Zhao Dailin was two years older than Yu Hao, now thirty, and had been Yu Hao’s senior during her graduate studies. The reason she remembered Lu Huaizheng was that she had once found a photo from Yu Hao’s high school days while rummaging through things at her home.
It was a large group photo with boys lined up wearing identical blue basketball uniforms, arms around each other’s shoulders.
Zhao Dailin immediately noticed the slim, distinctive-featured young man in the middle. Looking more carefully, she saw that the smiling girl being embraced by the boy, with his arm around her neck, was none other than Yu Hao!
The young man was leaning slightly, one hand pinching Yu Hao’s cheek, with a very clean smile. His handsome face was particularly eye-catching in the bright sunlight, reducing his teammates beside him to mere background figures.
Zhao Dailin curiously asked, “Was this your first love?”
Yu Hao didn’t answer. Zhao Dailin took her silence as confirmation. It must have been her first love—how else could they have taken such an intimate photo? Looking closely at the picture, the boy wasn’t even looking at the camera, but smiling brightly with his eyes lowered toward the girl he held in his arms.
She carefully examined the boy’s features in the photo. He was the epitome of a handsome young man, with perfect bone structure, clear facial contours, and clean, flowing lines. When he smiled, even she, as an older woman, felt her heart skip a beat. Plus, being on the school basketball team, he must have been quite the bee attracting flowers at school.
Knowing Yu Hao was emotionally reserved, Zhao Dailin couldn’t help asking, “How was it? Was dating such a boy during school quite the trendy thing?” They were standing in front of the bookcase at the time. Yu Hao’s hand was scanning back and forth along the neatly arranged shelves. Hearing this, she paused slightly, pulled out a book, casually flipped through a few pages before putting it back, and without raising her eyes, abruptly said, “His name is Lu Huaizheng.”
That year, Yu Hao was in Class 5, while Lu Huaizheng was in Class 8, yet he always hung around Class 5. The boys in Class 5 liked to tease, saying Lu Huaizheng lived as a person of Class 5 and would die as a ghost of Class 5. It wasn’t without reason—even during the girls’ volleyball matches, Lu Huaizheng would cheer for Class 5, angering the girls from Class 8 who wanted to devour him alive. But in basketball games, he showed no mercy, playing so hard that the boys from Class 5 would howl in protest, threatening him on the court—
Lu Huaizheng, just you wait! Next time you come to our class to see Yu Hao, we won’t let you in!
The young man was spirited and confident on the court, with incredible jumping ability. He would leap into the air for a hook shot to grab the rebound, then land steadily back on the ground, hunching his back and turning sideways to protect the ball. He would smirk and brazenly say to those behind him, “You won’t make it to the finals anyway. Lose to me or lose to Class 10, your choice.”
Arrogant, truly arrogant.
The boys from Class 5 were provoked into fighting spirit, rallying together with passionate cries—let’s crush him!!!
The group of boys played as if it were a game, with great camaraderie. At critical moments, no one held back, using all their strength and skills to try to win, but they still couldn’t match the three school team players from Class 8. Lu Huaizheng was even the team captain. The three coordinated seamlessly, with tactics responding from all directions, defeating Class 5 so thoroughly they couldn’t even maintain formation.
Whenever Lu Huaizheng scored, the Class 8 girls on the sidelines would cheer for him as if they’d been injected with adrenaline. He had a good personality and would respond—when in a good mood, he’d smile; when being perfunctory, he’d lazily raise his hand. Unlike Fu Donghui from Class 5, who wouldn’t even turn his head when the Class 5 girls cheered their throats hoarse.
The score gap had already widened before the first half ended.
The boys from Class 5 began to threaten and cajole Lu Huaizheng, even shouting to Yu Hao on the sidelines with an elder tone: “You’re not allowed to associate with this kid anymore!”
This resulted in Lu Huaizheng hitting them on the back of the head with the ball, saying, “Who are you threatening?”
Despite the teasing, when they truly lost the game, they graciously congratulated the opponents by punching their chests, and then the group of boys noisily went out the school gates arm-in-arm to feast.
Rumor had it that Lu Huaizheng came from a good family; his aunt was wealthy, and he always wore expensive clothes. Yet he was easygoing without airs, often laughing and joking with his friends while eating late-night snacks at the barbecue stalls outside the school. Occasionally girls would join them, but Lu Huaizheng never invited Yu Hao.
He wasn’t strikingly handsome, but his looks grew on you. Thick eyebrows, graceful brow ridges, deep-set eye sockets, clear eyes, and bold as a leopard—he dared to joke with anyone.
Although his grades were average, he excelled in history, consistently scoring full marks. He could recite the world map from memory and recognize all the world’s currencies. He was best at basketball, had a sunny smile, and when truly angered, had quite a temper. He showed little interest in studying, but knew many things—unfortunately, most of what he knew wasn’t tested in exams.
To be honest, he wasn’t a good student, but his personality was quite likable.
…
Yu Hao hadn’t expected to see him here, much less that he was the childhood friend of Lin Chang that Song Xiaotao often mentioned—a 28-year-old Air Force Lieutenant. Among Lin Chang’s three childhood friends, Song Xiaotao mentioned Lu Huaizheng the most, but she never mentioned his name, or perhaps she had, but Yu Hao had ignored it due to her disdain.
“He joined the army during his sophomore year, took the military academy exam while in service, and after graduation, entered the Air Force Special Forces. Recently he went to study in Venezuela—just him alone—competing and fighting against the world’s most elite special forces.”
She remembered that day during a casual conversation when a girl pestered Song Xiaotao, asking, “Is he handsome? Are military men all that cold-faced type?”
Song Xiaotao, with a peach-colored flush, replied, “Very handsome, not cold-faced, loves to joke, very witty. You’ll never run out of things to talk about with him.”
She concluded that a man’s charm still comes from experience and the sediment of years.
Seeing her reaction, the girl teased with a smile, “Do you regret choosing Lin Chang too early?”
Song Xiaotao was quite forthright, candidly admitting, “He is indeed very charming, but his work is too mysterious. Our Lin Chang is better—I can see him every day, he has a stable salary that he hands over, and occasionally goes on business trips, giving me some freedom—” At this point, she paused, raising an eyebrow, “That day, didn’t you ask why I came to the institute in someone else’s car? It was him who drove me here.”
Apart from frequently teasing Yu Hao, Lu Huaizheng was impeccable in his conduct and was one of the few students with poor grades who were still liked by the school leadership. Though mischievous, he was very polite to his elders. Mainly, it was because the basketball team he led had brought many honors to the school, so every teacher would pat his shoulder encouragingly when they saw him.
Back then, the most beautiful girls in their grade formed a gang—no, a group—that often performed dances mimicking Girls’ Generation at school arts festivals. His deskmate was one of that gang—no, the group—called Hu Siqi.
When Yu Hao passed their classroom on her way to the teacher’s office, she often saw him with a phone, lounging brazenly in his chair, surrounded by a bunch of boys, all craning their necks to watch NBA live streams on his phone. Sometimes Hu Siqi would tease him, trying to snatch his phone, only to be impatiently blocked by Lu Huaizheng: “Don’t disturb me, I’m watching the game.”
Hu Siqi would persist: “Then beg me.”
Lu Huaizheng, eyes fixed on his phone, replied with casual indifference: “Stop seeking attention from me, or your boyfriends will come after me again.”
Hu Siqi would glance at him with a snort, muttering, “What do you mean ‘boyfriends’? You!” Then she would ignore him and chat with the girls in front of her.
Hu Siqi did change boyfriends frequently, and the boys in class all bet that the next one would surely be Lu Huaizheng. But a year passed, and no news emerged about the two of them.
Yu Hao didn’t know what happened after that, as she transferred schools after finishing her first year of high school. She didn’t know if they ever got together, but given his personality, if not Hu Siqi, there would have been other girls. Being witty, humorous, and sunny, it was easy to fall for him.
The wedding banquet was set on the top floor, with a glass structure on all sides. Looking up, one could see the vast sea of stars outside.
Yu Hao now watched him walking towards her side with intense eyes. Zhao Dailin described her gaze at that moment as drooling with desire, extremely hungry.
Unfortunately, he didn’t glance at her once.
He had grown taller than before. His facial lines looked clearer and more fluid. The white, neat shirt collar accentuated his defined jawline, making him look especially clean-cut and upright.
His walking posture used to be very informal. Back then, he wasn’t very tall, around 1.8 meters, and being on the basketball team, he liked to walk with a slight bounce, not wanting people to see his true height. Now he seemed much taller. His hair was cut short, a thin layer of black stubble clinging to his scalp, deep black. Before, it had been light chestnut brown; when he used to sleep at his desk, it would be a fluffy mess, much like a golden retriever.
Yu Hao felt he had changed quite a bit, yet not extraordinarily so. His brow still showed traces of the past. If not for the black suit that made him look trim, sharp, and ascetic, she would have almost had the illusion of seeing again that handsome young man who used to lean against the back door of her classroom, bantering with others.
The banquet hall was noisy with guests laughing and chatting, while the host was testing the microphone with “Testing, testing.”
Lu Huaizheng now stood behind Yu Hao’s chair. She felt her ears were filled with buzzing electronic currents, yet his cool voice still accurately penetrated her ears.
The other person spoke excitedly: “Guess who I just met downstairs?”
“Who?”
“That Tsinghua friend of yours, Zhou Siyue, that’s his name, right?”
“Hmm, did he greet you?”
“Your friend is incredibly impressive. I only met him once that night before you joined the army, and he still remembered my name.”
“He’s had a good memory since childhood.”
The person sighed, “You have a good memory too. Ah— to each his own, never mind.”
He seemed to chuckle slightly: “Where is he?”
“On the ninth floor, playing with his son in the shopping mall’s children’s playground.”
“Alone?”
“A beautiful woman was sitting beside him, don’t know if she’s his wife.”
The two chatted casually, while several young women at this table never took their eyes off him, unable to hide their excitement. On a single night, he had arrived at the latest and was called away before they could even exchange a few words with him. They were considering whether to ask for his phone number after the wedding ended.
Zhao Dailin found it irritating, especially since the person next to her had been in a daze since the beginning. She slammed her phone on the table with force and fiercely reached for the coconut juice in front of the young woman: “Give me the coconut juice!”
As a result, her hand hit a waiter who was coming over to serve, and the plate was about to fly straight into Yu Hao’s face when the waiter, with lightning speed, tilted his rear to catch it, holding it steadily in his hands. Only a few drops of soup spilled, and his expression was quite proud.
Zhao Dailin was dumbfounded, “Have you trained for this, brother? Quite professional.”
Then she noticed her view was blocked by a clean, slender hand, positioned right in front of Yu Hao’s face.
Others noticed too, and they all traced along that arm.
It was Lu Huaizheng.
He had somehow noticed this situation. While still chatting with someone about topics that were difficult for them to understand, he casually extended his hand to shield her head. This action was so natural and practiced that it almost gave everyone at the table the impression of a long-married couple.
After the waiter finished serving, he nonchalantly withdrew his hand, putting it back in his pocket, completely unconcerned.
The gazes of the young women at the table darted back and forth, causing even the waiter to glance at Lu Huaizheng before leaving, concluding: This guy’s reaction speed was on par with his own.
Lu Huaizheng acted as if nothing had happened, turning and walking away after finishing the conversation.
After he had gone far, Zhao Dailin elbowed Yu Hao: “I’m saying, how long are you two going to pretend? Go up and greet him properly. Both of you acting so formal, pretending not to see each other—what’s the meaning of this?”
It was evident that he wasn’t eager to acknowledge her either.
Just this point alone made her hesitant to make any rash moves.
“I won’t go. He holds grudges.”
Yu Hao said this while chewing on a greasy duck tongue, her voice muffled.
Zhao Dailin looked at her suspiciously, then turned to look at the handsome man who moved among various people in the wedding banquet, always with a smile.
Nonsense, he has great manners.