Have a safe journey.

*

“Sorry for coming late.”

The deep and mellow dreamlike voice lingered in her ears, similar to how the taste of dark chocolate spreads inside your mouth when it melts on the tip of your tongue. It was as if a warm breeze had caressed Su Xiaotang, leaving her feeling like a flower bud in spring that was ready to blossom.

That familiar, tall figure was standing by the door when she raised her head.

Fang Jingshen wore a grey British-style sweatshirt over a white collared shirt with a black coat draped over his arm. He looked crisply handsome and shone brighter than the sun in Su Xiaotang’s eyes.

But the light in Su Xiaotang’s eyes immediately dimmed after seeing Shu Tian behind him.

Due to Fang Jingshen and Shu Tian’s popularity back in their university days, the others in the room teased, “You guys actually came at the same time! Did you get back together? Congrats, congrats!”

Shu Tian smiled and didn’t say anything, but her eyes lingered on Fang Jingshen.

“It was a coincidence,” Fang Jingshen said casually as he hung up his coat and sat down.

A shadow flashed across Shu Tian’s eyes, yet she sounded open and carefree as she said, “Stop using us to joke around! I already have a boyfriend.”

Then she smiled and aimed the conversation in a different direction: “Although our Doctor Fang is still single!”

Her words made it sound like Doctor Fang still had feelings for her, since to this day, Fang Jingshen had only ever had one official girlfriend--and that had been Shu Tian.

And so everyone started talking about Fang Jingshen.

“Hey, now that you mention it, Doctor Fang’s doing the most well out of all of us. He’s already an associate professor at such a young age, and he’s booked until next year to treat new patients. He has such a promising future!”

“That’s nothing compared to his family background…”

…

*

It had been a while since the last time Su Xiaotang felt like she just sat through multiple rollercoaster courses in the span of mere minutes.

She thought she had put it all behind her, but the feelings she had compressed down deep in her heart swelled up like a tsunami the moment she saw him, and smacked her to death on the beach with a single wave of water.

Li Ranran had come to sit beside her at some point while Su Xiaotang was zoning out. She touched the latter’s face and jumped in surprise. “Why is your face so hot? Do you have a fever?”

“Huh? What?” Su Xiaotang asked blankly with dazed eyes.

Li Ranran looked at Fang Jingshen, then back at Su Xiaotang. “You… You don’t still like him, do you?” she asked hesitantly.

Fang Jingshen had been a heartbreaker back then, and nine out of ten girls had fantasized about being with him. Li Ranran had been one of them, too, so she did not think that Su Xiaotang’s feelings for that type of unattainable man were real. She was not so sure now.

She suddenly remembered that Su Xiaotang had started dating Song Minghui after Fang Jingshen had gotten together with Shu Tian, and Su Xiaotang and Fang Jingshen were both this city’s locals so they had attended the same high school… Unless…?

It couldn’t be what she thought it was, right?

“Well, he is a nanshen~ What’s so strange about liking him~” Su Xiaotang’s heart skipped a beat but managed to maintain the carefree smile on her face.

Hearing her reply in her usual tone of voice made Li Ranran suppress her sudden suspicions.

*

Although Song Minghui and Lin Xue were sitting right opposite her and engaging in PDA, Su Xiaotang really couldn’t care any less about them. With Fang Jingshen’s appearance, every pore on her body breathed just for him and her every nerve focused on his every movement. Not only this, but she also had to crank up her defense system to prevent other people from noticing her emotional changes.

Fang Jingshen did not sit far from her. There were only two people between them, and he was talking to his neighbour about some specialised topics. She noticed he had not touched his drink.

He never drank this brand.

So Su Xiaotang thought of secretly swapping her unopened can with his.

She knew the brand he liked, and eventually her tastes became influenced by his so she would order the same drink. She had tried his favourite food because she wanted to know what flavours he liked, and she had read his favourite books because she wanted to know what he was thinking about. She had observed him quietly and felt proud of his every honour and achievement.

If you absolutely had to ask Su Xiaotang what sort of existence Fang Jingshen was to her, it would be this: the feeling of eating something yummy and eagerly wanting to share it with him, and being more satisfied if he ate it than eating it herself.

*

“Hah! Su Xiaotang, I didn’t know that you still remember Jingshen’s favourite drink even after all these years!”

Su Xiaotang had no’t pulled her hand back yet and she froze upon hearing Shu Tian’s words. There were lots of people in the room, so she had no idea how Shu Tian noticed her inconspicuous fidgeting in the corner.

And yet, this was just the beginning of her nightmare.

Shu Tian had drunk some alcohol so her speech was slurring a little. “What? None of you guys know? Didn’t I tell you already, Jingshen? This roommate of mine is your number one fan! She knows every single one of your likes and dislikes. She used to watch you every day at school, and I once saw her sneak a photo of you attending that tournament into her folder. If I remember correctly, Xiaotang and Jingshen went to the same high school so she probably started liking you from then? Otherwise she wouldn’t have cried in bed for so many nights when we got together. It made me feel a bit bad, to be honest…”

Stop talking, stop talking… please, stop talking…

Li Ranran blanked out for a moment before coming to her senses. She thought she knew Su Xiaotang well enough already, but she never knew her feelings for Fang Jingshen ran so deep.

For a while everyone wore various expressions from listening to Shu Tian, but their gaze on Su Xiaotang was the same--as if they were looking at a freak.

It would have been a different story if the girl in question was a beauty, but what if she was a fatty? Then it would be a freak show. Unfortunately for Su Xiaotang, reality was harsh.

No one stopped Shu Tian’s storytime. If anything, they treated it as entertainment and all waited for her to spill some more goss.

Shu Tian glanced at Song Minghui and continued: “I remember I asked Xiaotang back then if she was interested in Song Minghui, but she denied really vehemently. Who would’ve thought she’d get together with him that fast once Jingshen and I started dating. Huh…”

That single “huh” was full of so many hidden meanings.

Shu Tian’s words sent her audience into an uproar. Song Minghui, in particular, was growing redder and redder every second.

Su Xiaotang was shaking all over. The coldness was like she was standing in an icehouse, but not only was she stripped of her clothes, her skin was also being peeled off layer by layer with a dull knife.

Li Ranran had never seen Su Xiaotang, who was always so cheerful and optimistic, make an expression like she was doing now. Livid, she shot to her feet. “Shu Tian! Haven’t you said enough?”

“What? I’m not wrong, am I?” Shu Tian pointedly looked at Su Xiaotang as she asked, “Xiaotang, did I misunderstand? Don’t you like Fang Jingshen?”

Back in their university days, Su Xiaotang’s dorm room was well known amongst the students for having a beauty like Shu Tian and a fatty like Su Xiaotang under the same roof, so people would often bring up Su Xiaotang as a joke when talking about Shu Tian.

Su Xiaotang may have been fat, but she was definitely not ugly. Unfortunately for her though, her roommate was Shu Tian--and when you compare her to Shu Tian, the belle of the school, well… of course Su Xiaotang would be a joke.

Although Su Xiaotang had not been close enough with Shu Tian to be best friends back then, they did not have any particular grievances with each other either. Not in her wildest dreams did she expect Shu Tian to not only suddenly rip open and pour salt into an old wound, but also shake out all of the feelings she had carefully hidden away for seven years…

Li Ranran gritted her teeth. “What’s wrong with liking Fang Jingshen? I liked him too! There’s no girl here who didn’t fantasize about him!”

“If that’s so, then what are you so worked up about?” laughed Shu Tian.

Li Ranran opened her mouth to retort but was cut short by Su Xiaotang, who jumped up and raced out of the room.

It’s okay. Don’t think about it, Su Xiaotang told herself desperately. Didn’t she stay calm and composed when Song Minghui brought his girlfriend today to show off?

But why was it that she could not stop her heart from freezing over when she thought about how Fang Jingshen would think? So in the end, she could not keep sitting there…

As she lurched out of the door, she heard Fang Jingshen’s chilly voice behind her: “You went too far, Shu Tian.”

Tears poured down her face.

*

Su Xiaotang locked herself in the bathroom for a good half hour before calming down somewhat.

She would never be able to show her face in front of her classmates again after what happened today. Especially not in front of Fang Jingshen.

Su Xiaotang’s eyes started burning again as she thought about it and she hurriedly slapped some cold water on her face. Keeping her head bowed, she walked out of the bathroom and texted Li Ranran to say she would be leaving now.

Text sent. She raised her head and her limbs locked into place upon meeting eyes with the very last person she wanted to see at this time.

Holding a cigarette as he stood in the hallway, Fang Jingshen looked like he had been waiting there for a long time.

Awkwardness, shame, excitement, embarrassment, nervousness… these emotions combined together and erupted. Su Xiaotang was quite sure her expression did not look good at the moment. If anything, she probably looked like a psycho.

All sorts of words jiggled around inside her mouth, but in the end only two words made their way out. “I’m sorry…”

He must be feeling ashamed, right? Being liked by such an unpleasant person…

Fang Jingshen gazed at her thoughtfully for a moment before asking, “Do you like me?”

Su Xiaotang’s cheeks were on fire. Yet despite being nervous as heck, a sudden urge to express her thoughts bubbled up from the depths of her heart.

“Yes, I like you,” she heard herself answer against the drumming inside her chest.

“Just what do you like about me?” Fang Jingshen paused before continuing in a discernible tone, “My looks? My medical skills? My family background? Or…”

She was finally able to say it after a full seven years. Nervous to the point of fainting and desperate to prove her sincerity, the words slipped out before she could even think twice: “Of course not, that’s got nothing to do with it! I’d still like you even if you turned into a dog!”

Awkward silence blanketed the air as soon as her words came out.

Fang Jingshen’s expression was difficult to describe as he arched an eyebrow.

That… sure is an unexpected way to confess…

By this point, Su Xiaotang was ready to jump into the ocean and sink to the very bottom. Actually, anywhere was fine as long as she could disappear! For God’s sake, what was she even going on about!!!

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry! I’m not saying you’re a dog… I mean if you were… well… I, um…”

Su Xiaotang did not want to open her mouth ever again.

Why did she have to lose her marbles in front of him!

Fang Jingshen felt a strange urge as he studied the girl in front of him, whose red cheeks and overall roundness made her pitiful expression look puppy-like. It was an urge to… pinch?

And that was exactly what he did.

Su Xiaotang heard something shatter the instant those long, cool fingers pinched her cheek.

It was her heart exploding into pieces from emotional overload…

STAFF

Neves: translator

Rat: proofreader

Neves's translation notes

Hello and apologies for the delay (over 2 years omg) in getting Chapter 2 out. To our remaining readers, Yukiversity 2.0 is back! And to our new readers, welcome! 1/3 of this chapter had been sitting in the drafts box since November 2017, and the remaining 2/3 just got translated and checked this evening. Tbh I'm quite tired lol but I'm about halfway through Chapter 3 so let's see if I can power through or not 🥺

There's been a change in staff! Rat and Pudsie have joined on as proofreaders. I'd like to thank these friends for their noble sacrifice

In other news, please read this for a bit of lukewarm tea that happened while Yukiversity 2.0 was offline.

Apologies for being MIA for so long but we're back now. Next chapter is where the fun starts! Thank you for reading~

Her close friend, Li Ranran, had some bad news for her.

“Don’t blame me for not telling you ahead of time, but our university class reunion is tomorrow night. You better clean yourself up properly!”

“Huh? Do I have to go? That’s so troublesome, I have to wash my hair, change my clothes…”

“SU, XIAO, TANG! Do you want to be a shut-in until the day the sun dies and humanity is wiped out?” Li Ranran yelled from the other end of the phone.

The corners of Su Xiaotang’s mouth turned downwards as she held the phone a bit further away. “I really don’t want to go…”

“You don’t have a choice. How long has it been since the last time you went outside? If you keep living like this, you’ll devolve into a primitive caveman! I heard from the class pres that our class has plenty of high spec guys who are still single, so think about it! It’s a good opportunity! You might even find a boyfriend…” Li Ranran paused as if she was struck by a thought and softened her voice. “Um… Do you not want to see that bastard, Song Minghui?”

Li Ranran’s temper flared just by mentioning the name. “You sacrificed so much for that son of a bitch, you spent so much on him, you even funded the tuition fees for his master's degree. Then what did he do? Started working and snagged himself a younger girl from his company. What did I tell you? You can’t trust those country boys, they’re only out for your money. All those posts on Tianya Forum and they still didn’t deter you…”

While Li Ranran raged on the phone, Su Xiaotang cheerfully made another successful transaction. As she confirmed the delivery address with the buyer, she said to her friend, “Ranran, he already returned that money, with added interest too. Anyway, the past is in the past. I don’t want to go to the reunion because I’m lazy, not because of anything else.”

“What do you mean, ‘the past is in the past’, so what if he returned the money? What, did he think of you as a credit card? So he can get an advance and pay back later? You can’t settle this with just a bit of money!”

“Okay, okay! I’m busy right now so I’m going to hang up. I’ll be there on time tomorrow bye~” Su Xiaotang said rapidly, and hurriedly hung up before Li Ranran could say anything else.

*

When Song Minghui said he wanted to break up, it would be a lie to say she wasn’t upset.

Despite the lack of firework-like romance, she had started dating him with the intention of marriage and had been serious about their relationship. You’d be upset if you raised a dog from birth but it ran off with someone else, right? Even more so if it was a man you were in a relationship with for so long.

However, if you were to ask just how upsetting it was, it would only be around how upset you would be if a buyer bought a packet of snacks from you, ate half the packet, and then came back demanding a refund.

The times of major upheavals and memorable moments in her life were all given to a man named Fang Jingshen. From high school to university, she had a crush on him for a solid seven years. Her crush lasted until graduation in their fourth year, when her nanshen finally got a girlfriend--who just happened to be her roommate, Shu Tian, the campus belle. The two seemed to be perfectly matched, and were envied by many others…

As a measurement of how upset that made her, she felt despairing limbo, emptiness… it was as if she would never eat something delicious again in her life.

Then, not long after, Song Minghui confessed to her. He said that her chubbiness was very cute, and that he really liked her, and asked if she wanted to try being together with him.

So they became a couple too.

That was until half a year ago, when Song Minghui straightforwardly told her he had found his true love and made the move to break up. A few days later, he transferred ￥30,000 into her account with the intention to not have anything more to do with her. Of course, it was also because he didn’t want other people to talk about how he still owed her money.

Although Fang Jingshen and Shu Tian had broken up after just a few months together, Su Xiaotang wasn’t naive enough to think she would have a chance once Fang Jingshen was single again. She didn’t hold any hope to start with, which is why her one-sided love merely remained one-sided and his relationship with Shu Tian only cut off her prospects of looking upon him from afar.

*

The next day.

There was half an hour left before the reunion when Su Xiaotang finally forced herself to wash her hair and put on a set of her most comfortable clothes. While she was thinking about whether she had anything else to prepare, a round husky jumped over from her balcony and lay at her feet, panting and aggressively wagging his tail at her.

This ‘round weapon of mass destruction’ she owned made Su Xiaotang very perplexed.

She had left her dog alone at home once, however, he not only made a mess in the bedroom and living area, but also managed to open the door to her stockroom. When Su Xiaotang came home that night, she found the place to be as if a tornado had ripped through, leaving a mess of destruction in its wake. Yet the culprit for the mess had the gall to come up to her, wearing an expression of innocence and acting cute with his tail wagging happily, making her so angry she was very tempted to just eat the thing…

After that incident, Su Xiaotang tied him up with a chain the next time she needed to go out. But because the damn animal was so full of energy, she later found that the chain had rubbed off a circle of fur and had chafed the dog’s skin.

Su Xiaotang had a sharp tongue but a soft heart, so she couldn’t bring herself to tie the dog up again. Instead, she tried to take him along whenever she needed to go out. Thank goodness she barely left the house anyway.

Now, seeing that Su Xiaotang looked like she was heading out, this foolish dog immediately pattered over and tried to join in with her on the fun. First he rubbed against her leg, then he put both paws up on the door, clearly desperate to go out too.

Seeing that his owner was still standing in the same place, the dog confusedly yelped at her and went to pull her pant leg.

Exasperated, Su Xiaotang had no choice but to make a phone call to Li Ranran.

“Hello? Xiaotang, have you arrived yet? I’m already at the restaurant!”

“I’m just getting ready to leave, but I don’t know what to do with Meatball. Does the hotel allow dogs?”

Li Ranran knew all about how energetic Meatball was, so hearing Su Xiaotang say this didn’t surprise her at all. “Give me a min, I’ll go ask for you!”

“Okay.”

A while later, Li Ranran happily told her, “Xiaotang, it’s all good, you can bring Meatball along. The manager is a close friend of one of our classmates, and he said that it’s fine as long as you keep a firm hold over him.”

“Alright, I’ll be there in roughly twenty minutes,” Su Xiaotang said as she patted Meatball on the head.

“Give me a call when you arrive, I’ll pick you up at the front doors.”

*

When Su Xiaotang arrived at the restaurant’s doors, Li Ranran excitedly made a mess of Meatball first, before eyeing Su Xiaotang up and down with a look of disgust. The desire to kick Su Xiaotang back home was very obvious in her eyes.

“Didn’t I tell you to clean yourself up properly? And yet you come here looking like this?”

Su Xiaotang was afraid of the cold, so she was already wearing a down jacket at the beginning of winter. She was fat to start with, and now she looked more like a ball.

“I did wash my hair! These clothes were washed yesterday as well…” Su Xiaotang replied weakly.

Li Ranran couldn’t stop sighing. “What do you want me to say about you, Su Xiaotang? Are you a woman at all! Can’t you spend some time on your own appearance? Just what do you spend all that money you’ve earnt on! I’m starting to regret calling you over. Oh man, you haven’t seen what that bastard Song Minghui looks like right now. It’s as if he’s at the top of the food chain. The woman beside him too, wearing brand names from head to toe and shining like a beacon. Apparently she’s the daughter of some higher up at his company? So he’s also climbed up a bit in the ranks. I was hoping you would be able to counterattack, but if you’re going in there looking like this, it would definitely be a KO for you. Also, Su Xiaotang, tell me honestly, did you put on more weight? What happened to losing weight…”

Girls will dress themselves up for their admirers, but there isn’t a guy who will even look at me as a woman, Su Xiaotang grumbled internally.

She had no desire to dress herself up because she didn’t have admirers, which led to having no admirers because she didn’t dress herself up, which then circled back to not wanting to dress herself up. It was a continuous loop that could not be broken.

“I live for myself, so why does it matter how other people are?” Su Xiaotang mumbled.

Li Ranran did not want to say anything more to this blockhead, because she knew Su Xiaotang wasn’t pretending to be open-minded; it was just that she had become a true airhead from being a shut-in for so long.

*

There were already ten or so people inside the reserved private room when the two (and dog) arrived. Some were chatting and singing in twos and threes, while another group was playing mahjong.

“See her? That’s Lin Xue! Looks like a pretentious bitch, doesn’t she!” Li Ranran gestured in the direction of the mahjong players. Su Xiaotang followed her line of vision and sure enough, there was Song Minghui, playing mahjong with a woman snuggled up tight against him.

Song Minghui had also raised his head at that moment and saw them. He swept his eyes over Su Xiaotang, then quickly looked away, as if he couldn’t bear to have her in his sight; utter disgust was clear in his eyes.

Although Su Xiaotang was fat, her face wasn’t wide, and her five sense organs were actually quite nicely grown. During the peak of her crush on Fang Jingshen back in university, she would spend a fair bit of time on her appearance too, leading to how Song Minghui described her as ‘chubby but cute’ when he first confessed.

But the Su Xiaotang now looked a lot worse than she did back in the day. Wearing a ￥300 down jacket from Taobao and thermal pants despite being fat, with hair pulled back into a low bun because she didn’t like static, her appearance could be summarised with one word: loser.

Su Xiaotang’s face was very easy to recognise, so it didn’t take long before a classmate realised who she was. Then, after seeing the dog by her feet, they excitedly asked: “Su Xiaotang, is this your dog? It’s a husky, right?”

“Yeah.” Su Xiaotang nodded and found a place to sit down.

“He’s so cute, what’s his name?” She was suddenly surrounded by several women.

“Meatball.”

Meatball wasn’t shy with strangers at all, and was especially happy with all the attention given to him by these beauties, who would rub his fur and feed him nice things. He was evidently having a better time at this gathering than his owner was.

”Like owner, like dog. Su Xiaotang, your dog’s physique is so similar to yours!” someone said. It was unknown if this comment had intentional connotations or not.

Su Xiaotang laughed it off without thinking much of it, but Li Ranran was not happy. “Zheng Fang, what the hell did you mean?”

Li Ranran wouldn’t care too much if someone else had said it, and would think of it as a well-meant joke; but this person was from the same hometown as Song Minghui, and had chased after Song Minghui at one point, although she did not succeed.

“It was a joke~” Zheng Fang looked like she didn’t mean it seriously, then purposefully asked, “Su Xiaotang, where are you working at right now? Unless you’re still fussing over that little shop of yours?”

Zheng Fang was working at this city’s top construction company, with a monthly income of ￥8,000, and had asked her question with a tone of superiority.

“Haha, that’s right.” Su Xiaotang continued to smile.

Li Ranran couldn’t take it any longer and interjected: “Xiaotang’s snack shop is really popular, okay? Her monthly net income is at least ￥20,000, and at times like double eleven and end-of-year sales she can earn over ￥10,000 a day…”

Zheng Fang’s facial colour changed as she listened to Li Ranran and shut up.

Lin Xue decided to give her two cents too: “I didn’t realise snack shops could earn so much money! If I knew earlier I would’ve opened one myself, hahaha…”

Of course a rich missy like her wouldn’t need anything like that, it was obvious she was showing off her status. After all, a gossipy classmate had just teasingly told her about Song Minghui’s relationship with this fat woman.

Her giggles made Li Ranran get goosebumps, and she immediately looked over at Song Minghui, saying: “Hah, why else would a certain someone be so shameless when they chased after Xiaotang?”

Zheng Fang finally got the chance to sneer, “Hah, who would be interested in her if it wasn’t for her ￥20,000?”

Sparks crackled in the room between the parties involved.

The person in question was still happily playing with her dog as if she didn’t realise what was going on, but discreetly held a furious Li Ranran down in place.

It was not as if she wasn’t upset, it was just that she had become immune to these comments. Su Xiaotang had tried to lose weight before, but because of her digestive system, what could be done when she would gain weight even if she ate nothing and only drank water everyday? She had been at her thinnest during her university days, and that was the end of it.

At that moment, the door to the private room creaked open and a few people, who didn’t seem like her classmates, walked in.

Jiang Hua, the class president, immediately went up to greet them. “We were just talking about why you guys haven’t arrived yet!”

“Alright everyone, let me introduce you to our medical faculty’s top students! Not many from our class were able to make it today, so I called people over from another class too!”

Medical faculty?

Su Xiaotang, who had been nestled in a dark corner, felt like she was a wilting little sapling which suddenly got a huge bucket of fertiliser dumped on it, and was instantly full of spirit again!

STAFF

Neves: translator

LEADS: Su Xiaotong (FL), Fang Jingshen (ML)

2.0 TAGS: MOD/HE/TM (?)

STAFF

Neves: translator

Rat: proofreader (c2 – )

Pudsie: proofreader (c3 – )

*

TL #1: This is a translation of the web version, not the printed version! Differences between the two versions will not be specifically noted. Please consider buying a printed copy to support the author.