After two months of working nonstop, the first day of university finally arrived.
Song Shi'an stood outside Jingchen University, looking up at its imposing gates. He felt nothing at all, and was even a little lost.
He dragged his suitcase around inside for nearly twenty minutes before finding his dorm building.
When he swiped his card and pushed the door open, no one was inside. He had arrived a day early. Three of the four beds already had bedding laid out; the one by the window was empty, and a thin layer of dust covered its desk.
He set his suitcase on the floor, rolled up his sleeves, and got to work.
He swept, mopped, wiped the desks, and scrubbed the washbasin, not even sparing the corners of the balcony.
After a whole summer, everything was coated in dust. He worked for two hours, transforming the entire dorm room from dusty and dingy to gleaming.
Once he finished cleaning, he sat down to catch his breath, his gaze landing on the row of textbooks on the bookshelf.
He pulled one out at random and opened it. Principles and Applications of Energy Storage. Chapter one: fundamentals of thermodynamics. The first page was packed with formulas and derivations. His head aching, he closed the book.
Song Shi'an shut his eyes and laid the book facedown on the desk. He might as well have been reading a heavenly script.
Someone ranked in the top three of his major had suddenly become an idiot. Even a TV drama would have viewers cursing a plot like that for being ridiculous.
He pinged the system in his head. System, how many Affection Points do I have now? Have I reached a hundred thousand? University's starting, and I don't know anything.
[Current Affection Points: 86,400. There is still a gap to 100,000. Classes begin in two days.]
Two days. Could I learn an entire semester's worth of material in two days?
Song Shi'an leaned his head back against his chair and gazed mournfully at the ceiling.
The door suddenly swung open.
Song Shi'an turned his head. A red-haired young man walked in with a backpack slung over one shoulder and earbuds in his ears, his hair dazzlingly bright under the fluorescent lights.
He was about the same height as Song Shi'an, with striking features and a whirlwind air about him.
Song Shi'an gave him a once-over. People in this world really were good-looking.
He stood up to greet him. "Hi, I'm new here. Song Shi'an."
Jiang Ye looked up, stopping halfway through pulling out his earbuds.
He stared at Song Shi'an for a full five seconds, then rubbed his eyes hard.
I've stayed up too many nights. I'm hallucinating. Why else would someone straight off a magazine cover be standing in my dorm?
When the person in front of him kept staring without speaking, Song Shi'an felt a little awkward with his hand hanging in midair. He was about to withdraw it when the other man suddenly grabbed it and shook it, so enthusiastically that he nearly pulled Song Shi'an off balance.
"You're not fake! I'm Jiang Ye. Are you our new roommate?"
Song Shi'an pulled his hand free, having no idea what had just gone through this man's head. "Yes, I just moved in."
Jiang Ye tossed his backpack onto his bed, radiating instant familiarity. "What department are you in? I'm in finance."
"Energy storage science and engineering. I look forward to getting along."
Jiang Ye's eyes went round as he looked him up and down. "Dude, impressive! You're a top student, too, in such a hot major. At first glance, I thought you'd come from the arts department. Old Pei's position is in danger."
Song Shi'an looked puzzled. "Old Pei?"
Jiang Ye looked even more shocked, as though he couldn't believe anyone didn't know Old Pei. "Pei Zhiyan! The Pei Group's heir, top of the finance department, the universally acknowledged campus heartthrob. Do you really not know, or are you pretending?"
Song Shi'an felt as if a bolt of heavenly lightning had struck him.
Pei Zhiyan. The Pei Group's heir.
He now knew where he had transmigrated. His roommate, who had been obsessed with domineering CEO novels, used to talk his ear off every day about a melodramatic novel-a classic, tortured love triangle where he loved her, she didn't love him, and she loved the other man. Its male lead was named Pei Zhiyan.
The reason he remembered that name was that the book had a cannon-fodder character with the same name as him, who had appeared in a news report about an artist from some company taking his own life by overdosing in a rented apartment.
Song Shi'an grabbed Jiang Ye's arm. "That Pei Zhiyan-does he like someone named Shen Lingshu?"
Jiang Ye blinked. "Shen Lingshu? You mean the one from the Shen Group? Isn't she abroad? I think she's engaged to Old Pei, but there's never been much movement on his side. How did you know?"
Song Shi'an let go and slowly sat back down.
I'm dead. I'm the cannon fodder who died taking pills.
If I'd known, I wouldn't have turned up my nose at a grown man reading domineering CEO novels. I could at least have taken a look at the plot.
Seeing him suddenly look as though he had lost his soul, Jiang Ye waved a hand in front of his face. "Shi'an? Are you okay?"
Song Shi'an came back to himself and looked at Jiang Ye with an extremely complicated expression.
"I'm fine. I just think it's good to be alive."
It wasn't until the following evening that all four roommates were present.
Pei Zhiyan was the last to arrive. He had no suitcase, only a laptop bag and a few pieces of clothing. A man who looked like an assistant followed him in, put his things on the desk, then quietly withdrew.
From entering the room to finishing making his bed, Pei Zhiyan said only two words.
When Jiang Ye asked why he had only just arrived, he said, "Was busy," and didn't speak again.
Song Shi'an sat at his own desk, secretly studying the original novel's male lead out of the corner of his eye.
Pei Zhiyan sat at his desk looking at his computer, his back straight and his profile cold and hard, exactly as the book had described him.
Do all domineering CEOs hate talking? He hasn't looked anyone in the eye since he came in.
But thinking about it, that makes sense. He's the Pei Group's heir. He was never in the same world as cannon fodder like me, who could drop dead at any moment.
Besides Pei Zhiyan, there was another roommate named Chi Xun, who wore glasses.
Chi Xun was the first to strike up a conversation with Song Shi'an on his own initiative, thrusting a bag of chips straight into his hands.
Before Song Shi'an could thank him, Chi Xun had already brought out a large roll of posters and begun putting them up on the wall beside his bed.
Song Shi'an took a look. Good grief, they were all Xu Che.
Different angles, different looks-one was even a still from Aspiration to Reach the Clouds.
Standing on the ladder, Chi Xun turned to ask him, "Do you follow celebrities, too? I'm telling you, Xu Che is seriously handsome. I went to several filming locations over the summer just to collect all these signed posters."
Song Shi'an nodded silently. He didn't follow celebrities, but he had just finished filming with Xu Che that summer.
After putting up the posters, Chi Xun came over again and pressed a carton of milk and two packets of biscuits into Song Shi'an's hands. He pushed up his glasses, his expression earnest and enthusiastic. "You just moved in, so you're not familiar with the cafeteria yet, right? I'll take you there in a bit. A few of the counters have really good food."
Then he gave Song Shi'an another look and added, "If you debut as a celebrity, I'll switch my allegiance to you."
Song Shi'an didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Chi Xun was far too enthusiastic. Less than an hour had passed since he came in, and he had already fed Song Shi'an three times.
Looking over at Pei Zhiyan typing expressionlessly at his keyboard, Song Shi'an thought the atmosphere in this dorm was quite extraordinary. Half iceberg, half volcano, with him in the middle in charge of eating snacks.