After ninety-nine online romances, I finally met my ex in person when school started.

Zhu Xunchuan's mind went blank for only 0.5 seconds.

The next second, he launched himself into the air.

With his left hand covering Lin Yuan's mouth and his right hand gripping Su Mucheng's wrist, he simultaneously performed two actions: pushing Lin Yuan out of the door and pulling Su Mucheng back in.

Lin Yuan made muffled "uh-uh-uh" sounds as he was pushed into the corridor.

Zhu Xun Chuan lowered his voice: "You didn't see anything today."

"Mmm..."

"I didn't see anything."

He released his grip, slammed the door shut, and twisted the lock.

The entire operation was performed smoothly and took less than three seconds.

A dazed voice came from outside the door: "Did I just see Su Mucheng...? No, Brother Chuan is right, I must have been seeing things. I've been staying up too late lately..."

The footsteps gradually faded into the distance.

Zhu Xun Chuan let out a long breath and turned around.

Su Mucheng stood in the middle of the dormitory, her hat askew, her mask hanging on her chin, and red marks from where she had been scratched still visible on her wrist. Her eyes were red-rimmed, a few tears glistening on her eyelashes, and her small face was tilted up at him.

Then she reached out and gently grasped the hem of his T-shirt.

"Brother Chuan".

Her voice was so soft it seemed to melt.

Zhu Xunchuan's heart skipped a beat.

Compared to the photos, Su Mucheng in real life is a size smaller. The energetic top idol on the screen now stands in front of him with hunched shoulders, like a kitten that has been caught in the rain and is running to find its owner.

"Why did you come here by yourself?" Zhu Xun Chuan asked in a low voice. "Does your manager know?"

"I told my sister I was going to the convenience store to buy snacks." Su Mucheng lowered her head, her fingers twisting the hem of his shirt. "I was afraid you weren't replying to my messages because you were angry with me..."

"I'm not angry."

"Then why didn't you reply to me?" Su Mucheng looked up, her big eyes staring straight at him. "You sent me a breakup message and then ignored me. I sent you seventeen voice messages, and you didn't listen to a single one."

Seventeen audio clips, each sixty seconds long.

Zhu Xunchuan remembered.

"What did you say?"

"The first three are asking where you went, the middle five are insults, and the last nine..." Su Mucheng's ears slowly turned red. "You're not allowed to hear the last ones."

Why?

"Absolutely not." She shook her head vigorously, her pigtails swinging back and forth. "If you listen to me, I'll... I'll be so embarrassed."

My phone was vibrating incessantly in my pocket.

Zhu Xun Chuan took it out and saw three red dots lit up in the chat list.

Jiang Yao: "My people are downstairs in your dorm. Who just went up?"

A second later, the second message read: "You have three minutes to explain."

Shen Tianxi: "The van has Su Mucheng's studio logo on it. Brother Chuan, you have a lot of connections! :)"

Gu Qinghan: "Zhu, just a reminder, female students are not allowed to stay overnight in the male dormitory. As your instructor, I have an obligation to care about your daily conduct."

Three messages, three different feelings.

One was icy, one was sour, and one was weird.

Zhu Xunchuan's fingers flew across the keyboard.

Jiang Yao replied first: "My roommate's cousin came to deliver something."

Jiang Yao replied instantly: "Your roommate's cousin drives a nanny van?"

Zhu Xunchuan: "Her family runs an entertainment agency; it's a company car."

There was a five-second silence on the other end.

"Let me check again."

Zhu Xun Chuan broke out in a sweat as he switched to Shen Tian hope's chat window.

"Sweetie, don't overthink it. My roommate's cousin is a fan of Su Mucheng. That's my roommate's sister's car."

Shen Tianxi: "Oh, then it has nothing to do with you?"

"It has absolutely nothing to do with us."

Shen Tianxi posted a cat emoji with the caption "I don't believe you for a second."

But then he added, "That's good. Take care of yourself, Brother Chuan."

Zhu Xunchuan breathed a sigh of relief. He then switched to Gu Qinghan.

"Don't worry, Teacher Gu, no woman stayed overnight. It was my roommate's cousin who came to borrow the charger."

Gu Qinghan replied with a period.

Just one period.

It's even scarier than a smiling emoji.

"Brother Chuan, who are you chatting with?"

Su Mucheng leaned closer and stood on tiptoe to look at his phone screen.

Zhu Xunchuan reflexively flipped his phone over.

"I need to take care of something."

"Oh." Su Mucheng didn't ask any further questions, obediently took a step back, and then naturally sat down on Zhu Xunchuan's bed.

A single bed. She sat on the edge of the bed, her legs together, the toes of her white canvas shoes lightly touching the ground. Her sundress was very form-fitting, but the hem bunched up on her legs, revealing a small section of her slender, snow-white ankles.

She didn't feel anything was wrong and looked around.

"Your dorm room is so small."

"That's how university dorms are."

"But it's so clean." Su Mucheng picked up a book from beside his pillow, flipped through it, then put it down, and touched his blanket. "The blanket is so soft."

She spoke as if she were at home.

Zhu Xun Chuan leaned against the desk, looking at the girl who was touching and looking around on his bed, and was momentarily dazed.

Su Mucheng. 23 million Weibo followers. She just won the Best Newcomer Award at a music festival last week. Tickets for her offline concert sold out in three seconds.

Sitting on his single bed, swinging her legs, she looked like a girl next door visiting.

"Do you know," Su Mucheng said, her head lowered and her fingers unconsciously clutching the corner of the blanket, "that was the year you disappeared, I debuted."

"I see."

"The night I released my first song, I was incredibly nervous. I wanted to talk to you, but you were no longer here." Her voice grew softer and softer. "Later, the song went viral, and so many people said they liked me, but I couldn't reach the first person I wanted to share it with."

The dormitory was quiet for a while.

"Mu Cheng..."

"I know what you're going to say," Su Mucheng said before he could, looking up with tears welling in her eyes again. "You're going to say we should break up again, right? You're going to say online relationships don't count, right?"

Zhu Xun Chuan remained silent.

"But it means something to me." Su Mucheng sniffed. "You were the first person to patiently listen to me sing. I hadn't debuted yet, and you said I sang well and that I would definitely become famous. You even said..."

She paused, her ears turning completely red.

"You said you'd come to my concert and sit in the front row."

Zhu Xunchuan did indeed say that.

At the time, he thought they were just platitudes to make the girl happy. But now, as the person in question repeated them word by word, those light words suddenly gained weight.

He was about to speak...

A key rattled outside the door.

Click.

Someone is using a key to open the door.

Zhu Xunchuan's pupils suddenly contracted.

Only two types of people have keys to this building. One is roommates. Lin Yuangang was just kicked out by him, so it's impossible for him to be back so soon.

Second, the dormitory manager.

A middle-aged woman's voice came from outside the door: "Routine inspection of prohibited electrical appliances, room 621. Open the door."

Su Mucheng froze, her face turning deathly pale.

A top idol was spotted in a boys' dormitory late at night. If this trended on social media, his management company would be in an uproar, and his fans would take the internet by storm.

Zhu Xunchuan did not hesitate.

He yanked off the covers, pushed Su Mucheng down onto the bed, and wrapped the blanket around her completely.

The movement was too fast; Su Mucheng only had time to let out a very soft "Ah."

Zhu Xun Chuan then lay down, pulled the blanket up to his chest, turned to face the wall, and assumed the posture of someone seriously ill and bedridden.

The locked door clicked open.

The dormitory supervisor poked her head in.

"621? Why is the door locked? Are you alone?"

"Auntie," Zhu Xun Chuan said in a weak voice, "I have a fever... My roommate went out to buy me medicine."

The dormitory supervisor walked in and glanced around. Of the four beds, three were empty, only Zhu Xun Chuan's bed was occupied.

"You have a fever? What's your temperature?"

"38.5 degrees Celsius. I just took fever reducer and broke out in a sweat."

In bed, Su Mucheng curled up in a ball. Her back was pressed tightly against Zhu Xunchuan's outer thigh, and her body was trembling uncontrollably.

It wasn't the cold. It was the tension.

Her breath was rapid and hot, burning his skin like a small flame through the thin fabric of her school uniform.

Zhu Xunchuan remained expressionless.

"Do you have a water heater or a high-powered hair dryer?" The dormitory supervisor opened the drawer of the opposite table and looked around.

"No, we all get hot water from the water room."

The dormitory manager opened another locker.

Su Mucheng shifted slightly in bed, as if changing her position, and somehow huddled even closer to the bed. Her fingers touched the buttons on Zhu Xunchuan's shirt at the waist, and she instinctively gripped them.

Zhu Xunchuan's abdominal muscles tensed for a moment.

"Okay, no problem." The dormitory supervisor closed the locker, took two steps back, and then looked back at her. "If you feel unwell, go to the school clinic. Don't try to tough it out."

"Thank you, Auntie."

The footsteps faded into the distance. The door closed behind them.

Zhu Xunchuan counted to ten to make sure he was far away before lifting the blanket.

Su Mucheng crawled out of bed.

Her hair was disheveled, her cheeks were flushed, and fine beads of sweat glistened on her forehead. The neckline of her sundress was askew, revealing a glimpse of her fair collarbone. Her right hand was still clutching something tightly in her palm.

She stared at Zhu Xunchuan, panting heavily.

Then she bit her lip.

"Brother Chuan".

"Um?"

"Your heart is beating so fast."

Su Mucheng's voice was soft and gentle, trembling with the relief of surviving a disaster.

"Do you... miss me too?"

Zhu Xun Chuan looked down at her.

This top idol with 20 million fans is curled up on his single bed, his hair messy and his eyes red, like a piece of candy with its wrapper torn off, sweet without any attempt to hide it.