Right after registration came freshman military training. The four of them had formed a deep revolutionary camaraderie in a short amount of time and quickly figured out each other’s personalities.

Liang Xinyue was direct and easy-going — she used only good things and was happy to share them with others. It was obvious from the start that she had been raised with care and abundance, and there was a certain willfulness in the way she spoke and carried herself. But somehow it never came across as off-putting — she was actually quite endearing.

Bi Jiaxi and Yu Qin alike had come from smaller hometowns. The former was candid and warm, outgoing and enthusiastic. The latter was comparatively quieter and more emotionally sensitive — she rarely brought up her family, though she wasn’t particularly withdrawn. She fit right in.

When it came to why they had each chosen to study mathematics, their answers varied.

After all, girls in the mathematics department were something of a rarity, and the pretty ones were rarer still. Within days of the semester beginning, several male students from the department had already gotten wind of them and added every one of them on WeChat.

“My parents thought I should go into Finance — they’re both in the industry. But I just love math.” Liang Xinyue said. “Nothing more to it than that. I just feel — why shouldn’t girls study mathematics? I want to prove all those relatives who doubted me wrong. We girls are plenty smart!”

Yu Qin had come to it the same way — simply because she loved the subject.

Bi Jiaxi was refreshingly honest: “In our area, getting into Jing University isn’t easy. Competition results give bonus points, so I went into the math competition circuit.”

Ning Sui had also been in math competitions, so the two of them had plenty to talk about.

In the wake of being cheated on, Yu Qin had made a good deal of progress with the warm encouragement of her new dormmates. And with military training keeping everyone busy, there wasn’t much time to dwell on anything else.

Days were spent standing at attention in the blazing sun; evenings often involved formation drills with the whole company. By the time they got back to the dorm, it was sometimes already late, and they’d be up again before six the next morning. The collective suffering had its own bonding effect.

Right now, Bi Jiaxi and Ning Sui were making a run to the cafeteria to secure breakfast.

Both were already dressed in their camouflage uniforms, high ponytails neatly pinned, standing dutifully in the long queue.

Several male students passing through with their trays took notice of Ning Sui as they went by.

Bi Jiaxi caught this and leaned over from behind Ning Sui’s shoulder, whispering with a grin: “Suisui, honestly — the first time I saw you, I thought, wow, this girl is really, really pretty.”

Ning Sui wasn’t quite sure how to respond to such direct, unguarded praise, but she curved her lips a little.

The line inched forward. Bi Jiaxi asked: “Suisui, what sunscreen do you use? It doesn’t seem to matter how much sun you get — you just stay pale. It’s like you’re glowing. Not like me — I’m naturally on the darker, more yellow-toned side.”

Ning Sui thought to herself: You haven’t met someone named Hu Ke’er. She told her the brand, then took a proper look at Bi Jiaxi and said sincerely: “Not at all — yours is a very healthy kind of glow.”

At last their turn came. This particular window served more delicate southern-style dim sum — shumai, xiaolongbao and the like. Ning Sui ordered a bowl of pumpkin congee and a sticky rice chicken parcel. Bi Jiaxi got a bamboo steamer of dumplings and a bag of soy milk.

Ning Sui hadn’t expected the sticky rice chicken up north to be this generous in size — it looked wonderfully substantial. Bi Jiaxi dug in with her cheeks full and happy, eating with visible enthusiasm — and somehow made Ning Sui’s appetite better too, so she finished everything she’d ordered.

The whole morning was training. They practiced parade-ground march steps on the sports field. At midday there was a brief rest, and the moment the instructor called “dismissed,” everyone surged toward the cafeteria.

Liang Xinyue darted ahead and claimed a four-person table. Bi Jiaxi laid a pack of tissues on it to hold the spot: “Go get your food — I’ll watch our seats.”

Liang Xinyue hesitated for a moment, then smiled cheerfully: “Thanks, Xiaoxi!”

They were among the quicker ones. By the time they had their food and sat down, the cafeteria had already formed a long queue stretching out the door.

The school had more than one cafeteria, but this one was the most conveniently located — three floors, a wide variety of dishes — so when no one could decide what to eat, this was the reliable default for all three meals.

“I’m exhausted.” Liang Xinyue rubbed her back and complained: “This training is too intense. The instructor called me out three times today for not keeping my fingers together — and you can see that from that far away?”

Bi Jiaxi: “Don’t remind me. I got called out for blinking. I was terrified.”

Sounds like everyone was going through it. Liang Xinyue chewed on her chopsticks and asked petulantly: “Do you think the training next door is this strict?”

Ever since arriving at Jing University, they had inherited the school’s grand tradition of referring to Qing University next door as “the neighboring institution.”

The two schools’ mutual rivalry was no secret — their official social media accounts would interact with pointed flair, and students had made a whole culture out of the jokes. If you did something embarrassing, you’d claim you were from next door; but during welcome events, everyone suddenly became earnest: “The neighboring institution is also very excellent — it’s only about five hundred meters from a world-class university.”

Yu Qin said: “Training next door isn’t easy either. I have a friend there, and she told me they’re basically dying. Their campus has more grounds and longer stretches between north and south, so they can run full drills right on the paths. Apparently one night they did a twenty-kilometer route march around the whole campus in the middle of the night. Can you imagine?”

Bi Jiaxi: “Good heavens!”

The hand Ning Sui was holding her chopsticks with paused for just a moment.

She had seen this on Wen Siyuan’s social media — posted around six in the morning, a photo of the pale dawn sky at the horizon, captioned: [Half-dead [falling apart]]

Ning Sui had also been added to the group chat for students from Huai’an University going to Qing and Jing Universities. She had seen the photos — dense rows upon rows of formations.

It was quite a spectacle, from the looks of it. An entire cohort of three thousand new students, and to avoid disrupting traffic during the day, they’d all gone out together in the middle of the night.

Yu Qin: “Because it was a march, they had to carry their rolled-up bedding with their bags, water canteens and all. I heard someone couldn’t keep going halfway through, stopped to rest, spread out their bedding on the ground and just serenely lay down.”

Liang Xinyue gave a thumbs up: “Respect. Absolute respect.”

Mid-conversation, Yu Qin’s phone buzzed. She pulled it out, glanced at the incoming call, and hung up without expression.

Probably the insufferable ex trying the desperate-reconciliation phase. No one said anything.

A moment of quiet fell over the table. Liang Xinyue, sitting across from Ning Sui, eyes bright, looked down at her tray: “Suisui, can I have one of your beef balls?”

Ning Sui said pleasantly: “Of course.”

Liang Xinyue happily speared one with her chopstick, then thought of something and pulled out her phone with excitement: “My best friend told me — Qing University has so many good-looking guys this year! Their campus confession wall is practically overflowing. All photos.”

Bi Jiaxi sat up the moment she heard the words good-looking guys: “I want to see!”

Liang Xinyue gave a gleeful laugh: “I’ll share the link in the group.”

Ning Sui was still eating and didn’t rush to open it. But Yu Qin was quick — scrolling and already sharing commentary: “This is exactly why you have to look for a boyfriend at Qing University — the quality of guys there is just too high.”

Bi Jiaxi, sitting beside Ning Sui, leaned over enthusiastically and turned her screen toward the others: “Right?! Look at this one — he’s so handsome, gorgeous eyes, good nose bridge. So many people are mentioning him!”

“……Are you talking about Xie Yichen?” Liang Xinyue glanced over, then shared some insider gossip she’d apparently picked up: “He’s not only his province’s top scorer — he’s from a wealthy family too. That company, what’s it called, Tengyun — the enterprise services internet platform — supposedly it’s his family’s.”

Instantly, several pairs of sharp eyes turned in that direction. Yu Qin said: “That impressive?! But wait — top scorer? I saw someone on here say he was admitted early?”

Liang Xinyue: “Right — apparently he’s both the top scorer and admitted early through competition results.”

“!!!”

All three of them nearly lost their composure. For girls in the mathematics department, there was a natural tendency to admire ability and achievement — and that kind of profile was simply unheard of.

Liang Xinyue swallowed a dumpling in two bites and joked: “I feel like I’m on the verge of transferring my feelings — going home to dump my useless childhood sweetheart of mine.”

Bi Jiaxi noticed that Ning Sui had been sitting quietly beside her the whole time, focused and unbothered on her soup. She found it curious — Ning Sui seemed completely uninterested in all this handsome-guy talk — and waved at her: “Suisui, aren’t you going to look?!”

She’d practically thrust the phone in her face. Ning Sui naturally accepted it: “Oh, sure.”

— It really wasn’t easy to join in on that conversation.

She definitely couldn’t reveal knowing anything about Xie Yichen’s family company. And if she did mention knowing him, they’d ask follow-up questions she couldn’t answer — so she said nothing about being acquainted with him.

Ning Sui lowered her eyes and gave the page a quick scan.

Campus confession walls were more or less the same everywhere, but a university this size meant far more traffic — posts were going up by the second on Qing University’s.

And then she spotted a candid photo of Xie Yichen.

Everyone was wearing the same deep green military uniform, yet somehow on him it looked distinctly sharper and more fitted.

It was probably a break period. He was standing under a tree drinking water, and yet still somehow carried himself with a lean, upright ease. The belt cinched in his waist, making his shoulders look wider and his legs longer — everything neatly composed and precise.

He wasn’t wearing his cap, and fine dark hair fell loosely across his forehead. He was looking toward the camera in a passing, careless sort of way.

The comments below had devolved into strings of “AHHHH”s, someone writing he’s so handsome, I need to know everything about him in three minutes, and others already nicknaming him the department’s most beautiful — the post had been upvoted to near the top.

This person, wherever he went, would always create this kind of… tempestuous atmosphere.

Ning Sui was about to hand the phone back to Bi Jiaxi — and then she noticed there was another photo of him lower down.

— Xie Yichen with his chin slightly tilted up, a lit cigarette held between his fingers, bringing it to his lips.

The backdrop was a sunset — one brilliant blaze of orange and red, burning wild. His profile was cast languid and loose in that glowing light, long lashes lowered, the line of his throat sharp and leisurely where it met his collar.

It was this photo that had swept through Qing University like wildfire. It had been shared everywhere. Everyone now knew: Class Yao in the Computer Science department had a freshman who was very, very handsome.

— Wait. He smokes?!

Ning Sui’s heart gave a small jolt. Her gaze stilled for a moment on the screen. Since when did Xie Yichen smoke? He even looked practiced at it.

And she had never known.

Around her, Liang Xinyue set down her soup bowl and continued, still enthused: “Do you think our department has anyone like that?”

Yu Qin thought for a moment: “What about Yin Rui in the formation beside ours — wasn’t he pretty good-looking?”

Bi Jiaxi: “Which Yin Rui — the one who carried the sign at the front of the formation?”

“Yes, that one — he seemed tall from a distance, glasses, the scholarly type.”

Bi Jiaxi: “I’ll try to get a closer look next time I’m at the front.”

Liang Xinyue blinked: “Xie Yichen is probably out of reach for me — but if I try hard enough, maybe I can get Yin Rui to say goodnight to me.”

The table chattered on. Ning Sui’s mind was still in a vague haze, when her phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out — and her gaze froze.

Speaking of the devil.

Xie Yichen: [We have a new student formal in about two weeks. Do you want to come hang out?]

A few seconds passed, then he added: [Everyone can bring one guest from outside the school.]

Ning Sui had heard about Qing University’s new student formals. It seemed like every department held one — but they were quite grand affairs. Some used the large spaces in the department building itself; others went to hotel ballrooms.

Performers from various student clubs would be invited, and there would be plenty of good food.

But Ning Sui was fairly certain that this wasn’t quite how it worked — it wasn’t just “bring a guest.” You could bring one person of the opposite sex, because there would be dancing.

Her lashes trembled faintly. Somehow she felt a little unsettled, and she couldn’t quite place why.

The cursor blinked on the screen for a moment. Ning Sui stared blankly at it.

She started to type something, then hesitated and deleted it. Went back and forth a few times, then finally sent it.

Suisui Sui: [I’m probably not very good at dancing.]

Two minutes later, his reply came: [That’s fine — it’s just a casual thing. You can watch the performances too.]

Three weeks of military training were drawing to a close. Xie Yichen had just finished eating and was now lounging in his dorm chair, phone in hand, scrolling.

On the bunk nearest to him, his roommate walked in holding a bunch of orange lisianthus, whistling cheerfully: “Another one today — cute girl, double pigtails, big eyes.”

Xie Yichen glanced over sideways. Liu Chang quickly raised his hands in self-defense: “I know, I know — you said you didn’t want to accept them. But she was shy — didn’t even say her name, just shoved them into my arms and ran.”

He gestured helplessly, asking with his eyes what to do with the flowers. Xie Yichen said: “Thank her for me, just put them over there.”

“Where exactly is ‘over there’ — there’s no room left.” The guy on the upper bunk leaned his head down and clicked his tongue. “Hey, divine Chen, maybe you should number them? How’s anyone supposed to keep track of this many?”

Xie Yichen thought the two of them were being a little overdramatic. The main issue was that earlier, someone had sent him a very large fluffy bear — the kind filled with a slow-moving liquid — which had been brought up by the dormitory warden and was now temporarily parked in the common area of the room. Combined with the various small gifts that had been pressed into his hands over the past few weeks, the section by the window was beginning to look a bit crowded.

Liu Chang asked: “CEO Chen, what are you going to do with all of this? Seems wasteful to throw it out.”

Xie Yichen kept his eyes on his phone screen and proposed without much concern: “Sell it online and donate the proceeds to fund a new building for Qing University.”

“……”

Liu Chang: “Bro, you are truly ruthless toward your admirers.”

So it seemed his junior school friend didn’t stand a chance either.

Liu Chang and the top-bunk roommate exchanged a glance, then looked back at the man in question. He was clearly texting someone — some girl, by the look of it — still sprawled lazily in his chair, eyes on his phone. Only his expression was different this time: the corner of his mouth seemed to hold a faint curve, and he was typing away.

Liu Chang watched him for a moment, then lowered his voice to ask the top-bunk roommate: “At this rate — how long do you think before Xie-ge gets a girlfriend?”

Top-bunk tilted his head down conspiratorially: “Three months, maybe.”

Liu Chang: “Isn’t that being conservative? You forgot what that department beauty looked like when she said she was absolutely determined — she even made an announcement about it. I give it a month, tops.”

Top-bunk: “Hard to say though. I feel like Chen-shen’s willpower is stronger than ours. And I still haven’t figured out what type he’s into.”

Liu Chang thought about it and agreed.

What he was really curious about right now was: in two weeks, who would be lucky enough to be their department’s finest’s dance partner.

Back on Ning Sui’s end, she stared at the word “okay” she had typed into the chat, her fingertip pressed against the screen, feeling the faintest tension.

She really couldn’t dance. Xia Fanghui had signed her up for all sorts of classes over the years — but dance hadn’t made the list.

— Strictly speaking, she had been taken to the youth center once for a ballet lesson, but Ning Sui hadn’t taken to it. She found the splits painful, didn’t particularly want to be there, and the instructor had noticed her total lack of coordination — her legs simply wouldn’t go down no matter how hard they tried — and had very gently suggested they look elsewhere for the child’s interests.

So even now, Ning Sui had no idea whether she truly lacked any aptitude for dance, or whether she had simply been stubborn about it as a child and deliberately not tried.

Either way, she just couldn’t dance.

Her phone was still open on the chat.

Ning Sui held her breath, and finally watched Xie Yichen send her the venue information — time and location, all the details spelled out.

She replied “okay” first.

Then, after a moment’s deliberation, she went back to the campus confession wall, found that photo taken in the sunset, and saved just the image — not the comments — and sent it to him.

Xie Yichen: [You saw it?]

Suisui Sui: [Yeah]

Suisui Sui: [Have you been smoking this whole time?]

Xie Yichen: [I am so done, I have no idea who photoshopped this onto me]

Both messages landed at the same time. A momentary silence seemed to fall in the air.

Ning Sui wet her lips: [……You’re saying that cigarette was edited in?]

Xie Yichen: [What else would it be?]

His tone was unreadable: [When have I ever smoked in front of you?]

Suisui Sui: [Oh]

Then, after a beat: [Then why was your hand in that position?]

“……”

The other end, with great exasperation: [I was eating spicy snack strips.]