"Yesterday was his seventh day!!"
The tapping of the keyboard stopped. He Yu stood up from the desk in the faculty dorm room. The apartment wasn't even sixty square meters. Next door, in the living room, a tedious variety show about poetry was playing on an old-fashioned TV. The program was accompanied by the static humming of the faulty signal.
The sofa was still that sofa in the story. The snacks for the tea, the tin of biscuits—they were all still there. But the time on the clock read 8:09, and the streetlights were on outside. It was the middle of summer, and the air was very humid. Moths circled beneath the lights, mosquitoes buzzed low to the ground, and rain had yet to fall.
He Yu left the little study in the faculty dorm. When he opened the door, light spilled in at an angle through the filthy windowpanes, making the entire space seem rather surreal, more so than the story he had just finished writing.
A young woman lay on the sofa. The air conditioning was set to a very low temperature, and she was sleeping under a coral fleece blanket.
Before her were several crumpled tissues that had been used to wipe away tears and snot.
"Wake up," said He Yu.
"Ngh…"
"Get up."
"Not so loud… I barely even fell asleep…" The young woman groaned wearily, smacking her lips. "Gonna nap for a bit longer…" He Yu was about to say something else, but the variety show on the
TV started introducing an old movie.
"There's a Brokeback Mountain in every person's heart…"
He gave up trying to wake her up and took the remote to change the channel.
He Yu really disliked homosexuality.
"Welcome, everybody, to our medical wellness program today…" He changed the channel again. He Yu also disliked doctors and hospitals.
"Once, Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly fluttering about…"
This time, he left the program on. Given his tastes, he could accept this as background noise.
He Yu put down the remote and glanced over at the snoring woman still lying on her back. He turned and walked into the kitchen. He opened the greasy refrigerator, and the light from the appliance illuminated his face.
After he surveyed the refrigerator's contents several times, he took out two eggs and a chunk of ham, as well as a bowl of yesterday's leftovers. Then, he raised his voice to ask the woman sleeping in the living room, "Xie Xue, do you have green onions here? I can't find any."
The woman didn't move.
"I'll make you Yangzhou fried rice."
There was no response from the living room. He Yu glanced back again to see that the young woman had gotten off the sofa and was leaning against the kitchen doorway.
"…Then you'll need two eggs, plus a big piece of luncheon meat," the woman said, then hesitated. "Do you know how?"
He Yu rolled up his sleeves and looked back at her with a suave smile.
"Sit outside and wait. It'll be ready soon."
The woman named Xie Xue tottered away to wander around the other rooms. Seeing that the computer in the study was switched on, she sat down to skim over the opened Word document. "He Yu! Did you use me as your muse?"
The range hood was too loud. "What?" He Yu asked.
"I said! Did you! Use me! As your muse?!" Xie Xue brought his laptop out. "For the Xie-laoshi in this ghost story!"
"Oh." He fell silent for a while before cracking an egg with a smile.
"Yep. You're exactly the person I imagined. Art imitates reality, Xielaoshi."
"But you wrote that you were secretly in love with me?"
"…Art is not the same as reality, Xie-laoshi."
But that last part was a lie.
He really was secretly in love with her
He Yu and Xie Xue had known each other for more than ten years. Xie Xue was five years older than him. This was her first year as a lecturer teaching screenwriting and directing in the School of Fine Arts at Huzhou University. He Yu was one of the students in her class.
When Xie Xue first saw the roster for the incoming screenwriting and directing majors, she had sent a shocked message to He Yu. "Fuck, what a coincidence! One of the boys in the two classes I'm teaching has the same exact name as you!"
At the time, He Yu had been on a plane. He was sitting in a window seat and looking out at the flickering lamplight of the airport tarmac with his cheek propped up on one hand. His phone dinged, and a familiar profile picture popped up. He looked at the message from the girl he had been in love with for ten years and was just about to reply when the request for all passengers to switch their devices to airplane mode sounded over the intercom.
He Yu tilted his head and thought for a minute. He didn't reply to her message before turning off his phone.
How could there be so many coincidences in this world?
Idiot.
He had fought for this opportunity himself, of course. It was completely unlike the story He Yu had written.
As for He Yu himself, not only was he not penniless, he wasn't ugly either. He was blessed with a very handsome face, and as the son of a pharmaceutical tycoon, he had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth and attended high school overseas. But less than thirty minutes after finding out that Xie Xue had become a lecturer at Huzhou University upon graduating, He Yu applied for the institution's School of Fine Arts.
Several months later, the semester began.
However, the newly appointed Xie-laoshi was too young; she didn't understand how treacherous workplaces could get.
Jiang Liping, the morality advisor in charge of the screen‐writing/directing classes one, two, and three, was an infamous eccentric. Supposedly, she had no relevant education or training and had gotten this fluff position in the school simply by sleeping with the board of directors. Jiang-laoshi was ostentatiously beautiful and didn't feel a bit of shame about using sex to get what she wanted. She spent every day blatantly flirting with the board members in broad daylight and was overtly hostile toward any female student or teacher with decent looks.
When Xie Xue rushed into the classroom for her first lecture with her laptop in her arms, she saw Jiang Liping there in a floor-length red dress, hogging her lectern to discuss important items with the new students.
"I'm sorry, Jiang-laoshi, the first class is starting…" Xie Xue tried to
remind her.
But the other woman merely waved her hand. "Just wait a minute, the morning study period was too short. I still have two items to go over."
Who knew if she was picking on her on purpose, but Jiang Liping stretched out the last two points for fifteen, almost sixteen, minutes before she finally finished. "All right, that's all I had to cover. I won't disrupt your class anymore." She then turned to Xie Xue. "Uhh…I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name earlier. Anyway, stay focused, don't be nervous."
Professor Jiang strutted away, her towering scarlet heels clicking against the ground. Her vintage Hong Kong-style dress fluttered in proud crimson waves in her wake, leaving the dejected Xie Xue to shuffle up to the lectern, laptop still in her arms.
She was so fucking screwed.
Maybe things would have been all right if Jiang Liping hadn't said anything. But now that she had, Xie Xue had to gulp nervously.
Most students in prestigious schools were exceptionally talented and not easily won over. They didn't trust younger teachers as much as they did older ones in the first place. Now, Jiang Liping's parting words were nothing short of a vicious kick to Xie Xue's knees.
This group of prodigies immediately understood that, oh, their instructor was still a teacher-in-training—one whose name their advisor didn't even know.
What an outrage! No matter how much fiery motivation burned in Xie Xue's heart, it couldn't fend off the disparaging comments that this class was spitting at her. It only took ten minutes for the new faculty member Xie-laoshi to devolve from a confident woman to a stuttering mess.
She began to feel dizzy and faint.
So caught up was she in her emotions that she didn't even notice the tall young man who was leaning back in his seat in the last row of the classroom, watching her while spinning his pen idly.
"Hello, everyone. I'm your screenwriting and directing teacher. My name is Xie Xue. Um…"
The students weren't buying it. "Laoshi, how old are you?"
"Jiejie, why don't you order milk tea with us too?"
"Ooh, Laoshi, you look even younger than me…"
The situation was spinning out of control. Xie Xue had no choice but to feign sternness like a paper tiger. "Silence! I'm not messing around with you. Don't waste your precious youth during your university years. You must study hard and gain knowledge. I'll have you know, I'm a very strict and uncompromising person, and the percentage of students I fail is far higher than my colleagues. So all of you need to be on your toes; don't you dare brush off my words."
He Yu couldn't contain his mirth. He looked down as the corner of his mouth curved carelessly upward.
She was just a fucking dumbass.
The students in the classroom fell silent, staring at her as if she were an animal in a zoo. One student even sighed and picked up his backpack to leave.
"Hey! You there! You—"
"Laoshi, I won't fail no matter how much you threaten me. I have a date with my girlfriend, so I'll be leaving now."
"Fascinating. So Huzhou University actually hires teachers-in training who threaten to fail us if we don't attend class? We got into this university after enormous effort—we're not here to become lab rats for the teachers to experiment with, are we? How come you're the one teaching us while Professor Shen teaches next door? I'm going to write a letter of complaint to the dean later. Excuse me for not staying."
Xie Xue was in a terrible predicament.
Although she forced herself to calmly ask for the students' names and took points off on her tablet, this sequence of events had dealt her such a heavy blow that she wasn't able to recover for a long while. Her carefully prepared lesson had become a half-forgotten mess. She blathered pointlessly for an age before finally reaching what she had previously thought would be a very interesting interactive activity. However, not a single person was willing to come onstage and participate.
Just as she was on the verge of tears, thinking of running away in defeat, a male voice suddenly came from the last row of the classroom.
"Laoshi, I'll do it."
Xie Xue was so miserable that she didn't even realize how familiar that pleasant voice was. She immediately sought out the source of the sound, looking for her savior through eyes filled with grateful tears.
When she saw the boy she hadn't seen in three years, Xie Xue was so surprised that she gaped at him without regard for her image. "H-He Yu?!"
The boy sat at his desk. His eyes were bright and clear, the corners of his mouth were upturned, and his lips were strikingly thin. He looked a little haughty, a little mischievous—much like the moment when a young Lau Kin Ming in Infernal Affairs II raised his head and gazed toward a drunk Mary, with some of the smugness of a young man who had discovered his prey and sated his desire.
He arched a brow. "Long time no see, Xie-laoshi."
Long story short, that's what happened.
After returning to the dorm, Xie Xue couldn't hold back anymore and began to sob in an almost cathartic manner. He Yu had a crush on her, but he wasn't particularly tactful and didn't know how to comfort her properly.
He actually said, "Go ahead and cry it out, then. I'll go write in your study for a while. Once you feel better, I'll come out and have dinner with you."
"He Yu, do you know how to cheer people up at all?!"
"Do I have to finish the homework you assigned or not?"
"…Just go."
But when He Yu came out after finishing the story, Xie Xue had already cried herself to sleep.
She didn't wake when he called for her, but he wasn't in a rush. Xie Xue's favorite activity was eating, with sleeping a close second.
As long as you made her something yummy, she'd definitely crawl out of bed right away. Even as a university instructor, this trait wouldn't change.
Fifteen minutes later, she was staring down at the food He Yu held before her.
"…What's this?"
Looking down at the pathetically mushy "fried lumps of rice with egg and ham" in his hands, He Yu felt a little embarrassed. He told his teacher extremely loftily, "Can't you tell? It's Yangzhou fried rice."
"You call this Yangzhou fried rice?"
"…Fine, don't eat it then. I can order delivery." The student picked up his phone with a deadpan expression and looked up the highest-rated restaurant. He was filling in the delivery address when the doorbell rang.
He Yu raised his almond eyes. "Who is it? A colleague here to see you?"
"Probably not, I haven't gotten to know them yet." Xie Xue put down her chopsticks and looked up at the clock. "Who would come at this hour…"
As she spoke, she shuffled over to the doorway in her slippers.
A few seconds later, Xie Xue's excited voice came from the doorway.
"Ge! Why are you here? You're not working overtime today?"
The sound of the word "Ge" crashed down like thunder. He Yu's original scoundrel aura and his careless lazy mood were instantly shattered.
Countless dark memories flashed through his mind like a knee-jerk reaction.
Springing to his feet, he grabbed that appallingly disgraceful fried rice from the table and strode quickly toward the trash can in the kitchen. But it was too late. Xie Xue had pulled her big brother into the room.
"Ge, I haven't even told you yet. He Yu's back from overseas, and he's one of my students. He's sitting inside right now. You two haven't seen each other in a long time either, right? Hey, He Yu!" Xie Xue's call stopped him midstride.
"Where are you going with that plate?"
He Yu froze stock-still in silence.
Never mind.
Since he'd come back, he'd inevitably have to face him again. He Yu stood with his back to them, wiping his genuine emotions from his face before slowly turning around, looking gentle and refined, elegant and poised.
Facing the elder brother of the Xie family who was a full thirteen years older than him, he actually seemed to match the man in his presence.
He gazed toward the head of the Xie family, at the man who somewhat resembled Xie Xue. Then, he reached up to pinch his own nape, his eyes lingering momentarily on the man's features. "Long time no see, Doctor Xie. You look…"
He Yu paused, assessing him.
This man hadn't changed a bit. His features were indifferent and grim, while the planes of his face were sharp and hard, outlining a strong, combative face. His eyes were pretty—a pair of peach-blossoms similar to Xie Xue's. Though they would appear alluring on anyone else, his eyes were a testament to what it meant to have your features align with your personality. On this extraordinary man, they could freeze even thousands of leagues of peach-blossom pools into dark ice. Despite the similarities to Xie Xue's lovely eyes, his pupils were ice-cold. With his rigidly poised physique, he exuded an aura of absolute detachment.
Very tyrannical, very dictatorial. He resembled the big boss of an autocratic feudal clan—all he needed was an atmospheric black fur coat to contrast against his pale face and two of those silver cloak clasp chains worn by military warlords to complete the look.
In the end, He Yu smiled warmly, but there was no mirth in his eyes.
"You look the same as before. You haven't aged a bit."