Three months later.
It was the first day of the new semester at F University.
Di Zhe arrived at the new dormitory building carrying bags and bags of luggage. After completing all the necessary registration procedures, he finally made his way to the dormitory with his parents and found the room he had been assigned.
Di Zhe had only returned to the country two days ago. He had spent almost the entire vacation after graduating from high school traveling around different countries on the other side of the world.
For the two weeks before coming home, he had been diving at the seaside in Country A. As a result, he had gotten another shade darker from the sun, and his figure looked noticeably leaner and more toned than before.
Still, he seemed to have returned to his usual cheerful, carefree state. The only problem was that he had yet to adjust to the time difference, so he looked a little sleepy.
After his parents brought him to the dormitory, the three of them divided up the tasks and did a simple cleaning of the room.
His mother looked around and said, “Your dormitory is pretty good. It’s a two-person room, and both of you have a large desk and a big wardrobe. It’s much better than when I was in university. Back then, I was in an eight-person room, and everyone had to squeeze together. Yours is really nice.”
His father said, “I wonder who your roommate is. How come he hasn’t arrived yet? You’ve never lived away from home at school before. I’m really worried that you won’t get along with him. You’re going to be living under the same roof every day, so you have to be careful. Even if you don’t become friends with him, at the very least, don’t get on bad terms with him…”
In fact, before bringing him to school, his parents had already repeated more or less the same warnings over and over again.
Di Zhe had heard them so many times that his ears were practically calloused.
Impatiently, he said, “I know, I know! I’m not stupid. I’ll get along with him properly.”
His parents left reluctantly.
Before they parted, his mother even stuffed another five thousand yuan into his hands. With tears in her eyes, she said, “If you don’t have enough money, just tell Mom. You’ve never been away from your father and me for this long to go to school so far away. Your father and I are really worried about you…”
Hearing that, Di Zhe’s own eyes grew moist. He hugged his parents and cried with them.
“I don’t want to leave you either. Waaaah…”
But once his parents had left, Di Zhe sat there by himself installing the internet cable. As he worked, a thought suddenly occurred to him.
He was only going to university in the neighboring province.
Besides, it wasn’t even that far from his hometown. If he drove onto the expressway, he could get there in forty minutes.
Was that really considered far?
Still, compared with the life he had lived before, it was indeed relatively far away.
Most of his classmates from back home had stayed at universities within their own province. Very few people had gone elsewhere to study.
As for Shen Yandong’s choice, Z University was even farther away from here, separated by several hundred kilometers. Even by high-speed rail, it would take five or six hours to get there.
If this had been ancient times, the distance between them would probably have been enough to mean that they would never see each other again for the rest of their lives.
After three months of cooling down, Di Zhe could finally look back on Shen Yandong with a strange sense of unreality, as though everything had happened in another lifetime.
He remembered how much he had liked Shen Yandong during his second and third years of high school.
He had liked him so, so much.
Back then, he had even thought about it in an extreme way. For Shen Yandong, he had been willing to do anything,
Anything, that was, except being the bottom!
The night of their high school graduation had finally cooled down the love he had carried for two long years.
One night was all it took for him to completely lose his head over Shen Yandong.
At first, Di Zhe had actually felt a faint pang of guilt.
After all, he had shifted the blame onto Shen Yandong and allowed everyone to believe that Shen Yandong was a heartless Beta who had abandoned him.
But gradually, he learned to talk himself out of it.
That was simply how people were.
Whenever they looked back on the past, they would always stand on their own side. No matter how much they had been right or wrong, they would first find a way to justify themselves.
So Di Zhe repeatedly brainwashed himself, telling himself that there was no reason for him to feel guilty.
Shen Yandong had already fucked him. What was wrong with making him carry a little bit of the blame?
He had been hopelessly devoted to Shen Yandong for two whole years! He had already paid a huge price!
Besides, Shen Yandong had been so cold and distant during high school. Wasn’t that precisely why everyone had misunderstood the situation?
And besides, he had never explicitly said that Shen Yandong was a heartless man who had abandoned him.
He had merely never denied that he had confessed his feelings, and then said that youth was filled with regrets.
Everyone else had simply misunderstood on their own.
And so it went, and so it continued.
Di Zhe unilaterally untangled the knot in his heart, sealed this entire episode away as part of his dark history, and decided that he would never bring it up again. He would face the sunshine and embrace his new life.
Although whenever he thought of Shen Yandong, the depths of his heart would still stir with faint ripples, he believed that once he met more people at university, the existence of Shen Yandong would gradually be diluted and fade into the background of his memories.
As long as enough time passed.
So it was fine.
It should… be fine.
Thinking of this, Di Zhe frowned, shook his head, and tried to shake off every thought related to Shen Yandong.
Why was he thinking about Shen Yandong for no reason?
Did he think he hadn’t embarrassed himself enough already?
What Di Zhe didn’t want to admit, and didn’t dare to admit, was that even now, he would occasionally think of Shen Yandong without meaning to.
Still, it was much better than it had been at the beginning.
After all, he was naturally carefree and thick-skinned. He was no longer thinking about Shen Yandong from morning until night, every single day.
Di Zhe had originally wanted to play a game, but after connecting his gaming laptop to the internet, he had no idea what was wrong with this lousy network. He could only use it to chat; the game itself simply wouldn’t open.
And when he finally managed to get the game running, he discovered that he hadn’t logged in for three months, so there was a new patch that had to be installed.
Fine, fine.
He patiently started installing the patch.
Then he looked at the download speed.
107 KB/min.
Wow, bro.
It’s already the 5G era, okay? Are you still living in the Stone Age?
With nothing else to do, Di Zhe opened a group chat he hadn’t checked in ages and wandered into the small gaming group where his brothers usually gathered to play together. Without warning, he let out a loud declaration:
【Your grandpa is back!!!】
【Anyone playing games?】
At the same time, he was subtly testing whether anyone had discovered the embarrassing thing that had happened to him.
His greeting landed in the group like a bomb, instantly exploding a whole bunch of classmates who had been lurking silently.
【Boss, you’re back?】
【Why did you suddenly disappear? We were all really worried about you!】
【You scared us so much that we even went to your house to ask your parents. Luckily, Uncle and Auntie said you’d gone abroad to travel, so we finally relaxed. Otherwise, we were seriously considering calling the police.】
Di Zhe felt slightly relieved.
Looking at how calm everyone seemed, they probably didn’t know about what had happened between him and Shen Yandong, right?
That made sense, too.
Shen Yandong’s relationship with their classmates had always been… well, he couldn’t exactly say that it was bad, but Shen Yandong didn’t have anyone in particular whom he was especially close to.
The person who had been closest to Shen Yandong was him, Di Zhe.
And based on everything Di Zhe knew about Shen Yandong, Shen Yandong probably wouldn’t go around shouting to everyone that he had slept with him.
Shen Yandong was the type of person who didn’t like it when Di Zhe gave him love letters, but he wouldn’t throw them away either. He wasn’t the kind of person who would do something like that.
If Shen Yandong really had done such a thing, then Di Zhe could only conclude that he had been blind.
He really had fallen for the wrong person.
In that case, he could finally and completely get over him.
Di Zhe gave an awkward laugh and brushed the matter aside.
【Hehe, I was playing on an island. The internet was terrible, so I basically got disconnected from the technological world.】
【So, is anyone playing games?】
Everyone immediately responded enthusiastically.
【Yeah, yeah!】
【When?】
Di Zhe: 【Tonight? Let me finish installing the game patch first.】
It was right in the middle of this cheerful atmosphere that a classmate, a few beats slower than everyone else, suddenly and rather abruptly said:
【Is that Di Zhe? You finally showed up. Shen Yandong has been looking for you this whole time.】
The moment Di Zhe unexpectedly saw the name “Shen Yandong,” his heart gave a sudden, heavy thump.
Once again, despite everything, he couldn’t help but care.
What did that mean?
Shen Yandong was looking for him?
Just then, the ringing of his phone interrupted his reunion with his classmates.
The caller was his younger paternal uncle, Di Chengyu.
Di Chengyu worked locally. After returning from studying abroad, he had started a technology company and had even bought a house here, effectively settling down in the area.
His younger cousin had come here to attend university, so as his older cousin, he naturally had to take care of him and show him around.
Di Chengyu asked, “When are your parents going back? Once they’ve left, I’ll take you out and show you a good time.”
Di Zhe immediately became wary.
“What places are there that my parents can’t go to with me?”
Di Chengyu was shamelessly flirtatious and didn’t bother lying to him.
“The kind of fun places that rich, good-looking adult Alphas can go to.”
The last time he had gotten into an argument with Di Zhe, he had never truly let it go.
Di Chengyu had a small heart and held grudges. He still remembered that quarrel clearly. Recently, when he learned that Di Zhe had suffered a breakup, he had secretly taken an enormous amount of pleasure in it.
Ah~~~ There was nothing more enjoyable than building your own happiness on someone else’s misery.
Di Chengyu spoke in a deliberately sarcastic tone. “I told you long ago, didn’t I? I told you to give up on that aloof Beta. What’s so great about Betas anyway? I’ve seen his photos too. Personally, I don’t think he’s anything special.”
“You refused to listen to your elders, so now you’re suffering for it.”
“You see, when it comes to relationships, you still need to ask your Uncle for advice. I have plenty of experience. From now on, listen to me more, and you won’t end up getting dumped so miserably again.”
When his uncle said that Shen Yandong was nothing special, Di Zhe actually had the instinctive urge to argue back.
But after thinking about it carefully, he stopped himself.
He didn’t like Shen Yandong anymore.
And they weren’t going to see each other again in the future.
So why should he get worked up over it?
If his uncle had continued saying even worse things about Shen Yandong, Di Zhe might not have been able to stop himself from getting angry. Fortunately, after that, his uncle didn’t continue badmouthing Shen Yandong.
Once the initial surge of irritation passed, Di Zhe’s anger gradually deflated.
He was a little interested, though also a little hesitant, when he asked, “If you take me somewhere like that to have fun, won’t my parents break my legs if they find out?”
Di Chengyu replied, “Then don’t let your parents find out! Besides, it’s not like I’m taking you somewhere illegal. I’m just taking you there to have a look.”
What a bad uncle.
Di Zhe, who had spent his entire life sheltered inside an ivory tower, nevertheless found himself tempted.
He didn’t refuse outright. Instead, he said, “Maybe another day. I’ll get familiar with everything at school first, then we’ll see. It’s really busy at the beginning of the semester.”
In truth, Di Zhe was also feeling somewhat lost at the moment.
He had liked Shen Yandong for two years.
He had pursued him for two years.
Two years wasn’t particularly long when measured against an entire lifetime, but it wasn’t exactly short, either. And without a doubt, those two years of his life had been filled with Shen Yandong’s presence.
After he finally decided to give up on Shen Yandong, his life suddenly seemed to lose its direction.
He wasn’t really sure what he was supposed to do next.
Di Chengyu readily agreed. “Alright. Once you have some free time, I’ll take you out to have some fun.”
And just like that, the matter was settled.
By this time, Di Zhe had already arranged his dormitory desk in a way that was unmistakably his own style. It was filled with all sorts of things he liked, carefully arranged and scattered around the space according to his preferences.
His bed was the same. Even beside his pillow sat his beloved A Beibei.
Di Zhe reached into the snack basket beside him and pulled out a packet of potato chips. He opened an episode of a variety talk show that he had downloaded in advance, then settled himself comfortably as he munched on the chips with loud, crisp crunches while watching the show.
He had always had a low threshold for laughter, so it didn’t take much to make him laugh. Before long, he was already laughing so hard that he could barely contain himself.
The episode happened to reach a stand-up comedy segment where the comedian was using an ex-boyfriend as the subject of a joke.
Right at that moment, the door opened.
Di Zhe was still completely immersed in the joke. He barely paid attention to whoever had entered, merely giving the newcomer a casual glance before turning his attention back to the screen and continuing to watch, continuing to laugh.
Then, a moment later, he suddenly realized that something wasn’t quite right.
Di Zhe turned his head back again.
This time, his gaze lingered at the doorway for several seconds longer.
The smile on his face abruptly froze.
Had he seen wrong?
The person at the door was standing against the light, making his features somewhat difficult to see clearly.
Quick.
Someone, anyone, come over and help him take a look,
Why did his new university roommate look so much like Shen Yandong?
Di Zhe stared blankly at the person standing in the doorway, completely stunned by the thought.
The newcomer had already stepped into the dormitory.
The heavy, muffled sound of a suitcase being dragged across the floor echoed through the room. It came to a stop.
Click.
The door closed.
Shen Yandong’s face was as cold as frost. His gaze was fixed directly on Di Zhe, unwavering and straight to the point.
He looked at him and said,
“Long time no see, Di Zhe.”
✦ ✧ ✦
Fleurveil
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ COFFEE OFFERING
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 1 · Love at first sightChapter 2 · Lack of discretionChapter 3 · ShamelessChapter 4 · UnreasonableChapter 5 · PerseveranceChapter 6 · College Entrance Examination EndChapter 7 · Graduation dinnerChapter 8 · Confession nightChapter 9 · Pressing in step by stepChapter 10 · Enough is enoughChapter 11 · A huge blowChapter 12 · University start dateChapter 13 · Roommate meetingChapter 14 · Relentless harassmentChapter 15 · I’ll pick you upChapter 16 · It’s my vulnerable periodChapter 17 · Voluntary datingChapter 18 · Open your heartChapter 19 · Obedient to allChapter 20 · Not a virginChapter 21 · Swear to love meChapter 22 · Youthful DaydreamsChapter 23 · Teenage ThoughtsChapter 24 · EmptyChapter 25 · Extremely anxiousChapter 26 · Too lazy to struggleChapter 27 · From now on