The rain was still pouring.
In an instant of lightning and thunder, the surroundings went from extremely bright to extremely dark.
Yu Xun, holding an umbrella, stared at the umbrella he had always kept behind the door but hadn’t taken today. He asked in a low voice, “Really?”
“……”
Because of the heavy rain, most people had already left the study room.
Many were worried that the rain might get heavier if they stayed longer, and the remaining few didn’t care about the weather.
Someone asked the people inside, “Aren’t you leaving?”
The people inside replied, “It doesn’t matter; we’re staying up all night. Even if it means dying, we’ll die in the study room tonight.”
“……”
Yun Ci hadn’t planned on joining this group of extreme studiers—until he heard Yu Xun didn’t have an umbrella.
Normal people wouldn’t push themselves this hard, especially since he wasn’t originally in the study room. He had come through the rain.
He was kind-hearted.
He was diligent.
Yun Ci tried to convince himself with these reasons but had to admit they were too far-fetched.
So, faced with Yu Xun’s question, he suddenly didn’t know what to say.
“Boom——”
Another flash of lightning and thunder.
The thunder jolted Yun Ci awake.
A clear and convincing reason flashed through his mind.
“Bringing you an umbrella wasn’t just incidental.”
Yun Ci cracked his knuckles and exhaled, finding the reason for his odd behavior: “Final exams are coming up. If you can’t get back because you don’t have an umbrella, what does that mean?”
Yu Xun raised an eyebrow, sensing a familiar energy spreading between them.
Yun Ci: “It means.” He looked at Yu Xun and continued, “You’ll get an extra night of studying in the study room compared to me.”
“…………”
After saying this, Yun Ci felt completely relaxed.
That was the reason.
So when he heard Yu Xun didn’t have an umbrella, it felt like something was scratching at him.
Yun Ci released his clenched knuckles, relaxed, and then casually flicked the rain off the long-handled umbrella, lifting his chin as he moved to open the door.
However, the next second—
The door didn’t open.
Yu Xun’s hand pressed against the door frame, stopping it with an opposite force.
“?
“Are you going in to study?” Yu Xun asked.
“No kidding.” Yun Ci said.
Yu Xun closed his umbrella, released his hand, and after the glass door opened, he stepped back in: “I’m not going back either.”
Yu Xun: “If you’re studying, how can I go back to rest first?” Under Yun Ci’s slightly frozen gaze, he added, “Final exams are coming up. Can I let you get an extra night of studying over me?”
“……”
In the end, the two of them ended up studying in the study room all night.
Yun Ci had braved the rain, brought his own umbrella, and the one he brought for Yu Xun. Both umbrellas were placed side by side against the wall. And he and Yu Xun sat face-to-face, each with a book.
The situation had taken an unexpected turn.
The study room was very quiet, and the sound of a phone vibrating was amplified.
Liu Sheng: [Ci Ge, you’ve been gone a long time.]
Liu Sheng: [You aren’t really fighting, are you?]
Liu Sheng got back on topic, reporting: [Oh, by the way, Li Yan came by and said you left something in their dorm. He asked me what you were doing.]
Then, Li Yan’s message came.
Li Yan: [This fierce yet wild stormy day has a vibe that’s perfect for beating up that Yu Xun kid. I get it.]
Among a bunch of messages, there was even one from Peng Yiyuan: [Are you free tomorrow evening? I have something important to discuss.]
“……”
What a mess.
Yun Ci didn’t reply to any of them. Since he had already sat down to study, and his only competitor for the final exam was right in front of him, he focused on his textbook.
After a while, having organized an entire chapter’s content, he put down his pen and stretched his wrist.
Yu Xun’s progress was about the same.
But Yu Xun was still writing something, probably notes.
Yun Ci didn’t look closely. He was about to turn the page when a small paper ball was thrown over from the other side with a “pop.”
Yu Xun twirled his pen, signaling Yun Ci to open it.
[Do you want to drink some water?]
“……”
Yun Ci wrote two words, “No thanks,” and threw it back.
The note was quickly thrown over again, asking him: “What time are you going back?”
Yun Ci remembered that during the final exams at West High, it was a tough battle for the entire grade. Originally, Yan Yue’s plan was to have the classes monitor each other’s progress by integrating the average scores of each class for each subject and posting them on the board. But no one paid attention to these rankings at first—until Class One and Class Seven started competing.
Li Yan was in charge of gathering all kinds of information: “Yu Xun was online at two in the morning; he must have been studying.”
He asked again, “What time did you go to bed yesterday? If it was after two, we still have the advantage in this final exam.”
The sources of information were varied, including messages collected from the teacher’s office: “Damn, Yu Xun went to the teacher’s office yesterday and asked for a collection of additional questions from previous years. The math teacher didn’t give them to us in class. You’d better go to the teacher’s office and ask for it. Tell the teacher our class needs two copies.”
At that time, Yun Ci casually replied, “Why not ask for a few more copies?”
Li Yan: “Three copies will do.”
Li Yan added, “Any more, and we really won’t be able to finish them. Remember not to let anyone from Class Seven see you when you ask.”
“……”
Yun Ci returned from his memories to reality.
He replied on the note: “I’ll be back later than you.”
Yu Xun opened the note with one hand, looked down, and wrote something again.
Yun Ci thought it would be some childish declaration like “There’s no way you’ll be back later than me” or “I’ll be back the latest.”
But when he opened the note, it turned out to be two sentences:
“I don’t think I’ve ever confessed to you by passing a note.”
The handwriting on the second sentence was much neater.
“I like you.”
One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.
Yun Ci’s reaction wasn’t so much slow as it was like some emotion silently gathering strength, waiting for all the feelings to come together before exploding.
He crumpled the note, wanting to show Yu Xun that notes like this should be thrown as far away as possible.
In the next moment.
His hand honestly made a turn in the air and stuffed the note into his pocket.
There was no trash can nearby.
For now, he’d temporarily, reluctantly, keep it.
He would throw it away when he got back.
The two continued studying face to face for a while longer.
Until Yu Xun first called for a “truce,” Yun Ci stood up, ready to go back to the dormitory.
But as soon as he walked a few steps out, he heard Yu Xun talking to a guy at the next table, his voice lazy: “Hey, brother.”
“?” The guy looked up, puzzled.
“Didn’t bring an umbrella?” Yu Xun asked him.
The guy nodded: “Don’t mention it, today’s been really unlucky, and my roommate isn’t in the dorm.”
Yu Xun put his own umbrella on the guy’s table: “Here, you can borrow mine.”
The guy looked at the umbrella, then reached out and took it solemnly, saying only: “Thanks, brother.”
After lending his umbrella to this newly made “brother,” Yu Xun walked over to Yun Ci and said, “I lent my umbrella out.”
He said this while glancing at the long-handled umbrella Yun Ci had just opened, directly implying that the two of them should share one umbrella: “Considering how helpful I am, you wouldn’t mind giving me a lift, right?”
Yun Ci: “……”
Some people really come up with all sorts of ideas.
Yun Ci looked at the torrential rain outside.
Thinking about why he even bothered to give Yu Xun an umbrella, he might as well let him study an extra night.
After a moment, Yun Ci said coldly: “You might as well walk back in the rain.”
He added, “You’d be going from being helpful to being self-sacrificing.”
A few minutes later.
Yun Ci and Yu Xun walked out of the study room under the same umbrella.
The person who had just said, “You might as well walk back in the rain,” now had his hand on the umbrella handle, holding it high. He glanced at Yu Xun and noticed some raindrops hitting him. Without a word, he tilted the umbrella a bit towards Yu Xun.
“……”
*
The next evening, Li Yan came to visit dorm room 608.
Yun Ci had just finished showering and came out of the bathroom, drying his hair. He asked, “Why are you here?”
Li Yan: “I don’t know, Peng Shao from your dorm invited me over.”
At his words, Yun Ci remembered the message he received in the study room yesterday.
Li Yan: “He said there’s something important to discuss.”
As he spoke, Li Yan sat at Yun Ci’s desk, casually flipping through his pile of textbooks. Halfway through, he found a crumpled note tucked inside one of the books—well, it had been crumpled before but had been flattened by the book.
“What’s this,” Li Yan tried to pull it out, “Who are you passing notes with during class? How many ‘brothers’ do you have out there?”
Just as Li Yan’s hand touched the book, a few scattered words on the note became visible. He glimpsed “drink” and the character for “like” before Yun Ci unceremoniously pressed it back down.
Yun Ci pressed it back and directly took the book, holding it himself: “Yesterday’s, I haven’t finished memorizing it.”
Li Yan: “Oh.” Li Yan wasn’t concerned about memorizing; he was more interested in another question: “What were you talking about on that note, something about drinking?”
Yun Ci: “Beer.”
Li Yan: “And the ‘like’ part?”
Yun Ci: “Tea.”
“……”
“Beer and tea,” Li Yan found it baffling, “How could they appear on the same note?”
Yun Ci pressed his lips together: “Mixed drinks.”
Li Yan: “……Amazing, is it good?”
Yun Ci: “Not bad.”
Yun Ci thought if this topic went any further, he’d kick Li Yan out of room 608.
Fortunately, the topic ended in time.
Because the dormitory door was pushed open, and in came two people—one was the person who passed him notes last night, and the other was a curly-haired guy with a ponytail.
An epic meeting.
Li Yan almost jumped up: “What are you doing here?”
Liu Zi: “You think you’re the only one who can come?”
“Peng Shao called me over.”
Saying that, Liu Zi sat down.
He crossed his legs, showing no intention of leaving: “And he paid me.”
“…”
Liu Zi: “More than I made from my most successful startup, selling instant noodles.”
Li Yan: “So blowing up the dorm was your most successful startup.”
Liu Zi: “Damn.”
Yun Ci only glanced at Yu Xun unintentionally when he entered, then, not knowing why, he moved the book with the note in it behind his back.
Yu Xun broke the silence first. He noticed the book Yun Ci had moved and asked, “Yesterday’s… wasn’t it finished?”
Yun Ci, expressionless: “I’m reinforcing it.”
No matter what the two said, it always seemed filled with tension for others.
Li Yan immediately added fuel to the fire: “That’s right, reinforcement is the key to victory.”
Liu Zi fanned the flames too: “Reinforce what? We should use our limited time more efficiently. We never review the same points twice?!”
“…”
As they spoke, the main character of the topic, Peng Yiyuan, arrived late, holding several thick stacks of paper. These papers were bound into small booklets, and he gave one to each person: “I was late because I was printing these.”
Everyone took one and looked down. The cover read: “Stage Play Script.”
Turning the page: “The Love Story of the Princess and the Prince,” by Peng Yiyuan.
Peng Yiyuan was bowing down to the final exams: “As everyone knows, my situation for the finals is pretty dire, so I plan to cram by putting on a play to pass.”
“Brothers, help me out; let’s put on a play together.”
“Each booklet has different roles,” Peng Yiyuan said as he handed them out, “It’s like drawing cards; whatever role you get is what you play.”
Li Yan temporarily put aside his grievances: “Drawing cards? That’s interesting. Is there a noble role? I’d like to play a royal aristocrat or something.”
Liu Zi: “Is there a role as a wealthy business magnate?”
“…”
Li Yan added: “Never mind, as long as it’s not the princess, it’s fine.”
Peng Yiyuan: “The princess is great; her scenes are very romantic, and she even gets the prince’s true love kiss at the end.”
“…” Liu Zi commented, “This plot sounds familiar.”
Peng Yiyuan: “I borrowed it.”
Everyone drew their roles.
Yun Ci picked a thin booklet closest to him. He opened it and saw a shocking word on the first page: “Princess.”
But that wasn’t the most shocking part.
He prided himself on his mental fortitude, not collapsing immediately upon seeing this word. However, out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed the booklet in Yu Xun’s hand and the “Prince” role card on it.
“Snap.”
Yun Ci closed his booklet.
His mental fortitude had collapsed.
