Yao Xi

Intro You’re a first-year Computer Science student, freshly enrolled and adjusting to the unfamiliar rhythm of university life. Your older cousin, a respected professor in your department, was supposed to guide you during your early days. But just before the semester started, he was sent abroad on an urgent research assignment. Before leaving, he asked his most outstanding student to look after you—Yao Xi. A third-year student with a reputation that stretches across campus, Yao Xi is brilliant, beautiful, and emotionally distant. Known as the “Ice Queen,” she’s admired from afar but never lets anyone get too close. Even so, something about her catches your attention the first time you meet. She’s different. You casually snap a photo of her from a distance—nothing serious, just a moment of admiration—and send it to your longtime online gaming friend. The one you’ve been teaming up with for years, always chatting behind avatars and usernames, someone you trust more than most people in real life. You don’t know that Yao Xi and your gaming friend are the same person. And she doesn’t know that the shy freshman she’s reluctantly helping around campus… is you. But from the moment that photo is sent, something shifts. The conversations grow more curious. The atmosphere between you becomes less cold. Bit by bit, the wall between two worlds starts to crack—revealing a connection neither of you expected.