Another sleepless night began after seeing Cen Jin’s screenshot.

At the top of the chat window, Li Wu discovered that the woman had set his photo as her contact avatar.

He enlarged it several times to confirm, then turned off the screen and stuffed the phone back under his pillow.

After silently smiling to himself for a while, Li Wu forced himself to calm down.

Only then did he notice his roommates’ voices coming from all sides, seemingly discussing Ran Feichi’s relationship with his girlfriend.

He couldn’t help but hold his breath and listen carefully.

Ran Feichi was quite resentful: “I bring her yogurt early every morning, and she still complains I’m not good enough for her.”

Cheng Rui, tactless as always: “Who drinks yogurt in this cold weather?”

Ran Feichi said: “Gu Yan likes it.”

Cheng Rui mocked: “When you’re bringing it to her every day, how can she say she doesn’t want it? I think in this weather, you should bring hot milk, that’s what warms the heart,” Then he approved of his suggestion: “Listen to me, I’m right.”

Lin Honglang listened and sneered: “If you’re so good at this, how come I don’t see you and Tang Yuwen living together in harmony?”

Cheng Rui exploded: “Ever heard of taking it slow and casting a long line to catch big fish?”

Lin Honglang added: “I see Tang Yuwen pays more attention to Li Wu than to you.”

Li Wu: “…” He remained silent, not saying a word.

Cheng Rui wasn’t discouraged: “So what, Li Wu just has a good face, that’s a natural advantage. I can catch up through effort.”

Lin Honglang said: “Li Wu has it easy, with his long-distance relationship there’s nothing to worry about, just typing and chatting every day.”

Li Wu finally couldn’t help but argue: “I’m not dating anyone.”

“Oh? So it’s the ambiguous phase?” Lin Honglang’s throat sound was quite irritating: “Just tell us how many times you smiled at your phone today.”

Cheng Rui giggled: “Only three or four hundred times, right?”

Really? He had no idea.

Ran Feichi also joined the team teasing Li Wu: “Don’t ask, he’ll just say he downloaded a hundred thousand jokes on his phone.”

Cheng Rui suddenly became interested in Li Wu’s “love history”: “So which school is that girl from, your hometown? Childhood sweethearts? Stop hiding it, it’s not like we’ll ever meet her anyway.”

“I said there isn’t anyone.” Being thin-skinned after all, Li Wu’s ears were burning hot, his tone growing fierce.

“Tsk, getting angry with us, that’s a guilty conscience,” Cheng Rui couldn’t easily let him go, teasing, when suddenly he remembered something: “Li Wu, didn’t you have WeChat or QQ? How are you dating?”

Li Wu was silent for a moment: “I have them now.”

“Hm?” Cheng Rui heard it like breaking news: “Then hurry up and add me!”

Li Wu took out his phone: “Your WeChat ID.”

Cheng Rui gave a string of English and numbers, and within seconds, received Li Wu’s friend request.

He looked down at his profile, speechless for a moment, then wailed: “Even with this avatar he can get someone, is there any justice in this world?”

Lin Honglang was curious: “What avatar?”

Cheng Rui: “The default WeChat avatar.”

Ran Feichi burst out laughing.

Li Wu was embarrassed: “I don’t know what to use.”

Cheng Rui enthusiastically started recommending: “I’ll give you some, I have a bunch of player-style manga avatars, guaranteed to make girls fall head over heels for you.”

After saying that, he carefully selected from his album and sent them all to Li Wu: “Quick, look, I sent them all to you.”

He specifically circled one of them: “When I used this avatar, so many girls nearby added me, my love luck was super strong, the attraction was lethal.”

Li Wu opened it; it was a black and white backlit photo of a man smoking, with a sharp chin, exuding an air of lazy decadence.

Li Wu asked: “Won’t teachers say something if I use this?”

“They won’t! Teachers don’t care about you, even my parents didn’t say anything.”

It sounded unreliable no matter how you heard it, but Li Wu ignored it, maintaining his “old man head” style.

“Li Wu! Why haven’t you changed it yet!” Cheng Rui persisted: “This avatar is blessed, girls will message you much more frequently.”

The latter half of the sentence struck like a gong, and Li Wu felt a hint of wavering in his heart.

He decided to try it.

Seconds later, from the next bed came the sound of Cheng Rui satisfyingly slapping his thigh: “That’s more like it!”

Cheng Rui’s avatar theory was quickly verified.

The next day at noon after class, Li Wu returned to the dormitory and, as expected, received Cen Jin’s questioning: What’s with the avatar?

Just a few minutes ago, as if she had timed it perfectly to confront him.

The boy’s lips curled up: My roommate suggested changing them.

Cen Jin replied almost instantly: Which roommate?

Li Wu typed: Cheng Rui.

Cen Jin: Did I ask for his name? I mean, why does your roommate keep teaching you bad things?

Holding back his laughter until his face stiffened, Li Wu coughed once, composing himself: I don’t know what avatar to use.

Cen Jin: Even your photo would be better than this.

Li Wu: Don’t want to use it.

His meaning was, that it was fine for her to use it.

Cen Jin: But you want to use a smoking avatar?

Li Wu surrendered: Changing it right now.

Though he promised firmly, his hands remained still.

After a while, the woman came back to check: Why haven’t you changed it yet?

Li Wu replied: Still looking.

…

Cen Jin was speechless, seeing that her harmless, study-focused little cypress tree was showing signs of being corrupted by city-slicker ways.

Thinking of this, she lost her appetite, put down her fork, and repeatedly refreshed Li Wu’s avatar.

“Are you full?” Across from her, Lu Qiqi was gnawing on chicken wings, oil all over her mouth and hands.

Olympus Star had its buffet restaurant, with standards and dishes no less than a five-star hotel.

Cen Jin supported her head weakly, mumbling: “Kids are so hard to manage.”

“Whoa,” Lu Qiqi leaned back in shock: “You already have kids?”

“No,” Cen Jin put down her phone, changing her words: “My little brother is at home, he’s in his rebellious phase.”

Lu Qiqi put a strip of chicken in her mouth: “How old is he? I have a younger brother too.”

“Seventeen.”

“My brother is fifteen, and yeah, he’s really hard to control, always sneaking off to illegal internet cafes, even beating doesn’t work, my parents are worried sick.” Lu Qiqi found resonance.

Her colleague’s words made Cen Jin even more worried.

Li Wu was born in the mountains, with a pure heart; the flashy world was full of traps for him, especially at his young age when it’s hard to distinguish right from wrong, making it easy to lose his way and harm himself.

Fortunately, when she returned to her workstation after lunch and opened WeChat, the youth had already changed his smoking avatar, replacing it with a photo of a bookshelf, in vintage brown-yellow tones, the entire image almost filled with thick book spines.

He asked: Is this okay?

Cen Jin was immediately pleased, showing a satisfied smile: That’s more like it.

Then she urged: No more talking, go take your nap.

Li Wu: Okay.

The avatar matter was thus concluded.

—

On Saturday after school, Li Wu didn’t wait for Cheng Rui, who was still chattering endlessly with his desk mate and ran straight back to the dormitory.

After packing his things, he set an alarm on his digital watch to remind himself to buy something. Once prepared, Li Wu sat back in his chair, slightly out of breath, and started reviewing today’s history notes.

The boy’s handwriting was neat, comfortably filling a whole page with clear categories.

Soon, the dormitory was empty, and Cen Jin also sent a WeChat message saying: I might be a bit late today.

Li Wu replied: What time?

Cen Jin wasn’t certain, and could only give a range: Between 7:00 and 7:30.

Though the specific matter wasn’t mentioned in their words, the two had developed an unspoken understanding.

Li Wu hurriedly adjusted his alarm clock back, then continued memorizing those complex historical dates, figures, and events.

At six-fifty, the digital watch beeped punctually.

Li Wu immediately got up, shouldered his bag, and ran out.

Tree shadows swayed as the youth sprinted along the boulevard, his black hair tousled by the wind.

On the weekend, the school was empty, and the small store was also deserted, looking somewhat lonely, with only two or three students chatting and laughing.

Li Wu walked quickly inside, stopping at the counter to scan around.

He hadn’t come here many times, could count them on one hand, and those were all because Cheng Rui had coaxed and tricked him, so he wasn’t very familiar with where things were placed. He could only look left and right among the shelves, searching as he went.

The shopkeeper glanced at the confused back of the head and beckoned: “Come here, what are you looking for?”

Li Wu turned around: “Do you have hot milk?”

“Yes,” the shopkeeper tapped a mini temperature-controlled cabinet next to the cash register: “All the hot ones are in here.”

Li Wu walked back, looking at the various colored milk varieties inside.

“What flavor do you want? We have plain, banana, and strawberry too.”

So many… Li Wu hesitated for a while, thinking of the beverage Cen Jin was always passionate about, and asked: “Do you have coffee flavored?”

“Then you might as well drink coffee directly,” the shopkeeper selected two options for him, a can of Nescafe and a box of coffee milk: “Which one do you want?”

Li Wu exhaled, his wrist brushing his temple: “I’ll take the milk.”

After paying, and walking out of the store, Li Wu held the milk in his pocket, checked the time again, unknowingly smiled, and once more sprinted toward the school gate.

At seven o’clock sharp, Cen Jin’s car hadn’t arrived yet.

Time ticked by minute by minute.

The temperature of the milk box in his hand hadn’t noticeably decreased, but Li Wu still worriedly took off his backpack, put it in the inner pocket, and zipped it up tight, before shouldering it again.

At seven twenty-two, the familiar white car separated from the traffic flow and slowly came to a stop not far away.

Though the night was dark, Li Wu’s eyes lit up like struck matches. He pressed his lips that had been dried by the cold wind and walked over.

As soon as he got in the car, he heard the woman’s apologetic voice: “Sorry I’m late, there was some traffic.”

She had an air of being rushed about her as she lifted her eyes to look at him.

Suddenly meeting her gaze, Li Wu quickly looked away, saying: “It’s fine.”

Cen Jin put her hand back on the steering wheel, turning around: “I came from the company, I need to go back later, so I’ll just drop you off at the entrance of your complex, you can go home by yourself.”

Li Wu was slightly stunned, first said “Oh,” then added: “If you’re busy, I can take transportation home by myself.”

Cen Jin’s eyelashes were gilded by the streetlights: “If I was that busy, I would have told you in advance.”

The reason she went to such trouble to pick up Li Wu was because Lu Qiqi’s words about her brother were still ringing in her ears.

She was very worried that during some period of negligence, a good child would be poisoned, corrupted, and start misbehaving by going to illegal internet cafes.

This was the problem Cen Jin faced. But Li Wu was completely different; at this moment, all he was thinking about was how to reasonably hand over the milk from deep in his backpack to the woman.

The two people in the car each had their concerns, traveling in silence.

Seeing they were approaching Cen Jin’s complex, Li Wu couldn’t wait any longer, lifted his backpack, and pulled open the zipper with a hiss.

The slight sound drew Cen Jin’s attention, her gaze sweeping over.

But it still made the youth’s back heat up as he found that box of milk, and felt the box – it still had some warmth – before finally taking it out.

The woman also stopped the car at this moment.

“We’re here.” She turned her head to remind him.

Li Wu’s chest heaved sharply once, and as if making a decision, held out the milk. His face was flushed red, fortunately, the car interior wasn’t bright, with shadows covering it.

Cen Jin was stunned for a moment but didn’t immediately take it, only noticing it was a box of milk, milk-brown packaging, scattered with coffee bean patterns.

Li Wu couldn’t smoothly organize an excuse: “Before, previously you always brought food when picking me up.”

Cen Jin understood in an instant, her smile faster than her thoughts, a sense of gratification instantly enveloping her: “Is this for me?”

“Mm,” the boy responded almost inaudibly, afraid she wouldn’t accept: “Anyway, I bought it with your money.”

“Here.” The last two words were low and hurried, strangely carrying a desperate forcefulness.

Cen Jin took it; the milk was still warm. She lifted it, beaming: “Thank you, I’ll drink it when I get to the office.”

Success.

Li Wu made a fist in his heart.

“I’m getting out.” The youth quickly zipped up his bag, eager to get out and release his triumph.

“Okay, goodbye.”

“Mm.” He closed the door, bidding her farewell.

After the car drove away, merging into the golden flow, Li Wu let out a breath, finally allowing himself to smile freely. He walked into the complex, looking back multiple times, even though Cen Jin’s car was completely out of sight. He walked a few steps slowly, then broke into another run, this long brick-paved path, with swaying flowers and trees, had a joyful movement, as if walking on piano keys.