Xu Sui explained somewhat embarrassedly: “Because this is my first time dating.”

So she didn’t understand anything.

The little girl’s earnest explanation was quite cute. Zhou Jingze’s thin lips curved upward slightly as he walked over and naturally took her hand, his deep voice vibrating in her ear:

“My honor.”

When they reached the bus stop, the last bus had left, leaving only a trail of exhaust fumes. Zhou Jingze finally hailed a taxi. Throughout the ride, Zhou Jingze kept holding her hand. Even sitting in the car, he didn’t let go.

The car window was half down, and the humid breeze blew in. Zhou Jingze answered a phone call with one hand, responding carelessly with “mm” and “about right,” while his other hand still didn’t release hers, unconsciously rubbing her hand with his thumb—an unintentional intimacy.

Xu Sui was so nervous that her palm started sweating. She wanted to pull her hand back to wipe off the sweat, but was afraid this tender moment would disappear, so she sat there like a well-behaved porcelain doll, letting him hold her hand.

There was road construction in front of the school, so the taxi driver dropped them off and left. Still some distance from school, Xu Sui and Zhou Jingze walked side by side on the road.

On the right side of the road were food stalls and fruit vendors that remained lively even at ten o’clock. Diagonally ahead was a fruit stand with several baskets piled high with fresh, red strawberries—each one plump, with green leaves still dotted with water droplets.

A white light bulb beside the fruit cart illuminated a nearby sign: Fresh strawberries, sweeter than first love, 15 yuan per box.

Xu Sui glanced over a couple of times as she passed, wanting to try some, but the fruit stall was surrounded by young couples from school, sweetly feeding each other strawberries.

Never mind, it was a bit embarrassing—she simply wanted to eat some strawberries.

Just then a car honked, and Zhou Jingze led her across the street. They entered the school gate together. At ten at night, there were still a dozen or so boys playing basketball on the court.

“Tsk, craving a smoke,” Zhou Jingze stopped and cleared his throat. “I’ll go buy a pack of cigarettes at the entrance. Wait here for me.”

“Okay.” Xu Sui nodded.

Xu Sui waited for about ten minutes. Only one light remained on the basketball court, with occasional cheers echoing. In the distance, she spotted Zhou Jingze walking over with a cigarette in his mouth, carrying something in his hand.

Zhou Jingze handed her a box of strawberries, his tone casual: “Bought them on the way. The strawberries are washed.”

“Wow, thank you.” Xu Sui looked delighted.

Zhou Jingze walked Xu Sui all the way back to the girls’ dormitory. Xu Sui carried the bag of strawberries, eating while chatting with him, finding them unexpectedly sweet. Near the dorm entrance, she was still eating strawberries. Looking down, she realized she’d nearly finished them all—she’d eaten them by herself.

Xu Sui bit the strawberry tip, saying somewhat embarrassedly: “Do you want some? They’re very sweet.”

She opened the white plastic bag, gesturing for him to take one. Xu Sui held a strawberry, taking small bites of the tip like a fish, her cheeks puffing in and out as the flesh was rolled into her mouth by a pink tongue. Red juice spilled from the corner of her mouth, with bits of fruit flesh still clinging there.

Zhou Jingze didn’t move, his throat suddenly itching as his gaze on her deepened. Xu Sui shook the plastic bag, puzzled: “Aren’t you eating any?”

“I am.”

Zhou Jingze gave a definitive answer while stepping forward, extending his hand to brush across the corner of her lips with extremely slow movements. Xu Sui froze completely, only feeling the roughness of his fingertip brushing past her lips. Her heart trembled as she stared at him with wide eyes, not daring to move.

Zhou Jingze withdrew his hand, and right in front of the girl, he tilted his head and licked his finger, his Adam’s apple rolling as he swallowed slowly. He raised an eyebrow with a roguish smile, as if still savoring it:

“Pretty sweet.”

His whole body pressed close to Xu Sui, his warm breath tickling her ear unbearably. Xu Sui dodged, wondering how he could perform such a suggestive action so seriously.

Xu Sui felt her face was about to explode from the heat. In the end, she fled in embarrassment, forgetting even to say goodnight to him.

That night, Xu Sui dreamed of Zhou Jingze and woke up in a sweat, covering her face in embarrassment. It was all Zhou Jingze’s fault.

Final exams ended quickly, and summer vacation arrived. Xu Sui wanted to stay in Beijing North City and called her mother to tentatively suggest her idea—staying here for the summer to find part-time work for experience.

This met with strong opposition from her mother, who asked suspiciously: “Yiyi, tell mom the truth—are you short of money or are you dating someone?”

Xu Sui’s eyelid twitched. She hadn’t expected her mother to guess right immediately. She did want to stay here because of Zhou Jingze, but she instinctively didn’t want her mother to know about this.

She stubbornly lied over the phone: “No, mom, I just want to challenge myself.”

“Then come back to Liying. I’ll find you an internship at a hospital,” her mother finally said.

Xu Sui had no choice but to drag her suitcase home after exams and intern at a hospital in Liying Town, accompanying the director on daily rounds and doing various odd jobs.

During summer vacation, they stayed in touch through their phones. When school finally resumed, Xu Sui eagerly anticipated seeing Zhou Jingze, but he seemed very busy.

When she messaged him, Zhou Jingze’s replies were as brief as possible.

Sometimes Xu Sui would stare at his responses for ages, seeing “mm,” “ate already,” and similar words, wondering if they were really dating.

It had been a week since school started, and she still hadn’t seen Zhou Jingze. Maybe she should take the initiative.

Xu Sui sat in her dorm, gathering courage to text him: 【Want to have lunch together today?】

After ten minutes, zjz replied in the chat box: 【Sure, should I come to your school? Haven’t seen you in ages.】

Seeing this response, Xu Sui smiled for the first time in a while, her dimples showing as she typed “okay” in the message box.

At 11:30 noon, under brilliant sunshine, Xu Sui waited under the banyan tree, looking left and right without seeing Zhou Jingze anywhere. Hu Qianxi had just returned from outside and spotted Xu Sui under the tree not far from the cafeteria.

Hu Qianxi waved her meal card and asked: “Sui Sui, aren’t you going to eat?”

Xu Sui shook her head: “I’m waiting for him.”

Hu Qianxi immediately understood who “him” meant—it couldn’t be anyone but Zhou Jingze.

She nodded thoughtfully, then looked puzzled: “I just came back from their school. I was looking for Sheng Nanzhou for something, but their instructor suddenly called an emergency assembly for physical training. It’s quite sudden—maybe you shouldn’t wait?”

“Hey—where are you going—” Before Hu Qianxi could finish speaking, she saw Xu Sui dash away like a wisp of smoke.

Hu Qianxi watched Xu Sui’s retreating figure and sighed: Ah, the taste of love—she wanted to try it too.

After sighing, she looked at her meal card and suddenly lost her appetite.

Why eat? Time to diet.

Xu Sui jogged all the way to Beihang. Having visited Beihang many times, she knew exactly where their training ground was.

Xu Sui arrived at the field entrance and immediately spotted a formation of green-uniformed trainees doing physical exercises.

Pretending to be an ordinary student from this school, Xu Sui calmly walked onto the field, chose a patch of grass not far from them, sat down, and secretly watched their training.

To enhance pilot physical fitness, since pilot safety is crucial in aviation, surprise training sessions by instructors were common, and students’ phones were confiscated.

This training included G-force resistance and core strength exercises. A group of young college students were currently training on flight rotation ladders and rolling apparatus for pre-test preparation. The instructor held a blue folder in his elbow, grabbed the whistle around his neck and blew it, the sound resonating:

“Attention everyone! Flight rotation ladder time limit: 14 rotations forward and backward each within one minute for passing, 20 for full marks.” The instructor bit his pen cap, scanning the group before looking at one spot. “If you can do it like Zhou Jingze, that’s excellent—he’s the standard.”

Everyone followed the instructor’s gaze, including Xu Sui. In the crisp autumn breeze, Zhou Jingze wore gray-green training short sleeves and boots, his arm lines smooth. He gripped two horizontal bars on the flight rotator, spinning rapidly while everyone counted down, his movements standard and perfect.

“56, 57, 58… 60!”

“Damn, 23! Master, are you even letting us live?”

“I’m impressed. If I went up there, I’d definitely throw up yesterday’s leftovers. I’ve been practicing so long and still get dizzy.”

“Damn, stop talking—just hearing your description makes me smell it.”

“…”

Simultaneously, the instructor pressed the stopwatch, his usually stern voice unconsciously showing admiration: “24, you miscounted by one.”

Zhou Jingze’s final test result drew groans from everyone. Zhou Jingze jumped down from the rotator, having spun over twenty times yet still maintaining his composure. He walked to the instructor and asked: “Instructor, can I test the core training first?”

Generally, for non-major strict training tests, the Flight Academy had an unwritten rule that students who passed could leave early. “Snap!” The instructor closed his folder, staring at him with interest:

“You rascal, what are you rushing off to do?”

Zhou Jingze put his hands in his pockets and lowered his head, curving his lips, about to say “to find my girl,” when he casually looked up and spotted the person he’d been thinking about sitting not far away, holding a book to hide her face while secretly watching them.

“Never mind, doesn’t matter.” Zhou Jingze chuckled lightly.

Soon, core training began. The instructor seemed to deliberately tease Zhou Jingze, specifically scheduling his assessment last. The young master didn’t mind, leaning lazily against the parallel bars with a grass stem in his mouth, chatting and laughing with others.

When it was Zhou Jingze’s turn for planks, it drew a crowd of onlookers. Zhou Jingze’s arms supported him, and with each push down, his firm muscles were clearly visible. Sweat dripped from his forehead along his sharp jawline—pure testosterone.

“34, 35, 36…” Everyone counted, getting more excited with each number.

Xu Sui quietly stepped forward two paces, impulsively taking out her phone to secretly photograph Zhou Jingze. She had focused the camera when “click!”—a blinding flash shot directly at the instructor!

Everyone: “…”

Zhou Jingze: “?”

Instructor: “…”

Everyone looked over. Several boys who had witnessed Xu Sui’s confession at the karaoke room started making “ooh” sounds with varying tones, clearly stirring up trouble.

Xu Sui stood there, her round, fair ears turning bright red with embarrassment.

The instructor spoke sternly, pointing at these troublemakers: “Who brought her? What’s going on?”

Silence fell, then a lazy voice came through. Zhou Jingze was still doing planks, his voice slightly trembling: “Me. Family member.”

The uninformed boys looked Xu Sui over, sighing: “Master, who knew you had such a well-behaved sister.”

“Be more specific—what kind of family member?” the instructor barked loudly.

Xu Sui lowered her eyes. Did she really not look like Zhou Jingze’s girlfriend? It was already hard enough to see him, and now hearing his classmates’ comments made her feel even more dejected.

Suddenly, a strong, clear voice rang out. Xu Sui’s heart trembled as she looked up. Zhou Jingze was doing push-ups, and in front of everyone, he spoke with a voice that was incredibly loud and completely frank:

“Report, instructor! My girlfriend!”