◎Milk Foam on Coffee◎

Ding Ruowei didn’t quite understand why, just as she had followed Tong Yue out of the classroom, the other girl suddenly made a 180-degree turn and used the chair she was carrying to push her back inch by inch into the doorframe.

And urgently urged: “Go back, go back! No need to get chairs anymore, put it back quickly! Hurry!”

Ding Ruowei: “What’s going on?”

Tong Yue smiled subtly: “A tall boy from the science class is helping with the wiping.”

“Who?” Ding Ruowei was about to crane her neck to see what was happening.

Tong Yue pulled her back: “A kind-hearted person who wishes to remain anonymous.”

Ding Ruowei: “?”

The two girls returned empty-handed. Tong Yue took the lead, stopping at a distance to hold her forehead and gaze: “Chun Zao, how did our blackboard become so clean in just this short while?”

Chun Zao replied vaguely: “…Someone passing by helped wipe it.”

“Oh?” Tong Yue jogged over, hooking arms around shoulders: “I thought you had flown up to wipe it.”

Chun Zao: “…”

Her eye twitched slightly as she brushed off Tong Yue’s arm and continued dealing with the paint residue on the blackboard.

Tong Yue sidled up to her like a crab, nudging her shoulder with giggles: “Hehe, I did sit-ups again.”

“What?” She often blurted out vocabulary that Chun Zao couldn’t understand at all.

Tong Yue’s eyebrows danced on her face: “This CP fan did sit-ups again.”

Chun Zao looked sideways with vigilance: “You saw?”

“You two were all lovey-dovey in front of the blackboard; it was hard not to see.”

Chun Zao’s tone immediately became urgent: “Who was lovey-dovey?”

“Okay, okay—” Tong Yue smoothed her wrinkled emotions: “It was me, I was lovey-dovey, me and Ding Ruowei were lovey-dovey.”

Ding Ruowei, who vaguely heard her name mentioned, interjected: “What are you whispering about?”

Tong Yue looked at her: “Secretly discussing how to leave the most work for Ding Ruowei.”

Ding Ruowei laughed and shouted “Scram,” casually throwing a dirty rag at her.

Tong Yue nimbly dodged, and the rag hit Chun Zao’s elbow squarely.

Ding Ruowei quickly raised her hand with a bitter smile, apologizing while going to pick it up.

Chun Zao hurriedly said, “It’s okay,” picking it up first and returning it to her.

Coming out of the girls’ restroom after washing their hands clean, the evening self-study bell rang just in time. The three girls looked at each other and frantically sprinted toward the classroom.

The girls’ sweet voices scattered in the corridor like fragrant bait, attracting many boys from Classes One and Two to look up and search.

Yuan Ye’s deskmate also raised his head high.

“Which class are they from, running so wildly?” Though he said this, his eyes were glued to those three light blue and white figures, not moving away for a moment until they completely disappeared from view.

The freely spinning triangular ballpoint pen was stopped between Yuan Ye’s fingers.

The boy half-lifted his eyelids, also glancing at the now-empty window, curving the corners of his mouth slightly.

—

The first class was an English pop quiz.

English was Chun Zao’s strong subject. In regular exams, she could usually finish the entire paper half an hour early, and these relatively simple pop quizzes were even easier.

After finishing the essay, Chun Zao raised her hand to check her wristwatch. With half the time remaining until class ended, she carefully reviewed once, confirmed there were no errors or omissions, then began to rest her chin on her hand and daydream, letting her thoughts wander freely.

As for her other idle hand, it held a pen, aimlessly scribbling on the scratch paper.

She didn’t know how much time had passed when the dismissal bell scattered the “dove square” in her mind. The class became lively, and the English teacher stood up, calling for group leaders to collect papers. Chun Zao hurriedly closed her test booklet and handed it out, then lowered her eyes to tidy up the desk in front of her.

Her gaze fell on the scratch pad in the upper right corner.

Chun Zao was stunned.

The originally blank page had been unconsciously covered with countless circles by her, like excessive milk foam on coffee, constantly threatening to overflow the cup’s surface.

Why had she drawn so many circles?

Circles…

A name surfaced accordingly.

All the bubbles seemed to start bursting.

Chun Zao hurriedly flipped that paper over, pulled out a larger textbook to completely cover it, then calmed down before leaving her seat.

Along the way, she didn’t forget to drag Tong Yue with her.

“What for…” Tong Yue shoved a magazine deep into her desk: “I still wanted to look at handsome guys during break.”

“Help me deliver this notebook.” Chun Zao used both coercion and temptation: “I’ll buy you a drink tomorrow.”

“Fine.” Tong Yue agreed reluctantly.

Coming out of the office, without the heavy test booklet in her hands and no barrier across her chest, Chun Zao urgently needed to eliminate or transfer the strange, heavy emotions, so she looked at Tong Yue: “Let me ask you something. Yuan Ye lent me a phone card and didn’t charge me money. I promised to treat him to dinner to express thanks. When do you think would be appropriate?”

She added in her heart: Of course, the sooner the better, the faster the better.

Once the meal was done.

Her debt to Yuan Ye could be completely written off, and she wouldn’t have to keep this matter on her mind, thus achieving complete liberation and relaxation.

All the strange emotions… would surely disappear along with it.

Yes, absolutely.

Chun Zao affirmed to herself.

“You guys made dinner plans? Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” Tong Yue made dissatisfied grumbling sounds.

Chun Zao looked at her sideways: “Because we haven’t set a time yet.”

This is Schrödinger’s dinner, who knew when it would happen.

But now it was different—it had to be realized as soon as possible.

Tong Yue fell silent, propped her chin for a while, then said worriedly: “This is a very important and serious question. Let me think about it carefully during the next class and tell you after school.”

Chun Zao thought this made sense and nodded: “Okay, then I’ll wait for your suggestion.”

The emotion-transfer method was indeed remarkably effective.

During the second evening self-study period, Chun Zao was completely focused, thinking about nothing else, working on problems with complete concentration, not hearing anything outside the window. As soon as she finished packing her bag after class, she went to block Tong Yue at her seat.

“Why aren’t you saying anything? Have you decided?” Chun Zao asked quietly, following her friend who was pretending to be deep in thought as they walked out of the classroom.

Tong Yue stopped, turned to look at her: “I have thought it through…” Then another pause: “It’s just…”

Chun Zao frowned: “What?”

As soon as she finished speaking, her arm was suddenly gripped tightly by two hands and pulled forward without explanation.

Tong Yue shouted “Excuse me, excuse me!” not caring if she might bump into people, pulling her along like an out-of-control wild boar, charging forward until they screeched to a halt at the front door of Class One.

Both girls were panting.

Tong Yue had a mischievous smile, poking her head inside. Students coming out would all give her extra glances and step aside to let her pass.

Chun Zao realized what was happening and turned to flee, but Tong Yue caught her backpack strap.

“Hey? Don’t run,” Tong Yue pulled her back, gripping tightly, her gaze locked dead on the classroom interior. Spotting her target, she waved and called: “Yuan Ye—”

Hearing the name, Chun Zao felt a subtle but rapidly expanding burning sensation on her face.

The boy who had just walked to a row of desks slowed his pace, exchanged glances with a nearby classmate, then quickened his steps to come over.

“Is there something?” He stopped at the doorway, eyes shifting to catch sight of Chun Zao behind Tong Yue.

The girl stood quietly by the wall where the lighting wasn’t good, not looking in this direction, her expression somewhat inscrutable.

But he could sense she wasn’t quite comfortable.

Tong Yue was about to speak: “It’s just…”

“We seem to be blocking the door,” Yuan Ye gently interrupted her: “Let’s talk while walking.”

“Oh, right.” Tong Yue just noticed.

The three walked out of the corridor, coming to the spacious camphor tree avenue.

As the surrounding environment darkened, Tong Yue became even more unrestrained: “Chun Zao told me she borrowed your card and asked me when it would be appropriate to treat you to dinner to express thanks. I thought, why choose another day when today is perfect? Besides, you live together anyway, so after eating dinner together, you can go home together. How perfect is that?”

Hey! The eavesdropping girl straightened her spine. I didn’t tell you this so you could spill everything word for word, did I?

Yuan Ye tilted his upper body slightly, his gaze going past Tong Yue to find Chun Zao: “You want to treat me today?”

Chun Zao steeled herself to explain: “…I originally wanted to wait for you to let me know, but…”

“Isn’t today good? The weather is so nice, the air is so good,” Tong Yue looked at the trees, then at the sky, making the final decision: “On such a good day, how can we waste it?”

After finishing her speech, the girl who had initially been in the center, walking at an even pace alongside them, suddenly began backing away.

Meanwhile, the two on either side had unconsciously walked several more steps.

Discovering someone was missing beside her, Chun Zao immediately turned to look, only to find the other person already waving brilliantly from not far away: “Then I’ll go first! You two eat and drink well! I still have a ton of homework to write at home! Bye-bye—”

After saying this, she ran off like smoke in the opposite direction.

Chun Zao: “…”

Why leave her with the most difficult situation in history to handle? Chun Zao was completely speechless, not knowing for a moment how to squeeze out appropriate small talk.

She raised her hand to tidy her bangs that had been messed up by the airflow.

Taking a deep breath and gritting her teeth, continuing to walk forward couldn’t be wrong, right?

She carefully peeked at Yuan Ye.

The boy had already naturally moved closer, filling the sudden gap between them, returning their distance to a normal social state.

The familiar chest tightness returned with a vengeance.

What to say? Say something quickly! Chun Zao anxiously urged herself. Asking what he wanted to eat should be OK, right??

“Does your class have a lot of homework?” Yuan Ye suddenly asked this.

Chun Zao said, “Not much.”

He said, “Your friend said she had to go back to write homework. I thought you had so much homework that even evening self-study couldn’t finish it all.”

Chun Zao: “…”

Chun Zao clenched her fist.

Since Tong Yue had placed her in such a situation without advance notice, she didn’t mind smearing the other party’s reputation through (telling the truth): “She’s just always been inefficient.”

Yuan Ye laughed once.

It was a fleeting electric spark, bursting at his hair tips, invisible yet surpassing the visible.

—It had that kind of pleasant quality that made people unconsciously want to scrunch their necks.

And Chun Zao did just that.

Realizing this, she quickly straightened her chest and back, focusing on organizing her thoughts. Just as she was about to get straight to the point, she suddenly remembered the blackboard wiping incident from earlier… she hadn’t thanked him face to face yet.

After all, when Yuan Ye had efficiently cleaned the entire blackboard, she had still been standing there foolishly at a loss.

When he handed the rag back to her, she had only stammered as she took it. Then he had turned and left.

As if it were just a casual favor from someone passing by—no lingering, no claiming credit, and not caring whether it necessarily had to earn her goodwill.

Her gaze couldn’t leave his retreating figure.

At the end of the corridor was his classroom—

“Thank you for today, for helping me wipe…” Chun Zao recalled while discreetly changing her wording, modifying her phrasing: “For helping us wipe the blackboard. It was a huge help.”

The boy’s tone was casual: “No problem, it wasn’t troublesome.”

Chun Zao steered the conversation toward the treat topic: “By the way, what would you like to eat?”

“Hmm…” This simple question seemed to put the boy in a predicament: “What to eat…”

He slowly repeated her words in the night.

“What do you think?” He threw the question back.

Chun Zao glanced at him, matter-of-factly: “Just eat whatever you like.”

Yuan Ye said, “I’m not picky about food.”

Hm? Chun Zao paused, “You’re not picky about anything?”

“Mm.”

The multiple choice was back in front of Chun Zao. She looked toward the school gate not far away, almost wanting to pinch her philtrum. Tong Yue had picked a great time—after evening self-study, how many shops were still open outside? Either fried food stalls or milk tea shops. The latter was inappropriate, so should she buy Yuan Ye grilled sausages and fried skewers?

She suddenly couldn’t quite imagine what Yuan Ye, who looked so refined and elegant, would look like eating this junk food.

Would he eat spicy strips too?

Substituting Tong Yue’s image during every break—holding an entire bag of spicy strips, racing against time to devour them like a savage dog tearing or a hamster chewing—Chun Zao laughed to herself. Secretly, she turned her face to one side, puffing out her apple cheeks and maintaining it for quite a while.

Sharing joy is better than enjoying it alone.

Though he wanted to ask what she was laughing about, Yuan Ye still didn’t speak directly, just silently taking everything in from his higher vantage point.

The girl had probably recovered, turning toward him with a serious expression: “Then I can only buy randomly.”

Yuan Ye nodded slightly.

“You can’t say you don’t want to eat it after I buy it.” She showed a slightly warning tone. Because Tong Yue had done this plenty of times, pitifully begging her to bring food, then being picky when she bought it back, often making her see stars with anger.

“Don’t worry,” the boy smiled warmly, lowering his eyes to look at her, his tone gently indifferent: “What you eat isn’t the most important thing anyway.”

Chun Zao instinctively retorted: “Then what is?”

Yuan Ye didn’t continue the conversation.

Gradually, Chun Zao came to understand—what is it, what is the most important thing? Those bubbles that had been covered up began a new round of explosions in her body, each one seeming to be inscribed with the answer.