Zeng Shunxi didn't spare a glance at the murmurs and pitying sighs behind her. With steady, composed steps, she slipped out of the crowd.
When the noon bell rang for lunch break, she walked alone toward the cafeteria. As always, without realizing it, she stopped at the railing on the third floor of the main building—her usual lookout point—gazing quietly down at the busiest intersection on campus.
This was the place every student had to pass after class to reach the cafeteria. From her vantage point, she could overlook nearly the entire student body. And every day, at this exact time, she came here for just one reason—to search for a certain silhouette. Just one glimpse from afar was enough to settle her restless heart.
It wasn't that she hated Mo Lǚ, not at all. She had rejected more than ten confessions over the years, each time citing the same reason: "I have a boyfriend."
It wasn't a lie. Because of him, her heart—faithfully occupied for three years—had no room for anyone else.
Guo Chouzhou.
Thick brows, deep eyes, a face sculpted like a Roman statue—perfect and holy. He had ranked number one on the campus heartthrob list for four consecutive years, yet never grew close to any girl. Even male friends around him were few. He walked through wind and rain alone, always solitary amid the bustling, group-oriented college crowd. That solitude made him a moving, mysterious landscape of his own.
The first time Shunxi met him was in freshman year during a large lecture. The professor assigned cross-department groups for a major report, and the two of them were paired together.
She assumed he was a foreigner, and with him being so silent, she concluded he couldn't speak Chinese. So she used her clumsy English to explain the assignment requirements. He only pressed his lips into a faint smile and listened, letting her go on and on under the wrong assumption.
Until the day the report was due.
He tossed her the finished project—having completed not only his section but hers as well. Their work ended up scoring the highest in the class.
They never spoke again after that. When she later learned he was actually born in China, a 100% local, her curiosity only deepened. She wanted to ask him why he hadn't said anything back then, why he let her act like a clown speaking broken English. But she never found the chance.
And gradually… she began noticing everything about him.
His classroom was one floor below hers. At exactly 12:15 every day, he would walk out. He always used the right-side staircase. He always ate at the cafeteria. He wasn't a vegetarian, yet he only ordered vegetarian dishes—probably because they were cheaper.
On Wednesdays, he had no classes, and whenever he was free, he would be in the library. He only read mystery novels. When he lowered his head to read, his long, wavy bangs would fall over his eyes—she wondered if that ever blocked his view.
The more she learned, the deeper she sank.
This boy was impossibly hard to decipher, and she wanted desperately to step into his world—to pack him lunches full of meat; to tell him jokes so his gaze would no longer be shadowed; to take him to beautiful places, to show him that the world outside of books was just as worth imagining.
She could have kept quietly watching him forever…
But now they were already in their fourth year. Time was running out. Internships would start soon, and then everyone would go their separate ways. They hadn't even had a proper conversation. She wasn't sure he even knew her name.
Should she confess?
Would he think she was ridiculous?
Shunxi fell into a spiral of hesitation. She had thought about giving up, but three years of silent affection wasn't something she could simply discard. She regretted that in the best years of her youth, she had never experienced a pure, simple college romance.
"Guo Chouzhou!"
As her mind tangled itself in worries and what-ifs, a classmate from his department had appeared beside her without her noticing and suddenly shouted his name.
Guo Chouzhou looked up in search of the voice. His gaze swept toward their direction—and caught sight of Shunxi.
She froze like a thief caught red-handed. Flustered, she spun around to flee, only to crash straight into a group of people heading her way.
"Hey! Why're you walking backward all of a sudden? Don't you have eyes?"
The leader of the group, Guo Chouyan, snapped impatiently.
"S-sorry, I'm so sorry!" Shunxi stammered, bowing repeatedly before bolting from the scene.
"Great, now my collar's wrinkled," Guo Chouyan muttered, frowning as she adjusted her half-open shirt.
One of her friends glanced at the girl who had just run away and suddenly gasped. "Oh! It's her, it's her!"
"Who?" Guo Chouyan scoffed.
"That girl Mo Lǚ made a huge public confession to this morning—the one who caused such a stir the whole campus heard about!"
"Oh right! She's from the Chinese Department—their campus belle. Zeng Shunxi!" another chimed in, finally recalling her name.
Guo Chouyan's expression darkened again. She had purposely given Mo Lǚ space so he would come chasing after her.
Instead, the news had broken this morning that Mo Lǚ publicly confessed to someone else—leaving her furious.
She had wanted to chase after the girl and see what kind of person she was. But upon hearing the name, she suddenly felt it sounded familiar.
Her gaze drifted down the stairs, where she saw her brother talking to another boy.
In an instant, the memory snapped into place.
Back when Guo Chouyan had just become student council president in freshman year, Shunxi had come to interview for the promotional planning team. Her brother had been there too—she had begged him to help temporarily. After he left, Shunxi had also withdrawn.
Their interaction had been brief, but now Guo Chouyan realized: Shunxi must have been there because of her brother.
Something stirred in her—the scent of hidden undercurrents between the two of them.
Her anger eased, replaced by a wicked little idea.
An idea that could kill two birds with one stone.