Senior, I'm having a miserable time.

Fu Ziheng was not surprised at all. He got out of the car with a swinging, smiling face.
"Senior, am I not a stranger anymore? This is already the second time I've shown up."
His voice was drawn out, rogueish and endlessly persistent.
Ye Mian honestly couldn't tell whether this young man was genuinely pure of heart and oblivious to social conventions, or if he was simply thick-skinned and deliberately pestering her.
Anyway.
Ye Mian found it amusing. "I'm very busy, and I don't like adding people on WeChat. Why don't you go find someone else to make your bets with?"
Fu Ziheng smiled as well. "The bet is one thing, but I really do want to add you on WeChat, Senior. The harder something is to get, the more you want it."
Ye Mian looked at him and let out a soft sigh. The last time she had been cornered like this was a long time ago, back when Zhou Yu was pursuing her so audaciously.
Except Zhou Yu at least had some restraint, whereas this guy named Fu Ziheng seemed to have none at all.
Seeing Ye Mian gazing at him, her small face illuminated by the streetlamp's glow, making her look exceptionally bright and pretty, Fu Ziheng paused, then frankly voiced his thoughts: "Even if it started as a bet, I genuinely want to get to know you now. The moment I walked past just now, I thought you were breathtakingly gorgeous. I like you, for real."
The April night breeze blew gently, making one feel slightly at ease.
Ye Mian was speechless and bewildered. Talk about speaking of the devil—here was this massive trouble-maker Fu Ziheng confessing his liking for her.
His kind of liking was utterly terrifying; there was no telling when some girlfriend of his might pop out to catch them in the act.
If she had a pepper spray in her hand right now, she would definitely teach him a harsh lesson in manners.
Having said those words, even Fu Ziheng himself felt a bit stunned for a moment, before he added, "I'm serious, I'm not lying to you. I can give you however much money you want, I just want to add you on WeChat."
His capacity for affection was rather broad; he could like pretty hair, slim and slender fingers, an exquisite face, or even someone's unique scent.
As for Ye Mian, he really liked this senior's eyes and her overall aura, which always made one unable to resist taking a few extra glances.
Come to think of it, even he felt he was being quite shameless.
On such a spring night, the trees were bursting with blossoms.
Ye Mian looked at the rutting big trouble-maker in front of her, and left him with only a single sentence:
"Thanks, but I'm not short on money, and I already have a boyfriend. Please do me the favor of not coming to bother me anymore. Even if spring has arrived, you still need to exercise some self-control, okay?"
With that, she quickly pulled Qin Feifei and Wang Xiang along, hurried back into the school, and headed up to the girls' dormitory building.
Huh?
Fu Ziheng stood frozen in place, taking quite a while to figure out what that meant.
Was she comparing him to an animal?
Spring arrives and he goes into rut?
——
Inside the Wenda University girls' dormitory.
Ye Mian sat on her little bed, speechlessly staring at the ceiling, while Qin Feifei and Wang Xiang sat nearby, clutching their stomachs in laughter, mocking Ye Mian for her vicious tongue.
Ye Mian was just about to speak when her phone vibrated.
It was a call from Lin Shan.
Ye Mian pressed a finger to her lips, gesturing for her friends to quiet down, before pressing answer and saying a tentative "Hello."
"Hello, Ms. Ye, I've arrived at the entrance of Wenda University. Are you finished yet?"
Ye Mian blinked, walked over to the window, and saw that Fu Ziheng was still standing right there.
She felt her vision go dark.
With profound embarrassment, she explained into the phone: "Ah, Mr. Lin, I've run into a bit of trouble and can't come out just yet. Could you go back first? I'm so sorry."
Holding the phone, Lin Shan glanced back toward the rear of the car and frowned. "What kind of trouble did you run into? Do you need my help?"
Ye Mian didn't want Jiang Chenyuan to get jealous all the way from overseas, so she didn't mention Fu Ziheng to Lin Shan.
Yet, asking her to go down there right now would also be rather... awkward.
So she said in a soft, gentle voice, "No need, I can handle it."
Sensing the gaze fixed on him from behind, Lin Shan remained exceptionally persistent. "Ms. Ye, take your time with whatever you're doing. I'll wait outside for you a little longer."
Having attended classes all day, Ye Mian was somewhat exhausted, so she refused again, "Really, no need, Mr. Lin. I think I'll just sleep in the dorm tonight. Have a safe trip back, and I'm sorry for the inconvenience today."
The young woman had said "no need" twice in a row.
Having no other choice, Lin Shan turned around to seek help from the person in the back seat.
In the dim rear of the car, two rows of small interior lights emitted a faint glow. Jiang Chen sat there with his fingers intertwined, eyes lightly closed, his features delicate and pale yet exuding an aristocratic aura that naturally drew the eye, reducing everything else to mere background.
Lin Shan had left the phone on speaker, and the young woman's voice had been crystal clear inside the cabin.
He hadn't expected that his boss would rush back the moment he landed in the country to pick someone up, only for that person to hole up in the school and refuse to come out.
Jiang Chen opened his eyes, took the phone handed over by Lin Shan with his slender fingers, turned off the speakerphone to switch to the earpiece mode, and held the phone to his ear.
His voice was cool and low: "You're really not coming home?"
……
Initially, hearing no sound from the other end, Ye Mian had been about to hang up, but just as she lit up her screen—
The sudden shift in the voice coming through the phone made her abruptly halt her movements.
She was startled, struck as if by a thunderbolt.
That voice sounded remarkably like... Jiang Chen's?
Eyes wide with disbelief, she quickly blurted into the phone:
"Hurry over, wait for me."
……
Lin Shan stared in dumbfounded shock at the phone handed back by his boss.
"She... I..." He choked on his words, ultimately accepting the harsh reality of how fleeting friendship could be over the span of a few short months.
Qin Feifei had just finished displaying her sisterly affection by making up a bed for Ye Mian, only to hear her little friend announce she was heading back down.
She exchanged a glance with Wang Xiang, put her hands on her hips, and feigned anger.
"Little Ye Mian, where do you think you're going? You just said you were going to play Landlords with us!"
"No way you're leaving, absolutely not letting you leave today."
Guilt-ridden, Ye Mian murmured an apology, and following the unspoken traditional rule of breaking plans, she pulled out her phone and sent two red envelopes into the dormitory group chat.
"I really do have something to take care of. Jiang Chen is back."
Qin Feifei and Wang Xiang glanced at their phone screens, instantly changing their tune and softening their tones considerably.
"Why didn't you say so earlier about something like this?"
"Exactly, hurry up and go. I'll open the door for you."
"Thank you, my dears." Ye Mian smiled, picked up her bag, and walked lightly down the stairs.
The thought that Jiang Chen was right outside the gates of Wenda University made her take two steps in one, the smile on her face deepening a fraction.
Until she reached the bottom of the girls' dormitory building. The evening breeze brushed softly past, and Fu Ziheng was still standing there like a plague god.
The moment Ye Mian saw him, the smile on her face faded.
It wasn't that she detested the guy.
It was just that he was giving her a massive headache!
Her legitimate boyfriend was right outside.
And recently, he had unlocked the jealousy skill.
She desperately wanted to avoid making Jiang Chen jealous.
Upon seeing her, Fu Ziheng's expression didn't change much, though his tone carried a somewhat pitiful edge. "Senior, you cursed me out and then ran away. That's really lacking in ethics. The school says we're supposed to have unity and friendship."
Ye Mian arched a brow. Unity and friendship, my foot—since when did any university care about that?
Yet, being eager to get out of there, she pulled out her phone and said, "Fine, I was in the wrong. Come here, let me transfer you some mental distress compensation so you can go hit on some other young lady, alright? Please just work your magic elsewhere."
Spending money to avert disaster—everyone knew how to do that!
Fu Ziheng didn't refuse either. "Then add me on WeChat and transfer it to me there?"
Ye Mian gritted her teeth. She could hear the sound of his abacus clicking from a mile away.