Unfortunately, no matter how far away Tan Yin stood, the way Chu Hang looked at her right now made her feel like she was being regarded as some kind of freak…

Fine, Tan Yin thought, being seen as a freak was still better than getting reported to the police or being carted off to some autopsy table as a supernatural phenomenon.

She secretly pinched her own thigh hard, and tears instantly welled up at the corners of her eyes from the pain. She looked at Chu Hang with tearful, misty eyes. “I’m sorry, I overstepped. I’ll never do this kind of thing again.”

Perhaps her tearful, pitiful expression was genuinely too much to bear—Chu Hang went rigid for a moment, and after a good while, somewhat awkwardly handed Tan Yin a pack of tissues, though as he passed them over, he seemed unwilling to look at her, turning his head away, his tone gruff and impatient in a way that seemed forced. “Alright, alright, are you seriously going to make a whole scene crying and carrying on? I won’t call the police, just wipe your face clean.”

Seeing that her goal was achieved, Tan Yin quickly took the tissue and put on a show of wiping her tears.

The dog lay obediently to one side, watching this farce come to a close, and an awkward silence briefly settled between the two of them.

It was Chu Hang, instead, who became the uncomfortable one. He glanced at Tan Yin, then quickly looked away again. “You… why do you like me so much?” He paused, his tone confused and uneasy. “There’s nothing that great about me, don’t like me just because of my face.”

“…”

Well… since she was putting on this performance, she might as well go all in…

Tan Yin steeled herself and racked her brain. “You know, what first attracted me to you was your looks—I have to say, you really are handsome. But beyond that initial impression, the more I got to know you, the more I came to realize your personal charm. You’re like a little sun, full of shining qualities—for instance, your grades are excellent, you’re sharp-minded, you’re great at sports, you’re basically an all-rounder. And more importantly, you’re a genuinely kind person at heart. This study group made me realize even more just how great you are—not only did you not look down on me for being slow, and you didn’t retaliate against me even after I drew that comic about you, but instead you patiently guided me, showing solidarity and selflessness…”

At first Tan Yin had felt a bit of a psychological burden about all this, but once she got into the flow of it, the flattery just kept pouring out. She rambled on at length, racking her brain to combine every flattering phrase she could remember from famous biographies and pin them all onto Chu Hang, to the point where it could have served as a template for a Party membership recommendation letter.

But as she kept talking, Tan Yin had to admit that not everything she was praising him for was entirely made up out of thin air. Taking stock of it all, Chu Hang really did have quite a lot of good qualities. By the time she got further into it, she found herself starting to mean it, at least a little.

“You may seem a bit cold on the surface, but you’re actually a good person deep down. Like that time our group went out sketching and I didn’t make it back to the dorm—it was pouring rain, and you specifically went to find me, and carried me back…”

But her sincere praise only made Chu Hang more uncomfortable. He almost reflexively protested, “I’ve told you a hundred times, I didn’t go out specifically to find you!”

Fine, whatever you say, then.

“In any case, in the end, what I couldn’t let go of wasn’t your appearance—it was your soul!” Regardless of the logical leap, Tan Yin quickly wrapped things up with a grand summation. “Especially since, even after I acted this way, out of temptation, you’re still willing to listen to my confession and give me a chance without calling the police…”

Chu Hang stared at Tan Yin for a while, pondered for a moment, and then said, “I think I’m still going to call the police.”

“…”???

“If I call the police, it’ll show you that I’m not as kind and generous as you think, that I’m not a good person, so you can give up on me faster.” Chu Hang paused. “Though it might be bad for you in the short term, in the long run, it’s still worth it—it’ll help you move on sooner.”

“Don’t—don’t—” Tan Yin quickly grabbed Chu Hang’s hand as he reached for his phone. “I want to give this relationship of ours a proper, beautiful ending! Leave behind the most beautiful memory!”

Chu Hang looked at Tan Yin coldly. “We never had any relationship to speak of.”

“Chu Hang, let’s just forget about calling the police! If you call the police, my love for you might turn to hatred, and it’ll be even harder for me to move on!”

“…”

“Look, it was pouring so hard just now, just consider yourself kind enough to have let me take shelter from the rain at your place! Now the rain has stopped, you’ve interrogated me enough, so I should get going. I still have deliveries to make tonight!”

Chu Hang frowned. “Why are you delivering food?”

Tan Yin pretended to look shy and affectionate as she glanced at Chu Hang. “I just wanted to find something to keep myself busy, keep myself occupied, the busier the better—to distract myself so I won’t think about you anymore.”

Such bold, direct words clearly proved too much for Chu Hang to handle. He instinctively stepped back several more paces, putting even more distance between himself and Tan Yin, and quickly waved his hand at her. “Just go, go now.”

Seeing this, Tan Yin knew when to quit while ahead. “Then I’ll go now! I still need to keep my distance from you, or I’m afraid I won’t be able to control myself!”

“…” Chu Hang’s expression was complicated and subtle. He paused for a long while, then said, as if forcing the words out with great weight—

“Tan Yin, it’s not worth it, doing all this for a man.” Chu Hang’s tone carried an awkward earnestness as he tried to advise her. “Even someone like me isn’t worth all this from you.”

“…”

Tan Yin really wanted to say, no, it’s not that it’s not worth it for a man—it’s that this whole damn world isn’t worth it.

In the end, Tan Yin didn’t dare linger any longer. Under Chu Hang’s complicated gaze and the dog’s wary watch, she scurried off with her tail between her legs.

Unfortunately, all her efforts had been for nothing—the comic manuscript she’d gone to such lengths to reclaim had apparently fallen out of her jacket pocket during her scuffle with the dog under the bed. Tan Yin searched herself all over but couldn’t find a trace of the manuscript anywhere.

What a colossal waste, this whole operation!

Tan Yin was so frustrated she felt like she could die. While in front of Chu Hang she’d managed to barely keep her composure and pretend to be calm, the moment she left, she rode her scooter with tears streaming down her face the whole way.

The complicated look in Chu Hang’s eyes at the end—wariness mixed with pity—only made Tan Yin feel that no matter how she tried to explain in the future that she was no longer infatuated with him, it would be futile. Her love for him to the point of madness had probably taken deep root in Chu Hang’s mind by now.

After finishing her evening deliveries, Tan Yin rode back to school with a heavy heart, and when she recounted this whole farce to Jiang Yilu, instead of sympathy, she was met with merciless mockery.

“I told you not to go after Chu Hang from the start, didn’t I? Did you listen? Do you know how many girls in our school have chased Chu Hang? The department belle from broadcasting and hosting—pretty enough, right? She used to sit in on our classes every day just to catch a glimpse of Chu Hang, skipping her own department’s classes—and did Chu Hang ever spare her a second glance? In the end her attendance in her own department’s classes got so low she had to repeat a year. Think about it—has any girl who’s gotten mixed up with Chu Hang ever had a good outcome? Chu Hang is basically the death knell of relationships!”

“I was just casually chasing him back then, I never actually thought I’d catch him. I just had a bit of herd mentality, seeing everyone else chasing him and feeling like I’d be behind the times if I didn’t join in a little. Chasing Chu Hang was basically a national activity back then—if you didn’t do it, you felt out of step, not politically correct or whatever. I just couldn’t resist the temptation for a moment, thought I’d participate for the sake of it, so I joined in…”

Tan Yin scratched her head. “It’s like knowing you can’t win the lottery but still buying a ticket every day just to try—same mentality. What if?”

Jiang Yilu looked at her with an expression of utter disappointment. “Please. Your motives for chasing Chu Hang weren’t pure to begin with, so of course your sincerity was insufficient and it didn’t work. Other people who chased him genuinely wanted a serious relationship. You? You just wanted him as your boyfriend so you could use him as your figure model all you wanted!”

Tan Yin tried to argue back. “That’s also a form of love, transcending the mundane—it’s great art!”

Jiang Yilu rolled her eyes. “Well, talk about unintended consequences—with your track record, you actually managed to stand out among Chu Hang’s countless admirers. Now whenever people mention Chu Hang, who’s the first person they think of? Every other persistent admirer—has Chu Hang ever given them a second glance? Only you managed to catch his attention, you’ve secured a place in his mind!”

Tan Yin thought, that’s not the kind of fame I wanted…

“Forget it, too lazy to keep talking to you.” Jiang Yilu flipped her hair back. “I need to go find my buying agent to get some hair care products. I’ve been living way too roughly lately, look at these split ends…”

Mention of hair suddenly reminded Tan Yin of something. “Oh right, that hair-growth helmet you mentioned before? What’s it called? Where can I buy one?”

“This thing is made overseas, not sold domestically right now, you’d have to find a buying agent. I’ll send you the WeChat of the one I usually use.” Jiang Yilu took out her phone as she spoke. “But why do you want a hair-growth helmet? Isn’t your hair pretty thick?”

Tan Yin gave a dry laugh. “Prevention is better than cure, you know, architecture school makes people go bald. By the way, is this buying agent reliable?”

Jiang Yilu patted her chest. “I swear on all my romantic luck, absolutely reliable!”

Once Jiang Yilu finished swearing her oath, she went off to look at her own hair care products, while Tan Yin didn’t waste any time either—she immediately added the buying agent on WeChat, and looking at the four-figure price, though hesitant, ultimately gritted her teeth and ordered a hair-growth helmet.

Given how expensive it was, it had to be good stuff!

After her latest architecture mechanics pop quiz score broke into the top 20, Tan Yin had eagerly reported it to her father, but the banner incident had apparently wounded old Tan too deeply—her father declared that unless Tan Yin’s midterm exam scores landed in the top ten of her grade, he’d keep cutting off her living expenses…

The power of money was endless. Tan Yin was determined to keep pushing forward, but it was then that she discovered that, without Chu Hang’s in-person tutoring, relying only on back-and-forth emails just didn’t cut it for a lot of problems—without Chu Hang, improving her grades further seemed impossible.

At this thought, Tan Yin felt some regret again—if only she’d actually managed to win Chu Hang over back then, she could have used him as a figure model, dressing him up or stripping him down and drawing him however she wanted, doing whatever she pleased with him. Plus she could have had him tutor her regularly. Most importantly, her own masterpiece, Beneath Ten Thousand: The Temptation of the Campus Hunk, wouldn’t have had to go on hiatus! Now… ugh! What a shame!

Tan Yin looked at the spread-out architecture mechanics problem set and sighed. Time to send Chu Hang that hair-growth helmet as a token of appreciation, at least!