June to January… it’s already been half a year…

I had been deliberately avoiding thinking about tomorrow, but I didn’t expect this moment to come early.

Nie Xiguang, you must hold yourself together.

I quickly withdrew my gaze from that figure, walked forward proactively, put on a smile, and greeted them: “Oh, you’re all here too?”

Almost everyone was there – Boss, Boss’s husband, Xiao Feng, Si Liang, Zhuo Hui, Rong Rong…

And Zhuang Xu beside her.

For a moment, I seemed to return to the old days…

But I didn’t want to return to those old feelings at all.

I smiled brightly at them.

Unfortunately, my perfect opening was quickly ruined by Boss. With a deceived expression, she grabbed my ear and shouted, “Nie Xigua, didn’t you say you had to stay in Suzhou for overtime and couldn’t come out on the first?”

I was dizzy. Boss, when will you break this habit of pulling people’s ears when you get excited?

Xiao Feng and Si Liang also gathered around, asking questions all at once:

“Xigua, why are you here?”

“Yeah, and dressed up so beautifully, didn’t even recognize you at first.”

“You’re working in Suzhou? Boss, when did you get in touch with Xigua? Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Weren’t you studying abroad? I couldn’t reach you when I tried your number in July after changing mine.”

I answered one by one.

“I’m in Suzhou.”

“I couldn’t receive calls abroad in July.”

“I didn’t study abroad, why do you all think that? It was just a study tour, really just traveled for two months.”

“Study tour?!”

A deep, suppressed voice rang out, and everyone else suddenly fell silent.

It was Zhuang Xu.

“Yes.” I paused, and turned my gaze, finally letting it fall completely on his face, “Went with Jiang Rui.”

“Not studying abroad?” He stepped closer to me, his expression particularly gloomy, like an approaching storm, probably due to the lighting.

“N-no…”

Rong Rong suddenly stepped forward, inserting herself in front of him, smiling brightly at me: “Xiguang, why didn’t you come help decorate the wedding venue with us today?”

“I…”

She didn’t give me a chance to speak. “You really should have come to learn. I learned quite a bit, now I’ll know how to arrange things when I get married. Decorating the wedding venue is very interesting.”

How very interesting…

I smiled, “I’ve always been the laziest, you all know that.”

“Oh right, Xiguang, about what happened before, I want to apologize. I’m sorry I wronged you.” Rong Rong looked extremely sincere, “Only after entering society did I realize how precious our college friendship was. Now that I’ve found happiness, I hope you can find ‘your own’ happiness too! Don’t just watch ‘other people’s’ happiness! You need to work hard too!”

“Ye Rong!”

“Xiguang.”

Two voices rang out almost simultaneously. I turned toward the voice calling me. In the gentle snow, Lin Yusen, wearing a black coat, was walking up the steps.

At that moment, I was so grateful to him.

Grateful that he appeared so composed and elegant, so distinguished.

I turned and ran down the steps.

He stopped in surprise, watching me run up to him.

I stood before him slightly out of breath, looking up at him, but not knowing what to say, my mind in chaos.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, his tone exceptionally gentle.

I looked at him blankly, my eyes stinging. It took a while to gather my thoughts, “…I ran into some college classmates.”

He looked up at the steps, and then his gaze froze, staying still for a long while. I slowly came to my senses, and turned around, following his gaze. Zhuang Xu stood at the top of the steps, staring at us, his eyes unclear under the neon lights.

Lin Yusen suddenly took my hand.

“Your classmates? Come with me.”

I was pulled along for several steps before reacting to pull away, but as soon as I moved slightly, he gripped me even tighter.

He led me back up the steps, then released my hand with complete naturalness.

Boss and the others were all watching us, unable to hide their shock.

Xiao Feng gaped: “Xigua, you…”

Si Liang was the first to react, “Xigua, aren’t you going to introduce us?”

Introduce what…

I looked up at Lin Yusen.

“So you had such a nickname? Why didn’t you ever tell me?” He looked at me smiling, his voice as soft as the falling snow, then he turned his gaze to Si Liang and the others, showing a gentle, refined smile: “Hello, I’m Lin Yusen.”

Boss faltered for a moment.

“Haha, hello hello, we’re Xigua’s college classmates.” Then she pretended to complain to me, “Xigua, you said you had overtime and couldn’t come help, but actually you were accompanying your boyfriend! Putting love before friendship! You should have just said so, did you think I’d force you to come?”

“Don’t blame her.” Lin Yusen smiled and explained to me, “Xiguang did have to work overtime, but my friend is getting married today and insisted on meeting her, so I brought her out.”

Boss chuckled: “Oh it’s fine, I’m not really blaming her, isn’t it totally normal to put love first?”

They had completely assumed Lin Yusen was my boyfriend. I didn’t want them to misunderstand but at this moment…

I didn’t want to deny it either.

I turned to look toward the street, “Weren’t you getting the car? I don’t see it?”

Then we could leave now.

“The car is blocked by others, the traffic police can’t find the owners. I was worried you’d get anxious waiting, so I came back first.”

“Oh, can’t get it out?”

Lin Yusen checked his watch, “If we still can’t find them, I’ll call a driver to take us back to Suzhou.”

“Oh.” I nodded. Almost forgot he’s a local magnate.

“Wow!” Xiao Feng suddenly slapped my shoulder, “Xigua, you have a driver?!”

“Not mine.”

Si Liang said with a smile: “I get it, it’s your in-laws’.”

The atmosphere suddenly became lively. Xiao Feng chirped many questions about where we worked, how we met… I answered some, but Lin Yusen answered most of them.

He kept smiling, handling everything smoothly.

Amidst the noise, Rong Rong’s cold voice rang out, “Zhuang Xu, where are you going?”

Everyone fell quiet at once.

At some point, Zhuang Xu had walked down the steps alone in the snow.

“I’m going to get a taxi,” he stopped briefly, saying without turning back.

“Why go somewhere else?” Rong Rong’s voice was stiff, “Can’t you get one here? We came here because it’s easy to get taxis.”

“You can get one here.”

He threw down these words and walked down the steps, not looking at us, his figure straight and stiff.

“Stop right there.”

Rong Rong bit her lip, glanced at me, and quickly turned to chase after him.

“Well, Xigua, we should go too. Come early to the wedding tomorrow, it’s at the hotel right across the street.” After a moment of silence, Boss was the first to say goodbye.

“Okay,” I nodded, trying hard to focus all my attention on her, “See you tomorrow.”

Everyone said goodbye to us. Before leaving, Boss waved to Lin Yusen: “You should come with Xigua to my wedding tomorrow too.”

“We’ll be there,” Lin Yusen said with a smile.

After their figures completely disappeared into the night, everything suddenly seemed to quiet down, with only snow falling silently.

I turned to ask Lin Yusen: “Still can’t get the car out? I want to go back to Suzhou early.”

“What Suzhou? I’m taking you out to play.”

Huh?

He withdrew his gaze from the distance and looked at my face, “How could I bring you out happy but take you back sad?”

…

“Am I?”

He looked down at me, “You’re about to cry.”

His voice was extremely gentle, and I originally wasn’t going to cry at all, but when he said that, tears suddenly welled up in my eyes.

“So, do you want to go see night views or watch a movie? Or… if you like games we could go to one of those arcades? You know, those…”

I stared at him blankly, finding I couldn’t quite keep up with his thoughts.

He probably had never been to such places, trying very hard to describe: “Those places where you can dance, play basketball, race cars, those kinds of arcade games?”

Why did each option sound so appealing… as long as I didn’t have to go back to that lonely dormitory…

I clenched my fists, suddenly driven by impulse: “Then can we go see night views, then watch a movie, then go to the arcade?”

“Nie Xiguang…”

He suddenly laughed, pulling out his wallet from his coat and tossing it to me, “How can you be so greedy? Quick, count and see if I brought enough money.”

I must have been infected by his mood, suddenly feeling excited and thrilled, actually opening the wallet to count, then pointing across the street: “There’s a bank over there, I’ll go withdraw money. You’re too poor.”

“Not enough? There’s still quite a bit left.” Lin Yusen peered at the wallet, “I’ll go withdraw, Miss Nie, tell me how much of my money you plan to spend tonight?”

“No need, am I not more loaded than you?”

I ran down the steps with the bank card.

Cold snowflakes fell on my face, and my senses started returning a bit. I looked back at him – he was strolling behind me, and seeing me turn around, he waved at me, as if urging me to hurry and get money.

So I waved back at him and quickly ran into the bank.