The Door That Was Never Opened

This small meeting lasted about forty minutes.

It was mainly used for everyone to introduce themselves to one another.

Although Xu Shuche spoke in an official and somewhat stern manner, he was actually very encouraging of mutual交流.

Everyone was about the same age, and the junior students gradually broke the ice and became more lively.

“Let’s end here for today.”

Xu Shuche closed the notebook in his hands.

“Sorry for calling you all out for a meeting on Saturday.

You’ve worked hard—go back and get some rest.”

“Not at all!”

A first-year graduate student from the physics department said,

“It’s our honor that a small, shabby group like ours managed to recruit a senior like you!”

The others immediately joined in with cheers and teasing, nearly causing Xu Shuche to lose the stern composure he had been holding onto.

Once everyone left noisily, Jian Yixun finally stretched and stood up.

He noticed Xu Shuche was still looking at the notebook in his hands.

Raising an eyebrow, he dragged his feet over and rested his chin on Xu Shuche’s shoulder.

“What’s this?”

The hot breath sprayed near Xu Shuche’s ear.

The sudden warmth of another unfamiliar male body brushing against his arm startled him badly.

He stumbled forward several steps in shock.

Jian Yixun nearly strained his neck.

He lifted his head in confusion.

“What’s wrong?”

“What are you doing?”

Xu Shuche pressed the notebook to his chest, calming his racing heartbeat.

“You scared me to death.”

That scared you?

Jian Yixun was completely baffled.

Before he could ask further, Xu Shuche said,

“Let’s go back.

I’ll pack my things and return to the dorm.”

“Then I’ll go with you.”

Jian Yixun followed behind him.

“I don’t have anything else to do anyway.”

Xu Shuche didn’t chase him away.

He let him trail behind like a little tail, all the way to the dormitory building.

The dorm supervisor auntie had returned and was chatting with the cleaning lady on the first floor while cracking sunflower seeds.

Jian Yixun watched Xu Shuche ask her for the key when his phone suddenly rang.

He patted his pocket and tossed the key—decorated with a SpongeBob keychain—to Xu Shuche.

“You go up first.

I’ll take this call.”

Worthy of a basketball player, the throw was precise.

The key landed perfectly in Xu Shuche’s arms.

Xu Shuche thanked him and turned to head upstairs.

It felt unbelievable.

Just twenty-four hours ago, they had been at odds in a lecture hall.

Twenty-four hours later, not only had they slept in the same dorm room and the same bed for a night, they had also become partners in a research group.

Xu Shuche felt this was entirely thanks to Jian Yixun’s socially fearless personality—

Much like the SpongeBob dangling from his keychain.

Thinking this, he climbed the final step.

Just as he was about to open Jian Yixun’s dorm room door to retrieve his laptop, the door opposite—the one he couldn’t open no matter how much he knocked last night—suddenly opened.

Qu Chao seemed to have just woken up to take out the trash.

His hair was no longer meticulously styled like before, but slightly messy atop his head.

He looked up, saw Xu Shuche standing there, and smiled.

“Hey, isn’t this Xu Shuche?

Why are you just standing there?”

So there really had been someone in the dorm last night.

He hadn’t imagined the sound of boiling water.

Qu Chao simply hadn’t wanted to open the door for him.

Anger surged instantly.

Xu Shuche clenched the two keys in his hand, producing a crisp clinking sound.

Qu Chao’s gaze fell on the keys.

His expression changed abruptly.

“Why do you have Jian Yixun’s key?”

It was as if he suddenly realized something.

His fairly delicate face twisted.

“Where did you go last night?”

“Isn’t it a bit late to ask that now?”

Xu Shuche narrowed his long phoenix eyes.

His voice was full of disgust.

“When I knocked last night, you were inside.

Why didn’t you open the door?”

“Why should I open the door for you?”

Qu Chao stubbornly retorted, lifting his chin guiltily and raising his voice.

“Who knows if it was a bad person trying to trick me?”

Compared to Qu Chao’s flustered shouting, Xu Shuche looked extremely calm.

“I said it was me,”

he said softly.

“But you still didn’t open the door.”

“I already told you, I was afraid there was a bad—”

Xu Shuche cut him off.

“That’s not your reason at all.

You just didn’t want to open the door for me.”

Ice seemed to form between his brows and eyes as he looked coldly at Qu Chao.

Before, he had only felt that this roommate was hard to get close to.

Now he finally understood.

The man openly disliked him.

And he hadn’t even realized it, foolishly dreaming of building a good relationship.

“Yeah, I just didn’t want to open the door for you.”

Having his true thoughts exposed, Qu Chao’s refined face flushed red.

He craned his neck and shouted,

“I just can’t stand you, so what?”

“Why is it that teachers only see how outstanding you are and never notice me?

Why do the people I like always revolve around you?

What’s so great about you?

Isn’t it just that you like showing off in front of me?

Didn’t you still go back with a man?

Just seeing you makes me sick!”

Those sharp words poured into Xu Shuche’s ears.

They overlapped with things he had heard in high school.

The fear he had once desperately avoided surged back over him.

His body trembled for a moment.

An acute stress response nearly robbed him of speech.

All the rebuttals he had prepared vanished.

He could only gasp for air.

“You should choke on your own pretentiousness and die!”

Qu Chao had originally thought Xu Shuche’s cold face meant he was tough.

He hadn’t expected him to be so easy to bully.

His courage swelled immediately.

Since the relationship was already torn apart, he poured out everything he had long wanted to say.

“Don’t think I don’t know where your direct PhD recommendation came from.

Didn’t you just sleep your way into it?”

This entire floor’s four or five dorm rooms were empty.

Qu Chao spoke his vicious speculations without restraint.

Watching Xu Shuche’s face grow paler and paler, he tasted a long-lost sense of revenge.

Just as he was smugly preparing to say more to hurt Xu Shuche further, a dark shadow flashed before his eyes.

The next second, his left cheek took a punch.

Qu Chao stared at the thin, frail-looking person before him in disbelief.

He never imagined Xu Shuche would actually fight back.

Xu Shuche’s clenched fist trembled slightly.

Red marks quickly surfaced on his knuckles.

“So it was you spreading rumors about me,”

he said softly.

“And you were the one who posted my WeChat online to let strange people add me, right?”

Qu Chao’s lips burned with pain.

Hearing this, he laughed.

“Isn’t that exactly what you want?

Don’t you enjoy men swarming around you?”

Xu Shuche bit his lip and raised his hand to punch him again—

But someone grabbed his wrist midway.

Qu Chao was much stronger than him.

With a backhanded shove, Xu Shuche staggered and fell to the ground.

His knee slammed into the marble tile, making him let out a barely audible whimper of pain.

“I hate that holier-than-thou look of yours the most…”

Qu Chao’s words cut off abruptly.

Enduring the pain, Xu Shuche lifted his eyes.

He saw Jian Yixun standing quietly at the stairwell, watching them.

“J-Junior.”

The Qu Chao who had just been flaunting his power instantly panicked.

His words tumbled out chaotically.

“Junior, he came at me first.

I didn’t hit him.”

Jian Yixun’s face was dark.

He didn’t even glance at Qu Chao.

He strode over and helped Xu Shuche up.

“Are you okay?”

Xu Shuche shook his head.

“You were in the dorm last night?”

Jian Yixun asked coldly.

“I wasn’t—”

Qu Chao tried to lie, but Jian Yixun cut him off.

“Your hair is a mess.

There’s freshly thrown trash outside your door.

And you’re telling me you weren’t in the dorm last night?”

“I…”

Qu Chao opened his mouth but had nothing to say.

“You were in the dorm, but you didn’t open the door for him?

Do you know how cold it was last night?”

Jian Yixun nearly roared.

“It was eleven-thirty at night.

If I hadn’t happened to run into him, he was already planning to spend the night at some no-name cheap hotel.

Do you know how dangerous that is?”

Jian Yixun had loved helping the vulnerable since childhood.

His family still kept four or five stray cats he had rescued.

He couldn’t stand seeing bullying like this.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became.

The disgust in his gaze toward Qu Chao deepened.

Seeing that disgust in Jian Yixun’s eyes, Qu Chao’s mouth drooped.

He looked aggrieved.

“We’re all adults.

What danger is there…”

Jian Yixun found his expression unbearably fake.

It disgusted him so much he felt like throwing up last night’s dinner.

“I never thought B University would have someone as vicious as you.

Don’t let me see you again.”

After saying that, he snatched the key from Xu Shuche’s hand.

Supporting him, he opened his own dorm door—

Then slammed it shut hard.

The room fell silent.

Jian Yixun steadied his breathing and said in a low voice,

“Where are you hurt?

Let me see.”

Xu Shuche shook his head, trying to avoid his gaze.

But Jian Yixun grabbed his arm.

“Let me see.”

He spoke slowly, each word carrying warning.

“Don’t dodge.”

Xu Shuche couldn’t resist.

He sat down on a nearby chair.

Jian Yixun rolled up his pant leg and saw the bruise forming on his knee.

Several spots had already turned purple, looking especially frightening against his pale skin.

If left untreated, it would definitely swell by tomorrow morning.

Jian Yixun cursed under his breath and rummaged through a drawer for a bottle of safflower oil.

“Senior, let me apply some oil.

Otherwise tomorrow your leg—”

He stopped mid-sentence.

A cool droplet landed on the back of his hand.

Jian Yixun looked up.

Xu Shuche was biting his lip tightly, hurriedly raising his hand to wipe his eyes.

Had he been crying quietly all this time?

“Senior, did I hurt you?”

Jian Yixun panicked.

“If it hurts, tell me.”

Xu Shuche shook his head.

Tears fell uncontrollably, large drops streaming down.

His eyes and nose were flushed red.

“It’s not because it hurts.”

His voice trembled.

It sounded like he was explaining to Jian Yixun—

And also to himself.

“I got my direct PhD because I published papers.

Not because I had some improper relationship with a professor.”

Something softly thudded in Jian Yixun’s heart.

“Mm.

Okay.”

“I never wanted men swarming around me.”

“Mm.”

“I got to study through my own hard work.

I chose research myself.

I’m just… really wronged.

So wronged…”

“Okay.”

Jian Yixun gently squeezed his ankle.

“Crying it out makes it less wronged.”

He had never comforted anyone before.

Yet now, it felt instinctive.

Every sentence received an answer.

After sobbing for a while, Xu Shuche gradually calmed down.

He sighed softly and sniffed.

“It’s useless telling you.

You wouldn’t believe me.

No one ever has.”

“I believe you.”

Jian Yixun looked straight into his eyes.

His tone was earnest as he repeated,

“I believe you.”