Chapter 25: Dilemma Part 1

Ji Yan and Bai Ran stepped out one after the other, heading straight for the rooftop of the dormitory.

This area was typically reserved for students to air out their quilts and laundry. However, because Building Five was equipped with balconies—a feature that made students in other dorms green with envy—the rooftop remained largely deserted. It was the perfect place to discuss matters that weren’t meant for prying ears.

“Care to explain what happened back there?”

The moment they stepped onto the deep gray concrete of the rooftop, Ji Yan’s lazy, magnetic voice drifted from behind Bai Ran. Her tone carried the warning signs of a brewing storm; she was clearly losing her patience.

“Explain what, exactly?”

Bai Ran’s voice remained as gentle as ever, but as she turned around, her gaze dropped. She stared intently at the hand Ji Yan had used to grab Xu Yinian’s wrist.

If this mad dog is so obsessed with cleanliness, why doesn’t she just chop off the hand that touched Niannian?

Now that Xu Yinian wasn’t around, these dangerous, obsessive thoughts completely occupied Bai Ran’s mind.

“You’ve been searching for your ‘White Moonlight’ for so long. I doubt you’d have a change of heart so easily,” Ji Yan said, her dark eyes narrowing until they seemed to merge with her thick lashes, cold and oppressive like spilled ink. “So… is it Xu Yinian?”

Very few people knew about Bai Ran’s obsession with her childhood “White Moonlight,” but Ji Yan happened to be one of them. When Bai Ran first returned to the Bai Family, she had gone so far as to strike a deal with Ji Yan—driven by a frantic desperation—just to use the Ji family’s influence to find someone. In the end, she had come up empty-handed.

“Ji Yan, what are you talking about? Since when did you start believing such petty gossip?”

Bai Ran sounded surprised, but the smile in her eyes held a dark, sharp meaning that contradicted her tone.

Ji Yan hadn’t expected her to suddenly change her tune, especially since Bai Ran hadn’t denied anything back at the hospital. She squinted her narrow eyes, her expression unreadable. This denial only solidified Ji Yan’s suspicions: Xu Yinian was almost certainly the person Bai Ran had been searching for like a woman possessed.

But she had no proof.

“I’m just making a friend in the new dorm. There’s nothing to be curious about.”

As she spoke, Bai Ran suddenly closed the distance between them. Her hand brushed past Ji Yan’s jacket. “Don’t you agree, Ji Yan?”

Ji Yan’s germaphobia flared up, causing her to recoil in disgust. In that split second of distraction, her pocket felt lighter. Her phone was already in Bai Ran’s hand.

The screen was lit up, showing a recording interface.

In one fluid motion, Bai Ran hit ‘stop,’ lifted the phone to capture Ji Yan’s face for the biometric unlock, and accessed the device.

“We’ve known each other for so long. Playing these kinds of tricks is beneath you,” Bai Ran said, her voice becoming increasingly warm and kind. Her thin, pale fingertips slid across the screen, quickly sharing the recording file to her own WeChat account.

In the process, her eyes inevitably caught sight of two chat logs related to “xyn.” One was a private chat with Xu Yinian, and the other was a group chat with a third person.

She scanned them, then smiled elegantly, making no move to pry further. She was the picture of politeness—a jarring contrast to her previous unhinged behavior—as she handed the phone back.

With her eyes curved into crescents, she whispered a warning as cold as a serpent’s tongue: “Stay away from things you shouldn’t touch. It’s the only way to live a long life.”

Ji Yan, naturally, wouldn’t take back an object someone else had handled. She stared into Bai Ran’s eyes for a long moment before letting out a low chuckle.

“Don’t disappoint me.”

As Ji Yan turned to leave, a heavy thud echoed behind her—the sound of her phone being tossed into a trash can.

***

Back in the dorm, Xu Yinian found it harder and harder to focus. One hand gripped her phone while the other instinctively pressed against her lower abdomen.

She had already taken some Ibuprofen, but it felt more like a psychological placebo than actual medicine. Her body’s growing tolerance meant the effect was becoming weaker and weaker.

Xu Yinian wasn’t used to sharing her struggles with others. Even her cousin, Jiang Ke, didn’t know; Yinian always chose to endure it in silence. After all, she had always been a “transparent” person at school—someone no one noticed, so no one would find out.

Except for that one time…

Xu Yinian froze as a memory resurfaced. It was during her first year at Yuanwu No. 1 High School, on the last day before a holiday. The classroom had been a chaotic mess of students rushing to leave. The winters in Yuanwu were particularly brutal. Xu Yinian had wanted to wait until her stomach stopped hurting before heading home, so she had ended up falling into a dazed sleep at her desk.

When she woke up, the classroom was empty, but a cup of hot brown sugar ginger tea had been placed on her desk.

She had never been on the receiving end of such kindness and had no idea who sent it. She actually hated the taste of ginger and didn’t drink it, but as she held the cup, her numb, stiff hands—and her heart—began to warm up.

It wasn’t until classes resumed that something unexpected happened. The class monitor, who had never spoken a word to her before, abruptly mentioned the tea.

Startled, Xu Yinian reflexively asked if he knew who sent it. He had blinked, and the boys standing next to him started teasing him, saying that the tea he’d bought that day was for Xu Yinian after all.

Amidst the hooting and hollering, it took a long time before he reluctantly admitted it. He claimed he’d originally bought it for a friend who had already left, and since he had an extra cup and saw her sleeping alone in the classroom, he just left it there.

…It seemed that everything—every mistake, every bit of trouble—had started with that cup of tea.

It clearly wasn’t a pleasant memory. However, as time passed and she looked back on it now, the extreme embarrassment and shame she’d felt back then had largely faded.

Suddenly, she heard the beep of the dormitory door’s electronic lock.

Thinking it was Bai Ran or Ji Yan returning, she quickly straightened her back and looked toward the door.

An unexpected figure came into view.

It was… Shen Ruoshuang.

The moment the door opened, Shen Ruoshuang’s gaze locked onto her. She didn’t even notice that the fourth bed in the room looked different than usual.

Ignoring her heaving chest from running too fast, she swapped her shoes and was in front of Xu Yinian in an instant.