Editor & Proofreader: Rinrin

In midsummer, at the time when night and day intertwined^[1]connected, mist cloaked^[2]covered the sky like flowing clouds, softening the dim light. Only when the rising sun pierced the clouds at dawn did the mist quietly dissipate^[3]fade away.

This northern city rarely saw fog, especially in the summer.

Unfortunately, Lin Wu didn’t get to admire this rare beauty—he was woken up at seven in the morning. Though it was a perfectly standard time for him, the bright sunlight had already flooded through the windows on this summer morning, where the sun rose as early as five.

What woke him were the chattering new students downstairs, the returning students dragging their luggage through the hallways, the “Morning Suite” that played across the campus at exactly seven o’clock, and the endless “ding-dong” notifications from his phone beside his pillow.

Today was August 31st. Classes officially started tomorrow.

Lin Wu didn’t rush to get up. He lay groggily^[4]sleepy in his top bunk, yawning as he groped^[5]looked for his phone.

The constant “ding-dong” wasn’t from one group chat but from multiple group chats, all muted but still unable to escape the relentless^[6]continuous @everyone tags—

[Environmental College Group]

Teacher Li: “For those helping with the orientation, when introducing the school and college to the new students, please try to spread positive energy. If you have negative emotions to share, feel free to visit Mr. Chen in the college office. @everyone”

Mr. Chen: “[Spring Breeze Smile.jpg]”

[Environmental Engineering Department Group]

Counselor Teacher Gao: “Class roll call, 5 PM in front of the Environmental Building. @everyone”

[Class 1 Group of Environmental Engineering]

Xu Zhenlong, the class joker: “Did you see the message in the college group? I’m dying of laughter. @everyone”

Liu Mu, the popular one: “Probably chatting with a new girl, and things got “real serious real fast” (rsrf).”

Shang Haitao, the foodie: “I’m more interested in the meme Mr. Chen posted.”

Shang Haitao, the foodie: “[Spring Breeze Smile.jpg]”

Pang Dongdong, the quick-talker: “Society’s moving too fast. Even Mr. Chen knows how to be “emo” now. [Sigh]”

Zou Kai, the hot-headed one: “If you guys keep using these abbreviations^[7]shortened words I can’t understand, I’ll block all of you!”

Class President Deng Chacha: “TM is also an abbreviation. @Zou Kai, the hot-headed one”

Zou Kai, the hot-headed one: “…”

Lin Wu laughed out loud, fully awake now. He was just about to join the fun with his “Flower-Loving Lin Wu” handle when yet another notification came in from a fourth group—

[Building 2 Owners’ Group of Book Mountain Garden]

Beacon of Fire: “Whose quilt^[8]bed cover is this downstairs? @everyone”

Beacon of Fire: “[Picture]”

Beacon of Fire: “It’s been hanging for days and is almost dry as a board. If no one collects it, it’ll be a door plank soon.”

“Book Mountain Garden” was the official name for the boys’ dorm area, while the girls’ dorm was called “Study Sea Garden,” so Building 2 was just another boys’ dormitory.

Though the guys in Building 2 were only staying here for four years, they had optimistically^[9]confidently renamed the group as the “Owners’ Group,” pretending to be homeowners in advance.

“What are you doing? Holding your phone so early in the morning—careful not to drop it on your face.” The door to room 333 opened, and Lin Wu’s roommate, Xia Yang then dragged his suitcase in with his distinct Tianjin accent.
The scorching^[10]harsh summer had left no trace on Xia Yang; his face, arms, and legs were still as fair as ever. His slightly curly hair, which had been black last semester, was now dyed chestnut, making his already handsome features look even more refined.

“You’re early” Lin Wu sat up on the top bunk. “I thought you’d be here in the afternoon.”

Xia Yang, who was from Tianjin, had arrived in Shenyang the day before. However, since he had relatives in the area who always took good care of him, Xia Yang would always stop by their place first for a meal and a night’s rest before heading to school.

“Missed you guys, of course” Xia Yang said as he squatted down to open his suitcase. He pulled out several large bags of who-knows-what local specialties and slapped them onto the desk. As he started unpacking, his mouth didn’t stop for a second. “Man, the air conditioning on my train yesterday—I don’t know if it’s possessed or what—it had me freezing! My head was buzzing, so I told the attendant three times, ‘Sister, can we adjust the temperature? This is a train, not a freezer!’ And guess what? She said there was nothing she could do, the AC^[11]air condition is just like that. She told me to pull the curtain over myself if I couldn’t stand it…”

Lin Wu wasn’t sure if Xia Yang’s brain had been buzzing from the cold, but his own head was definitely buzzing now from all the talking.

Xia Yang had a certain charm: when he was quiet, he looked like a pretty boy, but once he started talking, his refined^[12]elegant image would immediately dissolve under the strong Tianjin accent.

Finally, after Xia Yang paused to catch his breath, Lin Wu jumped in: “I’ve always wondered, people say that if there’s one Northeasterner in the dorm, everyone else will end up with a Northeastern accent. We have three, but your Tianjin accent is still intact^[13]preserved?”

Xia Yang looked up and gave Lin Wu a charming wink. “What, you got a problem with that?”

Lin Wu: “…This mixed vibe of yours is something else.”

“I’ll tell you, I did consider giving in, going with the flow and adopting your accents” Xia Yang said, standing up. He spread the local snacks across the other two desks under the upper bunks, throwing a few bags on each. For Lin Wu, he directly tossed some to the top bunk. “But then I thought, what’s the point of switching from a Tianjin accent to a Northeastern one? What’s the real difference between ‘Sister, what are you up to?’ and ‘Girl, what are you doing?’ Tell me, with your sincere chest muscles, is there any fundamental^[14]essential difference in the vibe?”

Lin Wu caught a pack of Tianjin mahua^[15]twisted fried doughnut and a bag of ear-hole fried cake^[16]fried ball rice cake with fillings. “I surrender.”

In a dorm with three Northeasterners and one guy from Tianjin, discussing “vibes” was definitely overthinking it.

“Where’s Li Junchi?” After distributing all the local specialties, Xia Yang finally noticed the luggage by Li Junchi’s bed, but no Li Junchi.

“He went to work” Lin Wu said.

Xia Yang checked his phone. “It’s only seven in the morning.”

“He went to the train station to pick up a girl for a senior.”

Li Junchi was the dorm’s—and probably the school’s—king of part-time jobs. After getting the layout^[17]arrangement of the land and adjusting during the first semester of his freshman year, he started taking on any task he could the following semester. As long as it was within his power and not illegal, he accepted all kinds of commissions. His most famous feat was delivering breakfast to someone’s crush every morning for three months straight, earning him quite the reputation for private jobs around campus.

“Hired to pick up a girl for someone’s girlfriend?” Xia Yang was immediately indignant^[18]strong displeasure or anger. “How does a guy like that even have a girlfriend?”

Lin Wu: “Not a girlfriend.”

Xia Yang: “Then that’s fair. You make money and meet girls.”

Lin Wu: “It’s his sister. The senior even gave him an extra hundred and specifically ordered him not to ask for any personal information or contact details, including but not limited to her department, grade, Weibo, WeChat, QQ, or game accounts.”

Xia Yang: “…”

With Lin Wu and Xia Yang accounted for, Li Junchi working, the only one missing from dorm 333 was Ren Feiyu from Harbin.

“When’s he getting here?” Xia Yang asked, washing his face and changing into a fresh white T-shirt that made him look especially clean.

“He said last night he’d take the high-speed train this morning, so he should be on it by now” Lin Wu scrolled through their group chat for confirmation. “It’s only about two and a half hours from Harbin to Shenyang, so he should…”

Just as Lin Wu was about to find the message, a new one popped up in the group.

Speak of the devil.

Please grant me a koi fish: “Harbin’s having torrential rain, the high-speed train’s been canceled [crying][crying][crying] @Lin Wu @AAA_LiJunchi @Xia Yang”

Lin Wu and Xia Yang exchanged a glance.

Lin Wu shrugged: “Not surprising.”

Xia Yang nodded: “Par for the course^[19]not pleased with it but it is expected.”

Since freshman year, Ren Feiyu’s trips home and back had never gone smoothly. If it wasn’t a blizzard during winter break, it was a rainstorm in the summer. His train tickets seemed to summon the elements like a curse.

And this was just one of the many unfortunate episodes in Ren Feiyu’s long string of bad luck, both on and off campus.

Lin Wu: “[I stand by you in the wind and rain.jpg]”

AAA_LiJunchi: “Dude, this isn’t your first time. You should be used to it by now.”

Xia Yang: “Trust me, start wishing for “rain to keep falling” and it’ll stop immediately.”

Even while on the job, Li Junchi couldn’t resist chiming in, showing how strong the brotherhood of dorm 333 was.

Ren Feiyu clearly appreciated the solidarity^[20]support.

Please grant me a koi fish: “Yeah, don’t worry about me.”

Please grant me a koi fish: “[I’ll cry for a month, then I’ll be fine.jpg]”

After consoling Ren Feiyu, Lin Wu jumped off his bed to wash up. When he came back, he opened a pack of Tianjin mahua^[21]twisted fried doughnut for breakfast and started talking with Xia Yang about how they could spice up the post-vacation gifts. Aside from food, maybe Xia Yang could bring back some “Mud Zhang”^[22]mud or clay for creating falk art sculptures, figurines and decorations figurines next time.

But before he could say anything, he saw that Xia Yang had already fallen asleep, lying under the slowly turning fan like a kid who had pulled too many all-nighters at an internet cafe.

It seemed that the air conditioning at his relatives’ place wasn’t much better than the one on the train. After two days of freezing, Xia Yang had finally found comfort under the simple dorm room fan.

Classes don’t start until tomorrow, so there’s nothing much to do today. Lin Wu, while munching on a stick of crispy mahua^[23]twisted fried doughnut, scrolls through his phone. When he runs out of news to read, he naturally opens an app called “Shushan’s Study.”

This app was originally a simple program created by a senior who lived in Shushan Garden a few years ago. It’s like a minimalist anonymous forum for internal rants. As more alumni registered, the senior graduated and handed over the app to the Computer Science Department for maintenance. It’s now considered a semi-official mobile campus forum, though it retains the anonymous and relaxed atmosphere.

The forum is divided into two clear sections: “Study Space” and “Gossip and Feelings.”

The former gets lively during finals or graduate exam season, while the latter stays active all year long, bustling like a celebrity fan club.

Anything unrelated to studying ends up in the gossip section—from lovebirds showing off their relationships to discussions about whether to dump flirty jerks. In between, you can find juicy insider gossip about various departments, campus ghost stories, and other rumors, constantly filling the feed with fresh content.

But today’s hottest post isn’t about messy love stories or baffling^[24]difficult to understand or explain gossip; it’s just a series of landscape photos.

Title: “The Fog This Morning Is So Beautiful!”

Poster: “Samantha, the Morning Run Enthusiast.”

Content: [Image] [Image] [Image] [Image]…

Clicking into the post reveals a series of high-quality photos.

The sky is faintly lit, with mist on the verge of dissipating^[25]disappearing. The sun has yet to rise fully from behind the clouds, but its rays are already spilling over the horizon, casting a shimmering glow over the entire scene.