Love Letter
In the afternoon during physical education class, Chen Luobai played a game with Zhu Ran and the others. Before the evening self-study session, they didn’t go to the basketball court again. After eating dinner outside, he returned to the classroom early with Zhu Ran.
However, Zhu Ran must have eaten something bad, because he had barely sat down in the classroom for a few seconds before he ran straight to the bathroom.
Tang Jianrui and his group had gone to the basketball court again, and the other students in the front seats hadn’t returned to the classroom yet. Chen Luobai took out his homework notebook, planning to take advantage of the quiet to finish his homework first.
After a few minutes, the chair beside him was pulled out, and someone sat down.
It probably wasn’t Zhu Ran.
If it were Zhu Ran returning, he wouldn’t be this quiet. He’d likely start chattering before even sitting down.
Chen Luobai turned his head and saw Zong Kai sitting in Zhu Ran’s seat. Unusually, Yin Yizhen wasn’t with him. Chen Luobai’s expression relaxed, and he smiled as he asked, “Why did you suddenly come over?”
Zong Kai put a can of cola on his desk. “Came to gossip.”
“Gossip about what?” Chen Luobai raised an eyebrow.
“During PE class this afternoon, at the supermarket, I saw it too. What’s going on?” Zong Kai opened another bottle of soda in his hand and waved it at him. “This is the first time I’ve seen you voluntarily treat a girl to a drink. Before, at most, it was just incidental.”
Another one.
Chen Luobai smiled and tossed his pen aside, knowing he wouldn’t be able to continue with his homework. “Today was incidental too.”
“Come on.” Zong Kai looked at him teasingly. “Incidental to the point of personally handing the drink to her? I’ve never seen you be so considerate before. You even actively went over to talk to her. Do you have an interest in that girl?”
The front row happened to be empty, and Zong Kai’s voice wasn’t loud, so no one else would hear.
Chen Luobai opened his mouth to reply.
Zong Kai interrupted him again: “Don’t try to fob me off with that hush money excuse. I don’t believe it.”
“It was hush money.” Chen Luobai opened the drink Zong Kai had put on his desk with one hand. His long fingers applied a slight pressure, and tiny bubbles escaped from the opening and burst. His tone was casual, “Believe it or not, it’s up to you.”
Zong Kai was about to respond when his gaze inadvertently caught someone entering through the classroom’s front door. He abruptly changed the subject: “That’s her, right?”
Chen Luobai, who was tilting his head back to drink the cola, raised his eyes towards the door upon hearing this.
The girl entered arm in arm-with someone. Her gaze seemed to glance in his direction, but before their eyes could meet, she immediately lowered her head as if startled. Her shoulder-length short hair swayed gently beside her snow-white cheeks.
Her companion must have said something to her because she suddenly smiled, and the small dimple he had seen before appeared faintly on her cheek.
Before she could return to her seat, a boy from the third group called out to her.
Wearing glasses, he should be called He Mingyu. He said he wanted to ask her about an English question.
The girl raised her head again, let go of her companion’s hand, and walked around the podium to the third group. She sat down in front of He Mingyu.
The small dimple on her cheek had disappeared, but she didn’t seem as startled as when she was talking to him. She looked quite calm.
The cola bubbles burst in his mouth. Chen Luobai narrowed his eyes slightly and put down the can.
Someone lightly bumped his elbow. Chen Luobai looked away to see Zong Kai looking at him teasingly.
“You’ve been staring at her for almost a minute. Is that incidental too?”
Was it a minute?
It couldn’t have been that long, right?
Chen Luobai flicked the pull tab on the can. “I was just a bit curious.”
“I’m quite curious too,” Zong Kai responded.
Chen Luobai turned his head to look at him again. “What are you curious about?”
“On the day we reported for high school, I thought you had taken a liking to this girl. But afterward, I never saw you have any interaction with her. For most of the semester in the same class, you didn’t even remember her name.” Zong Kai asked with a smile, “Why are you suddenly curious about her again?”
Chen Luobai caught an unexpected piece of information from his words: “The day we reported for high school?”
“You don’t remember?” Zong Kai was a bit surprised. “That day, Teacher Zhang asked us to help organize some things. I waited for you upstairs for ages but didn’t see you come up. When I looked in the stairwell, I saw you holding a girl. You said at the time that she had almost fallen, and you had steadied her.”
Chen Luobai was suddenly pulled back to that rainy day in his memory.
Teacher Zhang was the wife of their junior high school homeroom teacher. That day, they happened to run into her, so she asked them to help out.
He had bumped into another teacher downstairs at the time, which delayed him for a moment. Worried that Zong Kai had been waiting too long, he ran up to the second floor, just in time to see a girl about to fall.
The situation was urgent, and he didn’t have time to think much. He just reached out to steady her. In that split second, he also didn’t have time to avoid relatively sensitive areas—
His arm had encircled a soft, slender waist.
The faint fragrance of the young girl had filled his arms.
Chen Luobai had felt unusually uncomfortable at that moment and quickly let go. It didn’t seem appropriate to deliberately look at her face again. Just then, Zong Kai poked his head down from upstairs.
That slightly awkward atmosphere, which only he had noticed, was instantly broken.
It was just a casual act of help. Chen Luobai hadn’t thought much about it and hadn’t looked at her again. After responding to Zong Kai’s teasing remark, he turned and ran straight up to the third floor.
So that day, it was actually—
“It was her?” Chen Luobai was a bit surprised. His gaze unconsciously drifted to the front row.
The girl had already returned to her seat, her back to him. Her shoulder-length short hair completely covered her face and neck. The school uniform was loose-fitting, with only a slender, white arm exposed.
“You don’t remember, huh.” Zong Kai paused as if recalling something else. “Then do you not remember that time on the basketball court either?”
Chen Luobai slowly brought his gaze back. “What time on the basketball court?”
Zong Kai: “It was also not long after we started high school. On Friday, you invited us to play basketball, but as soon as class ended, you were called away by your teacher Gao. Later, Tang Jianrui didn’t pass the ball well, and it flew straight out of the court, almost hitting a girl. You had just arrived at that moment and reached out to block it for her.”
Chen Luobai vaguely remembered something like that happening.
That day, Tang Jianrui and the others seemed to have made him treat them to something. But at the time, he had just casually blocked a ball. He and Tang Jianrui were on good terms, so blocking the ball was just something he should do. It didn’t even count as helping, so he hadn’t paid any attention to it at all. He hadn’t even looked at the girl beside him, not even noticing if she was tall or short.
Chen Luobai was slightly stunned. “It was her too?”
He had thought that before running into her crying on the rooftop, his only interaction with her had been that time he helped the English teacher call her to the office.
“In the first semester of high school, that girl’s English score surpassed yours once. I even mentioned it to you, but at the time, you couldn’t even remember her full name.” Zong Kai squeezed the can, paused for a moment, then looked at him with a smile. “So you suddenly becoming interested in her, how can I not be curious?”
Chen Luobai hadn’t paid much attention to the girls in his class before.
Firstly, he wasn’t interested, and secondly, paying attention would indeed bring trouble.
But when this “trouble” arrived today as he had anticipated, he didn’t seem to find it as bothersome as he had imagined.
“What’s going on?” Zong Kai asked again.
What’s going on?
Chen Luobai thought back.
But when he went to talk to her this afternoon, he hadn’t thought much about it. It was just—
“It’s just that we had some unexpected interactions before, and I found her reactions quite amusing. Today I just teased her a bit. It’s nothing.”
“You say it’s nothing, but you still teased her. If it’s nothing, what would it be if it were something?” Zong Kai bumped his elbow. “Do you need any help?”
“Help with what?” Chen Luobai held the cola can and smiled helplessly. “You guys are thinking more about this than I am.”
Zong Kai stared at the smile in his eyes for two seconds. “Then help me with something.”
Chen Luobai: “What?”
Zong Kai was silent for two seconds, his fingertips unconsciously crumpling the can. “Help me write a love letter. You know how bad my handwriting is.”
“A love letter?” Chen Luobai looked at him in surprise. “Who’s it for?”
Surely he wouldn’t ask him to write a love letter to Yin Yizhen?
The crumpled can have a small, sharp protrusion. When his finger touched it, there was a very slight stinging sensation. Zong Kai lowered his eyes. “A girl from another class.”
Chen Luobai hesitated for a moment but still reminded him: “If you haven’t sorted things out with Yin Yizhen, don’t go messing with other girls.”
Zong Kai rubbed the small sharp protrusion. “It’s almost sorted out. Will you help?”
Chen Luobai didn’t refuse. “Alright, bring over some letter paper.”
Zong Kai reached over and took a loose-leaf notebook from his desk, pulled out a sheet of paper, and placed it in front of him. “Just use this to write.”
Chen Luobai couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re writing a love letter to a girl, and you’re just casually pulling out a sheet from my notebook?”
“If I let this impulse pass, I’m afraid I’ll regret it,” Zong Kai said.
“Alright then.” Chen Luobai picked up the pen from the desk and casually twirled it a few times. “What’s her name?”
Zong Kai: “I don’t know.”
“You’re writing a love letter to someone whose name you don’t even know?” Chen Luobai looked at him, speechless.
Zong Kai: “Didn’t you just remember that girl’s name and already bought her a drink?”
“How did this turn back to me?” Chen Luobai stopped twirling the pen. “What should I write for the content?”
“Just write—” Zong Kai’s finger rubbed the protruding part of the can again. “Thank you for the medicine that day. I liked it, and I like you too.”
Chen Luobai finished writing on the paper and waited for a moment, but Zong Kai didn’t continue. “And then?”
“That’s it.”
Chen Luobai: “…”
He raised his head again. “You’re writing a love letter with just these few sentences? You have the nerve to call this a love letter?”
His finger seemed to press a bit harder unintentionally, and the stinging sensation became more noticeable. Zong Kai moved his hand away. “You know my Chinese grades aren’t good.”
“If you can win someone over with this, that girl must truly be in love,” Chen Luobai laughed. “You should at least write your name, right? Don’t let her misunderstand.”
Zong Kai glanced at the paper. “Go ahead and write it.”
Chen Luobai left a few blank lines and wrote “Zong Kai” at the bottom right of the page. He pinched the paper between his fingertips and passed it to the side.
The paper fluttered slightly but wasn’t immediately taken.
Chen Luobai turned to look at the person beside him. “What are you spacing out for? Don’t you want it anymore?”
“It’s nothing,” Zong Kai said, taking the paper.
*
Zhou Anran hadn’t had the heart to drink that bottle of cola in the afternoon.
After the evening self-study session ended, she turned sideways to block her desk and quietly took the cola out, stuffing it into her backpack.
But this small movement didn’t escape her deskmate’s eyes.
“Are you taking it home?” Zhang Shuxian suddenly asked her.
Zhou Anran’s heart skipped a beat.
Zhang Shuxian’s voice wasn’t loud; he probably couldn’t hear it, right?
In the afternoon, he had chatted with Zong Kai behind them for a long time, and she hadn’t heard a word.
Besides, Zhang Shuxian hadn’t specified what she was taking home. Even if he had heard, it shouldn’t matter, right?
Zhou Anran’s heartbeat gradually returned to normal. She quickly stuffed the cola into her backpack. “It’s not cold anymore. I’m taking it home to chill it.”
“That’s true. Cola without ice has no soul,” Zhang Shuxian said, shouldering her backpack. “I’ll go out first and wait for Xiaowen. Remember to tell Qianqian that we’re going for hotpot tomorrow at noon.”
It was Zhang Shuxian’s birthday tomorrow. They had planned to treat her to a meal a few days ago but couldn’t decide between hotpot or dry-pot bullfrog.
It wasn’t until the evening self-study session was about to end that she finally made up her mind.
Zhou Anran nodded and made way for her.
As she turned sideways, she saw Lou Yiqi, sitting in the second group and third row, seem to glance back in their direction before quickly looking away.
Zhou Anran wasn’t sure if she was overthinking it, so she didn’t say anything. She zipped up her backpack and stood up, not daring to look behind her.
In the afternoon, when she had come in through the front door with Zhang Shuxian, she had instinctively glanced at his seat and almost caught his eye.
Remembering how the boy had looked at her while holding the cola in the afternoon, Zhou Anran’s heart rate quietly picked up again.
Unfortunately, the classroom’s front door was now closer to the teaching building’s exit, unlike in their first year of high school when they had a legitimate excuse to use the back door.
She wondered if he had left yet.
Zhou Anran walked to the staircase with her backpack.
Soon after, Yan Xingqian came running down from upstairs and linked arms with her. “Let’s go.”
Zhou Anran told her about Zhang Shuxian’s decision to have a hotpot.
“That’s great!” Yan Xingqian’s tone was jubilant.
Zhou Anran, infected by her mood, smiled slightly. “I knew you wanted hotpot.”
Yan Xingqian chuckled. ” I wanted to eat bullfrog too. Why don’t the three of us treat Shuxian to bullfrog tomorrow afternoon?”
“Sure, I’m fine with that,” Zhou Anran agreed. “Ask Xiaowen’s opinion tomorrow.”
Yan Xingqian nodded. “I’ll ask her as soon as we get to school tomorrow. Don’t tell Shuxian yet; we’ll give her a little surprise.”
As they left the teaching building, Zhou Anran was surprised to see Chen Luobai walking not far ahead of them.
He was still surrounded by Zhu Ran, Tang Jianrui, and that large group. Zhu Ran, walking beside him, seemed to say something, and the boy appeared to turn his head and smile.
Zhou Anran walked behind him with her backpack, feeling as if the bottle of cola inside was also gently swaying in her heart.
Tiny bubbles seemed to be constantly bursting, making it impossible to calm down.
From the afternoon until now, she felt like she was in a dream.
After arriving home, Zhou Anran took the cola out of her backpack and placed it on her desk.
Last year, the bag of snacks he had given to Yan Xingqian didn’t have a long shelf life. Although she didn’t know if he had personally chosen them, she had eaten them all, whether she liked them or not.
She just couldn’t keep the packaging.
Ms. He was good in every way, except that like many parents, she felt that at home, especially with her child, there was no need for any sense of boundaries.
She often went in and out of her room, though most of the time it wasn’t to check on her privacy, but simply to help tidy up.
If she had kept those packages, He Jiayi would have thrown them away.
She had only kept some of the candy wrappers, folding them into paper flowers and putting them in a jar.
But today, this bottle of cola was given to her by him.
Zhou Anran couldn’t bear to drink it.
She also couldn’t bear to drink it.
She had been hesitating all afternoon, and even now she was still vacillating between the two choices, unable to decide.
Zhou Anran sighed softly and put the cola in the drawer.
There was still time; she would continue to ponder slowly.
The next day, Zhou Anran arrived at the classroom early.
As she entered through the front door, she still glanced back quietly.
He hadn’t arrived yet.
Neither had Zhang Shuxian.
Zhou Anran sat down in her seat. Just as she was about to review her Chinese literature text, a small gift box was placed on her desk.
She looked up to see Lou Yiqi standing beside her.
“Help me give this to her,” Lou Yiqi said, her tone a bit stiff. “We agreed last year that I’d give her a gift this year too.”
Zhou Anran asked, “Why don’t you give it to her yourself?”
Lou Yiqi’s face darkened, and she snatched the gift box back. “Forget it if you won’t help.”
Zhou Anran thought it would be more appropriate to give the gift in person, but she wasn’t close to Lou Yiqi, so she didn’t explain further.
However, when Zhang Shuxian arrived, she still quietly told her about this incident.
Zhang Shuxian put her backpack down and glanced at Lou Yiqi’s back. “Let it be. Don’t worry about her. She can be very awkward sometimes. If she wants to give it, I’ll give her another gift in return later. If not, we’ll just pretend it never happened.”
Zhou Anran remembered Lou Yiqi’s glance back the night before and softly asked another question: “Do you want to invite her to lunch with us?”
Zhang Shuxian was silent for a moment. “Let’s not. Even in friendship, no one wants to be the person who’s only remembered when something happens. You and Qianqian have been friends since childhood, and even when you can’t eat with Xiaowen and me, you still remember to let us know. Besides, she’s not close with you all, and everyone might feel awkward if she comes.”
Zhou Anran didn’t say more. She took out the gift she had prepared from her backpack and handed it to her. “Happy birthday!”
Zhang Shuxian happily accepted it. “Can I open it now?”
Zhou Anran nodded. “Of course.”
She had chosen a bracelet.
Zhang Shuxian seemed to like it very much. After opening it, she immediately put it on her wrist and hugged Zhou Anran’s arm. “Aww, it’s so pretty! Anran, you’re so nice. I wish I could always be your deskmate. Do you think if I ask my mom to talk to Teacher Gao like Qianqian’s mom did, asking him not to change our seats because I want to learn English from you, he would agree?”
“Maybe,” Zhou Anran wasn’t sure.
Zhang Shuxian suddenly glanced back. “He probably would. Chen Luobai and Zhu Ran’s seats haven’t changed for three semesters. They must have talked to Teacher Gao. Though no one wants to fight for his seat in the last row anyway.”
Just hearing his name made Zhou Anran’s heart beat a little faster.
A night had passed, but the light, floating feeling from yesterday afternoon hadn’t diminished at all.
It still felt like a beautiful dream.
After all, she had previously thought that this semester they might only progress slightly beyond being unfamiliar, ordinary classmates. She never expected him to suddenly offer her a drink.
But perhaps beautiful dreams are always fragile.
Later, when Zhou Anran recalled this day, she only remembered that the weather was exceptionally stuffy. Thick layers of clouds piled up in the sky, blocking out the sunlight. The sky was gloomy as if it was about to rain, yet it never did, making it almost difficult to breathe.
The teachers of several subjects seemed to have agreed to drag out their classes. The already limited break time was further compressed.
She didn’t even have a chance to look at him properly.
Author’s Note:
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I haven’t tagged this book as a sweet romance. That’s because the main tone of the first volume is indeed more bittersweet. The last few chapters of the first volume will be a bit sad, just for three chapters. After that, we’ll move on to university. Once they reunite in university, it will all be sweet!