At that very moment, Huzhou University's indoor gymnasium was bustling with an unusual amount of noise and excitement thanks to the students who had set up several rows of temporary vending booths inside of its walls.
This was one of the places that campus exploration event attendees usually visited the least, but due to the rain outside, it was impossible for the outdoor events to continue. Thus, a crowd of participating students had gathered here.
"Oh, look. There's a love letter mailbox here."
"It was here? Yes! I finally found it! I've been looking forever."
A group of grinning female students crowded around a capsule-shaped mailbox, falling over each other to write the names of the recipients of their love letters and stuff them into the box.
It was a mailbox specifically prepared for shy and socially anxious folks to avoid the awkwardness of personally delivering a love letter. It was set up every year during the campus exploration event and was wildly popular with the students.
Xie Xue sat in a corner, drinking warm milk as she finished writing her letter and sealed it in a pure white envelope. She looked the envelope over before carefully writing down, one delicate stroke after another, the name of the boy with whom she was secretly in love.
A satisfied smile spread over her face as she got up and walked over to the capsule mailbox. However, just as she was about to deposit her love letter, a droplet of blood suddenly fell from above, dotting the envelope's surface.
Xie Xue gasped in surprise.
"Ah, Xiao-jiejie, your nose is bleeding…" An observant bystander quickly took out a pack of tissues from her bag and offered it to Xie Xue.
"Here, wipe your nose before more drips." Xie Xue hastily tilted her head up as she covered her nose with the tissue. "Th-thank you."
How could she be so unlucky as to suddenly get a nosebleed?
It had been a long time since this happened. Now that she thought about it, the last time it happened, she was still a little kid.
"Your letter… Why don't I get you another one…"
"Ah, it's fine, it's fine, it's fine! I wrote it for no reason! Just for fun! It's not important! Not important at all!" Fearing that someone would see the name on the envelope and laugh at her, Xie Xue hurriedly nudged her way through the crowd. She stuffed the blood-stained letter into the mailbox slot in a flurry, then turned tail and ran off without another glance, still clutching at her nose.
It was only then that the student standing by the mailbox realized, "Eh? I think that was Xie-laoshi…"
After running some distance away, Xie Xue thought she ought to give her brother a call and ask what it meant when someone suddenly got a nosebleed.
However, when she dialed his number, all she got was, "Hello, the user you are calling has their device switched off. Please call again later."
Xie Xue was taken aback. Ahh…could it be that her brother had already returned to his dorm and gone to bed?
Xie Xue could never have possibly imagined that her big brother wasn't asleep at all, that because he had taken her place as the nine-tailed fox, he was trapped by He Yu on an island for a good few hours.
And despite his careful planning, He Yu had been caught red-handed by her big brother in the end.
The two gentlemen stood by the water's edge, both with their hands shoved into their pockets as they faced each other with icy stares.
Xie Qingcheng was waiting patiently for He Yu's explanation.
"…The moon's reflection in the water is a beautiful sight to behold." He Yu turned his face up to the sky and spoke at last, unhurried, "The moon is very beautiful tonight. Do you understand what I mean?"
"Speak normally."
"I also think you're very good-looking, and I want to date you."
"Have some sense of fucking shame." Xie Qingcheng flicked off the ash from the cigarette he was holding. "I'm not joking."
Slowly, He Yu's smile faded. He finally removed his frivolous mask, likely because he knew Xie Qingcheng could see right through it, and his expression darkened. "Seeing as you already heard me, what else is there for me to explain?"
He met Xie Qingcheng's sharply cold eyes once again, and with a pause and a sigh he laid things out in simple terms.
"Very well. I have someone that I like. I was originally planning on telling her tonight, but she didn't come. Do you finally get it now?"
Xie Qingcheng had a vague hunch that something wasn't quite right, but he couldn't quite pinpoint what exactly it was at the moment.
He was distracted by the very fact that He Yu had a girl he liked.
"Someone at your school?"
"Yes."
"Who?"
He Yu smiled. "That is none of your business."
Xie Qingcheng straightened out his legs, then slowly walked over to He Yu. Though he was shorter than He Yu, the higher ground he was standing on allowed him to look down at the younger man from above. His peach-blossom eyes looked as though they were lightly frosted by the moonlight.
"He Yu, do you know what kind of illness you have?"
He Yu said indifferently, "Psychological Ebola."
"Then what are you doing trying to date someone before you've fully recovered and gotten your symptoms under control?"
He Yu did not react.
It was almost as though he had long anticipated such a reaction from Xie Qingcheng.
After a moment of silence, He Yu looked back at him and said softly, "Weren't you the one who once said that I ought to form connections with others and build a bridge to society? You encouraged me to interact with other people, to make friends and find affection, to seek love. Not to mention, weren't you the one who said I hadn't even gotten into a relationship, that I'd forever be just a little devil?"
"I said that out of anger." Xie Qingcheng's eyes were as sharp as a blade, "You're so smart, you should be able to tell the difference between truth and provocation."
"Thank you for thinking so highly of me," He Yu said. "But I'm also only nineteen years old. I'm not as perceptive as you think I am."
Xie Qingcheng's expression hardened. "You'd better be more careful, He Yu. Do you know just how many people become depressed after a breakup? Even ordinary people can lose their minds over love, suffering terribly and hovering between life and death. What you need is a steady and calm state of mind. Once all your lab results have returned to normal, you can date whoever you want, and it'll have nothing to do with me. I won't even bother to ask."
He Yu suddenly thought of Xie Xue's dimpled smile.
It was kind of funny that Xie Qingcheng had no idea that the person He Yu liked was Xie Xue. He had no idea, yet he was already reacting like this. If he had known that the person that he had originally planned on trapping on this island was his beloved little sister, Xie Qingcheng probably would've already slapped him viciously across the face.
"Have you ever been able to exercise complete control over your emotions these past few years?" Xie Qingcheng asked. "If not, then what right do you have to pursue someone romantically?"
He Yu met Xie Qingcheng's gaze with his dark eyes. "The fact that I made such a decision in the first place means that I believe I can control myself."
"You really are far too conceited."
"Conceited?" He Yu repeated with a chuckle. Then, he asked softly, "Doctor Xie, have I ever hurt anyone in these nineteen years?"
Xie Qingcheng did not answer.
"I just like someone, that's all." He Yu paused. "But I don't get such a right, do I?"
"You have no idea just how this illness will manifest in the future," Xie Qingcheng warned. "Not to mention, you're a patient with the blood toxin variant, you—"
"Professor Xie." He Yu calmly interrupted the older man's speech. "You are no longer my personal physician. I know that you are lonely in your middle age, and that's causing you sleepless nights. So it's perfectly normal that you like to poke your nose into the affairs of young people. But, frankly speaking, I think this matter of mine has very little to do with you."
Provoked by He Yu's tone, Xie Qingcheng's temper also flared. "Do you think I want to poke my nose into your business? I'm only doing this out of respect for your father. Not to mention, I treated your illness for seven years. It's hardly unreasonable to feel concern for a dog that you've looked after for seven years, much less a person."
He Yu lowered his head with a smirk as he ran the tip of his tongue over his teeth. "Ah, what a pity it is that I'm not your dog." Xie Qingcheng could only stare in response.
"It's late. I don't want to continue standing here feeding the mosquitoes. Are you getting onto the boat or not?" He Yu loosened the iron chain that secured the boat into place and said to Xie Qingcheng in a slightly mocking tone, "Your back must hurt after sitting for so long. Do you need me to assist you in any way?"
In the end, the two of them parted on bad terms once again.
After returning to his dormitory, Xie Qingcheng took a shower and thought over the recent events. Even though it was a bit late, he gave He Jiwei a call.
"Oh, Doctor Xie! Long time no talk, long time no talk." He Jiwei was surprisingly rather polite when speaking to Xie Qingcheng, "What a coincidence; I was just thinking about giving you a call."
"There's a matter that Executive He would call me for?" Xie Qingcheng felt a little taken aback.
"That's right. I wanted to ask you about the incident at Cheng Kang Psychiatric Hospital."
That made sense.
He Jiwei sighed heavily. "These past few days, I've managed to get the gist of what happened. That boy, He Yu, really worries me far too much. I heard that you were with him through the whole thing."
"I was."
"The officers at the police station told me that you were looking after him all day that day. I really must thank you."
It seemed that He Yu had not told He Jiwei the whole story.
Xie Qingcheng disliked being thanked for no good reason, and so he gave He Jiwei a rough account of what happened during the Cheng Kang incident—omitting, of course, any mention of the blood toxin. He Jiwei fell silent for a short while after he was done giving his report. "So, that's what happened. That little brat. Ah…"
After a moment of deliberation, Xie Qingcheng said, "Executive He, you treated me kindly in the past, so even though I'm no longer employed with the He family, I still take note of his condition when I see him. So, if you don't mind, I'd like to ask how He Yu has been doing over the past few years?"
"Thanks to you, he's doing much better. Didn't you say back then that he needed to become independent once he reached that stage? I was rather worried at first, but who could have expected that he actually had that level of self-control? He gets shots occasionally or takes medicine when he feels unwell, but he hasn't had any other issues."
"Then, would you say he's dependent on medication?"
"That…" He Jiwei hesitated slightly before forcing out a laugh. "You know very well that his mother and I are both very busy with our work. To be honest, it's impossible for us to pay much attention to how much medicine he takes... According to the housekeeper, it's not too bad; he doesn't medicate all that much. Why? Has he been acting strangely?"
"No." Xie Qingcheng hesitated for a moment. Despite his concerns, he wasn't intending to divulge He Yu's dating plans to He Jiwei. "It's nothing, really. I was just asking, that's all."
He Jiwei said, "You can return at any time, if you'd like. You're the best fit for someone like He Yu. There's no one else like you."
"Executive He, you flatter me, surely," Xie Qingcheng said. "I've left the healthcare system for so long, even my medical license has expired."
"Well, you were only a student when you came to us… Ah, forget it… Since you're unwilling, then I won't press the issue any further. However, Doctor Xie, seeing as you and He Yu now live quite close to each other, could I please trouble you to help look after him from time to time? He may seem mature, but he's still quite young. He often acts on his emotions and does some rash things on impulse. His mother and I can't watch over him, so there are times when we really are quite worried about the boy."
He Jiwei then added, "But please, don't force yourself if you don't have the time…"
"No, it's fine. After all, he was my patient for a very long time," Xie Qingcheng said. "Not to mention, he's Executive He's son. These are all things that I ought to do."
The two of them chatted idly for a while longer before hanging up.
Xie Qingcheng leaned back against his chair and reached up to massage his temples. To him, He Yu was a unique patient who was enmeshed in a very complicated network of personal relationships.
But after all was said and done, He Yu had grown up and become independent—he might not even listen to what He Jiwei said anymore. There were certain things that were truly beyond his control.
Xie Qingcheng could only observe for now.
With an aching head, Xie Qingcheng blow-dried his hair and changed into clean clothes. Even if He Yu truly wasn't ready for dating, there was no guarantee the poor unlucky girl would even say yes if he were to ask her out.
Xie Qingcheng should just wait and see.
With this in mind, he picked up the notebook he'd brought home from Secret Utopia and pushed open the door to go downstairs. There, he called a taxi and headed off to the local police department.
At the conclusion of the campus exploration event, the handful of students in charge of clearing the scene were moving the activity fixtures, one of which was the massive love letter mailbox.
"The love letter capsule is way too heavy this year…"
"Just how many love letters are there?"
"Is everyone so shy and unwilling to say their feelings outright? Ahh…"
"Hey! Don't step on my foot… Aiyo!!"
In a flurry of limbs, the two students handling the mailbox stumbled to the ground together with the box. Its cheap plastic flap cracked open upon impact, and the letters within spilled out with a whoosh all over the synthetic rubber surface of the track. With a gust of the night wind, the flyaway letters scattered in all directions, as though they had grown legs.
One of the students went pale with alarm. "Oh no!"
These love letters from those young men and women hadn't even been delivered into the hands of their recipients yet—how could they lose them? The students scrambled up and hastily dusted themselves off before running after the flyaway envelopes.
But there were too many letters that had been scattered away by the wind for the two of them to even hope to pick up all by themselves. They were reduced to raising their voices and yelling desperately for passersby to lend a hand. All the students were also very enthusiastic, and they cornered and chased down the letters, grabbing them in handfuls from all around.
He Yu just so happened to pass by as this scene played out.
As expected of a warm, kind, and gentle rich young master and perfect role model in front of others such as him, He Yu didn't hesitate to help his xuezhang and xuejie pick up all those runaway love letters.
"Thank you, thank you so much!"
The xuejie was so busy she didn't even look up as she bowed repeatedly.
The girl beside her pinched her and whispered, "It's He Yu!"
"Ah!" The xuejie yelped and looked up. Sure enough, it was He Yu. With her heartbeat accelerating like a rocket, she stuttered out, "Hi, hi, Xuedi…"
He Yu smiled and passed her the letters before continuing to help pick up some more.
There was a letter stuck in the bushes beside the basketball court. He Yu walked over and picked up that pristine white envelope. He flicked off the dust only to suddenly freeze.
There were bloodstains on that letter.
Beneath the stains, a row of exceedingly, beautifully written words were still visible.
"To Wei Dongheng."
Wei Dongheng was the class idol in Class 1 of the senior cohort in the drama department of the School of Fine Arts. He was also someone He Yu had known for a very long time.
Among the wealthy business social circles in Huzhou, theirs were the two names that were mentioned the most frequently when the subject of different influential families' young masters came up. The reason for this was none other than the fact that Young Master He and Young Master Wei were very similar in many respects—even their birthdays were on the same day, though they were born in different years. However, the results of their upbringings were completely different: in this social circle, Young Master He was famously well educated and refined while Young Master Wei was known for his licentious behavior and debauchery.
The Wei family was an aristocratic military family. However, one of their ancestral tombs might've been unfortunately renovated into a nightclub or the like. As a result, people probably desecrated their clan by popping-and-locking on the grave every single night, so perhaps that was how such a refined family had managed to pop out a degenerate like Wei Dongheng.
Ever since childhood, Wei Dongheng had spent his days street-racing, skipping classes, and revving engines with disreputable thugs; he stirred up endless trouble for the Wei family. If not for their family's influence, they might've long since been cooked up into a pot of shit stew. In this social circle, the number of times parents cried in humiliated rage, "Look at He Yu! Then look at yourself! What good are you?!" was exactly equal to the frequency with which their teary children retorted, "Look at Wei Dongheng! Then look at your me! What's wrong with how I am?!"
The entire Huzhou University knew that Wei Dongheng was unbelievably wild. When the school provided the drama students with audition opportunities, Wei Dongheng didn't attend a single tryout. The reason why he was a drama major was because it was the one major in the Department of Fine Arts that had the lowest passing grade requirement; in short, he was only there to coast by and collect a degree.
Which visually impaired girl would write him a love letter? He Yu thought, somewhat incredulously.
He was getting ready to return the envelope when he paused, suddenly struck by a feeling that something wasn't quite right.
He glanced at the envelope once more…
To Wei Dongheng… To Wei Dongheng…
Then, he froze.
The handwriting.
He could never mistake it.
He felt like he'd been struck by an invisible, staggering blow.
This was Xie Xue's handwriting!
"Oh my, what's going on? Did the letters fall out?" A group of male students who had just finished their game of basketball emerged from the court while wiping away their sweat. One of them glanced over casually and saw the letter in He Yu's hands.
A smile immediately broke out over the student's face as he turned and said, "Young Master He, you've gotten another great harvest this year!"
Another student stepped off the basketball court. He was about He Yu's height and had an honest and respectable face, but his hair was bleached and dyed a flashy silver, and he had five piercings in his ears. He wore a carefree expression of uninhibited degeneracy.
It was Wei Dongheng, the man himself.
Wei Dongheng and He Yu's eyes met.
Wei Dongheng nodded first. "Young Master He."
He Yu returned the gesture, but the words "To Wei Dongheng" kept swinging back and forth before his eyes, every line and stroke carrying those familiar flourishes.
Usually, Wei Dongheng had no interest in these idiotic love letters, but since this particular one was in He Yu's hands, he couldn't suppress the urge to at least take a second glance. That's when he spotted the bloodstain on the envelope.
Wei Dongheng furrowed his brow. "A threatening letter?"
He Yu seemed exceptionally nonchalant—even the movements of his lips were very slight. "Looks like it. Want me to toss it for you?"
"I have no interest in love letters. They all go in the trash can. I'm sure that Young Master He understands. But this is the first time I've gotten a threatening letter! I'll have to go back and read it properly." Wei Dongheng smiled at He Yu and plucked the letter from his hands. "Thanks."
Out of habit, He Yu replied blandly, "No problem."
After Wei Dongheng left, a very long time passed before He Yu managed to slowly clear his mind.
He still didn't dare believe that what he saw was really Xie Xue's confession letter to Wei Dongheng. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the two girls in charge of the capsule mailbox were gazing over at him and Wei Dongheng in excitement just now. He made his way back toward them.
"Excuse me, about that bloodstained letter…"
"Oh, that girl with all the luck, Xie-laoshi, wrote it."
"Yeah, it was her. Maybe it was because it gets so dry in the fall, but her nose started bleeding while she was writing. I was the one who passed her a tissue."
"…Okay." After a moment, He Yu said quietly, "Thank you."
He Yu returned to his bedroom that evening, and after washing up, he lay in bed and endured a sleepless night thinking about Xie Xue and Wei Dongheng.
Xie Xue had also known Wei Dongheng all this time.
When they were young, the Wei family's Young Master would come over to play. Xie Xue would be there too, and she and He Yu would always team up to target Wei Dongheng. Back then, He Yu thought that Xie Xue disliked this arrogant boy who thought himself higher than the heavens.
But at the time, none of them asked themselves: why would anyone go out of their way to bother someone if they genuinely didn't care about them?
Xie Xue and Wei Dongheng attended the same high school.
When Xie Xue was a second-year student, Wei Dongheng was in his first year.
When Xie Xue was a third-year student, Wei Dongheng was yet again in his first year.
Later, when Xie Xue graduated, Wei Dongheng was still in his first year.
This joker actually used the fact that he had been held back twice to become a legend in their circles and even passed it off as an impressive feat as he held the position of the first-year idol for three years in a row.
He was a perennial rulebreaker—when Xie Xue was hall monitor at school, Wei Dongheng had walked right past her with complete indifference to eat barbecue off-campus for lunch. She furiously warned him against it only for him to ignore her. Even the clique of hoodlums who followed him around started to ridicule her.
"Wei-ge, is this our little saozi? She really keeps you on a short leash. She said she's gonna take points off you if you dare to go out! Oh, I'm so scared, ha ha ha ha!"
"Saozi, not only are you super short, but you're also flat as a board."
"Wei-ge! This little girl's really writing down in her notebook that you broke the rules! Why aren't you trying to keep her happy?"
The gangsters whistled and jeered. Xie Xue, who was wearing the school's red hall monitor armband, became so angry her eyes began to fill with tears. She dashed over to Wei Dongheng's swaggering figure as he walked away with his backpack slung over one shoulder, stood on her tiptoes, and yelled furiously, "Wei Dongheng! You're trash! You're the most irritating person in the universe!!"
But despite that, why did she come to Huzhou University's School of Fine Arts to be a teacher after graduating?
She was the top of her class and had gotten exceptionally good grades, so she clearly could have tried to get a job at Yanzhou's Academy of Drama, where the pay was better and the program was much more prestigious. But back then, she had told He Yu over WeChat that she lacked confidence in herself. That's why she decided to accept an offer at the somewhat less-challenging Huzhou University.
He Yu had his doubts at the time.
Xie Xue had always been a very brave person. Other than Xie Qingcheng, He Yu had never seen anyone more courageous than her. So why would someone like her lack the confidence to even apply for a job?
It was only now that He Yu finally understood that what Xie Xue had actually been chasing after was Wei Dongheng, who was attending Huzhou University.
And He Yu had been completely oblivious, rejecting offers from top overseas universities to come after her.
…How laughable.
He Yu lay on his bed the entire night, quiet and numb as he continued mulling over the situation until the sky began to brighten with the coming dawn.
"He Yu, we've got morning classes. Are you getting up? Let's go have breakfast," his roommate urged him from beyond the curtain.
He Yu agreed and sat up.
But a brief moment later, his chest suddenly contracted with a sharp pain which rapidly spread throughout the rest of his body.
He propped his slightly cold forehead up with a hand and took a pill from the bedside table. "I'm not feeling very well," he said in a low voice. "You guys go ahead."
He Yu felt unwell, but Xie Qingcheng's night wasn't much better.
By the time he made it to the police department, he was already feeling a little off.
Xie Qingcheng wasn't sure if he'd caught a chill on the island or what, but he kept feeling dizzy and hearing a faint ringing in his ears.
He handed the notebook with the suspicious message off to a police officer on duty and explained the circumstances of its discovery before turning to leave.
However, he'd only made it to the staircase before he suddenly collapsed.
"Xie-ge?!"
Xie Qingcheng turned his head with difficulty and saw that it was Chen Man, who was in the middle of helping his coworker transport some files.
"Xie-ge!" As Chen Man sprinted over, Xie Qingcheng was overcome by a bout of intense dizziness; it was only after Chen Man grabbed him around his waist that he was able to steady himself.
Chen Man looked him over anxiously. "What's wrong?"
"I don't know. I suddenly felt a little dizzy…"
"Your face looks awfully red too. Let me take a look… Aiya, why do you feel so hot?" Chen Man hastily propped him upright and turned to shout at his coworker, "Um, Xiao-Zhou, take over for me for a bit, okay? I'm taking someone to the infirmary!"