He suddenly felt a bit guilty, wondering if he really had been too careless toward Shen Ming. After all, he was his advisor.
He stealthily pulled out his phone and sent Shen Ming a message.
But the message went unanswered for a long time. Ye Yang began to grow restless, worrying that something might have happened, then telling himself that a god on earth couldn’t possibly run into trouble, then thinking back to how listless Shen Ming had looked the day before. He also recalled Li Chanyi’s words.
Although Li Chanyi sometimes exaggerated, she wouldn’t casually say something as unpleasant as claiming someone was unhealthy. And it was true that Shen Ming had excessive dampness—how could a water creature not seem damp to human perception?
But… frail?
Finally enduring until the end of class, Li Chanyi closed her textbook and repeated, “Seriously, you should ask Teacher Shen about it.”
…
Ye Yang thought it over and decided to contact Tu Manli.
Tu Manli was utterly speechless. “Shen Ming not replying to messages? That’s as normal as it gets! It’s only been half a day. Usually, it takes him three or four days to reply. He really is a turtle at heart.”
Ye Yang let out a surprised “Oh?” “Really? But whenever I send him a message, Teacher Shen replies very quickly.”
Tu Manli raised an eyebrow. If she didn’t know Ye Yang’s personality well, she would have thought he was humble-bragging. “Looks like the great Shen Ming really cares about his little apprentice.”
Ye Yang added, “Also, Teacher Shen has an old injury that hasn’t healed for so long. Could it have gotten worse?”
Tu Manli: “…Wish him well, why don’t you!”
“Alright, alright. If you’re really that worried, just go to his place after school and check on him. Stop overthinking.”
·
After afternoon classes ended, Ye Yang returned to the apartment.
As soon as the elevator doors opened, he could feel a heavy, low energy emanating from the apartment across from his. Even the front door and the surrounding hallway walls seemed a shade dimmer than usual.
Even stranger, Shen Ming, who always kept his aura extremely well-concealed, now felt overwhelmingly present to Ye Yang’s senses—like a person who always kept his shirt buttoned all the way to the top suddenly walking around stark naked.
“Knock, knock, knock!”
“Knock, knock, knock!”
…
“Creak—”
After a long bout of knocking, the door finally opened. A wave of heat rushed out, and a mountain appeared in the doorway.
The room was fully heated. Shen Ming was wrapped in an ultra-thick, oversized blanket, his head even covered, leaving only his face exposed. The floor was littered with all kinds of blankets, covering the living room and extending all the way into the bedroom. The usually lively Spirit Serpent, moving as if in slow motion, carefully avoided the bare floor and crawled over via the blankets.
“What is it?”
Shen Ming spoke as if at half speed.
Ye Yang babbled on for a while. Shen Ming nodded slowly, then replied just as slowly:
“It’s just hibernation.”
Shen Ming claiming he needed to hibernate was about as shocking as a rooster announcing it was about to lay an egg.
It took Ye Yang a moment to process before remembering: the temperature had dropped sharply this morning, and the weather forecast had underestimated the cold snap. During class, many students had been sniffling or coughing.
Even Ye Yang himself had shivered when leaving the dorm.
But he really hadn’t expected that Shen Ming would actually need to hibernate. He was a god!
The Spirit Serpent finally made it to the door and explained, “It’s completely normal. Turtles and snakes hibernate.”
Shen Ming nodded. “Don’t worry.”
Ye Yang’s mouth twitched. Was this right? Weren’t they the Mystic Turtle and Spirit Serpent?
And with the heating cranked up so high at home, they were still acting like they were afraid of the cold—was that really okay? This wasn’t just a little weak, this was clearly very weak! Had Li Chanyi actually been right?
His expression must have been too obvious, because the Spirit Serpent added, “It’s not true hibernation, exactly. It’s because our injuries haven’t fully healed. So when winter comes, we get more drained. Our movements and reactions slow down, and sometimes we fall into a deep sleep—like these past few days.”
“Usually, it only happens during the coldest stretch—half a month at most.”
Ye Yang chose his words carefully before asking, “Speaking of which, how is your old injury healing, Teacher Shen?”
There was no response for a long time. Ye Yang worried he had said something wrong or asked something he shouldn’t have. He looked up—
“……zzZ”
Had he fallen asleep standing up?!
Fortunately, the next moment, Shen Ming’s eyes opened again. “…Huh?”
Ye Yang quickly waved his hands. “Teacher Shen, you two get some good rest. I won’t bother you anymore.”
Shen Ming nodded again, then turned and walked back with his eyes closed. The Spirit Serpent was too lazy to move on his own, so he simply draped himself over Shen Ming’s head and shoulders like a dead snake hanging from a tree branch.
Only after watching them enter the bedroom did Ye Yang gently close the door and let out a sigh of relief.
Hibernation. Truly terrifying.
·
The next day, following the Meteorological Bureau’s announcement that China would experience a rare, large-scale cold snap unseen in a century, with Dongzhou City facing prolonged low temperatures, the university’s official website also released a notice.
From now until the winter break, Professor Shen Ming’s classes would be covered by the college dean, Professor Cui Xipeng, including the final exam grades, which Professor Cui would also be responsible for.
Although the esteemed Dean Cui Xipeng was a respected dean and a heavyweight in the field, he had always been very approachable, and the students weren’t afraid of him at all.
As soon as he entered the classroom, a female student asked loudly, “Dean, dean, why you? Why isn’t Teacher Shen coming to class anymore?”
Cui Xipeng pretended to be angry and put on a stern face. “You’re all just thinking about him. When it comes to looks, I was no worse than him when I was young!”
Unfortunately, everyone knew his personality and wasn’t the least bit intimidated. Another girl grinned and joked, “Professor Cui, they’re all about the handsome face. I, for one, am very happy to have you teach us. Remember to go easy on me at finals!”
Someone else asked, “Dean, what’s wrong with Teacher Shen? He’s not sick, is he?”
Cui Xipeng explained, “Don’t worry, he’s fine. Shen Ming is a specially appointed adjunct professor, so he’s not actually under Dongzhou University’s management. Besides, he has this eccentricity—even at my research institute, he refuses to come to work when it gets cold.”
As he spoke, he actually got a little annoyed. “Hmph! And he still refuses to work overtime normally. We should just take away his weekends entirely.”
A male student muttered under his breath, “I’d love to have a boss like that…”
Combining Shen Ming’s situation with Professor Cui’s explanation, Ye Yang suddenly understood. So that was it. He had made such a big fuss over nothing, even disturbing Teacher Shen’s hibernation for something so trivial. He really shouldn’t have. He needed to be more steady in the future.
Professor Cui was very witty. After chatting casually with the students for a while, he had already bonded with them before class even officially started. No one minded the mid-semester teacher swap anymore; in fact, quite a few students were rather pleased.
A handsome face was nice to look at, but final grades were important too. Professor Cui was famous for going easy on students!
…
Halfway through the lecture, Li Chanyi suddenly bumped into Ye Yang. Ye Yang turned and saw him pushing his middle finger against the bridge of his glasses, looking very serious. “I don’t think it’s as simple as Dean Cui made it sound.”
“Huh?” Ye Yang looked down again at the full page of content that Professor Cui had just explicitly stated needed to be memorized in its entirety and said earnestly, “This isn’t simple either.”
“Ugh, I’m not talking about that!” Li Chanyi couldn’t keep up the act any longer. He pushed his glasses up onto his forehead, revealing his lively eyes again. “I’m talking about Teacher Shen taking leave.”
“…”
No one responded for a long time. He turned his head and saw Ye Yang scribbling away furiously—in the time it took to say a few sentences, he had already filled half a page of notes.
After a while longer, class was almost over. He couldn’t hold back anymore and spoke up on his own: “Aren’t you going to ask me what’s wrong?”
Ye Yang didn’t even look up. “What’s wrong?”
Li Chanyi immediately perked up and rattled off a bunch of things. Ye Yang was busy listening to the lecture and caught a few words—something like “conspiracy,” “persecution,” “capitalist”—and knew there was no need to listen closely.
That guy was overthinking again. If only he put that energy into studying.
The next class required a room change. Ye Yang stood up to let Li Chanyi out from the inside row, but Li Chanyi stumbled and nearly fell three times in just two steps.
Ye Yang grabbed him by the back of his collar and hoisted him up. “I’ve been meaning to ask—why are you suddenly wearing glasses?”
“Oh, these?” Li Chanyi struck the same middle-finger pose again. “Cool, right? Don’t I look way smarter?”
“Smarter, sure. Then why are you rubbing your temples?”
“The prescription is too strong. I don’t even need glasses—wearing them is really uncomfortable.”
“…Then take them off already!!”
What was wrong with this guy? And where did he even get such ill-fitting glasses??
·
The unusual cold snap not only brought winter to Dongzhou City early but also delivered a rare heavy snowfall to this southern city.
It fell precisely one day after final exams ended. The snow fell for three full days before stopping.
Three days ago, the students had already left the university one after another. Ye Yang’s three roommates had also gone their separate ways—back to the Taoist temple, back to the mountains, and the one who needed to report to the club had been packed off early by the club manager.
Ye Yang, naturally, returned to the apartment.
Shen Ming’s place remained quiet, completely still. It was anyone’s guess whether he had woken up in between. The Black Tortoise’s aura surrounding the apartment was slightly weaker but still calm and steady.
The snow stopped in the middle of the night. When Ye Yang got up in the morning, he first scrolled through his moments on his phone, liking and commenting on Qin Zhi and Xuan Lu’s snowball fight as well as Li Chanyi’s health soup post. Then he pulled open the curtains.
After three days of heavy snow, the sky that had been gloomy and overcast suddenly revealed the sun. Sunlight shone down on the pristine white snow, reflecting an even more dazzling brilliance.
Looks pretty pleasant, Ye Yang thought to himself, and pushed open the bedroom window.
The next second, he firmly closed the window again and opened the weather app.
Yikes, he’d almost forgotten—after the snow stops, it’s even colder than when it’s snowing. Today it was only minus twelve degrees Celsius! Even colder than during the snowfall.
Ye Yang did a quick check. The lowest recorded temperature in Dongzhou City was minus 12.5 degrees Celsius. This was approaching an all-time record.
Even though he was physically stronger than an ordinary human and more resistant to the cold, as a certain sea hare from the tropics, he really didn’t enjoy such freezing weather.
“Ah…” He sighed dejectedly, but still quickly changed his clothes.
He had to go out today. It had been over half a month since he’d last visited the little crow at the park, starting from finals week. With such heavy snowfall, Ye Yang was genuinely worried and wanted to go check on things.
Soon, Ye Yang returned from the park.
“Just as I thought. Maybe the little crow really has left.” He muttered to himself alone in the elevator. “That’s fine, I suppose. Wherever it went, it’s better than freezing to death.”
Still, he couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed. Not even his favorite egg-filled pancake could lift his spirits.
When he got home, he pushed open the apartment door—and froze.
Outside the living room window, on top of the air conditioning unit, was a familiar little figure. Completely motionless. Lifeless.
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