The recommendation student exam was divided into a written test and an oral test. The written test was conducted on a rainy Sunday.

Lights were on in the exam room, but the illumination remained cold and cheerless, enveloping the rustling sound of pens writing rapidly and the occasional coughs of students catching colds. Dong Xi finished writing a major question and coughed softly twice, taking out a tissue from her coat pocket.

The wooden peach pendant in her pocket fell to the floor with a thud. She looked down and saw it, about to pick it up, when the proctor teacher from the front row of the exam room heard the sound and walked over, using hand gestures to kindly signal her to continue with her questions—he would help.

She withdrew her hand and continued pulling out a tissue, habitually unfolding it. At that moment, the focus of her pupils suddenly tightened. The pen half-held in her hand fell onto the desk due to a momentary lapse. Just as she was about to put away the tissue, her wrist was suddenly gripped tightly by a pair of large hands. The force was both strong and sudden. Dong Xi frowned slightly and looked up at the owner of this imposing figure, looking at his serious face representing justice. After 0.5 seconds of being caught off guard, she calmly answered: “I didn’t.”

Didn’t cheat.

One day later, news that Dong Xi had cheated at the Huaning University exam room using a tissue with written test answers copied on it shocked Beifan High School from top to bottom. The first moment Long Qi heard this news, she requested leave for early dismissal. While putting on her coat, she rushed through the wind-and-rain-swept corridor. When going down the stairs, she bumped into Long Xinyi, who had finally come to class. As soon as Long Xinyi saw her, he sprang five steps away, both hands protecting his chest as he shouted: “Don’t be angry! Don’t be angry! I’ll pay you back! I’ll pay you back!”

Long Qi paid no attention to him and turned past him, continuing to rush downstairs.

Dong Xi didn’t come to school that day. Long Qi took a cab to Langzhu Manor where her family lived. The security guard recognized her and let her in. She found the European-style large villa where Dong Xi’s family lived. Looking at it, there seemed to be no one there, and when she called Dong Xi’s phone, it was turned off.

It was precisely the freezing days of mid-December. Scattered ice crystals floated in the air, showing signs that the first snow of this winter was about to fall. Long Qi stood outside the iron gate looking at the silent villa. Her forehead was sweating, her nose tip red, the breath she exhaled turning into white mist. Unable to catch her breath for a moment, she covered her heart that ached from running intensely, and slowly squatted down leaning against the stone wall outside Dong Xi’s family’s fence. Then she waited.

Scattered ice crystals fell on her hair, her eyebrows, her coat shoulders, her finger joints covered by half-gloves. She waited from morning to afternoon, from afternoon to evening, until the lights came on, until her shoulders were soaked through, water dripped from her hair tips, and her cheeks were frozen without a trace of color. Finally, car lights swept over from behind her, accompanied by the creaking sound of tires squeezing snow water, slowly approaching.

She lifted her head from between her knees, turned to look, and stood up to walk outside the wall.

Dong Xi and a woman around thirty or forty got out from the back seat—it was her mother. The one driving was her father. The whole family looked silent and taciturn. Long Qi stepped through the snow water and walked to the front of the car. Dong Xi saw her and her footsteps stopped slightly. Her mother also followed the movement and saw her. After sizing her up with a glance, she asked softly in Dong Xi’s ear. Dong Xi nodded.

Afterward, her mother went through the door. Her father drove the car toward the garage. Dong Xi remained in front of the iron gate, waiting for Long Qi to come over with a calm expression, her gaze always fixed on the ground two meters in front of her. The wind blew fiercely. The scarf around her neck swayed slightly.

And she was also the first to speak.

She asked: “At school, what are they saying now?”

Understanding her situation so clearly and anticipating the possible outcome, the Dong Xi who said this sentence made a certain soft place deep in one’s heart ache unbearably. Long Qi frowned and replied: “I believe you didn’t.”

Long Qi had waited too long, been too cold. When saying this sentence, her voice was somewhat hoarse. Dong Xi didn’t raise her head and said blandly: “Tell me, I want to know.”

After a long while, Long Qi answered: “They say you bought the written test answers in advance and copied them on a tissue. When you took it out during the exam, you were discovered by the proctor teacher. Your score… was immediately zero.”

After finishing, the atmosphere congealed for a while. Long Qi suggested: “If it was Bai Aiting who did it, I’ll go find her.”

“It wasn’t Bai Aiting.” Dong Xi replied with a definite attitude, then continued: “It was that person.”

“Which one?”

Dong Xi slowly looked at her and told her: “It was that proctor teacher.”

“What’s his name?”

How long and how bitterly cold was a December night? Only someone who had truly kept watch for an entire night in a corridor filled with cold wind would know.

On a winter morning, before the sky had fully brightened, the cold wind was piercing. Street lights, flower beds, tree trunks were all covered with a thin layer of ice. The sound of a car being unlocked rang out once. Chu Yaozhi, dressed in a suit and overcoat, placed his briefcase on the back seat. Just as he was about to open the driver’s side door, Long Qi slammed the door shut with a thud. His hand slipped, and before he could react, he turned his head to the side. Seeing it was her, the momentary surprise in his eyes transformed into his usual composure.

“Qiqi.”

“What’s your purpose? What benefit is there in framing a student? Who contacted you secretly?”

Long Qi asked three questions in succession, her eyes fixed steadily on him. Her cheeks were snow white, her lip color faintly purplish, even the mist she exhaled was much thinner than Chu Yaozhi’s. Her whole person was frozen through, and her disgust for him was also complete.

And he watched her.

He watched for five seconds, then seemed to gently realize, saying in a regretful tone: “So that girl is your friend.”

Then he added: “If I had known earlier, I would have been more lenient with her.”

The scarf around his neck was suddenly grabbed by Long Qi, and he was slammed against the car door by her. She said through gritted teeth: “That pack of tissues was given to her by you. You handed it to her outside the exam room! She was framed by you in cold blood!”

“Qiqi, stay calm when facing situations.”

“Chu, stop pretending. You beast in human clothing, cultured scum!”

“Qiqi.”

No matter how agitated Long Qi became, he persisted in using a level tone to persuade her, raising both hands, trying not to touch her, allowing her to grab his collar and scarf. The car in the adjacent parking spot honked loudly due to this commotion. Several rooms in the residential building lit up.

Long Qi also used force when letting go. Chu Yaozhi’s back struck the car door again. She retreated step by step, pointing at him and saying: “Someone saw it.”

He looked up, staring at her.

“Saw what?”

Long Qi didn’t say. She stared at him with a look that said “sooner or later I’ll make you ruined and disgraced for this lie,” slowly retreating. Chu Yaozhi sighed almost imperceptibly and said: “Qiqi, I don’t know where your basis for saying this comes from, but if it comes from that girl.”

He paused for a while. She listened, her chest rising and falling as she listened.

“Then, it’s that girl who is lying, because she indeed cheated.”

……

……

……

The sentence “someone saw it” was Long Qi bluffing Chu Yaozhi.

His expression changed subtly the instant he heard that sentence, but the words he said afterward were each forceful and resonant, as if swearing on his life.

Long Qi spent the entire following morning in the school’s sports equipment storage room. The class bells rang in cycles every forty minutes. She huddled in the narrow space where the pommel horses and soft mats were stored, elbows against her knees, palms supporting her head, both relieving the swelling pain caused by the cold and repeatedly recalling Chu Yaozhi’s facial expressions over and over. The phone in her pocket kept prompting notifications of new forum posts.

All were discussions about the Dong Xi incident.

Everyone was disbelieving, wildly curious, nearly boiling over. The fall of a good student unexpectedly attracted more attention than a bad student’s reformation. The matter hadn’t been investigated yet, but campus public opinion was already impatiently ready to sentence her to death, because most gossipmongers hoped the incident would develop that way, and even hoped it would follow their script.

—It’s because of Long Qi. It’s because she’s always together with Long Qi.

—You become like those you associate with.

—It’s precisely because of Long Qi.

……

Long Qi buried her head for a long time, letting her phone beep continuously.

……

Close to noon, the dismissal bell rang. The storage room door opened with a creak. Two basketballs accompanied by a meter of slanting sunlight whooshed into the room. The first ball landed steadily in the ball cart next to the pommel horse. The second ball hit a corner of the iron frame, bounced to the ground, and rolled with thuds to Long Qi’s feet.

She squinted and lifted her head.

Jin Yiken came to the area next to the pommel horse for the second ball. He squatted down, but didn’t pick up the ball. First, he saw the person in the narrow space. Their gazes met. At that instant, Long Qi had a premonition that the situation could be revived, and immediately reacted. But in the next second, Jin Yiken ignored her as if she didn’t exist, took the ball and placed it in the ball cart. Long Qi quickly stood up behind him. Just as he was about to leave, she said: “I want to talk to you!”