Wei Yifan’s breath caught for a moment as she raised her eyes to look at Sang Yan.
“Yihe?” Su Hao’an was puzzled, feeling something wasn’t right. “Didn’t you take a flight last time for a business trip? Am I remembering wrong? But why would you go to Yihe for no reason, and when did you go? How come I didn’t know about it?”
Sang Yan turned his head: “How many questions are you asking?”
“Oh, I get it now.” Perhaps due to having drunk too much, Su Hao’an’s emotions were even more heightened than usual. He said irritably, “You went to find Duan Jiaxu, didn’t you?”
Sang Yan didn’t answer.
“I can’t believe this,” Su Hao’an shouted. “If it weren’t for me not getting into Nan Da, he wouldn’t be the one involved in rumors with you!”
“…” Sang Yan said impatiently, “Can you lower your voice?”
Zhong Siqiao’s alma mater was also Nanwu University, so she immediately understood Su Hao’an’s words and burst out laughing. She leaned towards Wei Yifan and explained while laughing, “The Duan Jiaxu that Su Hao’an mentioned is also from our university.”
Wei Yifan remembered Wang Linlin’s words and nodded slightly.
“They were in the same department, same major, same class, and even the same dormitory,” Zhong Siqiao continued. “And both of them were incredibly handsome. At first, everyone privately called them the twin campus heartthrobs of the Computer Science Department.”
Su Hao’an was still yelling on the other side.
Over here, Wei Yifan quietly listened to Zhong Siqiao’s gossip, while Xiang Lang also leaned in to listen.
“I forgot when exactly, but someone posted on our university forum asking if our school had any campus heartthrobs,” Zhong Siqiao said. “Then the post became super popular, with loads of people posting about the heartthrobs from each department. Most of the photos were candid shots.”
Wei Yifan: “And then?”
Zhong Siqiao: “Then of course, Sang Yan and Duan Jiaxu were nominated. Their photos took up almost half of the post. But here’s the thing – in the photos nominating Sang Yan, Duan Jiaxu was also present. And in the photos nominating Duan Jiaxu, Sang Yan was there too.”
“…”
“Then everyone suddenly realized that in more than 80% of these secretly taken photos, the two of them were together. This gave people the impression that—” Zhong Siqiao paused, “they were stuck together almost every day.”
“…”
“Plus, throughout their four years of university, neither of them was ever seen getting close to any girls,” Zhong Siqiao found it increasingly amusing as she spoke. “So later on, when people mentioned them, they always called them ‘that pair of gay campus heartthrobs from the Computer Science Department’.”
Zhong Siqiao was speaking cheerfully on this side, her volume uncontrolled.
As a result, Su Hao’an overheard and immediately joined in: “That’s because they were selectively blind! There were Qian Fei and Chen Junwen, those two idiots, in the photos too, but they became invisible because they weren’t good-looking enough!”
“…”
“Ah, I have nothing now,” Su Hao’an suddenly blurted out. “I’m never going to date again.”
“…”
He looked at Sang Yan and said miserably: “Bro, we’re best friends. Having you is enough for me. You should also make me your number one. You know what I mean?”
It wasn’t clear what they were talking about.
But the subject of the gossip was present, and Zhong Siqiao sensed the awkwardness. She glanced at Sang Yan and wisely changed the subject: “It’s all just jokes, not worth mentioning. Come on, let’s continue rolling the dice.”
Wei Yifan leaned forward, shaking the dice cup.
From the corner of her eye, she could see that Sang Yan hadn’t moved or responded to Su Hao’an’s words. He was leaning back in his chair, looking at his phone. Suddenly, he stood up and said casually, “You guys keep playing. I’m going back to sleep.”
Su Hao’an: “Huh? Where are you going?”
Sang Yan replied offhandedly: “Tired, going back to sleep.”
Su Hao’an: “It’s not even that late.”
Sang Yan rarely explained himself, but this time he did: “Went to bed late yesterday.”
Then, he swiftly downed three glasses of alcohol. His lips twitched slightly as he said slowly: “I’ve ruined the mood today. You all continue playing.”
He looked at Su Hao’an: “You host. Put the bill on my tab.”
After saying this, Sang Yan didn’t look at anyone. He bent down to pick up the lighter on the table and walked away.
Sang Yan’s emotions seemed perfectly normal, even appearing gentle compared to his earlier expressions and attitude. The others didn’t notice anything amiss, but Wei Yifan felt inexplicably gloomy.
After a few more rounds, without Sang Yan’s presence, Su Hao’an felt out of place among these three childhood friends.
Before long, he also found an excuse to leave.
Only the three of them were left.
The atmosphere didn’t dampen due to the departure of the other two.
But Wei Yifan was somewhat distracted.
Listening to their conversation, she suddenly called out: “Qiaoqiao.”
Zhong Siqiao: “Hm? What’s up?”
“That Duan Jiaxu you mentioned earlier,” Wei Yifan asked, “was he close with Sang Yan?”
“They should have been very close, otherwise such rumors wouldn’t have spread,” Zhong Siqiao said. “But I’m not too sure, after all, we weren’t in the same department. But one of my roommates used to pursue Sang Yan, so she considered Duan Jiaxu her number one rival.”
“…” Wei Yifan asked, “Is Duan Jiaxu in Yihe now?”
“Yes, I think he’s from Yihe. He went back to work there after graduation,” Zhong Siqiao blinked. “Why are you suddenly interested in him? Did you meet him when you were in Yihe?”
Hearing this, Wei Yifan let out a sigh of relief: “No, I was just asking.”
Considering that Wei Yifan had work the next day, the three of them didn’t stay much longer.
They left the bar just after 10:30 PM. Xiang Lang had originally wanted to pay but was adamantly stopped by Su Hao’an, who hadn’t left yet. In the end, Su Hao’an even enthusiastically saw them off to the parking lot.
Because he had to drive, Xiang Lang hadn’t drunk all night.
Wei Yifan and Zhong Siqiao got into the back seat.
On the way home, Zhong Siqiao remembered about Wei Yifan and Sang Yan living together: “Hey, Diandian.”
After using this nickname, she would occasionally call it a few times: “Are you sure it’s okay living with Sang Yan? If it’s not, you can just live at Xiang Lang’s place and let him go live with Sang Yan.”
Xiang Lang: “I don’t mind.”
“What could happen,” Wei Yifan said with amusement. “We’re like strangers at home, barely talking. You saw him today, you know he doesn’t like to socialize. We’re just simply sharing rent.”
Xiang Lang made a sound of agreement: “If you want to move, just let me know.”
…
Xiang Lang and Zhong Siqiao lived close to each other, so they dropped Wei Yifan off at home first.
Remembering Sang Yan’s words about “going back to sleep” before he left, Wei Yifan unconsciously softened her movements as she entered the house. Noticing that the living room was pitch black, she paused, then reached out to turn on the lights.
The living room didn’t look like anyone had come back.
Wei Yifan changed into her slippers and walked towards her room. Passing by the second bedroom, she inadvertently glanced at it but quickly looked away. It was late, so she quickly took a shower when she got to her room.
When she came out, she picked up her phone.
She happened to see two WeChat messages from Sang Yan.
Sang Yan: [Not coming back tonight.]
Sang Yan: [Just lock the door.]
“…”
Wei Yifan was stunned for a moment, then replied: [Okay.]
After sending the message, Wei Yifan went to the entrance and locked the door. She was feeling tired, her hair still wet, and suddenly felt too lazy to dry it. She sat on the sofa and scrolled through the news for a while, then aimlessly turned on the TV, looking for something to watch.
As soon as she turned it on, it was the urban channel, which was replaying the morning news from the “Convey” program.
It happened to be showing the follow-up to the attempted rape case she had previously submitted.
The male vendor’s face was blurred with a mosaic, but still looked kind and gentle.
This segment reminded Wei Yifan of running into Zheng Kejia at the city hospital. She completely lost interest, picked up the remote to turn off the TV, and went back to her room.
Wei Yifan opened her computer.
At this moment, Zhong Siqiao sent her a message: [Like my Moments post!]
Zhong Siqiao: [I’m going for a Korean BBQ tomorrow! Every hundred likes reduce the price by 100 yuan!]
Wei Yifan immediately replied with an “okay.”
Following Zhong Siqiao’s avatar in her Moments, she liked her latest post. Wei Yifan scrolled down a bit more and suddenly noticed a post-Zhong Siqiao had made on New Year’s Eve—
Zhong Siqiao: Going to watch the fireworks show tonight! [Happy] But if I had known, I would have chosen East Ninth Square, maybe I could have spent New Year’s with my Fanfan who’s working overtime [Crying].
Wei Yifan’s lips curled into a small smile, and she liked this post as well.
Having woken up late today, Wei Yifan thought she wouldn’t get sleepy too early.
But perhaps because she had drunk a bit tonight, her eyelids started to feel heavy not long after looking at the computer. Wei Yifan cherished her drowsiness and didn’t write much of her manuscript before quickly lying down in bed.
Before falling asleep, she remembered that Sang Yan hadn’t come back at night.
But thinking of what Su Hao’an had said tonight, she felt it was quite reasonable.
Sang Yan was probably comforting Su Hao’an.
Su Hao’an likely found out about Wang Linlin’s cheating.
…
Perhaps because many past events were mentioned today, in this sleep, Wei Yifan dreamed of things from high school.
Due to Wei Yifan’s mild and slow-to-warm-up personality, when others had already become familiar with each other, she still didn’t have very close friends in the class. So for quite a while after school started, she always ate with Zhong Siqiao and Xiang Lang.
One time.
Zhong Siqiao had something to do with her club, so Wei Yifan had dinner alone with Xiang Lang.
Then, they ran into Sang Yan in the cafeteria.
Sang Yan was very popular among the boys. Every time Wei Yifan saw him, he was always surrounded by a group of boys, only a few of whom were regulars, while the others changed each time.
It looked lively and boisterous.
The group got their food and looked for a place to sit.
Suddenly noticing Wei Yifan eating dinner face to-face with Xiang Lang.
Sang Yan raised an eyebrow.
A few boys started to tease them.
But they quickly left.
That evening during self-study.
The rumors about the two, which had never really died down, started to ferment again because of this incident.
New developments began to emerge.
It was said that Wei “Flower Vase” actually didn’t like Sang Yan’s type at all, but only reluctantly agreed to be with him because he persistently pursued her. However, when she saw someone better, she immediately had a change of heart and cheated.
Wei Yifan didn’t need to go to the classroom for self-study like other students. During this evening study time, she usually went to the dance studio to practice, so she was completely unaware of these new developments.
No one in the dormitory would gossip with the person involved either.
She just vaguely sensed that the atmosphere in the dormitory seemed a bit strange.
The next day during morning reading.
Wei Yifan returned to the classroom and again felt that the way others looked at her was a bit strange. At first, she didn’t think too much of it, just assuming there were a few more unreliable rumors, and didn’t take it to heart.
Unexpectedly, when she went to the bathroom during the long break, she overheard classmates discussing her.
“I didn’t expect Wei Flower Vase to be this kind of person…”
“It’s quite disgusting.”
“So what if she’s pretty?”
“What’s the use of being pretty if you have bad character?”
…
Wei Yifan was particularly confused, completely unaware of what had happened, and how she had become the “disgusting” person in the mouths of her classmates. After they left, she came out of the stall and washed her hands slowly, pondering what bad things she might have done recently.
She couldn’t think of anything.
She decided to pretend she hadn’t heard anything, letting it go in one ear and out the other.
Back in the classroom.
Wei Yifan had just sat down.
Suddenly, Sang Yan grabbed a boy’s collar and dragged him in front of Wei Yifan: “Apologize.”
This commotion came suddenly.
Wei Yifan was stunned for a moment, thinking he was asking her to apologize.
Seeing him looking so intimidating and ready to hit someone at any moment, she lost all her backbone. Even though she didn’t feel she had done anything wrong, she very diplomatically said, “I’m sorry.”
“…” Sang Yan’s temple twitched, “I didn’t ask you to apologize.”
The boy he was grabbing by the collar wore glasses and looked terrified.
Sang Yan looked down at him: “Do I need to teach you?”
“I was just joking around…” the bespectacled boy laughed nervously, “It was just a joke, and I’m not the only one who said it… Can you, can you let go first?”
“Joking?” Sang Yan smiled, “You’re a grown man with such a loose mouth, aren’t you ashamed?”
“…”
“I’ll say this once if anyone spreads this kind of stupid talk again,” Sang Yan raised his head, casually sweeping his gaze around, enunciating each word, “and I hear about it, we’ll settle it one by one.”
“I’m not interested in anything else,” Sang Yan was very arrogant, “My only hobby is holding grudges.”
After speaking, Sang Yan released his grip on the boy’s collar.
The bespectacled boy immediately lowered his head and apologized to Wei Yifan: “I’m, I’m sorry. I was the one who told others you cheated. But I had no evidence, I was just making it up. It won’t happen again.”
“…”
What cheating?
Wei Yifan was completely baffled.
After apologizing, the bespectacled boy was about to return to his seat.
Sang Yan raised his leg, propping it against the iron bar under the nearby desk, blocking him. He reminded him lazily: “Am I not the victim?”
“…”
“Can you consider the actual situation? What do you mean she saw someone better than me and dumped me?” Saying this, Sang Yan suddenly glanced at Wei Yifan, “If there was a situation where I persistently pursued someone—”
Wei Yifan looked up at him.
Sang Yan’s face was half-backlit, his expression as arrogant as ever.
“They could only be completely infatuated with me, understand?”