Compared to his tone on the phone, these two messages were the real Lu Rangchen.

Overbearing, arrogant — light and reckless.

Yunque’s thoughts flickered — a feeling she’d never experienced before rose up.

Like the nervous tension of being quietly, tentatively caught by him, or the shy flustering of being noticed and teased by him.

She typed slowly: 【It’s your phone’s earpiece that’s bad — I was speaking perfectly loudly.】

That answer seemed rather uninteresting.

Lu Rangchen took a while before replying: 【Leave the thing here for now. I’ll pick it up from you tomorrow.】

His tone held no more ambiguity.

Yunque pressed her lips together and said okay.

She thought the conversation was over, but after quite a long pause, Lu Rangchen said: 【Send me your phone number. I’ll save it.】

Yunque’s hand — which had been reaching for a practice workbook — paused. Her heart felt like a balloon he had just set loose, floating erratically, up and down.

After a brief pause, she confirmed with him: 【Did you send that to the wrong person?】

Lu Rangchen: 【……】

Lu Rangchen: 【Yunque, you really have a talent for being infuriating.】

No punctuation — yet even through the screen, the exasperated disbelief in his voice came through clearly.

Yunque startled.

A few seconds later, she couldn’t hold back a laugh, and sent him her number.

At the same time, Lu Rangchen sent her his number.

And just like that, their conversation truly came to an end.

Yunque saved that number in her phone contacts, thought about it for a long time, and gave him a unique nickname — “One Hundred Yuan.”

Looking at those three characters, the corner of her mouth curved once more.

She wondered — if he ever found out someday, what would his reaction be?

……

The next day was Monday.

Yunque woke up unusually early.

As usual she showered, blow-dried her hair, put on her school uniform, and ate breakfast with Feng Yanlai. The only thing out of the ordinary was that before leaving the house, she actually applied a little lip balm for once.

That small gesture was mercilessly caught by Xu Linda, whom she ran into on the way to school.

Xu Linda was the only person who knew what had happened between Yunque and Lu Rangchen the previous day. She gave her a meaningful little shove. “Sounds like the date with Lu Rangchen went pretty well yesterday.”

Yunque was so embarrassed she couldn’t even begin to explain herself, and could only give Xu Linda a look.

Xu Linda giggled, and the two of them walked into the classroom arm in arm.

The class bell rang soon after.

On Monday, the students were all sluggish. Even a perfectly good morning class would have everyone half-asleep at their desks.

Yunque was wide awake.

She planned to go find Lu Rangchen during the break and return the bracelet. But the moment the bell rang, Zheng Guoxiong appeared in the classroom doorway, asking Pang Shuo and the boy sitting diagonally behind him to swap seats.

That boy was Zhao Qijia.

Zhao Qijia looked at Yunque in surprise. “You did it, Yunque — you won!”

The noisy classroom suddenly went quiet.

Everyone turned toward the first row, startled — even Gaoge’s eyes were full of surprise.

Xu Linda didn’t even bother going to the bathroom anymore; she blinked and leaned in to pester Zheng Guoxiong — asking was it for real?

Zheng Guoxiong looked at her with disdain. “What would I have to gain from making it up? I’m not going senile.”

With thinly veiled exasperation, he slanted a look at Pang Shuo. “You scored nearly fifty points less than her. How did that even happen.”

Pang Shuo, having been thoroughly dressed down, had lost all fight. He looked like an eggplant wilted by frost.

Having said what needed to be said, Zheng Guoxiong turned and left.

Xu Linda let out a whoop and threw her arms around Yunque. “Congratulations, my Yunque! Let’s see who dares talk trash behind your back and say you cheated now!”

The girl’s tone was triumphant, as if she wanted every single person in the room to hear it.

Yunque was stunned.

She genuinely hadn’t expected the results to be announced this quickly — and even more unexpected was that Zheng Guoxiong had already decided who her new deskmate would be.

And because of the seat rearrangement, Yunque couldn’t slip out to find Lu Rangchen during the break after morning class at all.

Zhao Qijia’s seat in the first row was a bit elevated.

To avoid blocking the girls behind them, he and Yunque had to trade spots.

So the three of them spent the entire break shuffling around.

It was also because of this that Yunque’s reputation spread quickly through the second year — word going around that Class B had produced a female academic legend who, by her own efforts alone, had cleared her name of a false “cheating” accusation.

All in all: genuinely impressive, and genuinely bold. And genuinely pretty too.

Some even said that, on looks alone, Yunque was in no way inferior to Gaoge. She just had too low a presence, and never dressed up.

Yunque never actually heard these things said to her face.

She was simply aware that after the first period ended, an inexplicably higher number of people started drifting around outside Class B’s door.

She didn’t pay it any attention — her heart was set only on returning the bracelet to Lu Rangchen.

But when she got to Class A and ran into Zhou Chuang, she found out Lu Rangchen hadn’t come in today.

Yunque’s heart sank a couple of notches. “Is he sick?”

Zhou Chuang shrugged. “No idea. He didn’t show up today out of nowhere. I don’t know what’s going on — sent him WeChat, no reply. Called him, couldn’t get through.”

Zhou Chuang saw that she looked a little disappointed, and asked kindly, “Did you need him for something? I can pass a message along if you want.”

Yunque could absolutely have asked him to hand it over for her.

After all, it was just a bracelet in a box — it didn’t matter who held it.

But she just… didn’t want to.

Yunque gripped the box in her hand, and with quiet, private stubbornness shook her head. “It’s nothing. I’ll wait until he’s back.”

Back in the classroom.

Yunque powered on her phone and sent Lu Rangchen a message, asking why he hadn’t come in.

The result was the same as Zhou Chuang.

Three classes passed, and Lu Rangchen hadn’t replied to a single message.

Not even when Xu Linda made noise in the small group chat about Yunque’s win over Pang Shuo did he appear.

Yunque asked Xu Linda to help check with Deng Zhe. Deng Zhe gave a quick answer back, saying he had no idea where Lu Rangchen had gone either.

Looking at the group conversation.

Yunque couldn’t help typing: 【Is he maybe sick?】

She had already prepared herself to be teased when she sent those words.

But Deng Zhe was unconcerned: 【Possibly, though that guy’s got a constitution like iron. He doesn’t really get sick.】

Zhou Chuang spoke up at that moment: 【Lin Zhinian just came to look for him too — said she’d messaged and called and couldn’t reach him either.】

Xu Linda: 【God, this girl is really dedicated.】

Deng Zhe: 【She’s not the only one who’s dedicated to him. There are a lot of people. You gonna be outraged at all of them?】

Xu Linda: 【You wouldn’t understand.】

Yunque watched the two of them bicker, her mood an indeterminate mix of emotions.

She couldn’t say whether it was because Lin Zhinian was also looking for him, or whether she was privately relieved that Lin Zhinian couldn’t reach him either.

Zhao Qijia came back just then, holding a half-finished bottle of water, and snapped his fingers in front of her face. “Hey, what are you spacing out for?”

“……”

Yunque came back to herself and looked at him.

Zhao Qijia had a bright, open-natured smile; there was a faint dimple at the corner of his mouth, and he had a certain handsome quality.

A type that was completely different from Lu Rangchen.

The kind of warmth he radiated, like being in spring sunshine, lifted the stifling weight in Yunque’s chest, just a little. She curved her lips in a small smile. “I was thinking about what the next teacher is going to cover.”

With that, she took out the textbook for next class.

Hearing her say so, Zhao Qijia followed along and started looking for his.

Perhaps there really was such a thing as people whose energy complemented each other.

Yunque inexplicably felt that the atmosphere between them was far more relaxed than when she’d been sitting with Pang Shuo.

Of course, she didn’t know whether Zhao Qijia would have any complaints — the seat directly below the podium was, after all, a fairly precarious position.

At that moment, her phone buzzed again.

In the group, Deng Zhe asked who her new deskmate was, and whether she found him easy on the eyes.

Yunque paused, hadn’t even had a chance to reply, when Xu Linda suddenly jumped in.

She blurted in the group: 【Zhao Qijia — honestly the most presentable boy in our class.】

Seeing that.

Yunque first blinked in surprise, then couldn’t help glancing over at Zhao Qijia.

It was the first time she’d found herself in a situation where the person being gossiped about was sitting right next to her.

Zhao Qijia noticed her looking and said, “What are you staring at — do I have something on my face?”

“Nothing.”

Yunque shook her head. The thin shells of her ears almost seemed to let the light through in the sunlight.

Zhao Qijia looked at her without meaning to — a beat longer than necessary — then absent-mindedly scratched the back of his head and laughed to himself.

Yunque lowered her gaze back to the group chat.

Xu Linda had already started talking up Zhao Qijia’s personality and character.

The short version: an easygoing, decent-looking boy with a good temper, who had always gotten along well with Yunque anyway — no way he’d give her a hard time.

Deng Zhe replied that sounded about right.

But Zhou Chuang, with that endlessly provocative mouth of his, said: 【The way you’re describing it, I kind of feel like he and Yunque make a pretty good match???】

That was unexpected.

So unexpected that Yunque nearly choked.

In the group chat, Xu Linda and Deng Zhe both responded with a long string of ellipses, in perfect unison.

And it was in that exquisitely awkward moment.

That Yunque typed into the chat box: “stop making things up.”

But before she could send it, another message slipped in ahead of it.

A second later.

Lu Rangchen: 【Who says they match.】

The three characters arrived out of nowhere, with no context.

It took a good few seconds before the group chat came back to life, like embers suddenly reignited.

Deng Zhe: 【What the hell.】

Zhou Chuang: 【You’re alive???】

Xu Linda: 【??? Lu Rangchen where did you disappear to — we were worried sick about you.】

Three of them, sincerely and dramatically, chirping like a trio of magpies.

Only Yunque sat there, blindsided into a daze.

She found it very hard to describe what she felt in that moment.

Only that if she were a cat, in that one second, her drooping tail would certainly have shot straight up, entirely because of him.

After a brief moment of stunned silence.

She deleted what she’d been typing and wrote instead: 【Why didn’t you come to school? Are you sick?】

It seemed she was born slightly slower at typing than everyone else.

This time, too, before she finished, Lu Rangchen had already gotten there first.

Lu Rangchen: 【The one who lost to me by three points in that basketball match?】

Yunque’s fingertip stilled.

Several seconds passed before she understood — Lu Rangchen’s attention was still on Zhao Qijia.

In that basketball game, Zhao Qijia really had lost to Lu Rangchen by three points.

Deng Zhe genuinely hadn’t expected him to be this fixated on it, and teased him outright: 【You care about Yunque — you don’t have to be this obvious about it.】

Zhou Chuang added: 【Exactly, exactly. Guys shouldn’t be this competitive.】

Xu Linda: 【Wow, Lu Rangchen, you really are the worst — so focused on making Yunque your priority you can’t even spare a thought for your friends who were worried about you. I’m heartbroken.】

“……”

Yunque’s face went red, and she finally fired off a string of ellipses into the group.

She didn’t quite believe Lu Rangchen actually cared about her that much.

More than anything, she felt she had become the group’s favourite object of collective teasing.

As expected, Lu Rangchen was completely unfazed by his friends’ suggestive ribbing — as though he’d long been immune: 【She’s my little sister. Of course I look out for her.】

Deng Zhe: 【Oh my god hahahaha you’re something else.】

Zhou Chuang: 【Your little sister! She’s everyone’s little Yunque!】

Xu Linda: 【Iconic — I’m screenshotting this.】

Yunque, utterly without dignity, sent another string of ellipses into the fray.

Lu Rangchen, for his part, had no interest in bickering with those noisy, useless people. He moved straight to a private chat with Yunque.

Lu Rangchen: 【Something came up suddenly this morning — I had to go back to the capital.】

The message landed with a thud against Yunque’s chest.

She understood immediately.

Yunque: 【So you were on a plane — that’s why calls wouldn’t go through?】

Lu Rangchen, typing for a few seconds: 【You tried calling me?】

Yunque: 【……No.】

After a pause, Yunque wrote: 【They said Lin Zhinian tried calling — and couldn’t get through.】

After sending it, Yunque felt the tips of her ears burn, and deeply despised her own petty little motive.

But Lu Rangchen said: 【Oh. That was on purpose.】

Her fingertip stilled. Yunque: 【……】

All at once she wanted very badly to ask — what if it had been her calling?

If it had been her calling, would Lu Rangchen have done the same — let it go unanswered?

But at seventeen, she didn’t have that kind of courage.

At seventeen, Yunque only had the courage to say: 【When are you coming back then — the bracelet is still with me.】

Lu Rangchen: 【Leave it there for now. I can’t come back for a while.】

Yunque was mildly startled: 【Why?】

Lu Rangchen: 【My grandmother had a sudden heart attack. I need to stay and be with her for a while.】

Yunque: 【……】

Yunque: 【Is grandmother alright?】

Lu Rangchen: 【She’s out of danger.】

That heavy, stifling feeling crept back into her chest.

Yunque didn’t know whether she was feeling it along with Lu Rangchen, or whether it was just her — but she felt an inexplicable, shared sadness.

Yunque: 【Then stay with her.】

Lu Rangchen: 【Mm.】

After a few seconds, he added: 【Please take good care of the bracelet for me.】

Yunque stared at that line, and something like a gentle, quiet comfort settled in her chest. She finally let herself smile.

She said: 【Okay.】

—

The news of Lu Rangchen having returned to the capital spread quickly through the school, carried along by the late-arriving winter of Nancheng.

Xu Linda said that Lin Zhinian had been remarkably quiet lately — barely seen venturing up to the upper floors anymore.

The usual steady stream of visitors at Class A’s doorway had thinned considerably as well.

Yunque didn’t feel much of that on a day-to-day level at school.

But once she knew Lu Rangchen had gone back to the capital, her heart settled into a strange, inexplicable calm — she cared even less than before about anything happening around her.

That was at school, though.

In private, she still followed the small group chat, waiting for Lu Rangchen to appear and say a few words.

In reality, Lu Rangchen showed up in the chat quite infrequently.

And when he did, he’d only lazily toss out a single line.

Otherwise he’d get dragged into the League of Legends games Xu Linda and Deng Zhe were playing.

It was nearly impossible for Yunque to get a real, private conversation with him.

So every time she saw Xu Linda posting match results, Yunque would feel a pang of envy — and yet every time Xu Linda urged her to learn to play, she refused without hesitation.

Gaming took up too much time, and besides — playing with Lu Rangchen — with the final exams approaching, Yunque wasn’t willing to let it affect her grades.

Xu Linda was in awe of what she called Yunque’s willpower, and declared that Yunque must have kicked some very serious habit in her past life.

But the truth wasn’t quite like that.

Yunque wasn’t nearly as rational as Xu Linda believed.

She just had a habit of hiding her feelings, a habit of quietly missing someone all on her own.

The diary with Lu Rangchen’s hundred yuan tucked inside had, without her noticing, transformed into her “scrapbook.”

She would record, in writing, each fragment of memory that touched on Lu Rangchen, no matter how small.

She would also print out photos she’d found of him from various sources and paste them into the diary.

Like a photo she’d spotted of Lu Rangchen in Deng Zhe’s Moments.

Like Lu Rangchen — his figure slightly blurred — in the tennis team’s group photograph.

And like the photos she’d quietly taken from Cheng Liru’s Moments by sneaking onto Feng Yanlai’s phone.

On lucky days, she’d manage to steal a photo of him.

It seemed as though youth always required a certain handful of meaningless, unspeakable little secrets — something to sustain the spirit.

In the days of Lu Rangchen’s “absence,” making the scrapbook became the one pleasure Yunque allowed herself, to numb herself against the exhaustion of studying.

Before long, December arrived.

The first snow of winter fell on Nancheng. Yunque’s birthday was drawing near.

It was December 29th — the day before her birthday.

The snow was white and thick.

All of Nancheng No. 3 Middle School was submerged in an inexplicably romantic atmosphere.

To let the students relax, the morning group exercises that day were replaced with free time.

After the second period, Xu Linda pulled Yunque outside to have a snowball fight.

Just by chance, on the sports field they ran into Zhao Qijia and another boy from the class. The four of them knew each other well enough that they simply joined forces on the spot.

After a few rounds of snowballs.

Zhao Qijia happened to overhear Xu Linda mentioning the plans for Yunque’s birthday the next day, and stared at her in surprise. “You’re a Capricorn.”

Yunque was wearing a white short-puffer jacket with a white hat, her nose flushed pink from the cold, looking just like a soft little glutinous rice ball.

She nodded. “Doesn’t seem like it?”

Zhao Qijia: “It really really does.”

He grinned. “Anyway, one look at your temper and it’s textbook Capricorn.”

Yunque didn’t take that as any kind of compliment — since the internet’s general description of Capricorn was awkward and conservative, socially withdrawn and solitary.

A little tired, she called over to Xu Linda to head back to the classroom.

Zhao Qijia and his friend followed them in as well, the boy taking the steps two at a time, laughing and asking her, “Don’t you want to know what my star sign is?”

Yunque glanced at him.

Giving Zhao Qijia the courtesy of asking, given he was her deskmate, she asked, “What’s your star sign?”

Zhao Qijia laughed — and suddenly looked just a little bashful.

Behind them, Xu Linda’s composure finally broke. She blurted out, “You two go ahead — I’m going to find Deng Zhe.”

And with that, she was gone like a gust of wind, heading off in the direction of Class C.

Yunque guessed she’d probably had another argument with Deng Zhe, and said nothing.

She turned and walked up to the third floor with Zhao Qijia.

Zhao Qijia said, “This Xu Linda really is here one moment and gone the next.”

Yunque changed the subject. “You still haven’t said what your star sign is.”

“Me?” Zhao Qijia, finally getting her attention, smiled widely, “Virgo.”

The word landed, and Yunque very nearly choked.

All at once she understood why he had suddenly turned sheepish.

They reached the third floor. Yunque found herself involuntarily smiling — she was just about to say something to Zhao Qijia when, without meaning to, her eye caught a familiar, leisurely, tall silhouette at Class A’s doorway.

He was too tall — standing there, slouched and casual, he still managed to be more conspicuous than everyone else.

And with that particular reckless, unrestrained edge about him, his presence felt all the more dense and insistent.

Not to mention that face of his — the kind that snared girls’ attention — made his presence inescapable.

Even half-drifting at the edge of a cluster of boys, he shone like a cold moon high above a mountain ridge.

Perhaps sensing the gaze directed at him, Yunque’s heart gave an unsteady lurch, and her footsteps faltered to a stop.

Her chest seemed emptied of oxygen, her breathing suddenly tight.

She looked up — and straight into Lu Rangchen’s gaze.

The boy was in a soft white turtleneck sweater and loose jeans, hands casually in his pockets, thin eyelids lowered in a manner that appeared unhurried and without intent — yet they were aimed at her with unerring precision.

The other boys around him chattered and joked.

He showed no interest in joining in — half a moment’s worth, unblinking, fixed on Yunque.

She couldn’t say for certain — but it wasn’t her imagination.

Yunque felt that his gaze at this moment held something she couldn’t quite name. Something not entirely innocent, almost as though he was demanding an answer from her, pressing her for an explanation.

But… an explanation for what?

Yunque felt a brief moment of confusion.

She moved her lips, meaning to call out to him.

But just then, the class bell rang.

Lu Rangchen, with the nonchalance of someone to whom nothing had happened, withdrew his gaze, expression blank, straightened up, and turned back into the classroom.

Looking at his unhurried, drifting back, Yunque once again experienced that hollow, drifting feeling.

It was Zhao Qijia who called her name. “What are you standing there for? Come on in.”

Yunque pressed her lips together and came back to herself, turning to go into the classroom.

Back in her seat, she mechanically took off her hat and gloves, shrugged out of her coat, hung it on the back of the chair, and sat there blankly for a few seconds for no particular reason.

Then — two quick vibrations from her phone.

Yunque’s brow furrowed slightly, and she looked down at her phone.

No matter what she had imagined, she hadn’t imagined that the one who had sent the message would be him.

Lu Rangchen sent her a smiling emoji first.

The next second.

Lu Rangchen: 【Already forgot who I am?】