In early September, in Xingcheng, the sky seemed oblivious to the transition to early autumn, with the scorching sun hanging high, making people feel restless and irritable.
It had been a week since the freshmen at Xing University started their military training, and they were now enduring the toughest phase.
On the afternoon parade ground, over twenty neat squares of green recruits stood in formation, listening to the commander’s instructions in perfect silence, making the scene feel eerie.
At that moment, Lu Xingyan leisurely strolled past the parade ground, holding an umbrella adorned with quaint illustrations. He was already quite eye-catching, but with the umbrella, he stood out even more.
Many of the girls standing in the front row of the formation caught sight of him, and four words flashed through their minds—handsome and charming.
Why would a grown man be carrying an umbrella?
He must be a zero.
As Lu Xingyan reached the spot where the student union activities were set up and joined the group, someone from the student union asked, “Hey, Xingyan, where did you get such a girly umbrella?”
This question hit the mark perfectly. Lu Xingyan casually replied, “Oh, this? My girlfriend insisted that I bring her umbrella because she didn’t want it to get sun-damaged outside.”
As soon as he said this, everyone understood and started teasing him in unison.
Chen Mengmeng, who was putting up posters, paused for a moment.
Before she could ask, someone else beat her to it. “Hey, isn’t your girlfriend in a different city? Why hasn’t she gone back yet?”
Lu Xingyan replied, “She’s here as an exchange student at our school for now.”
“His girlfriend came to our school as an exchange student? Wow, true love!”
“She happens to be working on a project with Professor Cao, and she’s also pursuing a double major.”
Lu Xingyan explained briefly, maintaining a modest demeanor but secretly reveling in the validation of their “true love” theory.
Unconsciously, Chen Mengmeng tightened her grip on the corner of the poster. Somehow, amidst her feelings of surprise and disappointment, a sense of nervousness crept in.
Ever since she deleted that short video from her Weibo last semester, she has been feeling anxious and uneasy.
The account that left her a message was a small account, with no clues that could be traced back to any real person. Yet, this fact only made her more fearful. She couldn’t shake the feeling that the person behind the account had planned everything meticulously.
What puzzled her, however, was that after she deleted the message and the post, the person didn’t send her any more private messages or leave any comments under her other posts. It was as if they disappeared into thin air.
She began to wonder if she had been overthinking things. Perhaps it was just someone playing a prank and saying things casually.
With this mindset, after a period of silence, she posted a new covert crush post as a test.
Since it had been a while since she last posted, her fans were quite enthusiastic in the comments section. She monitored it for two days without any strange questions popping up, which boosted her confidence. She posted a second and then a third… She even had one of her posts reposted by a Big V account and still didn’t see any sign of the person.
Feeling completely at ease, she concluded that the previous message was just someone being idle and there was no exposure at all.
A peaceful summer passed by, and Chen Mengmeng’s Weibo followers were about to hit the milestone of one hundred thousand.
She had promised a special photo once she reached one hundred thousand followers, either a selfie or a high-quality side profile photo of her crush. She had carefully prepared the photos. However, at this moment, Lu Xingyan’s girlfriend unexpectedly transferred to Xing University…
She couldn’t forget how Shen Xingruo’s mere visit to Xing University had cast Bai Lu into shadow for nearly half a year.
Shen Xingruo was not someone to be taken lightly.
“Hey, Mengmeng, what are you thinking about? The poster is all wrinkled!”
Chen Mengmeng’s thoughts were interrupted, and her heart jumped.
She snapped back to reality, smiled apologetically, and quickly came up with an excuse.
All of them were about to be promoted from the student union of the School of Literature to the university student union this semester. But before joining the university student union, they needed to recruit new assistants and officials from the freshmen, so they were busy organizing recruitment activities here.
As Chen Mengmeng snapped back to reality, she heard a group of boys discussing Lu Xingyan’s promotion to the head of the university student union office.
Despite the official-sounding title, being the head of the office was essentially being on standby for the positions of president or vice president of the student union, a tradition at Xing University that everyone was well aware of.
Amidst a chorus of congratulations and teasing, someone interjected, “Hey, Xingyan, I heard you transferred to the management major this semester?”
Lu Xingyan replied, “Yes.”
He had been considering transferring to a different major, so he hadn’t taken the exam for changing majors. He had agonized over it during the summer, on one hand, Shen Xingruo was here on exchange, and they could attend classes together if he stayed in the Chinese literature department. On the other hand, he had no interest in Chinese literature and knew he wasn’t cut out for academic research. After discussing with Shen Xingruo, he finally decided to talk to the teacher about changing majors, and with Lu Shan’s help, he completed the application before the start of the semester.
As they chatted while working, someone suggested grabbing a meal together after the recruitment ended in a couple of days.
Chen Mengmeng subconsciously glanced at Lu Xingyan.
Perhaps in a good mood, Lu Xingyan surprisingly didn’t refuse. When someone asked if he would bring his girlfriend, he just smiled and said, “We’ll see.”
While the student union was busy with recruitment, Shen Xingruo also moved into the dormitory at Xing University.
She had come on exchange and was living in a dormitory with students from different majors and years, with one bed still vacant.
On the first day of school, Shen Xingruo unexpectedly bumped into an old acquaintance in the dormitory.
It was Li Ting.
Li Ting was dumbfounded when she saw Shen Xingruo.
At the end of the first semester of freshman year, she had successfully applied for a room change and had finally been relieved from the tension with Bai Lu.
However, when the new semester started, the room change fell through, and she had to continue living under the same roof as Bai Lu. They bickered every three days and fought big battles every five days, each having enough ammunition to mock the other, and they were evenly matched.
This semester, she had finally managed to change rooms as she had wished. She had even brought a bag of snacks to share with her new roommate to make a good impression.
But why was she seeing Shen Xingruo here?!
Wasn’t there a saying about leaving the wolf’s den only to enter the tiger’s lair? Just because she tore up an exam paper, did it mean she couldn’t have a pure roommate relationship for the rest of her life?
Shen Xingruo was also somewhat surprised to see Li Ting, but after the initial surprise, she didn’t react much and simply said, “What a coincidence.”
Who wants to be coincidental with you…
Li Ting couldn’t find the words. She sat in the dormitory, unable to snap out of her daze.
Bai Lu’s heart raced as she listened to Chen Mengmeng’s latest update, learning that Lu Xingyan’s girlfriend had transferred to Xing University. In an instant, she recalled the humiliation she had endured over the past half year, feeling a mix of anger and fear.
At the same time, she also felt that she couldn’t be the only one feeling stifled. So, she hurriedly went to find Li Ting in her new dormitory.
Besides Li Ting and Shen Xingruo, there were also two girls from the Foreign Languages Department in the new dormitory. When Bai Lu arrived, Shen Xingruo was in the bathroom, while Li Ting was chatting with the two new roommates.
As soon as Li Ting saw her, her expression turned sour. “What are you doing here?”
Bai Lu stood at the door, smiling, “Nothing, just wanted to talk to you about something.”
“So, do you have something to say or not?”
Li Ting’s tone was quite aggressive.
Bai Lu didn’t mind and continued to smile, “Mengmeng told me that Lu Xingyan’s girlfriend transferred to our school. Wasn’t she your high school roommate? You tore up her exam paper and had to move out because of it. I’m worried she might come looking for trouble, so I came to give you a heads-up.”
The two girls from the Foreign Languages Department faintly felt that something was off.
Lu Xingyan’s girlfriend was Shen Xingruo, right? So, did that mean Li Ting had torn up Shen Xingruo’s exam paper? What was going on here?
Li Ting was on the verge of exploding. Bai Lu, this jerk, was here to tell her new roommates about her dark history!
She was about to confront Bai Lu when suddenly the bathroom door opened, and Shen Xingruo stepped out, walking towards the doorway while drying her hands.
Reaching the doorway, Shen Xingruo said to Li Ting, “Li Ting, can I borrow your library card? Mine hasn’t been processed yet.”
Li Ting was taken aback.
Bai Lu recognized Shen Xingruo and was stunned!
This… this couldn’t be…!!!
Shen Xingruo seemed to notice them just now, glanced at them casually, and greeted, “Long time no see.”
Bai Lu’s face turned ashen, but she didn’t say a word and quickly ran off, feeling utterly humiliated. What a “long time no see”! She never wanted to see her again in her entire life! She was like the king of hell!!!
Li Ting stood at the doorway, dumbfounded, until Bai Lu disappeared before snapping back to reality.
She subconsciously looked at Shen Xingruo, unable to understand why Shen Xingruo would help her.
Shen Xingruo also looked at her for a while and then said, “Library card.”
“Oh… wait a moment, please.”
Li Ting hesitated slightly as she rummaged through her belongings and found the library card. She handed it to Shen Xingruo, lowering her voice, “I used to share a dorm room with Bai Lu. Be careful around her and her best friend.”
“Her best friend is named Chen Mengmeng, and both of them are in the student union with Lu Xingyan. I’m not trying to sow discord, it’s true. Chen Mengmeng is even worse than Bai Lu. I’ve spent enough time with her in the same dorm to know.”
“Understood.”
Shen Xingruo seemed unfazed as she took the library card and walked out.
The main reason she had come to Xing University as an exchange student was because of her love-struck brain. These two schools were quite puzzling; usually, exchanges were within the same tier of schools. It was unclear what historical reasons led to exchanges between these two different-tiered schools. But even if there were, in previous years, it had mostly been one-way exchanges from Xing University to the other. No one would come from the other school to Xing University.
She had chosen this because there was no competition. However, there were practical considerations too. Professor Pan, who she greatly admired and had even intended to bring a sophomore into one of her literary projects, had been appointed as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Xing University. Professor Pan was a big name in literary studies in China, and being part of her project group in sophomore year would be beneficial.
However, with Professor Pan’s move, the focus of the project group would naturally shift. The graduate and doctoral students already in the project group wouldn’t be affected much, but it wasn’t necessary to have a sophomore from another university as a remote assistant.
Furthermore, there was a serious conflict between the double major she wanted to pursue and the exchange program. She could only choose one to give up.
But if she was willing to exchange to Xing University and work on Professor Pan’s project, and if Professor Pan was also willing to help her navigate through, breaking a precedent and allowing her to minor in law at Xing University, of course, provided she could handle it and earn enough credits.
With all the things to do right after starting school, she didn’t have time to deal with Chen Mengmeng for the time being. But as long as Shen Xingruo didn’t stir up trouble, there were always people trying to probe her limits.
On Friday night, after finishing the busy recruitment, the Student Union planned to have a gathering.
Liu Xingyan asked Shen Xingruo if she wanted to go together, but Shen Xingruo didn’t respond. Instead, he sent her the address, saying that if she finished her work early, she could come find him. If not, she could just go home.
Liu Xingyan felt like she had a lot on her plate and didn’t know what was going on. They were at the same school now, but it seemed even harder to meet than when they weren’t.
He was quite frustrated.
At eleven o’clock that night, after the gathering ended, a group of people came out from playing board games, still excitedly discussing the game they just played.
Liu Xingyan had driven over in his Aston Martin, which caught everyone’s attention. They all praised it, and one guy joked, “Hey, Liu, are you going back to school? Let me catch a ride and experience the Aston Martin.”
“Going back to school? I’m heading towards Lake Luoxing. If you’re going that way, I can give you a lift.”
The guy who wanted a ride chuckled lightly.
Just as everyone was about to go their separate ways, a senior who had befriended Chen Mengmeng received a signal and nudged her, “Mengmeng, aren’t you going to Same Heart Road? That’s conveniently on the way.”
“Liu Xingyan, why don’t you take Mengmeng with you? It’s quite late, and it’s not suitable for a girl to go home alone. Your girlfriend won’t mind sharing a ride, right?”
Chen Mengmeng looked bewildered as she was pushed towards the front passenger seat, appearing somewhat awkward and shy.
But Liu Xingyan didn’t open the door for her. “You can take a taxi. My family has strict rules, and I can’t have any other girls besides my mom and my girlfriend sitting in the front passenger seat.”
He said it to Chen Mengmeng, but his gaze swept past her, directly toward Shen Xingruo standing on the steps. After speaking, he raised his hand and smiled.