Long Qi could still feel, at that moment, the ticklish sensation when Dong Xi’s eyelashes touched her palm.

The entire hallway was full of clamor. Gu Mingdong stood two meters in front of her, the same distance as when they first met, missing only a high wall and the camouflage uniform he had casually tossed over that wall.

Her manager Lao Ping’s incoming call buzzed in her pocket, and Yan Yan’s shout of “The teacher’s coming!” soon rang out from beyond the crowd of onlookers. Gu Mingdong turned to look, and Long Qi reached for Dong Xi’s wrist.

As she lowered her palm from in front of Dong Xi’s eyes, the teacher’s lecturing voice came from the outer edge. Long Qi pulled Dong Xi into the crowd of students behind them. Gu Mingdong noticed and tried to follow, but was called back after just two steps. He stared fixedly at them.

And Long Qi turned her head back amid the sea of bobbing heads, silently and slowly casting him a single glance.

Who was Gu Mingdong?

In the first year of high school, throughout the entire grade, the only person whose personality and temper were foul enough to rival hers was Gu Mingdong.

The one whose various scandalous rumors and critical posts outnumbered hers was Gu Mingdong.

The person who coaxed her into skipping class, got into fights for her sake, and caused her to earn a minor demerit during military training—that was also Gu Mingdong.

Was the impression deep? Did she love him very much? Love him to the point of being willing to die for him?

“In his pipe dreams.” April breeze, quiet schoolyard—Long Qi leaned against the railing and spoke this sentence.

After saying it, she pulled out her phone from her pocket, declined Lao Ping’s third call, and put her phone on silent mode.

“He just chased after me pretty aggressively, that’s all, but the things I did with him don’t even make it into my dark history.” Jin Yiken had long since filled up all that space with things that surpassed them.

“It was one-sided on his part.” She continued.

When she said these things, Dong Xi sat in the chair across from her. When the wind blew from behind Dong Xi, it also carried over that soft scent from her body, tangling among Long Qi’s long hair.

But even after all the explanations that needed explaining were complete, Dong Xi still didn’t speak.

The scene entered a long and subtle silence. There was a class bell ringing in the distance. Dong Xi’s phone rang along with the bell. Long Qi’s fingertips tapped on the railing, one tap after another, making clicking sounds.

Dong Xi didn’t answer the phone.

Her hands seemed to be holding something between them. Because of that thing, she kept delaying freeing her hands to pick up her phone, sitting there without a word, letting the incoming call ring.

“What is he fighting with you over?” Long Qi pointed at her hands with her chin and asked.

Dong Xi didn’t answer. Long Qi continued asking: “Has he followed you after school before?”

Her lowered eyelashes moved slightly.

Long Qi saw it.

“He has, hasn’t he?”

…

Even though Dong Xi still didn’t answer, Long Qi didn’t press further. She withdrew the foot she had propped against the railing, walked in front of Dong Xi, extended her left hand from her pocket and placed it over her forehead. Dong Xi’s eyes were covered by her bangs as she heard her say: “After school today, I’ll wait for you at the school gate. You follow me, and I’ll walk you home.”

After saying this, she heard the second bell ring. Long Qi prepared to leave. At this moment, Dong Xi finally stood up, making no sound whatsoever, only letting out one sentence: “There’s no need for this.”

Long Qi stopped where she was. The wind carried over Dong Xi’s faint voice.

“You just live in your world. If you look after me, I’ll spend time wondering what else here is something you want.”

She turned back to look at Dong Xi.

Dong Xi peacefully looked at the ground two meters in front of her: “If you really set your sights on something again, tell me directly. I’ll give it, then you leave.”

The wind suddenly picked up, carrying a few threads of lingering rain that struck into her neck.

Long Qi pulled the hood of her outer jacket over her head. After a moment of silence, she squinted and replied: “There isn’t. I don’t have any other intentions.”

…

“Aren’t you cold? Don’t stand there talking. Come back to the teaching building with me.”

“You and I have different classes.”

After Dong Xi said this sentence, Long Qi understood.

The matter of things changing over time was a one-sided affair. Words spoken were like water spilled—they couldn’t be taken back. Her mind was squeezed by complicated matters, and she thought that things from a few months ago had already faded away, but clearly Dong Xi’s heart still retained the water stains spilled from her mouth. The same location, the same weather—wet and soggy, unable to dry.

She slowly nodded her head, and afterward, didn’t speak again.

During the entire class period that followed, Long Qi didn’t return to the classroom. She specifically stayed at the corner by the wall behind the teaching building.

Senior male students who secretly smoked often gathered here. This time, because she was there, fewer guys came. Most of them made a “yo” sound when they saw her. Long Qi, with her arms folded, raised her eyelids once, and those with good perception understood. They called to their buddies to go elsewhere.

So when Gu Mingdong walked to the corner by the wall with a lit cigarette, Long Qi had already cleared out the area. He had just lit the cigarette when Long Qi plucked it from his mouth and threw it on the ground.

Gu Mingdong turned his head sideways and saw her at the wall corner. His first reaction was also: “Oh-ho?”

Long Qi got straight to the point: “What are you fighting with her over?”

And Gu Mingdong reacted quickly too. The two of them almost skipped the “old friends meeting with tears in their eyes” step. He reached for a second cigarette, replying with a smile hiding a dagger: “Big star, I heard you’re pretty impressive now?”

“You’ve followed her too?”

“What a pity, what a pity—I don’t have much dirt on you stored here, otherwise, alas.”

When Long Qi called him by his full name “Gu Mingdong,” he acted as if he heard nothing and asked: “You’re together with Jin Yiken now, right?”

She didn’t answer.

He said: “Your circle is really messy. He didn’t care about you at all before.”

Then, while lighting his cigarette, he sighed: “But it’s really strange—everything I want, this guy has it all.”

Long Qi pulled away his cigarette again. She didn’t throw it on the ground, but directly pressed the burning end onto his cigarette box. A stench of burnt plastic drilled into their noses. He wrinkled his brow. Long Qi lowered her head and brushed off her palm, saying flatly: “Student Gu Mingdong, I won’t worry about what grudge or grievance you have with Dong Xi for now, but let me say something upfront.”

“Before doing anything, look at the birth date on your ID card more often. Don’t always think you’re still an underage little brat. Over these years, everyone has learned to remember things and distinguish good from bad. Only you still live in that same old manner. Oh, right—also don’t play those old tricks on any student in this school. Otherwise, if the school doesn’t deal with you…”

She brushed the cigarette ash off her hands clean, put them in her pockets, raised her head to look at him: “I’ll also beat you to death. When that time comes, I won’t even give Jin Yiken face.”

In the first year of high school, the relationship between Gu Mingdong and Jin Yiken was worth mentioning.

The type of person who got along best with Jin Yiken’s strange and unpredictable personality, aside from someone like Si Bolin who didn’t take him seriously at all, was someone fiery and straightforward like Gu Mingdong. He loved sitting in the shadows with his legs crossed, leisurely watching the show. Gu Mingdong was always charging around recklessly in plain sight, providing him with quite a few programs. So he thought Gu Mingdong was fun to hang out with—pretty creative. Gu Mingdong also thought he was interesting, knew how to play along. So at one point, their relationship was quite solid.

Of course, at that time Jin Yiken was a super top student who wouldn’t even cast a single glance at Long Qi. No matter how fiercely Gu Mingdong pursued her, he only leisurely acted as an outside observer, never developing the slightest interest in her.

But later things became somewhat different. When Long Qi was almost dragged by Gu Mingdong onto a crooked path, the one who hit the brakes for her just before the final step was actually Jin Yiken.

So to what degree was Gu Mingdong terrible? To the degree that even Jin Yiken couldn’t help but step in to intervene.

After Long Qi’s words fell, thunder rolled across the sky. The damp, cold spring rain was coming again. Gu Mingdong stood unbridled before her eyes, not speaking, not nodding, and not shaking his head either.

That day after school, Lao Ping sent a nanny van to wait for her at the school gate.

When Long Qi got in the car, he was on a business call, saying there was a magazine photo shoot she needed to go to. The driver turned around to ask whether the next destination was the company or the residential area. Lao Ping used hand gestures to indicate they should wait. The assistant girl leaned forward to help arrange her hair.

She leaned against the window, scrolling through her phone, occasionally glancing at the scene outside the school gate. The glass was mottled with rain traces, faces were blurred and unclear. She looked down at the time, and later when she cast her gaze toward the school gate again, Dong Xi had just walked out from there, alone, holding an umbrella.

The scene blurred by the glass gradually became clear in her eyes. She stared without blinking, asking: “Do I have anything later?”

Lao Ping had just finished his call and replied: “Nothing today. Today is just to drive you home, so you won’t be photographed taking buses or subways—that would be shabby.”

“Then I have my own business,” she said. “Drive my route, and don’t make a sound.”

Lao Ping glanced outside: “Keeping an eye on who?”

And when Lao Ping looked over, Gu Mingdong was also just walking out of the school gate. He followed behind Dong Xi, without an umbrella, and got on the same bus that Dong Xi boarded.

“Beast.” Long Qi muttered.

Because of these two words, Lao Ping glanced at her.