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Chapter 9
The long black-and-white curtains didn’t just hide the bed — they completely covered the desk beneath it too.
It looked… rather strange.
Tang Yu looked around curiously.
Aside from that peculiar bed, there were two empty ones, and the bed he himself had slept in last night.
The blanket Li Sheng had lent him was a silver silk sheet with embossed gold trim, the pattern made of interlocking straight lines that wound into endless maze-like squares.
He glanced at the dull gray bedboard.
When he brushed it with his fingertips, they came away thick with dust.
…Right. Li Sheng didn’t have any obligation to clean the other beds.
But Tang Yu definitely had the obligation to wash the quilt he’d borrowed.
Carrying the bedding in his arms, Tang Yu climbed down the stairs.
After sleeping all night on that rock-hard board, his entire body ached — except his left knee, which had been injured last night. That spot didn’t hurt at all.
Struck by a strange thought, Tang Yu rolled up his pant leg to check.
The moment he saw it, his eyes widened in disbelief.
The skin at his knee was smooth and pale, without the slightest mark.
He leaned closer, squinting — not even a trace of redness.
Only a faint, cold fragrance lingered in the air.
…Weird. Since when did he heal this fast?
Or maybe the pain last night hadn’t been from a real injury?
Tang Yu didn’t dwell on it.
Unsure if Li Sheng was still asleep, he moved quietly, carefully, stepping softly into the bathroom.
The light inside didn’t work.
The mirror was covered in a layer of dust.
He turned on the tap — for a few seconds, nothing came out.
Then, rusty red water gushed from the pipe.
He waited, and after a while, it cleared to normal.
He knew unused faucets did that sometimes.
Still, hadn’t Li Sheng been living here before?
Had the pipes suddenly gone bad recently?
…As long as no one told him this dorm was haunted, he could live with it.
And even if someone did tell him, it wasn’t like anything would actually happen —
he’d just get angry and move out.
Expressionless, Tang Yu turned the faucet off.
He didn’t use the water.
Still hugging the quilt, he left Room 623 and headed for the laundry room.
At this hour, not many people were awake.
Only two or three students were there.
As Tang Yu stuffed the quilt into a washing machine, a surprised voice came from behind him:
“Tang Yu?”
The voice was unfamiliar.
Tang Yu turned around, automatically glancing above the person’s head.
A stranger’s name panel.
It happened often — people he didn’t know would greet him like an old friend.
Two seconds later, Tang Yu realized his mistake again: whenever he “looked” at people, his eyes were fixed upward at the space above their heads.
From their point of view, he was… rolling his eyes.
He once overheard classmates whispering about it:
“Why does Tang Yu never look people in the eye? Does he not like us?”
Flustered, he quickly, awkwardly shifted his gaze to the other person’s eyes.
The student’s eyes were bright.
“Didn’t expect to see you here! You—you live in which dorm?”
“Six-two-three,” Tang Yu said softly.
The reaction was immediate — the boy’s expression changed sharply.
“What?! You live in 623?!”
The sudden rise in his voice startled Tang Yu.
“You haven’t heard the rumor? You know—”
The student abruptly lowered his voice, glancing around nervously, whispering,
“Go check the campus forum. Search for the keywords: 623, Li.”
Then he grabbed his laundry basin and hurried off like nothing had happened.
Tang Yu stood there, blankly holding his quilt bag.
While waiting for the wash cycle to finish, he borrowed a power bank from a nearby student and plugged in his dead phone.
When it turned on, he first replied to the counselor’s barrage of worried messages — then opened the campus forum and typed in: “Li Sheng, 623.”
The top result was a trending post.
# How come Li Sheng gets to live alone in Room 623? Some kind of genius privilege?
Original Post:
There aren’t even enough beds in the old dorm building—some freshmen are getting crammed into ours! So how come Li Sheng gets a whole four-person room to himself?
1st Reply:
Li God has roommates. They just all switched to commuting.
2nd Reply:
I heard Tang Yu’s bed is in 623.
3rd Reply:
WHAT?! Tang Yu lives in 623?!
4th Reply:
WHAT?! Tang Yu and Li God live together?!
5th Reply:
WHAT?! Tang Yu and Li God slept together?!
6th Reply:
Congrats! 99 years of harmony ❤️
7th Reply:
They really match, bless them~ 💕
Tang Yu: “…?”
Silently, he closed the forum.
So that’s the big secret his classmate was afraid to say aloud.
He hadn’t expected someone that proper-looking to be hiding this kind of gossip.
Tang Yu tiptoed and hung the freshly wrung quilt on the drying rack.
When he raised his arms, the hem of his shirt lifted slightly — revealing a sliver of skin, pale enough to dazzle the eyes.
Droplets slid from the edge of the wet quilt.
The morning sun spilled warmly over his figure.
For a moment, he felt as though he were submerged in clear, bright water.
He leaned on the railing, breathing in the clean air, savoring the calm of the morning campus.
Then—
his dark brows twitched sharply.
Startled, Tang Yu’s gaze dropped to the ground below — and froze on a familiar figure.
Bathed in sunlight, Shen Junxing seemed gilded with gold.
He smiled up at Tang Yu and waved, his handsome face bright with warmth.
From his mouth, Tang Yu could read the words—
“Good morning, Xiao Yu.”
Tang Yu instinctively ducked behind the damp quilt, hiding in the corner of shade as though that could block out that unnerving gaze.
“Ding-dong!”
His heart leapt painfully with the sound of the message alert.
He could barely breathe.
Hadn’t they agreed to take a break?
Just one night apart wasn’t enough for him already?
“Ding-dong!”
Another. And another.
The sound dripped like water from a leaky faucet—steady, relentless.
Shen Junxing: “I brought you breakfast.”
Shen Junxing: “image.jpg”
The photo showed a long, elegant hand holding a lunch box.
Tang Yu quickly replied:
“Just leave it downstairs.”
Shen Junxing: “What if Xiao Yu throws away the breakfast I made?”
Shen Junxing: “(crying puppy.gif)”
Tang Yu sighed in defeat.
“I won’t.”
Shen Junxing: “But Xiao Yu didn’t hesitate to throw away gifts from other people.”
…Because those “other people” were perverts — stalkers, voyeurs, harassers.
Tang Yu: “I wouldn’t treat a normal person’s gift like that.”
They’d clearly agreed to some space between them.
Was Shen Junxing trying to test how far he could push it?
Tang Yu: “Those gifts weren’t normal. No one would like gifts like that.”
Seconds later, another message popped up.
Shen Junxing: “Then does Xiao Yu like my breakfast?”
Tang Yu could almost see the teasing curve of his lips, could almost hear the amusement in his voice.
…Too much.
This was too much.
What did he want from him?
Why, when Tang Yu was struggling so hard to keep their “friendship” stable, did Shen Junxing — the cause of all this — refuse to reflect, refuse to repent, and instead keep poking, keep pushing?
His fingers trembled but moved faster than his emotions.
He typed a single reply:
“I don’t.”
The moment he hit send, it was like his strength drained out of him.
“Ding-dong!”
His lashes quivered violently.
He didn’t want to look, didn’t want to see what came next.
It took him several deep breaths before he could glance down.
Shen Junxing: “I left the lunch box for you. Remember to eat it while it’s warm.”
One second.
Two.
No more messages.
Tang Yu held his breath and cautiously peeked out over the balcony.
Down below, students and teachers passed by —
but Shen Junxing was gone.
Had he really left?
The sounds of the campus felt distant, muffled, like through a layer of water.
Leaves shimmered in the breeze,
a girl’s bicycle bell rang as she passed,
a few boys jogged across the courtyard,
and an older teacher walked by talking on his phone.
The sunlight stretched their shadows long and thin.
Tang Yu’s head swam.
He hadn’t slept well last night.
Sunlight poured like water, flooding the courtyard.
The people below seemed submerged in it —
voices muted, faces blurred, movements dreamlike.
Countless vague faces.
Countless indistinct gazes.
Countless shadows that all seemed to stare back.
Tang Yu staggered slightly as he left the balcony.
He opened the dorm door — and froze.
Right there at his feet sat a lunch box,
identical to the one in Shen Junxing’s photo.
