Everything seemed like a trivial little episode that would be forgotten after a night’s sleep.
Still, the two roommates who hadn’t gone to bed yet watched with some surprise as Jian Yue and Li Cheng entered the dorm one after the other.
“You two came back together?” Mu Yansheng asked.
The slightly unfriendly expression on his face made it hard to tell what he was angry about. But considering that Mu Yansheng always looked like someone not to be trifled with, Jian Yue didn’t notice any obvious change in his mood, and his tone, by contrast, was quite calm: “Mm, we came back together.”
With that, the young man put his shoulder bag on his desk as usual and pulled the bed curtain aside to change into his pajamas.
“A little surprising.”
Shen Yu said this with a calm attitude and his usual smile, yet his tone carried a thoroughly concealed note of ‘surprise.’ He asked: “Did you two run into each other on the way?”
Jian Yue was changing clothes at that moment, so it went without saying whom Shen Yu’s question was directed at.
The other party being questioned, Li Cheng, showed almost no emotional fluctuation. Naturally, his reply was the same.
“Our timing just happened to line up, so I went to pick him up from the shop.”
The answer still carried his distinctive personality. His tone was flat and unrippled, sounding no different from his usual dismissive attitude toward people.
At least Jian Yue, changing clothes inside the curtain, couldn’t detect anything off about it.
But perhaps because Shen Yu and Mu Yansheng truly did see, in Li Cheng’s eyes, an emotion they knew all too well. That familiar look was as recognizable as their own reflections, glimpsed countless times in a mirror. And so, in Li Cheng’s seemingly flat tone… they heard something subtle, a faint, almost imperceptible boast.
Like a provocation, or perhaps some kind of announcement that he was about to do something… Shen Yu’s expression began to turn completely cold as well.
Mu Yansheng made no attempt to hide the mockery and contempt on his face. Yet he failed to conceal the thoughts of vigilance and anger stirring beneath that emotion.
Both of them looked at Li Cheng as if he were some delusional fool.
After all, a guy who spent the whole day buried in coursework and chores, and who wouldn’t say a word even when he came back to the dorm, how could he count as any kind of rival?
But the displeasure remained all the same.
When it came to matters like this, neither of them was the magnanimous type.
And so, this sharp conflict would one day be thoroughly punctured, it was only a matter of time.
Occasions where the dorm’s chatter suddenly fell silent like this were no longer rare.
Jian Yue was long used to it, and offered no comment on the wordless atmosphere outside the curtain.
When he stepped out from behind the curtain, he was still holding a change of clothes and a towel, clearly looking like he was headed for a shower.
By then, the other three in the dorm had each gone back to their own business.
Upon hearing Jian Yue’s footsteps, Mu Yansheng glanced up at the young man for a moment and asked: “Want me to close the window?”
Jian Yue found it a little surprising.
This… was this concern?
The young man’s gaze turned to the window standing wide open in the dorm.
At that moment, the night breeze drifted in from outside, lifting one corner of the bed curtain hanging by his bed.
No wonder he’d felt cold while changing.
If the window stayed open, then by the time he walked out fresh from his shower, he’d probably get a firsthand taste of what an ice age felt like.
Jian Yue let his thoughts drift aimlessly like this as he looked at Mu Yansheng, who for some reason had suddenly developed some emotional intelligence.
“Mm, close it, thanks.”
But barely a moment after praising the man’s EQ, Mu Yansheng broke into a distinctly lazy smile.
Eyes narrowed slightly, he drew out his words with a hint of mischief: “Oh, I was just asking. If you want it closed, close it yourself.”
Jian Yue: ..?
He really had run into a weirdo.
Mu Yansheng usually seemed pretty normal, but every now and then he’d pick on Jian Yue specifically to act up.
Not only had this man failed to become so obsessed with him, as the script predicted, that he’d want to lock him up he instead often took a kind of malicious pleasure in saying the opposite of what he meant.
It was damned bizarre.
The window was right next to this man’s bed, and he’d probably been the one to open it in the first place.
Whatever.
Seeing as the man had brought him back quite a lot of extra food today, Jian Yue didn’t plan on squabbling over something this nonsensical.
With that mindset, Jian Yue stopped paying Mu Yansheng any attention and walked over to close the window himself. When he turned his head, he caught sight of a corner of his own bed curtain, lifted by the wind in a rather revealing way.
From where he stood, he could apparently see right through to the stool placed between the desk and the wardrobe inside and he frowned.
When he’d been changing clothes… had there been wind blowing through the window?
But that flicker of concern lasted only a moment. Jian Yue wasn’t the type to fuss over messy little details. After all, it wasn’t as if he’d never been to a communal bathhouse with others; his previous work had long since worn that sensitivity smooth.
That was also why, despite leaning toward men, he didn’t have many hang-ups in that department.
If you asked, the answer was: he’d gone numb. His past mission worlds had been full of brotherhood everywhere, straight men as far as the eye could see.
Besides, his previous department’s missions had been high-difficulty; he’d never had the energy to dwell on whether some straight man did or didn’t know what was what.
And even if he had been seen, nothing had ever come of it, didn’t that just prove nobody had any ideas about him?
His self-justification was met with the same silence from the System, which amounted to tacit agreement.
So Jian Yue tossed the little episode out of his mind.
Carrying his change of clothes, he brushed past Mu Yansheng.
Of course, he also missed the way Mu Yansheng, in that instant, gripped the armrest of his chair until the veins stood out along his forearm, his whole body taut.
And naturally, he failed to see the man’s eyes, glaringly bright with excitement and tension tracking his every step.
That expression was like a jackal baring its fangs, its true nature laid completely bare.
The sound of running water came from the bathroom.
Mu Yansheng was still sitting on the stool by his lower bunk, staring blankly at the young man’s bed across from him. His expression was remarkably grave, making it impossible to tell whether he was thinking about something or simply letting his mind go empty.
Li Cheng was busy.
Ever since that conversation in the dorm had ended, he’d pulled out his laptop and started typing away no different from usual, business as always.
Shen Yu, meanwhile, at this hour had uncharacteristically not stayed on his lower bunk reading. Instead, he’d climbed up to the top bunk and taken out his earphones, looking for all the world like he was about to put on a movie and unwind.
Throughout the entire dorm room, the only sounds anyone could hear were the water from the bathroom and the faint, muffled splashing within.
Shen Yu crossed his legs, his smile unchanged. His slender fingers gripped his phone, the pad of his thumb lightly tapping the screen.
Two taps zoomed the image in, bringing it vividly into view, while the sound of running water flowed continuously in his ears, as if he were there in person.
Ah well.
It looked like tonight was destined to be a sleepless one.