Ever since Xia Yiyang received the custom-made fortune cookie pendant that Sheng Lin gave him, his back stopped aching, his legs stopped hurting, and he had enough energy to knead twenty jin of ice powder in one go.
He didn’t actually have a habit of wearing jewelry or necklaces. Before this, a relative had given him a bracelet that was supposed to bring good luck on the college entrance exam—supposedly blessed at Yonghe Temple and costing a few hundred yuan—but he only wore it for two days before taking it off. The necklace Sheng Lin gave him, though, he wore day and night. Except for when he took it off to shower, it was practically on him twenty-four hours a day.
Even when he was playing on his phone, he’d free up one hand to occasionally touch the metal pendant at his neck. The silver-plated surface was smooth and delicate, toyed with by the young man’s fingertips, sometimes even reflecting his own image.
Jian Yun texted him, sharing office gossip.
@Cloudy: Ding ding ding! The precision parts your boss designed for our company passed inspection by all the business departments—100% pass rate, not a single rework! This is the fastest approval I’ve ever seen.
@YiYi: Sis, speaking of designs, Ling Ge gave me a pendant he designed. He made it in just one night. Want to see it?
@Cloudy: …?
@Cloudy: I remember my English name is Cloud, not Clown, right?
Qin Zaozao, upon learning that Xia Yiyang was actually her junior from the same school, also reached out to get closer.
@Jia Wanwan: Little Xia, do you want all four years’ worth of textbooks from the Mechanical Engineering department? Our department’s textbooks are super expensive—buying used is better than buying new. Plus, my books are practically brand new; I only wrote my name on the title page! As a favor to Sheng Lin, I’ll give you 50% off. You’ll save a ton of money!
@YiYi: Speaking of Ling Ge, how did you know he hand-made a metal fortune cookie pendant for me?
@Jia Wanwan: …?
@Jia Wanwan: Who asked you? Nobody even cares about this—WHO ASKED? Who asked you?
The young master found it so strange. Why was it that neither his sister nor Master Qin showed any interest in the pendant Sheng Lin gave him?
He shared this confusion with Sheng Lin.
Sheng Lin: “The answer is simple.” The man reached out and pulled out the pendant hidden under the boy’s T-shirt, letting it fall outside the fabric so everyone could see it. “Nobody gave them anything, so they’re jealous of you.”
Xia Yiyang suddenly understood: “So that’s it!”
His cousin and Master Qin were so pitiful—nobody had given them hand-made necklaces. He really shouldn’t rub salt in their wounds anymore.
…
Time flew by quickly. Mid-August came and went, and Xia Yiyang’s part-time job had only one week left. Soon, he’d be heading back to Beijing. He filled his little notebook with all his return-to-Beijing plans, and the most important item was having a farewell dinner with his high school classmates.
Their class had all done well on the college entrance exam. Some stayed in Beijing, while others—like Xia Yiyang—were heading to other cities to embark on a four-year-long adventure.
But Xia Yiyang was braver than them. He’d started his journey three months early, and though it had been a little bumpy, he’d gained a lot.
That evening, after his shower, Xia Yiyang sat cross-legged on the bed, comfortably enjoying the air conditioning while tinkering with his laptop.
With the start of school approaching, there was so much to prepare. Along with the admission letter came a “Guide for New Students,” reminding everyone to register for their freshman accounts on the official website in time, apply for student IDs, and handle many other trivial matters.
The cardboard box containing his admission letter sat nearby. Sheng Lin sat on the edge of the bed, flipping through the documents inside.
Xia Yiyang felt a little embarrassed and quickly snatched it away: “It’s not like you’ve never gotten one before. Why are you looking through mine?”
“It’s different.” Sheng Lin took it back, his fingertips tracing the gold-embossed lettering on the box, and said, “Only when I see your admission letter can I really confirm that you stayed.”
Xia Yiyang gave in, thinking to himself—how come he’d never noticed before that Ling Ge had separation anxiety? Still, it felt pretty good to be needed like this.
“Alright then, go ahead and look.” He assigned Sheng Lin a task. “Here, Ling Ge, help me read through the freshman guide, and I’ll check if there’s anything I haven’t done yet.”
Sheng Lin, of course, played along.
“One: Freshman online registration opens on August 15. Please complete real-name registration on the official website before September 1.”
Xia Yiyang: “I just got that done!”
“Two: Tuition must be deposited into the student bank account before September 15. The tuition amount for the School of Mechanical Engineering is… For students with special circumstances such as financial hardship, please refer to Appendix 1 for information on national student loans.”
Xia Yiyang: “I already told my mom. She’ll transfer the tuition to me in a couple of days.”
“Three: Important information for new students purchasing student train tickets…”
“Four: School registration dates are…”
“Five: Student dormitory arrangements for the School of Mechanical Engineering—”
Sheng Lin stopped reading mid-sentence.
“What’s wrong?” Xia Yiyang urged. “Keep going, Ling Ge.”
Sheng Lin held the thin freshman guide, his knuckles turning white from the pressure. After a few seconds, he continued: “—Five: Student dormitories for the School of Mechanical Engineering are located at North Park Dormitory Building 4. Freshmen should register at the security desk on the first floor upon arrival and collect their keys.”
The smile on Xia Yiyang’s face froze instantly. He stared blankly.
“Dormitory?”
“Yes, dormitory.”
“You mean… I’m moving out of here?”
“…”
Their eyes met. Sheng Lin desperately wanted to answer that question, but he couldn’t.
The four-person dormitory with bunk beds above and desks below would become the young master’s new home. He would study there, rest there, play games with his classmates there… But what about this little house? What about this bedroom?
Xia Yiyang was still leaning against the headboard, his gaze drifting blankly across every corner of the room.
The bamboo mat on the double bed carried that distinct bamboo scent, leaving grid-shaped “人” (person) marks on his skin every time he woke up; Sheng Lin preferred hard buckwheat husk pillows, but Xia Yiyang had tried one once and felt like his neck was about to break, so he’d immediately splurged on a soft memory foam pillow; in the gap between the two pillows, Xia Yiyang had placed his favorite panda plushie; and then there was the alarm clock by the bed, the colorful T-shirts in the closet, the succulents on the windowsill, the rug beneath his feet…
Xia Yiyang had only lived here for a month, yet he’d already left his mark everywhere.
He suddenly remembered that when he’d first moved into the hostel, he’d kept telling himself to treat it as a rehearsal for dorm life. But when had he forgotten that and started enjoying every day and night of living with Sheng Lin?
Their cohabitation was always meant to be temporary.
Summer vacation was about to end. He was no longer Sheng Lin’s employee, so naturally, he couldn’t stay here anymore.
The bedroom suddenly fell very quiet—so quiet that only the faint whisper of air from the AC vent could be heard. After what felt like an eternity, Sheng Lin placed the thin slip of paper back into the admission letter box and stood up to leave.
Xia Yiyang: “Where are you going?”
“Yiyi, if you’re going to live in the dorms, you’ll need to prepare some daily essentials.” The man didn’t look at him. “Don’t bother buying shampoo, body wash, and those little odds and ends—I have plenty here; you can just take them. The dorm beds are too narrow, so you’ll need to buy special bedding. Oh, and a mosquito net too…”
Xia Yiyang’s temper flared instantly.
What the hell—Sheng Lin was this eager to kick him out?! Did he even ask for his opinion?!
The young master replied with heavy sarcasm: “You’re absolutely right. I can’t wait to move into my new dorm and start my new life! Once I’m there, I can run the AC as long as I want, unlike here, where I have to constantly worry about the old house tripping the circuit breaker. And I can take as long as I want in the shower—I’ll sing at the top of my lungs and nobody can tell me otherwise!”
“…” Sheng Lin stopped and turned back. “Yiyi.”
“Why are you calling your little ancestor?”
“I’ve lived in North Park Building 4 too.”
“?”
“The dorms are pretty old. No AC, and they cut the power at night, so you can’t even use a fan.”
“…”
“The bathroom is shared between two rooms—eight people total. The walls are thin, so everyone’s shower time has to be kept under five minutes.”
Before he could finish, Xia Yiyang had already grabbed the panda plushie from beside his pillow and hurled it at him.
“Sheng! Lin!” The young master was so furious he jumped straight up, hands on his hips, standing tall and mighty on the bed, shouting his boss’s name without an ounce of respect. “I hate you! I don’t want to see you! You’re not allowed to sleep in the bedroom tonight!!”
Sheng Lin caught the panda plushie that had been thrown at him and, under the young master’s lion-like roar, was forced to retreat from the room.
The bedroom door clicked shut. Xia Yiyang paced back and forth on the bed in a huff, then flopped down with a groan, hugging his pillow and letting out a muffled scream, spinning a full 360 degrees on the mattress.
Ugh, he was so mad!
How could there be such a heartless villain like Sheng Lin in this world? He hadn’t even been officially fired yet, and Sheng Lin was already thinking about making him move out!
Xia Yiyang didn’t want to move out at all.
But if he wasn’t his employee, what identity could he possibly stay here with?
The metal pendant weighed heavily on his chest. In a fit of pique, Xia Yiyang yanked it off and was about to throw it away—but the moment his hand lifted a millimeter, he couldn’t bear to let it go and lowered it again.
The young master had worn himself out from all the fussing. His eyes drifted to the laptop still running beside him.
He scrambled up in one swift motion, pulled the laptop onto his lap, logged into his newly registered Rongda student account, and accessed the forum backend. His ten fingers began dancing across the keyboard.
【Rongda dormitory conditions】
【Are freshmen required to live on campus at Rongda?】
【Can Rongda students commute from home?】
【Can freshmen apply for off-campus housing?】
【Disadvantages of not living in the dorms as a college student】
At first, he just wanted to look up information related to the dorms. But as he searched, his keywords started to drift.
【Sheng Lin Rongda】
【Sheng Lin Rongda Mechanical Engineering】
【Rongda Mechanical Engineering Sports Meet】
【Rongda Basketball Game Sheng Lin】
【Sheng Lin Debate Team】
【Sheng Lin Robot + Competition】
The forum was filled with all kinds of posts, and behind each search result lay a stretch of past time.
It was like a magical time machine, carrying the Sheng Lin that Xia Yiyang never knew, traveling through five years of history and slowly making his way to stand before Xia Yiyang.
So Sheng Lin had once been eighteen too.
During military training, Sheng Lin was chosen by the drill instructor to be the flag bearer. While the other students rested, he had to endure drill practice under the scorching sun. By the time the month of training ended, Sheng Lin had turned completely dark-skinned—in the group photo, he looked like he’d changed ethnicities.
Haha, Ling Ge looked so ugly back then.
So Sheng Lin had zero talent for arguing.
During the college debate competition, Sheng Lin was dragged into being the third debater for his department. He only said three sentences the entire match: “Opposing counsel, please refrain from personal attacks.” “My fellow debater, please don’t get angry.” “Judge, may I ask when this will be over?”
Haha, Ling Ge was so clueless.
So Sheng Lin wasn’t just academically excellent—he was also good at sports.
Rongda held a friendly basketball game with the Police Academy, and Sheng Lin played as forward, earning MVP twice. Before the game even ended, the campus wall was flooded with posts “fishing for him,” with countless people asking for his name, major, and sexual orientation.
Xia Yiyang’s heart stirred. His fingers moved as if they had a mind of their own, clicking into that dusty old post.
[Asking: Which department does the #3 forward from today’s basketball game belong to? And does he have a partner?]
Comment 1: There are way too many posts about the #3 forward today. It’s practically flooding the board.
Comment 2: Sheng Lin, Mechanical Engineering, third year. Ask again and I’ll delete myself.
Comment 3: Don’t bother fishing. This guy is the type to seal his heart, lock his love, cut off all desires, and grow old alone. Plenty of senior and junior girls have tried to reel him in before—he turned them all down.
Comment 4: I’m the OP. I’m not a senior or junior sister—I’m a senior or junior brother. [shy]
Comment 5: Holy shit! This is Rongcheng for you.
Comment 6: Then OP still has a chance. I heard Sheng Lin is gay.
Comment 7: ????? Who said that??????
Comment 8: Isn’t spreading rumors illegal? How can you out someone on their behalf????
Comment 9: I’ve never seen Sheng Lin get close to any guy, though.
Comment 10: Sheng Lin is definitely gay. My partner’s roommate’s meal-buddy’s club classmate takes the same elective as Sheng Lin—the source is absolutely reliable.
Comment 11: That source sounds incredibly unreliable.
Comment 12: I don’t think Sheng Lin seems gay. They say the way you look at someone you like is impossible to hide, but Sheng Lin looks at guys and girls the same way he looks at a rock.
Comment 13: Is it possible that he looks at both guys and girls like they’re rocks because the person he likes just hasn’t shown up yet?
Comment 14: Is it possible that he’s just nearsighted?
Xia Yiyang stared at the last comment and burst out cackling.
The people in this thread were so funny—they actually said Sheng Lin was nearsighted? Ling Ge’s vision was perfect. Sometimes when Xia Yiyang snuck leftovers in the kitchen and forgot to wipe his mouth, Sheng Lin could spot a splash of mango juice on his collar from across the room.
And they said Sheng Lin looked at people without any emotion, like looking at a rock—how was that possible? Ling Ge’s gaze toward others was indeed cold, but it was never like that when he looked at him. Every time their eyes met, he could see something in Ling Ge’s eyes—
The smile at the corners of Xia Yiyang’s mouth suddenly stopped.
He realized that every time he looked at Sheng Lin, Sheng Lin would catch his gaze in that very instant and meet it with his own. That look—whether gentle, or cherished, or carrying some emotion Xia Yiyang couldn’t decipher—was like a summer night breeze, wrapping around him with a hazy, dewy warmth.
And what about him?
Xia Yiyang thought to himself—what did his own gaze look like when he looked at Sheng Lin?
Something was on the verge of surfacing. It was a seed planted in early summer, nourished day and night, long since taking root and sprouting, reaching toward the sun—growing, growing with all its might. It was there, it had always been there, waiting to bloom at the end of summer.
Xia Yiyang sat there in a daze. The necklace that had been loosely wrapped around his wrist suddenly came undone, and the pendant clattered against the laptop with a metallic ring.
He let out a pained yelp, quickly scooping up the fortune-cookie-shaped pendant—only to discover that a tiny crack had appeared right down its center.
Only then did Xia Yiyang realize that this pendant wasn’t just shaped like a fortune cookie on the outside—its internal structure mimicked one too, splitting cleanly in half down the middle!
He pinched both ends of the “cookie” with his fingers and gave a gentle pull. With a soft click, it actually opened.
The interior was even more intricate—precision gears so fine they could only be seen with a magnifying glass interlocked with one another, chains extending inch by inch until they revealed a tiny slip of paper hidden inside.
On the slip was a line of text, written in bold, sweeping strokes.
Xia Yiyang could almost see it—Sheng Lin bent over his desk, carefully writing those words—
— [“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”]
Xia Yiyang had come across this poem in a book before.
It was the most famous of Shakespeare’s sonnets. It used summer as a metaphor—summer had storms, scorching heat, and fickle weather, yet no one could help but love summer, because summer possessed a splendor all its own.
Shakespeare was the greatest love poet in the world. At the end of the poem, he offered a blessing to everyone who received it: “But thy eternal summer shall not fade.”
Xia Yiyang held that slip of paper in his hands as if cradling all the memories of this summer.
Just then, a knock came at the bedroom door.
Sheng Lin’s voice sounded from outside.
“Xia Yiyi,” the man asked, “are you still mad? Can I come in now?”
“…”
“I just contacted the freshman advisor for the Mechanical Engineering department—as it happens, he’s a senior I know.”
“…”
“He told me that out-of-town freshmen are technically not allowed to live off-campus. But I vouched for you.”
“…”
“If you’re willing, I can go to the department and sign your off-campus housing application. Then you won’t have to live in the dorms.”
The door swung open.
Xia Yiyang stood silently at the threshold, in Sheng Lin’s line of sight.
In his hand, he still held that small pendant.
Sheng Lin asked, “Xia Yiyi, are you willing to live with me?”
“To treat this place as your home in Rongcheng, to treat me as your family in Rongcheng, to treat us… as one.”
The young man looked up at him, bewildered: “Why? Why are you so good to me? Why do you take care of me? Why do you want to keep me here? Why do you compare me to summer?”
“Because,” Sheng Lin gazed at his summer, and said softly, “because—I like you the way I like summer.”
The moment those words fell, the young man let out a loud wail and launched himself at Sheng Lin, wrapping his arms and legs around him like a koala.
Xia Yiyang wiped tears and snot all over Sheng Lin’s shoulder, sobbing and howling.
“Sheng Lin, I hate you!”
“I hate that you’ve liked me for so long and never told me!”
“You made me feel like such an idiot!”
“So all this time you’ve been so good to me—it was all because you were attracted to me!”
“I don’t want to be summer! Summer is too long, too hot, too sunny, and too humid!”
“I want to be your four seasons—spring to make you sneeze, summer to make you get caught in the rain, autumn to make you drowsy, and winter, winter, winter to make your teeth chatter from the cold!”
“I’m going to cling to you forever!”
“I hate you! I’ve never met anyone as awful as you—you clearly like me, yet you deliberately make me hate you! Do you know I never used to cry before? But with you, I’ve been wronged so many times!”
To every word he said, Sheng Lin answered, “Okay.”
Sheng Lin wrapped one arm around the young man’s waist and supported his bottom with the other—solid and warm, like holding a sun.
They stayed like that for who knew how long. Finally, Xia Yiyang calmed down a little, but tears still streamed down his face like free-flowing water.
All this time, the hazy feelings he hadn’t been able to see or understand finally had an answer.
Sheng Lin freed one hand to wipe the young man’s tears.
But they only came faster.
“Alright, my little young master, stop crying.” The man asked him, “Still hate me?”
Xia Yiyang huffed: “Of course. I haven’t hated you enough yet.”
Sheng Lin asked again: “Then when you’ve had enough of hating me, can you like me?”
“…”
“Hm?”
The young man said nothing. He wrapped his arms around Sheng Lin’s shoulders and, in a huff, buried his face in the crook of his neck.
A long, long time passed. Finally, a voice sounded by Sheng Lin’s ear.
“Your time for being hated ends now.
“Ling Ge, starting from now—I like you.”
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