Before parting with Chi Yao, Lin Zhexia hugged the bag of snacks and solemnly thanked him again: “If you ever need anything in the future, just tell your little brother. As long as it’s not illegal, I’ll go through fire and water without hesitation.”

Chi Yao lowered his eyes: “What else?”

Lin Zhexia suppressed her exasperation: “And the essay, I’ll write it. Three hundred words is nothing. I’m just afraid three hundred words won’t be enough to express your handsomeness.”

After Chi Yao left, Lin Zhexia tiptoed back to the dormitory.

Standing at the door, she cleared her throat: “Comrades, I’m back, look what I’ve brought.”

Chen Lin heard her voice and sat up in the upper bunk.

She peeked out and saw Lin Zhexia looking like a ghost, one hand holding her phone with the flashlight on to light her way, the other hand holding up a cup of instant noodles high: “…”

Lin Zhexia struck a pose and waited for a long time, but Chen Lin didn’t react.

Without the delight she had expected, Chen Lin calmly lay back down: “I’m dreaming.”

Tang Shuxuan was also awakened by their movement. She opened her eyes, and two seconds later, closed them again: “It’s amazing. I finally fell asleep and even dreamed of instant noodles.”

Lin Zhexia: “…”

“This isn’t a dream,” Lin Zhexia tugged at Tang Shuxuan’s ear, “Get up—we have food to eat.”

A few minutes later.

Six people gathered around the only desk in the dormitory, with several cups of instant noodles on it.

They ate cookies while smelling the gradually spreading aroma of the instant noodles.

Chen Lin: “I’m alive again.”

Tang Shuxuan: “The best thing I’ve ever eaten in my life is tonight’s instant noodles.”

After saying this, she asked: “Chi Yao gave them to you?”

Lin Zhexia unwrapped a piece of milk bread and chewed it slowly: “Mm, he climbed over the wall to buy them.”

“I didn’t expect him to sometimes act like a human being,” Tang Shuxuan said, “I’ve unilaterally reconciled with Chi Yao.”

When the instant noodles were ready, Tang Shuxuan lifted the lid: “But he’s nice to you, climbing over the wall to buy you food. Your friendship is so deep.”

“It’s alright.”

Lin Zhexia hadn’t thought about this.

Her interactions with Chi Yao, whether fighting or his occasional “charity” toward her, were all quite normal to her.

And besides, it wasn’t without a price.

The price was a three-hundred-word English essay.

Soon, someone else said, “After all, you’ve known each other for so many years, almost like family, so it’s normal.”

After everyone had eaten and cleaned up the mess on the table, the night finally truly quieted down.

While the others had gone to sleep, Lin Zhexia hid under her blanket, racking her brains to write the essay.

She managed to write the first fifty words with some effort, but as she continued, she couldn’t resist the drowsiness, and besides, her English vocabulary wasn’t rich enough, so she opened Baidu Translate.

Translation: [You are truly too handsome, I have never seen anyone as handsome as you.]

Translation: [Your handsomeness is dazzling, shining, glowing, and imposing.]

…

After barely reaching the word count, Lin Zhexia prepared to sleep, but before falling asleep, she suddenly thought of the phrase “almost like family.”

She suddenly realized that she and Chi Yao were closer than family in some ways.

Things she couldn’t tell Lin He, she could easily tell Chi Yao.

Some confessions she couldn’t share with friends, Chi Yao was a suitable recipient.

Including some unexplained emotions.

When unhappy, she could curse at Chi Yao.

When happy, although Chi Yao would pour cold water on her, she could still be happy with him.

Thinking of this, as if discovering her conscience, Lin Zhexia added a “good night” after her essay, along with a cheesy emoji—a flower blooming in the center of the screen, with changing large characters between the petals saying “My Friend”-

The five-day military training soon entered its countdown.

Lin Zhexia and her classmates were still practicing the formation march they hadn’t mastered yesterday. Boys and girls were divided into two teams, walking back and forth, and required to walk in a straight line.

During the break, the girls went to drink water under the shade of trees.

Chen Lin looked at the parade ground: “Where did our instructor go?”

Tang Shuxuan: “I don’t know. The instructors from other classes aren’t around either. Maybe they went to a meeting.”

Lin Zhexia didn’t pay much attention: “Maybe they’re organizing a new activity. I heard there will be an instructor performance on the last day.”

Chen Lin nodded: “Probably.”

Everyone thought there might be a new activity being organized.

However, unexpectedly, before the afternoon training, instead of training separately as usual, they were all gathered together.

All classes, just like on the first day’s enrollment ceremony, were led by their class instructors to the stage.

The weather was stuffy, and even the wind seemed to have stopped.

Perhaps because of the stuffy weather, Lin Zhexia’s right eyelid started twitching uncontrollably.

The chief instructor stood on the stage with a severe expression. Holding the microphone, he first slowly scanned the crowd below, then spoke: “Last night, the duty teacher checking the surveillance footage discovered—someone climbed over the wall to go outside.”

“Around 10:30 at night, wearing black clothes, quite tall, with good physical skills—I hope this person can step forward on their own. If you admit it voluntarily, we can talk, but if I catch you, there won’t be much room for negotiation.”

The previously quiet crowd below suddenly erupted in commotion.

The military training base had strict management, and no one had thought it was possible to climb over the wall.

Even less did they expect someone had done it.

Upon hearing these words, Lin Zhexia’s heart started racing along with her twitching eyelid.

Chen Lin whispered: “It couldn’t be Chi Yao, could it?”

Lin Zhexia hoped it wasn’t him.

But it seemed there was no one else who fit the description.

“Since they haven’t immediately found out who it is, the surveillance footage must not be clear,” Lin Zhexia whispered, “And the cameras probably didn’t capture the area near the dormitory buildings, otherwise they’d be looking for two people, not one. I would be easy to identify; those flowery shorts I wore yesterday were quite eye-catching.”

Lin Zhexia thought that since the surveillance wasn’t clear, maybe the matter could just pass.

However, after the chief instructor maintained order below the stage and said “Quiet,” and the crowd immediately fell silent, a somewhat familiar voice rang out from the crowd: “It was I who climbed the wall.”

The moment the young man stepped out from the formation, everyone was transported back to the first day of military training.

Except back then, he was the student representative, and now he had become “the one who climbed the wall.”

The chief instructor was also taken aback: “What did you climb over the wall for?”

Chi Yao walked to the front of the stage and said, “To get some air.”

“…”

The chief instructor looked at him: “Surprisingly, you’re quite agile.”

“It’s alright,” Chi Yao said, “The wall isn’t that high.”

The fact that the student representative and the wall-climber were the same person shocked the chief instructor so much that his reprimand didn’t exhibit his usual intensity.

Chief Instructor: “You can’t selfishly go out. Don’t you know the rules? What kind of air did you need to go outside for? You’ll pause your afternoon training, run twenty laps around the parade ground, and write a self-criticism to submit to me tonight. Alright, everyone can disperse now.”

“Lin Zhexia,” the Class Seven instructor led his class back to training, and turned to see someone in the formation daydreaming, “What are you staring at? Let’s go.”

Lin Zhexia could only slowly follow.

Her mind was filled with those words, “twenty laps.”

Twenty laps.

In this weather, running twenty laps.

She suddenly felt that last night’s instant noodles weren’t delicious at all.

While all the classes were training in the afternoon, only Chi Yao had taken off his training uniform jacket and was running laps on the parade ground.

Lin Zhexia had previously told him to remember to use sunscreen, or he would get tanned, but it was just a joke. Even after several days of sun exposure, the young man on the parade ground still had dazzlingly white skin. He must have felt hot, for as he ran, he raised his hand and casually took off his training jacket and cap.

Then, as he passed their class, he tossed them to a male student.

It was the one who had brought him water at the basketball court last time.

Each class remained stationary in their small activity area, first standing at attention, then practicing the goose step.

Lin Zhexia had always done well in these exercises, but this time, because she couldn’t help glancing at the person running laps on the parade ground, she often moved the same arm and leg together or made other mistakes.

People around whispered: “He’s still running.”

“How many laps has it been?”

“Four or five, still more than ten to go.”

“…”

Training soon ended. During the break, Chen Lin also expressed her guilt: “I feel really bad about this.”

Tang Shuxuan: “Me too.”

Chen Lin: “But why did he admit it? The surveillance footage wasn’t very clear.”

Lin Zhexia, who had been quiet, finally understood why Chi Yao had admitted it, and spoke: “Because he didn’t want everyone to be lectured together. He’s always been the kind of person who admits what he’s done. Besides, if they didn’t find the person, the instructor might check surveillance from other angles.”

Tang Shuxuan: “Surveillance from other angles… Then you would…”

Lin Zhexia didn’t continue the conversation.

She glanced at the parade ground, then suddenly stood up.

The chief instructor didn’t need to lead a team; his job was to supervise from the sidelines.

He was pacing back and forth when he saw a girl with a ponytail running toward him from a distance.

The fair-skinned girl was sweating from the heat, and she panted as she said: “In-instructor.”

Chief Instructor: “What is it?”

Lin Zhexia was a bit uneasy.

But thinking of the twenty laps, she still summoned her courage to speak: “Report, instructor, I want to confess that actually, the person who climbed the wall last night…”

Chief Instructor: “What about them?”

Lin Zhexia: “It was me.”

The chief instructor fell silent.

He was silent for a long time.

So long that Lin Zhexia thought the chief instructor was perhaps considering how to punish her.

Or maybe he would question why she had only now stepped forward to admit her mistake.

However—

“Your height doesn’t allow for it,” the chief instructor said after his silence. “How did you climb? Show me how you’d climb over without a ladder right now.”

Lin Zhexia: “…”

She truly couldn’t climb it.

Chief Instructor: “And how were you planning to explain why you climbed over the wall in the first place?”

Since her lie had been exposed from the start, she could only honestly say: “I came in a hurry, and I haven’t had time to make up a reason yet.”

Then, she tried to confess about the snacks: “But the wall climbing is indeed related to me, it was all because of me—”

The chief instructor found it amusing and interrupted her: “Alright, no need to say more.”

Lin Zhexia: “It was me, last night I…”

Chief Instructor: “I know.”

Lin Zhexia didn’t finish her sentence, not understanding what the chief instructor knew: “?”

“Adolescence, I understand those little thoughts of you girls.”

Lin Zhexia looked astonished: “That’s not it…”

Chief Instructor: “But even if you like someone, you can’t act like this.”

Lin Zhexia: “That’s not…”

“At your age, you should focus on your studies,” the instructor finally said, “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear what you said today. Go back to your team.”

Lin Zhexia couldn’t defend herself.

Not only had she failed to help Chi Yao explain and share the punishment, but she had also been labeled as Chi Yao’s mindless, fanatical pursuer.

She returned to her class and continued standing at attention.

Then during the next break, she went to bring Chi Yao water.

She ran alongside Chi Yao for a bit: “Can you still run? Do you want some water?”

Chi Yao took the water from her hand, gulped a few mouthfuls, then handed it back to her.

The sweat on his forehead had dampened his tousled hair, and he was a bit breathless as he spoke: “Just twenty laps, it’s not that tiring.”

Lin Zhexia: “Then stop panting.”

Chi Yao: “Why don’t you just tell me not to breathe?”

As they talked, the two had run half a lap.

Lin Zhexia felt a bit remorseful: “It’s all my fault.”

Chi Yao didn’t politely refuse, showing no courtesy: “Good that you know.”

His complete lack of courtesy relieved Lin Zhexia of her guilt toward him.

Lin Zhexia immediately felt much better and returned to their normal conversation mode: “But I think you’re partly responsible too. You’re just not suited for doing good deeds. Yesterday, you should have let me starve to death in the dormitory.”

“You’re right,” Chi Yao pulled out a smile and said, “Next time, I’ll let you starve.”

Lin Zhexia added, “Actually, I just went to find the instructor on my own. I told him I was the one who climbed the wall. I originally wanted to help you share a few laps, but he didn’t believe me.”

Chi Yao: “Grow twenty centimeters taller and try again. There might be some hope.”

“…”

Lin Zhexia carried the water, trying hard to tell herself that just for these twenty laps, even if he called her “shorty” twenty times, she couldn’t get angry.

Fortunately, the instructor wasn’t that cruel. When Chi Yao had completed his sixth lap, the chief instructor called him over and told him he could run the remaining laps in batches later.

However, by the evening—

The running figure was nowhere to be seen on the parade ground.

Lin Zhexia endured the embarrassment and went to ask the chief instructor again: “Instructor, may I ask if Chi Yao has finished running?”

The chief instructor looked at her again with a knowing expression: “He’s in the infirmary.”

Lin Zhexia panicked in an instant. This time, she had no time to care about the instructor’s teasing, and her voice trembled as she spoke: “The infirmary?”

The chief instructor made an “mm” sound, about to continue saying something to her.

But the girl in front of him seemed to have lost her soul. Before he could finish his next words, the next moment, the girl ran directly toward the infirmary.

He shook his head, thinking he understood again: “Students these days are really…”

The infirmary was next to the cafeteria.

Though it was only a few hundred meters away, Lin Zhexia felt the path was so long.

She had been secretly worried since hearing about the twenty laps, which was why she had mustered the courage to ask the instructor if she could run a few laps for him.

…

Because only she knew that Chi Yao’s physical condition in the past wasn’t good.

This “past” referred to nine years ago.

She ran all the way, cutting through the stuffy summer wind.

As if passing through this gust of wind, she ran into another summer.

In the summer nine years ago, the heat was unbearable, and her ears were filled with the intense chirping of cicadas.

Seven-year-old Lin Zhexia got out of the car with Lin He. The car was parked at the entrance of an alley, which was paved with stone bricks. The grayish-blue stone bricks had been baked hot by the scorching sun.

Wei Ping was busy unloading things from the car.

“Xiaxia,” Lin He, much younger than now, smiled as she stroked her head and squatted down, “This is where we’ll live together from now on.”

Lin Zhexia clutched an old doll in her hand without speaking.

She was very different from now at that time.

Seven-year-old Lin Zhexia was considered tall among her peers, very thin, with little expression on her face, her large eyes full of wariness.

—The whole person resembled a young hedgehog.

Wei Ping brought down the suitcase and also smiled at her.

She clutched her doll tightly and turned her head away.

She noticed the sign standing by the roadside and strained to look up.

“Nanxiang Street.”

This place was very unfamiliar to her.

This Uncle Wei was also unfamiliar. Everything was unfamiliar.

Lin He said to her, “The house is too messy right now, and another moving truck will arrive later. Workers need to unload, and things will be carried in and out. Could you sit on the side first? We’ll go in after everything is moved.”

“Oh.” Lin Zhexia responded.

So she hugged her old doll and sat on the steps at the entrance of the building across the street, watching them move things.

The sun was very glaring.

She watched for a while.

Suddenly, from behind came the “click” sound of a unit door being unlocked.

She turned around and, against the light, saw a boy about the same height as her. His skin was so white it looked unhealthy, his lips were pale, and while other children his age still had baby fat on their faces, his facial features had already developed very distinctly.

His chin was lean, his eyes were beautiful but sickly.

Author’s note:

The sickly boy who used to take three bags of medicine every day is online (︿－︿)V