Fortunately, Qian Chuan didn’t dwell on or investigate the odd moment further, and quickly redirected his attention back to Qian Wei. “Qian Wei, why’s your face so red? Something seems off with you today.” Qian Chuan eyed her suspiciously for a few moments, then, after a pause, seemed to have a realization. “Are you coming down with a cold?”

“No!” Qian Wei instinctively denied it. “There’s nothing wrong, stop making things up!” Then she remembered something. “Oh right—that confession letter Li Linlin gave you last time, you didn’t throw it away, did you?”

At the mention of Li Linlin, fear flashed across Qian Chuan’s face. He glanced left and right to make sure she wasn’t nearby before relaxing. “No, I didn’t throw it out. I don’t like her, and honestly her pestering me is pretty annoying, but tossing out someone’s confession letter felt disrespectful, so I kept it. Why?”

“So, um, that letter—turns out it wasn’t from Li Linlin to you. It was from someone else, meant for me. Can you go dig it out and give it to me?”

Qian Chuan blinked, then perked up with interest. “Who? Who wrote it? What’s he look like? How tall? How much does he weigh?” He thought back. “I glanced at the letter’s content back then, assuming it was from Li Linlin—I remember it was pretty over-the-top mushy. Whoever could write something like that is probably not quite normal, maybe kind of a softie. I’ve got my suspicions, honestly—I mean, who writes actual love letters these days to pursue someone?” Qian Chuan added, “Qian Wei, you’d better keep your head on straight, don’t go losing your judgment just because you got a love letter…”

“…” Qian Wei thought, thank goodness Lu Xun had already left…

“Never mind that, just go find it and bring it to me.”

“Fine, fine.” Qian Chuan, being none too sharp, dropped the subject without further prying, chatted with Qian Wei about a few other things, then left.

After Qian Chuan left, Qian Wei went back to the dorm to sort through her things—it was almost time for her college financial literacy class. She packed some snacks and crackers again; now that she and Li Chongwen were on friendly terms, she could easily find an excuse to hand things over to him. This time, alongside Li Chongwen’s snacks, she’d also prepared a separate portion just for Lu Xun.

Qian Wei arrived early today. Li Chongwen, surprisingly, had already arrived too, while Lu Xun hadn’t shown up yet. Qian Wei seized the chance to slip the snacks and crackers to Li Chongwen first.

After that, for some reason, Qian Wei started to feel uneasy. Her eyelid had been twitching wildly since that morning, and she found herself wondering—was it the left eye twitching for fortune and the right for misfortune, or the other way around?

Just as Qian Wei’s thoughts wandered, a voice interrupted them.

“I’m looking for Qian Wei.”

“Huh?” Qian Wei looked up, and she knew right then—whichever eye had been twitching, it had definitely been an omen of misfortune.

Standing at the classroom door was none other than Wu Jun, and this time he hadn’t come empty-handed—he was holding a bouquet of flowers.

“Excuse me, coming through.”

Just as Wu Jun squinted around the classroom searching for Qian Wei, a familiar voice sounded behind him—that lazy, arrogant drawl. Qian Wei didn’t even need to look up to know it was Lu Xun.

Wu Jun stepped aside to make room, but apparently still couldn’t spot Qian Wei, so he instinctively turned to the person nearest him for help, grabbing Lu Xun’s arm. “Hey, excuse me, I’m looking for Qian Wei. Could you tell me where she is?”

Lu Xun looked mildly surprised, glancing at the newcomer. “Qian Wei? From the law school?”

Wu Jun nodded. “Yeah, that’s her.”

“What do you want with her?”

“I…” Before Wu Jun could finish, he turned and spotted Qian Wei. “Ah! There she is! Qian Wei!”

Wu Jun, still holding the flowers, walked straight toward Qian Wei, brushing back his overgrown bangs that were nearly covering his eyes.

“Qian Wei, I spent several nights thinking this over, and I’ve decided that sometimes a guy should just take the initiative. So I asked around to find out where your class was, and I’ve come today to personally deliver these flowers to you. I hope you won’t give up on a relationship just out of insecurity.”

Though class hadn’t started yet, the room already had quite a few students in it, and this kind of public declaration instantly drew everyone’s attention. As the leading lady of this scene, Qian Wei felt like she had a target on her back. Beside her, Li Chongwen looked equally stunned, glancing back and forth between Qian Wei and Wu Jun.

Lu Xun, still standing at the classroom door, frowned and cut into the scene. “What department are you from?”

Wu Jun answered proudly. “Architecture, over at A Institute of Technology, next door.”

“And how do you know Qian Wei?”

“We met two days ago at a mixer.” Wu Jun smiled. “It was love at first sight for her.”

Lu Xun turned and shot Qian Wei a look of utter disbelief. “Love at first sight???”

Qian Wei waved her hands frantically. “That’s a huge misunderstanding! Really, a misunderstanding! It wasn’t love at first sight!” She looked close to tears. “I really don’t like you, we’re just not compatible, seriously, we have absolutely nothing in common!” As she spoke, she snuck a careful glance at Lu Xun, whose face had, sure enough, clouded over. Qian Wei gritted her teeth and decided to go all in. “Most importantly, I already have someone!”

But Wu Jun refused to listen to a word of it. “You only went to that mixer a few days ago—I don’t buy that you’d already be taken in such a short time. Of course, I know exactly why you’re saying that.” Wu Jun’s expression turned knowing. “It’s nothing more than claiming you already have a boyfriend to seem harder to get, or to seem more in-demand, so us guys feel more urgency and competition when pursuing you.” He looked rather pleased with himself. “I’ve read all about this in books on evolutionary psychology—typical female tactics.” He glanced at Qian Wei. “But don’t worry, precisely because I can see through your inner motives, I’ll give you exactly what you want in exactly the way you want it. You want me to pursue you harder—got it, I will. Today’s just the beginning, just a warm-up. I’ll show you through my actions how perfect we are for each other.”

Wu Jun clearly had something of a performative personality. Since the college financial literacy class was a large lecture with many attendees, him standing there blocking the doorway with an eye-catching bouquet was already more than enough to draw attention. By now, plenty of people in the room were eyeing Qian Wei curiously, and a few nosy girls had already started whispering among themselves.

Wu Jun seemed thoroughly pleased with all the attention—the more eyes on him and Qian Wei, the more worked up he got, his voice growing louder and louder as he spoke to her. By now, not just the students near the door, but even those in the middle of the classroom could hear his whole dreadful declaration crystal clear without even straining to listen.

For most girls, being confessed to publicly—even by someone not particularly handsome, even by someone they didn’t like—was still something of an honor, proof that they had some appeal. But Qian Wei had no idea what she’d done to deserve this fate: her first and only public confession in this lifetime, and it had to be this catastrophic scene…

Far from feeling honored, this was mortifying beyond words.

As the saying goes, you can judge a person’s caliber by the caliber of their suitors. Looking at Wu Jun standing before her, Qian Wei felt words utterly failed her right now…

She didn’t even need to say anything—the entertained, gleeful smirks on the faces of the girls by the door said it all. Being confessed to in this manner, with this kind of language, really was beneath her. Even someone as thick-skinned as Qian Wei felt too embarrassed to hold her head up.

Wu Jun, completely oblivious to Qian Wei’s feelings on the matter, plowed ahead single-mindedly until he’d said everything he wanted to say, then smiled, entirely ignoring her obvious discomfort, and simply shoved the bouquet into her hands. “Regardless, I bought these flowers for you, so just take them!” He finished with a rakish smile. “I’ll be waiting for your response. There’s a little card in the flowers with my contact info. I’ll get going now, don’t want to keep you from class.”

“Hold on.” Just before Wu Jun could turn to leave, Lu Xun’s voice stopped him. “I think Qian Wei can give you her response right now.”

“Huh?”

Lu Xun said nothing more. He simply reached directly into the bouquet in Qian Wei’s arms and pulled out a single purple water lily bud. “Take this one back with you.”

“Why? Is she allergic to water lilies?”

Lu Xun smiled. “That’s her response. Go home and think carefully about what it means.”

Wu Jun stood there holding the water lily, utterly baffled. After a moment, he looked up at Lu Xun. “By the way, who are you? These flowers are for Qian Wei—what right do you have to answer for her? What gives you the authority?”

“The authority of being her boyfriend.” Lu Xun’s voice carried both menace and arrogance. He didn’t normally speak loudly—like any capable leader, he never needed volume to command attention—but this time he made an exception, raising his voice while keeping that same deliberate, unhurried cadence, each word crisply and pointedly enunciated, his bearing commanding. Wu Jun, who moments ago had seemed so full of things to say, was instantly outmatched standing next to him. Whatever remained of his bluster died in his throat under Lu Xun’s chilling glare; he swallowed hard, rubbed his nose, and slunk off with the drooping water lily in hand, clearly furious but not daring to say a word.

Wu Jun hadn’t quite caught on, but Qian Wei had—she accepted the rest of the flowers but refused only the lily. In Chinese, “not wanting the lily” sounded exactly like “shameless”—Lu Xun had just delivered a roundabout insult at Wu Jun’s expense.

Qian Wei glanced at Lu Xun’s still-thunderous expression and thought, whatever you do, never cross Lu Xun… that mouth of his really was something else.