Be Passionately In Love

The night was quiet, with no extra sounds. The air conditioning was on in the room, and a thin layer of condensation had formed on the window, making the moonlight hazy and obscuring the night view outside.

Chen Luzhou woke up once in the middle of the night because someone had rolled into his arms while he was sleeping.

He pushed her away, but before long, she rolled back in. The girl’s cheeks were flushed, sleeping soundly. Sensing she was being pushed aside, she mumbled with her eyes closed, discontentedly, "Why won’t you let me hug you?"

Even though it was so hot, she still clung to him. Like a stubborn piece of sticky candy.

Lying flat on his back, he helplessly draped an arm over his eyes, utterly at a loss. Silently, he cursed in his mind, I’m going crazy , his voice muffled: "How am I supposed to sleep like this?"

"Stop talking, Chen Luzhou," she muttered, half-asleep and oblivious.

So he didn’t move again. For the rest of the night, he drifted in and out of sleep, utterly tormented.

When morning came, Xu Zhi woke up refreshed and eager to continue their conversation from the night before. Chen Luzhou, however, buried his face in the pillow, unmoving. His voice was tight as it emerged from the pillow, laced with a helpless laugh: "I’m warning you, don’t touch me right now." Then, lazily, he added, "Hand me a couple of tissues."

Xu Zhi pulled out the tissues and handed them to him, but when he didn’t move for a while, she made a move to pull off his blanket. "What’s the big deal? Did you wet the bed?"

He dodged slightly, turning his head to the side, and warned her again, dead serious, "If you don’t want to go fishing, don’t touch me."

Finally, Xu Zhi realized what he was struggling with. "Let me see—has the flag been raised?"

Damn, you really know a lot.

No sooner had she spoken than she was pulled into a tight embrace, pinned beneath him. His breathing was heavy and rapid, his hot breath brushing against her ear, sending waves of heat through her, making her ears burn and her vision blur.

Her heartbeat pounded like a drum, erratic in her chest, as her hand was abruptly guided downward.

"Don’t move. Just lie there. I’ll handle it myself."

His eyes were still drowsy, half-lidded and hazy, his entire body radiating exhaustion. Yet his hands moved with practiced ease.

……

Xu Zhi obediently lay beneath him, watching with open curiosity as her boyfriend took care of himself. Unable to resist, she asked, "Is it once a day?"

Chen Luzhou braced one hand beside her pillow, looking down at her. The heat in his eyes was barely restrained, but her sudden, clueless question made him burst into laughter despite himself. "Can you not ask?"

"I’m just curious, okay?"

"I know you’re curious, but can some things just stay a mystery?"

"Then hurry up, okay?"

"Don’t rush me, okay?"

"Okay," she mimicked his tone.

"No." The young man was spirited and utterly principled.

Back and forth they went, tossing "okay" at each other, their banter laced with sarcasm as they tried to mask their awkwardness in the face of desire. Neither willing to yield, they stubbornly held their ground, only revealing their inexperience all the more plainly. Both their ears were flushed red, stark against the white sheets, like the first rays of dawn peeking through the trees—more vivid than flowers, more delicate than branches, ambiguous yet beautiful.

By the time they returned to school in the afternoon, the snow had already been shoveled, packed tightly into a small snowy mound by the roadside. A few misshapen snowmen stood nearby.Xu Zhi recalled her high school days when a boy had stuffed a snowball into a girl's clothes during class. That girl was too timid to report it to the teacher and had to endure sitting through the lesson soaked. By the third day, she caught a cold.

Standing downstairs by the dormitory, with people passing by intermittently, she shared stories from high school. Halfway through, he lowered his head, frowning slightly as he asked, "No one ever stuffed snow into your clothes, right?"

"They wouldn’t dare. I was the class monitor—if they tried, I’d hit them. I used to be pretty violent," Xu Zhi said.

Chen Luzhou chuckled, casually scooping up a handful of snow from the flower bed and leisurely shaping it into a ball in his palm. "I wouldn’t have guessed. You always seem so unshakable. In all the time I’ve known you, I’ve never seen you get angry—except that one time I wouldn’t let you kiss me. Even when we argued, you just walked away without a word. It’s like you’re used to hiding or ignoring your emotions."

Watching him mold the snow, Xu Zhi thought to herself, Boys really do have big hands. "How did you notice that?"

"Do I even need to? We’ve known each other for almost half a year now—I’ve gotten to understand you a little. Remember the first time we met? You were standing downstairs with Tan Xu. He’d bombed his exam, and I could tell you were desperately trying to comfort him, but your empathy was off the mark—you just couldn’t hit the right notes. And later, when we broke up..."

"By the lamppost," he cleared his throat, adjusting his phrasing, "you were so composed. I couldn’t tell you were reluctant to let me go at all. Back then, I thought you were just playing hard to get. But now I realize you probably have a habit of brushing aside emotions you find unpleasant."

People came and went outside the dormitory, their gazes inevitably lingering on the two of them. But their eyes remained fixed on each other, fully absorbed in the conversation. Xu Zhi hadn’t expected him to pick up on this about her, and a strange, indescribable feeling stirred inside her. "Mm," she acknowledged. "It’s not that I ignore them. After my mom passed, a lot of things happened at home. Even though we fought all the time, she was an amazing person—won countless design awards, was a celebrated architect in her field, and the backbone of our family. You know my dad’s socially anxious—he can’t even argue with people, let alone communicate normally without psyching himself up first. But my mom wasn’t like that. She believed in standing her ground when she was right and fighting her way through when she wasn’t—she’d never let herself be walked over."

"With her around, I always felt secure. She used to say, 'Living well is your greatest confidence—no need to kowtow to anyone.' But that attitude also made her a lot of enemies. After she was gone, she left behind a mess. People would harass me and my dad constantly—some even showed up with their kids, demanding he take care of them. They’d say, 'Your wife’s dead, the construction projects are halted, my husband isn’t getting paid, and my child has no milk to drink,' just because my mom had helped them out a few times, even advancing them money from her own pocket. Then they latched onto us. That’s when I realized emotions are the most useless thing. You empathize with them, but they won’t necessarily appreciate it. Getting angry just meant I still had homework to do afterward—might as well skip straight to the homework."Ms. Lin Qiudie had a bit of a lone hero complex. It wasn't uncommon for her to intervene when she saw injustice, though she often got stabbed in the back for her efforts. Yet she remained unbothered, still stepping in when needed—a person who cared little for repayment, her warm-heartedness unshaken.

Chen Luzhou suddenly understood why she had wanted to get close to him back then, and why, after meeting his mother, Xu Zhi had been certain that she wasn’t her mother.

Lin Qiudie and Lian Hui were completely different people. Apart from their similar voices, Lian Hui was cautious and gentle as water, yet always self-serving. Even if she had altered her appearance, her personality couldn’t have changed so drastically.

Chen Luzhou lowered his head, lost in thought for a moment, then rubbed the snowball in his hand and said, "This might sound a little hard to grasp, but I think what you might be lacking is emotion. A designer pours a lot of their own emotions into their work. Sentimental people might have an easier time channeling that—what you’d call ‘inspiration.’ Zhu Yangqi is a prime example. Sometimes, he’ll see two trees and feel sorry for the balder one."

Xu Zhi stared at him with wide, uncomprehending eyes.

He chuckled. "I’ll tell you later how he finds his inspiration. But bottling up emotions is like rolling a snowball—it just keeps growing, and one day, it’s going to cause problems. You can’t keep ignoring it."

Chen Luzhou silently held up the snowball in his hand.

It was enormous. Xu Zhi gasped. "Did you make a globe?"

Chen Luzhou grinned. "Snowball fight?"

"You trying to kill me?"

"Would I dare?"

That’s what he said, but the look in his eyes was unmistakably mischievous. Xu Zhi suddenly remembered their morning entanglement in bed and felt her face heat up, her heart pounding.

The feeling was hard to describe. Overwhelming.

But no sooner had he spoken than Chen Luzhou felt a sudden chill on his neck—a snowball, launched from who-knows-where, whizzed past his ear and smacked Xu Zhi square in the forehead. Instinctively, he shielded her head with his arm, but the snowball still tumbled onto her shoulder. The leafy, icy mass exploded like a bomb, showering her in a flurry of white snowflakes, leaving her covered in scattered bits.

As Chen Luzhou brushed the snow off her, he glanced back impatiently and spotted the culprit—Li Ke, standing guiltily by the flower bed with an apologetic, clueless grin, clearly afraid of retaliation. "...Missed. Xu Zhi okay?"

Chen Luzhou hummed and crooked a finger at him. "She’s fine. Come here."

Li Ke had been about to ask if they wanted to go to the library, but halfway over, he caught sight of the snowball the size of a globe in Chen Luzhou’s hand. "Holy sh—" He spun on his heel and bolted.

Chen Luzhou, the bastard, stood there completely unruffled and lazily directed his girlfriend: "Get him."

Li Ke yelled over his shoulder, "Have you no shame? That thing’s cheating by sheer size!"

Chen Luzhou even had the audacity to call out, "Slow down—she can’t catch up."

Li Ke pumped his legs faster, glancing back. "Yeah, right!"

Leaning against a tree, Chen Luzhou watched with amused satisfaction and called out, "Hey, Keke, watch your step—there’s a snow pile behind you."Li Ke, seeing Xu Zhi couldn't catch up, deliberately took a couple of steps backward, taunting, "Like hell I'd believe you—"

Thud! A loud crash. Caught off guard, he lost his footing and tumbled into a snowdrift. "Damn it, Chen Luzhou, you—"

Familiar classmates emerging from the dormitory couldn't help but laugh, teasing him, "Top Scholar Li, stop asking for trouble! Luzhou's got backup!"

"Luzhou's pretty protective, huh."

"If Xu Zhi were my girlfriend, who wouldn't be protective?"

"I wanna have a snowball fight with my girlfriend too."

"Keep dreaming. You'd have better luck having a snowball fight with Einstein than finding a girlfriend."

"Damn."

Once someone started, more and more people joined the snowball fight below. Fluffy snowflakes swirled chaotically in the air, a blur of white obscuring faces. Anyone passing by got mercilessly pelted, the area filled with laughter, shouts, and playful shoving—utter pandemonium.

The commotion outside was infectious. Even those still in the dorms couldn't resist, pulling on their pants and rushing downstairs. "What's going on?"

"Chen Luzhou and Li Ke are having a snowball fight outside. Come on, let's join!"

The energy was contagious. This was the essence of youth—boundless drive and infectious enthusiasm, where action always trumped deliberation. Right or wrong didn't matter; they were idealistic, seizing the day with poetic fervor.

Chen Luzhou was that kind of youth. So was Li Ke. Xu Zhi even more so. Everyone present embodied it.

Eighteen or nineteen—that's how youth should be.

Xu Zhi thought to herself, Thank goodness he's here.

Chen Luzhou sighed and walked over to pull Li Ke up. "I warned you."

Li Ke, having fallen into a pit, trustingly reached out his hand.

Chen Luzhou: "Xu Zhi, hit him."

"..."

Li Ke instinctively tried to shake free, but the guy's grip was ironclad. "Damn it, Chen Luzhou, are you even human?"

That was just how Chen Luzhou was. He could brush off his own grievances, but if someone close to him got hurt, he'd retaliate in kind. Li Ke had seen how fiercely he protected his younger brother before.

But the expected massive snowball attack never came.

Li Ke stared blankly at Xu Zhi, who was holding a giant snowball, while Chen Luzhou kept a firm grip on his wrist. Fed up, he was about to snap, Damn it, just get it over with, you two.

Xu Zhi didn't move, dead serious as she looked at Chen Luzhou and asked, "Why do you call him 'Ke-Ke' but just 'Xu Zhi'?"

Chen Luzhou: "..."

Li Ke: ".................."

Author's Note:

Let me address this publicly. Due to two surgeries this year, my health hasn't been great. I've been on medication, which has dampened my energy and excitement. Writing has been slower—I spend seven or eight hours at my desk daily, sometimes agonizing over a single line of dialogue for an hour. After my recent hospital checkup, the doctor advised a month's rest. Updating four days a week with one break is my current limit. To avoid a rushed ending, I can only manage about 3,000-4,000 words a day to maintain the right emotional tone. If waiting is too hard, feel free to come back when the story's complete. My apologies to everyone.2. This story definitely won't have a rushed ending. Right now it's just daily romance moments, slowly tying up some of the earlier foreshadowing. But I've been really enjoying the atmosphere of this story myself, so I'll be focusing more on that aspect. Though daily romance life isn't always that exciting every single day. There will definitely be intimate scenes - at least one proper one for sure. But there won't be too many, since these two are really too young. JJWXC currently has quite a few restrictions, including ideological ones, especially since this is still a campus story.

I sincerely, earnestly request - please don't argue. I'll accept all reasonable suggestions, but I'll definitely complete this story according to my own vision. As for the update delays, it's really due to health reasons beyond my control - I hope everyone can understand.

Red envelopes for this chapter to thank all the readers who offered suggestions and encouragement.

Thank you to everyone who likes this story.