“Shan Shan, how did he manage to find you with just a math test paper that had no class or name on it?” whispered her deskmate in an ambiguous tone.
At the podium, Teacher Yu was discussing the math test paper. This fleeting moment encapsulated the typical, uneventful evening self-study life of contemporary high school students neglecting their duties.
Shan Shan’s pen unconsciously circled the “b” option on the third multiple-choice question. As the ink bled through, darkening the circle, her heartbeat intensified, threatening to burst through her fragile chest like the increasingly thin paper beneath her hand.
“I don’t know. Maybe he just asked around randomly?” she replied, her voice steady. “Besides me, is there anyone else in the whole school who uses a wheelchair? No.”
She spoke these words as much for Shao Xing’s benefit as for her reassurance.
Shao Xing responded with a simple “Oh,” seemingly convinced. Consequently, Shan Shan found herself somewhat persuaded by her explanation.
Putting aside the emotional turmoil from the recent incident, she focused on the teacher’s explanations for several problems. As the first evening self-study session neared its end, Shao Xing leaned in again, resting her chin on Shan Shan’s arm on the desk. “Hey?”
Shan Shan turned to look at her.
“He brought your test paper back for you,” Shao Xing said. “Did you thank him earlier?”
“…No.”
“How polite of you.”
“…” Shan Shan paused, bewildered. “Wait, weren’t you there when it happened? Who could have reacted in that situation? Forget about me, ask Teacher Yu. If anyone dared to interrupt her lecture and then leave without even a nod, she’d probably twist their head off. She’d write her surname ‘Yu’ backward—”
“Blah, blah, blah,” Shao Xing said expressionlessly. “I’m just asking. Shouldn’t you thank him?”
“No need,” Shan Shan replied, pushing away the head resting on her arm. “Him bringing me the test paper was just a kind gesture. If I use that as an excuse to deliberately approach him, it would be taking advantage and being ungrateful.”
“Every romance begins with someone taking advantage and being ungrateful.”
“Romance?”
“What’s wrong?” Shao Xing rested her head on the desk. “Aren’t you interested in romance? Did you lose your heart along with the use of your legs?”
Her expression looked quite serious as if she might grab whatever was at hand and throw it at Shan Shan’s head the moment the bell rang if she didn’t answer this question satisfactorily…
So the young girl blinked, remained silent for a moment, then used her brother’s favorite phrase: “You’re imagining too much.”
Shao Xing rolled her eyes and withdrew her head.
And with that, the matter seemed to be closed—
Or was it?
………………………Alright.
It wasn’t.
That night, Shan Shan couldn’t sleep.
She had to admit that at this point, she harbored certain fantasies about Dai Duo… or more accurately, delusions. She imagined him to be an exceptionally gentle person, the type who would secretly crouch in deserted corners to feed stray animals.
Much later, she would discover that he wasn’t like that at all.
Eventually, Shan Shan would learn that if he ever fed stray animals, it would likely be to capture them and take them to the nearest pet shop for humane neutering.
But that was a concern for the future. For now, Shan Shan remained blissfully unaware.
She had foolishly allowed this person to occupy her thoughts—
It wasn’t quite love.
It was more like suddenly joining the masses in pursuit of any information about the school heartthrob.
After tossing and turning in her warm blanket for the eight hundredth time, Shan Shan resignedly opened her eyes in the darkness and reached for her phone. She opened WeChat.
[Accumulating Virtue: I have a question for you!]
[Worship: ?]
[Accumulating Virtue: If, and I mean if, I were helped out of a strange predicament at school by a classmate, should I do something to express my gratitude?]
[Worship: I’m confused.]
[Worship: You don’t have friends at school?]
[Accumulating Virtue: ?]
[Worship: Am I that free? You’re asking me this kind of question?]
[Accumulating Virtue: …]
[Accumulating Virtue: Aren’t you my brother?]
[Worship: When did you realize you had a brother? After evening self-study today?]
[Accumulating Virtue: ………… Friend, being so harsh will make it hard for you to find a wife.]
Then her dear brother simply stopped replying to her. It wasn’t because he had fallen asleep—
He still had time to like someone else’s post on Moments, just to show he was still awake. Damn it.
As Shan Shan was composing a retort, she saw “typing…” appear next to her brother’s name. Surprised, she watched as a new message popped up—
[Worship: If someone helps you, say “thank you.” Your kindergarten teacher should have taught you this. You’re seventeen and just now asking your brother.]
[Accumulating Virtue: I’m sixteen!!!!!!]
There was truly no response after that.
Shan Shan stared at her phone screen for a long time.
Unfortunately, thinking about what she might need to do tomorrow made her even less sleepy.
…
The next morning.
As she was stuffing the day-old bread she had bought yesterday for breakfast into a plastic bag, her gaze lingered on a red bean bun she had planned to have as an after-lunch snack…
After some hesitation, she put it in the bag as well.
Then, frowning, she took the bun out again.
On her way to school.
Passing by the breakfast stall at the school gate, she splurged on a basket of xiaolongbao and a cup of fresh soy milk.
Shan Shan’s classroom had always been on the second floor of the teaching building.
Since enrolling, she had always pressed the second-floor button in the elevator, and today was no exception—
Until the moment the second-floor light lit up, the heat from the bag of xiaolongbao and soy milk on her lap seemed to penetrate her school uniform…
She froze, not feeling the heat, yet nearly rolling off her wheelchair as if scalded.
Quickly, she turned off the lit second-floor button.
The moment she pressed the button for the third floor, the elevator doors slowly closed. The metallic silver doors reflected the image of the girl sitting in her wheelchair, wearing a white turtleneck sweater and light-colored wool pants, with her school uniform draped over her legs. Her face was pale with nervousness.
How to put it?
Some feelings can arise inexplicably—
For instance, at this moment, Shan Shan suddenly found herself in unprecedented confusion, wondering what exactly she was doing…
Shao Xing’s words had given her an opening, and Dun Chong had provided a staircase. Since last night, she had been obsessing as if possessed, harboring unrealistic fantasies in her mind.
But could she do this?
She couldn’t.
As the elevator slowly ascended, its rumbling operation prompted Shan Shan to once again ponder a question she had contemplated countless times before—
If that day hadn’t brought an accident, if she hadn’t fallen, if the ice skate hadn’t sliced across her body;
If she could still stand upright, walk, and run, like an ordinary, normal high school student;
If that day had been just a nightmare, and she’d woken up to find it over…
But why?
Why hadn’t any of these “ifs” come true?
This nightmare suddenly became endless, while life became visibly winding and tortuous.
The elevator doors slowly opened. Morning sunlight poured in from the corridor, with a beam slipping through the widening gap of the elevator doors—
The young girl squinted slightly, her long eyelashes trembling in the sunlight.
Her heart, which had been racing before entering the elevator, now calmed. Arriving at the second-year classroom corridor, Shan Shan suddenly felt neither nervous nor afraid—
Indeed.
Without strange thoughts in her heart,
Any action could become righteous and aboveboard.
…
Dai Duo’s classroom was directly above Shan Shan’s. Theoretically, when she became a second-year student next summer, she would move to that classroom.
This was information easily obtained…
She might not even need to inquire deliberately, as people constantly whispered about it around her.
Shan Shan found the classroom. Perhaps it was too early, as there were few people inside at the moment… With all her food and backpack on her lap, she maneuvered her wheelchair to the back door of the classroom and peeked in.
In the second-to-last row sat someone playing a mobile game.
With heavy dark circles under his eyes, he yawned. Seemingly hearing a noise, he looked up, startled to see a head suddenly appear from the back door—
“Oh my god!”
He muttered, quickly regaining his composure. Blinking, he realized the suddenly appearing head was quite attractive. A high-necked sweater covered half her chin, revealing only naturally upturned lips, and a cute little nose tip slightly reddened by the cold outside…
Just as he was wondering where this little fairy had fallen from so early in the morning,
His gaze shifted, and he noticed her wheelchair stuck at the threshold.
He couldn’t help but freeze, his mind filled with question marks. After a while, he remembered, ah, there was indeed such a person in the school—a first-year student with mobility issues.
He blinked, finally finding his voice: “Classmate, do you need something?”
Shan Shan, gripping the door frame, steadily maneuvered her wheelchair with all the items on her lap into the classroom—calmly exposing her disability to the stunned gaze of others. She blinked and asked, “Good morning, classmate. Could you tell me which seat belongs to Dai Duo?”
The person being questioned was silent for three seconds.
Of course, he was thinking how everyone, living or ghost, seemed to be looking for Dai Duo… Ah, this little junior was quite brave, coming up here in a wheelchair.
But not entirely surprised, he pointed to the desk behind him and said, “It’s this one.”
Shan Shan sensed the momentary change in his eyes, from shock to silence to a hint of disdain—
But she didn’t explain much. She just moved her wheelchair to the indicated spot. Unlike the messy, book-filled desks of others, this one had just a pen, a half-completed math workbook, and a few brand-new textbooks tossed in front.
That was it.
…Yet at this moment, on his desk, there was yogurt, chocolate, candy, and even an apple.
Quite a few people had left things for him.
And each with more of a girlish heart than her.
Shan Shan lowered her eyes, her hand moving to her backpack. She said softly, “Classmate, sorry to trouble you, but could you tell him that the junior whose test paper he picked up and returned yesterday came by to thank him for his timely help…”
As she spoke, she was about to place the warm breakfast she had bought on his desk.
Just then, she heard a sound behind her.
A young man’s calm voice said, “Oh.”
Shan Shan: “…”
Turning around, she found the person she was looking for blocking the back door. He stood at the threshold, one hand on the doorframe, head tilted, looking at her lazily.
Today he wore jeans and a hoodie, with a short black down jacket over it. His neatly trimmed short black hair framed his ears, adorned with white wireless earbuds.
His slightly sharp monolids were slightly upturned at the corners, the early winter sunlight casting a halo around his hair.
The young man exuded an air of defiance.
After a brief eye contact, he straightened up and walked into the classroom.
As they brushed past each other, she caught the scent of ice and snow on him, the hem of his down jacket sweeping across her arm.
Standing in front of his desk, he looked down at the pile of sweets, silent for a moment.
Dai Duo: “I don’t eat sweets.”
Shan Shan: “?”
Shan Shan: “What?”
Shan Shan: “I didn’t put those there.”
Then she heard an “Oh,” and watched as he turned, picked up the trash can from the back of the classroom, walked over, and with one long sweep of his arm, brushed all the items on the desk into the trash can, under the bewildered stares of the other two people in the classroom.
Shan Shan: “…”
How polite of him.
Under Shan Shan’s speechless gaze, he casually set the trash can aside and then turned to face her. That beautiful face, more delicate than a girl’s, looked down at her expressionlessly.
As if to say—
Come on, what else do you want to give? Want to throw it in the trash yourself?
Shan Shan felt her hair standing on end. Forget about all the girlish thoughts she had on the way up, wondering if she’d have the courage to boldly make a move if her legs were healthy…
She regretted it.
Even with four more legs, she wouldn’t dare.
Her arms suddenly tightened around her backpack. The young girl’s lips pressed together as she leaned back, her back pressing tightly against the wheelchair. Her jaw clenched, eyes slightly widened—
She looked frightened.
Behind them, the only truly innocent bystander couldn’t bear it anymore. “Hey,” he called out, “Dai Duo, that…”
He didn’t turn around.
He just lowered his eyes, staring at her, and asked, “What do you want to give me?”
Shan Shan shook her head, clutching her belongings tightly—
Can’t waste food!
“Just, just wanted to say thank you—”
Because she held them so tightly, the plastic bags made rustling sounds. As he slowly raised an eyebrow, she felt a drop of cold sweat sliding down her spine…
Then, steeling herself, she held out the breakfast she had been carrying.
Dai Duo didn’t take it immediately.
Shan Shan glanced at the trash can, thinking if he told her to throw it away, she’d smash the cup of soy milk on his head, leaving an indelible mark on his polite life.
However, he didn’t do that either.
As she held the buns and soy milk until her arms ached, she finally heard him ask, “For me? Then what will you eat?”
Shan Shan was stunned, instinctively looking at the bread she was holding.
Dai Duo understood.
The figure standing in front of her leaned down. Before she could react, the cold scent of ice and snow brushed past her nose. An arm in a down jacket reached out, picking up the plastic bag from her arms. He opened it and looked inside.
Cheap bread from the school store, all expiring tomorrow.
—If Shan Chong knew that while he was working his ass off to save money, his sister was eating discounted, nearly expired bread at school, who knows if he’d cry into his pillow at night.
He lifted his eyes to glance at the person sitting in the wheelchair, then reached out. His long, cold fingers pressed against her warm wrist, folding her arm holding the steaming breakfast back to her chest, returning the buns and soy milk to her embrace.
“This is fine,” he said, casually tossing the bread onto his desk. “You can go now.”
The only other two people in the classroom once again displayed suffocating stares.
After a while, Shan Shan reacted with an “Ah”: “That’s red bean bread—”
Dai Duo: “?”
Shan Shan: “Didn’t you say you don’t eat sweets?”
Dai Duo: “I’ll eat it now.”
Shan Shan: “?”
Confused.
Dai Duo: “Anything else?”
Shan Shan: “Not really—”
Dai Duo: “Alright, you can go.”
Shan Shan: “?”
Dai Duo: “Bye-bye.”