Stepping out of the internet cafe, the world instantly grew quiet.
Because they had walked over and he was not wearing gloves, Ji Wenyu tucked his hands deep into the pockets of his down jacket.
In the past, walking alone with Xu Yuanzhe always required him to struggle and search for topics to avoid awkward silences between them. But today, at this very moment, Ji Wenyu truly lacked the mood.
The two of them walked in silence toward the north gate of the campus. The people brushing past them on the street were all fellow students from nearby, their faces brimming with excitement after finishing midterms. Only Ji Wenyu could not muster a smile; he kept his head lowered and his pace sluggish, as if he could barely walk another step.
Xu Yuanzhe did not say anything either. The top student had always been silent, and expecting him to initiate a conversation first was practically impossible. Fortunately, Ji Wenyu genuinely did not want to speak right now.
Actually, X had not done anything wrong. He had not said anything unkind, nor had he done anything harmful; the only thing the other person had done was vanish from his life for a single day. Yet today, despite his busy and happy day, he had almost forgotten about X’s existence entirely.
Even so, Ji Wenyu could not shake his negative emotions.
Walking with his hands in his pockets and his head down, he fell into a daze and almost bumped into a drunk stumbling out of a bar coming the opposite way.
Xu Yuanzhe suddenly reached out and pulled him aside.
By the time the other person withdrew his hand, Ji Wenyu was still dazed.
Like an old machine slowly booting up, it took him half a day to react to what had just happened.
He still needed to watch where he was going. The young man rubbed his temples and forced himself to snap out of it.
He should say something. A sense of social responsibility forced Ji Wenyu to start compelling himself to think of a topic.
“Are you preparing for the winter camp recommendation?”
Although they were competitors, a powerhouse like Xu Yuanzhe was clearly not on the same level as him. If there was only one spot available, any evaluator with eyes would choose Xu Yuanzhe, so he had no need to guard against the other person at all.
“Mhm,” Xu Yuanzhe replied flatly. “I’ve already submitted my materials. What about you?”
That “what about you” carried a subtle nuance. How did Xu Yuanzhe know he was preparing a winter camp application? Ji Wenyu acutely perceived the other person’s subconscious assumption.
Yet upon second thought, he was probably overthinking it. Since he had brought up the matter of the winter camp, it was obvious he was preparing for it. It was completely understandable for Xu Yuanzhe to assume he was also preparing and ask how his materials were coming along.
“Almost. These couple of days, I’ll submit them,” the young man absentmindedly kicked a pebble by the roadside. “Do we upload the recommendation letters ourselves?”
Xu Yuanzhe answered, “No, you enter the professor’s email address, the website sends a link to that email, and the advisor uploads it directly from the link.”
“Oh, I see,” Ji Wenyu nodded, continuing to ask casually, “Where did you apply? Your own school?”
Xu Yuanzhe gave an affirmative hum.
The two of them lapsed into silence once more, though fortunately, they reached the north gate of the school after just a few more steps.
Bauhinia University’s management of students had always been lenient, advocating for a relaxed and free campus atmosphere without a curfew. The two of them walked all the way back to the dorm, washed up simply, and climbed into their respective beds.
Ji Wenyu clambered up first, while the overhead light of the dorm was turned off by Xu Yuanzhe, who had finished washing up a moment later.
Having spent the whole day at the internet cafe, the two of them tacitly refrained from using their phones at this moment, quickly extinguishing the small bedside lamps.
After plunging into darkness for a few seconds, Xu Yuanzhe suddenly spoke up.
“Are you still going to the library tomorrow?”
Ji Wenyu, who had already closed his eyes, distinguished carefully for a moment before confirming that the question was directed at him rather than someone the other person was voice chatting with.
“Yeah, I guess,” the young man replied, pausing for half a minute as if deep in thought.
“Mhm, I’m going too,” Xu Yuanzhe appended unprompted.
He naturally frequented the library on a daily basis anyway, so continuing to study there after finishing midterms wasn’t strange.
The conversation ended there.
Xu Yuanzhe had merely asked whether he was going, without arranging a time to go together. If this had happened with someone else, Ji Wenyu would have asked a few more questions, but since the other person was the habitually solitary Xu Yuanzhe, it wasn’t weird at all.
Perhaps Xu Yuanzhe just had a lot to say today.
The young man didn’t think much further and closed his eyes once more.
There was no insomnia; on the contrary, Ji Wenyu slept straight through to the dusk of the following day, clocking a full fifteen hours of sleep.
Opening his eyes to find the outside world still pitch black, the young man tilted his head in thought, hesitating over whether he had simply overslept or barely slept at all.
Having slept an ultra-long night, the sense of loss from X not contacting him the previous night had already dissipated by more than half. Remembering Xu Yuanzhe’s question about going to the library the next day before falling asleep, Ji Wenyu felt a slight urge to laugh. Thankfully, that guy hadn’t set a specific time with him; getting up was out of the question, he simply could not get up.
He felt as though he had been knocked unconscious, spending a completely dreamless night, probably because he had overworked his brain lately.
Still, he figured he would probably head to the library in the evening. After all, the winter camp application was still waiting, and though the application portal had a few days left before closing, he didn’t really want to drag it out until Monday.
Getting out of bed to pack his things, stopping by the cafeteria for a bowl of braised chicken rice, Ji Wenyu arrived at the library just before seven o’clock.
With midterms over, the library was no longer packed to capacity. Empty seats were everywhere, allowing him to finally claim a large vacant table in his favorite corner on the sixth floor.
If he voice chatted with X today, they could talk in soft whispers.
Thinking this, Ji Wenyu opened Qinghe.
Yesterday, upon discovering that he hadn’t received a single message from X all day long, he had turned off Qinghe’s message notifications. As long as he had no expectations, he wouldn’t feel disappointed. As long as he didn’t open Qinghe, by extension, it meant he was refusing to look at X’s messages rather than X relegating him to a corner and forgetting him.
Even so, right before tapping open Qinghe, the young man’s heartbeat skipped half a beat.
After refreshing repeatedly and seeing that the interface still lacked any messages sent by X, Ji Wenyu felt himself enveloped once more by the emotions of the previous night.
He began to regret opening Qinghe.
No, he even felt a fleeting urge to uninstall the app right then and there.
Opening the Bauhinia University winter camp application page, the text on the computer screen was densely packed, yet he couldn’t process a single word.
Strolling downstairs for a quick lap, he bought a cup of coffee before opening Qinghe again.
Feeling completely dazed in the freezing cold weather, he had actually bought a cup of iced Americano loaded with ice.
Taking a sip that chilled him right to the bone, the young man stopped drinking and began chewing on the straw absentmindedly.
Opening the chat box with X, he wanted to say something, but suddenly found himself at a loss for words.
We finished our midterms. I’m in the library preparing my winter camp application. Can you help me review my materials? Want to hop on a mic together?
He thought of several opening lines, none of which satisfied him, so he deleted the text in the chat box in frustration.
Torn for a long time, he prepared to give up.
The screen, which had been slowly dimming, suddenly lit up.
[X: What are you typing?]