Chapter 18

The video from the coffee shop did, in fact, go viral online.

Cheng Yedu’s face was natural clickbait.

Many people criticized me, but many others were envious:

[This woman is living the dream! Dated a guy that hot, and then immediately moves on to MIT after the breakup!!]

[I wouldn’t even dare to dream this big!!]

[The best part is, the hot guy completely lost his cool over her!! I bet you a hundred yuan the guy is still in love with her.]

[This guy is objectively gorgeous. The eyes, the nose, that jawline, the broad shoulders and narrow waist!! I suddenly understand why ancient warlords would fight to the death over a beautiful woman!!]

[A man who looks like that is worth fighting over! The cheating ex my best friend is trying to win back is just depressing to look at. I really don’t get it…]

…

[What is wrong with you people? This MIT girl is seducing someone else’s boyfriend. Why are you all admiring the other woman? Just wait until your own boyfriends get stolen.]

[My boyfriend isn’t worthy.]

[I want to trade my boyfriend for this guy…]

…

My program was starting soon.

Riding the wave of this minor internet fame, I started a video channel to document my life as a student abroad.

Packing my luggage, I documented it.

The airplane food was terrible, I took a picture.

Touring the university campus, I filmed an episode.

My rented apartment was completely empty. I discovered that apartments in the U.S. don’t come furnished. The bed I ordered online had to be assembled by me.

It was a pain… but it made for good content…

I bought a power drill and a hammer, set up my phone, and filmed myself assembling the bed frame.

That video blew up. Apparently, people loved watching me struggle.

My videos were all shot casually, and the editing was rough, so they didn’t take up much of my time.

But once the semester started, my research project ramped up.

I spent my days either in the lab or in my office, modeling and running calculations. Even my meal times were spent discussing work with my research group.

My updates became less frequent. I went from a daily vlogger to a weekly one, and then a monthly one.

Recently, I hadn’t even managed a monthly post.

I logged on one day and saw a private message from a familiar profile picture.

“Why did you stop updating?”

It was Cheng Yedu.

It had been five months since our last meeting in that coffee shop.