Tan Yin spent the entire evening prepping in her dorm — a full night of SK-II sheet masks, an incredibly meticulous makeup job under Jiang Yilu’s guidance, and, at her friend’s repeated urging, a red dress that supposedly had killer effect on men. Early Saturday morning, Tan Yin teetered off in strappy, sexy little heels to the City A Museum entrance, ready to stage a completely spontaneous encounter.
To make sure she didn’t miss Chu Hang and Anna, and to be extra safe, Tan Yin loitered outside the museum starting at seven-thirty. She hadn’t expected Chu Hang to arrive even earlier than her — by the time she got there, he was already standing tall and elegant by the entrance.
Perhaps it was the eye-catching red dress, but Chu Hang spotted her before she could even say hello.
He frowned slightly and was about to speak when Tan Yin beat him to it, feigning surprise. “Oh? What a coincidence, Chu Hang! Are you here to see the museum?”
Though she kept her composure on the surface, Tan Yin’s heart was pounding hard. Jiang Yilu had said this outfit would catch Chu Hang’s attention, but Tan Yin now felt nervous and timid — Chu Hang was indeed looking at her, but after that first glance, he’d quickly looked away, and now he only briefly swept his eyes over her strappy heels.
Had she gone a bit overboard dressing up?
Tan Yin thought anxiously, and instinctively tried to smooth things over. She stammered, “I—I’m here to meet someone, we were going to see the museum together. Didn’t expect to run into you like this.”
The moment she finished, she regretted it. That was it, she was doomed — why had she come up with such a terrible excuse of all things? Wasn’t she usually sharper than this? Why had she gone blank just now?! Chu Hang would surely tell her to go off and tour the museum with whoever she’d supposedly arranged to meet, ditching her completely!
But perhaps Chu Hang, anxious himself waiting for Anna, didn’t brush her off after all. He simply kept frowning, his expression not particularly pleasant. “Who did you arrange to meet?”
“Just—just a friend from the law school.”
“A guy?”
“Ah, yes, yes, a guy, Zhou Ming, do you know him? Xu Yu’s classmate, same year as him.”
For some reason, once she finished answering, Chu Hang’s expression grew even worse. He glanced at her again, looking somewhat annoyed.
Perhaps it was because, on a rare Saturday when he’d finally get some time alone with Anna, running into Tan Yin was simply unwelcome. Chu Hang turned his head away, no longer wanting to look at her.
Tan Yin racked her brain, urgently messaging her ally Jiang Yilu on WeChat, asking her to call right away, then pretended to answer, as if surprised.
“Hello, Zhou Ming? What? You’re saying you can’t make it? Okay, okay, why do you have a fever? Anyway, health comes first, go rest. I happen to have run into a classmate here, so I’ll just tour the museum with them!”
Tan Yin ended her performance and then looked at Chu Hang with a pitiful expression. “Chu Hang, my friend can’t make it after all. Since we’re all headed to the same place, why don’t we join up? Can I tag along with you and Anna?”
Chu Hang didn’t answer, but his expression noticeably brightened. Tan Yin was about to say something flattering when she heard Anna’s voice approaching from not far off.
Ah, that explained the sudden good mood — Anna had arrived.
“Hi, sorry to keep you waiting, Chu Hang.”
Anna was dressed today in a short, sexy, playful skirt, her long legs on full display, radiating vitality. She ran up and greeted Chu Hang, then noticed Tan Yin. Just as a puzzled expression began to cross her face, Chu Hang spoke up—
“Let’s go, the museum’s open.”
Anna, none the wiser, waved at Tan Yin. “Bye, Chu Hang and I are heading in first.”
“…”
Were the two of them really that in sync? No sense of classmate solidarity whatsoever? Were they really trying to leave her behind?
Tan Yin felt a moment of awkwardness, feeling like some pathetic self-inserted extra, and was debating whether to shamelessly tag along or just let it go, when Chu Hang turned back. He gave her a cold glance. “Weren’t you going to join us? Why aren’t you keeping up? Do you expect me to wait for you?”
He tossed off that line, then turned and kept walking forward with a cold expression.
Tan Yin’s heart leapt with joy, and she quickly seized the opportunity, briskly catching up.
So what if she was a pathetic extra — she’d be the best pathetic extra there ever was, giving herself the leading role and soaring straight to the heavens!
The City A Museum was a well-known landmark building, blending traditional and modern elements exceptionally well. Its location was especially clever, situated within a UNESCO World Heritage protection zone in the old city district, with the museum’s main structure directly connected to City A’s famous historic Royal Garden.
Tan Yin had been to the City A Museum before, but only as a casual tourist admiring the exhibits — never studying the building’s unique features from a professional architectural perspective.
She had originally assumed Chu Hang and Anna were simply using the museum tour as an excuse for a date, but instead…
“You can see the central hall’s overall functional design has been deliberately broken into separate segments rather than one large mass. Still, the visitor circulation is excellent, keeping the museum’s main structure connected to the Royal Garden. After visiting all the exhibition halls, the natural flow of the route leads visitors right into the garden — tying back into the museum’s classical atmosphere while maximizing historical authenticity, capturing City A’s cultural heritage.”
Anna, camera in hand, snapped photos while thinking through her phrasing in Chinese and asked, “I read online that about fifty percent of this museum is underground structure, and it connects to that Royal Garden heritage site you mentioned — that must have created some real challenges with deep foundation pit support during construction, right?”
“Right, I’ll get to that in a bit.” Chu Hang said, pulling two printed handouts from his bag, offering one to Anna. “For our last design course project, our assignment was to design a museum. I did research for it at the time — this covers the floor area and proportions of each functional zone in the City A Museum, plus floor plans for the first and second levels. You can follow along with this.”
He finished speaking, then glanced at Tan Yin, who was craning her neck to peek at the material in Anna’s hands. He pressed his lips together and said coldly, “Don’t bother Anna. You can look at mine.”
“Oh…”
Tan Yin leaned in to look at the materials in Chu Hang’s hands and immediately understood why he’d placed first in the entire department — clearly, before every design assignment, he did massive amounts of research and material gathering. The data, design concepts, and floor plans laid out on the pages were thorough and meticulous.
Comparing herself to him, Tan Yin recognized the gap between them. Before her last museum design assignment, she hadn’t even bothered studying City A’s actual museum from a professional standpoint. Though her grades had risen sharply lately thanks to her recent resolve to catch up, seeing the gaps in her design work still left her feeling ashamed.
Compared to Chu Hang, she still had a long way to go.
As he led the two of them along, Chu Hang narrated: “This corridor here — the designer’s intent was probably to compress people’s field of vision, drawing their gaze back in from the spacious exhibition room before it, completing a spatial transition of contraction and release. At the same time, this narrow corridor also builds a sense of anticipation psychologically. Then, arriving here, the water-curtain screen and staircase serve as the transition point, naturally guiding the flow of visitors down into the underground exhibition area.”
Once Chu Hang started explaining architectural design, he seemed to lose himself completely in it, examining every design detail in the museum with focus and seriousness, and whenever he hit on something that resonated with him, the corner of his mouth would unconsciously curve into a faint smile.
As Tan Yin listened to his explanation, that smile of his kept scrambling her thoughts — fortunately, Chu Hang didn’t smile often, because when he did, it was practically criminal.
“The museum’s exterior spatial layout faithfully reflects the ideas Yoshinobu Ashihara laid out in his work on exterior space design — that when an exterior space has a directional quality, one should place something with a certain draw at its endpoint.”
…
Though Chu Hang would repeat parts in English whenever Anna occasionally couldn’t follow, he seemed more comfortable in Chinese, and beyond the English version, he’d always give a fuller recap in Chinese. Tan Yin’s English wasn’t great, but even she could tell that Chu Hang’s Chinese explanations were always more detailed and thorough.
Anna, being quite the academic star herself, kept asking questions that were highly technical and probing. Tan Yin had plenty of questions too, but next to Anna’s, hers seemed almost embarrassingly basic — too embarrassed to even voice them.
Luckily for her, whenever she stared for a while at some design detail she didn’t understand, Chu Hang would somehow always happen to start explaining exactly that detail’s concept and purpose. Though every time he finished explaining, after taking a sip of water, he’d shoot her an accusatory glare for no apparent reason.
By the time they finished touring the whole museum, Anna had clearly learned a great deal. Americans tended to be fairly direct, and she excitedly began praising Chu Hang — words like “incredible,” “outstanding,” “talented,” “amazing,” “awesome” — coming easily, and after praising him in English, she’d follow up with more compliments in Chinese.
Unfortunately, her command of Chinese idioms for praise wasn’t quite as polished—
“Chu Hang, you’re really handsome!”
Tan Yin: ???
Unaware of how odd her phrasing sounded, Anna continued praising, “You’re really sweet!”
Tan Yin: ???
What followed only got stranger…
Anna continued enthusiastically and sincerely—
“You’re mighty and imposing!”
“You’re elegant as a jade tree in the wind!”
“You’re a man of eight buckets of talent!”
“You’re impervious to blades and spears!”
“You have the back of a tiger and the waist of a bear!”
…
There was no denying it — this American friend had gone a little overboard with the Chinese idioms while praising him.
Tan Yin almost laughed, but the moment the corner of her mouth twitched upward, she caught Chu Hang glaring fiercely at her. He said nothing, but his face practically screamed, “Don’t you dare laugh.”
Chu Hang’s expression had turned distinctly fierce, his cheeks flushed with a hint of embarrassment. Even though none of this was Tan Yin’s fault, he still shot her a glare.
Seriously! Why glare at me?! Go glare at Anna! Tan Yin thought she was entirely innocent in this.
After finishing her round of praise, Anna ran off to the restroom, leaving Tan Yin and Chu Hang facing off in awkward silence.
Chu Hang glanced at her, cleared his throat, and said with a slightly unnatural voice, “Don’t you have something to say?”
Tan Yin waved her hands earnestly. “No, no! Really, nothing!”
After the glare Chu Hang had given her, she wouldn’t dare voice any opinions.
But unexpectedly, once she said this, Chu Hang’s expression darkened further instead. He was quiet for a moment, then looked away again, unnaturally, toward the exhibition hall in the distance, asking coolly, “If you really do have something to say, just say it. I’m in a good mood today. I’ll give you one chance — say whatever you want.”
Hah. Men.
Tan Yin thought with an inward sneer — wasn’t this the classic trap? On an anniversary, the wife gently tells her husband, darling, you’ve worked so hard on this journey together, on this special day, if you have any complaints about me, go ahead and say them, I won’t get angry, I’ll take it to heart and improve… and then if the husband is foolish enough to actually say everything on his mind, what happens? He ends up getting soundly thrashed by his own wife.
Chu Hang was putting on this generous act, saying anything was fine — but was it really fine? If she actually voiced some criticism, who was to say Chu Hang wouldn’t get back at her the moment they returned?
Hmph, Tan Yin thought, I’m not falling for that.
She immediately declared righteously, “Nothing! I really have nothing to say.”
But instead of clearing up, Chu Hang’s expression only darkened further. His face grew long, lips pressed tightly, and he gave her a complicated look, like some unreadable emperor.
Though she didn’t know the reason, Tan Yin could tell Chu Hang was somewhat displeased, and the result of his displeasure was that he ignored her, looking off into the distance instead.
Tan Yin found the silence hard to bear. She racked her brain trying to piece together what had just happened, trying to figure out why this fickle man had suddenly changed his mood. Just now… nothing had happened, had it? Wasn’t it just Anna wildly praising him with mismatched idioms while she herself said nothing?
Wait a moment… thinking it over, Tan Yin suddenly had a realization. Was Chu Hang… was he upset because she hadn’t joined in showering him with compliments too?
“Chu Hang, when you asked if I had anything to say — were you hoping I’d praise you?”
“No.”
He said no, but then why was his face so long?
Tan Yin decided that regardless of whether this was the actual reason, she should lay on the flattery anyway. She cleared her throat, preparing to launch into extravagant praise of Chu Hang, when she was interrupted…
“I’m back.” Just then, Anna walked back over with a smile, glancing at her watch. “We’re done with the inside of the museum. Let’s go check out the exterior structure and outline, take some photos, maybe do a sketch.”
Tan Yin looked at Chu Hang — fate, apparently, had decided her flattery wouldn’t be delivered after all. Still, she figured Chu Hang wouldn’t mind, since Anna was back now, his mood was bound to be brilliant regardless — after all, Anna’s smile was probably worth more to him than tons of flattery from her anyway!
The three of them walked out to the exterior of the museum, with Anna stopping to murmur admiring remarks in English at every turn, snapping photos frantically, determined not to miss a single detail. Chu Hang, whether infected by Anna’s enthusiasm or not, ended up taking quite a few photos of his own today too.
Except every single time—
“Tan Yin, go stand by the wall.”
“…”
This was standard practice in architecture — whenever photographing a building, people typically found someone to act as a scale reference, making it easier to intuitively gauge the building’s proportions and size from the photo. Naturally, in such photos, the building was always the star, and the person standing there was just a reference marker slightly better than a background wall. As long as the building photographed beautifully, it didn’t matter how unflattering the reference person looked.
As an architecture student herself, Tan Yin understood this well — and being someone who cared about her looks, she usually strongly resisted becoming this kind of reference object, since such photos were basically a disaster for whoever stood in as the marker.
A fresh example was Chen Ziqiang, who’d gone traveling with his girlfriend, and when his girlfriend wanted photos at famous historical sites, his occupational habits kicked in — the resulting photos featured gorgeous, grand buildings, while his girlfriend was either blurred or caught at the ugliest possible instant — rolling her eyes, laughing with her mouth wide open in an unflattering way, hair blown across her face by wind, or completely backlit into a black silhouette… His girlfriend ended up breaking up with him over those photos.
For this particular task of being the reference object, between herself and Anna, Chu Hang had unsurprisingly chosen her. Though it stung a bit, Tan Yin obligingly went and stood where directed — fine, take the photo then. She gave Chu Hang’s camera a radiant smile, posing seriously — even if the building was the real subject and she was just a supporting player, she’d bring main-character energy to it anyway. Even as a self-inserted extra, she’d be the wildest, most dramatic extra there was!
Somehow, though Chu Hang had clearly already photographed City A Museum extensively for his earlier design project, today — perhaps trying to impress Anna, or for whatever reason — his interest in photography had suddenly spiked. The moment Tan Yin returned from the corner, Chu Hang gestured for her to go stand there again.
Practically every viewable facade of the City A Museum, Chu Hang had her pose in front of, without exception, thoroughly documenting the whole thing.
Only, this fellow proved ruthlessly ungrateful — once he’d finished taking all the photos, and Tan Yin asked to see them, Chu Hang coolly put the camera away and flatly refused.
Perhaps feeling some embarrassment over his own lack of consideration, the way he tucked the camera away was hurried, almost rough, and his voice came out slightly unnatural. “Photographic works are original creative property too, protected under copyright. If you want to see them, go take your own.”
“…”
Fine — you sly little fox, playing hard to get while drawing me in, you’ve successfully caught my attention!
The more Chu Hang acted this way, the more Tan Yin’s fighting spirit rose. She thought, she absolutely had to land him — and once she did, revenge was a dish best served cold; she’d settle every one of these accounts later.
After that, the three of them found a flowerbed outside the museum and sat down to sketch. Tan Yin sat fairly close to Anna, while Chu Hang chose a spot some distance away, positioned diagonally behind Tan Yin, and started drawing there.
Though her original intention had been to sabotage Chu Hang and Anna’s date, Tan Yin found herself genuinely absorbed in this learning experience by the end. Listening to Chu Hang’s professional explanations and comparing them to her own past museum design assignment, she had something of an epiphany, realizing exactly where the flaws in her own design lay and where she could do better.
For a while, Tan Yin grew quite absorbed and calm, studying the museum before her — so classically designed yet standing in perfect harmony within the modern, bustling city district — while sketching and thinking through the designer’s approach.
Once Tan Yin threw herself fully into something, she went all in. By the time she snapped out of it, she realized she’d held the exact same pose for half an hour straight, sketching. She rolled her neck, rubbing her cervical spine, and it was only then, turning slightly, that something felt off.
Someone was watching her.
Tan Yin instinctively followed the sensation and turned around, meeting Chu Hang’s gaze head-on.
While sketching the museum, why was he looking at her?
The moment their eyes met, Chu Hang immediately looked away, then stared intently at the museum for a few seconds before lowering his head and continuing to draw.
Ah, probably just an accidental glance her way.
Tan Yin didn’t dwell on it further, and lowered her own head, refocusing on her sketch.
Once Anna finished her sketch, she still seemed reluctant to stop. She checked the time. “Should we head to the next spot? Maybe check out the City A Art Museum?”
Her suggestion was quite reasonable and natural — the City A Art Museum wasn’t far from the museum, and architecture students usually planned these two stops for a single day, half the day at the museum and half at the art museum, efficient and not wasting any time.
But Tan Yin found herself in a bind. She did want to go — not to play third wheel anymore, but simply because she wanted to keep learning alongside Chu Hang, seeing more buildings. Except today, having trusted Jiang Yilu’s terrible advice, she’d worn these strappy heels, and after a whole morning walking through the entire museum, her heels had blistered raw. Though she’d been quietly maintaining her poise, walking in the heels as if on level ground, Tan Yin felt she was nearly at her limit — she finally understood the feeling of the little mermaid, walking on legs that felt like knives with every step… If she went to tour another art museum on top of this, her legs and heels were probably done for.
Just as she was struggling with this dilemma, Chu Hang ended up making the decision for her.
He gave Tan Yin a light glance, then pressed his lips together. “Sorry, I’ve got something come up this afternoon. Let’s call it a day here. Eight tomorrow morning, we’ll meet directly at the art museum entrance.”
Though Anna looked a bit disappointed, she nodded. “Sure, I’ll spend the afternoon exploring around here — seems like there are quite a few attractions nearby.” She glanced at Tan Yin. “Tan Yin, want to explore with me?”
“No, no, that’s alright.” Tan Yin, desperate for the chance to hurry back and change her shoes, waved her hands quickly. “I need to get back to school, I’ve still got an architectural mechanics assignment to finish.”
Chu Hang gave Anna some directions and tips for the nearby attractions, called her a taxi, and watched her get in before turning to leave.
At this, Tan Yin felt sour all over again.
What was this — being so considerate toward Anna! Even calling her a cab like such a gentleman, and yet he wasn’t even offering to call one for her to get back to school! When it was her turn, this guy just walked off on his own!
Just as Tan Yin was silently grumbling, Chu Hang, as if sensing something, turned back around. He frowned at her. “What are you standing there for?”
“Huh?”
“Aren’t you heading back to school?”
“Yeah.”
Chu Hang gave her a look as if she were an idiot, tossed off, “I’m going back to school too,” and turned to walk off.???
If you’re heading back to school too, why don’t we just share a cab together?
Full of questions, Tan Yin glanced back once more toward the taxi stand, then followed after Chu Hang, trailing him all the way to… a large shopping mall?!
“Chu Hang, are you here to buy something?”
Chu Hang clearly had no intention of answering, heading straight for a women’s shoe store.
Fearing he was mistaken, Tan Yin quickly explained, “Are you buying shoes? But this brand only makes women’s shoes, no men’s.”
Chu Hang ignored her entirely, his handsome face expressionless as he walked into the shop anyway.
Tan Yin tried to divine his intentions like reading an imperial decree. “Or are you buying women’s shoes on purpose? A gift for someone? But this store’s shoes are all casual style — I’ve heard they’re super comfortable to wear, but the one downside is they’re not very stylish. If you’re buying shoes for a girl, you’d want something that looks really fancy at first glance!”
This time, Chu Hang finally deigned to lift his gaze, giving her a puzzled look. “I really can’t understand you girls. What’s the point of something that looks nice but isn’t comfortable to wear?”
“Well, if you were choosing a girlfriend, you’d have two options — one who’s very pretty but very high-maintenance, or one who’s ‘not pretty but very gentle’ — which would you pick?”
“…”
Chu Hang choked, apparently stumped for a rebuttal. He glanced quickly at Tan Yin, his expression a bit unnatural, ears faintly red, then scanned the store and pointed at a pair of shoes, telling the clerk, “This one.”
He finished, then turned to look at Tan Yin. “What size do you wear?”
“36, why?”
Chu Hang ignored her question. “Get a size 36.”
Tan Yin was thoroughly confused, but tried on the shoes under Chu Hang’s watchful eye regardless. She had to admit — though not the most attractive design, they were genuinely comfortable. The moment she took off those strappy heels and put these on, her feet felt liberated.
“Alright, wear those out.” Chu Hang stepped away briefly, and when he returned, simply dropped this line. He pressed his lips together, glancing at Tan Yin before looking away. “Those heels of yours were too ugly, offending my eyes. I couldn’t stand looking at such ugly shoes for the rest of the walk. I’m buying these for you.”
Tan Yin: ???
Before she could say anything, Chu Hang shot her another glare. “One good deed a day. Charity work.” He glanced at her again, then added, “Aesthetic poverty is a new form of poverty.”
“…”