Sang Ru’s next encounter with Zhou Tingzhao was at a class reunion more than two months ago.

The one who contacted her was Xue Lu, her high school language class representative. Xue Lu had remained her WeChat friend and specifically sent her a personal message, worried that Sang Ru might not check the group chat.

At that time, Sang Ru had recently changed jobs and had posted a work-related update with her new location. Xue Lu used this as an opportunity, suggesting they all get together to congratulate her on starting a new career path.

With things put that way, Sang Ru couldn’t refuse anymore.

Old classmate reunions were predictable—everyone chatting about current situations, reminiscing, and making somewhat awkward jokes. One meal passed just like that, and after eating, they moved on to a KTV.

Sang Ru wanted to slip away, but Li Chenfei, her high school deskmate and current good friend, held her arm and wouldn’t let her leave, pouting: “If you leave, I’ll be so awkward by myself.”

Seeing Sang Ru waver, Li Chenfei leaned closer to her ear and whispered: “Zhou Tingzhao hasn’t arrived yet. Don’t you want to see him?”

“Zhou Tingzhao?” Sang Ru was momentarily stunned, matching the name to a tall figure who usually wore glasses. She couldn’t remember his features clearly, but somehow felt he overlapped with someone she’d encountered in the elevator a few days ago.

“Yes! He organized this gathering—he was our class monitor, after all!”

“He organized it? Then why isn’t he here?”

“Where did you pick up this terrible habit of not checking messages?” Li Chenfei opened their newly created dinner WeChat group, scrolled up a bit, and held it in front of Sang Ru. “Here, look.”

[Zhou Tingzhao: Sorry, everyone, delayed by work and can’t join for dinner. Will treat everyone to karaoke later.]

Sang Ru glanced at the group name and realized she had indeed muted its notifications. She responded with an “Oh,” just as a new message notification appeared. She pushed the phone back: “There’s a new message.”

Opening it, she saw Xue Lu had shared the KTV location link in the group and tagged Zhou Tingzhao.

[Zhou Tingzhao: Good, heading there in ten minutes.]

Zhou Tingzhao still arrived a bit late and was immediately surrounded by everyone pretending to interrogate him.

At that moment, Sang Ru was holding the microphone, singing. His interruption made continuing to continue awkward. She stood there blankly holding the microphone for a moment, then decided to cut the song short.

Making an entrance that disrupted her performance, even if she couldn’t remember Zhou Tingzhao’s face clearly, that feeling of disliking him felt very familiar.

That was Sang Ru’s first reaction.

Her second reaction was: the man she met in the elevator a few days ago was him!

People say girls change dramatically after entering university or starting work. Sang Ru thought that Zhou Tingzhao had changed even more.

Before, he wore glasses and seemed lifeless, doing nothing but studying all day. Now as a working professional, he’d removed his glasses, wore a sharp suit, and the way he held his glass toasting others was actually… quite handsome.

The next song started playing. The person who had selected it was still beside Zhou Tingzhao and hurriedly called out to Sang Ru, who was still at the song selection panel: “That’s mine! Sang Ru, please hit pause for me!”

“Sure.” Following his instruction, Sang Ru returned to Li Chenfei’s side under everyone’s gaze.

She felt his gaze follow her as she walked, then quickly look away. Then she heard Zhou Tingzhao say: “Sorry for being late, I’ll punish myself with three drinks.”

Having just accepted toasts from others, he downed three more glasses in succession. Sang Ru thought to herself, Drink yourself to death.

Evidence proved Zhou Tingzhao wouldn’t drink himself to death. As soon as he finished the first glass, everyone began to cheer. After the second glass, Xue Lu stopped his hand, shaking her head.

If she wasn’t mistaken, Zhou Tingzhao smiled slightly. Though faint, Sang Ru saw it—he smiled, as if to reassure Xue Lu, then continued to finish the third glass.

This prompted cheers from many people, and some even applauded. Sang Ru also clapped her hands a few times for courtesy’s sake.

Zhou Tingzhao looked over at her, his eyes showing no particular emotion. But somehow, she couldn’t continue clapping. Sang Ru let her hands rest on her lap. Seeing that Zhou Tingzhao’s gaze hadn’t moved away, she smiled and raised an eyebrow in response.

Although this eyebrow raise didn’t look like acknowledgment, it looked more like she was trying to start something.

Then Zhou Tingzhao turned his head to answer someone else’s question and didn’t look back in her direction again.

Li Chenfei, who had witnessed the eye contact between the two, became excited and whispered to Sang Ru: “Don’t you think Xue Lu still likes Zhou Tingzhao?”

She glanced between the two standing together and said, “Probably.”

“Wait,” Sang Ru turned to look at her, “Still? She liked him before?”

Li Chenfei suddenly looked at her as if she were some alien creature: “It was an open secret in our class during high school! What were you doing not to know this?”

Before Sang Ru could retort, Li Chenfei continued as if talking to herself: “Oh, you were studying.”

…

Fine, she probably was studying. Gossip was a bad habit she only began to cultivate after majoring in media studies in college.

Li Chenfei suddenly leaned closer, lowering her voice even more: “There’s something else—do you know about it?”

“What?”

“That Zhou Tingzhao liked you.”

Sang Ru: “?”

She instinctively glanced at the person not far away, still finding it incredible: “Huh?”

Li Chenfei slapped her thigh: “You didn’t know!”