Comparison is a tedious affair, merely a matter of you surpassing me in one aspect, while I excel over you in another. During one’s youth, this is primarily manifested in test scores and the quality of awards.

Zhou Tingzhao had long been the winner in this extended competition. He always knew this.

“But he’s Zhou Tingzhao…” losers would say.

A competitor’s admission of defeat marks the beginning of their descent into prey.

The instinct to fight lies dormant within frequent victories; habitual winning renders everything uninteresting.

Until he met her.

Sang Ru’s competitive spirit had always been straightforward. In the game of chasing scores, she followed closely behind him, coming closer to his victory than anyone else.

She was losing, yet she never admitted defeat. Even with the same results repeatedly, she could always rally her spirits.

An interesting competitor had arrived, the arena’s horn sounded anew, and Zhou Tingzhao could feel his blood subtly boiling.

His dulled combativeness was honed by her; his gaze lingered on her time and again.

He didn’t know when this scrutiny quietly transformed. He only knew that by the time he realized it, everything about her appeared different in his eyes.

Sang Ru wasn’t actually as resilient to setbacks as he initially thought. When falling behind, her eyes would secretly redden. Her only competitiveness was in striving to be first—perhaps not just against him; she might be willing to compete with whoever was ahead.

All other signs indicated that rather than being a combative lioness, she was more like a soft little creature.

Later, many people thought Sang Ru was domineering, Zhou Tingzhao humble, and that any unpleasantness between them stemmed from her narrow-mindedness.

Yet dominance envelops softness, humility conceals beastly nature. The hunter had long completed the beast’s taming, laying down his weapon, willingly becoming her prey.

Even she probably thought she had been chasing behind him for a long time. When everything was overturned, he had been gazing at her back for countless years.

All of this surfacing took many years, not at this time, not at this moment.

The torrent of time flowed back a decade, and that figure finally decided to look back.

His moon at last bestowed mercy, granting him the world’s softest kiss in this moment.

They had done more outrageous things before, yet this time his heartbeat surpassed any previous encounter.

After the sudden surprise, nervousness, ecstasy… after all these emotions, from somewhere welled up a sense of sorrow.

Zhou Tingzhao couldn’t locate the source of this emotion. It seemed to have been suppressed within for so long that it had become instinctual.

Sang Ru had successfully teased him many times, almost becoming adept at it, but this time, kissing him required courage brewed through half a poem.

She closed her eyes, her heart pounding as their lips touched, but suddenly tasted a hint of moisture. She retreated in shock.

Looking up, Zhou Tingzhao was crying.

“I’m sorry…” she immediately said, then hurriedly raised her hand to wipe away his tears, but her hand was caught.

Zhou Tingzhao gripped her wrist with one hand, using his left to wipe the tears from his face. Looking at the moisture on his fingers, he murmured as if to himself: “Why am I crying?”

“Yes, why are you crying?” Sang Ru raised her other free hand, stubbornly wiping away his remaining tears gently. “If you don’t like me kissing you, I won’t do it anymore.”

Zhou Tingzhao instinctively replied, “That’s not it.”

Feeling her wrist suddenly gripped tightly, Sang Ru struggled slightly, and Zhou Tingzhao came to his senses, releasing the hand that restrained her.

“Sorry.”

“No,” Sang Ru said somewhat dejectedly, “this is the first time I’ve made a boy cry by kissing him.”

He only caught one key point: “There were others?”

Sang Ru was speechless, her mind conjuring the Zhou Tingzhao from before.

His kisses were passionate and dominant, often making her go weak from the start. When she couldn’t take it anymore and tried to escape, he would probably hold the back of her head and kiss her slowly, making her melt in his arms with no way to escape before he would consider it finished.

Sang Ru looked at the present him, her gaze softening, smiling, and shaking her head: “Only you.”

They had been away long enough and needed to return.

On their way back to meet Lan Ting and the others, Sang Ru couldn’t help but ask softly again: “But why did you cry?”

Zhou Tingzhao couldn’t figure it out either. That emotion that had appeared from nowhere had vanished just as mysteriously, like a momentary surge of tide that silently subsided.

“I don’t know…”

Sang Ru stopped to look at him, suddenly saying: “You’re so cute, Zhou Tingzhao.”

This wasn’t the first time she had used this word to describe him. Zhou Tingzhao gave up resisting, silently sighed, and said, “Let’s go, they’ve probably been waiting for a long time.”

When they returned to their seats, Lan Ting was fine, but Zeng Anyu looked at them with eyes that said, “I knew you two had something going on.”

Sang Ru, having done something secretive, didn’t appear flustered at all and simply said: “Let’s go.”

The group ate some junk food and then discussed a few problems.

Seeing Zhou Tingzhao’s furrowed brows, probably unable to bear studying in such a noisy place, Sang Ru suggested ending early.

The grouping remained the same as when they arrived – Sang Ru with Zhou Tingzhao taking the same route, Lan Ting and Zeng Anyu together.

On the bus ride back, Sang Ru suddenly received a message from Lan Ting.

“It’s okay if you can’t answer, but are you two… dating?”

Sang Ru turned her head to look at him. Outside the window, the sunset was fading, the remaining light cascading over him, making him look unbelievably handsome.

Seeing her staring at him without speaking, Zhou Tingzhao asked, “What’s wrong?”

Sang Ru curved her lips into a smile, shook her head, and lowered her head to reply to Lan Ting’s question.

“Not yet, I’m pursuing him.”

–

I wrote “Zhou Tingzhao,” don’t know if everyone gets the implication…