The host university for the finals was different from the one where the award ceremony had previously been held — more remote. The school once again provided accommodation, and Zhu Yun’s group arrived a few days early to find that many other competing teams had already checked in.

Since it was already the holiday period, the hotel was by far the liveliest building on the entire campus, drawing students from all over the country together to exchange ideas and experiences.

Zhu Yun was assigned to share a room with a senior student, as usual. She hadn’t even finished unpacking when someone knocked at her door. Assuming it was Gao Jianhong and Li Xun coming to discuss the competition, she opened it — and found herself looking at a face that was neither quite familiar nor quite a stranger’s.

“You’re here!” The visitor was bursting with enthusiasm and launched straight into a bear hug.

Good heavens…

Zhu Yun surfaced from a cloud of intense fruity perfume.

What was her name again — Xu something…

“You all came so late! We’re local, so we got here early — we’ve already been here several days.”

Right. Xu Lina.

Zhu Yun smiled pleasantly. “Our professor booked the tickets late.”

Xu Lina grabbed Zhu Yun’s arm. “Come on, come sit in my room for a bit.”

Before Zhu Yun had finished putting her things away, Xu Lina had whisked her off to her room, which was buzzing with activity — seven or eight people crammed in, laptops covering every bed and table, people clustered together in small groups.

“I’ve been waiting for you forever. Let me show you what our team did.” Xu Lina went over to one of the laptops and pulled up her team’s entry with great enthusiasm. “We built a ‘Self-Detecting Software Piracy System’ — this here is the feature extractor…”

Zhu Yun focused attentively as Xu Lina walked her through the demonstration. Honestly speaking, it was quite good — but the overall maturity of the system still fell a noticeable step behind their own entry.

When Xu Lina finished, she asked Zhu Yun, “So? What do you think?”

Zhu Yun: “It’s really solid. The anti-piracy direction is excellent — none of us even thought to go that route.”

Xu Lina grinned. “Still not as good as yours.” She leaned back casually and asked, as if the thought had just occurred to her, “Where’s Li Xun? Did he come?”

“He came.”

“Where is he?”

“Probably in his room.” Zhu Yun’s attention was still on the screen. Xu Lina added, “Call him over! I’ve read through your project documentation — I’d love to have him walk us through it.”

Zhu Yun hesitated. “He might be sleeping.”

Xu Lina gave her a nudge. “What’s there to sleep about at this hour? What is he, an old man?”

“…”

Don’t let the top scholar Li Xun hear that, Zhu Yun thought. Based on past experience, anyone who made a remark like that ended up regretting it quite bloodily.

Xu Lina kept pressing. “I showed you ours.”

“…”

Wish I hadn’t looked, honestly. Not like I was that interested to begin with.

Xu Lina: “Come on, just call him over.”

Fine, fine… Courtesy really did demand some degree of reciprocity.

Zhu Yun took out her phone and called Li Xun. No answer. She tried Gao Jianhong — he picked up quickly. He was in another room discussing something with someone else. Zhu Yun asked, “Where’s Li Xun?”

“He was still in the room writing something when I left.”

Zhu Yun hung up and told Xu Lina, “I’ll go check his room. Give me a moment.”

Xu Lina said brightly, “Sure!”

The men’s rooms were one floor up. Zhu Yun headed upstairs with her head down — and nearly collided with someone at the top of the stairwell.

“Oh! Zhu Yun!”

“…”

The moment Zhu Yun heard that voice, she felt her stomach turn. She took a brief moment to compose herself, then looked up with a smile.

“Fang Zhijing.”

Fang Zhijing was of average height, lean in build, with a broad forehead and a pair of frameless glasses. Zhu Yun remembered that even back in middle school, he had been fond of pointing out his own forehead to whoever sat beside him, claiming it was a sign of intelligence.

In fairness, his mind was indeed reasonably sharp.

“I was actually going to get in touch beforehand, but I didn’t have your number.”

Fang Zhijing was standing three steps above her. The last thing Zhu Yun wanted was to crane her neck to look at his face.

“I reached out to Teacher Liu. Did she tell you?”

Zhu Yun: “Yes, she mentioned it.”

Fang Zhijing: “So you entered the competition too. What’s your project?”

Zhu Yun told him, and Fang Zhijing gave a couple of vague sounds. “Rings a bell, I think.” He had a sheaf of papers in his hand, which he was using to fan himself. “It’s so hot. The sponsors want to talk to me later — should finish around seven. Then let’s get dinner together.”

Zhu Yun shook her head. “That’s all right.”

Fang Zhijing smiled. “It’s been so long since we’ve seen each other. Come on, just dinner and a chat.”

“Really, it’s fine.” Zhu Yun made up a quick excuse. “Our team leader wants to hold a meeting with us tonight.”

Fang Zhijing paused.

“Team leader. Li Xun?”

Zhu Yun instinctively straightened up. “You know him?”

Fang Zhijing made an affirmative sound, still smiling. “I noticed him at the awards ceremony last time. Mainly because that hair of his was impossible to miss. This is a national competition — and he showed up like that?”

You made it here, and you’re questioning what our top scholar lacks?

“All right, I’m going to be late — I’ll head off.” Fang Zhijing took a few steps, then stopped. “Give me your number.”

Zhu Yun: “I don’t have my phone on me. I don’t know my number by heart.”

Fang Zhijing gave an exasperated frown. “Unbelievable. Fine, we’ll sort it out later.”

Fang Zhijing left. Zhu Yun stood where she was for a moment, then continued up the stairs. She had barely taken two steps when she heard a languid voice from around the side of the stairwell:

“When did I say I was holding a meeting tonight?”

Zhu Yun’s foot caught — she nearly went down.

A second later, she heard the familiar rasp of a lighter. Smoke drifted from around the corner. Li Xun was leaning against the wall, a convenience store bag hanging from one hand, flip-flops on his feet — evidently just back from outside.

Zhu Yun went over. “What did you buy?”

Li Xun didn’t answer. He took the cigarette from his lips and sauntered a couple of steps, coming to stand in front of Zhu Yun, looking down at her from his considerable height.

“Princess.” His tone was easy.

Zhu Yun felt the back of her neck tighten. Beneath the casual amusement in his voice, she detected something faintly cool and deliberate underneath.

Li Xun lifted a hand, pinched a strand of hair near her ear, and ran his fingers slowly from the root to the tip — then let it fall.

He continued in the same unhurried tone: “It seems like we have some unfinished business about your reasons for entering this competition.”

This…

What was she supposed to say to that?

“Oh, by the way,” Zhu Yun attempted to redirect. “Do you remember Xu Lina?”

Li Xun said nothing.

Zhu Yun: “We met her when we came before. She wants you to come discuss the competition entries with her group.”

Still silence.

Zhu Yun’s voice dropped a little. “She’s just downstairs…”

Li Xun gave a short, dismissive laugh and turned to walk toward his room.

His figure receded down the corridor. Zhu Yun stood there for a few seconds, then finally steeled herself.

“He’s my middle school classmate.”

Li Xun didn’t slow his steps and didn’t look back. The hand holding his cigarette traced a lazy arc through the air. “Come on then. Inside. And explain.”

Zhu Yun: “…………”

He swiped the keycard and they went in. Li Xun turned on the air conditioning first, then fished a small package out of the plastic bag and tossed everything else onto the bed.

Zhu Yun was still turning over in her mind how to give Li Xun a concise summary of the situation with Fang Zhijing — when she looked up and found that Li Xun had already taken his shirt off.

Zhu Yun: “?!?!?!?!?!?!”

She could hardly believe what she was seeing.

“What are you doing?”

“Changing.”

He tore open the small package. Li Xun rested his half-smoked cigarette on the windowsill and shook out a plain black cotton short-sleeve T-shirt from inside.

Zhu Yun stared at the scene before her, dumbfounded.

A slender waist. A flat stomach. His chest — his chest, she genuinely did not dare look.

Higher up, the angle between the trapezius muscle and the collarbone was a pleasant sight — the hollow deep enough that you could stack a row of coins in it without any trouble.

Li Xun’s muscles were lean and even — a smooth, shallow layer laid over yielding skin, looking clean and unassuming.

Li Xun raised both arms, shoulders broad and open, and the shirt he had been wearing came off in one fluid motion, tossed to one side.

What an utterly natural, unstudied expanse of bare skin this was.

Even after Li Xun had finished changing and picked up his cigarette again, Zhu Yun still hadn’t come back to herself.

“God, it’s hot.” Li Xun scowled and turned the air conditioning down another few degrees.

Zhu Yun agreed.

It really was hot.

So very, very hot…

She took advantage of the moment when Li Xun was putting out his cigarette to fan herself with her collar and cool down, glancing around the room as she did.

A standard double room — two beds, the difference in tidiness between them astronomical.

They had checked in that morning. Li Xun had clearly napped after lunch — his duvet was twisted into a mass of creases, the pillow slightly sunken. Gao Jianhong’s bed, by contrast, looked practically untouched, as though no one had so much as sat on it.

Li Xun had traveled light — just a small compact bag, with barely any clothes at all. He’d been buying things as he needed them here.

Zhu Yun looked back over. The black T-shirt he had bought was the kind you could find anywhere, and appeared to be a standard size — slightly too fitted for someone of his height. Against his frame it clung to him like a black brushstroke, drawing the outline of his entire body.

Li Xun wasn’t the broad, muscular type. There was nothing rigid or blocky about him. His build was more lithe, his muscle tone smooth and even, every line and angle looking as though it could breathe.

Li Xun had just finished changing when, before the earlier conversation could be picked back up, there was a knock at the door.

Gao Jianhong back already?

Zhu Yun went to open it — and caught the scent of fruity perfume drifting through the gap.

Xu Lina peered around the door with a conspiratorial expression. “I came to check — what took so long?”

Zhu Yun turned around. Li Xun walked over, and Xu Lina said to him, “Come hang out with us! We can go get dinner later. The competition’s still days away — you can’t just stay cooped up in here the whole time.”

Xu Lina pulled Zhu Yun along. “You too.”

Xu Lina had a bright, outgoing personality, and as a local she knew every worthwhile spot in the area. That evening she organized a group of more than a dozen people for dinner — an outdoor restaurant by the lake, tucked away in a hidden spot with a lovely atmosphere, and affordable too.

A warm evening breeze drifted past.

The young students drank freely, laughed and argued, while the willows swayed gently at the roadside and the moon hung overhead.

Li Xun sat at the table, idly turning an empty teacup in his hands. Zhu Yun was seated beside him.

Gao Jianhong was discussing the competition with Xu Lina, who was full of praise for Li Xun’s team’s entry.

“I’ve already looked at all the strong entries, and I’m just waiting to see the final presentations. Yours is definitely going to be fine — even our faculty advisor said so.”

Gao Jianhong asked, “I haven’t had a chance to look into all of them yet. How are the other teams shaping up? How many first prizes do you think they’ll award this year?”

Xu Lina: “Probably a few more than usual. There are more teams this year, and quite a few strong ones — but don’t worry, you’re all getting first prize for sure.”

Gao Jianhong smiled. Then Xu Lina seemed to remember something, and her expression shifted with a slight curl of her lip.

“You lot have genuinely earned it — everyone knows it. Not like some teams…”

Sounds like there might be some gossip here. Zhu Yun’s ears perked up.

Gao Jianhong seemed to have heard something about this too. “I heard someone mention it this afternoon,” he said, and named a school.

Zhu Yun heard the name and went very slightly still.

The hand Li Xun was using to turn the teacup went still as well.