School let out for the evening, and Xie Lan scrolled through a Weibo post by Mr. Jiada.

The title was [Empty Valley Echoes Sorrow: Using Melody to Build Suspense]. Two or three hundred words explained an interesting and practical arrangement mindset, and at the end, several excerpts from famous pieces were recommended.

Finally, a link was attached to canvas for votes for the competition.

Xie Lan had just surpassed Jiada’s votes, only to be pulled back again.

Dou Sheng sighed with emotion. “Gods fighting, truly not easy.”

After going back and forth, Xie Lan’s competitive spirit was thoroughly aroused. He seriously read the tutorial post delivered by the opponent and said, “Still have time, come again.”

His phone suddenly vibrated.

Dou Sheng was concentrating on cooking the original plain poached egg he would eat tomorrow morning. Xie Lan glanced at the caller ID and paused subtly.

A moment later, he answered low-key.

Zhao Wenying sounded displeased on the other end. “Lan-lan, why isn’t Dou-zi answering my calls? Put him on.”

Xie Lan covered the microphone and whispered, “He muted his phone, wait a moment.”

Xie Lan silently poked the speakerphone button and placed the phone by Dou Sheng’s hand. “Looking for you.”

Water boiled in the small pot; the egg tapped against the side of the pot clack-clack-clack.

“Who is it?” Dou Sheng asked casually.

“Do you want to die!!!” A roar suddenly erupted.

Dou Sheng shivered and bounced away from the table, almost knocking over the small pot.

He picked up the phone speechlessly. There was water on the screen, so he had to keep it on speaker.

“Mom.” Dou Sheng was speechless. “Why so startling?”

“Your old mother has been cursed into bankruptcy by you!” Zhao Wenying roared. “Is it easy for me? Not coming home for two weeks on a business trip, why didn’t you call the police and say you speculated I died outside?!”

Everyone in the dorm was suppressing laughter. Dou Sheng sighed. “I knew Old Hu would verify with you.”

“Verify my ass! Your Teacher Hu figured it out after a second thought and came to complain to me!” Zhao Wenying said, “Poverty challenge, right? Let me tell you, starting today, your allowance is gone. From now on, spend what you earn yourself. Don’t come asking me for money!”

“Why?” Dou Sheng frowned instantly. “I basically don’t take ads. Creator incentives are barely enough to burn on equipment.”

“Because your family is bankrupt!!!” Zhao Wenying roared.

“Say hello to Lan-lan for me.” She switched to a gentle tone, then hung up instantly.

Beep, beep, beep—

Dou Sheng: “…”

Xie Lan turned his head and looked at him innocently.

Dou Sheng’s expression froze for a moment before saying, “She asked me to say hello to you.”

“Heard it.” Xie Lan nodded. “Then what do you plan to do for the days ahead?”

Dou Sheng frowned, tossed the phone aside, and after deliberate consideration, said, “Can only beg you to keep me (bao yang).”

“Keep you?” Xie Lan poked his phone. “Let me check what that means.”

Dou Sheng laughed. “It just means wanting you to be my boyfriend.”

Xie Lan’s fingers stiffened.

Behind them, Dai You and Wang Gou immediately pounded the table and jeered together. Wang Gou laughed until tears almost came out. “Dou-zi, are you a hooligan? Don’t scare Xie Lan to death.”

“It’s very open in the UK; Xie Lan should have seen a lot.” Dai You coughed violently twice and laughed. “I see you two with this setup really are just short of being together. Consider it.”

Xie Lan sat motionless, hair standing on end, scalp tingling.

Dai You and Wang Gou were joking, knowing nothing. But given how he and Dou Sheng were flaunting it now, sooner or later, they would accidentally spill the beans.

The killer part was, even with this level of flaunting, he felt very restrained, getting agitated enough to want to die at the drop of a hat.

He glanced at Dou Sheng. Dou Sheng just smiled faintly and continued boiling the egg.

With Dou Sheng’s temper, he wished he could take a photo together, photoshop a church background, and use it as his Bilibili avatar. It was absolutely impossible to hide for long. Sooner or later, they would have to tell friends and parents.

But no one knew how the parents would react.

Xie Jingming had been abroad for over twenty years, his thinking thoroughly leaning towards the West. All the sickness in his brain was focused on wanting to change the whole family’s blood to British; apart from that, he was fairly open-minded. Two years ago, his colleague found out his son liked men and almost drove the son to death; it was Xie Jingming who went to persuade him. Just didn’t know if he could be so calm when it was his own son.

Zhao Wenying… was even harder to say.

Xie Lan fished his phone back and poked open the chat with Zhao Wenying.

Zhao Wenying chatted with him every other day, caring more than for her own son. He liked Auntie Zhao from the bottom of his heart, but… he also seemed to have a premonition that Zhao Wenying wouldn’t accept it so easily.

Dai You and Wang Gou went out to get water. Dou Sheng also got up and passed by, pressing lightly on his head.

“Don’t think about messy things,” Dou Sheng said lightly. “Annoying matters are my responsibility.”

---

The math competition preliminary was one day after the voting deadline. After the preliminary, it was directly the second-year final exams. Everything was piled together.

Xie Lan didn’t go home for two consecutive weekends, grinding problems for twelve hours a day. The remaining time was used to write short melodies and post on Weibo to canvas for votes. Piecing together fragmented inspirations, names randomly given—

Rumor-Mongering Mom Beats Dou-zi, Midnight Cannibalism, Midnight Cannibalism 2, Exploding Dou-zi Pod, Dou Dou Tailor Shop, Life Thin as Western Hills, Story of a Bite of Crispy Pork, Cardamom Years (Dou Kou Nian Hua), Dou-zis Defeated completely, Midnight Cannibalism N…

These names were all casual records of his daily observation of a certain bean’s poverty. Originally just for fun, but soon the fans’ focus began to deviate.

• Passionately chasing updates every day!!
• Expanding in brain, interpreting literally.
• Can you clarify what kind of eating “Midnight Cannibalism” refers to?
• Dou-zi pod ex… exploding?
• LMAO, probably because Dou-zi’s sleeve got torn while playing ball today. He posted a status.
• LMAO, not playing audio now every day, only playing brain AVI.
• Be careful, be careful, Lan-zai doesn’t understand anything.

Xie Lan regretted it every time, but couldn’t help continuing to use naming as a way to complain to fans the next day.

After eating coarse tea and plain rice for ten days, Dou Sheng became perverted. He started using all kinds of shameless tactics to beg for meat. That day after tearing his sleeve playing ball, he sewed it himself and developed skills. He forced help on others, charging money for helping: fifty cents a button, sew three get one free.

Sneaking up to “eat people” every midnight while Xie Lan was asleep was one thing. What was outrageous was that the actions became more intense each time. The collar button of Xie Lan’s shirt popped open every time they kissed. Reasonable suspicion that a certain someone did it on purpose, obsessed with earning money for sewing buttons.

Handsome guy was speechless.

The summer at the end of June was hot to the point of chaos. On the Youth on Strings official website, Xie Lan and Jiada bit closer and closer. The top avatar changed back and forth. At first, it changed once a day, gradually becoming morning and evening shifts, and later changing every few hours. Supporters on both sides had disputes initially—that side saying Xie Lan’s arrangement was all passion with no method, this side saying Jiada was all talk and full of commercial smell. But after chasing each other for dozens of rounds, no one scolded anymore.

—This turned into a thorough, hot-blooded tug-of-war.

Unknown from which day, fans on both sides began to call each other comrades-in-arms.

• Er Mao Tie Tie: How is the canvassing going for the friends on the other side today?
• Jia Ge Da Da: Increasingly difficult. Locked accounts, locked devices, one vote per person. I’ve already treated the whole class to milk tea, yet there are actually a dozen who already voted for Xie Lan. Mua (damn) it.
• Demon em: Handshake to the friends on the opposite side. I’m also out of ammunition and food. My homepage list has been harassed numb by me.
• Wo Wo Jia Jia: Keep it up, comrades on the other side! We will also do our best! See who can win in the end (excited for one second)!

One week before voting closed, unexpectedly, the local daily published a report, which was reposted by the Youth League.

“Regardless of Gain or Loss, Unpolished Jade and Green Vines Are Both Admirable.” The media praised this clash of gods as a contest of true strength and true popularity, conveying a series of new social trends Xie Lan couldn’t understand.

Jiada reposted instantly: In the industry for many years, hoping to be evergreen.

Xie Lan frowned and read the very awkward title several times. “Jiada means he is the green vine, then I am this… what jade?”

“Pu Yu (Unpolished Jade).” Dou Sheng said, “Beautiful jade that hasn’t been carved.”

“Mm…” Xie Lan wrote the character Pu on the scratch paper several times, frowning. “Why do I feel more and more like it’s saying I’m not professional enough?”

Dou Sheng shook his head wildly. “Clearly it’s saying Jiada is full of artificial smell.”

Actually, Xie Lan genuinely felt Jiada deserved the word “God.” The arrangement science posts Jiada published every day had become his daily homework. Not only did he learn secretly, but he also took time to look up extension materials.

Fighting to this step, it was impossible to say either side had no desire for victory.

Using a newly learned idiom: Whose hand the deer dies in (who wins), wait and see.

---

The day before the math competition preliminary, Xie Lan and Dou Sheng went to the Debate Club to audit the last daily practice of the semester.

The members recruited in this batch were all big shots with strong self-organization. That high ponytail girl named Lin Bei led everyone in practice and discussion daily. When Xie Lan arrived, the blackboard was already densely covered with pros and cons arguments. Everyone stood on their own ground helping the other side find ways to close loopholes, discussing like a raging fire.

Every time, Xie Lan suspected he was here for a class. Not long after sitting down, he couldn’t help taking out pen and paper to take notes.

After a round of discussion, the blackboard was full of logic arrows. Lin Bei turned back and asked, “Do the two presidents have anything to add?”

Xie Lan shook his head. “I learned a lot from everyone, but can’t give you anything. The end-of-semester activity is coming up; actually a bit ashamed.”

The Debate Club’s end-of-semester activity was a debate competition, time set by the student council. The preliminary round was tomorrow; four teams of members would be divided into two groups. The two winning teams would play a final five days later.

Xie Lan paused. “Tomorrow is the math competition preliminary. Neither Dou Sheng nor I can be present to accompany you. Good luck in the preliminary, see you in the final.”

“Senior will come for the final, right?” Lin Bei looked at Xie Lan expectantly. “On the day of the final, the student council will evaluate the outstanding clubs of this semester, and also a ‘Most Cohesive Club Leader.’ My classmate is the roommate of the student council president; said you have a good chance!”

Xie Lan waved his hands hurriedly. “Outstanding club is what you deserve, but don’t look for me for the leader award. I did nothing.”

“This award is judged by the student council. Being able to gather everyone together to practice and compete steadily, reviving the Debate Club that has been cold for so long, is the greatest achievement.” A boy laughed. “Anyway, I came for you.”

“Me too.”

“Me too.”

“Movie Club asked me but I didn’t go. Watching movies isn’t as happy as watching Senior Xie Lan listen to me seriously.”

“Right, playing Go isn’t as happy as teaching Senior Xie Lan how to argue.”

“Reading classics isn’t as happy as reading… um um and… um um’s live fanfiction?”

The group burst into laughter. Xie Lan pretended not to understand despite understanding, and could only sigh.

“Let’s do something a spiritual leader should do.” He hooked his lips and stood up. “Last daily training of the semester, treating everyone to ice cream. Post what you want in the group chat.”

Dou Sheng immediately stood up too. “You chat with everyone, I’ll go buy.”

Xie Lan gave an “oh”. “Then I’ll transfer the money to you first.”

To immerse himself in experiencing poverty, Dou Sheng had unbound his bank cards in advance; he was truly penniless.

He lowered his head to transfer money with Dou Sheng. A normal action, but ambiguous low laughter came from behind.

Xie Lan turned back helplessly. “Laughing at what again?”

Lin Bei winked. “Ah, thinking of eating popsicles, so happy I want to laugh out loud.”

Another burst of laughter below. The group echoed and took out phones to order in the group chat.

Dou Sheng privately poked Xie Lan a message.

• Ren Jian Tan Liang Dou: What does Xie Lan Little Friend want to eat?
• Wu Hou Pu Tao Bing: See nickname.
• Ren Jian Tan Liang Dou: As you command.

After Dou Sheng left, Xie Lan continued discussing tomorrow’s competition with everyone. The preliminary topic was one he had set long ago—If robots fall in love with robots, do they need to seek human consent?

Everyone had prepared for a week, chatting all at once. Xie Lan occasionally inserted a sentence or two. While talking, the phone on the table suddenly vibrated. It was a strange local landline.

Xie Lan received several spam calls every day; he glanced at it and hung up directly.

He explained a few more arrangements to the members, and the phone rang persistently again.

Hang up again, ring again.

Lin Bei caught a glimpse. “This number seems to be the convenience store’s.”

Convenience store?

Xie Lan suddenly had a bad premonition.

He paused, but still picked up the phone.

The boss’s rough and heroic voice almost pierced his eardrum—”Are you Dou Sheng’s parent? Come redeem him with money! Ah, bought ninety-eight yuan of stuff here, not a cent in his pocket!”

The phone’s sound insulation wasn’t good. The classroom exploded instantly.

“Holy sh*t what situation hahaha!”

“Senior bought stuff with no money, got detained?”

“Isn’t this reasonable to get on Bilibili Hot List?”

“Calling Xie Lan Dou Sheng’s parent, I laughed until I vomited.”

“True, Parent.”

“Turn on speakerphone quickly! Turn on speakerphone!”

Turn on what speakerphone.

Xie Lan turned his head away. The person on the other end changed. Dou Sheng’s low voice rang close to his ear, “Boyfriend, save me.”

Xie Lan quickly got up and walked out two steps. Although he knew others couldn’t hear such a low voice, he still felt guilty.

He whispered, “Didn’t I give you money?”

“Turns out my phone owes fees. No WIFI in the small cafeteria.” Dou Sheng sighed. “Last day, heaven plays me like this.”

“…” Who is playing whom exactly.

Dou Sheng’s tone wasn’t panicked or rushed, still that lazy tune. “Master, come redeem your private property, begging you. It’s so dark and cold here, I’m so scared.”

“…”

Xie Lan walked straight out, shutting the crowd of rubberneckers inside the door. Walking out of this corridor, he said angrily, “Not redeeming. Let the boss destroy you.”

Dou Sheng took a somewhat exaggerated deep breath. “Even if destroyed, you have to do it yourself, otherwise I refuse to die. Though you are heartless, I have loyalty.”

The shop owner roared irritably, “Can you find someone or not?”

Dou Sheng changed back to cold in a second. “What’s the rush? Am I not begging? Do you still want money?”

“I don’t want it, put down the popsicles and get lost!”

Xie Lan: “…”

Dinner time, the playground was full of people.

He trotted to the entrance of the small cafeteria and saw Che Ziming coming out with a popsicle.

“Hello.” Che Ziming greeted. “Where’s Dou Sheng?”

“Hmm?” Xie Lan had “Confused” written on his face, instinctively glancing inside the door. “You came out of the shop? Didn’t see him?”

“Yeah, where would I see him?” Che Ziming waved the popsicle at him. “Leaving first.”

Xie Lan went in confused. Dou Sheng was standing by the counter, a plastic bag of packed ice cream in the freezer.

“Finally here.” Dou Sheng was relieved of a heavy burden. “Scared me to death. People here are very unfriendly.”

The boss looked at him coldly from the side.

Xie Lan quickly paid and wondered, “Che Ziming came just now, right?”

“Yeah.” Dou Sheng happily picked up the things and walked out, saying righteously, “Luckily I hid in time, almost got redeemed by him.”

Xie Lan: “…………”

“That won’t do.” Dou Sheng sighed. “Last day. Even if poor, can’t run away with someone else.”

“Shut up quickly.” Xie Lan was expressionless. “Begging you.”

---

Midnight, 12 o’clock. The online voting for the first stage of the Youth on Strings OST main arrangement closed.

A moment before closing, Xie Lan led Jiada by over two hundred votes, but the gap was shrinking constantly, shrinking by one or two hundred per second.

The moment the phone display jumped to 0:00, Xie Lan hadn’t refreshed the page yet.

Dai You and Wang Gou were asleep. He took a silent deep breath and pinched his fingers.

Dou Sheng reached out from the other end of the bed rail and said in an extremely low voice, “I’ll refresh, then tell you the result.”

“I want to do it myself.”

Xie Lan shook his head immediately, closed his eyes, and pulled down to refresh.

First Place: Xie Lan.

Ranking didn’t change. At the last moment, the difference between the two was only an absurd four votes.

Only then did Xie Lan feel numbness and swelling in his head. He let out a long breath, clicked into his Bilibili personal homepage, refreshed casually, and comments under the latest post increased by thousands visible to the naked eye.

• Wu wu wu Congrats Second Cat.
• We won the first stage!
• Want to cry, finally waited for this day.
• Opposing comrades really did their best too.
• Not easy! How long has Second Cat been on Bilibili?
• Jiada isn’t old, but his popularity in the industry is truly undisputed. Xie Lan is amazing.
• I’m so excited I’m so excited, I’m taking off.

With such a vote difference, everything depended on the final interview.

Xie Lan temporarily settled a matter of the heart, leaving it for after the exams.

Dou Sheng reached over and rubbed his head, whispering, “Second Cat is always the best.”

Youth on Strings official account posted announcements on Bilibili and Weibo immediately, congratulating Xie Lan on winning the first stage. Jiada also quickly stood up and said a word.

@Mr. Jiada: Recently found back the boyish passion. Telling a funny thing, SilentWaves is a god I followed on the foreign network. You weren’t the only ones dumbfounded the day the horse dropped (identity revealed). So these days I was also canvassing competitively. Anyway, fighting on a domestic platform feels very satisfying. Looking forward to the final contest @Xie Lan_em

Xie Lan liked his post, exhaled a long breath, and fell onto the bed.

The dorm lights weren’t on; it was pitch black.

In the past while, every night past midnight, if the other two were asleep, a certain poor Dou-zi should sneak over to “eat people.” Perhaps because they camped for the voting result tonight, a certain someone hadn’t moved yet.

Tomorrow was the preliminary, but what Xie Lan was thinking lying in bed right now was that tomorrow Dou Sheng would end this poverty experience.

There was light overhead; Dou Sheng hadn’t slept yet.

Xie Lan sent a message.

Almost simultaneously, the other party’s message popped up too.

• Ren Jian Tan Liang Dou: I have money now. Want to repay boyfriend, treat him to meat.
• Wu Hou Pu Tao Bing: Ending poverty experience, eating out tomorrow?

Low laughter from a certain someone came from overhead.

Xie Lan sighed and stuffed the phone under the pillow.

Just as he closed his eyes, he felt someone move. A moment later, a soft kiss pressed down from above, gently touching his lips, a peck like a dragonfly skimming water.

The snoring of the other two sleeping soundly rang in the dorm, rising and falling, getting louder.

Dou Sheng whispered, “Days of panicking from hunger in the middle of the night and living by stealing bites of boyfriend are about to end.”

Xie Lan opened his eyes and met his gaze.

Experiencing poverty for this month, Dou Sheng lost three or four pounds. His height unknowingly shot up another centimeter to 185. When not joking with Xie Lan, he was quieter than before, entering power-saving mode entirely. Those black eyes were also set off to be quieter and brighter.

But the light in those eyes never extinguished. Every gesture surged with the tension unique to youth.

Dou Sheng leaned in Xie Lan’s ear and whispered, “I will often think of this month.”

“Actually, you can steal bites even when you have money,” Xie Lan whispered.

“Is that so.”

Dou Sheng’s voice was low, carrying a coolness incompatible with the room’s stuffiness. A few seconds later, he suddenly leaned down, pressed his lips against Xie Lan’s collarbone, and bit down.

The moment teeth collided with skin pushed up by bone, Xie Lan instinctively shrank his shoulders, one arm pressing over his closed eyes, the other hand pressing Dou Sheng’s nape.

The pain of teeth against bone was sharper. In the dark, the air pressure between the two changed subtly.

After a good while, Xie Lan let go, letting Dou Sheng return to his own side.

The sultry heat of the summer night intensified; his face felt covered in a layer of sweat. Xie Lan turned over, facing the wall for a long time before fishing out his phone again.

• Wu Hou Pu Tao Bing: Are we too blatant in the dorm?
• Ren Jian Tan Liang Dou: Brazen (Ming Mu Zhang Dan)…
• Wu Hou Pu Tao Bing: Oh. Will they discover?
• Ren Jian Tan Liang Dou: Don’t worry, I listened to them snoring.
• Wu Hou Pu Tao Bing: Mm.
• Ren Jian Tan Liang Dou: It’s been so many days in a row, it’s fine. Sleep.

Xie Lan sent a goodnight sticker and turned to sleep.

…

After a long time.

The two breathing sounds here became even. The small snoring sound on the other end of the dorm finally stopped.

Wang Gou took out his phone and tremblingly sent a message to Dai You.

• Gou Zi Wang Wang: Bro, are you really asleep or pretending?

No one replied. The room was very quiet; even Xie Lan and Dou Sheng were asleep.

Wang Gou was just about to retract the message in despair. The phone screen suddenly flashed.

• Latte: Woke up earlier than you, pretended harder than you, thanks.
• Gou Zi Wang Wang: Holy sht!!*
• Latte: Holy sht!!*
• Gou Zi Wang Wang: Marmot screaming.gif
• Latte: Marmot screaming.gif
• Latte: I… I already holy-sht-ed alone three nights ago, so I’m basically calm now.*
• Gou Zi Wang Wang: Bro, I’m slightly confused. Do boys’ friendships in big cities develop to this step, or are they a little bit… bent?
• Latte: …What do you think? Bent into a fcking Möbius strip already.*
• Gou Zi Wang Wang: Oh ho, done for.
• Latte: Dou-zi, my brother of six years. Vicissitudes.jpg