Chapter 65

Chapter 65

During the first morning class, Song Yu entered the classroom early.

He naturally woke up around six, a habit he’d had since childhood.

After breakfast and some reading in his dorm, he arrived at the classroom just before 7:40.

A few weeks into the semester, the students' motivation had dropped sharply. At this time, at least a third of the seats would usually be filled, but now the large classroom was empty, save for Song Yu.

After a few minutes of memorizing vocabulary, Song Yu stared at the words on his phone screen, fell silent for a moment, then tapped the screen with a trembling finger, and switched to the social media app.

Among the many chat records sorted by time, he scrolled to the end, almost masochistically, and clicked on the avatar labeled "He Chang."

The last message was from a month ago, and the next two pages were mostly messages Song Yu sent after He Chang broke up with him.

"Song Yu": He Chang, let's talk.

"Song Yu": Don’t do this... You promised we’d stick it out.

"Song Yu": Can we just meet? Please.

The messages were met with silence.

The messages felt like lashes, painful and humiliating.

Song Yu closed his eyes, his fingers stiff. He just couldn’t understand.

Back in their senior year of high school, he saw He Chang pulling all-nighters, studying desperately to keep up. He’d gone from failing the college entrance exam to scoring well enough for a second-tier university in just a year.

To be near him, He Chang applied to a college close to University A. He thought things would finally get better.

They’d been through so much... Why give up now?

Song Yu couldn’t understand.

No matter how he asked, He Chang never responded.

In the classroom, students began trickling in.

Song Yu turned off his phone screen.

He sat by the door, lost in thought, watching students rush in and scatter.

Another person walked in, his long legs clad in black trousers. But unlike the others, he slowed as he neared Song Yu, hesitating.

Song Yu couldn’t help but look up, and the moment he saw the other's face, he recognized him: it was the boy from that day.

Ji Mian’s face was hard to forget, especially with that left ear stud.

"Hello," Song Yu was the first to speak, "You're Lu Zhou, right?"

Ji Mian was startled.

Song Yu gave him a faint smile: "Lindsey mentioned you explained to the teacher why I missed the advanced math class."

He remembered something and added, "Lindsey is my roommate, with naturally curly hair." Song Yu pointed to his own hair, "You should have an impression."

Ji Mian nodded.

"Thanks," Song Yu smiled gently, but his eyes held a subtle, hard-to-notice melancholy.

Song Yu himself had a unique aura, a scholarly air rarely seen in both men and women, and when he smiled, it was even more striking, like a scholar adorned with a dewy rouge flower.

Ji Mian's ears instantly flushed a deep red.

He choked, coughed heavily, and then glanced around uneasily, avoiding direct eye contact with Song Yu.

"By the way," he averted his gaze, "why are there so many unfamiliar faces in class today? They don't seem to be from our department?"

"Yeah, it's a required course for us, but it's also an elective for the computer science department, so there are some students from there."

The course, Enterprise Management System Development, sounded impressive, and the content was tough, covering some front-end web development and requiring a solid programming background.

The course was set up unreasonably; most freshmen hadn't taken programming courses, so expecting them to develop a system was a stretch.

Plus, the course content didn't fit well with the economics department, and it had been criticized by past students.

Freshmen usually take general foundational courses, and even major-related ones are progressive, but this course was unusually tough.

Only because A University students were good at self-study, and the teachers were lenient, did the final grades turn out okay.

Just then, someone tapped Ji Mian's shoulder.

It was a tall guy with short, styled hair, dressed trendily.

"Lu, remember me?" the guy asked with a smirk.

Though not as good-looking as Ji Mian or Xie Hang, he was still handsome, and his height and style made him look good overall.

Ji Mian paused, thinking the guy looked familiar but couldn't place the name.

He was great with faces and names, so the only reason he couldn't recall was that he didn't know the guy well.

"I'll be at the second field playing basketball tonight," the guy said, his smile fading slightly.

Ji Mian finally remembered. "Oh, it's you. I remember now."

He'd seen the guy around but they'd never talked or played together, just crossed paths on the court.

Just a vague memory...

The guy's mouth twitched as he looked Ji Mian over, his gaze uncomfortably intense.

"I'm Han Ji, from the computer science department," he said.

"Wanna play basketball sometime?"

"Sure," Ji Mian said easily.

Han Ji smirked, about to say more, but someone walked by, a cool voice casually saying, "Morning."

The voice came from beside Han Ji, but it wasn't meant for him.

Han Ji turned to see a taller guy with a buzz cut and a near-perfect profile.

"Morning," Ji Mian replied, turning.

Xie Hang had barely slowed as he passed Ji Mian, and after a response, he didn't look back, just headed to find a seat.

Han Ji narrowed his eyes.

This guy’s got some attitude.

Xie Hang found his seat, sat down, and pulled out the laptop he’d need for class from his bag. His reflection stared back at him from the laptop’s dark screen.

He absentmindedly tapped a few keys before hitting the power button.

As the computer booted up, Xie Hang lowered his gaze and noticed the two band-aids on his elbow—both courtesy of Ji Mian.

His gaze shifted to the guy at the front of the class who was talking to Song Yu, and he recalled Ji Mian’s expression a few days ago when he blushed and called Song Yu “very pretty.” It clicked: Oh, this is the guy he said he wanted to pursue.

"Affection Points increased by 40, contributor Xie Hang."

Suddenly, Xie Hang’s eyes met Ji Mian’s, who had glanced up unexpectedly.

At the moment their gazes met, both felt a strange, unspoken tension.

Xie Hang’s computer screen lit up, and the lock screen showed 7:56.

Class was starting soon.

Ji Mian looked away, murmured something to Song Yu, and then turned to walk to a seat on the other side of the classroom, far from Xie Hang.

But not long ago, Ji Mian would always sit with Xie Hang.

—He’s avoiding me. Xie Hang thought.