Qiuqiu the cat gave a dissatisfied *meow* and gently pushed her face with its paw.
Shen Qingyue let go of the cat and picked up her phone again.
“Okay. I’ll go to the classroom early tomorrow.”
She thought about it for a moment and took another photo. In the picture, Qiuqiu was lying on her physics book, looking quite overbearing as if it were saying, ‘This book belongs to me now.’
The caption read: “It wants to learn too.”
Sent.
When Lin Mo finished washing the dishes and returned to his room, his phone lit up again.
Seeing the photo Shen Qingyue sent, he could not help but smile.
That fat cat named Qiuqiu was lying on the physics book with a solemn expression, creating an inexplicably comical scene.
He replied: “Then I won’t disturb you anymore. Get some rest early. See you tomorrow.”
Sent.
Putting his phone down, Lin Mo flopped onto the bed and stared at the ceiling.
Chatting with Shen Qingyue… felt very peaceful.
There were no tests of wit, no hidden meanings, and none of that suffocating tension. It was just simple conversation about cats, about studying, and about some insignificant daily matters.
He thought of Su Qing.
He remembered her smiling words at the restaurant, the way she adjusted his collar, and those eyes of hers.
The contrast was too sharp.
On one side was the relaxing, warm moonlight; on the other was the scorching sun—intense, burning, yet impossible to let go of.
Lin Mo closed his eyes, his mind a chaotic mess.
***
Meanwhile, Shen Qingyue sat on the living room rug holding Qiuqiu. The main lights were off.
She repeatedly looked over their chat history.
She read Lin Mo’s message, “We’ve known each other since we were kids, so we’re pretty close,” many times.
Then she looked at the cat photo she had sent and her own message, “It wants to learn too.”
“Sigh, so stupid, so stupid,” she repeated to her phone, unsure if she was talking about herself or him.
However, the corners of her mouth could not help but curl upward.
Qiuqiu rubbed against her hand, letting out a soft purr.
She looked down and gently scratched the cat’s chin.
“Qiuqiu,” she whispered, “he seems… to really have not noticed.”
The cat *meowed*, as if in response.
Shen Qingyue smiled, picked up her phone, and tapped on Lin Mo’s WeChat profile.
The contact name was still the simple “Lin Mo.”
She hesitated for a few seconds before tapping edit. She deleted “Lin Mo” and typed in something new.
A new line of text appeared on the screen:
‘Big Idiot’
After thinking about it, she deleted that nickname as well and changed it to:
‘The Prism That Understands Not Light’
She stared at this new contact name for a long time.
A prism. It can break white light into seven colors, yet it remains completely unaware. Just like him. He refracted all her carefully guarded emotions, yet he noticed nothing at all.
Saved.
She turned off her phone, stood up with the cat in her arms, and walked toward the bedroom.
The moon outside the window was very bright. The cold moonlight spilled through the glass, casting a gentle patch of light onto the floor.
Shen Qingyue glanced back at the living room.
In the collection of poems her father had left on the bookshelf, there was a line she always remembered:
‘Moonlight does not speak, but it illuminates everything that was meant to be said but remained unspoken.’
She gently closed the bedroom door.
The moonlight was shut outside, but those unspoken words continued to glow quietly and stubbornly in the darkness.
***
Su Qing’s Home
Su Qing closed the door and leaned her back against it, finally unable to stop herself from bursting into laughter.
After laughing for a few seconds, she felt it was not enough, so she simply squatted on the floor and buried her face in her knees, her shoulders shaking.
“Heh-heh-heh-heh…”
A suppressed, goose-like laugh echoed in the empty foyer. Fortunately, the house had good soundproofing, otherwise the neighbors might have called the police.
After laughing for a good while, she wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes, stood up, and walked toward the kitchen humming a tuneless song.
Her steps were as light as a cat that had successfully stolen a fish.
She took a chilled lemonade from the refrigerator and gulped down half the bottle. The icy sensation felt refreshing all the way from her throat to her stomach.
“Shen Qingyue, oh Shen Qingyue…” She leaned against the kitchen counter, her fingertip lightly tapping the bottle. “How can you even compete with me?”
She felt like giving herself a round of applause for that dinner tonight.
“Known him since we were kids”—establishing the foundation of their relationship.
“Always praising him at home”—hinting at their daily intimacy.
“My mom made soup”—directly announcing a family-level bond.
Every sentence was like a precision-aimed small bomb, exploding silently in that quiet private room. She could even see Shen Qingyue’s fingers turning slightly white as she gripped her teacup, and the flash of shock and… disappointment in her eyes?
Yes, it was disappointment.
The corners of Su Qing’s mouth lifted again. That subtle, restrained disappointment that could not escape her eyes.
“You know now, don’t you?” she whispered to the air, as if teaching an ignorant child. “Some things aren’t yours, so don’t go coveting them.”
She strolled into the living room with the water bottle. She did not turn on the main light, only the floor lamp by the sofa.
The warm yellow glow enveloped a small area while the rest of the room remained submerged in gloom, making her feel safe and comfortable.
Flopping onto the sofa, she hugged a throw pillow as her mind began replaying the details of the night.
That blockhead Lin Mo had his head down eating the whole time; he probably did not hear the hidden blades in her words at all. That was fine; it saved her the trouble of having to explain.
As for Wang Hao and Li Wei, those two NPCs were too busy eating to notice the subtle atmosphere.
Only Shen Qingyue…
Su Qing’s gaze slowly turned cold.
Only Shen Qingyue understood every word, yet she managed to respond calmly and even threw back a counter-attack at the end: “Student Lin Mo has a very unique way of understanding problems.”
Heh.
Even then, she did not forget to give him a compliment.
“Drawing little doodles in the notebook, ears turning red when he speaks, looking all quiet and peaceful…”
Su Qing started counting on her fingers.
“She really is good at faking it. An idiot like Lin Mo probably likes that ‘gentle and kind’ type the most, right?”
Thinking of this, the pleasure she felt from her “victory” at dinner began to fade.
She sat up and grabbed her phone.
The screen lit up, showing a lock screen that was a photo of her and Lin Mo as children—they were probably seven or eight years old, both missing their front teeth, grinning foolishly at the camera. The background was the yard of her old house; that pomegranate tree had been cut down long ago.
She swiped to unlock and opened an encrypted folder in her photo album.
The password was Lin Mo’s birthday.
Inside were all recent photos. Stolen shots.
There was a profile view of Lin Mo and Shen Qingyue sitting side by side in the library. A shot of Shen Qingyue’s hair falling forward as she leaned down to explain a problem. Lin Mo’s stunned expression when he accepted that Sagittarius Fountain Pen.
And tonight, at the entrance of the restaurant, a photo of Lin Mo looking back in the direction Shen Qingyue had left.
She had captured this last one quickly while Lin Mo was not paying attention. The image was a bit blurry, but one could see the silhouette of Lin Mo’s face and the look in his eyes… confusion? Or perhaps, a certain type of concern that he himself had not realized yet?
Su Qing stared at the photo for a long time.
Then, she exited the album, opened her contacts, and found the number listed as “Courier Master Wang.”
She typed:
“Keep following. Focus on her weekend schedule. If there is a possibility of a meeting with Lin, report it immediately.”
Sent.
Having done this, she threw her phone aside and collapsed back onto the sofa.
Was she happy?
She was happy at first. She felt like she had won, felt like she had declared her sovereignty, and felt that the arrogant little girl should know when to retreat.
But now…
She rolled over and buried her face in the pillow.
**[If you ask me, this way of handling things is still too gentle. It seems you are truly becoming more and more like that girl.]**
In her mind, the Demon-like Su Qing spoke with a tone of disappointment.