After the winter break of their senior year ended, China’s major universities received competition invitation letters sent by the organizing committee of the International Physics Championship.

Before their departure, Guo Wen, the head coach of Qingda University’s Physics Team A, was unexpectedly injured and unable to travel. In the end, it fell to team captain Jiang Yan and two assistant coaches to lead the team to Munich, Germany, for the competition.

The competition was divided into different rounds spanning ten days in total. The first five days consisted mainly of simulation matches and individual point-scoring rounds; the last five days were the team rounds. The team rounds were split into a theoretical competition and a practical competition. Teams that scored higher in the theoretical round would have the privilege of selecting their practical projects first in the later practical round.

On the day of the final individual round, it happened to be a Sunday back in China. Lin Tao watched the live broadcast of the competition at Professor Ji Nan’s home.

Exceptional people attract more attention wherever they go.

Seven out of ten times, the live broadcast camera would find its way to Jiang Yan.

The man wore a full black formal suit. His figure was tall and his shoulders broad. The boyish softness of his youth had faded from his features, replaced by something sharper and more defined — yet the gold-rimmed glasses perched on his nose added a bookish quality, making the whole of him appear refined and cultured.

Lin Tao knew that when he concentrated, he became utterly absorbed — as though the entire world held only him, and all the noise and commotion around him had nothing to do with him at all.

Back in high school, he always had the air of someone who couldn’t be bothered about anything. Lin Tao had once, for a time, assumed he was a poor student.

Later, after they had grown closer, Lin Tao learned that the material their teachers covered in class was content he had already studied in advance — and had even gone beyond — so naturally he felt no inclination to sit through it all a second time.

Now, watching the focused, intent figure on screen before her, Lin Tao couldn’t hold back a smile.

Professor Ji Nan heard the sound and turned his head toward her, his expression warm and kind. “What are you smiling at?”

Lin Tao naturally didn’t dare say something like “I think my boyfriend is incredibly handsome” in front of her teacher. She could only press her lips together and shake her head, as if nothing had happened at all. “Nothing.”

Professor Ji Nan didn’t press further. He turned his gaze back to the television.

……

The individual round ended at six in the afternoon, China time. By the close of the competition, Jiang Yan ranked second in the individual scoring event, separated from first place by a single point.

There was a six-hour time difference between Jing’an City and Munich. Lin Tao waited until evening, then estimated the time and called Jiang Yan.

When Jiang Yan received the call, he had just walked out of the competition venue. Munich’s winter was the same as Jing’an City’s — long and cold. He walked at the back of the group, carrying his own bag. As he spoke, large plumes of white breath puffed out with his words. “Haven’t you slept yet?”

“No. Are you back at the hotel?”

“On my way.”

Back in the dormitory, only Liang Yue was there, watching a video. Hearing Lin Tao answer a call, she rummaged through her drawer, pulled out her earphones, and plugged them into her tablet.

Lin Tao hadn’t heard any movement. She glanced back at her, then reached into the drawer and placed a box of chocolates on her desk, signaling that she didn’t need to put on the earphones.

Liang Yue moved her lips without making a sound. “It’s fine.”

Lin Tao smiled, said nothing more, and continued chatting on the phone with Jiang Yan. “I was at Professor Ji’s house today — we watched the live broadcast of your competition together.”

“Oh?” Jiang Yan said. “Then Professor Ji must be somewhat disappointed.”

He was actually still a little bothered by the fact that he hadn’t taken first in the individual scoring round. After all, these results would ultimately affect the team rankings.

“Professor Ji really didn’t say anything wrong.” Lin Tao smiled. “After we finished watching the competition this afternoon, he said to his wife that you would definitely assume he was disappointed in you.”

“……”

“Professor Ji is actually quite pleased. He said that since you didn’t take first in the individual round, you should aim to lead the team to win in the team rounds.” Lin Tao tore open a packet of dried strawberries and popped one into her mouth. “Besides, there is no one in this world who can do everything and never fail. Even gods have moments when they doze off.”

Jiang Yan asked, “What about you?”

Lin Tao didn’t follow. “Me, what?”

“Are you disappointed?”

“……” Lin Tao giggled. “Of course I’m disappointed. I’m truly, deeply disappointed in you — the extremely, especially disappointed kind.”

Jiang Yan was at a loss for words. He was just about to say something when he heard her change direction. “Do you think I meant every word of that?”

“No,” he said, walking forward. His footsteps left two parallel tracks in the ground.

“Jiang Yan.” She called him by name. “I’m actually quite proud.”

“Proud of what?” The bus that would take the team back was parked by the roadside. The coaches hadn’t yet come out from the competition venue. A few team members stood near the door chatting. Jiang Yan slowed his pace and finally stopped where he was, asking again, “Proud of what?”

“Proud that you’re my boyfriend.” Lin Tao was, in a rare moment, sincere. “How many championships you win has nothing to do with me. In my eyes, you are simply my boyfriend — the boyfriend I’m proud of, the one I could brag about endlessly.”

Jiang Yan smiled. They hadn’t chatted much longer when one of the team’s coaches came up from behind and clapped him on the shoulder. “Let’s go — heading back to get you all something good to eat.”

He answered, then picked up his phone again and said to Lin Tao, “Heading back. Get some rest early.”

“Alright, go on then.”

After hanging up, Jiang Yan pocketed his phone and let out a long, slow breath. He fell into step with the group, and the bus was warm and well-heated inside.

He found a seat by the window and sat down casually.

The competition had been grueling in the days leading up to this. Now that it was over and they could finally relax, the team members were exhausted. Enveloped by the warmth, drowsiness swept over them all.

The overhead lights in the bus went off. Someone murmured quietly, but the sound was soon replaced by the faint rhythm of snoring.

Jiang Yan, for his part, felt no drowsiness at all. He leaned back against his seat and watched the night scenery flash past outside the window.

His phone buzzed twice in his pocket. He reached in and pulled it out — two WeChat messages from Lin Tao.

— Good night, boyfriend. — You’ve got this, boyfriend.

……

Later, in that competition, the Chinese team ultimately still fell short by a single point’s margin, failing to claim the championship and finishing in second place.

After the competition ended, Jiang Yan was low in spirits for over half a month. This was not his first time leading a team to compete, but it was the only time he had ever failed to take the championship.

After returning from Munich, he practically lived in the laboratory around the clock. Professor Ji Nan had tried to speak with him. Lin Tao had also tried. But nothing anyone said made a difference.

Just as Lin Tao was preparing to storm into the lab and drag him out herself, he came out on his own. Other than being a little thinner, he seemed more or less unchanged.

At dusk, Lu Xian invited Lin Tao to bring Jiang Yan over for dinner, mentioning that Professor Ji Nan himself would be cooking.

After the meal, Professor Ji Nan called Jiang Yan into his study. Lin Tao and Lu Xian stayed in the living room downstairs watching the news.

Lin Tao was worried about Jiang Yan’s state of mind and kept stealing glances toward the study. Noticing this, Lu Xian peeled an orange and placed it beside her hand, smiling warmly. “Don’t worry. It’ll be fine.”

At those words, Lin Tao touched the tip of her nose, a little embarrassed. “I know.”

Lu Xian wiped her hands clean. “Now that both you and Ayan have been recommended to continue at your own school for graduate studies, do you two have any plans for this semester’s summer break?”

After midterms the previous semester, the school had announced recommended graduate-study placements for each department. Both Jiang Yan and Lin Tao had submitted their materials within their respective departments. With three years of outstanding academic performance, it was practically a foregone conclusion that they would both be accepted.

“I was in contact with Senior Brother Liang Wei before. I was planning to intern at his firm for two months over the summer.”

Liang Wei had also graduated from Qingda’s law department, several years ahead of Lin Tao. He had also been Lu Xian’s student, which meant the two of them were technically fellow disciples from the same teacher — senior brother and junior sister in the truest sense.

“Your Senior Brother Liang has become quite the gold-standard lawyer in the profession by now.” Lu Xian could not hide her delight when speaking of her prized student. “It will be good for you to go to him.”

Before they had chatted much longer, Professor Ji Nan and Jiang Yan came out of the study. The four of them sat together in the living room, finished a cup of tea, and then Lin Tao and Jiang Yan rose to leave.

On the walk back to the dormitory, the evening breeze rose and fell, carrying with it a slight chill.

Jiang Yan glanced at Lin Tao’s thin clothing and shrugged off his outer jacket, draping it over her shoulders. “Aren’t you cold?”

“I’m alright.” Lin Tao slid her arms into the sleeves and sidled up to him with a smile. “Well, even if I were cold, I’d still have you, wouldn’t I.”

Jiang Yan smiled and reached up to ruffle her hair lightly. He said in a low voice, “I’ve had you worrying about me these past weeks.”

“I actually wasn’t that worried.” Lin Tao looked at him. “Professor Ji was the one who was more concerned — he was afraid you wouldn’t pull through, and that he’d lose a fine student.”

“And you didn’t worry that I wouldn’t pull through?”

“Not at all.” Lin Tao said. “I trust you.”

He smiled softly, without a word.

“But — what did Professor Ji just say to you in there?”

“Nothing much. He was consoling me.”

Jiang Yan held her hand and walked forward. His mind drifted back to the study, to a single sentence Professor Ji Nan had said.

“In the face of failure, all living things stand equal. Your life is still long. There will be many more failures ahead — but failure is not the tragedy. Giving up is.”

……

He kept those words close to his heart.

And when his thoughts returned to the present, the road ahead seemed wider and clearer than before.

—

Every summer’s arrival means that a parting must follow.

Graduation season came, catching everyone off guard.

Of Lin Tao’s three good friends from their dormitory room, Liang Yue joined her in being recommended to continue at their school for graduate studies. Fang Qi was accepted into the law school at the University of Melbourne. Wen Nian entered one of the nation’s top law firms, stepping onto the path of professional life ahead of the other three.

Jiang Yan stayed on at the university for graduate school. Guan Che, who attended the same school as the rest of them, turned down the school’s offered placement and went into business with several senior brothers from his department, founding a gaming company.

Meng Xin, who was studying medicine, had enrolled in a direct-track combined bachelor’s and master’s program when she first applied.

Song Yuan, who had gone to the police academy, had already been placed under his school’s assignment program, interning at a district police station in Hu City during the fall semester of their senior year.

Xu Yichuan, who had been drifting abroad for four years, returned to China and went directly to join Guan Che’s new company.

Hu Hanghang, who had abandoned the college entrance examinations back in their final year of high school, had spent the years since building an impressive career. Thanks to his excellent professional qualities and his increasingly handsome looks, he had established a strong presence across music, streaming, and film. Earlier that year he had officially announced a major drama adaption, had just joined the production team a while ago, and barring any surprises, it was expected to air on a major network after the new year.

……

Each one of them was striving — just as Old Yu had once said they would — to become the person they wished to be, and working tirelessly in the fields they loved, shining in their own particular way.

……

The last day of June was Qingda’s graduation ceremony. The seating arrangement in the hall for the tassel-turning ceremony was exactly the same as it had been at the opening ceremony when they first enrolled as freshmen.

It felt as though everything had only just begun — yet stepping out the doors, they were already in the wide world.

At the opening ceremony, Jiang Yan had given a speech as a representative of the incoming students. At the graduation ceremony, he gave a speech once again as an outstanding graduating student.

Four years of time is enough to change a person.

The rough edges of youth had grown sharper and more defined. The arrogance and defiance that had once lived in his brow had faded, replaced by steadiness and wisdom. The man’s low, resonant voice carried out from the hall’s speakers and echoed through the entire auditorium.

Sitting in the audience below the stage, Liang Yue couldn’t help but sigh, “They say time is a blade that cuts us all — but the way I see it, for your Jiang classmate, that blade must have turned into a beauty tool.”

Lin Tao: “……”

After Jiang Yan’s speech as the school’s outstanding graduate concluded, it was time for the outstanding graduates of each college to take the stage. Lin Tao represented the law faculty. Guan Che represented the computer science faculty.

After the tassel-turning ceremony, it was time for each department to take their group photographs.

The location for the group photos had been the same for ten years without change — always in front of the library.

Lin Tao and Jiang Yan stood to one side talking. A classmate photographed the two of them and posted the picture on the school forum. A talented, handsome man and a beautiful young woman — it stirred up lively discussion for a time.

……

Lin Tao only came across that photo on the forum after the graduation ceremony had ended.

She and Jiang Yan stood before the green lawn in front of the library. Behind them stretched a dense expanse of trees, and against the wide open sky above, the heavens were a clear and brilliant blue. The trace of the wind passing through was unmistakably clear.

Jiang Yan, half-turned toward the lens, leaned lazily against a nearby tree. He wore a black graduation robe, and his striking looks were impossible to conceal. Before him stood Lin Tao in her matching robe. No one could quite tell what the two of them had been saying to each other, but they were smiling at one another, and Jiang Yan had reached up to tuck a few loose strands of her hair back behind her ear.

The image was captured in that single instant.

Beautiful and tender.

After their class group photo, Lin Tao and Jiang Yan took many more pictures together — yet of all of them, it was this one unplanned, accidental shot that she liked most.

She saved the photo on her phone, then posted it to the forum thread that had once been updated countless times — her thread about pursuing her crush. Alongside the photo, she left two lines.

— The seventh summer of knowing Jiang classmate. — I hope we have many more summers to come.