HS Chapter 6

Unlike other schools, military training for freshmen at Xuan University didn’t happen right after the semester started. The goal was to avoid the lingering heat of September and make things easier for the new students.

So while students at other universities across the country were being tortured by overcrowded cafeteria lines, Xuand University remained lively and well-organized.

Dong Xi got his food and carried the tray to sit across from Yan Chen, sighing, “I had a dream last night that I swam 20,000 meters in today’s training.”

Yang Liang took a rare moment out of his busy eating to glance at him, “Twenty thousand meters? Didn’t your ass catch on fire?”

Dong Xi pounded his shoulder, “It’s just that training has been too intense these days.”

That line easily resonated with everyone present. Even the usually energetic Yang Liang couldn’t help but complain along with him, “Right? Just because we relaxed a bit before, now they’re making us work double to make up for it. It’s killing me.”

Dong Xi: “It’s been almost a week, and I haven’t even found time to eat with my girlfriend. I have to think of a gift to make it up to her.”

He gnawed on a piece of rib and noticed Yan Chen had been staring at the screen on the wall, so he followed his gaze.

“A tea art performance?”

He tossed the bone aside, “When did our cafeteria get so classy? Not long ago, they were still playing ‘Empresses in the Palace’.”

Yang Liang was watching too, though after a while, he still couldn’t make much sense of it, except, “That teacher’s hands are pretty nice though.”

“Indeed.” Dong Xi nodded in agreement, “Fingers like green onions…they definitely count as bonus points for the performance.”

“Nice looking?” Yan Chen, who hadn’t said anything, suddenly spoke up. His tone rose slightly at the end, which made it a rhetorical question.

“Yes.” Yang Liang glanced down at his own bear paws, “they look better than mine, at least.”

Dong Xi laughed at Yang Liang’s over-the-top self-awareness and asked Yan Chen, “What, Yan-ge, you don’t think they’re good-looking?”

Yan Chen tugged at the corner of his mouth, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

Halfway through the meal, Dong Xi felt a buzz in his pocket. He took out his phone and looked down at it for a moment. Suddenly, his eyes curved in a smile. “Hey, let me show you something interesting.”

Yang Liang: “What interesting thing?”

Dong Xi tapped his screen a few times. “I forwarded it to the group. See for yourself.”

Yang Liang clicked into the link, looking confused. “What’s this?”

“Didn’t you see the title on top?” Dong Xi read it out word by word, “Proposed… School… Grass… Can… Di… Date… List. It’s clear and obvious.”

“That’s so weird. There’s actually this kind of thread on the campus forum?” Yang Liang asked, “You’re interested in this stuff?”

“It’s not me who’s interested,” Dong Xi said. “It’s a junior from the main campus. Our families used to be neighbors. He heard I came over this semester and sent it to me on purpose.”

Yang Liang scrolled straight to the bottom and saw a familiar face. “Hey, why is Yan-ge on here too? Isn’t this the main campus forum?”

Yan Chen, who had been mentioned, acted as if he didn’t hear.

Dong Xi: “Where there are people, there are eyes that appreciate ‘beauty’. Besides, we kind of count as half-main campus people now, don’t we?”

“That’s true.” Yang Liang scrolled up a few more entries and suddenly let out a sound. “Yan-ge, look, there’s someone here whose name looks a lot like yours.”

The tea art performance had ended, replaced by a low-resolution old film.

Yan Chen finally looked away and picked up his phone from the table.

Dong Xi asked Yang Liang, “That’s the highlight you were staring at for so long?”

Yang Liang: “Isn’t it?”

Dong Xi looked at him, speechless.

“It’s just text and pictures,” Yang Liang muttered. “You know I’m kind of face-blind. People I’m not familiar with all look about the same to me.”

Yan Chen had little interest. He opened the link and casually flipped through it. Just as he was about to exit, one photo suddenly caught his eye and froze him in place, and his fingertip stopped mid-air.

“You call that face-blind?” Dong Xi chewed on a rib and thought for a moment. “Then check out the third-to-last one. The one in white. Does he look the same as the rest?”

Yang Liang scrolled to the person he mentioned, examined him, and commented sincerely, “Hmm… he’s a bit fairer and brighter.”

“…” Dong Xi put his phone down. “Eat your food. Your seaweed soup is getting cold.”

Yang Liang: “Oh.”

Of the three, only Yan Chen still stared at the photo.

It was an unofficial beauty ranking list, so even the photos used were candid, off-guard shots.

In the photo, the boy was looking back at the camera. The frame only included him from the shoulders down, so his hands weren’t visible, which only made Yan Chen focus more on his face.

Fair and bright, just like Yang Liang had said.

The boy’s skin was very white, and he had a startlingly clean aura. His features were perfectly proportioned, especially his eyes…they were particularly beautiful.

His irises were a light shade, his eye shape slightly rounded, and the outer corners drooped slightly. It should have looked obedient and gentle, but the cool indifference in his gaze and between his brows gave off an unapproachable vibe.

Like a well-pampered, precious cat…charming, yet unwilling to be touched. He sat there at a polite distance, doing nothing at all, and still made your heart itch.

The image overlapped with the vague impression left from that hurried glimpse that afternoon, which now suddenly became crystal clear.

Yan Chen gently rubbed the edge of his phone with his fingertip, his gaze lingering on those eyes for a long time before moving down to the text.

It was a long, flowery description, but the only important detail boiled down to a single sentence:

[Department of Foreign Languages, Class of 2020, Business French 3 — Ye Wenyu]

‘Foreign Languages Department, Ye Wenyu?’ Yan Chen lifted his eyes. “Which building is the Foreign Languages Department in?”

“Teaching Building 3, I think? I’m not sure. I’ll ask my junior brother in a bit.” Dong Xi remembered Yan Chen had mentioned the department back in the dormitory and asked, “What, Yan-ge, you have a friend over there?”

“I’m just asking.”

He took a screenshot, saved it, and put away his phone. Carrying his tray, he stood up. “I have something to do. I’m heading out first.”

People flowed in and out of the cafeteria, and his tall, upright figure quickly vanished into the crowd.

“Wasn’t he fine just now? What urgent thing popped up all of a sudden?” Yang Liang muttered and boldly guessed, “Don’t tell me Yan-ge thinks he didn’t train enough today and went back for more?”

“No way.” Dong Xi said without hesitation. “Haven’t you noticed that the air pressure around Yan-ge has almost dropped to below zero due to the extra training these days?”

“Really?” Yang Liang looked confused.

Dong Xi: “Mhm.”

“Ahhh~” Yang Liang’s voice twisted into an opera note. “No wonder! I was wondering why Yan-ge’s been training so aggressively these days. I used to be able to keep up a bit, but now I’m just getting rubbed into the pool floor.”

He thought about it, then frowned. “But the training before was also very intense. Yan-ge didn’t act like this then.”

“I wouldn’t know that.”

Dong Xi made a random guess. “Maybe this time the training schedule clashed with something important and messed up his plans.”

–

“A thousand years have passed.” Chi Dongting tilted his head back. “Wenyu, are you done customizing?”

Ye Wenyu looked at the distorted virtual character he had been tweaking in the character creation screen, paused for two seconds, and answered, “No.”

Chi Dongting: “…”

Chi Dongting: “How about this, I’ll send you a cloud drive. It has about ten thousand face templates. You can import them one by one and pick slowly, how’s that?”

Ye Wenyu quietly refused, “No need. You go ahead and play, don’t wait for me.”

Chi Dongting thought that was fine. “Then I’ll go do a quick dungeon run. Call me when you’re ready.”

Ye Wenyu: “Okay.”

It only took three seconds for an internet-addicted teen to go from real life to full immersion in-game.

Ye Wenyu looked at the character he had spent nearly an hour creating with no success. He moved the mouse and clicked delete.

The rigid and stagnant game data, no matter how it was combined, could never reach the level of perfection of a real person.

He had been too naïve.

He closed the game, let his mind go blank for a while, and opened a question forum. After carefully choosing his words, he half-truthfully described his situation.

Before sending it out, he hesitated for a moment, then added a final sentence:

—In this situation, do I need to see a doctor?

Click. Send.

It was the peak time when netizens were most active, and within five minutes of refreshing, several replies had already trickled in:

[Alright then] : Is it that the thing OP likes is so expensive?

[Just woke up didn’t hear clearly]: This is simple, just find a substitute, one move and you’re set.

[Jiba Kaihua] : The floor above, the OP already said it’s one of a kind with no substitute. Please read the question carefully before answering.

[Zhang Demei]: I feel like this question isn’t really something an adult would ask. Only my little nephew who just started kindergarten would be troubled by something like this. No offense, OP, are you even an adult?

…

None of them were remotely helpful.

He was about to close the page in disappointment, but a reply that popped up when he refreshed one last time caught his attention:

[Spicy Sad Goose]: See a doctor? OP, that’s an exaggeration. Let me put it this way…have you ever seen a kid being taken to a doctor by their parents just because they like a toy too much?

Although I don’t know what it is you like, it doesn’t matter, the principle is the same.

As for how to solve it, in my experience, the fastest and most effective method is…get it. Do whatever it takes to get it.

Because when you really like something, time and finding substitutes are useless, useless, useless. That’ll only make your subconscious beautify that thing until it becomes irreplaceable and one of a kind.

As the saying goes, what you can’t have always stirs restlessness. So, get it.

Once you get it, there are only two outcomes: one, you lose interest quickly and feel it’s nothing special; two, you treasure it for a while, then still lose interest…in this case, refer back to the first outcome (though the first is more likely).

But no matter which it is, the only certain thing is that you won’t be losing sleep or obsessing over it anymore.Treating the disease and finding its root cause is the only way to solve it once and for all.