"Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you.”

Down at Bed No. 4, Gao Jun was sorting through his tools and gadgets. When he saw Su Yuan poke his head out from above, he gave an awkward, apologetic smile.

Su Yuan waved it off and pulled out his phone. It was four in the afternoon. Suddenly he felt a dull pressure at his waist, warm and slightly uncomfortable. He reached under himself and realized the jade piece had been tucked beneath his body all along.

The stone had absorbed body heat and now felt smooth and pleasantly warm. He tossed it onto the edge of the bed and looked down. To his surprise, Ji Yehan had already arrived. A light blue suitcase sat beside his chair, still unpacked, while he quietly read a physical novel borrowed from a bookstore.

From this angle Su Yuan suddenly noticed just how handsome Ji Yehan really was, almost on par with himself. But if he was so good looking, why was he still single. It made no sense.

“When did you guys get here?” Su Yuan climbed down from his bunk, tore open a box of cookies, and munched as he asked.

“I got here at two. Gao Jun showed up half an hour ago,” Ji Yehan said, glancing briefly at Gao Jun before returning his eyes to his book.

Su Yuan nodded. He and Ji Yehan were both from Haizhou City, though they had gone to different high schools. Su Yuan attended Haizhou No. 1 High, while Ji Yehan went to No. 2.

Silence settled over the room. The only sounds were Gao Jun’s clattering tools and Su Yuan’s crunching cookies.

About ten minutes later Gao Jun finally finished. Wiping sweat from his brow, he walked over and leaned on the back of Su Yuan’s chair. He glanced at the thick textbook lying open on the desk, its pages filled with dense symbols that screamed advanced math.

“You’re actually reading calculus?” Gao Jun blurted out, genuinely surprised. In the dorm Su Yuan never touched textbooks. A mischievous grin spread across his face. “Wait, did you fail last semester?”

That hit a nerve. Su Yuan slammed the Calculus textbook shut with a sharp thwack and turned around coldly. “Shut up. Not everyone’s as brainless as you. Calculus is hard.”

“Okay, okay.” Gao Jun shrank back, though his eyes still sparkled with smug amusement. That look alone made Su Yuan want to strangle him.

“You really failed?” Gao Jun pressed, barely containing his glee.

“Yeah, I failed.”

His performance on last semester’s final had been disastrous, just barely below the passing line. The professor had not hesitated to hand him a make up exam slip. Su Yuan bitterly regretted not buttering up the instructor earlier.

Gao Jun pursed his lips and wisely fell silent. With the noise gone, the room felt peaceful again. Su Yuan opened his notebook, filled with carefully copied theorems and pages of derivative and integral formulas, and dove into practice problems.

Truth be told, calculus was not inherently difficult, it was just a mathematical tool. But because he had never truly grasped the concepts, he kept making small mistakes. After a whole summer of neglect, he had forgotten nearly everything. He wanted to cry but knew he had no one to blame but himself.

The make up exam was tomorrow afternoon. He had only one day to cram.

Oddly enough, after the summer break, something had clicked. At first glance, the textbook felt completely foreign, as if he had never seen it before. But on second look, he understood far more than he had during finals week, his comprehension now deeper, clearer.

This realization filled him with confidence. Pen flying across the page, he lost himself in equations and integrals.

By the time dusk fell, the three of them went out for dinner. Afterward, Su Yuan returned to his studies, working until nearly nine.

“Oh, wait, we can’t go online?” Ji Yehan, who had been reading like a monk in meditation since dinner, finally closed his borrowed novel and tried to connect to the internet, only to find no signal.

Still writing, Su Yuan didn’t look up. “Couldn’t get online since I got back yesterday. The client’s probably been blocked by the telecom provider.”

“No wonder I haven’t heard those idiots next door screaming their heads off.” Ji Yehan said, finally catching on. World of Warcraft was huge right now, and the neighboring dorm was full of raiders whose battle cries could pierce through walls.

Su Yuan glanced over. “Dude, how are you this oblivious. It’s been obvious for days.”

Ji Yehan frowned slightly, calmly closed his laptop, and turned to Gao Jun with authority. “Fatso, you’ve got one night to write us a new client. I’ll go offline for now. I’m counting on you.”

Su Yuan snickered in agreement. If anyone was born to do grunt work, it was Gao Jun.

Gao Jun’s face darkened. “One night. Even an old ox wouldn’t work that fast. And why me?”

“Because capable people carry more weight,” Ji Yehan said, elegantly flicking his fingers.

“Don’t look at me,” Su Yuan added quickly. “Do I look like someone who codes?”

If I could code, pigs would climb trees.

Gao Jun shot him a withering glare and dug in his heels. “No way. I’ve never written that kind of software before. I don’t know how.”

“You call yourself a tech geek and can’t even do this?” Ji Yehan raised an eyebrow in mock disbelief.

“Different fields, man. Specialization matters.”

Ji Yehan sighed dramatically. “Guess none of us are getting online then.”

“Fine, fine, I’ll do it,” Gao Jun relented. “I do know some programming, but it’ll take at least a week.”

“A week. The food’ll be cold by then.” Su Yuan cut in before Ji Yehan could speak. He didn’t need the net much over the next two days, what with his make up exam, but after that, internet was his lifeline.

“Three days minimum,” Gao Jun insisted, then suddenly narrowed his eyes. “And Su Yuan, why aren’t you studying. Your exam’s tomorrow. Stop egging Yehan on, or you’ll be retaking calculus next year.”

“Don’t jinx me.” Su Yuan snapped. The word retake stung like a slap.

“Go. Go. Go.” Gao Jun shooed him.

Su Yuan snapped his textbook shut, tucked a pen, a few books, and his notebook under his arm, and headed for the door. At the threshold, he raised a fist with heroic resolve. “I’m off to the all night study hall. Tonight, I won’t rest until I conquer Lady Calculus.”

Ji Yehan gave him an approving nod. “May you succeed on your first try.”

“Thanks for the blessing.” Su Yuan called back, marching out with his stack of books.

At Binhe Institute of Technology, the all night classroom was exactly what it sounded like, a study space open 24 hours, especially packed during finals or make up exam season. Seats were as rare as library cubicles.

He stopped by a convenience store for a canned coffee and walked another ten minutes to the building. As expected, the room was full, students of all genders hunched over books and notes. He found a spot in a quiet corner near the back door.

Opening his textbook, he listened to the soft rustle of pages and the gentle scratch of pens on paper. The atmosphere was oddly inspiring. Sitting up straight, Su Yuan threw himself into study with renewed determination.

Night fell, serene and still. The all night classroom buzzed with quiet energy.

Cold air hissed from ceiling vents. Faintly, in the distance, came the rhythmic chants of freshmen doing nighttime military training, sometimes loud, sometimes soft, until eventually even those faded away. Night drills must have ended.

Immersed in this scholarly calm, Su Yuan didn’t notice time passing. Before he knew it, he had reached the last page of the textbook. Yawning, he finally succumbed to exhaustion and laid his head on the desk for a quick nap.

He woke with a jolt as his head slipped off his arms onto the hard surface. Pulling out his phone, he saw it was already 1:30 a.m.

The room had emptied. Only a handful of students remained, still grinding away.

“My head hurts.” Rubbing his temples, he yawned again. “Studying all night is brutal. Never doing this again.”

A familiar pressure built in his lower abdomen. Time for a bathroom break. The restroom was just thirty meters down the hall. He slipped out the back door and headed straight for the men’s room.

The lights inside were out. Pitch black, like the shadowy grove just beyond campus. Confucius said, “Do not speak of strange powers, violence, rebellion, or spirits.” Unfortunately, Su Yuan was far from sage like. His mind immediately conjured every horror story he had ever heard, corridors and bathrooms being the most haunted places of all.

“Damn it, stop thinking about it.” But the silence felt unnatural now. Every drip of water echoed like a drumbeat. His skin prickled. Goosebumps rose. He glanced around nervously, heart pounding for no good reason.

“Buddha protect me. May all deities shield me!"

Something felt off. He couldn’t say what, but the air itself seemed wrong.