Chapter 1: Shut the Door and Release the Dog

For Emily Thompson and Claire Sutton, life had just staged a scene more absurd than a third-rate movie: first, the worst possible outcome of sharing a train compartment with two men, and then, a hero who could even bring a dog onto the train burst in, completely disregarding the feelings of the two beauties. He sat on the lower bunk with two guys who seemed to know each other well, animatedly boasting about how he outwitted the train police, broke through layers of defenses, and finally achieved a triumphant reunion. He spoke with vivid gestures, spittle flying everywhere, and didn’t forget to shamelessly smoke in the public compartment, filling the four-person room with thick smoke as soon as the door was closed. The two well-behaved girls were nearly choked out. Thinking about how this hero, who clearly hadn’t bought a ticket, had a mutt lying at his feet, Emily Thompson and Claire Sutton didn’t even dare to protest, afraid that the three lawless strangers on the lower bunks might do something unspeakable to them if angered.

Emily Thompson was naturally submissive and resilient; otherwise, as a girl with no interest in science, she wouldn’t have gotten into the mathematics department at Shanghai Jiao Tong University just because her parents demanded it. But her companion was used to being a pampered heiress. After enduring ten minutes of torment, she finally sent a secret SOS text to her prospective boyfriend. After all, what’s the point of having a man if not to play the hero? Claire Sutton liked to call it maximizing resource utilization.

In less than three minutes, her campus heartthrob of a boyfriend arrived with three close buddies in tow. As soon as he opened the compartment door, he frowned deeply. Always mindful of Grace Sutton’s feelings, this heavy smoker who’d been hooked on Zhonghua cigarettes since elementary school had never dared admit his habit after they started dating. Now, seeing the room swirling with smoke and chaos, he was furious. It felt as if these three bastards had stolen something precious from the woman he hadn’t even gotten to hug yet—a strange and utterly awful feeling. He wasn’t much of a fighter, since he had to maintain the image of a refined young gentleman, but the reason his buddies had stuck with him all these years, besides similar family backgrounds, was mainly their reckless arrogance. They’d always been brash, and back in middle and high school, they’d learned plenty from real hooligans—fighting was their specialty.

Claire Sutton quietly poked her head out from under the blanket and breathed a sigh of relief. Honestly, sharing a compartment with two men for nearly ten hours wasn’t exactly pleasant, but her first impression of them wasn’t bad. One of them was the type she’d always automatically filtered out—neither handsome enough to live off his looks, nor ugly enough to offend the masses. As for the other, even the picky Claire Sutton had to admit he was flawless—at least his looks were more striking than any of her many almost-boyfriends she’d tossed aside after a fling. Hiding under the covers, she still clearly remembered the wariness and indifference in his eyes when he first saw them, like a proud peacock sizing up two little hens. It made Claire Sutton uncomfortable at the time, and she secretly prayed that Brian Kent, who’d gone through so much to become her prospective boyfriend, would give him a good beating and pop that peacock’s pretty face like a balloon. Otherwise, Claire Sutton was genuinely afraid she’d lose control in her pursuit of “beauty” and end up chasing after that infuriating peacock herself, ruining the reputation she’d built up over more than a decade.

Brian Kent had come by once before, hoping to swap bunks with the two guys below. The thought of two men sleeping under the girls made him uneasy—one was the girl he was desperately pursuing, and the other was the campus belle he secretly fantasized about. There was a lot at stake. Unfortunately, one of the guys below, with a face made for mooching off women, flatly refused, leaving no room for negotiation and costing Brian Kent a lot of face. Now, full of resentment and anger, he stormed in, only to find a lunatic smoking and teasing a dog. Even Brian Kent’s sharp mind, honed by his police chief father, was stunned for several seconds. Then he sneered, “Get out if you want to smoke.”