At six o’clock on Sunday morning, a suspicious figure appeared in front of the gate of Xihe High School. A man wearing a black jacket and a black mask crouched beside a fire hydrant, staring intently at the passersby. As he kept an eye out for his target, he grumbled to himself about how this high school actually required classes on a Sunday. It was not until around six-thirty that he finally spotted the person he was waiting for based on the description provided by his client. He lunged forward in a single stride to intercept the man.
Lin Yanxu had arrived early for work. Just as he was about to scan his face at the security booth to clock in, a dark shadow blocked the machine.
“Hello, this is Meituan Errand Service. An anonymous gentleman requested that I deliver this to you. Please accept it.”
Just as the delivery boy handed the box to Lin Yanxu, another person arrived at the school gate on a shared electric scooter. Looking at the descriptive keywords on his phone, the newcomer seemed somewhat bewildered. Seeing two people already at the gate, he walked up with his delivery to inquire. “Hello, I would like to ask if you have seen someone fitting this description?”
The rider in the black jacket glanced at his colleague’s phone screen: “Good looking, tall, icy expression, and a very sexy mole on his neck.”
“Brother, is your client’s nickname ‘Macho Man’?” “Yeah, are you delivering for him too?” “That would be the person right next to me.”
The two Meituan riders exchanged a few words and finally identified the person their client was looking for. The second errand runner handed the breakfast he was carrying to Lin Yanxu, quickly tapped “Order Completed” on his phone, and rushed off to his next delivery.
Only after the two men left was Lin Yanxu able to clock in successfully. Both packages were tightly sealed, but the one in his left hand was still radiating a lingering warmth. When he entered the office, Fang Yu had already arrived. Despite her leg injury, she insisted on coming to school so as not to delay the students’ lessons.
“What did you bring, Mr. Lin?” Fang Yu asked, somewhat curious to see him holding a box about the size of half an arm.
Lin Yanxu placed the two items on his desk and replied, “Someone outside gave them to me. I do not know what they are.”
At this hour, many students were already in the classroom for self-study. Because of the events from the previous night, a few girls came in and presented Fang Yu with paper flowers they had made from exam papers. One student caught a tantalizing aroma and, realizing it was coming from Lin Yanxu’s desk, asked curiously what it was.
Lin Yanxu was also quite curious to know the contents. Seeing the students’ interest, he opened the warm packaging in front of everyone. As soon as the thermal bag was torn open, a rich, savory aroma of meat juice wafted out. Lin Yanxu took out the two containers and realized they were two boxes of fresh meat shumai and a bowl of wonton soup.
In Beijing, shumai made with glutinous rice are more common; shops selling fresh meat shumai are rare. Several students had arrived early and finished their breakfast at home in a hurry; seeing the fragrant shumai, they could not help but cry out, “Teacher, give me one!”
There were eight in a box, each resting on tin foil. Both the packaging and the appearance of the food were exquisite and thoughtful.
“Mr. Lin, you definitely cannot eat all of these, and at our age, it is very easy to get hungry.” “Yeah, yeah, Mr. Lin, give me one. I promise I will write my essay well this week!”
Lin Yanxu had already eaten before leaving home. Seeing that the students wanted them, he handed out one box. As the girls were about to leave, he suddenly remembered a thin, quiet girl in the neighboring class he taught. Her family was not wealthy; her parents were “Beijing drifters” who saved as much as possible on food money, and she often fainted after morning exercises. He called the students back and asked them to help deliver the bowl of wontons to her.
At the bottom of the bag, Lin Yanxu found a white card with a line of printed text. Buyer’s Message: “Please eat my favorite shumai and wontons! If you do not like them, it is fine to throw them away.”
Realizing they were sent by Yun Deng, even though Lin Yanxu was not accustomed to this flavor, he still tried two. He gave the rest to Fang Yu and Tao Chunhua, who had just arrived.
The other box was heavy, and he had no idea what it contained. Lin Yanxu returned after finishing his first morning class to open it. As soon as a corner of the red velvet box was revealed, he knew it was another expensive item. The logo of a famous gold shop in Beijing was engraved on the outside. Upon opening the box, he saw a gold bar about the thickness of a finger.
Seeing this, Lin Yanxu shook his head with a helpless, light laugh. He closed the box and temporarily placed it in his desk drawer.
During the lunch break, the school held another meeting regarding the previous day’s incident. The homeroom teachers were required to manage their students’ affairs well, pay more attention to students in special circumstances, and produce a blackboard newspaper on anti-school bullying this week. Other teachers were divided into groups to complete related tasks.
When Lin Yanxu learned that he was to assign an essay on anti-bullying to the students this week, he knew the school leadership was taking this incident extremely seriously. Later, three essays from each class would be selected to participate in a campus-wide writing competition. The teachers who taught Chinese and also served as homeroom teachers felt they would be overwhelmed with work this week; they all hurried back to their offices to prepare logs for the thematic class meetings.
The Director of Academic Affairs walked ahead, discussing a strange occurrence from that morning with several colleagues. “I got a text this morning telling me there is a 1,000-yuan discount on car fuel. It is truly baffling.” “Is it not a scam? There are a lot of fake messages lately,” another person remarked. “I thought it was a scam too, but I called the official service and they said the discount is real. I still do not dare to use it, though,” the Director replied with a laugh.
The group drifted away as they continued their conversation. After the meeting, Lin Yanxu went directly downstairs to his first afternoon class to begin his work.
Yun Deng did not wake up until the sun was high in the sky. Upon waking, he felt parched and uncomfortable all over. He had been too hungry to sleep the previous night, but he could not eat anything; he had pushed through until three or four in the morning before falling into a dazed sleep. He struggled out of bed to pour himself some water. After the cold water moistened his throat, he felt a bit better. After lying down to rest for a while, he picked up his phone to check for unread messages.
Three hours ago. min: “My girlfriend is angry again. I am going out to coax her. Leave the door open for me tonight.”
One hour ago. Beautiful Handsome Guy: “I will return the items you sent to me in full.” Beautiful Handsome Guy: “Also, my apologies, but I gave the food you sent to students who had not eaten breakfast.”
The moment Yun Deng saw that Lin Yanxu had messaged him, he instantly came back to life. He first replied with a quick “Mhm” to Xia Shisheng before carefully composing a reply to the other.
Mianmian Yu: “Why? Do you not like this brand?” Mianmian Yu: “Then which do you prefer, Lao Feng Xiang or Chow Tai Fook?” Mianmian Yu: “Oh, I see. It is not that you do not like the things I send, but that you do not like me.” Mianmian Yu: “I understand! I am just that annoying.”
Yun Deng truly could not understand. When he had sent gifts to his exes like this before, they had all loved them. Comparing his exes to Lin Yanxu now, he began to believe what Xia Shisheng had said. It seemed his exes really were just after his money. Lin Yanxu might not be accepting them because he did not like him. But his exes had accepted them even without liking him; they had even explicitly asked for them.
Fine, I like Lin Yanxu even more now. Yun Deng instantly cheered himself up, believing he had finally found a suitable partner. After washing up, he ordered preserved egg and pork congee with soy milk for lunch online. After eating, he lay on the sofa clutching his phone, waiting for Lin Yanxu’s reply.
The television was projecting a short web drama co-produced by Song Shuya and a studio, which had recently been released on several video platforms. Seeing his friend suddenly appear on TV playing the role of an unrivaled dancer felt indescribably strange to him. Suddenly, the phone screen on the coffee table lit up. Yun Deng grabbed it immediately. He thought it was Lin Yanxu replying, but it was a friend request. [User “.” requested to add you as a friend. Verification message: “It is me.”]
This person’s profile picture was a blank space, and even the username was just a simple period. He intended to delete it and ignore it, but a second later, another friend request popped up from the same person. Yun Deng tapped “Accept” out of habit. A second later, a message from “.” arrived.
. : “I miss you so much.”
Those four words caused Yun Deng’s brain to stall. His romantic prospects this year had almost entirely dried up, and he had not been in contact with his exes. His first instinct was that Xia Shisheng was playing a prank on him. He immediately typed a reply.
Mianmian Yu: “Are you sick in the head?” . : “You are right, I am sick. I really miss you so much.”
Yun Deng felt a wave of disgust that made his skin crawl. He immediately took a screenshot and sent it to Xia Shisheng to interrogate him. Mianmian Yu: “[Image]” Mianmian Yu: “What is wrong with you? Stop pretending.”
To his surprise, Xia Shisheng sent a photo back a second later. The photo showed him enjoying a meal with his girlfriend in an exotic themed restaurant. At the bottom of the image were a few words: “I do not have time to play these disgusting games with you.”
Realizing the period was not Xia Shisheng, Yun Deng was completely lost. He could not even think of another suspect. While he was wondering, the period continued to send harassing messages.
. : “Let us get back together. I really do not want to break up with you.” . : “I am begging you, I really want to see you.”
The moment Yun Deng saw the word “reconcile,” he immediately swiped left to delete the contact and added the account to his blacklist. No one was as obsessed with him as He Dong, who constantly chased him for a reconciliation. Over the past two months, he had already blacklisted eight of the man’s accounts; it was incredibly annoying.
Just as he put the phone down, the notification sound rang again. Thinking it was another message from that person, Yun Deng typed an impatient reply. Only after it showed “Sent Successfully” did he realize he had already deleted and blacklisted the other person; he had truly been blinded by anger. When he saw who had actually messaged him, he nearly blacked out and fainted. The chat history on the screen:
Beautiful Handsome Guy: “It is not that I do not like you. Do not overthink it.” Mianmian Yu: “Get lost!”
Yun Deng wailed on the sofa as he frantically recalled the message, but he was too slow. Since the other party happened to be online, he had not only seen it but also replied. At the same time the “Recall Successful” notification appeared, Lin Yanxu sent him a single question mark. Yun Deng immediately explained himself with tears in his eyes.
Mianmian Yu: “Would you believe me if I said I sent that to the wrong person? Your message just happened to pop up.”
Mianmian Yu: “Please do not be mad at me.”
Mianmian Yu: “[Fingertips touching.jpg]”