Mom and Dad came to the capital. Tonight we’re having dinner at Uncle Yan’s house. You and Tingli come back together later.]
During the break before elective class, the classroom was noisy with people constantly coming and going to take their seats.
Shi Sui stared at the screen for a long time before slowly replying with an “okay.”
Suddenly, there was a commotion.
Shi Sui’s elbow was nudged by her roommate Xue Jing, whose eyes were excitedly drifting as she signaled her to look behind.
Shi Sui turned her head and happened to meet eyes with the person coming through the back door.
She stiffened and quickly turned her face away.
It was a completely instinctive reaction, too late to remedy.
Very bad.
He didn’t like her avoiding him.
“Yan Tingli, it’s really Yan Tingli.” Xue Jing was still sighing in her ear, “There were rumors before that he would choose this course. Strange, why would he choose a course from our major?”
“Western Art History” had nothing to do with Yan Tingli’s major.
“Could it be that there’s a girl he likes in our college?” Lin Anran gossiped nearby.
“No way, such a cold person—you could tell me he has no emotions and I’d believe it.” As she spoke, Xue Jing’s gaze also followed.
Those secretly watching like them were only more, not fewer.
Some people are destined to never be ordinary, and Yan Tingli was exactly that type.
Recommended for admission to University A’s Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences, then selected first with a crushing lead for the school’s Zhiban program created for top talents.
In a place where prodigies gathered, he could still leave everyone in the dust. The abnormally difficult courses of Zhiban, Yan Tingli aced them all with perfect grades, his crushing strength becoming an inescapable shadow for all the other valedictorians.
University A had many geniuses every year.
But a genius with such naturally gifted looks, only one Yan Tingli appeared in several years.
In last year’s special scholarship defense live stream, Yan Tingli’s achievements were so heaven-defying, combined with that face comparable to a celebrity’s, he caused a sensation throughout the entire school.
Very coincidentally, Yan Tingli sat quite close to them, in the only empty seat diagonally to their right.
His indifferent eyes lowered, finger tapping the screen, probably sending messages. His finger bones were distinct, with faint veins spreading.
“Yan Tingli is the sexiest man I’ve ever seen.”
Art students had the keenest eyes. Lin Anran whispered: “A face of sexual coldness, hands with explosive sexual tension. I want him to be my hand model.”
Xue Jing propped her chin in agreement: “I’m different—I want him to be my body model.”
“Then go try it, don’t just talk big.”
“I’m lustful, not crazy.” Xue Jing said.
Moreover, Yan Tingli had had no romantic rumors for so long, he was difficult to pursue. Approaching him would just be asking for rejection.
“Right, Sui Sui?”
Shi Sui didn’t hear. Her gaze was fixed on her phone screen—a message Yan Tingli had just sent.
[Wait for me after class, we’ll go back together]
“I’m talking to you, what are you looking at so intently?” Xue Jing tugged her sleeve.
Shi Sui hurriedly turned off the screen.
She responded reluctantly: “Celebrity gossip.”
History class was typically lengthy, and the old professor spoke slowly, making this late autumn afternoon even more drowsy.
After class, Shi Sui told her roommates about her situation. Knowing she lived locally, Xue Jing and Lin Anran waved goodbye.
After the crowd dispersed, the classroom became unusually quiet.
Shi Sui packed her backpack very slowly.
At dusk, someone’s figure blocked the light, finger knuckles tapping twice on the desk.
Shi Sui’s spine stiffened as she looked up.
A few rays of light folded through the glass window, falling on Yan Tingli’s eyes and brows, but didn’t add any warmth to his cold, desolate features.
Yan Tingli hated wasting time.
Her deliberate dawdling would further consume his limited patience.
Since the last time, they hadn’t seen each other for half a month.
At the beginning of the semester, the college organized a field sketching trip, and Shi Sui didn’t tell Yan Tingli.
She disappeared for half a month as soon as she left, only returning yesterday.
Their last contact was when Yan Tingli told her to come to the apartment. After she shared the sketching location, she very stubbornly turned off her phone.
The method was childish, only satisfying momentary defiance.
Belated fear surfaced. Shi Sui: “Yan Tingli, I—”