Eight in the evening.
Qin Zhiwei lay in bed with the bed curtain drawn, staring at the three characters of Shen Xinyi’s name on the WeChat chat screen. After a long hesitation, he finally sent the first message.
“I’m sorry about today.”
The moment it sent, he immediately turned the screen off and set the phone aside, not daring in the slightest to look at what she’d reply.
Qin Zhiwei curled up under the covers for a good while before he finally picked the phone back up. He unlocked it with great care, and just as the screen lit, Shen Xinyi’s reply came through at that exact moment.
His heart gave a jolt. He covered his eyes and slowly made out her message through the gaps between his fingers.
“It’s okay~”
“Phew~” Qin Zhiwei let out a long breath and typed back with his heart in his throat: “I didn’t do it on purpose. Really.”
Shen Xinyi: “I know~”
Qin Zhiwei’s train of thought short-circuited entirely. But feeling it’d be a bit much to go running to Xu Ye for help this early, he asked, foolishly, “Have you eaten?”
Shen Xinyi saw the message and didn’t quite know what to make of it. She replied, puzzled, “It’s already eight o’clock. Who hasn’t eaten by now?”
Reading that, Qin Zhiwei nearly slapped himself.
He hurriedly screenshotted the chat, sent it to Xu Ye, and fired off a voice message: “Bro, what do I say now?”
Xu Ye had just finished showering. Hearing the voice message, he replied directly, “Ask about her age, her hobbies, that kind of thing — but don’t get too detailed. This is the feeling-out stage. If she comes back with ‘mm,’ ‘ah,’ ‘oh,’ you’re basically done for. If she engages, that means you’ve got something worth working with.”
Qin Zhiwei quickly messaged Shen Xinyi: “What year were you born, exactly? ’96 or ’97?”
Shen Xinyi: “’96. You?”
Qin Zhiwei: “Me too.”
Qin Zhiwei: “But you look really young.”
Shen Xinyi: “Are you saying I’m immature?”
Qin Zhiwei: “No!”
Qin Zhiwei: “That’s not what I meant!”
Qin Zhiwei: “I mean you look youthful.”
Shen Xinyi: “So you think my actual age is old?”
Qin Zhiwei: “Ah — no, of course not.”
He screenshotted it immediately and sent it to Xu Ye.
Qin Zhiwei: “Dad! Help! How do I answer this?”
Xu Ye: “Say: ‘I just think you’re really cute.'”
Qin Zhiwei: “Isn’t that way too cheesy?”
Xu Ye: “Are you questioning me?”
Qin Zhiwei hesitated, then decided to listen — after all, in this department, Xu Ye was ten thousand times his better.
Heart racing, he sent: “I just think you’re really cute.”
When his message came through, Shen Xinyi’s phone chimed. She picked it up, looked, and her heart immediately sped up.
Her face felt hot. She quickly dug a half-used sheet mask out of her drawer, slapped it on her face, and then had no idea whatsoever how to respond.
This was Qin Zhiwei’s first time chatting with a girl who made his heart race.
And though plenty of people had liked Shen Xinyi back in high school, it had all been silent, unspoken pining. This was the first time anyone had ever sent her a message like this.
But Shen Xinyi’s long silence had Qin Zhiwei on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
He went straight back to Xu Ye. “Bro, she’s not replying.”
Xu Ye: “Nine times out of ten she’s flustered.”
Xu Ye: “Change the subject yourself. Talk about something else.”
Qin Zhiwei obediently did as told. And sure enough, once he’d switched topics, Shen Xinyi’s replies picked right back up in speed.
Seeing no further word from Qin Zhiwei for a while, Xu Ye guessed things were probably going smoothly, and stopped worrying about him. He opened his chat with Chen Qingqing and sent a video call request.
The timing was perfect — she’d just gotten into bed.
The call connected, and Xu Ye’s pig-face filled Chen Qingqing’s screen.
She laughed. “Can you get further away from the phone? I can see the boogers in your nostrils.”
Xu Ye: “Impossible, I just picked them.”
Chen Qingqing: “You’re revolting.”
Xu Ye: “Put your earphones in.”
Chen Qingqing: “Why?”
Xu Ye: “Just listen to me. Put them in.”
Baffled, she put them in, and only then did Xu Ye grin. “Zhiwei is chatting with Shen Xinyi right now. Go check what state Shen Xinyi’s in.”
Hearing that, Chen Qingqing glanced down over the edge, then dropped her voice. “Can’t tell. Her back’s to me, and she’s got a sheet mask on.”
Xu Ye: “She hasn’t said anything to you all about Qin Zhiwei, has she?”
Chen Qingqing: “No.”
Xu Ye: “Good.”
Chen Qingqing: “Why?”
Xu Ye: “Because if she had, Zhiwei would be the clown of this whole thing.”
Xu Ye: “What time does Shen Xinyi usually go to sleep?”
Chen Qingqing: “Nine-thirty.”
Xu Ye: “Let me warn Zhiwei. I’m worried this idiot will get carried away and go on forever.”
Xu Ye backed out, opened his chat with Qin Zhiwei, and typed: “She usually sleeps at nine-thirty. Don’t drag it out endlessly. And remember to say goodnight when you wrap up.”
Qin Zhiwei: “Got it!”
He’d done everything he could. The rest was down to Qin Zhiwei himself.
Xu Ye kept video-chatting with Chen Qingqing, and the time slipped by without either of them noticing.
…
9:25 PM
Qin Zhiwei: “Tomorrow’s Monday — do you have an eight a.m. class?”
Shen Xinyi: “I do.”
Qin Zhiwei: “It’s getting late. You should sleep early?”
Shen Xinyi: “Mm-hm.”
A minute passed.
Qin Zhiwei: “So… goodnight.”
Another minute passed.
Shen Xinyi: “‘Night.”
When Qin Zhiwei saw that final reply from Shen Xinyi, the taut string in his chest finally slackened a little.
Overflowing with excitement, he screenshotted the chat, ready to send it to his revered mentor Xu Ye for review — and his finger slipped. He sent the screenshot to Shen Xinyi. And because his head was so full of joy, he didn’t notice he’d sent it to the wrong person at all — and proceeded to fire off a voice message to Shen Xinyi, thinking she was Xu Ye:
“Xu Ye, I think I’ve got a shot! I’m so excited right now — if you were next to me I swear I’d kiss you twice. If this actually works out, holy hell, I’ll take you to the best restaurant in the city, you’ll be my best man at the wedding, and when I have a kid you’ll be the godfather—”
Shen Xinyi, who’d just climbed up to her top bunk to sleep, saw a fifty-six-second voice message come in from Qin Zhiwei and felt a flicker of confusion.
Didn’t we already say goodnight? What’s this long voice message for?
She turned her phone volume all the way down, tapped the message, and held it to her ear.
She knew from the first sentence that he’d sent it to the wrong person. But when she heard what came after, her pale face went scarlet in an instant.
And at that moment, Qin Zhiwei was still congratulating himself.
A full minute passed before he glanced down again to see whether Xu Ye had replied.
And with that glance—
He discovered he’d sent it to Shen Xinyi!!!
Qin Zhiwei nearly fainted on the spot. With trembling hands he long-pressed the voice message and hit recall. It successfully recalled — but it had been sitting there for over a minute, and Qin Zhiwei was certain Shen Xinyi had already heard the whole thing.
Socially annihilated where he lay, Qin Zhiwei suddenly reared up onto his knees in bed and started slamming his head against the wall — thunk, thunk, THUNK.
His five roommates were dumbstruck.
Zhiwei… has he finally lost the will to live?
(End of Chapter 153)