On an early summer evening, a few fireflies flickered in the distant groves.

Pei Chuan remained silent for a long while before finally speaking: “I’m fine. You should go back.”

What good would asking do? Today was already over. Him coming here had been meaningless from the start.

Bei Yao observed his expression curiously. The youth’s face was extremely cold, his eyes harboring a dormant light.

If nothing was wrong, would he be drinking? If nothing was wrong, would he have come to her school to see her?

She approached him, lifting her gaze to meet his eyes, and said seriously: “Pei Chuan, has anyone ever told you that when you have something on your mind, you need to say it out loud? You can’t keep it bottled up inside.”

She couldn’t help but smile: “If you hold it in too long, you’ll end up… like this, looking fierce and intimidating.”

He pressed his lips tightly together.

Bei Yao said: “What’s really wrong?” Her tone mixed with the summer night breeze, tolerant and soft.

“I’m fine.” He couldn’t take it anymore. He had told himself just one look, so why ask and humiliate himself?

Pei Chuan turned to leave.

“Hey…” Bei Yao hesitated whether to follow.

Never mind, never mind. If his temper was a bit bad today, she’d just consider it him overdrawing tomorrow’s allowance.

At the end of the camphor tree grove was the intersection near the school gate, where a group of boys walked toward the exit.

Someone teased: “Han Zhen! So, in that momentous occasion of becoming a man, did you get a fragrant kiss from the school beauty?”

Pei Chuan abruptly stopped in his tracks.

Han Zhen said: “Don’t talk nonsense!”

“Hahaha look, Han Zhen’s blushing!”

“Han Zhen, Han Zhen, does the school beauty smell nice? Are her lips soft? Her waist looks so slender—have you held it? A beauty like Bei Yao, tsk, what does she taste like?”

The comment was too frivolous. Han Zhen frowned, about to speak, when the teasing boy took a heavy punch to the face.

At the camphor grove intersection, the black-clad youth grabbed the boy’s collar and smashed another fist into his face.

Blood flowed from the boy’s nose.

Everyone froze. Then they rushed to break up the fight. They didn’t recognize the boy throwing punches, but his fierce intensity frightened them.

Like a madman, he pressed the boy’s head and slammed it against the camphor tree.

Again and again. Seven or eight boys couldn’t pull him off.

Han Zhen was shocked. Together with two others, he dragged at the youth’s arms, pulling him back, while the rest protected the boy being beaten.

The beaten boy broke down: “You fucking psycho…”

Han Zhen felt the muscles of the youth beneath his hands bulge. Extreme rage made his muscles tense and hard. Han Zhen couldn’t hold Pei Chuan back. All of Pei Chuan’s fury and pain made his expression coldly ferocious.

Pei Chuan knew he’d gone mad. He had indeed gone mad—he’d already gone mad yesterday when he learned that news…

Han Zhen couldn’t restrain him. Seeing the beaten boy’s face turn white with fear, Han Zhen had no choice but to quickly block Pei Chuan’s path.

Pei Chuan’s fist stopped one centimeter from Han Zhen’s face.

The two youths locked eyes for a second.

Pei Chuan said: “Get out of the way.” He recognized him—Han Zhen. The boy whose photo was placed side by side with Bei Yao’s in that post.

Han Zhen saw a pair of cold, piercing eyes.

Han Zhen said: “What if I don’t? Classmate, no matter who you are or what grudge you have with him, you shouldn’t resolve it this way.”

For a moment, Pei Chuan wanted to beat him to death.

This kind of person who upholds so-called justice—is this the type she likes?

Pei Chuan had never had any sense of justice. All he could think about was that bloodied boy’s frivolous question: what does Bei Yao taste like?

Pei Chuan made his move.

To hell with it all. They could all die together.

“Pei Chuan!” Less than half a minute into their confrontation, Bei Yao arrived to find a boy with a bleeding nose. Seeing Pei Chuan about to attack Han Zhen, her heart nearly stopped.

What were they doing?

Pei Chuan had his back to Bei Yao.

Han Zhen saw that when Bei Yao called out the youth’s name, all the viciousness and fury in his eyes vanished, replaced by infinite humiliation and defeat.

Pei Chuan didn’t turn around. He didn’t want Bei Yao to see him in this state of jealous madness. He pushed away the two boys holding him and walked toward the Sixth Middle School gate.

Bei Yao’s gaze met Han Zhen’s face: “I’m sorry. Please take your classmate to see a doctor first. I’ll pay for the medical expenses. That boy just now… he’s in a bad mood. I need to go check on him. I apologize.”

She ran along the path to the end of Sixth Middle’s camphor grove.

Under the hazy warm yellow glow of the streetlights, Bei Yao saw his silhouette at the end of the light.

“Pei Chuan!”

His footsteps stopped. He closed his eyes.

Bei Yao, out of breath, ran in front of him to block his path: “What’s wrong with you! Why did you hit someone?”

He opened his eyes. His pitch-black pupils reflected her image.

The one he most wanted to hit was clearly Han Zhen. But it was precisely because he feared this scene—how would she see him?

Though it was already May and summer had arrived, this night felt somewhat cold.

Pei Chuan lowered his gaze: “They were discussing you and Han Zhen.”

Bei Yao: “…” Huh? When did she and Han Zhen have anything going on? She didn’t even know about it herself.

Yet the youth’s eyes dropped, falling on the silhouette of the camphor tree under the streetlight. His lips were pale—whether from humiliation or something else, she couldn’t tell. She had told him to speak his mind, and now he had.

Bei Yao had an absurd suspicion—was he so angry just now… because of her?

She said: “What about me and Han Zhen?”

The youth’s lips grew even paler. He suddenly looked up, staring at her with eyes that suggested she’d backed him into a corner.

“An eighteenth birthday gift.” Did he really have to spell it out? Just how thoroughly must he expose his feelings before she’d let him go!

Bei Yao said: “You mean the first kiss?”

Pei Chuan clenched his jaw tightly.

He never wanted to speak another word to her. With his heart held in someone else’s hands, every word she spoke caused him pain.

Bei Yao suppressed her amusement and shyness. Her almond eyes shimmered with light as she looked at him: “That wasn’t supposed to be real originally. But later I changed my mind and decided that gift wasn’t bad after all.”

He turned to leave.

Goodness, what a temper!

At eleven-twelve, fireflies flew out from the grass, and leaves scattered down from the overhead camphor trees.

She had prepared for this. Wearing white canvas shoes, she stepped onto the bricks surrounding the banyan tree a few steps ahead. Standing just in front of him.

The three bricks added over ten centimeters. At one hundred sixty-five centimeters tall this year, Bei Yao used the height from two bricks to cup his face and gently rise on her tiptoes.

A blush spread from her cheeks to the tips of her ears. She closed her eyes.

The summer wind was very gentle.

His time froze in that instant.

The crescent moon hid itself. The streetlight cast their overlapping silhouettes. Fireflies flew past the camphor tree, shyly hiding themselves as well.

She clumsily pressed against his lips, then lightly touched them again.

“…Does the school beauty smell nice? Are her lips soft?”

“Her waist looks so slender—have you held it?”

He suddenly recalled those bastard comments from Han Zhen’s friends. His body stiffened like wood.

She cupped the youth’s face, her pink cherry lips softly pressing against his pale ones. Bei Yao’s heart raced.

She opened her eyes.

Her gaze lifted slightly, meeting his pitch-black eyes.

Pei Chuan said: “Do you know what you’re doing?”

Her cheeks flushed: “I know.”

Pei Chuan’s body was as rigid as a piece of steel refusing to be smelted. His Adam’s apple bobbed: “You’re a girl. You can’t just kiss people so casually.”

Bei Yao: “…Oh.” She said, “But it’s not casual. Only you.”

After speaking, her almond eyes blinked, and the young girl’s shyness seemed to overflow from her eyes. Bei Yao began to feel uncomfortable too. She shouldn’t have acted so impulsively.

She hopped down from the two pitiful bricks, intending to return to the dormitory.

Bei Yao’s mind was in chaos. If she didn’t go back now, she’d be in trouble when the dorm aunt checked rooms.

She had only taken two steps when someone pulled her back.

The century-old banyan tree had lush branches and leaves. Her back pressed against the tree, the youth’s embrace burning hot. She was firmly confined between his arms and the large tree. Her face was lifted, and Pei Chuan lowered his head.

The moon emerged from the clouds again. Pei Chuan pulled back slightly.

His fingers threaded through her loose hair.

Cupping her small face, he lowered his head again.

Her world seemed to explode with fireworks, light and shadow bursting in an instant.

He was breathing heavily.

Words she had once read gradually awakened dormant descriptions in her memory.

In a daze, she thought, so… this is how you kiss?

~

When Bei Yao returned to the dormitory, the dorm aunt had already finished her rounds.

The girls’ dormitory lights were off. Bei Yao used her key to open the door. The girls in the room, each with their own thoughts, quietly poked their heads out from their blankets.

Chen Feifei spoke in a hushed tone: “Yaoyao, we covered for you with the aunt.”

Bei Yao softly responded: “Thank you.” She fumbled in the dark to wash up. After finishing, she climbed into bed and shamefully buried her head under the blanket.

The temperature under the blanket rose rapidly. On this early summer night, each breath raised the temperature, but even though it was stuffy and uncomfortable, she refused to stick her head out.

She lightly touched her own lips, biting them in mild annoyance.

Pei Chuan was so infuriating.

She was going to dislike him for a whole month.

Who kisses a girl so intensely and then says “Sorry, it was my fault. If you’re… angry, hit me to vent”?

He even said: “I’ll apologize to your mother. It was my fault.”

“About tonight.” He said with difficulty, “If you found it unpleasant, just forget it.”

Ahhhhhhh!

Bei Yao was left speechless, nearly driven to tears by his words.

How could Pei Chuan be so annoying?

She had kicked him once before running off.

Serves him right!

What birthday celebration? She was going to starve and dehydrate that air plant she’d originally planned to give him as a gift!

When steady breathing sounds filled the dormitory, Bei Yao turned on her phone and saw 00:15 on the screen. She felt even more annoyed.

Sleep, sleep.

He told her to forget it, so why should she remember!

~

Pei Chuan stood under the tree all night.

If at first it was her innocence, later it became his loss of control. Her kiss was very pure—just a simple touch of lips—but he…

Pei Chuan leaned against the banyan tree.

No one knew how many years this tree had stood in Sixth Middle. When the school was first established, it had already been a large tree when transplanted here.

He recalled her expression.

Confused, innocent, delighted, and shy.

Those were the eyes of a girl not yet seventeen, pure and clean.

He had known her since he was four and knew she hadn’t had much contact with the opposite sex. Perhaps even the boundaries between liking, affection, and trust were blurred for her.

But after his mad infatuation, he calmed down.

Pei Chuan thought, what could he give her?

A platonic teenage romance? Or a deformed marriage years later?

If it was romance, there were people more suitable and more romantic than him. If it was marriage… he could give her nothing.

His family situation was bad. He had almost forgotten what a complete family’s interactions looked like, didn’t know how to give her the best home.

His body… was hideous.

All she saw was the facade he struggled to maintain.

She was lovable, yet she made him struggle.

He wanted to love her with everything, but he had nothing.

Without the determination to burn all bridges, he shouldn’t taint her or leave these memories in her heart. That way she could meet someone better without any burden.

When dawn broke, dew had soaked Pei Chuan’s shirt. He frowned and walked out of Sixth Middle’s campus.

The worst part was that Bei Yao was angry.

Did she dislike him… overstepping?

Or did his words make her unhappy?

If it was the former, she could punish him however she wanted.

If it was the latter—if it could still be the latter—and if she was willing, he would do his best to give her the most beautiful teenage romance.

Even if in the end she didn’t love him and left him, he would give her his everything.