Xu Huaishi stood with her back against the wall, clutching the phone, unmoving for a long time — until she faintly heard Xu Huaisong’s voice from outside the door: “I’ll wait out here. Watch the steps, it’s dark.”

Then Ruan Yu’s: “I know, I’m familiar with this place.”

Xu Huaishi pushed off the wall and stood straight. She saw Ruan Yu come in carrying her bag, waving at her. “Sister-in-law, sorry for the trouble.”

“Your brother is the real trouble,” Ruan Yu said, lowering her voice as she handed over the sanitary pads. “I said I was going to the convenience store to grab a few things — not even leaving the school grounds — and he insisted on following me.”

Xu Huaishi laughed softly, also lowering her voice. “Is my classmate still at the door?”

“You mean Zhao Yi? He’s outside chatting with your brother.”

“See — equally a nuisance.”

Ruan Yu paused slightly, catching something unusual in her tone. She had just opened her mouth to ask when Xu Huaishi beckoned her over. “Sister-in-law, let me borrow your hand for a second.”

She held out her hand, and Xu Huaishi took her thumb and pressed it against the phone to unlock it.

It showed: unlock failed.

Xu Huaishi pressed her own thumb against it. It unlocked successfully, as before.

She let out a soft scoff. “Childish.” Then she handed the phone to Ruan Yu and went into a stall.

Ruan Yu held the phone, pieced together the whole story with just a moment’s thought, and after a while, walked over to the stall door. “Huaishi, you…”

“I’m not in an early relationship.” The words shot out of Xu Huaishi’s mouth before anything else could be said. She pushed the stall door open and added another emphatic line: “I’m absolutely not in an early relationship…”

Ruan Yu smiled at her and handed the phone back. “Alright then, let’s go.”

Xu Huaishi nodded and followed her out, but stopped abruptly just before the door. “Sister-in-law, I’m not going back to be an extra — one less person won’t make a difference anyway. Are you needed on set right now? If not, come with me to the convenience store. I want some oden.”

Ruan Yu agreed, and at the entrance, managed with some effort to send Xu Huaisong and Zhao Yi on their way. Then she and Xu Huaishi headed to the convenience store alone.

For most of the walk, Xu Huaishi said nothing. It was only as they neared the store that she finally spoke. “Sister-in-law, I actually figured it out a long time ago.”

Ruan Yu turned her head. “Figured what out?”

“That Zhao Yi likes me.” She lowered her head and breathed into her palms, then rubbed her hands together. “The two of us see each other every single day — it’s nothing like you and my brother, who barely exchanged two words over three years. He likes me. How could I not have seen it?”

If he didn’t like her, why would someone who was too lazy to even pick up a broom — who pointed an electric fan at the floor to “sweep” trash — have helped wipe down the blackboard on her classroom duty days, ending up with a mouthful of chalk dust, and then said “What brand is this chalk? Not bad.”

If he didn’t like her, why would someone whose homework across every subject — Chinese, math, English, politics, history, geography — was a blank expanse of white, someone who couldn’t even be bothered to copy, have gone and shamelessly begged someone for the answers when he found out she had missed doing an English paper — and then claimed “That girl must have a crush on me, she practically shoved the answers into my hands, I couldn’t stop her.”

If he didn’t like her, why would someone who was a top contender for the high jump championship at the school sports meet have simply withdrawn from the competition, upon discovering the event overlapped with her 1500-meter run, and come to run alongside her instead — saying “The judge this year is my sworn enemy. It’s not a high jump, it’s a death wish. I’m out.”

But she had been truly, thoroughly oblivious.

Just because he had mocked her height while wiping the blackboard, jabbed “so this is what it feels like” when handing her the answers, and called her face as pale as a ghost’s when running alongside her — she had overlooked the meaning behind all of it, and for a long time had chalked his kindness up to nothing more than idle provocation.

It wasn’t until half a year ago, when she and Li Shican were caught in photos by a paparazzo and rumors began circulating in class, and Zhao Yi got into a fight with someone over it — that she finally, truly became aware.

But once she became aware, she grew afraid.

That day when she called Xu Huaisong, she had kept her voice breezy as she mentioned a classmate ending up at the police station. And later she had half-deceived herself talking to Ruan Yu, insisting Zhao Yi couldn’t possibly have fought for her sake — but really, all of it was because she was frightened.

If a passerby hadn’t intervened in time, Zhao Yi might very well have caused someone serious harm. That kind of liking suffocated her — like shoulders that had been empty suddenly crushed under an enormous weight. She didn’t want to carry it.

So after that incident, she began deliberately avoiding Zhao Yi. She avoided him for an entire summer. Until he sensed her distance and, after school resumed, started chatting and joking noisily with the other girls in the class, no longer speaking to her.

As autumn passed and winter arrived, she thought he had probably cooled off — that he had never really meant anything by it. The awkwardness between them was genuinely uncomfortable, so she made the first move, traded some banter with him, and the friendship was repaired.

But then, just now, in the atmosphere of New Year’s Eve fireworks — he seemed to have crossed a line again.

Or rather — he had never truly stepped back at all. Because the fingerprint registered in that phone could only have been entered while she slept, yet she hadn’t napped at her desk in the classroom since the weather turned cool in October.

Flirting noisily with other girls on one hand — and secretly registering her fingerprint on the other. He truly had surpassed her brother, having learned all the tricks and then some.

Thinking this, Xu Huaishi pursed her lips — and then heard Ruan Yu ask: “He likes you. What do you think about that?”

“What do you think I’d think, knowing but pretending not to know?”

“Hmm… knowing but pretending not to know doesn’t necessarily mean having no feelings at all.”

“Aiya, sister-in-law,” Xu Huaishi glanced at her sideways, “since when do you encourage the younger generation to date early?”

“That’s not what I’m doing.” Ruan Yu laughed. “Do you know why teachers and parents tell you not to date during school?”

“For fear it’ll get in the way of studying.”

“And why would early relationships get in the way of studying?”

Xu Huaishi faltered and shook her head.

It was just something adults always said — a well-worn piece of advice. Who had ever actually stopped to ask why?

“Assuming both people are already mature enough, theoretically speaking, a stable relationship maintained with appropriate boundaries should have no negative effect. But in reality, a relationship usually goes through the frenzy of the honeymoon phase and the turbulence of the adjustment period — and when the adjustment doesn’t go smoothly, there’s the heartbreak that follows. So relationships are, more often than not, unstable. A relationship isn’t a bad thing in itself — it’s the emotional instability it creates that tends to cause trouble. So, if you didn’t know how he felt, that’s fine. But if you do know, and it’s already stirred something in you, then continuing to run from it will only keep throwing your emotions into repeated turmoil — and that will affect your studies just the same.”

Xu Huaishi blinked and gave a slightly guilty-sounding “oh.”

“Huaishi — what you run from desperately is a plague, not your feelings. You’re a smart person. At this point, rather than hesitating and second-guessing yourself endlessly, it’s better to face the question head-on, think it through clearly, and then handle it in a way that’s rational — and good for both of you.”

Xu Huaishi spent the entire New Year’s holiday turning Ruan Yu’s words over in her mind.

On the day they returned to school, she left home half a day early and called Zhao Yi, asking him to meet her at a bubble tea shop near the school.

Since it was a last-minute invitation, Zhao Yi arrived a little late. He came in, unwound his scarf, and rubbed his hands together. “What’s up — are we plotting another scheme to sneak into the school history museum?”

Xu Huaishi shook her head and looked at him. “Did you do your holiday assignments?”

“Do I look like someone who does assignments? Just say the word if you want to copy — I’ll go ask around first…”

“I finished mine.” She said it one word at a time, then pulled a thick stack of papers from her bag.

“Oh, so you’re letting me copy yours? No need, honestly…”

“Zhao Yi!” Xu Huaishi cut him off. “Who said anything about copying? You don’t listen in class, you don’t study after, you never do assignments, you wing every exam — do you actually want to get into university or not?”

He blinked. “What’s gotten into you — are you channeling our homeroom teacher?”

Xu Huaishi kept her brow furrowed seriously. “Answer me properly. There’s barely five months until the college entrance exam. Do you actually want to go to university?”

He was quiet for a moment. “If I can get in, I’ll go. If not, whatever.”

“Then…”

“Then what?”

“Then…”

She said “then” twice and couldn’t finish either time. She changed course. “Give me your phone.”

Zhao Yi fished out his phone, then watched, wide-eyed, as she used her own thumb to unlock it.

“…”

He went silent for a beat, then suddenly erupted: “What the — when did you sneak my phone and register your own fingerprint?”

Xu Huaishi looked at him through gritted teeth. “Say that again. Who exactly snuck whose phone — and whose hand?”

Zhao Yi’s throat moved in a swallow. He gave a quiet “oh” and tacitly admitted to the latter.

“What I didn’t finish saying just now — let me finish. You said if you can get in, you’ll go, and if not, whatever. So… does that mean you also don’t care whether this fingerprint can still unlock your screen in the future?”

Zhao Yi stared at her. “What do you mean?”

“I mean…” Xu Huaishi drew a deep breath. “Don’t you want to get into the same university as me?”

Author’s note: Xu Huaishi: Saving wayward youth — starting with myself, starting young.