Although she had no idea what the situation between the two of them was, Liang Tian still acted on pure instinct and made the right call in that moment.

She absolutely refused to be a third wheel, and with lightning-quick reflexes, she spun around and sat right back down.

The little girl looked at Yunque with a pitiful expression, pointed at the window, her eyes seemingly saying — “The air is better over there.”

Yunque: “……”

Before she could even react, a soft, quiet laugh escaped from Lu Rangchen’s lips beside her.

Never mind that Chu Lan at the front was about to start her lecture — he cast a teasing, roguish sidelong glance at Yunque, his tone breezy and unhurried. “So where exactly are you sitting?”

That one unhurried remark was enough to draw frequent glances from everyone around them, including Chu Lan, who was standing at the podium.

Yunque’s expression grew faintly flustered, and she could only push her books further inward.

The remaining seat beside the aisle naturally went to Lu Rangchen.

The two of them ended up sitting right next to each other.

Yunque still had that studious, well-behaved bookish air about her. Lu Rangchen, on the other hand, hadn’t brought a single thing — he just sprawled his long legs out, lazily leaned back, looking every bit like a visiting inspector come to audit the class.

Within two minutes, Chu Lan officially began her lecture.

The classroom finally took on the feel of an actual class in session.

But because it was an elective, everyone was in a languid, listless state — even Yunque had nothing worth jotting down.

Just then, someone sent her a message, causing the desk to vibrate with a loud buzz.

Yunque’s gaze paused briefly. She picked up her phone and found it was a message from Liang Tian.

Little Sweetie: 【What’s going on right now — why is he sitting next to you and not saying anything?】

Yunque: 【……】

She was also at a loss, staring blankly for a moment.

At almost the exact same time, she heard Lu Rangchen on her left lazily drawl, “So the phone isn’t broken after all.”

Yunque’s eyelid twitched.

She looked up to find Lu Rangchen watching her with a meaningful expression, the corner of his mouth curled into an arc that was practically asking to be punched — making it perfectly clear he had been staring at her this whole time.

Her heartbeat skipped a beat without her even noticing.

Yunque suppressed the flutter in her chest, set the phone down on the desk, and put on a mildly innocent expression. “Whose phone is broken?”

Lu Rangchen let out a humorless little laugh, and used his chin to gesture at her phone.

Yunque played dumb. “What is it?”

“What do you think?”

Lu Rangchen’s gaze was laden with meaning, his tone carrying a distinct note of grievance. “Other people message you and you reply instantly. I send you a message and you act like you never saw it.”

Just that morning, he had messaged Yunque on WeChat asking whether she was going back to Nancheng for the National Holiday.

He hadn’t expected her to completely ignore him.

It just so happened that this class was Chu Lan’s. Chu Lan had been instructed by Cheng Qinfang to keep a closer eye on Lu Rangchen in class and stop him from causing trouble, so she had asked him to come and help take attendance.

At the time, Lu Rangchen was in his newly moved-into apartment and had no interest in heading over.

But then Chu Lan had come out with: that Yunque from the English Department Class 2 is also going to be there — are you coming or not?

Lu Rangchen had been in the middle of changing clothes to head to campus and intercept Yunque when that message arrived — and it walked right into his arms.

This Teacher Chu was somewhere around forty, not only extremely well-preserved, but sharp-eyed to boot. That brief glance on the night in question had been enough for her to recognize who the girl was.

Lu Rangchen had been left somewhat speechless.

He replied to Chu Lan: 【She has an elective with you?】

Chu Lan: 【She does.】

Chu Lan: 【Are you coming or not?】

Lu Rangchen: 【How did you know it was her?】

Chu Lan: 【That girl is the department beauty — tons of guys in the department like her. Even their class advisor praised her and wanted her to be class representative, but she turned it down.】

Lu Rangchen blanked for a few seconds, then suddenly twisted his mouth into a cold, sardonic smile.

Impressive.

Now she was the department beauty, no less.

With plenty of guys who liked her, too.

An inexplicable surge of irritation roiled through him like a gale of noise. Lu Rangchen simply got the time and location of Chu Lan’s class from her and went straight over.

Yunque, of course, knew none of these details.

She only had the subtle sense that Lu Rangchen seemed genuinely different from before.

He wouldn’t vanish without a trace anymore. He would also openly close the distance between them — even when she deliberately ignored him.

Pushing down thoughts that threatened to get away from her, Yunque curled her fingertips inward and made up an excuse. “I didn’t see it.”

Lu Rangchen snorted.

The tone made it abundantly clear he didn’t believe her.

Yunque lightly pressed her lips together and simply adopted a stance of: believe me or don’t, there’s nothing I can do. She changed the subject. “Why did you sign up for this elective too?”

Lu Rangchen’s thin lips curved slightly upward. “I didn’t.”

He looked toward the podium in an easy, unhurried way. “Just came to have a look.”

“Look at what?”

Yunque turned to gaze at his profile, her heart acting of its own accord.

Lu Rangchen turned to glance at her, and something like an undercurrent seemed to stir in the depths of his eyes. “What do you think I’m looking at?”

His voice was very low, and amid the rise and fall of Chu Lan’s lecture, it carried a suggestive, flirtatious warmth — and yet he held her gaze without blinking, giving her thoughts nowhere to flee, forcing her to face him directly.

Yunque’s gaze flickered with sudden understanding, as if she had grasped something all at once, and she pressed her lips tight, staring resolutely ahead.

The corner of Lu Rangchen’s mouth curved up without a sound.

A few seconds passed.

His voice was low and unhurried, yet remarkably persistent. “Are you actually going back for the National Holiday or not?”

“Not going.”

Yunque put on the look of someone earnestly listening to the lecture. “It’s a bit far.”

“Planes are fine.”

“Too expensive.”

“I’ll pay for you.”

Four words that made the tip of Yunque’s heart tremble.

She looked at Lu Rangchen with a measure of surprise.

Lu Rangchen held her gaze with his thin, half-lowered eyelids, seeming to smile but not quite smiling — and yet inexplicably patient.

After thinking it over, Yunque still shook her head.

Her voice was soft and yielding, yet firm. “Stop being silly.”

She had only been away from Nancheng for a month. Going back would serve little purpose — let alone having Lu Rangchen buy the ticket for her.

Lu Rangchen was a different story.

Having finally started university, with time to return to Nancheng to see family, Cheng Liru would certainly want him back for a while.

Knowing she had no intention of going home, Lu Rangchen lowered his gaze, was quiet for two seconds, then said fine.

Yunque curled her fingertips inward.

Working up her courage, she said softly, with a teasing lilt, “Are you disappointed?”

That single line sent Lu Rangchen into a genuine laugh.

He gave her a blatant sideways look, deliberately setting a trap and turning the ball right back at her. “You want me to be disappointed?”

“……”

Yunque said nothing.

She stirred things up like that and then irresponsibly fell silent.

Seemingly also noticing that this girl seemed rather different from before, Lu Rangchen returned his gaze to the enormous screen above the podium, the corner of his mouth lifting lightly without thinking.

He looked at it for a moment with an easy, distant expression.

Then, suddenly, he spoke. “Then let’s stay in contact over the holiday.”

As he said it, his knee under the desk gently bumped against hers, his tone carrying a casually teasing intimacy. “Anyone who doesn’t reply to messages is a little dog.”

Yunque: “……”

After the elective ended that day, Lu Rangchen left with Chu Lan.

This surprised Liang Tian quite a bit.

She had assumed Lu Rangchen would invite Yunque to lunch, but he just swaggered off, just like that.

Liang Tian was dissatisfied. “He’s no good at this — who goes about pursuing someone like that?”

Yunque ate the rice and dishes she had gotten from the canteen window, seemingly very philosophical about it. “Who told you he was pursuing me?”

Liang Tian blinked. “If that doesn’t count as pursuing someone, what about showing up and sitting right in front of all those people?”

Yunque stated it matter-of-factly: “That shows we know each other and he had something to tell me.”

Liang Tian crunched away at her cartilage.

She genuinely couldn’t find an argument against that.

After all, everything the two of them had said afterward had been in voices too low and hushed to make out — secretive as Morse code — and she hadn’t caught a single word.

Thinking it over, she could only say, “Then just watch what he does next.”

Yunque ate her broccoli with an expressionless face, from start to finish giving no indication of what she was thinking.

In the blink of an eye, the National Holiday arrived.

Han Xiao and Li Yuqing both planned to go back to their hometowns for the holiday, and most of the class would be leaving campus too.

Yunque and Liang Tian were both staying. Liang Tian planned to go wild with a girl from another dormitory, while Yunque had found a part-time job.

She would be working as a librarian at the campus library during the National Holiday.

In addition to managing books, she would also help with the café counter alongside the regular staff — mainly making coffee and delivering it to patrons. The pay was settled daily and was decent enough.

The job made Han Xiao absolutely envious. She said if she had known there was such a great opportunity, she wouldn’t have gone home for the holiday.

Li Yuqing heard that and immediately mocked her: “Give it a rest — just because they want Yunque doesn’t mean they’d want you. Yunque’s slender and elegant; put her there and she’s already an attraction for customers. As for you—”

The two of them got on best, constantly joking without any sense of restraint. Han Xiao was so exasperated she burst out laughing and hurled a throw pillow at her.

Li Yuqing was tickled and begged for mercy, laughing through pretend tears, quickly changing the subject.

Yunque came back from the balcony after hanging up the laundry, just in time to hear Li Yuqing say, “Oh hey, did you know — I heard the most outrageous gossip recently. Apparently our class’s female class president was approached by some gorgeous guy from outside the department who asked for her number!”

“And you’ve all seen this guy — he’s from International Trade Class 3, the Lu Rangchen who came to find Yunque that day.”

At those words, Liang Tian let out a sound of disbelief. “He asked the class president for her number?? No way.”

Han Xiao was also dumbfounded. “Is that real? Lu Rangchen asked for her number?”

Li Yuqing took a breath and fixed her hair. “Of course it’s real — her dormitory saw it with their own eyes and told me personally. Said it was in the campus supermarket, and quite a few people noticed.”

“……”

Han Xiao was speechless. “Does this guy have such strange taste? At that rate, I’d say I’m fair game too.”

The reason she said this wasn’t that Han Xiao looked down on the class president, but rather that the class president was genuinely plain-looking, on the heavier side, and not particularly well-regarded in terms of character — she leaned on the prestige of being class president to put on airs in class all day, and most of the girls in Class 2 had little patience for her.

A girl like that, placed next to Lu Rangchen — it really was rather baffling.

Liang Tian looked over at Yunque just then, and said tentatively, “Yunque — do you know what’s going on?”

Yunque’s expression was so flat that no emotion could be read from it, and she shook her head cleanly. “No idea.”

Liang Tian: “……”

A sense that the atmosphere had become slightly odd settled over the room.

After that, the three of them didn’t bring up the topic again.

It was also that same night, just before Yunque fell asleep, that she suddenly received a call from Zhao Qijia. He asked if she was going home for the holiday.

Yunque said she wasn’t.

Zhao Qijia, to her surprise, laughed with obvious delight. “Alright then — I won’t go back either. I’ll come and hang out with you for the holiday.”

Their universities were in different parts of the city but not far apart.

Zhao Qijia had also just recently finished his military training, and barely had a clue what the campus looked like.

Yunque’s lips parted slightly — she was about to decline.

She’d probably be pretty busy with the library job and wouldn’t have time to keep Zhao Qijia company.

But just as the words reached the tip of her tongue, they somehow slipped back inside, and her thoughts, without any good reason, drifted to Lu Rangchen.

She stared into the distance for two seconds.

Yunque curled her fingertips inward. “Then come.”

She paused, then added, “But I might be really busy — there’s a part-time job at the library.”

Zhao Qijia was completely unbothered. “That’s fine — I’ll go to the library to study and do my assignments, so I won’t be bothering you. When you’re off we can go out.”

Yunque had no objection and said okay.

So the arrangement was made.

What Yunque hadn’t expected was for Zhao Qijia to be so proactive — he showed up at the Jingda library bright and early the very next day.

She was helpless about it, and could only find him a spot close to her workstation.

At noon the two of them had a simple meal together at the canteen.

That afternoon, Yunque went back to work and Zhao Qijia stayed at the library with her.

The move prompted the substitute student worker on duty to gossip, saying that guy was quite the catch — was he her boyfriend?

Yunque shook her head quite calmly and said he was just an ordinary friend.

Since he was just an ordinary friend, he was entitled to ordinary treatment.

Thinking of how he had sat there keeping her company all day no matter what, Yunque suggested that evening that she treat him to dinner.

They went to the Taikoo Li — a barbecue restaurant she had noticed on her visit there with Lu Rangchen, one with a large and steady crowd.

During the National Holiday, waiting in line was unavoidable, but the two of them were lucky and got seated before long.

Over dinner, Zhao Qijia looked after Yunque the whole time — whatever finished grilling first, he sent her way.

The two of them chatted in a relaxed, intermittent way, mostly about their respective new schools.

Then, in the middle of the conversation, Zhao Qijia ventured, “I heard something. Do you know about it?”

Yunque glanced up at him. “What?”

Just as she finished speaking, the phone on the table buzzed.

Yunque reflexively picked it up.

It was Lu Rangchen.

Her heartbeat quickened in a subtle way. Yunque hesitated for a moment, then tapped open the message.

Lu Rangchen: 【Home now.】

Lu Rangchen: 【What are you doing?】

Two perfectly ordinary lines.

But between the two of them, the effect was unbearably suggestive.

Yunque’s gaze stayed on the messages without her meaning it to, and Zhao Qijia’s words went in one ear and out the other — until she heard the three syllables “Lu Rangchen.”

Zhao Qijia was busy turning the meat on the grill, trying to sound offhand as he said, “I saw in a school group chat that someone said he’s also at a university in the capital — said he came here for someone. A girlfriend or something.”

As he spoke, he deliberately glanced at Yunque. “You two are pretty close — haven’t you been in touch?”

In the dim lighting.

The girl had her hair tied in a low ponytail, her makeup light and clean, and even under the most unflattering overhead light, she still looked delicate and lovely.

Not quite sure what she was thinking in that moment, Yunque deliberately said, “Not sure.”

Zhao Qijia seemed visibly relieved and laughed. “Oh, is that right — well, that explains why you wouldn’t know.”

He continued, “I also heard recently that he’s been spending a lot of time with Lin Zhinian from our school’s fine arts program. Some people are saying she’s his girlfriend, and that the two of them went back to Nancheng together for the holiday.

“Of course, that could just be rumor — after all, someone like Lu Rangchen,” Zhao Qijia laughed with clear disdain, “with money and looks, is bound to play the field.”

The beef slices sizzled on the grill.

Yunque suddenly spoke up. “Play the field how.”

Zhao Qijia: “……”

In all the time they had known each other, this was the first time he had heard Yunque speak to him in such a cold tone.

The boy’s expression froze, and gradually he grasped the implication, hurrying to apologize.

“Sorry — I didn’t consider your feelings.”

“You and him were friends, at least, and I somehow forgot……”

“We’re not friends anymore.”

Yunque picked up a piece of the meat and placed it in her bowl. Her voice was very soft.

They couldn’t be friends anymore.

If they couldn’t be lovers, they could no longer be friends, either.

The atmosphere grew strained in the silence.

For a brief moment, Zhao Qijia wanted to ask her: what about him, then — were he and Yunque friends, or…was she also the tiniest bit interested in him?

He got lost in these thoughts without realizing it.

Then he looked up to find Yunque had raised her phone and taken a candid photo of him.

Zhao Qijia’s brow furrowed slightly. “You should’ve warned me — candid shots never look good.”

Yunque shook her head lightly. “It looks fine.”

Zhao Qijia twitched his lips, then scratched behind his ear as though a little self-conscious. “Then send it to me. I want to see.”

Yunque nodded and said okay.

A moment later, she sent that photo of Zhao Qijia to the chat window.

Not only to Zhao Qijia.

She had also “carbon-copied” it to Lu Rangchen.

Meanwhile, nearly two thousand kilometers away in Nancheng.

Lu Rangchen had gotten back from dinner at his grandparents’ place, taken a shower, and had just stepped out of the bathroom when he saw that the phone on the coffee table had been flashing the whole time.

Ever since his group of rowdy friends learned he was back in Nancheng, they’d been relentlessly trying to get him out for drinks.

Lu Rangchen had no interest in it and had blanket-ignored them all.

But his silence didn’t mean that group of people could settle down — Deng Zhe aside, Li Tie and Zhou Jin in particular had been insistent, saying Zhou Jin had recently gone through a breakup and asking Lu Rangchen to help him cheer up.

Messages had been stacking up in layers.

Lu Rangchen leaned back on the sofa and glanced at them indifferently. He hadn’t gotten around to replying to Li Tie when Yunque’s message came in — it was a photo.

The moment the notification popped up, a flicker of genuine interest finally surfaced in Lu Rangchen’s eyes.

But what came up under his “What are you up to?” was a photo.

A photo of Zhao Qijia.

Yunque: 【Having dinner with my old seatmate.】

Lu Rangchen: “……”

His gaze dropped to the photo of Zhao Qijia. He stared at it with cold, hard eyes for two seconds, then ran his tongue over his lip and gave a quiet, bitter laugh.

Out of nowhere, he felt the urge to throw his phone across the room.