Chapter 314: Liu Manman: Regret

Early Monday morning, Liu Manman arrived at Xia Yu’s villa. After much deliberation, she still felt that Xia Yu’s behavior was inappropriate.

If he took her clothes now, what would happen later? She would surely suffer.

She decided to have a serious talk with Xia Yu before the competition.

She pressed the doorbell.

Xia Yu, who was sleeping, was awakened. He got up groggily, looked at the time, and saw that it was only 5:30 AM.

He got out of bed and opened the door, only to see Yuxue, equally drowsy, opening her room door.

“I’ll get it,” Xia Yu said.

“Okay,” Yuxue mumbled and crawled back to bed, forgetting to close the door.

Xia Yu went downstairs and opened the main door for Liu Manman.

“What’s up? Why come so early?” Xia Yu was puzzled, though sleepiness overpowered his curiosity.

Xia Yu, too lazy to hear Liu Manman’s explanation, said, “Just make yourself at home. I’m going back to sleep.”

“Wait, I have something serious to talk to you about!” Liu Manman stopped him.

“Unless the world is ending, everything else can wait until I wake up.” With that, Xia Yu went upstairs to his room.

Liu Manman had already been hesitant about bringing up the clothes issue. Now seeing Xia Yu return directly to his room, she felt awkward to follow him in and ask. She could only wait for him to wake up.

After wandering downstairs for a while, Liu Manman went upstairs and saw that Yuxue’s door was open, so she took the chance to slip inside.

It was an instinctive reaction to seeing an open door, and once inside, she didn’t really have anything specific to do.

Yuxue, who was still in bed, was woken up by Liu Manman.

Sitting up and rubbing her eyes, Yuxue looked at Liu Manman: “Big sister Manman.”

“Uh-huh,” Liu Manman originally intended to leave, but since Yuxue had greeted her, she felt awkward to leave immediately.

So she decided not to leave after all.

She took off her coat and climbed into Yuxue’s bed, hugging the girl: “Let’s keep sleeping.”

Slightly troubled by Liu Manman’s overly intimate behavior, Yuxue quickly fell back asleep.

Not until 7 AM, when Yuxue’s alarm went off, did the two girls wake up.

Yuxue pushed aside Liu Manman’s arm that had been resting on her and got out of bed.

Liu Manman lay there for a moment before also sitting up on the edge of the bed.

She hadn’t forgotten why she came here. She wanted to talk to Xia Yu about what happened last week and let him know that taking her best friend’s clothes was wrong.

She recalled her own sports bra—a black one with a yellow cartoon pig’s head on it, just like the one in Yuxue’s drawer in front of her.

“…”

Wait, how come Yuxue had the exact same one?

At this moment, Yuxue also sensed something was wrong. She had the habit of opening the drawer to get clothes, forgetting that Liu Manman’s was also in there.

Now that Liu Manman had seen the bra, she could only try to play it off.

“This sports bra looks really good,” Liu Manman pretended to be curious as she picked it up, confirming it was indeed hers.

What was going on? Why was the bra here with Yuxue? Didn’t Yuxue say she hadn’t seen it?

“This one…” Yuxue tried to think like her older brother Xia Yu.

If it was her brother, how would he lie to Liu Manman?

Two seconds later, Yuxue came up with an excuse: “I thought it looked nice too, but I don’t remember where I bought it. It’s also a size too big. I found it on the floor last week when I was picking up some stuff.”

Liu Manman exhaled in relief. So it wasn’t that Yuxue had secretly kept it—it was mistaken for her own.

Wait, if that was the case, then hadn’t she misunderstood Xia Yu?

Liu Manman felt a bit disappointed.

After Yuxue got dressed, Liu Manman followed her out of the room.

She sat on the sofa, browsing the forums on her phone.

Twenty minutes later, as Yuxue started making breakfast, Xia Yu finally got up.

After washing up, Xia Yu sat at the dining table, eating bread as he asked Liu Manman: “You said you had something serious to talk to me about earlier?”

Liu Manman stiffened. Three seconds later, she replied: “What are we having for lunch today?”

That was indeed a serious question, filled with profound philosophical meaning. Xia Yu frowned, unable to come up with an answer for a long time.

He gave up thinking and decided to figure it out later.

“So you knocked on my door at 5:30 in the morning just to ask me what we’re having for lunch?” Xia Yu looked at Liu Manman in confusion.

“I came to remind you and Yuxue to come watch my competition with An Siyao,” Liu Manman quickly made up an excuse.

“But I have class,” Yuxue said unhappily.

“No problem, I’ll help you ask for leave!” Saying that, Liu Manman took out her phone, found the president of Huada University’s number, and called to ask for Yuxue’s leave.

The Huada president then called the principal of Huada Affiliated High School where Yuxue studied, and the matter was resolved.

Yuxue happily finished her breakfast, and the three of them headed to Huada University.

At the school’s main gate, a banner for the sports event was hanging.

Inside the campus, most of the students were wearing team uniforms or holding cheer sticks, preparing to support the athletes.

Except for them, most students hadn’t even woken up yet.

Entering the gymnasium, Xia Yu found An Siyao and Yu Ningmeng.

An Siyao was wearing a white sportswear set, her hair tied into a simple ponytail hanging behind her.

Normally, An Siyao would either use a headband to keep her hair back or braid it into complex noble styles. This was the first time Xia Yu had seen her with such a simple ponytail.

Sitting beside An Siyao, he played with her ponytail.

Liu Manman also reached out toward Yuxue’s ponytail beside her.

Downstairs, the first match was about to begin. In two arenas, eight competitors stepped onto the court.

Seeing the lineups of the four teams, Xia Yu felt confused.

Among these eight players were both males and females.

After asking Liu Manman, Xia Yu learned that this was a gender-neutral competition—any pair of people could participate.

Xia Yu continued watching the match. This was the preliminary round, and three of the teams were relatively average, with only one slightly stronger.

Their game was back and forth, making Xia Yu yawn repeatedly.

The match was played to 21 points, but only one set.

At about the same time, the first round matches in all four teams ended, and it was Liu Manman and An Siyao’s turn to go on stage.

As they stepped onto the stage, a wave of cheers erupted from below, directed at Liu Manman. Although Liu Manman wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about entertainment activities, she was still a professional performer.

Seeing that their opponents were two boys wearing glasses, Liu Manman felt lucky.

Since they were boys, they would surely go easy on her. She could score a couple of points, and with An Siyao likely to finish last, no one would notice her poor performance.

However, her plan hit a snag right at the beginning of the match.