Liu Duanhe heard the stirring from the bed next to him, raised a hand to cover his eyes, and let out a silent sigh. The bed curtains were drawn tightly, so he had no idea what time it was. He turned his head and picked up his phone from the nightstand.
The screen’s light flickered on and off, casting his strikingly handsome features into a silent silhouette. His thick, curled lashes closed and opened again as he propped himself up on the bed and sat upright. 5:40, the sky should just be starting to lighten.
Feng Xingyun noticed the sound of Liu Duanhe getting up next door, leaned back against the headboard, and stared blankly at the tall, pajama-clad figure below with his dark, pitch-black eyes.
His voice still hoarse, he said, “Sorry, I woke you up again.”
The other two roommates always slept until seven. Liu Duanhe whispered, “It’s fine, it’s only a dozen or so minutes. Going down early for swim team training today means I can get in an extra couple of laps.”
He’d already missed half a month of training since being hospitalized. The end-of-semester swim team competitions for each college, as well as the National Collegiate Swimming Championships, were all coming up soon. Although Liu Duanhe had no intention of going professional, he was used to giving everything his all.
Even moving as quietly as he could, Liu Duanhe quickly changed clothes and packed his backpack. Since his second class of the morning was later, he brought his change of clothes along so he could swap them in the gym locker room before class.
It wasn’t until Liu Duanhe closed the door and his footsteps faded into the distance that Feng Xingyun’s pounding heart finally began to slow. He swallowed hard against his dry throat. The sound-activated hallway light flickered on, casting a slanted beam through the window in the door onto his face, his nose bridge and brow bone rising and falling like a mountain range.
Standing in the elevator, Liu Duanhe replied one by one to the various messages that had piled up from spending the whole day with Feng Xingyun yesterday, work messages and personal ones alike. Suddenly remembering something, he sent Feng Xingyun a message: [Don’t you have a basketball game this afternoon?]
Feng Xingyun was sitting at his desk drinking water, wearing a tired, sullen expression. His phone lit up in the dark dorm room. After reading the message, he suddenly tensed up and replied, “Yeah, at the south campus gym, indoor basketball court on the first floor.” He didn’t know what he was waiting for in response.
[Liu Duanhe: Okay, I’ll come with you this afternoon and watch you play.]
Feng Xingyun sat there stunned for a long while, his expression frozen.
“Ding-dong.” The special notification sound of a water droplet.
Liu Duanhe glanced at his phone.
[Feng Xingyun: Okay]
The elevator doors slid open smoothly, and before the person beside him could remind him, he stepped out right on time, as if he hadn’t been looking at his phone at all. When he reached the bike parking area at the dormitory entrance, Liu Duanhe took out his phone again and changed Feng Xingyun’s contact name to “boyfriend.”
Since things had already happened, he had to handle them flawlessly, whether in career or in love, Liu Duanhe would only accept the perfect outcome.
He wheeled out his bicycle, carefully wiped down the handlebars, seat, and other areas with the alcohol wipes he always carried, tossed the used wipes into the trash, then pulled out alcohol gel from his bag to sanitize his hands.
Not a single spot on his fair knuckles was missed. The scent of alcohol drifted into his nose with his movements, filling Liu Duanhe with a deep sense of reassurance and contentment. His brows and eyes relaxed naturally.
He headed to the swim team’s training facility on the other campus. Before class even started, he finished training at 7:20, then went to the school gate to pick up his breakfast, which had arrived right on time.
He ran into quite a few acquaintances along the way, mostly casual ones, but Liu Duanhe treated everyone with the same attitude.
The autumn wind cut through his slightly open jacket, revealing his slender, taut waist. His slightly longer hair drifted quietly backward as he rode. On his bicycle, he rarely exuded such a spirited, youthful energy, his usual calm and gentleness gave him a mature, ascetic quality that seemed to transcend his age.
He took his breakfast to the greenhouse to eat. The benches there were quiet, and since it was right next to the library, Liu Duanhe could head straight there to study after eating.
Perhaps it was because a person’s nature can’t be easily concealed, Liu Duanhe was especially suited to autumn and winter. Cold, frigid, biting, like a sharp blade hidden beneath a frozen lake, howling through the wind.
Even sitting in the greenhouse, he stood out strikingly.
Meanwhile, Feng Xingyun spent the whole morning lost in thought. Games were boring, and he couldn’t focus on a single word of the upcoming professional course textbook. He realized he couldn’t figure out Liu Duanhe’s thoughts at all, he was like a dog being toyed with, waiting for the rope around his neck to tighten or loosen, his entire being thrown into turmoil because of it.
He started to wonder if Liu Duanhe was just playing with him.
That class, Liu Duanhe sat beside him as usual. Whether it was the desensitization from spending the whole day together yesterday, Feng Xingyun was in much better shape, at least he wasn’t constantly plagued by thoughts of whether Liu Duanhe might be disgusted by him.
From Liu Duanhe’s perspective, Feng Xingyun’s presence was equally strong. He was desperately suppressing the urge to pull away.
Noticing Feng Xingyun’s distraction, they were sitting in the front row, and Liu Duanhe had already seen the teacher glance at him three or four times. He lightly tapped Feng Xingyun’s notebook with his left hand, silently pulled out a tissue from his backpack, wrote on it, and handed it over.
[The teacher has looked at you several times. Pay attention in class.]
Feng Xingyun watched the fair, slender finger push the paper over. Once he saw what was written, he couldn’t help but furrow his brow. After a moment of hesitation, he wrote back: [Okay, thanks.]
Although he enjoyed playing games and basketball, he wasn’t the kind of slacker who skipped classes before. He hadn’t gotten into university through a donated building, he’d earned his place through hard work in high school.
He pulled himself together, reining in his wandering thoughts. The friendly, harmonious relationship of mutual reminders between them was something Feng Xingyun could never have imagined half a month ago.
Feng Xingyun was a grudge-holder. He could persistently despise people he’d clashed with. But Liu Duanhe seemed to be an exception. His warm fragrance floated before Feng Xingyun’s nose, tempting him to take a deep breath, letting it soak through his lungs before he could savor the cool, refreshing undertone.
His thoughts stirred restlessly again. Feng Xingyun knew he wouldn’t get an answer right now.
The bell for the end of class rang. The teacher hadn’t paid him any more attention in the latter half of the lesson. He sat there packing his bag, while Liu Duanhe had already quickly cleared his desk and was now looking at him.
Feng Xingyun couldn’t put it off any longer. He stood up, looking down at Liu Duanhe’s calm, serene light-brown eyes, clear and bright like stars.
He asked awkwardly, “Are we eating together at noon today too?”
An inexplicable fire burned in his chest, pushing him to take this step. Having one more friend and one less stranger was actually a good thing, wasn’t it?
Liu Duanhe was a bit surprised. On that defiant, unruly face, any expression that lost control or lost its edge seemed out of place.
He nodded affirmatively. “Let’s go. We’ll first grab lunch at the school gate, two portions, together, then head back. Eat in the dorm or in the small garden? What do you think?”
Feng Xingyun thought for a moment. “Back to the dorm. The wind is a bit strong today.”
Liu Duanhe nodded. Feng Xingyun sat by the window, so he must have noticed the weather outside.
As they walked out of the classroom, the wind in the corridor howled past. The windows on both sides were wide open, blowing so hard that Liu Duanhe’s trench coat fluttered up. “Your suggestion was wise. In the garden, we’d probably be eating a mouthful of wind today.”
Feng Xingyun quickened his pace and pulled the window back to half its original position, and the wind immediately died down considerably.
The classic light khaki trench coat settled, its hem brushing just below the knee. The excellent tailoring made Liu Duanhe look exceptionally tall and slender. It hung open to reveal a matching shirt and a gray-green tie, elegant, relaxed, with a cool, restrained air of refined luxury.
It was the kind of look that told you at a glance he was wealthy.
Feng Xingyun waited until Liu Duanhe’s footsteps fell beside him, and his breath caught.
“Follow me,” Liu Duanhe said.
And so Feng Xingyun, like prey being led by the nose, followed him.
Liu Duanhe knew a lot of people. What Feng Xingyun had seen yesterday was only the tip of the iceberg. Today, he witnessed just how well-liked Liu Duanhe was. Many people he didn’t recognize, quite a few from other colleges, were greeting Liu Duanhe.
Liu Duanhe showed no sign of impatience. He had transformed back into the perfect heir wrapped in his polished exterior, accurately calling out the names of no fewer than a hundred people.
Meanwhile, Feng Xingyun hadn’t even managed to remember more than ten names out of the thirty classmates he’d been with for a year, and those ten included his three roommates.
Politely declining invitations to lunch, Liu Duanhe, with an apologetic look in their disappointed eyes, pulled Feng Xingyun along. “Sorry, I have plans today. I’ve agreed to eat with him from now on.”
Their probing gazes fell on Feng Xingyun. He stared back at each of them in turn, his eyes cold and fierce, clearly not someone to mess with, successfully quashing any thought they had of saying more.
Then they recalled, he must be the school heartthrob’s roommate. Those who’d followed Liu Duanhe on the forums for a while all knew he had a roommate with terrible eyesight who had once brazenly badmouthed the school heartthrob. Their looks immediately turned hostile.
Sensing the shift in atmosphere, Liu Duanhe stepped forward to block Feng Xingyun, reaching back to grab his sleeve and stop him from advancing. Liu Duanhe had a feeling he was about to snap back with a provocative attitude, and that would make the scene far too ugly.
Liu Duanhe gave a faint smile. “We’re in a hurry to eat, so we’ll be going now.”
Then he tugged Feng Xingyun along and quickly walked away, leaving the others exchanging bewildered glances.
Had they buried the hatchet? Of course, in the eyes of Liu Duanhe’s friends, no one could resist Liu Duanhe’s charm! No one!
Liu Duanhe walked a short distance before letting go of Feng Xingyun’s sleeve. To save time, they boarded the campus shuttle bus. As for his bicycle, Liu Duanhe planned to ride it back after his afternoon classes. His midday class was far away, though it was a major-specific course, it had been scheduled at another campus, so he intended to take the bus as well.
Liu Duanhe fell into thought. Perhaps it was because of his recent hospitalization, but over the past couple of days, too many classmates had approached him with concern, seriously disrupting his daily routine.
Frowning with a headache, he pulled out his phone, logged into WeChat, and posted a status update. The moment it went out, red notification dots began popping up endlessly. Liu Duanhe let out a sigh of relief and set the phone aside without reading any of the replies.
This should quiet them down for now.
Beside him, Feng Xingyun still wore a sour expression, but upon closer inspection, one could see his gaze constantly fixed on Liu Duanhe, observing his every move.
They retrieved the food from the car. The interior was surprisingly spacious, matching its price tag, equipped with a refrigerator, a liquor cabinet, and everything else one could need.
Usually, Feng Xingyun would eat his meals in the car most of the time.
The driver was secretly glancing at Feng Xingyun. Their young master had never eaten with anyone before, not even with those he’d grown up with. Who was this man to him?
On the way back this time, fewer people came looking for Liu Duanhe, just as he’d hoped.
However, the appearance of someone who rarely walked with Liu Duanhe made many who were sneaking glances at them both puzzled and wary.
A special notification tone rang out. Liu Duanhe pulled his phone from his pocket and glanced at it, immediately furrowing his brow.