Xu Yuanzhe went to take a shower and change clothes, while Ji Wenyu carried his cup of lemon tea back to the cafe outside the natatorium.
It was all that guy’s fault for scaring him just now, causing him to spill half of his lemon tea. Thinking of this, the young man stuck the straw straight into Xu Yuanzhe’s cup.
By dinnertime, the number of people in the cafe had noticeably decreased, and Ji Wenyu found an empty two-seater table by the window. The sky outside had grown dark at some point, and the streetlights across the campus were glowing sparsely.
“Isn’t this cup supposed to be for me? Why are you drinking it?”
Xu Yuanzhe’s voice rang out beside his ear, pulling Ji Wenyu back to his senses. Turning his head, the first thing he saw was a bouquet of red and pink roses cradled in the young man’s arms.
The young man’s eyes brightened.
“Why did you suddenly buy flowers?”
“Doesn’t everyone say romance should start with a bouquet of flowers?” Xu Yuanzhe scratched his head awkwardly, his face flushing slightly. “You told me to court you, does this count as courting?”
“How have you courted people in the past?” Ji Wenyu picked up the thread of the conversation, testing him awkwardly.
“I’ve never courted anyone before.” Xu Yuanzhe looked earnest, staring straight into his eyes. “You are the first. Ji Wenyu, this is the first time I’ve ever liked someone.”
So, Xu Yuanzhe was experiencing his first love, just like him.
“Oh, I see.” The young man was blooming with joy inside, but on the surface, he purposely pressed down the corners of his lips and merely nodded.
This time it was Xu Yuanzhe’s turn to wait for his answer: “What about you?”
“Guess,” Ji Wenyu curved his lips, purposely avoiding the answer as he hugged the flowers and walked out first.
Xu Yuanzhe picked up the lemon tea from the table, took a sip, and chased after him: “I don’t want to guess, I want you to tell me.”
The young man walked with his back to him: “When you successfully court me, I’ll tell you.”
The young man took long strides, grabbing the brim of the young man’s down jacket from behind in two or three steps: “Then I’ve already succeeded.”
“That’s not the kind of courting I meant!” Ji Wenyu turned around to slap his hand away, glancing at the drink in the young man’s hand. “I drank this cup already.”
Xu Yuanzhe: “I know.”
Ji Wenyu: “If I drank it, it’s mine.”
“Fine, the lemon tea is yours.” The young man curled his lips, dragging out the ending syllable. “You’re mine.”
The cafeteria was crowded, and not wanting to wait in line, the two of them temporarily decided to eat off-campus, which also served as a celebration for Friday.
At the school gate, popular restaurants like hot pot and barbecue were all starting to form long lines, making the Japanese restaurant look relatively deserted by comparison. The two of them exchanged glances and walked inside.
The Japanese restaurant near the gates of Bauhinia University had a lot of style, with the tables arranged inside individual tatami-matted private rooms. The per-capita cost here was slightly higher, and Ji Wenyu had only brought Wang Xinno here once right after the semester started.
Thinking of that young girl, the young man couldn’t help smiling. Thanks to her help, he and Xu Yuanzhe had mistakenly become study buddies by a twist of fate, allowing the two of them to get together so quickly. It was just a pity that her adored X-god was completely out of reach for her now.
“What are you smiling at?” His smile was caught out of the corner of Xu Yuanzhe’s eye as he looked down at the menu.
“I’m smiling because… I have a junior sister who likes the X-god. She’s taking the college entrance exams this year and even specifically said she wants to get into Peking University.” Ji Wenyu said with a smile.
“Then she’s probably going to be disappointed.” Xu Yuanzhe shrugged. “Still, Peking University is full of talented people and outstanding young individuals everywhere. She’ll find the one who suits her.”
Ji Wenyu couldn’t hide the smile on his face: “Well, her X-god already belongs to me now. I’ll save this piece of news to tell her after her college entrance exams.”
Xu Yuanzhe: “Is she your actual sister?”
Ji Wenyu: “No, she’s the daughter of my mom’s friend.”
Xu Yuanzhe narrowed his eyes: “Don’t tell me it’s a childhood sweetheart situation?”
Ji Wenyu: “Stop twisting my words on purpose. That little girl likes you. I haven’t even said anything, how is it your turn to get jealous?”
Xu Yuanzhe put down the menu: “Fine then, after her college entrance exams, the two of us will appear in front of her together so neither of us has to be jealous. Have a look at what to order, anything is fine by me.”
“There’s no dish called anything is fine.” Ji Wenyu flipped the menu open for him again. “Hurry up, you order half and I order half, let me see what your taste is like.”
The weather was cold, and he didn’t feel like eating raw sashimi, so Ji Wenyu ordered a pot of sukiyaki. Xu Yuanzhe added a plate of caramelized salmon sushi and ordered a few skewers of yakitori.
The beef used for the sukiyaki in the restaurant was M8-9 Wagyu beef, which tasted tender and smooth when coated with egg white.
Ji Wenyu buried his head in eating meat, while Xu Yuanzhe occasionally picked up some greens and placed them in his plate.
“Are you still going to the library tonight?” the young man asked Xu Yuanzhe.
Xu Yuanzhe: “Whatever you want. Any plans?”
Ji Wenyu thought for a moment and said, “It’s been forever since we watched a movie. How about the two of us go catch a movie?”
Having been busy with all sorts of things for over a month straight, the last time he watched a movie was during summer vacation.
Xu Yuanzhe nodded in agreement and picked up his phone: “Sure, let me check what new movies are out.”
Ji Wenyu looked at him and said, “Do you know there’s a private movie theater near the school? I’ve never been to a private theater and want to check it out.”
He had heard Shi Zhiyao mention it once before, saying she and her boyfriend went on a date at a private theater. Private theaters seemed to be meant for dating young couples, and Ji Wenyu had never had the chance to go before.
“I don’t know.” Xu Yuanzhe shook his head, though he didn’t have any objections. “I’ll listen to you, let’s go check it out then.”
However, plans never kept up with changes. Just as the two of them finished the complimentary fruit and desserts provided by the restaurant and were about to leave, their phone emails popped up with notifications simultaneously.
Ji Wenyu and Xu Yuanzhe exchanged glances, their intuition telling them that their evening activity was going down the drain.
Opening the email proved their intuition right.
The email was sent by Qinghe, notifying the members of the winning groups for the campus autumn/winter check-in event, asking everyone to select the company they wished to intern at as soon as possible, get in touch with the company’s HR within the week, report for duty, and arrange their internship schedule.
“Founder classmate, did you know about this in advance?” Their date was ruined, and Ji Wenyu pouted unhappily.
Although they claimed it was guaranteed admission without an interview, these were still major tech giants after all, and companies they were interested in working for in the future, so the internship definitely had to be taken seriously. To report for duty within the coming week meant they inevitably had to make some preparations.
“I didn’t know.” Xu Yuanzhe clearly didn’t want to receive such an email at this moment either, and the young man feigned, “I’ll go ask Yan Qiong to recall the email and send it again tomorrow.”
“Stop fooling around.” Ji Wenyu was amused, pulling the young man’s hand. “Where do you want to go for your internship?”
Xu Yuanzhe answered earnestly, “I plan to apply for a direct PhD track, so any place is fine. What about you? Where do you want to go? I’ll go with you.”
Ji Wenyu understood instantly. It seemed his previous guess was right; whether it was X or Xu Yuanzhe, they both clearly wanted to pursue the path of scientific research.
Ji Wenyu: “I want to go to Sunrise East.”
Since they were doing an internship, they might as well go to the strongest major tech giant in their field. That way, it would benefit their future further education or employment, adding luster to their resume.
Xu Yuanzhe nodded: “Alright, then let’s go to Sunrise East.”
“Shall we head to the library then, to prepare for the internship?” Ji Wenyu suggested reluctantly.
Xu Yuanzhe agreed: “Okay.”
Seeing the unhappy expression on the young man’s face, the young man reached out to pinch his smooth cheek: “If you don’t want to go back, preparing over the weekend is fine too. There’s still plenty of time.”
“Are you sure?” Ji Wenyu asked hesitantly.
“Of course.” Xu Yuanzhe curled his lips. “With me here, don’t worry.”
“Then let’s go watch a movie after all?” The young man’s face lit up with smiles again. “Let’s watch a movie and then head back. Tomorrow I’ll try my best to wake up in the morning and we can go to the library together.”
Though Xu Yuanzhe didn’t believe Ji Wenyu’s promise of waking up early, he still smiled and nodded.
“Alright.”
Private movie theaters on Friday nights had fully booked schedules.
As Ji Wenyu and the others strolled leisurely over from the Japanese restaurant, both the small and medium rooms of the theater were already fully occupied, leaving only the large rooms.
“The large one then?” The two exchanged glances and smiled helplessly.
The large private room could accommodate ten people. Opposite the screen were two rows of soft leather sofas, with a mahjong table set up at the back.
“Whoa, this setup is practically begging us to call Old Huang and Old Pan over.” Ji Wenyu sighed casually.
Unexpectedly, Xu Yuanzhe seemed to take it seriously: “Do you want to call them over?”
The young man waved his hands frantically: “No, no, just talking.”
Constantly sharing a room with those two other guys, now that he finally got to enjoy a world for two with Xu Yuanzhe, there was no reason to invite lightbulbs over.
The large room had a one-night minimum booking with no hourly options, leaving the two of them with no choice but to book it for the entire night. The theater was relatively generous, including a fruit platter, drinks, and plenty of snacks in the overnight package.
Ji Wenyu looked around the room: “I think the two of us bringing our laptops and staying here tonight works too.”
The private room was booked for the whole night straight through the morning until noon tomorrow; doing internship materials here tomorrow morning wasn’t out of the question.
Xu Yuanzhe played along: “We’ll see in a bit. If you don’t want to go back to sleep, we can just bring our stuff over.”
Turning on the projector with the remote control, the young man flipped through a couple of options: “What do you want to watch? It feels like these are all old movies, nothing new.”
Private theaters were meant for the atmosphere anyway; nobody came here to watch newly released films.
Xu Yuanzhe gave his usual reply: “Anything is fine.”
Coincidentally, Ji Wenyu was also indifferent about what to watch. He simply clicked on the recommendations in the projector, picking a relatively new one near the top of the couple recommendations list: Alien. When the film was released last year, he had been busy with student union business and subsequently forgot about it, never getting around to watching it.
The young man clicked the play button: “Horror movie, is that okay?”
Just as he expected, Xu Yuanzhe replied with his usual anything is fine.
Sitting shoulder-to-shoulder on the front row sofa, he turned off the overhead light, plunging the room into darkness and creating a genuine theater atmosphere.
Xu Yuanzhe sat close enough to touch. With the room falling silent, Ji Wenyu could even hear the rhythmic sound of the other person’s breathing clearly. The body heat radiating from the young man, mixed with the warm air from the air conditioner, caused his heartbeat to warm up as well.
Xu Yuanzhe exuded a faint fragrance, which was the scent of the body wash he always used. It smelled cold and crisp at first, yet the lingering base notes carried a trace of warmth, much like the young man himself.