Time seemed to fly by after that.
In the midterm exams, Zhou Anran advanced several places, entering the top forty in her grade for the first time.
Chen Luobai continued to help her with problems, and she still frequently switched to sitting at his desk behind her.
Once, Zhang Shuxian, hearing the sound of problem-solving from behind, glanced at Zhu Ran and said, “Those two aren’t dating, just seriously studying every day. Doesn’t it make us look like slackers?”
Zhu Ran nodded in agreement, “I feel the same way.”
Zhang Shuxian added, “I got that problem wrong too, the one Chen Luobai is explaining.”
Zhu Ran replied, “Me too.”
He then reached back and tapped on his desk behind him, “Hey Chen, since you’re just explaining problems and not whispering sweet nothings, you don’t mind if we listen in too, right?”
Chen Luobai looked up, raising an eyebrow slightly, “If you want to listen, go ahead.”
It often turned into Chen Luobai explaining problems to Zhou Anran, Zhu Ran, and Zhang Shuxian in the front row all listening together.
Zhou Anran didn’t have many problems she needed his help with, and she didn’t want to interfere with his studies. Eventually, they settled on spending the twenty minutes before evening self-study sessions together. If she had questions, he would explain them; if not, they would sit together working on their assignments.
Later on, Tang Jianrui and others often came over to listen in as well.
Once, when Deputy Headmaster Zhao Qiming passed by Class 2, he saw a large group gathered together. Thinking they might be up to something, he quietly entered to eavesdrop for a few minutes, then left with a satisfied expression.
Later, at a grade-wide assembly, Zhao Qiming publicly praised their class for having an exceptionally good study atmosphere.
Zhou Anran secretly noticed Zhu Ran struggling to hold back his laughter, his face turning red.
The person next to him, however, maintained a calm expression, only raising his eyebrow slightly when he caught her gaze.
By the next monthly exam, Zhou Anran’s grades had improved by several more places.
In the blink of an eye, the entire semester had passed.
As usual, there was a class meeting after the final exams.
Afterward, Zhou Anran no longer needed to secretly observe his packing progress like last year.
After Chen Luobai packed his things, he leaned against her desk, waiting for her to finish.
She no longer had to trail quietly behind him. Instead, she walked beside him, leaving school with her friends and his friends, a large group together.
After exiting the school gates, he didn’t immediately part ways with her but accompanied her to the bus stop.
Zhou Anran finally dared to say to him what she had only dared to say in her heart last year: “Happy New Year, see you next semester.”
Chen Luobai stared at her for two seconds, then suddenly reached out and pinched her cheek.
Zhou Anran covered her cheek, wrinkled her nose, and looked up at him.
The young man still had that particularly pleased expression he always wore after teasing her, the corner of his mouth curving into a bright and youthful smile: “Don’t wait until next semester, let’s meet during the winter break too.”
The winter break was still full of endless homework.
Before Zhou Anran could meet up with him, she received some good news—
Zhou Xianrong had resigned from his job at his uncle’s company and would be joining the Mingsheng headquarters next year.
The night he successfully resigned, Mrs. He was so happy she prepared a big feast to celebrate.
After having dinner with her parents, Zhou Anran chatted with them in the living room for a while, then returned to her room. She quietly took out her phone and sent a message to someone who was visiting relatives in Beicheng.
Zhou Anran: [I have some good news to tell you]
The reply came quickly.
C: [Missing me?]
Zhou Anran’s face heated up: [Not at all]
C: [I see]
C: [Then I won’t miss you either]
Zhou Anran’s lips curved slightly: [I’m serious]
C: [Okay]
C: [Go ahead]
Zhou Anran: [My dad is changing jobs soon, to that company he wanted to join before, but this time it’s at the headquarters in Nancheng]
C: [Shouldn’t we celebrate then?]
Zhou Anran was about to tell him that her mom had prepared a big feast to celebrate, but his next message came first.
C: [It’s too late today]
C: [I’ll have someone send you a gift tomorrow]
Zhou Anran received his gift the next day at noon.
She opened the express box to find a small gift box inside.
Inside the small gift box was a rabbit pendant.
It was similar in style to the one hanging on her schoolbag, but much smaller, about a quarter the size of her palm. Somehow, when things become tiny, their cuteness seems to increase infinitely.
Zhou Anran carefully took the little rabbit out of the box, intending to hang it on her phone, when she noticed a small card underneath the rabbit.
She put the rabbit aside and took out the card to open it.
On it was his familiar handwriting—
“For my heartless little deskmate who doesn’t miss me at all”
*
The “heartless little deskmate” finally met up with him after the Spring Festival, when a large group of them went to watch that year’s New Year’s film together.
When Zhou Anran went with Yan Xingqian and others to buy milk tea, she specially asked if he wanted any, but he said no.
However, halfway through the movie, Zhou Anran felt his fresh scent suddenly draw close, and his voice sounded very near her ear, unusually low: “Zhou Anran, I’m thirsty.”
Zhou Anran turned her head, her gaze meeting the young man’s dark eyes in the dim light.
She also spoke softly: “I asked you before the movie started, and you said you didn’t want any.”
Chen Luobai’s gaze landed on her milk tea for a second, his voice seeming to lower even more: “May I have some?”
Zhou Anran’s ears quietly heated up, her eyelashes lowering, but her hand didn’t pull back.
It was a gesture of permission.
A second later, her milk tea was grasped by that cool, slender, pale hand.
Zhou Anran saw the young man lower his head and put his lips on her straw.
Her face instantly became burning hot.
That day’s New Year’s film was just an ordinary commercial movie, scoring about six or seven out of ten. Zhou Anran soon forgot its content.
But the feeling of her heart racing at that moment, and the look in the young man’s eyes as he bit her straw, she remembered for a long, long time.
In the second semester of their second year of high school, Chen Luobai, wearing the wristband she had given him, led Class 2 to win the school basketball championship.
That year, Zhou Anran grew several centimeters taller. At the start of the first semester of their third year, Zhou Anran arrived at the classroom to find that her new seat was right next to Chen Luobai’s, which meant they had officially become deskmates.
As a result, Zhang Shuxian, who now sat in front of her, kept turning back on the first day of school, giving her a resentful little expression that seemed to say, “So this is how you abandon me.”
So early the next morning, Zhou Anran brought some iced mung bean soup made by Mrs. He to appease Zhang Shuxian.
But while her new front deskmate was appeased, her new deskmate became unhappy. The young man’s voice sounded faintly in her ear: “Why didn’t you bring any for me?”
Zhou Anran, long familiar with his tastes, glanced at him and said, “You don’t even like it.”
“Who said I don’t like it?” Chen Luobai reached out and snatched the half-cup from her hand.
Zhou Anran: “…?”
After entering their third year of high school, time seemed to pass even faster. Every day was filled with repetitive, monotonous studying, and endless problem sets, and the numbers on the countdown timer rapidly decreased.
It was certainly tough.
But occasionally, when Zhou Anran grew tired of solving problems, she would tilt her head slightly and see the young man next to her, head lowered, seriously working on problems. His profile was handsome, a sight that seemed to make her heart flutter no matter how many times she saw it.
Then it was as if she found a bit more motivation to grit her teeth and persevere.
She had promised to go to the same university as him.
Sometimes when she was concentrating on her work, a hand would reach over from beside her and pop a soda candy into her mouth. Most of the time it was lemon-flavored, occasionally other fruit flavors.
The feeling of tiny bubbles bursting in her mouth was particularly refreshing and invigorating.
Perhaps because of these little moments of interaction, when she looked back on this period later, it felt as if every day was incredibly memorable.
In the first semester of their third year, Zhou Anran’s grades had stabilized in the top ten of their grade. By the second semester, during exams, the closest she got to Chen Luobai was with only two people between them.
For the college entrance exam, most of them stayed at No. 2 High School to take the test.
Zhou Anran and Chen Luobai were among them.
However because Zhou Xianrong and He Jiayi had taken time off to accompany her for the exam, Zhou Anran didn’t have many chances to see him. They only met briefly on the morning of the first day of exams.
The two days of exams passed smoothly.
After the last exam ended, Zhou Anran left the school gates to see both her parents waiting outside with identical expressions of wanting to ask but not daring to.
She walked up to them.
“Dad, Mom.” Zhou Anran called to each of them first, then volunteered, “I think I did okay.”
Both parents immediately showed relieved and gratified expressions.
He Jiayi asked with a smile, “So you’re sure you won’t be coming home for dinner tonight, right?”
Zhou Anran nodded, “I’ve made plans to have dinner with Xianxian and some other classmates.”
Zhou Xianrong asked, “Do you need Dad and Mom to drive you there?”
Zhou Anran shook her head again, “No need, there are about ten of us. You should go home and rest early.”
“Alright,” He Jiayi added one more instruction, “Don’t stay out too late, come back early.”
Zhou Anran agreed, “Okay, Mom.”
During these two days of college entrance exams, parking spaces big and small around No. 2 High School were in short supply.
Their family car had arrived a bit late this afternoon and was parked several hundred meters away.
Zhou Anran stood in place, watching her parents’ figures slowly disappear from view.
Her exam room had been closest to the school gate, and thinking that the others should be coming out soon, Zhou Anran was about to turn around when someone tugged on her backpack from behind.
No need to turn her head now.
Zhou Anran’s lips curved into a smile, “Chen Luobai, you’re pulling on my rabbit again.”
The response was the young man’s pleased laughter. His hand lightly rested on her shoulder as his voice came from the side, “How did you do?”
“Not bad.” Zhou Anran turned her head to look at him, “And you?”
The sun had not yet set.
Golden sunlight enveloped the young man’s well-defined profile. The corner of his mouth was curved in a slight smile, his tone still extremely cocky, “Just average, I guess. Probably only good enough to be the top science student in the province.”
The curve of Zhou Anran’s lips grew wider as she asked him, “Are we waiting for the others here?”
Chen Luobai’s gaze lingered on the small dimple by her lips for two seconds, “Let’s not wait for them. They can go play by themselves first. Someone will take care of them there. Want to come with me for now?”
Zhou Anran blinked, “Where are we going?”
Chen Luobai had just come up with the idea.
He had originally planned to find a time to ask her out alone tomorrow, or the day after.
But at that moment, seeing her smile at him so sweetly, he suddenly didn’t want to wait anymore.
“I haven’t decided yet.”
He raised his gaze slightly, then nodded towards the nearby bus stop, “How about we go to that bus stop over there, and whichever bus comes first, we’ll get on and ride it to the last stop?”
Zhou Anran wasn’t usually the type to enjoy the unknown or take risks.
But with him by her side, the unknown and the adventure seemed to become thoroughly exciting.
“Okay.”
The two walked towards the bus stop.
Before they reached it, a bus suddenly approached.
“Let’s take this one,” Chen Luobai said.
Before Zhou Anran could react, before she could even clearly see the bus number or its destination, her wrist was already grasped by the young man. He led her in a run to the stop, and they boarded through the front door.
After paying the fare and taking seats in the back, Zhou Anran’s heart was still racing.
There were only a few people on the bus.
Zhou Anran hadn’t yet adjusted her heartbeat and breathing when she heard Chen Luobai’s voice by her ear.
“Pretty good luck.”
Huh?
Zhou Anran turned her head to look at him, “What’s pretty good luck?”
Chen Luobai nodded towards the bus route map opposite them, “The last stop happens to be a park.”
Zhou Anran followed his gaze and her eyes lit up, “It is!”
This bus route started not far from the school, with over twenty stops to the final destination.
The bus swayed and jolted forward.
Time also moved slowly forward.
By the time they reached the final stop, the sun had set, and the evening glow was a vast expanse of orange-soda orange.
The daytime heat had dissipated somewhat, and with the dense vegetation in the park, the temperature was noticeably several degrees lower than outside.
After entering, Chen Luobai first rented a bicycle.
Zhou Anran sat on the back seat, her hand gripping his white T-shirt, as he took her around half the park.
Then they ate what was possibly the worst dinner they’d ever had in the park, ending up not fully satisfied. They bought two ears of corn from a street vendor outside to fill their stomachs.
After eating, they went down to the lake and took a boat ride.
Zhou Anran looked up at the sunset glow.
The young man beside her lowered his head and took her hand.
After getting off the boat, both their palms were sweaty, but neither took the initiative to let go.
Because the dinner earlier had been truly awful, they were also a bit suspicious of the park’s milk tea shop, so they went to a small store to buy soda for drinks.
Chen Luobai got a bottle of cola.
Zhou Anran chose an orange soda that matched the sunset glow.
Their joined hands still hadn’t separated.
Fingers interlocked, they walked all the way to ride the Ferris wheel.
Because they still had to meet up with the others later, they didn’t queue and bought fast-track tickets instead.
This Ferris wheel happened to have two-person cabins, so they didn’t have to share with strangers.
The cabin slowly rose.
The city was left beneath their feet.
Dusk had long since fallen, and the myriad lights of the city looked like stars scattered on the ground.
Zhou Anran looked down at the night scene for a while, then felt the young man’s gaze seeming to rest on her constantly. She couldn’t help but turn her head slightly, her gaze colliding with his deep, dark eyes.
“Zhou Anran,” Chen Luobai called her name, his voice lowered, “The soda was left down there today.”
A sentence without context.
But Zhou Anran seemed to instantly understand his meaning.
Her heart rate suddenly quickened in that moment.
Chen Luobai’s hand rested on the seat, his head lowering towards her, his voice still soft, “May I?”
Zhou Anran’s breath caught, her heartbeat becoming even more clamorous. But just like that day at the sports meet when he had cornered her by the wall and asked if she liked him, she steadied her heartbeat and still gave him a very soft reply.
“Mm.”
The cabin was still slowly ascending.
Just as it was about to reach the top of the Ferris wheel.
Chen Luobai lowered his head and kissed her.
It was a very gentle kiss.
First, he lightly pressed against her lips, then gently sucked on them for a moment, and finally, very lightly bit her lower lip.
Only then did Chen Luobai pull back slightly, his forehead resting against hers.
“If we don’t graduate soon, I’m going to go crazy.”