After sending off her good friends, the National Day holiday came to an end. The weather at River Celebration University grew colder day by day as the seasons changed distinctly. University life wasn’t as interesting and relaxed as imagined. Before they could even understand what their major was really about, midterm exams arrived. Xia’s life revolved around four points: classroom, library, dormitory, and cafeteria. Zhang Shu just added two more points: the laboratory and River Clear University’s cafeteria.
Besides midterm exams, they also had monthly tests, making it barely different from high school, plus frequent major assignments. Their coursework was significantly heavier than Sheng Xia’s. Even when they met on weekends, they could only spend a day at the library, with at most half an hour of romantic time under the moon before parting. Life was busy yet peaceful.
If there was any ripple in this calm, it would be that Sheng Xia lost two electric scooters in succession.
Many students in her department rode bikes, and some had experienced theft, but she was the only one who lost two in a row.
Little White 1.0 was abandoned at Nanli with no one caring about it.
Little White 2.0 suffered organ theft—the battery was stolen.
Little White 3.0 was stolen entirely.
Little White had a tragic fate.
Sheng Xia reported to campus security, but it was mostly just for psychological comfort. River Clear University lost so many bikes each year, and none were ever heard to be recovered.
She felt embarrassed to call Sheng Mingfeng again. She had just bought photography equipment after joining the photography club, and her finances weren’t great. She figured she’d live frugally for half a month and buy another one after New Year’s.
So these days, Sheng Xia took the campus bus with her roommates.
Zhong Lujie whined, “Today we don’t have Little White to hitchhike on anymore, I miss it.”
First-year courses were taken together regardless of major, so usually, the three roommates would take turns riding with Sheng Xia. Little White’s theft was a trauma for the whole dorm.
Liao Jing and Fan Jingshu linked arms with Sheng Xia, “Come on, today 219 will dominate bus 103.”
219 was their dorm room number, and 103 was the campus bus route from the dormitory to the Duxing Building.
The Literature Department was famous for having many beautiful girls, and Room 219 was unanimously recognized as an all-beauty dorm in the department.
Early in the morning, Liao Jing deliberately did makeup for everyone, giving it a sense of ceremony with everyone present.
After all the fuss, they just applied some foundation and did their eyebrows. Liao Jing might be considered an expert in the dorm, but she was still a makeup novice.
However, youth had its advantages—a little touch-up made them look vibrant. With their buffs stacked, everyone looked great.
Now, not just on bus 103, but walking on campus paths, they turned many heads.
Seeing a couple walk by intimately, Zhong Lujie sighed: “Don’t you think there’s anyone in our department worth dressing up for? Such a waste.”
Among those few male students, after half a semester, barely any singles were left, and the quality was predictable.
Fan Jingshu nudged Sheng Xia’s shoulder: “Xia Xia, are there any quality handsome guys in your boyfriend’s department? Ask him to introduce some?”
Liao Jing agreed: “Yeah, yeah, their department is full of potential stocks, nurturing future tech tycoons early.”
Zhong Lujie: “Sisters, wake up! Computer Science! IT guys! Sheng Xia’s boyfriend is what you call survivor bias!”
Fan Jingshu: “I can already imagine a classroom full of plaid shirts…”
Liao Jing: “Don’t stereotype! How would you know without meeting them?”
Zhong Lujie: “Jing Jing, why are you so enthusiastic? Don’t you have something going on? The guy from the Architecture Department in the school debate team, any news?”
Liao Jing hesitated: “Well, I was just about to tell you all, he wants to treat me to dinner…”
“That’s great!”
“Accept it!”
“Ah!” Liao Jing blushed, “Well, I should play hard to get, right? I said I needed to gather with my roommates, and he said, he said, we could all go together…”
“What? How can we crash your date?”
Liao Jing: “This isn’t a date! Help me check him out, please. I’d feel awkward eating alone with him the first time.”
“When?”
Liao Jing: “Tomorrow.”
“You’re telling us now! Why not tell us tomorrow night?”
“Hehe, I was shy… you all must come, okay?”
“No problem, we’ll be there for you. By the way, tomorrow we three won’t wear makeup, we’ll dress sloppily, let you shine alone.”
Liao Jing laughed, “Dear sisters! But there’s no need, if he can’t pass the Spider Cave test, I wouldn’t want him anyway.”
Fan Jingshu: “Don’t test men too easily, especially in this aspect! How many Tang Monks have appeared in thousands of years? Zhu Bajie’s are everywhere.”
Liao Jing: “Wow, Shu Zai, single for 18 years since birth, how do you sound so world-weary?”
Fan Jingshu: “Haven’t I seen pigs run around even if I haven’t eaten pork? They’re everywhere.”
The matter was happily decided. Sheng Xia informed Zhang Shu in advance to prevent him from showing up unexpectedly to find her gone.
Zhang Shu replied: “Your roommate’s pretty brave, letting someone like you tag along?”
What a thing to say.
Sheng Xia: “Jing Jing is very beautiful!”
Zhang Shu: “Just go for the meal, don’t look at him.”
Sheng Xia: “?” She was going to help assess Jing Jing’s date, how could she not look at all?
Zhang Shu: “No eye contact, no man can handle it.”
He thought highly of her! Did he think she was irresistible?
Sheng Xia: “We agreed to be Jing Jing’s foils, wearing sportswear.”
Zhang Shu: “If sportswear worked, how did your boyfriend fall for you?”
Sheng Xia: “Who seduced you!”
Zhang Shu: “True, I fell for your sweatpants without any seduction, imagine if you had tried?”
Sheng Xia was speechless, really not wanting to see his Shu-speak anymore, and directly exited WeChat, unilaterally declaring a cold war for half an hour!
Half an hour later, she came online to reply: “Oh, got it.”
…
The next day, Sheng Xia wore a hoodie and sweatpants, with a down jacket outside and snow boots, looking like a Michelin tire. She looked at her roommates, who were dressed similarly.
Liao Jing wore a knit dress that showed her figure, with a wool coat outside, perfectly balancing the delicate line between innocent and sophisticated.
Everything went according to plan, except they didn’t expect four people to show up on the other side.
That guy had also brought his brothers.
Fan Jingshu blinked frantically at Liao Jing, Zhong Lujie also widened her eyes, conveying the same message: Why didn’t you say earlier?
Liao Jing spread her hands under the table, innocent eyes conveying that she didn’t know either!
Fan Jingshu mouthed: He’s quite handsome!
Liao Jing pressed her lips and blinked gently.
Sheng Xia kept her head down looking at the table, thoroughly implementing someone’s instructions, so she didn’t notice her roommates’ eye communication. The guys introduced his roommates first, and then Liao Jing introduced everyone in turn.
When it was her turn, Sheng Xia briefly glanced around, politely nodding.
She vaguely felt the atmosphere wasn’t quite right, this… seemed a bit like a group blind date.
Soon, the word “group date” began to materialize. When they were almost done eating, the guy created a group chat, saying they should play “Who’s the Spy.”
Sheng Xia was a gaming black hole, not really into playing, but being at the table, she couldn’t spoil the fun and had to participate.
Just after one round, Sheng Xia received three “friend requests.” She leaned over to look at Fan Jingshu, who had received them too.
Liao Jing raised her eyebrows at her, then Sheng Xia received a WeChat message: “It’s okay if you don’t add them, don’t mind me, it doesn’t affect anything!”
Sheng Xia sent back a cute rolling emoji but still didn’t accept the friend requests.
It wasn’t that she was unwilling to be courteous; in the past, she would politely accept such situations, just adding another inactive contact.
But she remembered the yellow-haired guy she added at the milk tea shop in senior year, which later caused quite a bit of trouble, even making someone jealous enough to chug a whole bottle of mineral water.
Thinking of this, Sheng Xia couldn’t help but smile.
This smile came right during the pause while shuffling for a new round of spy words, when everyone was quiet, making it particularly conspicuous.
Seeing everyone looking her way, Sheng Xia felt slightly embarrassed.
It was originally Sheng Xia’s turn to speak first, so she described: “When I saw this word, I thought of my boyfriend.”
She thought this explanation both followed the game rules and disclosed her non-single status naturally enough, right?
But why were everyone’s looks so strange?
Liao Jing asked: “Why?”
She thought for a moment: “He’s a handsome hero.”
Her word was: Spider-Man.
With such obvious adoration on her face, practically having “fangirl” written on her forehead, surely no guys would have any ideas about her now, right?
Zhong Lujie suddenly burst out laughing, followed by everyone else breaking into laughter.
“Sheng Xia is the spy!”
“This round ended too quickly! No suspense at all, defeated by the first words.”
“Sheng Xia made a suicide move in the first round hahaha!”
Sheng Xia was bewildered as she was unanimously voted as the spy.
When the words were revealed, she indeed was the spy.
Because everyone else’s word was: Piggy Hero.
Ugh… seeing Piggy Hero and thinking of her boyfriend as this handsome hero…
That statement was truly terrible.
Sheng Xia held her head in her hands, thankful Zhang Shu wasn’t there.
But before she could finish feeling relieved, Zhang Shu’s voice call suddenly came through.
While answering the phone, she accepted the game’s punishment – wasabi water – from the guy across the table.
So as soon as she spoke, she choked, “Hello- *cough cough*.”
“Feeling that guilty?” On the other end, Zhang Shu’s voice wasn’t exactly friendly.
“Huh? What?” Did he have a supernatural hearing to know what happened?
Zhang Shu: “Weren’t you supposed to be helping assess someone? Your roommate’s dating four guys at once?”
How did he know?
Sheng Xia instinctively looked around, and since their private room had windows, she immediately spotted someone straddling a bike across the street.
Zhang Shu wore a parka-down jacket, and with his long neck, he didn’t look bulky at all. He didn’t seem to care much about fashion, dressing quite casually, but he always looked pleasing to the eye.
Right now, his posture and expression were identical to when he caught her adding her classmate on WeChat.
The difference was that he was riding a dark green electric scooter, delicate and small, unlike his style.
Sheng Xia quickly drank a big gulp of water to wash away the spicy wasabi taste before saying, “You… why did you come here?”
Since she kept looking out the window while speaking, everyone followed her gaze.
Zhang Shu’s expression changed from cold to gentle, “How long does it take to help assess someone? An hour should be enough, what meal takes this long?”
No wonder he asked where they were eating last night.
Sheng Xia was worried about others overhearing the phone call since he wasn’t being very polite, so she stood up and said to Liao Jing: “My boyfriend’s here, seems like something came up, I might need to leave first.”
A guy from across the table said: “Add a seat, ask him to come in.”
Sheng Xia suddenly felt annoyed and ignored him, only looking at Liao Jing.
Liao Jing helped her get her clothes: “Okay, we’ll talk in the group chat.”
Sheng Xia said a few more words to her other roommates and finally nodded politely to the guys across the table before leaving.
She put on her coat while crossing through traffic to the other side of the road.
In the private room, everyone was still watching outside.
They saw the guy get off his bike, shouting something – from his lip movements, clearly saying “Be careful.”
Then Sheng Xia stood panting in front of him, and he zipped up her down jacket to the top, cupped her face and rubbed it, pinched it a bit, before leaning down to give her a light kiss.
It was quick like a dragonfly touching water, like saying hello. Sheng Xia’s reaction was also natural, stepping closer until their toes touched, her arms loosely around his waist, looking up at him with a bright smile while talking.
The guy’s lips curved in a smile, his gaze so focused it made onlookers envious.
This natural intimacy, the subtle sense of propriety in public, was just right.
“Dog killing in progress,” Fan Jingshu’s words broke the private room’s silence.
Everyone then realized they had been too absorbed in watching.
Zhong Lujie: “I hope all couples can learn from this, observe public morals, and keep PDAs elegant.”
A guy asked: “Which department is her boyfriend from?”
Liao Jing answered: “Haiyan’s Computer Science Department.”
A guy gave a thumbs up, “Impressive.”
Another guy casually remarked: “For Computer Science at Haiyan, the really impressive ones should be in the Shensi Class, right? Not in the regular Computer Science program.”
“That’s true.”
“Shensi Class is mostly special admissions through competitions, right? Many continue straight to master’s and doctoral programs, more academic-focused.”
“So her boyfriend didn’t get in through competitions? Pure gaokao students probably have it tough in that department.”
“Very tough, hard to stand out.”
“It’s also related to the relative saturation of computer science talent.”
“Speaking of computer science prospects now…”
The guys started discussing, their words overtly praising while covertly belittling, and showing off their insight.
Did they think the girls would be impressed?
Fan Jingshu and Zhong Lujie exchanged looks, both rolling their eyes. Liao Jing took out her phone and typed in the group chat: “Today’s makeup was wasted after all, sisters, let’s go.”
Fan Jingshu: “Let’s split the bill, and avoid future trouble.”
Zhong Lujie: “Agreed.”
…
Sheng Xia examined the electric scooter beside her.
When she first started school, she mentioned wanting to buy an electric scooter, and Sheng Mingfeng had someone take her shopping, saying she could pick whatever she wanted. The shop assistant, thinking they were big spenders, recommended this model costing seven or eight thousand yuan. Sheng Xia thought it was just for commuting and unnecessary, so she ended up buying one for just over three thousand.
She never expected this seven or eight thousand yuan model would now be beside her. The scooter had a retro design and was indeed very beautiful. Even the windshield was designed to match perfectly, looking warm and cozy.
Zhang Shu said it was for her. He dangled the key, which had a blue key cover and crystal keychain.
Sheng Xia was stunned: “For me? Did you buy it?”
Zhang Shu used the key cover to scratch her nose: “What else? You think I stole it?”
Then, thinking of something, he suddenly smiled, “Maybe your bike was stolen to be given to someone’s girlfriend, would thinking about it that way make you feel better?”
Honestly, that wasn’t very comforting.
Sheng Xia frowned: “It’s too expensive, I knew the price when I was shopping for bikes before, don’t waste money…”
“How is this wasting money,” Zhang Shu said matter-of-factly, “Your previous bike wasn’t suitable for you, that’s why you lost two of them. Maybe this one won’t get stolen.”
What a way to comfort someone! But what if it gets stolen again? That would be a huge loss.
Sheng Xia was still very anxious: “It’s too expensive.”
Zhang Shu looked at the worried little face before him, sighed, and pulled her head into his embrace, “I’ve already taken the most precious thing, what’s this stupid bike worth?”
He held the most precious flower and felt nothing was good enough for her. He just wanted to give her the best within his means, as long as she needed it and he could provide it.
Zhang Shu hugged her tighter, filled with her sweet scent. Even through the soft down jacket, he could still feel how incredibly soft the person in his arms was. He buried his head in the crook of her neck, nuzzling, “Happy six-month anniversary, silly.”
Sheng Xia’s ears tingled.
Six months?
Sheng Xia had never known how to calculate their time together. She thought he considered it from the day he confessed, or the day of their first kiss during the graduation trip.
But in her heart, she considered it from the night before the gaokao score estimates, when he ran to the bottom of her building and solemnly promised that regardless of their scores or future, he would always move closer to her.
That was when she considered them together.
Today was their six-month anniversary, so six months ago was the night before the score estimates.
So he thought the same as her.
Sheng Xia felt warmth flooding from her heart, her whole body feeling refreshed and clear. She lifted her arms to hug him back, and through their thick down jackets, she could barely hold on. She grabbed her left wrist with her right hand to hold him tight, feeling an unprecedented sense of security and satisfaction wash over her.
She lifted her head from his embrace and kissed his chin, “Want to go on a date this weekend?”
Zhang Shu was startled – she was this easy to please? A scooter could get him a date?
If only he’d known earlier.
Before he could respond, she added seriously: “But I have to treat!”
Zhang Shu’s face darkened: “No way.”
Sheng Xia pressed his weak spot: “Then no date.”
Zhang Shu immediately surrendered: “Fine, whatever you want.”