Chapter 3: The Missing Strands

The hot air kept blowing.

Lin Ci ran his fingers through Gu Mianmian’s long hair, weaving between the strands.

Gu Mianmian kept her eyes lowered. Both ears burned red.

Her fingers stayed clenched around the hem of Lin Ci’s clothes, refusing to let go.

Lin Ci did not notice the movement at his hem at all.

He changed the angle of the dryer and spoke casually.

“If you weren’t pretty, ninety percent of the girls in our school would have to be reincarnated.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Gu Mianmian trembled.

The tips of her ears grew redder. She curled up into a ball.

She did not dare say a word, and lowered her head even more.

A moment later, Lin Ci turned off the hairdryer. The room went quiet.

“Done. It’s all dry.”

Lin Ci rubbed Gu Mianmian’s head.

“Go to bed now. You have to get up early for class tomorrow.”

Only then did Gu Mianmian let go and stand up.

She kept her head down and jogged over to climb into bed.

Then she pulled the blanket up over her head.

Under the covers, it was pitch black.

Gu Mianmian buried her face in the pillow. Her chest rose and fell hard.

In the dark, the corners of her mouth curved into a smile.

Lin Ci put the hairdryer away and turned off the dorm light.

He climbed onto the bed across from hers and lay flat on the mat.

Lin Ci stared at the ceiling and started self-checking.

‘This is wrong.’

‘Very wrong.’

‘I’m straight. When I used to talk to my dorm bros, I cursed with every other word.’

‘So how did I just compliment a girl’s looks so smoothly?’

‘What was that?’

‘Flirting?’

‘But I’m a girl now.’

Lin Ci scratched his forehead. His manliness was draining away fast.

Irritated, he turned over.

The thin blanket slipped off his shoulder.

The foreign sensation on his chest pressed in immediately.

Lin Ci sucked in a sharp breath and frantically yanked the blanket back, wrapping himself tight.

“This is f*cking ridiculous.”

He could not help but mutter a curse under his breath.

Hearing Lin Ci’s movement, Gu Mianmian’s voice came from the bed across.

“Senior?”

Lin Ci froze under the covers.

“Senior, what’s wrong?”

Gu Mianmian asked quietly through the mosquito net.

Lin Ci gave a dry laugh and made something up.

“Nothing. I just had a nightmare that I failed an exam.”

“Oh.”

Gu Mianmian replied.

“Don’t be scared, Senior. You can retake a failed course.”

Lin Ci buried his face in the blanket. ‘Do you think I’m afraid of failing a class?’

‘What I’m afraid of is my little brother never coming back.’

Lin Ci tossed and turned until late night, then finally drifted off.

The next morning.

Sunlight slipped through the gap in the curtains and landed on his face. Lin Ci yawned and sat up.

The dorm was empty, no sign of Gu Mianmian.

Lin Ci looked down. The backpack on the desk was gone.

On the bedside table lay a neatly folded towel.

It was the same one he had tossed over the chair back last night.

The towel had been folded into a square, corners aligned, placed perfectly straight.

Lin Ci picked it up and glanced at it.

Without thinking, he brought it close and sniffed.

The towel carried a light fragrance mixed with Gu Mianmian’s cool scent.

The smell clung strongly. It had clearly been held in someone’s arms for a long time.

Lin Ci did not think much of it and stuffed the towel back into the cabinet.

The girl was clean. It was normal for her to fold clothes as a favor.

After two morning major courses, Lin Ci was starving.

He went to the second cafeteria and ordered a braised chicken leg rice, then grabbed a two-meat one-vegetable set meal.

Lin Ci carried two hot meals and strode back to dorm 302.

He pushed the door open. Gu Mianmian was indeed sitting at the desk.

On the desk was a shriveled white steamed bun, next to a bowl of free cafeteria seaweed and egg drop soup.

She had torn the bun into small pieces and soaked them in the soup to swallow.

Lin Ci walked over and plopped the braised chicken leg rice in front of her.

The plastic lid opened, and the smell of meat spread through the dorm.

The chicken leg steamed, sitting on a bed of rice soaked in braised meat sauce.

Gu Mianmian stopped what she was doing and turned to look at the box.

“Eat this. That watery stuff has no nutrition.”

Lin Ci pulled out a chair and sat down.

Gu Mianmian shook her head and refused in a small voice.

“I… I can just eat the bun. That’s too expensive.”

Lin Ci did not waste words. He picked up his chopsticks, grabbed the big chicken leg, and dropped it into Gu Mianmian’s soup bowl.

“I said eat it, so eat it.”

Lin Ci’s tone was firm.

“The cafeteria lady’s hand slipped and gave me too much. She insisted on giving me two portions.”

“I already bought them. I can’t finish two by myself. If I can’t finish it, it’ll be thrown away, and wasting food gets you struck by lightning.”

Gu Mianmian looked at the chicken leg in her bowl, then at Lin Ci.

In front of Lin Ci, there was only a bowl of white rice with greens and tofu.

“Senior, you gave me all the meat. What are you going to eat?”

Gu Mianmian pressed her lips together.

“I’m on a diet, okay?”

Lin Ci shot her a look and shoveled down the greens.

“Eating meat every day makes you fat easily. If I get any fatter, how will I fit into clothes?”

Truth was, he just could not stand seeing the girl gnaw on steamed buns every day. He could make do with a few bites of greens.

Gu Mianmian’s hand holding the chopsticks stopped in midair.

She kept her head down, chopsticks pinching the edge of the chicken leg, not taking a bite right away.

Her slender fingers tightened, knuckles turning pale.

A tear fell onto the rice without warning.

Gu Mianmian quickly wiped it away and took small bites of the chicken.

The meat was fragrant, the sauce rich.

It was the best meal she had eaten in her whole life.

After finishing, Lin Ci cleaned up the trash and threw it in the bin.

He stretched and lay down on the desk for a nap.

His long black hair spilled across the cushion on the desk.

Gu Mianmian ate slowly, finishing every grain of rice stained with meat sauce.

At one in the afternoon, Gu Mianmian put on her backpack, ready to go work at the library.

She reached the dorm door and stopped.

Her hand rested on the doorknob. She did not open it right away.

Lin Ci was asleep on the desk, his back to the door, completely unguarded.

Gu Mianmian turned around, gaze falling toward the desk.

Her eyes settled on Lin Ci’s long hair spread over the cushion.

Those deep black eyes held no extra emotion, only focus.

She just stood there, watching for nearly two minutes.

The doorknob turned gently. Gu Mianmian slipped out without a sound.

Lin Ci turned over and fell fully asleep.

He slept until three in the afternoon.

The sunlight slanted westward, filling the dorm with a dim yellow glow.

Lin Ci rubbed his eyes and got up from the desk, neck aching badly.

He reached out without thinking to touch the cushion beside him.

The cotton cover on the cushion was a little wrinkled.

Along the edge of the sunken hollow in the center were a few faint finger marks.

The few long hairs that had been annoyingly dropped on it seemed to have been pinched away, most of them gone.

Lin Ci reached out and touched the smooth fabric.

His palm met the cloth with a trace of coolness.

He scratched his messy long hair. A strange discomfort rose in his chest.

He could not shake the feeling that he had lost a few strands of hair.

But then Lin Ci thought, long hair sheds easily anyway. He scratched his head again and pushed the matter out of his mind.

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