“Everyone, even if this is only a mock application, I still hope you’ll take it seriously and fill it out reasonably based on your actual ability.”

The grade dean stood at the door of the computer room, loudly going over the key points for the college entrance application process. Class 1 of senior year was the fastest class. The school’s admission rate was on the line, so the leadership valued this class highly. The same old topic was repeated over and over, tirelessly.

Su Yu was bored. He hid in the back, using the school’s chunky old computer to play Spider Solitaire with Chen Kai. His gaze drifted. Sometimes he looked at the screen. Sometimes, from the corner of his eye, he glanced toward the corner of the computer room.

Xia Qiange was sitting there.

The girl sat upright in her seat. Outside the screen, only a small part of her smooth forehead could be seen. She looked like she was listening very seriously. That was normal too. Someone as serious as her couldn’t possibly not care about this.

“You really are going to Qingchuan?”

Chen Kai noticed where Su Yu was looking. But this time, he wasn’t in the mood to tease him. Rarely, he sounded serious.

“Xia Qiange really is great. I think if you actually tried chasing her, it’s not like you’d have no chance.”

“I want to,” Su Yu said.

He pulled his gaze back and gave a dry little smile.

“There won’t be any result between me and her. Why should I gamble my future on some vague possibility?”

“But you like her.”

“Just because of that?”

“That’s not enough?” Chen Kai stared at him, knocking on the desk with loud thuds. “Liking someone... for three whole years. How many people can do that?”

“It’s not like anyone can’t live without someone else. I like Xia Qiange now, sure, but who knows? Maybe I’ll like someone else in the future.”

Su Yu said that kind of aimless nonsense just to brush Chen Kai off.

“Fine then. You’re not bad-looking anyway, so I’m not worried about you finding a girlfriend.”

Chen Kai said no more. Su Yu looked like he had truly given up. Chen Kai dragged the mouse and checked the university he wanted for his first choice without a trace of hesitation. He was staying local. As long as his grades stayed steady, it wouldn’t be a problem. There wasn’t much to think about.

Su Yu, on the other hand, stared at the screen. His mouse hovered over Qingchuan University for a long time.

He had thought he’d already figured everything out.

But when it came time to choose, he still hesitated.

That hopelessly deranged look on the girl’s face when she had fallen sick beyond saving would always appear in his dreams from time to time. When he woke in the middle of the night, he was often drenched in cold sweat from the shock.

“Su Yu... you’re my cure.”

Every word she had said was carved into his heart. In his previous life, he couldn’t save her at all. He couldn’t be any cure. But now he had a chance. As long as he left before the girl’s illness became terminal, everything would burst like a bubble. Then nothing would happen.

It should end here...

Hardening his heart, Su Yu filled in Qingchuan University as his first choice. He didn’t choose anything else. He didn’t need to leave himself a backup plan. His life would begin again at Qingchuan University.

“Let’s go.”

Su Yu tugged at Chen Kai. He didn’t want to stay here anymore. It would only stir up pointless regret. Out of sight... out of mind.

But before leaving, he still turned back for one last look.

Xia Qiange was still facing the computer, filling something out. She hadn’t noticed him leaving at all. All his hesitation now looked a little self-indulgent.

Still, this was good too.

Only if she had no connection with him could Xia Qiange stay healthy and avoid catching that kind of madness.

...

A shadowy gaze crossed over the crisscrossing black wires. Through a gap, it locked onto the target at once.

It stared at his screen.

It couldn’t see clearly.

Its heart burned with anxiety. In her mind echoed the sour grind of clenched teeth. It was like a drifting feather scratching at her heart. She couldn’t catch it, yet the itch was unbearable.

On the screen, the first choice was filled in with four bold words: Jiangnan University.

A place countless people dreamed of. A paradise for students. For most, it was only something they could imagine. Yet Xia Qiange had filled it in so casually. With her grades, stepping through Jiangnan University’s gates was almost a certainty.

Compared to that, she cared far more about what someone else had written down.

Xia Qiange loosened her grip on the wrinkled school uniform in her palm. She looked at that empty seat. The screen was still lit, but its owner had already left.

She quietly stood up and moved closer to that seat, step by step. Her footsteps were light as a ghost’s. In the huge computer room, not a single person noticed what she was doing.

She sat down.

Her fingers clicked the mouse lightly. In the browsing history, traces of his session still remained. She swallowed back the saliva flooding her mouth. Her heart pounded wildly, carrying a faint joy at a scheme succeeding.

Countless thoughts flashed through her mind. Her grip on the mouse tightened a little. The school’s cheap old mouse was almost unable to bear that force.

He would definitely choose it, right?

He would choose the same university as you.

After all, he likes you. He’s had a crush on you for three years. Even if he never confessed, that love was still obvious. He studied so hard, climbing from the bottom of the class to where he was now. Wasn’t all of that for you?

Little by little, you kept him under control. Give him a bit of hope when he’s disappointed. Turn cold when he’s pleased with himself. He’ll keep circling in your palm like this forever.

He won’t escape.

But the moment she opened the record, the smile on her face suddenly froze. It looked a little terrifying, a little sinister. Blood vessels slowly crept across the whites of her eyes. Her pupils shrank. The burning imprint slammed straight into her gaze.

Qingchuan University.

Those words sat there coldly, as if mocking her.

She had become a complete loser. The trap she thought was flawless had been escaped by the prey just like that. As for the bait she had so carefully laid out, he had ignored it completely.

Why...?

He had clearly said he wasn’t sure. But now he had made the decision in an instant. Had he hidden it from her on purpose, or had he really just changed his mind at the last second?

Qingchuan...

How far was it from Jiangnan?

If he really went there, then when they met again, how would that be any different from being strangers? There would be another pretty girl standing beside him. Maybe her face wouldn’t even be worse than yours. He would hold that girl’s hand and stand in front of you, smiling at you.

Xia Qiange didn’t dare think any further.

Even the slightest blurry image of that in her mind made her heart clench so hard it hurt unbearably.

If things really became like that...

She would go mad.

She definitely would...

Her pale lips were stained blood-red. A thick, sweet metallic taste slowly spread through her mouth.

What Jiangnan?

What paradise for students?

Only a place with him could be called paradise.

Anywhere without him was hell!

She had already struggled in hell for more than ten years. Looking at him, she had finally clawed her way to the edge of it. She never wanted to return to that kind of pain again.

Never...

Xia Qiange shakily rose from her seat. Her long lashes hung low as she left the computer room, like a walking corpse. But beneath those dim eyes, a bloody color was still hidden, growing thicker and thicker, almost about to take form.

What was lost would be taken back sooner or later.

Things between them would not end like this.

From the very beginning, they had already been bound together.

They would never be separated.

Su Yu, you can’t escape.

We...

will meet again.