Summer never misses its appointment.
It was another year’s opening season for school. When she went out to pick up a delivery, the campus began to fill with many fresh faces — young and youthful, brimming with curiosity and observation toward their new life.
Song Shiyue and her two roommates walked out of the school gate, crossed the road, and arrived at the delivery point. Just then they saw several boys from Beihang University’s Flight Academy in uniform passing right in front of them.
Bai Jia got so excited she let out a loud “ao ao” and slapped their hands, practically drooling. “Mmm mmm, look ahead — there are handsome guys.”
“Ah ah ah, the third one on the right! That waist, those legs — absolutely perfect!”
Her infatuated look was too obvious. Xu Mi, afraid of embarrassment, quickly covered her mouth and pulled her toward the other side.
“Keep your voice down. What if they hear you?”
“So what if they hear… I could just take the chance to strike up a conversation and ask for their contact info.” Bai Jia retorted righteously. The socially anxious beauty Xu Mi was so scared she kept patting her own chest, while Song Shiyue alone stayed silent, smiling quietly from beginning to end.
Bai Jia looked at her, thought of something, and her eyes rolled with a new idea.
“Hey! Shiyue, didn’t you have a high school classmate at Beihang?! Can’t you ask him to call a few friends and organize a group meet-up, hehe hehe…”
Song Shiyue’s expression froze. Her constant smiling mask cracked, and a helpless look exactly like Xu Mi’s from earlier appeared on her face. She lowered her head and pressed her forehead.
“I… I’m not that close with him.”
The person Bai Jia was referring to was Peng Jia, the male classmate who had confessed to her in the corridor on the night of the high school graduation dinner.
Although she had clearly turned him down at the time, after they both started university and registered, they were now in the same city. The two schools happened to face each other directly across the street and were very close.
He had come looking for her in the very first week of school. It was just after dusk. She had just washed her hair in the dorm and was about to go out for dinner with her two roommates.
The gatekeeper’s office called their dorm phone to say someone was waiting for her at the school entrance.
Foreign Affairs College normally did not allow outsiders inside the campus; visitors had to register. Every dorm had a phone, and the gatekeeper helped pass on messages.
Bai Jia happened to pick up the call. Since they were about to go eat anyway, the three of them walked toward the gate together. From far away they could already see a boy standing at the entrance.
He was tall, with well-proportioned and upright posture, fair skin, and features that looked quite good at first glance.
Bai Jia could not hold back her gossiping excitement and immediately shook Song Shiyue’s hand. “Handsome guy! It’s a handsome guy!!”
After their secret excitement, the three had already walked up to him. Peng Jia had spotted her early; his eyes lit up and he came forward.
“Class monitor.” Under the sunlight he turned back into that shy male classmate. Not knowing how to address her, he used the same title from their high school days.
“What a coincidence — our school is right across the street.”
The greeting was full of holes and so obviously forced that Bai Jia and Xu Mi could no longer hold in their laughter and burst into giggles.
Peng Jia’s face turned red again and again.
In the end the four of them had dinner together. Peng Jia was shy but not afraid of socializing and could chat comfortably with Bai Jia and the others. He was simply too attentive the whole time — constantly moving dishes toward her and pouring water. Song Shiyue felt a little uncomfortable and only hoped the meal would end quickly.
When they parted at the end, she was so eager to leave that it probably showed too clearly. The boy noticed, lowered his eyes in disappointment, and did not say anything more.
After that they only contacted each other twice online.
All the goodwill and invitations he sent were politely refused by Song Shiyue one by one. The boy understood her attitude and, with good sense, never disturbed her again. He only occasionally liked her posts in Moments, and the two maintained a clear boundary between them.
Under this kind of relationship, Song Shiyue could not possibly take the initiative to contact him and suggest a group meet-up.
“I get it, I get it, we all get it.” Bai Jia teased. “He’s just a suitor, right? Aren’t there plenty of those at our school? If it were me, hehe hehe…”
“…If it were you, you’d still only be a keyboard warrior.” Xu Mi immediately rolled her eyes dramatically and exposed her. “Besides spending all day online shipping your CP, have you ever actually dated anyone in real life?”
“I… I just haven’t met the right person yet!” Bai Jia argued stubbornly, refusing to concede.
“Fine, fine, fine. I hope you meet someone before you graduate from university.”
“Xu Mi! Don’t curse me!”
The two of them almost started fighting right there on the street. The short distance from school to the delivery station was filled with their bickering all the way. Even after they returned to the dorm, the noise still had not stopped.
Compared with the surrounding universities, the Foreign Affairs College appeared especially small.
All the main places on campus — teaching buildings, dormitories, cafeteria, and so on — could be easily reached on foot. No other transportation tools were needed.
Because the annual admission numbers were small, the dormitories were also triple rooms with loft beds and desks underneath. Everyone had their own independent space.
During her entire freshman year, Song Shiyue adapted to university life very quickly. Her schedule was stable and regular.
Every day followed the rhythm of studying. She gradually expanded her knowledge. The school’s teachers and courses were all very professional. Unlike high school, where she absorbed content from all directions, here she only needed to focus on one thing.
English study and translation.
She had originally applied for the English Department Translation major. The basic courses in the first year were manageable. Besides the regular class learning, the school also had many outbound exchange activities. Every inch of life was filled to the brim.
Song Shiyue felt a familiar calm and fulfillment. Compared with the emotional ups and downs during her senior year of high school, her current state seemed to suit her better. This chapter was taken from novelping dot com without permission.
Back in the dorm, Bai Jia as expected lay on the bed and started browsing her latest new CP. She held fanfiction and read it with great relish, letting out infatuated giggles from time to time.
Song Shiyue sat at her desk, opened the computer, and continued a document translation.
Halfway through, she had an information point that needed checking. The search results on the internet pointed to a certain Q&A link, and the answer seemed to involve the message she needed to obtain.
She clicked in. The webpage prompted that login was required to view it. Song Shiyue hesitated for a few seconds but still entered her account.
She had not logged in for a long time. The backend private messages were piled with red dots. Countless private messages, @mentions, and comments. She did not dare to open them. She only hurriedly browsed the information she wanted and was about to click to log out.
During the mouse movement, she accidentally touched the red dot in the upper right corner by mistake.
The page directly jumped to the received comments.
Below were almost all analyses and follow-up questions. The one that jumped into her sight the most was straightforward and glaring.
【This classmate must have a secret crush on him, right?】
During the first semester of freshman year, Song Shiyue had just bought a computer. The dorm was connected to the internet, and she began browsing and using some newly developed online software.
This Q&A website had just become popular recently, with strong momentum.
She could not help browsing it for a while. Until one day, she accidentally came across a question.
【Has anyone been classmates with Zhu Xingyan? Can you tell us what he was like back in school?】
She did not know how, but as if possessed, she stopped her actions. The cursor stayed in the input box. Her brain detached from her body’s control, and she wrote the answer.
She only mentioned a very small thing about borrowing books. The description of Zhu Xingyan was also very restrained.
—like a star in the sky.
She thought her wording would not attract too much attention. Who knew that once the answer was posted, it immediately shot to the top of the hot list. Many unfamiliar netizens began asking follow-up questions underneath. At first they were normal, but after she mentioned the book-borrowing incident, the next day when she opened the backend again, it had turned into a flood of comments.
Her hidden feelings had been pointed out by countless netizens in one sentence.
At that time she had been unaware and innocent. Looking back now, it was already obvious.
It was just that she had been too slow to realize. Only when they were about to part did she gradually sense her own feelings.
That brief heart flutter in that summer was like a brilliant firework — once it bloomed, it was over.
The CP Bai Jia had been shipping recently was quite unusual. It was Zhu Xingyan and another male celebrity, Chen Zhixun.
At first the two of them had played the male lead and male second lead in the same movie, with quite a few confrontational scenes. Chen Zhixun portrayed a young police officer who had just joined the force, while Zhu Xingyan was the suspect. The film’s scenes were dark, humid, and sultry. In a cramped little room the two of them fought and struggled against each other. Their bodies collided, sweat sliding down their cheeks in the chaotic violence.
Yet the two young faces were so beautiful they carried a dreamy, ornate allure, and the exposed muscles on their bodies looked youthful and delicately defined.
The slightly twisted fan Bai Jia fell into the pit right on the spot. She immediately went digging through their past variety shows and discovered that in their debut program the two had been teammates, eating and sleeping together every day with countless camera moments.
Bai Jia was thrilled. She dug for three whole days and nights, found countless fellow fans online, and joined every Tieba forum, super topic, and CP fan group without missing a single one. In an extremely short time she had even become a moderator and was clearly showing signs of becoming a leading figure.
In her early years she had taught herself video editing and photo manipulation just to ship CPs. Now that she had fallen for “Xing Zhi Zhu” — the CP name they had coined — she produced content even more vigorously, editing countless viral god-tier images and videos. Somehow the whole group was steadily growing bigger and stronger.
To this Bai Jia’s response was always —
“Can’t be helped. Who told Zhu Xingyan to have zero romance rumors these past few years? He barely even shares the screen with any female celebrities. Straight ships are impossible, so we can only take the indirect route to save the nation.”
A perfect indirect route to save the nation.
In the same dorm, Xu Mi — Zhu Xingyan’s dedicated solo fan — argued with her every day. Whenever the topic of Zhu Xingyan came up, the two of them were bound to quarrel. Song Shiyue, stuck in the middle, was always dragged out to act as judge. Innocently caught in the crossfire, she could only try to smooth things over.
“Alright, alright, I think both of you are fine. You just have different stances. I’m sure Zhu Xingyan would understand how much you both love him.”
The moment she brought up their idol, the two would immediately fall silent, glance at each other, fold their arms across their chests, and give a cold snort — achieving a brief peace.
Song Shiyue did not know whether it counted as coincidence that both of her roommates in the triple dorm were Zhu Xingyan fans. But given his meteoric rise in the previous few years and the sheer number of film awards he had collected by now, it did not seem all that unbelievable.
The year Death of the Startled Spring was released, it took the top spot at the box office. While it exploded in both popularity and critical acclaim, last year it swept almost every major domestic film award. With this movie Zhu Xingyan won the Best Actor award.
The less he appeared in public, the more fervent his fans’ love seemed to become. Every time he posted on Weibo, the traffic would explode in an extremely short time. The birthday support events every year were grand and enthusiastic, sweeping across the globe. Even the big screens in Times Square on the other side of the Pacific would repeatedly play footage of him.
Yet he grew increasingly low-key. When he was not filming, he would stay silent for months on end. Occasionally he would appear and share a vlog he had shot himself — either playing chess with an old man or traveling around the world.
Away from the spotlight, he lived like any ordinary person, enjoying the kind of life a twenty-year-old young man should have.
It was as though he had come to this world simply to experience it — being a star on one side while quietly filling the other half of his life that did not belong to the cameras.
During the National Day holiday period in October, Zhu Xingyan and Director Zhang Xunli’s new movie The Cliff was released.
The first premiere was held in the capital city. Xu Mi, being a local, had gone to great lengths to get two movie tickets from a friend’s older brother who worked in film promotion. He had some connections but not many; after all the calculations, he could only spare two tickets. Get faster updates on g.com.
In the dorm, Xu Mi looked full of guilt. She stared at the two of them with a troubled expression, unconsciously crumpling the tickets in her hand. The way she gripped them fully showed the inner conflict and pain she was feeling.
Beside her, Bai Jia’s eyes went straight. She swallowed unconsciously, completely dazzled by the two tickets.
These were premiere tickets for Zhu Xingyan’s movie! They could actually meet the main cast in person!! She had never seen Zhu Xingyan in real life before. In recent years he had appeared very rarely. Apart from movie promotions and brand events, he hardly showed up in public at all. Not to mention ordinary fans — even his most die-hard iron fans rarely got to see him once.
And now, right in front of her, the opportunity to meet him seemed within reach.
Her breathing grew light. She held it without realizing, not daring to utter a single extra word. The dorm fell into a heavy, dead silence. Before she could speak, Song Shiyue smiled as usual and said, “I happen to have something on that day, so I won’t go. You can give the ticket to Bai Jia. You two can go together.”
“Ah, no no no.” Bai Jia immediately refused firmly the moment she heard it. Although she was extremely tempted, she did not want to take advantage in such a way.
“These tickets are Xu Mi’s. If you really don’t want to go, how about we find a fair way to compete for them?” In the end, she only awkwardly suggested this.
Xu Mi’s expression grew even more conflicted.
Song Shiyue let out a soft laugh, her words sincere and frank. “I’m telling the truth. During National Day a friend from my hometown is coming to visit me. I can’t stand her up.”
“Besides, you two are his iron fans. I’m just an ordinary passerby who likes him.”
How did Song Shiyue end up being counted among Zhu Xingyan’s fans?
It started from an ordinary late-night dorm chat not long after school began.
They were talking about their favorite celebrities in the entertainment circle. Both roommates happened to name Zhu Xingyan at the same time. Then, full of excitement, they asked Song Shiyue, “Don’t tell me your favorite celebrity is also Zhu Xingyan?!”
She was stunned for a long moment. In the darkness, she silently nodded and curved her lips into a smile.
“Mm. The one I like is also Zhu Xingyan.”
Later, after Death of the Startled Spring won awards, during the media interview after the ceremony, the young man sat quietly in front of the camera.
When asked about the most memorable event from his high school years, he thought for a moment, slightly raised his face, and his eyes that looked toward the lens remained clear, black, and bright.
“During high school, I rarely attended classes at school. I only remember that the class monitor at the time was especially responsible. Every time there was homework or study materials, she would pass them on without missing anything.”
“Is she a girl?”
“Yes.”
“She is the only female classmate I remember from my three years of high school.”
“Wow, so are you two still in contact now?” The reporter immediately asked with interest.
The boy seemed to smile, yet perhaps he did not. He only lowered his eyelashes slightly, his voice soft and slow. “No. We lost contact after graduation.”
When they watched this video at the time, Bai Jia’s first reaction was that there must be something going on. Xu Mi calmly refuted her.
“If there really was something, how could they have lost contact?”
“Who could possibly not like Zhu Xingyan and be willing to lose contact with him?!” She questioned in a string of words with solid reasoning. Bai Jia could not help being convinced. After calming down and thinking carefully, she also agreed with this view.
“That’s true. As long as Zhu Xingyan had even the slightest intention, that girl would never have lost contact with him.”
“So there are only two possibilities. First, Zhu Xingyan only felt ordinary classmate affection toward her and remembered her because she was especially responsible. Second, that girl did not like him. Of course the second point is impossible.”
After Bai Jia’s thorough analysis, Xu Mi nodded repeatedly in agreement. When the two finished speaking they even felt as though Detective Conan had possessed them. They could not help raising their hands and giving each other a high-five.
Only after their passionate discussion ended did they notice Song Shiyue, who had stayed silent the whole time on the side. Bai Jia thought of something and could not help letting out an “eh.”
“Shiyue! Isn’t your hometown Fan City?! Was your high school far from the school Zhu Xingyan attended??!”
Song Shiyue came back to her senses, adjusted her emotions, and said to them with a straight face, “Actually I never told you two before, but in high school Zhu Xingyan and I were in the same class. The class monitor he just mentioned in the interview was me.”
“Hahahahahaha——”
Bai Jia and Xu Mi burst into loud laughter at the same time. The former could not resist reaching out to pinch her cheek and said affectionately, “Little Shiyue, you are really cute.”
Xu Mi also lovingly patted her head. “Shiyue, we know you like Zhu Xingyan. It’s okay. Everyone likes him and occasionally daydreams about it.”
“Everyone should keep their beautiful fantasies in their hearts. We won’t laugh at you.” Bai Jia followed up with a serious declaration.
Song Shiyue could only give a helpless bitter smile and did not try to explain. From then on, her fan status was firmly stamped with Zhu Xingyan’s name. At some point her roommates had silently accepted that she was a Zhu Xingyan fan and liked him without any reservations.
Song Shiyue’s usual behavior also fitted perfectly into this image.
She paid special attention to any news about Zhu Xingyan. Even though she normally had no interest in entertainment gossip, she would occasionally buy his merchandise. She would rewatch his films and television works repeatedly. Even when resting and listening to music, the songs playing in her earphones were always his singles.
No one had ever doubted this.
Until this day, when they heard Song Shiyue say in the dorm:
“Besides, you two are his iron fans. I’m just an ordinary passerby who likes him.”
“I won’t go. You two go see him for me.”