“Get lost.” Yu He waved his hand and shoved him away.

What little sister? It was always little sister this, little sister that.

“There’s definitely something going on. I saw a girl calling him ‘’big brother,’ and she even sent one of those super cute cat emojis.”

“Damn, our He He is finally getting off the market.”

“We’ve waited more than two years. Finally gonna get to attend his wedding banquet.”

The three of them squeezed over to the opposite side with expressions full of fatherly pride, practically glowing with holy light.

Yu He: “…”

Even food probably wouldn’t shut these people up.

For lunch, they had bobo fish. With a little chili oil mixed in and eaten with steaming white rice, it was unbelievably delicious. Yu He licked his lips and decided he absolutely had to recommend this bobo fish place to Tang Shaoqing too.

Daming Lake’s Xia Yuhe: [Bobo Fish restaurant address]

Daming Lake’s Xia Yuhe: [Photo of the bobo fish]

Daming Lake’s Xia Yuhe: This place’s bobo fish is insanely good. On your first day here during National Day holiday, I’ll treat you to a meal

Tang: Okay

Tang: Looking forward to it

Tang: [Starry-eyed cat emoji]

“Hey, Old Tang.” Gu Ji nudged the man across from him, whose eyes were curved in a smile, with a luggage bag. “What are you standing there grinning for? Not packing? Chatting with your crush?”

This semester, they were moving back to the main campus, so people had already started moving their stuff little by little recently. It also happened to be right before the National Day holiday, so only the two of them were left in the dorm now. The other two had gone home yesterday.

“Mm.” Tang Shaoqing was unexpectedly good-tempered and didn’t snap back at him.

“Holy shit? Is it really your crush? Lemme see, lemme see. I wanna know which girl managed to break the hearts of all the girls at A University.” Gu Ji immediately abandoned the luggage in his hand and rushed over to snatch the phone.

Tang Shaoqing had been born ridiculously handsome, with sharp brows and bright eyes. He always liked pressing his lips together, giving people an overbearing and intimidating aura.

In just a single year, there had already been no shortage of girls confessing to him, but every single time, he dismissed them with, “I already have someone I like.”

If it weren’t for that one time Tang Shaoqing got drunk, Gu Ji would’ve kept thinking it was just a lousy excuse. He’d even naïvely believed Tang Shaoqing was the cold and abstinent type, someone whose eyes only held studying and part-time jobs, with no interest in women at all.

Reality, however, proved him wrong.

The evidence that slapped him in the face was right there in the phone.

Before Gu Ji could get close enough to peek, Tang Shaoqing locked the screen and casually stuffed the phone into his pocket. “No way.”

“Hiding a beauty in a golden house, huh.” Gu Ji rolled his eyes. “So when are you heading back?”

“My luggage has already been sent to A University. I’m staying at Weiyun for a few days to work on some optimizations, then I’ll head back during National Day.” Tang Shaoqing stuffed his hands into his pockets and leaned against the already emptied bed frame, tilting his head back slightly as he looked out the window.

Weiyun was located near their branch campus, and it actually wasn’t too far from the main campus either. Gu Qiyun had even arranged a temporary little dorm room for him there.

Back when he got accepted into A University, he had even ridden a bus for several hours to D University just to secretly catch a glimpse of that person.

At the time, Yu He had probably been walking together with his roommates. There were four of them, including a pair of twins. They chatted and laughed together, Yu He’s eyes even narrowing into crescents from smiling.

Yet even when they brushed past each other like that, Tang Shaoqing still couldn’t muster the courage.

“Alright then, see you after National Day. Get there early and clean the dorm for us first. I’ll bring you some local specialties as a reward.” Gu Ji grinned so hard his teeth showed.

Tang Shaoqing was the most capable person in their dorm when it came to daily life. He was diligent about cleaning, diligent about washing clothes and shoes, and even diligent about nagging them to wash their socks.

Honestly, the only reason their dorm hadn’t turned into a garbage dump was thanks to him.

“Sure.” Tang Shaoqing had long since gotten used to this group of life-invalids, so he agreed readily.

“Then I’m off. Don’t forget the Marrow Cleansing Pill transaction tonight. That’s a ton of money. Once you get paid, you can cut down on your part-time jobs a bit. Don’t overwork yourself.”

Tang Shaoqing’s family circumstances weren’t very good. Back when freshman year started, he’d come alone, without much luggage and with even less money. At the time, he always picked the cheapest food in the cafeteria to eat, though no one knew how he still managed to grow so tall, shooting straight past 190 centimeters.

Usually, he worked incredibly hard. He loved researching things deeply, had practically mastered his major courses, and was always running to professors’ offices for discussions. Even his spare time was packed full with part-time jobs.

Later on, through a strange twist of fate, Weiyun Group directly poached him away. And that had only been during freshman year. Just thinking about it made him seem almost godlike.

“Got it. Hurry up already, Fang Jing’s probably waiting for you.”

“I’m going, I’m going.”

Tang Shaoqing spun the string of keys in his hand and walked to the doorway before turning back for one last glance. The dorm room that had once been unbearably crowded was now completely empty. If not for the wallpaper he had personally put up on the walls, there wouldn’t even be the slightest trace of familiarity left.

I spent three years searching for you, and another year making myself more worthy of searching for you.

At last, I could finally put those final three words into action.

—

After finishing the bobo fish, Yu He rubbed his little stomach and happily drifted through two classes.

“Yu He.” Just as the group was fooling around on their way back to the dormitory, a girl’s voice called out to him.

It was Cheng Mengmeng, the current president of the anime club, and someone in the same year as Yu He. She was constantly exploiting Yu He, the humble little club member.

“What is it?” Yu He lowered his head and thought for a moment. It wasn’t hard to guess. Freshman year had already started over a week ago, military training was almost over, and National Day was coming up…

The Club Recruitment Fair was probably about to begin.

“The Club Recruitment Fair is one week before National Day. You know what that means.” Cheng Mengmeng blinked at him.

“…” Yu He subconsciously crossed his arms over his chest protectively.

“The club spent a huge amount of club ufnds to buy you a cosplay costume. Come pick it up tonight.” Cheng Mengmeng waved her hand casually.

“What cosplay costume…” Yu He suddenly felt uneasy.

Liu Baobao: “Could it be… a Rem maid outfit?”

Lu Nan: “Probably Hatsune Miku. Didn’t they keep insisting our He He cosplay Miku in a school swimsuit before?”

Lu Bei: “I wanna see Love Live.”

Yu He: “…”

A bunch of traitorous teammates.

Under Yu He’s horrified gaze, Cheng Mengmeng slowly explained, “Nope, none of those. It’s a game character, an ancient-style one. You know that super popular Xianxia Online game lately? It’s one of the guqin musician characters from there.”

“We also found three others to cosplay healer, Shaolin, and assassin classes, so this time you won’t be fighting alone.”

As long as it wasn’t the kind of cosplay outfits his roommates were talking about. Yu “Humble” He silently let out a sigh of relief.

Next year he definitely wasn’t paying that ten-yuan club fee anymore. They used him like a free labor tool every single day. Hmph, even tough guys had their little tempers.

Still… what a coincidence.

A character from Xianxia Online, huh…

—

That night, after bringing the cosplay costume back, Yu He casually tossed it into the wardrobe somewhere the cat couldn’t reach, then returned to his computer to begin another blissful couch potato bliss.

Voice Changer wasn’t there. Thank god.

Daming Lake’s Xia Yuhe: Online

Guoguo: Coming, coming

“Whoa, Zhizi Yugui actually withdrew the bounty on you?!” Yu Guo had just caught up on the gossip and was so shocked her jaw nearly dropped.

She only knew that Xifan had explained things earlier, but she hadn’t really expected everyone to believe it. Yet now the source of everything, Zhizi Yugui himself, had actually withdrawn the bounty, which meant nobody would hunt Yu He anymore.

“Mm.” Yu He briefly explained what had happened today with Zhizi Yugui inviting him to party up.

“Sounds like he’s actually a pretty decent person,” Yu Guo said.

“Yeah.” Yu He nodded and opened the auction interface. The price of the Marrow Cleansing Pill was still the same as before, unchanged.

The auction page displayed the three most recent bids beneath it. The name “Tang Chao” appeared sandwiched between two bids from “Zhizi Yugui,” making it look especially glaring and out of place.

“Tang Chao… Tang Chao’s character is seriously awful,” Yu He said bluntly.

Author’s Note:
I’m craving the bobo fish near school again QAQ wuwuwu… The more I think about it in the middle of the night, the hungrier I get.

Jie Jie: Sorry, late again QAQ. 2 chapters to make up for last week. Got busy with some things irl. Thank you for understanding~