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By the time the two of them walked out of Chen Guoming’s office, the sun had already sunk beyond the horizon. The crimson glow of dusk lingered at the edge of the sky, while below it something like a goblin’s satchel seemed to be drawing the darkness tighter, little by little.
Li Kuiyi walked ahead, passing through the long corridor of the teaching building. The classrooms on either side stood empty, or had one or two people draped tiredly across their desks in a brief nap — at this hour, everyone had most likely gone to eat dinner.
Birds fluttered past at the far edge of the sky. She suddenly drifted into a reverie and began fretting about something entirely out of place: it’s already mid-October — why hasn’t the school switched to winter hours yet?
He Youyuan followed behind her, unhurried, his gaze drifting quietly toward that cool and upright figure ahead of him.
At the stairwell, still not a word between them. She showed no sign of wanting to say goodbye to him, turning directly in the direction of Class One and preparing to head downstairs.
He stopped, leaning lazily against the wall by the stairwell, and called out to her: “Hey —”
“Are you angry?”
Li Kuiyi’s steps faltered, pausing for a moment, but her voice was calm: “No.”
He let out a light, amused scoff: “No?” Then sighed with a touch of resignation. “Your face has already stretched from a garden paradise all the way to a stern schoolroom.”
She turned around and stared at him without a word.
The boy before her wore a faint, barely-there smile. He raised both hands and framed her face in the air, measuring top to bottom, his expression utterly certain. “Truly — it’s that long.”
Li Kuiyi instantly puffed up like an outraged pufferfish.
She moved her lips, wanting to scold him, then decided this was not someone who could hear reason — otherwise, how could he have so completely ignored her repeated emphasis that she would not self-incriminate, and then turned right around and sold her out in front of Chen Guoming without blinking an eye?
She squeezed two ice-cold words through her teeth: “Traitor.” Then she turned to leave again.
“Can you be reasonable? If it weren’t for me, you’d still be in Chen Guoming’s office arguing until the end of time.”
“I’m perfectly happy to be!” Her voice was flat and dry, not looking back.
How can anyone be this stubborn?
He Youyuan gave a faint tug of his lips, took two quick steps to catch up with her, and grabbed her by the arm, making a show of pulling her back toward Chen Guoming’s office. “Happy, are you? Fine, fine, fine — let’s go. Go continue arguing with him. Say my evidence just now is all void. Say that you insist he must produce proof that we’re in a relationship. If he can’t, you’ll throw yourself on the floor and make a scene, and you won’t leave his office until he does. This time I absolutely won’t stop you — I’ll just stand to one side and watch. Let’s see which of you two, Li Kuiyi the great miss or the year-level director, has the harder head.”
Li Kuiyi was dragged along a few steps, struggled twice but could not break free, and was so furious and flustered her face flushed red. “Are you trying to give him evidence that we’re in a relationship?!”
He Youyuan abruptly let go.
His hand seemed to have nowhere to go — he raised it, rubbed it briefly across the tip of his nose, then lowered it behind his back, made a little circle with it, and finally stuffed it into his school trouser pocket, fingers quietly curling into a fist.
His gaze wandered in similar fashion, yet his peripheral vision roamed freely downward, silently resting on the girl before him.
Outside, the sky had gone fully dark, but the lights inside made the teaching building as bright as midday. She still stood straight, both hands balled at her sides, shoulders drawn ever so slightly inward, her eyes catching fragments of light — aggrieved and stubborn at once.
The same as always, and yet somehow different from before.
“I’m sorry.” He Youyuan lowered his eyes to look at her, his voice very low and gentle.
Li Kuiyi assumed he was apologising for grabbing her arm, but she heard him continue: “I didn’t stand on the same side as you just now — that was my fault… Actually, what I want to say is — I’m on your side.”
At those words, she stilled, then slowly raised her eyes.
I’m on your side —
These were words Li Kuiyi longed desperately to hear. So many times, she was fully aware that she was digging herself into a corner — yet she would dig anyway, because that tiny, narrow, unyielding corner was cramped yet solid, and when she curled up inside it, she felt safe.
And at those moments, what she needed was someone to reach out and pull her free. Just like the time she had a conflict with the P.E. teacher — if it hadn’t been for Liu Xinzhao’s “I also think you weren’t in the wrong,” she might have argued with Chen Guoming in his office until the matter was laid entirely bare, each side bleeding.
She wanted to be supported. She wanted to be recognised. Even though if she did not receive these things she would still press forward without hesitation, having them made the road ahead feel not quite so arduous.
She stared at He Youyuan for three seconds, then abruptly looked away as if nothing had happened, sniffled, and said with a slight pout: “Who even cares.”
He Youyuan was taken aback for a moment as well. After a little while, his lips quietly curved upward. If I didn’t know what a hard mouth you have, I’d have believed you.
“Alright, alright — the great miss doesn’t care. I was reading into things. Satisfied?” His voice was spirited and teasing, carrying a note of coaxing.
Li Kuiyi frowned again. “Can you please watch your words?” If Chen Guoming heard, he would definitely start suspecting all sorts of things.
“What’s wrong with my words?” He Youyuan asked with perfectly righteous indignation — then his thoughts shifted, and he felt something was off: that… did sound a little bit suggestive.
Was the stinky-faced pineapple charmed by him?
He Youyuan, stop spreading your charm everywhere — even if it was unintentional, if you end up charming someone’s girl and then can’t take responsibility, doesn’t that make you a scoundrel?
Sigh, being this good-looking, this thoughtful, and this naturally magnetic — there’s no helping it. People just can’t resist.
He Youyuan drifted through his own meandering daydream, his ears quietly going red, even his tone carrying a barely detectable shyness. “Don’t overthink it — I’m… I’m perfectly innocent.”
Perfectly innocent. Well.
Li Kuiyi thought this person was actually quite the scoundrel. Look at him — wearing that handsome face, saying ambiguous things to girls, and then turning around and declaring himself innocent. There was nothing pure about it.
Quite possibly, his previous misunderstanding about being in a relationship had been entirely of his own making.
And so she let out a quiet scoff. “The last time you were publicly criticised in front of the whole school for early romance — was that ‘perfectly innocent’ too?”
“Of course — that was all a misunderstanding!” He Youyuan hurried to clarify. “I’ve always kept to myself, and it was entirely a bolt from the blue…” As he spoke, he suddenly went quiet, a flash of white light going off in his mind.
The stinky-faced pineapple… she couldn’t be… jealous, could she?
She had to be. Otherwise, why would she bring this up on her own initiative? Wasn’t she just wanting an explanation from him?
In an instant he was overwhelmed with glee, his brows and eyes lit up with spring-breeze satisfaction, the dark of his pupils shining bright. “You want me to explain?”
Beg me. As long as you beg me, I’ll tell you.
The moment this thought surfaced, He Youyuan startled himself. No — he couldn’t be this unprincipled. He had never even told Zhang Chuang, Qi Yu, or Zhou Ce about this. How could he just tell the stinky-faced pineapple so easily?
But then — hypothetically — if she were to beg him — should he tell her or not?
He had already sunk into a tangle over a situation that hadn’t even happened yet, completely forgetting that Li Kuiyi was the sort of person who would never bend. And honestly, Li Kuiyi did have the tiniest flicker of curiosity — but it was nowhere near sufficient to drive her to go actively digging into the backstory, especially when the leading figure in that backstory was He Youyuan. She was not about to bow her head in front of him. So she gave a cold huff: “Absolutely no interest.”
With that, she raised her wrist to check her watch and headed down the stairs in quick, bright steps. There was still a little time before evening study period began, and she intended to head to the school shop to grab a bread roll — otherwise she would be hungry during self-study.
Stinky-faced pineapple, you’ve really lost out, He Youyuan thought resentfully, watching her walk away. Because of that hard mouth of yours, you’ve missed yet another chance to get to know me.
Opportunities like this don’t come around often, you know!
In truth, the story behind the early romance incident was fairly straightforward. A girl named Zhang Yue had been He Youyuan’s next-door neighbour in middle school, and from that time onward she had developed feelings for him. She used to bring him breakfast, stuff gifts and love letters into his desk, and when he was sick she would even bring him medicine. Her pursuit of him was fairly well-known among the students.
But He Youyuan, despite looking carefree and easygoing, was utterly cold-hearted. After they graduated from middle school and she confessed to him again, he turned her down without the slightest mercy.
When they entered high school, she — whether by luck or misfortune — ended up in the class next to his once again. One evening after self-study, she blocked his path and said she had something to tell him. He Youyuan had been reluctant to go, but the girl said this would be the last time she would ever come to him — she wanted to bring their past feelings to a proper close.
He Youyuan heard that and immediately went along with a willing heart. Closure — excellent. Closure would be a relief for everyone.
The girl led him to the old laboratory building. The old laboratory building had been abandoned for over a year — dark and dim, with only the faintest light filtering in from the neighbouring teaching block. The staircase from the first floor to the second had an iron gate locked halfway up, and no one ever came here.
They stood on the few remaining stairs in the corridor, and the girl began to recount the story of her feelings for him — love at first sight, she said, then falling deeper and deeper. As she spoke, she sat down on the stairs, buried her face in her knees, and began to weep softly. He Youyuan stood there, awkward and helpless, scratching his head and rubbing his face. After a while, as he listened, he felt a flicker of genuine sympathy — he found himself wanting to say: you’re not bad, it’s my fault, I’m just too difficult to win over.
After she had cried for quite some time, the girl finally began to calm. He Youyuan was considering pulling out some tissues to offer her, then immediately second-guessed himself: would that be a little too considerate? Would she like him even more?
Just as he hesitated, the girl before him suddenly stood up, stepped forward, rose onto her tiptoes, threw her arms around his neck — and leaned in to kiss him.
He Youyuan reacted with the horror of an idol drama female lead — eyes wide open, fingers clutching the tissues — and stumbled backwards two steps, nearly tumbling to his death down the stairs.
She did not reach him.
The girl collapsed against his shoulder, trembling, and began to cry again.
He Youyuan’s arms were still frozen stiffly in mid-air. It was a long time before he came back to himself, sucking in a sharp involuntary breath, thinking — had he just been nearly forced into a kiss by a girl?
Oh. No — nearly forced. An attempted forced kiss.
She — she — how dare she take advantage of such a perfectly decent boy like him!
He Youyuan panicked inside and could not be bothered with gentlemanly behaviour any longer — he pushed the girl away and fled without looking back, nearly tangling his left leg around his right and tripping himself in the process.
What the surveillance footage later captured was this: in the pitch-dark corridor, two figures indistinct in the dimness, standing together for a long time; the girl sitting down with her arms around her knees, apparently crying; then standing up and appearing to kiss the boy — after which both figures tumbled out of the camera frame.
When He Youyuan later reviewed the surveillance footage, he felt that the heavens truly meant to destroy him. At the moment he pushed the girl away, he had happened to land in a blind spot — and the camera had not captured it.
When pressed by Chen Guoming, he only denied being in a relationship, without revealing the full picture — because the girl at his side was already trembling with nerves. If he told the truth in front of all those teachers and parents, he did not know what kind of eyes they would turn on her. If she were then publicly disciplined, she would truly have no way to continue at school.
And so, in the end, he simply admitted to it. Public criticism, then public criticism — early romance was at least a better label than whatever other messy thing it could have been called. And besides, this was not his first time being publicly criticised before the whole school; he had grown used to it. He did not care.
But even so, the vaguely-worded “engaging in inappropriate conduct in a corridor” that appeared in the school’s public notice still hurt him somewhat. During that period, people were constantly sidling up to him with sly grins, asking what exactly he had done that night.
Every single one of them — he grinned and cursed right back. But he knew that as badly as it affected him, Zhang Yue’s situation could only be harder.
That was the first time he sought her out on his own initiative. He assumed an air of casual ease and said: “Ignore them. Those people just have too much time on their hands. It’ll blow over soon. And… I forgive you.”
Then he walked away. The girl collapsed behind him, sobbing so violently she could barely breathe — yet still managed with tremendous effort to say a few broken “thank you”s that scattered in the wind. He did not hear them.
His brothers naturally came to check in — with twelve parts excitement and curiosity. But He Youyuan kept it entirely to himself, never giving them a single thread to pull. He knew his brothers too well — Zhang Chuang and Zhou Ce were insufferable gossips, and even Qi Yu, who was slightly better, still could not be trusted. If he told them, it would not be long before the whole world knew.
He simply did not trust their mouths.
But then — rather out of character for him — he found himself thinking somewhat further ahead: if he had a girlfriend someday and she pressed him about this — should he tell her or not?