“The first two days after move-in are usually when you can get close to your roommates the fastest.”

“I just got a quick read on all three of them. Zhang Ruowei is the most mature of the four of you — she’s good with people, men and women alike, but her standards are extremely high. If she doesn’t like someone, talking to them feels like a waste of her time.”

“Jiang Yu is also outgoing — more of a natural leader type. Probably zero dating experience, but she’s expecting that to change in university. Get on her good side and she’ll look out for you.”

“Shen Xinyi is the quiet, well-bred type. Probably raised with strict expectations, so she’s gentle and well-mannered. Out of the three, she’s the most like you — you’ll likely end up closest to her.”

“Now — barring any surprises, someone in your dorm is going to suggest going out for dinner tonight. This will be your first meal together as roommates. Whatever excuse you might come up with, you have to go. After tonight, you stop being strangers and start being roommates.”

“If they ask you things, you can keep your answers short — but you can’t go silent. I’d actually suggest being upfront about your parents’ divorce. It gives you a reason for being quiet and reserved, and they’ll understand it as something that shaped you, not something that’s just how you are. It’ll make them more patient with you.”

“First group dinner will almost certainly be split evenly. You don’t need to treat. Use it as a natural moment to add them on WeChat. After that, there’ll be the usual stuff — grabbing someone a meal, picking up a milk tea — don’t keep track too carefully. Just roughly reciprocate. You don’t need to be the one always paying; it won’t make you closer.”

“Your roommates are the people you’ll spend the most time with in university. Get that right and you’ll mostly avoid trouble. As for other classmates — use your judgment. But if any of the male students try to get close to you, shut it down immediately.”

Qingqing finally cut in. “Why?”

Xu Ye said, with complete seriousness: “Because apart from me, there isn’t a single guy worth trusting. Especially arts students. Every last one of them is either a player or a creep.”

Qingqing had no response to this.

“Besides,” Xu Ye continued, “you already have a boyfriend. Why would you need other guys getting close to you?”

“Shut up.”

Xu Ye grinned and turned his attention to the food, eating with the focused enthusiasm of someone who’d been running on empty since morning. When he noticed Qingqing was nearly done too, he looked up. “You know how to get back from here?”

“Yes.” The restaurant was a short walk from the dormitory — even Qingqing, directionally challenged as she was, couldn’t get lost on that. “Don’t forget our agreement,” she said.

“I won’t.”

They walked out together, and then Qingqing headed off alone toward the women’s dormitory. Her heart was doing something anxious and fluttery. From this point on, she was on her own.

She reached the entrance of the building and, on some quiet impulse, turned around.

Xu Ye was standing about a hundred meters back, right where she’d left him.

Something shifted in her expression — a small, soft smile that came and went almost before it was there. He was waving. She raised her hand slowly, waved back twice, and went inside.

Up in the room, the other three were already deep in conversation about their respective high schools. When Qingqing came in, Jiang Yu jumped up immediately and pulled her over to sit down.

“Can we just call you Qingqing? That okay?”

Qingqing, a little flustered by the warmth, nodded.

“Qingqing! Tell us everything — how did you and your boyfriend meet? How long have you been together? Why is he the one who brought you today?”

Qingqing hesitated — and then, for some reason, the story Xu Ye had spun for Zhiwei on the train surfaced in her mind. She told it to her roommates. With modifications, naturally — the tissue and the WeChat request played out very differently in her version.

A lakeside. A girl playing guitar alone. A handsome, somewhat drunk boy who found her by following the music.

By the time she finished, all three roommates had constructed a complete romantic drama in their heads.

Zhang Ruowei pressed further: “So why did he bring you to university?”

Qingqing answered before thinking: “He arranged it with my mom.”

Zhang Ruowei: ???

Shen Xinyi: ???

Jiang Yu: ???

“He arranged it with your mom? You’ve already met each other’s parents?!”

Qingqing opened her mouth to clarify, then realized she had no idea how to do that, and when she looked at the three of them — eyes wide, visibly impressed — she decided not to bother.

In a certain sense, Xu Ye had already met her mother. That wasn’t technically wrong.

“My god, your parents are so open-minded,” Jiang Yu said, sighing with something between admiration and despair. “If I’d tried to date anyone in high school, my parents would have broken both my legs.”

Shen Xinyi nodded vigorously from beside her.

Senior year of high school and first year of university were only twelve months apart, but one was scandalous and the other was expected. That was just how it worked.

With that as the opening, Qingqing found herself a little less tense.

The four of them fell into an easy back-and-forth — favorite singers, funny stories from home, things that had happened to them. When the conversation turned to family, Jiang Yu noticed Qingqing going quiet and asked directly: “Qingqing, what do your parents do?”

“My dad works at a bank. My mom works for a foreign company.”

She paused. And then, remembering what Xu Ye had said at lunch, added quietly: “They divorced when I was in middle school.”

The effect was exactly what he’d predicted.

All three of them shifted slightly. The impression of Qingqing as cool and distant softened, almost visibly. Jiang Yu murmured a small sorry. Qingqing shook her head. “It’s fine. I’ve had time to get used to it.”

The subject moved on.

They talked about the school’s history, gossip about a particular professor, a rumor about a haunted floor in one of the buildings. They talked until the room had gone dark without any of them noticing.

Zhang Ruowei glanced at the time. “What if we all go out for barbecue tonight? I know a place that does good Korean-style grilled meat.”

“I’m in.”

Jiang Yu and Shen Xinyi agreed immediately.

“Qingqing?”

Qingqing blinked, then nodded. “Sure.”

She was thinking, though, about how Xu Ye had seen all of this coming. Zhang Ruowei, Jiang Yu, Shen Xinyi — their personalities mapped almost exactly onto his read of them from a single brief meeting. And someone had suggested dinner on the first night, exactly as he’d said they would.

One look. Barely any conversation. And he’d called all of it.

How does he do that?

She found herself wondering, not for the first time, whether Xu Ye could somehow see the future.

(End of Chapter)