April, the start of spring.

The most severe winter season had already passed. The weather was still cold—one could do without knee-length coats, but couldn’t do without thick knit sweaters. The high school dismissal bell rang in the damp cold air. Students came out in waves holding umbrellas, each stepping into the fifth consecutive rainy dismissal time.

When classmate Yan Yan called Dong Xi, Dong Xi didn’t turn her head.

Rain sounds covered the umbrella surface. She was slowly walking forward, wearing a scarf, carrying a paper bag containing books. When Yan Yan called Dong Xi a second time, her voice passing through three or four groups of students holding umbrellas, calling so loud it almost cracked, only then did Dong Xi turn her head. After her gaze swept through the crowd slightly, it slowly settled on her.

“You don’t have a car picking you up today?” Yan Yan used her hand to shield the rain from her forehead, coming up to her to ask. “Why are you taking the subway station route?”

“I’m going to buy some things.”

“You’re really not going to the class gathering? They all asked me to persuade you.”

“Not going.”

Someone was calling Yan Yan. Yan Yan glanced back and made a gesture toward that direction, then said to her: “Since you really don’t want to go, forget it. I’ll tell them. Be careful on your way home and study well.”

“Mm.”

After seeing Yan Yan off, she withdrew her gaze.

The bus stop, roads, and railings were all covered with rain traces.

Turning from the noisy school gate into the commercial district’s pedestrian walkway, she bought a sketchbook at a stationery store. Two students in the magazine section were discussing gossip. The male employee at the counter wore some fan club’s uniform. Dong Xi glanced at it; the male employee followed her gaze to look at his own clothes. At this moment she lowered her head to get her wallet. The male employee put the notebook into a bag and said: “Sixty-nine.”

Dong Xi took the bag.

After leaving the stationery store, the rain was still falling.

The music store next door was playing jazz; blended with the rain sounds, the melody sounded even more cold and clear. She slowly stopped in front of the shop’s display window, taking out her ringing phone from her clothing pocket.

After listening by her ear for a few seconds, she said softly: “Mm, I’m taking the subway back.”

…

“Mm, no need to pick me up.”

…

“Okay.”

…

After hanging up the phone, she didn’t move forward.

She still held her umbrella, the umbrella surface blocking the scenery to the side. All around, car horns sounded, people came and went—only she stood quietly in place.

Shortly after, she slowly turned her head sideways, looking through the transparent umbrella surface mottled with rain traces toward the poster in the display window.

From the day Long Qi exploded in popularity, this area had been occupied by her posters.

A very large one, occupying almost the entire display window.

Passing college students would stop and stand around Dong Xi to look for a while; pedestrians would also turn their heads to pay attention for a glance or two.

Only she quietly gazed at this area, without resentment, without disgust, not saying a word. Only gusts of wind blew the long hair by her neck to her eyes. Later when she withdrew her gaze, it was still in the same state as initially—she prepared to leave.

At this moment, a person walked out of the music store.

That person walked urgently, so urgently they bumped into her. Her umbrella and the record discs inside that person’s clothing simultaneously fell to the ground. Dong Xi turned her head; he also glanced at the ground. At exactly that moment, a piercing car horn sounded by the roadside. She heard him say: “Unlucky.”

The anti-theft system at the music store entrance suddenly sounded.

Dong Xi looked at him; he immediately looked toward the two counter employees chasing out of the music store. The paper bag in Dong Xi’s hand was knocked to the ground again by the two people. She steadied herself against the roadside railing unprepared, while the male student was directly pressed hard against the display window glass by the two people. Dozens of record discs from inside his clothes clattered to the ground. His head was pressed down hard; the two shop employees cursed him, yanked at him. His face was pressed tightly against the glass wall. Long Qi’s poster was affected by the glass vibration and with a slap slid down onto the floor inside the store.

She saw it.

The rainwater splashed up during the three people’s shoving fell to her side. She turned her head and coughed. The male student had his arms seized by one person while the other took this opportunity to call the police, and the poster inside the store was crumpled into a ball with no one picking it up.

Fine rain fell on Dong Xi’s hair gaps and shoulders. She coughed while standing up. The shop employee was going through the other person’s wallet; when pulling out an ID card, he loudly mocked: “Just came of age!”

Because of this sentence, Dong Xi, who was about to enter the store, looked toward him. He was standing in place breathing heavily, unhurriedly licking the wound at the corner of his mouth.

And because Dong Xi looked at him, only then did he glance at her.

The two people’s gazes met; around both their eyes was water vapor. After those few seconds, the emotion in Dong Xi’s eyes suddenly underwent a slight change.

But the male student was expressionless.

He seemed not to have recognized her.

He seemed to only regard her as an onlooker, standing casually in the rain, moving his bound arms as if displaying a trophy, not really taking people seriously. The person behind him pushed his head once, scolding him to behave, and only then did he withdraw his gaze, coldly laughing once with no interest.

Dong Xi didn’t speak with him at that time.

But two days later, news of him came.

It was the rainy season of early April, two months before the college entrance exam, when teachers and students throughout the entire school were in the most tense review stage. A most familiar stranger transferred back to the senior year.

This person’s face bore bruises, with many bandages stuck on his neck area. His return was like a huge rock thrown into a river surface that had been calm for a long time, instantly stirring up giant waves, stirring up countless small eddies at the bottom of the water.

He had once been “notorious” at this school, and had also once been “utterly disgraced” at this school. On the first morning of his transfer back, there were already several informational posts on the campus forum. Each post did its utmost to relate everything about this person. The entire lively atmosphere seemed to return to the period when Jin Yiken and Long Qi were still at school.

One post said he was called Gu Mingdong, had been admitted to Beifan, but after participating in military training in his first year of high school was persuaded by the school to withdraw.

One post said during these years he hadn’t attended school, mixing in many different circles outside.

One post said his family had connections.

And another post said he had pursued Long Qi successfully, and for a period of time Long Qi had loved him to the point where she could die for him.

…