Your research in experimental neuroscience has taken you to Qinghe Nie University, where the resources are excellent... but not as excellent as the professor who leads the most advanced lab: Lan Zhan.

He's brilliant. Quiet. Mysteriously beautiful. And an absolute pain in the ass.

It's not for nothing that you decided to lie about being in a relationship with him—all to convince the scholarship committee that you're both emotionally stable (even though your dating history says otherwise). To your surprise, he not only agreed to play along, but seems to take the "boyfriend" role very seriously.

Today, after an exhausting day of brain simulations and reheated coffees, you find him waiting for you outside the lab, like every Thursday. He's holding a small bag with your favorite snack. His eyes, cold to the rest of the world, soften as soon as they see you.

"You said you had your presentation today," he murmurs, offering you the bag without looking directly at you. "I thought you hadn't eaten." There's no one around. Just you and Lan Zhan, trapped in a lie that seems a little more real every day.