“Qian Wei, are you free tonight? If you are, come with me to the auditorium.”

Qian Chuan came to find Qian Wei while she was hard at work copying a jurisprudence paper. “What’s happening at the auditorium?” Qian Wei glanced up at her tall, broad-shouldered brother. “Stand to the side, you’re blocking my light.”

Qian Chuan grinned. “There’s a Top Ten Campus Singer competition tonight. A buddy of mine has a girlfriend competing, and he wants to round up as many people as possible to cheer her on. If you’ve got nothing else going on, come along—after the competition he’s treating everyone to dinner. You know the guy, actually—Zhang Liqiang from our basketball team.”

The Top Ten Campus Singer competition!!! Qian Wei’s heart jolted, snapping her fully awake. “No,” she said urgently. “I’m not going, and neither are you!”

The Top Ten Campus Singer competition was one of the major annual events organized by the student union’s Culture and Entertainment Department. In her last life, it was at this very competition that Qian Chuan first met Mo Zixin, who was working the event as part of the organizing staff. That day, Mo Zixin had been dressed especially beautifully, and as the emcee, she’d been standing on stage, the center of everyone’s attention. Qian Chuan fell for her at first sight, beginning months of lovesick longing—thinking of her day and night. Eventually Qian Wei, unable to bear watching him pine away, stepped in at his desperate pleading: on one hand, she gave him all manner of tricks for winning a girl’s heart; on the other, she secretly sabotaged things behind the scenes, making sure Lu Xun and Mo Zixin never got any time alone together, determined to play the era’s most stubborn third wheel. Between the two strategies working in tandem, she’d ultimately succeeded in helping Qian Chuan steal Mo Zixin right out from under Lu Xun—and from that point on, Qian Wei had embarked on her path of offending Lu Xun to her doom.

Now that she’d been given this second life, Qian Wei was determined not to let history repeat itself. She had to stop the tragedy at its very root—this time, she absolutely had to prevent Qian Chuan from meeting Mo Zixin tonight and falling for her!

Faced with Qian Wei’s overreaction, Qian Chuan looked baffled. “Why? If you don’t want to go because you’re busy, fine, but why can’t I go?”

Qian Wei put on an expression of deep sorrow and lied through her teeth. “I’ll be honest with you—that buddy of yours, Zhang Liqiang, is actually the person I’ve been secretly in love with. When I heard he had a girlfriend, it felt like a thousand arrows through the heart, like dying inside. And now you want me to go cheer on his girlfriend, watch the two of them being all lovey-dovey?” She clutched her chest as she spoke. “I feel the stabbing pain coming back. Qian Chuan, hold me up, I can’t breathe…”

Qian Chuan was stunned. “What the— You’re secretly in love with Zhang Liqiang? Since when? I mean, he’s a good guy and all, but he never showers, and in summer he’s basically a walking combination of sweat and foot odor…”

Qian Wei kept a straight face. “That’s what they call manly musk. I happen to like men with that kind of scent.”

“…”

“Anyway, I can’t accept my own little brother going to cheer on my romantic rival’s girlfriend. This is my last shred of stubborn pride as your older sister.”

Qian Chuan frowned, and finally put on a resigned expression. “Fine, fine, I won’t go either. I’ll keep you company, that should do, right?”

“You’d better show some real sincerity here—I’ve just had my heart broken, after all. Tell you what, tonight you’re treating me to King Hotpot, that new place by Xinguang Plaza.”

“Fine.”

No sooner said than done—Qian Wei dragged Qian Chuan along, and the two of them charged off toward King Hotpot. The place had only just opened and was wildly popular; the wait for a table was over an hour. Qian Wei took a number—there were still fifteen tables ahead of them—and rather than just standing around waiting, they decided to browse Xinguang Plaza in the meantime.

University A was located in the university district of City A, which was really just the city’s outskirts, and the largest comprehensive shopping and consumer center there was Xinguang Plaza. As a result, the plaza was filled almost entirely with college students from the surrounding campuses, couples especially. As Qian Wei and Qian Chuan walked through, they drew quite a few glances. It wasn’t just sisterly bias—Qian Chuan really was tall with long legs, and though his features weren’t as refined as Lu Xun’s, he had thick brows, big bright eyes, a high nose bridge, and a sunny, energetic look about him; calling him handsome was a fair assessment. Though they were twins, Qian Wei and Qian Chuan didn’t actually look much alike, and walking together, at first glance, they looked more like a striking, well-matched couple with great chemistry.

Under the pretext of her broken heart, Qian Wei decided to properly fleece Qian Chuan. She bought a pair of shoes here, a skirt there, and after every purchase sent Qian Chuan up to pay, then made him carry all the resulting bags.

After circling around like this for a while, they reached a candied chestnut stall, and Qian Wei found herself craving some. But just as she was about to turn back and call Qian Chuan over to line up, she caught sight of two familiar figures out of the corner of her eye.

Wasn’t that Lu Xun and Mo Zixin?

The two of them—handsome man, lovely woman—were standing at the back of the line for candied chestnuts, unmistakably a striking pair. Mo Zixin looked shy, her cheeks tinged pink, glancing down at the ground one moment and up at Lu Xun the next. Lu Xun, meanwhile, kept his usual aloof, noble bearing, standing tall and looking straight ahead as though nothing could catch his interest—even with such a beautiful girl standing right beside him, he seemed utterly indifferent.

Qian Wei silently cursed him for a hypocrite. Look at this man—all talk about not caring, and yet his body told a different story entirely. Right to her face he’d claimed to have no feelings for Mo Zixin, and here he was secretly going on dates with her behind her back. Fine, go on a date if you want, but did he have to put on such a pretentious act of being above worldly desires? Wasn’t he afraid of getting struck by lightning for such shameless posturing?

“Qian Wei, why’d you turn back? Weren’t you just yelling about wanting candied chestnuts? I saw the stall right up ahead—want me to go get in line for you?”

Qian Wei grabbed Qian Chuan and pulled him back the way they’d come. “Never mind, never mind, my stomach’s suddenly hurting, I need to find a bathroom.”

Though she was puzzled as to why Mo Zixin hadn’t gone to the singing competition, Mo Zixin was dressed today even more beautifully than she had been for the singing competition in her past life. Fortunately, Qian Wei’s quick thinking succeeded in averting the historic first meeting between Qian Chuan and Mo Zixin.

What Qian Wei hadn’t anticipated, however, was that having lived this life over and made different choices, everything else seemed to have shifted into unpredictable variables of its own—and some encounters, it seemed, simply couldn’t be stopped no matter what.

After spotting Mo Zixin and Lu Xun, Qian Wei lost all interest in browsing. She pulled Qian Chuan back toward King Hotpot to wait in line—only to run smack into Lu Xun and Mo Zixin the moment she reached the restaurant’s entrance…

She kept bouncing around in front of Qian Chuan trying to block his line of sight, but she was simply too much shorter than him for it to make any real difference…

Qian Chuan yanked her aside. “What are you doing? Jumping around in front of me like that, it’s making me dizzy…” He was about to say more when he spotted Lu Xun not far off. “Well, if it isn’t our little pretty—”

He didn’t get to finish saying “pretty boy” before he trailed off. Qian Wei knew he’d meant it as a jab at Lu Xun, but now his eyes had completely skipped past Lu Xun and locked onto the person standing behind him—Mo Zixin. A faint blush rose slowly across his tanned cheeks, and he completely forgot what he’d been in the middle of saying.

Qian Wei felt everything go dark before her eyes. Only one thought flashed through her mind: the wheel of fate had begun to turn, hidden mysteries lurking within it all along… life, it seemed, was such that no matter how hard you tried to stop something destined to happen, it would happen regardless.

Before Qian Wei could react, Qian Chuan moved faster than she did. He adjusted his expression and spoke with warm sincerity. “Lu Xun! Buddy! What are you doing here? Long time no see!”

“…” Qian Wei stared, dumbfounded. Where was this smooth talk of Qian Chuan’s when he was trying to woo a girl—why hadn’t he ever put this kind of effort into his studies? If he had, he’d have made it into the gifted-youth program ages ago.

Lu Xun’s mouth curved slightly into a knowing, cool smile.

Qian Chuan wasn’t fazed in the least by that smile, pressing on regardless. “You two here for King Hotpot too?” He strode forward as if reuniting with a long-lost brother, throwing an arm around Lu Xun’s shoulders, then glanced with friendly warmth at the number Lu Xun held in his hand. “Hey, you’ve got sixteen tables ahead of you on that number. Why don’t you two eat with us instead? Qian Wei’s and my number should come up any minute, and we’re all friends here anyway.” As he finished, he cast a seemingly casual glance at Mo Zixin standing behind Lu Xun. “And this is?”

“Mo Zixin. Qian Wei’s and my classmate.” Lu Xun smiled faintly and glanced at Qian Chuan. “Though, when exactly did we become friends? As I recall, you once said the next time you saw me, you’d punch me first.”

Qian Chuan gave an awkward laugh. “We’re the classic case of not becoming friends until we’d fought first.” He gave Lu Xun’s shoulder a light tap with his fist. “That punch comment was just my own unique way of saying hello, don’t take it the wrong way. Sure, we had a bit of a misunderstanding before, but with Qian Wei’s guidance, I’ve come to see you in a whole new light—Qian Wei says you’re an upstanding guy, handsome and smart, looks slim in clothes but built underneath, abs for days, basically a man among men…”

Qian Wei could have strangled Qian Chuan on the spot. Was there no shutting this guy up? All to get in good with Mo Zixin, he was piling on this much flattery for Lu Xun, spinning it up out of thin air—and pinning all of it on her, Qian Wei, no less.

Qian Chuan kept getting more outrageous. Lu Xun stayed quiet the whole time, never interrupting, his expression as unreadable and flat as ever. Qian Wei stole a glance at him, and he tossed a casual look back her way, utterly unbothered.

“Qian Chuan, Lu Xun and Mo Zixin are both top students in our law school, they must be out to discuss something important. Let’s not intrude and hold them up.” Qian Wei tugged at Qian Chuan’s sleeve, ready to offer up their own number to Lu Xun and Mo Zixin instead.

But before she could continue, Lu Xun spoke up, unhurried. “You’re not intruding.”