Afternoon, outside the girls’ dormitory.
A crowd of students had gathered, buzzing with excitement.
A boy dressed in designer clothes, holding a bouquet of roses, stood in the center of a giant heart formed by hundreds of candles, basking in the cheers of the onlookers.
“Brother Ji, you’re the best!”
“Ugh, I’m so moved I could cry.”
“If a guy confessed to me like this, I’d say yes in a heartbeat.”
“The school bully and the department beauty-a perfect match!”
“Get together!”
“Get together!”
The surrounding students began chanting loudly, urging them to become a couple, eager to witness a romantic fairy tale unfold.
Ji Yuenian couldn’t help but marvel at Su Tian’s efficiency.
In just the time it took to eat lunch, not only had he gotten Ji Yuenian a full set of designer clothes, but he’d also hired a whole crowd of cheerleaders.
That kid definitely had a bright future ahead!
Taking a deep breath, Ji Yuenian extended the bouquet of red roses in his arms and declared, “Chen Jiajia, I’ve liked you for a long time. Will you be my girlfriend?”
Standing opposite him was a tall, strikingly beautiful girl.
Though she wore only light makeup, her looks were easily an eight or nine out of ten-no wonder she was called the department beauty.
Yet at this moment, Chen Jiajia shook her head and gently pushed the roses back.
“Ji Yuenian, you’re a good person, but I only see you as a classmate.”
A faint crack appeared in Ji Yuenian’s confident, smiling expression.
“Why?”
“I prefer boys who are more reserved. You’re too flashy and domineering.”
Chen Jiajia tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
“At our age, we should focus more on studying. I want a boyfriend who can study hard with me, get into a good university together, and support each other in life.”
She paused, her voice calm, the corners of her lips curving slightly.
“Someone like Jiang Chi.”
The crack widened.
Ji Yuenian’s smile froze on his face.
“Jiang Chi… like that?”
Suddenly, Chen Jiajia’s eyes lit up as if she had spotted something.
She snatched the bouquet from Ji Yuenian’s arms and hurried through the crowd toward a masked boy passing by.
“Jiang Chi, I’ve actually liked you for a long time! Will you be my boyfriend?”
The moment these words left her mouth, the crowd erupted in shock.
A few girls even covered their faces in secondhand embarrassment.
But no one stepped forward to intervene.
They had only come to cheer things along, but now they were witnessing an explosive twist!
Holy-!
They’d pay to savor this drama!
“Jiang Chi, help me out here~~”
In a voice too low for others to hear, Chen Jiajia pleaded, her cheeks flushed, looking every bit the bashful maiden.
Jiang Chi, who had just finished lunch and happened to be passing by, blinked in confusion, clearly not grasping the situation.
But when he saw the boy in designer clothes standing in the candlelit heart, glaring daggers at him, and Chen Jiajia’s pleading expression, he understood instantly.
“Jiang Chi…”
Chen Jiajia’s cheeks grew redder, her lips parting slightly.
“I only see you as a classmate,” the boy replied flatly, his tone steady and firm, as if discussing someone else’s affairs.
With that, he turned and walked away, leaving behind a stunned Chen Jiajia, a crowd frozen in disbelief, and a certain boy standing foolishly in the middle of a heart-shaped ring of candles.
When the dust settled, the dazed and disheartened Ji Yuenian was helped away by his underlings, the beautiful bouquet of roses roughly shoved into a trash bin.
Chen Jiajia returned to her dorm and sat on her bed.
After regaining her composure, she took out her phone and stared at the photo on the screen, her thoughts inevitably drifting back to thirty minutes earlier.
Thirty minutes ago, while she had been applying a face mask in her dorm, she had spotted a group of people setting up candles downstairs and vaguely guessed what was about to happen.
Truth be told, she did have some fondness for Ji Yuenian-like the designer bag he had bought her not long ago—but it was only a passing affection.
As for Jiang Chi…
She lowered her gaze to the photo of the blue-eyed boy on her phone.
The aloof campus heartthrob, the icy male god, exuding an aura of asceticism-and on top of that, a rich second-generation heir. It was impossible not to secretly harbor feelings for him.
* * *
Nighttime, at a barbecue joint.
“This is unjust! Heaven isn’t fair! What the hell kind of world is this?!”
Ji Yuenian took a swig of beer and cursed loudly.
“What’s so great about that pretty boy Jiang Chi? I’m taller than him, stronger than him, and I can fight better than him! Why didn’t she choose me? Why?!”
His three idiot roommates and Su Tian exchanged glances.
Originally, this barbecue outing was meant to celebrate Ji Yuenian getting into a relationship on Valentine’s Day, but now…
The atmosphere grew increasingly awkward, with only the drunken Ji Yuenian ranting incessantly.
Finally, Su Tian spoke up to console him, “Brother Ji, calm down. There are plenty of fish in the sea-no need to hang yourself on one tree…”
“Calm down my ass!”
Ji Yuenian clenched his beer bottle so hard his knuckles turned white, his body trembling slightly.
“I’ve lost all face this time!”
“Do you know what the whole school is saying now?”
“The department beauty took the roses from the campus bully to chase after the campus heartthrob-I’m nothing but a complete clown!”
“Goddammit! I’ve never been humiliated like this in my entire life!”
He then punched the wall.
“My reputation is ruined, and the whole school knows about it. How am I supposed to keep my head up now?! What will my underlings think of me?!”
The four of them twitched their lips, exchanging glances that conveyed their shared thought:
So what you care about most is your damn pride!
Ji Yuenian took another fierce gulp, the frothy alcohol spilling from the corners of his mouth and soaking his loose white T-shirt, leaving a dark stain.
At this moment, the two little voices in his head resurfaced, taunting him relentlessly:
One suggested he ambush Jiang Chi the next day and teach that pretty boy a lesson with his fists-settle the score with brute force!
The other proposed he return the humiliation in kind—make Jiang Chi lose face in front of the whole school over a woman, just like he had!
The two voices argued endlessly in his mind until Ji Yuenian slammed his glass onto the table.
“Shut the hell up! I don’t need you two yapping in my ear!”
Though he was now drunk enough to feel dizzy, his thoughts remained crystal clear.
A strong premonition told him he had to get revenge— this was about his pride, the thing he valued most.
He couldn’t back down, not even a single step! If he retreated, he wouldn’t be a man!
But his sudden outburst startled his four companions.
They knew Ji Yuenian’s temper all too well. At best, he was decisive in settling grudges; at worst, he was tyrannical and ruled by violence!
Ji Yuenian turned his head sharply to Su Tian and demanded fiercely, “Su Tian, you’re the most well-informed guy in the whole school. Does that pretty boy Jiang Chi have a girlfriend, or is he chasing after anyone?”
Su Tian’s lips twitched.
He knew exactly what Ji Yuenian was getting at this was about tit for tat, making the other guy lose face over women!
Truth be told, he really wanted to advise Ji Yuenian to calm down and think things through.
This whole mess clearly had nothing to do with Jiang Chi; it was purely Chen Jiajia’s one-sided infatuation.
If you want revenge, you shouldn’t take it out on some innocent bystander.
But right now, Ji Yuenian was clearly fuming.
Combined with some past history between him and Jiang Chi that had left their relationship strained, trying to dissuade him would only add fuel to the fire and backfire.
“Bro Ji, you’re drunk. Jiang Chi’s a total recluse-hardly says a word all day. Where would he get a girlfriend?”
“Sure, plenty of girls at school have a crush on him, but he’s like one of those stone statues on Easter Island staring out at the sea. Peach blossoms could fall right on him, and it’d be a total waste!”
Su Tian poured a cup of sobering tea, managed to wrestle the liquor away from Ji Yuenian, and pressed the tea into his hands, coaxing and cajoling all the while.
“Bro Ji, have some sobering tea, and we’ll talk it out. If you really want a girlfriend, just tell me what type you’re into-I guarantee I’ll find you one.”
“Right, right, I can help set you up too-mature women, young wives, student girls, even married ones. I’ll get you their contacts,” Luo Yikang chimed in from the side.
Ji Yuenian took the sobering tea and downed a large gulp, his fingers clenching the cup so tightly the veins on the back of his hand bulged.
Ji Yuenian, I don’t care about you.
Ji Yuenian, I don’t care about you!
Ji Yuenian, I don’t care about you!
The blue-eyed boy’s words echoed in his ears like a haunting refrain, over and over, impossible to shake off.
That indifferent expression, those calm words, that unruffled tone—as if no matter how much Ji Yuenian struggled, in the other’s eyes, he was just a clown, not even causing a ripple.
I’m taller than you, stronger than you, better than you-what the hell do I lack compared to you now?!
Why are you the golden child everyone praises?!
Why am I inferior to you?!
Suddenly, Ji Yuenian slammed the cup down on the table with a heavy thud.
He raised his head to look at Su Tian, his bloodshot eyes appearing almost sinister, startling Su Tian.
“Su Tian, help me find out Jiang Chi’s daily route to school!”
“Huh?”