As the resident gossip columnist, Jiang Yilu kept close tabs on the campus grapevine and had already confirmed with Tan Yin, first thing, that she and Chu Hang were together. Xu Yu, on the other hand, who had been buried in writing his law thesis lately, was a different story.

When Chu Hang, holding Tan Yin’s hand, brought her into the café where they’d arranged to meet Xu Yu, Xu Yu’s whole expression was one of shock.

Chu Hang, however, was perfectly composed. He informed Xu Yu in the flattest possible declarative tone: “This is my girlfriend, Tan Yin. You already know her, no need for introductions.”

Xu Yu didn’t even have time to hide his reaction, pointing at Tan Yin. “Chu Hang, you’re not joking, are you? Didn’t you say being with her would be like dragging your average IQ down, or that you weren’t finding life exciting enough and wanted to court death?”

Tan Yin turned to Chu Hang with an accusatory look, raising an eyebrow.

Chu Hang, without so much as a blush, patted her head. “Don’t be mad, and don’t listen to his nonsense. I never said anything like that. He’s just single and lost his balance seeing me with a girlfriend, so he made this up.”

Having said that, Chu Hang turned to Xu Yu and said calmly, “Xu Yu, I hope you think carefully—did I really ever say something like that?”

“…”

Though Chu Hang’s tone was mild and his words measured, Xu Yu somehow felt a distinct sense of mortal threat radiating from his gaze. He had no choice but to grit his teeth and awkwardly backtrack. “Sorry, my mistake. Jealousy must have warped my memory…”

Chu Hang smiled at Tan Yin. “See, I never said that.”

Though Tan Yin was a little confused, she nodded anyway.

What Tan Yin hadn’t noticed was that while she wasn’t paying attention, Chu Hang had already shot Xu Yu several pointed looks.

Xu Yu naturally understood, though he was still utterly unable to process how the two of them had ended up together. Eventually, choosing his words carefully, he couldn’t help but ask.

“I have to ask—what made you two end up together? There must have been some kind of turning point, right? Because before this, you two really didn’t seem to get along at all.”

Tan Yin thought about it. Though she and Chu Hang really had secretly liked each other for a long time, layers of misunderstanding meant that, under normal circumstances, they’d probably have missed each other entirely and never gotten together. As for the actual turning point…

“It was electricity.”

Xu Yu frowned, baffled by this answer, but a moment later, seemed to have an epiphany. “You mean you two discovered you had real chemistry—sparks between you?”

Tan Yin couldn’t help but laugh. “At first it was literally just about electricity, but now, I guess that interpretation isn’t wrong either.”

Xu Yu still clearly couldn’t quite accept it. He paused, then pressed on further. “But didn’t you used to draw that kind of comic about Chu Hang? I remember he was practically furious back then. How did you two get past that?”

Chu Hang, thinking back on it, couldn’t help but laugh a little too. “The comics were nothing.” He gave Tan Yin a pointed look, murmuring, “It was the constant barrage of comments following me everywhere that nearly drove me insane.”

Xu Yu was naturally utterly baffled by what Chu Hang was talking about. Tan Yin, however, grew restless. She cleared her throat and said to Chu Hang with mock seriousness, “Haven’t you heard the saying? ‘What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’?”

Chu Hang couldn’t help but laugh too.

Stronger wasn’t the half of it—his skin had gotten a lot thicker too.

Though it was supposed to be a gathering of three, Xu Yu felt like he didn’t even deserve to have a name in front of Chu Hang and Tan Yin, as if they were the only two people present and he was just some dog tagging along…

Though this notion came out of nowhere and seemed absurd, for a moment, Xu Yu genuinely felt that way—like he was just the backdrop for this newly minted couple’s public display of affection.

“Oh right, from now on you don’t need to come to me for movies, meals, or shopping.” As if that weren’t enough, Chu Hang delivered another blow, saying with calm indifference, “I probably won’t have time going forward. You should find some solo activities you can do on your own from now on.”

“…”

Xu Yu could have cried. Duan Yingfei was right—Chu Hang really was the type to abandon his bros the second a girl showed up! Before Tan Yin, he used to call himself Chu Hang’s “sweetheart”; now he was nothing but yesterday’s trash. Before, he’d been the cinnabar mole on Chu Hang’s heart; now he was just a smear on the wall.

Xu Yu was practically seething with resentment. To think he’d spent all this time worrying about Chu Hang, feeling sorry for him being all alone, not just hopeless in love but also lacking any warmth at home—his father secretly seeing other women behind his mother’s back, possibly even having an illegitimate child, which was probably why Chu Hang had seemed so moody and unstable lately…

If not for that, Xu Yu thought bitterly, if not for worrying that as Chu Hang’s last lifeline, getting into a relationship himself might deal Chu Hang a fatal blow—driving him to either a mental breakdown or something worse—he would have confessed to Jiang Yilu ages ago and the two of them would already be together! It was only out of fear of upsetting Chu Hang that he’d endured, holding back from being with Jiang Yilu, hoping to first give Chu Hang some psychological preparation, some gentle counseling, before slowly introducing Jiang Yilu to him…

And now it turned out this guy didn’t care about bro code at all, didn’t even consider that he himself was still single, and just went ahead and got into a relationship without a second thought!

Xu Yu felt both bitter and forlorn.

So this was how fragile friendship between people could be!

Xu Yu practically resolved on the spot that the moment he and Chu Hang and Tan Yin parted ways, he would go straight to the girls’ dormitory of the architecture department and confess to Jiang Yilu, tell her he liked her, that he wanted to be with her—for love, even brotherhood could be cast aside.

Though her love life was going smoothly and her grades were shooting up under her “benefactor’s” precise tutoring, Tan Yin still had one worry.

There had been way too many thunderstorms lately!

Before she and Chu Hang got together, she hadn’t thought much of it, but now, with him, the storms had become a real obstacle to their dates—she couldn’t exactly find an empty place every time it rained.

As a result, on stormy days, though Chu Hang would take Tan Yin to watch movies together, given his face that attracted admirers everywhere, even with the seat beside him left empty for the invisible Tan Yin to sit in, there was always some girl wanting to strike up a conversation, claiming the seat next to Chu Hang was the best spot for watching and, since it was empty, wanting to switch over. And going to a popular restaurant during a storm was even worse—Tan Yin couldn’t eat, could only watch, and restaurants were always packed, so the seat across from Chu Hang, which looked empty to everyone else, was constantly coveted by others. Even just quietly going out shopping, since to onlookers Chu Hang appeared to be alone, particularly bold and brave girls would come up and ask for his contact information…

Today, as usual, a sudden thunderstorm forced their date to be cut short. It was hard to catch a cab in a storm, so Chu Hang had to wait at the station with the invisible Tan Yin, and sure enough, a girl beside them began shyly inching her way closer to him.

The storm had only just started half an hour ago, and she’d only been invisible for half an hour, but this was already the third girl today attempting to approach him! Chu Hang really was a magnet for trouble.

“This one’s relatively reserved and shy, unlike those other girls who came straight up without any preamble asking for your number and WeChat. Look at her—she only moves one small step at a time. If I weren’t watching so closely, I might even think she just happened to end up standing near you naturally…”

Tan Yin’s tone was sour. “She’s not bad looking. Pretty fair skin, big eyes, good figure too. Though I think her overall looks are still a little worse than mine, but her temper looks a lot better than mine…”

Though there weren’t many people at the station, there were a few scattered around, so Chu Hang couldn’t speak up to stop Tan Yin—he could only shoot her a warning glare.

Meanwhile, the girl had indeed made her way over to Chu Hang’s side. She hesitated a moment longer, seeming to gather her courage, struggling internally for a few more minutes before finally speaking to him. “Excuse me, are you a student at A University? I go there too, journalism department. I don’t have any cash on me—do you have any change I could borrow? The bus is coming soon and I won’t be able to pay the fare otherwise.”

Tan Yin couldn’t help herself. “Not bad, this approach wouldn’t even bother me if I were in your shoes—pretty natural. Just for that, those first two who were too blunt are eliminated. This contestant, you get a bonus point!”

Chu Hang frowned slightly, his face full of helplessness. As always, he responded to the girl coolly but politely, telling her he had no change either, giving her absolutely no opening.

The girl looked a little embarrassed, but by the time the bus arrived, she suddenly acted surprised, pulling change out of her pocket. “Oh, turns out I do have change after all, what luck!”

But once on the bus, the crowded cabin meant the girl genuinely had no choice but to press up close against Chu Hang. As the bus braked hard several times, she nearly fell over each time from the momentum. Unfortunately, Chu Hang showed not a shred of gentlemanly courtesy—he paid her no attention at all, single-mindedly wrapping his arms around Tan Yin instead, carving out a safe space around her that wouldn’t get jostled by the crowd, lips pressed tight, utterly unconcerned by the odd looks from bystanders.

The girl tried several times to seek Chu Hang’s help, but was ignored every time, her eyes gradually filling with a look of wounded discomfort. Even Tan Yin started to feel bad watching.

“Chu Hang, if there’s another hard brake, why don’t you use one hand to steady me and the other to catch her a little? I’ve seen her almost fall a few times now…”

Chu Hang naturally couldn’t respond to the invisible Tan Yin, but his lips pressed tighter, his expression somewhat displeased.

And at the next hard brake, Chu Hang really did reach out and steady the girl.

Tan Yin, who moments ago had breezily urged Chu Hang to show some kindness, was now thoroughly unable to stay composed. Her heart brimmed with a sour feeling—the kind that was practically toxic and corrosive.

But since it had been her own suggestion for him to help the girl, Tan Yin could only swallow her feelings and not make a scene, though the displeasure on her face was plain as day.

Chu Hang paid her no mind either. The two got off the bus in silence, and after walking for a while, Tan Yin finally couldn’t hold it in any longer—

“It’s not even New Year yet and you’re already carrying a chicken in one hand and a duck in the other—holding my hand on one side, and wanting to hold someone else’s on the other…”

Knowing full well she was in the wrong didn’t stop her from being unreasonable, precisely because it was Chu Hang. That was just how being petty in a relationship worked—knowing he loved her meant it was safe to act out in front of him, to let her uglier, negative little emotions show, to be unreasonable, to be jealous, to get angry.

Chu Hang glanced at her. “Wasn’t it you who told me to help her?”

Tan Yin was so angry she wanted to bite something. Even without Chu Hang saying it, she knew he was doing it on purpose to teach her a lesson, and honestly, this method worked better than scolding her outright, because now Tan Yin was thoroughly convinced, her heart soured like a jar of toxic solution, swearing she’d never again urge Chu Hang to help another girl in her life.

“No more of that from now on! Absolutely not, not, not! No steadying other people! No holding other people’s hands! If some other girl trips, cries, gets dumped, or gets lost, you’re not allowed to go be a Good Samaritan! Remember, I’m your designated charity case! You can only do your daily good deed on me! Precise assistance, targeted at me alone! I haven’t even been steadied yet, and you’re not allowed to steady anyone else!”

Once Tan Yin finished saying this, Chu Hang’s expression finally brightened. The corner of his mouth curled up slightly as he looked at her teasingly. “Someone’s this jealous, and yet you were pretending to be so magnanimous and calm earlier?”

If Chu Hang hadn’t said anything, it would have been fine, but now that he had, Tan Yin’s grievances came pouring out endlessly. Every time she was forced to become invisible during a storm, to onlookers Chu Hang appeared to be alone, and Tan Yin never wanted him to seem strange or cold to others—that was exactly why she’d urged him to help.

“On stormy days I can’t openly stake my claim on you by your side, and I have to watch as people try to hit on you, and every time you turn them down, they complain about you being too aloof and cold. I don’t want you to be misunderstood like that at all. Like just now, on the bus, when that girl asked for your help and you completely ignored her, because nobody could see me, all those aunties on the bus thought you had absolutely no manners at all…”

The more Tan Yin talked, the more wronged she felt. This invisibility ability of hers, when it came down to it, was really more trouble than it was worth—it was starting to affect her normal dating life and studies too. Once it started raining frequently, not only could she not go on dates, she couldn’t even guarantee her class attendance, and there were a lot of things she just couldn’t do.

Listening to Tan Yin, Chu Hang’s expression finally cleared. He let out a small laugh. “Do I care what other people think of me?”

“And besides, other people can’t see you, but I can. Isn’t that enough?”

Though Chu Hang genuinely didn’t mind this strange little “superpower” of hers, Tan Yin still found it deeply frustrating.

“But there are so many things I can’t do on rainy days, like I can’t kiss you,” Tan Yin said unhappily. “Otherwise people would think you’re some kind of lunatic, kissing thin air?”

Tan Yin resolved firmly, “I’m going to go see a doctor! I need to find out what’s actually causing this, whether it can be treated and fixed back to normal. I’m not actually trying to join the Avengers, and I have nothing to do with Thor, I can’t keep living like this!”

Though Chu Hang had never minded Tan Yin’s storm-induced invisibility before, this statement sent him into silence. After a moment, he finally, completely, switched sides.

Taking the matter seriously, Chu Hang accompanied Tan Yin to the City No. 1 Hospital to see a specialist, but they hesitated over which department to register with. Logically, since Tan Yin’s invisibility side effect had appeared after being struck by lightning, most people would go to the burn unit, but Tan Yin had no burns, and now, so much time had passed, and aside from the invisibility, she had no other symptoms… and as for invisibility itself… what department would that even fall under? The two of them looked at each other, both a little lost.

In the end, Chu Hang decisively registered for the emergency department.

Unfortunately…

“Doctor, ever since I was struck by lightning, every time there’s a thunderstorm, I turn invisible…” Tan Yin, mouth dry, explained the whole story of her superpower in painstaking detail.

The doctor across from her sat upright, diligently taking notes on the medical chart, looking serious and earnest. Tan Yin was just starting to feel relieved, thinking she should compliment the City No. 1 Hospital doctors for having seen it all—what excellent composure, not interrupting or questioning her at all, staying calm under such a bizarre situation—when the doctor, having heard her out completely, turned to look at Chu Hang instead—

“Is she your girlfriend?”

Chu Hang paused, then nodded.

“How long has this symptom been going on?”

Huh? Why was he asking Chu Hang about her own illness? Tan Yin immediately jumped in to answer. “Ten months!”

But the doctor ignored her entirely, looking straight at Chu Hang. “How long?”

Chu Hang pressed his lips together. “Ten months. She was struck by lightning about ten months ago.”

The doctor nodded knowingly, glanced sympathetically at Tan Yin, then sighed. “There’s not much point coming to the ER for this now, honestly. If you’d come in right after noticing something unusual after being struck, that would have been more useful. There’s not much I can do for you two now, but our hospital’s psychiatry department has an excellent reputation—normally it’s hard to even get an appointment. Tell you what, I’m on good terms with the head of psychiatry, I’ll put in a word for you and get you an extra slot. Take your girlfriend there right now.”

Chu Hang’s expression darkened. No wonder the doctor had stayed so calm listening to such an outlandish account—he’d been treating Tan Yin as a psychiatric patient the entire time.

Chu Hang, his face like thunder, immediately dragged Tan Yin out of City No. 1 Hospital.

If the doctors at City No. 1 hadn’t seen enough of the world, then they’d go to the Provincial General Hospital!

Tan Yin explained her situation again, and to corroborate her story, Chu Hang seriously and solemnly vouched for her as well.

The result—

“You two are still young. If you get proper treatment and take your medication regularly, your condition can definitely be managed and you’ll recover. What’s your parents’ contact information?”

…

This time it wasn’t just Tan Yin being treated as troubled—Chu Hang didn’t escape it either, becoming, in others’ eyes, another person who wasn’t quite right in the head.

But Chu Hang clearly wasn’t ready to give up. Tan Yin turning invisible during storms was indeed quite unbelievable—it sounded a bit too science-fiction, and it seemed a lot to ask of these veteran experts, trained in conventional medicine their whole lives, to suddenly overturn their entire framework to understand this special ability.

If verbal explanation couldn’t convince them, then why not let them see it with their own eyes.

Chu Hang waited several days with Tan Yin until another thunderstorm finally arrived, and the two went back to the hospital together.

“Dr. Zhang, look, Tan Yin is actually right here, it’s just that because of the storm, you can’t see her, right? But Tan Yin can pick up the stethoscope from your desk—it’s just that to you, it looks like she’s grabbing it out of thin air, right?” Chu Hang had prepared a whole speech, confident that this time, with the invisible Tan Yin’s cooperation, he could surely convince the doctor in front of them. But unfortunately…

Dr. Zhang burst out laughing. “Not bad, young man, that’s quite the magic trick! I actually wanted to be a magician myself once, no lie. How’d you do that just now? Did you hide a clear thread up your sleeve?”

…

Forget Tan Yin—even Chu Hang, at this point, wore the expression of someone utterly exhausted, weary, hopeless, ready to just let the doctor commit professional suicide and be done with it.

In truth, in pursuit of a diagnosis, Chu Hang had researched quite a few hospitals and traveled to plenty of places, but in the end, the results weren’t remotely satisfying.

On the way back, Tan Yin remained silent the whole time. Chu Hang, on the other hand, quietly and firmly hooked his finger around hers, then ruffled her hair. “Don’t worry. Even if everyone else ignores you, I can still see you.”

Tan Yin couldn’t help feeling dejected. “But you’re the only one who can see me.”

“Isn’t it enough that I can see you?” Chu Hang tightened his grip on her hand. “Do you want Zhou Ming to be able to see you like this too?”

Though she didn’t want to admit it, that teasing remark from Chu Hang really did lift her spirits.

Fine, so she’d be a superhero, then! Spider-Man said it himself—with great power comes great responsibility. Maybe she’d need to hang onto this invisibility skill for the day some evil force tried to take over the earth, and she could save the universe or something.

Chen Ziqiang had noticed that Chu Hang had been acting strange lately—or rather, Chu Hang had been consistently, surprisingly strange for a while now. Like the earlier phase where he’d blatantly barged into Tan Yin’s relationship with her childhood friend and instantly became campus-famous as “the other man.”

This whole thing was actually quite bizarre, because it was common knowledge in their architecture department that Tan Yin used to pursue Chu Hang. Back then, Chu Hang had been so aloof he wouldn’t even give Tan Yin a second glance—and now… now he’d actually stooped to becoming the other man just to win her over…

Chen Ziqiang felt that, well, it was probably worth living a good long time, if only to witness this kind of jaw-dropping strangeness.

Of course, all the parties involved, including Zhou Ming, had gone around in various settings, even on the campus forum’s gossip board, denying that Chu Hang had been the other man, standing firmly behind him, and wishing him and Tan Yin future happiness, thoroughly debunking the rumors. But Chen Ziqiang knew perfectly well that Chu Hang and Tan Yin hadn’t gotten together only after her amicable breakup with Zhou Ming—ever since Tan Yin started dating Zhou Ming, Chu Hang had already been secretly scheming behind the scenes. He’d been playing his little games all along; Chen Ziqiang hadn’t understood it back then, but thinking it over carefully now, everything made sense.

Chu Hang, ha—turning down so many girls chasing after him, only to go and become the other man himself!

Of course, the more baffling one was Zhou Ming. Cuckolded on such a grand scale, and yet he still cheerfully wished the other man and his ex-girlfriend well?!

Damn, there was really no understanding young people these days.

Chen Ziqiang sighed to himself, completely forgetting that he himself was very much one of these young people.

But he had no time to dwell further on how Chu Hang and Tan Yin ended up together—after all, the two of them had shockingly been sickeningly sweet for a good while now. What had caught Chen Ziqiang’s attention was how off Chu Hang had been acting lately.

Chu Hang had been searching for urban legends almost every day recently, not just domestic news but constantly digging through international news too. Several times, Chen Ziqiang had seen Chu Hang seriously and solemnly browsing entirely English-language websites—if he hadn’t known what Chu Hang was actually looking at, an outsider might have thought he was studying architecture.

But Chen Ziqiang knew Chu Hang wasn’t reading anything professional at all. What he was reading were things like “Man struck by lightning gains superpowers,” “Woman electrocuted suddenly masters three foreign languages,” “What happens to the human body after being struck by lightning,” “The acquisition of invisibility superpowers”…

Chen Ziqiang thought Chu Hang was getting more and more mystical lately… what on earth was he even reading this stuff for?

But a top student was still a top student—even when Chu Hang developed an interest in this bizarre nonsense, he approached it with far more diligence than the average person. He actually bought a CNKI academic database account and started searching for professional medical and neurological research papers on the effects of lightning strikes on the human body.

While Chen Ziqiang was merely puzzled and curious, Zhang Chen was thoroughly annoyed. Of course, Zhang Chen wasn’t interested at all in what news or papers Chu Hang was searching for—what annoyed him was that Chu Hang had recently started contacting Anna frequently. Zhang Chen himself had glimpsed several instances of Chu Hang writing Anna emails, texting her on WeChat, and even, a few times, making cross-continental phone calls that lasted hours.

Zhang Chen had finally, after considerable effort, gotten his relationship with Anna heading toward boyfriend-girlfriend territory, just one step away from meeting up over the summer—and now, out of nowhere, this interloper Chu Hang had to butt in.

Could it be that Chu Hang had gotten a taste for being the other man and gotten hooked on it? Enjoying the thrill of playing homewrecker so much during the whole Tan Yin and Zhou Ming affair that it had become an addiction, some kind of professional side hustle? And now, seeing his own relationship with Anna developing nicely, he wanted to sabotage it too?

Zhang Chen thought furiously, what was wrong with Chu Hang—he already had Tan Yin, and he was still eyeing what was in someone else’s bowl! This was simply intolerable!

Without much hesitation, Zhang Chen reported this “military intelligence” straight to Tan Yin.

“You need to keep a close eye on Chu Hang lately. Look at those flirtatious peach-blossom eyes of his—clearly not the type of man to stay put. Given any opportunity, he’ll get restless!” Zhang Chen delivered his indictment with dramatic flair. “Tan Yin, let me tell you, a woman who isn’t ruthless enough won’t secure her position. With a man like Chu Hang, you should be checking up on him morning, noon, and night, and periodically sneak-peek at his phone when he’s not paying attention. And remember, it has to be irregular, or Chu Hang, smart as he is, will definitely start deleting his chat history preemptively. Also, you should control the finances—best to confiscate all of Chu Hang’s living expenses. When he wants to spend money, make him submit a written request explaining his reasons, and require receipts afterward so you can verify every expense was legitimate. Don’t give him any chance to spend money on other women…”

Zhang Chen went on at length, and Tan Yin listened, dumbfounded, thinking that with skills like this, Zhang Chen could easily headline a period costume palace drama and be right at home in the role.

“Anyway, keep an eye on Chu Hang. Why does he keep sweet-talking our Anna lately, so shameless! You need to keep him firmly in line! If you need any help, just call me, we should form a solid alliance, understand? In life, mutual support is what matters—that’s the whole point of friendship!”

“…”

Though Tan Yin had just been lectured extensively by Zhang Chen, she hadn’t really absorbed any of it. All she knew was that Chu Hang had been secretly and actively contacting Anna behind her back, and that fact genuinely bothered her. But Chu Hang hadn’t disclosed any details at all, only claiming he’d been busy lately—and indeed, several times when she’d asked him to go see a movie, he’d found excuses to decline.

So this was why—he’d been contacting Anna.

Tan Yin knew she should stay rational, but the moment anything involving Chu Hang came up, it was as though “rational” simply vanished from her vocabulary. In an instant, she felt as though she were standing in fire one moment and an ice cave the next, filled with fear and unease.

Tan Yin thought it over and over but couldn’t figure out what to do, so she went ahead and asked Jiang Yilu to come help her analyze the situation.

Ever since she and Chu Hang had publicly, boldly announced their relationship, it hadn’t taken long for Xu Yu to stage an equally dramatic confession outside the girls’ dormitory—arranging candles on the ground in a giant heart shape, which even drew the dorm auntie chasing after him with a fire extinguisher. Regardless, it had been sincere and heartfelt enough that Jiang Yilu was deeply moved and generously accepted his confession, becoming another visibly happy campus couple.

Now that Tan Yin felt she was facing a relationship crisis, she immediately called in her scheming sidekick Jiang Yilu, who in turn brought Xu Yu along.

The moment Xu Yu arrived, he immediately declared his position. “Don’t worry, Tan Yin, I’m on your side. This kind of cheating behavior from Chu Hang is embarrassing for men everywhere—I’ve drawn a clear line between us!”

Friend, where’s this confident tone coming from? Our Chu Hang hasn’t even been confirmed to be cheating… it could just be a misunderstanding!

But the instant Tan Yin voiced this thought, she was jointly shot down by Jiang Yilu and Xu Yu. “Look at you—love is like a battlefield, how can you hold such a naive view?”

In the end, egged on by the two of them, Tan Yin decided to work up the courage to confront the issue head-on—to lay it all out and face Chu Hang directly.

Though Tan Yin looked fairly composed, the hand holding her phone was actually trembling. “Chu Hang, do you have a moment? There’s something I want to talk to you about…”

But Chu Hang’s voice on the other end of the phone was remarkably decisive. “Perfect timing, I have something to talk to you about too.”

Hearing this from Chu Hang, Tan Yin’s heart inexplicably lurched. Was he really about to confess to cheating and break up with her…

Tan Yin arrived at their agreed café first, distracted, sipping hot cocoa. A few minutes later, Chu Hang arrived, a little late, and sure enough, his expression looked rather grave.

Here it comes, Tan Yin thought—she absolutely could not be caught off guard. This was the moment; Jiang Yilu had told her, she had to strike first!

Nearly holding her breath, gathering all her courage, she lowered her head, not daring to look Chu Hang in the eye, afraid she’d lose her nerve, and blurted it all out in one go: “If you cheated with Anna, I’m breaking up with you right now! I’ll never forgive you!”

And almost at the exact same moment, Chu Hang’s voice rang out too: “Tan Yin, you’re not alone. This kind of superpower appearing after a lightning strike—there have been thirteen documented cases in Europe already, and seven in America.”

Tan Yin, who had still been lost in her sorrow wondering whether Chu Hang had cheated, perked right up at his words. “What?! I’m not the only one?!”

Chu Hang nodded, his expression finally showing a hint of relief. “I’ve been going through domestic and international news and academic literature recently, and I’ve come across a lot of fascinating material. Like this one—’In 1994, a man named Tony Cicoria was struck by lightning. Though he suffered burns, within a few weeks of the strike, he transformed from someone with no musical knowledge whatsoever into a piano virtuoso.'”

As Chu Hang spoke, he pulled out some printed materials. “And here’s another—’In 2015, a 41-year-old golf course manager named Martin Camacho was struck by lightning while at work. Though revived after emergency treatment, he woke to find his testosterone production had stopped, and his body began undergoing feminizing changes—his voice grew higher, his chest developed—until eventually, following the lightning strike, he transitioned from a man to a woman.'”

“‘There’s also a child struck by lightning, named Ivan Stoiljković, who, after being struck, could attract coins, spoons, and other metal objects to his body—capable of holding up to twenty-five kilograms of weight’—people jokingly called him Magneto.”

Chu Hang flipped through and continued, “Besides these documented real cases, there are also other instances of people gaining exceptional hearing or vision beyond that of an ordinary human after being struck by lightning. In short, developing so-called ‘superpowers’ or ‘mutations’ after a lightning strike—you’re not the only one.”

“Domestic research in this area is still in its infancy, but I dug through a lot of material and found that several top American universities have dedicated research labs studying this. So I reached out to the physics professors and related experts overseeing these projects, and I’ve been corresponding with them extensively about your case. Guess what happened?”

Tan Yin’s heart was pounding hard, both anxious and hopeful. “What did they say?”

“Professor Weistling at Caltech responded to me—he actually has two cases near him identical to yours, of invisibility following a lightning strike. He’s been tracking and studying these two subjects for two years now, and he shared all the relevant data, papers, and conclusions with me.”

At this point, even the ever-composed Chu Hang couldn’t hide the excitement in his voice. “‘A single bolt of lightning can carry up to one billion volts, capable of instantly heating the surrounding air to five times the temperature of the sun’s surface.’ For the human body to absorb such an enormous current is more than enough to alter the nervous system, endocrine system, and even the body’s electromagnetic field.”

“So what category does my case fall under?”

“Professor Weistling believes your condition is most likely caused by a change in your electromagnetic field. Because of the massive current, the body’s normal electromagnetic balance was disrupted, and electromagnetic fields have effects on light fields, light waves, and light propagation. Electric fields alone affect light through the Kerr effect and the Pockels effect, while magnetic fields affect light through the Faraday effect and the Zeeman effect. Every time there’s a thunderstorm, the changing electromagnetic field in the environment causes shifts in the interaction between charge and current, which in turn affects the light field around you, producing what appears, to an ordinary person’s vision, as ‘invisibility.’ So theoretically speaking, you don’t actually possess an invisibility superpower—it’s just that, amid the fluctuations of the light field and electromagnetic field, we’re temporarily unable to perceive you with the naked eye.”

Chu Hang thought for a moment, trying to explain more clearly. “Professor Weistling said nature holds many mysterious forces—lightning, earthquakes, storms, tsunamis. Though humanity works hard to study and adapt to these forces in order to survive, we still have a great deal we don’t understand about just how powerful they truly are. Lightning carries enormous energy, and there’s simply no way to statistically measure what it can do to a human body in an instant. And compared to a natural force like lightning, the human body itself, life itself, is another kind of mysterious force. ‘The odds of a person being struck by lightning are roughly one in three hundred thousand, but the survival rate after being struck by such a massive current is as high as ninety percent.’ Just how many miracles life holds, just how much potential the human body has in extreme situations—that’s also unpredictable. Like how there have been mothers who, seeing their child struck and pinned under a car, have been able to lift a vehicle weighing one or two tons in an instant to save them. Or children who’ve had a third of their brain tissue removed after a car accident and yet have still gone on to live normal lives and grow up. Life and the human body are both full of mysteries and miracles. That you gained ‘invisibility’ after being struck by lightning, due to the effects on your electromagnetic and light fields—this hypothesis is entirely reasonable.”

“But then why can’t other people hear my voice either, only not see me?”

“Professor Weistling believes that the change in your electromagnetic field doesn’t just affect the light field—it likely also affects sound wave transmission, possibly altering the medium in some way that ultimately changes your voice on stormy days. There’s no definitive conclusion on this yet, so aside from that possibility, there might be another explanation—for instance, Professor Weistling proposed that other scholars have suggested it might be that, each time there’s a storm, changes in the electromagnetic field and biological waves affect the frequency of your voice, similar to how humans can’t hear infrasound, meaning that when you speak, ordinary people simply can’t perceive it.”

Though Chu Hang tried hard to simplify his explanation, and Tan Yin tried hard to follow along, in the end, she still didn’t really grasp the underlying scientific principles. But out of curiosity, she asked a question that had puzzled her for a long time. “But then how do you explain why, whenever I turn ‘invisible,’ my clothes turn invisible with me, but if I touch something else, like flip through your book, the book doesn’t turn invisible along with me?”

“I asked Professor Weistling about this too. The two cases he’s tracking match your situation exactly. Though he can’t confirm it with one hundred percent certainty, based on his data analysis and experiments, he believes the most likely explanation is that whether an object becomes invisible along with you depends primarily on the contact area. Clothing has an enormous contact area with your body, and most fabric is conductive and prone to generating static electricity. On stormy days, friction between your clothing and your body—whose electromagnetic field is already abnormal—means the clothing is also affected by your body’s electromagnetic and light fields, producing an invisibility effect imperceptible to ordinary human eyes.”

This time, Tan Yin understood. She looked up at Chu Hang. “So the reason you can see me is also because being electrocuted caused your own body’s electromagnetic field to become abnormal, and by sheer coincidence, it ended up on the ‘same frequency’ as mine?”

“Right, that’s Professor Weistling’s theory too—it’s just that the current that passed through my body during my two shocks was fairly limited, so I never gained an invisibility ability like yours.”

Tan Yin, however, had little interest in scientific principles, the mysteries of nature, or human potential. She wasn’t really concerned with the cause of her superpower—there was only one thing she cared about. “Since Professor Weistling has done such extensive research on my case, I have to ask—can I be cured, go back to normal?” She sounded quite anxious at this point. “I mean, is there some kind of treatment? Being invisible during every storm indefinitely isn’t sustainable…”

“No treatment needed.” Chu Hang finally broke into a smile. “Tan Yin, you don’t need treatment.”

Tan Yin blinked, staring at him with a mix of anticipation and anxiety.

Chu Hang finally stopped keeping her in suspense, ruffling her hair, a genuine, heartfelt smile spreading across his face. “One of the two cases Professor Weistling tracked was initially troubled by this ‘invisibility’ ability too, but a year later, the ability naturally disappeared on its own. The second case disappeared even faster—after nine months, the so-called superpower was gone entirely, and the person became completely normal.”

Tan Yin’s eyes widened, filled with delighted surprise. “Really?! No treatment needed, it’ll just naturally go back to normal?”

“Mm-hm.” Chu Hang nodded. “According to Professor Weistling’s analysis, being struck by lightning causes the body’s electromagnetic field to become abnormal during every storm, but the enormous energy from the lightning strike can only remain stored in the body for a limited time. You can think of it as your body gradually discharging every time there’s a storm—the abnormal electromagnetic charge in your body is slowly being depleted. As time goes on, once it’s fully depleted, you won’t have any more ‘superpower’ left.”

It had already been ten months since Tan Yin had gained this “superpower.” Going by Professor Weistling’s two cases, she might return to normal before too much longer!

Though the prospect of a possible future recovery sounded rather uncertain, for Tan Yin, who had been so dejected about this until now, it was nothing short of a much-needed reassurance. At the very least, there was now something to hope for, and she felt her mood lifting despite herself.

Looking at the stacks of foreign-language materials and papers in Chu Hang’s hands, Tan Yin’s eyes couldn’t help but grow a little red—to gather so much material, to be able to speak so fluently and comprehensively about all these technical terms, Chu Hang must have spent an enormous amount of time on this. And all those days he’d claimed to be busy, he’d really been busy doing this… He hadn’t lied to her; he’d been running around on her behalf this whole time. Even with something this outlandish, he’d never given up, had persisted the entire time… Tan Yin felt a wave of guilt and regret—she’d actually thought Chu Hang had been deliberately avoiding and neglecting her these past days… really…

She thought, with some relief, that thankfully Chu Hang hadn’t seemed to take offense at what she’d blurted out earlier—she’d have to be even better to him from now on…

Just as she was thinking this, Chu Hang suddenly cleared his throat, looked at her, and demanded pointedly, “Alright, I’ve finished what I wanted to say to you. Now, shouldn’t you give me a more detailed explanation of what you wanted to say to me?”

“…”

Was there any chance of getting out of this by playing dumb…

Unfortunately, Chu Hang clearly wasn’t going to give her that option. He raised an eyebrow. “I’m cheating? I’m two-timing you? Breaking up? Tan Yin, your imagination really runs wide. I just told you all that, and now you’re going to explain to me what you meant by breaking up?”

“…”