her voice.
"It's different! Whenever he takes something, he never puts it back where it belongs! I've told him who knows how many times! He always says 'okay,' but he never changes!"
"He forgets to turn off the lights when he leaves, throws his slippers around everywhere, and when I'm using the bathroom he doesn't even know to give me some privacy..."
Living together inevitably brought countless little arguments over differences in daily habits. Either you learned to accommodate each other, or you gradually got used to each other's quirks, slowly becoming shaped by one another.
After entering the workforce and facing greater pressures in life, they found themselves arguing more often than before.
Ning Chu was also incredibly stubborn. Even when she knew she was wrong, she hated admitting it. Usually Wen Yang would be the one to back down and apologize first. Only after she'd calmed down would she awkwardly apologize herself.
"So why don't you keep fighting? Did he finally change?"
Ning Chu abruptly stopped complaining. Her face turned slightly red as her guilty gaze drifted toward the ceiling.
Lily, who had been silent the whole time, asked thoughtfully,
"He made you feel really good in bed?"
"I forced him to change!" Ning Chu denied indignantly, her face burning with embarrassment.
"I get it!" Yan Xinya grinned. "So the trick is finding a boyfriend who's well-endowed and great in bed~"
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Link for character illustration:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IxOucqi87ss3bmqfO9zI2gYiM1Gy8Hz2