After the summer vacation ended, Tao Shuran officially advanced to her sophomore year.
Her department also moved into the Linchuan New Campus.
Suddenly switching to a new dorm meant hauling everything over again. The freshmen hadn’t arrived for registration yet, so Tao Shuran and her group of “old students” ended up recreating the scene from a year ago.
They huffed and puffed, lugging big bags and small ones, utterly disheveled.
Tao Shuran had it a bit easier. She had a low level of material desire and hadn’t accumulated much stuff in her year at Qing University.
On top of that, Fang Qingyi, Zhao Zhengnian, and a bunch of others came over to help her move.
The bundles she had packed weren’t even as numerous as the people standing at her door.
Even so, Zhao Zhengnian shouted, “A Jing said he’d come find you as soon as training ends.”
Tao Shuran said, “But I feel like I don’t need that many people to help me move.”
“As your boyfriend, A Jing definitely has to come.”
Zhao Zhengnian crossed his arms, clearly in the tone of a love guardian. “Tao Meimei, how long has it been since you and A Jing appeared on campus together in sync?”
“You don’t even know—recently, A Jing’s admirers have been chasing him all the way to the training grounds. He’s been chewed out by the instructor several times.”
So, another girl had gone to his training spot to find him?
Tao Shuran’s eyelashes trembled slightly. Afraid of disturbing his training, she almost never went to the training field to see him.
But liking someone seemed like a game of chasing courage. There was always someone braver than her, charging straight ahead and interrupting the flight training.
She remembered one time when the instructor lost his temper and sternly told Liang Yuanjing, “If you don’t sort out these relationships of yours, don’t bother coming to training anymore. Showing up just distracts the other students.”
That was probably why Liang Yuanjing had asked her to pretend to be his girlfriend.
And clearly, she was a pretty lousy girlfriend at it.
The Linchuan Campus was about a forty-minute drive from the main campus. Fu Changpei had borrowed a senior from their department’s car ahead of time to take her there.
While they were moving the luggage, Liang Yuanjing arrived fashionably late.
He had rushed over, still in his pilot training uniform that he hadn’t had time to change out of. The white shirt outlined his upright waist and back, the black trousers perfectly wrapped his long, straight legs. At that moment, he strode over with large steps, heading straight and unswervingly toward Tao Shuran.
Tao Shuran tilted her head slightly, as if catching a glimpse of him one day in the future, truly becoming a pilot.
A sense of pride suddenly welled up in her heart, as if admiring this eternally high-spirited young man allowed her to share in his glory and splendor.
The moment Liang Yuanjing stood beside her, whispers erupted all around.
Tao Shuran’s toes shifted. She was just about to step back a couple of paces.
But Liang Yuanjing, as if he had anticipated every one of her escape routes, lazily extended his arm to block behind her. The moment she retreated, her slender waist bumped right into his forearm, making it look like she was throwing herself into his arms.
“Hiding from me again?”
He lowered his head and asked her, “You’ve been hiding from me all summer. Not tired of it yet?”
“Hm? Tell me, what’s the reason?”
Of course, Tao Shuran couldn’t tell him the reason.
After that camping trip, she had followed Fang Qingyi’s method and pretended to be drunk and forget everything. She could act like it never happened, but the emotions from it were still there.
Whenever she saw Liang Yuanjing, she recalled the scene from that night when their lips had pressed together.
She shook her head desperately but still stubbornly said, “I’m not hiding from you.”
Liang Yuanjing couldn’t help laughing. “Tao Shuran, do you know you’re terrible at lying?”
Tao Shuran lowered her gaze and said nothing.
She really wasn’t good at lying. Yet it was this version of her, so bad at hiding her emotions, who had kept her crush on Liang Yuanjing hidden for year after year.
Liang Yuanjing took the 26-inch suitcase from her hand. His other hand reached over her shoulder to grab the crossbody bag on her back.
The bag wasn’t heavy at all. Tao Shuran quickly waved her hands, indicating she could carry it herself.
Sensing her discomfort, Liang Yuanjing covered her ears with his hand, leaned down, and whispered, “Ignore them. Everyone’s looking at you because you’re so beautiful today.”
Tao Shuran said softly, “They’re clearly looking at you.”
“Who says?”
Liang Yuanjing chuckled, then looked at her with a serious tone, enunciating each word. “Tao Shuran, don’t overlook your own shine, okay?”
“I heard Grandma wants you to join the Jingbei Project Group?”
Tao Shuran nodded lightly.
Liang Yuanjing praised, “From what I know, you’re the youngest one in years to get my grandma’s approval. You’ve got some real skills.”
“There’s still the interview and selection.”
Tao Shuran lowered her gaze and said softly, “I’ll work really hard. If it goes well, I can go to Jingbei with you in my junior year.”
Liang Yuanjing paused. A faint smile rose on his face. He raised his fist and gently bumped it against her nervously clenched hand.
His voice was clear and bright. “Then I wish you success.”
“See you in Jingbei.”
In that instant when he spoke, Tao Shuran felt a flicker back to that summer of 2018, when getting into Qing University had seemed like an impossible dream for her.
But because she liked Liang Yuanjing, many impossible things had turned into beautiful scenery.
And she would work even harder from here on, heading toward the endpoint that had him in it.
With that thought, Tao Shuran’s resolve strengthened even more in her heart, and her nervousness about the interview faded a bit.
When getting into the car, the trunk was stuffed full, so one suitcase had to go on the back seat.
The originally spacious spot suddenly became cramped. Tao Shuran climbed into the car first and sat in the middle.
Liang Yuanjing followed her in.
The space was so tight that Tao Shuran had to encroach a little on his territory.
Liang Yuanjing was already tall and broad. As she leaned closer, a faint, delicate fragrance wafted around his nose.
He turned his head slightly in mild surprise, realizing he had never noticed this detail before.
Naturally, Liang Yuanjing’s gaze fell on the girl’s face. Her jade-like fair complexion, her small and delicate nose bridge. She had a pair of round, beautiful almond eyes, with lashes that fluttered gently. They usually held no aggression, excessively soft and gentle.
When had he started noticing these details?
Liang Yuanjing didn’t know.
At that moment, he lowered his head to look at her profile. Finally, as if possessed by a ghost, he asked—
“Tao Shuran, do you like me even a little?”
Sure enough, after he said that, her eyelashes trembled even more violently. A hint of panic flashed in those almond eyes.
Tao Shuran’s fingers grabbed the seatbelt uneasily. A thought screamed repeatedly in her mind.
Had he noticed something?
No, she absolutely could not let Liang Yuanjing catch even a hint that she liked him.
Tao Shuran bit her lower lip hard, summoning up all her calm emotions again.
She didn’t dare look up into his eyes, afraid her liking for him would slip out. Like a coward, even her voice muffled into her collar.
Liang Yuanjing heard her say, in a voice as faint as a mosquito’s, “No.”
A flash of dimness hit him, so quick that even he couldn’t grasp it.
Liang Yuanjing raised an eyebrow and casually looked away.
He said coolly, “Mm.”
The interview for the Jingbei Project Group was scheduled for Saturday morning in the main campus teaching building on the sixth floor.
After the interview ended, Tao Shuran walked to the school gate to wait for Fang Qingyi to get out of class.
In a corridor not far from the gate, groups of students out for fun gathered in twos and threes. Most of them, like her, were waiting for friends to finish class.
While waiting idly, Tao Shuran scrolled through Weibo.
She didn’t have many hobbies and followed a ton of pet bloggers, from kittens and puppies to piglets. She liked every animal.
She scrolled to the bottom, and the system auto-refreshed, pushing a local hot post to her.
“Asking for real talk: Is Qing University Forum’s TOP1 post real or fake? Feels like the OP is writing a novel?”
For Tao Shuran, this kind of gossip was just fast food info to scroll past.
But this time, she didn’t swipe by because she saw her own name in the comments. The top few used her initials, but later ones straight-up used her full name.
Seeing her name suddenly appear in the online world felt awful. In an instant, Tao Shuran’s heart rate spiked to an extreme high.
Ignoring everything else, she followed the link in the comments to find the post.
It was the same post she’d seen before, but the comment direction had completely changed.
“Chasing it this far, the plot feels kinda fake… What, the female lead gets motivated by the male lead and exams into a top-10 national uni? Like writing a novel?”
“1 to upstairs. Was treating it like real-life sweet fluff, but tbh it’s getting cloying now. Too much factory-made saccharin.”
“Yeah, and saying the girl crushed on the guy for so long? No way someone likes another person that long in real life.”
“Fr, this trash writing industrial lit shouldn’t ride on the coattails of Qing U campus couples. Feels like forced hype…”
Layer after layer of replies boosted the post’s heat. Tao Shuran scrolled all the way down until she reached Luo Qiuya, the OP, jumping in to respond.
“Everyone says my writing sucks, fine I admit it. But saying everything I wrote is fake? Absolutely not. I declare, this story happened right beside me. It’s my dorm mate and them. Those two went from high school campus to crush turning real. A beautiful couple.”
“The inspiration for this piece mostly came from those two. The crush story came from a crush diary my dorm mate wrote.”
“Real talk, here’s pics of my dorm mate’s handwritten diary. Moved me to tears.”
To prove it, Luo Qiuya even posted several pictures below.
When she saw those pictures, Tao Shuran’s pupils shrank. In disbelief, she zoomed in. The familiar handwriting, the paper wrinkled from being flipped through countless times.
The secret buried deepest in her heart was now blatantly displayed to the public.
Blood rushed to her head, and Tao Shuran’s whole body turned ice-cold. Her fingertips gripping the screen trembled nonstop.
At that moment, her mind went blank, unable to think. Those contentious words echoed in her ears.
“Holy crap, this handwriting looks just like grade genius Tao Shuran’s.”
“Fam, I compared. Identical match.”
“Mystery solved. Turns out the leads are that famous pair. Didn’t expect the girl to simp on the guy for years. Simp finally winning out.”
Her secret had still been discovered.
Tao Shuran shook all over. She quickly dialed Luo Qiuya’s number, her tone more serious than ever, sounding really angry.
“Luo Qiuya, please delete the post right now.”
“And explain to me why my diary is in your hands.”
She walked back from the school gate to the teaching building, her whole body trembling.
Dull knife-like pain scraped through her mind over and over. She didn’t dare imagine what Liang Yuanjing’s reaction would be if he found out.
She wasn’t ready to tell him yet.
On the phone, Luo Qiuya fell briefly silent, clearly not expecting this reaction from her.
“The diary fell out of your bag by accident. When I picked it up, I flipped through a few pages. Felt super romantic, so I snapped pics for inspiration. Sorry, Ranran.”
“But I posted it to clear things up for you and Liang Yuanjing. People at school always doubt you’re a real couple.”
“Enough.”
Tao Shuran’s emotions neared collapse. “Please return my stuff right now.”
“See you at 302. I’ll have someone bring it to you.”
When she arrived at 302, the empty classroom was deserted.
Tao Shuran’s head ached terribly. She squatted down, hugging her knees to ease the pain, trying to sort through her chaotic thoughts.
After a while, footsteps echoed in the corridor. She stood up immediately, but it wasn’t Luo Qiuya.
Instead, it was a face she detested.
Xu Yanyang, fresh from the training grounds, stood with arms crossed. Two guys from other majors followed behind him, grinning as they approached her.
Her instincts told her Xu Yanyang came with bad intentions.
Tao Shuran had no interest in tangling with him. She headed for the back door, turning to leave.
But Xu Yanyang grabbed her arm, his tone vicious.
“Still giving me this aloof act?”
“Tao Shuran, you know I hate this side of you the most? Acting all high and mighty just ’cause you’re kinda pretty, all cocky ’cause guys like you.”
The implication was that he wasn’t worthy yet.
Xu Yanyang was once again provoked.
He quickly calmed down and pulled a thin diary from his bag. He looked at her with a cold sneer. “You know what this is, right?”
Tao Shuran immediately shouted, “Give it back to me.”
She lunged forward but missed. Xu Yanyang stepped back, extending his arm and waving it triumphantly in the air.
The gaze he directed at her was full of mockery.
“Do you think you’re so noble? In private, aren’t you just Liang Yuanjing’s lapdog? Does he know you’ve been secretly in love with him since senior year of high school? Spying on his life like a thief?”
He unfastened the binder rings and flipped through a few pages, reading aloud at random:
“August 21, 2017. This was the first day I saw you. Three years later, we finally met again.”
“August 30, 2017. And today, I still like you, just the same.”
“June 22, 2018. The moment the amusement park lights came on, the Ferris Wheel reached its highest point. I’ll remember your eyes forever. You are my moon, my eternal moon.”
…
“Stop reading! Give it back, Xu Yanyang!”
Tao Shuran desperately rushed forward. Xu Yanyang gave a look to the two boys nearby. They understood tacitly and stepped up, one on each side, blocking her path completely.
Xu Yanyang continued reading her diary in a contemptuous tone, making all her girl’s heart matters sound utterly ridiculous under his inflection.
After finishing each page, he flicked his fingers slightly to toss it down. The lightweight paper fluttered to the floor and was stepped on by his shoe.
Along with Tao Shuran’s dignity and shame, it was all crushed to pieces.
She no longer tried to fight them with brute force. Instead, she squatted down and picked up the loose-leaf pages one by one.
Xu Yanyang walked behind her and maliciously reached out, preparing to shove her to the ground in her disheveled state.
Before he could act, a fierce force struck his cheek directly.
Liang Yuanjing pushed open the window and leaped in with one hand. His steps were fast and urgent, his strike clean and decisive.
Even facing three people in the classroom, he held his own single-handedly without falling behind.
Liang Yuanjing pressed his tongue against his cheek, his brows lowered with obvious menace. His strikes came one after another, ruthless.
“What’s wrong? My girlfriend likes me, and you’re jealous, huh?”
The moment she saw Liang Yuanjing, Tao Shuran felt like everything was over.
This secret couldn’t be hidden anymore.
She turned her body with difficulty, slowly picking up the papers from the floor alone.
After a while, the classroom returned to a quiet atmosphere.
Liang Yuanjing leaned against a desk not far away, squinting as he sized her up.
Finally, he couldn’t hold back. He half-squatted down, his gaze slightly lowered, and picked up the scattered inner pages one by one for her.
Just like when he had picked up the photos earlier, his gaze deliberately avoided them. Even though he was the male lead of the story himself, his ingrained thoughtfulness and upbringing prevented him from prying into her secrets.
Tao Shuran’s nose tingled, and tears were about to fall.
She didn’t know how to speak, not even daring to lift her head to meet Liang Yuanjing’s eyes.
She had been deceiving him all along.
Liang Yuanjing stood up, pulled out a wet wipe, and lowered his eyes to wipe the stains from the diary’s cover for her. With his gaze downcast, no emotions were visible.
After a moment, he handed it to her. The blue veins on the inside of his pale wrist were clearly visible.
Everything seemed as normal as before.
But Tao Shuran knew that starting today, everything had changed.
She keenly sensed a certain suppressed aura hidden in the atmosphere that was quiet to the point of almost solidifying, like Liang Yuanjing’s ink-black, profound eyes at that moment.
He finally spoke, questioning her like the final judgment from God.
“Don’t you have anything to say?”
Tao Shuran kept her head lowered, falling into deep silence.
Liang Yuanjing laughed out of anger.
All his emotions surged up at once. He gazed at her darkly, his pitch-black and sharp eyes seeming to want to slice the girl before him into two distinct halves.
A girl who had said in the morning that she “didn’t like him” had, by evening, become someone secretly in love with him to the death.
It all felt like a mocking joke.
Liang Yuanjing had never experienced his emotions being toyed with so completely in the palm of someone’s hand.
Her evasion only poured more fuel on the fire. More than anger, he wanted to rip open her heart and see whether it held love or just a joke.
“Tao Shuran.”
Liang Yuanjing called her name again, a mocking smile slowly curling at his lips.
“Is toying with me that fun?”