Xu Yu felt that Chu Hang’s recent strangeness seemed to be getting even worse. Not to mention that he’d just been scalded pouring tea in the room and had choked while drinking, but now, having just stepped out of the café — where it was still thundering outside, and he’d just been stood up by Tan Yin, still clutching that unsightly manga in hand — his usually perpetually flat expression was slowly breaking into a smile.

What frightened Xu Yu most was that this smile carried genuine, even infectious warmth — and yet, in the lingering trace at the smile’s edge, Xu Yu could clearly make out something sinister.

A truly, thoroughly sinister glint!

For a moment, Xu Yu’s mind, spinning through a thousand thoughts, landed on one distinctly eerie notion —

Chu Hang had turned to the dark side!

And just as Xu Yu’s mind churned with worry, Chu Hang turned back and smiled at him again. All around, the sky was dense with gray clouds, yet his brow and eyes were utterly radiant, his gaze even carrying a calculating gleam. He glanced at Xu Yu, then turned his eyes away to look at the thunderstorm outside, chuckling softly: “Starting now, the tables have turned — the enemy is in the light, and I am in the shadows.”

Chu Hang’s smile was undeniably good-looking, and his tone was gentle too — but it was precisely beneath that gentleness, the more effortlessly he carried it, the more Xu Yu found himself breaking into a cold sweat on behalf of whoever this “enemy” was. He had no idea who this enemy Chu Hang spoke of might be, but whoever it was, they were surely about to be driven to a dead end.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Tan Yin had no idea she was about to be driven to that very dead end. She’d barely been in the bathroom for long when the thunderstorm stopped. Once she’d made sure she was back to normal, Tan Yin strode confidently out of the bathroom — only to find, upon returning to the private room, that it had already emptied out. Chu Hang and Xu Yu had already left.

Tan Yin, mind still on her manga manuscript, immediately called Chu Hang without a second thought. She still remembered what Chu Hang had said before leaving the room, and wanted to arrange to meet him quickly, before he changed his mind today, to get her manuscript back.

She’d braced herself to face Chu Hang’s fury at being stood up, but to Tan Yin’s surprise, Chu Hang didn’t seem angry at all, nor did he seem the least bit surprised at her reappearance.

His voice was as cold as ever: “Fine, meet me at Yifu Building in ten minutes.”

Having said that, Chu Hang coldly hung up the phone. Tan Yin didn’t dare dawdle either — Yifu Building was exactly ten minutes from where she was, and in the completely opposite direction from the girls’ dormitory. Tan Yin had wanted to go back to her dorm to change clothes, but Chu Hang seemed to have calculated the timing and location precisely, leaving her no chance to make the trip. She had no idea what he was even doing at Yifu Building — after all, the building the architecture department always used was Zhixing Building; Yifu Building was the education department’s turf, and the boys’ dormitory was in the exact opposite direction from Yifu Building too.

But there was no time to think about all that now. Tan Yin jogged the whole way and finally arrived at Yifu Building right on time.

She waited a while before Chu Hang finally arrived, unhurried.

“Chu Hang, where’s my manuscript?”

Chu Hang calmly held up the notebook in his hand. “Cash on delivery — you help me draw my niece’s avatar, I give you the manuscript.”

That sounded reasonable enough, so Tan Yin immediately found an empty classroom, spread out her pens and paper, and started sketching casually. A hand-drawn avatar didn’t take long — soon, following the photo Chu Hang provided, Tan Yin finished the little girl’s portrait.

“What do you think?”

“The eyes are a bit too big.”

“Fine, I’ll fix it.”

“The bangs are a bit too thick.”

“Okay…”

…

For such a simple little avatar, Chu Hang, this picky client, still managed to find a whole pile of complaints. Tan Yin revised it several times, and Chu Hang still seemed dissatisfied.

Tan Yin was truly running out of energy. She’d gone back and forth so many times, she was somewhat at her wit’s end. “Chu Hang, this is really the best I can do — why don’t you just do it yourself.”

“Mm.”

Tan Yin had only meant that as a complaint, but unexpectedly, Chu Hang really did take over. He leaned down and pulled the pen right out of Tan Yin’s hand.

“It’s better drawn like this.”

Without any warning, Chu Hang’s low, husky voice suddenly exploded right beside Tan Yin’s ear, like a firework blooming skyward, or like the most pleasing bass note imaginable. For a moment, Tan Yin felt a bit dazed.

It was only then that she realized — without her noticing, Chu Hang, in the course of critiquing the avatar, had ended up standing right behind her. He’d bent down in that position to pull the pen from her hand, and unintentionally formed an intimate pose, as if he’d enclosed her within his embrace.

“Doesn’t this expression look better? Hm?”

The distance between them was so close that Tan Yin felt she could catch Chu Hang’s very breath — if she just tilted her head up slightly, she’d brush against the tip of his nose. And she didn’t even need to move at all; Chu Hang’s scent already lingered around her like a shadow. Tan Yin found sweat beading in her palms; she caught the faint scent of incense on Chu Hang, one that carried notes of rose and citrus — utterly unsuited to Chu Hang’s cold, aloof aura. And yet, blended into him as it truly was, she found it didn’t feel at all mismatched — instead there was something moving about the contrast, as if it lent Chu Hang’s pervasive coldness a hint of ambiguous sweetness.

For some reason, Tan Yin kept feeling that Chu Hang was doing this on purpose today, though she couldn’t find any evidence for it.

Yet the supposed culprit himself seemed entirely unaware of how suggestive this pose was. Chu Hang remained perfectly composed, expression fixed, seriously revising the drawing stroke by stroke with his own hand. His calm, collected manner made Tan Yin feel she was really overthinking this…

How could Chu Hang possibly be doing it on purpose? Deliberately leaning in close to speak by her ear? That made no sense at all! He must simply have gotten so absorbed in revising the drawing he’d lost himself in it…

Except while Chu Hang had lost himself in the drawing, Tan Yin couldn’t lose herself in anything — she was trapped there in his embrace, not daring to move an inch, while Chu Hang, as if that weren’t enough, not only kept drawing with his own hand but also discussed the picture with Tan Yin as he went.

“Do you girls like this style of drawing eyes?”

“This hair color probably looks more natural, don’t you think?”

…

This was the first time Tan Yin realized what it felt like to have someone lean close and speak right by another person’s ear — it was truly unbearable! Especially when Chu Hang’s breath brushed lightly against her cheek from between his lips, Tan Yin felt her face flush completely red, her heart pounding so hard it felt like it might leap out of her chest, her whole body heating up. If this went on any longer, she felt she’d either need to be rushed to the emergency room or hosed down by the fire department to cool off…

Thankfully, since she was invisible right now, Chu Hang couldn’t hear or see her leaning close to speak by his ear — otherwise this ordeal would have been even more unbearable!

Tan Yin thought to herself, putting herself in his shoes: from now on, once invisible, she’d absolutely never lean in close to anyone either — do unto others as you’d have them do unto you!

Fortunately, just as Tan Yin was about to get up and flee, Chu Hang finally released her from his confinement.

He said calmly: “There, it’s done.”

Tan Yin had no attention left to spare for looking at the avatar — she practically bolted up from her seat like a startled rabbit and put distance between herself and Chu Hang.

For some reason, Tan Yin kept feeling that staying any longer would be extremely dangerous.

“Since it’s done, I’ll head off first!”

Practically dropping those words and running, Tan Yin turned and dashed off like the wind.

By the time she’d made it all the way back to her dorm in one breath, she suddenly remembered she hadn’t even accomplished the actual purpose of her trip — she’d completely forgotten to ask Chu Hang for the manuscript back! She’d drawn the avatar for free!

Tan Yin’s mood plummeted, while Jiang Yilu, in contrast, was in high spirits. She tugged at Tan Yin. “What’s wrong, why the long face? Come on, the medical school is holding a singles mixer tonight — come with me. There’s nothing that meeting a handsome guy can’t solve.” Jiang Yilu winked. “And if one guy can’t solve it, then meet two…”

But before she’d even finished speaking, Jiang Yilu sniffed at Tan Yin’s hair and clothes. “Tan Yin, since when do you wear perfume? This scent’s actually pretty nice, kind of subtle — what brand is it?”

Only then did Tan Yin raise her hand to sniff herself, and sure enough, there was indeed a faint trace of that incense scent. She froze for a moment before realizing — even invisible, she hadn’t managed to avoid picking up that scent. Normally, being invisible meant coming and going without a trace, with no worries at all — but this time, Tan Yin felt a bit alarmed, because that scent was proof she’d been in that room. Fortunately, it seemed Chu Hang hadn’t noticed?

Tan Yin thought it over carefully — even earlier that day, when Chu Hang had been standing so close to her, he hadn’t shown the slightest hint of surprise or confusion, hadn’t asked about any scent on himself, which suggested his sense of smell simply wasn’t very sharp.

Thank goodness, thank goodness.

Jiang Yilu’s attention quickly shifted away from the perfume scent on Tan Yin. “Oh right, sign-ups for this event are super hot right now — you have to be confirmed single to attend, and to keep things fair, the male-to-female ratio has to be one to one. Since the medical school already has more girls than guys, the open female slots are limited. I got lucky and snagged an invitation, but don’t worry, once I have one invitation, it shouldn’t be too hard to bring you in too…”

But just as Jiang Yilu was going on in detail, her phone suddenly rang.

“Hello? Yeah yeah, this is Jiang Yilu. Huh? No, no, no, listen to me explain, it’s not like that, I am single! You can’t just cancel my registration like this! Hey, hey, hey, don’t hang up! Don’t!!!!”

But no matter how Jiang Yilu shouted, the call on the other end still hung up.

Tan Yin asked with real concern: “What happened?”

Jiang Yilu was practically fuming, her eyes blazing. “That bastard Xu Yu! I’m mortal enemies with him!”

There’s no wall in this world without a crack for the wind to slip through. It turned out the girl Xu Yu had rejected before had, in her grief, spread far and wide the tragic tale of how she’d secretly loved Xu Yu for years only to have Jiang Yilu swoop in and steal him away. This had ended up making Jiang Yilu notorious even in the entirely unrelated medical school, and the girl responsible for reviewing sign-ups had cancelled Jiang Yilu’s registration on the grounds that she “wasn’t actually single.”

It took a great deal of coaxing from Tan Yin before she finally got the full story straight — but Jiang Yilu clearly couldn’t swallow her anger over it: “Tan Yin, you know what? That girl on the phone mocked me outright, implying I’m some two-timing white lotus stringing along several guys at once — clinging to Xu Yu on one hand while trying to poach a medical school guy on the other, and she actually told me to have some self-respect and self-love! When has Jiang Yilu ever had to put up with this kind of nonsense!”

“Today I am going to have Xu Yu’s blood! It’s all because of that instigator — now I’ve inexplicably become someone with a partner, and the worst part is, that partner isn’t even real!” Jiang Yilu fumed. “You know, aside from running into that pervert who stalked me a month ago, I haven’t had a single decent romantic prospect. I finally get a shot at a medical school mixer, and Xu Yu, that jinx, has to come along and ruin it — he’s a genuine roadblock on my path to getting a boyfriend! Tan Yin, don’t you dare stop me — I’m going to go find Xu Yu right now and make him clear this up properly. Don’t let him get in the way of my love life!”