02
Beijing in September is still immersed in the afterglow of late summer. The afternoon sun shines through the gaps between the leaves of the sycamore trees, casting mottled light and shadows on the tree-lined avenues of Tsinghua University.
Shen Qingyu dragged two suitcases, each half a person's height, their wheels making a gurgling sound as they slowly moved forward. She wore a white slip dress and a thin denim jacket. She tucked a few strands of sweat-soaked platinum hair behind her ears. This color, dyed the day after the college entrance exam, was dazzling against the sea of black hair surrounding her.
The dormitory was on the third floor, and there was no elevator. As Shen Qingyu gritted her teeth and dragged the heaviest suitcase up the last step, beads of sweat formed on her forehead. Just as she was about to raise her hand to wipe the sweat off her face, the dormitory door suddenly opened from the inside. A girl in black shorts smiled at her first, revealing two pointed little canine teeth. "Hello! You're the last one here, right? My name is Le Yan'er, this is Ji Yuanyuan, and that's Su Yi!"
"Hello, everyone." Shen Qingyu leaned the suitcase against the door and patted the dust off his hands. "My name is Shen Qingyu."
"Chen Qingyu!?"
The three exclamations overlapped, making her ears buzz. Shen Qingyu was stunned for a moment, then nodded subconsciously: "Yes, what's wrong?"
Su Yi jumped off the bed, her canvas shoes making a crisp "pa" sound on the floor. "Are you the rumored Shen Qingyu from Peking University High School? The Shen Qingyu who won the silver medal in the World Informatics Olympiad?"
Le Yan'er had already swarmed over to her side, her fingers tempted to touch her hair, but she paused mid-air, afraid of being abrupt. "It's been all over Tsinghua! There's a super-beautiful math genius among the new students in the Computer Science Department. There are already people waiting for you at the orientation area before school even started!"
The corners of Shen Qingyu's mouth curled up slightly. She had been accustomed to hearing compliments like "good-looking" and "smart" since she was a child, but the phrase "Tsinghua is famous all over" still made her secretly explode a string of small fireworks in her heart. But on the surface, she just pretended to be stupid and tilted her head: "Ah? There is such a thing? How come I don't know?"
"That's right!" Ji Yuanyuan also came over and pointed at her hair and said, "You dyed your hair recently! Platinum blonde is very picky about skin tones, it looks amazing on you!"
"Thank you! Actually, I've wanted to dye my hair like this for a long time." Shen Qingyu smiled and shook her hair. The ends of her hair brushed over her shoulders, with a hint of fine luster. "High school is very strict. They say dyeing your hair will affect your studies. I held it back for three years, and as soon as the college entrance examination was over, I rushed to the barber shop."
"You're so cool!" Le Yan'er tugged at her arm and shook it. "From now on, you'll be the most handsome guy in dormitory 302!"
Shen Qingyu laughed out loud when she shook him, and the nervousness in his heart at first arriving in an unfamiliar environment was instantly washed away by the warmth.
From her freshman year to her sophomore year, Shen Qingyu lived like a clockwork. The computer department courses were much harder than she had imagined. "Advanced Mathematics", "Linear Algebra", "Data Structure"... each book was as thick as a brick. Although she had barely passed the admission score for Tsinghua University, her foundation was not solid after all. She simply plunged into the library, either poring over professional books for an entire afternoon, or returning to the dormitory to type code in front of the computer until late at night. Occasionally, she would relax by staying in the dormitory and playing League of Legends. Le Yaner always complained to her: "Chen Qingyu, if you keep staying at home like this, you'll soon grow mushrooms!"
But her name didn't stay with her. On the school forum, there was an anonymous thread about beauty, and her photo was always pushed to the front page—sometimes it was her silhouette, captured walking to class in the teaching building, her platinum hair standing out against the white walls; sometimes it was her standing in line in the cafeteria, wearing a simple white T-shirt and jeans, yet she was praised for her "seductive eyes, as if they were filled with water"; and once, she went for a night run in the playground, and someone took a photo of her running from behind, and the comment section exploded with comments: "What a waist! What legs! How did the Computer Science Department hide such a beautiful woman!"
The title of "Belle of the Computer Department" firmly rested on her head, and some people even pushed her onto the list of campus beauties.
As a result, at a departmental social, someone publicly called her "Tsinghua Campus Belle." Shen Qingyu held a glass of juice and denied it expressionlessly: "Don't call me Campus Belle, it sounds like a joke."
At the beginning of her junior year, Shen Qingyu unleashed all the "indulgence" she had accumulated over the past two years. Her first call was to Qu Shengsheng: "Come out for a drink."
Qu Shengsheng laughed out loud on the other end of the phone: "Wow, has the top student Shen finally come down to earth? Did the sun rise from the west?"
The two of them met at the bar they often frequented in Wudaokou. As soon as they walked in, they were enveloped by the deafening sound of electronic dance music. The figures on the dance floor swayed violently, and the hot air hit their faces, mixed with the smell of alcohol and perfume.
Shen Qingyu took a deep breath, played the sheng, and dove in. They played until late at night, and the two of them collapsed on the high stools at the bar, with two glasses of iced whiskey in front of them.
"Why have you become so wild?" Qu Shengsheng tilted her head back and took a big gulp of wine. Her Adam's apple rolled, and she smacked her lips and said, "Great!" She was a student in the directing department of the Beijing Film Academy. She had been acquainted with Shen Qingyu since high school. In the second semester of her senior year, Qu Shengsheng stayed up all night to finish the storyboard script and returned to the dormitory. She ran into Shen Qingyu stepping on the wall to climb out. The two of them looked at each other and unexpectedly became "wall-climbing partners."
Chen Qingyu drank her glass without changing her expression. The cold liquor slid down her throat, bringing a bit of spicy stimulation. She took a deep breath and raised an eyebrow: "You are not bad either. You danced more happily than anyone else on the dance floor just now."
"You're stuck in it." Qu Shengsheng bumped her arm and jokingly lowered his voice, "I asked you to hang out every day during my freshman and sophomore years, but you insisted on doing homework, writing code, and playing games. I thought you were a good person."
"I'm very bad." Shen Qingyu threw her a coquettish look, and the small mole at the end of her eye swayed under the colorful lights, adding a bit of charm.
"That's right." Qu Shengsheng rolled his eyes and suddenly leaned over, looking gossipy. "Seriously, you haven't been in a relationship in the past two years?"
"No." Shen Qingyu answered simply.
"Raising fish?" Qu Shengsheng asked again.
"without."
"What!?" Qu Shengsheng choked on his drink and coughed, slapping his chest. "Are you kidding me? How many boys would jump on you if you just stood there with that face and beckoned? You've never been in a relationship before?"
"What are you trying to do?" Chen Qingyu interrupted her, twirling the empty wine glass with her fingers, causing water droplets to drip onto the bar. "I already have everything a boyfriend can give me. Dating is so troublesome."
Qu Shengsheng choked and muttered after a while: "Yeah, with our conditions, there's no point in dating." She paused, raised her chin again, and said proudly: "But I'm different - I'm rich and sexy, it would be a loss to date only one person!"
Shen Qingyu was about to ask the bartender for a refill when Qu Shengsheng suddenly grabbed her sleeve and said, "Fuck! Shen Qingyu, look at that handsome guy!"
Following Qu Shengsheng's gaze, she looked toward the edge of the dance floor, where she met a pair of peach-shaped eyes. The boy stood in the shadows, his dark hair slightly curled, reaching down to his brows, with loose strands draping over his eyes. His nose was as straight as if meticulously sculpted, his lips naturally moist, and his mouth slightly pursed, a touch of distant indifference. He wore a black shirt, two buttons undone at the collar, revealing his cold, pale skin and a shallowly sunken collarbone.
"He looks like a new face." Qu Shengsheng narrowed his eyes and smacked his lips. "He's still looking at you! Go get his WeChat!"
Before Shen Qingyu could react, Qu Shengsheng pushed her over. Shen Qingyu stumbled two steps, turned back and glared at her, only to see Qu Shengsheng holding up his wine glass and mouthing "Come on" at her. She sighed helplessly and walked towards the boys with her head held high.
"Hello, can I have your WeChat?" The music was too loud, and she almost shouted, with a hint of reluctance and awkwardness in her voice.
The boy frowned, seemingly not having heard clearly, and leaned slightly closer to her. His shoulders were broad, and as he moved closer, they blocked the light behind him. "What?" His voice was a little hoarse, with a hint of tobacco mixed with light perfume, and it gently fell on Shen Qingyu's ear.
Shen Qingyu's ears felt a little hot instantly. She pointed to her phone and then to his pocket. The boy finally understood and leaned forward, his warm breath brushing against her ear: "Sorry, I didn't bring my phone."
-
When they returned to the dormitory, Qu Shengsheng was still mocking her on WeChat: "Hahahahaha! You didn't bring your phone! That's such a ridiculous excuse! With your temper, shouldn't you just throw your phone at his feet, say 'Coincidentally, I didn't bring it either,' and then walk away? Why did you run away?"
Shen Qingyu gritted her teeth as she unpacked her new phone. Wasn't it that she didn't have time to drop it last night? Just as she was about to explode, the boy was bumped by someone squeezing in next to her, his elbow accidentally rubbing against her shoulder. Shen Qingyu lost her balance and fell to the ground, her phone clattering to the ground at his feet.
When their eyes met, the boy not only didn't help her, but also looked at her with a smile, a hint of amusement in his eyes. Shen Qingyu's face flushed red immediately, and she grabbed her phone and ran away with Qu Shengsheng - she had never been so embarrassed!
"Wait." She typed fiercely on the phone screen, "I'll remember him."
A few days after school started, Su Yi came back from a frantic run, her face flushed red. As soon as she entered the room, she shouted, "Big news! Tsinghua University and Peking University are having a friendly basketball match! This afternoon at 3:00! In the West Gymnasium!"
Le Yaner was applying a facial mask when she suddenly sat up, the mask paper tilted. "Is this true? Is there a handsome guy here?"
"It's absolutely true!" Su Yi panted, clinging to the doorframe. "There's a computer science student on our school team named Yu Wang, a year younger than us. He's incredibly handsome! He's 188cm tall and a fantastic basketball player! In the last departmental tournament, he scored 30 points by himself!"
Ji Yuanyuan also came over and pushed her glasses. "I heard that Zhou Zhiyi from Peking University is here too! The one who won CUBA MVP his freshman year? He's super handsome too!"
Shen Qingyu was sprawled in bed catching up on her early morning nap when she was dragged out of bed by three men. She was then forced to spend nearly two hours getting dressed—putting on lipstick, changing into a figure-hugging cropped sweatshirt, and even tying her hair into a high ponytail. By the time they were dragged to the gymnasium, she was still dizzy and yawned, leaning against the bleacher railing.
"You lazy pig, you stayed up late again last night?" Le Yaner patted her back.
"I wish there were no early eights in the world." Shen Qingyu said weakly, his eyes almost unable to open.
As soon as she finished speaking, the audience erupted in screams, causing her eardrums to hurt. Shen Qingyu squinted her eyes and looked towards the court—two school teams were approaching the field. The one wearing the blue jersey was the Tsinghua team. One of the boys, wearing number 18, was walking in front, raising his hand to push back his hair, revealing his full forehead and sharp brow bones.
Shen Qingyu suddenly woke up.
It’s the heartless man who “didn’t bring his cell phone”!
"Fuck." She cursed softly, and her eyes turned cold instantly.
"What's wrong with you?" Su Yi was staring at the court. Noticing that her eyes were not right, he glanced over and immediately became excited. "Look, isn't Yu Wang super handsome! I told you he's good-looking! His figure and looks are simply amazing!"
"Number 18 is Yu Wang?" Chen Qingyu repeated with a wry smile, his fingers secretly gripping the railing.
"Yeah, yeah!" Su Yi didn't notice the difference in her tone and followed the girls around her in shouting, "Come on, Yu Wang! Yu Wang is the most handsome!"
A hint of coldness flashed in Shen Qingyu's eyes. Yu Wang, huh? Finally, she found him. She remembered this "revenge of falling to the ground."
On the court, Yu Wang suddenly sneezed while preparing to warm up. His teammate Wu Hao nudged his arm and asked, "Caught a cold? Do you want to put on a coat?"
He rubbed his nose and glanced around the stands. The audience was packed with people, and the colorful cheering signs were dizzying. His eyes quickly swept across the crowd and met Zhou Zhiyi's, and his gaze instantly turned cold.
"Brother, please go easy on me." Zhou Zhiyi walked over with a smile, patted him on the shoulder, with a hint of teasing in his tone.
"Who the hell is your brother?" Yu Wang pushed his hand away and said in a harsh tone, "Stay away from my sister."
Zhou Zhiyi raised his eyebrows, said nothing more, and turned back to the Peking University team's camp.
The game began as the referee blew the whistle.
The basketball was tossed high into the air, and Yu Wang and Zhou Zhiyi jumped at the same time. Zhou Zhiyi's leaping ability was astonishing, and he touched the ball first, but Yu Wang reacted faster, reaching out and hooking it directly. He dribbled the ball to the left, deceiving Zhou Zhiyi's defense, and then deftly bypassed the guard, his feet moving like a flash, and in the blink of an eye, he was at the basket. He bent his knees slightly, jumped, raised his hand, and gently pressed his wrist - the basketball drew a perfect arc and landed steadily in the basket.
"Good shot!" The audience seats exploded instantly, and the screams almost blew off the roof of the gymnasium. Su Yi grabbed Shen Qingyu's arm and shook it: "Ahhh, that fake move! So cool! Yu Wang is so amazing!"
Zhou Zhiyi was also not ambiguous and quickly grabbed the ball back. He dribbled the ball quickly and steadily, suddenly accelerated and broke through, dodging two defenders, and directly jumped up under the basket and dunked with one hand - the ball also went in!
"Oh my god! Zhou Zhiyi's dunk!" Le Yaner covered her mouth and shouted, her eyes wide open.
After several rounds, the score was deadlocked, with neither player gaining an advantage. By the time the final round came around, the entire crowd held their breath, the very air seemed to freeze.
"I bet Yu Wang will win!" Le Yaner said with clenched fists, her tone very firm.
Ji Yuanyuan immediately responded: "I bet on Zhou Zhiyi! The loser can ask for his WeChat!"
Shen Qingyu still remembered Yu Wang's vengeance, and without thinking, she followed Ji Yuanyuan's lead: "I'll bet on Zhou Zhiyi too."
Midway through the deciding game, Zhou Zhiyi suddenly collapsed, clutching his knees, his face pale. The team doctor rushed over to examine him and declared it a recurrence of an old injury, forcing him to sit out. The substitutes were clearly outmatched and unable to stop Yu Wang. Within minutes, Yu Wang drained a three-pointer, extending the lead and easily winning the game.
"You've got to accept the loss!" Su Yi nudged Chen Qingyu, grinning wickedly, "Go get Yu Wang's WeChat! We're all waiting!"
Shen Qingyu gritted her teeth as she was half-pushed and half-shoved by the three of them down the stands. She took a deep breath and cursed Yu Wang eight hundred times in her heart - this kid is lucky!
Yu Wangzheng stood on the sidelines drinking water with his teammates. Sweat dripped down his jawline and onto his collarbone, leaving a small stain. His soaked jersey clung to his body, outlining his smooth muscles. Suddenly, someone ran up to him. He looked up and froze.
It was Shen Qingyu. She didn't wear the flamboyant skirt she wore last night, but a simple white short sweatshirt with light blue jeans. Her hair was tied into a high ponytail, revealing her smooth forehead and small ears.
"Hello, can I have your WeChat?" Her voice was flat, and no emotion could be heard from it, but there was a hint of stubbornness in her eyes.
The teammates next to him immediately started to make a noise: "Hey! Yu Wang, you're really good!" Someone recognized Shen Qingyu and secretly took out their phone to take a photo - the beauty from the Computer Science Department was asking the handsome guy from the Basketball Department for his WeChat. This thing would definitely make the headlines of the Tsinghua Forum tomorrow.
Yu Wang stared at her for two seconds, probably guessing that she had lost the bet. He twitched his lips and was about to say "I'm sorry" when she suddenly interrupted him.
"Did you bring your cell phone this time?"
Shen Qingyu took a step forward. She was half a head shorter than Yu Wang, so she had to tilt her head slightly to see his eyes clearly. Her long eyelashes drooped, casting a small shadow under her eyes. She lowered her voice so low that only the two of them could hear, "Heartless man."
Yu Wang paused as he reached into his pocket to touch his phone. The moment Shen Qingyu turned around, Yu Wang froze in place, leaving him with a dashing back view.
Last night, the lights in the bar were too dim, and she was wearing heavy makeup, with the mole at the end of her eye mostly covered by eyeshadow, so he didn't recognize her. Now, looking at her up close, the small mole was clearly visible in the sunlight, and it slowly overlapped with the girl in his memory who had a sharp look in her eyes when she kicked the gangster - it turned out to be her.
In fact, Yu Wang had already met Shen Qingyu.
It was September, his freshman year. He and Wu Hao were out drinking until midnight, squatting on the side of the road in a small alley near the school, smoking. His roommates were boisterously drinking at a nearby night market stall, and he found the noise annoying, so he moved away to the shade.
The moon was round, hanging in the dark blue sky, with few stars. The alley was dark and eerie. He took a puff of his cigarette, and when the smoke cleared, he saw a girl walking slowly towards him from the alley entrance.
She wore a black, waist-baring tank top and denim shorts. Her waist-length hair was blown by the wind, brushing against her slender, pale waist, revealing a small part of her waist. The light from the street lamp fell on her, stretching her shadow very long.
Just as Yu Wang's eyes fell on her waist, she saw three scoundrels rushing out of the alley and blocking her way. The leader had a beer belly and burped. The reek of alcohol on him could be smelled from several meters away. "Girl, you're pretty. Want to have a drink with us?" he said, reaching out to grab her arm.
Yu Wang was holding a cigarette in his mouth, the butt between his fingers, and was about to stand up when he saw the girl's body tilt, and his beer belly missed and almost fell to the ground. Before he could react, the girl had already raised her foot and kicked the man's knee. With a "bang", the beer belly fell hard to the concrete floor, and he grimaced in pain.
The other two men were anxious, and they rushed towards her from the left and right. She threw the bag on her shoulder to the side, grabbed the wrist of the man on her left with her left hand, and pressed down on his elbow with her right hand. There was a slight "crack" sound, and the man screamed in pain. Just as the man on the right was about to attack, she turned and swept his leg, tripping him to the ground. She stepped on his back, squatted down, patted his face, and said in a crisp voice with a hint of disdain: "Idiot."
After saying that, she raised her middle finger. Her arrogant yet cute look made Yu Wang's mouth curl up unconsciously.
She dusted her hands, picked up her bag, and walked past Yu Wang. The wind blew her hair, and a strand of it brushed against the back of his hand, carrying a faint scent of gardenia shampoo. Yu Wang watched her from behind until she disappeared into the alley, then stubbed out his cigarette.
When he returned to the night market stall, Wu Hao was drunkenly pulling him aside and saying, "Just now, Senior Sister Shen Qingyu from the Computer Department passed by here! She's so pretty! Slim waist and long legs! It's a pity you didn't see her..."
"That's right." Lu Yizi also nodded, with a crazy look on his face, "Next time I see you, I must ask for your WeChat!"
From that day on, he had been paying attention to Shen Qingyu, whether intentionally or unintentionally. He had seen her in the library, scowling as she pored over Data Structures; in the cafeteria, she had seen her chatting and laughing with her roommates while eating a hamburger; in the playground, she had seen her sweating profusely while running at night... Every aspect of her was similar to the girl who kicked the bully in the alley, but with a different and more vivid look.
He knew she was the most beautiful girl in the computer department, that she was very popular on the forums, and that she didn't like dating, but he didn't expect to meet her in a bar. Even more unexpectedly, he didn't expect that she would take the initiative to ask for her WeChat - even if it was just for a bet.
"What are you thinking about?" Wu Hao pushed him and said, "Let's go back to the dormitory."
Yu Wang came back to his senses, nodded, and followed his teammates out of the gymnasium. When he reached the door, he couldn't help but glance at the stands. Shen Qingyu was gone. There was only the empty railings, shining coldly in the sunlight.
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