Xie Lan clicked open the pink profile picture several times to look at it. For some reason, it bothered him a little.

The camera was already on, and Dou Sheng was adjusting the audio pickup. Xie Lan watched him for a while before he couldn’t help but ask, “You changed your profile picture?”

Dou Sheng looked up. “Yeah.”

Yeah?

That was clearly not the whole story.

Seeing that Dou Sheng had no intention of explaining further, Xie Lan agonized over it for a moment, then turned and went upstairs. There was no reason to pester someone over such a trivial matter, and besides, he felt he didn’t actually care at all.

Sunday nights were always the liveliest time in the classroom. Students rushed to run around wildly and chat frantically before class started.

Just as Xie Lan spread out his competition papers, Liu Yixuan ran over and sat in Che Ziming’s seat.

“Boss Xie Lan,” she said excitedly. “Let’s discuss something!”

Xie Lan asked, “What is it?”

“I watched your violin livestream. Wow, you’re really amazing! To be honest, I study the bamboo flute. Japanese-style, high-energy songs like HBlood can actually be adapted into Guofeng (Chinese style)¹. If we pair it with Hanfu and dance, we’d definitely make the homepage recommendations! Would you be willing to collaborate on a video with me?”

Liu Yixuan’s eyes were shining, but Xie Lan was a bit confused listening to her.

Just as he was about to ask what a bamboo flute and Hanfu were, Dou Sheng suddenly spoke up. “For this collaboration video, will you be uploading it, or will I?”

Liu Yixuan paused. “Of course I’m uploading it. What’s it got to do with you?”

Only when Xie Lan heard “uploading” did he catch on. “You’re an UP host too?”

Liu Yixuan laughed. “I’m a small UP. I do cosplay, Hanfu, dance covers, that sort of thing. I only have 30,000 fans.”

Yu Fei pushed his overburdened body up from the desk. “30,000 isn’t considered a small UP anymore.”

“30,000 isn’t small?” Liu Yixuan smiled sweetly. “My Bilibili ID is Croissant-chan—’Ke Song’ means croissant. You can search for my previous works. If you’re willing to collaborate, come find me anytime!”

After she left, Yu Fei turned around and said, “You really should consider it. She plays the bamboo flute very well. Oh right, the bamboo flute is a traditional folk instrument. Personally, I think the sound of the flute and the violin could coexist harmoniously.”

Dou Sheng clicked his tongue. “Herring, how come you aren’t sleepy today?”

Yu Fei’s face collapsed as he slumped back against the wall. “No reason, I just saw Xie Lan looking completely confused, so I kindly explained it to him.”

The class bell rang. Xie Lan grabbed the last moment to ask, “Exactly how many UP hosts are in Class 4?”

“Just the two of us.” Dou Sheng curled his lip and added, “I think collaborating with her isn’t as good as collaborating with me. She plays the bamboo flute, but I can play the piano.”

Xie Lan was stunned. “Piano? I’ve never heard you mention that.”

Dou Sheng said indifferently, “Ms. Zhao Wenying forced me to learn when I was little. I haven’t touched it in years, but I could pick it back up.”

Xie Lan said with pleasant surprise, “That’s great. How long did you study?”

“About two months,” Dou Sheng said.

Xie Lan’s expression froze. “…?”

Hu Xiujie’s figure appeared at the back door. A wave of murderous intent swept over the classroom; the whole class went silent as the gods returned to their places.

Xie Lan stopped talking and focused on the competition questions in front of him.

Hu Xiujie stood at the podium. “An announcement. Mr. Ma took leave today, so I’m passing this on for him. Next weekend is the city-wide math placement test, and our whole class is participating. The other subjects won’t assign much homework this week so you can all focus on cramming math.”

The class let out a long sigh of relief. Hu Xiujie suddenly looked toward Xie Lan. “Xie Lan, Dou Sheng.”

Even though he hadn’t done anything wrong, Xie Lan’s heart tightened.

Hu Xiujie glanced at Dou Sheng, frowning and glaring at him for a long time before saying, “According to custom, schools send candidate representatives to listen to a lecture before the competition. Based on the last placement test results, you two need to go to the City Education Bureau tomorrow morning. You are excused from the first two periods.”

Dou Sheng gave a hum of acknowledgement.

“Dou Sheng, stand up,” Hu Xiujie said.

The “owls” (students) silently turned their heads. Dou Sheng, sporting hair with two dyed streaks, stood up. His school uniform jacket was unzipped, revealing a white hoodie printed with bloody claw marks underneath.

Hu Xiujie’s face was grim. “What are you up to now?”

“Nothing,” Dou Sheng said. “Limited edition. Just for one week.”

“Not even for a week!” Hu Xiujie flipped out on the spot. “Come outside with me.”

Dou Sheng was called away for a full hour and a half. Just before school ended, he returned to his seat as if nothing had happened.

“What did the teacher say?” Xie Lan asked.

Dou Sheng didn’t answer. He looked at Xie Lan thoughtfully, staring for a long while before whispering, “You actually care quite a bit, huh.”

“?”

Xie Lan couldn’t help but say, “Have some shame. I was just curious what Hu Xiujie would do to you.”

Dou Sheng smiled. “She compromised.”

As he spoke, Dou Sheng leaned in close to Xie Lan and whispered in his ear, “I showed her a clip of the footage I recorded tonight. I asked her if she wanted to watch me lose my footing, or watch me in JK.”

Xie Lan: “???”

His internal world received yet another massive shock.

Dou Sheng smiled narrowly. “Guess which one she picked?”

“…”

Because of those two sentences, Xie Lan was dazed for half the class.

It wasn’t until he returned to the dorms and finished packing up that he suddenly realized Dou Sheng was bamboozling him again. Who was Hu Xiujie? How could she possibly be controlled by a student?

Dou Sheng was tossing things into the cabinet under his bed. Dai You and Wang Gou stood by, watching the rebellious clothing in shock, too stunned to speak.

Xie Lan held onto the bed railing and asked, “What exactly did you tell the teacher?”

“Why ask so much? We just had a heart-to-heart,” Dou Sheng said, then paused. “Oh, ‘heart-to-heart’ means both sides spoke very candidly and comfortably, clearing up the causes and consequences.”

Xie Lan retreated weakly back onto his bed. “I know. I’ve memorized that idiom.”

Dou Sheng laughed down below. “Impressive.”

Xie Lan didn’t reply.

That inexplicable sense of concern returned. Dou Sheng seemed carefree, but he was good at hiding things, and he hid them with self-righteous confidence. Whether it was the profile picture that suddenly gained a pink background, or the mysterious two-hour conversation with Hu Xiujie tonight, he was deliberately concealing a part of it, with no intention of sharing it with Xie Lan.

Xie Lan figured that perhaps they hadn’t known each other long enough, and Dou Sheng just didn’t want to tell him everything yet.

Wang Gou tilted his chair back and asked, “You bought all these clothes just to film one video?”

Dou Sheng hummed. “Seven outfits for one week, no repeats. But since the video is only filmed once, I picked cheap ones. Basically none over a hundred yuan.”

Xie Lan felt something was off as he listened, so he poked his head over the railing again. “Then that two thousand yuan one…”

As luck would have it, Dou Sheng pulled that milk-coffee colored JK uniform out of the box right then, shook it out along with the pleated skirt.

Dai You spat out a mouthful of water.

Wang Gou was so shocked he let the cold water mixed with spit pat messily against his face. Dou Sheng casually grabbed a tissue and pressed it onto Wang Gou’s face. “This JK outfit is for filming the One Million Followers Welfare video. I spent big money ordering this—bought 180-count yarn first, then sent it to the studio for prototyping.”

Wang Gou looked up at him like a loyal dog. “What does 180-count yarn mean?”

Dou Sheng grabbed his hand and made him touch it. “It’s pure cotton, but the texture is silky, like satin.”

Wang Gou sighed with emotion. “It really is silky.”

Dai You was tempted too. “Let me touch it.”

Sitting on the top bunk, Xie Lan felt an electric shock run through his body. After a long time, he silently shrank back and lay flat, staring blankly at the ceiling.

“I’ll use this to record the One Million Followers Welfare, and later for two million, three million, five million… I’ll use this for all of them.”

After Dou Sheng finished saying this happily, he reached up and knocked on Xie Lan’s bed railing.

“What,” Xie Lan said coldly.

Dou Sheng asked, “Do you like it? If we collaborate in the future, I’ll order a set for you too.”

“…Based on that sentence, there is no possibility of us collaborating.”

“Don’t speak too soon.” Dou Sheng knocked again. “You will Zhen Xiang ²(find it delicious/eat your words). The essence of humanity is Zhen Xiang.”

Didn’t understand.

Xie Lan turned over speechlessly.

On the first night living at school, Dai You and Wang Gou studied below. Xie Lan lay in bed reading ancient poetry on his phone, while Dou Sheng sat nearby with his laptop editing the video.

Dou Sheng used a silent mouse; the clicks were very soft. But as he edited, the rapid clicking formed a continuous sheet of sound. Listening to it, Xie Lan actually began to feel sleepy.

He didn’t know when he fell asleep, but he dreamed again.

He dreamed Dou Sheng sent him a message in the middle of the night telling him to go to the administration building’s rooftop. The elevator was broken, the lights were broken. He walked up countless steps alone in the darkness. Finally, pushing open the small door to the roof, he saw Dou Sheng under the moonlight, wearing that milk-tea and milk-white spliced JK uniform, waving at him.

“Xie Lan, come here,” Dou Sheng said, swinging two long, white legs.

In the dream, Xie Lan was confused for a while, then walked toward him as if possessed.

Walking to the edge of the roof, Xie Lan suddenly felt the building swaying, as if it were unstable.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

Dou Sheng smiled at him. “I’ll show you something good.”

As he spoke, he reached for his skirt.

“Don’t!” Xie Lan shouted in the dream. “Stop!”

Dou Sheng didn’t listen. Just as Xie Lan was about to close his eyes and jump off the building in despair, he heard the rustling of a bag—he looked back and focused his eyes. Dou Sheng had pulled out another JK uniform, measuring it against Xie Lan’s body. “Let’s livestream wearing this together! We’ll definitely attract the whole site to watch. My fans will rapidly grow to two million, three million, five million… This year’s Top 100 will definitely be mine!”

Xie Lan shot up from his bed.

In the quiet dorm, only the sound of his panting could be heard. Next door, Dai You and Wang Gou were fast asleep, breathing lightly.

Borrowing the faint moonlight filtering through the gap in the curtains, Xie Lan grabbed his phone to check the time.

02:08.

The bed next to him was empty. Dou Sheng wasn’t there; he probably went to the bathroom.

Xie Lan took a moment to recover. His mouth was parched, so he climbed down the ladder to get some water.

Dou Sheng’s cabinet door was open. Everything inside was visible, including that neatly folded JK uniform.

Nightmares stem from reality.

Xie Lan’s heart, which had just calmed down, felt suffocated again.

Xie Jingming had been urging him to return, and his words even hinted at cutting off his financial support if he continued to mess around. Xie Lan had saved up quite a bit of ad revenue from being a YouTuber, but it might not last long.

Actually, when Dou Sheng mentioned collaborating today, he was moved. At least he had thought for a moment about what direction a collaboration could take.

But wearing JK together… forget it.

Xie Lan drank two sips of water and got up to go back to bed.

He placed one foot on the ladder, then suddenly froze.

The dorm was very quiet. The two guys above were sleeping like logs. It was as if… he was the only one in the room.

He gripped the bed frame and stood frozen for a moment. Then, as if possessed, he walked toward Dou Sheng’s cabinet and pulled out the JK uniform.

He hadn’t touched it carefully at home, but the texture really was nice. It justified the price.

Xie Lan shook out the shirt and skirt separately, examining them with an expressionless face.

The inside of the wardrobe doors at Yingzhong High School had mirrors attached.

A moment later, with a shirt in one hand and a skirt in the other, he held them against his body with a cold face.

The gentle colors of the high school girl’s uniform matched the boy’s milky-white skin very well.

Paired with those black eyes that held a trace of aloofness and indifference… it was indescribably wonderful.

Maybe because his brain wasn’t quite clear from waking up in the middle of the night, Xie Lan stared blankly into the mirror. He couldn’t describe the feeling, but he felt it wasn’t as terrifying as he had imagined.

Click—

The sound of the door handle turning suddenly rang out behind him.

Dou Sheng was back.

Xie Lan felt an earthquake in his heart. Too late to complain that this guy walked without sound, he immediately threw the JK uniform back into the wardrobe.

However, before the clothes even hit the floor, he snatched them back. The uniform had been folded perfectly square before; leaving it like this would definitely give him away. In the split second that Dou Sheng opened the door, Xie Lan grabbed his backpack and shoved the uniform inside.

Zip—he pulled the zipper shut.

Dou Sheng appeared at the door holding a tablet. Xie Lan, holding his own backpack, gave a calm, lazy yawn.

“You’re not asleep,” he said, speaking before Dou Sheng could.

In the idiom dictionary, this is called “striking first to gain the upper hand.”

Dou Sheng was probably startled by him. After a moment, he whispered, “I was waiting for the video upload to finish to see if there were any issues. The review process was fast today.”

Xie Lan paused upon hearing this and instinctively glanced at his phone again.

02:25.

Dou Sheng was the most efficient creator he had ever seen at filming and editing. His speed was simply jaw-dropping.

Dou Sheng walked over, stuffed the iPad onto his bed, and whispered, “If you’re not sleeping, what are you doing with your backpack?”

Xie Lan froze.

After a moment, he whispered, “I dreamed I didn’t finish my Chinese homework, so I came down to check.”

Dou Sheng’s lips curled up. “That’s too pitiful. You’ve got psychological trauma.”

As he spoke, he reached out and rubbed Xie Lan’s head twice. “Don’t panic. You’ll definitely improve in Chinese next time.”

Xie Lan felt guilty and didn’t even react to having his head patted. Watching Dou Sheng climb into bed, he finally let out a sigh of relief and climbed up after him.

After lying down, he remembered Dou Sheng saying the video was uploaded. He couldn’t resist poking at his phone.

In the video, Dou Sheng wore that JK uniform without any shyness, openly introducing his new equipment to everyone.

“This episode is a ‘water video’ (filler). Let’s unbox some packages together. But you must cherish the current me.” He spoke coldly to the camera. “It’s a promise: JK uniform, once every million followers. Let’s see who calls me an unmotivated UP now.”

He showed the hoodie with the bloody claw marks he wore today, introduced it briefly, then tossed it aside. He changed into ripped jeans and used a tape measure to measure the total length of the rips in the camera frame.

The earphones were filled with the sound of Dou Sheng’s rapid-fire speech. Xie Lan easily zoned out watching this kind of high-density talking video; only that JK uniform swayed back and forth in his vision.

“That’s all for this video. If you’re satisfied with this JK outfit, don’t forget to like, throw coins, and share. If this is your first time watching my video, you can click… actually, no need to click follow. If the first time you see me is in JK, we probably aren’t meant to be.” Dou Sheng finished his closing remarks like pouring beans. “Next upload theme: Personas. Everyone work hard and study hard. See you next time!”

The video ended cleanly and sharply, followed by the OUTRO attached to every one of Dou Sheng’s videos—cheerful music paired with his smiling photo booth picture. It was a bit addictive and made people unconsciously feel good.

Xie Lan took off his earphones, smiling faintly and unconsciously, and turned over to sleep.

Above him, Dou Sheng suddenly poked his pillow.

“I discovered you’re watching my video and attempting to ‘freeload’ (watch without paying).” Dou Sheng whispered, “Don’t forget to throw me coins. Two of them. Right now.”

Xie Lan froze.

He opened his eyes again, touching his phone as if touching his empty Bilibili wallet.

After a long time, he whispered, “Sorry, I’m out of coins.”

Dou Sheng sat up abruptly, asking in disbelief, “It’s been so many days, you should have saved up dozens of coins by now. Who did you throw them all to?”

I threw them all to the fan-made recommendation videos your fans made for you.

Xie Lan suddenly felt a bit guilty under Dou Sheng’s serious stare.

He paused and whispered, “Next time, for sure.”

---

After waking up in the middle of the night and tossing around, the two of them overslept the next day.

Because they had to attend the lecture, they could sleep twenty minutes later than normal students. Dai You and the others didn’t wake them when they left.

Xie Lan was shaken awake by Dou Sheng, who had woken up by sheer dumb luck.

“We’re gonna be late.” Dou Sheng had a head of messy hair. “The lecture is in half an hour. It’ll take us about that long to get there. Hurry!”

Xie Lan sat up abruptly. His brain hadn’t reacted yet, but his body followed Dou Sheng into action. One after the other, they practically flew off their beds.

Washing faces, brushing teeth, getting dressed—they sprinted through the silent campus during morning study hall.

They ran all the way to the West Gate just as the taxi Dou Sheng called arrived.

“To the City Education Bureau,” Dou Sheng panted to the driver.

The driver uncle smiled. “Don’t rush. This direction is against peak traffic; there’s no congestion.”

Xie Lan let out a breath and nodded quickly. “Thank you.”

As the car started moving, Xie Lan checked the time. They should make it for sign-in.

He sighed in relief. “I shouldn’t have gotten up and messed around last night.”

Dou Sheng hugged his backpack, looking sleepy as he muttered, “I got up to watch the video upload. That’s a legitimate reason. But you getting up was indeed a bit unjust.”

Xie Lan watched the street rapidly retreating outside the window and suddenly asked, “If we collaborated on a video, what kind of content do you think we should do?”

Dou Sheng, whose eyes were closing in sleep, sat up straight instantly.

He stared at Xie Lan. “For real? You want to collaborate with me? Are you going to register as an UP host on Bilibili?”

Xie Lan gave a vague hum.

He hadn’t fully decided, but he definitely had the thought.

“That’s great.” Dou Sheng smiled instantly. “After the math placement test, I’ll send you the Bilibili terms to see if there’s anything you think is unsuitable. No rush on this. I’ll write a few collaboration proposals for you to look at, and we can discuss them together.”

Xie Lan hummed. “Indeed, no rush.”

He hadn’t expected Dou Sheng’s reaction to be so enthusiastic. It suddenly made him feel a bit good again.

The City Education Bureau was a small compound with two vertically adjacent buildings. A banner was hung below the annex building: “Dreams Set Sail—Citywide Mathematics Placement Test Lecture.”

A small desk was placed at the entrance. A staff member sat behind it with a sign-in sheet.

It was three to five minutes before the lecture started. A tall, thin boy was signing in ahead of them.

Dou Sheng said, “White background with red stripes—that’s the Affiliated High School (Fuzhong). Remember that.”

Xie Lan paused. “Why do I need to remember that?”

“No reason.” Dou Sheng smiled. “Fuzhong is strong in math. They have a strong presence in these kinds of exams.”

Xie Lan said “Oh.”

When that person finished signing in, Xie Lan and Dou Sheng walked over.

As soon as the sign-in teacher saw Dou Sheng’s hair and clothes, a confused expression appeared on her face.

Xie Lan pulled out a ballpoint pen to fill out the form, but she pulled the sheet back.

“Which school are you from?” the teacher asked.

Xie Lan paused. “Yingzhong (Yinghua High).”

The tall, thin boy from Fuzhong didn’t rush inside. He stood aside, frowning and looking at Dou Sheng for a long time before asking uncertainly, “Dou… Sheng?”

Dou Sheng glanced at him. “That’s me. Hello. How should I address you?”

“I’m Guo Ruize, from Fuzhong.” The boy was shocked. “It really is you. Damn, I even went to Yingzhong during winter break to find a friend to play ball. How come you look… a bit different from the photo on the Honor Roll?”

“Different how?” Dou Sheng was very cold in public, his voice lazy.

He fished his student ID out of his bag, verified his identity with the teacher, and then bent down to sign his name.

Guo Ruize was confused for a moment before saying, “Wait, I’m a bit lost. You are Yingzhong’s top student from last semester, and the one who was first in the high school entrance exam, Dou Sheng?”

Dou Sheng looked up at him, practically pasting the words Aren’t you bored? on his forehead.

“It’s me. What about it?”

“Nothing…” Guo Ruize’s eyes went blank for a moment. After a long while, he slowly nodded. “I heard from seniors before that every top student at Yingzhong is different from normal people. It seems to be true… um, nice to meet you. I’m also first in my school. I’m honored to cross swords with two big shots this exam.”

As he spoke, he turned to Xie Lan. “And this big shot is?”

Xie Lan gave him a ghostly glance. “Xie Lan. I’m not a big shot; I’m ranked over four hundredth in the grade.”

Just a mediocre math genius.

Guo Ruize’s expression went slack again. After a long time, he nodded slowly. “Okay, definitely a ‘partial-subject’ big shot. No one who comes to this competition is ordinary. Let’s go in together.”

The sign-in teacher said to Xie Lan, “You show your student ID too.”

“Oh.”

Xie Lan patted his pant pockets. It wasn’t there, so he habitually unzipped his backpack.

The moment the bag opened wide, a fresh breeze brushed over the plaid skirt inside. The bow tie glowed adorably in the sunlight.

The next second, looking horrified, Xie Lan zipped the bag shut again.

Beside him, the sleepy Dou Sheng instantly woke up, eyes wide as saucers, and yanked Xie Lan’s elbow.

He turned sideways to block Xie Lan’s bag, whispering, “Are you sick? Why did you bring that??”

Xie Lan: “I didn’t…”

A cute JK uniform, lying in the backpack of Yingzhong’s little math genius. Everyone saw it.

A current of electricity shot from the soles of his feet to his forehead. Xie Lan’s face turned beet red.

After a long moment, Dou Sheng unzipped a tiny crack in the bag and stuck his hand in to dig.

Under everyone’s gaze, he slowly fumbled around. He felt around for a long time before finally finding the student ID, carefully pulling it out bit by bit, ensuring the lanyard didn’t hook onto anything it shouldn’t.

Both of them let out a long sigh of relief simultaneously.

Dou Sheng placed the ID on the table. “Xie Lan, also from Yingzhong.”

Xie Lan immediately lowered his head and signed, refusing to look at the teacher’s expression. He grabbed his ID and pushed Dou Sheng inside.

As they passed Fuzhong’s Guo Ruize, Guo Ruize looked at them with lifeless eyes, deeply shaken.

“I think I just saw something incredible.” Guo Ruize swallowed hard, his expression dazed. “Are the students Yingzhong sends to compete… all of this style?”

---

Author’s Note:

Recently, things in the Egg Nest are a bit off.

The one typing on the keyboard walked past the Egg Nest and silently leaned on the door to eavesdrop.

Lazy Egg (Xie Lan) said: Is this skirt really reasonable?

Bean Egg (Dou Sheng) whispered persuasively: Very reasonable. Pink is the coolest.

Lazy Egg hesitated: What does “the coolest” mean?

The keyboard typist felt a wave of suffocation, walked away silently, and took out their phone to contact the Egg psychologist.

In the Egg Nest, Lazy Egg sighed at the egg-sized skirt: I don’t think the keyboard typist can fit into this.

Bean Egg said: It’s fine, it’s just the thought that counts.

Humans just like these pink things. Bean Egg curled his lip: Let her be happy for a bit, so she worries less about the development of our friendship.

---

NOTES:

1. “National Style.” It refers to music, art, or fashion that incorporates traditional Chinese elements (instruments like bamboo flutes, Hanfu clothing, pentatonic scales). ↩︎
2. It refers to someone who adamantly refuses something, only to end up loving it later (eating their words). ↩︎