After finishing up, Qi Xu stepped into the hallway to talk to Chen Wei. “You can head back now.”
Chen Wei replied, “Young Master, I’ve left my contact info and Zhong Aiming’s on your desk. Just let us know if you need anything.”
Qi Xu raised an eyebrow. “Zhong Aiming?”
“He’s more on the refined side—better suited for negotiating and handling things that need a softer touch.” Chen Wei scratched his head a little sheepishly. “I look a bit fierce. People tend to get nervous around me.”
Old Master Shen had been thorough—even down to balancing appearance and temperament when assigning people to him.
Qi Xu nodded. “I’ll reach out if anything comes up.”
Chen Wei hesitated for a second, then decided to speak up. “Young Master, just a heads-up—you should keep an eye on that roommate with the bed next to yours. The moment he walked in, he was watching me like a hawk. I’m worried he might be up to something.”
Qi Xu couldn’t help but chuckle. “He’s not going to plot anything against me.”
Chen Wei frowned. As a former military sniper, he was highly observant—a key reason Old Master Shen had assigned him to Qi Xu in the first place.
Even though the other guy’s expression had seemed perfectly calm, Chen Wei had caught a fleeting glint of curiosity in his eyes. It had vanished in a split second, but his gut told him that guy was definitely not easy to deal with.
And people who played mental games with high IQs? Those were the ones he feared the most.
“Young Master, just be cautious, alright?”
Qi Xu replied, “He’s the grandson of Old Master Xie.”
Chen Wei froze on the spot, then bowed his head solemnly. “Young Master, I’m sorry. You can pretend everything I just said was total nonsense.”
First day on the job and already a major misstep.
After Chen Wei left, Qi Xu returned to the dorm.
“Your brother left?” Li Yan asked.
Qi Xu gave a small “Mm” in reply.
Li Yan instantly shut the dorm door with a conspiratorial look. “Alright, time to kick off our four-year journey as Room 314 bros. Step one—let’s add each other on WeChat and start a group chat.”
As they added contacts, both Li Yan and Feng Zhenjie reacted to Qi Xu’s username.
“Dude, your name is badass.”
“‘WastingLifeWaitingToDie’? What kind of name is that?”
Qi Xu approved their friend requests and responded simply, “Life goal.”
Li Yan grinned and said, “Guess I’ll change mine to ‘GetRichOvernight.’ That’s my life goal.”
Once the group was set up, they each introduced themselves.
Feng Zhenjie was from a mountain city and enthusiastically invited everyone to visit during break. Li Yan came from a coastal city in the south.
“You two locals?” Feng Zhenjie asked.
Xie Huai replied, “Yeah.”
Li Yan raised an eyebrow. “How’d you know? You dig up some info on them?”
Turns out, Feng Zhenjie and Xie Huai had arrived at the check-in desk at the same time. He’d seen Xie Huai get out of a Rolls-Royce with local license plates—and those sneakers on his feet? Feng had seen them online for five figures. Clearly, this guy came from serious money.
Originally, he thought rich kids like that—especially ones from the capital—would be stuck-up and hard to deal with. That had always been his stereotype: rich kids looked down on everyone.
But then Xie Huai had offered to carry books with him and even warned him about an uneven step in the path. He didn’t seem hard to get along with at all.
Of course, Feng Zhenjie wasn’t about to say all that out loud. It was just something he thought to himself.
“Didn’t you see Xie Huai’s WeChat profile location? And since he and Qi Xu are neighbors, that means they’re both locals.”
Li Yan finally caught on. “Ohhh, makes sense now.”
They continued chatting, mostly with Feng Zhenjie and Li Yan doing the talking. The two were classic social butterflies—so much so, they’d already added half the neighboring dorms on WeChat too.
Qi Xu and Xie Huai were dragged into socializing, and before long, their contacts list had a few new names.
Their five-person group chat had already exploded to 99+ new messages—mostly rants from Xu Yichen.
Fang Qian was at R University, Xu Yichen at B University, Jiang Zimu at the Academy of Fine Arts, and Qi Xu and Xie Huai were both at Q University. None of these schools were particularly far from one another—the furthest two were only a 30-minute drive apart.
But to Xu Yichen, it might as well have been the distance between planets. They had all just hung out a few days ago.
Feeling generous, Qi Xu replied with a single period in the group chat.
That only made Xu Yichen more fired up.
“Why even acknowledge him?” Xie Huai tossed his phone onto the desk, clearly not planning to deal with his out-of-control friend.
Qi Xu exited the chat window. “Accidental tap.”
Right then, Xie Huai’s phone started ringing—it was Xu Yichen calling.
He picked up, but before he could say anything, Xu Yichen’s rapid-fire voice blasted through the speaker:
“Qi Xu sent a period and ghosted! You’re at the same school—go check on him! What if something happened?!”
Xie Huai replied, “Why don’t you just take a cab and come see for yourself?”
Xu Yichen cursed. “You’re so cold and heartless. Can you act like a human being, please?”
Xie Huai glanced at the desk next to him. Qi Xu was lazily leaning back, one hand scrolling through his phone, the other casually fiddling with a string of prayer beads. His half-lidded eyes and slow movements made him look like a sleepy cat.
“He’s fine.”
“You sure?” Xu Yichen pressed. “How would you even know?”
Qi Xu was reading a file he didn’t get to finish earlier in the car. The small screen was making his eyes sore, and he was already thinking about dipping into his department’s funds to get a laptop.
Just then, a phone identical to his own was held up in front of him, displaying Xu Yichen’s name on the screen. Qi Xu glanced at Xie Huai, then leaned in and let out a single “meow.”
A subtle smile tugged at Xie Huai’s lips.
Right on cue, Xu Yichen’s booming voice echoed from the receiver:
“What the hell? You two are roommates? I went three years of high school with Ah Huai and never got placed in the same dorm. You guys meet for a few days and boom—destiny! You can’t fight fate!”
Qi Xu leaned back and asked, “Did you ever find him a Chinese tutor?”
He remembered Xu Yichen had mentioned a few days ago that Xie Huai was helping him find one. Back then, Qi Xu didn’t understand why anyone would need tutoring after the college entrance exams—but now, he got it.
Xie Huai took the phone back. “The basic course rejected him for being too old, and he’s not ready for the advanced level. So now he’s just winging it.”
Xu Yichen was just about to go off when Xie Huai hung up on him.
Furious, Xu Yichen started spamming the group chat with mock “wanted posters” for both Xie Huai and his “accomplice,” Qi Xu.
Later, Li Yan and Feng Zhenjie invited Qi Xu to explore campus, but he declined and stayed in the dorm to work on a proposal from Li Kaixing.
Xie Huai left as well.
Qi Xu wasn’t fazed by the fact they were roommates—because he knew Xie Huai would move out soon.
In his past life, whenever school let out and the Shen family’s driver came to pick him and Shen Zeyu up, Shen Zeyu would always tell the driver to swing by a certain neighborhood nearby. That’s where Xie Huai lived—off campus.
Leaning back in his chair, Qi Xu tilted his head and glanced at the bunk next to his. The dark blue silk bedding was neatly spread without a single wrinkle. From the looks of it, the owner had a meticulous, maybe even obsessive personality.
In stark contrast, Qi Xu’s own blanket was a crumpled pile tossed onto his bed.
A few knocks sounded on the door.
“Come in,” Qi Xu said.
The door didn’t open right away. After a two-second pause, it slowly creaked open.
Qi Xu looked up. Standing at the doorway was Shen Zeyu.
He obviously wasn’t here to see him, so Qi Xu didn’t bother to say anything.
“Where’s Ah Huai?” Shen Zeyu asked, glaring daggers at him.
He couldn’t understand—why this guy? Why did Qi Xu get to be in the same class and dorm as Xie Huai?
Qi Xu could practically feel the holes being stared into him. Without even lifting his head, he said, “No idea.”
Shen Zeyu walked in, no longer hiding his feelings. His hatred for Qi Xu was written all over his face.
“You must feel pretty smug, huh? Thinking you’ve made it into their little circle? That Xu Yichen and the others see you as a real friend?”
“You’re being way too naive. That circle? It’s not that simple. They just pity you—that’s all. Pity that you were switched at birth, pity that you got bullied. Those golden boys with their savior complexes pulled you into their little protection bubble, and you actually believe you’re on the same level as them.”
Qi Xu stood up from his chair and slowly stepped forward, a half-smile playing on his lips.
“Switched at birth? Don’t start telling yourself lies until you believe them. Let’s be clear—it wasn’t a mistake; it was a swap. Your greedy, despicable biological mother deliberately switched me and you.”
“And bullied? Who was it that got detained for campus violence? Who had to post bail and flee the country in disgrace without even saying goodbye? Wow, he must’ve been really into you. Why didn’t you go abroad with him, then?”
Shen Zeyu’s face went pale as a sheet. He instinctively took a step back.
“Don’t drag me into this. The Song family won’t let you off easy.”
Qi Xu chuckled, lowering his eyes to look at him.
“If they were going to do something, they would’ve done it by now. What are they waiting for—you to come forward and accuse me?”
“I won’t accuse you,” Shen Zeyu said, voice suddenly soft. “You’re Mom and Dad’s biological son. I know you don’t like me, but I’ve always seen you as my second brother.”
Qi Xu felt a wave of nausea hit him. He was just about to respond when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw someone standing at the door.
He held back and snapped, “Get lost.”
Shen Zeyu deliberately turned around and called out, “Ah Huai! Where’d you go?”
Qi Xu went back to his seat and put on his headphones. In hindsight, he should’ve gone to explore the campus with Feng Zhenjie and the others. Even if he’d already seen it in his previous life, wandering around familiar places was still better than sitting through this melodrama.
He had zero interest in watching this cheesy “will-they-won’t-they” garbage play out.
Xie Huai came in and placed a bag of bottled water on Qi Xu’s desk.
“The water dispenser won’t arrive until tomorrow. Just drink these for now.”
Qi Xu took off his headphones. “What about the others?”
“They’ll buy their own after they finish walking around,” Xie Huai replied.
“How much was it? I’ll transfer you the money.”
“No need.”
Qi Xu looked up at him. “I don’t like owing people money.”
Xie Huai silently held his gaze, eyes slightly lowered.
Qi Xu reached out to open the plastic bag, but before his hand could touch it, another hand—bigger, but just as well-defined—got there at the same time.
Rustle. The plastic bag crinkled loudly as their hands met. In the quiet dorm room, the sound was jarringly sharp.
Shen Zeyu frowned and forced himself into the conversation.
“Ah Huai, I need to talk to you about something. Can we step outside?”
Qi Xu slipped his headphones back on, ignoring both of them as he focused on his file.
Xie Huai and Shen Zeyu talked out in the hallway, and soon left together. Even by the time Qi Xu and the other two had eaten dinner and returned, Xie Huai still hadn’t come back.
Back in the dorm, Qi Xu glanced at the bottled water on the desk and remembered something.
“How much was the bottled water at the store?”
Li Yan opened his mouth to answer but hesitated.
“There was no water dispenser in the dorm, and we forgot to buy any.”
“We’ll head down later and grab some,” Feng Zhenjie said, turning to Qi Xu. “Why do you ask? What about the water?”
Wasn’t Xie Huai with them when they went out?
Qi Xu simply assumed the two had forgotten, so he divided the bottled water from the bag between them.
“No need to make another trip. When Xie Huai gets back, just transfer him the money.”
After showering, Qi Xu climbed into bed. His phone buzzed softly at the edge of the mattress.
Before he could reach for it, Feng Zhenjie—still below on the lower bunk—called out,
“Xie Huai just messaged the group. He’s not coming back to the dorm tonight, said not to wait up.”
Qi Xu didn’t pick up the phone. He lay back down and started fiddling with his prayer beads in a nightly habit before bed.
Li Yan came out of the bathroom and noticed Qi Xu already tucked in. He instinctively lowered his voice.
“Qi Xu, you’re going to sleep this early?”
Qi Xu yawned with his eyes still closed.
“I’m tired. You guys go ahead. I’ll put in my earplugs soon.”
