The phone was heating up. Lin Zhixia gripped the phone case tightly and said softly, “Saturday morning at eight, at the school gate. Let’s not miss each other.”

Jiang Yubai responded, “See you on Saturday.”

Lin Zhixia suddenly remembered that when she and Jiang Yubai were deskmates, they often said “see you tomorrow” to each other—that was several years ago, and she felt nostalgic.

*

On Saturday morning, a light rain fell.

Though the rain was light, the wind was strong. Lin Zhixia ran quickly to the school gate and immediately spotted Jiang Yubai. He was holding a black umbrella, his slender fingers wrapped around the handle, looking clean and immaculate. Even though the pervasive mist had dampened his clothes, he was still a striking sight in the rain.

Lin Zhixia happily called out, “Good morning!”

“Good morning.” After greeting her, Jiang Yubai slightly raised the umbrella.

Lin Zhixia understood his meaning. She darted under his umbrella and said, “Jiang Yubai, I feel you’re becoming more and more mature.”

Lin Zhixia thought he would say “thank you,” but he didn’t speak. He just turned his head to look at her, and she immediately asked, “Why are you staring at me?”

He explained, “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you.”

His words made perfect sense.

Lin Zhixia took a step forward. The slanting raindrops rubbed against the umbrella’s surface and brushed past her sleeve. Jiang Yubai’s umbrella tilted toward her—she noticed this. Without hesitation, she grabbed his wrist, gently turned it, and made the umbrella handle stand straight in his palm.

“You…” he only uttered one word.

Lin Zhixia completed his thought, “Am I not allowed to touch your hand?”

“That’s not the case,” Jiang Yubai said frankly. “Of course you can touch it.”

Despite saying this, his actions remained reserved. He wouldn’t actively move closer to Lin Zhixia, always maintaining a distance from her, intentionally or unintentionally. He was courteous, pure, lofty, and not to be trifled with. Compared to when he was nine years old, the current Jiang Yubai was much more complex and difficult to understand.

Jiang Yubai sparked Lin Zhixia’s curiosity.

After the two sat in the car, Lin Zhixia hugged a soft pillow with her left hand and extended the index finger of her right hand to touch the back of Jiang Yubai’s hand.

Jiang Yubai clenched his fist, making his knuckles protrude. Lin Zhixia traced along Jiang Yubai’s prominent knuckles, her fingertip circling back to the back of his hand, touching a visible blue vein.

She stared intently at his hand, slowly pressing on the vein, then releasing, then pressing again, like a small cat toying with a mouse.

Jiang Yubai remained silent. He turned his left hand over, palm facing up.

Lin Zhixia suddenly asked, “Do you remember in elementary school, how our classmates liked to read palms and tell fortunes?”

“I remember,” Jiang Yubai described, “The class monitor often said there are career lines, relationship lines, and life lines in the palm.”

Lin Zhixia spoke softly, “Now I’m going to read your palm. Please call me Master Lin.”

Jiang Yubai cooperated fully, “Master Lin.”

Lin Zhixia drew a circle on his palm. He closed his five fingers, as if grabbing something invisible in the void, “Are you reading my career, relationships, or life?”

Lin Zhixia laughed, “Which one do you want to hear the most?”

Jiang Yubai answered honestly, “Career.”

Lin Zhixia put on a thoughtful expression. She traced a line in his palm, moved her fingertip up to the base of his fingers, tapped lightly, and then said, “Prosperous and developed, extremely auspicious for career, benefits flowing smoothly, legitimate ways to make money.”

“Thank you for your guidance, Master.” Jiang Yubai politely accepted her verdict.

Lin Zhixia was thoroughly amused, “I’m playing the part well, aren’t I?”

Jiang Yubai suddenly caught her hand in return, “Master Lin, could you please read my life and relationships again? I don’t know much, I’ve never had anyone read them for me.”

Lin Zhixia’s favorite game in life was role-playing, and Jiang Yubai always played well with her. They had played from childhood to adolescence, especially in middle school Chinese and history classes, where they had acted out almost all the famous scenes from their textbooks.

But never before had Jiang Yubai held her wrist like this without letting go. She sat still, feeling as if there was a lake in her heart, rippling in circles, and in the overlapping waves, Jiang Yubai’s shadow gradually emerged.

She didn’t want to feel shy at this moment. She maintained a calm tone, “Alright, let me read your life… not bad, blessed with both good fortune and longevity, fortune as vast as the eastern sea, longevity like the southern mountains.”

Jiang Yubai laughed very faintly, “Why do you only say good things?”

Lin Zhixia stubbornly replied, “I only speak the truth.” Then she challenged him, “Are you questioning my abilities? The Lotus Sutra says, ‘All living beings possess the wisdom and virtuous characteristics of the Tathagata…'”

Before Lin Zhixia could finish, Jiang Yubai moved an inch closer to her. For some reason, she didn’t dare look into his eyes, and her gaze suddenly moved downward, stopping at his collarbone. Usually, he buttoned his clothes to the top, maintaining a proper, dignified, and conservative dressing style. But after turning fifteen, his personality had opened up a bit.

Lin Zhixia sincerely believed that Jiang Yubai and her brother should have a lot in common and could talk well together. If there was an opportunity in the future, she wanted to try to repair the relationship between Jiang Yubai and Lin Zeqiu.

While Lin Zhixia’s mind wandered, Jiang Yubai reminded her, “You haven’t read my relationships yet.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Jiang Yubai felt he was being a bit abrupt. He just wanted to know how Lin Zhixia would predict it, after all, that was something far in the future. He rested his arm on the armrest and somehow suddenly remembered Li Bai’s poem “Chang Gan Xing,” which is the origin of the phrase “childhood sweethearts.” The poem read: “My love came riding on a bamboo horse, circling the bed, playing with green plums. Living together in Chang Gan village, the two little ones were without suspicion. At fourteen, I became your wife, still too shy to smile…”

He retreated to the corner of the seat.

The distance between him and Lin Zhixia increased.

This made Lin Zhixia unable to stop thinking about it.

Why was Jiang Yubai sometimes close, sometimes distant?

What was going on in Jiang Yubai’s mind?

How cooperative could Jiang Yubai be when playing games with her?

All three questions were within Lin Zhixia’s scope of investigation.

Lin Zhixia said with interest, “I can also read relationships! I’ve seen your uncle’s wife. In the future, you’ll definitely be similar to your uncle, with a beautiful wife. You and your wife will be harmonious, your family business prosperous, and your life fulfilling.”

Jiang Yubai silently wondered, could she imagine him developing a family relationship with another girl? She didn’t seem to mind at all.

Jiang Yubai couldn’t help but feel uncertain about his future path.

Seeing his complex expression, Lin Zhixia immediately asked, “Do you have any requirements for your future girlfriend?”

Jiang Yubai expressed ambiguously, “Can you tell me where I will meet her?”

“That I don’t know,” Lin Zhixia pretended to be profound, “You must seize your destiny.”

Jiang Yubai remained silent.

Lin Zhixia deliberately probed him, “In a few months, you’ll be going abroad to university. Perhaps at Cambridge you’ll…”

“I won’t,” Jiang Yubai said with absolute certainty.

The car slowed down and stopped on the long driveway in front of a mansion.

The rain continued relentlessly, swallowing clouds and shrouding the sun, showing no signs of abating. Jiang Yubai opened an umbrella and got out of the car first. He stood by the car holding the umbrella, and when Lin Zhixia came out, he covered her completely. Mist filled her eyes as he said, “It’s a bit cold today. What would you like to eat?”

“Shrimp dumplings,” Lin Zhixia answered.

The butler opened the main door for them, and Jiang Yubai handed the umbrella to the butler. Outside, the rain continued to fall, with the howling wind, while inside it was warm and neat, creating an extremely comfortable environment.

Jiang Yubai led Lin Zhixia upstairs. They seemed to be going to accomplish something important, walking very quickly. Lin Zhixia asked him, “Have you ever picked out dresses for other girls?”

“Never,” Jiang Yubai said, “You’re the first.”

“Am I also the last?” Lin Zhixia asked.

Jiang Yubai seemed to glimpse a bit of her thoughts. She wasn’t as indifferent to their future as he had thought. The tension in his heart eased somewhat, and he said gently, “Yes.”

*

Lin Zhixia was led by Jiang Yubai into a spacious room where a designer in her thirties stood with her female assistant in the center of the room.

The designer greeted Jiang Yubai and Lin Zhixia separately, her attitude very gentle. She opened a catalog for them, inviting them to select the types of dresses they liked. The designer sister said that any style could be further improved according to Lin Zhixia’s requirements.

Lin Zhixia opened the catalog and observed silently. After looking at more than ten dresses, she exclaimed, “So beautiful.”

She favored a wine-red V-neck waist-fitted dress with a flowing skirt that had quite a graceful ancient Greek aesthetic. She stared at it for a long time. Jiang Yubai suggested she not hesitate, pick out the dresses she liked, and he would buy them all at once.

Lin Zhixia concealed her shock. She pointed at the red dress, “This one is enough. Do you think it looks nice?”

Jiang Yubai praised, “It looks nice.”

Lin Zhixia opened another catalog and began selecting shoes. She realized that there really were crystal shoes in this world, genuine crystal shoes, but she wasn’t interested in the Cinderella fairy tale. She remembered that Cinderella’s name was “Cendrillon,” and if she were to write the fairy tale, she would make Cinderella become a queen, establishing herself as “Cendrillon I,” leading her citizens to create a brilliant industrial revolution.

She turned past the crystal shoes page and chose a pair of black high heels with bows. The heel was about 4 centimeters, not too high, which she could accept.

Lin Zhixia returned the catalog to the designer sister. The designer and her assistant then took Lin Zhixia to another small room to measure various dimensions with a cloth tape. Lin Zhixia chatted with them, asking about their daily work content and whether it was tiring. They answered Lin Zhixia’s questions with patience, and the entire conversation was relaxed and pleasant.

The designer sister left a business card. She said that after the clothes and shoes were ready, they would have someone package everything and deliver it. Since the clothes were custom-made by hand, the tailor would need about nine weeks.

Nine weeks.

Lin Zhixia calculated in her mind that after nine weeks, Jiang Yubai’s graduation ball would begin, and her sophomore year of university would also be coming to an end.

*

A graduation ball, as the name suggests, involves dancing.

And Lin Zhixia knew nothing about dancing.

Lin Zhixia’s university had also held various balls, but Lin Zhixia never attended. She was immersed in studying and in the laboratory. When she had free time, she rarely went out to socialize, preferring to run on the school track with her roommate Feng Yuan. They ran four or five times every week, at least two thousand meters each time, all efforts aimed at achieving good grades in the university’s physical education exams.

Yes, Lin Zhixia could run eight hundred meters with her head down, could do sit-ups continuously, but she had never danced. Jiang Yubai told Lin Zhixia that their school had selected the waltz and needed everyone to practice conscientiously, though it was also fine not to practice. Jiang Yubai didn’t understand much about music and dance steps either.

Lin Zhixia was skeptical of his claim.

Nevertheless, Jiang Yubai indeed aroused Lin Zhixia’s interest in dancing.

She always loved exploring unknown territories.

To squeeze out time to practice the waltz, Lin Zhixia decided to solve the “Software Engineering” group assignment early.

The frontend and underlying architecture of the software were already completed—these tasks had consumed a significant amount of Lin Zhixia’s time. Lin Zhixia recorded the current results and sent them to the teaching assistant senior. The senior highly praised Lin Zhixia’s programming skills and mentioned that perhaps the school would be willing to purchase this software and promote it throughout the Beijing university circle.

When Lin Zhixia heard that the software could be sold, she immediately became excited.