“Why are you even paying attention to that?” Liang Yuanzheng lowered his head. “Focus on the exercises.”

“You don’t know?” the male classmate leaned in, whispering mysteriously. “Last month, the school sent out a scam prevention alert. You didn’t see it?”

Liang Yuanzheng looked up.

The word “scam” immediately made Liang Yuanzheng alert, because Lu Canran really did look like someone who would be easily tricked—if she didn’t have the protection of her family, teachers, and friends, she might become a teary-eyed victim in less than three days.

“Someone made a fake Weibo account, a high-quality knockoff, pretending to be her friend,” the male classmate said. “Claimed their account got locked and phone was stolen, said they couldn’t finish a cross-border online purchase and needed to borrow ten thousand. She actually sent the money. Way too gullible—”

Liang Yuanzheng felt uncomfortable hearing that and corrected him, “It’s not gullible. She’s just too loyal, and hasn’t received enough education on safety awareness.”

“Come on, in the end it’s still because she’s rich. Maybe ten thousand yuan means nothing to her,” the classmate said. “Three students got scammed last month, and her case was even used by the counselor as an example.”

Liang Yuanzheng asked, “Which counselor?”

The classmate stared in shock. “Wait—don’t tell me you’re planning to go talk to the counselor?”

“If your counselor really mentioned her name, that’s a violation of privacy,” Liang Yuanzheng said. “They owe her an apology.”

“…They didn’t say her full name, but it wasn’t hard to figure out who it was,” the male classmate replied. “It was just meant to raise our awareness about safety…”

“And what about her?” Liang Yuanzheng asked coldly. “What about her privacy? What did she do wrong? Lending money to a friend out of loyalty? Forgetting to verify the identity was her oversight, but that’s no excuse for all of you to spread it around.”

The classmate was at a loss for words. After a long pause, something seemed to dawn on him. “Wait a sec—bro, don’t tell me… You keep defending her like this… do you like her?”

Liang Yuanzheng: “Ridiculous.”

It really was ridiculous.

He didn’t even think of it as defending Lu Canran.

He was simply treating the matter fairly. That kind of loyalty shown toward a friend shouldn’t become a reason for others to mock her.

This incident made Liang Yuanzheng realize that Lu Canran really was a little princess.

A naive, innocent little princess, unacquainted with the harshness of the world.

Fairy tales, novels—even TV dramas—tend to portray poverty in extremes. Either they romanticize it too much, showing only the cozy warm glow of old houses and never the reality of eating plain vegetable noodles three times a day; or they rely on crude stereotypes, assuming that poverty means being disheveled and filthy, or that the poor must abandon their morals for the sake of survival.

To Liang Yuanzheng, poverty was a kind of silence.

A University was big, and after the cryptography elective ended, he and Lu Canran would almost never cross paths again.

The final class was the exam, accounting for seventy percent of the course grade. Students who finished early were allowed to turn in their papers and leave.

Liang Yuanzheng completed the entire test in just fifteen minutes and was surprised to see that Lu Canran was still writing. One by one, students handed in their exams and left the room. Eventually, only two people remained. When the bell rang, signaling the end of class, Lu Canran put down her pen. As the teacher gestured for her to collect the papers, Liang Yuanzheng stood up and quietly walked out.

He wanted to say goodbye to Lu Canran.

He didn’t want to say goodbye to Lu Canran.

…

At that time, Liang Yuanzheng carried a quiet sense of uncertainty. He had plans for his future, but those plans might not unfold perfectly. Everyone builds a version of their ideal life like a grand structure—yet there are always parts that fall into disrepair midway through construction.

Liang Yuanzheng couldn’t say for sure whether reaching out to Lu Canran would have been the right or wrong choice. But when she seriously ate the soft-boiled egg he had made and praised how delicious it was, he couldn’t help but feel a kind of delighted warmth that made him slightly ashamed.

She was still earnestly expressing her thanks.

“This time being hospitalized, having you take care of me, Senior, made me really happy.”

“It’s not the hospital’s capability I believe in—it’s yours.”

Liang Yuanzheng said, “When you praise me like that, I feel a bit guilty. The truth is, you should be thanking your attending physician.”

“But from the moment I was admitted until now, the one who’s been helping me has always been you, Senior,” Lu Canran said. “You were right just now—I really am very lucky to have met you.”

She spoke with some excitement, rushing to get all her words out. Then she paused for breath, only to pick up again with the same fervent energy—smoothly, earnestly continuing, “Because you’re so patient, you really care about your patients, and you even specially boiled eggs for me…”

By the end of her words, Lu Canran’s eyes were starting to grow misty. Just the thought that such a kind and patient senior only saw her as an ordinary junior made it hard for her to keep her emotions in check.

There were so many small grievances—unreasonable, unjustified, yet still bubbling up inside.

Liang Yuanzheng said, “What you said just now wasn’t entirely accurate.”

Lu Canran replied, “Well, I don’t want to praise the attending doctor. I only want to praise you.”

Liang Yuanzheng said, “I’m not that patient with every patient.”

Lu Canran blinked. “What?”

“Maybe you have a slight misunderstanding about my profession,” Liang Yuanzheng said slowly. “Boiling soft-boiled eggs for patients isn’t part of my job description.”

Lu Canran suddenly didn’t feel like being upset anymore.

What she had just eaten wasn’t a soft-boiled egg—it was a rose, puffing and puffing, trying its hardest to bloom and scatter petals.

The small on-call room couldn’t contain the sharp turn her emotions were taking. She looked into Liang Yuanzheng’s eyes, but he turned slightly away, avoiding her gaze. He cleared his throat lightly and said, “You should head back now, Canran.”

Lu Canran couldn’t stop herself from looking at him. “Okay.”

“Strictly speaking, the hospital limits the number of people allowed to stay as companions,” Liang Yuanzheng’s expression gradually turned serious again. “I can quietly bend the rules and let your friends stay with you, but Chen Wanli—”

“I know,” Lu Canran said quickly. “I’ll persuade him to leave.”

“I hope it’s not persuade. It has to be non-negotiable,” Liang Yuanzheng gave her a reason she couldn’t refuse. “The hospital has limited facilities. If he hasn’t showered, there’s a high chance he’s carrying a lot of bacteria. Your immune system is very weak right now—it’s not advisable for you two to stay in the same room.”

Lu Canran was grateful. “Thank you, Senior.”

She went back and immediately persuaded Chen Wanli to leave.

It was also at this moment that Lu Canran realized being in love hadn’t turned her into a stubborn, awkward coward. In fact, she was feeling very bold—especially bold. The moment she returned to the hospital room and saw Chen Wanli playing Dou Dizhu barefoot, she began persuading him to leave.

Chen Wanli was annoyed. “What’s wrong with me just crashing here for one night?”

Lu Canran said, “That hospital bed doesn’t belong to me. If you sleep there, you’re taking up a spot. What if there’s an emergency patient in the middle of the night?”

Chen Wanli still wanted to argue, but he had to admit she made sense. He quietly packed up and left—though there wasn’t really much to pack. He had already set his sights on a target.

Lu Canran’s mind-reading bullet screen feature still hadn’t been successfully renewed, but she did notice some strange things about Chen Wanli.

The bullet screen above his clothes showed that he had just been in a fight—with a patient who had a broken bone, no less. There were still traces of plaster in the creases of Chen Wanli’s fingers. His backpack was labeled as being from B University’s laboratory, and inside it was a heavy, unidentified piece of equipment.

Less than half an hour after Chen Wanli left, Liang Yuanzheng came in for rounds. He demonstrated his excellent ability to turn a blind eye, ignoring the playing cards on the floor and the three girls in the room, and professionally took Lu Canran’s temperature and blood pressure.

Lu Canran finally got a chance to reveal her nice, fragrant arm.

But the ever-professional Dr. Liang made no comment. He simply reminded them that the lights in the ward would be turned off soon, then left quietly.

Lu Canran slipped off her hospital bed and joined her close friends to make a floor bed for the night.

Spending the night in the hospital with friends felt like a novel experience. No one brought up anything about men. The four of them chatted freely, talking about everything and imagining the future. Lu Canran recalled what Jiang Si had said and cautiously tried to test the waters with Zhu Huaxin.

“Say,” Lu Canran offered a hypothetical, “if Jiang Si suddenly confessed to you, what would you do?”

Xu Qiao and Qin Bingshuang had already fallen asleep. Only Zhu Huaxin, the reigning night owl, was still up chatting with her.

“No way I’d ever like him,” Zhu Huaxin rejected the idea immediately. “He used to be my brother — that doesn’t just go away. I can’t… cross that kind of line.”

Lu Canran quietly shrank back. “Okay.”

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to. She just… shouldn’t.

Lu Canran now felt she could talk to Jiang Si—about the surprise confession he had planned for Zhu Huaxin.

“How could I possibly like Jiang Si?” Zhu Huaxin grumbled. “These days, my mom likes him more than me—why would I fall for someone who’s stolen my place in the family?”

She began ticking off her points. “First, okay, fine, Jiang Si does look like my type, but he’s awful at games. Second, he’s actually super annoying in private—you guys don’t even know. Third, he’s so…” She paused. “Hmm? Canran? Canran?”

Lu Canran had already fallen asleep, smiling sweetly.

Zhu Huaxin reached over to poke her soft little cheek, then turned over and picked up her phone.

Jiang Si: 【Wanna play a game?】

Huaxin: 【Nope.】

Huaxin: 【Still going with the plan?】

Jiang Si: 【As planned.】

Huaxin: 【Leave this side to me. You go deal with the other one.】

Jiang Si: 【At your command, my dearest sister.】

Huaxin: 【[vomit.jpg]】

Jiang Si: 【[catching_with_both_hands.jpg]】

Huaxin: 【[punch.jpg] [kick_flying.jpg]】

Lu Canran slept a full eight hours.

Her friends had all gone off to class or part-time jobs, while she was still drifting inside the pink bubble of yesterday’s ambiguity. Just after finishing breakfast, she was greeted by Liang Yuanzheng—his expression complicated.

The mushroom subscription had failed miserably last night. As of now, Lu Canran could still clearly see the bullet screens floating on objects, but not the ones above people’s heads.

When Liang Yuanzheng arrived, she even noticed that his forehead thermometer was coyly chirping, [It’s my first time taking someone’s temperature, you know! Just out of the package!]

Liang Yuanzheng’s hands were cold, and his expression was different from usual.

“You can complete your discharge procedures soon,” he said. “It won’t interfere with your afternoon classes.”

Lu Canran asked, “Can I do it around noon instead?”

Liang Yuanzheng asked in return, “Do you have something else to do?”

“Mm,” Lu Canran explained, “It’s about Bingshuang’s Bluetooth earphones. Remember how she lost them and couldn’t find them? I bought her a new pair and had them delivered to the hospital. I just checked the tracking info—the courier is already out for delivery. They’re thirteen kilometers away and should arrive between ten and eleven this morning.”

She suddenly realized something—something more important must have happened, something that had burst the pink, ambiguous bubble she and Liang Yuanzheng had shared the night before.

He looked a bit stiff.

Liang Yuanzheng gave a small nod. “I see.”

After a pause, he asked, “What if her earphones weren’t actually lost?”

Lu Canran blinked in confusion. “Weren’t lost?”

She didn’t quite understand what he meant.

Liang Yuanzheng stated plainly, “I ran into her this morning. She was holding a pair of Bluetooth earphones.”

Lu Canran said, “Ah, maybe Huaxin lent her hers…”

“You all usually lend each other Bluetooth earphones?”

—Not really.

Bluetooth earphones need to be paired with a phone, and when people buy them, they usually go for the same brand as their phone, or something that looks particularly nice.

Besides, Bluetooth earphones are in-ear and fairly personal. People generally don’t share them.

“Bingshuang’s about to take her CET-6 exam—she needs to practice listening,” Lu Canran tried to come up with a reasonable explanation for her friend. She hadn’t thought in a negative direction and was guessing, “It’s not something we’d normally lend, but maybe this is a special case.”

“Zhu Huaxin was wearing her own earphones while gaming. It wasn’t her.”

“Then it must’ve been Xu Qiao—”

“Lu Canran,” Liang Yuanzheng cut her off, “do you have to keep lying to yourself?”

He said it very directly, and quite harshly. His brows were furrowed, and his tone was stiff—so much so that Lu Canran froze.

She apologized helplessly, “I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry,” Liang Yuanzheng said at the same time. He looked frustrated, furrowed his brow, and took a deep breath before continuing, “You don’t need to apologize to me. That’s not what I meant. It’s just… sometimes, you might need to be more cautious.”

Lu Canran said, “We’re good friends.”

Liang Yuanzheng didn’t have the words to unpack that statement. Ever since he saw Qin Bingshuang using her earphones normally that morning, he had known—Lu Canran had been tricked. But how could a little princess who treated everyone around her with such kindness be certain that everyone around her was kind too?

He didn’t keep trying to persuade her. Part of him wanted her to see how dangerous people could be, and yet another part couldn’t bear for her to go through the pain of betrayal.

“You can wait until noon to come find me for the discharge paperwork,” Liang Yuanzheng told her, “but it’s best if you ask your friend first.”

Lu Canran wanted to say, “I will ask. We trust each other,” but sensed that saying it would probably just make Liang Yuanzheng even more upset. Wisely, she chose not to. She decided to ask Qin Bingshuang first before making any conclusions.

She believed there had to be some kind of misunderstanding.

That Liang Yuanzheng must have misunderstood something.

“You were about to say you trust each other, weren’t you?” Liang Yuanzheng said. “Maybe it’s not my place to say this, but you’re not a kindergartener anymore. You should keep a healthy sense of caution toward others.”

Lu Canran was surprised. “You can see it too?”

Liang Yuanzheng asked, “See what?”

“On my head,” Lu Canran said, cautiously pointing upward. “Is there… anything on it?”

“…” Liang Yuanzheng stared at the top of her head. “Something? Mushroom spores?”

Lu Canran: “…”

“You’re seeing something on your head?” Liang Yuanzheng asked slowly, turning serious. “Are you sure you want to be discharged today?”

“Yes, yes,” Lu Canran tensed up, starting to stammer again. “N-no, I mean, I can’t see anything on my head now… I do want to be discharged today.”

Liang Yuanzheng continued confirming, professionally, “Are you sure?”

“Sure.”

After receiving her answer, Liang Yuanzheng turned and left. Lu Canran watched his retreating figure—this not-so-pleasant conversation, full of opposing views, seemed to make even his white coat look colder.

But Lu Canran didn’t regret what she had said. She admitted she liked Liang Yuanzheng, but that didn’t mean she was the type to throw her friends aside just because of a crush.

Liking him was real, and so was her friendship. She couldn’t just believe everything he said without question.

True friendship didn’t need dramatic buildup. Lu Canran called Qin Bingshuang directly and asked, “Did you find your Bluetooth earphones?”

Qin Bingshuang let out an “oops” and immediately apologized.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Actually, I lied to you last night. We wanted to surprise you—and maybe set you up with Liang Yuanzheng—so we made up a little… um… a harmless lie…”

Lu Canran cried out, “But your so-called harmless lie made Liang Yuanzheng slip! He landed right on his butt!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I meant to tell you this morning, but I completely forgot,” Qin Bingshuang apologized sincerely. “Is his butt okay?”

“How would I know, wuwuwu? The object of our crush doesn’t exactly show his butt to the one who’s secretly in love with him, wuwuwu! It’s not like I’m in love with his butt, wuwuwuwu…” Lu Canran hugged her phone in despair. “What do I do, what do I do, what do I do… I don’t even have the face to see him now… ahhhhh and I just said such mean, mean things to him… it’s over, it’s over…”

Qin Bingshuang suddenly caught onto something. “Eh?”

“It’s fine, I’ll go apologize,” Lu Canran said, even though she hadn’t sorted out her own emotions yet. She still wanted to comfort her friend, not wanting her to feel guilty. “It’s fine as long as the earphones aren’t actually lost. And yesterday… I really did talk with Senior for a long, long time…”

And ate his egg.

The perfect soft-boiled egg.

Qin Bingshuang was still uneasy. “How about you wait for me? If there’s been a misunderstanding, I’ll go explain everything to him at noon.”

“It’s fine!” Lu Canran said quickly. “Really, it’s fine. You’re already tired from your part-time job, no need to—just trust me!”

…Though truthfully, Lu Canran wasn’t even sure she trusted herself.

She thought in despair, Oh no, did I come off really fierce just now in front of Senior? Has all the gentle feminine energy I’ve worked so hard to build up been exposed as fake?

Would Senior realize she was actually brash and stubborn deep down?

—Just last night they had been sharing a soft-boiled egg, chatting ambiguously, walking in the rain… and now, would his impression of her be reduced to some fierce and unreasonable tigress?

Lu Canran spent a long time psyching herself up in the hospital room. After successfully receiving the new earphones, she finally gathered her courage and went to find Liang Yuanzheng.

He was, as expected, angry.

Expression cold, he was silently writing up medical records.

“I’m sorry,” Lu Canran apologized carefully, “…my friend didn’t actually lose her earphones.”

Liang Yuanzheng didn’t look up. “You don’t need to explain that to me. It’s your own business.”

Lu Canran felt a wave of relief.

—Good thing he didn’t want an explanation. Otherwise, how was she supposed to say “my friend lied about losing her earphones to set me up with you”?

“Are there still spores on your head?” Liang Yuanzheng said while scribbling away. “Or… do you see spores on my head right now?”

He was clearly calling back to their conversation from that morning. If he’d said it with a light-hearted tone, Lu Canran might have laughed out loud. But he was far too serious now—so serious she didn’t dare laugh, only held it in.

“They’re gone. I’m completely fine now. I can’t see anything anymore, and I’m about to go through discharge,” Lu Canran said. “Thank you so, so much for everything during this food poisoning incident, Senior.”

There was no one else in the room.

Liang Yuanzheng looked up at her briefly, then lowered his head and continued writing. “No need to thank me.”

Lu Canran felt like she still needed to say something, but her tangled emotions and Liang Yuanzheng’s composed, distant attitude made the words stick in her throat.

She slumped a little inside, thinking gloomily—if only she still had her mind-reading powers right now.

If only she could see what Liang Yuanzheng was really thinking.

The two of them sat in silence, facing each other for a full minute—long enough that Lu Canran’s butt started going numb.

She stood up, ready to leave. “Sen—”

She didn’t finish her sentence.

Lu Canran stared in shock at the bullet screen floating above Liang Yuanzheng’s head.

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