Jin Chao stood beneath a streetlight wearing a black hoodie and a baseball cap, his head lowered as he looked at his phone. The cap’s brim shadowed his entire face, and if he hadn’t sent Jiang Mu a message, his figure would have practically melded with the streetlight pole, making him nearly impossible to notice.
The moment Jiang Mu spotted Jin Chao, her lips couldn’t help but curl into a slight smile as she walked toward him. Pan Kai, seeing that Jiang Mu wasn’t heading toward the bus station, hurriedly followed after her.
Jin Chao hadn’t looked up once until Jiang Mu stopped in front of him. Only then did he pocket his phone and lift his gaze. His eyes had grown sharper since childhood, and wherever his gaze landed, it seemed to stir the very air around him, causing Jiang Mu’s emotions to flutter in response.
She asked with poorly concealed happiness, “What brings you here?”
“Just passing by.”
As he spoke, his eyes flickered slightly as Pan Kai caught up and tugged at Jiang Mu’s school uniform sleeve, asking, “Aren’t you going to catch the bus?”
Jin Chao’s gaze settled on where Pan Kai had wrinkled Jiang Mu’s uniform sleeve, and he slowly pronounced three words: “Remove your hand.”
The matter-of-fact tone immediately raised Pan Kai’s psychological defenses. Jiang Mu felt that Jin Chao had every right to tell others not to touch her uniform, so she quickly pulled her arm away. Her action surprised Pan Kai even more, and he glanced sideways at Jin Chao while asking Jiang Mu, “Who is he?”
Jiang Mu turned to stare at Pan Kai for two seconds, then leaned close to his ear and whispered, “The Ghost of Seven.”
Upon hearing these words, Pan Kai’s pupils dilated in shock, and he stared at Jin Chao with an expression as if he’d seen a ghost.
Jin Chao’s gaze returned to Jiang Mu’s face, carrying a deadly pressure. Jiang Mu obediently walked to his side and said, “Let’s go.”
The two then disappeared around the corner, leaving behind a dumbfounded Pan Kai standing bewildered in the wind. Jin Chao casually looked back after walking a few steps, his narrow eyes carrying a hint of coldness that made Pan Kai shudder, completely unsettled.
Seeing that Jin Chao had neither his motorcycle nor his car, Jiang Mu asked curiously, “Did Mr. Penny-pincher take his motorcycle home today?”
Jin Chao kept his hands in his pockets and asked in return, “What’s wrong?”
Jiang Mu carefully probed, “Why don’t you get another motorcycle?”
Jin Chao’s eyes remained unchanged as he counter-questioned, “Didn’t get enough this morning?”
Thinking of that morning’s high-speed ride, Jiang Mu honestly felt that being late to school would be less nerve-wracking next time. She hemmed and hawed before saying, “That’s not it…”
Jin Chao led Jiang Mu down a small alley, planning to take advantage of the quiet route to discuss how romance was affecting her studies.
After nearly a month at the affiliated high school, Jiang Mu was still unfamiliar with many of the paths. Seeing how Jin Chao navigated the darkness with such familiarity, she couldn’t help but ask, “You know this area well?”
“Hard not to.”
“What do you usually do in these alleys?”
Jiang Mu’s original intention was to point out that these alleys seemed empty, dark without streetlights, not even a milk tea shop in sight. But once the words left her mouth, they somehow felt strange.
Sure enough, Jin Chao responded, “What do you think I’d do in these alleys?”
Just then, they came upon a pair of high school students ahead, the boy pressing the girl against the wall in an intimate embrace. Jiang Mu froze, even stopping in her tracks. Jin Chao also paused, clearing his throat. The two students heard the sound and glanced their way before walking off through another alley.
Jiang Mu’s expression grew somewhat uncomfortable. Jin Chao glanced at her and said, “I used to come here to settle conflicts. What were you thinking?”
In truth, Jin Chao had always been combative since childhood. When he was young, he would fight with boys his age outside their home every few days. Though it was just children playing rough, he would make others cry while never shedding a tear himself no matter how badly he was hurt. Because of this, the adults in the neighborhood always thought Jin Chao was in the wrong, and he often got beaten by Jiang Ying Han as a result.
Once, when she and Jin Chao were downstairs using twigs to poke at snails, a boy from the next building started throwing stones at Jin Chao. At first, Jin Chao ignored him, but the boy grew bolder. When one of the small stones, covered in post-rain mud, hit Jiang Mu’s new leather shoes, she cried out “How annoying!” Then Jin Chao immediately picked up a brick and went after him, frightening the boy into loud wails. The boy’s parents rushed to Jiang Mu’s home demanding an explanation, and in the end, Jin Chao was punished again.
She was too young then, feeling indignant on Jin Chao’s behalf, so angry that she bit off her toy rabbit’s ears. Only when she grew older did she understand the saying “the crying child gets the milk.” But she had never seen Jin Chao cry, not once, as if he had been born without tear ducts.
Lost in her thoughts, she felt her shoulder lighten as Jin Chao took her heavy schoolbag.
These alleys were full of ups and downs, not only empty of people but also lacking streetlights. Jiang Mu wanted to use her phone for light, but seeing that the battery was below ten percent, she quietly put it away and said to Jin Chao, “Could you walk a bit slower?”
Jin Chao usually moved around with a group of guys and wasn’t used to accommodating girls but to find an opportunity to counsel Jiang Mu about her studies, he slowed his pace. After carefully observing how she looked at things, he asked, “How many degrees is your myopia?”
“Around a hundred.”
“Why don’t you wear glasses?”
Jiang Mu glanced at him and said softly, “I look… ugly in glasses.”
Jin Chao raised an eyebrow, and the occasional small flying insects passed silently through the air.
Jin Chao had never dealt with this kind of situation and didn’t know where to begin.
When he was her age, he couldn’t be considered a traditional good student. Though his grades never slipped, he had done his share of bad things. But because his grades were good, Teacher Ma showed him some favoritism. Though he wrote plenty of self-criticism, he never received any serious disciplinary action.
Back then, he was always rushing about, with no time for relationships, though he often helped his friends cover for their romantic encounters. His grades could silence any criticism, and parents strangely trusted their children to be with him.
In reality, he had grown used to seeing those guys cuddling with their girlfriends in pavilions, but when it came to Jiang Mu, it was different. There was a certain disconnect in his heart.
If Jiang Mu were a boy, he could just take him out for a drink and give him some advice, or at worst, give him a good scolding.
But Jiang Mu was a girl. He worried that speaking too harshly would hurt her and make her lose face, but speaking too lightly might make her not take it seriously enough.
Especially at this crucial point in her third year of high school, with pressure already high, who knew what desperate things a girl troubled by love might do?
So in the dark alley, Jin Chao walked the whole way with slightly furrowed brows, making Jiang Mu feel he was deep in thought, as if he had something important to tell her.
After a while, Jin Chao suddenly asked, “Have you ever thought about what kind of person you want to marry in the future?”
Jin Chao’s intention was to use this topic to make her realize the long and difficult road ahead, but Jiang Mu completely missed his meaning and instead found his question rather strange.
She answered honestly, “No.”
She hadn’t even decided which university to apply to or what major to study next year, how could she have time to think about such abstract questions as what kind of man she would marry in the future?
However, Jin Chao found the situation quite serious. Since Jiang Mu had never considered a future with her current boyfriend, it must be just for fun.
Regarding not taking relationships seriously, she was a girl, and no matter how you looked at it, she would be the one at a disadvantage.
Jin Chao was silent for a moment, then continued, “I had a friend in my old class who pursued a girl from the neighboring class quite enthusiastically. He’d bring food in the morning, buy drinks in the afternoon, give lots of gifts, and sweet-talked her until she was completely devoted to him. But behind her back, the things he discussed with us were unspeakable, even bragging about their relationship as something to show off. Guess what happened later?”
Jiang Mu tilted her head and asked along with his story, “What happened?”
“The girl’s first mock exam scores plummeted. Her parents came to the school and made a huge scene that embarrassed everyone. The boy proposed breaking up, and the girl, feeling humiliated, insisted on dropping out. What do you think about that?”
Jiang Mu hadn’t expected Jin Chao to suddenly bring up his former classmate’s story and ask for her opinion. She blinked in confusion and said, “Although… but… there’s no need to drop out…”
“…” Jin Chao was momentarily speechless at Jiang Mu’s focus point.
After a pause, his voice echoed in the alley as he told her, “Boys your age who are interested in the opposite sex are mostly acting on impulse. For them, getting a pretty girl is like a trophy to show off, let alone any sense of responsibility.”
But Jiang Mu disagreed, seriously countering, “That’s not absolute. In my previous class, there was a couple who got along well, and later they both got into Suzhou University of Science and Technology. They’re still together now.”
While saying this, Jiang Mu wasn’t watching her step and stumbled on a protruding gray paving stone. Jin Chao quickly grabbed her, his breath close as a shadow fell over her, and he said, “The vast majority of boys this age aren’t mentally mature enough to bear the weight of responsibility.”
On a distant second-floor terrace, colorful clothes swayed on clotheslines in the wind, and ivy crept along earthen walls extending toward an unknown destination. In the quiet, dark alley that isolated the hustle and bustle of the chaotic world, time seemed to stand still. Jiang Mu looked up, her autumn-water eyes reflecting Jin Chao’s image as her thin lips parted: “What about you? Are you the same?”
Jin Chao’s dark eyes quietly gazed at her, filled with emotions Jiang Mu couldn’t fathom. He said to her, “Hold onto me.”
Below their feet was the uneven gray stone path. Jin Chao extended his arm to her, and Jiang Mu obediently gripped his sleeve, hearing him say, “The person you’ve met isn’t me.”
“Then how do you know the person I’ve met couldn’t be someone like you?”
As soon as the words left her mouth, Jiang Mu’s grip on Jin Chao’s sleeve tightened, and then, thinking of that cursed lack of blood ties, she awkwardly explained, “I mean, someone like you?”
Jin Chao didn’t look at her, a fleeting light passing through his eyes as he smoothly changed the subject: “You’d better get a pair of glasses.”
“No way.”
“Next time you walk these paths, no one will be here to steady you.”
“I won’t walk these kinds of paths with anyone else.”
The evening breeze blew gently as they walked one in front of the other, the small piece of fabric connecting past and present. In his mind was the image of a toddling girl learning to walk; in hers was the boy who would never abandon her, no matter what.