Be Passionately In Love

During the National Day holiday, upon learning that Zhu Yangqi hadn't gone back either, Xu Zhi invited him out for a meal near her school. Zhu Yangqi had lost a lot of weight—so much that Xu Zhi didn't recognize him at first glance. She sighed inwardly, having hoped to recapture some of that summer feeling through him.

But Zhu Yangqi, of all things, had gone and lost weight. Sitting across from her, he looked both familiar and strange, deliberately rolling up his sleeves to his shoulders to show off his bulging, toned muscles. He kept flexing his biceps, completely oblivious to Xu Zhi's distracted state. "How about that? Pretty impressive, huh? I'm not bragging, but a lot of people can't achieve this even after a year of working out. Yours truly did it in just two months—a whole new transformation."

Xu Zhi sat expressionless across from him. "...Can you change back?"

Zhu Yangqi was momentarily speechless. Noticing her absentmindedness, he finally snapped out of it and retracted his biceps. Casually picking up a piece of sushi and stuffing it into his mouth, he asked, "Missing him, aren't you?"

Xu Zhi didn't answer, her gaze drifting to the bustling street outside, cars and pedestrians flowing past.

She wore a black cardigan that accentuated her fair, delicate skin, paired with a plain black tank top that revealed her smooth collarbone. Zhu Yangqi didn't dare look below that, but above it was the kind of elegant collarbone people online joked could hold a goldfish. Xu Zhi was undeniably beautiful—every time he saw her, Zhu Yangqi couldn't help but marvel at it.

Putting down his chopsticks, Zhu Yangqi took a sip of alcohol, hissing like an old man from the burn. His face twisted from the spice as he said, "When you called me yesterday, I knew you must be missing him a little. Otherwise, you wouldn’ve reached out first."

But in that moment, Xu Zhi was thinking that Chen Luzhou never made such exaggerated faces no matter how strong the alcohol was. Once, back in their rented place during senior year, she’d sneaked a sip of Old Xu’s homemade liquor and tricked Chen Luzhou into drinking it. After downing the whole mouthful, his eyes had reddened from the burn, but all he did was tilt his head back, frown slightly, then pull her into a headlock, ruthlessly pinching her cheeks as he gritted out, "Playing me, huh?"

Xu Zhi had laughed so hard she could barely breathe, but his grip was too strong to escape. Trapped against his chest, her face squished like dough under his fingers, she could only mumble, "Chen—Lu—Zhou, if my face gets bigger, you taking responsibility?!"

He’d laughed even harder, pinching harder in retaliation, murmuring lowly, "What responsibility? You kissed me so many times—you ever take responsibility for that?"

……

That unshakable confidence of his really was something no one else could replicate—not even Zhu Yangqi, who’d grown up with him.

Zhu Yangqi set his glass down, his entire face flushed from the alcohol. With a sigh, he said, "Honestly, since coming to Beijing, I haven’t dared reach out to you much either. Mostly because I was afraid seeing me would make you think of him. And I’m scared seeing you would always remind me of him too."Indeed, since the start of the semester, the two of them had hardly been in contact. Only on the first night of enrollment, because he had just changed to a local number, Zhu Yangqi sent her a message on WeChat with his new number. He asked if her enrollment had gone smoothly, if she needed any help, and told her to reach out anytime if she had any issues. He also asked her to send her new number over.

But Xu Zhi still hadn’t gotten a local number. Because of that phone call at the end of August, she had been uneasy. She was afraid Chen Luzhou might call her in the middle of the night again, so she hadn’t changed her number.

The two of them sat in a Japanese restaurant across from University A, watching the endless stream of people outside. It was peak holiday season, and students carrying suitcases continuously poured out of the school gates. The golden glow of the setting sun bathed the entire campus, making the scene feel almost surreal. It had only been a few months, yet looking back, it already seemed like a distant memory.

Xu Zhi tried to find traces of familiarity from the summer in Zhu Yangqi. Sitting in the fading sunlight, she slowly and meticulously examined him from head to toe. The way she looked at him, as if trying to dissect him piece by piece, sent chills down Zhu Yangqi’s spine. “Don’t look at me like that, man. I can’t handle it. I might start thinking you’re into me. But don’t you think I’ve gotten way more handsome lately?”

Xu Zhi took a leisurely sip of her drink and said, “Not bad.”

Zhu Yangqi knew he couldn’t compare to a certain someone. “Forget about my buddy. What about that Jiang Yu at your school? Am I better-looking than him?”

Xu Zhi had been absentmindedly admiring the sunset outside the window. At his words, she instinctively turned to look at him. “How do you know about Jiang Yu?”

Zhu Yangqi grinned mysteriously. “I’ve got eyes and ears at your school.”

“Did Chen Luzhou ask you to keep tabs on me?” Xu Zhi stared at him.

The restaurant was nearly empty, especially with the holiday approaching. At the moment, they were the only customers. The waiter brought over a plate of sashimi, steam still rising from it. The atmosphere fell silent for a moment. Zhu Yangqi rubbed his thighs awkwardly, then pushed the sashimi plate toward the center of the table. After the waiter left, he finally spoke. “That night you went to him to discuss your college applications, he asked me to keep an eye out. Not to spy on you, but to make sure no one bullied you. Coincidentally, I have a friend at the art school in University A. I casually mentioned it to him the other day and found out you’ve got a lot of admirers. That philosophy department heartthrob—his name’s Jiang Yu, right? So, is he as good-looking as my buddy?”

Xu Zhi silently watched Zhu Yangqi, the sunset reflecting sharply in her eyes. There was an inexplicable air of defiance about her, as if she could hold her ground against an army. “What’s his point?”

Thinking Xu Zhi was upset about being investigated behind her back, Zhu Yangqi sighed and quickly defended his friend. “Don’t get the wrong idea. Chen Luzhou really didn’t mean anything by it. He was just worried you might get bullied, especially since you’re so pretty. That’s why he asked me to keep an eye out. And he did say you were free to date whoever you wanted.”

Xu Zhi: “...”"Xu Zhi, it's not good for you to keep looking for his shadow in others," Zhu Yangqi actually suggested sincerely. "Why don't you try dating someone?"

Xu Zhi: "..."

After that, the seven-day National Holiday passed quickly. Before the break, Xu Zhi received a text notification about the pre-holiday club recruitment. Since club activities this semester offered extra credits, she casually signed up for the photography club. Soon after, she was notified about a post-holiday meeting. She roughly calculated how many meetings she had on Monday: the publicity department's regular meeting, the club meeting, plus a class committee meeting at noon. Oh right—she was also the class's Youth League branch secretary. It was all so random. On the first night of the freshman orientation, everyone introduced themselves, and after a round of icebreakers, the advisor suddenly started selecting class officers. Their class had a fairly even gender ratio, and when votes were tallied, they were scattered. She won the position by a narrow margin of about ten votes.

Xu Zhi was the type who didn’t mind either way—doing the job or not. Having been a class officer since childhood, she was used to it. With her striking looks and emotionally stable personality, teachers loved to assign her tasks.

On the last day of the holiday, she finished editing a few promotional videos for the upcoming basketball tournament at the publicity department and returned the keys to Du Qilan. In the afternoon, she went to the mobile service center to get a local SIM card. When she returned to the dorm, before even pushing the door open, she was met with a cacophony of noise—like a scene with five hundred ducks. She could hardly believe that Xu Gongzhu and Liu Yisi were capable of making such a racket, nor could she believe how the previously stifling and gloomy dorm had transformed into a boiling pot of chaos.

"Oh my god, I really saw him! At the second cafeteria, eating with someone!" Xu Gongzhu’s voice was unprecedentedly excited, and she couldn’t help stomping her feet, making the already wobbly three-legged stool behind the door shake even more. "The guy across from him—I know him! He’s that science top-scorer Xu Zhi and I ran into at the convenience store last time, the one from her province. That guy is seriously so handsome. I’d just gotten my food and was looking for a seat when he glanced over at us while talking to the top-scorer. My legs literally went weak."

Liu Yisi laughed. "He must’ve been checking you out. Why else would he look at you?"

Xu Gongzhu wasn’t the type to fall for such flattery—she had enough self-awareness. Though her voice trembled with excitement, she retained a shred of rationality: "No way. There were so many girls in the cafeteria sneaking glances at him. Even the little campus belle from the foreign languages department went up to ask for his WeChat."

Liu Yisi still wasn’t entirely convinced. She almost asked, Could he really be hotter than the school heartthrob? But after being here for over a month, no one even knew who the school heartthrob was. The only notable ones were a few good-looking guys from the philosophy department, like Jiang Yu. But they were all on par—none stood out as exceptionally stunning, no undisputed leader. With the school’s prestigious reputation, every time someone brought up who the campus heartthrob was, forums and Weibo would erupt into genuine, heated debates, with everyone dragging each other’s favorites. So the title remained vacant. After all, this was an elite academic institution—looks were secondary, and brilliance was harder to overshadow.Xu Gongzhu was scrolling through WeChat on her phone and said, "I don't care. When Senior Du comes back later, I'm going to tell her—who says the guys in our year aren't up to par? This one is absolutely killer."

"Are you sure he's from our school? Couldn't he just be here to visit someone?" Liu Yisi asked.

"No, he's from the Humanities Experimental Class. Isn't Professor Wang's lecture tomorrow shared with their class? Just wait and see—it’ll cause a sensation."

Just as Xu Zhi pushed the door open and walked in, their voices abruptly stopped. Both turned to look at her in unison, their eyes still sparkling with excitement, all past grievances forgotten. Xu Zhi couldn’t bear to disrupt the mood. Regardless of whether the guy was actually handsome or not, the fact that he had managed to turn their hostility into harmony and break the ice was impressive in itself.

While rummaging through her drawer for her campus card, Xu Zhi earnestly encouraged them, "Hey, don’t mind me. I’m just here to grab my meal card. You two keep chatting—it’s going great."

As Xu Zhi walked out with her card, Xu Gongzhu suddenly blurted out, "Xu Zhi, are you heading to the cafeteria?"

"Yeah, eating first, then a meeting. Doesn’t your study department have one tonight?"

"Nope. Your publicity department must be swamped lately," Xu Gongzhu called after her, then suddenly shouted, "Go to Cafeteria Two! There’s a hot guy there!"

Xu Zhi had already planned to go to Cafeteria Two—not because of any alleged hot guy, but because she suddenly craved braised pork knuckle rice, which was only available on the third floor of that cafeteria.

Autumn had settled into the city by then. A few golden leaves drifted sparsely along the cobblestone path leading to the cafeteria, though the season hadn’t fully taken hold yet. The basketball court next to the cafeteria echoed with the rhythmic pounding of balls and sporadic cheers from the players.

Xu Zhi spent the entire walk wondering if she had enough money on her card for the pork knuckle rice. The cafeteria had been closed during the break, and she vaguely remembered having a little over twenty yuan left before the holiday. A serving cost twenty-eight, but she couldn’t recall the exact amount, so she debated whether to top up her card first.

After adding funds and sitting down with her meal, she suddenly lost her appetite. If not for her lack of a sex life, she might’ve wondered if she was pregnant, given how erratic her hormones—and moods—had been lately.

The cafeteria was vast and spacious. Despite the crowd, it still felt hollow, with conversations seeming to come from miles away. Beyond a couple of tables, voices blurred into indistinct murmurs, leaving only the clatter of trays to fill the air.

As Xu Zhi picked at her food, she heard someone call her name. She looked up, bewildered, and spotted a deputy head from the publicity department waving at her from across the room, asking if she was done and if they could head to the meeting together.

Xu Zhi was about to respond when a tall figure suddenly passed between them, blocking her view. She instinctively turned her head to peer past the obstruction and called out, "Just a sec, wait for me." But in the next moment, her brain caught up—and she froze.She couldn't quite describe what she felt at that moment. It felt too distant, like witnessing a grand mirage that might vanish the next second. She kept thinking it must be because she'd been missing him too much lately, that this was just another illusion. She hardly dared to look up, knowing it was probably just someone who vaguely resembled him. To be honest, she occasionally spotted people who looked like him on the streets, but none had ever felt this real.

This sense of reality struck her heart with tangible force. At that moment, goosebumps rose on her skin, her blood surged wildly through her veins, and she stood there, utterly frozen.

Even when she saw Chen Luzhou's face, she still couldn't shake the feeling of disbelief. She kept telling herself it was just a handsome guy who happened to look like him—no wonder Xu Gongzhu and Liu Yisi had turned into a flock of five hundred chattering ducks. Anything even remotely connected to him was bound to be good-looking. But when Xu Zhi noticed Li Ke standing beside him, it finally hit her—this was the real Chen Luzhou.

Her great poet, Chen.