Gu Yi stood in place, watching helplessly as that slender figure melted into the boundless wind and snow, growing further and further away, more and more blurred.
A nameless panic suddenly gripped his heart, and he hurried after her, “Qingwu.”
She didn’t look back, walking even faster instead.
His phone rang. Glancing down at the name “Zhuang Wan” glowing on the screen, Gu Yi forcibly suppressed the abnormal feeling in his heart just now.
Back in her room, Yun Qingwu reached out and pulled the framed photo of the two of them out of the cabinet, replacing it with her own solo picture.
She had come to the Gu family when she was ten, and Gu Yi had doted on her for eleven years.
Yet she never imagined that in their twelfth year together, a confession of love would fracture their relationship beyond repair.
In the past, she liked him and refused to stay just his little sister, so she had deliberately changed his contact name to his actual given name and always addressed him that way.
Now, everything was over.
With a flick of her finger, she changed his contact name back to Older Brother, put down her phone, and went to sleep.
Expecting insomnia, she instead slept soundly until bright morning.
Waking up the next day feeling refreshed and clear-headed, she even thought the guys on the street looked more handsome than usual on her walk to class.
Yun Qingwu slipped into the classroom right at the bell, and Wu Yuxuan started waving frantically the moment she spotted her.
She walked over, sat down, and pulled off her beanie.
“Xuanxuan, why are you acting like you’re hopped up on adrenaline today?”
“Babe, don’t you think this lecture hall is unusually packed today?”
Yun Qingwu scanned the room. Indeed, it was packed, with every seat taken.
“When did Professor Chen become so popular? Is he going to perform ‘crushing boulders on his chest’ live?”
Speechless, Wu Yuxuan retorted, “Professor Chen asked for leave! Professor Ji Siming from the School of Archaeology is subbing today!!!”
Since Yun Qingwu’s mind had previously been entirely occupied by Gu Yi, she honestly had no idea who this person was. “Is he handsome?”
“Handsome? He’s drop-dead gorgeous! He’s the undisputed ‘high-altitude cold flower’ of our campus! Look over there, quick!” Wu Yuxuan pinched her arm hard. Turning her head, Yun Qingwu saw a man just walking through the doorway.
He had an upright posture, broad shoulders, and a narrow waist. His already god-tier proportions were made even more striking against the backdrop of a long black trench coat.
He walked to the podium, set his things down, gently pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose, and raised his eyes to sweep a cool, indifferent gaze over the crowd.
Then he lowered his head once more, holding a fountain pen as he scratched fluidly across a piece of paper.
That look, that posture!
Holy cow!
Was this man literally a 2D anime character brought to life?
She dug out a manga she had published years ago, noticing that when the male lead Ming Ye first appeared in Chapter 1, he wore this exact outfit—the clothes, the shoes, the hairstyle, the glasses, down to those flawless facial features!
Could this really be a coincidence?
While she was still spacing out, that very same living anime character looked right at her. “This student in the front, look at the PPT, not me. There are no Oracle bone inscriptions on my face.”
Good grief, why did his voice sound so much like the voice actors in radio dramas?
This world had truly gone fantasy.
A burst of laughter erupted across the classroom, and Yun Qingwu immediately grabbed her scarf, wrapping it tightly around her face until only two burning red ears were visible.
Being caught staring at a handsome man was one thing, but getting busted and publicly called out in front of the whole class was instant social death!
Just end me now!
For the rest of the lecture, Yun Qingwu didn’t take in a single word.
She had drawn since she was a child, and The Nocturnal Phantoms was a manga she started serializing at age sixteen.
It was a modern suspense mystery mixed with folklore. Thanks to its unique worldview and novel plot, it had achieved a modest breakout success, and its two male leads, Ming Ye and Xiao Qi, had amassed countless devoted fans.
Yet her two male leads shared a purely platonic, revolutionary camaraderie as adventuring partners with zero romance plots—their eyes were focused solely on solving cases.
The manga’s adaptation rights had already been sold, and it was entering the casting phase.
Fans had initially been very resistant to the live-action adaptation, terrified it would ruin the Ming Ye and Xiao Qi in their hearts, and it was only after she personally stepped up to serve as the screenwriter that the opposing voices quieted down.
She couldn’t help thinking that if Ji Siming were an actor, she would package him up and ship him straight to the set to play Ming Ye.
What a pity he was a professor—and a high-and-mighty, unapproachable one at that.
Yun Qingwu tried not to keep looking at him, but her gaze kept uncontrollably straying his way. The more she looked, the more he seemed to have stepped straight out of the pages of a comic book.
He was Ming Ye incarnate!
And yet, retreating ten thousand steps, couldn’t Professor Ji just cross over into acting?
Of course, she knew that was impossible.
She ended up staring at him for two whole classes, but aside from that single opening remark, he never looked in her direction again.
That evening, Yun Qingwu and Wu Yuxuan had a reservation at a trendy internet-famous restaurant.
Tables at this spot were notoriously hard to book, and it happened to be a couples-only restaurant.
To prove they were a couple, the moment they reached the entrance, Wu Yuxuan planted a loud kiss right on Yun Qingwu’s cheek.
The two smoothly gained entry, and no sooner had she sat down than she spotted Gu Yi sitting some distance away.
Sitting opposite him was a young woman.
That must have been Zhuang Wan—a girl completely different from her in style, and the very same girl kissing him in that video.
Gu Yi saw her too, but simply smiled and nodded in acknowledgment before returning to his conversation with Zhuang Wan.
Following her line of sight, Wu Yuxuan lowered her voice and said, “Wow, I didn’t expect to run into your brother here. Want to go say hi?”
“No need, let’s not interrupt their date. Let’s order, babe—get whatever you want.”
“Well, in that case, I won’t hold back!” Wu Yuxuan happily dove into the menu, while Yun Qingwu’s thoughts drifted back to the past.
Back then, she also loved checking out internet-famous spots, and no matter how busy Gu Yi was, he would always carve out time to accompany her.
To say it didn’t hurt at all would be a lie, but if she looked at it enough times now, she could treat it like exposure therapy.
Determined to shake off Gu Yi’s lingering influence as quickly as possible, she decided she would pull up the video of them kissing and watch it on repeat tonight until her heart felt completely numb and tranquil.
After dinner, a close classmate from their program celebrated a birthday and invited them out for drinks.
Unready to head home just yet, the two girls picked up a gift and headed to the lounge bar.
The atmosphere was already in full swing when they arrived. The private booth was packed with familiar faces alongside a few strangers.
Sipping a low-alcohol fruit drink, Yun Qingwu sat quietly lost in thought in the corner of the sofa.
Yun Qingwu’s mother had been a quintessential Hong Kong-style beauty famous for her stunning looks, and Yun Qingwu had inherited every bit of that aesthetic. On her very first day of freshman year, a candid photo of her registration had sent her trending online.
Now a senior, she had shed her lingering youthful innocence and blossomed into a breathtaking beauty.
Barely had she stepped inside when several guys from another school lost their composure.
Before long, one of them sauntered over and slid onto the seat beside her. “Hey, can I get your WeChat?”
Hearing the stranger’s voice, Yun Qingwu kept her gaze lowered. “No, you can’t.”
Having his advances rebuffed, the guy’s face instantly fell. “I just thought you were pretty and wanted to make a friend. What’s with the high-and-mighty attitude?”
Yun Qingwu turned her head to look at him and tossed out a breezy reply: “I just thought you were ugly and didn’t want to add you. What’s with the bruised ego?”
Knowing how sharp-tongued Yun Qingwu could be, their classmates burst into laughter.
Seizing the opportunity, Wu Yuxuan wedged herself right between them. “Listen, buddy, that’s on you. Just because you want to add someone doesn’t mean they’re obligated to accept.”
“Nobody signed up to subsidize your unrequited delusions!”
Sensing mounting tension, the birthday host hurried over to smooth things over and dragged the guy away.
The group went back to playing casual games, and the energy in the room quickly picked up again.
Wu Yuxuan had a notoriously low tolerance for alcohol and was already tipsy after just a few drinks, wrapping her arms around the mic to belt out Mom under the Lamplight.
She was crying snot and tears alike.
Wu Yuxuan’s mother had passed away from illness back in high school, and from then on, whenever she got drunk, she inevitably sang this song.
In the past, Yun Qingwu hadn’t thought much of it when listening to her sing, but perhaps because she was tipsy herself, or perhaps because she had endured too much lately, before she realized it, tears were streaming down her face.
She thought of Yun Ying, the woman who insisted on applying a full face of makeup through her assistants even when she was on the verge of death.
She still remembered how, right before the end, Yun Ying had clutched her hand and wept, “I’m sorry, I wasn’t a good mother. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see you—it’s just that if he found out I was seeing you too often, he wouldn’t tolerate you.”
At that exact moment, she felt that perhaps she had been loved after all.
Yet the time they had spent together was so brief that even their memories were pitifully sparse.
Right now, she actually found herself missing her a little.
She looked so breathtakingly fragile when crying that Wu Yuxuan couldn’t resist snapping a quick photo, then leaned over to ask, “Babe, I took a gorgeous picture of you. Can I post it on Moments?”
Indifferent to the world, Yun Qingwu replied, “Whatever, just don’t use it to catfishing people for money.”
Delighted, Wu Yuxuan wiped away her tears and posted on Moments: Holy cow, is this what a fairy crying looks like?
Junior classmate: “Why is the goddess crying? Did she get dumped?”
Ji Yaran: “Wuwuwu, I want to go sledding down our campus queen’s nose bridge!”
Gu Yi: “What happened to Qingwu?”
Wu Yuxuan replied to Gu Yi: “Nothing at all! My singing was just so touching it made your little sister cry, don’t worry, nobody’s bullying her~”
While hanging out and chatting at a cafe after dinner with Gu Yi, Zhuang Wan—who was mutual friends with them—happened to see the exchange between Gu Yi and Wu Yuxuan on social media.