Written before: This is a parallel story. They are not in Beijing North but attending high school in Nanjiang. There are no Xu Sui and Zhou Jingze. This is them in another world, and what Hu Qianxi always remembers is: find him.

Grain Full, and Nanjiang city was trapped in a long rainy season. Daily humidity, nightly torrential rains, clothes often couldn’t dry properly. When taken down from the clothesline, they still carried the musty smell of rainy days and needed to be dried one by one.

The ground was wet, the walls were wet. During the southern return weather, even people’s moods became damp and gloomy.

At nine in the evening, a boy stood in front of a house – very tall, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, sweatpants, and white sneakers. He carried his bag on one shoulder, looked down at his phone, and in a flood of red group messages, coldly replied “Not going.”

After sending the message, his buddies wailed in response.

At the same time, the boy’s hand emerged from his pants pocket, the black bag strap sliding down to his prominent wrist bone. He kicked open the front door with one foot – “bang.”

Inside was brightly lit but empty.

Sheng Nanzhou threw his bag onto the sofa, took out a can of ice-cold beer from the refrigerator, and sat back on the sofa. His index finger popped open the pull tab with a “click,” white foam bubbling out.

He tilted his head back to gulp some beer, his Adam’s apple rolling slowly. His gaze inadvertently fell on the coffee table where there was a note. The boy leaned down and glanced at it.

His parents had gone traveling again, taking along Sheng Yanjia, that little burden. Sheng Nanzhou didn’t need to think – Ms. Ge’s monotonous excuse requests were either that the little curly-head had athlete’s foot or lice in his hair.

His little brother was really pitiful.

Thinking of this, Sheng Nanzhou smiled and continued drinking.

After he finished showering and came out, he went upstairs while casually drying his hair with a towel tilted to one side. Downstairs on the table opposite the refrigerator, about ten toppled beer cans were piled up.

“Snap” – the orange floor lamp beside his bed turned on, spilling warmth everywhere.

Sheng Nanzhou habitually sat on the bed, opened a medicine bottle, poured out two pills, threw them in his mouth and swallowed them with difficulty, then lay down on the bed.

He’d had this insomnia problem for six or seven years, often unable to sleep entire nights, relying on medication and alcohol for very light sleep.

Ms. Ge had terrible headaches over her son’s condition. She stared at Sheng Nanzhou with a heavy tone: “My son is handsome and sunny, only seventeen, in the prime of youth. How could he have insomnia? Come on, son, do you have some secret? Tell mom about it.”

Sheng Nanzhou was playing games, his gaze never leaving the screen. Hearing this, he paused: “I do have a secret.”

“What?”

“My card has been restricted for spending.” Sheng Nanzhou said leisurely.

As soon as he finished speaking, a white pillow flew straight at the back of Sheng Nanzhou’s neck.

Sheng Nanzhou made an exaggerated pained “hiss” sound.

Sheng Yanjia was half-kneeling on the ground playing with Legos. Hearing this, he immediately shouted:

“Mom, I can answer this question! TV says this is called a heart condition. Brother definitely has someone living in his heart!”

After saying this, the little curly-head got smacked on the back of his head. Ms. Ge’s attention was diverted: “What kind of trashy TV are you watching every day!”

Mother and son bickered noisily. Sheng Nanzhou sat on the carpet and suddenly lost interest in continuing the game. The game screen showed failure, and surprisingly, he didn’t argue back but smiled.

Someone indeed lived in his heart.

Just in dreams, for many years now. She often came to find him, talked with him, and when unhappy, would play with him. In dreams, they went to many amusement parks together.

But Sheng Nanzhou could never see her face clearly.

He really wanted to meet her.

That night, she came to his dreams again. She wore a lemon yellow polka dot dress, her smile brilliant, like a light bubble that could disappear at any moment.

She led Sheng Nanzhou to a large sunflower field, and they sat on a long bench. The girl suddenly spoke: “I’m leaving.”

Sheng Nanzhou’s heart tightened as he asked: “Where are you going?”

“I don’t know.” The girl stood up.

As she was about to walk forward, Sheng Nanzhou grabbed the girl’s arm, his eyes fixed tightly on her: “Will we meet again?”

“Yes, I’ll come find you.” The girl smiled at him.

Then, Sheng Nanzhou discovered the girl before him slowly becoming ethereal, holding her wrist like gripping flowing sand – impossible to grasp no matter how hard he tried.

Large patches of golden light appeared, the person before him gradually disappearing. She looked back at him once, showing a warm smile, then vanished.

Sheng Nanzhou’s heart was slowly scraped away by a dull knife, pain spreading through his organs. The painful feeling was very intense, unable to move. This sensation was very familiar, as if he had experienced it before.

He suddenly couldn’t breathe, fragmented scenes flashing through his mind.

Hospital, white walls, oxygen mask, she was crying.

Sunny day, sunflowers, tombstone, she was smiling and saying goodbye to him.

Sheng Nanzhou desperately ran forward, trying to find her. The surrounding golden sunflower fields faded away like movie background switches, becoming endless black and white. The surroundings were desolate, and there happened to be a flower before him. He was about to approach.

Pebbles slid under his feet. Looking down – a bottomless abyss, a realm without people.

Like fragmented flashbacks, with a “boom,” Sheng Nanzhou wanted to wake from the dream but couldn’t. Finally, he actually saw a Buddha statue, the Bodhisattva with lowered brows, compassionate toward the mortal world.

His whole body fell uncontrollably.

In the moment of falling, his final thought was:

God, if possible, please let me find her first.

Another “boom” of thunder rolled across the sky, suddenly bringing torrential rain outside. Tree shadows swayed, fierce winds violently beating against the windows. Sheng Nanzhou woke from his dream gasping, breathing heavily. He knew he could emerge from that dream but didn’t open his eyes.

A tear slid from the corner of his eye.

The next day, Tuesday, surprisingly, the storm had just ceased, and after over a month of continuous rain, the sun actually came out. Oil-green leaves were washed bright by the rain, flower fragrances drifted over, birds circled on telephone poles, chirping away.

Unsurprisingly, due to not sleeping well the night before, Sheng Nanzhou skipped morning reading. When he walked into the classroom, it was noisy inside – either boys and girls bickering or someone wailing while copying homework.

Sheng Nanzhou walked to the second-to-last row seat by the aisle, shoved his black bag into the drawer, stretched out his foot to right the askew chair, plopped down, and immediately sprawled on the desk.

Several boys chatting diagonally across gave him a thumbs up, laughing: “Young Master Sheng, arriving late as you do, how do you manage to precisely hit the mark every day without getting caught?”

“Write a book, Young Master Sheng,” someone said.

Sheng Nanzhou was extremely tired, his head pillowed on his arms, his school uniform collar askew. Too lazy to lift his face, he gave the chatting boys across from him the middle finger, then drowsily fell back asleep.

The classroom was chaotic – could be described as pandemonium. Students chasing and roughhousing occasionally bumped into desks, table corners scraping the floor with sharp sounds.

The homeroom teacher had just entered with a student when a flying rag hit his face, fine chalk dust floating on his head with only sparse remaining hair.

The air froze for three seconds.

Then the classroom erupted in roof-raising laughter, wave after wave, some laughing so hard they clutched their stomachs and fell to the ground.

The homeroom teacher cursed inwardly but pretended to be calm, pulling off the rag and walking to the podium. He forcefully knocked the ruler on the desk, shouting: “What’s all this noise? Whoever’s eating hotpot during morning reading, throw it out immediately, or I’ll cook you instead! Those two boys still fighting in the corner, go back to middle school. And you, still copying homework? Think I’m blind—”

After the homeroom teacher’s intervention, the classroom obviously quieted down. He cleared his throat: “Let me announce something serious. Today we have a new transfer student from Beijing North. Come, introduce yourself to everyone.”

The girl nodded, wrote her name on the blackboard, and smiled sweetly: “Hello everyone, my name is Hu Qianxi…”

The just-quieted classroom became noisy again, especially the boys, obviously agitated, discussions rising one after another.

Someone beside pushed Sheng Nanzhou’s shoulder, voice excited: “Zhou bro, our class got a new little beauty, damn, she’s really pretty, take a look.”

“This girl looks like she stepped out of a manga, such big eyes, big-eyed beauty.”

“Looking at her temperament and looks, feels like a little princess pampered at home.”

The girls were discussing: “She looks so energetic and lively when she smiles, I want to be friends with her.”

“Her outfit is so Japanese style too, I like her skirt,” someone said.

Sheng Nanzhou originally wanted to try hard to get back into his dream to find her again, but with all the noise around him, he was half-awake and already getting angry.

“Not looking.” Sheng Nanzhou’s voice was hoarse.

“This girl looks pretty good, more beautiful than the school beauty Meng Ling who’s chasing you. Really won’t look even once?” The boy beside him pushed again.

Sheng Nanzhou lifted half his face from his arms. They thought Young Master Sheng was going to look at the new transfer student, but he just turned to face the window instead. The young master’s low, indifferent voice faintly carried impatience and coldness:

“Not interested.”

The class bell rang appropriately. The homeroom teacher symbolically knocked the podium with his ruler, pointing to a seat in the fourth group: “There’s an empty seat over there, sit there.”

Hu Qianxi looked over – it happened to be in front of Sheng Nanzhou. She nodded, the smile at her lips flying as she responded: “Okay.”

Hu Qianxi walked to her seat carrying her blue bag. The heavy bag bumped against her calves in white knee-high socks, making “pat pat” sounds that involuntarily drew gazes to her legs – well-proportioned and white, like white jade carved from thin air.

Sitting in front of the boy, for some reason, when taking books from her bag, her fingertips trembled slightly, even her heartbeat quickened.

Hu Qianxi’s deskmate looked like a very quiet, introverted girl with deer-like gentle eyes. Seeing this, she immediately helped organize the desk.

“What’s your name?” Hu Qianxi asked with a smile.

The girl pausing in wiping the desk with tissue, her voice very small: “My name is Xu Sui, you can just call me Suisui.”

Hu Qianxi’s face lit up with joy, then she earnestly explained, her voice soft: “It’s the ‘sui’ from ‘year after year.'”

Her thick, curly long eyelashes lowered, disappointment flashing by as she muttered to herself: “Just one character different.”

Xu Sui didn’t catch that, leaning over to ask: “What?”

“Nothing,” Hu Qianxi perked up again, pulling out a long strip of rainbow candy from her bag and stuffing it into her arms, voice clear: “Here, eat rainbow candy. Back in college—”

Xu Sui looked at her confused, holding the rainbow candy. Hu Qianxi sighed inwardly and changed her words with a smile: “I saw it in a TV drama – eating this candy makes us good friends.”

“Okay.” Xu Sui smiled along.

After everything was organized, Hu Qianxi propped her chin with her hand, elbow on the books, eyes wandering around. She spent the rest of the class mentally traveling to outer space.

After the class bell, the classroom returned to its chaotic state, students starting to roughhouse again. Hu Qianxi took a breath, pulling out a coconut-flavored yogurt from her bag, still with condensation clinging to it.

Hu Qianxi turned around, looking at the boy sleeping on his desk with messy hair, his whole body radiating a “don’t mess with me” rebellious aura. Her throat went dry, feeling inexplicably nervous: “Hello, I’m Hu Qianxi.”

No response.

Hu Qianxi wasn’t sure if he heard, tightening her grip on the milk box. She caught his ear twitching – so he had heard.

“Please drink this. It’ll give you a good mood all day.” Hu Qianxi placed the yogurt on his desk front, her lips curved in a gentle smile.

Soon, someone at the back door shouted: “Sheng Nanzhou, the school beauty is looking for you!”

Hu Qianxi expected this school beauty to receive the same cold treatment as herself, but unexpectedly, the boy before her slowly lifted his face, stretched his neck with a “crack,” rubbed his face with effort, didn’t even lift his eyelids, didn’t look at her once, stood up and directly pulled out his chair to walk out.

His elbow bone inadvertently knocked the yogurt on the desk. “Snap” – the milk fell to the ground. But the culprit just walked out with his hands in his pockets.

Hu Qianxi stared at the milk on the ground feeling deflated, looking up at Sheng Nanzhou’s retreating figure and cursing inwardly: “Big pig head!”

Just then Xu Sui came back from the bathroom. Hu Qianxi linked arms with her: “Deskmate, shall we go outside for some fresh air?”

“Sure.” Xu Sui was somewhat puzzled but agreed anyway.

Claiming to get fresh air in the corridor, Hu Qianxi kept staring toward the leftmost direction, seeing Sheng Nanzhou talking with a girl with waist-length hair, their shadows close together, making her eyes almost shoot fire.

Xu Sui seemed to understand something and asked: “You like Sheng Nanzhou?”

She expected Hu Qianxi to deny or be shy, but unexpectedly she admitted openly: “Yes, and I’m thinking of pursuing him.”

Xu Sui’s eyes widened. After a long while digesting this news, she kindly said: “But—”

“Sheng Nanzhou is very popular at school. He’s handsome with a good personality, everyone likes playing with him. But he’s very aloof toward girls, except for Meng Ling. She has a scar on her forehead, supposedly from getting hurt because of Sheng Nanzhou. But strangely, they’re not together, though their relationship is very good.”

“How good?”

“Put it this way – Sheng Nanzhou has a basketball team at school, and Meng Ling is the cheerleading captain.” Xu Sui said.

Hu Qianxi looked toward the two people talking. Though the boy looked impatient, he kept his head lowered listening to the girl talk. Her heart felt sour and swollen.

No one expected that in just one lunch period, Hu Qianxi and Xu Sui’s corridor conversation would spread, becoming more exaggerated as it passed – that Hu Qianxi had declared she would win Sheng Nanzhou within a month or transfer schools if she failed.

Hu Qianxi herself laughed when she heard it, but was too lazy to refute it.

A princess pursuing a knight – he should consider himself lucky. Hu Qianxi thought silently.

When this reached Sheng Nanzhou’s ears, he was playing basketball in the gym. Jiang Kai sat on the steps casually wiping sweat with a towel nearby, teasing:

“Young Master Sheng, what do you think about the little princess wanting to pursue you?”

Sheng Nanzhou leaped up, slamming the basketball into the hoop. The ball went in steadily. He lay on the floor, the ball rolling to the side. His eyelashes still had sweat on them, his voice indifferent: “No thoughts.”

Jiang Kai shrugged, saying nothing, pulling out a box of milk from his bag. He inserted the straw into the aluminum foil and was about to drink. Sheng Nanzhou walked toward the steps carrying the basketball in his left hand, glancing at the coconut-flavored milk in Jiang Kai’s hand. His gaze paused, voice lowering: “Where’d that come from?”

“Oh, this? Helped Xixi move some books this morning, she gave it to me.” Jiang Kai waved the milk at him.

For some reason, the two characters “Xixi” sounded particularly grating to Sheng Nanzhou. Seeing that milk box made him feel even more frustrated.

Without thinking, he threw the basketball in his hand, grazing the milk in Jiang Kai’s hand and hitting the wall. “Snap” – the milk fell to the ground, undrinkable.

Just as Jiang Kai was about to get angry, Sheng Nanzhou walked toward the exit without looking back, dropping a line: “Eating or not? My treat.”

“Eating!” Jiang Kai followed like a lapdog, immediately forgetting about that milk box.

Hu Qianxi didn’t really know how to pursue someone. Her pursuit of Sheng Nanzhou was also reckless and somewhat clumsy. She brought him breakfast every day, though he never ate breakfast.

She brought him water during basketball, tried to walk home with him after school. She hung around in front of him daily, even had people teach her games and homework.

Sheng Nanzhou was extremely annoyed, feeling she was like sticky gum he couldn’t shake off.

This became school-wide gossip. Others laughed at her, but Hu Qianxi acted like nothing happened, happily pursuing Sheng Nanzhou, becoming his little tail.

Until one morning when Hu Qianxi forced him to drink porridge and stained his T-shirt, then during fourth period accidentally broke a wing off the airplane model Sheng Nanzhou had finally finished.

He finally exploded, voice impatient, words filled with disgust and coldness: “Are you done? I don’t like you and never will. Please stay away from me.”

After saying this, Sheng Nanzhou immediately regretted it, because the girl who always loved to smile completely quieted down, her eyes like a little rabbit’s, slowly reddening, holding a layer of tears. His heart contracted.

“I’m sorry.” Hu Qianxi’s voice was very soft.

After saying this, she ran away.

The next day, Sheng Nanzhou’s desk received a new airplane model.

For an entire week, there was no more breakfast on Sheng Nanzhou’s desk. During class, no little head would turn around to tell jokes to cheer him up. Wherever he went, no little tail would follow behind.

Sheng Nanzhou was much quieter, but also started getting irritable. During this period, his sleep obviously improved a lot – no more insomnia, the girl in his dreams disappeared, and he dreamed of… Hu Qianxi.

Seeing her smile at other boys made him angry. Seeing her no longer seeking him out also made him feel awkward.

He thought he was being strange.

On Friday, because Hu Qianxi was called to the office, she was left alone to go home. At six in the evening, it was completely dark. Hu Qianxi came out of school with her bag and felt scared passing through the small alleys of Back Street and South Road.

School rumors were wild about this road having many perverted exhibitionists who specifically terrorized female students.

The streetlights were dim, tree shadows cast down, vague and heart-stopping. Hu Qianxi passed a pool hall and continued forward. Entering the alley, the light dimmed by half, the dark atmosphere was unnerving.

Unexpectedly, a man suddenly rushed out, smiling lewdly at her and approaching, his right hand grabbing his zipper and about to pull down.

Hu Qianxi gripped her bag straps tightly, tears immediately welling up. Just as she turned to run, a black shadow fell over her. Someone behind covered her eyes with warm hands, and long eyelashes brushed the broad palm.

“Close your eyes.” Sheng Nanzhou’s voice was clear and cold.

Hu Qianxi smelled the faint shower gel mixed with soap scent on him, inexplicably comforting, then nodded.

Sheng Nanzhou covered Hu Qianxi’s eyes with one hand while his left hand held a brick, smashing it toward the fleeing man’s calf. The empty alley echoed with a scream as the perverted man limped away even faster.

Five minutes later, Sheng Nanzhou withdrew his hand, stepped back, and spoke coolly: “Let’s go.”

Unexpectedly, the girl’s finger hooked his sleeve, pulling out a sunflower pin from her pocket and handing it to him: “Thank you.”

Sheng Nanzhou accepted it and put it in his pocket, about to leave, when the girl grabbed him again. He was forced to look down, meeting a pair of grape-like clear eyes, stunned.

Hu Qianxi looked up at him, always smiling, her tone solemn as she spoke earnestly word by word: “Let me reintroduce myself.”

“Hello, my name is Hu Qianxi. Qian is the qian from crimson red, Xi is the Xi from Princess Sissi.”