Are you still a virgin?

Liu Xinyu's sudden question caught Wang Xiaoliang off guard.

"That's right."

"I like Wei Zijin."

"Ever since shortly after freshman year started, right up until now. I still really like her."

He gave a self-deprecating smile, then added, as though explaining himself to himself, "My heart's too small to hold that many people. So I've never been in a relationship."

"Hahaha!"

Liu Xinyu suddenly burst out laughing, rocking back and forth so hard he almost flung his chopsticks away.

"I knew it! I knew it!" Liu Xinyu slapped his thigh as he laughed. "So you've been dreaming of a girl way out of your league!"

His laughter echoed through the empty restaurant, sounding especially loud.

Wang Xiaoliang wasn't angry at Liu Xinyu for calling him a toad lusting after a swan. He just silently took a sip of beer.

Liu Xinyu leaned closer, lowering his normally booming voice:

"Xiaoliang, seriously, don't get mad. I'm just curious... are you... still a virgin?"

This question was even more direct than the last, and even more intimate.

Wang Xiaoliang felt his cheeks grow warm, though he couldn't tell whether it was the alcohol or embarrassment.

He nodded silently.

There was nothing shameful about it.

Throughout middle and high school, like every student determined to get into a good university, he had poured all his energy into studying. Whenever adolescent urges stirred, he had dealt with them himself in the most basic way. Back then, time was a luxury. He simply hadn't had any to spare for these things.

Once he reached university, the rules relaxed and his time became his own. Yet shortly after classes began, he had plunged headlong into a fog called Wei Zijin.

From then on, there had been no room for anyone else in his eyes or his heart.

Not even now.

When Wang Xiaoliang nodded in confirmation, Liu Xinyu's expression was priceless. First his eyes widened, then he dissolved into laughter again, pointing at Wang Xiaoliang and struggling for ages to get a whole sentence out.

"You... you... Xiaoliang, I really... I bow down before you!" He finally caught his breath. "Who would've thought? Our suave, handsome, brilliantly talented Xiaoliang is actually a living antique!"

"Oh, screw you!" Amused by his exaggerated description, Wang Xiaoliang swore at him good-naturedly. "You say that like you're not one yourself."

"Me?" Liu Xinyu immediately straightened up, looking smug. "I'm definitely not. I lost mine in ninth grade."

Wang Xiaoliang froze for a moment, then looked him up and down with exaggerated sarcasm.

"Oh... that explains it." He deliberately drew out the words. "I wondered why you stopped growing once you hit five foot nine. Turns out you let your vital energy leak out too early."

"Get lost!" Liu Xinyu laughed, not remotely angry. "You're jealous. Blatantly jealous!"

He took a long swig of beer and, still in a talkative mood, continued, "Seriously, though, when I first started university, I was bursting. Those three years of high school had left me so repressed that I had problems both physically and mentally. So I dated a few girls pretty quickly. You could say it solved the problem."

Liu Xinyu's candor surprised Wang Xiaoliang a little.

"But," Liu Xinyu said, changing tack again. The teasing slowly faded from his face, replaced by a touch of seriousness and wistfulness. "Once that problem was sorted out, I wanted a proper relationship. The kind of love you'd never forget. But here we are, almost graduating, and I still haven't met the right person. If there's anything I regret about these four years at university, that's the biggest one."

His confession made Wang Xiaoliang curious.

Given Liu Xinyu's personality and qualities-cheerful, generous, socially adept, and not bad-looking-he ought to have been popular with girls.

"Why haven't you met anyone? Are your standards too high?" Wang Xiaoliang asked.

"Are they? I don't know." Liu Xinyu shook his head, picked up some dry-fried green beans, and chewed slowly. "I dated a few, but they all seemed to have too much of an agenda. One wanted me to get her a position in the student council. Another started asking about my family background right away, hoping to have someone to rely on in Jiangcheng after graduation. Others... were even more straightforward. They just wanted company, someone to ease their loneliness."

He sighed and drained the beer left in his bottle.

"It was pointless. Really pointless."

"In a world like this, it's hard to find something pure and ideal. Everyone's so pragmatic."

Liu Xinyu's words made Wang Xiaoliang think of Wei Zijin.

She worked so hard and was so pragmatic that, to get ahead, she could even give up her own feelings without hesitation.

Wasn't she exactly the kind of "pragmatic" person Liu Xinyu was talking about?

Yet Wang Xiaoliang couldn't dislike her at all. He even felt that this was what attracted him most about Wei Zijin. That clear-eyed, resilient drive to fight for her goals at any cost burned like a flame.

He strongly agreed with Liu Xinyu's view, but that agreement carried a bitter trace of self-justification.

"Yeah. It's too hard," he murmured in agreement.

Perhaps Wei Zijin's pragmatism was a reflection of most people in this era. And someone like him, stubbornly clinging to an unrequited love, was the out-of-place "antique."

"Let's not talk about that. It's depressing." Liu Xinyu waved a hand, steering the conversation away from its gloomy turn. "Anyway, I've only got a few good days left. Once I go home, life gets tough. No more younger college girls everywhere."

"Freshman girls are still the best. When they first arrive, all they want is pure love."

He refilled Wang Xiaoliang's empty beer bottle, then his own.

"By the way, what about you? You've decided to stay in Jiangcheng. What do your parents think? Are they okay with it?"

His parents.

He hadn't told them his final decision yet.

His father rarely smiled at him and seldom had heart-to-heart talks with him.

His mother tended to nag. She wanted him back by her side and had already asked people to help find him a job.

They hadn't said it outright, but he could sense it.

They would rather he return to the small city he came from and use his degree from a prestigious university to land a civil service job or a position at a public institution. A stable life, close to home.

But Wang Xiaoliang didn't want to go back.

A life whose entire course he could see at a glance made him feel suffocated.

"Not yet... I haven't officially told them," Wang Xiaoliang answered vaguely. "I'm planning to get everything settled over the next few days, then have a proper talk with them."

Liu Xinyu glanced at him as though he understood something and didn't press further.

He was a smart man. Some things didn't need to be spelled out.

"All right. If you need help, just say the word."

Their meal lasted late into the night.

When the bill came, Wang Xiaoliang insisted on paying the 178 yuan. Seeing his WeChat balance drop to double digits made his stomach tighten, but he acted as though nothing was wrong.

He returned alone to the empty rental.

The moment he shut the door, the city's noise and bustle seemed to be cut off in another world.

Inside, there was only him and the pile of luggage he hadn't had time to unpack.

He didn't turn on the light. In the faint glow coming through the window, he sat on the edge of the bed for a long time.

The exhilaration of the alcohol gradually faded, leaving boundless exhaustion and loneliness in its wake.

This was where he would live for the next few years, his own tiny foothold in this enormous city.

Yet at that moment, this foothold felt so unfamiliar and cold.

He thought of his conversation with Liu Xinyu, of Wei Zijin, of his parents who still didn't know his plans, and of his double-digit balance. Confusion and pressure welled up inside him.

Could I really establish myself here?

What would the future be like?

Wang Xiaoliang stood up and quietly began unpacking.

He hung his clothes in the wardrobe one by one, stacked his books on the desk, and arranged his toiletries on the bathroom shelf.

Putting things in order helped calm him down.

Once everything was unpacked, the little studio began to feel familiar.

It was already late at night.

Wang Xiaoliang took a shower and lay on the unfamiliar bed, tossing and turning, unable to sleep.

He picked up his phone, then put it down.

In the end, he carefully took the old thread-bound book from the innermost compartment of his backpack.

The Book of Fate.

He took a deep breath and turned to a new page.

He already knew the previous contents by heart. On the new page, the ink seemed only just to have dried, its words standing clear before his eyes.

Tenth art of fate-changing:

Parents are benefactors bestowed by Heaven; those who lend a hand in adversity are benefactors; those who show the way when one is lost are benefactors; friends who share joy and hardship are benefactors; spouses who entrust their lives to each other are each other's benefactors.

Yet benefactors do not remain fixed throughout one's life, but flow ceaselessly like clouds and water. Discern with clear eyes the auspicious presence of benefactors around you and receive their blessings, and you shall hold the key to opportunity.

Benefactors...

Who, exactly, is my benefactor?