It was an ordinary dusk.
Ye Yang left the research institute and walked alone on his way back to the dormitory.
Shen Ming had left early that day due to other matters, so Ye Yang had stayed a little longer to help the logistics aunt move several loads of waste materials. By the time he finished, everyone else had already left.
The evening breeze was very pleasant—a rare cool spell in an otherwise hot August. As Ye Yang passed by a park, he changed course and decided to go inside for a while.
The sun hadn’t set yet, so it was a good chance to soak up some rays. Ever since moving into the dorm, he hadn’t had a chance to fully relax and bask in the sun.
The park was quite large—even bigger than the one across from Shen Ming’s apartment. But there were very few people. The residents in this area tended to be older, and many believed that the park had too many crows, which they considered bad luck, so they avoided the place.
The fewer people came, the more crows gathered.
Ye Yang sat down on a relatively clean bench. Before long, a little crow landed beside him.
This crow was on the smaller side—probably not fully grown yet—but it was remarkably bold and showed no fear of humans at all.
As soon as it landed, a macadamia nut fell from its open beak.
Ye Yang watched it with interest and quickly figured out what the little crow was trying to do.
The macadamia nut was round and kept rolling all over the place, making it hard to manage. The clever little crow wanted to wedge it into the gap between the wooden slats of the bench.
But the gap was too narrow—the nut wouldn’t stay put no matter what.
After watching for a moment, Ye Yang said, “Want me to help?”
He didn’t actually expect the little crow to understand him. But the crow tilted its head, gave him a few looks, and then actually picked up the macadamia nut and dropped it into Ye Yang’s outstretched palm.
Then it fixed its full attention on Ye Yang, supervising him closely.
Ye Yang swore he could see sharpness in those tiny little beady eyes—as if saying, If you dare steal my nut, I’ll call twenty of my brothers to come beat you up.
Ye Yang pressed the macadamia nut firmly against the bench with both hands. The little crow hopped over, pecked it open in one swift move, and the nut meat inside split into two halves.
The little crow ate one half and pushed the other half toward Ye Yang.
After that, Ye Yang started visiting the park often. Whenever he came, he would bring some nut snacks. The little crow and Ye Yang could easily recognize each other.
The crow was incredibly smart. Sometimes Ye Yang even suspected it might not be an ordinary crow at all.
And it grew so fast. In just half a month, it had become the largest crow in the area and seemed to have taken over as the leader of the crow flock.
And so, more than half a month passed. Before long, it was the end of September.
After formal classes started, Ye Yang no longer passed by that park on his usual route, but he still made a special trip there almost every day at noon. He had come to see the little crow as a true friend.
He had even pointed out the direction of his apartment and his school dormitory to the little crow, saying half-jokingly, half-seriously, “If you ever really can’t find food, you can come find me.”
Sure enough, all he got in return was a disdainful look from the little crow—as if to say, “How could I possibly not find food?? Who do you think you’re looking down on? I’m doing you a favor by eating your snacks.”
But then, on the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival, the little crow suddenly disappeared.
That day, Ye Yang waited but the crow never showed. He had no choice but to leave when it was time for his afternoon class.
He thought it was just a one-time thing. But in the following days, no matter when he went to the park—one day he even stayed there the entire night—he never saw the little crow again.
The little crow had vanished without any warning.
Ye Yang didn’t know what to call the feeling he had. All he knew was that it hurt.
Though the little crow was neither human nor demon clan, it had been his first real friend in human society.
And that friend had left without even saying goodbye…
·
“Alright, class dismissed.”
Shen Ming’s voice rang out almost simultaneously with the end-of-class bell. The students stirred restlessly, itching to go up to him. Even if they couldn’t get his personal number, just being able to say a few words would be nice, right?
Ye Yang quietly packed his bag and searched for the textbook for his next class. He overheard the long-haired girl in the front row whispering, “Professor Shen is way too cold. The contact information he left for students is actually the college office landline and Dean Professor Cui Xipeng’s phone number! He said if we have any questions, just ask Professor Cui?!”
The short-haired girl next to her said, “Oh my god, does Professor Cui even know about that?”
“Yeah, he knows. He definitely knows. Look at his pinned WeChat Moments post.”
Ye Yang really wasn’t trying to snoop, but the two girls’ phone screens were right under his nose. Cui Xipeng’s latest pinned post read: “Anyone looking for Shen Ming can give it a rest. He won’t answer any questions outside of professional matters. And for professional matters, he’s also said that students can just ask me.”
Below the text was a photo of Professor Cui taken by a student during his own lecture. In the photo, Professor Cui’s toupee had blown up off his head, looking extraordinarily ethereal…
The two girls kept chatting. “Should we go or not? If we don’t go soon, Professor Shen will leave!”
“It wouldn’t do much good anyway. Don’t you remember last class?”
The previous class had been Shen Ming’s first lecture. It was a required course for their major, taught in a split-class format, so the room should have only held the forty students from their class. But when Ye Yang and Li Chanyi arrived ten minutes early, they couldn’t even find a place to sit.
The entire classroom—inside and out—was packed with people. In the end, Shen Ming had to use a roll-call tactic to drive out all the unrelated people.
Fortunately, Professor Shen was sufficiently authoritative. His expressionless face carried a strong deterrent effect. Otherwise, there’s no telling how that class would have gone.
Even so, people kept lingering outside the door throughout the lecture. Ye Yang deeply admired these people. Others might not know, but he knew full well—Professor Shen had played dirty. To drive people away, he had even unleashed the pressure belonging to the God of the North. Yet these ordinary humans had managed to withstand it!
After class, those who had waited outside for the entire two-hour lecture even rushed in to ask Shen Ming for his contact information. Shen Ming left without saying a word.
Ye Yang had no idea how he did it. Though Shen Ming’s steps appeared neither large nor fast, he vanished almost instantly. Ye Yang suspected he had secretly used some kind of magic like “shrinking the ground.”
The other girl still hadn’t given up. “Professor Shen probably isn’t that cold with his own students, right? During class, I saw him seriously answer the questions the class monitor asked.”
Even as she said this, neither of them ultimately found the courage to act. They watched helplessly as Shen Ming’s figure disappeared through the doorway and let out a long sigh.
Suddenly, right then, Shen Ming came back.
“Professor Shen… is he walking toward us?” The long-haired girl sounded uncertain.
The short-haired girl panicked a little. “It really looks like it. You don’t think he heard what we said?!”
As Shen Ming drew closer, the two girls and the people around them gradually fell silent, some even holding their breath.
Ignoring the strange atmosphere, Shen Ming walked straight past the two girls and stopped beside Ye Yang. “Ye Yang, remember to come home this weekend. I need to talk to you about something.”
Leaving those words behind, and confirming that Ye Yang had heard him, he turned and left again.
In an instant, the entire classroom’s attention focused on Ye Yang.
Ye Yang froze. His instinct was to run, but Li Chanyi, sitting next to him, grabbed his arm. “What’s your relationship with Professor Shen?? Are you two family?”
That question was exactly what all the classmates were wondering now. As soon as Li Chanyi spoke, a crowd gathered around them.
The long-haired girl in the front row gasped. “Our class has such a cute boy? Fess up—what’s your relationship with Professor Shen!”
“Do you have Professor Shen’s contact information?”
“Do you know what Professor Shen likes?”
“How old is Professor Shen, anyway? Does he have a girlfriend?”
“Or a boyfriend?”
Ye Yang was completely overwhelmed. He stammered out an explanation, but his classmates didn’t believe him. “No way—it can’t just be that you’re neighbors. You’re way too close for that!”
“Right, right! And he said ‘come home’ and ‘I need to talk to you about something’—that sounds pretty unusual.”
In a flash of desperation, Ye Yang brought up Director Tu and Teacher Yu, claiming that Professor Shen had taken on a favor from his former teachers and happened to also be his neighbor. “There’s really nothing special between me and Professor Shen!”
After barely managing to fudge his way through, it took another ten-plus minutes to escape the classroom. Ye Yang was genuinely terrified now. These humans are so scary!
…
Shen Ming walked to an empty stairwell and teleported directly back to his apartment. No sooner had he sat down than Ling She popped out. “You’re so mean—deliberately teasing Little Bunny. But I like it, hehe. Who told Little Bunny to take the long way around whenever he sees us and pretend he doesn’t know us?”
Shen Ming refused to admit it. “That’s not true. I was just reminding him—there’s a mission this week.”
Ling She sighed, exasperated. “What’s the point of arguing with me? I know exactly what you’re thinking.”
Flustered and annoyed, Shen Ming locked Ling She up again.
·
Shen Ming probably hadn’t expected that his single sentence would cause Ye Yang endless trouble.
From that day on, strange classmates and schoolmates kept finding Ye Yang through various channels, all hoping to get some information about Shen Ming.
For four whole days, Ye Yang was endlessly annoyed and disturbed, but there was nothing he could do. Li Chanyi had helped chase away quite a few people, but there were always those who wouldn’t give up.
Ye Yang couldn’t really blame Shen Ming. His reminder was valid—if he hadn’t mentioned it, Ye Yang really might have forgotten that he had a mission from Director Tu to complete this weekend.
The problem was simply that Shen Ming’s charisma was too overwhelming.
He asked Little Thirteen for advice, but Little Thirteen had never encountered anything like this either, and his other friends had no good solutions.
During this time, apart from going to class and occasionally visiting the park, Ye Yang stayed in the dormitory. He didn’t even dare go to the cafeteria or the library anymore.
It didn’t really matter anyway—he could go several days without eating.
The eldest, Shen Xiuyun, saw Ye Yang holed up in the dorm and asked what was wrong. Only then did he learn about Ye Yang’s predicament.
“Hmm, so that’s it. Don’t worry, little one. Leave it to the big brother.”
Ye Yang thanked him but didn’t have high hopes. To his surprise, from that very day onward, no one came to bother him anymore.
“Big brother, you’re amazing!” Ye Yang returned to the dorm and thanked him sincerely.
“I was just about to tell you—it was actually the third brother’s doing.” Shen Xiuyun pointed at Zhuang Li, who was playing on his computer.
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