Shocking! A three-year-old brings his aloof mother to their door.

"Hehe," Shen Qing chuckled, "Last time was purely accidental, I was too engrossed in the game! Don't hold a grudge, okay? Never mind, my Yasuo is still waiting for me to soar in the Rift!" With that, he dashed into the dormitory building.

Mo Ye smiled and shook his head, making an "OK" sign with his thumb and forefinger.

He quickly bought a loaf of bread at the cafeteria to fill his stomach, then hurried toward the badminton hall.

My phone vibrated. It was a message from Pang Siyi in our small group chat: "The venue is ready! Section C, number 3, hurry! Lady Su is warming up and looking fierce!"

Mo Ye's fingers flew across the keyboard as he replied, "OK, coming right away."

That's right, the trio is still together.

After the college entrance examination, the three of them tacitly chose the same university, even though they majored in different fields—Mo Ye studied computer science, Pang Siyi chose marketing, and Su Qianyue unsurprisingly entered finance. Their friendship never faded because of the distance.

When Mo Ye thought about the badminton hall, he felt quite annoyed by the school's "stinginess".

In a university with tens of thousands of students, there are very few indoor badminton courts, and each time you have to fight for one, it's like a battle of lightning speed and internet speed. Pang Siyi was able to get a court mostly thanks to Su Qianyue, the "professional".

She joined the school team after she went to university.

Upon arriving at the stadium, the familiar hustle and bustle, along with the crisp sound of badminton shuttlecocks hitting the racket strings, immediately greeted me.

Pang Siyi was clumsily stretching, while Su Qianyue was rhythmically jumping her feet and flexibly rotating her racket on the side.

Without any further pleasantries, the battle began immediately.

The three of them are used to playing singles, and even in mixed doubles, Su Qianyue insists on a fair match.

Don't underestimate her just because she's a girl—she received systematic training in college, and with her exceptional talent and hard work, she successfully obtained a national first-class athlete certificate in her junior year.

When Mo Ye and Pang Siyi first heard the news, their jaws nearly dropped to their feet. They had started learning together, so how could the gap between them have widened to the point of being like the East African Rift Valley?

Fortunately, being boys, the two had an advantage in strength and speed, and were able to hold their own against Su Qianyue. Although they lost more often than they won, the process was exhilarating.

After several rounds, Mo Ye made a beautiful drop shot to the net, but Su Qianyue anticipated it perfectly and executed a light backhand cross-court shot, sending the shuttlecock skimming over the net and landing precisely in bounds.

"Great shot!" Mo Ye exclaimed sincerely, panting as he walked off the court, wiping the sweat dripping from his hair with a towel.

Just then, a girl wearing a blue badminton dress jogged up to him.

She had a good figure, with curves in all the right places, and wore delicate makeup, clearly having dressed up carefully.

She gripped her phone tightly, her cheeks flushed, whether from exercise or shyness, her voice trembling slightly with nervousness:

"Hey buddy, you're really good at basketball... Can I add you on WeChat?"

Mo Ye stopped wiping his sweat and looked up at the other person.

His breathing hadn't calmed down after exercising, so his voice sounded a little hoarse, but it carried an undeniable calmness: "It's inconvenient."

The girl hadn't expected such a direct rejection. Her smile froze instantly. She bit her lip awkwardly, her voice lower and pleading, "My friends... my friends are watching over there. I'm losing face like this. How about... we just be friends?"

Before she could finish speaking, Mo Ye had already turned around, leaving her with his back, and walked straight towards Pang Siyi and Su Qianyue, who were resting on the sidelines.

Those two had already pricked up their ears and were watching the situation closely.

Upon seeing Mo Ye approach, they immediately flanked him from both sides, their faces beaming with gossip.

"How's it going? What number is it now?" Su Qianyue nudged him with her elbow, winking. "I thought that girl was pretty, with a great figure. Didn't you have your eye on her?"

Mo Ye picked up the water bottle, took a swig, and said speechlessly, "Is it really necessary?"

Pang Siyi, standing to the side, said with great distress, "Old Mo! Tell me honestly, do you... not like women?"

He counted on his fingers, "From freshman year to senior year, there must have been at least eighty or a hundred girls who tried to chat you up or asked us for their contact information, right? And you didn't agree to talk to a single one of them! You didn't even give them a chance to chat! You're such a campus heartthrob, you're way too abstinent!"

Upon hearing this, Su Qianyue stroked her chin in agreement and nodded with feigned seriousness: "That makes sense, Mo Da's campus heartthrob. Are your standards as high as Mount Everest, or is there some unspeakable reason behind it?"

The title of "campus heartthrob" was a complete accident for Mo Ye.

As he grew older, he shed his youthful naiveté, his facial features became more defined and rugged, and his physique became tall and well-proportioned due to years of exercise. Coupled with his focused and calm demeanor on the court, he somehow became a perennial topic of conversation on the campus forum.

This brought him far more trouble than joy.

Mo Ye's face darkened, and he raised his hand to give Pang Siyi a light slap on the chubby shoulder: "Can't you two wish me well for once? What do you mean you like men! Is that all you think about all day?"

Seeing his dejected expression, Pang Siyi and Su Qianyue's shoulders trembled uncontrollably. Finally, they couldn't hold back and burst into merciless laughter: "Hahaha... Oh my god, Lao Mo, your reaction always makes me laugh to death!"

Mo Ye looked at his two best friends, who were laughing so hard they were practically falling over, and sighed helplessly. He retorted, "Ha, as if you two have both found partners? What's there to laugh at?"

These words were like a mute button being pressed, and the laughter of the two people came to an abrupt halt.

Pang Siyi subconsciously looked at Su Qianyue, who happened to be glancing at him as well. Their eyes met briefly in mid-air before they quickly looked away, both of them with a barely perceptible blush on their ears.

Mo Ye had long seen through the subtle barrier between them, but one of them was stubborn and the other was clueless about love, so neither was willing to break through it first.

"Fine, I didn't ask any more questions." Mo Ye raised his hands in surrender, feeling the air suddenly become thick and uncomfortable. "You two can keep flirting. I'm going out for some fresh air. This gym... tsk, it's so sour."

He stuffed the racket into his bag, ignoring Pang Siyi's feigned annoyance behind him, "Who's flirting with me!" and Su Qianyue's hesitant embarrassment, and walked alone out of the stadium.

The early summer breeze, carrying the warmth of the afternoon sun, gently caressed his face, slightly dispelling the restlessness in his heart.

Little did he know that a storm, far more dramatic than a girl's advances or his friends' teasing, and capable of upending his peaceful life, was rapidly approaching him from a small figure carrying a bear backpack with determined eyes...