The voice was far too familiar. Even with a bit less of the steadiness of later years and a bit more of a young man’s crispness, Sui Mi recognized it in an instant.
She turned her head to look.
Sure enough—it was her almost-ex-husband Xi Jianbai… in his youthful form.
Thick brows, light eyes, a straight nose and thin lips. Warm sunlight streamed through the glass window, gilding the tips of his long, dense lashes, yet it couldn’t brighten those cool, aloof, pale eyes.
He seemed entirely oblivious to the tense, confrontational atmosphere in the office.
After knocking, his gaze swept casually past Sui Mi.
Then it moved on, landing on the counselor, who hadn’t had time to wipe the ferocity off his face.
As if nothing were wrong, he asked, ”Teacher Liu, should I put it on your desk?”
The counselor’s face twitched. He awkwardly and stiffly retracted the arm he’d reached out to grab her with, and upon recognizing who it was, no longer bothered with the uncooperative Sui Mi.
He straightened up and forced out a friendly smile. “Just put it on the desk.”
Then, feigning familiarity, he joked, “Your Teacher Wang has really changed—she’s actually willing to send you out on errands now?”
Xi Jianbai stepped inside and placed the few thin sheets of the schedule on the corner of the desk.
He replied flatly, “I happened to be nearby. It was on the way.”
On the way?
The Biomedical Engineering Department’s office was downstairs—how could that possibly be on the way to the Art Academy?
He’s probably just trying to curry favor with the teachers, the counselor thought, having found his explanation. He muttered to himself: everyone said Xi Jianbai was cold, but isn’t he quite the smooth operator?
Though they weren’t in the same college, they shared the same administrative building, and from occasional chats, who hadn’t heard that the Biomedical Engineering Department had produced a genius student?
Not long into his freshman year, he’d been handpicked by a professor to join the Laboratory. In his junior year, he published his first patent.
And not just one with an impressive-sounding name—a real one, genuinely ready for market use.
The counselor couldn’t make sense of the complicated technical terms; all he remembered was something about “cells” and “gene sequencing.”
Supposedly it was a small technique improved to achieve some kind of near-perfect amplification, with a huge market, attracting quite a few pharmaceutical companies to purchase usage licenses.
So young, and who knew how much in patent fees he’d already collected.
Only in his senior year, and he was already preparing to start his own company.
Even at Jing University, where geniuses gathered, Xi Jianbai was absolutely among the very top.
This was the legendary kind of future so bright it blinded you!
The counselor had spent half his life scrambling for advantages, so of course he wouldn’t miss this chance to build connections with a student destined for great things and get his face remembered.
He pretended to leaf through the basketball tournament schedule, chatting awkwardly with a chuckle.
“The tournament’s your college’s game. You’re not playing?”
“Right.”
“I heard you have another patent in the application process? Truly a hero emerging from youth! If only all our Jing University students were as promising as you!”
“Mm.”
“How’s your company coming along? Still going smoothly? If you’re hiring in the future, you could consider students from our college too—no sense letting the good water flow to outsiders’ fields!”
“Oh.”
Leaning back in her chair, Sui Mi listened to Xi Jianbai’s utterly undisguised perfunctory replies and nearly burst out laughing.
She tilted her head, studying her almost-ex-husband’s profile with great interest.
From this angle, the light traced his long lashes and straight nose, his jawline especially sharp and clean.
Though still young, he already carried a hint of that future aloof, composed air of his… Huh?
Sui Mi suddenly sat up a little straighter.
A memory stirred, triggered by the overlapping angle of the scene.
She finally remembered—it had been the same in her past life.
While the counselor Liu Yang was droning on and on, Xi Jianbai knocked and came in.
He said he had business and called Liu Yang away.
Sui Mi, of course, had no intention of patiently waiting for anyone to come back.
The moment Liu Yang stepped out, she rose and left too, making a phone call straight up the chain to report both Liu Yang and Director Sun.
The next time she heard news of them, the two of them—along with everyone else implicated in their collusive dealings—had been thrown behind bars, and the students they had oppressed received compensation.
Everything was perfect.
Sui Mi was puzzled for only a moment—
When senior college officials made mistakes like this, the usual practice, to avoid damaging public opinion, was to suppress the matter and handle compensation quietly behind the scenes. How had it escalated all the way to prison?
“…”
As she pondered, the phone resting on her knee rang.
It was a return call from the one she had dialed just moments ago without getting through.
Sui Mi glanced at the screen.
Just as the counselor instinctively looked over, she unhurriedly swiped to answer, a sweet smile spreading across her upturned face.
“Auntie Lin, it’s me, Sui Mi.”
The sudden hush in the room, and the not-so-great distance, were more than enough for the counselor to see the name lit up on the screen and hear the hearty female voice on the other end—no longer stern at all.
Familiar yet utterly unbelievable: Lin Yuanshan, Dean of the College of Fine Arts.
“Xiao Mi, why are you calling me? Is there something you need?” Lin Yuanshan, usually so stern and unsmiling, now spoke with warm affection brimming with laughter.
Facing the counselor’s horrified expression, Sui Mi’s lips curved as she spoke with effortless ease.
“There is indeed one thing.”
“Dean Lin, I would like to report Department Head Sun Honghai of the college and Liu Yang, counselor for the class of 2X, for abusing their positions and colluding together—long exploiting their authority, using threats, inducements, and other means to force students into ‘voluntarily’ giving up their competition slots and award eligibility.”
“I have a half-hour-long recording on my phone of Liu Yang threatening me, and I also have an eyewitness right here who saw Liu Yang try to snatch my phone.”
As she finished, Sui Mi turned her gaze toward Xi Jianbai.
Her delicate brows knitted slightly, her tone soft and aggrieved. “Classmate, would you be willing to testify for me?”
As she spoke, she eagerly raised the still-connected phone and held it up before his eyes.
Her upturned face was soft and fair, her almond eyes round, the corners drooping slightly. With her long lashes blinking away and her dark, clear irises, whatever expression she made carried an air of pure innocence and sweetness.
“…”
Xi Jianbai was silent for two seconds, his gaze colliding with those almond eyes that showed not a trace of grievance—only utter self-assurance.
His Adam’s apple bobbed slowly.
He looked away and took the phone.
“Mm.”
Xi Jianbai said in a low voice, “I’m willing.”
Lin Yuanshan abandoned the vice dean at the student council event and hurried back herself.
Liu Yang and another administrative teacher had already been forcibly pressed into their chairs by security guards Lin Yuanshan had summoned. Knowing disaster had struck, cold sweat poured down their foreheads as they looked at Sui Mi, still trying to argue and plead.
“This was all for your own good, you know…”
“Threats and coercion were for my own good?”
Sui Mi gave a soft laugh, tilting her chin up slightly and gesturing toward the window.
“That building over there? Our family donated it.”
“Teacher, if you really wanted to be good to me, you’d give me a building.”
Liu Yang’s face turned green and white by turns, his mouth opening and closing weakly before he finally managed to squeeze out, “Sui… Sui… you’re from the Sui family…”
He stared, unable to figure it out no matter how he thought about it—why would a young lady of such status and background insist on pretending to be an ordinary student and blending into the crowd? Why not announce her identity the moment she walked in? Why wait until he had spoken so absolutely before leisurely making that phone call…
To the point that he had kicked an iron plate, hard.
Sui Mi had nothing to say to this kind of person.
He didn’t know he was wrong—he only knew he was finished.
Turning her head, she met Xi Jianbai’s gaze by the door.
The young man’s brows were drawn, looking pensive, lost in who knew what thoughts.
Sui Mi rummaged in her pocket and fished out a few pieces of candy.
…If only she’d had a piece of candy in her mouth back before her rebirth.
Thinking of her picture-book career and free life, gone never to return, Sui Mi couldn’t help wanting to sigh.
Drooping-eyed, she tore open the wrapper and popped a peach-flavored gummy into her mouth.
Then she held the bag out to Xi Jianbai, cheeks puffed, and asked, “Want some candy?”
A few glittering sugar grains clung to her soft red lips before she licked them away, leaving only a faint dampness like flower petals after a rolling boil.
Xi Jianbai paused a moment before withdrawing his gaze and taking one.
Eyes lowered, his slender bamboo-like fingers tore open the candy wrapper, then—ever so methodically—folded it back up, pressed it into a tiny square, and dropped it into the trash bin beside the desk.
Sui Mi watched with her head tilted, biting the gummy open between her teeth, fresh fruit filling oozing out.
She sighed silently. So the stiff man’s past self had been a little stiff too.
If there was any benefit to being reborn—
This time, she probably wouldn’t end up marrying Xi Jianbai and then divorcing him.
Sui Mi didn’t dislike Xi Jianbai.
Aside from their life as a married couple, she had actually gotten along with him quite well.
…All right, even as for their married life, she’d been quite satisfied with Xi Jianbai’s… attributes.
If possible, being friends would be nice too.
With that thought, Sui Mi simply leaned over.
Her long lashes fluttered and lifted, revealing bright, smiling eyes.
She waved her phone.
“Let’s add each other on WeChat. Thanks for backing me up.”
For some reason, on Xi Jianbai’s calm, untroubled face there appeared again a subtle frown—like endurance, or restraint.
His chest rose and fell slightly; his Adam’s apple rolled slowly.
After one difficult swallow, he finally took out his phone, expression cold.
Beep—the code scanned.
Sui Mi watched the contact card pop up on her phone while, practiced and smooth, backing away to a safe distance.
Didn’t like getting close, didn’t like physical contact, hm?
She understood.
In her past life, as his wife, Xi Jianbai had barely tolerated her closeness.
Now they were merely strangers and schoolmates—his not directly pulling away was already very polite.
Xi Jianbai’s WeChat profile picture was a vast expanse of white.
Only when Sui Mi enlarged it did she realize it was a pristine snowy field.
In one corner, someone had built a little snowman.
Palm-sized, the snowman had two round black pebbles for eyes and two twigs stuck in for arms.
It even wore, quite convincingly, a doll’s little scarf.
The image had been blurred; only the general shape was visible, no details.
Sui Mi studied art, and after a couple of extra glances, her brain reflexively filled in the details.
No telling whether it was an image from the internet, or a snowman Xi Jianbai had built and photographed himself.
Come to think of it, it looked a bit like the little snowman she remembered building while playing in the snow on the sports field.
She’d even posted it to her Moments back then…
“Ding—”
The elevator’s arrival chime rang crisply.
Lin Yuanshan’s figure appeared in the open elevator car, striding over with a grim face.
Sui Mi’s attention was diverted. She pocketed her phone and went to meet Lin Yuanshan.
And so she didn’t see how, beside her, the fingers Xi Jianbai had unconsciously tensed ever since she’d tapped on that profile picture slowly relaxed.
With the dean’s arrival, there was finally someone in charge.
Sui Mi sent Lin Yuanshan a copy of the recording file on her phone.
Xi Jianbai clearly and articulately served as a witness.
Everything that followed was left to Lin Yuanshan to handle.
Sui Mi returned to her dorm, gave her roommates vague, perfunctory answers to their questions, grabbed her clothes, and headed for the shower.
She was used to being lazy—on normal days, if she could lie down, she absolutely would not sit.
From handing over the divorce agreement before her rebirth to today’s whole ordeal, she’d managed to hold herself together with ease while out in public, but the moment she entered a relatively private space, she felt as if her battery had instantly drained to a single bar—she barely had the strength to speak.
Sui Mi took a quick hot shower, then burrowed into her blankets still wreathed in a thin layer of steam.
The mattress was soft, and the comforter must have been sunned recently—fluffy, with a faint fresh scent.
With the blackout curtain drawn, it became a safe, enclosed little space.
Sui Mi relaxed completely, nuzzled her soft cheek against the pillow, and closed her eyes, clinging to a sliver of hope that maybe this was all just a dream and she’d wake up back where she’d been.
Going back was probably impossible.
But Sui Mi did have a dream.
She knew it was a dream because she was standing in that office from the afternoon—yet everyone else had vanished.
Only she remained, and Xi Jianbai, a single step away, gazing down at her.
The whole world seemed unnaturally still.
Hazy daylight poured through the glass windows, tracing a ring of downy light around her outstretched, pale fingers.
A light-purple gummy candy dusted with sugar was resting in her white palm.
Sui Mi was still a bit dazed, blinking blankly.
The next second.
Xi Jianbai lowered his head, his thin lips brushing featherlight across her palm, and took the candy away.
A faint breath, warm lips—a touch, then gone.
Like some newborn, tender fledgling feather, brushing gently past.
Or like a snowflake drifting down, melting away before it could be felt.
Leaving behind only a startlingly sensitive, ticklish tingling.
Sui Mi had always been ticklish.
She instinctively curled her fingers, lashes fluttering hastily, staring blankly at Xi Jianbai, so close she could touch him.
He held the gummy candy loosely between his teeth, his pale lips glistening faintly.
Bent forward with his eyes lifted, his light-colored irises were steeped entirely in the daylight—it should have felt warm, yet his gaze was so unblinkingly direct that it inexplicably sent a shiver down her spine, an eerie sense of being marked by something.
Sui Mi’s heart pounded. She opened her mouth to call out, “Xi—”
Before the word could finish.
Xi Jianbai abruptly tilted his head, closed in, gripped her cheek with long fingers, and kissed her hard.