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Join the ServerXie Yan nimbly descended the two floors of the dorm, passed through the school gate, and jumped down directly from a terrace edge.
Double rooms cost more than other dorms, so the dorm manager wasn’t that strict—she turned a blind eye.
He ran to the school gate in large strides and stood in the night breeze, suddenly at a loss.
Wait, I don’t even know where he is.
How am I supposed to find him?
Lin Chuji still hadn’t re-added him.
He stared at the contact card on his phone and typed in the application reason box.
[Crab Boss]: Lin Chuji, accept my request.
[Crab Boss]: You can sleep at someone else’s house?
[Crab Boss]: I’ll give you one minute.
When you see the request, add me back immediately.
You’re the one who deleted me, and I still have to take the initiative to add you.
Reflect on that.
[Crab Boss]: Never mind, the last message exceeded the character limit.
Pretending to be asleep again, huh?
[Crab Boss]: Send me your current address.
Me standing on the street in the middle of the night is really stupid.
[Crab Boss]: One minute’s up.
I’ll give you one more minute.
[Crab Boss]: So you really deleted me and never planned to add me back?
Fine, I don’t care about you.
I’m going back.
Lin Chuji had just come out of the bathroom after washing up.
Seeing Xie Yan’s long string of application messages, his drowsiness instantly vanished.
So many messages—is he having an episode or is something wrong?
This is weird.
He quickly accepted the request and started typing frantically, the more flustered he got, the more typos he made—typing and deleting, deleting and typing.
Xie Yan clearly had no patience.
A video call popped up immediately.
Lin Chuji was genuinely afraid of communicating via video, but the other rarely seemed this urgent; there must be something important.
He hesitated for two seconds, then still answered.
Looking at the other side of the video, Xie Yan didn’t seem to be in the dorm, but rather on the street.
The night breeze lifted the stray hairs on his forehead, making his brow look even deeper.
Lin Chuji asked softly, “What’s wrong?”
Xie Yan looked at the person in the camera and didn’t speak.
Lin Chuji had already taken off his own clothes and put on the pajamas Qin Yi had prepared for him.
The collar was wide open, revealing his beautiful collarbones.
And the bite mark Xie Yan had left looked even more obvious under this outfit.
It was good-looking, by any aesthetic standard.
Yet Xie Yan felt a bit annoyed seeing it.
“You changed into pajamas?”
Lin Chuji looked down and didn’t see any problem.
“Yeah, he said they were brand new, never worn.
Besides, the military training uniform is so dirty.
I wouldn’t be able to sleep in it on the bed.”
“Then didn’t you think of coming back to sleep?”
Xie Yan blurted out.
The night wind was strong, messing up his hair, and his thoughts were also in disarray.
Lin Chuji stared at the other side of the video, subtly sensing that the other person was in a bad mood.
He blinked slowly and reflected on himself.
“Is it because I didn’t tell you directly and had Shen Yinan pass on the message, so you’re angry?
I’m sorry, I should have added you proactively, but I was afraid it was too late and you were already asleep, so…”
Xie Yan interrupted his explanation.
“When you talk to me, you don’t need to go through someone else to pass it on.”
“Sorry, I didn’t think it through,” Lin Chuji said softly.
“Xiao Chu, you’re not asleep yet?
Want me to come in and chat with you for a bit?” came Qin Yi’s voice from outside the door.
“Send me the address.
I’ll come get you,” Xie Yan said, his attention brought back by that sentence.
Lin Chuji listened to the knocking outside, not quite understanding what he meant.
“Come get me?
You mean Qin Yi’s address?
I only know it’s on the twelfth floor of Qingyuan Apartments.
As for the room number, I didn’t notice.”
Xie Yan noted the apartment name and said succinctly, “Describe the features.”
“It’s left out of the elevator, past a door with a ‘good fortune’ sticker, and another door with a shoe rack.
Probably the third or fourth door from the end,” Lin Chuji recalled slowly.
“Are you coming?
You don’t have to go to so much trouble.
I’ll go out and meet you.”
He didn’t understand why Xie Yan had to come find him in the middle of the night, but if he was this anxious, there must be a reason.
He had developed an unconditional trust in Xie Yan.
Afraid he might have more accidents, Xie Yan said quietly, “No need.
Just stay in the room, lock the door, and wait for me.”
Lin Chuji said “oh” and held his phone, a bit at a loss.
“Then… the video…”
Xie Yan had already searched for the apartment’s location and was running toward it.
He managed to reply, “Don’t hang up.
Keep it on.”
Lin Chuji grew nervous too from his seriousness.
“Xiao Chu, are you asleep?”
Qin Yi was still at the door.
“I thought I heard you talking.”
Lin Chuji was caught in the middle.
He looked at the video, then toward the door, not sure which to answer.
He leaned slightly toward Xie Yan, so he answered Qin Yi, “Going to sleep now.
Goodnight.”
Before he finished speaking, the door opened from the outside.
Lin Chuji was stunned, finally sensing something subtly wrong.
Qin Yi came in holding a glass and smiled.
“I don’t know if you still have trouble sleeping, but drinking some milk will help you sleep better.”
Lin Chuji’s heart inexplicably trembled.
We haven’t seen each other for years, yet he still knows I have a habit of drinking milk before bed at home.
He turned his phone screen face down, looked up, and smiled at him.
“Thanks, but I’m full from dinner.
I can’t drink any more.”
“Just a little,” Qin Yi said gently but stubbornly, trying to push it into Lin Chuji’s hand.
As he reached out, Lin Chuji raised his hand as if casually and knocked over the glass.
It crashed to the floor, shattering into pieces.
Hearing the commotion on the other end, Xie Yan’s pace quickened.
He had already arrived at the apartment building, but the elevator was stopped at the top floor, not moving at all, as if stuck or broken.
“It’s okay.
Don’t move.
I’ll get a broom,” he heard Qin Yi say.
“Your pajamas are dirty too.
Take them off and change into another set.”
He couldn’t make out Lin Chuji’s mumbled reply.
But his anxiety grew sharper.
Something’s wrong.
This feeling is very wrong.
The video showed only black, no sound, just rustling noises.
Afraid of alerting the enemy, Xie Yan didn’t speak either.
He looked up at the elevators again—both were still stuck at the top floor.
Twelfth floor.
Not too high.
I’ll just take the stairs.
Xie Yan was glad he was in good shape.
He climbed to Qin Yi’s floor in a few minutes, though he was running a bit fast and was out of breath, his back drenched in sweat.
He turned left from the elevator, passing the “good fortune” sticker and the shoe rack he had mentioned, and stopped at the third door from the end.
The door’s color was different from the others—dark green, looking cold but jarring.
It matched the feeling Qin Yi gave off—not as calm as he appeared on the surface.
This should be the right room.
Convinced, Xie Yan raised his hand and knocked.
Inside the room, Lin Chuji had locked himself in the bathroom and changed back into his military training uniform.
He had just come out when Qin Yi asked in surprise, “What do you mean by this?”
Lin Chuji didn’t answer directly, just reminded him, “Someone’s knocking.”
Qin Yi frowned, looked at him, then at the milk on the floor, somewhat dissatisfied with the situation and even more annoyed at the uninvited guest at the door.
But in the end, he turned, walked through the living room, and opened the door.
Xie Yan stood at the door, hands in his pockets, smiling slightly.
“Good evening.”
He had already suppressed his panting, his posture casual, his expression relaxed, as if he had just happened to be out for a late-night stroll and decided to drop by.
Qin Yi looked displeased.
“How do you know I live here?”
Xie Yan saw Lin Chuji, having changed back into his own clothes, walking out from inside.
He looked uninjured, everything normal.
Xie Yan’s tense mood finally eased a bit.
He strolled in slowly.
“Just wandering around and got lucky.”
“Isn’t it rude to come in without the host’s permission?”
Qin Yi frowned at him.
“Sorry.
I’ll take him and leave right away.”
Xie Yan walked over quickly, reached out and grabbed Lin Chuji’s wrist.
Out of the corner of his eye, he shifted his gaze from the life-sized painting in the living room to the painting in the corner.
Both had more than a hint of Lin Chuji in them.
In spirit and form, nearly replicated.
He didn’t know much about painting, but he could tell the two were not by the same artist.
Clearly, however, Qin Yi was more satisfied with the one in the corner.
It had a special gold frame, sealed into the wall, as if he were afraid it might get damaged.
The second Xie Yan saw the painting in the corner, he felt immensely glad he had come tonight.
Zhan Wanqiu’s worries had been justified.
He was an outsider to painting, but growing up with police parents, he knew a little about personality analysis.
From a criminal investigation perspective, Lin Chuji had some degree of attraction for Qin Yi, with a touch of pathology.
Whether this inclination existed only in his imagination or would be put into action was unknown.
Watching his movements, Qin Yi couldn’t hide his displeasure any longer.
He spoke up.
“Xiao Chu already said he was staying the night.
What do you mean by this?
Even if you’re his roommate, isn’t this a bit too much control?”
Xie Yan was calmer than him.
He opened his mouth and started making things up.
“Here’s the thing.
The dorm manager just did a bed check and found Lin Chuji wasn’t there.
She told me that if he didn’t come back, the architecture department class one’s class score would be docked.
School just started—it wouldn’t be appropriate for him to make the class lose points and become everyone’s enemy, right?
So the dorm manager asked me to bring him back immediately.
But we don’t even have WeChat, so I had to come in person.”
Lin Chuji looked at him biting his lip.
You don’t have to emphasize the no-WeChat thing.
“No WeChat, then how did you find this place?”
Qin Yi found the flaw.
“By intuition, by feeling, by telepathy?
Whatever you want to call it.”
Xie Yan curled his lip, reached out and grabbed Lin Chuji’s hand, and said lazily, “But it’s very late now.
We won’t disturb your rest anymore.
We’re leaving.
Bye.”
Qin Yi turned sideways, trying to block his way.
Xie Yan lowered his eyes slightly, looking down at him, just like their last confrontation, half-jabbing, half-warning.
“What, not allowing people to go back to their dorm?
Is the childhood sweetheart brother planning to force himself on him now?”
This nearly brought his intentions into the open.
In an instant, Qin Yi withdrew the aggression on his face.
“I don’t understand what you’re saying.
If Xiao Chu wants to go back, of course I won’t stop him.
It’s up to him.”
With Xie Yan holding his wrist, Lin Chuji turned to say goodbye.
“Since there’s a bed check, I should go back.
Sorry.”
Qin Yi looked at the painting in the living room.
“You haven’t taken your gift yet.”
Before anyone could answer, he denied himself.
“Never mind.
I’ll paint another one for you.”
“Okay.
See you next time.
Goodnight, Brother Qin Yi,” Lin Chuji said softly.
Xie Yan led him out.
When they got to the elevator, Lin Chuji found that the down button did nothing.
“Is the elevator broken…?”
Lin Chuji muttered.
“Then how did you get up?”
Xie Yan led the way toward the nearby stairwell, familiar with the route.
“Climbed the stairs.”
Twelve floors.
He had climbed up here step by step.
Lin Chuji looked at his profile—his forehead still glistened with sweat.
He didn’t know what to say.
He just turned on his phone’s flashlight for light and followed behind him silently for several floors before speaking slowly.
“There wasn’t really a bed check, was there?
You were worried about me.”
Caught off guard by his directness, Xie Yan paused.
As if weighing his motives, he didn’t answer, just laughed softly.
“Could you use your intelligence on judging people instead?”
So Xie Yan had only met Qin Yi twice and already sensed something was off.
He’s so smart and so alert.
The excitement doesn't stop here! If you enjoyed this, you’ll adore Crow's Golden Fragment. Start reading now!
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