"This is...?!"

"Node [Two]."

...

...

Thump!

His heart kicked like a startled drum. Then something clamped his chest like a cold hand, freezing Yexiaobai in place. Words died, and his pupils slowly tightened like closing shutters.

In his eyes, a young woman bloomed, twenty or so, beauty bright as first spring.

The stairwell was dim, a well of shadow. Only a high skylight poured down a strip of light, thinned by frosted glass like milked moonlight, falling soft and ambiguous across the long-haired girl stepping from the corner.

"It's you...?"

Suzhiaoyao first glanced at Yexiaobai. Surprise flickered like a spark in her slightly upturned eyes. Then her gaze dipped, a blade falling, and landed on the notebook in Yexiaobai's arms. Her name glowed there in the dark, a cold phosphor.

Her cherry lips parted a breath. Her brows, willow-slim, drew together inch by inch. Even furrowed, they were elegant, yet the anger inside was unmistakable. Yexiaobai, mouth dry and nerves buzzing like a hive, missed the other tides in her stare—subtle, hidden currents tugging beneath the ice.

"Classmate."

Suzhiaoyao's voice matched her face and her bearing—cool water over stone, tinged with a maturity beyond her age.

Her aura hit like winter air. Yexiaobai felt as if he faced a teacher. He jolted and answered at once, "Yes."

"Not going to explain?" She arched a brow. Her gaze stabbed the notebook like a sword point. The chill said that a wrong word might pierce paper and heart in one thrust.

"Expla—" Yexiaobai gave a bitter smile. "If I say someone forced this on me, I never wanted it—would you believe me, Suzhiaoyao?"

Suzhiaoyao only looked at him, expressionless, silent as a frozen lake. She didn't sneer or mock, yet pressure rolled off that calm stare like storm weight—besides, at one-seventy in height, that alone pressed on a boy like a mountain.

Whoa. Suzhiaoyao's aura—super—terrifying, okay?! How can someone our age feel this overwhelming? What trials did she walk through? Is she really a senior in high school?

Yexiaobai almost felt he was facing Teacher Xu Yanfang in full wrath.

Say something. Anything. He had to say something. Standing here like a post would only rot the moment. But what words could unknot this mess?

Words... words—

"Words—" The syllable jumped out before thought, like a fish breaking the surface.

"Words?" Suzhiaoyao watched him.

"A play—do you want to be in it?"

The line slipped out. The air around them dropped like a sudden frost. His face locked up on the spot.

—Pff!

Yexiaobai wanted to cough up three liters of blood.

What did I just say?! This is our first proper meeting! And we opened on the cold, almost hostile side! And I just invited her to a play out of nowhere! She's a campus-and-city-famous beauty! Why would she care? She might not even know me! This is absurd to the extreme!

"Ah, ah. S-so—" The words were out, and Yexiaobai finally realized. Too late. Under Suzhiaoyao's indifferent gaze, he could only double down, riding the tumble of his own tongue. "I'd like to invite you to the play! For the school anniversary—afraid you'd say no—s-so I wanted to know more about you! I asked others for your... information. So I—"

"Okay."

"Th-uh—" Yexiaobai stared wide at Suzhiaoyao. "Okay meaning...?"

"Okay means I agree." Her face was level as calm water. No tease, no scorn. She cut off his next question with a word. "Time."

Yexiaobai answered on reflex, "Uh, this Saturday."

"Place?"

"M-my house." He tested the waters. No way she'd go to a strange boy's place on a first meet, right?

Sure enough, Suzhiaoyao frowned slightly. Yexiaobai thought she would refuse, but then she asked, "Any other girls?"

"Yes. Three total. The other two are girls."

"Then that'll do." Suzhiaoyao nodded, turned, and left like a clean gust.

"Then—"

He stared after the receding girl, dazed for a long beat. Then it hit. He opened his mouth, then closed it as that crisp, decisive back faded. He looked down at the notebook in his arms with a crooked smile.

"So 'that'll do'—what does that mean, exactly..."

...

...

"Huh? What did you say?"

"Uh... I said I think I just invited Suzhiaoyao."

Second-to-last break before the final class in the afternoon.

The math teacher left the night’s long homework crawling across the blackboard, like vines, and walked out. The students below stared at the quarter-board of assignments, minds buzzing like struck gongs.

Amid the groans, Yexiaobai propped an elbow on the desk and his chin on his fist. He was uncommonly quiet. Not because he loved math, but because the morning’s PE scene kept drifting up like fog.

Xiaobai could not fathom why Suzhiaoyao accepted so easily—especially when he’d approached like a near-creepy stalker, with an invitation that sounded anything but sincere.

Suzhiaoyao... did she actually believe it?

A shiver ran through him first. Then cold spread over his skin like spilled ink. "She can’t really think I hunted her info just to invite her to a play, right? She’s not that... straightforward, right?"

In his mind rose her morning stance, stern and clear. Just a few lines traded, yet her presence, beyond ordinary high school girls, had etched deep like a blade mark.

Her temperament wasn’t vile, not really cold either. But that fine face made hearts lean forward, even as a distance opened like misted glass—beautiful, far, untouchable.

If he had to compare, a completely different girl flashed through Yexiaobai’s mind.

"Kinda like... Mingming."

"Did you call me?"

A strand of scented hair dropped into view. Then a pair of eyes ringed with dark circles fixed on him, so close he almost yelped.

"Mingming! When did you go out?" Yexiaobai had zero memory of standing up to let Zhaomingming pass.

"Just now." Zhaomingming straightened, hands slipping back into her pockets by habit. "So, you called me?"

"N-no..." Yexiaobai looked at his long-time deskmate. The girl always seemed freshly awake. That pale face and drowsy look made you worry she might nod off mid-sentence, wrapped in her jacket.

I’m ridiculous to compare Mingming and Suzhiaoyao, he thought. They’re two different worlds.

"What was that?" Zhaomingming pressed.

Yexiaobai hesitated. It would come out sooner or later. Better now than never, and it wasn’t anything shameful.

"I think I invited Suzhiaoyao to our play."

"Huh?!" The cry didn’t come from Mingming. The always-placid girl wouldn’t make that much fuss.

It was Mu Xiaowei.

As math class rep, she had just returned from the office, arms full of quizzes. She hadn’t even set them down when that bomb dropped. She almost dumped the stack onto the floor.

Thankfully, Yexiaobai moved quick and caught the pages sliding from her elbow crook. He set them on Xiaowei’s desk and scolded, "Still so butterfingers."

On any other day, Mu Xiaowei would have bickered right back. But her head was still ringing with what Xiaobai had said.

"Xiaobai, what did you just say?"

"Uh... I said I think I invited Suzhiaoyao." Her urgency spooked Yexiaobai a little. "Why so hyped? I told you guys, Teacher Xu said we could invite people from other classes."

Mu Xiaowei blinked and reset. She tilted her head back, tucked a strand behind her ear with forced nonchalance, then puffed her cheeks and glared at him. "Hmph, nothing. I’m just shocked that little Xiaobai could invite Suzhiaoyao—Suzhiaoyao! She’s a campus-legend beauty, super hard to approach! Little Xiaobai, little Xiaobai."

"I'm surprised she accepted, too." Yexiaobai pressed his aching temples. "But—what’s with 'little Xiaobai.' You had to repeat it three times."

"Because it’s an important fact!" Mu Xiaowei pulled a face at him.

"Married-couple bickering ends here."

Yexiaobai was about to fire back when Zhaomingming raised a hand and cut them off. She gave them no room to argue and said, "Xiaobai, is Suzhiaoyao confirmed?"

Hesitation creased Yexiaobai’s face. "I’m not sure. Her vibe... was a little strange."

...

...