Hearing that Shen Jia was behind her, Shi Zhi took a deep breath, moved closer to Fu Xiling, and hooked her arm around his. She tugged him firmly, dragging him toward the campus.

“Take me to the classroom.”

The sunlight was blinding. Fu Xiling glanced down at Shi Zhi’s expression—her lips pressed into a thin line, her cold demeanor making her look especially fierce, as if she was marching him off to blow up the school. He couldn’t help but laugh and teased, “Boss Shi, when you used to hold Shen Jia’s arm, did you grip this tight? I’m telling you, my arm is going numb.”

Shi Zhi wasn’t known for her good temper, and today, Fu Xiling’s ostentatious helium balloon stunt had left her particularly irritable. She was genuinely displeased. His overly dramatic way of pretending to chase after her was far too tacky. Having her ex-boyfriend see this was deeply embarrassing. Her tone wasn’t friendly: “Shut up!”

The two walked in silence for a few steps before Fu Xiling broke it again. “Did you practice martial arts before?”

Shi Zhi ignored him.

But then Fu Xiling added casually, “You don’t actually need to pull me so hard. Shen Jia isn’t here. I was just teasing.”

Hearing this, Shi Zhi snapped. She elbowed Fu Xiling hard, making him wince and step back, gasping in pain.

Rubbing his ribs, Fu Xiling watched Shi Zhi’s determined figure striding away and chuckled. “You’re not even giving my breakfast back?”

The fiery girl in front of him had to stop. She stomped back angrily and shoved the brown paper bag into his arms.

Fu Xiling didn’t take it. Instead, he grabbed her wrist, pulled out a sandwich from the bag, and turned to leave. As he walked away, he waved at her without looking back. “Buy one, get one free. The rest is yours.”

Shi Zhi was fuming. “Who wants it?!”

On the second floor of a nearby teaching building, Shen Jia was leaning against the railing of the corridor, talking on the phone with his professor.

Due to the mess involving Shi Zhi and Tao Jia, Shen Jia hadn’t slept well for days. He was distracted and couldn’t focus, even making elementary mistakes in the experimental data he submitted to his professor.

Having worked under his professor for nearly a year, Shen Jia had never been criticized before. Today was the first time. Fortunately, the professor didn’t scold him too harshly, likely because of his usual good performance.

The building was near the campus gate. With the recent heatwave, the blazing sun had turned outdoor spaces into ovens, so students often entered this building first to avoid the sun before walking to other parts of the campus via the connecting corridors. Running into acquaintances was inevitable; a junior greeted Shen Jia as she passed.

He forced a smile and nodded, covering his phone. But as he turned his head, a familiar figure caught his eye.

The campus of University B was well-shaded, with lush trees lining the walkways. The sunlight glared off the pavement, making it almost blinding. On the broad path below, Shi Zhi was walking with another man. Both wore black T-shirts, their interactions playful as they walked. Shi Zhi even elbowed the man at one point.

Shen Jia couldn’t believe his eyes. In the six months he had dated Shi Zhi, he had never seen her this lively or cheerful. Moreover, he had never heard of her being close to any male classmates. When he was pursuing her, the department heads had warned him that Shi Zhi had high standards and was hard to impress.

Who was that guy?

Almost instinctively, Shen Jia tuned out the voice on the phone. Holding his phone in a daze, he stared at the two figures below. When the man turned his head, Shen Jia finally got a good look at him.

It was Fu Xiling.

Shen Jia froze. His professor had to call his name twice before he snapped back to reality, his face pale as he stammered, “I’m sorry, Professor. My phone signal was poor just now…”

Before class, Shi Zhi ate the sandwich Fu Xiling had left her. She decided to address her unpredictable and eccentric partner.

Removing Fu Xiling from her blacklist, she sent him a message, warning him not to make such a dramatic scene next time:

“I want to make Shen Jia uncomfortable, not become a campus celebrity.”

Fu Xiling didn’t reply until after her two morning classes. Under the intense midday sun, Shi Zhi felt her phone vibrate. Shielding her eyes with one hand, she opened the message with the other.

Fu Xiling’s response was completely off-topic—it was a ten-second video. She clicked on it and saw a group of happy kids holding helium balloons.

He added:

“Saved one for you. It’s downstairs at your dorm.”

Curious, Shi Zhi looked up. Near her dorm, a yellow helium balloon was tied to a tree branch, swaying in the breeze. Someone had drawn a grinning face on it with a marker. It looked utterly ridiculous.

She didn’t claim it. After glancing at it twice, she headed upstairs. During her lunch break, her roommates mentioned that Shen Jia had been waiting downstairs for her. The heat was so unbearable that even the cicadas were chirping restlessly. Standing outside for too long in such weather was a surefire way to get heatstroke. But Shi Zhi didn’t show up.

Acting as if she hadn’t heard, she sat on her bed, opened her laptop, put on her headphones, and started reconciling the weekend’s bar accounts sent by Ling Ling. She wasn’t sure what Shen Jia wanted from her now. As she worked on an Excel spreadsheet, her mind drifted briefly to the first time they met.

It was also a hot day. After a few winter snowfalls, the temperature had suddenly spiked. Even in the classroom, sitting without a coat left people sweaty.

Back then, Shi Zhi often audited finance classes. Growing up in a difficult environment, she had seen too many tough, low-level jobs. She believed that lack of education held many people back. Determined to change her fate, she forced herself to absorb as much knowledge as possible.

That day, Shen Jia had been near the classroom, delivering something to an adjacent office. In his hurry, he accidentally bumped into Shi Zhi, knocking the coat draped over her arm to the ground.

Apologizing repeatedly, he picked it up and brushed off the dust. When he looked up, he froze for a moment.

He was wearing a duffle coat over a sweater vest and shirt, looking like the quintessential warm and caring upperclassman from a TV drama.

Later, when Shi Zhi returned to that finance lecture, she found Shen Jia waiting in the back row. He had asked around and discovered that no one in the class matched her description.

That day, sunlight streamed through the back windows of the classroom. When Shen Jia smiled, there was a light in his eyes.

“I was so disappointed when I couldn’t find you. It’s great to finally meet you. I’m Shen Jia—Jia as in ‘commendation.’”

Now, however, the phrase “Best/Jia Duo” popped into her mind, making her feel sick. Snapping out of it, she quickly finished reconciling the accounts and opened her phone gallery.

She rarely took selfies. The most recent photo was a screenshot Fu Xiling had sent her—a snippet of Tao Jia’s Weibo profile. In the screenshot, the brushstroke Fu Xiling used to circle the ID wasn’t wide enough to cover the partial message from Tao Jia:

“Xiling, I’m coming back to the country. Have you been doing…”

The timestamp showed it was sent shortly after Shen Jia’s birthday.

Noticing this detail later was what prompted Shi Zhi to propose their partnership.

Deleting all photos and videos of Shen Jia from her phone, she severed all contact with him. The only time his friends stopped her was to say he’d been doing terribly—drinking often, crying when drunk, utterly miserable.

Shi Zhi had smiled and asked, “What does that have to do with me?”

Those friends, unaware of the full story, likely saw her as the bad girl who two-timed Shen Jia. They stopped approaching her after that and would awkwardly avert their eyes if they crossed paths.

Shi Zhi didn’t mind. In the last month of the semester, the person she saw most frequently, apart from her classmates and roommates, was Fu Xiling.

Aside from his initial over-the-top antics, Fu Xiling hadn’t done anything outrageous. Occasionally, he’d join her for a class or meal at the cafeteria or pick her up, pretending they were on a date before dropping her off at her uncle’s bar.

As the semester drew to a close, the heat was unbearable. With multiple heat advisories and public announcements reminding people to stay cool, the lack of air conditioning in the older campus buildings made life difficult.

Leaving the cafeteria one afternoon, Shi Zhi spotted Fu Xiling standing outside, frowning as he spoke into his phone.

Her phone buzzed. It was a call from Fu Xiling.

She declined it, and as she did, he noticed her and started walking over.

It was exam week at University B, so classes were canceled to allow students to study independently. Shi Zhi had previously told Fu Xiling they didn’t need to meet during this period, as the self-study classrooms were far from Shen Jia’s usual spots. Even if Fu Xiling showed up every day, Shen Jia likely wouldn’t see him.

So, she asked, “What are you doing here?”

Fu Xiling grabbed her wrist and pulled her into the shade. “Do you have time this afternoon?”

Fu Xiling had always adjusted to her schedule. Shi Zhi had even asked when he’d need her to confront the supposedly brilliant Yao Yao and chase her away. But Fu Xiling had always said he’d let her know when the time was right.

Now, on a scorching day with barely anyone around, Fu Xiling was suddenly asking for her time. Shi Zhi assumed it must be the moment.

“I do,” she said, gesturing to her tank top and shorts. “But I was planning to study in the self-study room this afternoon. Is it okay if I dress like this?”

Fu Xiling didn’t seem to mind her outfit. The thin straps of her tank top revealed her fair, delicate skin, and her collarbones were smooth and well-defined. His gaze trailed downward to her long, pale legs glowing under the sunlight.

“Your self-study room doesn’t even have air conditioning. Why bother going?”

Frustrated by the heat, Shi Zhi wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead and muttered, “It’s still better than the dorm. The balcony faces the sun—it’s like an oven in the afternoon.”

“Then grab your study materials. Come with me this afternoon.”

Without overthinking it, Shi Zhi grabbed her books and notes from the dorm and returned to his car. The air conditioning quickly dispelled the heat, and she relaxed, patting her notes on her lap. “Are you making your shield look like a diligent scholar now?”

Fu Xiling didn’t respond immediately. After a long pause, he said, “You already seem pretty studious to me. Forty degrees, and you’re still thinking about studying.”

The car stopped outside a luxurious hotel downtown. Its grand facade gleamed with opulence. Shi Zhi stared at the hotel’s English logo for a moment before narrowing her eyes at Fu Xiling.

“What’s the meaning of this?”