OAS 1

Dorm 304 in the West Fifth Male Dormitory was silent. On the messy desk by the door sat an open cardboard box, with lube and condoms scattered inside, clearly already picked through.

Three guys stood around the box. The one in the middle had skin so pale it almost glowed, still holding a utility knife. He was the main culprit behind this mess.

“He Ziwei, why the hell did you open Tang Zhou’s package?” Li Shiye exchanged a look with Sun Shichao across from him, cleared his throat, and asked in a dry voice. All he did was pick up a package for their roommate as a favor. He blinked once, and suddenly the plot had spiraled out of control.

Sun Shichao also thought the atmosphere was a bit off. He quickly jumped in. “Yeah, He Ziwei, why the fuck are you opening Tang Zhou’s stuff? You’re screwed now, man. Tang Zhou’s gonna kill you when he gets back.”

He Ziwei figured he must be cursed lately. He hadn’t gamed in over two months, then out of nowhere, decided to pull an all-nighter yesterday. He only went to bed around seven or eight in the morning. Just as he stumbled down from bed, still groggy, he saw an unopened box sitting by the desk.

His desk was right next to Tang Zhou’s, and the box happened to be straddling the line between them. His brain short-circuited. He completely forgot he hadn’t ordered anything recently and just reflexively grabbed a knife and sliced the packing tape open.

If it had just been an opened package, he could’ve spun it as an innocent mistake. But being caught red-handed, with a box full of condoms? Now that was just pure embarrassment.

He felt kind of guilty being confronted, but there was no way he was going to lose face. Rolling his eyes, he scoffed, “If Tang Zhou has the balls to buy them, he shouldn’t be scared of people finding out.”

“How about we tape it back up and pretend we never saw any of it?” Li Shiye frowned, trying one last time to salvage peace in the dorm.

He Ziwei tossed the utility knife onto the desk and turned to leave. “Tch. Like hell I’m taping that shit.”

Then he snorted, “Always acting like some goody-goody, bet he’s actually a fuckboy on the side.”

“Who’s a fuckboy?” A fourth person appeared at the crime scene. No one ever bothered to close the dorm doors during the day, and the guy from next door had come to fetch Sun Shichao for a round of Three Kingdoms Kill. He showed up at just the right time to catch a juicy piece of gossip. The box was still out in the open, and when he heard the phrase “fuckboy,” his vision practically lit up.

“Oh hell yes. Spicy,” the guy laughed, then cut straight to the point. “Whose stuff is it? Tang Zhou’s?”

“Who else could it be? Obviously our campus heartthrob Tang Zhou.” He Ziwei replied flatly.

The mood in the room turned even weirder. Sun Shichao coughed awkwardly and gently shoved the guy out toward the next room to get that game going.

With the situation temporarily defused, He Ziwei, stomach growling, changed clothes and headed out for food. Li Shiye, after a moment of hesitation, decided to DM Tang Zhou: “Gotta tell you something. Uh… He Ziwei opened your package.”

Tang Zhou was out of town doing an internship. He hadn’t brought his phone with him to work that afternoon, so he didn’t see the message until he got back in the evening. He cursed He Ziwei in his heart for never minding his own damn business, but outwardly maintained his usual calm and upright persona, replying with just three words: “Got it.”

A little while later, another message came through: “Uh… we saw everything that was inside…”

That awkward, hesitant tone raised a red flag. Tang Zhou backed out to his WeChat list and opened a different chat, one with a profile pic of a reaction meme. What the hell did you send me?

The other person was his older sister—five years older, and always doting on him. She’d sent him all kinds of stuff over the years, from milk and socks to pillows and laundry detergent. Her only flaws were loving surprises and asking every few weeks why he still didn’t have a girlfriend.

Her reply came quick: “Daily essentials. Consumables. Extremely practical!”

She had sent him condoms as a not-so-subtle nudge to get a girlfriend, but Tang Zhou hadn’t made that connection. Reading her vague-as-hell reply, he didn’t even want to engage. There was no way she’d sent him pads, and this wasn’t exactly worth being shocked over either. So he flipped back to Li Shiye’s chat and gave a one-size-fits-all response: “Mm.”

Li Shiye stared at the screen for a long while, but that “Mm” was all Tang Zhou ever said. He looked up at He Ziwei, who was hammering away at his mechanical keyboard, and finally caught on. That “Mm” was too calm. Way too calm. Like the eerie quiet before a storm.