Oh no! I've only been a freshman and I've already been targeted by a mean upperclassman.

When Li Chen pushed open the door to dormitory 302, he felt as if he had not returned to a doghouse, but stepped into an interrogation room awaiting trial.

The door hinges, worn out from years of disrepair, creaked and groaned.

This sound was like some kind of signal, and the noisy keyboard sounds and slurping sounds of eating instant noodles in the dormitory instantly disappeared.

Three pairs of eyes, like radar, were precisely locked onto him.

Wang Qiang was shirtless, holding half a bag of unfinished spicy strips in his hand. His oily face came closer, and his beady eyes gleamed with the light of someone looking at a "martyr".

"Oh, you're back?"

Wang Qiang whistled sarcastically and slammed the spicy strips on the table. "The brothers were just discussing whether they should chip in to buy you a wreath."

"After all, that's Yan Xi, the legendary 'Devil's Sorrow' senior!"

Sitting on the upper bunk, Chen Mo pushed up his thick glasses, which were as thick as the bottom of a beer bottle, and held a book on game theory in his hand. His tone was as calm as if he were reading an autopsy report: "According to my calculations, the probability of you being humiliated on the spot after confessing your feelings is 98.5%, the probability of being ignored is 1.4%, and the remaining 0.1% is that you will be splashed with boiling water."

"Old Li, tell me, which one did you get?"

Li Chen didn't say anything, but moved to his chair like a walking corpse and plopped down.

The chair groaned under the strain.

His mind is completely blank right now.

That "okay," the canvas bag hanging on his shoulder, and that final, meaningful look—they were like a tangled mess, suffocating him.

"Say something!"

Zhao Zixuan put his feet off the computer desk. As the only rich kid in the dormitory, he had an unusual obsession with this kind of gossip. "Don't play dead. The group chat exploded just now. People said they saw Yan Xi walking with you."

"What exactly happened? Did she insult you?"

Li Chen looked up at the three eager faces, his throat dry as he managed to squeeze out a sentence: "She... agreed."

The air suddenly froze.

The spicy strip in Wang Qiang's hand fell to the ground with a "thud".

The book "Game Theory" slipped from Chen Mo's hand and hit his thigh, but he didn't react at all.

Zhao Zixuan opened his mouth wide, his jaw almost dislocated.

A full ten seconds later, a terrifying howl, loud enough to blow the roof off, erupted from dormitory 302.

Holy crap!!!

Wang Qiang jumped up from his chair, his muscular frame trembling violently. "Old Li, are you fucking kidding me?"

"Yan Xi? That Yan Xi? She agreed to be your girlfriend?"

"Did you cast a curse on her, or do you have photos of her taking out nude loans?!"

"Impossible, absolutely impossible."

Chen Mo picked up the book, shaking his head frantically, his glasses reflecting a ghastly light. "I heard that a former student council member, the one whose family owns a mine, publicly confessed his love on the school radio station. Yan Xi immediately cut off the power to the entire school's radio system and even wrote a report about 'abuse of public resources' and handed it to the principal."

"Would such a high-class beauty even be interested in a poor kid like you who even buys knock-off Air Jordans from Putian?"

"I also think it's fantastical."

Zhao Zixuan stroked his chin, his brows furrowed. "Although Lao Li looks respectable, this doesn't make sense."

"A woman like Yan Xi has standards that are way too high."

"Old Li, tell me honestly, what exactly did she say?"

Li Chen slumped in his chair, buried his face in his hands, and said in a muffled voice, "She said 'okay,' and then asked me to take her back to her dorm. We even added each other on WeChat."

"I need to have my license checked!!"

Wang Qiang roared and lunged forward to snatch Li Chen's phone.

The three of them huddled around the poor cell phone, as if they were studying some alien artifact.

Open WeChat, and the pinned chat window immediately catches your eye.

The profile picture is a black cat.

Nickname: Xi.

The last message was the "caught" emoji and the devastatingly powerful "Goodnight, boyfriend."

"hiss--"

The three of them gasped in unison.

Wang Qiang's hand trembled, and he threw the phone back to Li Chen. His gaze towards Li Chen changed instantly; he no longer looked at the martyr, but at a rag doll about to be ruined.

"Old Li, you're finished."

Wang Qiang plopped down on the ground, his voice heavy with sorrow, "This is definitely not some Cinderella story."

"Think about it, who is Yan Xi?"

"An architecture genius, notoriously cold-blooded."

"If she really liked you, why didn't she do it sooner?"

"Why did you agree right after you lost a dare?"

Chen Mo pushed up his glasses, a glint of wisdom flashing behind the lenses: "Blind student, you've spotted the key point."

"Based on my analysis, there's only one possibility—she's playing you."

"Are you kidding me?"

Li Chen looked puzzled.

Does Senior Yan Xi seem that boring?

"That's right."

Chen Mo held up one finger, "For a woman with such high intelligence, ordinary suitors are too boring."

"Your kind of 'adventure' that comes to her doorstep has become her pastime."

"She's like a cat; she catches a mouse but doesn't eat it right away. Instead, she slowly toyes with it until the mouse is exhausted, and then kicks it away in one go."

Zhao Zixuan nodded in agreement: "That makes sense."

"Old Li, think about it. If the whole school knows tomorrow that you're Yan Xi's boyfriend, and then she dumps you a couple of days later, what will you face?"

"The anger of all the boys in the school, coupled with the laughing stock of being 'played and then dumped by the goddess'."

"You will suffer social death."

"Come on, I think you're just envious and jealous."

Li Chen crossed his arms and smiled with a contemptuous expression.

"Maybe my senior really likes me!"

Upon hearing this, all three of them gave Li Chen a look as if he were a dog, then simultaneously scoffed, gave him the middle finger, and went back to playing their games.

This night is destined to be sleepless.

After the lights were turned off, Wang Qiang's thunderous snoring filled the dormitory room.

Li Chen turned over, and the bed made a slight creaking sound.

Moonlight streamed in through the gaps in the curtains, casting a pale stripe of light across the floor.

He really couldn't sleep.

My hand unconsciously reached for my phone under the pillow again.

The screen lit up, making my eyes a little sore from the light.

He opened WeChat as if possessed, his finger hovering over the black cat profile picture.

Click in.

Moments on WeChat.

The background image is a black-and-white architectural sketch with extremely complex lines, resembling the spire of a Gothic cathedral, both oppressive and exquisite.

Slide down.

The content is pitifully small and extremely uninteresting.

Three months ago: [Forwarded] A lecture on the deconstruction and reconstruction of postmodern architectural structures.

Six months ago: A photo of me drawing late into the night, captioned: "Linjiang at 4 a.m."

One year ago: [Forwarded] Analysis of works by Pritzker Prize winners.

He truly is a genius; even his social media posts exude a cool, aloof vibe that says "mortals, begone!"

Li Chen pursed his lips and was about to back out when his fingers suddenly stopped.

Just five minutes ago, she updated her status.

There was no forwarding of academic articles, nor were any drawings posted.

That was a photograph.

The lighting was very dim, and the pixels appeared somewhat noisy due to the night shooting.

The background is a blurry street lamp and elongated tree shadows, but the composition is quite peculiar—it's the back view of a boy.

The boy was wearing an ordinary white T-shirt, but he was carrying an incongruous women's canvas bag on his shoulder, which made him look somewhat comical, yet also gave off a clumsy but well-behaved vibe.

Li Chen's heart skipped a beat.

That was his back view.

When did she take the picture secretly?

My gaze shifted downwards to the caption.

Only one short line of text:

The wind is gentle tonight.

Li Chen stared at the line of text and read it three times.

What does this sentence mean?

Are you simply referring to the weather?

Or... what is it referring to?