On the day Xing Wu returned, the same group went to the station to meet him, though one person he most wanted to see was missing.

After returning home and putting away his things, Li Lanfang handed Xing Wu the envelope containing three thousand two hundred yuan. She chattered beside him, explaining that this was his earnings from work, and she had asked Qing Ye to collect it. Though she had wanted Qing Ye to keep it for herself, the girl had returned it.

Xing Wu gripped the envelope, feeling its weight grow heavier in his hands until finally, he clutched it tightly, his fingertips trembling slightly.

That evening, the group took him directly to a pre-booked restaurant for a welcome-back dinner.

A month wasn’t particularly long, yet it wasn’t exactly short either. Xing Wu had grown thinner since his departure, his features more defined. His crew cut had grown out a bit, giving him a somewhat different appearance.

His brothers kept asking about his life in Shanghai, whether he’d encountered any famous opponents in the tournament, and if anything interesting had happened during the matches.

For buddies who used to hang out together daily, their reunion naturally sparked endless conversation topics. Yet everyone tactfully avoided mentioning that one name – they didn’t bring it up, and Xing Wu didn’t ask.

It was as if everything that happened here had been a dream, as if that dazzling, radiant girl had never come, and their lives had returned to their previous state, seemingly unchanged.

Yet inevitably, as bottle after bottle of alcohol was consumed, those vivid memories rippled through everyone’s hearts. She hadn’t just been here – she had subtly changed everyone around her, making it impossible for them to act as if nothing had happened, even so many days after her departure.

Huang Mao, drunk on alcohol, was the first to mention her name. He couldn’t hold it in anymore. Throughout the entire evening, seeing Xing Wu’s faint smile made Huang Mao even more uncomfortable than Xing Wu himself.

Finally, after downing half a bottle of beer in one go, he burst out cursing: “If you ask me, Qing Ye is just ungrateful, burning bridges, turning her back on us. How else could she leave without saying a word? Did we treat her badly? We all gave her our hearts, how could she do this…”

With these words, the carefully maintained atmosphere of the entire evening collapsed. The previously boisterous table suddenly fell silent, and the last trace of a smile vanished completely from Xing Wu’s face.

Pang Hu couldn’t bear to hear it and said to Huang Mao: “Don’t, don’t talk about Qing Ye like that.”

Huang Mao got fired up, throwing his beer bottle to the ground and saying, “What? Am I wrong? Never mind about us, but what about all those teachers at school? Which one didn’t look after her? They even waived her tuition fees, hoping she’d become the province’s top scorer this year. The whole county’s hopes were on her, and then she ran back to Beijing right before the college entrance exam. What kind of loyalty is that!”

Quan Ya raised his eyelids, seeing Xing Wu’s increasingly dark expression, and slightly furrowed his brows as he glared at Huang Mao. However, Huang Mao was completely drunk and continued speaking without restraint.

This time Pang Hu was truly angry. He stood up and bellowed at Huang Mao: “What’s wrong with Qing Ye? Her grades were already good before she came here, it’s not like our county made her that way. On the contrary, she helped us so much, what right do you have to talk about her like this?”

Huang Mao suddenly lowered his head and frantically scratched his hair. What right did he have to talk about her like that? He didn’t want to speak ill of her. From the first day Qing Ye arrived in this country, his life seemed to brighten up. When she smiled at him, all unpleasant things seemed to vanish. He didn’t want to speak about her this way, but he couldn’t control his emotions. He couldn’t understand, couldn’t accept it – even after so many days, he still couldn’t accept the fact that Qing Ye had suddenly left.

Finally, Xing Wu looked at Huang Mao and said in a deep voice: “Qing Ye found out about my job taking fights at Ba Dao Kou.”

Huang Mao suddenly stopped his frantic movements and looked up at Xing Wu in shock.

Xing Wu continued: “From now on if I hear anyone speaking ill of her again, I won’t be polite about it.”

Huang Mao suddenly pulled out his phone shamefully, shouting that he wanted to call Qing Ye, while repeatedly saying to Xing Wu: “Brother Wu, why don’t you call and ask Qing Ye what she means? Is she going abroad right after the college entrance exam? What about you two? Ask her!”

Xing Wu snatched his phone and slammed it on the table, seriously warning them: “This is the most crucial time for her right now. None of you are allowed to disturb her during this period, understand?”

Huang Mao, Pang Hu, and the others all lowered their heads in silence.

So until the college entrance exam, Qing Ye didn’t receive any calls from her Zha Zha Ting friends. Even the group chat Huang Mao had created fell silent. Sometimes she would self-mockingly think, had those punks forgotten about her?

Xing Wu hadn’t contacted her either. After the competition ended, he immediately asked for his phone back, intending to tell her he was coming home soon, but instead received news that she had returned to Beijing with her father.

That night, while the entire club was celebrating, he, as the main character, stood alone at the Bund facing the night wind for the entire evening. In the end, he resisted the urge to go find her.

The only contact was when he first returned to Zha Zha Ting and sent her money – one hundred and fifty thousand yuan.

This money seemed to tell her that he was home, and everything was fine.

…

Sometimes people are really strange. Someone like him, a poor student, somehow became inexplicably infected by the surrounding atmosphere in the month before the college entrance exam. Despite barely attending classes throughout his three years of high school, after returning from Shanghai, he started staying for evening self-study sessions with everyone else.

Perhaps it was because these were their final moments together, or because these were the opportunities Qing Ye had fought so hard to secure for everyone before leaving, or maybe because just sitting in the classroom made him feel her presence as if she might be quietly sitting in front of him if he just looked up.

So during this time before the college entrance exam, he also studied diligently, following along with everyone in memorizing texts and solving practice problems. When he couldn’t understand something, he would puzzle it out himself. Sometimes while thinking, Qing Ye’s voice would seem to appear in his mind. Xing Wu discovered that her voice was truly ingrained in his memory – things he thought he would never remember, he later proved he had secretly memorized many of them.

Sometimes when he couldn’t figure out a problem, after two days of pondering, he would work it out. He would even feel proud looking at characters he once couldn’t recognize. If he had spent more effort back then, perhaps he could have been good at studying too.

Although during this time he still received many calls inviting him to competitions – after this season’s tournament, the ID “Sniper King” had truly made its mark, standing out among all participating teams to become a rising star in domestic FPS events. His tournament photo also spread rapidly across the internet. He had never imagined that one day he would receive so much attention because of a photograph.

Fortunately, Xing Wu was usually low-key. Apart from his gaming accounts, he barely used social media. After industry insiders discovered he hadn’t joined any club, his phone was flooded with calls. Various clubs, both known and unknown, extended offers to him, some with conditions so tempting that even Xing Wu had to admit their appeal.

AEG Club quickly sent him a formal invitation to participate in the national competition later that year. He hadn’t given them a definite answer yet, only telling them he needed to complete his college entrance exam first.

After three years, he felt it necessary to get his graduation certificate before planning his next steps.

What made him more hesitant was that joining a club meant becoming a full-time professional player, which might mean coming home only once a year. He wasn’t ready to leave his family yet, couldn’t leave his grandmother who was still in the hospital.

According to Li Lanfang, during his absence, his grandmother’s condition became very serious, one night when she almost had a cardiac arrest. So after returning, besides going to school, Xing Wu spent most of his time by his grandmother’s side.

Perhaps there’s a mysterious bond between family members – after Xing Wu’s return, his grandmother’s condition improved slightly.

But just one week before the college entrance exam, on an ordinary morning, just as Xing Wu had arrived from home and pulled up a chair beside the hospital bed, his grandmother suddenly stared at him with a kind gaze. Although Xing Wu knew his grandmother had lost consciousness years ago, that morning, her eyes seemed to regain their former clarity, looking at him with deep affection.

He uncertainly called out: “Grandmother?”

She didn’t answer. He tried speaking to her a few more times, but still got no response.

Xing Wu finally gave up and went to find a nurse for medication. When he returned, his grandmother was gone, passing peacefully on that ordinary morning, seemingly with a smile on her face.

Even after his grandmother’s burial, Xing Wu kept thinking about that night when her heart nearly stopped while he was away. Had she been holding on just to wait for his return? Perhaps so. The doctors said his grandmother’s cerebral palsy had long since left her unable to recognize the outside world, but in his heart, he believed she could always sense his presence.

His grandmother’s sudden departure was like the final straw for Xing Wu. After the funeral, he shut himself in a hotel. He didn’t tell anyone to inform Qing Ye, nor did he want to see anyone. No one knew how he spent those days.

…

On the day of the college entrance exam, Beijing was hot. Qing Ye wore a light short-sleeved shirt. Qing Hongzhi personally drove her to the exam site. As she got out of the car and looked up at the bright sun, she wondered if it was hot in An Zi County.

Her phone suddenly vibrated in her pocket. She took it out and saw a message from Xing Wu with just two words: “Good luck!”

Qing Ye’s eyes welled up with tears as she replied: “You too.”

Then she turned off her phone and handed it to her father.

…

After the college entrance exam, many students at An Zhong returned to school for a grand book-tearing ceremony. Despite teachers repeatedly reminding them that they could sell the books for waste paper instead, everyone felt like birds being set free, wanting to mark the end of their long high school journey through this ritual.

Xing Wu remained in his seat, staring at the empty desk in front of him. Usually, no one would touch his things, but that day was so crazy they even dragged away his desk and tore up the mostly new books from his drawer.

Xing Wu found the chaotic scene gave him a headache, so he kicked back his stool, stuffed his hands in his pockets, and wandered over to the music classroom. There he caught the scent of smoke and saw Huang Mao alone on the balcony, puffing away.

Xing Wu raised an eyebrow and slowly walked toward him, suddenly shouting: “Hey!”

The shout nearly made Huang Mao burn himself. Turning to see it was Xing Wu, he immediately relaxed. Xing Wu smirked and said: “Getting bold, smoking in the teaching building now.”

Huang Mao offered the cigarette to Xing Wu, who glanced down briefly and turned away, saying flatly: “Quit.”

Huang Mao looked at him in disbelief: “Are you serious? You quit?”

Xing Wu shrugged indifferently: “In this world, there are only two kinds of things for me – things I don’t want to do, and things I decide to do.”

Huang Mao grinned at Xing Wu’s tone and suddenly laughed: “You’ve been influenced by Qing Ye.”

Xing Wu froze for a moment, belatedly realizing that what he’d just said did indeed have Qing Ye’s world-disdaining style. He lowered his head and joined in the laughter.

Huang Mao glanced at him and couldn’t help saying: “Wonder how she’s doing now? Did she perform well in the exam? Brother Wu, do you think… is she already preparing to go abroad?”

Xing Wu took his hands out of his pockets and rested them on the balcony, gazing at the distant sun on the horizon, remaining silent.

He didn’t know what was needed to study abroad, but presumably, the college entrance exam was just the beginning for Qing Ye. If she was going abroad, the preparations must be very complicated.

He sighed and turned to leave. Huang Mao watched his retreating figure and shouted: “Where are you going?”

“Home to sleep.”

From returning from the competition to preparing for the exam and then his grandmother’s sudden passing, he hadn’t had a proper rest. At the end of the exam, he suddenly felt exhausted. He crashed at home and didn’t come out again, sleeping for two whole days, regardless of day or night.

Before the exam, Xing Wu had already checked out of the hotel. The first floor of his house was finished, though the second floor’s soft furnishings weren’t complete yet. These two days after the exam, he was like dead to the world, not responding no matter how many times Li Lanfang called him to eat. Several times, Li Lanfang quietly approached him, crouching down to place her finger near his nose, worried whether her son had passed out.

He was too tired. After the sudden release of long-term physical fatigue and mental pressure, his subconscious entered a two-day recovery state.

On the morning of the third day, when Li Lanfang woke up, she was startled to see Xing Wu had already prepared a table full of dishes. She asked in surprise: “What time did you get up?”

“Four-thirty.”

“Why cook so much? The two of us can’t eat it all.”

“Bored.”

Li Lanfang couldn’t help but laugh: “If you’re bored, go check on the factory.”

“I’ll go later.”

Xing Wu and Li Lanfang sat harmoniously in the courtyard sharing breakfast, then he rode his small motorcycle through the streets to the Qing Gu Food Factory.

He parked his motorcycle in the yard and looked back at the “Qing” character in the factory’s sign. Quan Ya had recently had it redesigned, adding radiant flames around “Qing,” giving it a rather energetic feel, which he found quite appealing.

The busy day started in the morning. Xing Wu gradually familiarized himself with what Qing Ye had left behind. Sometimes he would space out looking at the notes she’d left before departing. In the days following the exam, he was basically busy from morning till night, then would return home to share a meal with Li Lanfang.

Life suddenly became very monotonous. At some point, that girl had become the light in his life – just seeing her meant life was never dull. But with her departure, he seemed to suddenly lose his direction.

Pang Hu, Fang Lei, and others were at home waiting for exam results and choosing schools, while those who had no hope of getting into school were contacting Xing Wu these days, asking if the factory needed workers. Currently, the factory only had Liu Nian, Du Qiyan, and Quan Ya, and indeed needed a fixed workforce, so this small food factory provided employment opportunities for a batch of graduating seniors.

Life always pushes people forward. Xing Wu, once a casual repairman, began seriously learning about business management.

To keep the factory running well, he visited the county bookstore these days and bought several books to study production and operation models.

But sometimes when reading became too boring, he’d fall asleep in the lounge chair. Quan Ya always laughed at him, a rough guy pretending to be cultured, asking if he could even understand what he was reading.

Whether he understood wasn’t important; he just suddenly enjoyed the process, just like how she looked countless times holding her books.

A few days later, one afternoon as the Sniper Master was dozing in the courtyard chair with a book, he heard Huang Mao’s excited shout in his dream: “Brother Wu, Brother Wu, look who’s back!”