On Monday, Xie Heng indeed brought stuffed pancakes with teriyaki chicken filling to class, and for the next month, he brought breakfast for Ji Mian on most days.
Ji Mian wasn’t picky; whatever Xie Heng ate, he would eat too.
For the sake of that bite to eat, Ji Mian even intentionally got up ten minutes earlier each day to make it to class on time.
By the end of December, various subjects were approaching their conclusion, marking the busiest time of the semester for university students.
During this period, Ji Mian accomplished an important task.
Over the past month, he had been subtly pursuing Song Yu, and it was only recently that Song Yu finally noticed.
However, unlike the original plot, Song Yu didn’t avoid him. He still regarded Ji Mian as a friend, but now their encounters felt a bit awkward, and he no longer accepted Ji Mian's invitations.
On Tuesday morning, during the first class, which was the dreaded corporate management course, Xie Heng arrived fifteen minutes early, while Ji Mian had come in even earlier, waiting for his feeding from Xie Heng.
“Still from that pancake place, curry chicken filling,” Xie Heng handed him what he was holding.
Along with the pancake, there was a cup of black sesame soy milk. Their school sold soy milk too, but it wasn’t as tasty as the one from that outside shop.
Ji Mian received it with both hands; the pancake and soy milk were still warm.
“Thanks, Xie Ge!” The pancake had a strong flavor, and after finishing his sentence, he rushed outside the classroom to eat.
After finishing the pancake, Ji Mian inserted a straw into the soy milk and took a couple of sips when suddenly someone affectionately ruffled his hair from behind.
“Hmm?” He hadn’t swallowed the soy milk yet and turned around, expecting it to be Jia Wenbo, but instead, he found Han Ji's face.
Ji Mian felt a sudden tightness in his chest, hesitant to speak, momentarily unsure if this was Han Ji’s usual way of greeting him.
Although he was generally quite sociable, he wasn’t accustomed to this kind of somewhat intimate contact. It would have been better if it were someone he was particularly close to, like Xie Heng or Jia Wenbo.
“Good morning.” Han Ji smiled lightly.
Ji Mian nodded in response.
“I’ve almost finished the project. Once I sort it out, I’ll send the screenshots in the group.”
Luo Jin was a girl from their group, also from the computer science department.
Ji Mian enthusiastically clapped his hands, “Nice!”
“It’s not difficult, just time-consuming. But since I promised to help you, I’ll put in some extra time,” Han Ji said.
Ji Mian smiled subtly at that.
At first, he had said he was quite inexperienced, but he hadn’t shirked his responsibilities at all.
In his previous life, Ji Mian's job also required some programming, so he wasn't bad at it. He just didn’t get involved much with the course design system in order to maintain the lazy slacker persona of Lu Zhou during his university years.
However, while the course design accounted for a significant portion of their grades, it was only sixty percent. The remaining forty percent was divided into individual assignments and group projects.
Ji Mian put in a lot of effort on the group projects, and he always finished his individual assignments the quickest, sending them directly to the group chat.
He found the framework for the system and wrote several key functional codes, but when he sent it to the chat, he claimed to have found it online. Moreover, he was also responsible for the PowerPoint and presentation afterward, so in terms of workload, he might not have contributed less than Han Ji.
Besides, their system was completed by Han Ji and Luo Jin together, and the girl had also put in quite a bit of effort, yet Han Ji only mentioned himself.
Ji Mian thought it was quite funny.
“This Friday is my birthday. Want to go out and have some fun?” Han Ji asked.
“No, I…”
“Come on, I’ve invited all three girls from our group,” Han Ji interrupted him. “You didn’t agree to go out with me last time, but you should come this time for my birthday, right?”
Ji Mian smiled and said, “What do you mean I didn’t agree? We always play basketball together.”
“Playing basketball is one thing; this is different.” Han Ji stood in front of him, looking determined to drag him along.
Ji Mian hesitated.
He indeed didn’t want to hang out with Han Ji; their vibes didn’t quite match. Han Ji had a strong competitive spirit, and after losing to Ji Mian a few times in basketball, he had given Ji Mian looks that made him feel uncomfortable. He couldn’t quite describe the look—filled with a desire to conquer, along with some other strange emotions.
But since they were in the same group and the other members were going too, and Han Ji had indeed invited him multiple times, he thought about it for a moment and finally agreed, “This Friday, right? Okay.”
Seeing him agree, Han Ji cheerfully raised his hand, wanting to ruffle Ji Mian’s hair again, but this time Ji Mian skillfully dodged.
“You can’t mess with a man’s hair.” Ji Mian joked.
Han Ji had no choice but to withdraw his hand. “See you Friday.”
Talking with him had wasted a bit of time, and Ji Mian noticed that he hadn’t touched his soy milk much.
Realizing class was about to start, he quickly finished the remaining soy milk, but in his haste, he ended up choking on a sip.
Nonetheless, he made it back to class just before the bell rang.
The course design presentation was scheduled for next week, and many students brought their laptops to class, hoping to catch up on work during class time.
Xie Heng’s laptop was also on the desk.
Ji Mian sat back down next to him and casually glanced over, only to find that Xie Heng’s screen wasn’t showing their course software but rather a page entirely in English.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“An open-source website; I’m practicing some algorithm problems on it.”
“Practicing that for what?”
“I signed up for an internal competition; it’s happening in a couple of days.”
When Xie Heng mentioned the name of the competition, Ji Mian was surprised. “I’ve heard of that; isn’t it a competition for the computer science department?”
He had heard Han Ji mention it, and it seemed to have a pretty high reputation.
“Anyone can sign up; it’s just that students from other departments rarely participate.”
“Oh~” Ji Mian leaned closer, curiously asking in a low voice, “Do you think you can win?”
Xie Heng replied just as quietly, “Yes.”
He hadn’t thought about winning first prize—only two spots were available, and there were always outstanding students in school. But winning second prize seemed to be within reach.
“I can’t believe you’re that strong! Han Ji said it’s quite difficult for freshmen in their major to win awards.”
“I’ve just had early exposure; I understand algorithms a bit more. They’re stronger in other areas.”
There were many fields within computer science, and Xie Heng’s strengths were limited to algorithms. Computer science students had to learn a lot, and it was quite diverse; Xie Heng humbly admitted he couldn’t compare to them in other aspects.
“When did you start getting into it?”
Xie Heng thought for a moment and replied, “Probably in middle school.”
He had practiced algorithm problems on several well-known open-source websites in high school, so when he saw that the school was hosting a programming competition, he signed up without hesitation.
“...When I was in middle school, I was still playing in the mud.”
Xie Heng chuckled.
It couldn't have been that bad in middle school, could it?
“Then why did you choose to major in economics? Weren't you interested in computer science?”
Xie Heng shook his head. “It’s not that I was interested in computer science. At first, I thought I wanted to choose a computer science major, but then I realized I was only interested in thinking through problems and coming up with simpler solutions—kind of like playing games.”
Ji Mian was stunned, and after a moment, he quietly turned his head back. “...It’s better for me to just be a waste.”
“You’re not a waste,” Xie Heng said.
Ji Mian slumped his head on the desk, feeling so low that he fell silent.
Xie Heng looked at the back of his head. Ji Mian had cut his hair recently, and it looked fluffy, making Xie Heng want to ruffle it.
He glanced a few more times but ultimately resisted the urge to mess with Ji Mian's hair.
—
On Friday, Ji Mian arrived at the restaurant that Han Ji had reserved, carrying gifts as promised.
Upon entering, he paused for a moment.
Han Ji was already there, and at the table were several guys Ji Mian didn’t recognize, dressed in a way that didn’t seem like they were from their school. One of them looked to be around twenty-eight or twenty-nine years old and was dressed quite flamboyantly.
“These are all my friends, here to celebrate my birthday,” Han Ji introduced.
The dishes hadn’t been ordered yet, but a few cans of beer had already been opened.
Ji Mian frowned slightly. Friends? Friends from a bar or nightclub?
It wasn’t that he held any prejudice against anyone, but since a few girls were supposed to come later, it was a bit absurd for Han Ji to invite such a group when he also invited Ji Mian.
Before Ji Mian could take a seat, Fan Tao, Luo Jin, and another girl from their group arrived. When they saw the bottles of alcohol on the table, they all looked a bit confused and at a loss.
Clearly, they hadn’t expected such a situation.
The girls still politely greeted everyone one by one.
Fan Tao took the lead and handed a gift to Han Ji. Luo Jin and another girl quickly followed suit, wished him a “Happy Birthday,” and then sat down.
The table was a round one with seating on all sides, but the girls all chose to sit on Ji Mian's side, huddling together and refusing to move elsewhere, effectively creating a distinct boundary between them and Han Ji's group.
After ordering the dishes, the girls barely spoke during the meal.
Halfway through, Han Ji inexplicably started to prompt Ji Mian to chat, while his male friends occasionally threw subtle glances at Ji Mian, their expressions ambiguous.
What’s going on? Ji Mian suppressed his discomfort.
At this point, he had completely lost the desire to communicate with Han Ji and only replied occasionally with a word or two.
The guys across from him poured more drinks, and the oldest-looking one had clearly drunk too much; his neck was flushed, and he scrutinized Ji Mian with a blatant gaze.
“Why the hell are you drinking?” Ji Mian thought.
For the first time, he was filled with foul language but wore a poker face.
Noticing Ji Mian's inner thoughts, the system remarked: 【……】
Great, things are getting out of hand.
“Hey, hey,” Ji Mian finally couldn’t hold it in anymore and reminded them, “Drink less; there are girls here.”
“It’s fine; we can hold our liquor; we won’t get drunk.”
Surprisingly, Han Ji didn’t say anything in response.
Ji Mian was furious and felt that if he didn’t find a way to vent, he would end up shouting at the table.
He took out his phone and quickly found someone to bombard with messages.
【Lu Zhou】: Damn, I ran into idiots.
In less than two seconds, a message popped up.
【Xie Heng】: ?
【Lu Zhou】: Han Ji’s birthday party. He invited me and the girls from our group but brought some guys I don’t know, and they’re already red in the neck from drinking.
【Xie Heng】: What’s wrong with them?
【Lu Zhou】: And the atmosphere is super weird! This bunch of people must have something wrong with their eyes; they’re staring at us like it’s disgusting!
Ji Mian raised his head and glanced at Fan Tao beside him; her expression didn’t look too good either.
He boldly said, “It’s pretty late; if you want to leave, go ahead. The rest of us guys can leave later.”
The other girl visibly sighed in relief. “Okay, I think… it’s too late.”
Han Ji shot Ji Mian a sideways glance.
What Ji Mian said wasn’t something he should have, but he couldn’t care less about Han Ji’s thoughts right now.
The girls quickly stood up and left the restaurant.
“I’ll wait for them to get a cab and then come back,” Ji Mian said.
When he stood up and saw that Han Ji was also getting up to join him, he turned his head and said, “You’ve been drinking, so don’t go.”
He smiled and advised, “It’s windy outside; be careful not to catch a cold.”
Han Ji: “……”
Comments