NOVEL WEB Chapter 20: Campus of Chaos
The campus forums were on fire.
Literally, in some sub-threads where Feng Yue's fan club got into arguments with Li Wei's new math cult.
But mostly, figuratively.
[USER: DramaLlama]
OMG, did you guys hear? Li Wei and the hot phoenix transfer student BOTH have split personalities now. They kissed and it was so chaotic it broke their brains. ICONIC.
[USER: PsychMajorPro]
This is a landmark case of folie à deux with supernatural elements. The Psychology department has formally requested them for a case study. For science, of course.
[USER: ShippingWarsGeneral]
Okay, but the REAL question is, who is the OTP? A) Normal Li Wei x Normal Feng Yue (Vanilla but cute) B) Genius Li Wei x Ice Queen Feng Yue (Power couple vibes) C) Idiot Li Wei x Ice Queen Feng Yue (Enemies to lovers? Kinda?) D) Genius Li Wei x Normal Feng Yue (He could fix her... or she could make him feel things)
[USER: ChadThundercock]
I just started a betting pool. Odds on the power couple are 3 to 1. Get your bets in, nerds.
Li Wei was no longer a person.
He was a campus-wide psychological drama.
And he was so, so tired.
**
Navigating a normal day was impossible.
His brain was now a time-share apartment with terrible scheduling.
He'd be walking to class, just normal, clumsy Yin Mode, and then suddenly Yang Mode would surface because he saw a badly parked car and felt an overwhelming urge to calculate the geometric inefficiency.
It was exhausting.
But for him, it was just an upgrade in his usual weirdness.
For Feng Yue, it was a catastrophe.
She had spent her entire life cultivating perfect, unshakable control.
Now, her control had a co-pilot.
A very cold, very logical, and very judgmental co-pilot.
Li Wei watched as "Ice Queen" Feng Yue reorganized the entire university library's fiction section.
Not by author.
Not by genre.
By the emotional catharsis probability of the plot.
"Pride and Prejudice now belongs in the 'Sub-Optimal Romantic Strategies' section," she informed the terrified librarian, her voice devoid of all warmth. "Moby Dick is now filed under 'Inefficient Project Management.'"
She was a terrifyingly beautiful, ruthlessly efficient monster of pure logic.
And Yang Mode, watching from the depths of Li Wei's mind, felt a spark of something he hadn't expected.
Professional jealousy.
Her organizational paradigm is flawless, he thought, a hint of admiration in his cold internal voice. She has achieved a level of systemic optimization I have not yet considered. I must study her methods.
She's scary, Yin Mode whimpered. I miss when she just wanted to set me on fire.
**
The real problem happened when they tried to talk to each other.
It was a four-way conversation happening in two bodies.
A complete and utter train wreck.
Li Wei (currently Yin Mode) approached Feng Yue (currently Normal Mode) in the cafeteria.
"Hey," he said, offering her a nervous smile and a slightly squashed meat bun. "I, uh, got you a snack."
Feng Yue's face softened. It was a sweet gesture. "Thank you, Li..."
But the person who replied wasn't her.
The air around her dropped ten degrees. Her eyes went sharp and cold.
"Nutritional content: suboptimal," Ice Queen Feng Yue stated, looking at the meat bun with disdain. "Carbohydrate-to-protein ratio is inefficient for afternoon energy levels. Rejected."
Yin Mode flinched, his poor meat bun brutally rebuffed.
And then, his own internal co-pilot took the wheel.
"Your assessment is flawed," Yang Mode said, his voice now crisp and analytical. "You have failed to account for the morale-boosting properties of a simple, unexpected gift. The subsequent release of dopamine would increase overall cognitive function by an estimated 6.3%."
He looked at the Ice Queen, his golden eyes meeting her icy gaze.
"Your logic is incomplete," he finished, a clear challenge in his tone.
The two of them stared at each other, a silent battle of pure, cold reason happening over a sad, rejected meat bun.
Meanwhile, Normal Feng Yue and Yin Mode were trapped inside, screaming.
This is the most awkward love... square? ever, Yin Mode thought. I just wanted to give her a snack!
This was their life now.
A campus-wide spectacle.
A psychological case study.
A four-way love triangle contained in two very confused, very tired bodies.
**
They found each other on the roof of the history building that night.
It was the only place they could be alone.
The only place where there weren't students trying to get their autograph or professors trying to get a brain scan.
They sat in silence for a long time, watching the city lights twinkle below.
"I miss it," Feng Yue said finally, her voice quiet. It was her normal voice. Soft, with an edge of fire.
"Miss what?" Li Wei asked. It was his normal voice, too. Clumsy and uncertain.
"Being just... me," she confessed. "Even when 'me' was a giant, confused fire bird. At least it was simple."
He knew exactly what she meant.
"I feel like I'm losing myself," he admitted, the words tasting like failure. "I'm becoming... better. More efficient. More logical. And I hate it."
He looked at her, his expression more serious than she'd ever seen it.
"I miss being a complete idiot," he said, and he meant it. "I miss when my biggest problem was finding matching socks."
She looked at him, and for the first time, there was no judgment in her eyes. No frustration.
Just a deep, shared understanding.
"I miss your idiocy too," she whispered.
They had been trying so hard.
Trying to control the chaos. Trying to optimize themselves. Trying to be the perfect, powerful beings everyone expected them to be.
And in the process, they were erasing the very things that made them... them.
The flaws.
The mistakes.
The beautiful, chaotic mess of it all.
"I don't want to be perfect," Li Wei said, his voice cracking. "I just want to be... me. Even if 'me' is a disaster."
"I know," she said, her voice just as thick with emotion.
She reached out and took his hand.
It wasn't a qi transfer. It wasn't a test.
It was just a touch.
A simple, human connection in a world of cosmic insanity.
"Let's make a pact," she said. "No more trying to fix ourselves. No more trying to be 'better'."
He looked at their joined hands.
"We just... accept it?" he asked. "The chaos? The split personalities? The fact that we're both completely broken?"
"Yes," she said, a small, genuine smile gracing her lips for the first time in days.
"We accept our flaws. Together."
He smiled back, a real, goofy, Li Wei smile.
"Okay," he said. "Together."
In that moment, a profound sense of peace settled over them.
For the first time, all four personalities, all four fractured pieces of their souls, were in perfect, silent agreement.
This was right.
This was real.
And their combined, aligned, and finally accepted chaotic energy, a power that could bend reality, flared as one.
It wasn't a small spark.
It was an explosion.
A massive, silent detonation of pure, untamed qi erupted from their joined hands.
It shot up into the night sky, a pillar of golden light and phoenix fire.
The sky itself seemed to groan.
Then, with a sound like the universe tearing in half, it ripped open.
Not one rift.
Dozens.
Jagged, shimmering tears in the fabric of space, bleeding strange colors and stranger sounds into the mortal world.
From one portal, an army of ninja pandas, armed with tiny bamboo katanas, began to pour out.
From another, a legion of jiangshi librarians floated down, shushing the world with their undead authority.
The campus below erupted into screams.
A voice, ancient and impossibly loud, boomed from the heavens, echoing across the terrified university.
"THE TRIAL PERIOD IS OVER."
"CHAOS CULTIVATION CANDIDATES DETECTED."
"LET THE REAL TRIALS BEGIN!"
📣 [SYSTEM NOTICE: AUTHOR SUPPORT INTERFACE]
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