I felt a restless stirring in my heart.

Gu Qin should be asleep now, right?

If I could sneak up and steal a kiss, wouldn’t my lifespan extend by a whole year? If I could add a year, my body would definitely feel a lot better too.

Once the thought surfaced, I couldn’t shake it.

Without thinking, I started to quietly climb onto Gu Qin’s bed.

Our dorm beds are bunk-style, with the ladder between the two bunks. I carefully made my way up, finding Gu Qin sound asleep. Even as the iron frame creaked beneath me, he didn’t wake up.

The tricky part was that he was sleeping with his head at the opposite end, feet closer to the ladder. So even after I climbed up, I couldn’t reach his head.

I propped my hands on either side of his bed, inching forward to get closer to his face. It was quite an effort, especially with my weak body. After struggling with all my might, I finally managed to get level with him, my back damp with sweat.

I took a quiet breath, my eyes adjusting to the darkness around me. Through the faint moonlight filtering in, I could finally see Gu Qin’s face as he lay there.

Gu Qin really was as handsome as they said—like a character straight out of a comic, his clean and sharp features capturing that fleeting moment between boyhood and manhood. Especially his lips, thin yet perfectly defined.

In the dark, I found myself mesmerized. Almost as if enchanted, I leaned down slowly, aiming to kiss those lips.

But then—

Swish.

Gu Qin suddenly opened his eyes in the darkness.

In an instant, our eyes met. I could even feel his eyelashes brush against my cheek as he opened them.

My whole body went stiff, my mind went blank.

Before I could react, he spoke.

“Fang Chi, what are you doing?”

Whether it was because he’d just woken up or something else, his voice was low and raspy, like feathers brushing against my heart.

A chill ran through me, snapping me back to reality. I hurriedly tried to sit up.

But in my haste, I forgot I was on the top bunk and tipped right over the edge.

“Ah!” I gasped, reaching out to grab the bed frame.

But Gu Qin was faster. He grabbed my hand and pulled me back in.

I ended up falling to the inner side of the bed with him. And at the same time, due to the momentum, he ended up right on top of me.

Just like that, what started with me on top and him on the bottom reversed—now, I was on the bottom and he was above me.

I was stunned, staring blankly at Gu Qin in front of me.

He was slightly out of breath from the sudden movement.

“S-sorry.” I tried to sit up, but Gu Qin pushed me back down with one hand.

Thud.

I was pinned back against the bed, the frame creaking loudly in protest.

I looked up at him, seeing his eyes gleam intensely in the dim light.

“Fang Chi,” he said, his voice even lower than before, “what are you trying to do?”

“I…” My mind raced, desperately trying to come up with an explanation.

But Gu Qin interrupted again.

“Were you trying to kiss me?”

I was shocked. He’d hit the mark so bluntly that I instinctively denied it. “Of course not!”

He narrowed his eyes at me.

“Then could you explain why you’re climbing into my bed in the middle of the night?”

I was at a loss. After a brief pause, a thought struck me, and I spoke up quickly.

“I was worried you’d stopped breathing!”

Silence fell again. Gu Qin just stared at me for a moment, and then he actually laughed.

“Fang Chi, do you take me for a fool?”

I felt like the real fool here. But at this point, there was no turning back, so I continued with a serious tone.

“I’m telling the truth! You were sleeping so soundly, I couldn’t hear a thing.”

I rambled on, “I suddenly remembered this news story I saw online recently—about a college guy who passed away in his sleep from a heart attack. So I was worried something like that happened to you too. I thought I should check if you were still breathing, you know, just in case something happened.”

My words were starting to sound absurd, and Gu Qin cut me off, visibly annoyed.

“Stop spouting nonsense. We’re still young—how could anything happen to us so easily?”

I knew Gu Qin was just saying that, but I froze for a moment. Then, my voice softened.

“You can never really know.”

After all, I used to believe I’d live a long, healthy life. I never thought something like a terminal illness or cancer would ever touch me.