[Female Dormitory, Building 12, Room 403 — September 15, 1:20 PM]
The afternoon sun came through the south-facing window and laid a long golden rectangle across the floor between the two beds. The air conditioner ran at its lowest setting. The walls were thin enough to carry the hallway through — the elevator chime two doors down, somebody's shower running on the floor above.
Zhang Tingting closed the door behind them. The lock turned with a small mechanical click.
Su Qingxue walked to her bed, sat down on the edge, and put her hands in her lap.
The walk from the restaurant had taken twenty minutes. Zhang Tingting had steered her best friend around obstacles she did not register — a delivery scooter, a clutch of students who recognized her, a stairwell where she stopped at the wrong landing.
Throughout the entire walk, whispers had followed them through the quad and across the lobby.
Now there was just them in the room.
"I never loved him, Tingting."
Su Qingxue said it to the rectangle of sun on the floor.
"I never did. So why should I be heartbroken?"
A pause.
"That would be dishonest."
Her voice came out steady. However, it wasn't the same warm-register voice she often used. Rather, it had a more confused sound to it — denying, contradicting, reaching for words it couldn't quite hold.
Zhang Tingting stood near the door with Su Qingxue's shoulder bag still on her shoulder along with her own.
She did not answer.
Su Qingxue's words sounded true. Her voice did not.
Zhang Tingting let her own bag slide down her arm and placed Su Qingxue's beside her on the bed. Su Qingxue's eyes turned to the bag. They stayed there.
Then she looked around.
She had slept three meters from this woman for two weeks. Longer if one counted the sleepovers — middle school, high school, all the times they had stayed at each other's houses.
Su Qingxue's bed had silk sheets that fell heavy over the mattress edge, the way cheap sheets never did. The sheen on them moved when Qingxue shifted her weight. Three pillows were stacked at the headboard, when only one person slept there.
Meanwhile, Zhang Tingting's bed had polyester sheets that she had bought for forty yuan at a campus stall and carried back with Lin Feng. They wrinkled flat against the mattress and stayed that way. It only had one pillow on it.
The desk at Su Qingxue's side of the room was mahogany. The grain ran dark under the lacquer and caught the light along its edge. A charging station was built into the back. The cables ran clean through channels cut into the wood.
Zhang Tingting's desk was the one the dormitory had supplied for the room. It was made of composite board with a veneer that had started peeling at one corner. Her charger ran across the floor to the wall socket.
The chair at Su Qingxue's desk was leather. Zhang Tingting had seen the box it came in, before Su Qingxue had thrown the box out. It was priced at eight thousand yuan.
Zhang Tingting's chair meanwhile was made of plastic. It came with the desk.
The curtains at Su Qingxue's window fell from the rod to the floor in one long uninterrupted line. The fabric had weight. It moved slowly when the air conditioner cycled.
Zhang Tingting's curtains were the ones the dormitory supplied. Polyester, the same kind as her sheets. They hung short of the windowsill.
The laptop on Su Qingxue's desk was worth, by Zhang Tingting's amateur reckoning, two years of her tuition. The tablet beside it was worth a semester.
None of this was new to her. She'd lived alongside Lin Feng's extravagance for Su Qingxue, watched deliveries arrive almost daily even when they were still high school students.
She accepted all of them as simply part of Su Qingxue's life.
Never. Not even once had Zhang Tingting thought of the price tag behind it.
But now she knew.
Fifteen million yuan over four years.
That number changed everything.
I've been sleeping three meters away from all this, and I never stopped to think about what it really meant.
This whole side of the room is a shrine to Lin Feng's love for Qingxue.
And she never loved him. Not even once.
Zhang Tingting hovered near her own desk, unsure what to do or say. The silence pressed down on both of them.
Before she could figure out how to break it—
Su Qingxue's phone rang.
The sound cut through the quiet like a knife, and both of them jumped.
Su Qingxue looked down at the screen, and Zhang Tingting watched all the color drain from her face.
"It's my father."
Her hand trembled slightly as she raised the phone to her ear.
"Hello, Father—"
"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!"
The voice exploded through the speaker, so loud that Zhang Tingting winced as she could hear every word clearly from across the room.
But Su Qingxue's face did something strange. Instead of crumpling, it smoothed out completely. A small mask sliding down over a smaller mask.
"Father, I can explain — "
"Lin Feng publicly called you out. In front of god knows how many witnesses."
"Father — "
"There are videos of you EVERYWHERE on social media! EVERYONE has seen it!"
"Do you have ANY IDEA what this MEANS for our business?!"
His voice was edged with something that sounded almost like panic.
"Father, please, let me — "
"The Lin Family connections. The deals we secured last month. The LOANS we took out based on those connections. Based on the assumption that you'd MARRY into that family!"
"Without Lin Feng, those deals will collapse IMMEDIATELY!"
"The bank will call the loans the MOMENT they hear about this!"
"Do you understand what that means?!"
Su Qingxue did not answer.
"BANKRUPTCY, Su Qingxue! Complete financial RUIN!"
"Our family will be DESTROYED!"
Zhang Tingting felt the ground shift beneath her feet.
Loans? They took out loans assuming that Qingxue would marry Lin Feng someday?
All this time, I'd thought it was simple — a rich boy chasing a pretty girl, showering her with gifts she didn't want.
But loans? Marriage assumptions? Business deals?
This was something beyond what I could have ever imagined. This was calculated right from the very start.
And I… I played a role in all of this…
The Su family had leveraged their daughter's future. Borrowed money against it. Made deals based on it. All of it betting on her eventually marrying Lin Feng.
Su Qingxue wasn't a daughter to these people.
She was an asset. An investment. A resource to be exploited.
"I — We took loans based on me marrying him?"
The voice came out small. Smaller than Zhang Tingting had heard it in the four years she had known her.
"Did you even THINK?! You NEVER think about anyone but yourself!"
"Four years! Four years of carefully securing that boy!"
"Four years of investment! Time! Resources! Planning!"
"And you threw it ALL away in ONE SINGLE DAY!"
Each word landed like a blade between the ribs.
But Su Qingxue's expression remained blank throughout.
"Fix this. Whatever it takes. I don't care HOW."
"We NEED the Lin Family connection. Do you understand me?"
"I don't care if you have to BEG on your knees."
Zhang Tingting's entire body went rigid, her nails digging into her palms hard enough to leave marks.
She pressed her back against her desk, feeling like she was intruding on something she was never meant to witness.
She wanted to say something.
"I don't care if you have to grovel and humiliate yourself."
"I don't care WHAT you have to do or how low you have to sink."
"You WILL fix this situation. IMMEDIATELY."
"This is not optional. This is not negotiable."
"This is not a REQUEST, Su Qingxue. This is an ORDER."
"Do you understand me? DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!"
When Su Qingxue answered, her voice came out steady and calm.
"Yes, Father. I understand."
"Good. I expect results. SOON."
"Don't disappoint me again."
Click.
He hung up without another word.
No goodbye. No comfort. No concern for her emotional state whatsoever.
Just demands. Threats. Expectations.
The silence that followed crashed into the room like a physical weight, pressing down on everything.
Zhang Tingting let go of her desk. Her legs were unsteady under her. She crossed the small distance to her own bed and sat down on the edge.
Su Qingxue set the phone down on the nightstand. Smoothly. Carefully. The way one set down a teacup.
She put her hands back in her lap.
She looked at the rectangle of sun on the floor.
She did not move.
Then slowly, she picked up the phone where she had set it down and held it the way one held a familiar object whose use one had forgotten for a moment.
The screen lit.
Her thumb found the messaging app. Found the contact list. Scrolled through it.
Then stopped.
Lin Feng.
The profile picture was small. A face Zhang Tingting had seen on this phone screen a thousand times in two weeks. Square, neutral, the kind of photograph he had used for his university ID.
Su Qingxue did not tap the photo. Did not scroll past it.
She just looked at it.
One minute passed.
Her thumb did not move.
Zhang Tingting did not take her eyes off her friend. The springs had given a small sound when she sat. Su Qingxue did not register it.
A second minute passed.
Su Qingxue's face had not moved. Her temples were damp. Her breath had gone slower than the breath of someone reading something on a screen. The hand holding the phone was steady. The hand in her lap was not.
Zhang Tingting's chest ached as she watched her friend drown in something she couldn't name.
Oh, Qingxue.
I'm so sorry.
I took his money.
I told myself I was helping a friend. I was being paid to help him be with Qingxue.
That's what I was.
I have done so many things I shouldn't have.
A third minute.
Su Qingxue's lips moved. No sound came out. Zhang Tingting watched the shape of the lips and read what they had said.
"I don't even like him."
Her lips moved. A tiny voice, almost a murmur, escaped from them. Her thumb remained still.
A fourth minute.
Su Qingxue spoke aloud once more. Her voice came out level this time, addressed to no one.
"I don't even like him at all."
The phone stayed in her hand. The picture stayed on the screen.
"But Father said… I can… I can humiliate myself in front of him. To kneel before him… To grovel on the ground and beg him to take me back…"
"Would Lin Feng still want me then?"
A fifth minute.
Zhang Tingting watched her.
Su Qingxue, her best friend, holding a phone with a man's picture on it. A woman who had said, only minutes ago, that she had never even liked him.
Zhang Tingting looked at Su Qingxue, her mouth unable to find words to say to her.
She had read so many romance novels, so many love advice books in the past three years. The books, while different in content and manner of writing, all shared the same general description.
They all share the same symptoms.
The symptoms of what a girl in love looks like.
And so does Qingxue…
Zhang Tingting's hand flew towards her mouth, her gasp muffled between her fingers.
Oh, Qingxue.
Oh no…
Zhang Tingting remained silent, her feet rooted to the floor, daring not to move from the edge of her bed.
She let her best friend keep looking.
The rectangle of sun moved by a finger's width across the wood. The air conditioner cycled off, then on.
Time stood still for her.
------------------------------
[Economics Building, Study Room 3 — 1:40 PM]
Long Tian's knuckles had gone white on the edge of the table.
The negative thirty affection points hung in the air in front of him.
Across the table, Zhang Yuting's hand was on his arm.
"Long Tian?" Her voice came from very far. "What's wrong? Are you okay?"
His mouth opened. Nothing came out. The roaring in his ears had eaten the air conditioner and the chalk dust and the slant of sun through the south wall.
The number sat there.
-30.
He squeezed his eyes shut for a beat. He opened them.
The number had not moved.
He waited for it to fall again.
It did not fall.
Then the system arrived.
A new alert came in red. Then a second. Then a third.
[SYSTEM INFLUENCE CRITICALLY WEAKENED]
[DANGER: IMMINENT AFFECTION COLLAPSE]
[Cause: Target's mind completely dominated by Obstacle]
He read the third line twice.
An obstacle?
There was someone.
There was someone who had taken her.
Someone who stands in my way?
Long Tian breathed in a lungful of air. A bit of composure returned to his face.
His brain, finally back to reality, sent his eyes to the square-shaped UI button on the lower left side of his interface.
"Shop." He said it under his breath.
The emergency shop opened in his vision.
He scrolled.
[Proximity Enhancement — requires physical contact.]
She's not here.
[Charm Amplification — 24-hour activation delay.]
Useless also. She would be gone in five minutes.
[Memory Impression — only effective during active conversation.]
Useless. Useless. Come on. Come on. There has to be —
There.
[Emotional Redirect Protocol — 100 CP]
[Effect: Generates optimal message to redirect target's emotional fixation.]
[Requirement: Must be deployed within crisis window.]
[Success Rate: 1% for targets at negative affection.]
[Warning: Negative affection — success highly unlikely. Proceed at own risk.]
She was at -30.
One percent? I'm Long Tian. The chosen one.
Foolish system. Don't you know that it's as good as one hundred percent to me?
Buy!
[Purchase confirmed.]
[Balance: 1,150 → 1,050 CP.]
[Protocol activated. Generating optimal message.]
The message arrived in his vision. Each word in its proper place.
[Hey! I had a great time helping you with research today. Your passion for music really inspired me. Would you like to grab coffee sometime? I'd love to hear you sing.]
Long Tian read it.
Then he read it again.
Music.
The system had said music.
Right, she did mention music earlier in the library. Okay, let's do this!
Long Tian reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. He pressed the power button. The screen lit up. He swiped it open, tapped the messaging app, and scrolled down until he found Su Qingxue's name.
He tapped on it. The chat was short — just the few messages they had exchanged that morning after the library. Nothing new since then.
He started typing. He looked at the system message, then at the keyboard, then back at the system message. He typed each word the way it was written. One word at a time. His fingers kept missing the keys.
He would delete a word and type it again. Delete it and type it again. When he got to the emojis he had to try three times because his hands would not stop shaking.
------------------------------
Across the table, Zhang Yuting's hand had slipped off his arm. Her eyes were on Long Tian, watching his every move.
She could not see the screen from her angle. Yet his face said it all — the focus, the way his lips moved as he typed, the trembling that had come over his shoulders.
"Is he texting a girl? Is she his girlfriend? Is she jealous right now because he's with me?"
Zhang Yuting murmured under her breath as Long Tian looked like he was trying to coax his lover by phone.
She then looked down, her eyes going back to her notes. Her arms fell beside her, as if in defeat.
[Zhang Yuting Affection: 63 → 61.]
------------------------------
Back on his side, Long Tian hit the send button. Soon the message appeared in the chat with a sending indicator, then a sent indicator.
[Ding!]
[Message Status: Sent.]
[Awaiting target response.]
He stared at the screen.
Come on. Come on. Read it.
------------------------------
The clock above the whiteboard ticked.
Zhang Yuting looked away from him and made herself study the textbook in front of her. The textbook was upside down.
You barely know him, Yuting.
You barely know him at all.
We were just studying. He just happened to find this seat a better one. He just happened to like the same place as I do. That's all.
And besides, he only asked me about my highlighters. He just wanted to make small talk with the useless me. Nothing more.
You are not like Tingting who can make people focus on her. I'm just… me.
------------------------------
[Message Status: Read.]
[Target Reaction: Processing.]
Across the table, Long Tian's mouth went dry.
[Affection Status: -30 → -8.]
[Emotional Redirect — initial contact successful.]
His grip on the table edge loosened. Not all the way. His fingers were still white but the tendons had stopped pulling.
Twenty-two points. The number had moved up. The bleeding stopped.
His shoulders came down a fraction as Long Tian finally let out a long exhale.
[Affection Status: -8 → 19.]
[Emotional Redirect — 52% complete.]
[Affection Status: 19 → 40.]
[Emotional Redirect — 74% complete.]
[Affection Status: 40 → 61.]
[Emotional Redirect — 96% complete.]
[Baseline (61) achieved. Residual emotional fixation to Obstacle: Less than 5%.]
[STABILIZATION ACHIEVED.]
[System intervention terminated.]
[Crisis resolved.]
61.
[DING.]
He looked down at the phone.
[Su Qingxue: Tomorrow sounds perfect! I'll be there! Can't wait! 😊❤️] Received: 1:47 PM
Long Tian slumped forward over the table as if he had just finished writing a long project. His eyes went to the ceiling. A smile appeared on his face and he let out a heavy sigh of relief.
"Holy shit." The words came out before he meant to say them. "Holy shit, it actually worked."
Long Tian almost laughed aloud. He caught it just in time, pressing his lips together. Then he just sat there, eyes on the ceiling, letting himself breathe.
Across the table, Zhang Yuting watched him deflate like a punctured balloon, then inflate again, the color coming back to his face.
It was like watching a rabbit climb out from its burrow in the early morning.
All of that — the panic, the trembling, the relief, the laugh — all of it because of a single chat from some girl. A girl who wasn't even in the room.
Finally, Long Tian lowered his head.
He saw Zhang Yuting.
He saw her hands holding an upside-down book, looking at it as if she were reading. But her eyes were not on the page. They were somewhere else entirely.
The relief in his chest cooled by a degree.
"Yuting?"
Long Tian asked, sounding like a child who had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
"Uhm… Sorry."
A pause.
"That was — I shouldn't have done that. Not in front of you. Not after everything we just talked about."
His voice came out wrong. He could hear it — the smoothness from the study session was gone, and he was talking like someone who had just woken up. He kept going anyway.
Zhang Yuting did not answer immediately. She looked up from her upside-down book and watched his face for a moment the way she had watched him when he first walked into the study room.
[Zhang Yuting Affection: 61 → 62.]
[Analysis: Genuine emotional sincerity detected.]
He saw the tick. However, his eyes were not on the system's UI at all.
"It's okay," Zhang Yuting replied while avoiding his gaze entirely.
She started gathering her things. She closed her upside-down textbook, then her notebook. The six highlighters returned to their row, yellow-pink-green-blue-orange-red, all equally spaced.
"Mr. Long, you seem like you have a lot to figure out," she said, sounding like an aggrieved, jealous girlfriend. "Maybe you should go and comfort your other girl first."
She slid the chair back.
Long Tian's hand shot out and caught hers before he could stop himself.
The system hadn't told him to do this. There was no prompt, no guidance, no strategic calculation behind it.
This was just him.
[Zhang Yuting Affection: 62 → 63.]
"Wait."
Zhang Yuting paused, her gaze moving towards Long Tian's face the moment she heard his voice.
"I'm sorry," he said again. "That was — " He stopped. Tried again. "I shouldn't have done that to you."
A man doesn't make excuses for his mistakes.
And so, he shook his head, his face caught between apology and gratitude.
"Thank you. For staying. For not walking out on me."
A small, self-deprecating sound that was almost a laugh then escaped his lips.
"Can I make it up to you?"
[Zhang Yuting Affection: 63 → 64.]
Zhang Yuting studied his face for a long moment.
The hurt was still in her eyes. The aggrieved jealousy was still there too.
Then something else flickered alongside it. The corner of her mouth curved up by a fraction in a way Long Tian had not seen in the past hour.
"Actually, no."
Her hand stayed in his, holding his hand back, her grip getting tighter.
The corner of her mouth held the curve. Long Tian saw it and a small chill went down his back.
[Zhang Yuting Affection: 64 → 65.]
------------------------------
[End of Chapter]