Two frequent, back-to-back thunderstorms had apparently exhausted Tan Yin’s luck — for the entire week that followed, the weather forecast showed nothing but clear skies. With no hope of rain in sight, Tan Yin simply went and had her cast removed. Cut off from her father’s financial support, she began looking into various work-study opportunities. Though Jiang Yilu had grandly declared, with great flourish, that she’d happily “sponsor” Tan Yin, Tan Yin always felt that, having two working hands and feet herself, she shouldn’t just keep relying on her friend’s generosity.

Fortunately, there were plenty of part-time job opportunities available. Tan Yin found work as a delivery courier at an upscale Chinese restaurant in downtown A City — she just needed to be on call during busy weekend hours. There were similar jobs near A University too, but given the surplus of cheap student labor near the university district, the pay was low; the downtown job, by contrast, paid considerably better.

Jiang Yilu walked into the dorm room to find Tan Yin clacking away at a calculator, tallying up her earnings.

“Forget the math for a second! The location for the next architectural landscape sketching field trip has been finalized — it’s Lanruo Village, out in the western suburbs!”

Tan Yin abandoned the calculator, practically vibrating with excitement. “Really? But Lanruo Village is pretty far — can we make it there and back in one day?”

“That’s why Professor Lin and the department head negotiated for a two-day trip — one day sketching, staying overnight, and heading back the next morning.”

Tan Yin was now in no state of mind to calculate anything — she’d wanted to go sketch at Lanruo Village for a long time. A City was an ancient city with a rich history, having served as the capital of several dynasties, and Lanruo Village was the best-preserved cluster of ancient village architecture, with many buildings dating back to the Ming and Qing dynasties — truly unique.

Jiang Yilu was still broadcasting the latest updates: “Also, the grouping list for this trip’s out! Remember how they said it’d be split into four big groups, each with a group leader? I got the list from the class committee. You and I aren’t in the same group.” She wiggled her eyebrows at Tan Yin. “But — you’re in the same group as Chu Hang. He’s your group leader.”

Tan Yin was so entirely absorbed in her excitement over going to Lanruo Village that she barely registered the other details. She loved painting, and even more, she loved sketching from life — anything related to drawing, she genuinely excelled at. In the architecture program, freshman-year courses like Chinese and Western art history, sketching, life drawing, and architectural pen drawing, and sophomore first-semester courses like watercolor and architectural quick-sketching — her grades in these could even be called top-tier.

Unfortunately, architecture wasn’t just about artistic, humanities-based ability — technical, engineering skills mattered just as much: mechanics, water and electrical equipment operations, functional thinking, logical analysis — all essential. In the sophomore first semester, squeezed between Architectural Construction, Digital Architecture Fundamentals, and Structural Mechanics A, Tan Yin, through her own hard effort, had ultimately achieved dead last in the entire department. That glorious achievement was still hanging on the banners at Zhixing Building…

“This semester doesn’t have many hands-on drawing courses — CAD drafting, architectural design, Structural Mechanics B — these are the heavy-weighted ones. If you want to save your final GPA, you need to go all out on this sketching trip!”

Without Jiang Yilu even having to point it out, Tan Yin herself couldn’t help but sigh the moment she thought about it. “Why does my free, untamed spirit have to be trapped in this garbage box of rigid rules? I originally wanted to apply to A University’s fine arts program! But my dad absolutely refused to let me take the art entrance exam, forcing me into architecture instead. Does he not realize he’s strangling a future artist in the cradle!”

Tan Yin grew more indignant as she spoke. “He insists, based on his experience as a construction foreman, that architectural designers make more money, and that studying art just means painting billboards for people. But has he ever considered — those great masters, they casually draw two lines and sell it for millions! We architecture drones draw two lines and hand it to a client, wouldn’t we get killed on the spot?”

Jiang Yilu thought about it. “But Tan Yin, most people who study painting never become masters…”

Tan Yin declared with grand ambition, “If it were me, I’d definitely become a great master — look, I just casually drew a comic and it caused a sensation on the campus forum…” As she spoke, something occurred to her. “Oh right, what were you saying about Chu Hang?”

“Chu Hang’s in your group for this sketching trip, and he’s your group leader. Do I need to remind you why that matters? Remember how two seniors from the class above got into a fight over a girl during a sketching trip, and ended up damaging the ancient building they were sketching? And there was another senior who snuck off to smoke during the trip and accidentally started a fire that nearly burned down an entire orchard?… So starting with our year, they introduced a group-leader scoring system for the sketching course — the group leader rates each member’s cooperation and team contribution, and the professor factors that score into the final grade.”

“…”

Jiang Yilu looked at her with sympathy. “You drew that comic about him, made him look all soft and girly — there’s no way he’s forgiving you for that.”

“I’ve got it! The old comic! I can revise it!” Tan Yin smacked her thigh, as if suddenly enlightened. “If Chu Hang’s okay with it, I could keep serializing it and completely flip his image around. I could have him hit rock bottom, resolve to build muscle, and then, six months later, make a triumphant return as a man’s man! From then on, all those men who used to top him would only ever be the ones underneath him. Of course, he’d already be way out of their league by then! Because he discovers that dating women is who he truly is! Then I could shift the art style entirely, turn the whole story into a harem-protagonist genre, and to really drive home his masculinity, I could give him like twenty-something girlfriends — what do you think? After a while of serializing it this way, it’d completely erase his old image from the comic!”

Tan Yin considered further. “Sure, it’d be a lot of extra work, and I’d need a natural-feeling turning point so readers don’t get mad about the style shift, but with some effort, I think I could…”

“So is Chu Hang supposed to thank you for that?”

At that, Tan Yin’s enthusiasm wilted too. Put that way, she really shouldn’t be getting ahead of herself — would Chu Hang actually forgive her? He’d have to be out of his mind!

Tan Yin figured her Architectural Landscape Sketching course was probably a lost cause at this point.

Torn between anticipation and anxiety, Tan Yin finally arrived at the day of the field sketching trip. The architecture department, roughly fifty-some students strong, set off for Lanruo Village in two coach buses. To make headcounting easier, Professor Lin had everyone sit according to their assigned groups before boarding. Tan Yin’s group had thirteen people total — five women, six men. Chu Hang, as group leader, boarded only after finishing the headcount. Tan Yin deliberately slowed her pace, sticking close to him — by this point, everyone else on the bus had probably already paired off into seats, and Tan Yin was already scheming: wherever Chu Hang sat, she’d shamelessly plant herself right beside him…

Unfortunately, dreams are beautiful, reality is cruel. The moment Chu Hang boarded, he spotted an empty seat next to Zhang Chen and headed that way, sparing Tan Yin only a cold backward glance before walking off. But just as he was about to sit down, Zhang Chen — who’d been gazing out the window — spun around and nearly leapt out of his seat. “Chu Hang! You can’t sit here!”

Chu Hang frowned. “You’ve got an empty seat next to you — why can’t I sit here?”

Zhang Chen rubbed his nose, and, spotting Tan Yin standing behind Chu Hang, was struck with sudden inspiration. “Because I want to sit with Tan Yin!”

“…”

Zhang Chen pressed on stubbornly: “Men and women pairing up makes the work go easier! Chu Hang, go find someone else!”

Chu Hang pressed his lips together, saying nothing, clearly not remotely bothered by Zhang Chen’s nonsensical objection. He merely lifted his gaze to look at Tan Yin. “Do you want to sit with him?”

Tan Yin shook her head, declaring her true loyalty. “No! I want to sit with you!”

Chu Hang turned back to Zhang Chen, his handsome face calm and composed. “Hear that? She doesn’t want to sit with you, and I don’t want to sit with her. So you’re sitting with me.”

This shamelessly self-serving logic momentarily stunned both Tan Yin and Zhang Chen. Chu Hang, having claimed his seat, closed his eyes to rest, but Zhang Chen remained restless, pretending to admire the scenery while sneaking wary glances at Chu Hang, visibly on guard, as if fearing he might get taken advantage of.

Chu Hang, of course, had no idea why Zhang Chen was acting so twitchy today, but Tan Yin knew exactly why. Not long after the bus set off, she stood up and walked over to Zhang Chen. “Hey, I’m feeling a bit carsick — mind switching seats with me? I’d like to sit up front by the window…”

Before she even finished speaking, Zhang Chen shot up from his seat. “Go ahead, go ahead, take it!”

Before Tan Yin could even react, he’d bolted off like the wind.

The moment Tan Yin sat down, Chu Hang opened his eyes. He frowned and shot her a cold glance. “You’re a girl — could you at least try to be a bit more reserved?” And with that, he immediately moved to get up and switch seats.

Right now, all Tan Yin wanted was to patch things up with Chu Hang so she could score well on the group leader evaluation. She’d come to negotiate a truce, and seeing him about to leave, she barely thought before grabbing hold of him — since Chu Hang had already stood up, her reaching arm, still seated, happened to catch hold of his pants…

She now gripped his pants with a death grip, carrying the unmistakable air of someone who’d yank the pants right off him if he tried to walk away.

Chu Hang’s face went completely dark. “Let go.”

Terrified he’d bolt the moment she released him, Tan Yin kept her death grip on his pants, saying earnestly, “Chu Hang, I actually came today to apologize to you — please give me a chance…” Tan Yin’s eyes darted around. “Besides, there’s nowhere else to sit right now anyway.” As she spoke, she fussily brushed off some nonexistent dust from Chu Hang’s seat. “Please, sir, do sit, sit!”

What Tan Yin said was, in fact, true — the coach was already packed, with barely a free seat left, all the remaining space now occupied by luggage and sketching equipment.

But the instant Chu Hang laid eyes on Tan Yin, his temples had started throbbing on reflex — a sense that something bad was about to happen. He pried her hand off. “I’m not sitting. I’ll stand. Don’t talk to me.”

“My grandma always says standing while the car’s moving is really dangerous!”

Chu Hang said coldly, “Sitting next to you is more dangerous.”

“If you stand, you could get hit by luggage falling loose from the bump…”

“How could that possibly…”

Before Chu Hang could finish the word “happen,” the bus suddenly took a sharp turn with an abrupt brake, and a bag — belonging to who-knows-who — slid loose from the overhead luggage rack and landed square on the bridge of Chu Hang’s nose. Almost immediately, a thin trickle of blood began running from beneath his sharp, elegant nose…

Tan Yin quickly pulled Chu Hang down into his seat, pulled out a tissue, and pressed it to his nose, saying earnestly, “I did warn you not to stand while the bus is moving — that’s ancestral wisdom passed down through generations! Good thing your nose isn’t fake, or the implant might’ve popped right out!”

…

Chu Hang was now so furious he couldn’t even speak. What kind of jinx was Tan Yin — he felt like he’d never had a single peaceful moment since running into her. Was her entire purpose in existing just to torment him?

Utterly oblivious, Tan Yin enthusiastically pulled a container out of her bag. “I made this specially for you — red date, peanut, longan, and goji berry porridge! Perfect timing, right? It’ll replenish your blood!” With that, she reverently presented the bowl of porridge to him, her bright eyes fixed on him with an expression of “Your Majesty, please accept this offering.”

Chu Hang was so furious he was practically ascending. “You did this on purpose, didn’t you.”

“Huh?”

“Tan Yin, I’m not a picky eater, but there are exactly four things I don’t eat in this world.” Chu Hang enunciated every word. “Red dates. Peanuts. Longan. Goji berries.”

Well, this was awkward…

Tan Yin sheepishly withdrew the porridge. “Sorry about that.” Since things had already reached this point, Tan Yin decided to stop beating around the bush and said directly, “But I just want you to know, I’ve realized my mistake. Drawing that comic about you before — that was wrong. It didn’t just affect your reputation, it was baseless fabrication. I’ll suspend the serialization indefinitely! And I’ll request to have the old posts deleted too!”

“Too late.” Chu Hang’s nosebleed had already stopped. He pulled away the tissue with his long, slender fingers and looked coldly at Tan Yin. “No matter what you do now, there’s no undoing the damage that comic’s already done to how people see me.”

Chu Hang’s tone was bitter, his expression more unpleasant than ever. Tan Yin looked up at him and finally, completely, ran out of steam.

This rift between her and Chu Hang — it seemed there was no mending it after all…