When the words fell, Dong Xi looked this way.

By this time Long Qi was already looking at Lu Feng. She was like someone finally ending her quiet meditation, slowly making sound from the dim corner, looking at this venue, cigarette burning, eyes staring, with obvious hostility blazing.

The lighter lid opened and closed in her hand, making click-clack sounds, tiny but clear.

And Dong Xi made no sound.

There always seemed to be a film as light as tea in her eyes, covering the thousands of surging or myriad churning emotions inside, sitting in solitary indifference, neither hurried nor impatient, even her breathing unchanged… When she glanced toward the source of the sound, it was unclear whether she saw Long Qi clearly or not, and Lin Hui’s figure happened to lean forward, cleverly blocking Dong Xi’s line of sight. By the time she withdrew, Dong Xi had already withdrawn her gaze.

She was looking at her hands on her knees, as if detached from the situation, as if it were their first meeting in the high school classroom.

“You really know each other?” Ban Wei’s question broke the slightly awkward stalemate. His emotions hadn’t yet recovered from the earlier laughter and noise. Lu Feng deliberately watched this way. Long Qi flicked her cigarette ash.

“Not very well.”

Lin Hui looked around, an expression of reading the room and assessing the situation. Long Qi continued unhurriedly from her previous topic, “We went to the same school.”

“Oh…” Ban Wei responded.

“Old schoolmates?” Lu Feng wasn’t content to stay silent now. He inserted himself into the conversation and began mixing drinks in a row of glasses. “Since it’s such a coincidence, let’s have a toast.”

Ban Wei leaned to her ear, “This guy’s mixed drinks are especially strong.”

Lu Feng filled one glass for himself, poured half glasses in two others, then handed one glass toward Dong Xi and indicated the second glass was for Long Qi.

Ban Wei said, “Don’t go along with it, you still have an event with me tomorrow, I can handle it for you…”

“Sure.” Long Qi said.

Before Ban Wei finished his sentence, she lazily agreed. Ban Wei wanted to pat her knee to dissuade her, but she said, “Move.”

Although Ban Wei was one of their own, he was also the type who wouldn’t want to miss good drama if there was any. Seeing he couldn’t dissuade Long Qi, he immediately changed his attitude, clicking his tongue and pulling his legs back. Long Qi’s position moved from the corner of the sofa to the central area. She passed Ban Wei, passed the girls, and unhurriedly entered Lu Feng’s circle. The lighter clicked between her two fingers. Everyone watched with rapt attention, only Dong Xi still looked straight ahead. As Long Qi walked, she flicked her fingers at the observing Lin Hui.

Lin Hui immediately shifted, making space between herself and Dong Xi. When Long Qi sat down, the soft sofa bounced slightly. All three women’s long hair floated slightly at their shoulders, and a cold fragrance gently spread.

Dong Xi was breathing.

She raised her chin toward Lu Feng.

Lu Feng handed her the glass. She took it.

And when Lu Feng handed the glass to Dong Xi, she also took it. Dong Xi’s hand stopped in mid-air, watching along with everyone else as Long Qi combined the two half glasses into one. This was done decisively and smoothly. Ban Wei stared without blinking. Long Qi then drank without a word, finishing in four gulps before turning the empty glass upside down in mid-air. A shallow red lipstick mark on the rim—following the rules, beautiful, not cheating by a single drop.

Lu Feng made no sound. Ban Wei clapped enthusiastically like a veteran, reaching for the oolong tea from the table and having Lin Hui give it to Dong Xi, “Drink this instead, tea in place of alcohol.”

He was giving Lu Feng a way out.

But Long Qi also intercepted the oolong tea midway. The cup had just reached Dong Xi’s hand when she pressed down on the rim, her palm touching Dong Xi’s fingertips. The cup gently transferred between them. Dong Xi turned her head to look at her. She was looking at Ban Wei.

“The tea’s gone cold, switch to warm water.”

“This tea isn’t cold.”

“Why don’t you try a sip?” The cup rim pointed toward Ban Wei. This straightforward guy fell into the trap at lightning speed, taking the cup and pouring it into his mouth. He’d had a devil-may-care look about him wanting to continue as a spectator, but the moment the tea entered his mouth, he sprayed it out, face flushed and ears red, coughing violently. His eyeballs nearly popped out halfway, his single eyelids forced open into double eyelids. Covering his mouth and pointing at Long Qi, unable to say a word. The venue erupted in laughter. She turned her back, too lazy to deal with him.

It was at this moment that her gaze first met Dong Xi’s.

She had originally been looking at Ban Wei but turned her gaze back because of Long Qi’s commotion. The venue was noisy and lively. Long Qi made no sound. Dong Xi was breathing. The eye contact between them was silent and plain, no sparks, no emotional waves, drawing no attention from any third person present. Four seconds later, the alcohol in Long Qi’s stomach began to take mild effect. She turned her head and took a sip of water, didn’t look back, acting as if she’d never looked at Dong Xi at all.

And Dong Xi said, “Tell Lin Hui I’m leaving first.”

She didn’t respond.

When Dong Xi left, she made no sound at all. Even Lu Feng didn’t notice because he was preoccupied with the fuming Ban Wei. The smile on Long Qi’s face remained thin. Within five seconds of Dong Xi leaving, she still hadn’t turned her head.

Ten seconds after Dong Xi left, she hadn’t turned her head.

Fifteen seconds after Dong Xi left, she still hadn’t turned her head.

Not until the twentieth second after Dong Xi left did she finally gasp and turn to walk out. Ban Wei could finally make sounds now, hoarsely shouting at her through his throat, telling her not to run away. But she deliberately quickened her pace.

When she caught up with Dong Xi, she was opening the back door of a taxi by the roadside. The night wind was cool, her dress rustling loudly in the wind. Long Qi stopped at the nightclub entrance and called out her name.

Dong Xi looked at her at the sound. The wind seemed to bring the soft scent from her clothes. At a distance of ten steps, Long Qi could smell her.

She waited for her to speak.

After a two-second pause, Long Qi put her hand in her pocket, “I thought you got into Huaning, that university you took the written test for in senior year.”

“Zhongyu is also good.”

“Zhongyu University is quite good.”

Dong Xi continued looking at her, not in a hurry to get into the taxi, but also not meaning to close the taxi door.

“So,” Long Qi continued, “that incident back then, in the end it still affected your college admission.”

There was no change of expression on Dong Xi’s face.

After mutual silence for a while, she said in a very light tone, “It didn’t affect it. It wasn’t that Huaning didn’t choose me, it was that I chose Zhongyu.”

Long Qi nodded.

Then said, “I received the text message you sent around graduation.”

“Which one?”

Though Dong Xi asked this, almost half a second later she followed up, “Oh, that one.”

“Was it a mass text?”

“No.”

Then it seemed there really were no more topics. Long Qi took a breath against the wind. Just then, the front door of the taxi suddenly opened, and someone popped their head out, “Are you done talking?”

Looking over unexpectedly, a face resembling Zhuo Qing—an excellent male student face—crashed solidly into her vision. She froze, her brow slightly furrowing.

Dong Xi nodded at the male student. Then the male student glanced at Long Qi.

He seemed to find her a bit familiar.

But he didn’t speak. After a perfunctory nod, he said to Dong Xi, “The dorm curfew is eleven o’clock. It’s ten-thirty now. It’ll take us about fifteen minutes to get back.”

“I know.”

He pulled his head back in and closed the front door with a bang. Long Qi’s consciousness hadn’t returned yet when Dong Xi’s gaze turned to her, saying, “Then, goodbye.”

…

“Goodbye.”

After that, Dong Xi got into the taxi. She watched the car door close, the window slowly roll up, the car body slowly drive away.

Her hands.

Were.

Shaking.

Reason was telling her this was a very normal thing, but her brain exploded with a boom. The drink she’d just downed began to take effect too, a hot and dizzy feeling traveling from her stomach all the way to her brain.

Just at this moment, Lin Hui came out from inside. As soon as she got out the question “Where’s Dong Xi?” Long Qi grabbed her hand. Lin Hui didn’t make it down the steps. Her whole body was held in place, her steps turning back, her palm clasped by Long Qi, her gaze also caught off guard and placed on her.

Long Qi was still watching that car.

Even as it drove farther and farther, even as it was gradually swallowed by the stream of traffic, she still watched it quietly, patiently, not minding the strong wind, not minding the strain on her eyes, not minding the surrounding noise. Lin Hui seemed to want to speak but didn’t dare take the initiative. Not until the car completely turned into an intersection did she finally withdraw her gaze, turn her head, and place her attention on Lin Hui’s face—Lin Hui whose hand she’d been holding all along.

Lin Hui also looked at her. Because of such close eye contact, her earlobes turned slightly red.

“Are you leaving?” Long Qi said. “Give me your contact information.”