On the night after the college entrance exam, the entire city belonged to the examinees. All the usual hangout spots frequented by high school students were no longer ideal meeting places. They wanted to storm into the adult world. Nightclubs, bars, and KTVs were filled with young, inexperienced yet bold faces. Not to mention the bustling barbecue stalls along the streets. The yellow beverages they’d been avoiding could finally be called beer, and they were ready to down three to five jugs.

Hou Junqi and the others had reserved a table at Milk, planning to stay up all night. Zhang Shu had just finished showering at home when the group chat started buzzing with messages.

Wu Pengcheng: “Why shower before barbecue?”

Han Xiao: “Is Brother Shu going to dress up to dazzle Milk?”

Hou Junqi: “Don’t be so full of yourself, he’s going to see his wife first.”

Han Xiao: “My apologies, my apologies.”

Wu Pengcheng: “No way, you’re bringing your wife to the nightclub?”

Zhang Shu: “Dream on, not bringing her.”

How could he think of tainting his jasmine flower in such a place?

Zhang Shu switched out of WeChat and called Sheng Xia. After two rings, she hung up. Hung up?

Half a minute later, a message came through on QQ.

Jasmine: “Having dinner.”

Zhang Shu: “At home?”

Jasmine: “Outside.”

That meant her mother was probably there too.

Zhang Shu: “When are you heading home?”

Jasmine: “Probably around 10?”

What an awkward time.

Zhang Shu looked at his fresh clothes and clean-shaven chin. Well, all that grooming for nothing.

Jasmine: “What’s up?”

Zhang Shu: “Missing you.”

Jasmine: “…”

Jasmine: “We’ll see each other tomorrow?”

Tomorrow they had to return to class to estimate their scores, and then there was the teacher appreciation dinner and farewell meal in the evening.

Zhang Shu: “Oh.”

How heartless. At such an important moment after the college entrance exam, didn’t she want to see him? Apparently not. Whatever.

After eating and drinking their fill at the barbecue stall, around 10 PM, as the nightclub started filling up, the group moved to Milk. The speakers were blasting, and colored lights were flashing everywhere. Zhang Shu had been here a few times before, mostly for birthday parties, staying briefly before leaving. He never understood why people liked celebrating birthdays in such a noisy place where you had to shout to talk.

Until tonight, he finally got it. Between guys, shouting was necessary, but when meeting girls they found attractive, it became the perfect excuse to whisper in their ears. Every time Wu Pengcheng and the others returned from the dance floor, they brought back several girls. The couch got increasingly crowded, with everyone trying to whisper into each other’s ears.

This was a place for releasing hormones.

Zhang Shu, still recovering from illness, couldn’t drink, and he didn’t like dancing, so he stayed at the table playing dice with Han Xiao. That idiot Han Xiao wore his bluffs on his face – after seeing him roll ones a couple of times, Zhang Shu could guess his next moves. After half an hour without losing, it became boring.

Zhang Shu felt a bit bored and looked around, noticing many familiar faces, clearly from Fujun High. Who would’ve thought – they were such good students normally, but quite the party animals during breaks.

Just as he looked away, he noticed someone standing in front of him. Chen Mengyao.

“Big star!” Wu Pengcheng spoke first, “You’re about to debut, yet you dare come to nightclubs? Aren’t you afraid someone will take photos for future scandals?”

Chen Mengyao snapped, “Wu Pengcheng, get lost!”

She sat down at the low table opposite the couch and asked Zhang Shu directly: “Are you and Sheng Xia together?”

It was noisy around them, and they weren’t sitting close, but Zhang Shu heard her anyway. He didn’t catch it clearly, but he guessed what she said.

He stood up, “Whenever she allows it.”

The lip movements were hard to read, so Chen Mengyao leaned closer, “What!?”

Everyone in the booth was watching them.

Especially the girls Wu Pengcheng had brought over – they’d come hoping to meet Zhang Shu, but he wouldn’t drink and only played dice with his friends. They couldn’t figure out why he’d even come to a nightclub.

So when Chen Mengyao approached him, everyone wanted to see if the beauty could win him over.

They saw Zhang Shu lean towards Wu Pengcheng’s ear and shout: “I’m leaving first.”

Wu Pengcheng checked his phone and yelled back: “Leaving at just 11? Come on! The show hasn’t even started!”

Zhang Shu: “You guys have fun, I can’t hang out anymore.”

Wu Pengcheng, concerned about his health, nodded: “Let’s meet up again when you’re better!”

Zhang Shu: “Let Hou and the others know.”

“Will do.”

Zhang Shu left.

The girls whispered among themselves.

“He’s even more handsome up close, how did his nose get so perfect?”

“His voice is nice too.”

“Oh, that girl followed him!”

“What? And here we thought he was just being aloof.”

A girl asked Wu Pengcheng: “Hey, is that his girlfriend?”

Wu Pengcheng replied irritably: “No!”

“Does he have a girlfriend?”

“Yes, he’s going to see his wife now!”

Shocking.

Zhang Shu hadn’t expected Chen Mengyao to follow him out.

“Anything else?”

Chen Mengyao: “I just asked you…”

Zhang Shu: “Whenever she allows it.”

“Huh?”

“That was my answer earlier.”

Chen Mengyao turned the words over in her mind and understood.

She had always thought Sheng Xia was lying to her, that they were together but denied it. Because their relationship was practically indistinguishable from a couple’s.

But hearing the answer from Zhang Shu himself, she couldn’t quite describe her feelings.

So Zhang Shu was capable of pursuing girls and dating after all, just not with her.

She no longer believed she and Zhang Shu had any chance. There was no real purpose in asking these questions.

She just wanted to know the answer.

To give her youth a period, even if it wasn’t perfect.

“If, and I mean if,” Chen Mengyao hesitated, but still asked, “If I had pursued you in our first year, would we have had a chance to be together?”

Zhang Shu tilted his head to look at her, his expression puzzled: “That doesn’t sound like a question you would ask.”

Indeed, how humble it was to ask about an “if.”

“How can I imagine something that never happened,” Zhang Shu’s tone was even, but not cold, no different from usual, as if they were discussing math problems rather than matters of the heart, “I could try to reason about future things, but there’s no point in space-time that’s already passed.”

“Back then, what were your feelings towards me?” Chen Mengyao persisted.

Zhang Shu made an “hmm” sound, seemingly genuinely remembering, or perhaps carefully considering.

“You remind me a lot of my sister, especially when you sing, it feels very familiar. But I can tell the difference between familiarity and like. Though getting along well with someone familiar isn’t bad, if I had dated you then, it would have been very irresponsible. I didn’t want that. Besides, at that time, I couldn’t tell you had any feelings for me, so I had even fewer thoughts about it.”

Perhaps because after today, many of them would never meet again in this lifetime.

Parting words are always sincere.

Zhang Shu seemed unlike himself too. Perhaps it was just that they’d never seen his true self. In the past, whenever such topics came up, he would always dodge the core issue with artful language. Today, he gave her a definite answer. He didn’t say she wasn’t good enough; he said he couldn’t tell she had feelings for him. If he had dated her then, she would have been the one hurt, because what he felt for her wasn’t love, but familiarity. Even though familiarity could be a reason to date, he had never once thought of taking advantage of her, never let such a misunderstanding happen.

Chen Mengyao felt a sourness rising in her abdomen, but more than that, she felt an indescribable sense of relief and comfort.

Zhang Shu left in a taxi.

Chen Mengyao stood at the bar entrance watching the car disappear into the distance, and suddenly broke into a slight smile. Goodbye, Zhang Shu.

If every girl has to like someone during their youth, then she was lucky that the one she liked was Zhang Shu.

…

That night, Sheng Xia first had dinner with Wang Lianhua, then went for a late-night meal with Sheng Mingfeng. By the time she got home and tidied up, it was already past eleven.

She had planned to sleep early, but her body clock wouldn’t allow it. She wasn’t sleepy at all.

Scrolling through social media, she saw everyone was still partying. She wondered if her lifestyle was too rigid and boring.

Just then, she came across a short video posted by Hou Junqi.

He had posted another one just an hour ago. The moment she opened it, the thunderous music nearly blew her ears off.

The scene was a bar, with several guys either sitting or standing, Han Xiao counting drinks with the server.

Zhang Shu was sitting casually, elbows resting on his knees, in a relaxed posture.

She knew they were at a bar. But she didn’t know it was this kind of bar.

The video Hou Junqi just posted opened Sheng Xia’s eyes wide.

The screen showed a long T-stage, with rows of long-legged dancers moving freely. Their high heels looked as tall as rulers, shorts split up to their thighs, barely different from bikinis.

Amid the rhythmic music interspersed with the DJ’s screams, jets of confetti exploded, paper fragments flying everywhere. Under the bizarre lights, crowds swayed, arms waving…

Like another world.

What about Zhang Shu? What was he doing?

Was he also staring at those long legs?

Sheng Xia put her phone aside and picked up the book by her pillow.

Taking a deep breath, she told herself to focus on the book instead.

Before she could read more than a few words, her phone dinged with a message.

She glanced over.

It was Song Jiang.

She could see the brief message without opening it: “Are you asleep?”

Of course not, I’m watching you check out pretty girls!

Sheng Xia grumbled internally, not planning to reply, and turned back to her book.

Several “dings” of message alerts came through, forcing her to open them.

Song Jiang: “Probably not, right?”

Song Jiang: “Want to come downstairs?”

Song Jiang: “I’m outside your building.”

Sheng Xia sat up straight – he came to her place?

“Weren’t you at the bar?” Was he lying?

Song Jiang: “Came back.”

“Why come over at this hour?”

Song Jiang: “Miss you.”

Song Jiang: “Really miss you.”

Song Jiang: “Want to see you.”

Had he been drinking? Talking like this…

Making her ears burn.

“Are you drunk?”

Song Jiang: “…”

Song Jiang: “If I were drunk, I’d be at your door right now, probably already knocking.”

Instead of just being downstairs.

Sheng Xia’s lips curved up unconsciously. She tossed aside her phone, jumped off the bed, pulled open her wardrobe, and after scanning through it, only pulled out a sun protection shirt to wear over her nightgown.

Tiptoeing past Wang Lianhua’s door, she reached the front door, then doubled back to the kitchen to grab the kitchen trash before heading out.

Sure enough, as soon as she opened the door, Wang Lianhua called from her room: “Where are you going so late?”

Sheng Xia: “Taking out the trash.”

Wang Lianhua: “Do it tomorrow.”

Sheng Xia: “I just broke some eggs, afraid they’ll smell.”

“What eggs are you breaking this late at night?”

Afraid of being caught in the lie, Sheng Xia quickly closed the door and left.

Just as she stepped out of the building entrance, a figure darted out of the darkness and instantly pulled her into an embrace.

Sheng Xia’s heart rate suddenly accelerated – they had never hugged without warning before!

Then she immediately frowned –

Such a strong smell of smoke and alcohol!

Sheng Xia couldn’t help but cough lightly, her body struggling slightly, but the arms around her tightened even more. She felt like her shoulders were about to be crushed.

“Zhang Shu!”

“Call me A-Shu,” his voice was low, demanding imperiously.

With one hand holding the trash, she couldn’t push him away with just the other, “You lied, you’ve been drinking!”

“I haven’t.”

“You smell of alcohol, and you say you haven’t!”

Zhang Shu loosened his hold slightly, and with this release, the soft feeling against his chest receded. He belatedly realized – wasn’t this embrace different from that night on the track?

So soft, how was she getting softer?

He lifted his clothes and sniffed himself.

There was a strong smell of smoke and alcohol. That’s what happens in enclosed spaces – just sitting there leaves you reeking.

How annoying, he had made himself so clean before going out.

“Didn’t drink, it’s just spills from others,” he explained with furrowed brows, extremely helpless.

Seeing his expression, Sheng Xia knew he wasn’t lying, but muttered, “Spilled by the dancing girls?”

Zhang Shu froze, not understanding.

Sheng Xia took his silence as confirmation and ignored him, walking around him to throw away the trash.

Zhang Shu followed behind her, finally getting a clear look at her outfit – a cover-up over what appeared to be a nightgown, and slip-on shoes below.

Very homey, coupled with her puffy angry face…

Zhang Shu suddenly smiled, “Do you know what you look like right now?”

Sheng Xia threw away the trash, turned around, and didn’t speak.

Zhang Shu continued anyway: “Like… like a wife scolding her husband for coming home after carousing.”

Sheng Xia stopped in her tracks.

What?!

“Zhang Shu!”

“Mm.”

“Have you no shame?”

“None.”

“…”

She was furious, “I’m going back!”

Zhang Shu caught her hand, “No, I was wrong. I do have shame, please don’t go back yet.”

There weren’t many people in the complex at this hour, but Sheng Xia was still nervous, pulling her hand free and saying softly, “This is my home…”

She was so shy, how could she become less shy?

Zhang Shu nodded, compromising: “Alright, I’ll just stand here and look at you.”

“We’ll see each other tomorrow anyway.”

As she said this, Sheng Xia looked up and met his deep gaze, feeling her heart collapse a little.

Well, okay, she was wrong – it wasn’t the same.

After not seeing each other for two days, this meeting was very different.

“It’s not the same,” Zhang Shu said. “Tomorrow we’ll estimate scores. Before everything becomes known, I need to tell you…”

“Sheng Xia, before when you said if you get into Heqing University we could be together, I disagree.”

Disagree.

Sheng Xia’s heart felt like something had struck it, causing a sharp pain.

Before she could react, he continued slowly: “This kind of thing should come as an invitation from me. What I want to say is, I want to be with you, regardless of family status, regardless of prospects, regardless of grades.”

“No matter what score we estimate tomorrow, no matter how the exam went, no matter if we’re in the same city or same university in the future, I want to ask you to be with me. If there’s a distance between us, I’ll move closer to you, however far or long it takes doesn’t matter.”

“Okay?”