Chapter 1: The Reef and the Sea

“Yuan Yuan, do you really have enough money to get by? Don’t force yourself—be honest with me,” her mother’s voice came through the phone, as gentle as ever but tinged with a subtle, cautious probing.

“I do, Mom! I just got a scholarship, so I’m doing fine!”

Xuyuan hid in a quiet corner of the library, listening to the steady patter of rain outside the window, striving to make her voice sound like honey soaked in sunlight—sweet, full, and without a trace of gloom.

“You and Dad don’t need to worry about me. Take your medicine on time and eat well, okay?”

She lied once more.

Skillfully ending the call, the radiant smile she had carefully crafted, flawless as a masterpiece, was instantly extinguished like a candle blown out by the wind.

Xuyuan slowly crouched down, burying her face deep into her knees, her slender shoulders trembling uncontrollably.

Her phone screen glowed faintly, the bank’s text message alert feeling like a cold verdict, silently announcing her predicament—

[Dear customer, your savings account ending in 6772 currently has a balance of: 78.50 yuan.]

Seventy-eight yuan and fifty cents.

There were still twenty-three days until her next tutoring paycheck arrived on the fifteenth of next month.

Her tutoring session tonight was in just one hour, held off-campus at “Jinmao Mansion,” with a round-trip bus fare of four yuan. To save that four yuan—and to avoid being seen in her destitution by her roommates—she had braved the heavy rain to come early to the library, surviving on the two stale discount bread rolls she had stuffed in her backpack from the supermarket last night.

The rain showed no sign of easing; if anything, it worsened, with heavy drops pounding on the glass, leaving winding streaks of water as if trying to wash the entire world into a blur.

Xuyuan wiped her face carelessly; no rain came in, but her eyes betrayed her, growing damp and hot with unshed tears.

She couldn’t afford to delay any longer.

Steeling her emotions, she hugged her backpack filled with textbooks tightly and looked for a more secluded spot to eat her meager dinner.

Passing between rows of towering bookshelves, she suddenly froze at a corner of the reading area.

There, under the lamp, sat a slender, upright figure alone.

It was Jiang Yi.

His aura seemed cut off from the noisy world around, with only the open books and densely scribbled notes before him forming his entire domain.

Xuyuan’s heart skipped a beat.

That name was legendary at Binhai University.

A year ago, he was truly a favored son of fortune: wealthy family background, academic achievements so overwhelming they created a chasm between him and everyone else, and a carefree three-pointer on the basketball court that could send half the school’s girls into screams. He was the genius every professor spoke of, a dazzling star so distant and unattainable that countless people admired him from afar.

Until half a year ago, when his family’s business collapsed overnight, and he himself fell from the heights into the dust.

That star hanging high in the sky had fallen.

Just as Xuyuan hesitated whether to quietly retreat, several ill-timed figures barged into the quiet space, shattering the calm. Leading them was the well-known wealthy heir on campus, Li Wenfeng.

Instinctively, Xuyuan hid deeper in the shadows of the bookshelves.

“Hey, isn’t this our university genius, Jiang Yi? Studying hard this late?” Li Wenfeng pulled out the chair opposite Jiang Yi and sat down with a fake smile, pushing a cup of iced coffee toward the center of the table.

“Just grabbed a drink with some friends outside, thought you might want one too. To keep you awake.”

Perhaps intentionally “accidental,” the cup tilted in his fingers, spilling the dark brown liquid precisely over the pages covered in formulas and annotations.

The ink bled and blurred like a ruined landscape painting.

“Oh no! Look at my clumsy hands!” Li Wenfeng exclaimed exaggeratedly, but with no remorse—only a flicker of triumph. “Sorry for ruining your notes. Must have taken a lot of effort.”

“Li Shao didn’t mean it, Jiang Yi. You won’t blame him, right?” his follower chimed in, voice dripping with fake regret and mocking anticipation.

From her hiding place, Xuyuan felt a chill run down her spine. She saw clearly that this was no accident; it was a carefully orchestrated humiliation disguised as “concern.” They hadn’t just destroyed a few pages—they had shattered the fragile order and pride Jiang Yi clung to in his struggling life.

Her own family had just gone through upheaval; she knew all too well the suffocating feeling of desperately guarding the last shreds of dignity, only to have them easily shattered. So she forced a smile, wrapping herself in a thick shell.

But Jiang Yi? He chose to face the world’s cruelty with silence and solitude.

“Stop standing there,” Li Wenfeng said, pulling a stack of crisp bills from his wallet and slapping them on the table, pushing them toward Jiang Yi as if comforting a spoiled child. “Just rewrite your notes. Take this as compensation. Buy some good paper and pens—no rush.”

This act was more hurtful than any venomous curse. It wrapped a malicious provocation in the guise of condescending charity.

Xuyuan clenched her fists, nails digging deep into her palms. Should she call the police? But it was just an “accidental” spilled coffee; no one could convict him. It would only make Jiang Yi’s situation more public and humiliating.

As she wrestled with herself, Jiang Yi finally moved.

He didn’t look at the offending money on the table, nor did he glance at Li Wenfeng again. He simply reached out carefully for the soaked papers, then took a clean handkerchief from his pocket and began gently blotting the water from the sheets.

His movements were so focused, so tender, as if repairing a priceless treasure.

That supreme calm and silence was itself the strongest retaliation, making all of Li Wenfeng’s meticulously planned humiliation fall like a punch against cotton—ridiculous and powerless.

Li Wenfeng’s smile finally faltered. He rose in frustration, finding it dull and uninteresting. With a parting jab of “ungrateful,” he stormed off with his entourage.

The reading area fell into silence again.

Jiang Yi continued tending to his notes, but then, as if sensing something, he slowly lifted his gaze, eyes passing over the empty desks and chairs, fixing precisely on the row of bookshelves where Xuyuan hid.

What eyes those were.

No anger, no sorrow, not even the slightest storm of emotion. His deep eyes were like the sea after a stormy night—exhausted and tranquil—but deep within, a spark of light remained, a fiery pride belonging to a genius, unextinguished by life’s hardships.

His gaze lingered only briefly, yet it seemed to say: I see you.

Xuyuan’s mind buzzed and went blank.

She had been seen. But that look held no judgment, no wariness—only a calm understanding, as if acknowledging the vulnerability caught in the act.

In that moment, Xuyuan suddenly understood him. He was not a lone wolf driven to desperation and revenge. He was a rock standing firm in the sea, unmoved by the crashing waves, silent and resilient.

A powerful resonance, like a warm current, struck her soul.

Jiang Yi withdrew his gaze, carefully slipped the half-dried notes back into his book, then rose, straightening his spine—still sharp and upright despite life’s heavy burdens—and steadily walked away to the end of the shelves.

Xuyuan slid down against the cold bookshelf, sitting quietly on the floor. She did not cry, only watched where he had gone, feeling something harden deep inside her.

...

That night, Xuyuan had a dream more vivid than any before.

In it, there was a boundless, cold, dark ocean.

She floated like a ghost with no body, suspended in midair. On the sea’s surface, a wild wind whipped towering waves, relentlessly smashing again and again against a single black reef in the center.

She saw clearly that on that rock stood a familiar yet indistinct figure.

It was Jiang Yi!

He stood alone, letting the icy seawater engulf him time and again, only to reemerge from the watery veil each time. He neither resisted nor yielded, silently and stubbornly bearing the world’s malice.

The monstrous waves could never completely break him.

“No…”

Xuyuan awoke with a start, her heart pounding fiercely, drenched in cold sweat.

Outside, dawn was breaking.

The rain had stopped.

But the cold sea in her dream, and Jiang Yi’s solitary figure standing against the storm, remained like a deep scar, etched with biting chill into her mind.

She gasped for breath, whispering almost inaudibly.

That voice carried a pain and shock so deep, even she had never realized it before.

“Jiang Yi…”