Things had turned sour with Jin Yiken. There’s a saying—if you can’t be lovers, you become enemies. That’s exactly the stance he was taking now. What’s more, just as Long Qi left the hotel, she received a new status notification. Bai Aiting had updated with one sentence: Today is my birthday.

No pretense of warmth, no photos—five words and one punctuation mark. Not her usual style, but closest to her true appearance. Who it was written for, in what mood it was written—crystal clear.

This time, Long Qi didn’t snap back at all.

She could mock Bai Aiting’s hypocrisy, but couldn’t call her stupid. Women were always sensitive. She’d snapped back so many times—Bai Aiting could definitely smell every bit of it. She just chose not to mention it or indulged it for some reason.

Just like how Bai Aiting definitely knew right now that Jin Yiken had come to see her.

The mist from the rain covered the phone screen. Her shoulders and shoes were both soaked. She put away her phone and looked up at the sky. Very gray, just like that night when Jin Yiken first brought her to the hotel.

The entire night had been filled with the sound of rain.

The weather didn’t clear until Tuesday. Physical education class. After the class disbanded for free activities, most of the girls gathered under the shade of trees on the field. Long Qi walked up to the stands alone.

She rested her elbow on the railing, unwrapping a box of yogurt in her hand, fiddling with the straw while listlessly watching the field—watching the cluster of girls under the tree shade, then watching Dong Xi among the cluster of girls.

A soccer ball violently flew over at that moment. The yogurt Long Qi had just opened halfway slipped from her hand and fell beneath the stands along with the soccer ball. Her hand hurt from the impact, and her uniform was dirtied. She frowned at the field. In the distance, Jin Yiken was slowly walking backward while looking at her, gesturing for someone to retrieve the ball.

“Bastard.” She muttered under her breath.

Footsteps approached from beside her. She glanced over and saw it was Zhuo Qing. She gasped and turned to walk in the opposite direction.

But Zhuo Qing called out to her.

With her back to him, she rolled her eyes. With scarce patience, she turned back around. He asked: “Did it hurt you?”

“You weren’t the one who kicked it, so why are you asking? Have that scumbag come apologize to me.”

After speaking, she continued walking. Zhuo Qing called her again.

“What!” Her anger suddenly transferred from Jin Yiken to Zhuo Qing. Her voice grew louder. The male student who’d run down to retrieve the ball looked up this way. The girls under the tree shade in the distance also noticed.

His face showed a kind of helplessness, and some anxiety from making her upset. Long Qi took a breath and lowered her voice: “What else do you want to say to me?”

Zhuo Qing was silent for a while. Finally, the words that came out ultimately became: “The skin on your hand is scraped. Go to the infirmary and apply some medicine. Go by yourself—you probably don’t want me to accompany you.”

This kind of talk under these circumstances naturally pushed things in an indecisive direction. She said: “Zhuo Qing, you know what? What I hate most is how you think one thing and say another. Is it necessary for you to be so considerate of me? What did you originally want to say?”

“What I wanted to say, you’ve already answered,” he put his hands in his pants pockets. “I wanted to ask what exactly you hate about me, and also, why you broke up with me last year.”

Then he smiled bitterly: “Turns out it’s because I’m too considerate of you.”

After listening, Long Qi turned and walked away.

When leaving the field, she passed through the tree shade. The girls were huddled together discussing things in low voices—some discussing her, some discussing Zhuo Qing. But she vaguely also heard the completely unrelated three words “menstrual pain.” She looked back. The groups of girls discussing her and Zhuo Qing immediately fell silent. The cluster of girls discussing “menstrual pain” were gathered around another person talking.

Taking a few more steps forward, from this angle she could see Dong Xi among the group of girls. Her right hand was clutching her abdomen. Amidst the whispers of those around her, she gently shook her head. Her complexion was paler than usual.

Long Qi walked toward them while watching. That group was just considering whether to take Dong Xi to the infirmary.

“I’ll take her.”

When she spoke, the wind happened to stop. The rustling sound of leaves overhead also ceased. The girls extracted themselves from their heated discussion and all looked at her. She also happened to be standing in front of this group of girls. The scene fell into a sudden, indescribable quiet standoff. Only Dong Xi remained oblivious, staring at the ground. She supported her body with one hand on the railing, seemingly truly in pain—in so much pain that she hadn’t even heard those words, naturally not looking at her.

“I also need to go to the infirmary,” Long Qi perfunctorily raised her scraped right wrist to show them. “It’s on the way.”

But someone quickly replied: “No need, the two of us will take her. We won’t trouble you.”

The tone revealed both wariness toward her and protectiveness toward Dong Xi. Then two girls exchanged a glance and helped Dong Xi pass by Long Qi.

“Could’ve taken her earlier.” She muttered under her breath, putting her hand back in her pocket, walking behind the three of them.

The infirmary was on the ground floor of an administrative building on the north side of the school. When they entered, there was only one male school doctor surnamed Lu inside. Dong Xi was first helped to sit on the edge of the bed. The two girls were about to explain the situation when Long Qi, who entered a step late, asked: “Where’s Doctor Yan?”

Doctor Yan was the other female school doctor in the infirmary.

Only when she asked this did the two girls realize the inconvenience of discussing such matters with a male doctor. Doctor Lu said: “Doctor Yan is on maternity leave recently. The substitute female doctor won’t arrive until next month. What’s wrong?”

While speaking, he sized up Dong Xi, probably seeing the situation. Without waiting for an answer, he smiled and said: “It’s fine. Drink some brown sugar water, rest here for a while. If it really doesn’t work, I’ll contact your parents to take you home to rest. How about it? Dong Xi.”

She nodded.

The two girls helped her lie on the bed and covered her with a blanket. Doctor Lu then looked at Long Qi: “And you? Long Qi.”

“Just give me a band-aid.”

“Hand scraped?”

He held her hand, and as he lowered his head to examine it, Long Qi also looked at him.

Then he gave her the band-aid. The two girls returned to class. As he made brown sugar water, Long Qi wandered around by the medicine cabinet. His words still contained his innate smile: “Still not leaving?”

She didn’t answer, watching his back through the reflection in the medicine cabinet glass.

Doctor Lu turned around, walking toward Dong Xi’s bed with a cup of brown sugar water. He drew all the bed curtains around, then entered the bed area. Long Qi stared at his silhouette through the gauze—he sat on the edge of the bed to help Dong Xi sit up, gave her the sugar water to drink, then helped her lie back down and tucked her in.

After he came out, he pulled the bed curtain tight, glancing at Long Qi: “What, want to skip class?”

She still didn’t answer, lowering her head to unwrap the band-aid. She pressed the adhesive side to the scraped area on her wrist, then forcefully tore it off. The scraped area became larger. During this process, she only lightly gasped once, then turned and said: “Seems like it’s infected.”

Doctor Lu looked over.

She pulled over a chair to sit down, extending her hand for him to apply medicine. By this time, Dong Xi had already fallen asleep. Long Qi propped her forehead with one hand, watching him lower his head to apply medicine.

The corners of his mouth always carried a smile. He asked: “You want to skip PE class too?”

“Isn’t PE class the same wherever you take it.”

He nodded.

The atmosphere in the infirmary was quiet, with only the creaking sound of the swivel chair turning and the sound of the medicine bottle bottom touching the table surface. Dong Xi’s breathing in sleep was very soft, almost inaudible. Long Qi said: “Doctor Lu.”

“Mm?”

“Just now when you gave her water to drink, you could have asked me to help.”

He didn’t look up: “Your hand is injured. How could you help me?”

“Minor injury. You also looked at it at first, very carefully holding my hand to look.”

He finished applying the medicine, blew on her wrist, and said: “You really want to help me? Long Qi.”

“When there’s only one male school doctor and two female students in a room, of course I’d be happy to help support a classmate with menstrual pain, rather than let her with weakened consciousness lean on the male school doctor’s shoulder.”

When Long Qi said this, her tone was leisurely. Her attention remained on her wrist as usual. Doctor Lu’s hand movement paused. He looked up at her.

“Doctor Lu, the male-to-female ratio at our school is one to two. There are fifty percent more girls. Do you know what this produces?”

“Mm?” This was his reaction.

“Fifty percent more girls who love spreading gossip. So the result is, inexplicable rumors at our school are usually double those at other schools. Among these, for instance, the tall and handsome male doctor in the school infirmary actually particularly likes having physical contact with female students.”

When her words fell, the skin of his palm suddenly pulled a tiny distance away from the skin of her arm, no longer pressed tightly, and she also subtly felt the sweat and heat emerging from his palm. Long Qi looked up at him. He was placing the cotton swab used for applying medicine into the trash can.

Dong Xi slept, not awake.

He said in a joking tone: “Seems like their misunderstanding of me is quite big.”

She also replied in a joking tone: “Yes, they also say I have a dragon tattooed on my back.”

He looked up at her. Long Qi’s wound had been treated. She twisted her wrist, slowly leaning back against the chair, meeting his gaze without the slightest timidity.

Before long, he smiled again, appearing to smile without mirth: “Long Qi, you like joking. This habit isn’t good.”

“Sorry, Doctor Lu. I’m just really bored. Oh, can I stay until the end of class? I feel a bit weak.”

She replied quickly, eyes not leaving his face for a second, fingers slowly tapping the chair armrest.

He was the first to retreat from this gaze, standing up and saying: “I’ll go call Dong Xi’s parents. Long Qi, you can stay here, but after the next class bell rings, you must go back to class. Otherwise, if I come back and see you’re still here, I’ll have to notify your homeroom teacher.”

“Okay.”

He left.

After he left, Long Qi pulled aside a corner of the bed curtain, quietly moving the chair to sit by the edge of the bed.

The bed curtain was white. Light on Dong Xi’s face in profile created a transparent effect. The first button of her shirt had come undone, quietly open in the shallow breathing of sleep. Long Qi buttoned it for her.

It hadn’t been open when she first arrived.

She sighed. The force with which she buttoned it was very light, very delicate. Dong Xi didn’t wake.

She stayed there the whole time after that. Dong Xi slept while Long Qi watched her sleep. Nearly halfway through the class period, the dismissal bell rang. Voices came from outside the infirmary.

Vaguely discerning footsteps of more than two people, among them the voice of that Doctor Lu, Long Qi walked behind the medicine cabinet before they came in, not letting Doctor Lu see her.

The arrivals also included Dong Xi’s parents. She saw what the two looked like through the mirror in the corner of the infirmary. She recognized them at a glance because Dong Xi had posted their photos on her campus account. The artistic aura on this couple was even stronger than in the photos—extremely similar to Dong Xi.

They entered the bed area, softly calling “Xixi.” Then the mother supported Dong Xi while the father helped her put on her shoes. Dong Xi’s face was still pale, consciousness half-awake and half-fuzzy, cared for meticulously.

After the two exchanged a few polite words with Doctor Lu, they left with Dong Xi. Doctor Lu saw them out.

Only after the people left did Long Qi emerge from the infirmary.

It was already noon. Sunlight shone on the departing family. She squinted, watching, watching so intently that she didn’t notice the person leaning against the wall next to the infirmary. However long she watched, he watched her. Then he bounced the soccer ball in his hand on the ground. With a “thud,” the ball rebounded from the ground to the hem of Long Qi’s skirt. She suddenly looked at him.

“Envious of her?” Jin Yiken’s eyes stared at her, one hand in his athletic pants pocket, the direction of his elbow pointing toward Dong Xi. He slowly said: “What’s there to envy? What she has, I can give you too.”

Long Qi withdrew her gaze, gently kicking aside the bouncing soccer ball at her feet. The distant class bell rang. The area in front of the infirmary building was empty—only the two of them. She put both hands in her jacket pockets.

“Just now Zhuo Qing asked me why I broke up with him last year.”

He deliberately said nothing. She continued: “Remember that night you picked me up from the entrance of Long Xinyi’s family’s residential complex, Jin Yiken? I broke up with Zhuo Qing the next day.”

“You sent the breakup text right in front of me.” He added.

“Then do you remember what I said to you after I sent the text?”

He tilted his head slightly.

“I said, although my morals aren’t great, at least I don’t two-time. If I have someone else psychologically or physically, I’ll definitely cut the relationship cleanly with one stroke, only keeping what should be kept. And since I had a relationship with you, I had to end my relationship with Zhuo Qing. I absolutely wouldn’t maintain ambiguity or lingering attachments. So watch and learn well, scumbag.”

Her exact words.

Jin Yiken just smiled, as if quite enjoying hearing her call him names, and also because recalling the “great achievement” of how Zhuo Qing pursued her for a year and a half but he poached her away in one week, he was rarely willing to hear her continue.

She then pulled the topic back, saying: “I’m not envious of Dong Xi, Jin Yiken.”

Sunlight slanted down, falling on Jin Yiken’s and her shoulders. The class bell rang a second time. In this sharp ringing, she looked at him and continued: “I want her.”

…

“Just like how you wanted me before.”