On Friday afternoon, Su Zhiyan was reluctantly “escorted” by Wen Bei to the KTV.
As soon as he walked into the private room, he was met with layers of screams and cheers.
“Holy shit, it’s Su Zhiyan!”
“A once-in-a-century event! Dad actually came to the mixer?”
Half the people in the room were acquaintances who started teasing when they saw Su Zhiyan, the kind of handsome guy who usually “kept a low profile.”
“…” Su Zhiyan pressed down the brim of his baseball cap, wanting to sit in a corner.
“Where are you trying to sneak off to again?” Zhou Zhou popped out and pulled him to sit down. “Since you’re already here, just loosen up a bit, Tangtang.”
Su Zhiyan: … The “since you’re already here”[mfn]来都来了” (lái dōu lái le, lit. “since [I/you/we] have come.”) translates to “Now that we’re here, we might as well go through with it,” often used to justify continuing with an action despite hesitations or setbacks. It gained wider recognition from the variety show “向往的生活5” (Back to Field Season 5), where the actor Huang Lei listed it as one of the common Chinese phrases used to excuse or forgive certain behaviors.[/mfn] rule didn’t apply to him.
“Yeah, besides seeing you in class, I feel like I never see you anywhere else.” The person next to him laughed loudly. “If you weren’t a legend in our year, I’d really think you were some cyber academic genius I imagined.”
Everyone around immediately started laughing along.
The mixer had a great atmosphere, full of cheerful conversations and jokes everywhere. Everyone who already got along well gathered together to sing and play games, which was a rare chance to relax.
Su Zhiyan shrank his neck and sat to the side holding a coconut drink while playing on his phone.
He wasn’t good at these crowded situations, and was even worse at making friends, which he rarely did.
His friends were either people he got along with during middle school and stayed in touch with until now, or people he met in college due to circumstances and later became friends with because their personalities clicked. Making friends in other situations like mixers was basically nonexistent for him.
Su Zhiyan looked at his phone screen, where Shen Nianjing’s message stayed at ten minutes ago – Almost there.
That bastard was late again.
Su Zhiyan exited the page expressionlessly.
When Zhou Zhou invited him before, he said he wouldn’t come. Shen Nianjing was on the same side as him at first, then directly switched sides, completely ignoring their brotherhood.
Switching sides at the last minute was one thing, but now he was late too.
But this guy had been pretty well-behaved lately, so he’d forgive him for now.
Unlike Su Zhiyan, Wen Bei got excited as soon as he arrived, pulling a few people together to play games enthusiastically, and completely forgetting his original intention of coming here to make friends.
Su Zhiyan shook his head, thinking Wen Bei’s path to getting a girlfriend would be long and difficult.
He quietly ate fruit at the table by himself. Since he rarely socialized with people normally, they wouldn’t force him to join drinking games or other games either. Occasionally a few people would come over to chat with him for a bit, which was within Su Zhiyan’s comfort zone for making friends.
So far, everything was pretty pleasant.
“Why are you just sitting here by yourself? Don’t you want to come play board games with us?”
A guy with a big smile sat down next to Su Zhiyan, his voice very cheerful. “This is my first time being this close to a super genius. I’m so lucky.”
Su Zhiyan twitched the corner of his mouth. “You’re exaggerating.”
“So why don’t you come play with us? Don’t you know how? I can teach you.” The guy looked at him with enthusiastic eyes.
Su Zhiyan smiled faintly. “Thanks, but I’m not interested.”
“You’re so cold. Are you like this with everyone?” The guy pursed his lips curiously.
“It’s just my personality.”
“Then I feel relieved. I almost thought I did something to bother you.” The guy smiled very gently.
Su Zhiyan smiled slightly and didn’t say anything.
The guy stared at him for a while. “Shen Nianjing isn’t here yet. Are you waiting for him?”
Su Zhiyan froze, not knowing why he suddenly brought up Shen Nianjing.
“No, it’s just that leaving early wouldn’t look good, so I’m playing on my phone for a bit.” He explained.
“You don’t like this kind of events?”
Su Zhiyan felt the other person was bothering him a bit and frowned slightly. “Yeah.”
The guy suddenly smiled, his eyes flickering. “I see.”
“But our mixer this time is just a regular gathering, nothing else.”
Su Zhiyan nodded.
The guy saw that his attention was still on his phone and suddenly changed the topic. “Let me introduce myself first. I’m Qu Fangming from College of Liberal Arts.”
Su Zhiyan sighed softly.
He really didn’t know how he suddenly became a magnet for gay guys. Since National Day, why did people keep hitting on him one after another?
“Mm, hello.” He looked up. “I’m Su Zhiyan.”
“I know.” Qu Fangming saw that he finally looked at him and smiled. “I’ve often seen posts about you on the forum before, but today is the first time I’ve seen you in person.”
Su Zhiyan thought about it. He had been appearing quite frequently on the campus forum this semester, and it was all weird and messy stuff too.
The incident with Fang Yu last time caused the biggest stir. Although it didn’t have any real impact on him, it did make him trend on the forum for two days.
Su Zhiyan thought about Xie Qifang from a few days ago… and Qu Fangming today, plus how people had been asking roundabout questions about his relationship with Shen Nianjing lately.
“…” He understood now.
“The campus forum, right?” Su Zhiyan looked down helplessly. “Everything on there is fake. But if it provides some entertainment for my fellow students in their stressful study lives, I don’t mind.”
Qu Fangming laughed loudly. “You have a great personality. It looks like all those people saying you’re cold and antisocial were lying to me.”
“They weren’t entirely wrong.”
Su Zhiyan sipped his straw and smiled slightly while holding his coconut drink. “I really don’t like making friends.”
“Also, because of that National Day post, people keep coming up to greet me lately.”
He let go of the straw and said to Qu Fangming calmly, “But you all misunderstood. I’m not into guys.”
Qu Fangming raised his eyebrows slightly and moved his finger away from his lips to adjust his glasses.
“You misunderstood too.” He laughed cheerfully. “Neither am I.”
The stuffy feeling in Su Zhiyan’s chest gradually cleared, and he felt like he was being too paranoid.
The guy just came over to say hi, he was being way too presumptuous.
Qu Fangming continued, “I learned about you from the forum post about the academic monsters from each department in the class of ’22.”
“I really just want to be friends with you. After all, back when I was worried about the entrance exam, I used to dream about becoming a tops student in STEM[mfn]理工 (lǐ gōng) – science and engineering as academic subjects[/mfn] later…”
He paused briefly, seeming a bit regretful and ashamed. “But my college entrance exam scores ultimately didn’t allow me to ‘chase my dreams recklessly.'”
His last words got vaguely drowned out by the sudden commotion at the door. Su Zhiyan didn’t hear clearly but didn’t plan to ask either. He just thought people nowadays were really interesting. “You’re pretty dramatic too.”
“If you got into A University, you’re not that bad at studying.”
“If you really want to study a different major, you could totally work hard in your first year and then transfer.” He shook his coconut drink and found it was empty, but the drinks were a meter away, and he couldn’t be bothered to get up.
Qu Fangming couldn’t help but laugh and nod. “You’re right.”
With his drink finished and barely having eaten anything, Su Zhiyan touched his stomach and felt a bit hungry.
He looked at the fruit, snacks, barbecue, and fried food on the table. They all smelled good and could definitely stimulate appetite, but he just had no appetite.
Could it be that eating proper meals while recovering from his illness these past few days had spoiled him? Su Zhiyan thought to himself. Great, getting sick actually made me quit junk food.
He looked down at the time on his phone, planning when to leave and grab takeout from the nearby restaurant.
“Here, it’s still warm.”
A hand with distinct knuckles suddenly reached over in front of him, holding a round, plump rice ball.
Su Zhiyan froze for a moment and looked up, his gaze crashing into Shen Nianjing’s eyes as he looked down.
He wore a very stylish shirt paired with a long windbreaker, sleeves rolled up halfway to reveal arms with prominent veins. The whole silhouette was smooth and pleasing to the eye.
Under the flickering lights, shadows danced across his face, obscuring his expression.
Most people in the private room were paying attention to this side. The sudden commotion from earlier was probably due to Shen Nianjing’s arrival.
Shen Nianjing stood beside Su Zhiyan, looking down at him. After a while, he glanced sideways at Qu Fangming.
Seeing that Su Zhiyan hadn’t moved, he frowned slightly.
“Don’t want it?”
Su Zhiyan looked away, feeling a bit annoyed.
Being late was one thing, but coming in with a face like someone had wronged him was another. Last week he said he’d take their friendship seriously from now on. Was this his idea of serious?
He glanced at the steaming rice ball by his face.
If he wanted to eat, he’d eat. Why the hell ask? What was this guy’s deal? Su Zhiyan snatched the rice ball and said irritably, “Thanks.”
Shen Nianjing’s lips curved into a smile as he sat down beside him. “You’re welcome~”
Only after he sat down did Su Zhiyan notice that he didn’t just bring rice balls. He was carrying a bag of desserts and milk tea, most of them berry-flavored from what he could see.
“Su-ge, you guys are secretly having extra food!” Someone nearby who was singing had sharp eyes and noticed. “No wonder Nianjing-ge headed straight for you when he came in, we couldn’t even stop him.”
“What do you mean couldn’t stop? You blocked me for a long time.” Shen Nianjing shot them a look before waving. “If you’re jealous, come get some. I don’t argue with kids.”
Su Zhiyan quietly ate his rice ball without joining in their “father-son” banter.
This rice ball had pork floss and salted egg yolk inside, plus vegetables and crispy fried dough sticks. It was delicious and suited his recent taste preferences.
He glanced sideways at Shen Nianjing. This guy wasn’t late just to buy these things, was he?
Then he took back his earlier complaints. Shen Nianjing was doing pretty well as a friend.
Su Zhiyan silently apologized in his heart for his previous grumbling.
Qu Fangming’s eyes quietly fell on those desserts and asked with a smile, “You like berries?”
Su Zhiyan was caught off guard by the question and said while holding his rice ball, “Yeah, they’re okay. The sweet and sour taste isn’t too overwhelming.”
Qu Fangming picked up a berry-filled bagel. “I really like baking. I can make all these desserts.”
“If you like eating them, I can make some for you when I go home on the weekend.”
Su Zhiyan choked directly, coughed twice, and thumped his chest. “N-no need.”
Qu Fangming immediately got up to get a drink, but the nearest juice was snatched away by a familiar hand first. He turned around to see Shen Nianjing anxiously handing the juice to Su Zhiyan while sneering, “This is what happens when you talk while eating!”
Su Zhiyan gulped down several mouthfuls of juice until he could finally breathe properly, then shot Shen Nianjing an exasperated look.
“What? Am I wrong?” Shen Nianjing glanced at Qu Fangming, who had sat back down.
The latter smiled, reaching for a napkin. “You’ve got some jam on your mouth.” He moved to wipe it.
“Smack!” His arm was grabbed by someone.
Qu Fangming turned to see Shen Nianjing’s sharp phoenix eyes and a cold smile.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Does he not have hands of his own?”
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