The boys’ dormitory housed eight people per room, with bunk beds.

Their conditions were worse than the girls’ side, with two extra beds making it quite cramped.

In the equally pitch-black dormitory, the boys’ side was much noisier.

Chi Yao was on the upper bunk, half-sitting, having just showered, wearing his clothes.

These boys had added each other as friends to form teams for gaming: “I’ll play top lane. Yao-ge, add me as a friend?”

Chi Yao recited a string of numbers from the upper bunk.

That boy: “Got it.”

After entering the search, he was startled when he saw the contact’s profile picture: “Your profile picture… is quite cute.”

Chi Yao didn’t respond.

He was deleting a friend, removing the person who had inexplicably added him, before saying: “Someone picked it for me.”

“Your sister?” This kind of cute profile picture made the boy immediately assume Chi Yao’s family probably had more than one child. “Girls indeed like these kinds of profile pictures. But if it were me, I probably couldn’t stand it for long and would find a chance to change it.”

“Can’t change it.”

Chi Yao neither confirmed nor denied, only saying: “She’s not very reasonable. Not only does she make a fuss, but she also cries easily.”

On the other side.

Tang Shuxuan stared at the “You are no longer friends” message and the sudden red exclamation mark that appeared. She fell silent: …

Tang Shuxuan: Great.

Tang Shuxuan: He deleted me.

Lin Zhexia didn’t know how to comfort her and could only type: That’s just how he is. Do you know what I have him saved as in my contacts?

Tang Shuxuan: What?

Lin Zhexia: Chi Dog.

Tang Shuxuan: Very fitting.

Tang Shuxuan: I was warned on the forum before I came

Tang Shuxuan: It was a girl who had offered water to Chi Yao. She said she advised everyone not to give Chi Yao water, just let him die of thirst.

For some unknown reason, even though it was Chi Yao who had rejected Tang Shuxuan, Lin Zhexia felt a strange sense of guilt. After a while, she sent another message: Don’t be sad.

Tang Shuxuan was surprisingly resilient and quickly recovered: I’m not sad. There are thousands of men in the world; why bother with a tough bone to chew? There’s a handsome senior in the second year, too. I’ll try my luck with him another day.

Lin Zhexia: …

The intensity increased over the next few days of military training, with standing at attention alone taking an hour each day.

Perhaps it was a case of fearing what you most expect, but Lin Zhexia’s class had a particularly fierce instructor who was incredibly demanding and punished the entire class with extra standing whenever he was dissatisfied.

That day, their class had failed to march in perfect formation. While other classes went to lunch, their class was held back by the instructor.

The midday sun was so hot that the military training caps felt scorching.

Tang Shuxuan secretly muttered to Lin Zhexia: “Even though I always complain about the cafeteria food tasting bad, having something to eat is still better than having nothing.”

After the incident of asking for contact information, she and Tang Shuxuan had unexpectedly grown closer and become friends.

Lin Zhexia: “I’m starving to death.”

Tang Shuxuan: “My stomach just growled. I hope no one heard it.”

After a moment.

Chen Lin said from the back row: “I heard it.”

Lin Zhexia consoled herself, and by extension, them: “I don’t think he’ll let us miss lunch…”

The instructor heard voices from their direction, scanned them with his eyes, and harshly demanded: “Who’s talking? Step forward.”

“…”

No one moved.

Lin Zhexia summoned her courage and stepped forward: “Me.”

Instructor: “What were you discussing? Let’s hear it.”

Since she had already stepped out, Lin Zhexia decided to brazen it out: “Health is the foundation of revolution, so eating is very important.”

However, she underestimated the instructor’s ruthlessness. Her words had no effect, and their class still missed lunchtime.

Starving until evening, they ate dinner but soon felt hungry again.

This hunger wasn’t just because they missed lunch today; it was like a tipping point. After several days of not eating well, this feeling of “not being full” came particularly strongly this evening.

That night, the dormitory’s conversation turned to naming dishes.

“I want hotpot, I want barbecue…”

“Actually, in our current situation, instant noodles would be most suitable. There’s a hot water dispenser right outside in the corridor. Did anyone bring instant noodles?”

“…”

Complete silence.

“Fine, let’s just sleep. In dreams, everything is possible.”

Though they talked about sleeping, no one could fall asleep.

The more they couldn’t sleep, the hungrier they became.

Close to ten o’clock, Lin Zhexia, under her blanket, opened her chat and tapped on Chi Yao’s profile picture.

The chat immediately displayed a “Tap” notification.

She thought Chi Yao must be asleep by this time, but unexpectedly, he replied with a “?” and replied very quickly-

You’re still awake? What are you doing up at midnight?

The reply came instantly-

Playing games.

Lin Zhexia: Oh, then you carry on.

Chi Dog: Aren’t you sleeping?

Lin Zhexia: I can’t sleep.

Lin Zhexia typed listlessly: Too hungry to sleep.

After saying this, she couldn’t help complaining about the instructor: He’s insane. He wouldn’t let us eat lunch. I told him health is the foundation of revolution, and he just got angrier.

Chi Yao didn’t reply again.

Lin Zhexia figured he must have started his game, so she stopped bothering him-

Meanwhile, in the boys’ dormitory building.

“Damn, you used your ultimate too slowly.”

“The opponent used Flash, chase them.”

“Yao-ge, help me,” a boy called out. “Why did you stop moving in the jungle? Did your connection lag?”

Chi Yao: “Replying to a message.”

“You can switch out to reply to messages? Is this the confidence of a master?” The game was at a critical moment, and the boy said, “At a time like this, even if someone came at me with a knife, I’d stand my ground, finish this burst of damage, and then run.”

Another boy said, “That’s too much. People need some rationality. For me, I’d run while finishing this damage output.”

“…”

After these two spoke, the next second, they received a notification that their friend had quit the game.

There was a slight movement from the upper bunk.

Chi Yao supported himself with his hands, not using the ladder. With his long legs, he could come down directly from the upper bunk: “I’m going out for a bit.”

“?”

“At this hour, you’re going out?”

“Where are you going? Besides, the gates of the training base are closed. They don’t allow going out, right?”

Chi Yao pushed open the dormitory door and walked straight out.

Lin Zhexia’s dormitory had been quiet for nearly twenty minutes.

Everyone was trying to fight hunger with sleep, but after twenty minutes, the silent dormitory was suddenly pierced by the sound of a rumbling stomach.

Chen Lin opened her eyes: “My stomach growled.”

Tang Shuxuan also opened her eyes: “Can’t sleep at all.”

Someone led the charge, and several people burst into laughter because of this stomach growl, completely losing any desire to sleep.

Lin Zhexia also laughed for a long time.

At this moment, the phone screen that had been placed beside her pillow suddenly lit up.

It was a new message notification.

She unlocked her phone and saw that Chi Yao had only sent two words:-

Come down.

Come down?

Come down where?

Her first reaction was confusion.

The military training base had strict regulations; leaving the dormitory after lights out was not allowed.

And at this hour…

What was there to come down for?

But based on her understanding of Chi Yao, though he was often inconsiderate, he wouldn’t send such a message to mess with her for no reason.

So Lin Zhexia asked the others: “Is the door downstairs locked?”

Chen Lin: “Probably not. I think it doesn’t lock until noon. What’s up?”

Lin Zhexia: “…I might need to go down for a bit.”

After saying this, she got up, changed her clothes, took her phone, and very quietly pushed open the dormitory door like a thief, leaving with a parting sentence: “Comrades, if I don’t make it back, remember, the murderer is Chi Yao from Class One, Year One.”

At this hour, neither the building corridors nor the lobby downstairs had lights on; only a few street lamps outside were lit, their faint light illuminating the surroundings of the building.

Lin Zhexia was wearing loose-fitting pajamas with blue-green baggy shorts.

This outfit was completely unpretentious, very casual.

After going outside, she looked around but couldn’t see anyone.

The rubber walkway in front of the dormitory building was empty, and the boys’ dormitory next door also had its lights off. There was nobody around-

You’d better-

Not messing with me-

Or you’re dead

Lin Zhexia crouched down, jabbing each word viciously into her phone screen-

I’ll make sure you don’t see tomorrow’s sun-

I will kill someone-

I! Really!! Will kill someone!!!

She didn’t dare get too close to the light sources, fearing that patrolling teachers might see her, so she could only crouch at the side of the building.

It was dark all around, with insects everywhere.

After she crouched there and killed two mosquitoes, Chi Yao replied.

This time, it was again a brief two words:-

Turn around

Behind the dormitory building was a wall that surrounded the entire military training base.

Lin Zhexia stared at these words, “Turn around,” paused, and an almost unbelievable guess emerged.

She turned around and, in the darkness, saw an indistinct figure climbing over the wall from outside the training base. The figure stepped on the edge of the wall and, in the next second, effortlessly landed thanks to his height advantage.

When the person came closer.

She could finally see clearly that he was carrying a plastic bag.

“…Chi Yao?”

“How did you climb over the wall to get in?” Lin Zhexia had never imagined Chi Yao would appear before her in this way. She maintained her crouching position, looking up at him in shock, “Did you sneak out to… hang out with someone?”

The night breeze was different from the daytime, carrying a slight chill.

Chi Yao made an “mm” sound: “I went out to fight.”

“Bad mood, itchy fists, just wanted to find someone to beat up.”

Lin Zhexia’s mouth hung open: “How many people did you fight?”

Chi Yao said casually: “Three or four, I guess.”

Lin Zhexia: “Did you win?”

Chi Yao: “If I hadn’t won, I’d be in the hospital right now.”

“Even if you won, you shouldn’t be here,” Lin Zhexia, despite her shock, still had some remaining rationality. “You should be in jail.”

Chi Yao didn’t continue this topic with her. He almost condescendingly tossed the plastic bag he was carrying to her.

Lin Zhexia nearly caught it with her face, ending up with the fully packed plastic bag in her arms.

It was too dark, and Chi Yao’s entrance had been so unusual that she hadn’t paid attention to the bag, much less seen what was inside.

Now, holding the bag, she could finally see clearly.

It was filled with food—her favorite milk-flavored cookies, milk bread, two bags of candy, and most prominently, several cups of braised beef noodles that would probably only appear in her dreams.

Lin Zhexia, hugging this pile of food, asked: “I thought you went to fight?”

“Halfway through the fight, someone begged me to let them go,” Chi Yao said, “They bribed me with a bunch of useless things.”

Even Lin Zhexia, slow as she might be, realized that Chi Yao’s story about “fighting” was a lie.

She felt a dizzying sense of happiness that came too suddenly.

Looking at Chi Yao, she found him particularly pleasing to the eye today.

Lin Zhexia didn’t hold back her praise: “I apologize for what I said a few days ago. You’re as handsome as Pan An. Your handsome face makes heaven and earth change color. One could say it’s earth-shattering and makes ghosts and gods weep. I only said you were average-looking because I was too jealous of you.”

“The day I went crazy complimenting you as a handsome guy, I was expressing my true feelings, but was too embarrassed to admit it.”

As she spoke, she gave Chi Yao a thumbs-up.

“Jealousy is my highest form of praise for you.”

Chi Yao: “Continue.”

Lin Zhexia was in a very good mood now. Forget a string of flattery; she’d be willing to praise him all night if asked.

“I can also switch to English.”

The street lamp stretched its shadows long against each other.

Lin Zhexia laboriously and haltingly began speaking in English: “I’m sorry about… uh, I say you ugly.”

Chi Yao: “Your grammar is wrong.”

Lin Zhexia: “Oh, my English isn’t very good, so let’s just…”

She wanted to say, since you don’t want to hear it, let’s end the English version here.

However, Chi Yao wouldn’t let her off so easily: “Since you can’t contain your admiration for me—”

“After we get back, write an English essay of no less than three hundred words and send it to me.”

Lin Zhexia: “…”

How could there be someone who,

accepts an essay praising their appearance,

so calmly???