Just as I was about to leave campus, I ran into Si Rong. She called out to me in an uncharacteristically loud voice, so loud that I couldn’t pretend not to hear.

“Xiguang.”

I stopped my bike. “Si Rong.”

She noticed the thesis in my hand. “Here to get revision comments?”

“Mm.”

“How’s the thesis going?”

“A complete mess.”

“Come back to the dorm. We can all help take a look. We’re graduating soon, and won’t have many days left together.” Seeing my silence, she paused and studied my expression before saying, “Are you still upset about that incident? It was just a misunderstanding, and Rong Rong didn’t mean any harm. You don’t need to hold such a grudge.”

I tilted my head slightly. I had never understood why she was so invested in matters between me, Rong Rong, and Zhuang Xu. It had been that way from the very beginning.

I thought for a moment before asking, “Si Rong, do you think Rong Rong had no ill intentions toward me?”

“What ill intentions could there be?” she said with a smile.

“Once, you and Rong Rong were in the dorm—I was there too, hidden behind the curtain. You probably didn’t see me. I heard you ask Rong Rong if she was afraid I would steal Zhuang Xu away.”

Her smile froze.

“Do you remember what Rong Rong said? ‘Don’t you think she’s the perfect touchstone? With her family’s wealth and influence, and her decent looks—if Zhuang Xu refuses such a stepping stone to success, I can probably trust that he won’t change his heart in the future.'”

I mimicked Rong Rong’s tone perfectly as I repeated those words that had left me stunned for so long. Watching Si Rong’s embarrassed expression, I smiled and said, “Then I went back to Wuxi.”

Si Rong watched silently as I got on my bike, no longer trying to stop me.

I figured that after this conversation, Si Rong probably wouldn’t be so eager to play peacemaker anymore. Sure enough, my phone stayed quiet for the next few days.

I had no energy to think about these things anymore. According to my advisor’s comments, my thesis needed to be completely rewritten. I had a terrible headache and didn’t know where to start. I could only blame myself for choosing this unfamiliar topic, though regret was useless now.

While I was sitting there propping up my chin and staring blankly at the computer screen, my phone suddenly rang. It was a vaguely familiar number.

I hesitated before answering.

“Nie Xiguang?”

I froze.

“This is Zhuang Xu.”

I know it’s you, I thought silently, but only said stiffly and flatly, “Oh, it’s you.”

Then there was nothing to say.

He paused, seeming as uncomfortable as I was. “Check your email. I sent you something.”

An apology letter? A letter of praise? Surely not a love letter?

Before opening the email, all sorts of guesses flashed through my mind, but I hadn’t expected it to be a thesis.

I stared at the downloaded Word document, with its bold black title that had been the source of my troubles these past few days—”Analysis of Oligopolistic Monopolies in the Network Economy.”

The call was still connected, and Zhuang Xu said, “I rewrote the thesis, completely different from my own. You can use it directly; there won’t be any problems.”

I had no idea how to respond anymore.

Both anger and joy seemed inappropriate, and my increasingly rapid heartbeat only made me more uncomfortable.

When he got no response, he said hurriedly, “That’s all… I’m hanging up. Contact me if you have any questions.”

Then he hung up.

I sat in a daze for a while before remembering to look at the thesis. Zhuang Xu’s reputation as a genius in the International Finance Department wasn’t unfounded. The thesis was structured with solid arguments, unlike my writing which jumped from topic to topic just to meet the word count, completely lacking logic.

But… why did he write this for me?

Zhuang Xu had quite a proud temperament. Reportedly, when a senior student asked him to ghost-write their graduation thesis last year, offering a high price of 5000 yuan, he refused without hesitation. Rong Rong always said he was too proud and inflexible, yet now, he had broken his principles to write a thesis for me, even explicitly telling me I could use it directly.

I lay across my computer desk, muttering, “Maybe an alien just called me…”

Well, I admit, after the shock wore off, after the shame of not being able to write a good thesis passed, what rose in my heart was a hint of joy, as if I had suddenly grown closer to him, sharing a secret that created a kind of ambiguous intimacy.

I quickly scrolled through the thesis with my mouse wheel, thoughts jumbled. Was this his roundabout way of apologizing? Or…

Like a bolt of lightning, a thought suddenly struck me. My hand froze on the mouse, and I couldn’t move, as if paralyzed. The tiny bit of happiness that had just emerged in my heart completely vanished.

Or… was he apologizing on Rong Rong’s behalf?

The more I stared at the thesis, the more likely it seemed. After the misunderstanding was cleared up, Xiao Feng called several times to apologize, and Si Rong and A Fen also called to check on me, but Rong Rong, who had accused and attacked me the most that day, hadn’t said a word.

Besides, hadn’t Zhuang Xu always disliked me? Why would he help me write a thesis just because I had been wrongly accused this time?

So… this was the only reasonable explanation, right?

I closed my email in a daze. At least those moments of excitement had only been in my head; no one knew about them, or it would have been another joke.

After lying in bed for a while, I picked up my phone, thought of what to say, and dialed back the previous number, planning to politely return the thesis.

One of Zhuang Xu’s roommates answered. “You’re looking for Zhuang Xu? Hold on.”

A moment later, he came back on the line. “Do you have something urgent? If not, could you call back later? Zhuang Xu is asleep, and he didn’t wake up when I called him twice.”

“Sleeping now?” It was dinner time.

“Yes,” the voice on the phone said. “He’s been staying up late for several days working on some materials… Oh, he seems to be waking up. I’ll try calling him.”

Staying up for several days? I was stunned. Was it because of this thesis?

It had only been a few days since we met in the professor’s office. In such a short time, to write a completely different ten-thousand-word thesis on the same topic—even for Zhuang Xu, it couldn’t have been easy.

Somehow, my heart softened. I thought silently, even if he didn’t do it directly for me, he still did it indirectly for me. But then I felt even worse, probably jealous that Zhuang Xu could go to such lengths for Rong Rong. With emotions so complex that even I could barely understand them, I was already regretting making this call.

But it was too late to hang up; Zhuang Xu had already come to the phone.

“Hello.” His voice was slightly drowsy.

“Uh… I…” My thoughts were scattered, and I’d forgotten all the dignified words I’d prepared. “I… um…”

There was silence for a moment before he asked, “Nie Xiguang?”

“Yes, it’s me…”

“Is there something wrong with the thesis?”

“No, no.”

Then more silence.

“If you have any questions, you can ask me.”

“Oh, okay… goodbye.” This time I hung up quickly without waiting for his response.

I imagined Zhuang Xu on the other end must have been quite puzzled, completely unable to understand why I had called just to say nothing.

Of course, I wouldn’t copy his thesis directly. I read through his thesis thoroughly, got a clear understanding of the approach, and then spent several times more effort finding materials and writing my version. There were still some similarities, but the difference was probably that I had turned what could have been an excellent thesis into merely a good one.

Sometimes while busy working, I would suddenly stop, thinking about how he said I could ask him if I had any questions. He had said it twice, so it probably wasn’t just politeness. If I asked him, he would probably explain patiently, just like when he was my cousin’s tutor. In that case, my original purpose in choosing the same thesis topic as him would have been achieved.

But now, no matter how thick-skinned I was, I couldn’t bring myself to do that.

He had already made it so clear that his heart belonged to someone else.

When I submitted the thesis to my advisor again, he was much more satisfied, though he still pointed out a few places that needed revision. The thesis was settled.

After the third draft was done, it would be time for the defense.

It was already the end of May.

In half a month, I would officially graduate—