Feng Ning sipped her straw, one arm bent and propped on the table, focused on a study guide booklet in her hands.

Her legs were stretched out, slanted a bit into the aisle. Her toes swayed left and right in time with the music playing in the shop.

The wind chime at the door jingled, a person pushed the door open and came in.

Feeling someone gently kick her, she looked up.

Jiang Wen sat down across from her. There was a bit of sweat at the corners of his forehead; despite being out in the sun for so long, his face was still snow-white.

“Whoa, you’re back.”

“Mn.”

Feng Ning gestured with her eyes. “Your mango coconut sago, put the straw in yourself and drink it.”

Jiang Wen glanced at it but stubbornly didn’t move.

She went back to studying her materials, humming a tuneless song like a carefree little fairy.

“What are you looking at?”

“A study guide, the key exam-point explanations in it are especially thorough.”

Feng Ning quickly finished two problems, and along the way didn’t forget to boast about herself. “With my study attitude, this smart and this diligent, who could see it and not admire me? Who could see it and not marvel? Even Old Iron seeing this would shed tears! I can only say, being ranked first in the grade, I earned that title fair and square.”

She rattled off this whole spiel like it was a memorized routine, and finished with a solemn conclusion: “That’s right. I deserve it.”

Jiang Wen’s expression had a rarely-seen softness. Partway through, he turned his head aside and smiled very faintly.

She asked casually: “How’d it go with your little girlfriend?”

Jiang Wen was about to speak.

“—Don’t!” Feng Ning suddenly lowered her head slightly, spreading her five fingers out toward him in a stop gesture, narrowing her eyes. “Don’t say it, let me, Detective Conning, take a guess!”

Jiang Wen leaned back against the chair, finding it a bit funny. He crossed his arms, stretched his chin out, gesturing for her to go ahead.

“Based on the expression on her face when she called you out just now, you two must be breaking up?”

“Mn.”

“But you’re really calm right now, really relaxed. So based on your current expression, you two just had a pretty good talk.”

Jiang Wen kept nodding along. “It’s alright.”

“Oh… I get it.”

“Get what?”

“You two got back together, huh.”

Jiang Wen’s face darkened. “No.”

Feng Ning raised one eyebrow, playing the completely detached bystander. “Oh, broke up then?”

Jiang Wen said quite reservedly: “I don’t like her.” Having said that, he added flatly, “I don’t like anyone anymore.”

Feng Ning nearly burst out laughing. “What, are you swearing off love, planning to spend your whole life keeping company with the ancient buddha and its dim lamp?”

Jiang Wen didn’t say anything.

After a while, Feng Ning belatedly realized just how much attention it drew to be sitting in a milk tea shop with the school’s famous celebrity figure.

She recalled how people usually gossiped, saying Jiang Wen looked so much like the male lead in a shoujo manga. This face, ugh… it really was a bit too handsome and delicate. Feng Ning packed away her palm-sized study materials, waved her hand, “Let’s go, let’s go.”

Amid a crowd of girls sneaking glances, Jiang Wen also stood up to follow.

She pointed at the untouched milk tea. “You’re not drinking it?”

Jiang Wen deigned to glance at it, his mood sour. “Don’t feel like it.”

“Carry it with you.” Feng Ning instructed. “You’re even more spoiled than Shuang Yao’s little brother, who’s three or four years younger than her.”

“?”

“He’s little, but he still knows not to waste food—whatever he wants to eat, he’ll finish it.” Her words carried a bit of another meaning. “Other people’s little kids are all so sensible, and just look at you.”

Hearing her out, Jiang Wen said with a straight face: “How old are you.”

“15, turning 16 by the end of the year.”

“Your birthday’s at the end of the year?”

“Yeah, December.”

“I’m older than you.” Jiang Wen’s expression turned serious. “I’ll also become an adult before you. I’m not a kid.”

His voice was a bit low, with a hint of hoarseness. Feng Ning seemed to catch on to something. “Do all men mind being called little?”

“Mn.”

Jiang Wen answered quickly, then caught Feng Ning’s ambiguous, indecent expression. He savored it for two seconds, realized he’d fallen into her trap, both annoyed and a bit shy: “You…”

Feng Ning burst out laughing.

Having grown up rough and tumble in the marketplace, she’d always been shameless with off-color jokes, coarse and unrestrained, spouting them off the cuff.

“Sorry, sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. Forgot you’re still young, polluting the pure, clean mind of an innocent young boy, my mistake, I deserve to die, I’ll slap my own mouth.” Feng Ning, just like a fawning eunuch in a TV drama, lightly patted her own mouth on both sides.

As they walked outside, Jiang Wen was worked up from her teasing. No matter how she tried to provoke him along the way, he simply refused to say another word.

“Can you not be mad anymore.” Feng Ning was a bit helpless. “It was just a joke, why are you so petty about it.”

Without thinking much, Jiang Wen said: “I don’t like you saying I’m little.” Having said that, he paused himself. “I don’t mean that kind of little, I mean…”

Feng Ning made a couple of “mn mn” sounds, blinking, puzzled: “Ohhhh, so where exactly aren’t you little then?”

Jiang Wen’s brain short-circuited for an instant.

She burst into laughter, laughing so hard she pounded the wall, unable to even straighten her waist.

Jiang Wen fumed inside, quickening his pace, walking forward, completely ignoring her.

Feng Ning hurried to catch up, still laughing as she spoke: “Go on, say it, I really won’t joke anymore, really won’t, I swear.”

Whether it was the hot weather or he was truly angry, even his neck and ears had turned red.

“Alright, stop being mad.” Feng Ning now found Jiang Wen especially cute when he was angry. “Come, big sis will take you somewhere good.”

A bit of emotion welled up in her heart.

Some people looked all proper and serious on the surface, but were actually very obedient, honest people underneath. Really fun to tease.

Annoyed at her nonsense, Jiang Wen insisted: “I’m older than you.”

“Okay okay okay.” Feng Ning quickly changed her tune, shamelessly coaxing him. “Then I’ll take big brother somewhere.”

She walked ahead, but he didn’t move.

The sun beat down; Feng Ning curved her hand to shield her eyes, turning sideways. “What’s wrong?”

Jiang Wen took a few seconds to react, then shuffled his feet forward.

He chewed over the word “big brother” twice in his mind, quietly tucking it away in his heart.

She led him around several turns and stopped in front of a shop.

Looking up, a small red sign read: China Welfare Lottery.

Inside it was cramped and narrow, without even the air conditioning on, only two broken fans whirring away. The shopkeeper woman was wearing floral shorts, watching a currently popular palace drama on the computer. Seeing two people who looked like high schoolers come in, she gave a lazy greeting. There wasn’t even room to sit here, just a narrow path barely able to fit four or five people.

Jiang Wen swept his eyes around the surroundings, somewhat disdainful: “What are you doing here?”

“Robbery.”

Jiang Wen: “……”

The shopkeeper asked: “You two want to buy scratch-offs or the lottery, two yuan a bet, pick your own numbers.”

“When’s your birthday?” Feng Ning tugged at him.

“11.14.”

“Oh, a Scorpio, no wonder you’re so vindictive.” She thought for a moment, saying with a grin, “You know what, us Capricorns are the only natural nemesis of you Scorpios.”

Jiang Wen made no comment either way.

The shopkeeper woman typed away at the computer, entering the numbers Feng Ning called out.

Coming out of the lottery shop, Feng Ning held it up, looking at it against the sunlight, then flipped it around and handed the ticket to Jiang Wen. “This is for you.”

Jiang Wen peered at the string of numbers on it:

【92459111499959】

“What does this mean.” He asked.

Feng Ning said mysteriously, “It’s only fun if you figure it out yourself.”

“…You buy lottery tickets often?”

“Yeah.” Feng Ning giggled. “Buy one bet occasionally, it’s just for the anticipation, not asking for millions, just hoping for five million.”

Jiang Wen put the lottery ticket away carefully, snorted a laugh.

“What are you laughing at?” Feng Ning said matter-of-factly, “Sometimes when you buy a lottery ticket, what you’re buying isn’t a lottery ticket, it’s hope, get it?”

They went back to class together.

Only about half the students had returned to the classroom; Zhao Binlin was hunched over playing a handheld game. Seeing the two of them come in together, the corner of his mouth curled into a meaningful smile.

The entire afternoon, Jiang Wen’s mood remained quite good. The person sitting beside him found it the most obvious.

You should know that for a stretch of time before this, a full week or so, Jiang Wen had been angry at who-knows-what. He’d basically been like a time bomb that could go off at any moment, to the point Zhao Binlin was nearly suffocating from the tension.

That evening, after playing ball with a few basketball team members, the group rested at the edge of the court for a bit. Xi Gaoyuan looked around and said, “Huh, how come I don’t see Cheng Jiajia bringing Jiang Wen water?”

“We broke up.”

His information was delayed, so he was quite surprised. “Ah, you broke up?”

Jiang Wen made an “mn” sound.

“Broke up after just a few days? Love came too fast like a tornado, what a shame.”

“Shame about what?”

“Shame you didn’t get to properly savor the taste of love.”

“What’s the point of dating anyway?” Jiang Wen snorted a laugh, gulping down a big mouthful of water, “Boring.”

Zhao Binlin said sharply, “Tsk, do me a favor and stop saying one thing while meaning another.”

Walking out of the brightly lit gymnasium, it had gotten dark outside; nearing October, the temperature dropped fast once night fell.

Xi Gaoyuan shivered and sighed, “Lin Ru and I should keep things low-key, wouldn’t want to make a bunch of single dogs jealous.”

“Ugh ugh ugh, give it a rest already.”

“Xi Gaoyuan is a Sagittarius man, I’m an Aries woman, our compatibility index is a hundred percent.”

Someone laughed at her, “You still believe in this stuff?”

Lin Ru pouted, “It’s based on astrology charts, it’s very accurate.”

Zhao Binlin got a bit interested, “Then help me calculate, what zodiac sign is my true destined love?”

After running the calculations for everyone in turn, Xi Gaoyuan pointed at Jiang Wen, “Help him calculate too, out of all of us here his romantic path has been the roughest.”

“What sign is he?”

Zhao Binlin answered in his place: “Scorpio.”

Lin Ru made an “ah” sound, somewhat impressed: “Scorpios have really strong possessiveness and conquest desire. Scorpio men are usually low-key on the surface, but actually passionate inside, and reserved too—I used to be super obsessed with them.” Xi Gaoyuan cleared his throat, “Your boyfriend’s still right here, watch what you say.” He suddenly grinned slyly, “By the way, this Scorpio sign, don’t they have really strong sexual desire?”

Jiang Wen glanced at him, saying flatly: “A whole brain full of trashy perverted thoughts.”

“What are you pretending to be so pure and desireless for.” Xi Gaoyuan elbowed him, “You’re telling me… you’ve never had a wet dream, never had a reaction?”

He’d just finished playing ball, his hands still grimy black. Jiang Wen dodged aside, his eyes full of disgust, “Don’t touch me.”

Xi Gaoyuan’s face twisted with anger, aggrieved: “Damn it, when a girl gets drunk and throws up on you, you don’t mind at all, but when a brother just touches you once, it’s not allowed—your rotten germophobia only kicks in selectively?”

Lin Ru had been typing away on her keyboard, and after a moment looked up, “Got it figured out.”

Zhao Binlin eagerly grabbed her phone, reading off what was on it: “The three signs most compatible with you are… Cancer, Pisces, Taurus.”

While the others were wondering if there were any Cancer girls around, Jiang Wen suddenly asked, “What about Capricorn?”

Actually the question came out rather abruptly, but fortunately no one paid it much mind. Lin Ru replied, “Capricorn seems to only suit being friends with Scorpio, the compatibility index for family-type bonds is relatively high.”

Amid the noisy chatter, Jiang Wen coldly dropped a line, “Garbage website.”

Lin Ru watched his retreating figure, at a loss for words for a moment.