Yu Ju was uncharacteristically suffering from insomnia.

His body was exhausted, his eyelids heavy, yet his mind refused to sleep.

After opening his eyes for what felt like the hundredth time, Yu Ju let out a long sigh and finally reached for his phone.

It was already past one o’clock.

Thinking about the group meeting scheduled for seven in the morning, Yu Ju groaned internally.

He rarely had trouble sleeping. Even during those few months when his mother was seriously ill, he hadn’t lost sleep.

What was going on tonight?

With nothing else to do, Yu Ju tapped on Gu Qianxing’s profile picture and started looking at his cat again.

This cat—Yu Ju knew—was famously expensive.

But the price made sense. The cat was ridiculously, exceptionally cute.

Ah, just look at those eyes.

Ah, just look at that fur.

Ah…

After staring at the profile picture for a while, Yu Ju backed out of the screen.

Almost as if possessed, he tapped into Gu Qianxing’s profile details.

To his surprise, he noticed that Gu Qianxing had updated his Moments.

It had been posted just an hour ago—a video, with the thumbnail showing his cat.

It looked more grown-up now.

Yu Ju tapped play, and cuteness hit him like a wave. The little white cat let out a soft meow.

Then, a hand appeared in the frame.

“Comma, come here.”

It was Gu Qianxing’s voice. As soon as he spoke, the cat walked toward the camera and, very naturally, rubbed its head against Gu Qianxing’s palm.

Gu Qianxing let out a low chuckle, his large hand gently scrubbing the top of Comma’s head, fingers sinking into the fur and making little circular motions.

Comma squinted his eyes and sprawled on the carpet, clearly enjoying every second.

For some reason, Yu Ju found himself enjoying it too.

Just that one line—“Comma, come here.”

And that one hand, gently rubbing.

Yu Ju watched the video several times.

Gu Qianxing’s Moments were only visible for three days, but in the end, Yu Ju couldn’t resist—he saved the video.

After exiting, he noticed that Zhao Yi had also updated his Moments, posting a photo of himself with Zhou Jinye.

Yu Ju was used to seeing couples show off their affection. He casually gave it a like, then tapped into his chat with Zhao Yi.

He asked, [Have you seen Gu Qianxing’s cat? It’s so cute.]

Zhao Yi, who practically lived on his phone, replied instantly: [Why are you still awake?]

Then he asked, [That cat in his profile pic—is that his?]

Yu Ju ignored the question about why he was still up and answered, [Yeah.]

Yu Ju: [You didn’t know?]

Zhao Yi: [How would I know?]

Zhao Yi: [I’ll ask Zhou Jinye.]

A moment later: [Damn, even Zhou Jinye doesn’t know.]

Zhao Yi: [He seriously didn’t know Gu Qianxing had a cat.]

Zhao Yi: [Hahaha, he just told me that when Gu Qianxing first changed his profile picture, he asked him about it. Gu Qianxing said he got a cat, but Zhou Jinye didn’t believe him.]

Zhao Yi: [Since when does Gu Qianxing like cats?]

Yu Ju: [You’re asking me?]

Zhao Yi: [That profile picture’s been around for ages. The cat must be grown up by now, right?]

Yu Ju: [It has. Check Gu Qianxing’s Moments.]

Zhao Yi: [He actually posted something? Zhou Jinye said he hasn’t posted in like a hundred years.]

A few seconds later—

Zhao Yi: [What Moments? He posted something?]

Yu Ju paused, then tapped into Gu Qianxing’s Moments again.

Still there. Not deleted.

Yu Ju: [You can’t see it?]

Another few seconds passed.

Zhao Yi: [??]

Zhao Yi: [Holy crap. That fox Gu actually set it to visible only to you.]

Zhao Yi: [What did he post? What did he post?]

The last two voice messages were from Zhou Jinye, and judging by the tone, it wasn’t hard to tell he was very excited.

Yu Ju let out a quiet “uh…”

Why did it suddenly feel like he’d just gotten himself into trouble?

Yu Ju: [I’m going to sleep. So tired.]

Yu Ju: [Poof. Vanishing now]

True to his word, he vanished—muted his phone, tossed it aside, and pulled the blanket over himself.

Great. Now he was even less likely to fall asleep.

So that post on Gu Qianxing’s Moments… was only visible to him?

All of a sudden, Yu Ju remembered what Zhao Yi had asked him at the door earlier that evening—

“Is he flirting with you?”

“Ahhh!”

Yu Ju let out an annoyed sound, kicked his legs, and buried himself deep under the covers.

He had no idea how he eventually fell asleep. What he did know—ridiculously enough—was that he dreamed of Gu Qianxing again.

In the dream, he had turned into a cat. Gu Qianxing was crouching in front of him, hand outstretched, calling to him:

“Comma, come here.”

Then that big hand of his reached over and rubbed Yu Ju’s head.

When the alarm went off, Yu Ju was still in a daze. But there was no time to stay dazed—he’d set the alarm to the absolute latest minute.

It wasn’t until he was on his way to school that he finally had a moment to check his phone.

And wow—just one glance at the group chat for the zoo project, and there it was: over 300 messages waiting for him.

Yu Ju scrolled all the way to the beginning and saw that it had started late last night with Zhou Jinye going wild, tagging Gu Qianxing over and over again.

He was demanding to know why Gu Qianxing’s Moments post was set to Only Visible to Little Cutie.

Asking what exactly he had posted to Little Cutie.

And what exactly he wanted to do to Little Cutie.

Once he asked, all the night owls who were still awake at that hour jumped in, tagging Gu Qianxing one after another—pressing him with questions: What are you up to? What kind of photo is so secret you can’t share it with the group? Why so sneaky?

Naturally, Gu Qianxing never responded.

With no answer from him, the group eventually fizzled out, noisy and chaotic, until everyone drifted off to sleep.

The rest of the messages had come in this morning.

Yu Ju scrolled through them one by one, and by the time he got to the later ones, he couldn’t help it—he burst out laughing.

At first, people were still tagging Gu Qianxing, asking if he’d sent Little Cutie a selfie.

Then, somehow, the “selfie” got confirmed.

And the demands began: “Hand over the selfie!”

Bit by bit, the “selfie” evolved into a muscle pic, and everyone started saying that Gu the Seducer had sent Little Cutie a photo showing off his muscles.

Bit by bit again, that muscle pic turned into a nude, and the narrative changed to: Gu the Fox had sent Little Cutie a bedside nude.

The last message in the group was a reaction sticker sent by Mouse, and that was where the chaos stopped—for now.

The sticker was a scene from Detective Conan, with Conan pushing up his glasses and the text next to it reading, “Scheming Frog, always rubbing your belly.”

Yu Ju quietly entered the conversation, then quietly exited.

Gu Qianxing’s profile picture remained on the screen, and as Yu Ju stared at it, he couldn’t help but remember what Gu Qianxing had said yesterday: “You promised me you’d say good morning every time you wake up.”

So, Yu Ju, with his weak resolve, found his hand moving to tap on Gu Qianxing’s WeChat, where he typed a single character: “Good morning.”

But he didn’t send it.

After thinking it over for a while, Yu Ju finally deleted the word, exited the chat, and sighed to himself.

Words said under the influence of alcohol shouldn’t count.

And what about saying it today, and again tomorrow, and the day after that?

Wouldn’t it become a bit too ambiguous?

Yes, that was it.

Yu Ju pressed the lock button on his phone.

But just as the screen turned black, it suddenly lit up again.

A new message had arrived.

Gu Qianxing: [Good morning.]

Yu Ju pressed his lips together.

After hesitating for a moment, he finally typed back: [Good morning.]

On the other side, in the group, Gu Qianxing had appeared.

After sending his good morning to Yu Ju, he added: [Mind your own business and stop worrying about ours.]

A moment later, Gu Qianxing sent another message: [He’s in the group.]

Not long after that, a system notification popped up—Yu Ju was kicked out of the group.

Yu Ju: ??

The next second, Zhao Yi sent a message.

Zhao Yi: [The group owner asked me to apologize to you.]

Zhao Yi: [He said the upcoming messages might be harmful to your eyes, so he kicked you out first.]

Yu Ju: “…”

Yu Ju: [What did they talk about?]

Zhao Yi: [Actually, it’s nothing much, just poking fun at Gu Qianxing.]

Zhao Yi: [Your Gu Qianxing, seriously, he won’t show up unless it’s about you.]

Zhao Yi then added: [By the way, did Gu Qianxing really send you a nude photo?

Yu Ju: [Do you think that’s possible?]

Zhao Yi: [Hahaha.]

Zhao Yi: [But I’ve heard that Gu Qianxing’s muscles are quite impressive.]

Zhao Yi: [Have you seen them?]

Yu Ju: [How would I have seen them?]

Zhao Yi: [Right.]

Zhao Yi: [So, how about you take a look, and then describe them to me?]

Yu Ju: [What the heck would I see?]

Zhao Yi: [It’s just a matter of asking.]

Zhao Yi: [Qianxing Gege, someone wants to see your muscles.]

Yu Ju: [Ugh.]

Gu Qianxing only said “Good morning” to him, nothing else. He didn’t explain why his Moments were only visible to Yu Ju, nor did he delete the cat video. He just left it there, as if to say, “This is how it is, you misunderstand.”

However, Yu Ju soon had no time to think about it. He got to work.

He held a large meeting, booked tickets for the afternoon, and contacted partners from other universities who were working on the project. The whole morning passed in a rush.

After lunch, he led his team to the airport.

This project was a collaboration with the chemistry department of F University. The two groups arrived around the same time, so they had agreed to meet at the exit of B City Airport.

Because of a topic raised that morning, the group was still arguing about the ratio of the experiment as they arrived at the airport.

As they got out of the car, two people from the group were still debating the details.

Yu Ju’s attention was originally on the two of them behind him, but as he walked, someone to the side suddenly caught his eye.

The moment their gazes met, both of them froze for a second.

Zhang Qiming.

He probably hadn’t expected to run into Yu Ju, almost losing his step.

After a brief moment of eye contact, Zhang Qiming was the first to smile at Yu Ju.

Yu Ju instinctively blinked and returned a small smile.

“Let’s go, Yu Ju.”

Someone behind urged him on.

Yu Ju muttered an “oh” and brushed past Zhang Qiming.

He hadn’t expected that once they were on the plane, the two people from his group would continue debating, seemingly trying to argue out who was right and who was wrong.

Now that they had a table, they took out paper, pens, and laptops, continuing their work.

Yu Ju couldn’t focus on them. The drowsiness hit him, and before long, he had fallen asleep.

The flight was an hour and a half long, and Yu Ju practically slept through the entire thing.

After they landed, they quickly met up with the other group from F University. The two universities exchanged a few pleasantries before boarding the minibus that Yu Ju had arranged.

Once they sat down on the bus, Yu Ju gazed absentmindedly at the F University emblem on a bag in the row ahead.

He had almost gone to F University himself.

So, if that had happened, would he have been on the same bus with this group of people today?

Yu Ju lowered his head and smiled faintly, choosing not to dwell on it.

The two members of his group, having argued for so long, were probably exhausted now and settled into their seats to rest.

With his own group quieting down, the voices of F University’s students became more prominent.

Though they weren’t speaking loudly, their conversation was just loud enough for everyone on the bus to hear.

At first, Yu Ju couldn’t understand much. He only caught phrases like “So handsome,” “My new husband,” “My sister loves him so much, she bought all his products.”

Soon, she said the name of that person.

“Gu Qianxing, you all know him, right?”

Yu Ju opened his eyes.

How was it that even when he was away, people were still talking about him?

Yu Ju glanced at the girl who was calling Gu Qianxing her husband, then closed his eyes again.

He focused his attention on the center of F University’s group chat.

“I know him. I heard he’s a designer at HIC.”

“Yeah, yeah! Oh my god, he’s so impressive,” the girl responded with great excitement. “He’s impressive, and on top of that, he’s handsome. I’m totally in love with his face.”

“Let me see a photo.”

“Here.”

Yu Ju opened one eye.

But unfortunately, he couldn’t see anything.

“Oh! I know him. I have him on WeChat!”

It was a male voice this time.

Yu Ju fully opened his eyes.

“What? You have his WeChat?” The girl who had been calling Gu Qianxing her husband asked, both surprised and excited. “Is that for real? Let me see.”

The boy replied, “I added him a long time ago, like several years ago. I’m not sure if he’s changed his WeChat by now.”

The girl leaned in closer, “Is it really him?”

The boy confirmed, “Yeah, it’s him. He added me when I was a freshman. Later, I found out he was the campus heartthrob of F Academy.”

The girl gasped, “No way! Really? Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

The boy shrugged, “You didn’t ask.”

The girl leaned in again, “His profile picture is a cat? Gu Qianxing uses such a cute cat for a profile picture?”

The boy shook his head, “I’m not sure. It wasn’t that profile picture when he added me, he might have changed it in recent years,” he added, “I changed phones, so all the chat history is gone.”

The girl still seemed doubtful, “Isn’t he from the Art Academy? Why did he add you? What did he want?”

The boy laughed, “It was the start of our freshman year. He came to our school, and he was at the freshman office. At first, I thought he was a senior from our department who came to pick me up,” he continued, “Later I found out, he was actually there to find someone.”

The girl was curious, “Find someone? Who?”

The boy chuckled, “I forgot. The old phone had that info. He said he was supposed to tell that person if he found them.”

The girl pressed, “Did he find them?”

The boy replied, “No, there was no one at our school that he was talking about.”

Yu Ju opened his eyes again.

He gazed out the window.

The summer temperature was much higher than it was now.

It felt hot.

Only in the evening could you go outside for a bit of cool air and enjoy some watermelon.

The worst watermelon Yu Ju ever ate was in Zhang Qiming’s yard. It was said to be grown by Zhang Qiming’s grandmother herself.

It wasn’t sweet at all, but he ate it happily.

Because he was eating it with Gu Qianxing.

It was right after the college entrance exam results had been released, and Zhang Qiming’s grandmother, to reward the two kids, offered up the watermelon she had never been willing to pick.

“I didn’t know our little friends did so well in the exams.”

That was the first thing Gu Qianxing said after hearing Yu Ju’s total score.

Yu Ju, eating his watermelon with his eyes squinting happily, couldn’t bring himself to say the polite “It’s nothing much,” because he was the top student in the entire school.

He was a little proud, too.

“What do you mean, ‘our little friends’?” Zhang Qiming glanced at his younger brother in disdain. “Only Ju’s grades are good. What kind of crap did you get on your exam, Zhang Qiming?”

Zhang Qiming spat and replied, “Like your college entrance exam results are any better.”

Gu Qianxing continued to stare at Yu Ju’s report card, even zooming in on each subject.

“You’re stressing me out with this,” Gu Qianxing said after examining the grades.

Yu Ju swallowed the watermelon in his mouth. “Why does it stress you out?”

Gu Qianxing didn’t answer directly, instead asking Yu Ju, “What schools do you want to apply to?”

Yu Ju replied, “F University and H University, one of those.”

Gu Qianxing asked again, “What major?”

Yu Ju said, “I want to major in chemistry.”

Zhang Qiming added, “He really likes doing experiments. I don’t know what’s wrong with him. He’s the most enthusiastic about experiments in our school.”

Yu Ju retorted, “What’s wrong with that?”

As they chatted, Gu Qianxing was looking down, holding his phone and searching for something.

After a while, he put down his phone and repeated Yu Ju’s words, “You want to major in chemistry?”

Yu Ju wiped his mouth with a piece of paper. “Mm.”

Gu Qianxing said, “F University’s chemistry department is even better.”

Yu Ju hadn’t looked into it yet. “Is that so?”

Gu Qianxing seemed to smile slightly. “Mm,” he nodded, then added, “I’m also in F City.”

Yu Ju raised an eyebrow.

He only knew that Gu Qianxing was studying design, and didn’t realize he was in F City.

“Are you coming?” Gu Qianxing asked.

Yu Ju began to think.

Gu Qianxing continued, “I have an apartment, it’s very close to F University. You only need to take one bus ride after leaving the school gate.”

Yu Ju seemed as if he had already filled out his application form. “Really? Then can I come visit you?”

Gu Qianxing nodded. “You’re very welcome.”

He added, “I’m pretty good at cooking.”

Yu Ju seemed as if he had already received his admission letter. “I’m coming to mooch food.”

Gu Qianxing added, “If you want to raise a cat, but the school doesn’t allow it, you can keep it at my place.”

Yu Ju acted as if he were already a student at F University. “Really? That’s great!”

Gu Qianxing continued, “What are you planning to name your cat?”

Yu Ju laughed. “I don’t even have a cat yet.”

Gu Qianxing said, “You can decide on a name first.”

Yu Ju actually started thinking seriously, imagining a particularly cute cat at Gu Qianxing’s house.

But before he could come up with anything, Gu Qianxing spoke again.

“How about naming it ‘Comma’?”