Before the National Day holiday came the school sports meet. No one from Class Five had volunteered for the 800-meter race, so the sports representative decided to draw lots. Yu Hao ended up being the unfortunate one. Yu Hao had been physically weak since childhood—even running fifty meters left her breathless. That day, the event was scheduled for the afternoon. After being exposed to the scorching sun all morning and without proper warm-up before the race, she collapsed right at the finish line.

Lu Huaizheng was preparing for the triple jump at the nearby field and reacted the fastest. He immediately rushed over, picked her up, and carried her to the infirmary. As a result, he missed his competition. By the time he returned, the judges had already moved on.

Of the two competition events, Lu Huaizheng sacrificed one, leaving only the 100-meter final. The girls from Class Eight pestered him with complaints for a long time. Feeling guilty, Yu Hao promised to help Class Eight with their bulletin boards after the sports meet. Her bulletin boards consistently won awards, and Class Eight’s publicity representative had approached her several times about it.

Sometimes after finishing basketball practice, Lu Huaizheng would find her still working on bulletin boards in his classroom. He would casually toss his ball into the basket, push himself up with both hands on the desk, and sit on it with his long legs dangling, admiring her bulletin board work. Her brushstrokes were gentle, elegant, and lively—the opposite of her personality…

Yes, she was rather wooden.

Lu Huaizheng had poked her forehead countless times, calling her wooden. He was mischievous—the more serious she appeared, the more he loved to tease her, enjoying her stiff reactions.

He used to ride a black mountain bike to school, dressed all in black, looking especially cool.

He enjoyed straddling his mountain bike at the school gate waiting for her, one foot on the ground. When he met familiar male classmates, he would chat briefly, or sometimes just wait alone with his arms crossed. From a distance, Yu Hao would see his face looking particularly clear in the thin morning light. When he smiled, the contours of his profile softened like the vibrant young poplars along the roadside.

One day, a girl from Class Eight passed by and shouted brazenly: “Lu Huaizheng! Aren’t you going back to the classroom?”

“In a bit,” he replied, then as if remembering something, he held the handlebars and turned to call out to the girl: “Hey, I need to leave early this afternoon. Help me clean the blackboard, will you?”

“You’re skipping class again?!” the girl exclaimed in surprise.

“Training.”

“I won’t help you clean it! Ask Hu Siqi to help you!” the girl said stubbornly.

“Forget it then, I’ll ask someone else. Bad luck being assigned to the same cleaning duty group as you two.”

The girl turned back, her expression changing, and smiled with joy in her eyes: “I’ll clean it! I’ll clean it!”

The young man lazily waved his hand. “Thanks.”

Then he waited a while longer, and when Yu Hao appeared, he smiled, stepped on the pedal, and slid like a loach to stop in front of her. With one long leg supporting himself on the ground, he smiled and said: “Why are you always so late?”

He then took a bag of small bread rolls from the handlebar and handed it to her: “I bought too many. If you’ve already eaten, save them for the second break.”

Yu Hao accepted them, saying “Thank you,” then asked, “Why haven’t you gone in yet?”

“I was waiting for you.”

He said this while looking down at her with a smile, his eyes particularly bright. Yu Hao felt his gaze was quite meaningful, not knowing how to respond, she instinctively looked away. But Lu Huaizheng deliberately wouldn’t let her have her way; straddling his bike, he bent down to meet her eyes. Seeing she couldn’t escape, Yu Hao lowered her head and hurriedly said, “I need to get to class.”

Then he grabbed her arm and pulled her back, leaning backward slightly and turning to look at her: “What’s the rush?”

His warm, dry palm gripped her slender, soft arm. Her heart tightened, but he paid no attention and pulled her closer toward himself: “I heard your class has the 800-meter fitness test this afternoon. I bought you a Snickers to boost your energy. Don’t faint like you did at the sports meet.” Then his gaze drifted elsewhere as he scratched his nose lightly, adding: “I won’t be around this afternoon, so no one will carry you to the infirmary.”

At that time, they weren’t close, but from Lu Huaizheng’s attitude, everyone could tell he was interested in her.

At first, people often joked about him and Hu Siqi, but later, Lu Huaizheng wouldn’t let the boys talk about it anymore. This was because once, Yu Hao was carrying a stack of test papers past Class Eight’s door when Lu Huaizheng was chatting with several boys at the entrance. One of them nudged his shoulder and said, “Hey, hey, hey, Hu Siqi has a new boyfriend again. I heard he’s a top student this time.”

Lu Huaizheng was wearing a baseball jacket then, hands in his pockets, his mind elsewhere, looking disinterested: “So what?”

Yu Hao happened to be walking behind a pillar and overheard their conversation.

“I always feel like Hu Siqi likes you the most. Hey, you’ve been desk mates with her for so long—you never had any inappropriate thoughts?”

Lu Huaizheng gave him a sideways glance, then after a while, snickered: “What inappropriate thoughts could I have? You know perfectly well who I like.”

The boy sighed deeply: “Ah, I know you like Yu Hao, but with Hu Siqi’s figure, if you don’t have an emotionless fling with her, what a waste…”

Just as he finished speaking, they saw Yu Hao passing by with a large stack of newly graded test papers.

“…”

“…”

After she walked away, Lu Huaizheng gave that boy a hard kick. The boy reacted quickly, knowing he had said something wrong, and apologized, begging for mercy.

Lu Huaizheng couldn’t let it go, kicking and cursing: “What nonsense are you talking? Don’t you dare ruin things for me!”

Yu Hao never took such crude private talk seriously. However, although Lu Huaizheng was passionate and sincere toward her, even fighting for her, and would have tried to pluck the stars from the sky if she had asked, he never actually asked her to be his girlfriend, so it couldn’t be considered first love.

…

That day, until the end of the wedding banquet, they didn’t exchange a single glance. Lu Huaizheng helped Lin Chang entertain relatives and friends, busy as if it were his wedding, while Yu Hao sat in her seat without moving at all.

When the newlyweds came over to toast, Lu Huaizheng stood behind them in his suit, holding a bottle of red wine. His expression was as detached as possible, treating her worse than a stranger—at least he smiled when looking at Professor Han and others.

Yu Hao never raised her head. After the entourage left with the newlyweds, she fell back into her chair in a daze, looking no better than a drowned dog—no, even worse. A drowned dog would at least shake off its fur to show some spirit; she had completely surrendered.

Zhao Dailin, seeing her in such a dispirited state, secretly sighed that the girl had no backbone, looking at how composed Lu Huaizheng was in comparison.

But in all the years she had known Yu Hao, she had never seen her like this.

Yu Hao came from a good family and was a beauty with skin like ice and jade. The men who had surrounded her since childhood were certainly all exceptional, and she knew that ordinary people indeed found it hard to move her. The young women in the department all said Yu Hao’s heart was made of stone; despite having so many pursuers with endless creative approaches, even if she was touched, she never showed it.

She just hadn’t expected someone like Lu Huaizheng to exist.

Zhao Dailin suddenly thought of a person—the youngest history professor from the neighboring department, Shen Xiyuan. This man was modest and courteous, had visited their research institute several times, and the young women all thought he and Yu Hao were a good match. Being together seemed just a matter of time.

Compared to Shen Xiyuan’s gentle refinement, the casual air about Lu Huaizheng made one particularly want to conquer him.

When this man was calm and serious, his sharp brows and cold eyes had an ascetic quality; when he smiled, his warm eyes were unrestrained, with a carefree demeanor.

Suddenly, she somewhat understood why Yu Hao hadn’t dated anyone for these past few years.

Zhao Dailin stared at that figure in the distance, feeling that the old saying was right— When your first love is of high quality, it’s hard to find a husband.

After the wedding ceremony, when the guests had eaten and drunk their fill, they dispersed. The elders couldn’t stay long and left early.

Lu Huaizheng had drunk too much. After everyone had left, he took off his suit jacket, loosened his shirt collar, and lazily leaned back in his chair with his legs spread, resting with his eyes closed.

His alcohol tolerance was worse than Yu Hao’s. They had drunk together before, that one time when Class Eight won the basketball tournament, and he had brought Yu Hao, the only outsider, to the celebration dinner. The boys from Class Five all called her a little traitor for going to celebrate with the opponents after losing the match, poking at her heart and asking repeatedly: “Which class are you from, which class?!”

Whenever he touched alcohol, his whole demeanor became somewhat improper, and when he fixed his gaze on you, those pitch-black eyes were full of deep emotions. In such a state, he was usually pretending to be drunk to tease her. When truly drunk, he was just like a surrendered bear, only capable of collapsing on the bed and snoring away.

Back then, they were still minors.

Now as an adult, his every move exuded a man’s steadiness and charm. This slightly tipsy state was the most dangerous.

When Yu Hao returned from the bathroom, he hadn’t left yet. He was comfortably leaning back in his chair, looking out the window, one hand resting on the table edge, his neck taut, the hollow of his throat visible. Outside, neon lights flickered; the city’s splendor and the coldness about him held a standoff under the moonlight, quiet as a painting.

At that moment, the phone on the table suddenly rang.

He came to his senses, turned his head to glance at it, quickly picked up the phone and stood up, hooked the black suit jacket from the chair back with his hand, and pushed the chair back with his foot. As he was about to answer the call, his peripheral vision caught someone at the door—presumably not expecting anyone—and he instinctively looked over. His finger suddenly paused, hovering over the green answer button, motionless.

Their gazes met unexpectedly.

The phone was still buzzing, but his eyes remained fixed on her face.

In that instant, Yu Hao experienced what it meant to feel like a lifetime had passed.

Across the torrent of years and time, the once carefree youth and the now extraordinarily handsome man overlapped again. Scenes from the past rushed toward her like a fierce beast, and that feeling of strange familiarity—a hundred claws scratching at her heart wouldn’t be enough to express her emotions at that moment.

It felt as if in that brief moment, heaven and earth had changed, and all things had emptied.

Both were stunned, then after a while, they looked away in unison.

Yu Hao turned her head to look out the window.

Lu Huaizheng put the phone to his ear and started walking out, passing by her without stopping, going straight past her to press the elevator button at the door, his voice casually responding to the person on the phone:

“Still upstairs.”

“Mm, coming down now.”