The dorm decided to go eat braised fish together. It wasn’t far—just across from the school. The group of them strolled over at a leisurely pace.
The decision to eat braised fish didn’t actually involve much discussion. The main reason was simple: Qi Yuan wanted fish.
Pang Xiaoda had originally wanted to check out the cafeteria. He’d barely mentioned it before Qi Yuan threw an arm over his shoulder and vetoed the idea.
“You’ve got five more years to eat there—won’t that be enough? It’s our first day meeting each other, why squeeze into the cafeteria? Let’s find a proper restaurant, get some sense of ceremony. Come on, my dear brother! I’m starving. This meal’s on me.”
Qi Yuan’s chatter came rapid-fire, like popping beans. His personality was lively—he could energize a room and organize activities, and crucially, he was offering to treat.
Pang Xiaoda had just been roasted during their gaming session for ages. He wasn’t about to be polite with Qi Yuan now, so he happily deleted his cafeteria option.
Tong Xilin could eat anything. Once he’d changed the mattress, he just followed the group.
He walked a little slowly, head lowered, thinking for a long time about when exactly Kong Ji had placed the order.
He sent Kong Ji a “thank you” and received a “nudge” in return.
He didn’t type anything else. He locked the screen and shoved the phone back into his pocket.
When he looked up after sending the message, Qin Ji had stopped a little ahead of him, as if specifically waiting.
Tong Xilin hurried forward a couple of steps, and the two of them walked side by side.
“What should we drink later?” Qi Yuan turned back to ask them. “Red or white?”
“You’re drinking baijiu?” Pang Xiaoda jabbed at him, feeling the question was a bit pretentious.
“I’m asking, aren’t I?” Qi Yuan hissed and scuffled with him.
No one wanted alcohol.
After that post-gaokao graduation party, Tong Xilin had decided he was done drinking. Qin Ji smiled and said he couldn’t hold his liquor. Pang Xiaoda told Qi Yuan to enjoy getting drunk by himself.
“Forget it.” Qi Yuan waved dismissively toward the fish restaurant. “Then we’ll all just have sweet little drinks.”
Tong Xilin had never been big on sweets before. It was never outright dislike—more a state of “I can eat a couple bites, but I’ll put it down when I’m tired of it, and I won’t crave it if I don’t eat it.”
So occasionally he’d remember and buy a slice of cake to try. When he was hungry, he’d spear a couple pieces of canned yellow peaches, or drink some juice that didn’t have an overwhelmingly artificial flavor.
After that talk with Kong Ji, he’d stopped touching sweet things almost entirely.
He didn’t want them at all.
When Qi Yuan ordered, he went straight for two large bottles of coconut milk and cola. Tong Xilin saw no point in being a buzzkill at his first meal with his new roommates. He said nothing.
Except for that first communal clink of their four glasses, where he took a sip of coconut milk, he kept pouring himself plain water afterward.
This detail, however, was caught by Qin Ji.
“You don’t like sweet drinks?” he asked suddenly.
“Huh?” Tong Xilin was a bit surprised. He turned to look at him. “They’re okay. I just can’t drink much.”
“I could tell.” Qin Ji tugged at the corner of his mouth.
Qi Yuan overheard and immediately raised a hand to call the server.
“You should’ve said so.” He asked Tong Xilin, “Want me to get you a soda water or something, Tong’er?”
“No need.” Tong Xilin didn’t want people thinking he was fussy. “I’m almost full anyway. Can’t drink any more.”
Hearing this, Qi Yuan didn’t insist. He just tapped the table: “Next time you’ve gotta speak up. We’ve got five years ahead of us, no need to be so polite.”
Tong Xilin smiled and nodded, saying “Alright.”
“No wonder you’re so skinny.” Pang Xiaoda talked slowly and ate slowly too. He chewed while looking at Tong Xilin. “Out of everyone in our room, I’d say you’re the skinniest.”
“You downed a whole bottle of cola. I’d say you’re the least skinny.” Qi Yuan’s mutual roasting with Pang Xiaoda was addicting. He shoved the cola bottle straight into his chest. “Drink your soda.”
This meal was supposed to be Qi Yuan’s treat, but in the end, they didn’t actually let him pay.
After Qi Yuan settled the bill, Qin Ji asked him the total and proposed they just split it evenly instead.
“The hell?” Qi Yuan thought he was being too distant, waving a hand. “I told you, this first meal’s on me.”
“You also said it’s the first meal.” Qin Ji directly sent over his share of the money, still wearing that measured smile. “There’s a long road ahead.”
Tong Xilin transferred his share too.
“Exactly.” Pang Xiaoda followed suit and sent money. “You roasted me half to death over a few game skins. You think I’d dare eat a free meal off you?”
“Damn.” Qi Yuan laughed. “Who’s roasting who right now?”
On the walk back to the dorm, at Qin Ji’s suggestion, the group also went to buy brooms and mops together.
It came to just over ten yuan. Tong Xilin was closest to the register and casually paid for it.
When Qin Ji once again proposed splitting the cost, Qi Yuan was a little stunned. He blinked and glanced at Tong Xilin, momentarily speechless.
This look put Tong Xilin, caught in the middle, in a slightly awkward spot.
Tong Xilin could understand Qi Yuan’s perspective. When he first heard Qin Ji suggest splitting the cost of the broom that afternoon, he too had felt it was making a mountain out of a molehill.
Over the past year, Kong Ji’s money had made him a bit dazed. Plus, he spent every day with Zhou Qi—and Zhou Qi was someone who never kept accounts. When he had money, he’d treat Tong Xilin to this and that. When he was broke, he didn’t pretend otherwise. He’d just say what he wanted to eat and have Tong Xilin treat him.
Ever since they got close—from that very first band-aid and half-stick of gum—the two friends had never once calculated who spent what on whom. It was always mutual.
Qi Yuan came from a hometown similar to Zhou Qi’s and had the exact same temperament.
Teenagers concerned with saving face don’t think too much. They don’t like meticulously settling accounts over these little ten- or twenty-yuan sums, finding it fussy, stingy, unsightly.
But his eighteen years of life also allowed Tong Xilin to understand Qin Ji very well.
People with strong self-esteem don’t like taking advantage. The more they lack, the more they fear owing.
Favors are debts. They’d just started school and weren’t that close yet. A meal here, a broom there—these might seem like small amounts, but they add up. Rather than keeping mental tabs on who treated whom last and who owes the next one, it’s better to settle things clearly at the time of purchase.
Tong Xilin had a very good impression of both Qin Ji and Qi Yuan. He wanted to be considerate of both sides’ feelings.
After thinking it over, he came up with an explanation: “I’m kind of thirsty.”
“For the broom money, I’m applying for direct conversion. Buy me a bottle of mineral water instead.”
“You wanted a drink earlier and wouldn’t take one when I offered. Now you’re gonna chug three bottles in one go.” Qi Yuan accepted this readily, turning to open the cooler door. “What kind do you want?”
“Yibao.” Tong Xilin said.
Three bottles of Yibao. Tong Xilin didn’t need to buy water for two days.
The days before military training were all preparatory work—physical exams, meetings, picking up uniforms. Little odds and ends. He also got a general look at the classmates in his department.
Qin Ji ran for Class Monitor and won. In the class group chat, he asked each dorm to select a Dorm Head.
Their dorm, with three unanimous votes, submitted Qin Ji’s name.
“Brother Ji is suited for managing people.” Qi Yuan said. “We’ll all listen to you.”
Pang Xiaoda casually created a dorm group chat and renamed it “Staunchly Support Brother Ji.”
“Idiots.” Qin Ji smiled, but didn’t decline.
Friends from the class group chat trickled in, sending friend requests—both guys and girls. Tong Xilin accepted them all. Some sent an emoji or a greeting after adding him; others said nothing. The message list piled up without him noticing.
He scrolled down and saw Kong Ji’s profile picture.
He’d long since unpinned Kong Ji from the top.
Since that last “nudge,” the two hadn’t spoken for several days.
On the night before military training officially began, the class group chat erupted in an avalanche of Jam Hsiao posts.
Moments was full of them too—a chain of all sorts of memes and rain-prayer copy. He could scroll without end.
Tong Xilin, finding it amusing, took a screenshot and sent it to the dorm group. Everyone was still lying in bed awake. Qi Yuan and Pang Xiaoda immediately joined the class group’s meme battle.
Without a word, Qin Ji posted the weather forecast for the coming week.
The group howled in despair.
The Rain God did not bless them. Military training was accompanied by two solid weeks of clear skies.
Zhou Qi showed up unannounced during their second week of training.
Zhou Qi’s college wasn’t strict about military training. In total, it was just twelve days—trimmed at both ends. They kicked through some goose-steps, marched in formation like it was a game, dealt with it, and were essentially on vacation.
Tong Xilin was on break at the time, sitting with his three roommates in the shade of a tree, cooling off. His phone buzzed in his pocket, message after message.
Zhou Qi: Guess where I am.
Zhou Qi: Never mind, don’t guess.
He sent Tong Xilin a photo—the crowded high-speed rail station.
Zhou Qi: Don’t be too moved.
Tong Xilin enlarged the image and studied it for a long time. He really had already arrived in Tianjin.
He typed back: Didn’t you say you’d come after National Day?
Zhou Qi fired back instantly: Free time’s free time.
Zhou Qi: Can’t stand those guys in my dorm. They annoy me.
Zhou Qi: Coming now doesn’t stop me from coming again during National Day to find you.
Tong Xilin was pretty happy, but still reminded him: My military training isn’t over.
Zhou Qi: Do your training. I’ll go sleep in your dorm.
Tong Xilin told him the spare key was on top of the door frame, and warned him not to sleep in the wrong bed—the one on the left, inner side, was his.
Zhou Qi actually went to their dorm.
When training ended for the day and they returned to the dorm, Qi Yuan and Pang Xiaoda were dead tired. They were leaning on each other’s shoulders, arriving at the dorm door, when they saw light spilling through and went “Huh?”
“The light’s been on all day?” Qin Ji pushed up his glasses and took out his key to unlock the door.
Before he could turn the lock, the door was yanked open from inside. Zhou Qi, looking like he’d just woken up, stretched his waist and said: “Your military training’s pretty intense, huh.”
All three were startled. Tong Xilin introduced him sheepishly: “My friend, Zhou Qi.”
“Ah.” Qi Yuan reacted first. He’d hit it off instantly with Zhou Qi during that gaming session—they’d even added each other as friends and played together often these past few days. “Brother Qi’s here?”
“You’re Brother Qi too.” Zhou Qi recognized his voice.
“Now it’s lively.” Pang Xiaoda said. “Face-to-face gaming.”
Qin Ji sized up Zhou Qi. He wasn’t unwelcoming either. Smiling, he said: “Welcome. Have fun.”
Zhou Qi had bought a ton of fruit. It was piled half a mountain high on the desk. He didn’t eat it himself, just encouraged everyone else to. After messing around for a while, he yelled at Tong Xilin that he was starving—he’d slept all afternoon—and told Tong Xilin to hurry up and take him out for a meal.
“Let’s all go together.” Tong Xilin stood up and asked them, “What do you guys want to eat?”
Qi Yuan and Pang Xiaoda started chattering over each other. Qin Ji said: “I’ll pass.”
“Why’s that?” Zhou Qi turned to look at him.
Earlier, when they were eating fruit together, Qin Ji hadn’t come over either.
“Too tired, and I’m not hungry.” Qin Ji got up to grab his clothes, still mild-mannered. “I’ll hurry and shower, get to bed early. If you guys get locked out by the curfew when you come back, it’ll be easier for me to go down and swipe you in.”
The group tried to persuade him for a bit but couldn’t sway him. Tong Xilin had a general sense of his reasoning. He said to him: “Then get some rest. I’ll bring you something back.”
“No need.” Qin Ji smiled. “You guys go have a good time.”
As they walked downstairs two-by-two, Zhou Qi lifted an arm and hooked it around Tong Xilin’s neck. Leaning in close, he lowered his voice and said: “I find Qin Ji kind of annoying.”
