The next day was the first day of the midterm exam.

The temperature had dropped another degree that day. Early in the morning, before morning study session had even begun, nearly everyone in the classroom had already arrived. Each person had a pile of review papers spread out on their desk, their mouths ceaselessly reciting various types of equations. Because of the cold, everyone’s breath was forming a layer of mist.

Long Qi entered the classroom ten minutes after the morning study bell rang, taking off her earphone cord as she walked. As soon as her deskmate saw her, she immediately placed the breakfast she had bought long ago on Long Qi’s desk. Only after Long Qi sat down did her deskmate finally get hold of her review workbook, eagerly looking through it, while Long Qi bit into her sandwich and took out her phone from her pocket, browsing the campus forum.

The forum was quite lively at this hour. Besides “sharing” all sorts of answers, there was another round of various betting posts about “who will win between Jin Yiken and Zhuo Qing,” “who will come out on top between Dong Xi and Bai Aiting,” and “the mystery of Long Qi’s scores.”

She had only flipped through a few pages when the morning study session ending bell rang. Long Qi put the last bite of sandwich in her mouth, chewing, and was just about to turn to the next page when a hand suddenly appeared before her eyes, followed by the soft, fragrant scent of knit clothing. While chewing, she looked to the side, and in that gap, the phone in her hand was taken away by Dong Xi. By the time she reacted, Dong Xi had already put the phone in her own coat pocket and turned back to give her a look that signaled “hurry up and pack your things to go to the exam room.”

She coughed twice. During the interval of drinking water, the exam preparation bell rang, and the entire classroom erupted with the loud commotion of chair legs moving. The people around her all took their paper and pens and headed to their respective exam rooms.

Long Qi’s exam room was in this very classroom, so she easily switched to the appropriate seat. The exam process was also quite leisurely. Although there were still questions she couldn’t solve, at least she filled out the entire paper. She also didn’t become the “early bird” who handed in the paper and left first, but instead yawned and waited until the bell rang before submitting her test paper with the crowd.

The exam lasted three days. After the last subject ended, Dong Xi and several female students who excelled academically were discussing questions in the corridor outside the exam room. At that time, darkness fell quickly and the wind was quite cool. The faint, fresh fragrance from the girls’ hair all drifted in the chilly air.

Long Qi came over only later. She didn’t enter the conversation. As soon as she arrived, she circled her hand around Dong Xi’s waist and reached into her outer coat pocket to retrieve her phone. Dong Xi looked down because of the movement at her waist, and immediately turned her head away after seeing the hand before seeing the person. Long Qi, holding the phone, walked ahead around the cluster of girls. Dong Xi called out: “Long Qi!”

She turned her head amid the crowd in the corridor, her tied-up hair floating with the wind. Her tall figure appeared particularly striking among the group of male students who happened to be passing by. She smiled at Dong Xi, not slowing her footsteps at all. Dong Xi walked out from the cluster of girls. Her speaking voice was naturally soft, so when she called out to Long Qi, her voice, forced to rise, sounded especially sweet.

She said: “You took the wrong one, you took mine.”

But Long Qi acted as if she hadn’t heard. She walked in front, Dong Xi followed behind. She repeatedly swiped at the lock on the screen while Dong Xi called out to her, passing one person after another.

“You took the wrong one, Long Qi!”

Five meters away, amid the bobbing heads, Bai Aiting walked up from the corner of the staircase. Jin Yiken walked behind her, one hand in his pants pocket, his pace neither hurried nor slow.

“Long Qi, stop trying to unlock it. If you fail to unlock it more than three times, it will automatically lock the phone.”

For the first attempt, Long Qi jokingly entered her own birthday. Only on the second attempt did she enter Dong Xi’s actual birthday. Both times the unlock failed. The phone gave her one last chance to unlock it.

At this moment, Bai Aiting happened to brush past Long Qi. Long Qi didn’t notice.

Immediately after, Jin Yiken, who was the second person to brush past Long Qi, suddenly reached out his hand. In the instant they passed each other, the phone went from Long Qi’s hand to Jin Yiken’s hand. A few students noticed and deliberately turned their heads to look at them. Long Qi likewise turned her head because the thing in her hand had suddenly “disappeared.” Dong Xi, meanwhile, stopped seven steps away in the distance. Bai Aiting was the last to react, sensitively looking back following Dong Xi’s gaze.

Jin Yiken was walking while pressing numbers on the phone screen.

His fingers moved so slowly, so confidently. Even from several steps away, Long Qi heard the crisp “click” of the unlock sound in the cold wind. Bai Aiting heard it too. Her fists clenched at the hem of her clothing, while Dong Xi’s cheeks turned pale from that gust of cold wind. With a caught-off-guard, lonely, even slightly bewildered posture, she stood opposite Jin Yiken, who was walking toward her step by step.

But Jin Yiken did not stop in front of Dong Xi.

It seemed as if they didn’t even make eye contact. He inexplicably finished unlocking it, and when passing her, he placed the phone in her coat pocket, as if he had only come to complete a task of “returning something to its rightful owner,” letting Long Qi stare a hole through the back of his head and his back without getting a single word of explanation.

Long Qi stood in place, letting out a dry laugh in the cold wind.

A natural troublemaker, and one who had recovered his pre-injury combat effectiveness at that.

……

After that incident in the corridor, Dong Xi returned the phone to Long Qi in the classroom.

Long Qi didn’t say much and didn’t really acknowledge her. Dong Xi stood silently in front of her desk for a while. Her deskmate sniffed out some signs and, taking advantage of the nearly carnival-like noisy atmosphere in the class after the exam, tried to smooth things over by asking some questions about homework. Dong Xi slowly answered them.

After her deskmate finished asking questions, Long Qi still didn’t speak. Dong Xi turned to leave, and only at that moment did Long Qi lift her eyelids.

“What’s your unlock password?”

Dong Xi turned her head back.

Amid the noisy clamor, she answered: “It’s an old password I’ve used for a long time and never changed.”

“So what is it?”

Dong Xi’s words paused for a while. She didn’t answer, but instead asked back: “Then what’s yours?”

Without a word, Long Qi picked up the phone on her desk and unlocked it in front of Dong Xi. Her deskmate also looked sideways. At that time the classroom was very, very noisy, yet this spot alone was enveloped by an invisible atmosphere. Each time Long Qi’s finger pressed a key on the screen, Dong Xi watched for a long time, while Long Qi kept her eyes fixed on Dong Xi’s eyes. It was an aggressive kind of “initiative,” hiding an indescribable energy. The first three keys were pressed in an instant. Her deskmate watched in confusion and simply left her seat to go roughhouse with the boys. In the space left to the two of them, Long Qi was just about to press the fourth key when the girl in the front seat suddenly noticed Dong Xi in the aisle and unconsciously interjected into the topic: “Oh Dong Xi, what did you choose for the third multiple choice question on the math paper?”

Dong Xi turned her head to look at that girl.

Long Qi’s finger froze in front of the screen, then pressed the lock key. The phone screen went black again.

“B,” Dong Xi answered.

When she looked at Long Qi again, the phone was no longer in Long Qi’s hand, replaced by a ballpoint pen spinning between her fingers.

The previous topic seemed to have vanished. Long Qi spun the pen around and around, looking at Dong Xi.

“Forget it,” she said. “I don’t want to know anymore.”