“Wake up, wake up!”
As usual, Chen Zhilong was the earliest to rise in the dormitory.
He patted Qiu Ye’s pillow, creating a series of vibrations and noise.
“Get up. It’s already 8:30 AM; you’re going to be late.”
“If I’m late, I’ll just skip…”
Qiu Ye was jolted awake.
He yawned and glanced at the phone beside him.
“It’s only 7:40. Why are you acting like my mother? Stop giving me false reports.”
“Well, you should still be getting up.”
Seeing that Qiu Ye was awake, Chen Zhilong turned his attention to the bed curtain next to him.
He unzipped a small gap and reached inside to pat the mattress.
“Bai Yao, you need to get up too.”
“Mmh…”
A muffled response drifted from behind the curtain.
Only then did Chen Zhilong let it rest.
He turned to look at Lin Mingxin and Wang Zuhao on the other side.
Estimating that those two would likely skip their morning classes again, he didn’t bother calling out to them.
He grabbed his toothbrush and cup and headed to the balcony to wash up.
“Haah—”
Qiu Ye sat up and instinctively tried to stretch, but as soon as he raised his arms, a wave of pain hit him.
He sucked in a sharp breath.
“Sss—”
The sharp sting woke him up faster than a stretch ever could.
He struggled to pull on a short-sleeved shirt before looking toward Bai Yao’s bed.
The curtain was slightly open, but the interior was pitch black, showing nothing.
He mischievously reached his hand inside, feeling around as if he were digging for a prize in a lucky draw.
“Time to get up—”
Soon, Qiu Ye’s hand touched a patch of delicate, soft skin that felt slightly cool.
He gave it a light pinch.
Was that a face?
“Holy crap! Why are you biting me!”
Startled, he yanked his hand back.
A bit of shimmering saliva was visible on his finger.
A moment later, the bed curtain was thrown open, and Bai Yao glared at him in annoyance.
“Time to get up!” Qiu Ye said, sounding perfectly justified.
“I know.”
Bai Yao rubbed his cheek, which was stinging from the pinch.
Qiu Ye might not have used much strength, but he was currently very sensitive to pain, and his face was his most tender spot.
‘Mostly, touching my face is crossing a line!’
His sense of personal space had been breached enough to allow arms around his shoulders, but his bottom line hadn’t dropped low enough to let someone touch his face!
Such an intimate gesture was something no one had done to him since he grew up.
When he was a child, relatives used to pinch his cheeks every day, often making him cry out for his parents in pain.
Hiding under the covers, he finished putting on his clothes and pants.
After checking for any “rewards” beneath the quilt, Bai Yao finally crawled out from the curtains, climbed down the ladder, and pulled the curtain shut again.
He was still a bit drowsy.
The dormitory had actually been quite quiet the previous night, but Qiu Ye had led him into a habit of staying up late during the National Day holiday, causing him to not fall asleep until the early hours of the morning.
After a quick tidy-up, Bai Yao took his toiletries to the balcony.
“Morning.”
Chen Zhilong splashed his face with water and wiped it with a dry towel, finishing his routine.
He stepped to the side and lit a cigarette.
“Yeah, morning.”
Having just woken up, Bai Yao was still a bit dazed.
His face bore the marks of his pillow, and his messy hair had a few stray tufts sticking up.
Though he looked unkempt, he seemed much more approachable than his usual cold and distant self.
He looked a bit silly, the kind of person who seemed like they could be lured away with a lollipop.
“Move, move.”
Qiu Ye came out of the bathroom and was about to nudge Bai Yao aside with his hip, but Bai Yao had already stepped out of the way.
The two of them stood shoulder to shoulder to wash up.
Bai Yao kept his toothbrush in his mouth while he opened his phone to check if he had missed any messages last night.
Mmh, advertisements, game notifications, 99+ messages in game groups… As expected, aside from his classmates, absolutely no one went out of their way to find him.
He scanned through the suggestive images in the game group.
Seeing a few that matched his XP, he saved and encrypted them.
Just as Bai Yao was about to put his phone down, he spotted a familiar name in the group.
This online friend was someone he had met during his summer job.
Bai Yao had once consulted them about buying a laptop.
“You’re up so early?” he typed and asked.
“How do you have a phone?”
“I’ve been up since 6:00 AM for a run. Of course I snuck my phone in.”
“Being in Senior 3 is so miserable—”
As Bai Yao was typing, his eyelid suddenly twitched, and an urge to block the person surged within him.
He clicked on the user’s profile, trying hard to recall what the system had once told him.
‘That “bus” used to be a pure love fan too, right? They had an online relationship that turned into reality, lived together for several years, and finally broke up because that scumbag cheated… From then on, their life became a total mess, spiraling into a deep valley.’
One could imagine that because of that scumbag, a pure love enthusiast had allowed themselves to degenerate into someone with a hundred partners, eventually becoming a 1,000-partner Professional Player.
‘It couldn’t be this person, right!’
Bai Yao didn’t have many online friends; after all, he didn’t play many online games.
“Who is it?” Qiu Ye leaned over to take a look.
“An online friend?”
“Oh, it’s nothing.”
Bai Yao shoved his phone back into his pocket and continued brushing his teeth.
Regardless, he had zero interest in romance, and online dating was even more unreliable.
Besides, his sexual orientation was perfectly normal!
There was absolutely no way he would go through with an online relationship with a man!
After rinsing his mouth and washing his face, Bai Yao felt much more refreshed.
He brushed past Qiu Ye and Chen Zhilong, slipping into the bathroom to use the toilet.
Qiu Ye watched Bai Yao’s back disappear behind the door and curiously asked Chen Zhilong, “Has he always been this grumpy?”
“What?”
Chen Zhilong exhaled a cloud of smoke, thinking back for a moment.
“He’s alright, isn’t he? He’s just a bit quiet and doesn’t socialize much.”
Even though he was quiet and a bit of a loner, Bai Yao was always immersed in his own world, staring at world maps every day… specifically those from Europa Universalis and Hearts of Iron.
“Really?”
Qiu Ye still remembered how preoccupied Bai Yao had seemed last night.
But since Bai Yao wouldn’t talk when asked, Qiu Ye thought Chen Zhilong might know something since they had lived together longer.
“Hey! I actually think he’s been looking more and more like a girl lately,” Chen Zhilong muttered in confusion.
It wasn’t just his build or his features; he felt that Bai Yao’s behavior also carried a hint of innocent, girlish charm.
Sometimes he almost thought a girl had snuck into the dorm… but he was certain Bai Yao was a guy.
After all, he had once walked into the bathroom when Bai Yao happened to be standing with his back to him, urinating.
“Maybe he’s planning to go to Thailand for surgery… Brother Long, give me a smoke.”
Wang Zuhao had been woken up at some point.
He came to the balcony and asked Chen Zhilong for a cigarette.
Qiu Ye glanced at Wang Zuhao.
Although he also joked about Bai Yao going to Thailand or cross-dressing, hearing someone else make fun of Bai Yao made him feel a bit uncomfortable.
The bathroom door opened.
Bai Yao came out while adjusting his waistband.
He looked up to see the three people on the balcony all staring at him.
He froze for a moment, instinctively touching the corner of his mouth and patting his hair, thinking something was wrong with his appearance that was making them laugh.
“What?”
“Your hair is a bit messy,” Qiu Ye made up an excuse.
“It is a bit…”
Bai Yao turned on the faucet, dampened his hands, and went back into the dorm.
Facing the mirror, he wetted the stray hairs and pressed them down.
He tidied up a bit, but his hair was still a mess.
He opened a drawer, took out a rubber band, and tried to tie back his overly long hair.
“Does it look okay like this?”
Having tied a short ponytail, Bai Yao looked toward the balcony with a bit of trepidation.
Wang Zuhao glanced over.
It looked good, but he responded with disdain.
“Like a woman.”
“Maybe you should get a short haircut?” Chen Zhilong suggested.
“It’s getting so long you can hardly tell if you’re a boy or a girl.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. You look like an artist!”
Hearing Qiu Ye’s praise, the corners of Bai Yao’s lips curled up slightly.
He happily continued to fix his hair in the mirror.
“I think I look like an artist too—I want to grow it into a Samurai Hair style!”
“Oh! The kind where the middle is shaved bald?”
Bai Yao glanced at Wang Zuhao and chose to ignore him completely.
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