The weather was getting colder. After entering the twelfth month of the lunar calendar, the temperature in City A quickly dropped to below ten degrees Celsius, and it never rose again. On the coldest days, stepping out of the heated building, frost immediately formed on my eyelashes, and the moisture in my nostrils froze. If I had just taken a shower and my hair was slightly damp, it would turn into stiff, icy strands as soon as I stepped outside.
Every time Shang Jue left home and walked a long distance to campus, it felt like a huge torment. This torment had to be endured twice a day.
When he arrived at the classroom early in the morning, the tip of his nose and lips were frozen red. Even his eyeballs felt cold; he suspected it was because his eyelids were too thin.
Lu Yuxing arrived earlier than him. After Shang Jue sat down, Lu Yuxing quietly warmed his hands under the table, his eyes fixed on Shang Jue's frozen lips, looking at him with a gaze that was quite affectionate.
Shang Jue covered his lips with his hand and cleared his throat awkwardly. Only then did Lu Yuxing return his gaze.
Shang Jue caught sight of the manuscript on his desk; Lu Yuxing had already started studying for this semester's major courses.
He asked, "Will the final exam be normal?"
Lu Yuxing replied, "Should be fine."
Seeing that Lu Yuxing was already self-sufficient enough to handle the final exams, Shang Jue nodded in relief.
The entire day was filled with classes. With a month left until finals, in addition to the exam courses, other classes were gradually announcing their assessment methods. The most comfortable assessment method was submitting a summary report, which could score decent grades with just a few thousand words. Unfortunately, they weren't so lucky. In the last class before school ended, the professor announced, "Group projects, you can form your own teams," and suddenly the students felt that even the spicy hot pot in the cafeteria was less enticing.
This course required groups of four to six for the project, and as soon as the assessment method was announced, several team invitations quickly filled Shang Jue's phone.
He turned to Lu Yuxing and asked, "Together?"
Lu Yuxing replied, "Mm."
Shang Jue then looked down and replied one by one, saying he had already found a team.
In the past, Shang Jue and Lu Yuxing had both been the mainstays of their respective teams. Now that they were together, their teammates, Ge Zhicheng and Lin Xuying, suddenly became the envy of everyone.
With two big shots in the team, who were both heavyweights, the others could just sit back and be carried along.
Shang Jue created a temporary group chat and, looking at Lu Yuxing's avatar in the four-person group, felt a bit complicated.
Before this, he had never thought that there would come a day when he would actively propose teaming up with Lu Yuxing.
He and Lu Yuxing had collaborated a few times in high school. One time was during the school's anniversary celebration, where they were forced by their homeroom teacher to perform a cello and piano duet. The weeks of rehearsals were more painful than death, not because the piece was difficult but because he had to sit in the practice room with someone he disliked to develop a tacit understanding.
During rehearsals, they often competed against each other, turning a gentle piano piece into a fast-paced tempo as they kept speeding up…
Every day, Shang Jue wanted to pick up the adjustable piano bench under the stage and smash it over Lu Yuxing's head. From Lu Yuxing's indifferent glances toward him, he could tell that the other person probably wanted to take his cello and smash it over his head too.
By the end of the official performance, Shang Jue felt incredibly insecure. When they bowed to the audience after the performance, he stood there empty-handed while Lu Yuxing still held his cello in his right hand, the long metal spike of the endpin resting on the floor looking somewhat sharp.
Shang Jue always felt that as he turned to leave the stage, Lu Yuxing would sneak attack him from behind with the cello in his hands.
Aside from the potential life-threatening danger, the performance received surprisingly good feedback. The video of their duet went viral across various campus walls, and for a long time afterward, Shang Jue kept receiving friend requests from all over the country on his QQ. Years later, he even stumbled upon merchandise featuring a “wedding photo” from that performance.
No one knew how anxious he felt standing on stage back then, especially since the metal support leg on Lu Yuxing's cello really did look quite like a fencing sword...
-
Shang Jue had already set up his team early. Although there were only four members, he couldn’t be bothered to recruit anyone else.
The teacher on stage continued with the lecture, while students below were busy typing away, sending messages to form teams or asking to join. After half an hour, they finally managed to find their teams, albeit with some difficulty.
During the ten-minute break, a few students who hadn’t found a team yet bubbled up in the course group, asking if there were any teams still looking for members.
Shang Jue noticed a name in the group chat that surprised him.
[Class 3, Wen Jiayue]: Is there any team that still needs members?
[Class 3, Wen Jiayue]: I’m looking for one.
Wen Jiayue had good grades and was quite outgoing, so she had a lot of acquaintances in the academy. Logically, she should have found someone in half an hour.
Indeed, someone in the group teased, [Class 3]: Why hasn’t Jiayue found a team? Did she skip class?
[Class 3, Wen Jiayue]: [smile emoji]
[Class 3, Wen Jiayue]: I’m here! I just had a dumbass in my previous team.
Suddenly, the group went quiet. This was a course group, not just a casual chat, and everyone was taken aback by her directness.
[Class 4, Jiang Kaixuan]: …
[Class 4, Jiang Kaixuan]: Some people need to chill out.
[Class 4, Jiang Kaixuan]: Seriously, I’ve put up with you for long enough.
The atmosphere turned tense, with the harmonious course group now filled with a sense of conflict. No one dared to speak, all waiting to see how things would unfold. Those who had wanted to reach out to Wen Jiayue now didn’t know how to start.
Shang Jue frowned, pushing his phone onto Lu Yuxing’s textbook to block the problem he was looking at. He then leaned in closer and asked, “Who is this person? Is he in your class?”
As he suddenly leaned over, his warmth and the scent of his hair were both close to Lu Yuxing. The latter smiled and replied, “He’s in our class, but I don’t know him”
Shang Jue: “……” Why are you smiling if you don’t know him?
—
Shang Jue: What’s going on?
Wen Jiayue: It’s nothing, really…
Wen Jiayue: It’s just that during team formation, someone brought in someone I can’t stand.
Wen Jiayue: The key point is, I put this team together...
Wen Jiayue: I want to kick that person out, but someone in the group disagreed, and then we started arguing.
Shang Jue thought for a moment and felt that the person Wen Jiayue disliked probably wasn’t the one who had just spoken in the class group, Jiang Kaixuan.
Shang Jue: Who are you referring to in the group?
Wen Jiayue: …
Wen Jiayue: Tian Miao.
Wen Jiayue: Do you remember my previous roommate, Lin Yihan? Tian Miao broke up with her through emotional abuse two months ago.
Shang Jue understood. Since Tian Miao had coldly broken up with Lin Yihan, and Wen Jiayue was Lin Yihan's roommate during her freshman year, it made sense that she knew about it.
Wen Jiayue: This person is just... hard to describe.
Wen Jiayue: The one who just spoke in the group, Jiang Kaixuan, is Tian Miao’s roommate and has a good relationship with him. [sweat]
Shang Jue roughly pieced together what happened. Wen Jiayue, unlike Lin Yihan, wasn’t the type to just swallow her anger. It was likely she had heard from Lin Yihan about Tian Miao’s sudden breakup and hadn’t given him a good face since then. As for Tian Miao, it was clear he had probably made himself look innocent while explaining the breakup to his roommate.
In Jiang Kaixuan's eyes, Wen Jiayue came off as that kind of girl who wouldn’t let things go and was always looking for trouble.
Wen Jiayue: But I was a bit impulsive just now, sigh…
Her actions in the class group were indeed inappropriate since the teacher was present.
Shang Jue didn’t want to judge her. He had been in the same class as Wen Jiayue before, and they were quite familiar due to various student activities. Besides, with Wen Jiayue directly cursing in the class group, no one dared to invite her to join their team.
He thought for a moment and decided to take a friend’s stance to help her.
Shang Jue: We still need people on our team, want to join?
Wen Jiayue: !! Really?
Wen Jiayue: I heard you’re in a team with Lu Yuxing. I thought your team must be full already.
Wen Jiayue: Let’s go! I’m going to crush the others!
After reading this, Shang Jue asked in his team group.
Shang Jue: Can I bring someone in?
Ge Zhicheng: Go ahead!
Lin Xuying: Of course, it’s okay.
Lu Yuxing, sitting next to Shang Jue, naturally had no objections.
Shang Jue exited the chat, re-entered the class group, and reply Wen Jiayue’s message, “Is there any team that still needs members?" to reply.
Class 3 Shang Jue: Yes, come!
After replying, he put down his phone and looked up, only to find Lu Yuxing staring at him.
Shang Jue: What’s wrong?
“Nothing.”
“...Oh.”
“You seemed to have helped her record a video before?” Lu Yuxing asked.
“Yeah. It was a small video for the school anniversary event…”
Lu Yuxing acknowledged it and calmly said, “You seem to have a good relationship with her.”
Shang Jue was taken aback for a moment, feeling something subtle inside, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was.
“It's just okay… normal friends.”
“Hmm.”
Shang Jue turned back, feeling a bit restless as he twirled his pen. After a while, he couldn’t help but look up at Lu Yuxing again, discovering that Lu Yuxing was also lost in thought, staring into space.
The two locked eyes, seeing a hint of confusion reflected in each other’s gaze.
“…”
“…”
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