[Economics Building, Study Room 3, September 15 — 1:40 PM]
Long Tian's knuckles turned white as he gripped the edge of the table.
Forty-four.
No. No no no no no.
Long Tian watched as twenty-one points were wiped out in less than a minute.
All those hours at the library this morning, every smile she gave him, every laugh, every blushing emoji she sent—gone. Just like that. Evaporating right in front of his eyes.
The afternoon sun slanted through the glass walls of the study room, warm and golden, but Long Tian felt nothing except the cold sweat breaking out across his back.
Zhang Yuting's hand found his arm.
"Long Tian, talk to me." Her brows furrowed with concern as she leaned closer. "What's wrong?"
His mouth opened, but nothing came out. The roaring in his ears drowned out everything else, and his entire world narrowed to the red alerts flashing across his vision.
The numbers kept falling like stones.
------------------
[SYSTEM INFLUENCE CRITICALLY WEAKENED]
[DANGER: IMMINENT AFFECTION COLLAPSE]
[Cause: Target's mind completely dominated by Obstacle]
------------------
THINK! THINK, DAMN IT!
He squeezed his eyes shut for a second and forced his panicked brain to focus. There has to be something in the system store. Some tool, some item—something that can stop this bleeding before I lose her forever.
His mental command pulled up the emergency store interface, and he scrolled through the options with trembling fingers.
Proximity Enhancement — requires physical contact. Useless. She's not even here.
Charm Amplification — 24-hour activation delay. Too slow. She'll be gone by then.
Memory Impression — only works during conversation. Also useless.
Come on, come on, there has to be SOMETHING—
Then he saw it.
------------------
[Emotional Redirect Protocol — 100 CP]
[Effect: Generates optimal message to redirect target's emotional fixation]
[Requirement: Must be deployed within crisis window]
[Success Rate: 78% for targets above 40 affection]
[Warning: Below 40 affection = protocol ineffective]
------------------
One hundred conquest points.
He sucked in a sharp breath. That was over ten percent of his total resources, gone in a single purchase.
But Su Qingxue was at 44 right now—just barely above the threshold. If she dropped below 40 before he acted, the protocol wouldn't work at all.
And the way these numbers are falling, that could happen any second.
His jaw tightened.
I have no choice. I don't have time to hesitate.
PURCHASE.
------------------
[PURCHASE CONFIRMED]
[Balance: 900 → 800 Conquest Points]
[Protocol Activated — Generating Optimal Message...]
[Analysis: Target experiencing emotional confusion regarding Obstacle (Lin Feng)]
[Strategy: Redirect emotional energy toward Host via positive reinforcement]
[Message template generated]
------------------
Words appeared in his vision—a message template, perfectly calculated, designed to pull Su Qingxue back from whatever edge she was teetering on.
Okay. Okay, I can do this.
Long Tian pulled out his phone with both hands because his fingers were shaking too badly to hold it steady with just one.
Across the table, Zhang Yuting's expression shifted. The concern in her eyes had changed into something else, something he couldn't read right now.
He opened his WeiChat and found Su Qingxue's chat there. Then he started typing exactly as the system instructed, copying each word with desperate precision.
[Long Tian: Hey! I had a great time helping you with research today. Your passion for music really inspired me. Would you like to grab coffee sometime? I'd love to hear you sing.]
His fingers fumbled on the emoji keyboard, and he had to delete and retype twice before he got it right.
From her angle, Zhang Yuting sat frozen across the small table, watching him.
She couldn't see the screen from her angle, but she didn't need to. His face told her everything—the desperate intensity in his eyes, the way his lips moved slightly as he typed, the trembling focus of someone sending a message that mattered more than anything else in the world.
More than anything in this room.
More than her.
She watched him add something at the end, his thumb tapping the emoji keyboard.
Watched him pour his energy into words meant for another woman.
Her hand slipped quietly off his arm.
Long Tian didn't notice. His finger hovered over the send button, and his heart pounded against his ribs. Everything was riding on this single message.
He took a shaky breath.
Hit SEND.
------------------
[Message Status: Sent]
[Awaiting target response...]
[Current Affection: 44 — No change yet]
------------------
The seconds stretched into eternity.
Long Tian stared at his phone, barely breathing. Come on. Read it. Please.
His whole future was hanging on whether she would see this message and respond. If she didn't—if the numbers kept falling—
No. Don't think about that. Just wait.
"Come on," he whispered under his breath. "Come on..."
Zhang Yuting sat very still across from him, her hands folded in her lap where they'd retreated. She watched his face—the desperation in his eyes, the way he clutched his phone like a lifeline, the slight tremble in his jaw.
Who is she?
Whoever this girl was, she clearly mattered more to him than anything else in the world.
More than the hour they'd just spent together.
More than her.
Something cold settled in Zhang Yuting's stomach, but she swallowed it down and kept her expression neutral.
Why does this bother me so much? I barely know him anyway.
Zhang Yuting looked away, pretending to study the bookshelf by the window.
It's fine. I barely know him anyway.
[Message Status: READ]
[Target Reaction: Processing…]
Long Tian's mouth went dry.
Come on. Come on, do something—
He stared at the numbers without blinking, his jaw clenched so tight it ached.
And then—
[Affection Status: 44 → 48 (+4)]
[Emotional Redirect: Initial contact successful]
Four points.
The falling had stopped.
A shaky breath escaped him, and he slumped forward slightly, elbows bracing against the table.
[Affection Status: 48 → 51 (+3)]
[Emotional Redirect: 40% complete]
[Target's emotions redirecting toward Host]
It's working.
His grip on the phone loosened. The white-knuckled terror from moments ago slowly bled away.
[Affection Status: 51 → 55 (+4)]
[Emotional Redirect: 65% complete]
Holy shit, it's actually working.
His shoulders dropped from where they'd been hunched near his ears. The tightness in his chest began to unwind, and each breath came a little easier than the last.
Across the table, Zhang Yuting watched all of this happen.
She saw the panic drain out of him, saw the color return to his lips, saw his whole body soften like a man who'd just been told he wasn't dying after all.
All because of a chat. From another girl.
"Is it okay now?" She kept her voice light, casual. "Is she responding?"
Long Tian looked up at her with bright, grateful eyes. Without thinking, he reached across the table and took her hand in his.
"Almost." His voice was rough with relief. "Almost there."
Zhang Yuting's heart gave an inconvenient little jump at the contact.
Stop it. He's holding your hand because he's happy about HER.
But his hand was warm around hers, and he was looking at her like she was the only solid thing in the room.
What am I supposed to do with that?
------------------
[Affection Status: 55 → 61 (+6)]
[Emotional Redirect: 95% complete]
[STABILIZATION ACHIEVED]
[Crisis resolved successfully]
------------------
Sixty-one.
He was safe.
Long Tian collapsed back in his chair like a puppet with its strings cut. The terror that had gripped him for the past few minutes finally loosened its hold, and he felt like he could breathe properly for the first time since the numbers started falling.
"Holy shit," he breathed, running a hand down his face. "It actually worked."
[DING!]
The notification sound was almost pleasant now. Gentle. Normal.
[Su Qingxue is typing...]
His whole face transformed. Eyes brightening, lips curving into a grin he couldn't contain.
"She's responding!"
Zhang Yuting watched him light up like a child on Christmas morning, and something inside her chest quietly crumpled.
All that happiness. All that relief.
None of it for me.
She slipped her hand out of his again, slowly and carefully, and he didn't even seem to notice it was gone.
"That's... that's good then." She forced the words out with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "I'm glad it worked out."
Her voice sounded hollow even to herself.
[DING!]
[Su Qingxue:Tomorrow sounds perfect! I'll be there! Can't wait! 😊❤️]
Long Tian's eyes scanned the message twice just to make sure he wasn't imagining it. Heart emoji. Exclamation points. Eagerness practically radiating off the screen.
It worked. It actually worked.
Long Tian almost laughed out loud. His fist pumped under the table where Zhang Yuting couldn't see it.
She's mine again.
The relief slowly ebbed away, and reality began to seep back in. He looked up from his phone for the first time in minutes and actually saw the girl sitting across from him.
Zhang Yuting was smiling at him, but the smile didn't reach her eyes. Her hands had retreated to her own side of the table, fingers laced together in her lap.
Something cold twisted in his stomach.
Shit. I just completely ignored her for five minutes while I panicked over another woman.
"Yuting." Her given name slipped out before he could think about it. "I'm sorry. That was inexcusable—ignoring you like that, making you sit through... whatever that was."
He meant every word, and he hoped she could hear it.
Zhang Yuting's smile stayed fixed in place. "It's okay."
It's not okay. But what else am I supposed to say?
"She must be really important to you," she added, keeping her voice light. "The girl you were texting."
Long Tian hesitated, then nodded slowly. He couldn't lie about that.
"It's... complicated." He leaned back in his chair and let out a breath. "But yeah. She is. I'm sorry you had to see that."
------------------
[DING!]
[Zhang Yuting Affection: 63 → 61 (-2)]
[Analysis: Competing romantic interest detected]
[Note: Target experienced emotional displacement during Host's crisis]
------------------
Long Tian's stomach sank.
Of course it dropped. What did I expect?
He'd just spent five minutes panicking over another girl right in front of her. Ignored her completely. Made her sit through his breakdown while he desperately texted someone else.
Stupid. So stupid.
Zhang Yuting started gathering her things slowly—books, papers, her color-coded highlighters arranged back into their precise row.
"I should probably go." Her voice was pleasant enough, but there was a coolness underneath. "You seem like you have a lot of things to figure out."
She wasn't angry at him. She wasn't even that cold towards him either. But there was a distance now that hadn't been there before.
Long Tian's hand shot out and caught hers before he could stop himself.
The system hadn't told him to do this. There was no prompt, no guidance, no strategic calculation behind it.
This was just him.
"Wait!"
She paused, her fingers still resting on her notebook. Her eyes met his with quiet surprise.
"I'm sorry. That was... I shouldn't have done that in front of you." He let out a breath. "But thank you for staying. For not walking out on me."
A small self-deprecating laugh escaped him.
"I owe you. Let me make it up to you."
[Zhang Yuting Affection: 61 → 62 (+1)]
[Analysis: Genuine emotional sincerity detected]
Zhang Yuting studied his face for a long moment. The hurt was still there in her eyes, but something else flickered alongside it.
Then the corner of her mouth curved into something mischievous, and Long Tian felt a small chill run down his spine. That was the smile of someone with a plan.
"Actually, no."
------------------
[Female Dormitory, Room 403, 1:45 PM]
Five minutes.
Su Qingxue still hadn't moved.
Her eyes remained fixed on Lin Feng's profile picture, her thumb hovering over the screen but never touching it. That look on her face—raw, unguarded, almost painful to witness—hadn't faded at all.
Zhang Tingting sat on the edge of her own bed, watching her best friend drown in something neither of them could name.
Oh, Qingxue...
Then a single buzz came without warning—harsh and abrupt, severing whatever fragile thing had been hanging in the air—and both of them flinched.
A WeChat notification appeared at the top of Su Qingxue's screen.
Long Tian.
Zhang Tingting watched her friend's face.
And everything changed.
It happened in seconds—like flipping a switch, like someone had reached into Su Qingxue's mind and rewired it completely.
One moment she was troubled, lost, fixated on Lin Feng's photo with that intense unnamed feeling.
The next moment her entire face lit up like the sun breaking through clouds.
The transformation was so fast, so complete, so fundamentally WRONG that Zhang Tingting felt her stomach drop.
Su Qingxue opened the message with eager, almost desperate fingers. Her eyes scanned the words, and her expression shifted from radiant to absolutely glowing.
From drowning to ecstatic in the space of a single heartbeat.
"Tingting!" Su Qingxue looked up, eyes shining with joy. "It's Long Tian!"
Her voice carried a weight it shouldn't have—an intensity that didn't match someone she'd met only four hours ago.
Zhang Tingting blinked, her theory shattering like glass.
"Wait. WHAT?"
"He wants to get coffee! He wants to hear me sing!"
Su Qingxue clutched the phone to her chest, smiling so wide it almost looked painful.
Zhang Tingting's mouth moved before her brain could catch up.
"But you were just staring at Lin Feng's picture!" Zhang Tingting was on her feet now, though she didn't remember standing. "For five minutes! You looked—you looked like you were about to cry!"
She gestured helplessly at the phone in Su Qingxue's hands.
"And now you're—"
Su Qingxue bounced up from the bed, her energy completely transformed, like a different person had taken over her body.
"I was just processing things, that's all." She waved a hand dismissively. "You know—the business implications. My situation. Nothing biggie."
Then her face brightened again, her attention returning to Long Tian like a compass finding north.
"But Tingting, you don't understand." A dreamy quality crept into her voice. "Long Tian—Long Tian is DIFFERENT."
And then the flood began.
"The moment I saw him, I just KNEW. Deep in my bones."
Su Qingxue pressed a hand to her chest. "His eyes... they SEE me. The REAL me. Not the campus belle, not the Su family's daughter—ME."
Zhang Tingting opened her mouth to respond, but Su Qingxue wasn't finished.
"I've never felt this way before. My heart won't stop racing when I think about him." Her eyes went distant, unfocused. "He's destined for greatness, Tingting. I can FEEL it radiating off him. We were MEANT to find each other—fate brought us together."
Zhang Tingting's left eye twitched.
What the fuck am I hearing right now?
Destined for greatness? FATE?
You met him FOUR HOURS AGO!
Zhang Tingting looked at Su Qingxue—searching for any sign that this was a joke. A prank. Some kind of an elaborate scheme meant for Lin Feng.
But Su Qingxue's face was completely serious. Earnest, even. Glowing with conviction.
Su Qingxue continued.
"When he's near me, everything else just fades away. Like nothing else exists." Su Qingxue's voice grew more fervent with each word, her hands gesturing like she was conducting an orchestra only she could hear.
"He's a dragon among men, hidden now, but not for long. I can see his potential."
"I feel DRAWN to him—like gravity, like breathing, like I can't help myself."
Su Qingxue's voice rose to a fever pitch, her hands clenched into fists at her sides.
"But there is ONE thing I am absolutely certain of!" Her eyes shone with an almost manic light. "I AM MEANT FOR HIM!"
Zhang Tingting stood frozen, a chill crawling down her spine.
During her free time, she would often read romance novels, looking for ways to help Lin Feng finally get his breakthrough with Su Qingxue. She'd studied the tropes, memorized the patterns, learned what made fictional hearts melt.
And now she was hearing every single one of those clichés pour out of Su Qingxue's mouth.
Destiny. Fate. Dragon among men. Meant to be.
The building blocks of every fictional love story ever written.
But Su Qingxue spoke them with absolute conviction—like she was reciting some bible verse, like she believed every word with her entire being.
And she was saying all of this about a stranger she'd met four hours ago—not Lin Feng, who'd devoted four years and fifteen million yuan to her.
Zhang Tingting's internal screaming reached new heights.
"But Lin Feng chased you for FOUR YEARS!" The words exploded out of Zhang Tingting before she could stop them. "Four years, Qingxue! Fifteen million yuan! A level of dedication every other girl could only DREAM of!"
She was shouting now. She knew she was shouting and she didn't care.
"And you barely cared! You made him wait DAYS for responses! You treated him like he was NOTHING!"
Su Qingxue's expression flickered with surprise, but Zhang Tingting barreled on.
"Now with only FOUR HOURS with this Long Tian guy and—" She threw her hands up, voice cracking with disbelief. "—you're calling him your DESTINY?!"
The contradiction was stark, undeniable, impossible to miss.
But Su Qingxue didn't seem to notice. Her expression hardened, and when she spoke again, her voice had turned cold and certain.
"Lin Feng was PATHETIC." She wrinkled her nose like she'd smelled something rotten. "Desperate. Clingy. He had NO dignity, no self-respect whatsoever."
Zhang Tingting's mouth fell open.
"He worshipped me like I was some kind of goddess. It was suffocating." Su Qingxue shuddered visibly. "Revolting, even. Thinking about him makes my skin CRAWL."
You were just staring at his photo like you wanted to crawl INTO it!
Then—just like that—Su Qingxue's face softened again, returning to that dreamy glow like a switch had been flipped.
"But Long Tian is DIFFERENT." She sighed happily. "There's a HUGE difference between them."
Zhang Tingting stood there, jaw hanging open, watching her best friend ping-pong between disgust and infatuation without a single shred of self-awareness.
Does she even hear herself right now?
She wanted to scream. She wanted to grab Su Qingxue by the shoulders and shake her until she started making sense again.
But Su Qingxue had already returned to her phone, thumbs flying across the screen. Deleting a word, retyping it, deleting it again, all while smiling to herself like a schoolgirl with her first crush.
"What should I say?" She bit her lip, considering. "Should I seem eager? Or play it cool?"
Are you serious right now?
The intense fixation on Lin Feng's photo from minutes ago—the raw, unguarded expression that had even made Zhang Tingting's chest ache—had vanished completely.
Like it had never existed at all.
Su Qingxue's phone buzzed again.
[Long Tian: Tomorrow afternoon, 2 PM? North campus café? 😊]
Su Qingxue glanced at the screen, and her whole face lit up like someone had flipped a switch inside her.
"He wants to meet me tomorrow!" She actually squealed, bouncing slightly on her heels.
Her thumbs were already flying across the keyboard. She hit send before Zhang Tingting could even process what was happening.
[Su Qingxue: Tomorrow sounds perfect! I'll be there! Can't wait! 😊❤️]
Then Su Qingxue looked up at Zhang Tingting, eyes bright, face glowing with excitement.
"Tingting! You should come with me tomorrow!"
Zhang Tingting blinked. "What!?"
"To meet Long Tian! Duh!" Su Qingxue laughed like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Maybe you'll like him too! No—" She paused, then nodded to herself with absolute certainty. "I believe you'll like him very much."
Her smile widened into something too bright, too eager.
It reminded Zhang Tingting of those girls in shopping malls who approached strangers with clipboards, pitching essential oils and promises of "amazing opportunities."
"We're best friends after all! I want you to meet him! He's so amazing—you'll see it too once you meet him!" She clasped her hands together. "Maybe you'll feel the same connection I felt!"
Zhang Tingting felt the ground tilt beneath her feet.
Wait.
Is she... is she offering to SHARE him?
A guy she met FOUR HOURS ago?
A guy she just called her DESTINY? Her SOULMATE?
The pyramid scheme comparison suddenly felt less like a joke and more like a warning.
She's not just selling me on him. She's trying to RECRUIT me.
Like those essential oil girls who always bring a friend to "help them understand the opportunity."
Like she wants me to join her... her what? Her Long Tian fan club?
And she was doing it with the same bright, eager smile—like this was completely normal, like there was nothing strange about offering to share your soulmate with your best friend four hours after meeting him.
The room suddenly felt too small. The walls too close. The air too thick to breathe.
Something is wrong. Something is deeply, horribly wrong with her.
Normal people don't act like this. Normal people don't offer to share someone they just declared was meant for them. Normal people don't flip between heartbroken and ecstatic in the span of seconds.
Zhang Tingting's skin was crawling. Every instinct she had was screaming at her to GET OUT.
I need to leave. I need to leave RIGHT NOW.
"Oh!" The word came out too loud, too sharp. She forced herself to sound casual. "I just remembered—I have a practical exam this afternoon! Culinary Arts! Professor Chen's class, you know how strict he is!"
The lie tumbled out in a rush. Her hands were already grabbing her bag, her feet already carrying her toward the door.
Just get out. Get out! Get out! Get out—
Su Qingxue barely glanced up from her phone, thumbs still dancing across the screen.
"Oh, okay! Good luck, Tingting!"
Her voice was bright, dismissive—like Zhang Tingting was already forgotten the moment she announced she was leaving.
She fumbled with the door handle, yanked it open, and stepped into the hallway. The door clicked shut behind her, and she sagged against the wall, her heart pounding like she'd just escaped a burning building.
What the hell was that?
What the hell just happened to my best friend?
She pressed a hand to her chest, trying to slow her breathing.
Something had broken inside Su Qingxue today—something Zhang Tingting couldn't name, couldn't understand, and definitely couldn't fix.
And whatever it was, it was still in that room.
All she knew was that she needed to get far, far away from that room.
------------------
[Dormitory Hallway, 1:50 PM]
The door to Room 403 clicked shut behind her, and Zhang Tingting sagged against the hallway wall.
Her heart was still pounding. Her hands wouldn't stop shaking. The fluorescent lights overhead buzzed faintly, indifferent to the chaos churning inside her head.
I need to get out of here. I need to talk to someone.
Her mind landed on Zhang Yuting immediately—her cousin, the one person she could always count on to think straight.
She pushed herself off the wall and started walking.
The September afternoon was warm and golden when she stepped outside, but she barely noticed. Students passing by gave her strange looks—a girl in a wrinkled, sweat-stained chef uniform, flour still dusted across her sleeves, dirt smudged on her knees from god knows when.
She'd been wearing this uniform since nine this morning. Almost five hours now. Three hours of running across campus, sitting through a public humiliation at a restaurant, and watching her best friend lose her mind.
What a day.
Her mind kept replaying everything on loop—the five minutes of staring at Lin Feng's photo, the instant transformation when Long Tian's message arrived, the flood of clichés pouring out of Su Qingxue's mouth like she was reciting scripture.
"Dragon among men." "Fate brought us together." "I am MEANT for him."
And then the worst part—that bright, eager smile, like a pyramid scheme recruiter who'd just found her next target.
"Maybe you'll like him too!"
Zhang Tingting shuddered despite the warm sun.
But even as the horror replayed, her thoughts kept drifting somewhere else.
The image wouldn't leave her alone—Lin Feng at the restaurant, looking at that girl like she was his whole world, walking away from Su Qingxue without even flinching.
Since when could he do that?
Four years of following Qingxue around like a lost puppy, and he just... stopped?
That… that wasn't the Lin Feng I knew.
She frowned and walked faster, trying to shake the thought loose.
What happened to him?
How does someone change that much overnight?
The questions circled uselessly in Zhang Tingting's head.
Whatever. This is none of my business anyway. I have bigger problems right now.
She shoved the thought aside and kept walking.
Building 1 appeared ahead of her sooner than expected—or maybe she'd just been too lost in her head to notice.
She climbed the stairs on autopilot, her legs aching from a full day of running around campus, and when she reached Zhang Yuting's door, she knocked twice.
The door swung open, but it wasn't Yuting.
Her dormmate—a quiet girl with glasses whose name she could never remember—took one look at her and blinked.
"...Tingting?" Her eyes traveled from the messy hair escaping its bun to the sweat-stained collar to the flour smudges on her sleeves. "You look terrible. Yuting's not here, but... come in, I guess."
Zhang Tingting nodded, too exhausted to be embarrassed.
She stepped inside and made a beeline for Yuting's bed, but the dormmate cleared her throat before she could collapse onto it.
"Shoes."
Right. Shoes.
She kicked them off and let herself fall face-first onto Yuting's mattress, still in her dirty, wrinkled uniform. The sheets smelled faintly of her cousin's perfume—familiar, comforting.
She lay there for a moment, just breathing.
Then she pulled out her phone and typed a message.
[Zhang Tingting:Hey, where are you? I'm at your dorm. You around? I don't even know where to start but I really need to talk to someone right now.]
Sent.
No response.
She stared at the ceiling, letting the quiet settle around her.
Her mind drifted back to Su Qingxue's words. The disgust in her voice when she talked about Lin Feng.
Pathetic. Desperate. Revolting. Makes my skin crawl.
But that wasn't the Lin Feng she saw at the restaurant today.
The man she saw didn't match those words at all! He'd been calm. Steady. And he walked out of there like he had somewhere better to be.
That's not pathetic.
That's not desperate.
He actually looked kind of cool, now that I think about it. And the way he held that girl's hand... he seemed so sure of himself. Protective, even.
Honestly? Lin Feng looked more put-together today than I've ever seen him.
She frowned at the ceiling.
Anyway... that's not the point.
The point is—why does Qingxue hate him so much?
And why is she suddenly obsessed with some guy she met four hours ago?
None of it made sense.
Whatever. Qingxue's just not in her right mind today. Something weird happened to her. She's not thinking clearly.
That had to be it. That explained everything—the instant transformation, the clichés, the creepy recruitment pitch.
Yeah. She'll be back to normal tomorrow.
Finally, she let out a long breath and closed her eyes.
Her phone stayed silent beside her, and for now, that was fine. The questions could wait until tomorrow.
Eventually, she stopped thinking altogether. She just lay there in her dirty, sweat-soaked chef uniform, and let the silence take over.
[End of Chapter 13]