Disciplinary Action and a Lingering Warmth

Oil sizzled on the grill as Zhou Yi clumsily flipped the meat slices, fine beads of sweat glistening on the tip of her nose. Jiang Chen naturally took the tongs from her hand. “Such strenuous work should be left to your subordinate.”

“This is a tactical operation!” Zhou Yi protested, though a faint smile touched her lips as she reluctantly surrendered her spot. Her eyes, however, remained glued to the grill. “That short rib can be flipped… yes, yes, the one with the most beautiful marbling!”

Jiang Chen couldn’t help but curve his lips into a smile, watching her sparkling eyes.

He carefully placed the first perfectly grilled short rib into her bowl. “Give it a taste.”

Zhou Yi took a bite, her eyes narrowing in blissful contentment. “Mmm… simply divine!” she mumbled indistinctly.

“Eat slowly,” Jiang Chen said, adding several freshly grilled prawns to her plate. “No one’s going to snatch it from you.”

“What do you mean, no one’s snatching?” Zhou Yi countered, pointing to a figure darting back and forth in the food retrieval area. “That person in the gray hoodie has made six trips already, and every time, they’re after the marbled beef!”

Jiang Chen couldn’t help but chuckle again, watching her serious expression even with her cheeks puffed out.

****

Zhou Yi practically clung to the wall as she shuffled out of the restaurant, feeling as though the food had reached her throat.

She took a deep breath of the fresh outdoor air, silently vowing never to step foot in a buffet BBQ restaurant again for at least six months!

After a satisfied burp, a gust of cool autumn wind swept past, instantly sending a shiver down her spine.

She rubbed her arms, glancing down at her outfit – a thin jacket, a knitted skirt, and over-the-knee socks – which felt utterly inadequate for a late autumn night.

It was then that she truly understood the meaning of ‘beauty freezes people’.

Just then, a sudden warmth, shielding her from the cold, enveloped her.

Zhou Yi stared blankly at the men’s jacket draped over her shoulders, the faint scent of mint lingering around her nose. She looked up, her gaze meeting Jiang Chen’s eyes, which held a hint of a helpless smile.

“If you’re cold, just say so,” he murmured, gently tucking a stray strand of hair out from under the jacket. His fingertips brushed her reddened earlobe almost imperceptibly.

Zhou Yi: “…”

She recoiled as if shocked, hastily attempting to remove the jacket. “No, really, you don’t have to. Why would I wear your jacket? You’ll get cold later…”

Jiang Chen raised a hand to press against her wrist, the warmth of his palm seeping through her skin. “Listen to me.”

Zhou Yi: “!”

‘Listen to me’? What did that even mean?!

‘Bro, wake up! We’re comrades who can game all night until dawn! We don’t have the kind of relationship where you can just casually say ‘listen to me’!’

“Just for a little while,” Jiang Chen said, as if anticipating her refusal, and then started walking ahead. “It’s not like it’s the first time I’ve lent you my jacket, anyway.”

“Huh? When did you ever lend it to me?!”

The words slipped out too naturally. Jiang Chen paused for a second, his brow furrowing slightly as if trying to grasp a fleeting memory, yet finding nothing.

“…Perhaps I remembered incorrectly,” he said, his voice a little distracted.

That inexplicable sense of familiarity surged within him once more.

Reason told him it was impossible, but the warmth, as if he had experienced it firsthand, felt disturbingly real.

Zhou Yi pulled the jacket tighter around herself. The night wind truly was chilling, and she saw no point in feigning toughness. “Shall we go? We’ll miss curfew if we’re any later.”

Jiang Chen snapped back to attention and smiled at her. “Yes, alright, let’s go.”

He naturally extended a hand to protect her back, guiding her slightly into the wind’s shelter.

They walked slowly along the dimly lit street, one wrapped in an oversized jacket with only slightly flushed cheeks visible, the other deliberately slowing his pace, his gaze subtly falling on her wind-swept hair.

****

On an autumn morning, the wind outside the teaching building carried a perfectly crisp coolness.

Zhou Yi ambled towards her classroom, textbooks in hand, her mind still in a half-awake state.

As soon as she stepped inside, she overheard several students whispering in the front row.

“Seriously? A direct demerit?”

“The Student Affairs Office website has posted it. This is the third disciplinary action this week!”

“But this one is definitely the most serious this semester…”

“Damaging the surveillance system? In other schools, they’d call the police!”

Zhou Yi listened.

The school was really going all out; fresh gossip even at this early hour.

She yawned, lazily opening her textbook. Who got disciplined? It had nothing to do with her, anyway.

Just as she was about to fish out her earphones from her bag, Xiao Ju suddenly leaned over from behind.

“Yiyi! Did you see the announcement board?”

Zhou Yi looked up blankly. “What announcement?”

Xiao Ju excitedly patted her shoulder. “The disciplinary announcement the Student Affairs Office just posted! The forum homepage is exploding!”

Zhou Yi grew even more confused.

Xiao Ju’s eyes widened in disbelief. “You seriously don’t know yet? The person who spread rumors about you on the campus wall last time got disciplined!”

“Me?” Zhou Yi took a couple of seconds to process this.

Xiao Ju waved her phone in front of her. “Just look at the forum yourself.”

Zhou Yi felt a little dazed. She had thought that matter was long over, that the person had vanished into thin air.

She hadn’t expected the school to handle it so seriously.

She frowned, pulled out her phone, and opened the school forum.

[School Disciplinary Notice: After investigation, Wu Junzhe was found to have intentionally damaged surveillance equipment and spread false information, causing a severe negative impact. He is hereby given a demerit.]

The comment section was already boiling.

[Holy crap, isn’t this that guy from the School of Mathematics?]

[The guy who usually doesn’t even dare to look up when speaking, actually did something like this?]

[Rumor has it, it’s because his love letter was ignored?]

[This is a real-life ‘Confessions’ movie!]

Zhou Yi stared at the name for several seconds.

Wu Junzhe. How could it be him?

The image of the boy who had called out to her below the girls’ dormitory, his face flushed, his hands trembling as he handed her a competition invitation, flashed before her eyes.

He wore glasses, was very shy, and even stuttered when he spoke.

“…Why would he do something like this?”

She truly couldn’t understand.

She simply couldn’t associate that timid figure with terms like cyberbullying or hacking surveillance.

The contrast was too stark.

Xiao Ju observed her expression. “You knew him before?”

“Only… that one time, when I saw him downstairs at the girls’ dorm,” Zhou Yi said, rubbing her temples. “He was the one who delivered that competition invitation.”

And Xiao Ju and the others had almost teased her, mistaking it for a love letter.

“What was he after, then?” Xiao Ju asked, looking utterly perplexed.

“I’d like to know too…”

She recalled that after Wu Junzhe handed her the invitation that day, Su Xiao had conveniently appeared. Afterward, Zhou Yi had been so preoccupied with dealing with Su Xiao that she had completely overlooked him.

The very next day, the campus wall incident erupted.

Only now did she connect these two events.

Even with the facts laid bare, she still found it hard to believe that the boy who couldn’t even meet her gaze would do such a thing.

But since the school had taken disciplinary action, the evidence must be conclusive. All of this was thanks to the crucial evidence Jiang Chen had collected…

Yet, a strange sense of guilt suddenly welled up within her.

She let out a soft sigh. Just as she picked up her phone, the screen lit up.

Jiang Chen: [Saw the announcement?]

Zhou Yi: [Just saw it]

Jiang Chen: [Are you okay?]

Zhou Yi: [Just a bit surprised… he doesn’t seem like the type to do something like this at all]

Jiang Chen: [You can know a person’s face, but not their heart.]

Zhou Yi: [True]

Jiang Chen’s fingertip hovered over the send button for a moment.

The explanation he had originally typed out was ultimately deleted, word by word: [Actually, it wasn’t Wu Junzhe who damaged the surveillance.]

The one who actually did it was the hacker Wu Junzhe commissioned. If Jiang Chen hadn’t privately asked Han Yan for help, the matter would never have been investigated so quickly.

The conversation where Han Yan privately requested him not to delve deeper into the hacker’s origins was also swallowed back.

These details didn’t need to be known by Zhou Yi.

So, he deleted the unsent explanation and changed it to another sentence.

Jiang Chen: [But remember, being hurt isn’t your fault. You don’t need to understand him, you just need to protect yourself.]

Zhou Yi stared at the line of text, suddenly feeling a gentle poke in her chest.

Jiang Chen: [Also, don’t wander off after class. The school needs us to give statements. I’ll wait for you after class, and we can go together.]

Zhou Yi: [Does it have to be so serious?]

Jiang Chen: [Absolutely.]

Zhou Yi: [Okay.]

She lowered her head, her fingertips unconsciously twirling a strand of hair. Outside the window, the autumn sun suddenly felt exceptionally warm.