There are only two things in this world that can truly captivate a man's interest: women and luxury cars. With women out of the way, Li Qiang became deeply interested in Zhou Yuwen's new BMW. He didn’t hide his desire to ride in Zhou Yuwen’s convertible, and even Chang Hao, who initially had a hostile attitude, suddenly became much more agreeable. This was because he too fantasized about maintaining a friendship with Zhou Yuwen, hoping that one day he might get to ride in that convertible—or better yet, maybe Zhou Yuwen would even let him drive it.
Li Qiang had just mentioned with a big grin, "Zhou, now that our dorm has a car, you can drive us to and from class every day with the top down. How cool would that be?"
It wasn’t just Li Qiang who liked the idea; even Chang Hao loved the thought of it. He couldn’t bear the idea of falling out with Zhou Yuwen and then having to watch him drive Li Qiang and Lu Yuhang to class without him. However, they were clearly overthinking it. Zhou Yuwen was planning to buy a house and move out during the National Day holiday, so he just smiled at their comments without confirming or denying anything, and simply said, "It’s getting late; let’s get some rest."
After saying this, Zhou Yuwen did a quick wash-up, turned off the lights, and went to bed.
Li Qiang was particularly enthusiastic toward Zhou Yuwen that day, with a lot of flattery in his words, though his attempts at flattery were not very skilled and were obvious to everyone. Zhou Yuwen was certainly not interested in Li Qiang’s attempts to butter him up, so after a while, he finally said, "Enough, Li Qiang. I’m tired."
"Oh," Li Qiang mumbled, finally stopping.
But even though it was the first night of the holiday, sleep eluded him. Lying in bed and staring at the ceiling, Li Qiang couldn’t help but envy Zhou Yuwen. He thought, If only I were Zhou, handsome and rich. Then I could drive a convertible and take Lu Lin for a spin.
Thinking about Lu Lin, Li Qiang couldn’t resist checking his phone again to see if she had replied to his messages. But, unfortunately, there was still no response from her. Unable to hold back, Li Qiang sent another message:
"Linlin, I was just chatting with Zhou. I asked him to lend me his car so I could take you for a drive. How about that? (Grinning emoji)"
He knew he couldn’t actually do it, especially since he didn’t even have a driver’s license. But if Lu Lin agreed, Li Qiang was prepared to pester Zhou Yuwen until he got to borrow the car. Unfortunately, this message also received no reply. Eventually, Li Qiang drifted off to sleep while waiting for a response.
Meanwhile, Zhou Yuwen was still chatting with Zheng Yanyan.
Zheng Yanyan was clingier than Zhou Yuwen had anticipated. In truth, before he started dating her, Zhou Yuwen had thought about it a lot. After all, with so many girls pursuing him, he wasn’t a saint—he definitely wanted to be in a relationship. His first choice had been Shen Yu, but he thought that someone as perfectionistic as Shen Yu would be exhausting to be with. Zheng Yanyan, on the other hand, seemed like the better fit.
Although it felt a bit wrong toward Chang Hao, what Zhou Yuwen appreciated about Zheng Yanyan was her carefree nature. He remembered how, in his previous life, Zheng Yanyan had often treated Chang Hao poorly. If she ignored Chang Hao for even a little while, he would become anxious. Zhou Yuwen still recalled a moment in their sophomore year when Chang Hao called Zheng Yanyan to ask why she hadn’t replied to his WeChat messages. Her response had been, "Why should I reply to you? What’s our relationship?"
Zheng Yanyan had been straightforward in her previous life, never wasting words with Chang Hao. Yet, Chang Hao seemed to thrive on this treatment, foolishly laughing and saying, "Yanyan, do we even need to define our relationship?"
Because of Chang Hao’s persistent and clingy nature, Zheng Yanyan had told him, "Chang Hao, even if you were my boyfriend, I believe couples should have their own personal space. What do you do all day? I can’t stand guys who do nothing but stare at their phones."
The dorm had been quiet when Zheng Yanyan said those words, and Zhou Yuwen heard it all clearly. He had genuinely felt sorry for Chang Hao. After his rebirth, Zhou Yuwen reflected on those events and thought that dating Zheng Yanyan might actually be suitable. He had imagined their relationship as one of mutual agreement before and moving on easily afterward.
However, the current situation was becoming more complicated than Zhou Yuwen had expected. Zheng Yanyan turned out to be just an ordinary girl, always clinging to him. She would even send him cute emojis and take her phone with her to the bathroom. But this wasn’t the kind of relationship Zhou Yuwen wanted. According to Zheng Yanyan, they wouldn’t progress to a more intimate relationship until after three months, which meant Zhou Yuwen would have to endure this for three months. Who could stand that?
Moreover, Zheng Yanyan seemed to love gossiping about her dormmates, like what Su Qing had done earlier. She even instructed Zhou Yuwen to keep his distance from Su Qing, saying she would get jealous. Zhou Yuwen agreed, but he wondered if Zheng Yanyan would eventually turn into another Su Qing. He felt as if he might end up trapped by the girls in Su Qing’s dorm.
Zheng Yanyan said a lot of things, and Zhou Yuwen only responded with a single sentence, "Baby, what are you up to?" This made Zheng Yanyan a bit unhappy, and she asked him, "What were you doing just now?"
"Just getting ready for bed after washing up," Zhou Yuwen replied, making up an excuse.
"Oh."
This answer seemed satisfactory but wasn’t entirely fulfilling. Girls are always sensitive, and although Zhou Yuwen was doing his best to stay engaged with Zheng Yanyan, she felt that ever since she rejected his advances earlier that evening, he had become distant. She also realized she had said something wrong earlier—she had directly messaged Zhou Yuwen on WeChat, saying that if he dared to abandon her, she would ruin him. The more she thought about it, the more she felt that her words had been too harsh, as if she had torn off her mask. She worried that Zhou Yuwen now saw her as too aggressive.
Is he thinking about how to break up with me now? she wondered. Watching Zhou Yuwen’s lukewarm responses, Zheng Yanyan became increasingly convinced this might be the case. To reassure herself, she kept sending him messages to test his reaction, needing constant reassurance from him to feel secure.
Eventually, they ran out of things to talk about, but Zheng Yanyan’s body had already been stirred by Zhou Yuwen. Just thinking about what had happened earlier made her feel weak all over. She sent Zhou Yuwen a message:
"It’s all your fault (pouty face)."
"?" Zhou Yuwen replied with a question mark.
Zheng Yanyan sent back a huffy emoji and said, "How could you even ask?"
Seeing this message, Zhou Yuwen couldn’t help but smile and replied, "Well, tell me, did you enjoy it or not?"
"What do you think?"
"I think you enjoyed it."
"You’re so annoying!"
The quiet of the night really lent itself to flirting. Zhou Yuwen had already been tempted earlier, and now Zheng Yanyan was talking about such things again, just to tease him.
After a while, when Zhou Yuwen didn’t respond, Zheng Yanyan asked curiously, "Why aren’t you saying anything?"
"Just watching a video," Zhou Yuwen casually replied, thinking it was a normal response.
But Zheng Yanyan wasn’t happy about it. "Is the video more interesting than me?"
"..."
"Say something."
"Well, you’re not showing me anything."
"You’re bad."
Zhou Yuwen sent a grinning emoji and then fell silent again. For a thirty-year-old man, constantly chatting with a young girl was starting to feel like a chore. But Zheng Yanyan was feeling particularly lonely at that moment. Although she hadn’t given in to Zhou Yuwen earlier, it didn’t mean her body didn’t crave him. Even now, lying in bed, she couldn’t help but wish Zhou Yuwen were holding her, letting her lie in his arms while they played on their phones together. How happy that would be.
Zheng Yanyan wondered if three months might be too long—maybe two months would be better. Right now, she really wanted to be in Zhou Yuwen’s arms, feeling his touch.
The dorm was quiet, and the faint lights from the other beds had all gone out, indicating that everyone else had fallen asleep. But Zheng Yanyan couldn’t sleep at all. She wasn’t lying when she said she felt itchy, but unfortunately, Zhou Yuwen wasn’t there with her. Why did that feeling have to be so pleasant?
As she thought about being with Zhou Yuwen, her breathing became unsteady. On impulse, she let one strap of her nightgown slip off her shoulder.
Zheng Yanyan couldn't help but scold herself, "Zheng Yanyan! You're so shameless!" Tears welled up in her eyes as she realized what she was thinking about Zhou Yuwen. She opened the front camera on her phone and looked at herself. Although the dorm room lights were off, the faint moonlight from outside softly illuminated her figure, giving her a mysterious, half-revealed look.
Not bad, she thought, admiring how pretty she looked in this dim light. People always said Shen Yu had a great figure, but Zheng Yanyan felt that hers wasn’t bad either. In fact, in this soft, shadowy light, her body seemed nearly perfect.
It should be fine to show my boyfriend, right? After all, he had seen her before. Acting on impulse, Zheng Yanyan took a photo and sent it to Zhou Yuwen.
Immediately after sending it, she felt a wave of embarrassment wash over her. She quickly covered her face with her hands, thinking, I’m getting more and more shameless.