In September, Ningzhou was about to brush past another typhoon, with days of light rain falling steadily.
Teacher Wu had settled on the fifth plan, which meant that in the coming month, Xiang Ran might be busier than ever.
After several meetings, they finally confirmed the topic, with Liu Shuyao tasked with creating the background interface for the "virtual gallery."
As the last class ended that afternoon, Liu Shuyao was already waiting downstairs at the Computer Science building.
Perhaps due to poor timing, there were even more people than last time.
Typically, students from the Computer Science department, as representatives of the tech-savvy crowd, hurried past without wasting time. But today, it seemed like time had slowed down, and everyone was looking around and whispering.
The atmosphere was especially lively around Classroom 306.
Some students with social anxiety walked back and forth near the door, while others who had a little acquaintance came in asking for paper or claiming their code had errors. Some even lugged their laptops, saying they couldn’t find them.
All sorts of ridiculous excuses just to get a glimpse of the campus belle...
Today, Liu Shuyao looked as beautiful as ever. Her short-sleeved top revealed a glimpse of her slender waist, and from the side, her figure was perfectly accentuated by tight jeans that highlighted her curves.
...
However, the atmosphere in the small conference room was quite tense.
Xiang Ran's expression was unexpectedly serious.
He flipped through the drafts submitted by the campus belle, frowning deeper with each page.
Liu Shuyao was taken aback by Xiang Ran's demeanor.
When had she ever seen her boyfriend look so cold?
His tone was as hard as if he were ready to bite someone!
“There are some issues with these pages. We don’t have much time, and you might have to redraw everything.”
Xiang Ran placed the stack of papers in front of her, looking up.
His words were icy, making it hard to tell who was the client and who was the service provider.
“W-what’s wrong with them?”
Liu Shuyao couldn’t bring herself to meet Xiang Ran’s eyes and timidly asked.
“Didn’t we already confirm the topic and visual style? Where do you think the problem lies?”
The two questions left Liu Shuyao confused.
“Did you check whether the data you annotated is feasible when you finished?” Xiang Ran asked.
The room fell silent, the only sound was the clattering of his fingers on the keyboard.
After a long pause...
Noticing she remained silent, he finally glanced up.
He found Liu Shuyao’s eyes were red, like a frightened rabbit, her hands nervously twisting together, the knuckles turning a bit white, making her look pitiful.
Xiang Ran suddenly realized his earlier tone might have been too harsh.
He sighed, mentally cursing himself.
He picked up the papers he had just thrown aside.
“There are significant issues with your design. There are too many elements, and it fails to highlight the key content.”
“Also, the functional zoning is chaotic. Some areas are simply inadequate. UI design is rigorous; the front-end team will write code based on your designs, not just focusing on aesthetics or layered shadows, which aren’t needed in the code.”
Xiang Ran earnestly explained, intentionally softening his tone.
Yet, Liu Shuyao’s tears still fell, landing on the paper and smudging the sketches.
“I'm sorry~”
“I didn’t understand these things before~”
Her voice trembled as she apologized softly, shoulders shrinking inwards.
“I thought it was similar to cover design...”
Her voice grew quieter, as if she wished to bury her face in her chest.
“I worked hard on these too...”
Xiang Ran gradually realized Liu Shuyao might not have much experience with this, and he had indeed been a bit too anxious.
But now that she was crying...
He had no choice but to sort those drafts again, put them in a folder, and hand them to Liu Shuyao.
He wanted to say something comforting but didn’t know where to start.
Ah! Headache!
Finally, he could only say flatly, “It’s okay, just fix it.”
Then he turned and picked up a book on UI design from the table, handing it to her. “You can look at this first. I’ll find a few videos for you later; it’s pretty quick to learn.”
However, Liu Shuyao felt wronged today, so she didn’t even notice his goodwill.
So my boyfriend still thinks I’m stupid?
So frustrating~
I clearly stayed up all night drawing a few designs~
In truth, he hadn’t said anything harsh; it was just her own feelings getting the better of her.
She wanted their first collaboration to go smoothly but hadn’t expected things to turn out this way.
Liu Shuyao bit her lip, trying not to let her tears fall.
She took the book and put it back in her bag, then stood up without looking back and left.
“Sorry for wasting your time today.”
Xiang Ran was left at a loss by the school beauty’s repeated apologies.
Just then, the chubby guy pushed the door open.
“Are you crazy?”
“Even if the drafts had issues, you didn’t have to make the school beauty cry, did you?”
“You really know how to make a scene!”
“Come on, tell me what horrible thing she did to make you so harsh!”
Xiang Ran knew he was in the wrong and had wronged Liu Shuyao.
But he truly disliked careless people who skated by.
“It’s nothing; there were just data issues while drawing the prototype.”
“Did you tell her how to label it?”
“No.”
That was indeed his mistake, and Xiang Ran admitted it openly.
The chubby guy was nearly driven mad by this straightforward man!
“I told you long ago to tone down your nitpicking! Not everyone is as competitive as you!”
“It’s fine to hold yourself to high standards and come first in class every time, but can’t you be a little more lenient with regular folks?”
The chubby guy hadn’t spoken so much in one breath in a long time, especially not to scold Xiang Ran.
Honestly, it felt pretty good...
Who told this guy to always be so articulate when lecturing them?
“I just...”
“Our project timeline is tight.”
Xiang Ran offered a slight defense.
“I see the school beauty working hard too. She managed to draw six prototypes for you in two days; she must have stayed up late!”
“And you?”
After the chubby guy finished speaking, lightning flashed outside, and the dark sky began to rain.
The rain fell heavily, pattering against the windows.
“Crap! I didn’t bring an umbrella!”
“Did you bring...?”
The rest of the sentence was left unspoken as the chubby guy saw a figure flash by, leaving Room 306 with the only black umbrella in the corner...
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