Although this was meant to be a rural homestay experience, none of them had any real desire to stand over a stove and cook the entire dinner themselves. Yun Jia and the other girls took charge of one dish — a cold plate of century eggs with tofu. Among the boys, Lu Yicheng was the only one who could genuinely cook. He put on a little demonstration for everyone, making his specialty cola chicken wings, along with Jiang Ruoqiao’s favorite — stir-fried tomatoes in sugar sauce.

Yun Jia leaned over to Jiang Ruoqiao and said under her breath: “I used to think Jiang Yan was pretty good. Now look at him — no standards whatsoever. The other three in his dorm are all better than him. Especially Lu Yicheng. He runs circles around him!”

Jiang Ruoqiao just smiled.

However complicated her feelings about Jiang Yan might be, she had no intention of venting them to others.

And besides, criticizing an ex and listing all his flaws was, in its own way, proof of poor judgment — because if he was so bad, why had she been with him in the first place?

When others brought up Jiang Yan’s faults, she was happy to listen politely. But joining in to pile on wasn’t something she needed to do.

Luo Wen overheard Yun Jia’s comment and nodded along, tapping her chin. “Exactly. If we’re talking about someone worth admiring, it’s Lu Yicheng. But what good does it do?” She shifted her tone to something more wistful. “He seems like the type who’s cut himself off from love entirely. I could never chase him successfully, and he’d never be my boyfriend. So what use is he to me?”

Jiang Ruoqiao burst out laughing.

Luo Wen said, “Am I wrong? Look at him — the man has every quality of a genuinely good partner, but he’s simply not in the market for a relationship. So no matter how wonderful he is, it doesn’t matter. That said, I’m actually looking forward to it. Looking forward to meeting his future wife someday. I want to see what kind of woman could possibly capture our emotionally sealed-off campus heartthrob.”

Yun Jia sighed. “I can’t even picture it.”

Gao Jingjing leaned in. “Well, it won’t be you, and it won’t be me.”

Jiang Ruoqiao: “……”

Why did she suddenly feel a peculiar stirring of emotion?

Dinner was a spread of dishes, and by the end every last bite had been cleaned from the plates. Even the owner was left marveling at how much they could eat. After dinner, Lu Yicheng retrieved the watermelon from the well and sliced it open. He always quietly took care of things like this without drawing attention to himself. As evening fell, the temperature in the mountains dropped lower than in the city once night came on. Sitting out in the courtyard was wonderfully comfortable. The owner had planted insect-repelling vegetation around the house, hung several bundles of dried herbs around the yard, and lit mosquito coils — and remarkably, not a single mosquito came to bother them.

The owner and his wife retreated indoors to take care of their own things.

Du Yu appeared with great enthusiasm, hauling a crate of beer from the boot of the car.

“Let’s play a game! Ladies, don’t worry — I know you’re not big on beer, so this morning I made a special trip to the supermarket and, at great personal expense, bought the cocktails and milk-flavored beer drinks you’d enjoy.” Du Yu announced. “You can’t play games without drinks. And besides, everyone here except our little guest is an adult, so we’re entitled to enjoy a touch of alcohol.”

Lu Siyan pursed his lips.

Du Yu stuffed a bottle of cola into his hands. Lu Siyan immediately beamed — a child of very shifting loyalties.

Lu Yicheng: “……”

Jiang Ruoqiao: “……”

Why on earth was he giving a child a carbonated drink!!

Neither of them was particularly happy about it, but they were both worried that saying so would come across as overly parental, so they stayed quiet and said nothing, watching helplessly as Lu Siyan became utterly devoted to his cola, happy as anything.

With so many people, Truth or Dare was the natural choice.

No one objected. They’d come to the mountains to relax — there was no way they were going back to their rooms to stare at their phones at this hour.

Lu Siyan didn’t need to take part. He sat obediently beside Lu Yicheng and watched the proceedings.

The rule was simple: for either Truth or Dare, if the person picked didn’t want to answer or didn’t want to do the dare, they had to drink.

The bottle spun and landed pointing at Jiang Ruoqiao.

Starting with herself right out of the gate, Jiang Ruoqiao thought: “……”

*Fantastic.*

Dare was out of the question. Du Yu had a gleam in his eye, and she absolutely was not choosing Dare — knowing him, he’d make her kiss Jiang Yan, and she’d rather not exist. And with Lu Siyan sitting right there, she simply couldn’t.

Jiang Ruoqiao swallowed her reluctance and said, “Truth.”

Du Yu cracked his knuckles.

“This is an adult game. A little latitude is appropriate,” Du Yu declared. “First round — I’ll keep it tame. So, Jiang Ruoqiao: when was your first relationship? Was it with our boss Jiang?”

Jiang Ruoqiao raised an eyebrow. “That’s two questions.”

Du Yu bobbed his head apologetically. “Fine, fine. When was your first relationship?”

Jiang Ruoqiao wasn’t about to spare Jiang Yan’s feelings for the sake of it. Truth was truth, and she said straightforwardly: “After my college entrance exams.”

Nobody needed to look surprised.

Jiang Ruoqiao figured — she was twenty, with an extremely active love life. There was no possible way Jiang Yan had been her first relationship.

He didn’t deserve that either…

“Oh~” Du Yu waggled his eyebrows. “But as far as I know, you’re our boss Jiang’s one and only girlfriend.”

Yun Jia cut him off sharply. “What, defending him?”

Du Yu backpedaled hastily. “Not at all, not at all. I wouldn’t dare. You’ve misjudged my courage.”

Jiang Yan took that in and felt genuinely low.

He’d known that Jiang Ruoqiao hadn’t hidden her dating history from him — he knew she’d been in two relationships before. But hearing it said aloud still put him in a bad mood.

Lu Yicheng didn’t feel much either way.

Maybe it was because he’d heard and seen enough of this kind of thing. He didn’t really understand Jiang Yan’s feelings — after all, you couldn’t very well demand that the person you loved not have had any other possibilities before they ever met you.

Jiang Yan picked up the beer beside him and took a few long sips. Noticing the others watching, he offered an unnecessary explanation: “Thirsty.”

Lin Kexing looked at Jiang Yan with concern.

She hadn’t expected that Jiang Ruoqiao’s first relationship wasn’t with Jiang Yan.

She had always assumed the two of them were each other’s firsts.

After that question passed, Du Yu spun the bottle again. This time it landed on… Lin Kexing.

Lin Kexing blinked in mild surprise.

Du Yu smiled. “Truth or Dare?”

Lin Kexing thought for a moment. “Dare.”

Du Yu nodded knowingly. “Simple, then. Call the first person in your contacts list and tell them you like them.”

Jiang Yan looked at him blankly. “Old Du, did you forget your medication today? What’s gotten into you?”

Du Yu: “……Big brother, don’t act like that with me. If you’ve never played Truth or Dare, maybe that tracks — but this is already the lowest-difficulty dare there is. If this doesn’t work, then what exactly are we playing?”

Lin Kexing looked down.

It wasn’t that it was such a big deal, really. Except that the first contact in her list was Jiang Yan.

Doing this in front of Jiang Ruoqiao — calling Jiang Yan and saying those words to him — she couldn’t. She truly couldn’t.

She looked up, her voice soft. “If I can’t do it, do I have to drink?”

She’d grown up in a strict household and had never had alcohol before.

Jiang Yan knew Lin Kexing had never drunk before. He stood, took a bottle of beer and pried off the cap. “I’ll drink for her. She doesn’t drink.”

With that, he downed most of the bottle.

Lin Kexing only felt more ill at ease.

The others glanced at Jiang Ruoqiao. Her expression hadn’t changed — the faint curve of her lips remained exactly in place, as though the man who had just drunk on someone else’s behalf was not her boyfriend at all.

Everyone else: “……”

Why had this suddenly turned into a scene of quiet devastation?

Yun Jia and the others looked at Jiang Ruoqiao with worry, then turned to look at Jiang Yan with undisguised disdain.

This kind of boyfriend was long overdue for the bin.

Jiang Yan seemed entirely unaware.

Du Yu had no choice but to soldier on and spin the bottle again. This time it landed on Lu Yicheng.

Lu Yicheng: “……”

Du Yu finally breathed a sigh of relief. “Ha! It’s our Lu senior! So — you won’t be fussy about Truth or Dare, will you?”

Everyone else thought the same thing.

Lu Yicheng — who was he? Someone with no secrets, no girlfriend, no childhood sweetheart or younger girl on the side. A man of upstanding character, the kind where neither Truth nor Dare would cause any stir.

And no one would drink for him either~

This was the perfect opportunity to liven things up! Go on then, Lu Yicheng!

Before Lu Yicheng had even chosen, Du Yu launched straight in: “I’ll go easy on our Lu senior — not because I’m playing favorites, this guy just genuinely has no explosive secrets. Right, Lu senior. Your question is… who was the last person of the opposite sex you contacted?”

Lu Yicheng’s eyes shifted instinctively in Jiang Ruoqiao’s direction, then snapped back as if he’d been stung.

He laced his hands together in his lap.

How was he supposed to answer this?

The last person of the opposite sex he had contacted was, of course, Jiang Ruoqiao.

They had texted just that afternoon.

But could he say that? In this setting, could he really say that?

Du Yu was already telling the girls, “Our Lu senior’s contacts list has so few women you could count them on one hand. A teacher here, a student’s parent there. Oh, and his aunt.”

Luo Wen used Lu Yicheng to take a shot at Jiang Yan: “The standard-bearer for decent behavior has to be Lu Yicheng. Truly, you could all stand to take notes.”

Some people in particular could learn a thing or two.

Lu Yicheng: “……”

Du Yu looked over. “Lu senior, go on.”

Lu Yicheng kept his hands clasped together.

Jiang Ruoqiao lowered her eyes.

A few seconds later, a clear, composed voice reached her.

“I’ll drink.” Lu Yicheng rose and reached for a beer — a clear refusal to answer the question.

Du Yu and Wang Jiangfeng: “?”

Jiang Yan, who had been sunk in a vague, restless mood, looked up with curious eyes at Lu Yicheng. “?”

Jiang Ruoqiao: “.”

She could already guess it. The last person he’d contacted of the opposite sex was her.

Oh no!!

Lin Kexing was still quietly nursing her own heartache and didn’t register what Lu Yicheng had done.

Yun Jia and Luo Wen blurted out simultaneously: “No way!”

It couldn’t be — the last remaining pillar of integrity in that boys’ dorm had also… something going on?

Lu Yicheng, the campus heartthrob, might have someone he was secretly involved with, or at least someone he had feelings for??

Everyone’s eyes swung to Lu Yicheng at once. He met their stares with an unreadable expression, popped the cap off the bottle with practiced ease, and tipped his head back to drink, his throat moving as he swallowed, paying the collective gaze absolutely no mind.

Lu Siyan, hugging his cola: *Burp~* Cola is so good!

—