When class let out at noon, the crowd surged out of the classroom, streaming toward the takeout pickup points, the school gate, and the cafeteria.
The newly opened dry pot chicken stall was doing brisk business, as expected.
College students have the utmost respect for cheap, tasty food—they’ll even queue for it!
Qin Shuangshuang dragged Wen Tian off to wait in line.
Sui Mi pulled some wet wipes from her bag and handed one to Yu Qingxian, and the two of them gave the cafeteria table a quick wipe-down.
They had barely sat down and exchanged a few words when Yu Qingxian suddenly tilted her head slightly, glancing at something behind Sui Mi, then quickly looked away, pressing her lips together in a faint smile.
“Someone’s here to see you.”
Sui Mi: ”?”
Before she could react, there was a faint squeak of sneakers against the floor, and a figure dashed to her side like the wind.
A male voice, full of pleasant surprise: “Sui Mi, what a coincidence! You guys eating at Cafeteria One too?”
Sui Mi was half a beat slow, then turned to look.
Standing beside her was a boy in a basketball jersey with handsome, well-defined features, smiling brightly.
“What are you having—dry pot chicken?”
The boy greeted them familiarly, and when Yu Qingxian nodded, he immediately said, “I’ve had it. It’s pretty good, but it gets a bit salty toward the end.”
“I remember you like lighter food.”
The boy stole a glance at Sui Mi, and when he met her clear, dark almond eyes, he scratched his reddening ear and unconsciously sped up his speech.
“I’ll go buy you a bottle of milk—wait for me.”
With that, he bolted off just as fast as he’d come, racing toward the self-service vending machine by the wall.
He nearly crashed into Qin Shuangshuang, who was returning with her food tray.
Qin Shuangshuang sidestepped, didn’t get a good look at him, and grumbled as she set down her tray, “What kind of blind giant rat just scurried past?”
Yu Qingxian said, “That was Guan Teng.”
Qin Shuangshuang immediately swallowed her complaints and drew out her voice: “Ohhh—”
She grinned at Sui Mi. “So it’s that junior from the Computer Science department!”
“…”
Only after Yu Qingxian and Qin Shuangshuang mentioned the boy’s information did Sui Mi belatedly remember him.
Guan Teng, a freshman in the School of Computer Science, had pursued her for quite a while back in college.
Cheerful and enthusiastic, with a pair of eager puppy-dog eyes, he was brimming with vitality from head to toe.
Sui Mi was beautiful—a small, fair face with delicate features. On the day she reported to Jing University, dressed in loose, casual clothes with her hair casually tied in a low ponytail, someone had snapped a photo of her while she was bent over writing her name on the registration form and submitted it to the confession wall.
Throughout her four years of college, plenty of people had pursued her.
They came in a line, and they left in a line.
Guan Teng was one of the more persistent ones.
There was no helping it—Sui Mi was simply hard to chase.
Her family was well-off, so little gifts and small bouquets couldn’t win her over.
She was also lazy by nature. Ask her out, and outdoor activities felt too sunny, indoor activities felt stuffy; she was picky about restaurants and movies, and if your taste didn’t match hers, you’d never see her again…
Most boys only wanted to pursue her because she was pretty, and they’d fail at the very first hurdle—their own looks.
As for Guan Teng.
Sui Mi thought about it. The reason she’d decided to reject him completely back then was probably because he was also one of those high-energy people.
Like a big golden retriever.
He needed a good long run every day, and if the dog didn’t get walked, the dog would turn around and tear the house apart.
With Sui Mi’s personality—lie down wherever she went—she simply couldn’t handle that.
…Strange.
She had used the word “also.”
Xi Jianbai was the king of overachievers among overachievers—how could anyone spend time with him without feeling exhausted?
As Sui Mi thought this, she stood up, intending to go stop Guan Teng from buying something.
She’d barely taken two steps.
She stopped abruptly.
Beside the vending machine was a glass window that hadn’t been wiped in a while, covered in a faint film of grease and dust, as if a hazy filter had been applied.
If she hadn’t happened to look over, she never would have noticed—at some point, someone had appeared outside the window.
Tall and straight-backed, as he turned his head, the light cut across him at an angle, tracing the deep, cold lines of his features.
His brows and eyes were lowered, long lashes casting dark shadows over pale irises, as sharp and frigid as ice over snow.
He had been quietly watching the boy in front of the vending machine, thin lips curved in the faintest suggestion of a smile.
Those indifferent eyes devoid of any warmth, paired with that subtle curve, seen through the not-quite-clear glass—though he stood in sunlight, he gave off a ghostly, chilling air.
He noticed Sui Mi standing up.
His pale eyes shifted, slowly moving his gaze to her.
In the blink of an eye, the young man gave her a slight nod, his expression still calm and distant.
As if it had been an illusion.
Sui Mi froze for a few seconds, but before she could look more closely, her view was filled by Guan Teng turning around with the milk in hand.
Seeing that she had followed him, Guan Teng looked rather flattered.
He flashed a mouthful of white teeth, grinning brilliantly. “You could’ve just stayed seated. I would’ve brought it over to you.”
“No need.”
Sui Mi answered hurriedly, unconsciously stepping aside, her gaze returning to that glass window.
Outside there was only foliage swaying gently in the breeze.
Xi Jianbai was nowhere to be seen.
In the end, Sui Mi accepted the bottle of milk.
Not only because she didn’t want to tussle with Guan Teng over a bottle of milk in a crowded place like the cafeteria.
But also because Xi Jianbai’s sudden appearance reminded her of something.
Before her rebirth, she had been about to divorce Xi Jianbai.
But it wasn’t because the marriage itself had problems.
On the contrary, Sui Mi had been quite comfortable in that marriage.
With her parents as an example—a business marriage that turned into love after wedlock— and her own experience of mutual respect with Xi Jianbai—
Sui Mi wasn’t averse to marriage.
In that case, rather than Xi Jianbai—introduced by her parents, met through an arranged date, only learning later that they’d been schoolmates—perhaps, starting from now, she could carefully select someone herself?
Sui Mi’s standards weren’t high.
The basics: tall and handsome, sufficiently considerate and respectful.
He had to have his own career, because she didn’t like clingy partners.
Good physique, ideally matching her tastes.
Like… like in her dream last night.
So Sui Mi sized Guan Teng up, her gaze sweeping thoughtfully over his solidly exposed arms until the boy’s ears turned bright red, before she curved her eyes in a smile and accepted the bottle of milk.
Guan Teng hurried off excitedly to rejoin his friends.
Sui Mi sat down, and the moment she looked up, she met her roommates’ gossipy, curious stares.
Qin Shuangshuang bit her chopsticks, utterly incapable of holding it in. “Are you and Guan Teng going to start dating?”
Before Sui Mi could figure out how to respond, she heard Qin Shuangshuang ask, “But didn’t you say you liked the cold, aloof type?”
Sui Mi: “?”
Sui Mi: “When did I say that?”
Qin Shuangshuang tried hard to remember, her brows scrunching into a knot.
It was Wen Tian, leisurely wiping her chopsticks beside her, who spoke first. “In the comments under that confession wall post from registration day.”
“He said he was in the same graduating class as you in high school, and that he witnessed it with his own eyes—some boy blocked your path on the way to the cafeteria and made a big, flashy confession.”
“You said you didn’t like talkative guys, only the cold and aloof type—preferably one who wouldn’t make a sound even if you slapped him across the face.”
Sui Mi: “…”