Eight years ago, on the Winter Solstice.
A heavy snow drifted over the capital.
Students bustled across the university campus when suddenly, a burst of loud laughter erupted near the sports field, drawing curious onlookers from the pathways and dorm balconies.
“Gu Lingyi, I really, truly like you!”
In the center of the crowd, a boy stood red-faced, clutching a bouquet of roses as he dropped to one knee. Urged on by the teasing cheers around him, he put everything on the line, his confession ringing out loud and clear.
As the words left his mouth, the uproar from the spectators and dormitories grew even wilder, pulling in even more people.
Yet the undisputed star of this scene was merely leaning back in a cushioned chair.
Wearing dark sunglasses and a tailored almond-colored wool coat, she sat with her arms loosely crossed…languid, effortless, and utterly captivating.
Snow fell gently around her. Soft silver flakes dusted her light-brown, wavy tresses, shimmering with a beautiful, multi-layered luster under the pale winter sun.
A lazy, unbothered beauty like her naturally commanded relentless adoration on a college campus.
Three hundred and sixty-five days a year, she never lacked suitors.
Word had even spread that she preferred women, yet men still lined up one after another, convinced they would be the one to turn her straight.
Great, another interruption during my sunbathing session, she thought.
The noise buzzed in Gu Lingyi’s ears, and she barely registered a word of what the boy…whose face was as red as a monkey’s bottom…was yelling.
He remained on one knee for a long time, but the beauty gave no reaction whatsoever. Soon, members of the crowd began to grow restless.
Emboldened by numbers and pushed forward by her friends, a young woman suddenly dropped down onto one knee as well. Her delicate face flushed red with anxiety as she shouted at the top of her lungs:
“Gu Lingyi! I’m a woman!”
A direct strike…short, sweet, and straight to the point.
The boy glared at her; the girl glared right back. When no response came from Gu Lingyi, the girl grew even more frantic.
“Senior Gu! I said I’m a woman!”
The crowd roared with laughter.
Gu Lingyi was amused too, her bright crimson lips curving into an intrigued smile.
“Where’s your sincerity?”
The crowd exploded.
Everyone knew Gu Lingyi never gave suitors the time of day. For her to smile and respond like this was she dropping a hint?!
None of them could see that behind the dark lenses of her sunglasses lay a pair of fox-like eyes, cool and detached.
Everyone held their breath, waiting to see how the interaction between the girl and Gu Lingyi would play out, silently measuring whether their own credentials were enough to catch her eye.
As they watched, the girl’s hands began to tremble with nerves. She fumbled in her pocket and pulled out a small card, pressing it shakily into Gu Lingyi’s hand.
What’s this?
Gu Lingyi had spent the whole morning soaking up the sun, so she was in a decent mood. She slid her sunglasses down her nose to take a look…
VA Hotel, Romantic Luxury Waterbed, Room 2611.
Gu Lingyi: “?”
Flowers, cars, apartments, deeds…she had seen it all in her two years of college. But handing over a hotel room key card as a sign of “sincerity”? That was certainly a first.
The afternoon sun slanted across the campus wall, casting the shadow of the nearby high-rises onto the field. The logo of the VA Hotel…the capital’s premier luxury establishment…stood out prominently, barely 300 meters away in a direct line.
The beauty slid her sunglasses back up, closed her eyes without a word, and nonchalantly tossed the key card into her handbag.
The crowd went completely wild.
By that afternoon, every luxury hotel within a five-kilometer radius of the campus was booked solid. Some even reserved entire hotels just to keep anyone else from getting a room.
Everyone was holding out hope that Gu Lingyi might pick them for a night of passion.
Tan Xinghe was among them. In terms of looks, family background, intellect, and grace, she considered herself superior to everyone else handing over key cards.
Winning over Gu Lingyi was something she was determined to achieve.
And she was far from the only one who felt that way.
At dusk, the woman at the center of countless Winter Solstice fantasies was taking a slow, solitary stroll through the mountain woods behind the campus.
Few people ever visited the back mountain. The trees were dense and dark, and local urban legends were terrifying enough to keep even young couples away.
Yet walking into these woods was as casual for Gu Lingyi as drinking water.
For one simple reason: it was the only place on campus free from interruptions where she could get some peace and quiet.
Yan Ke had been dragged off by her family to work at the research institute today, leaving Gu Lingyi entirely on her own.
The two of them had previously set up a campsite deep in the woods. The lounge chairs were already there; with a quick sweep of a feather duster to clear the fallen leaves, Gu Lingyi sank lazily into one, put on her headphones, and set a vintage pop song from over a century ago to shuffle.
“It’s almost the Winter Solstice, yet it rains morning and night…”
The canopy shielded her from the falling snow, and golden twilight filtered through the branches. Gu Lingyi used the faint light to dump out the contents of her handbag.
A cascade of room key cards spilled onto the ground at a glance, well over a hundred.
If Gu Lingyi hadn’t made a habit of staying fit, carrying a bag that heavy into the deep woods would have been a real workout.
A playful smirk touched her lips as the tip of her exquisite leather shoe nudged the cards, spreading them out one by one.
People never find it tedious when they’re up to no good.
She snapped a photo and sent it to Citu, her older sister’s girlfriend.
Citu worked at the capital’s vice enforcement division, and word was that her unit had a heavy anti-vice workload recently.
Among this pile of key cards, quite a few belonged to “group effort” enthusiasts looking to invite Gu Lingyi to a multi-person affair.
This was going to single-handedly max out Citu’s department quota.
Counting back five generations, everyone in the Gu family had been a public servant just like Citu…the only difference being the department and level of authority. Even the in-laws were no exception.
Her destiny had been mapped out before she was even born.
Boring days. A life planned out to the very end.
Utterly tedious.
“You must wait silently, and wait again…”
The music played on. Gu Lingyi felt drowsiness creep in and half-closed her eyes, softly humming along to the unfamiliar melody.
Her voice was low, sultry, and sweet, echoing gently through the quiet mountain woods.
The rumor circulating on campus about a singing female ghost deep in the back mountain was, in reality, just Gu Lingyi.
Aside from Yan Ke, no one knew that the terrifying depths no one dared enter were actually the sanctuary of the fox-like beauty the whole school was obsessed with.
Suddenly, her over-ear headphones mixed in external sound.
The smart assistant was alerting her: Environmental change detected. Please stay aware of your surroundings.
Dry leaves rustled softly, snapping now and then underfoot. The approaching steps were measured, calm, and deliberate.
Like a cat whose territory had been invaded, Gu Lingyi opened her eyes. Her beautiful fox-like eyes narrowed, her face clouded with annoyance as she prepared to turn the intruder away.
She raised her gaze, intending to intimidate them with a cold, dismissive stare.
In an instant, all her irritation evaporated.
It felt as though time and space froze, every sound suspending in the air.
A slender, graceful silhouette came into view. The beauty stepped over fallen twigs and dry leaves under a golden haze of snow, light shimmering like gold leaf over her smooth, flowing dark hair.
She wore an elegant, understated light-gold qipao with subtle embroidered patterns that rippled with every movement. Poised and dignified, she walked toward Gu Lingyi step by step.
The world went silent, save for her footsteps that felt like a tightrope walker’s precision…landing heavily against Gu Lingyi’s heart.
“Junior Gu.”
Her voice was as cool and detached as her expression.
The high collar of her qipao was fastened all the way to the top, and the side slit’s buttons were secured down to her ankles, wrapping her tightly from neck to foot.
Yet this cold, chaste figure stepped forward without a moment’s hesitation, her vintage embroidered shoes treading right on top of the pile of key cards scattered before Gu Lingyi.
She leaned down slightly, the fitted qipao accentuating her elegant curves.
With both hands, she presented a sleek, black-and-gold card.
VA Hotel, Presidential Suite.
“Please accept this.”
She used a polite phrasing, yet coolly crushed every other key card beneath her elegant shoes…aloft, assertive, and unyielding.
Bathed in the golden rays of the setting sun, the chaste beauty burned herself into Gu Lingyi’s gaze. A subtle, forbidden scent of white magnolia drifted closer just as a line from her headphones hit its mark:
“When the moment ripens to perfection…”