This chapter is the final chapter of a modern alternate universe side story, unrelated to the main plot. Character personalities and relationships are only extended for fun. Lighthearted tone — feel free to enjoy as you wish.
Then a soft laugh came from the darkness.
"You knew, and you still came."
Jiang Nuan said nothing, her face slightly flushed.
The lights came on.
Warm light fell from above, making her squint for a moment.
Six pairs of eyes landed on her at once.
She lowered her head and stared at the clue cards on the table, pretending to organize them.
Her ears were burning.
The receptionist stood at the door, hand on the light switch, her expression complicated.
"So... the answer's about to be revealed. Who exactly is the seventh person? Players, please give your final answer."
Jiang Nuan laid out the six clues in order.
Clue one: N is the only one who wasn't trapped in the villa, but everyone was looking for her.
Clue two: After N left, the six residents didn't leave.
......
Clue five: The blizzard is fake. No one is trapped. They chose to stay on their own.
Clue six: N's real name starts with this letter.
N.
Nuan.
Her finger stopped on the last card, her fingertip pressing down on that letter, not lifting for a long time.
"The seventh person is me," she said.
She flipped the card over. The back wasn't printed.
It was handwritten — signatures, six different styles of handwriting.
[Happy 520 — All from the heart.]
The receptionist smiled. "The seventh person is you. They stayed because you came."
The room fell quiet for a moment.
Jiang Nuan stared at those signatures and suddenly realized her vision was getting blurry.
That feeling of being genuinely cherished washed over her.
Qinian was the first to break the silence, whistling.
"Well, this script was definitely written by President Lu himself."
Lu Shiyan took a sip of his coffee and didn't deny it.
The receptionist announced that the game was over.
"Happy 520, everyone! Today's custom script ends here."
She glanced at Lu Shiyan, hesitated, then couldn't help murmuring quietly,
"Sir, when you booked this, you requested that in every round, the female player be paired with a different male player, and only in the final round did you get your turn... In my three years in this job, this is the first time I've seen a request like this."
She paused.
"You're either extremely confident, or extremely patient."
Lu Shiyan didn't respond.
But Jiang Nuan noticed that the crease on the paper cup of Americano beside his hand seemed to have gained another fold.
Dinner was included with the venue.
The round table was cleared and set with grilled skewers and several dishes, and the food was surprisingly good.
The atmosphere was much more relaxed than during the game. Qinian grabbed the meat the most aggressively, while Ye Que quietly ate half a plate of beef tongue by himself.
Midway through the meal, Qinian suddenly pulled something out of his pocket.
A small red box tied with a thin string, slapped down in front of Jiang Nuan.
"Happy 520."
Jiang Nuan looked at the box. "You prepared a gift too?"
"Obviously." Qinian bit into his skewer. "Open it."
She lifted the lid.
A silver bracelet sat nestled quietly on the velvet, the chain very thin, strung with a few small red beads.
The color of the red beads was beautiful.
"This color..."
"Yeah, same shade as that red string," Qinian said.
His tone was light and casual. "Whether you wear it or not is up to you."
He turned his head away, stuffed a piece of meat into his mouth, and the tips of his ears flushed slightly.
After Qinian turned away, Jiang Ce carefully pulled out a paper bag from his backpack.
"I have one too. It's nothing expensive, don't think less of it..."
He was so nervous he forgot to put down the grill tongs — tongs in his left hand, paper bag in his right. The scene was somewhat comical.
Jiang Nuan opened it. A thermos cup, with a handwritten sticky note on the side.
"Drink more hot water — Jiang Ce"
Shen Wu glanced at the note and commented flatly, "Every straight guy gives a thermos, but only you'd sign your full name on it, like you're afraid she won't recognize you."
"I was just—" Jiang Ce's face turned bright red.
"Thank you," Jiang Nuan said seriously, looking at him. "I'll use it."
Jiang Ce's face turned even redder.
A delicately wrapped paper package was passed over from the side.
Qi Sui was smiling.
"This one's mine."
A flat wooden box containing thirty individually wrapped handmade tea bags, neatly arranged. Each bag was marked with a date, from the 1st to the 30th.
"I blended these myself," Qi Sui said. "One bag a day can help with sleep. Finals are coming up soon, so you should find them useful."
Jiang Nuan's fingers brushed over those little tea bags, from 1 to 30.
Thirty days.
"The formula is different each day," Qi Sui added, his smile warm and gentle. "You won't get tired of them."
Qinian watched Qi Sui from the side and said, "Bro, that's too cunning! This way Nuannuan will think of you every single day!"
Qi Sui's smile deepened.
Shen Wu slid a white envelope across the table. Inside was a rechargeable card for a milk tea brand.
On the back of the envelope was only one line, in Shen Wu's handwriting: "Valid all year, no limit on visits."
Ye Que showed no expression throughout, simply pushing a small box in front of her.
In-ear headphones.
Jiang Nuan picked them up and looked — they were the exact same model as the ones he wore himself.
Same model, same color, identical.
She looked up at him.
Ye Que had already turned back to eating his beef tongue, giving a slight tilt of his chin.
Meaning, roughly: "Take them."
Still a man of few words. But he had split an equal copy of something he used in his own world — and given it to her.
Everyone had given their gifts. Only one person remained.
Jiang Nuan's gaze unconsciously drifted toward Lu Shiyan.
He sat in place, having pulled nothing from his pocket, nothing from his bag.
As if the others giving gifts had nothing to do with him at all.
Qinian fired the first shot. "President Lu, don't tell us you didn't prepare anything."
"Yeah, yeah," Jiang Ce chimed in. "You even booked the script. Surely your gift can't be missing?"
Lu Shiyan glanced at Jiang Nuan and said calmly, "I'll tell you later."
At nine-thirty in the evening, they came out of the venue.
The lights of the commercial street were on, and the early summer breeze passed through the leaves, carrying a warm sweetness.
The group parted ways at the intersection, until only two people were left.
Jiang Nuan carried her bag, heavy with five gifts inside.
Lu Shiyan walked on her left, his school blazer draped over his arm.
The two walked slowly along the campus path, streetlights stretching their shadows long.
Neither spoke.
When the evening breeze blew past, she could catch a faint scent of coffee.
They stopped at the entrance to the female dormitory.
The curfew light was on, students coming and going.
She hesitated for two seconds.
"Today was really fun."
"Mm." Lu Shiyan stopped too, turning to face her. "Glad you enjoyed it."
Another beat of silence.
"...Is there going to be one next year?"
The words were out before she could stop them. Who asks something like that?
As if she were hoping for something.
Lu Shiyan looked at her. A small patch of warm light fell into his eyes from the streetlamp.
"Depends on how you behave."
He paused, then reached into the pocket of his school blazer and took something out to hand to her.
It was small.
A voice recorder.
Dark gray, with a matte finish.
“This is... a gift?”
Lu Shiyan didn’t explain much, only said one thing:
“Listen to it when you get back.”
Then he stepped back, clearing the way.
“Go on in. Curfew’s at ten.”
The dorm lights were already out.
Her roommates were all asleep, only a sliver of moonlight slipping through the gap in the curtains.
Jiang Nuan sat on her bed, pulling the curtain closed, and turned her small lamp down to its dimmest setting.
Lu Shiyan had said, listen when you get back.
She took the in-ear earphones Ye Que had given her out of their case, and connected them to the voice recorder via Bluetooth.
She stared at the little play button for a few seconds, then pressed it.
And then Lu Shiyan's voice filled her ears.
“Linear algebra. Key points for the final. Chapter one, determinants section.”
Jiang Nuan blinked.
...Linear algebra?
His voice was steady, with a brief pause between each key concept, so someone taking notes could keep up.
Occasionally she could hear the sound of pages turning—a very soft rustle of paper.
At one point, he paused for about five seconds.
Then he said: “This problem is very likely to show up on the exam. You made a mistake on it in your homework last time—pay attention to the step involving the rank of the matrix.”
“You” had made a mistake before.
When he recorded this, the only audience he had in mind the entire time was one person.
Jiang Nuan curled up under her blanket, pressing the earphones a little deeper into her ears.
The night was quiet.
A roommate turned over, mumbled something in her sleep, and sank back down.
The dim light from the lamp inside the curtain fell onto the blanket in a small, warm-yellow patch.
When the progress bar reached the last stretch, she glanced at the time.
Forty minutes had passed.
After the final problem was explained, silence followed.
A long stretch of silence.
She thought it was over—her finger was already hovering over the pause button.
Then she heard a very soft breath.
As if the person recording had hesitated for a moment, as if he wanted to say something, then decided it wasn’t necessary.
But in the end, he spoke anyway.
His voice was far quieter than it had been the whole forty minutes before.
“Once you finish listening, go to sleep.”
As if he knew she would only listen to it late at night.
God, that was lethal.
Jiang Nuan pulled off the earphones and lay flat on her pillow.
She clutched the recorder in her palm—its frosted casing had already been warmed by her body heat.
Her heart was racing.
Racing as if she hadn’t just spent forty minutes listening to linear algebra.
She closed her eyes, and in the darkness, curled up the corner of her mouth silently.
Then she turned over and buried her face into the pillow.
She’d finished listening.
But sleep wasn’t coming anymore.
