“Isn’t it only April?”

　　“Yep, my favorite season is finally here. ‘Spring paths with rain and flowers, blooms sway in the mountain’s spring hues...’ Gu Pan, let’s plan a day for a countryside outing, shall we?”

　　“Which month is Thanksgiving in?”

　　“Huh? That’s way off, the fourth Thursday of November, over six months away...”

　　“Then why are you in such a hurry to dress up like a turkey?”

　　Gu Pan stepped to the side, putting some distance between himself and Lu Yitong. He was well aware of the principles set by "Xinyuan" about distinguishing between girlfriends and female friends, keeping a clear line. He had a rule: for any woman who wasn’t his girlfriend, no matter how her appearance or personality might clash with his tastes, he would refrain from commenting or showing any preference. But with Lu Yitong, who barely even qualified as a “friend,” he couldn’t resist making a dig at her eye-catching outfit.

　　They were on their way to one of the buildings at the Foreign Language Institute.

　　As they entered the campus, Lu Yitong’s high ponytail, red scarf, black velvet cropped jacket, and stiletto boots drew curious glances from the two security guards at the gate. They were on the verge of stopping her to check her student ID when a reckless cyclist darted through, becoming the more immediate campus security concern.

　　This unexpected incident diverted everyone's attention, allowing them to slip through without further scrutiny.

　　Gu Pan kept his head down, hands stuffed in his pockets, trying to blend in as he casually strolled past. With his long legs, he managed to put a good fifty meters between himself and Lu Yitong.

　　But seeing Lu Yitong, balancing on her high heels and purposefully striding towards him, made him wish he could just vanish into thin air.

　　And so, with one of them bubbling with enthusiasm and the other barely tolerating the situation, they “teamed up” for Professor Ling’s evening class.

　　Navigating the lush, shrub-lined path, they finally arrived at the academic building. Following the new semester’s schedule that Professor Ling had provided, they made their way towards a specific lecture hall.

　　Gu Pan and Lu Yitong walked into the classroom and noticed that only the last two rows by the wall were available. They chose seats in the second-to-last row.

　　Lu Yitong came prepared, practically armed to the teeth. Her small backpack seemed like a bottomless pit of supplies. She kept pulling things out one after another: an ultra-thin laptop, A4 paper, gel pens, and even a DSLR camera. Gu Pan just shook his head at the sight. "This time, he decided to keep his thoughts to himself, thinking, 'If someone's going mad, might as well let them go all out.'". Maybe that’ll bring them back to normal.” He quietly hoped for Lu Yitong to regain her senses.

　　Five minutes before the bell rang, Ling Hanlu finally made her entrance. She had refilled her thermos with herbal tea in the break room. Placing the thermos on the side of the podium and setting up the equipment, she began the evening's lecture on Anglo-American literature.

　　Somewhere in the back, Lu Yitong hoisted up her DSLR. The classroom was so quiet that the click of the camera's shutter turned their secluded corner into the center of attention. Startled, Lu Yitong stuck out her tongue in embarrassment, while Gu Pan buried his face in his hands.

　　Ling Hanlu looked over towards the sound and recognized the bright red face of the "newbie" that Gu Pan had brought along. Despite the girl's flashy outfit and blushing face, Ling immediately recognized her. It was the same girl who had collapsed during the New Year's fireworks show and whom Ling had helped up. The same girl who had acted all cutesy and helpless in the café. Her relationship with Gu Pan was unclear. There's a saying, “A persistent suitor can wear down even the toughest person.” If you swap the genders, it probably still holds true, right?

　　"Teacher, teacher..." A young girl in the front row softly called out to Ling Hanlu. It snapped her out of a momentary daze. She smiled apologetically to the audience below before opening her meticulously prepared PowerPoint presentation.

　　"The Renaissance marks a shift from the medieval to the modern world..." This lesson delved into the historical and cultural backdrop of the Renaissance and humanistic thought. Gu Pan struggled to follow along, and Lu Yitong was utterly dumbfounded. Compared to the lives of the Brontë sisters, this subject was harder to relate to. Still, Gu Pan remained one of the most attentive students in the room.

　　She diligently snapped photos with her phone. Beside her, a girl, as lively as a turkey, observed her capturing each unique moment of the occasionally blue-faced hobbit.

　　Once Lu Yitong captured what she wanted with her DSLR camera, she set it aside. She fixed her eyes on Gu Pan's profile, reminiscent of a scene she had seen outside the "Time Corridor" on a snowy night. Two handsome men were face-to-face, eating together. One wolfed down his food, while the other looked at him with affection in his eyes... Her thoughts began to wander freely again, and her language followed suit, unrestrained.

　　"Gu Pan, wouldn't it be nice if you just stayed quietly beside me like this?" From her viewpoint, Lu Yitong delicately traced the contours of the young man's handsome face in the air with her fingertips. Each movement was deliberate, like a slow, heartfelt journey. Despite her steady fingers, she struggled to contain the overwhelming waves of love inside her. "Gu Pan, do you know what I've done while you were asleep?"

　　"Well, what else could it be?" Gu Pan replied calmly, certain that their relationship had never extended beyond a few moments of physical attraction, so he remained unruffled.

　　"Well, maybe not much from your perspective. But I've scrutinized every part of you. Your forehead, nose, lips... I was hoping I'd find reasons not to like you. But I couldn't!"

　　At the end of her sentence, Lu Yitong was momentarily swept away by a scene from a familiar palace drama, forgetting she was in class. The poignant plight of the women in the drama who loved but couldn't have mirrored her own sadness, causing her voice to burst out unguarded, mingling with Ling Hanlu's lecture.

　　"Hush—" Gu Pan placed a finger on his lips. Then once again, he covered his face with both hands.

　　"Okay, okay, I'll keep it down," Lu Yitong cleared her throat softly. "Gu Pan, if you were into guys, I wouldn't be this torn up."

　　"Don't talk nonsense," Gu Pan lowered his voice sharply, hoping to dismiss Lu Yitong's absurdity.

　　"Old handsome guy really likes you, I'm not mistaken about that. But you're not interested in him. You fancy the one on stage..." Lu Yitong pouted, pointing towards the podium. Her nostrils flared slightly, trying to control the sourness rising in her heart and nose. "I'm right, aren't I?"

　　Gu Pan initially wanted to explain that Su Chiyuan was a mentor to him, an idol, a life goal. There was so much he wanted to learn from Mr. Su, aside from the cliché phrase "I don't want you to..." But then he thought better of it and decided to remain silent. His silence, however, implicitly confirmed his feelings for Ling Hanlu.

　　Lu Yitong buried her face in her arms. She looked at the knee-high boots she borrowed from her roommate, which were meant to enhance her appearance, and felt she had brought humiliation upon herself to the extreme. She might have understood that Gu Pan had never had any positive feelings towards her from the beginning. But without a clear target for her resentment, she could still console and numb herself with familiarity over time, at least harboring a glimmer of hope. Today, dressed up as she was, she appeared at the outdoor classroom staircase, clinging to her last chance to prove her judgment wrong. Yet all she gained was heartache.

　　She wanted to leave, but having rare moments sitting beside Gu Pan, she couldn't bear to go. So she picked up her camera and flipped through the only photo she took of Ling Hanlu tonight.

　　Zooming in, Lu Yitong wished she could see into every pore of Ling Hanlu's skin. She hoped that in these pixels, she could discern what exactly attracted Gu Pan to this older woman.

　　In the photo, Ling Hanlu wore no makeup, her features subdued and unremarkable. Without her jacket, her figure outlined by a base layer was as flat as the scallion pancakes sold in the alley behind the teacher's college. Yet this plainness somehow inexplicably calmed Lu Yitong down.

　　But this calmness now made her feel guilty, even "angry at herself," feeling ashamed of the "humiliation" she endured. She should hate!

　　In Korean dramas, a big-time Lu Yitong, eager to make a decision and change, becomes a ruthless second female lead who will stop at nothing. But for some reason, the confident "rival" on stage, who effortlessly pours herself into the role, stirs in her a deep admiration and longing. This made her feel unworthy of scheming to play the villainess, as if this woman were naturally protected by a barrier of purity. Like fate itself... though Miss Lu was unwilling to admit it.

　　With a sigh of sorrow, Lu Yitong packed away her SLR camera into her backpack. She lay sideways on the table, waiting for the bell to ring in an hour after class.

　　2　

　　During the break in Ling Hanlu's lecture, the classroom was filled with the faint scratch of pens and the soft tap-tap of fingers typing notes. Then, at an unnoticed moment, the heavy rear doors creaked open.

　　Someone was thirty minutes late.

　　A few students, lost in their own thoughts, glanced back briefly, mildly surprised, then quickly refocused.

　　The tardy student scanned the room and settled into an empty seat by the wall.

　　Gu Pan sensed something peculiar behind him. He could hear the person recline in their chair, breathing steadily and deeply. Their fingertips drummed the desk every couple of seconds, as though keeping time to some inner reflection or deliberation... It puzzled him. Yet, respecting others' idiosyncrasies, he resisted the urge to turn around.

　　Ten minutes later, unable to ignore his curiosity any longer, Gu Pan looked back, only to find the mysterious figure had vanished without a trace.

　　As he abandoned his interest in the enigma and turned his attention back to Ling Hanlu, he noticed the woman who had previously felt faint from hunger was again clutching her forehead, struggling to maintain her composure. Anxious, he stood up from his seat. Lu Yitong stared at him, looking utterly perplexed.

　　Luckily, after a moment, Ling Hanlu steadied herself, no longer swaying from side to side. She seemed to regain her composure. Only then did Gu Pan sit back down, feeling slightly relieved.

　　Watching her recover, his determination to become her personal chef intensified even more.