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The date of the sharing event was set for the following Friday afternoon.
Chen Guoming, though rather old-fashioned in his ways, genuinely cared about what was best for his students — whatever he believed would benefit their studies, he was willing to try. As a result, Li Kuiyi did not have to work particularly hard to convince him. That day also happened to coincide with the Lantern Festival, and the school had issued meal vouchers for the occasion. Once the sharing event was over, everyone could head to the canteen for a free dinner — and in addition to the regular meal, there was a bowl of sweet rice dumplings to collect.
Of course, events were events, but studying could not be neglected — those were Chen Guoming’s exact words to Li Kuiyi. She naturally agreed with well-mannered obedience. She knew her own limits, and besides, Chen Guoming had already taken on the bulk of the organizational work himself; all she needed to do was liaise with Su Jianlin’s side.
The new week began, and after the class split, everything settled into its expected rhythm and ran smoothly. Smoothly did not mean unchanged — just as the surface of the sea may show no waves while currents churn beneath, Li Kuiyi found this out for herself. When classes formally began, her hopes fell: the Chinese teacher for this class was not Liu Xinzhao but another female teacher. The moment she saw the new teacher walk into the classroom, Li Kuiyi turned abruptly toward the window, and a stinging sensation rose at the bridge of her nose, her eyes filling with a faint shimmer.
She did not quite know what had come over her — to have grown so attached to an adult in such a short time.
But she had barely been sad for two seconds when the person behind her issued a languid verdict on the new teacher: “Huh — she’s wearing a徐福記 black sesame candy wrapper.”
Li Kuiyi looked back and saw that their new Chinese teacher was wearing a long down jacket in exactly the same color scheme as a Hui Fong Foods black sesame candy wrapper. She had not yet had time to admire his associative powers when the “candy wrapper” on the podium opened her mouth: “Hello, everyone — my surname is Xu, and I’ll be your Chinese teacher.”
What were the odds!
“Pfft —” Her tears had barely dried before she burst out laughing.
She had a feeling — He Youyuan sitting directly behind her was going to be nothing but trouble.
In the new class, besides He Youyuan and Zhao Shilei, there were also two people Li Kuiyi recognized: Chen Lu-yi and Yan You.
Chen Lu-yi’s maths scores ranked second in the class, just behind Li Kuiyi’s, so the homeroom teacher appointed her as the maths representative. Later, the homeroom teacher gathered all the class officers and subject representatives for a meeting to brainstorm ways to make the class better. Mathematics was generally the biggest headache for humanities students, so Chen Lu-yi suggested finding a few students with stronger maths scores to each take turns presenting problems for ten to twenty minutes a day — covering classic question types and commonly made errors, with the aim of helping everyone think through the problems more clearly and build a mathematical mindset. The homeroom teacher liked the idea and adopted it.
Li Kuiyi became one of the presenters, responsible for the maths session every Wednesday. Each presenter focused on a different area: the academic affairs representative Zhang Yun focused on tricky trap questions, Chen Lu-yi covered fundamental compulsory questions, and Li Kuiyi focused on challenging, advanced-level questions.
Every time she went to discuss question selection with Chen Lu-yi, Li Kuiyi could not help thinking of how she had once, so embarrassingly, been consumed with jealousy over her in front of Fang Zhixiao. Things were often like that — you did not think much of something while it was happening, but looking back afterward, the cringe could make you claw at the walls. She told herself: if it happened again, she would never behave so immaturely.
As for Yan You — Li Kuiyi had not really interacted with her before, only feeling a flash of indignation on her behalf during that speech competition. Given that Yan You’s mobility was not entirely convenient, the homeroom teacher arranged for her to sit by the door, making it easier for her to come and go. In fact, during that small meeting with the class officers, Li Kuiyi had suggested to the homeroom teacher that they apply to the school to move Class Seventeen’s classroom to the first floor — which would be a tremendous help to Yan You.
But the homeroom teacher had only given her a look that suggested she was being wildly impractical.
Li Kuiyi felt she had not said anything wrong. Was not the ultimate purpose of a community to make the lives of each individual within it a little more comfortable?
Friday arrived quickly.
After the first afternoon period, the homeroom teacher came into the classroom and reminded everyone to get a drink of water and use the bathroom if they needed to, because once they were inside the grand auditorium, they would not be permitted to move around or come and go as they pleased.
Most of the class promptly streamed out of the room. Li Kuiyi picked up her water bottle and stood, intending to go to the water dispenser on the floor and fill a cup to take with her. But He Youyuan stretched out one long leg and blocked her path, then held out his insulated flask to her, drawing out his words lazily: “Get me a refill too, would you, Class Monitor?”
He seemed to have a thousand different ways of addressing her.
None of which she liked.
Li Kuiyi had no wish to do him any favors, but given that he had given her the window seat, she took the flask anyway. The odd thing was that this person, for all his fastidiousness and self-presentation, had a flask covered almost entirely in paint — so thickly layered that the original color was barely visible.
And then he still would not let her go, adding instructions in a leisurely, deliberate tone: “Not too cold, not too hot — best if the cold-to-hot water ratio is two to three. Keep that in mind when you fill it.”
Like you’d even drink it otherwise.
Li Kuiyi set his flask down on his desk with a decisive thwack, shot him a sideways glare, and stepped right over his outstretched leg.
“You’re upset already?” He Youyuan stood up and fell into step beside her, planting himself in her way: “No — how do you get irritated so easily?”
Li Kuiyi ignored him and tried to go around him. Without warning, he bent slightly toward her and plucked her water bottle from her hand, then turned and walked out of the classroom. She stood there startled — because when he had suddenly leaned in, he had brought with him a scent she found pleasant, like the cold air after rain.
He Youyuan had barely left the classroom with Li Kuiyi’s bottle when he came face to face with someone coming the other way — a young man with a cold expression. He paid no particular attention, stepping aside to let him pass. But two steps on, he suddenly registered that the face was entirely unfamiliar, and he turned back, a light laugh on his lips: “Hey — did you wander into the wrong class?”
The young man also turned. He glanced at him, his eyes holding an expression that was difficult to read.
Then He Youyuan watched him walk into the classroom and go directly to Li Kuiyi’s seat, bending down to say something to her.
The smile was gone in an instant. His grip on the water bottle tightened, slowly.
He stood there for a moment, then remembered to go and fill the water. By the time he came back, the young man had already left. He placed the bottle on Li Kuiyi’s desk. She looked up and said “thank you,” but he did not move away — he stood over her, and his voice was just casual enough: “Who was that?”
He had struck Li Kuiyi as someone with a razor-sharp expression — which made it funny that he was apparently quite nosy.
“My younger uncle.”
“Your younger uncle?” He Youyuan’s brow creased slightly. “He’s that young?”
There was no point explaining anything to him. Li Kuiyi said: “Don’t believe me if you don’t want to.”
I do believe you. I didn’t say I didn’t, He Youyuan thought, with something that felt almost like insistence. And yes — the young man had that aloof, closed-off look, just like a certain prickly pineapple. Clearly a family resemblance.
He sat back down in his seat, swinging his legs and humming to himself.
Once all the students had returned, Li Kuiyi organized everyone to line up outside the classroom and walk together to the school auditorium.
For many of the Year One students, this was their first time inside the auditorium. It had to be said — the interior was quite beautiful, decorated in a vintage style: walls painted a vivid yellow, the wooden chairs a warm brick-red, evoking the feeling of an old-fashioned cinema.
Everyone took their seats in class order. Classes Sixteen and Seventeen were adjacent, and Fang Zhixiao went to great lengths to swap seats with someone until she ended up beside Li Kuiyi. She was probably the most excited person in the entire room, all because she might see Su Jianlin. In preparation, she had applied her mother’s no-makeup foundation before school that day, and a soft pink tinted lip balm.
The sharing event began. The host took the stage — it was Xia Leyi.
Li Kuiyi smiled and joined everyone in applause. So Chen Guoming had gone along with her suggestion after all.
Senior students from Peking University, Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, Fudan University, and a host of other prestigious schools began their presentations — covering everything from department introductions to campus life, all of it detailed and engaging. Some seniors even talked about dormitory conditions, the male-to-female ratio and the odds of finding a relationship, and whether the surrounding area had good food. For high school students, university was like the first glimmer of dawn in a long night — everything felt fresh and charged with possibility.
Among the presenting students were not only graduates from Yi High School but also many from Shi High School — Su Jianlin included. These two schools had always been rivals, unwilling to concede anything to the other, and their students could be found feuding on online forums at the drop of a hat. Yet once they graduated and went to different cities, those who came from the same hometown naturally drew together, close as family.
Outside, the sky gradually darkened, and the sharing event drew toward its close. Everyone felt they had taken a great deal away from it. The only disappointment was that Su Jianlin never took the stage — the student who had spoken on behalf of Zhejiang University was a senior who had enrolled the previous year. Fang Zhixiao’s face fell, and she murmured pitifully: “My makeup… completely wasted.”
Li Kuiyi thought privately that even if Su Jianlin had gone up, he would not have been able to see her face from that distance.
Fang Zhixiao resolved to channel her disappointment into appetite and eat an extremely good dinner — the meal tonight was free, after all.
They walked out arm in arm with the flow of the crowd leaving the auditorium — and found, unexpectedly, that Su Jianlin was waiting outside. Fang Zhixiao’s eyes lit up and she gripped Li Kuiyi’s arm tightly.
Su Jianlin stepped forward when he saw them, and said to Li Kuiyi: “Thank you for putting the sharing event together. Can I take you to dinner tomorrow evening as thanks?”
Li Kuiyi was about to say he did not need to go to the trouble, but Fang Zhixiao pinched her arm hard from the side, and she had no choice but to agree: “Sure.” She thought for a moment, then added, “That is — this is my friend. She wants to apply to Zhejiang University and has some things she doesn’t quite understand. Could she come along? We don’t need you to treat her — we can pay separately.”
Su Jianlin looked at Fang Zhixiao for a moment, then said after a brief pause: “That’s fine. You can both come.”
He said his goodbyes and went off with his classmates. Fang Zhixiao turned to look at Li Kuiyi, her expression the face of someone who had just had a meat pie fall from the sky directly onto their head. She clapped her hands over her mouth and screamed without making a sound.
After dinner, back in the classroom, Li Kuiyi did not sit down immediately. Instead, holding the bottle of Yakult that Fang Zhixiao had bought for her, she leaned against the windowsill and looked out at the perfectly round moon. She thought of what He Youyuan had told her on New Year’s Eve, and felt something quietly warm move through her — she had not missed this evening’s full moon.
She was still lost in thought when the sliding window beside her was pushed open by someone. Her body was suddenly squeezed into the small gap, and a triumphant voice rang out right beside her: “Bang — off with your head!”
Li Kuiyi turned around to find He Youyuan laughing with great satisfaction.
Childish to the last.
She pulled herself back from the window, drained the Yakult in one go, and got up to go throw the bottle in the trash can at the back of the classroom.
He Youyuan, seeing this, pulled open the small trash bag he kept stuck to the side of his desk.
There — that was exactly what he was like. Insufferable most of the time, but occasionally he did something decent. Li Kuiyi did not stand on ceremony; she tossed the Yakult bottle into his trash bag.
“Do you know what day it is next Wednesday?” he asked, looking at her — seemingly out of nowhere.
Next Wednesday. The nineteenth of February by the solar calendar, the twentieth of the first lunar month. Was it a special day? Li Kuiyi thought hard and could not recall anything. She glanced around to make sure no one was watching, then discreetly took out her phone and checked the calendar.
She had specifically brought her phone today to coordinate with Su Jianlin about the sharing event.
Next Wednesday…
Li Kuiyi looked up abruptly: “That day is the Rain Water solar term.”
He Youyuan: “…”
“It’s my birthday!” he said, looking at her with visible exasperation.
“Oh —!” The pieces clicked into place for Li Kuiyi. She had been wondering why He Youyuan would pay any attention to a solar term like “Rain Water” — but of course, it was his birthday. “Happy birthday in advance, then.”
He Youyuan wore a somewhat awkward expression, and after a few hemming sounds, managed: “Thanks.”
After school, Li Kuiyi packed up her bag and started to leave, but He Youyuan stretched out his leg and blocked her way again.
“What?” She found it baffling.
He did not say a word — only waited until the classroom had completely emptied. Then he pulled his leg back and leaned against the desk behind him: “So… tomorrow evening, I’m planning to have a few classmates over to hang out…”
Li Kuiyi worked out what he was getting at: he was throwing a birthday gathering tomorrow and was inviting her.
But…
“I’m sorry — I have plans tomorrow evening. I can’t make it.”
He seemed not to have anticipated a refusal. His expression cooled instantly. “What plans?”
“Personal plans.” Li Kuiyi did not want to explain further.
“What kind of personal plans?” He pressed.
Li Kuiyi felt slightly exasperated: “Do you know what ‘personal plans’ means? It means my own business — the kind I don’t want to tell you about.”
He stared at her without speaking.
Li Kuiyi felt he was being entirely unreasonable: “What are you staring at? It’s not as if I’m doing it on purpose. And even if I were, it’s entirely my choice whether or not to attend your birthday gathering, isn’t it?”
He Youyuan suddenly stood up, reached into his trash bag, pulled out her Yakult bottle, and placed it firmly back on her desk. “Don’t dump your rubbish in my bag!” With that, he slung his bag over his shoulder and walked out.
Li Kuiyi: “…”
He Youyuan — what gives you the right to say I’m the one who gets irritated easily? There is no one in this world more quick-tempered than you.