Chapter 26

Zhang Qiu fled in a panic, and Su Yun caught up with him, trying to persuade him to stay. Zhang Qiu said he had agreed to go shopping with his classmates in the afternoon, so Su Yun stopped trying to keep him. However, she offered to take care of the check for him and said, "I'll keep this check for you! Why don't you take my salary card to go shopping? A man shouldn't be without money. The money in this card should be a bit more than your check, enough for you to go shopping, right?"

Zhang Qiu didn't act coy and was somewhat moved that Su Yun trusted him enough to give him her card and password. After writing to Su Yun, Zhang Qiu left the Fangfei Yiren company.

He met Ning Lan at the pedestrian street. This time, Chen Lan didn't come; only Ning Lan was there.

As soon as they met, Zhang Qiu wanted to take Ning Lan to buy a phone, saying he had promised to buy her one. However, Ning Lan refused, insisting she had no use for it.

"Don't buy it for me. My mother will scold me to death if she finds out! She'll think I've gone bad and sold myself for a phone!" Ning Lan said.

"How could that be! Just say I bought it for you," Zhang Qiu replied.

Ning Lan couldn't resist Zhang Qiu and finally resorted to a last resort: "Are you giving me this phone with some other purpose in mind? I can't accept it then!"

Mentioning a purpose, Zhang Qiu suddenly thought of the unfinished hug and couldn't help but grin mischievously, "Of course I have a purpose! Hehe!"

Ning Lan couldn't help but think of the small promise she had made to Zhang Qiu, feeling a bit flustered. She wondered if she should agree if Zhang Qiu really made a request. He probably didn't hear it, she finally comforted herself.

"My purpose is to prevent any ** from thinking they can bully you with a cheap phone!" Zhang Qiu continued.

Ning Lan's eyes suddenly reddened, feeling touched. Yes, if she had an iPhone, it wouldn't mean much, but no one would dare to bully her with a cheap phone anymore.

But accepting such a valuable gift from Zhang Qiu made her feel uncomfortable. Suddenly, Ning Lan had an idea: "How about this, let's swap phones. We just need to switch the SIM cards!"

Swapping phones was a good idea! Although the exchange wasn't equal and was almost like a gift, it gave her a legitimate reason. This was an exchange, not a gift.

"Okay. Give me your phone then," Zhang Qiu agreed, thinking it would be nice to use a girl's phone.

Ning Lan readily handed over her phone, removed the SIM card, and gave the phone to Zhang Qiu. Zhang Qiu also quickly removed the SIM card and gave the phone to Ning Lan. A gift turned into an exchange.

The two then went into a phone store and swapped the SIM cards at the counter. Zhang Qiu's small SIM card had a case that could fit into a larger phone, while Ning Lan's large SIM card would have issues if cut, so they decided to swap.

The two happily spent the afternoon shopping. Even though Zhang Qiu's physical condition had improved, he still felt a bit exhausted. Fortunately, Ning Lan was considerate and let Zhang Qiu off after they had dinner.

Back at school, Ning Lan suddenly remembered, "Oh no! I didn't have time to clear the things on my phone!"

"Ah! Never mind, it's not a big deal anyway." She had wanted to contact Zhang Qiu but shook her head and walked to the classroom.

On the way, Zhang Qiu curiously played with Ning Lan's phone. It was an old-fashioned feature phone with a 1.8-inch screen, much smaller and more delicate compared to modern 5-inch smartphones.

The phone had a basic 1.3-megapixel camera, far inferior to modern 13-megapixel smartphones.

What was frustrating was that the phone had no memory card, and the internal storage was only 512MB, meaning it couldn't store many photos. However, Zhang Qiu was still curious about the photo album.

He had heard that modern girls loved taking selfies and wondered if Lan Lan had taken a few. With this in mind, Zhang Qiu opened the photo album. There were indeed photos, but the low-quality camera and screen made them unappealing. If not for Ning Lan's beauty, they would have been unwatchable.

After flipping through a few photos, the background suddenly changed to a dorm room, and Ning Lan's clothing became more revealing, catching Zhang Qiu's eye.

Although there were no nude photos, the small tank top revealed her shoulders and half of her chest, making Zhang Qiu feel a bit aroused.

In the modern world where women's clothing is increasingly revealing, women are eager to show off their confident parts to men. So, Ning Lan's attire, even on the street, wasn't unusual. Many women wore even more revealing outfits.

But Zhang Qiu found it sexy, more stimulating than seeing a nude photo of a stranger. It was because it was a girl he knew, a girl who usually dressed conservatively. This was fundamentally different from the women on the street who were so exposed that no one paid attention.

The next photo was a full-body shot. She was wearing the same white tank top and a tight short skirt.

The tank top barely covered her chest, revealing her slim waist and sexy navel, more stimulating than exposed breasts.

The short skirt was so short that it exposed her thighs. Although the camera quality was poor, he could still feel the whiteness of Ning Lan's thighs, a delicate white that had never seen the sun, unlike the legs of women who often exposed their legs.

This must be a boudoir photo, Zhang Qiu thought, swallowing hard. He wasn't worried about others peeking. Unlike modern smartphones with IPS screens, this feature phone had a low-end TFT screen with low brightness and a narrow viewing angle. The small screen made it hard for anyone beside Zhang Qiu to see what was on it.

However, the photo quality was limited, and the screen was too poor. The first glance was appealing because it was different and sexy, but after that, it became less interesting. Zhang Qiu didn't stare at the low-resolution photos and quickly switched to the next one.

While switching, Zhang Qiu thought that the previous photo was a full-body shot, so someone must have taken it for Lan Lan, probably her roommate. Would her roommate also have taken a photo of Lan Lan? He hoped her roommate was also beautiful.

Suddenly, another person appeared in the next photo, but the background was no longer the dorm room. A group photo appeared on the screen, with higher brightness than the previous ones, and the background was the school playground.

Two girls were looking at the camera. Ning Lan had wide eyes and a sweet smile, still as cute as ever. The other girl was making a cute face, blinking and sticking out her tongue, looking even more adorable at first glance.

Upon closer inspection, it was clear that this girl, despite making a funny face, was still as beautiful as Ning Lan. Indeed, birds of a feather flock together. He hadn't expected Lan Lan to have such a beautiful friend.

Zhang Qiu was curious to see if there were more photos, especially a close-up of the other girl, but the photos wouldn't switch anymore. He realized he had seen all of them.

Next, Zhang Qiu curiously checked the contact list, looking for clues. He didn't care if it was immoral.

Who isn't curious about a girl's phone, especially a beautiful girl's phone? Who wouldn't want to see a beautiful girl's photo album? That's why Zhang Qiu had tried to hack Lin Lai's space photo album.

Ning Lan's contact list was indeed as simple as she said. It included her own number, her parents' phone numbers, the home landline, the class teacher's and two other teachers' phone numbers, and three classmates' phone numbers.

Zhang Qiu didn't pay much attention to the others but focused on the three classmates. One was labeled "roommate," one "deskmate," and one "best friend Lan." The roommate and deskmate didn't provide any information, but the best friend Lan sparked his imagination.

It was probably the girl making the funny face. He had to find a way to meet her through Lan Lan! Although he already had feelings for Lin Lai, if he had the chance to meet other beautiful girls, he wouldn't refuse and would look forward to it.

Ning Lan's text messages could be described as few. Apart from a few for checking her phone bill, there were no others.

No wonder Ning Lan didn't hesitate to hand over her phone, even forgetting to clear it. It seemed this phone really didn't have many secrets.

Zhang Qiu continued to browse the phone menu and found a QQ icon. He immediately understood that she must use QQ instead of text messages. Who would send expensive text messages when there's a free alternative?

In this era where almost everyone has a phone, being online 24/7 on QQ is common, and offline messaging is also possible. With WeChat receiving QQ messages, the conditions for replacing text messages with QQ were in place. So, it was normal for a student like Ning Lan to use QQ instead of text messages.

Zhang Qiu curiously opened QQ and immediately received an angry message: "Brother Qiu, you're not being good! How could you sneak a look at a girl's chat records!"

Reading the message, Zhang Qiu could imagine Ning Lan's angry but cute face and couldn't help but laugh and cry. As soon as he logged in, Ning Lan must have been notified and knew it was him.

So, Zhang Qiu sent a message back: "No way, I just wanted to log into my own QQ. See, my QQ is online. In such a short time, I couldn't have seen anything."

Even if he had seen something, he had to say he hadn't. Sometimes, people, especially men and women, need an excuse, even if it's a weak one.

After sending the message, Zhang Qiu quickly logged out of Ning Lan's QQ and logged into his own. He then sent her another message: "See? I didn't lie to you."

"Hmph! You're smart!" Ning Lan quickly replied.