Dong Xi set the messages Yan Yan posted in the class group to blocked. The message records stopped at a forum post screenshot, and the phone notification sounds finally quieted down.

At that time, across half the classroom’s distance, three aisles, and five rows of seats away, Gu Mingdong sat in the corner position of the last row.

The person at the desk behind asked to borrow a pen from Dong Xi. Dong Xi turned her head back.

At that moment he was lowering his head, fiddling with something on his knee that was concealed by the desk. His appearance was very masculine, not much like a high school student. He had some street atmosphere about him, but the bruises on his face seemed to remind that he was just a youth who got into trouble. Yan Yan sitting in front of him was still sending messages. Yan Yan happened to lift her head, saw her, and smiled at her.

She turned her body back around.

On her phone she received a private message from Yan Yan: Do you want me to send you photos from the class gathering a few days ago?

Dong Xi continued writing her math test paper. After half a study period, she replied: Mm, send to my email, thanks.

Yan Yan: Will you come to the next gathering? Next month on Saturday.

She didn’t reply.

After the class dismissal bell rang, she put her phone in her bag and pulled out a stack of English test papers. The female student at the desk behind called to her: “Dong Xi, time to go downstairs for PE class.”

“I’ll go a bit later.”

“You’re helping the teacher record scores?”

“Mm.”

“Let me see my score!”

The desk was quickly surrounded by several people. She wordlessly spread out the score sheet, enduring the noise all around. Ten minutes later, the noise gradually dispersed as the class bell rang.

The female students took their respective gym clothes and left the classroom. The last female student who finished checking her score said: “I’m going down too.”

“Mm.” She responded.

Everyone had left.

After that, the classroom was empty and spacious, without sound. Only the faint sound of whistles from the sports field could be heard. When Dong Xi recorded the last score on the sheet, only three minutes had passed since the class bell rang.

She delivered the form to the office, then took gym clothes from the storage locker at the back of the classroom, walked out of the classroom, and walked toward the restroom.

In the corridor, the self-study atmosphere was quiet. Only the classroom on the west side distantly transmitted some minor commotion. She walked. Gradually, those indistinct noises were interrupted by talking sounds coming from the restroom. Her steps involuntarily slowed at the doorway, listening to the people inside mention her name.

That female student was saying: “Dong Xi isn’t coming again, right?”

The tone concealed some gossip, concealed some curiosity and some mockery. Someone replied to her: “Anyway she hasn’t replied to Yan Yan’s message yet.”

The voices of the two people emerged from the stall, accompanied by rustling sounds of changing clothes. After two or three seconds of pause, Dong Xi had no reaction and walked straight to the nearest stall, gently closing the door.

The female student said: “Yan Yan is also clueless, called several times and she won’t come, still calling her—wow, I admire her.”

“It’s not really Yan Yan’s fault either. Yan Yan really likes Dong Xi, you know? It’s Dong Xi who has the problem.”

“What problem? Discriminating against any student who isn’t a top student? Then why doesn’t she go back to the honors class?”

The other person persuaded again: “Actually Dong Xi is quite nice as a person, just doesn’t really like lively atmospheres.”

Saying this, she lowered her voice: “Dong Xi was already ruined by Long Qi a long time ago. I think she doesn’t dare anymore.”

As soon as Long Qi’s name was mentioned, that female student stopped making a sound. At this time, Dong Xi finished changing clothes. When she pushed open the door, the two female students in the stall also pushed their doors open. Dong Xi didn’t look at them, and behind her it thus instantly became silent.

It was just that when walking out of the restroom, Gu Mingdong’s figure solidly blocked the sunlight before her eyes.

He was yawning with his back to the weak sunlight. Dong Xi looked at him facing the sunlight, looking until her eyes squinted. She didn’t know when he’d been here, and didn’t know whether he’d just come out of the men’s restroom or was preparing to enter the men’s restroom. After pausing, she continued to walk around this person. He didn’t move his body. Only after she’d walked three steps did she hear him say in a lazy tone after just finishing his yawn: “Your school’s restroom soundproofing is really poor.”

She didn’t stop.

He continued: “You look very familiar.”

She also didn’t stop.

Gu Mingdong turned his body around and said a third sentence: “When you played with Ah Qi, was it exciting?”

Dong Xi’s hair was blown by the wind, swaying slightly together with her collar. After two or three seconds of silence, she turned and walked down the stairs, thoroughly cutting off the conversation he was attempting to start with her.

In the afternoon, it entered the continuous light rain season again.

When Yan Yan stood up to close the window, she let out a slight “Aiya” cry. Dong Xi, who was organizing review papers, turned her head and saw a strand of Yan Yan’s hair between Gu Mingdong’s fingers.

Gu Mingdong was laughing.

Yan Yan was outgoing, but Gu Mingdong was too legendary. Yan Yan feared him, so after furrowing her brows, she covered the back of her head and sat back in her original position, not making a sound.

Dong Xi turned her head back around and continued writing what was under her pen.

***

After all the evening study periods completely ended, Dong Xi didn’t walk with Yan Yan. She went to that stationery store in the commercial district and bought a sketchbook again.

The counter guy was looking at a magazine. Above the magazine were particularly eye-catching titles flattering someone: “It Girl with the Most Appreciation Potential,” “This Year’s Most Surprising Face,” and so on. Dong Xi looked for two seconds, calmly withdrew her gaze and paid the bill.

After leaving the store, passing by the music store again, Long Qi’s poster was still there. A life-size KT board of her stood at the store entrance, and her breakthrough MV played on the LCD hanging television inside the store.

She stopped and stood in the light rain. After a long while, she gently sighed out a breath, as if compromising and accepting fate.

Then she turned her head to look.

Two months ago, the most formidable band in the country released a divine single that was still revered to this day. At that time, they chose the most prime time slot for global premiere. Wherever there were televisions and LEDs, they were all playing that song like a lion approaching the city.

And in that song called “Save,” there was a magnificent Long Qi.

When Dong Xi looked over, the camera was sweeping through delicate close-ups of various parts of Long Qi’s body—her knees, her wrists with rolled-up sleeves, the area by her ears without any earrings, the back of her neck with a few strands of hair falling on it… appearing one after another before the camera.

She was quiet, beautiful, sexy yet ascetic.

While the music was forceful, aggressive.

When she lifted her eyes to stare at the camera lens, looking toward the screen in the most languid posture, in that moment the fusion of music and her instantly formed a crazy passionate love—ice frost and fierce flames, violent wind and sudden rain all seemed to melt into one gaze from her. The lead singer’s hoarse “save” after “save” seemed to pour out a hopeless love produced for such an incomparable woman.

The entire screen was full of her; the entire song was her. The camera didn’t leave her for a single second; she couldn’t let people shift their gaze away for a single second.

The tension was so great, no wonder she became popular.

She still remembered those days—endless hot posts online, search volumes on social forums and various portal websites asking “who is the female lead” reached that day’s peak, remaining at the top for several consecutive days. And every time at dismissal, several teams of reporters and numerous fans waited at the gate of Beifan High School.

Then, she stopped coming to school very often.

…

…

After standing through the entire MV at the store entrance, the twilight was heavy, the lights were just coming on. The shop employee poked his head out at the door, asking if she wanted to come in to shelter from the rain. She shook her head.

So the shop employee moved Long Qi’s life-size board under the eaves, then closed the door to prevent moisture from entering the store.

Dong Xi prepared to leave.

But when she turned around, the person who had been standing behind her for a long while finally spoke, his voice carrying a trace of laughter and a schadenfreude sense of “you’re finished,” saying: “So it’s you.”

She turned her head.

When Gu Mingdong’s figure appeared in her eyes, her heart inexplicably thumped. And Gu Mingdong’s gaze clearly showed ill intent. He just stared at her like this, until later, his gaze slowly moved to that life-size board at the store entrance.

His gaze slightly softened.

“You seem to have been deeply poisoned by her.” He said.

Dong Xi didn’t answer.

He passed by Dong Xi, slowly walking to the front of the life-size board, hands in his pockets, eyes not shifting as he looked at the board, as if looking at an old friend. Then, using his hand still in the pocket, he wiped the rain dew on the sign.

“She is quite beautiful.”

After saying this rather meaningful sentence, he suddenly did something. This thing caused Dong Xi’s wrist to momentarily lose strength. The umbrella she was holding thus softly slid to her shoulder. She stood in the rain, staring blankly at his actions.

In the evening rain, Gu Mingdong bent his body, tilted his head, and placed his lips on Long Qi’s lips on the KT board, as if dating a real lover—affectionate, and kissing her as if no one else was around. Dong Xi’s umbrella fell from her shoulder to the ground, and her arm also dropped down. A string of wooden peach ornaments fell into a puddle.