Chapter 7

The men’s dorm was a standard six-person room, with beds above desks. Liu Xun picked a spot near the door. Li Qian immediately took the bedding and made his bed, shaking out the sheet, smoothing the creases, and even turning the pillowcase opening inward.

Liu Xun smiled at the two roommates who’d arrived first. He reached into his pocket out of habit, then awkwardly withdrew his hand. “What are your names, guys?”

Their faces were vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t put names to them. That was hardly surprising. Even after four years in the same class, people who never interacted might graduate without knowing each other’s names, let alone those in the class next door.

“Wang Guowei, from Ningcheng!” The skinny young man spoke first. He was wiping down a desk, though his eyes kept straying to Li Qian.

The other, a bespectacled boy, grinned. “Wu Kai, from Sichuan!”

“Liu Xun, from Qingbei! I’ve been to both Ningcheng and Sichuan…”

Before he could finish, Wang Guowei pointed at the busy Li Qian. “Is that your sister?”

“No, a helpful senior.” Liu Xun shrugged. He disliked being interrupted.

“A senior?” Both stared. They’d seen male seniors carry luggage for incoming girls, but never a female senior making a freshman boy’s bed. Was men’s standing really so high in Qingdu?

The door opened again with a light bang, and a tall young man strode in. He had thick eyebrows, large eyes, and the outgoing manner of a northerner. His gaze paused briefly on Li Qian before he flashed them an easy smile, as if they were already friends.

“Hi, everyone! I’m Li Lei, from the north! Good news: I just asked the class assistant. We’re the last room in Class Two, so there’ll only be four of us here!”

Liu Xun immediately remembered him from his previous life. Li Lei was one of the few students in his year he recalled, because the man had been an even more devoted pursuer than he was.

Liu Xun had chased his goddess Cai Lingling until graduation, giving up once she’d found a boyfriend. Li Lei, on the other hand, had obsessively pursued the Qing Institute of Science and Technology’s campus beauty from freshman year, wearing his abasement like a second skin.

Later she’d become a wildly popular motorcycle influencer on short-video platforms. Most absurdly, when she’d promoted a romantic pairing with another male influencer, Li Lei had showered her livestream with Douyin One gifts. His username even bore her name and the words “I’ll wait for you forever.” He’d sent so many gifts that the male influencer’s face turned green. The story had become something of an online legend.

The young men chatted readily. Before long, Li Lei pointed at Li Qian and asked the same question.

Wang Guowei answered for him. “She’s a senior!”

“A senior?” Li Lei was dumbfounded too, but recovered quickly. He sidled up to Liu Xun, waggling his eyebrows. “Come on, she’s your girlfriend, isn’t she?”

Understanding dawned on Wang Guowei and Wu Kai, and they looked at Liu Xun with envy. Though Li Qian wore a mask, her figure and bearing alone told them she must be beautiful.

“She really is a senior, not my girlfriend,” Liu Xun explained. He wasn’t being considerate of Li Qian. He just didn’t want rumors that he had a girlfriend getting in the way of his fun.

The others were puzzled, but they were sure there was some connection between the two. Wang Guowei looked at Liu Xun’s unfamiliar, supposedly no-name clothes, then at Li Qian’s worn, pilling outfit, and straightened his back.

He edged over to Li Lei, who like him wore Adidas and Nike, and deliberately raised his voice. “Lei, what model are those Adidas shoes? They look great. How much were they?”

Li Lei had been talking about high school and seemed confused by the change of subject, but answered, “Shell toes. Four or five hundred, I think.”

“Mine are shell toes too, a little over four hundred. Yours look better!”

Li Lei changed the subject instead. “I’ll take you guys somewhere good later.”

Wu Kai put on a leering expression. “You mean…”

“What are you thinking? We’ll go to West Street. I’ll show you the campus beauty from Qing University next door! I hear she works part-time at COCO. Let’s go see for ourselves.”

“Seriously? A beauty from a top university works at a milk tea shop?”

“Of course! You think I spent two months in the freshmen’s group chat for nothing?”

“Damn, shouldn’t we ask for her QQ?”

“Let’s play a guessing game. Loser asks!”

By then, Li Qian had finished the bed, washed Liu Xun’s face towel in the bathroom, and hung it on the balcony. Seeing that everything was almost done, Liu Xun said, “Guys, I’ve got something to take care of. I’m heading out.”

Li Lei asked at once, “Want to come to a mixer tonight? Girls from our class will be there!”

In his previous life, their dorm had held one too, but Liu Xun had skipped it to chase Cai Lingling. This time he intended to enjoy college.

“Sure. My QQ number is… Add me. We’ll talk tonight.”

They’d barely gone any distance when Liu Xun remembered he’d left his ID behind. He hadn’t planned to sleep in the dorm that night, so he went back for it. Before he opened the door, he heard Wu Kai inside.

“What’s wrong with that Liu Xun? He makes a girl do his bed while he sits around like a lord! And she’s stupid too…”

“Exactly,” Wang Guowei agreed. “If I had a girlfriend, I wouldn’t even want her to tire herself out walking, let alone making my bed!”

“Don’t say that,” Li Lei urged. “Maybe she lost a game or something. I don’t think Liu Xun’s that kind of person.”

The door creaked open. The conversation stopped. Wu Kai immediately changed the subject. “Lei, is it true? Are there really beautiful girls in the dorm we’re meeting?”

“Absolutely. I met one in the freshmen’s group. We’ve been playing CrossFire together for half a month. I promised to give her a Fox Spirit character, and she’ll invite the girls in her room!”

Liu Xun pretended he hadn’t heard. He took his ID and left. He’d met plenty of people like that; arguing would accomplish nothing. Besides, he intended to move out after military training. The Ma Jiajue case from a few years earlier was still fresh in his mind. He’d rather face tattooed middle-aged men than get into a conflict with a hotheaded kid. He still had so much money left to spend.

Outside, Li Qian waited quietly. “Where are we going?”

“To buy you some clothes.”

“What?” She blinked.

“A pencil skirt, black stockings, and a pair of heels. How do you like that?”