◎White Peach Juice◎

Early the next morning, around five o’clock, Chun Chuzhen returned to the rental apartment.

Afraid of missing her daughter’s breakfast, as soon as she finished organizing the large bags of meat, eggs, vegetables, and fruits brought from home, she washed rice and started cooking, cleaned okra, stirred eggs with a spoon for preparation, then walked to Chun Zao’s door and gently turned the handle. Seeing it was properly locked from inside, she exhaled with satisfaction, left that spot, and focused on tidying up the house.

Chun Zao’s biological clock on weekends was almost identical to school days. Whether or not there was an alarm, she would wake up on time, with an error margin of no more than five minutes.

Her holiday plans were also orderly and monotonous. Apart from eating and afternoon naps, there were only three things: doing practice problems, memorizing books, and recording essay materials, alternating repeatedly. When tired of one, she’d switch to another, never letting her learning mechanism stop, finally lasting until six o’clock to go to school for evening self-study.

Walking out of the bedroom, Chun Zao instinctively glanced to the right. Yuan Ye should still be asleep, his closed door like an impenetrable fortress not to be disturbed.

Just entering the bathroom, she was startled by her silent mother. The woman was crouched there, pulling out plastic basins stacked under the sink, filled with large and small bottles of laundry detergent and fabric softener.

Chun Chuzhen’s figure was somewhat plump, occupying most of the narrow passage. Chun Zao could neither enter nor leave, so she simply stood there.

Seeing it was her daughter, Chun Chuzhen tilted her head toward the empty dirty clothes basket: “Where are your clothes?”

Chun Zao was stunned: “I put them in my bedroom. I’ll get them for you.”

Chun Chuzhen understood and muttered complainingly: “Having a boy living here is just inconvenient.”

Chun Zao agreed in her heart but didn’t echo her words, only turning back to the bedroom to fetch her changed clothes.

Breakfast was okra stewed eggs and oatmeal porridge with impeccable taste. After Chun Zao filled her stomach, she returned to her bedroom, consciously shrinking her activity range, becoming a well-fed, behaviorally rigid, hidden-natured caged beast again.

Around eight o’clock, her mother exchanged morning greetings with Yuan Ye outside. The boy responded with a few simple words and then left.

Chun Zao listened carefully, secretly speculating where he would go to pass his holiday time today.

In her eyes, Yuan Ye was very much like an unrestrained white dove—flying, foraging, then returning to its nest at dusk. No one knew where he had been or what scenery he had seen.

She lightly sighed, suppressing the resentment and dejection brought by this peer gap.

Enduring until six o’clock, Chun Zao quickly packed her school bag and left home to return to school. Tong Yue waited for her at the stationery store entrance as usual. She bought a strip of UHA milk candy, unwrapping and walking, handing over a piece along the way. Chun Zao put it in her mouth, quietly waiting for the spreading sweetness to melt away her low mood.

Tong Yue’s topics always revolved around yesterday’s unsuccessful handsome guy strategy plan, asking again whether her milk tea had reached Yuan Ye’s hands. Getting Chun Zao’s confirmation, the girl jumped three feet high as if she had already held hands with Yuan Ye.

Chun Zao glanced at her friend, who was almost doing a hip-swaying dance: “Do you like Yuan Ye that much?”

Tong Yue’s answer was always exasperating: “I equally like every handsome guy.”

“…Okay.” Chun Zao said quietly: “Have you ever thought that Yuan Ye might be different from what you think…” For instance, an honor student like him would also go to those black internet cafes outside the rules.

Tong Yue blinked: “Different how? Do his socks smell bad?”

Chun Zao completely lost the ability to speak.

Evening self-study time for sophomores was from six-thirty to ten o’clock, with a fifteen-minute break in between. This brief quarter-hour was what Tong Yue called the golden shopping period.

If she wasn’t pulled away by teachers as labor, Chun Zao had to serve as the school store snack porter out of friendship.

Tong Yue’s drawer was like Class 3’s anywhere door—a large bag of snacks could always be properly stored by her, sometimes even producing several romance novels and fashion magazines.

The school store was crowded, with students gathered around shelves or the checkout counter. After notifying Tong Yue, who was determined to wipe out the spicy gluten family, Chun Zao went to the quieter school supplies area to select sticky notes and stickers.

The school store’s merchandise was mainly food and drinks, so stationery varieties and styles naturally couldn’t match off-campus specialty stores, but Chun Zao still concentrated, carefully comparing and selecting.

As for Tong Yue, she had Wei Long in her left hand, Ba Wang Si in her right, an instant hot drink box tucked under her arm, excitedly trying to break through the crowd to find her friend. When her eyes shifted, she suddenly glimpsed a tall, lean figure. Looking closer, it was actually her lost and found male lead—Yuan Ye.

The boy was fair-skinned and tall, with a leisurely smile on his face. When he turned to speak with someone, his features were animated and captivating.

He was coming over!

Her radar went wild. Tong Yue hurriedly abandoned these “vulgar objects” in her hands, fixed her bangs, cleared her throat, and went forward empty-handed.

“Hello there—” she said in a sweet voice, beaming with joy.

Yuan Ye stopped, a flash of confusion crossing his face, but he still responded politely: “Hello?”

The classmate beside him glanced at the enthusiastic, unfamiliar girl in front of them, then at Yuan Ye, not understanding the situation.

Tong Yue got straight to the point, revealing her identity: “How was my milk tea?”

Yuan Ye immediately understood and smiled: “Oh… you bought it?” Then said: “It was very good, thank you.”

“I’m glad you liked it,” Tong Yue’s smile muscles lifted even higher, feigning grievance: “It’s just that I couldn’t give it to you in person yesterday. To make up for the regret, can I treat you to water today?”

Her gaze had already locked onto the Evian on the shelf, consoling herself—good horses deserve good saddles, expensive water for handsome men. The world was just this realistic; even otome games required spending for affection points. Spending money on men brought lifelong bad luck, but spending money on handsome guys was charity work. She was willing to hemorrhage money for this.

Yuan Ye was caught a bit off guard by the girl’s familiarity. After two seconds of silence, he suggested: “How about I treat instead?”

“To thank you for the milk tea,” he said.

Yuan Ye’s classmate was confused by their riddle-like conversation and couldn’t help interrupting: “What exactly are you two talking about?”

Yuan Ye didn’t answer, looking around before scanning the drink-filled shelves. Momentarily, he picked out two bottles of Suntory white peach juice with one hand and gave them to Tong Yue.

The girl took one in each hand, not understanding at first. Three seconds later, enlightenment dawned, and she raised one bottle: “For Chun Zao?”

Yuan Ye made an acknowledging sound: “Isn’t she with you?”

Tong Yue looked around: “She came with me, but went to look at other things. I’ll go find her right now.”

“No need,” Yuan Ye stopped her, casually taking two bottles of regular mineral water, stuffing one to his still-confused classmate and keeping one for himself: “Let’s go, checkout.”

When this bottle of white peach drink appeared in front of Chun Zao, she was still immersed in the difficulty of choosing sticky note colors.

The pink bottle dazzled her eyes. Chun Zao came back to her senses: “What?”

Tong Yue’s expression was mischievous, eyebrows dancing: “Oh ho~ Guess who I just ran into?”

Chun Zao asked: “Who?”

“My milk tea prince!”

Chun Zao immediately made the connection and almost rolled her eyes hard at this cringeworthy title, but seeing her friend’s happy face, she swallowed her complaints and played along: “What kind of name is that?”

Tong Yue reasoned: “He drank my milk tea, so he’s my prince.”

Chun Zao half-smiled: “Then what are you, Princess Zhenzhu?”

Tong Yue’s eyes widened: “Damn, Chun Zao, you’re amazing. I’m going home tonight to change my username.”

“…”

Chun Zao picked up lotus-colored sticky notes and left.

Tong Yue chased beside her, completely transformed into a frenzied fangirl: “He treated me to water! And brought you a bottle too!”

“He’s so nice!”

“I thought he was arrogant at first.”

“Turns out not at all.”

“Does this mean I have a good chance?”

“What do you think my next move should be?”

…

Tong Yue chattered endlessly while Chun Zao walked quietly.

She exhaled slowly in the night air. It’s just a bottle of water—was it worth all this?

Back in the classroom, Chun Zao stared at the unopened white peach juice on her desk.

The juice packaging was flashy, the bottle almost bright pink, with a lustrous peach pattern under the logo that looked ready to drip juice, completely out of place with the high stack of textbooks and problem sets behind it.

Perhaps her girlish heart had withered prematurely or had yet to arrive. Chun Zao could hardly empathize with Tong Yue, who was constantly drowning in pink bubbles.

Like this bottle of juice in front of her—even with its extremely sweet appearance, it couldn’t stir any emotional ripples.

She unscrewed the cap and took a sip.

…

Chun Zao was genuinely stunned.

Just a bottle of water…

…was actually this delicious.