Cafeteria.
Four people sat around the table.
Lin Zhuo happily introduced He Hongdou and Liu Yutong to Fu Baizhou. Fu Baizhou’s gaze was like thin snow, cold and piercingly sharp.
That kind of gaze was very detached, carrying a hint of appraisal and wariness, as if he were judging whether the sudden intruder would threaten his status.
He Hongdou appeared cheerful and easygoing, but in reality, she was acutely sensitive to all kinds of emotions. The moment Fu Baizhou emitted those vibes, she had already picked them up.
Tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear, she took the initiative to speak. “Hello. Lin Zhuo and I met this noon, and he is a really nice person.”
An afternoon was not enough to fully understand a person’s character, but their current interactions alone led her to believe that Lin Zhuo was a good guy.
Seeing that Fu Baizhou remained silent, Lin Zhuo nudged him with his elbow, signaling that he ought to say something at a time like this.
Fu Baizhou lowered his gaze, only to see that layer of thin snow transform into a bottomless, freezing abyss.
“Hello.” The brief two words sounded like the plucking of a fifth guitar string; a low, resonant voice rang out, ending before one even had time to savor the aftertaste.
Fu Baizhou’s ink-black pupils were completely calm and without ripples right then, holding all of his emotions entirely in check so that even the normally perceptive He Hongdou could not tell what he was thinking.
How could she possibly guess the thoughts of a non-human entity?
That thought flashed across He Hongdou’s mind, and a thin layer of cold sweat suddenly broke out across her back.
Noticing the slight stiffness in the atmosphere, Lin Zhuo glanced sideways at Fu Baizhou and said to the two girls, “He is not very good with words, so please do not mind him.”
He Hongdou had already pulled herself out of her discomfort, casting Fu Baizhou’s weird aura to the back of her mind.
Looking at Lin Zhuo, she casually picked a topic. “What major is your friend in?”
The school forum had practically been flooded with posts about Fu Baizhou until the administrators finally stepped in, setting up a single dedicated thread for him to calm the uproar.
Yet amidst the countless discussions, Fu Baizhou remained extremely mysterious, with zero information available online.
One thing could be certain, however: he was not a student at the university.
“I am not a student.” Just as Lin Zhuo was about to answer, Fu Baizhou preempted him.
His tone was plain and narrative, devoid of any emotion, as if he were merely stating an obvious fact, akin to saying I am a man.
He Hongdou truly did not know what else to say. She awkwardly twitched the corners of her lips and replied, “Is that so?”
At first, she really had been curious about Fu Baizhou, and that curiosity reached its peak when she saw him in person, only for it to completely die out after this round of conversation.
Looking at Lin Zhuo instead, although he was slow to warm up, he was sincere in how he treated others, and she genuinely liked that kind of personality.
Moreover, he picked up on everything said and never made anyone feel left out or ignored.
“He appeared at the school because he found a job here,” Lin Zhuo clarified to clear up He Hongdou’s confusion.
He Hongdou nodded. Catching a glimpse of Fu Baizhou out of the corner of her eye, she figured it was best not to pursue those topics any further.
The conversation that followed remained much more restrained, steering clear of any privacy-related questions.
Liu Yutong possessed a quieter disposition. Worried that she might be leaving her out, He Hongdou chimed in to speak with her from time to time, making the meal feel quite harmonious overall.
After eating, He Hongdou and Liu Yutong returned to their dorm, while Lin Zhuo and Fu Baizhou went to the sports field for a walk.
The sun hung low at the horizon, setting half the sky ablaze.
The clouds were stained with sunset hues, a view of breathtaking beauty.
Quite a few people were sitting on the athletic field’s grassy area, but Lin Zhuo had no desire to join them.
“I want to talk to my aunt about staying in the dorms.”
After pondering it for a couple of days, he ultimately decided that living on campus would be much more convenient.
It was fine while the weather was mild, but once it started getting cold, he would never be able to wake up in time. Living on campus would save him a considerable amount of travel time.
Fu Baizhou said, “Very well.”
Lin Zhuo was quite surprised. Had Fu Baizhou heard him trying every possible way to distance himself in the past, he definitely would have thrown a clinging, relentless tantrum.
“I will stay in the dorms with you. It works out well since my shift at the coffee shop starts very early.”
No wonder he had agreed so readily; it turned out he had completely missed the other implications hidden behind those words.
Lin Zhuo asked him, “Then where are you going to live?”
Fu Baizhou came to a halt, his voice instantly dropping several degrees lower in chill. “Does Yazhuo want to live with other people?”
Ever since Lin Zhuo entered the university, Fu Baizhou could clearly sense that the attention directed toward him had diminished significantly.
He disliked seeing Lin Zhuo cast his gaze upon anyone else.
Especially when Lin Zhuo brought those two women along to have dinner with him; that wave of displeasure had come very close to drowning out his reason.
The golden glow of the setting twilight softened even Fu Baizhou’s stern, sharp facial features.
Having spent a few months together, Lin Zhuo could roughly guess why Fu Baizhou was unhappy, but he was not the man’s personal possession. The moment he showed even the slightest inclination to resist, Fu Baizhou would lose his mind.
Lin Zhuo had grown accustomed to yielding; after all, for him, avoiding trouble was better than creating it.
He did not want to provoke Fu Baizhou right here; angering him served absolutely no purpose.
“That is not what I meant. Let us discuss this issue tonight, alright?”
Before Fu Baizhou could reply, Lin Zhuo added, “I am heading back to the classroom, and you should head back too.”
With that, regardless of how Fu Baizhou might react, Lin Zhuo quickened his pace toward the academic building.
Perhaps it was because Fu Baizhou had acted so harmlessly over the past period that he had mistakenly believed meaningful communication with him was actually possible.
Reality, however, slapped him hard across the face.
Lin Zhuo could not figure out what kind of feelings Fu Baizhou held for him; calling it love felt far too superficial.
It was also impossible for the man to have fallen in love with him in such a cliche manner simply because he had saved his life once.
He kept turning this matter over in his mind, and until class ended, he still had not figured out the nature of Fu Baizhou’s feelings toward him.
Why not just ask Fu Baizhou directly what he was thinking?
Stepping out of the school gates, Lin Zhuo spotted Fu Baizhou waiting for him in the exact same spot as yesterday.
He walked over toward him.
“I have a question I want to ask you.”
Pulling Fu Baizhou’s hand into the car, Lin Zhuo hesitated after a brief internal struggle and finally spoke up. “Fu Baizhou, what are your feelings for me?”
Without a shred of hesitation, and with a gaze carrying the innocence of a child, Fu Baizhou replied, “You are my wife.”
Lin Zhuo pressed further. “Then why do you think I am your wife?”
This question had plagued Lin Zhuo for a long time. He had wanted to ask it earlier: why had Fu Baizhou called him wife the moment he opened his eyes, when he clearly understood that same-sex relationships were different from heterosexual ones.
To him, Fu Baizhou’s behavior defied the natural attributes of living creatures.
Fu Baizhou’s gaze gradually grew vacant and unfocused, his soul appearing as though it had detached from his body. After about a minute, he spoke. “I am not clear.”
Was he genuinely clueless, or was he just pretending?
Yet Lin Zhuo could not read any trace of deception in his eyes.
Lin Zhuo let out a sigh. Why was he bothering to argue with a blockhead? “I will ask my aunt about staying in the dorms. We will see if we can get arranged together; if not, then I just will not stay on campus.”
Remaining silent, Fu Baizhou tightened his grip on the steering wheel. His eyes, fixed straight ahead on the road, reflected the glittering neon lights while a layer of gloom veiled his gaze.
It seemed even Fu Baizhou himself did not know why Lin Zhuo was his wife.
Amidst his missing memories, everything he did was driven purely by an instinctive urge to draw close.
Lin Zhuo possessed an innate, irresistible attraction for him.
The entire ride home was wrapped in a relative silence.
Upon arriving home, Lin Zhuo received a message from He Hongdou, inviting him to go out and hang out together over the weekend.
As he was typing out his reply, a voice suddenly sounded right beside his ear. “Does my wife like her that much?”