Ever since the senior class held its coming-of-age ceremony, Qi Han had noticed that Xie Jingyuan had grown distinctly more depressed. The guy had always been poker-faced and cold-blooded, but he hadn't used to spend all day answering in monosyllables.
It had nothing to do with "becoming an adult." The real reason wasn't hard to trace. The topic had already caused an uproar in the graduating class, so even some of the better-informed freshmen had caught wind of it.
In short—
Jing Zhihui from Class K of the third year had taken Liu Xichuan's guaranteed admission spot to F University.
Both girls happened to be Xie Jingyuan's rumored girlfriends.
From a gossip perspective, had the war between the two girls escalated from fighting over a boyfriend to fighting over a guaranteed admission slot? Or was the slot just a means to an end—so one of them could attend the same university as Xie Jingyuan?
Almost immediately, everyone noticed that the man at the center of the scandal was the school's only student to be directly admitted through F University's independent enrollment program.
Setting gossip aside and looking at it rationally, Xie Jingyuan's awkward position was no less painful.
Where there's smoke, there's fire. At the very least, both girls were close friends of his in ways that went beyond ordinary friendship. Now that something like this had happened between them, he had to take a stand and choose whose side he was on.
And for Xie Jingyuan, that multiple-choice question was—
Xie Jingyuan, who couldn't even tell whether a girl's "I hate you" was serious or playful.
Xie Jingyuan, whose IQ was anything but ordinary and whose EQ was anything but ordinary in the other direction.
Xie Jingyuan, who was basically an idiot when it came to "handling the world with tact."
It was simply too much to ask of him.
So it wasn't hard to explain why the former "cold-faced prince" had turned completely into a "zombie prince."
Qi Han had wanted several times to bring the subject up directly and talk it through with him, but the risk always felt too great, so he held back. Because the atmosphere between them was poor, Qi Han never got the chance to press further and ask what the "special reason" was for Xie Jingyuan living with his cousin.
The curiosity was maddening.
Still, it was easy enough to guess. In most cases where cousins lived under the same roof, one party was boarding with the other. In a more literary version of events, there might be the tragic element of divorced parents and being taken in. In a more rebellious version, it wasn't out of the question that someone had run away from home after a fight with their parents.
The bus swayed to a stop. Xie Jingyuan gave a slight nod in farewell and got off.
Qi Han said goodbye in his own loud style, but in the next instant his attention was caught by a familiar figure.
She had habitually rolled the sleeves of her long white shirt up to her elbows. The hem of her shirt and her ink-dark long hair were tugged open by the wind. Under her school uniform, a fitted T-shirt was scrawled with bold English letters. The lines of her chest and waist were outlined just right.
The girl with the striking presence stood on the opposite platform, her left arm hooked through the arm of a tall, thin boy in a different school's uniform.
Compared with the obvious brightness on the boy's face, the girl was smiling too, but her eyes were dull. Her figure, her face, her clothes—all of it dazzled, yet from the inside out she gave off a kind of exhaustion and coldness. Maybe it was just an illusion on Qi Han's part. After all, they were quite far apart.
But the girl was Han Yiyi. That much was certain.
That afternoon after school, Han Yiyi had met her boyfriend at the school gate as usual. After returning, she'd eaten in the cafeteria and spent the rest of the time chatting in the classroom with the other girls who lived on campus. Unlike usual, just before evening self-study she received a text from Qi Han.
Only a few words: Come to the north gate.
Given Qi Han's personality, even if he were texting a dog he'd throw in a joke or two. The only reason he'd be so terse was that something had happened. Han Yiyi panicked and sprinted to the north gate at full speed.
The situation wasn't as bad as she'd imagined. Qi Han only had a few bruises on his face and a scrape on his elbow. But both of them knew the real storm would hit once he got home.
Han Yiyi didn't have a day-student pass and couldn't leave campus. At this hour the security guard wouldn't let Qi Han in either.
The girl gave a look. Qi Han understood immediately and made a show of leaving normally. They took a small detour to stay out of the guard's sight and met again by the wall near the basketball court. Han Yiyi waited until the camera turned away, grabbed the railing, and vaulted over the wall with practiced ease. When she landed, Qi Han stepped forward to steady her—though it was completely unnecessary.
The boy grinned. "Your skills haven't faded."
"One of the basic survival skills of a student at our school." The girl clapped her hands. "What happened to you? Another fight?"
"I couldn't think of anyone else, so I came to you."
"Way to make a girl feel special!"
She pretended to be angry, but she didn't really mind. "You could've gone to Qin Zhou. You two are close enough for a BL drama, haha."
Still "haha"?
The boy didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Who do you think I just got into a fight with?"
"Huh?" Only then did she turn serious. "Qin Zhou? No way—why?"
It was because of—
Qi Han suddenly found he couldn't bring himself to say something as sentimental as "because of you."
His connection with Han Yiyi had originally been built through Qin Zhou—one was Qin Zhou's ride-or-die brother, the other was the girlfriend Qin Zhou had dated for two years in middle school.
But—
"I saw you with your new boyfriend when school let out today."
The girl looked surprised. She glanced up at him quickly, then gave an awkward "oh." At the same time she was puzzled: why would seeing her with a new boyfriend make him go take it out on Qin Zhou?
"You didn't look happy. Maybe I'm overthinking it. Later I ran into him at an internet café and got a little impulsive. He had a lot of issues with me too—all that crap about 'abandoning your old brothers.' A few words in and I couldn't control myself."
After the high school entrance exam, Han Yiyi had gotten into the city's key high school and Qin Zhou had gone to vocational school. Qin Zhou had sworn he'd endure hardship, work hard, and get into a first-tier university someday. To focus on studying, he'd insisted on breaking up with Han Yiyi, saying they'd get back together once he got into college. It was such a ridiculous reason for a breakup that Qi Han was the only friend who knew the truth. Everyone else thought Han Yiyi had looked down on Qin Zhou and dumped him. Because of that, the girl had shouldered a lot of blame she shouldn't have. And all her patience and restraint had come to nothing. Qin Zhou couldn't resist the temptations around him. Less than two months later he was back in all kinds of entertainment spots, having thrown his vow to study hard completely out the window. When Qi Han saw him in the internet café, it was only natural that he'd feel indignant on Han Yiyi's behalf.
"Speaking of which, I heard he took over your old crew?"
Qi Han snapped out of it. "What 'crew'? Don't make it sound so ugly."
"That's what they were, as far as I'm concerned—your little gang of followers."
"Forget it, forget it." The boy waved magnanimously. "You girls don't even know how to write the word 'loyalty.' Communication failure."
"Hey, hey, don't move." The girl, who had bought disinfectant and gauze from the pharmacy, was already playing school nurse. She turned his elbow away from where he was waving it. Once the wound was treated, Han Yiyi straightened up, satisfied. "When you go home, sling your backpack over this side to cover it. I can fix the bruises. I'll go get some foundation and help you cover them up. Maybe you can bluff your way through."
"Foundation? You use that stuff?" The boy was teasing again.
Under the streetlight it was easy to see the girl's ears turn red. To hide it, she immediately turned and strode back toward the school, tossing over her shoulder, "Quit talking so much."
At first Qi Han found it funny. Then, somehow, he turned serious.