Boss Lu: A reborn life is destined to be without regrets!
Chapter 33: How to start a chat

Chapter 33: How to start a chat

After the military training ended that day, the school seemed to know that the freshmen would organize a wild celebration; they lifted the 11 p.m. curfew for the dormitories.

After everyone had sung to their heart’s content, it was time to disperse.

On the way back to school from Xinzhu Road, everyone had clearly become much more familiar with each other, not as strictly divided by gender as when they’d arrived.

Zhang Gaoqiang, for example, was walking shoulder to shoulder with Xu Ya, talking about who-knows-what, but the way Xu Ya took out her phone suggested that the two had just exchanged contact information.

"We had a lot of fun today, how about we start a group chat and exchange WeChat info?"

When they reached the entrance of the girls’ dormitory, Xu Ya stopped and said to the boys present.

"Let’s play some more games next time, we didn’t get to show our best today~"

As she spoke, she gave Lu Jincheng a playful wink.

No one objected, and after the chat group was created for the eight of them, room 203 waved goodbye to the guys and returned to the girls’ dormitory.

"I’m going to take a shower first."

After an evening of fun, everyone was covered in the mixed scents of KTV, tobacco, and alcohol, and a shower was an immediate need for the girls.

Fortunately, Nanhu University had private bathrooms, so there was no need to trudge to a public bathhouse late at night. Zhong Ruixi was the first to change out of her skirt and quickly wash up in the bathroom.

"Hey, do you guys think that Ruixi and Lu Jincheng are, you know...?"

Gossip was the main melody in a girls’ dorm.

As soon as the door closed, Ni Jiayun, Zhong Ruixi’s number one fan, started the conversation.

"Huh? What’s up, is there something going on?"

Qiu Xue flushed with excitement and blinked rapidly, clearly still feeling the effects of the alcohol.

"They were away for so long, what do you think?"

Xu Ya smiled and patted Qiu Xue’s head, then flipped her wrist and tossed her tight tank top into the laundry basket, leaving her in only a push-up bra.

"Huh?"

"It’s just escorting Ruixi to the bathroom, what does it prove?"

Qiu Xue was slow to catch on.

"Xiaoxue is still too naive and sweet. You need to pay more attention to the little details in life, or you’ll get tricked by bad guys someday,"

Ni Jiayun pursed her lips and gestured for everyone to look at Zhong Ruixi’s black skirt that was just hung up.

"Ruixi ironed her skirt before she left, and now it’s all wrinkled. Guess why?"

Qiu Xue covered her mouth, realizing "Oh, that’s how it is."

Watson, you have found the blind spot!

"Oh my God, Jia Jia’s observations are so detailed, I didn’t even notice..."

Xu Ya approached the skirt for a closer look and widened her eyes.

The usually bubbly Xu Ya, who had been just going along with the excitement, didn’t expect Ni Jiayun to have a basis for her claim.

"And look at the lipstick. Normally, girls touch up their makeup when they go to the bathroom, right?"

Ni Jiayun swayed her legs together and cracked seeds from a bag while chatting.

"She was gone for so long, you’d think it was enough time to reapply lipstick, and even enough to dab a cushion foundation all over her face!"

"But did you notice when she came back, there was not a trace of anything on her lips~"

"Wow... makes sense!"

The Sherlock Holmes-level deduction left Xu Ya and Qiu Xue thoroughly convinced.

"So, what you’re saying is, they’re already a couple?"

Qiu Xue leaned forward, grabbed a handful of seeds from Ni Jiayun’s embrace, and also settled onto a stool to enjoy them.

"Not necessarily."

"I tested the waters during the meal, and it still feels like a schoolmate relationship; it doesn’t make sense for things to have progressed so quickly..."

Ni Jiayun spread her hands.

"So it’s just a guess and might not be right."

"I think, Lu Jincheng is not only good-looking, but his personality is quite charming. He’s a hidden gem."

Xu Ya crossed her arms, recalling some details: "Today’s atmosphere was so good and never awkward, all thanks to him catching all our topics at the table, like he knows a little bit about everything."

"And the most important thing is, he seems to really know how to have fun!"

"You see how skilled he was at the KTV, leading us in all the games while he himself drank so much without any reaction."

Upon hearing this, Qiu Xue nodded in agreement, "Indeed, I also thought he was quite interesting!"

The sound of water in the bathroom stopped; Ni Jiayun changed out of her shirt and stood up.

"If you all feel the same way, it only means that his information density and knowledge level are far beyond ours, so the puns he throws out, the other side can catch, and every word he said resonated with us."

"It’s like he’s just dumbing it down for us, taking a step down to interact!"

Through the mist, Zhong Ruixi emerged wrapped in a towel, drying her hair and asked confusedly, "What interaction?"

"Nothing, nothing, it’s my turn to take a shower~"

Ni Jiayun stuck out her tongue and scurried into the bathroom on her slippers.

"Hey, do you guys think that guy named Liu Yisheng has a thing for Jia Jia?"

Gossip isn’t scary; it’s only awkward without the gossiped-about. This is what makes dorm life for girls so interesting.

Zhong Ruixi slipped into her pajamas, and the three sisters began another round of late-night chatter.

...

...

The boys’ dormitory presented a different scene.

Lu Jincheng was the last one to finish his shower. He walked out of the bathroom and saw Liu Yisheng scratching his head in front of the screen with two strategists standing behind him.

"Just send it, man up, what’s there to be afraid of!"

Zhang Gaoqiang was enthusiastically rooting for Liu Yisheng.

"So, should I send it?"

As Liu Yisheng tapped the keyboard, the words "You there?" lit up on the screen but were quickly halted by Lu Jincheng.

"Bro, starting with ’You there?’ is a guaranteed clown move."

???

Liu Yisheng and Zhang Gaoqiang both looked up, puzzled.

"This won’t do."

"It’s a tone of submission, revealing insecurity," Lu Jincheng continued.

"The result being — she’s off to shower, you’re left to reminisce, brewing thoughts for a while, ’Okay’ at the end."

"Damn!"

Zhang Gaoqiang, as if his tail was stepped on, wrapped his arms around Lu Jincheng’s neck, "Lao Lu, why couldn’t you have come out earlier?"

He took out his phone, scrolled to his chat with Xu Ya, which consisted of just three lines.

"You there?"

"I was taking a shower."

"Okay."

Lu Jincheng’s feedback was like he had foreseen their chat rehearsal, each word striking at his sore spots.

"Master, I’m about to have an epiphany, quickly give me some advice, how should I send it?"

Liu Yisheng immediately stood up and offered his seat to Lu Jincheng.

"It’s quite simple, if it’s a girl you don’t know well, you start from the Moments, look for things you have in common."

Compared to mature women, female college students prefer using Moments to record their lives: what they eat, where they go, how they feel – they like to share openly.

Sometimes it’s not for others to see, but just to use it as a personal diary.

"From Moments, for example, posts about dining and leisure, you could casually ask for the location, if she posts a screenshot of a failed game, you can leave a comment suggesting to team up next time, or if she shares an emo song, you can pretend to resonate with it."

It’s important to know that finding someone of the opposite sex with whom you hit it off on everything is not easy.

Lu Jincheng took a sip of water and continued, "So generally speaking, after the girl politely responds, you can naturally start a conversation."

"Chatting is a systematic project. Generally, the mass method is divided into three types: stack up, slice down, or parallel. It’s too complicated."

"I won’t go into detail."

Having shown off his knowledge, Mr. Lu turned to go to bed but was promptly grabbed by Liu Yisheng and Zhang Gaoqiang.

"Bro!"

"Teach us, please!"