◎Floating Light and Scattered Shadows◎

The passage in the photo had been cropped, rotated vertically, and set as Yuan Ye’s phone wallpaper, but only as wallpaper. He hadn’t replaced the lock screen to avoid being noticed.

But even with such concealment, one day after class while secretly playing with his phone, he was caught red-handed by his deskmate Tu Wenwei.

Yuan Ye’s phone had few but essential apps, categorized cleanly and concisely, so the background display was very visible.

The usually all-black screen suddenly brightened, and Tu Wenwei caught a glimpse: “You changed your wallpaper?”

Yuan Ye’s thumb paused, then immediately opened an app to cover the full screen: “Yeah, so?”

“What is it? Looks like it’s all text. Not some kind of charm or scripture, is it?”

Yuan Ye was impressed by his mystical imagination and went along with it: “Mm.”

“For academic luck?”

“For attracting romance.”

Tu Wenwei was startled, his gaze scanning up and down Yuan Ye’s handsome face that even other guys passively acknowledged: “You still need to attract romance?”

Yuan Ye said flatly: “Just kidding.”

“I was going to say…” Tu Wenwei patted his chest, then leaned over again: “Since it’s for attracting romance, give me one too. I also want to meet girls.”

Yuan Ye glanced at him sideways: “Want to meet girls?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Tu Wenwei nodded vigorously.

Yuan Ye lifted his chin toward the classroom door: “Walk out there and you’ll have a chance to meet them. Staying in your seat all day, you can only see me.”

Tu Wenwei looked at him a few more times, then turned his head away: “…You used to be quite pleasant to look at, now I want to vomit.”

Yuan Ye kicked his chair leg.

—

Wednesday morning during break, Chun Zao was called to the office by Teacher Gao to grade dictation. After rushing back to the classroom, she found it “empty as a building after everyone has left”—not a single person in sight. She stood foolishly at the door looking around until two female classmates returned with water, chatting and laughing.

Chun Zao stopped them: “Where is everyone from our class? How did they all disappear?”

One of them replied: “Don’t you know? Teacher Tang had something to do this morning. The PE teacher just came to class saying they’re switching with the afternoon session. Everyone went to the sports field.”

“I was just at the office,” Chun Zao realized. “So we’re not having math class this morning?”

Her classmate nodded: “Right, moved to the afternoon. Let’s go, the bell’s about to ring.”

Chun Zao followed them across the corridor. After passing Class One, their classroom was also empty, leaving only a room full of sunlight and mountains of books.

Had they gone to the lab building or the multimedia classroom?

Speculating thus, Chun Zao stepped into the class formation as the class bell rang.

The whole class formed two rows, stood at ease, attention, counted off to confirm attendance, then the PE teacher blew her whistle to lead warm-up laps around the field.

Their PE teacher was a young woman who had recently joined the school, often wearing bright matching tracksuits. With honey-colored skin, she looked healthy, slim, and endlessly energetic.

After most of a lap, the girls were already somewhat breathless, chatting during breathing adjustment breaks.

Like Tong Yue and Lu Xinyue beside Chun Zao, who were gossiping about male stars in a group, getting more excited with each exchange.

The autumn wind came gently, camphor leaves trembled, and large white clouds pressed against the eaves.

“What’s going on! The girls can’t even outrun us!” Suddenly, a full-bodied male roar erupted from behind during their run. The Class Three girls all looked sideways in unison.

A team of boys suddenly accelerated, passing through their left side like a gust of wind.

“Damn, it’s Class One!” Tong Yue’s attention immediately shifted from Korean entertainment to the boys’ team that had left them behind: “Heaven has opened its eyes! I can finally have PE class with Class One!”

Lu Xinyue was puzzled: “How do you know it’s Class One?”

“Didn’t you see Yuan Ye!”

Like a landmark building or volume knob, the private chatter in the Class Three formation immediately grew louder. The young man in the front formation wasn’t at the back, and his head was half a head taller. His black hair surged freely in the wind. Just his back view and aura set him apart from others, with an outstanding temperament.

Chun Zao looked up for a distant glance, then quickly lowered her head. The sunlight seemed to concentrate on her entire face in an instant.

The male teacher in front turned around, running backward while enthusiastically waving at their PE teacher, half-joking, half-challenging: “Teacher Yu, we’ll go ahead.”

Many boys in the Class One formation also turned back, smiling.

The woman very calmly spat out her whistle and said lightly: “Let them run their run, we’ll take it slow…”

The girls also laughed, clear as orioles in the valley.

Class Three practiced volleyball this period. They randomly selected a few students to get volleyballs from the equipment room. Teacher Yu had the rest pair up and find practice partners for two-person volleyball drills later.

Tong Yue never missed any opportunity to appreciate beauty, naturally following the class representative to move equipment like a fawning dog. After passing Class One with ulterior motives, she quickly evaluated all the other boys except Yuan Ye.

As for Yuan Ye, he belonged to Chun Zao.

Friends’ husbands are not to be coveted—this was unquestionable.

Returning to face Chun Zao, Tong Yue tossed her the volleyball with a completely uninterested expression: “Except for Yuan Ye, I didn’t see anyone much better than Lu Jingheng. Quite disappointing.”

Chun Zao aligned her arms in the correct position, bouncing back both the volleyball and the complaint: “You’re still in your honeymoon period. Can you be a little more devoted?”

“What’s devotion? Can you eat it?” Tong Yue bumped it back, pretending to chew the air: “Ptui, tastes awful.”

She defended herself: “What’s wrong with looking? Beauty belongs to everyone.”

Then, raising her hand to the sky, lowering her voice solemnly: “But don’t worry, I didn’t look at your Yuan Ye, not even one glance.”

Chun Zao’s face heated up, and she more than doubled the force when returning the volleyball: “You’re talking nonsense.”

“Are you trying to kill me?” Tong Yue ran away holding her head.

The teacher blew her whistle for halftime rest.

The girls sat on the grass in place to rest. Chun Zao hugged her legs while Tong Yue looked around like a human detector: “Where’s Class One? Why aren’t they on the sports field anymore?”

Ding Ruowei casually glanced into the distance: “They’re at the badminton courts.”

Chun Zao and Tong Yue both looked over. Due to the distance and net barriers, they could only catch some flashing, jumping blue and white figures, unable to distinguish faces clearly.

The second round of volleyball training began, this time with four-person doubles practice. After fifteen minutes, the whole class sat on the ground again. Tong Yue protested loudly in the crowd: “Teacher, when can we have free activity?”

Teacher Yu put one hand on her hip: “Is playing volleyball going to kill you?”

“No, I want to go to the court to see the high-quality boys in our grade. We rarely have PE class together.”

This statement should have shocked everyone, but coming from Tong Yue, no one was surprised or confused.

Everyone just laughed for a while.

Teacher Yu glanced at her: “Can you have some ambition?”

Then took off her baseball cap to fan herself and looked up: “Which class?”

“Class One!” “Class One…” Sparse whispers from girls rose in the formation, with only Tong Yue being the loudest.

Teacher Yu snorted and announced dismissal, unable to deal with them. The girls cheered like liberated sheep, scattering in all directions.

Tong Yue grabbed Chun Zao with one hand and Ding Ruowei with the other, aggressively and purposefully attacking the badminton courts. When they were about to reach their destination, Chun Zao saw Yuan Ye inside the net enclosure.

The boy had already removed his school uniform jacket, wearing only a black short-sleeved T-shirt. Gripping his racket and jumping up, he fiercely smashed the ball over the net, his black hair trembled, and the muscle lines on his forearms tensed with powerful force.

Chun Zao watched with her heart pounding, her throat becoming slightly dry and itchy.

“Wow.” Ding Ruowei saw it too, letting out an exclamation.

Who could not notice him?

Apollo among the crowd.

The boy across the net naturally couldn’t intercept it, surrendering with both hands while picking up the ball and grumbling: “What the hell, big brother, can you go easier? Why are you suddenly playing so fiercely?”

Yuan Ye shook his slightly damp bangs, turned to look at him, the corner of his mouth curving into a gentle arc completely different from when he was playing: “Got it.”

Chun Zao watched in a daze. The people beside her had disappeared without her knowing. Looking around, she found Tong Yue had already left their trio, clinging to the net fence like a gecko, almost ready to climb through those holes and transform into a predator for a killing spree.

Chun Zao: “…”

Ding Ruowei also noticed, rolling her eyes dramatically and walking away with her back turned, “can’t afford this embarrassment.”

Left alone, Chun Zao suddenly didn’t know where to go. Afraid of being spotted by Yuan Ye and misunderstood as being infatuated, though this was an undeniable fact regarding him alone, she was also too shy to linger. Content with what she had, today’s small happiness had already overflowed. She had properly stored this heart-stirring moment she’d never seen before in her memory gallery.

She turned and left.

Yuan Ye rarely made mistakes, but failed to catch this very ordinary serve.

The boy he was playing against looked up in surprise: “What are you spacing out for?” Then pointed his racket at him, warning: “Don’t underestimate your opponent…”

Yuan Ye smiled, using the slight bend—the gap when he bounced the ball from the ground back into his hand with his racket—to glance at the area outside the court.

Then he raised his arm high and served over the net again.

Due to repeatedly paying attention elsewhere, Yuan Ye could no longer concentrate. After playing a few perfunctory rounds, he dropped his racket. Confirming that the PE teacher was chatting with colleagues from the adjacent basketball court in the corner, too busy to pay attention here, he looked around: “I’m going to the school store. Does anyone want me to bring water?”

The boys swarmed over upon hearing this.

Yuan Ye roughly counted, then casually lifted the front hem of his short sleeve to wipe the sweat from his forehead. The young man’s waistline was narrow and lean, his side abdominal muscles thin but clear, clean, with some restrained and ready sensuality that was enough to make the spying girls on the sidelines blush and their hearts race.

He strode out of the enclosure.

Chun Zao was sitting alone by the flower bed, flipping through the mini loose-leaf notebook she carried with her, which organized important historical figures and chronological events. Afraid the PE teacher would see and lecture, she hadn’t sat in a group with her classmates.

Light spots filtered through the trees, scattered on her pages, peaceful and serene.

“You are studious…”

A clear voice suddenly washed over from above, with fatigue from long sun exposure and no lack of teasing.

Chun Zao looked up in alarm, turning to search.

The boy carried his long, thin shadow and his voice, leisurely passing around her, not stopping much.

Like capturing her for a second from behind her neck, then releasing her without charge.

But the lingering feeling could tighten her heart’s door, leaving her at a loss.

Chun Zao’s face turned red in an instant. She lowered her head, wanting to bury herself in her notebook to hide, but helplessly, it was too small. She could only calm her heart rate, stubbornly not daring to glance once more in Yuan Ye’s direction.

Finally, she fled in panic, hiding herself back in the group.

Yuan Ye returned the same way, carrying a full bag of mineral water. Looking from afar, the girl who had been sitting under the tree had disappeared, leaving only scattered light and shadows on the ground.

As he walked, he searched the entire sports field. Back inside the net enclosure, his gaze still lingered on the distant, wide green field. Many classes were in session, many people running, standing or sitting, but he couldn’t see Chun Zao.

While squinting and distracted, the water in his hands had been snatched away by classmates, and he was completely unaware.

After a moment, Yuan Ye realized, looking down to see the light plastic bag. He turned to settle accounts with them.

Seeing several boys laughing and unscrewing caps, he crumpled the empty bag into a ball, unable to bear it anymore and ready to throw it at someone.

They scattered, and he laughed angrily in place.

A bunch of zombies, it’s not the end of the world.

He could do without one himself, but even the bottle he wanted to give her was gone.

Author’s Note: Yuan Ye: Why isn’t my wife watching me show off anymore? Annoying.