The delivery guy could tell that the young man in front of him came from a wealthy family. He stepped forward and cleared away the clutter blocking the doorway to the small shed.
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, he hurriedly explained, “I spoke with Little Xia on the phone. He told me to leave the package in this room. Folks around here are honest and simple—no thieves or pickpockets to worry about.”
He had to make this clear. He couldn’t let the guy think he was slacking on the job.
Lu Quan lifted his eyelids without a change in expression, a smile devoid of warmth crossing his face.
Received, my ass.
He’d just dumped the gift Lu Quan had sent him in this junk-filled shack.
Just like that day, when he’d brushed him off with a single sentence.
Gently caressing a dry petal, Lu Quan snapped it with a crisp crack. The fragments tumbled onto the grimy floor.
With one arm, he scooped up the delivery box containing the panda plushie. As he turned to leave, he glanced back at the wilted flowers, then quickly looked away.
The delivery guy standing outside eyed the box in his hands and stepped forward to help, but the young man sidestepped him.
“Are you taking this—”
Lu Quan cut him off. “I’ll take it back myself.”
The delivery guy looked troubled. “Then I need to let Little Xia know.”
Lu Quan lowered his head to meet the man’s gaze. “No need. He’s my roommate. I’ll tell him directly.”
With that, he dialed a number right in front of the delivery guy.
“I’ve got the package that was sent to you. I’ll bring it back to the dorm—no need for you to make the trip. It’s pretty far.”
A few words came from the other end, and he let out a soft hum.
Then he hung up.
A grin spread across the delivery guy’s face, and the words started flowing. “So you’re Little Xia’s roommate! He’s a smart kid with real drive—the first from our village to get into A University.”
Lu Quan arched a brow with a faint chuckle, his voice betraying no emotion.
“Yeah, pretty smart.”
Smart enough to fool him completely.
He turned to eye the rundown house in front of him, his gaze narrowing slightly.
“Was this where he used to live?”
The delivery guy sighed. “Yeah. Little Xia’s had a tough go of it, really. His parents divorced when he was five. He didn’t want to go with either of them, so he ended up in the countryside living with his grandparents. Country life’s no match for the city, so he went to school while collecting bottles to sell for cash. Whenever folks passed by, he’d greet them with a smile.”
Lu Quan tamped down the sour ache in his chest and murmured, “Anything else?”
The delivery guy continued, “He got by okay, with a good attitude about it all. Always said he’d take his grandparents to live in the city once he grew up. But then in his senior year of high school, something happened at home. Everyone in the village felt sorry for him, but no one was well-off enough to help much. The neighbor lady next door stepped up, though. Too bad good deeds don’t always pay off—her family’s in a bind now too.”
Lu Quan listened quietly to the delivery guy’s words.
After seeing the man off, he walked over to the neighboring fence and knocked on the door.
A middle-aged woman emerged from the house.
She eyed him warily. “Who are you looking for?”
Lu Quan stayed at the threshold without entering. “I’m Liang Zhixia’s roommate. I’m here picking up something for him. I heard he owes your family money…”
Aunt Wang spotted the box at the young man’s feet, and the wariness in her eyes gradually faded. Hearing his words only softened her further.
“Oh, so you’re Little Xia’s roommate! Did he tell you about it? I loaned the money to his family because I felt sorry for him—a scrawny little kid standing in the rain and crying. I’m a parent myself; I couldn’t just turn away.”
Lu Quan asked, “May I come in?”
Aunt Wang slapped her forehead. “Look at me, where are my manners? Come on in—have some water. Don’t mind the mess.”
Lu Quan sat on a dusty chair, a steaming cup placed before him.
Aunt Wang sighed, her brows knitting tightly. “I told him he could pay it back during college, but then his family hit hard times. I only started pressing him because I had no choice.”
“How much does he still owe your family?”
Aunt Wang furrowed her brow, looking weary as she held up two fingers.
“He paid back a chunk over the summer after his college entrance exams. Now it’s down to twenty thousand.”
Lu Quan fell silent for a moment.
He pulled out a card and slid it across to her, his voice low and steady. “There’s fifty thousand on this.”
Aunt Wang frowned. “You… what do you mean by this?”
“I’ll cover it for him first. The extra thirty thousand is my thanks for helping him back then.”
Aunt Wang opened her mouth as if to protest but held back.
The money was too crucial for her to refuse.
She could tell Little Xia’s roommate came from money. Uneasy, she stood and stammered, “Thank you, thank you!”
Lu Quan rose. “Please don’t tell him yet. He’s got strong pride—I don’t want him mad at me. I’ll handle it with him.”
After a moment’s hesitation, Aunt Wang nodded. “Alright. But if he sends money early—”
Lu Quan exchanged contact info with her.
“If he sends it early, just transfer it to this account.”
Aunt Wang agreed. “Sure.”
Once the young man had gone, Aunt Wang glanced at the untouched cup on the table.
The wind picked up outside, bringing rain. She rushed out to gather the clothes.
A University didn’t have evening self-study sessions. After training, Xu Cheng returned to the dorm and stared at his empty desk. He turned to his roommate, who’d been holed up in the room all along.
“Did anyone drop off a package for me?”
His roommate looked up from his intense gaming session, shooting him a quick glance. “Nope, no one came by.”
Xu Cheng frowned in confusion.
“Didn’t they say they’d deliver straight to the dorm?”
Another roommate chuckled. “Whoa, Young Master Xu’s hooked another pretty goddess this time?”
Xu Cheng laughed and swore playfully. “Get lost—you teasing me now?”
He pulled out his phone and texted Lu Quan.
【Liu’er, didn’t you say you’d have my package sent to the dorm? I don’t see anything here.】
Ten minutes passed with no reply from Lu Quan. Instead, his phone rang—Qu Yizhou calling.
“Yizhou, what’s up?”
Qu Yizhou’s voice came through, laced with urgency.
“Xu Cheng, get to West Street quick.”
West Street—A City’s infamous den of extravagance.
Xu Cheng grabbed his car keys from the drawer and bolted out.
His roommate called after him, “Need us to leave the door unlocked tonight?”
Xu Cheng shouted back, “Nah!”
He rushed out of the dorm and nearly collided with Liang Zhixia at the campus supermarket entrance.
Liang Zhixia took in Xu Cheng’s heavy breathing and handed over his unopened bottle of mineral water.
“Senior, what happened?”
Xu Cheng wiped the sweat from his brow. “Nothing. You heading back to the dorm?”
Liang Zhixia nodded. “Yeah.”
He could tell Xu Cheng was in a rush, but Jiang Ling’s earlier words suddenly popped into his head. He paused. “Senior, is Senior Lu coming back to the dorm tonight?”
Xu Cheng thought for a second. “Probably not.”
“Got it. Go handle your thing, Senior. I’m heading back.”
Xu Cheng nodded. “Cool.”
Watching Xu Cheng’s retreating back, Liang Zhixia kicked a pebble aside and lugged his bag of daily essentials back to the dorm.
Beep—
The dorm lights flicked on.
He set down the plastic bag and slipped on a pair of clean slippers from the shoe cabinet.
His phone lay on the desk, devoid of new messages.
L must have forgiven him.
Or maybe he just didn’t want to chat anymore.
Liang Zhixia didn’t dare send a message, terrified of seeing a red exclamation mark pop up on the screen.
He set the phone aside and picked up his tablet to draw.
The new comic he’d posted last time had gotten a great response, netting him a bunch more followers.
Tomorrow was the weekend—he had a shift at the café. He planned to pull an all-nighter and crank out some pages.
The stylus scratched across the screen, the only sound in the quiet dorm.
Meanwhile, Xu Cheng finally reached West Street.
The clamor assaulted his ears as he tossed his keys to the waiting valet.
The manager at the entrance beamed obsequiously. “Young Master Xu! Third floor.”
Xu Cheng nodded and dashed upstairs.
Qu Yizhou had bombarded him with messages on the drive over, which he hadn’t checked yet. It had to be serious for Qu Yizhou to end up here.
But he never expected the one in trouble to be Lu Quan.
“What happened?”
He strode over and saw four or five empty bottles lined up in front of Lu Quan.
Qu Yizhou’s eyes lit up at the sight of him, like he’d found his main support.
“Xu Cheng! Talk some sense into Brother Lu—he can’t drink anymore. I can’t get through to him!”
Xu Cheng snatched the bottle from Lu Quan’s hand and slammed it onto the table with a bang.
“Are you trying to kill yourself?!”
Lu Quan lazily lifted his eyelids. A haze of alcohol clouded his dark eyes. He leaned back against the sofa, his long, bony fingers draped casually over his forehead.
“Xu Cheng, this is the second time you’ve taken my booze.”
Xu Cheng rolled his eyes. “Guess you’re not that drunk.”
He flopped onto the adjacent sofa. The run over here had left him parched. He twisted open the mineral water bottle he’d been clutching and chugged most of it down.
With the tension eased, Qu Yizhou grew curious. “Don’t you hate this brand of water?”
Xu Cheng then noticed that the bottle from his underclassman was exactly the brand he avoided.
“Ran into him at the supermarket entrance. He gave it to me.”
“Him?” Lu Quan lifted his gaze to Xu Cheng, his stare cool and detached. “Which underclassman?”
Xu Cheng drained the rest of the water, then crushed the bottle in his hand with a teeth-grating crunch.
“You know, your roommate. Xia Xia.”
Lu Quan slowly straightened up in his seat, crossing his hands with veins faintly bulging on the backs. The corners of his mouth curved up slightly. “Xia Xia?”
Xu Cheng stared at the eerie smile on his good brother’s face and instinctively tossed aside the bottle in his hand, raising both arms over his head.
“I just heard other people calling him that. It’s pretty affectionate, right?”
Lu Quan concealed the emotion in his eyes, his voice turning icy. “Why are you getting so chummy with him?”
Xu Cheng’s eyes widened, as if he couldn’t believe those words had come from Lu Quan’s mouth.
“It’s all because of you. Your relationship with that junior is terrible, so I’m just trying to smooth things over between you two.”
He said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Speaking of which, you owe me for my hard work. I won’t ask for much—just this amount.”
He held up one hand, five fingers splayed.
Lu Quan gave him a faint, sidelong glance. “I won’t need you anymore after this.”
Before Xu Cheng could process what he meant, Lu Quan continued, “Take me back to school.”
Xu Cheng blinked in surprise. “You’re heading back to the dorm tonight?”
Lu Quan narrowed his eyes. “Got a problem with that?”
“It’s not that. When we came, the junior asked if you were coming back tonight, and I told him you weren’t.”
Lu Quan shot him a cold look. “Don’t spout nonsense like that next time.”
Knowing Lu Quan had pretty much ruined his life, Xu Cheng figured he’d be stuck as the guy’s lackey forever.
He stood up with a resigned sigh. “Fine, let’s go.”
The three of them headed downstairs together.
Xu Cheng had just opened the car door when Lu Quan’s voice stopped him.
“Hold on. I need to grab something from the other side.”
Qu Yizhou had already settled into the passenger seat. Xu Cheng leaned against the doorframe, one hand on the roof, chatting up a beautiful woman who passed by.
That was, until he spotted what Lu Quan was holding.
The car started up and cruised down the road. A red light flashed, and Xu Cheng slammed on the brakes, stopping just behind the crosswalk.
