It was the weekend, and the gates of Qingbei University bustled with people coming and going.

Han Wenwen, wearing a floral dress and sporting a pair of sly fox eyes, crouched at the edge of a flower bed.

She was tearing open a bag of chicken-flavored chips, her pink-manicured fingers constantly digging chips out and popping them into her mouth.

Her eyes followed a ladybug slowly crawling across the leaves of the flower bed.

An invisible fox tail swayed behind her.

Little He Qing squatted beside her, nervously clutching her arm. “Wenwen, aren’t you afraid of bugs?”

“What’s there to be scared of with a ladybug? I haven’t seen a seven-spotted one in years. Back in our hometown, they’re all the high-spotted kind. This one’s rare.”

Jiang Xueli stood nearby, yawning, eyes watery. “Where’s Zhengran? Why’s he still not here?”

He Qing tilted her head, curious. “Lily, did you not sleep well last night? I saw you tossing and turning in bed before I fell asleep.”

Jiang Xueli froze, flustered. She waved her hands in embarrassment. “I slept fine! Just a little late, that’s all.”

Han Wenwen crunched on her chips. “Lily must’ve been sneaking peeks at those comics under the covers again. I’ve caught her doing it more than once lately.”

Jiang Xueli’s fists clenched and her face turned red. “Nonsense! Who’d read that kind of stuff?!”

Han Wenwen’s fox eyes gleamed mischievously. “Really? You don’t? I happened to glance over and catch you one time.”

“You lying fox! Shut it! I—how could I—how could I read that kind of thing?! I’m suing you for slander!”

Han Wenwen smiled.

“Aw, Lily’s so innocent, huh? Then how about we make a bet. Give me your phone. If I find anything inappropriate on it, you lose and wash my socks for two days. If I find nothing, I’ll wash yours.”

Jiang Xueli blushed even harder, crossing her arms. “Pfft, childish. I’m not doing such a silly bet.”

“Scared?”

“Reverse psychology won’t work. Why should I bet on something like that? As Zhengran says: the innocent remain innocent! I really haven’t seen that stuff, nor do I care to.”

Han Wenwen turned to He Qing. “What about you, Qingqing? Have you looked at anything recently?”

He Qing froze, face turning shy. “Why are you asking me, Wenwen?! Let’s change the topic, okay? I refuse to answer!”

Han Wenwen kept crunching her chips.

“Fine, new topic. Do you guys have pictures of Zhengran-ge? Let’s swap some. I’ve run out of good ones—seen the same few way too many times.”

“U-use…” He Qing stammered. “W-what do you mean by ‘use’, Wenwen… that sounds weird…”

Han Wenwen licked the chip crumbs off her fingers, speaking as if it were obvious:

“No matter how much knowledge or info you learn online, when it’s time to, y’know, unwind your body, you have to use pictures of Zhengran-ge. Just imagining isn’t enough. Aren’t you two the same?”

He Qing and Jiang Xueli were both speechless, their faces heating up like steam kettles.

Jiang Xueli folded her hands behind her back, staring up at the sky. “I don’t really get what this fox is talking about, but swapping pics is fine. I do want to collect more of Zhengran’s photos.”

He Qing fiddled with her fingers shyly, head down. “Then… I’ll swap with you too. Hehe…”

Han Wenwen pulled out her phone. “Come on, let’s make a photo group chat. Dump all your years’ worth of pics in there and let’s trade.”

The three of them immediately huddled together, sharing photos in the group chat.

Each one marveled at the others' collections.

“This one’s so good! Zhengran looks so handsome here!”

“Qingqing, how do you even have photos of Zhengran this young?! Don’t you feel guilty using these?”

“Aaah! Lily, what are you talking about?! Of course I don’t use the ones from that age! I only—wait no! I haven’t used anything!”

Han Wenwen scrolled through the photos in awe, her mind wandering. “You two really do have a ton of pics… I need to save all of these. They’re treasures. Too bad I didn’t know Zhengran-ge when we were kids.”

Jiang Xueli’s eyes widened at one photo of Lin Zhengran shirtless in bed. “Wenwen! Where did you get this pic of Zhengran with no shirt?! Where was this taken?!”

“Oh, I secretly took it once while Zhengran-ge was sleeping on my bed. Speaking of which, didn’t you take secret photos too? He actually slept over at your place so many times!”

He Qing was stunned. “You both snuck so many pictures of him?! I didn’t even dare to take any…”

While the three of them were totally engrossed in their photo exchange, someone bent down and peeked at what they were doing.

Lin Zhengran, completely clueless as to what these three were up to, called out, “What are you looking at?”

His voice scared the daylights out of them.

Like startled cats, they all jumped up, clutching their phones, trying to cover it up.

“N-nothing!”

“We weren’t looking at anything!”

He Qing bobbed her head like a guilty chick. “Nothing, nothing!”

Lin Zhengran held out his hand. “Hand it over. Let me see.”

The moment he said that, all three looked so embarrassed their eyes started watering. They pleaded.

“Please don’t look, Zhengran… we’re begging you…”

He Qing squeezed her phone tightly, eyes shut. She was prepared to live and die with her phone today.

“Me too, I’m begging you…”

From their expressions alone, Lin Zhengran immediately understood what kind of photos they were looking at.

He was speechless. “You three seriously… just don’t go spreading those around, okay?”

They pretended not to understand, but still nodded quickly and replied in unison:

“Even though we don’t know what you’re talking about, we definitely won’t!”

Lin Zhengran raised his hand and gave each of them a light forehead flick.

Thwack, thwack, thwack.

Each girl yelped in turn.

Seeing them quickly put away their phones, Lin Zhengran said, “Let’s go. Time to check out houses. I’m planning to buy a two-story villa—get it done once and for all. What about you guys? Any preferences?”

Han Wenwen lit up. “We can pick? I don’t mind anything, as long as it’s a house with Zhengran-ge.”

Jiang Xueli looked puzzled. “We’re really going to buy a villa today? I know Zhengran’s rich, but the word ‘villa’ still feels so high-end…”

He Qing shook her head. “This topic sounds expensive. I don’t have any opinions either.”

It was after visiting Jiang Qian and Jiang Jingshi’s home last time that Lin Zhengran realized their place was pretty well set up.

Though he thought there was room for improvement, the two-story layout was definitely convenient—separating the living room and bedroom levels helped avoid clutter.

Lin Zhengran said, “Since none of you have any objections, just come with me. We’ll take a look at different layouts, and if you see one you really like, just let me know.”

All three nodded.

Then they all headed off together in a cab to view houses.