Chapter 45: Finally Locked in a Small Dark Room

Although it was only a first-year debate competition, as one of the basic etiquettes of debate, all eight participants had to wear suits.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Jiang Miao glanced at the debaters. All eight were girls.

Terrifying.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to go on stage and could be lazy. Otherwise, the pressure of being the only man in a sea of women would have been too great.

At half past six, about two-thirds of the seats were occupied in the small courtroom.

Aside from the ‘family’ of the participants, most of the others were here purely to earn activity points.

Therefore, by the time the moderator announced the start of the debate, much of the audience had already turned into downward lookers, either reading, doing homework, or playing with their phones to kill time.

Jiang Miao, sitting in the corner, let out a small sigh of relief. Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, he opened his laptop and prepared to start writing.

Su Huaizhou, sitting beside him, propped her chin on her hand as she watched Ding Ning deliver her opening statement on the stage. She turned her head and said, “I kinda regret letting you slack off.”

“Why?” Jiang Miao asked while opening his writing software and outline.

“I really want to see what you look like in a suit.” Su Huaizhou smiled. She imagined Jiang Miao in a suit, and her fingers itched.

Don’t get the wrong idea. She just wanted to draw.

Taking inspiration from the people and events of daily life was not unique to authors of web novels.

“Senior Sister, you should focus on the debate,” Jiang Miao said helplessly. “It’s our first match after all.”

“I’ve covered the important points before the match.” Su Huaizhou, the team leader, was not nervous at all. “It’s just the first-year competition now. The real deal will come when you officially join the team and compete in the School of Business’s debate tournament.”

Jiang Miao: “… I don’t recall saying I wanted to join the debate team.”

“How can you be so heartless?” Su Huaizhou batted her eyes at him. “There are so few males in the debate team. If you want to join, the interview will be a breeze.”

“No worries. My roommate Wang Xin loves debate, and he’s a solid guy. I guarantee he’ll immediately be at the debate team’s interview right after the competition,” Jiang Miao enthusiastically recommended.

“But I like you more.”

“You shouldn’t say things like that so casually.”

“Huh? You misinterpreted it like that?” Su Huaizhou tilted her head and smiled. “Junior Brother, you’re not as honest as you look.”

“… Being able to misinterpret things in an instant is one of the basic skills of slice-of-life authors.” Jiang Miao turned his head and focused on the laptop screen. “I’m writing.”

“Alright, have fun. I won’t disturb you.”

…

The debate wasn’t particularly exciting.

In fact, it was even a bit amusing.

Even though the debaters on both sides had made sufficient preparations before the match, they still performed poorly due to on-the-spot factors after going on stage.

The first speakers managed okay. The first-year competition didn’t require memorizing scripts, so as long as they read clearly and spoke loudly, they did just fine.

Even though the fourth speaker of the other team tried to challenge them, it wasn’t much of a problem.

Although Ding Ning was very nervous, her logic was surprisingly clear, and the opposition side didn’t catch any flaws.

But once the match moved into the subsequent stages—the second speaker’s rebuttal, the third speaker’s cross-examination, and the free debate—the entire debate started to fall apart.

To outsiders, it might not seem too bad. But to debaters with some experience like Su Huaizhou, the performance was rather poor.

Either they kept fixating on superficial points and attacked each other’s arguments without ever addressing the core issue, or they were all over the place, discussing an argument one moment and then jumping to another the next. It seemed they were covering all the bases, but in fact, they didn’t explore any of the points in depth.

Su Huaizhou had even specially prepared pen and paper to jot down the mistakes and weak points of the four rookies.

Eventually, there were too many, so she simply gave up trying to keep track.

But…

“Senior Sister…” Jiang Miao stopped his lightning-fast typing and turned to look at Su Huaizhou helplessly. “Can you not watch me while I’m writing?”

Su Huaizhou looked at him innocently. “I’m not disturbing you. Just looking won’t hurt.”

“Having someone watch while I’m writing interferes with my train of thought,” Jiang Miao whispered while rubbing his temples. “I can’t write well like this…”

“Are you shy?” Su Huaizhou asked curiously. “I saw that you wrote a few hundred words, but there wasn’t a single romance scene. Is that what’s bothering you?”

“Of course! How am I supposed to write a romance scene with you staring at me like this?”

“Isn’t it the same since you’ll let me read it in the end anyway?”

“That’s different!” Jiang Miao retorted. “You reading it on Xidian is totally different from watching me while I’m writing!”

“Okay, I won’t watch anymore.” Su Huaizhou turned her head away with a bored expression. “Write quickly. Make sure it satisfies me.”

Jiang Miao: “…”

What’s with this weird feeling?

Getting rushed by readers to write romance scenes is one thing, but being urged by Senior Sister in real life is surreal.

And seriously, Senior Sister, don’t you feel any shame?!

Reading this kind of novel… and actually discussing romance scenes face to face…

Okay, as the author of the novel, Jiang Miao didn’t seem to have much ground to complain.

However, it was fine as long as Senior Sister didn’t disturb him. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to get any writing done.

It felt like someone was staring at you while you were sitting in the bathroom. You just couldn’t exert any strength.

Fortunately, as long as no one was watching him, his writing speed was decent.

He wasn’t bothered by the noise either. Even with the eight debaters passionately arguing on the stage, it didn’t affect his train of thought.

It was fine as long as no one watched him while he was writing.

From 6:30 until the end of the debate at 8:00, Jiang Miao wrote a total of 1,731 words.

Not bad, above average.

On stage, after the four speakers from both sides made their closing arguments, the three judges gave their scores and began their comments.

First, they thoroughly critiqued both team’s mistakes. Finally, they found a couple of positive points to praise and completed their duty as judges.

Although neither team performed particularly well, Jiang Miao’s team did a commendable job for newcomers and won the debate.

Su Huaizhou pulled Jiang Miao onto the stage to take a group photo with their teammates.

The four girls had a favorable attitude towards him. Although he didn’t participate in the debate, Su Huaizhou had dragged him to several of their meetings, where he had helped point out flaws in their arguments, making a significant contribution.

Of course, the key was that Jiang Miao was good-looking.

One of the girls had even secretly added him on WeChat.

However, after his many perfunctory replies, any romantic interest she might have had should have faded away.

Perhaps because Jiang Miao’s teammate Pei Jue saw the subtle relationship between him and Senior Sister, she would look at him strangely from time to time.

“Um, Classmate Jiang…” After the group photo, Ding Ning approached Jiang Miao cautiously and asked, “Can I ask… what games does Haoshang usually play?”

He was momentarily surprised. After recalling for a moment, he said, “I think he plays all sorts of games, but he plays League the most.”

“Huh? League? What’s that?” Ding Ning looked completely puzzled.

“Um… Just search for LOL, and you’ll find it.”

“Okay… Thank you, Classmate Jiang.” Ding Ning bowed in thanks.

“You don’t have to be so formal.” Jiang Miao waved his hand. “We’re teammates now, so just call me by my name.”

“Oh… okay… T-t-thank you… Classmate Jiang Miao!”

Jiang Miao: “…”

That’s not much different…

Seeing Ding Ning, whose face was red from nervousness, quickly turn around and walk away with her bag, Jiang Miao shook his head slightly.

His roommate really didn’t know how to cherish such a cute girl. He didn’t even know how to show any care for her.

She had even secretly come to ask Jiang Miao about his hobbies.

“What are you doing?”

Seeing him walk back to his seat and about to pack up his laptop, Su Huaizhou immediately stopped him. “Want to escape?”

“No… But Senior Sister, the debate is over.” Jiang Miao was puzzled. “Isn’t everyone leaving?”

“We have this courtroom booked until ten. Since everyone’s left, you might as well finish your chapters here before leaving.” Su Huaizhou grinned mischievously, two devil horns seeming to appear on her head.

At this moment, the debaters had already left, and the audience had signed and departed. Jiang Miao looked around and realized that only the two of them were left in the courtroom.

“Wait! Senior Sister, I think we should—”

Bang!

The courtroom door was shut.

Su Huaizhou leaned against the door, tilted her head, and blinked at him with a smile. “Junior Brother, what did you say?”

Hiss… Jiang Miao felt a toothache.

This small courtroom-style classroom was located at the easternmost end of the second floor of the Law School building, with only a single set of double doors.

Now that the only exit was blocked, Jiang Miao wouldn’t go forward to confront Senior Sister.

Sighing, he sat back down in his seat. Forget it. It’s just Senior Sister.

At least it was safer to write here, and he didn’t need to worry about Xun Liang forcibly climbing onto his bed and discovering his identity.

However, the large classroom was empty, with only the darkened weekend campus outside the window. The Law School was relatively remote, so there were very few people coming and going.

It was just him and Senior Sister.

It feels like a scene from a movie.

Don’t get the wrong idea. Jiang Miao was thinking about some school horror movies.

If the power went out now, the atmosphere would be perfect for it.

“Hurry up and write!”

His dear Senior Sister didn’t give him much time to imagine. With a friendly smile, she slapped the table and said. “Hurry up. We only have the classroom until ten.”

Jiang Miao forced a smile, placed his hands on the keyboard, and obediently started writing.

But on second thought, he felt that something was wrong.

He looked around the classroom. Although the lights were bright and it was spacious…

Did this count as him being locked in a small dark room by Senior Sister?

Oh~

He turned his head and stole a glance at Senior Sister, who was reading the latest chapter he had just released. For some reason, he felt slightly excited.

So, is this what it’s like to be locked in a small dark room? He had expected something more like a prison isolation cell.

“What are you thinking about?” Su Huaizhou noticed his strangeness and asked in puzzlement, “Do you really want to stay here until ten?”

“No… I’m writing now.” Jiang Miao put aside his wandering thoughts, cleared his mind, looked at the outline on the right side of the screen, reorganized his thoughts, and resumed writing.

Click! Click! Click! Click! The sound of typing echoed in the classroom.

Su Huaizhou sat next to him, engrossed in reading the latest chapter of My Girlfriend Is a Content Creator.

[“Woo!” Jiang Qiu choked a bit. She drank too quickly, and a few drops of white soy milk dribbled down her chin.]

Even though Jiang Miao had already entered writing mode, Su Huaizhou still pulled up her collar, feeling as if his gaze would turn and somehow penetrate through her.

After she confirmed that he wasn’t looking over, her attention returned to the novel.

After reading this passage a few times, Su Huaizhou bit her lips and opened the chapter comments. Sure enough, she found even more enthusiastic reactions from readers.

[I suspect there’s an innuendo, but I have no evidence.]

[Damn, I’m speechless!]

[It’s over. I understood in a second. I’m not pure anymore.

]

Seeing these comments amused Su Huaizhou quite a bit.

And she was having a much better time than the readers.

Only she knew that this suggestive scene had been written by the author while sitting in the viewing area of a debate match.

Thinking about this made her unable to suppress her laughter. She covered her mouth and giggled.

“Senior Sister, what’s so funny?” Jiang Miao had just finished writing a scene and was in a relaxed state. When he heard the noise, he turned his head and asked.

Su Huaizhou covered her phone to keep him from seeing. “It’s nothing.”

“You’re looking at what I wrote, aren’t you? What’s there to hide…” Jiang Miao said with a smile.

“That’s different!” Su Huaizhou covered her phone even more tightly. “Watching you writing is totally different from reading your novel on my phone!”

Jiang Miao: “???”

Why does that sound so familiar?

It’s exciting for you to watch me write steamy scenes, but it’s not okay for me to watch you read the novel I wrote?

“Senior Sister, that’s double standards.”

“Just focus on your writing.”

Okay.

Heaven and earth are vast, but Senior Sister is the greatest.

…

Time passed slowly, and Jiang Miao became fully immersed in his writing.

As it neared ten o’clock, Su Huaizhou looked at the time, got up, and walked towards the door. “I’m going to the restroom. Are you almost done?”

“Yeah, soon,” Jiang Miao replied without stopping his fingers.

After a while, the door of the classroom opened, and someone walked in.

Jiang Miao didn’t pay much attention to it. At this moment, his thoughts were flowing as smooth as urine as he wrote hundreds of words.

Finally, he concluded the chapter with a sweet line.

[Hug me more~ After we go back, we won’t be able to hug as much.]

“Phew…” Jiang Miao let out a sigh of relief, leaned back in his seat, and turned to say to Senior Sister, “I’m done…”

As soon as he turned his head, he saw an uncle holding a flashlight. His pupils dilated, and he was nearly scared to death.

“Um, student, your time in the classroom is almost up. You have to leave now,” the uncle said. “We’re locking the building at ten-thirty.”

“Oh…” Jiang Miao hurriedly nodded, closed his laptop, and packed his things.

Just as he thought everything was safe, he heard the uncle chuckling and saying, “Is that what young people nowadays like to write? I’m really getting old and can’t keep up with the trends anymore.”

Jiang Miao: “…”

Where are you, Senior Sister?!

You promised to protect me!

Your Peach Jam is already dead!