Chapter 1: Part 2

He often wore street-stall knock-offs plastered with huge logos, looking gaudy and tacky, and wouldn’t change them for days.

A failed perm shaped like a chicken coop, almost covering his eyes.

An average body with terrible posture; other than being tall, he had few redeeming features. Under the clothes were visible rolls of flab everywhere, the result of binge eating after the college entrance exam.

The general facial framework was similar to pre-transmigration He Yuxuan, just with worse skin, more pimples, baby fat on the cheeks, a decline in energy and spirit, a coarser aura… bluish stubble made him seem even more unkempt, making him inexplicably look a few years older than his peers.

He Yuxuan blanked for a moment, feeling like this was a dream. He’d woken up at eighteen, living another life entirely.

At noon, the campus bell tolled, resonant and clear.

He Yuxuan wanted to look in a mirror to see his current appearance, but he really didn’t have the strength. Besides, compared to the transmigration, everything else became minor, somewhat acceptable issues. So he just lay there listlessly.

Having not interacted with kids outside the industry for a long time, He Yuxuan didn’t miss the teasing tone in the other’s voice.

“Probably not…”

In the real world, he hadn’t survived the car crash, and so had transmigrated into the Original Owner’s body.

According to the plot just narrated in his mind, the Original Owner, acting as extreme Cannon Fodder, had taken a fancy to a female student from the School of Media right after starting the semester, and kept pestering her persistently.

Who knew the girl’s boyfriend was a street thug? Thus, the Original Owner, when sneaking out to go clubbing alone, was dragged into a small alley and given a severe beating.

The security in that area was terrible; from start to finish, no one even noticed.

The next day, someone kind-hearted found his Jinghai University Student ID Card on him and sent him to the campus clinic.

No wonder he hurt all over… This feeling was even worse than getting into a car accident. He Yuxuan had been popular since childhood; he’d never experienced being beaten and hospitalized for pestering a girl. This was practically an insult to him.

“Bed number two, He Yuxuan? Time to change your IV drip.” A nurse walked in and started changing He Yuxuan’s medication.

Hearing the name, Zhang Xiangdong suddenly froze, giving He Yuxuan a couple more glances. At the same time, his other hand quickly pulled up photos on the campus Forum. A frequent web surfer, he’d just been reading gossip about this recently.

He Yuxuan from the Economics and Management Department could be said to have leapt to major campus fame. What gossip-loving male and female college students didn’t know he’d been hospitalized for getting beaten up after harassing a girl?

His general features matched, but He Yuxuan, dressed in the blue and white striped Patient Gown, obediently nestled in his hospital bed, looked much paler and thinner than in the photos. The fingers resting on the blanket were pale, slender, and long.

His collarbone, inadvertently exposed, formed a delicate, shallow curve. His jawline was also much more defined than in the pictures.

Damn, how does getting beaten up make you more handsome? At least in the dark, his face hadn’t been hit.

“Bro, you’re He Yuxuan from the Economics and Management Department, right?” Zhang Xiangdong now found his Wardmate more interesting than his phone, so he put the device down to chat.

“No disrespect intended, man, who knows what the truth is with all the online sensationalism!” He felt this guy’s demeanor didn’t seem like someone who’d do that kind of thing!

He Yuxuan just looked at him with confused eyes at his inexplicable words.

Zhang Xiangdong then realized the subject of the gossip probably didn’t even know that the gossip about him on the Forum was blowing up, full of mockery and insults everywhere.

Feeling a bit awkward, he just showed He Yuxuan one post that was mocking his looks.

“Damn, a toad trying to eat swan meat.”

“With that pitiful look, a girl would actually be interested in him?”

“Truly embarrassing the Economics and Management Department.”

“…”

These were the comments that greeted him, causing He Yuxuan to fall silent for a long while. He had plenty of Anti-fans, but in his past life he’d never been evaluated like this. He, who cared immensely about his image, had never been criticized for his looks.

After digesting it for a moment, he thought for a bit then asked the nurse who was finishing up and about to leave, “About how long until I can be discharged?”

“With your injuries, at least half a month. Conveniently gets you out of military training though,” the nurse replied bluntly, having overheard their earlier conversation.

He Yuxuan’s mouth twitched, and he closed his eyes.

An afternoon passed, and Zhang Xiangdong felt this Wardmate was drastically different from the Forum rumors.

The guy was quiet, laid-back, yet also kind of… un-relatable? Zhang Xiangdong couldn’t think of another word to describe it for the moment.

Except for the brief, genuine emotion shown at the very beginning.

The entire afternoon, Zhang Xiangdong played games for two hours, scrolled through short videos for two more, then spent ages eating up gossip. The hospital room was filled with his laughter or exclamations of “WTF!”

Meanwhile, the other guy maintained basically the same lying-flat posture without moving much. Occasionally, he turned over to look out the window. The lines of his shoulders and neck remained rather straight and pleasing to the eye, even though it felt a bit strange to describe a boy that way.

It felt like they were from two different worlds. The other’s words and actions exuded an aura of unreality and detachment.

Until their only real exchange unfolded—He Yuxuan needed the restroom but moving was extremely difficult. He didn’t ask anyone for help, just slowly tried to inch over by himself, with limited success.

Zhang Xiangdong was a pretty good guy. Seeing this, he stopped keeping his distance and voluntarily helped him go. After all, they’d be sharing this room for over half a month.

“Thank you,” He Yuxuan said, recognizing the reality of his situation. Now he was even sharing a hospital room with an ordinary kid—someone he could never have crossed paths with before.

Afterwards, Zhang Xiangdong watched as the subject of the gossip, despite his low spirits, ordered some small items via food delivery. He trimmed his beard and eyebrows in the mirror, cleaned up the acne that had sprouted, then applied medicine.

Damn, looking even more handsome somehow.

At dinner time, Zhang Xiangdong devoured his hospital boxed meal with gusto. The other guy ate lightly, his chewing motions elegant and nice to watch.

Looking at it this way, it’s completely absurd! He’d go harass a girl who had a boyfriend?

Lying in bed at night, Zhang Xiangdong’s curiosity about him grew increasingly intense.

He Yuxuan, after an entire afternoon of quiet, had accepted his fate. Looking on the bright side, he was back at the tender age of eighteen now. Could play ball if he wanted, even if he wasn’t exactly skilled.

“Bro, is the stuff on the Forum true?” Zhang Xiangdong couldn’t hold back from asking.

“Mm, it’s true. I need to find a chance to apologize to that girl,” he said frankly. The Original Owner had been beaten to death, and he’d transmigrated over. From today on, he was student He Yuxuan, so naturally, he had to take on the Original Owner’s responsibilities.

At this, Zhang Xiangdong didn’t even know what to reply. He felt admiration.

Zhang Xiangdong felt he’d gotten familiar with the Gossip Subject, so his chatting became more casual.

“I heard you’re roommates with your department’s Academic God? Push me his WeChat contact, yeah? I have a friend who’s pretty interested in getting to know him.”

Regarding Chu Ci, Zhang Xiangdong didn’t dare ask.

Jinghai University was stuffed with Rich Second Generation kids, but Chu Ci was one of the top figures among them. Ordinary students like them didn’t have that kind of cheek.

Come to think of it, actually, the Gossip Subject himself was quite something too, sharing a dorm room with the school’s two biggest Prominent Figures.

It took He Yuxuan a moment to react before realizing the Academic God the guy mentioned was referring to this book’s protagonist Gong, Tang Yi.

Switching his mindset instantly wasn’t something that happened overnight. He Yuxuan still wasn’t quite used to conversations where the center of attention wasn’t himself.

He Yuxuan opened his phone, trying to find the chat box belonging to the protagonist Gong in his contacts.

Then discovered… he hadn’t even added him.

In his past life, He Yuxuan didn’t have many contacts in his phone. Investors and directors took up the majority. For others to get his contact info wasn’t a simple matter.

This life, the Original Owner’s contact count was just as sparse, though for the entirely opposite reason—very few people wanted to add him.

He Yuxuan shook his head. “I didn’t add him.” Not that there was anything to be upset about.

The two outstanding boys in his dorm dating each other had nothing to do with him anyway. Although He Yuxuan had never encountered a romantic interest that sparked anything, he felt he himself was pretty straight.

As far as his current thinking went, if they were a shonen manga, then he was just a realistic personal solo act; they weren’t in the same picture.

Afterwards, he intently stared at the screen and cleared out the various random people already few in number on his phone. Outside of family and relatives, the majority were things like club promoters and such.

He casually tapped on one promoter’s chat—it was just someone inviting him out to drink, which was probably the only chance the Original Owner ever got to be called “handsome guy.”

He Yuxuan cleaned them all out, and his contacts instantly became refreshingly clean. He didn’t like caring about people or things unrelated to him.

Hearing He Yuxuan’s answer, Zhang Xiangdong was stunned for a second. The other guy wasn’t awkward, but Zhang Xiangdong felt awkward for him instead.

“Ah, fair enough. The Academic God does seem pretty hard to get close to.”

In the book, both the protagonist Gong and Shou were creatures who kept people at arm’s length.

Zhang Xiangdong thought, no wonder no one ever came to visit. Even though they were roommates, ordinary people just couldn’t reach that high.

Although, strangely, he felt his Wardmate, while polite and amiable, also had a peculiar aura about him that made him feel… rather high-class.

Amen.