As an awkward person of action, Tan Yin spent half an hour honestly confronting her own heart, then another fifteen minutes locked in fierce internal struggle, and finally five minutes arriving at a conclusion — now that she’d worked so hard and even brought her grades up, that man Chu Hang was also something worth pursuing further. After all, after all this time, she still couldn’t stop thinking about him — clearly this was true love.

Tan Yin was the type who, though stubborn, would act quickly on a new decision once she’d made up her mind. She immediately kicked Jiang Yilu’s chair with her foot. “I have a plan.”

Jiang Yilu was still lost in admiration for Xu Yu, and answered somewhat dazedly, “What?”

“I think we should engage in deep strategic cooperation.”

“Huh?”

Tan Yin’s expression turned solemn. “Sisters united can cut through metal. We should join hands and divide up this pair of good brothers, Xu Yu and Chu Hang, between us.”

Jiang Yilu blinked several times before finally catching on. She looked at Tan Yin. “Didn’t you claim you’d already given up on Chu Hang?”

Tan Yin sighed. “Not entirely dead — someone’s been carelessly tossing cigarette butts around lately, and it’s rekindled the embers.”

“…”

“Look, you like Xu Yu, so you should go after him boldly! He’s still single right now, but he’s popular enough that if you keep hesitating, someone might snatch him away. So why not act now — Jiang Yilu, get on it!” Tan Yin analyzed with an air of solemn righteousness. “As for Xu Yu, aside from class, he spends almost all his free time hanging around with Chu Hang. That makes Chu Hang a stumbling block between you two, a giant third wheel — someone needs to lure him away, or how else are you and Xu Yu supposed to build a world of your own and develop a moving love story?”

Though she said nothing more, Tan Yin was confident her expression clearly conveyed her core message —

I, Tan Yin, will be the one to lure Chu Hang away!

Jiang Yilu almost applauded. “Tan Yin, oh Tan Yin, you really do have a talent for sanctimony — dressing up your own inappropriate feelings for Chu Hang as some grand act of self-sacrifice for your friend’s love life? You really picked the wrong major. You should’ve studied liberal arts.”

Tan Yin shot Jiang Yilu a flirtatious look. “As long as you get it. Anyway, no point letting outsiders profit — once this succeeds, you take Xu Yu, I take Chu Hang, isn’t that the best of both worlds? Any objections?”

Jiang Yilu rubbed her chin. “No objections, but why does it feel like you’re describing us as Western imperial powers and Xu Yu and Chu Hang as colonies to be carved up?”

Come to think of it, that did sound about right.

“But Tan Yin, even though there was some misunderstanding between me and Xu Yu, after he carried me to the campus clinic, I apologized to him right away and we cleared things up. There’s no deep grudge between us, and Xu Yu isn’t petty, so we’ve basically made peace. But you and Chu Hang…” Jiang Yilu chose her words carefully. “You want to pursue him? Isn’t that going to be difficult? The gap between you two seems pretty deep, and you already failed once before. Can you really pull this off?”

“Why couldn’t I? Persistence wears down even an iron rod into a needle!” Tan Yin declared with heroic spirit. “Can’t I turn invisible? I’ll use my natural advantage, carefully observe what Chu Hang likes, and then cater to his tastes — problem solved. Failing the first time doesn’t matter. Plenty of successful entrepreneurs failed many times before making it. This just means I’ve accumulated valuable experience.”

“Fine, fine…”

Tan Yin got straight to work. “Here’s the thing, I think we need to plan this carefully — it might be a long campaign. Let me draft a proposal first, and we can discuss it…”

Unfortunately, just as Tan Yin pulled out a blank sheet of paper and was hunting for a pen, Jiang Yilu shattered her fine dream. “Hey, hey, hey! Wait a second!” Jiang Yilu held up her phone. “My source just messaged me — they saw Chu Hang in the school’s little garden with an incredibly gorgeous, elegant-looking woman! Just the two of them! Never seen this woman before, doesn’t seem like she’s from our school. Tan Yin, I don’t think Chu Hang’s single anymore…”

Before Jiang Yilu could finish, she saw Tan Yin throw on her jacket and vanish from sight like the wind.

Tan Yin practically sprinted at full speed to the school’s little garden, famous as a well-known couples’ meeting spot. Why would Chu Hang suddenly show up here? Had he really found someone?

The moment she stepped into the garden, she spotted him — he was always so eye-catching. He stood there in a white shirt in front of a bed of roses, a graceful young man, practically a gorgeous scene all on his own. And the girl across from him — even as a fellow woman, Tan Yin had to admit — was genuinely good-looking. Not delicate-pretty exactly; this girl had bold, striking features, skin that wasn’t especially fair but held a healthy wheat tone, eyes bright and confident, an easy, generous air about her, dressed simply but with real taste — stylish yet presentable anywhere.

A formidable rival!

Chu Hang was looking at her now, an unguarded smile on his face. The two of them seemed to have hit on some point of connection, nodding frequently, gesturing animatedly as they talked.

It had been pouring with thunder just a little while ago, and yet now the sky had cleared. Tan Yin glanced up, feeling like the timing simply couldn’t be worse for her — full of passionate resolve but with no way to put it to use. This invisibility power of hers really was useless sometimes! Right when she needed it most, where had it gone?

Though she couldn’t turn invisible, Tan Yin quickly came up with another plan. Chu Hang and the girl stood by the rose bushes, and the lush branches and leaves had climbed thick over the sparse bamboo behind them, forming something like a green wall.

Tan Yin silently circled around behind Chu Hang, positioning herself right behind that wall of roses. Sure enough, she soon caught Chu Hang’s voice, and just as she was feeling triumphant, settling in to hear what he was saying, she discovered—

He was speaking in fluent, flawless English, discussing how traditional Chinese architecture extended horizontally in space, required axial symmetry, and created an effect of depth — how city layouts were consistently rectangular, and how the overall style was introverted, enclosed, and strict, reflecting implication and privacy.

She didn’t understand a single word of it!

Though Chu Hang’s English was standard American English, fluent, pure, low, and sexy, his voice gorgeous beyond belief — the problem was, while she could tell he was probably explaining some architectural concept, aside from catching a few isolated words, she had absolutely no idea what the whole sentence meant. She couldn’t figure out why Chu Hang, of all things, wasn’t speaking Chinese. Was he trying to show off in front of this girl?

Of course, she soon learned the reason, because after Chu Hang finished, the girl responded in even more fluent, more polished English of her own.

This woman was actually a foreigner?!

Tan Yin peered through the gaps in the rose bushes, and the more she studied the girl, the more distinctive she seemed — the way her eye makeup wasn’t done in the currently popular domestic style. Most Chinese female university students preferred a cute, soft eye look, while this girl’s makeup was bold and dramatic. Her lipstick was similarly vivid, unlike most local girls who tended to avoid such flamboyant, saturated reds in favor of a more subdued, nude tone. And then there was her body language — her whole bearing and gestures didn’t seem quite like a native Chinese person’s.

Tan Yin was dying of curiosity inside, but felt the more curious she was, the more she needed to feign indifference. She stood behind the rose bushes, trying to think of a natural excuse to casually walk past, when — glancing up slightly — she was startled nearly into a scream by a caterpillar hanging right above her head on a rose leaf. She managed to suppress the scream, but stumbled backward in reflex, lost her footing, and tumbled straight into the bamboo grove, then into the rose bushes, and then tumbled straight out of the rose bushes, landing right at the feet of Chu Hang and the girl…

The girl, apparently too stunned to hold it in, let out an involuntary “oh my god,” while Chu Hang, though also somewhat startled, had clearly witnessed enough of Tan Yin’s antics that his brief shock quickly gave way to composure, and he simply looked down at her from above.

The scene was undeniably awkward. Tan Yin found herself momentarily speechless, and just as she was waiting for Chu Hang to say something to bail her out, he instead pressed his lips together, clearly not planning to say a single word, watching her with an air of “I’ll just quietly enjoy the show.”

Left with no choice, Tan Yin dusted herself off, stood up, and steeled herself to speak under the weight of both their stares. “What a coincidence, Chu Hang!”

Chu Hang gave her an expressionless glance. “It certainly is a coincidence. Just an unusually convenient one. What were you doing hiding in the bushes behind me?”

“I—I just came to find you, wanted to ask you about a problem. Didn’t you say I could come to you if I had questions…” Tan Yin racked her brain. “And then I saw you and your—your girlfriend chatting so warmly, I didn’t want to interrupt, so I stayed quiet and thought I’d wait behind you until you finished, then show myself…”

Tan Yin’s little speech served two purposes: giving herself a plausible-sounding excuse, and testing Chu Hang. By normal logic, if the girl wasn’t his girlfriend, he would surely correct her…

Except…

Except this time, Chu Hang just gazed at her calmly, neither confirming nor denying it.

Tan Yin’s heart lurched under his stare, both anxious and nervous, the same feeling she got every time architectural mechanics final grades were posted, dreading bad news she didn’t want to hear.

In the end, it was his international friend who couldn’t stand the silence any longer. In somewhat halting Chinese, she clarified, “Hello, I’m not Chu Hang’s girlfriend.”

Only then did Chu Hang give Tan Yin a faintly mocking look and snort coldly. “Of course I don’t have a girlfriend. Didn’t you draw me a whole stack of them in your comics? I only have a stack of boyfriends.”

Tan Yin shamelessly turned to the formidable rival beside Chu Hang. “And this is?”

“Anna.” The girl was quite gracious about it, extending her hand to Tan Yin before Chu Hang could even introduce her. “I’m a classmate of Chu Hang’s from his exchange program in America.”

Tan Yin quickly introduced herself in turn and eagerly began pumping Anna for information.

Anna was lively and open, holding nothing back, and Tan Yin soon learned the purpose of her visit. Apparently, for a paper she was working on, she’d come to China to research some historical architecture and gather materials. Though ethnically Chinese, she’d been born and raised in America and didn’t know much about China; her Chinese was halting. Since the buildings she wanted to study happened to be in City A, she’d thought to ask Chu Hang for help.

Even in those few words, Anna made no effort to hide her admiration for Chu Hang — every glance she gave him carried a certain light in her eyes.

Though her stated reason for seeking him out sounded official enough, and Chu Hang showed no response to that particular look in her eyes, Tan Yin’s internal alarm bells were going off regardless.

Chu Hang’s exchange program had only lasted one semester, and it had ended a while ago now — yet here this woman was, showing up on his doorstep. Didn’t that just prove the two of them had been close during their time in America, and had kept up contact even after returning home?!

Tan Yin’s brow furrowed. This wasn’t as simple as it looked!

But no matter how complicated it was, Tan Yin had no reason to keep lingering in front of Anna and Chu Hang, because when Chu Hang asked her his question, her mind went completely blank.

“Tan Yin, what was the question you wanted to ask me?”

Even when Chu Hang repeated the question a second time, Tan Yin still couldn’t think of anything to ask. She’d been studying so diligently and hard lately that there really weren’t any knowledge gaps left to fill…

Tan Yin thought dejectedly to herself: too much studying is ruining my future, too many good grades are wrecking my youth!

“I… I suddenly can’t remember what I wanted to ask you…”

Chu Hang glanced at her and, with a faint, mocking smile, issued his dismissal. “Then come ask me again once you remember. If there’s nothing else, you can go now.”

“…”

“Or is there something else you wanted to say?”

“Nothing else…”

Chu Hang seemed to have expected Tan Yin to make up some excuse to shamelessly linger, and hearing her answer now, he actually froze for a moment. Then he coughed and awkwardly looked away.

In truth, Tan Yin had originally intended to shamelessly stick around as a third wheel, but she’d decided that a successful pursuit required keeping the other person guessing about your behavior. Especially since, despite her persistent, proactive effort writing love letters every day for half a year, Chu Hang hadn’t so much as glanced her way. This second attempt called for a change in strategy.

Constant proactive pursuit would make a man feel like this girl was always available and therefore not worth treasuring. So this time, Tan Yin decided to play hard to get! Let Chu Hang struggle to figure her out — that was the only way to spark a real chemical reaction!

So Tan Yin gave Chu Hang one more look, then reluctantly dragged her feet away. But she’d barely taken a few steps when she heard Chu Hang’s voice behind her—

“Tomorrow’s Saturday. For the buildings you wanted to see, I’ve mapped out a route. We’ll start at the City A Museum. Eight tomorrow morning, meet at the museum entrance.”

Tan Yin shook her head. Chu Hang really wasn’t very good at this — hadn’t the girl just said her Chinese wasn’t great? He’d just been conversing with her fluently in English, so why switch back to Chinese now?

What confused Tan Yin even more was that Chu Hang normally spoke with meticulous restraint, his voice always pitched just right — never too soft to seem weak, never too loud to seem uncouth. Yet now, whether it was because seeing Anna after her long journey had genuinely stirred something in him, his words came out loud enough to announce to the whole world.

One moment he was practically shooing her away like he feared she was eavesdropping, the next he was proclaiming meeting arrangements at full volume like a public announcement. Tan Yin had no idea what had gotten into him.

Though a little surprised by Chu Hang’s sudden switch to Chinese, Anna responded with a simple “okay” in Chinese as well.

But Chu Hang, normally a man of few words, oddly repeated the key information once more, raising his voice again. “Eight tomorrow morning, museum entrance.”

As Tan Yin walked away, she couldn’t help but wonder — could Chu Hang really have fallen for this Anna? Was that why he seemed so nervous around her? So flustered his behavior had gone haywire? If he was so worried she hadn’t understood the meeting spot, why not just say it in English? And besides, if he really wanted to pursue Anna properly, shouldn’t he be picking her up at her hotel and escorting her to the museum together, rather than just arranging to meet there? That would’ve earned him so many more points!

Tan Yin couldn’t help but sigh — no wonder Chu Hang had been single for so many years! His emotional intelligence really left something to be desired!

Still, his sudden volume spike had worked out in her favor. Tan Yin thought happily to herself: tomorrow, Saturday, eight o’clock, “coincidental” encounter at the museum entrance — locked in.

Chu Hang and Anna wanted a world of their own? Hah! Not a chance! She would absolutely not let the two of them succeed!