Chapter Text
You Huo was waiting for Chu Yue, his suitcase dragging behind him like a dead weight. He’d found a quiet corner to lurk, but with every passing second, his expression soured from bored to actively displeased.
He scowled at his phone, scrolling through his search history with more interest than he’d ever grant a wailing first-year.
Finally, he opened WeChat and tapped on Chu Yue’s flashy new selfie.
You Huo: Where are you?
Redhairedbadass: Almost there!
Redhairedbadass: So impatient… do you miss me? smiling emoji
"......"
You Huo shoved his phone back into his pocket as if it had personally offended him.
"Excuse me?"
You Huo looked up. "?"
A beaming senior with a camera introduced himself. "I'm Lu Cheng from the photography club! We're interviewing first-years."
You Huo stared, blank-faced, into the lens. The camera saw what the senior saw: a face so handsome it was borderline offensive. It was the only reason he’d been approached.
You Huo lied without blinking.
"Actually, I already graduated."
"Really? You look so young!"
"Yeah. I'm just waiting for my... younger sister."
As if on cue, Chu Yue ambled into view.
You Huo averted his gaze and pointed. "Her."
Chu Yue, now within earshot, stopped dead.
".........."
In a flash, the camera swiveled from the devastatingly handsome 'alumni' to his utterly unamused 'sister.'
When the interview was over and the senior had wandered off, You Huo picked up his suitcase as if nothing had happened.
"Let's go."
"....." Chu Yue let out a long-suffering sigh. "Yeah, yeah, let's go... brother."
You Huo turned his head away, hiding a smirk.
After escaping secondary school and stumbling into university, You Huo looked like he’d finally caught up on approximately 2% of his lifetime sleep debt.
His mother’s military-grade discipline had robbed him of his sacred right to nap through his teenage years. As someone who could—and would—sleep on a bed of nails if given the chance, he held a deep, personal grudge against her for this.
Just then, his phone buzzed ominously. At the top of his messages was a contact named "Mrs. You," whose profile picture was a stern-looking white daisy.
Mrs. You: 16 unread documents
Mrs. You:I've sent all the study materials for your law major this semester. Use your free time to study. Don't waste a second. Now that you will be away from home, I cannot monitor you directly. Do not slack on your studies or lectures. I will keep close contact with your headmaster, so I will still know everything that you do.
You Huo: ok.
Chu Yue peeked at his screen and let out a low whistle. "Wow. The term hasn't even started and your mom is already launching the pre-emptive strike modules?"
"En."
"It's physically painful to watch someone study this early," she said, shaking her head in sympathy. "I feel secondhand exhaustion."
University was a different world from secondary school. The classes were fewer, and the insane, early-morning cram sessions were (mostly) a thing of the past.
Even for You Huo, a law major.
And as everyone knows, law is a special kind of difficult. Law students simply don't get to experience this thing called "a break."
You Huo and Chu Yue came to a halt, stuck in a crowd of students hugging as if they were being deployed to a war zone.
"Since we're opposite genders," Chu Yue stated the obvious, "there's zero chance we'll be in the same dorm."
"Mhn."
"But... you might want to see who you are stuck with," she said, nodding toward the dorm assignment list.
"...."
You Huo lifted his eyes and found his room.
Dorm 701.
1. You Huo [dorm leader]
2. Bao Xie
3. Liu Sheng
4. Yu Qicheng
5. Fu Gaolian
"....."
1. Qin Jiu
Those two syllables didn't just surprise him. They didn't just annoy him.
They shattered his entire university career before it even began.
Qin. Fucking. Jiu.
The guy who had been his rival for four brutal years of secondary school. The arch-nemesis. The human embodiment of a thorn in his side.
Qin Jiu.
A visible chill radiated from You Huo.
Chu Yue shivered. "Whoa. Did the air conditioning just break, or did you just see a ghost?"
Worse. So much worse.
Is it too late to drop out?
He closed his eyes, took a deep, suffering breath, and simply walked away, abandoning his so-called "sister" without a second glance.
Chu Yue could only stare at his retreating back.
"Well," she muttered to the empty space he left behind. "That was rude."
With the grim determination of a man walking to his own execution, You Huo dragged his suitcase toward Dormitory Building 7. The hopeful chatter of other new students felt like a mockery. His future, once a blank canvas of potential, was now irrevocably tarnished by a single name.
He reached room 701. The door was slightly ajar. Taking a deep, fortifying breath that did absolutely nothing to fortify him, he pushed it open.
The first thing he saw was a lanky student attempting to hang a poster of a rock band with an alarming amount of tape. "Oh, hey! You must be You Huo! I'm Bao Xie!"
You Huo gave a curt nod, his eyes scanning the room like a hawk searching for prey. Two other boys, Liu Sheng and Yu Qicheng, were in a heated debate over the optimal arrangement of their desks. Fu Gaolian was already fast asleep on his bed, fully clothed.
The bunk above Fu Gaolian's was empty.
The bunk opposite that one, however, was not.
Sprawled across the mattress with infuriating casualness was Qin Jiu. He was idly scrolling through his phone, a faint, knowing smirk playing on his lips as if he'd been waiting for this exact moment.
Their eyes met.
The room's temperature, which had been perfectly normal, seemed to drop several degrees. Liu Sheng and Yu Qicheng paused their argument mid-sentence, sensing a shift in the atmospheric pressure.
Qin Jiu’s smirk widened. He slowly sat up, his gaze never leaving You Huo's. "Well, well," he said, his voice a lazy drawl. "Look what the cat dragged in. Fancy meeting you here, Dorm Leader."
You Huo’s grip on his suitcase handle tightened. "Qin Jiu."
"Miss me?"
"Like a toothache."
Bao Xie looked back and forth between them, his rock poster forgotten. "Uh... you two know each other?"
"We've met," You Huo said flatly, dragging his suitcase to the one remaining bunk—the one directly above Qin Jiu's.
Qin Jiu leaned over the edge of his bed, his head hanging upside down to look at You Huo. "Cozy," he commented. "Don't worry, I don't snore. Much."
You Huo unzipped his suitcase with a sharp, violent rip. "If you drool on me, I will set your bed on fire."
"Some things never change," Qin Jiu chuckled, swinging back up. "Still so dramatic."
From his top bunk, Fu Gaolian, who everyone thought was asleep, mumbled into his pillow, "This is going to be a long four years."
Bao Xie, his rock poster dangling precariously from one piece of tape, looked back and forth between the two human thunderclouds.
"Huh?" he asked, his confusion palpable. "What's going on?"
From the top bunk, a weary voice spoke into the pillow. It was Fu Gaolian, who everyone had thought was asleep. He was, in fact, a veteran of their secondary school—a survivor who had witnessed the Great Rivalry firsthand.
He didn't even lift his head.
"...You don't wanna know."
The grim certainty in his tone was more effective than any fire extinguisher at dousing Bao Xie's curiosity.
You Huo walked in, closed the door with a definitive click, and opened his suitcase with the solemn focus of a bomb disposal expert. His mission: unpack his things and ignore all of humanity, specifically the six-foot-tall piece of it lounging on the bunk above.
Don't look at him. He folded a shirt.
Don't look at him.He placed his toiletries bag on the shelf.
After he was done, he simply went to his bed—the one conveniently placed on top of Qin Jiu's in the bunk bed.
"......"
A heavy, profound silence descended upon Dorm 701.
The great desk debate had ended ages ago, both participants now frozen mid-argument.
Bao Xie hugged his arms, shivering. "Did someone turn the AC on to, like, 'meat locker'?"
No.
It was the simple, isolated aura of pure, unadulterated annoyance emitting from You Huo that had single-handedly dropped the room's temperature to arctic levels.
From the top bunk, a muffled voice emerged. Fu Gaolian had finally pulled his blanket over his head like a shroud. "Told you," he mumbled, his words thick with despair. "You didn't wanna know."
Don't look at him. Don't look at him. Don't look at him.He arranged his law textbooks into a neat, aggressive stack.
Fortunately, males don't usually have much stuff to pack. You Huo's entire life fit into a few meticulous piles: clothes, toiletries, and the study materials that were his mother's idea of a heartfelt "good luck."
The whole process took approximately three minutes. Which left him with approximately four years to spend desperately not looking up.
The silence in room 701 was so profound you could hear the hum of the fluorescent lights—and the distinct sound of Fu Gaolian's soul slowly leaving his body from the top bunk.
Suddenly, a vibration broke the stillness. It was followed by a ridiculously cheerful ringtone.
Qin Jiu, completely unbothered by the sub-zero social climate, answered his phone. "Hey," he said, his voice infuriatingly casual. "Yeah, just got settled in." He paused, listening. "Oh, you know. Same old, same old. My bunkmate seems a bit... chilly."
A soft thud was heard from the lower bunk. It was the sound of You Huo's head connecting with the wall in quiet despair.
Bao Xie, now looking genuinely concerned, whispered to Liu Sheng, "Should we... say something? Offer him a blanket? Or maybe call an exorcist?"
Liu Sheng, who had been silently reevaluating all his life choices that led him to this dorm, just shook his head slowly. "Don't make eye contact. Maybe if we're quiet, they'll forget we're here."
Down on his bunk, You Huo pulled out his phone, his movements stiff. He opened his messages.
You Huo: I'm going to kill him.
The reply from Chu Yue was almost instantaneous.
Redhairedbadass: Who? The guy who breathes too loud?
Redhairedbadass:Wait. Don't tell me. It's HIM, isn't it? The one whose very existence personally offends you?
You Huo: guess.
Redhairedbadass: oh.
Redhairedbadass: That's almost poetic. What did you do in a past life?
Redhairedbadass:So... is he as annoyingly good-looking as you always refused to admit he was?
You Huo locked his phone and threw it onto his pillow as if it had betrayed him too.
Above him, Qin Jiu finished his call. He then leaned over the edge of his bunk, his head appearing upside-down in You Huo's personal space once more. "So," Qin Jiu said, his smile a masterpiece of provocation. "First day of university. Got any big plans? Or are you just going to lie there and practice being a human ice sculpture?"
You Huo stared at the ceiling, his jaw tight. "My plan," he said, his voice dangerously calm, "is to see how long a person can survive without sleep."
"Excellent," Qin Jiu replied, swinging back up. "I'll be your personal alarm clock. Sweet dreams, Dorm Leader."
Liu Sheng, a brave soul trying to defrost the atmosphere with the power of social etiquette, cleared his throat.
"How about... we have a little self-introduction?" he suggested, his voice unnaturally bright. "You know, to break the ice?"
The "ice" in question was currently on the top bunk, lying so still he could have been a statue placed there as a warning. The temperature in the room seemed to drop another five degrees.
From his own top bunk across the room, Fu Gaolian let out a sound that was halfway between a sigh and a sob.
Bao Xie, however, latched onto the idea with the desperation of a drowning man. "Great idea! I'll start! I'm Bao Xie, I'm from the city, and I'm in the music program! I play the electric guitar!" He gestured to the now-fallen poster on the floor. "That's my favorite band."
A beat of silence.
"Liu Sheng," the previous desk-debater said quickly. "Business major."
"Yu Qicheng. Also business."
"Fu Gaolian... Engineering," came the muffled voice from the blanket fort. "Just... please don't ask me anything else."
All eyes, inevitably, shifted to the two silent bunks.
From the lower bunk, Qin Jiu looked immensely amused. He didn't even need to sit up. His voice, laced with a lazy drawl, floated out. "Qin Jiu. Law major. Hobbies include... providing moral support to my grumpy bunkmate upstairs."
A soft but distinct thump came from the top bunk, as if someone had just kicked the wall in frustration.
The air grew so cold Liu Sheng started rubbing his arms.
After a silence so long it became painful, a low, dead voice dropped down from the top bunk like an anvil.
"You Huo. Law."
Bao Xie, ever the optimist, smiled nervously upwards. "Oh! So you're in the same program! That's... convenient for studying together...?"
From his superior height, You Huo's reply was flat and final, raining down judgment on them all.
"My hobby is listening to people who are wrong. I get a lot of practice."
The silence that followed was thicker than their law textbook. Bao Xie’s optimistic smile froze and slowly crumbled. From across the room, Fu Gaolian let out another muffled groan, this one clearly meaning, I told you to stop talking.
Then, a low chuckle came from the lower bunk.
Qin Jiu shifted, the springs of the bed creaking as he presumably folded his arms behind his head. “See?” he said, his voice rich with mock admiration. “He’s even practicing his cross-examination skills on us. So diligent. No wonder he’s the Dorm Leader.”
Thump.
Another, slightly louder kick from the top bunk.
“I am going to sleep,” You Huo’s voice cut through the air, a clear and absolute command to cease all existence. “The next person who makes a noise will find their toothpaste replaced with superglue.”
Bao Xie’s hand instinctively flew to his toiletry bag.
Liu Sheng and Yu Qicheng shared a single, wide-eyed look of pure terror before simultaneously turning back to their desks and arranging their pens with the intense, silent focus of bomb disposal technicians.
Qin Jiu, however, was immune. “Sweet dreams, Dorm Leader,” he said, his tone saccharine. “Don’t let the bed bugs bite. Though, with the frigid atmosphere up there, they’ve probably already frozen to death.”
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, a single, black-socked foot dangled over the edge of the top bunk. It hovered directly above Qin Jiu’s face for a long, threatening second before being slowly retracted.
The message was clear.
The war of Dorm 701 had officially begun.