The Cannon Fodder in the Campus Novel Just Wants to Take It Easy

Jiang You Nian has barely slept for days. He keeps dreaming about something.

In his dreams, someone is watching him. They watch as he falls for a player of a girl, makes a fool of himself trying every which way to win her over, then gets beaten black and blue by the members of her harem.

But in real life, he doesn't even know this girl.

Lin Yu Xia. There is no such person anywhere in his memories.

The dreams come in scattered fragments. Sometimes they unfold from the voyeur's perspective: a slender, pale hand moves a pen across the page, the scratch of writing going on without end. Then, suddenly, Jiang You Nian appears in view. A pair of eyes watches him, and whenever the image freezes, his figure is always beside a writing hand.

Mu Yun Qing happens upon a diary written in his own handwriting. Its dates lie in the future, and its pages record observations of his classmate, Jiang You Nian.

*

Jiang You Nian awakens to his fate in his second year of high school, foreseeing his future in a dream and learning that he is a disposable simp in a melodramatic campus romance novel.

Spring Tide Never Ends is marketed as a passionate, tortured romance featuring domineering love, but it's really a reverse harem novel in disguise.

The heroine, Lin Yu Xia, is beautiful and refined, with a delicate white-lotus persona. She takes a healing player route, making all the male leads jealous and driving them mad with love.

The aloof top student, the boy-next-door childhood friend, and the obsessive rival all put on grand displays of devotion, only to discover that they're all clowns. The heroine is just raising fish in her pond to use as stepping stones, hoping to get closer to her white moonlight.

After half a lifetime of bloody love triangles, it turns out to be a pure romance. Jiang You Nian doesn't understand it, but he's deeply shocked.

The white moonlight, Mu Yun Qing, comes from a powerful family. He's gentle and dignified, the heir to a top family, arrogant and dismissive of those beneath him.

He's famous for his mercurial temper, and even the heroine can't handle him, so she has to resort to underhanded tactics.

As Mu Yun Qing's future unknown underling and roommate, Jiang You Nian is naturally among the tools the heroine pretends to lure.

After awakening to his fate, Jiang You Nian wants nothing more than to steer clear of the plot and be a lazy bystander. When the heroine comes asking about Mu Yun Qing, Jiang You Nian tells her the truth. "Sorry, I'm not close to him."

He really isn't. He can't even remember his name.

In the dream, Mu Yun Qing sits leaning back in the rear row, a diary resting on his lap. When someone has the nerve to ask why he chose Jiang You Nian as his roommate, Mu Yun Qing runs a finger along the edge of the book and asks in a casual, puzzled tone, "Who?"

Later, the contents of that diary are accidentally exposed. Every entry is written from "my" point of view and goes into great detail about "him."

[Black Diary]

2026.1.15

He came to see me, pleading on someone else's behalf.

Unbelievable. Being a stepping stone wasn't enough for him, so now he's practically begging to help them get together.

What an idiot.

2026.3.29

I don't even know what I'm looking at. I just watch from the sidelines as he sinks deeper and deeper, then keep asking the same question over and over without getting tired of it.

- Is he an idiot today?

He sure is.

- Will he be an idiot tomorrow?

He'll still be an idiot.

By the end, I was fed up. Sigh, he hasn't improved at all.

2026.9.15

He's fast asleep. The sleeping pills work quickly.

He's so quiet and well-behaved. Finally, he's not being an idiot.

When I came to my senses, the pills were already mixed into the milk. The milky-white liquid looked strikingly beautiful in the halo of light. I watched him swallow it bit by bit, his Adam's apple moving as it slid down his throat and into his system.

He lay with his eyes closed, sunk into the soft bed, unconsciously snoring softly like a kitten resting with its claws sheathed. I must have lost my mind, because I found it a little cute.

His hair was a mess. He seemed hot, sweat dampening the wisps on his forehead. He probably wasn't sleeping well. His dreams were wrapped in something clammy and rank, an overwhelming oppression, so gloomy it made me sick.

A violent urge to vomit shot through my nerves. Something reached my throat. Even deep sleep couldn't shut out instinct. His tongue moved to stop my fingers from invading, red and white mingling.

The sticky sensation at my fingertips was impossible to ignore, mixed with the heat of his mouth and the pressure of its inner walls. I vaguely remember my fingers moving down from his forehead, tracing the bridge of his nose, and then... then it was like that.

His skin was smooth and delicate, so soft, with a warmth that burned my fingertips...

It was a strange feeling. The stickiness made me shiver, like a snake clinging to me, yet I couldn't bring myself to pull away.

He was still fast asleep, completely unaware.

–

The diary's indecent entries made Jiang You Nian's face burn red. Forcing himself to stay calm, he looked at Mu Yun Qing, who was tapping a pen beside him. "Who are you writing about?"

Mu Yun Qing looked up at him, perfectly composed. He put on a gentle, amiable expression, a fine glimmer of laughter in his romantic peach-blossom eyes, then delivered his answer with finality. "You."

[The gong starts out as an arrogant outsider watching from above, then lowers his guard and falls into the trap. The shou goes from unmoved to having every disguise stripped away as the gong carefully wins him over, step by step.]

[Crazy beauty gong x ordinary straight shou]

P.S. 1. "Ordinary" is relative. The shou is very good at pretending.

2. Extreme gong and shou fans, stay away. Both are virgins. This novel is also known as The Observations of an Unhinged Bystander.

3. Readers who insist on judging the characters' values, please stay away. Don't project the characters' values or actions onto the author. I firmly oppose all wrongful behavior.

4. Pseudo double rebirth, 1v1, with no one else interfering in the romance. The idea dates back to 2021.7.26. The blurb has been screenshotted.

5. I really am going to write this book. The chapters are locked because some of the background touches on sensitive topics and needs revision. I really like Mu and Jiang's character concepts and story, and I'll definitely give them an ending!

6. The neighboring novel The Bystander Rises by Lazing Around is this book's companion story. Its blurb contains some related spoilers, and you can check it out for the aloof top student's story from the "original novel."

Theme: People make trouble for themselves