Chapter 160: Horse Affinity
Chapter 160
Xiao Qi felt that working with Wei Cheng was quite nice. The two of them worked well together and it didn't feel tiring.
Wei Cheng was willing to put in effort and wasn't afraid of getting dirty. She was also tall, strong and sturdy, even more efficient at working than some boys. After cleaning out the garbage together once, they took turns going out to clean out the horse manure and waste.
The work went quickly.
Wei Cheng was also very grateful that she had called out to Xiao Qi to come help. Xiao Qi looked delicate but actually had a lot of strength and didn't cut corners when working. She had actually prepared herself that later she would do more and let Xiao Qi do a bit less, but she didn't expect that when actually working, it turned out that she relied on Xiao Qi's help.
When she saw someone arrive, Wei Cheng instinctively lowered her head. She was a bit shy.
It was fine working in front of Old Man Yu, but when she saw it was a group of male students who were probably around the same age as students, Wei Cheng became nervous.
Xiao Qi was also blankly stunned, but it wasn't because she was shy or nervous. Rather, the mechanical sound in her mind rang out again.
"Host cleans the horse barn, not afraid of hardship or tiredness, sweating while working, giving classmates the most beautiful and positive impression of laborers, spreading positive social energy. Reward host with +1 horse affinity. Hosts with horse affinity are most easily seen by horses as part of the herd and can sense basic horse emotions of happiness, anger, sorrow and joy."
Every time, the system's reasons for giving rewards and the actual rewards given left Xiao Qi at a bit of a loss over what to do.
What was the most beautiful laborer? Giving what classmates a positive impression?
Horse affinity that can understand them is one thing, but being most easily seen by horses as part of the herd was just bizarre.
Xiao Qi blanked out for a while, and when she raised her head to look at the horse barn again, she unexpectedly felt that the horse barn she and Wei Cheng had cleaned seemed comfortable and clean, and looked rather cozy. She especially wanted to just roll around on those neatly laid out pads...
Stop stop.
Xiao Qi hurriedly stopped herself from having that frightening idea, and followed Wei Cheng back outside.
Old Man Yu introduced the people who had arrived.
Xiao Sheng Zhou, the owner of the horse farm.
Wei Cheng and Xiao Qi were new students and also hadn't joined the student union, so they didn't know anything about him.
It was said that all the past presidents of the Enhua University Student Union were extremely outstanding, and after graduating they all had great career developments, easily securing sponsorships for the school in sums of millions.
Xiao Qi copied Wei Cheng in politely smiling blankly.
They were even praised with "You've done well, arrange a schedule later for when you can come over."
The two of them nodded together, then added his WeChat on the spot and each received 200 yuan.
Wei Cheng was so excited that her small eyes narrowed to a slit. If there hadn't been so many people present, she probably would have jumped up.
It was already 200 yuan just like this. It was so easy to earn money from students. Back in her hometown, those strong laborers who planted mushrooms and vegetables, laying plastic film all day or doing farm work, would only get 2-300 yuan a day. She and Xiao Qi had worked rather hard, but compared to those grown village laborers it really wasn't worth mentioning.
Xiao Qi wasn't particularly excited about receiving 200 yuan, but really liked the feeling of being paid promptly. And she also felt it wasn't too tiring. Kids who had lived in the countryside had a very clear understanding that money was hard-earned. If they could get 200 just for doing this kind of work, it was actually an extremely good job that people would snatch to do. It was probably just because this was at school that they only wanted students.
Xiao Qi happened to look over at the group and was surprised to discover there was Li Weijin from their class. Mainly because Li Weijin's face was so outstanding and good-looking, he was inevitably a hot topic during late night dormitory chats. However, Li Weijin probably didn't recognize them as his eyes didn't glance their way. Xiao Qi also didn't greet him.
Li Weijin: ...I recognize you, I saw you, I'm shy...
After tidying up the tools and changing their clothes, Old Man Yu said, "There are showers in the horse farm. Next time when you feel dirty after working, you can bring a change of clean clothes to wash up and change into."
He then took the two girls to the showers in the horse farm. They were quite big and looked pretty new, rather similar to gym showers. He even gave each of them a locker key.
"From now on this will be your private lockers. Next time you can put your change of clothes in the lockers."
Xiao Qi and Wei Cheng had left the plastic clothes, gloves and rain boots they wore while cleaning in the horse barn, so they followed Old Man Yu to familiarize themselves with the facilities.
They didn't expect that when they used the keys to open the lockers, they would run into Wu Xinyue from the English program again.
Wu Xinyue had come to use the bathroom and touch up her makeup. She had just finished taking pictures but the horse wasn't very cooperative and splashed water on her face.
She was actually rather surprised to see the two young girls had keys to the lockers here. Could they be new members of the equestrian club? And she had a deep impression of Su Xia Qi. During the military training at the indoor gym, that girl had stolen the spotlight with even video recordings on the big screen.
Additionally, she had posted an Enhua University military training video that became very popular. When she went to check the data herself, she unexpectedly found another Enhua University military training video. Although the view count wasn't as high as hers (she had done some minor promotions for her video but it still had over 10,000 views), she didn't expect that Su Xiao Qi actually had a DouYin account. It seemed to be run by one of her tutoring students though, since the user name was My Tutor Teacher.
She secretly browsed through it. She didn't expect Xiao Qi to know so much that put her own DouYin to shame. Although not as popular as hers, it had substantial content, and in the DouYin she looked barely any different from how Wu Xinyue saw her right now in person.
Yet when people saw Wu Xinyue's own DouYin, they often couldn't recognize her.
She only glanced through it once without giving it any more views, unwilling to add to its viewer count.
But she still felt very annoyed inside.
What was all this about good English, swimming championships, bamboo weaving, good singing...it was all nonsense. She felt like she was watching a performing clown, but deep down she still somehow faintly felt a trace of misgiving.
Especially during the military training closing ceremony performance on the last day. Their two platoons were combined, with Xiao Qi holding up the banner for the business management platoon while she held up the banner for their English program platoon. In the end her platoon didn't get any honors while afterwards there were actually people complaining to her that she didn't pay attention while marching and went the wrong way, leading their whole platoon to march incorrectly. Then they actually compared her to Su Xiao Qi, saying the business management banner holder marched very well and led everyone to march properly.
So when Wu Xinyue saw her now, she immediately recognized her.
However she didn't go up to greet them, only went outside after finishing touching up her makeup.
She casually asked Li Taiping about them as if she wasn't too interested.
When Li Taiping heard Old Man Yu's name and that they were students coming to do work-study cleaning up the horse barns, he smiled and said, "Oh, then they're probably students coming to do work-study, cleaning up the horse barns and grooming the horses. Why do you ask about them? Do you recognize them?"
"No." Wu Xinyue shook her head, pulling at Li Taiping's sleeve. "Let's go out, I feel a bit stifled in here. That Taylor horse was so fierce earlier, can we switch to a different horse?"
Li Taiping felt several jin lighter when his sleeve got pulled at. And seeing the beautiful girl in front of him acting cute and trying to get her way,
"Taylor is already the one with the best temper. Fine, let me go ask again if there are any other horses."
The two of them walked out together.
Xiao Qi and Wei Cheng meanwhile took the money over here and also got keycards that allowed them to enter directly through the main entrance in the future instead of having to go around Student Street and cut through the new school district. Old Man Yu also gave each girl a portion of the pastries sent over every day to the club lounge that would just be thrown out if not eaten by end of day.
He knew students coming to do work-study must have average family conditions at best, while these snacks were sent over everyday and tossed if uneaten by end of that day when new ones arrived.
He was old himself and couldn't eat too many sweet things, so he gave them to Wei Cheng and Xiao Qi, a large packet for each girl. Although from yesterday, they were still pretty fresh with some being sold for days in stores without going bad.
Wei Cheng was very happy as she could save money on snacks and desserts now. Girls seemed to universally love snacks.
And usually she would eat what Miao'er shared the most in the dorms. Miao'er liked desserts, and these looked great to bring back for her.
After Xiao Qi and Wei Cheng left the horse farm, they went to eat in the new district cafeteria. Wei Cheng usually preferred eating in the cafeteria.
They had to hurry back after the meal because there was dormitory self-study that night as well as a class meeting. So the two girls rushed to catch the school shuttle bus back.
Arriving at the dorms, both showered very quickly combat style.
The weather was very hot. The skirt that Xiao Qi had brought was barely worn, and it would be a waste to just leave it there, so she wore the white dress that her aunt had bought her that evening. There were pink gauzy ribbons tied at the waistband, and autumn nights in the alliance market were still very hot, especially at night. Wearing a dress with bare legs was actually very comfortable.
Wei Cheng still wore that new white dress she had bought. She really liked it and was very careful when washing and drying it.
The two of them came back late. Mei Er and Gu Yunshu had already gone to class ahead of them, so the two girls went afterwards.