Lin Tao’s birthday during the summer vacation of her second year happened to fall right at the tail end of the critical stage of Jiang Yan’s laboratory project. He wasn’t able to make it back to Xicheng in time.

Fang Yisong and Lin Yongcheng, just as in years past, put aside everything they had in their hands and celebrated her birthday at home.

After dinner, Lin Tao was invited out by Meng Xin, Song Yuan, and the others, who had returned to Xicheng for the summer vacation.

After the college entrance exams, everyone had their own things to strive toward. This time, only four of the seven-member squad gathered. Guan Che and Jiang Yan were both staying at school for their research projects. Hu Hanghang was busy expanding his career. Xu Yichuan, though, who was all the way across the ocean, had managed to come back to the country this summer.

The four of them went to a restaurant near No. 10 High to continue the celebration, eating and drinking and chatting until after eleven o’clock, when Xu Yichuan suggested walking around the campus for a bit.

A summer evening, with a thin warmth threaded through the breeze.

The four of them left their ID cards at the security booth and bought two packs of cigarettes before the on-duty teacher finally agreed to let them into the campus at that hour.

By some strange law of the universe, schools always seem to begin renovations the moment you graduate.

After they left, No. 10 High had started another round of expansion. The school acquired the land on the northern side of the campus, gave all the old classroom buildings a fresh coat of paint, and even installed air conditioning in the first-year classrooms that had previously had only fans.

“If the school had put air conditioning in the classrooms back when I was in first year, I wouldn’t have skipped class to go to the internet café,” Xu Yichuan laughed. “It was the air conditioning that ruined my studies.”

“……”

Song Yuan gave him a withering look. “Even if you had a built-in air conditioner in your body, you would still have skipped class.”

Xu Yichuan threw a punch at Song Yuan’s shoulder — only to let out a pained yelp himself. “Damn, what have you been eating at that police academy? Your muscles are like rocks.”

Song Yuan raised an eyebrow, looking thoroughly pleased with himself.

Lin Tao and Meng Xin both burst out laughing.

The four of them wandered around campus, eventually drifting toward the sports field.

Many residents lived nearby and would come to use the school’s field for exercise during the holidays, so it was never locked.

The red rubberized running track, the soccer posts painted white, the lights blazing like daylight — everything seemed the same as before, and yet somehow entirely different.

Once they entered the field, Xu Yichuan and Song Yuan suddenly announced they needed to use the restroom and walked off together. A moment later, Meng Xin’s phone rang and she stepped aside to take the call.

Lin Tao wandered alone along the track.

The stadium lights at No. 10 High shut off at midnight precisely — that had never changed in all these years. Tonight they even went out a little early, at barely eleven fifty-something.

With the lights out, the field fell into darkness. The light of the moon and the stars tangled together as they fell, illuminating the path ahead.

Not far away, Meng Xin’s voice on the phone came and went in fragments. Lin Tao was walking back the way she came when, in the center of the green grass field, a cluster of twinkling lights suddenly blazed to life.

Lin Tao stopped, and turned to look.

A tall, slender figure came walking out of the light and shadow, carrying a bouquet of deep crimson roses. His features were softened by the moonlight — warm, graceful, and serene.

For reasons she couldn’t quite explain, Lin Tao suddenly recalled a line she had once read in a book:

Between the light of the moon and the light of snow, you are the third kind of breathtaking.

For Lin Tao, Jiang Yan was that rare, breathtaking kind that only this world could produce.

That day, the laboratory had finished up the final stage of the project. Jiang Yan had been working straight through from the previous night until noon. After it wrapped, Professor Ji Nan took him and several senior colleagues from the lab to meet with researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences to determine the direction of their next phase.

By the time that concluded, it was already evening. Jiang Yan had his ID on him and didn’t bother going back to change his clothes. He booked a flight and headed straight for Xicheng.

His phone was nearly dead. At the airport, he only had enough battery to call Xu Yichuan and the others, arranging what amounted to a surprise that wasn’t much of a surprise.

“Just made it,” Jiang Yan breathed in relief.

Lin Tao looked at him and asked, “Made what?”

Jiang Yan took a step forward, pulled her into his arms, and looked down at her with a quiet smile. “Didn’t miss your birthday.”

They were close. Lin Tao caught a faint trace of tobacco and alcohol on him — not sharp, just barely perceptible. “You were drinking?”

“Mm.” Jiang Yan released her and held out the roses he was carrying, placing them in her arms. He raised a hand to tuck a loose strand of hair back behind her ear. “Professor Ji took us to dinner with a few researchers from the science institute this evening. I had a little.”

Lin Tao smiled. “Professor Ji is probably going to get a scolding from Instructor Lu when he gets home.”

Ji Nan had developed stomach problems in his younger years from an irregular diet. Lin Tao had heard Lu Xian mention it a few times and knew she kept a very close eye on what Ji Nan ate — no spicy food, no alcohol, no cigarettes.

Jiang Yan’s lips curved. “Professor Ji didn’t drink tonight. He knew his wife wouldn’t allow it. He didn’t touch a single drop.”

Lin Tao gave him a sideways look. “Then when I told you not to drink, why didn’t you listen to me?”

Since starting university, Jiang Yan had changed in certain ways — he would spend entire days in the lab, and when things got busy he wouldn’t even make time to eat. His stomach wasn’t in great shape these days; he’d had a bout of gastritis not too long ago.

Jiang Yan touched the tip of his nose and said evasively, “Someone had to do the drinking.”

Lin Tao gave a small sound of displeasure, looking down at the roses in her arms and running her fingers through the petals. Her mood wasn’t nearly as sour as her words made it seem.

The two of them there being affectionate drew the irritation of the three single friends who had been crouching nearby feeding mosquitoes. Xu Yichuan let out a howl. “Come on! Can you at least consider our feelings for a second?”

It was only then that Lin Tao and Jiang Yan remembered there were others present. They turned around at the same time.

The three of them got to their feet and walked over from the corner. Xu Yichuan and Song Yuan were each carrying strings of glittering, colorful fairy lights.

As the night grew later, the five of them left campus and headed straight to the internet café.

After graduation, both Jiang Yan and Guan Che had gone to university in other cities, and the day-to-day running of the café had been handed over to a few of the friends who worked there. Jiang Yan and Guan Che only stepped in when something significant came up.

Business at the café in summer was even better than usual. When the group arrived, only Zhou Ming and Zhou Yue were there, sitting behind the front counter doing homework.

After exchanging greetings, Jiang Yan led Lin Tao upstairs to a room. Before they left, Xu Yichuan and Song Yuan pressed a paper bag into Lin Tao’s hands, saying it was a gift from the two of them.

Lin Tao didn’t think much of it and carried it along with the roses to Jiang Yan’s room on the third floor.

Not long after the college entrance exams ended, Lin Tao had moved out of the internet café. The room she had previously occupied had been cleared out.

Whenever she stayed at the café now, she slept in Jiang Yan’s room. But Jiang Yan had always abided by a strict, principled restraint.

Other than sharing a bed, nothing had progressed beyond that.

On the subject of this, Lin Tao had been asked about it once, during a late-night chat in the dormitory — her roommates had wanted to know what stage she and Jiang Yan were currently at.

Three roommates who had never had the experience themselves but had a solid theoretical understanding — when they heard that the two of them were still at such an innocent stage, they were collectively unable to believe it.

After all, Jiang Yan was well over twenty. That was supposedly a peak period for a man. How could he have absolutely no inclinations at all?

As the three of them talked it through, they began to worry on Lin Tao’s behalf.

Wen Nian speculated, “Could it be that our Academic Star is all looks and no function?”

Fang Qi agreed, “Impressive on the outside, hollow within?”

Liang Yue was even more direct: “Unable to perform?”

Lin Tao immediately hurled a pillow at Liang Yue. “Shut your mouth.”

……

“What are you thinking about?” Jiang Yan came back from washing his face and sat down beside her. Seeing her in a daze, he reached out and ruffled her hair.

Lin Tao snapped back to attention and shook her head, a little guiltily. “Nothing.”

Then, as if to hide something, she leaned forward and picked up the paper bag Xu Yichuan had given her. She muttered as she worked on it, “I don’t even know what they sent.”

Jiang Yan had no curiosity about gifts. He took out his phone to reply to messages.

The bag was sealed tightly. Lin Tao grabbed a pair of scissors from the drawer to cut it open. When she lifted the flap and looked inside, the contents were square and compact, wrapped in brightly colored packaging — it wasn’t immediately obvious what they were.

“What is this?” Lin Tao muttered, reaching into the bag to pull one out.

The small print on the packaging came into view.

— Durex — Ultra-thin, refreshing, long-lasting……

Lin Tao: “……”

Jiang Yan heard her go quiet and followed her gaze. The moment he fully registered what she was holding in her hand, “……”

The atmosphere suddenly became awkward and charged.

Lin Tao held that small, flat square of packaging, not sure whether to let go or keep holding it — as if what she was holding wasn’t what it was, but a bomb.

The kind of bomb that would go off whether you let go or not.

Jiang Yan gave a quiet cough, averted his eyes with an unnatural air, reached over, and took the item along with the bag out of her hand. He stood up and set it on the desk nearby.

He stood with his back to the couch, reached up to undo a button on his shirt, and spoke in a slightly lower voice. “It’s getting late. You should go wash up first.”

Lin Tao’s face was burning, and at those words she couldn’t think of anything to say. She stood up and ducked into the bathroom at speed.

After she went in, Jiang Yan looked down at the things on the desk. He pressed his lips together with deliberate composure, then reached out and tossed the paper bag into the wastebasket by the bed.

He picked up some clothes and went to use the bathroom in Guan Che’s room.

Lin Tao, inside her bathroom, heard the sound of the door opening and closing. She splashed some cold water on her face, then went out to find clean clothes from the wardrobe — clothes she had left here previously.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the paper bag sitting in the wastebasket. The heat she had just managed to calm flared right back up. She felt a fierce urge to haul Xu Yichuan and Song Yuan over and give them both a good beating.

……

After Jiang Yan showered, he went downstairs to the private room where Xu Yichuan and Song Yuan were gaming, said not a single word, and neatly switched off both their computers.

Xu Yichuan leapt to his feet with a yell, “What the hell, man?! I was in the middle of a team fight!”

Jiang Yan looked at him. “You should be grateful I’m not throwing you both out.”

“……”

Having made his point, Jiang Yan went downstairs to grab two cold bottles of water before finally heading back to the room.

Lin Tao was standing in front of the air conditioning unit, drying her hair.

He set down the water, walked over, and adjusted the air conditioning vents upward. “Drying your hair with the air conditioning blowing straight on you — trying to get sick?”

“I wasn’t standing here for that long,” Lin Tao said, stifling a yawn. “I just came out of the shower and it was a little warm.”

Jiang Yan didn’t call her out on that. He crouched down, took the hair dryer from the drawer, and said, “Come here.”

“Okay.”

The two of them tacitly avoided bringing up what had just happened.

After he finished drying her hair, Jiang Yan put the dryer away and said, his tone even, “You sleep here tonight. I’ll go sleep in Guan Che’s room.”

Lin Tao looked at him, puzzled. She couldn’t quite figure out how he had suddenly gone from Principled to Even More Principled.

Jiang Yan felt uncomfortable under her overly candid gaze and quietly looked away, his lips pressed in a slight line. “It’s late. Go to sleep.”

Lin Tao grabbed his sleeve with quick reflexes before he could leave and asked, “Why?”

“Why what?”

She had just bathed. There was a faint, delicate fragrance about her. Jiang Yan’s breathing grew slightly unsteady.

Lin Tao gripped his sleeve, as if making up her mind about something. Her gaze held fast to his. “Jiang Yan, I’m an adult now.”

“……”

“If you wanted to do something, I wouldn’t necessarily say no.” She lowered her head. The tips of her ears were red.

Jiang Yan’s throat moved as he swallowed. He felt as though that shower had been entirely wasted.

The room had somehow grown warmer. Jiang Yan said nothing. He walked to the side and switched off the light, then turned and swept her up in his arms, lowering her onto the bed beneath him.

Pale moonlight poured in through the window.

Jiang Yan had his back to the light, his features submerged in the dark. He looked at Lin Tao, his eyes clear and bright. After a moment, he lowered his head — as if he were about to kiss her.

Lin Tao had poured every last bit of her nerve into that one sentence. Now her heart hammered like thunder, her fingers gripping tight to his cotton T-shirt.

A warm, burning kiss fell on her forehead.

The unmistakably masculine scent of him pressed close from all sides.

But after that kiss, Jiang Yan made no further moves. He had one hand cradling the back of her head, his arm propped to support his weight. His other hand traced the shape of her face.

A long moment passed. Lin Tao heard his voice — low and deep and earnest.

“I won’t deny that physical intimacy is part of love. But I don’t love you for that. What I love is you, and only you as a person. I can promise that I will love only you for the rest of my life. But I can’t promise that before we’re married, I won’t encounter something terrible — and if I truly did face something like that, I would not want you to be left in the same position my mother once faced.”

When he finished speaking, Jiang Yan lowered his head and pressed a kiss to her lips.

“Happy birthday, my darling.”