Gu Yan’s attention toward Qi Xi began that quietly, without him even realizing it. By the time he did notice, he’d already fallen into the habit of tracking her presence — whether in required courses or elective ones, Gu Yan found himself unconsciously signing up for the exact same electives as Qi Xi. And he knew which electives she’d chosen thanks to his gossip-loving roommate, Zhang Jialiang—

“That total knockout in our class, Qi Xi, signed up for the ‘Study of Popular Romance Novels’ elective. I’ve decided to take that course too, just to keep pace with her! When the elective registration system opens, we need to camp out and refresh at the exact right time, because this class fills up fast! I heard tons of girls are fighting over spots, because the class is basically the professor introducing contemporary romance novels each session, and the homework is just… reading novels. You know how girls are, they love that whole dreamy romance stuff…”

Zhang Jialiang had said it without thinking much of it, but Gu Yan took careful note. When elective registration opened, he specifically went home to use his family’s much faster internet connection to beat the school’s system, and successfully snagged a spot in “Study of Popular Romance Novels” — while Zhang Jialiang, who’d been loudly planning to use the elective to “bump into” Qi Xi, ended up empty-handed instead.

Gu Yan hadn’t thought much of it when signing up for the course, but once classes actually started, he quickly realized something was off — nearly everyone who’d signed up for this elective was female…

Being one of the very few male students in the class, and tall besides, Gu Yan naturally drew attention like some kind of endangered species on display.

But whatever awkwardness Gu Yan might have felt about that vanished completely the moment he saw Qi Xi in the room — Zhang Jialiang had at least gotten that part right; Qi Xi really had signed up for the course.

Gu Yan was a little surprised she’d chosen it at all, since he’d always assumed Qi Xi was the type who cared about nothing outside academics — surely her mind wasn’t the sort to be filled with the kind of romantic fantasies found in these novels. After all, if she’d genuinely craved a novel-worthy romance, she’d have had no shortage of eager candidates lining up to make it happen.

But Gu Yan soon figured out the real reason Qi Xi had picked this class — the professor took attendance very loosely, and had a reputation for giving out generous final grades year after year.

In the end, Gu Yan only ever saw Qi Xi in class that one time. After that, she never showed up again — she always had her friend Zhao Yiran, who’d signed up for the same class, answer roll call on her behalf, while she herself went off to the library to keep frowning over case studies instead.

The class itself was, frankly, a complete waste of time for Gu Yan — he had zero interest in romance novels, and attending only earned him a steady stream of notes and love letters that he then had to spend time politely declining and soothing the feelings of the girls who’d sent them. And yet, he kept showing up every single time, because he always held onto the hope — what if Qi Xi came to class this time?

But she never did.

Gu Yan knew perfectly well that the way he was handling this — with Qi Xi — was entirely passive. He simply waited quietly on his own, without even letting her know he existed. He’d never been in a relationship before, so he wasn’t sure whether this reticent approach was just how he naturally handled feelings, but he was fairly confident that quiet waiting was the best way to handle it where Qi Xi was concerned, having already witnessed firsthand just how coldly she treated every guy who’d ever confessed to her.

She poured far more passion into her studies than into anything to do with men.

Beyond attending her core classes, she spent nearly all her free time simply, earnestly studying in the library, rarely participating in any of the school’s social or extracurricular activities. The one thing she was consistently enthusiastic about was checking the notice board after every exam to see the rankings.

Gu Yan decided, then and there, that he’d become the person Qi Xi noticed on those result boards. Because he’d realized that no matter how many activities he joined or how many awards he racked up, no matter how often he casually passed by her, apparently by chance, Qi Xi never once paid him any attention. The only way to make sure her eyes landed on him and no one else was to outscore her — to become the top student, ranked even higher than she was.

Much later, when Qi Xi confronted him about it, Gu Yan would casually claim that becoming the top student had been easy. But that was a lie — it hadn’t been easy at all. Beating Qi Xi to first place, making sure Qi Xi remembered his name, making sure he was the only thing in her eyes — none of that was simple, because Qi Xi’s grades were far better than Gu Yan had expected, and she worked far harder than he’d imagined. This little squirrel was clearly no ordinary squirrel. Every single exam cost Gu Yan an enormous amount of effort.

But to make sure Qi Xi noticed him, he always made it look effortless — sleeping in the library, joining more extracurricular activities on the surface. In reality, though, every time he went home on weekends, he studied relentlessly. Where he’d once needed a full twelve hours of sleep a day, he now had to compress that down significantly, all for Qi Xi’s sake.

That he’d become the top student in the law school, praised by classmates and professors alike, was owed in no small part to Qi Xi — because she was always pushing herself forward at full tilt just ahead of him, which was exactly what drove Gu Yan to become even better than he otherwise would have been.

And it was because of Qi Xi that Gu Yan finally knew what direction he wanted his future to take — he decided to turn down his sister’s invitation and go study abroad instead.

Because Qi Xi would be going too.

In the past, Gu Yan could hardly have imagined changing a major life decision because of someone he had an unrequited crush on. But when it actually happened, he wasn’t even surprised at his own choice — it simply felt like the obvious, natural thing to do.

This one-sided infatuation lasted far longer than Gu Yan had expected — he’d originally assumed it might just be a passing phase, but Qi Xi always found new ways to make him fall even harder.

At the end of their freshman year, their class advisor — who’d been very warmly regarded, having built a genuinely close relationship with all the students — decided to resign and return to his hometown to care for his gravely ill mother. Because he was so beloved and so reluctant to leave the job, the whole freshman class organized a farewell dinner for him, and every freshman law student attended — including Qi Xi.

It turned out to be nearly the only group activity Qi Xi attended during her entire first year.

Gu Yan genuinely liked this advisor and hated to see him go, but because of Qi Xi, he found himself, a little guiltily, secretly looking forward to this farewell dinner.

At the farewell dinner, Qi Xi really did show up. She looked as though she’d rushed straight over from the library, visibly tired, sneaking in a few yawns when she thought no one was watching.

Gu Yan knew she’d pulled an all-nighter in the study hall two nights before, cramming for tomorrow’s jurisprudence final.

The atmosphere at the dinner carried a bittersweet edge because of the advisor’s departure. Some of the boys had brought along cases of beer — perhaps because it was a farewell, these freshmen, barely adults themselves, seemed to feel they needed a bit of alcohol to properly process saying goodbye. No one quite remembered who started it, but eventually, a can of beer ended up in front of everyone.

“No going home sober tonight! Everyone’s got to have at least one can!”

Someone started the chant, and by the end, this farewell dinner had basically turned into a drinking party. Whether from emotion or from alcohol, after one round of beer, plenty of people started losing their composure entirely—

Some hugged the advisor and sobbed loudly. Some grabbed their beer cans and started singing into them like microphones, giddy with excitement. Others just sat there grinning foolishly. And then there was…

And then there was Qi Xi, pretending to drink along with everyone else.

Gu Yan didn’t drink much himself and could handle his liquor fine, so he stayed quite clear-headed, and pretty much caught Qi Xi’s whole little act of “cheating” her way through the drinking.

Though the drinking culture had clearly caught on at the party, no one had actually pressured any of the girls to drink — if anything, with the advisor present, everyone had been actively encouraging the girls not to drink at all.

But Qi Xi picked up a beer anyway, seemingly out of curiosity, leaning in to sniff it first, then quickly wrinkling her nose in obvious distaste — yet unable to resist her own curiosity, especially watching the boys around her getting visibly tipsy.

Then Gu Yan watched as Qi Xi grabbed a straw she’d been using earlier for juice, stuck it into the beer, and cautiously took a tiny, tiny sip. The bitter taste immediately made her scrunch her whole face up in a knot, her delicate little nose practically disappearing into her furrowed brow — clearly the taste was simply too much for her.

Just like an unlucky little squirrel again.

Gu Yan nearly laughed, when he saw Qi Xi, undeterred, take another cautious sip — and this time, apparently having drunk a bit too much at once, the sharp taste made her stick her tongue out reflexively.

The gesture lasted only a split second before Qi Xi quickly composed her expression again, glancing around to make sure no one had seen, and returning immediately to her usual calm demeanor.

But even though Qi Xi’s own expression had returned to normal in an instant, Gu Yan’s own composure was nowhere near recovering.

He was listening to the sound of his own heartbeat again.

And then—

“Wu Ying, I’ve liked you for a long time — just say yes already! Let me kiss you once, and you’ll be my girlfriend, my queen, whatever you want, I’ll do anything, I’ll be your loyal servant for life! But tonight I’m getting this off my chest no matter what! Love at first confession, right here, right now!”

While most people were clustered around the advisor exchanging heartfelt goodbyes, not everyone was — over in a corner, amid the general noise, someone’s voice suddenly rose up in a loud confession.

Gu Yan traced the sound and realized it was Li Yong from the neighboring dorm, a member of the school basketball team, tall and broad-shouldered, currently cornering a much smaller girl, Wu Ying, against the wall.

He was clearly drunk, his face flushed red, visibly not in full control of himself, his voice unusually loud — which was probably why, amid all the noise from the farewell festivities, most people hadn’t noticed yet.

On an ordinary day, Gu Yan wouldn’t have thought to intervene — after all, it wasn’t Qi Xi being confessed to.

But today felt different somehow.

Wu Ying, pinned against the wall, already wore an expression of clear embarrassment and distress, mixed with obvious anxiety and panic. But Li Yong, too drunk to read any of that, seemed almost unable to distinguish reality from a dream at this point, leaning in shamelessly, moving to press his mouth toward the girl’s face.

This wasn’t a confession anymore — it was harassment.

Gu Yan frowned, deciding to step in and pull Li Yong away.

But to his surprise, someone else got there before him—

Qi Xi.

She’d dropped her beer, rushed forward with a frown, and though she was practically negligible in size next to Li Yong, this little squirrel apparently found the courage from somewhere, grabbing Li Yong from behind and pulling him off.

Having his confession interrupted, Li Yong naturally felt Qi Xi had ruined the moment, and his anger, fueled by alcohol, flared up even further. He glared at Qi Xi, clearly about to lash out at her instead.

Qi Xi might not have known this, but Gu Yan had a rough idea of Li Yong’s temper — normally a fairly reasonable guy, but the moment he drank, he became reckless and prone to conflict, extremely quick to clash with people. He’d nearly come to blows with his own roommates three separate times over exactly this kind of drunken aggression…

A drunk person wasn’t exactly known for having the good sense not to hit a woman.

Gu Yan’s chest tightened with sudden alarm, and he nearly bolted forward on the spot, terrified that even a half-second’s delay might let Qi Xi get hurt.

Except…

Except, facing Li Yong at the edge of a furious, drunken rage, Qi Xi didn’t show even a flicker of fear. She just grinned, tugged playfully at Li Yong’s arm, and shouted loudly toward the group gathered around the advisor: “Hey, everyone, come look! Li Yong’s been secretly confessing his love behind our backs! Ha ha ha, come witness this — how could Li Yong possibly mean it, confessing while this drunk?”

Distracted by her interruption, Wu Ying quickly slipped free of Li Yong’s grip, shot Qi Xi a grateful glance, and hurried into the crowd of classmates gathered around the advisor.

Li Yong looked utterly baffled, still not quite processing what had happened.

Once the advisor and everyone around him had turned to look, Qi Xi launched into a full performance of playing the “drunk troublemaker”: “Oh, Li Yong, were you trying to confess to me just now?”

“Sorry, but my one true love is studying — men only slow me down, so sorry, but you don’t stand a chance!”

Though she’d barely had anything to drink, since no one else knew that, Qi Xi committed fully to playing the part of being just as drunk as everyone else in front of the whole group.

Li Yong clearly tried to explain: “Hey, wait, that’s not — I wasn’t confessing to you, I was trying to—”

But Qi Xi didn’t give him the chance to finish. She slapped him hard on the back. “No love here — forget it, no chance!”

This kind of confession mishap naturally set the whole party alight — the other students burst into laughter and started teasing, none of them taking it seriously. Surrounded by so many people laughing at him, and with Qi Xi apparently just as drunk as he was, Li Yong had no way to actually get angry about it. In the end, what had started as a deeply uncomfortable confession dissolved into nothing more than a noisy, laughable little episode, quickly forgotten.

No one else caught on to what had really happened — except Wu Ying.

And Gu Yan.

His little squirrel was braver and quicker-witted than he’d ever imagined.

The playful way she’d stuck her tongue out sneaking that sip of beer. The way she’d stepped up without hesitation when a friend was in trouble. The quick, decisive courage she’d shown facing down a crisis.

Qi Xi never sought recognition, never asked for praise — but Gu Yan had seen it all. And he found himself glad, in a way, that he’d been the only one who had.

Because most people only ever saw Qi Xi’s pretty face, with no idea there was anything more to her beyond that.

But Gu Yan knew.