The boy Guan Che mentioned — the one who had confessed to Jiang Yan — was named Chen Linge. He was a student at School Nine, one year below Guan Che. Handsome in appearance and upright in character, he was the kind of young man who carried himself like a clear breeze beneath a bright moon. He was something of a prominent figure at School Nine as well, though no one could quite understand why he had suddenly come out of nowhere to confess to Jiang Yan, without any warning whatsoever.

When Guan Che had still been attending school, he had run into Chen Linge a few times and had never noticed anything suggesting Chen Linge harbored any inappropriate feelings toward Jiang Yan.

What made it all the more baffling was that Chen Linge had fled the moment he finished his confession, leaving Jiang Yan no chance to even ask why.

“I just had a friend get his contact information for me,” Guan Che said, watching Jiang Yan return from buying milk tea with a face still dark with displeasure. He could barely suppress his laughter. “Hey, it’s just a guy confessing to you. You don’t have to act like you’ve lost your virtue or something, do you?”

Jiang Yan shot him a sharp look. “Get lost.”

Hu Hanghang and the others sitting nearby, fearing that if Jiang Yan got angry he might actually do away with them, could only feign absolute disinterest in the matter of him being confessed to by another boy.

Lin Tao and Meng Xin exited the game.

The three boys were squeezed together on one sofa, thighs pressed against each other. Xu Yichuan muttered under his breath, “This round I’ll play jungler. I’ll carry us. Give me Han Xin.”

Hu Hanghang had no faith in his skills. “What do you mean you can play jungler?”

Xu Yichuan declared, “My great-uncle can’t, but I can play jungler.”

“……”

Hu Hanghang stole a glance at him, wanting to laugh but not daring to, and could only deliberately bow his head, press his lips tightly together, and struggle to hold back his amusement.

He barely managed to hold it for any time at all.

Guan Che, with reckless disregard for his own well-being, brought the topic up again — reassuring Jiang Yan to take it easy, that it was no big deal, even complimenting him that with his looks he was equally popular with men and women alike.

Hearing that, the three of them could no longer hold it in. As though some switch had been flipped, they erupted into wild laughter. “Hahahahahaha!!”

Jiang Yan: “……”

Guan Che, standing to the side, had already dissolved into helpless laughter before the others even started — by now his eyes were practically brimming with tears of amusement.

Lin Tao, trying to protect her boyfriend’s feelings, held back her laughter and carefully controlled her voice. “It’s not a big deal,” she consoled him. “Don’t panic.”

Jiang Yan looked at her without expression, enunciating each word clearly. “If you could rein in that upturned corner of your mouth even slightly, I might actually believe you were being sincere.”

“……”

With that said, Lin Tao had nothing left to hide, and quickly joined the roaring laughter. Of all seven people present, the only one besides the person in question — Jiang Yan himself — who remained perfectly calm was Meng Xin, who sat scrolling through her phone without finding any of this remotely amusing.

Seeing Meng Xin’s reaction, Jiang Yan finally felt a sliver of comfort for his wounded soul. His gaze drifted naturally toward her chat screen —

I’ve got massive gossip!! — The school tyrant got confessed to today by a guy from School Nine! — Apparently his name is something like Chen Linge!! Does anyone know him!! — Is he GAY or what!!!!!

“……”

Indeed, birds of a feather flock together.

Jiang Yan felt that his heart, already skewered with every manner of knife, had just had yet another one jammed in through the gaps.

The news of Jiang Yan being confessed to by Chen Linge quickly spread from School Nine’s side.

It caused a tremendous stir.

One was the school tyrant of School Ten, the other the most admired student at School Nine — both were prominent figures at their respective schools, and the buzz refused to die down.

The school’s online forums were abuzz with discussion, and someone had even quietly started writing fanfiction —

Temperamental and Scheming Attacker × Gentle and Reserved Academic Receiver [Fic] — The Love and Hate Between Two Academic Stars [Fic] — School Campus Love Triangle [Fic]

……

Posts of this nature flooded the front page of the school forums within a single day.

As the buzz continued to build, a new version of events emerged from School Nine’s side: Chen Linge had only confessed to the school tyrant because they had been playing Truth or Dare, and it wasn’t a real confession at all.

Others claimed that Chen Linge’s confession was because his childhood sweetheart secretly had a crush on the school tyrant, and in order to prevent his little sweetheart from straying down the wrong path, Chen Linge had to sacrifice himself.

Of the two versions going around, Jiang Yan and Guan Che and the others leaned more toward the first, while Lin Tao and Meng Xin, with their couple-obsessed minds, were more inclined to believe the second.

Later on, Chen Linge privately reached out to Jiang Yan and explained the whole story, confirming the first version — he had simply lost a game and the confession was his dare.

As for why he had run off right after, Chen Linge explained that he was afraid Jiang Yan would lash out at him in a fit of rage.

Hearing this explanation, Jiang Yan was left thoroughly speechless — even somewhat bewildered — and began to wonder whether the rumors about him at School Nine had made him out to be some kind of violent maniac.

Lin Tao actually thought it was perfectly understandable, and deliberately teased him, “Don’t you remember? When we first met, Xu Yichuan and the others even told me about how you once took on an entire class of boys from School Nine in a fight and still walked away without a scratch.”

“……”

“But what was the situation back then anyway?” Lin Tao had only ever heard it mentioned and never gotten the details, so she was naturally curious. “Did you really get into a fight with a whole class of boys?”

“No.” Jiang Yan set down the test paper in his hands and lightly pinched the bridge of his nose. “They sent a representative. He represented the whole class.”

Lin Tao made a sound of surprise. “Then why were you at School Nine getting into fights in the first place? Wasn’t Guan Che over there?”

“That’s exactly why.” Jiang Yan said. “The most popular girl in that class had confessed to Guan Che and been rejected. The boys in her class couldn’t stand it, so they found an opportunity to corner Guan Che.”

Lin Tao inexplicably felt like this plot sounded familiar. “Wait — that time you got into a fight with He Wen, wasn’t that also because Guan Che had rejected someone’s sister and then got beaten up?”

Jiang Yan leaned back against the sofa, raised a hand to rub the back of his neck, and spoke in a languid tone. “I think so.”

Lin Tao let out a sound of realization, as though she had just figured something out, and said in all seriousness: “So it turns out you and Guan Che are the ones who are truly in love.”

“……”

“You don’t truly love me,” Lin Tao said with mock self-pity. “You’re only with me to cover up your relationship with Guan Che.”

Jiang Yan looked at her calmly, the corner of his lips curving slightly. “You know me so well,” he replied in a mild tone.

Lin Tao: “??”

Lin Tao: “…………”

Lin Tao: “[Judging by current developments, it appears I have been cheated on .jpg]”

At the end of March, Jiang Yan’s break ended and he returned to Qingda University.

Lin Tao’s life resumed its usual rhythm. When she sneaked glances at her phone during class, she still received her boyfriend’s reminder messages as before.

Spring departed and summer arrived. Through the windows of the classroom drifted the familiar sound of cicadas, while the countdown on the wall ticked away day by day — from eighty days to seventy to sixty — until, in the blink of an eye, only fifty-some days remained.

In late April, Song Yuan traveled to the Hucheng Police Academy to sit the physical fitness tests and medical examination required for early police academy applications.

The results were released a week later.

Song Yuan had successfully passed the early-entry assessment for police academy admission. As long as his college entrance examination scores met the threshold, acceptance was essentially guaranteed.

Hu Hanghang — the one his parents had endlessly scolded for doing nothing but strumming his guitar and humming to himself — had secretly, without telling his parents or anyone else, enrolled during the winter break in a highly popular original talent program called The Voice.

The Voice was a music program dedicated to discovering and launching amateur performers who were passionate about music and showed genuine potential.

The initial audition phase differed from other programs in that it did not require contestants to appear in person. Instead, applicants were asked to submit a self-recorded single along with their registration.

Judges reviewed these audio files alongside personal profiles to select one hundred contestants for the official filming stages.

The entire audition process spanned several months, and the final results were announced on May 1st via the official account. Among tens of thousands of contestants, Hu Hanghang stood out, advancing to the later stages of The Voice with a ranking of thirty-fifth.

When Hu Hanghang’s parents learned of this, they broke with precedent and chose not to oppose it — instead, they supported his decision.

A few days later, when the five of them met up for a meal, Hu Hanghang brought up the matter and couldn’t help but tear up. “Honestly, if I ever manage to make something of myself in this field, besides thanking my parents, I also have to thank Teacher Yu.”

At the parent-teacher meeting in March, Teacher Yu had spoken with all the parents present about something that had happened on his birthday the previous year — bringing up various complaints students had made about their parents.

Teacher Yu had said, “We need to respect children’s natural inclinations. Some children simply don’t have an aptitude for academics. That isn’t a question of intelligence, and it has nothing to do with how hard they work. Perhaps their talents simply lie elsewhere.”

He had also shared many examples — children who, because their parents had chosen a major they didn’t like, ended up being expelled and falling into depression, and in more severe cases, even taking their own lives.

He had urged the parents not to pressure their children with the idea that “college entrance examinations determine everything.” The exams do not determine everything — only the children themselves can determine their own futures.

……

Some of the parents may have only taken Teacher Yu’s words to heart in the moment. But Hu Hanghang’s parents had genuinely listened.

Though Hu Hanghang had never been a strong student and had an energetic, restless personality, he had always been upright in character and had never once crossed any lines of conduct.

Outside of academics, he rarely gave them cause for worry in life or in any other regard.

He had trusted them so completely all his life — now it was their turn to be his strongest support, to let him chase his dreams with everything he had.

In contrast to Hu Hanghang’s parents’ open-mindedness, Xu Yichuan’s parents remained steadfast in their own views, and planned to send Xu Yichuan abroad after the college entrance examinations.

Xu Yichuan knew his parents had spent a great deal of effort and quiet worry over his academics over the years, and so he had little to say about their arrangements.

After all, he had no clear goal for his own future. Since his parents had the means to pave a path for him, it was better than simply drifting along on his own.

Compared to the rest of them, Meng Xin had harbored a desire to study medicine from a very early age.

What outsiders never knew was that before Meng Xin was born, the Meng family had actually had a son — but he had been born with congenital heart disease, and before he had even reached his first birthday, he had left this world.

Meng Xin had grown up listening to her mother speak of this brother she had never met, and had formed many imaginings of him. Once she was old enough to understand, she began learning everything she could about congenital heart disease.

Her brother’s passing was something that filled every member of the Meng family with regret and grief. Meng Xin wanted to do her part so that other families might carry a little less of that same sorrow.

In this period, it seemed as though everyone had their own goal to strive toward. And Lin Tao, who had once felt so lost about her future, had also found her direction.

During the winter break the previous year, Lin’s father and mother had taken Lin Tao on a journey of sightseeing and travel, as they did every year. While resting in Hecheng, they had happened to run into Liang Wei, who was there on a business trip.

Lin’s parents were close with Liang Wei, and the group shared a casual meal together in Hecheng.

During the meal, Liang Wei had exchanged a few words with Lin Tao and, upon hearing that she had not yet chosen a major, casually asked whether she had considered studying law.

Lin Tao had joked at the time, teasing him that recommending someone to study law ought to come with a thousand cuts as punishment.

Liang Wei had only smiled without saying anything more.

Later, after she had returned to Xicheng, Fang Yisong had spoken with Lin Tao once about choosing a university major, and had also asked whether she was interested in law.

If she were being honest with herself, Lin Tao felt she wasn’t particularly passionate about anything. She couldn’t say she was interested in law — only that she didn’t reject it.

On the day before the winter break ended, Fang Yisong went to Liang Wei’s law firm to discuss some business matters, and since Lin Tao had nothing going on, she tagged along.

Fang Yisong was meeting with another senior partner at the firm to discuss commercial matters. Liang Wei invited Lin Tao up to his office for a cup of coffee.

The two of them again talked about the question of choosing a major. When Lin Tao mentioned the word “interest,” Liang Wei said, “Law is a serious undertaking — it’s not the kind of thing you choose based on something as mundane as interest.”

Lin Tao felt a little embarrassed. “I just feel like I don’t have any particular goal. I also don’t know whether I could really become a true lawyer after studying law.”

At that, Liang Wei smiled. “Have you seen Ratatouille?”

Lin Tao shook her head. “No, I haven’t.”

“There’s a line in it,” Liang Wei said. “Not everyone can be a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.“

“So,” Liang Wei looked at Lin Tao, his voice gentle and unhurried, as a senior might speak to someone younger, “you need to have confidence in yourself.”

Author’s Note: Chen Linge is the male lead of the pre-collection novel “Hide in My Heart” (also part of the same campus series — please bookmark it if you’re interested!) Tomorrow should be the finale =w= Love you all!!