Tan Yin found Chu Hang’s behavior today rather baffling.

She watched him open a book, then close it; open his laptop, then close it; and now, before he’d even warmed the library chair, he was getting up to leave?

Tan Yin had no choice but to get up too, following Chu Hang out of the library — his grades were so good, how exactly did he study? What was his secret? She had to keep investigating.

It was still thundering and raining outside. Tan Yin, as usual, nimbly slipped under Chu Hang’s umbrella, following closely on his heels.

Only today, Chu Hang was truly acting somewhat abnormal. His expression was quite grave; though he kept looking straight ahead as usual, aloof and hard to approach, the hand gripping the umbrella was clenched so tight his knuckles had turned pale. As if testing something, he deliberately walked and stopped, again and again, along the way, forcing Tan Yin to keep pausing and starting along with him.

Tan Yin was suspicious at first — had Chu Hang noticed something?

But then, seeing Chu Hang head toward the school’s psychological counseling office, she suddenly understood and relaxed — so that walking and stopping wasn’t him testing anything, but a struggle within his own heart! This young friend, it seemed, had hit some emotional wall he couldn’t get past!

Chu Hang gazed at the large characters reading “Psychological Counseling” before him, took a deep breath, and finally gritted his teeth and walked in.

The counseling room was decorated warmly and pleasantly. On duty today was a middle-aged female counselor, kind-looking and easy to approach. She smiled as she made tea for Chu Hang, easing away some of the initial awkwardness between them.

Instead of getting straight to the point like a doctor asking about symptoms, she seemed to want to chat with Chu Hang like a friend.

Unfortunately, Chu Hang wasn’t in the mood to appreciate it. He pressed his lips together, clearly uninterested in idle talk, and said directly, “I’ve had some issues lately.”

The counselor blinked. “What kind of issues?”

“Lately, I keep having inexplicable auditory hallucinations, and today it got even worse — not just hearing things, now I’m seeing things too. Earlier, to rule things out, I even got a physical exam, but all my health indicators came back normal. So these hallucinations must be psychological.” Chu Hang looked up, somewhat grave. “How can I get better from hallucinations caused by psychological issues?”

“If there’s no physiological problem, and the hallucinations are purely psychologically induced, then once the psychological factor troubling you is resolved, your hallucinations will heal naturally,” the counselor guided gently. “But first, I need to know what kind of hallucinations you’re having, and what the specific symptoms are. Let’s look together at what exactly is causing them, and gradually overcome it, bit by bit. It’ll get better.”

Chu Hang pressed his lips together, somewhat expressionless. “There’s a classmate of mine. She’s clearly not around me, but lately I keep hearing her voice chattering right in my ear. Today, not only did I hear her voice, I could even see her. Clearly I was alone, but just now I watched her follow me all the way here under my umbrella, right up to the door of the counseling room. When I walked, she walked; when I stopped, she stopped… but once I walked into the counseling room, she disappeared.”

“That’s easily explained. Since her appearance is rooted in a psychological cause, once you decided to seek counseling to resolve your troubles, your subconscious naturally felt reassured — so the hallucinations, both auditory and visual, briefly disappeared under your own psychological self-suggestion. Psychological issues aren’t scary — as long as you’re willing to face them honestly, you can overcome them.”

That did sound like it made some sense…

“So, is this female classmate or male classmate?”

“Female.”

“Is she good-looking?”

Chu Hang frowned. “Is that relevant?”

The counselor nodded solemnly, an air of total sincerity about her. “I need to understand the full picture. Some information you think unimportant is often, from our professional perspective, crucial to judging your situation. So, this female classmate — is she good-looking?”

“She’s alright.”

“On a scale of 1 to 10, higher meaning more attractive, what would you rate her?”

Chu Hang was reluctant, but faced with this counselor’s convincingly earnest expression, he reluctantly said, “9, I guess.”

“And her figure?”

“……” Chu Hang, still reluctant, said, “Also passable, I guess.”

The counselor knowingly jotted down another 9 in her notebook.

……

After a whole series of miscellaneous questions, the counselor finally looked at Chu Hang and delivered a resounding verdict —

“You can rest easy, young man. There’s nothing seriously wrong with your condition.” The counselor pushed up her glasses. “You’ve simply fallen in love.” ???

“Impossible!”

Chu Hang was furious. What kind of counselor was this? With this level of expertise, even Xu Yu could get certified!

“Don’t rush to refute me. I know you say you dislike her, that it’s impossible you’d like her. But it’s possible that thinking you dislike her is just a psychological self-suggestion you’re giving yourself because deep down, you can’t face the fact that you’ve already been drawn to her.”

Chu Hang was nearly gritting his teeth. “There’s no way we’d ever fall for each other. She doesn’t have any redeeming qualities.”

“Even if you feel you’re mismatched, love doesn’t actually take class, intelligence, or excellence into account — that gap. Love is irrational, it’s an instinctive hormonal attraction,” the counselor said knowingly. “Only through actually being together do those factors you mentioned start to matter. It doesn’t matter whether you believe it — with no physical issues, hallucinations like this can really only be explained by psychological causes. To overcome it, first, you could wait for your feelings for her to fade — though the timing isn’t certain, and there’s a chance you’ll only get more obsessed, the symptoms getting worse; second, my suggestion would be to try spending more time with this girl. The more contact you have, the more you might understand her, find you’re not actually compatible, and naturally regain your rationality.”

The counselor looked at Chu Hang, her expression full of warmth. “And if you don’t regain your rationality — then maybe date her, young man. Because maybe this is the love and fate you can’t resist.”

……

Tormented by hallucinations both auditory and visual for so long, Chu Hang felt his mind was in chaos. For a moment, though completely unable to accept it, he found what the counselor said was, logically, barely explicable.

But — dating Tan Yin? Chu Hang thought, I might as well just die.

Tan Yin waited outside the counseling room for a long while before finally seeing Chu Hang emerge, his steps heavy, his face looking terrible, as if he’d suffered a blow to his entire worldview and outlook on life.

“Isn’t counseling supposed to leave you refreshed and enlightened afterward? Why do you look even more despairing the more you talk it out?” Outside, it was still thundering and raining. Tan Yin nimbly caught up with Chu Hang, slipping back under his umbrella. She gazed out at the curtain of rain. “You see, Chu Hang, I really am considerate — I could’ve followed you in, but I thought about how it’s your privacy, so I waited outside. The wind’s strong today too, I nearly froze to death.”

Because of her invisibility, of course, this was just Tan Yin talking to herself; Chu Hang, still holding his umbrella, kept walking through the rain with a cold face — only the slight furrow of his brow revealing some faint inner struggle.

“But you did raise your voice on one line just now, so even though I didn’t want to eavesdrop, I couldn’t help but overhear it.” Tan Yin looked at Chu Hang, blinking, and imitated his tone in mock indignation, “‘There’s no way I could like her’!”

“……”

“So you went for counseling because you fell for someone you shouldn’t love? The kind where your rational mind tells you not to, the kind you can’t even admit to yourself?”

“……”

“So — is it a married woman?”

“……”

“Or a handsome straight guy?”

“……”

Though Chu Hang’s grip on the umbrella handle kept tightening, Tan Yin didn’t notice this detail — the wind was strong today, so it made sense he’d hold the umbrella tightly.

“Ah, Chu Hang, I suddenly feel like singing.”

“……”

“Forget it, I can’t hold it in. I’m going to sing.”

“……”

Tan Yin cleared her throat, cupping her hand near her mouth like a microphone, and said toward Chu Hang, “This next song, ‘Dream Waking Moment,’ dedicated to you, drowning in love — you say you loved someone you shouldn’t have, your heart full of scars; you say you made a mistake you shouldn’t have made, your heart full of regret; you say you’ve tasted all the bitterness of life, unable to find anyone to trust; you say you feel utterly dejected, even starting to doubt life itself; you should’ve known heartbreak is inevitable, so why go so deep into love…”

“Wait, wait, wait! Chu Hang!!! What are you doing with the umbrella?! The umbrella just blew away!!!”

Tan Yin was singing her heart out when Chu Hang, as if his hand suddenly spasmed, actually let the umbrella get blown away by the wind! Instantly, the cold rain started pelting Tan Yin’s face…

Tan Yin, wiping the rain from her face, fled from Chu Hang’s side, quickly finding a nearby roof overhang to shelter under.

As for Chu Hang…

Chu Hang, probably too deeply shaken by the pain of loving what he couldn’t have, didn’t even chase after the umbrella, letting the wind blow it further and further away, walking alone, expressionless, trudging through the cold rain, walking farther and farther away.

Tan Yin marveled — though he’d suffered a heavy blow, she had to admit, Chu Hang’s retreating figure still looked quite resolute.

With the umbrella gone, and Chu Hang looking like he really needed some time alone, Tan Yin simply parted ways with him there. Fortunately, after waiting under the eaves for not too long, the storm stopped. Tan Yin straightened her clothes and, composed, headed back to the dorm.

The moment she opened the dorm door, Jiang Yilu dropped a bombshell on her.

“Next week we get two days off for the school anniversary, right next to the weekend. The department’s student council is organizing a field trip to City C — you in?” Jiang Yilu winked at Tan Yin. “We’re staying by the beach.”

City C wasn’t far from City A, a famous coastal city. This time of year was perfect for the climate — great for travel and vacationing.

Jiang Yilu explained further. “The next design course project is a high-end beach resort, so we’re going to City C for field study by the sea. And the student council organizers said this time some spots are open for bringing family members or friends.” As she spoke, Jiang Yilu shot Tan Yin a “you know what I mean” look.

The architecture department had a longstanding tradition of field trips for design study, though these trips, while nominally about learning, were in fact half-vacation, half-relaxation getaways for the students. Every time they went on such a trip, they’d certainly see plenty of buildings, but a few couples would also almost always form internally along the way — and this time, openly allowing non-architecture friends to join, the student council organizers’ good intentions were plain to see.

Tan Yin had just resolved to buckle down for the next design assignment, so of course she wanted to join this field trip. But bring a friend? She thought about it — she could bring Zhou Ming. He was such a homebody, never doing anything fun; might as well have him bring his girlfriend along to sunbathe by the sea.

She called Zhou Ming, only to be turned down. “Can’t make it next week. My girlfriend’s sick, and she’s got a bunch of law papers and case analyses to write. I need to help her catch up. Can’t go next week for real.”

“Fine, we’ll do it another time then.”

“Quick, Tan Yin, come look at this dress — how does it look? Good for beach photos?”

Just as she hung up, Tan Yin was pulled over by Jiang Yilu. The two of them were both looking forward to unwinding at the beach, and before long they’d already ordered a bunch of things online, buzzing with anticipation for the coming week.

Excited as she was for the trip, this time Tan Yin genuinely burned all her boats. All week, any spare moment was spent studying. With a weak foundation, she started off just chewing through difficult textbooks one bit at a time — still dull work, but this time Tan Yin didn’t give up halfway, and once she got into the groove, she gradually started to find her footing. All the way until boarding the flight to City C, she was still sitting in the departure lounge with a textbook in hand.

Not until Jiang Yilu tugged at her sleeve did Tan Yin finally look up from her book.

Jiang Yilu nodded her chin toward somewhere in the distance. Tan Yin followed her gesture and saw Chu Hang pushing a suitcase in the distance, and right behind him was a resplendently dressed Duan Yingfei, while on the other side was Xu Yu, hands in his pockets, grinning broadly.

Tan Yin was awestruck. “Chu Hang’s really got the whole entourage going, huh? Not just bringing along his girlfriend, but his boyfriend too? Living the good life with multiple partners.”

Just as she finished her remark, Duan Yingfei shot her a glare from a distance. Old grudges and new, it seemed she’d left quite the lasting impression on her. Xu Yu, on the other hand, waved enthusiastically and brightly at Tan Yin in greeting, while Chu Hang…

Chu Hang looked as if he’d descended from the heavens, not even glancing at Tan Yin. He picked a seat far away from her, sitting down with a cold expression. Even so, coldly detached to the point of being unapproachable, his face was still remarkably striking — even that sour expression looked picturesque and beautiful on him.

Chu Hang really did have the face of a male lead from a shoujo manga, paired with a physique that rivaled any model’s — genuinely pleasing to the eye. Even his hard-to-please aloofness was praised by many girls as a unique kind of charm.

Tan Yin looked at Chu Hang a couple more times and couldn’t help but sigh — in the future, if the architecture industry were ever fully replaced by AI, Chu Hang probably wouldn’t be out of work anyway; with looks like that, he could probably become a runway model and be a hit. After all, models were supposed to be expressionless and aloof, even with facial muscles as dead as his — the sourer the face, the more likely to go viral, perhaps.

Fortunately, Tan Yin didn’t have much more time to dwell on such thoughts — before long, it was time to board, and the group flew off toward City C’s beaches in a mix of excitement and anticipation.