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All the blood in Li Kuiyi’s body rushed straight to her cheeks, nearly bursting through her thin skin. The few traces of reluctance and lingering fondness she’d felt for He Youyuan vanished without a trace in that instant — right now, all she wanted was for him to disappear from her sight immediately.

……How utterly mortifying.

She instinctively hid her wrist behind her back, lowered her head, and stared at her own shoes, silently praying that He Youyuan hadn’t clearly made out the words on the watch screen. But she could plainly hear his muffled laughter, spilling out from somewhere deep in his chest — idle and infuriating.

Li Kuiyi raised her eyes. Sure enough, the boy standing at ease in the summer night had curved his eyes into crescents, lazily fixing his gaze on her, laughing with an expression of pure innocence and vitality, showing not the slightest awareness that he was the one “responsible for all of this.”

One look at that smug expression and she knew — he was absolutely delighted on the inside.

Li Kuiyi flushed with embarrassed irritation, shot him a glare, then turned and stormed off. He Youyuan watched her retreating figure, tilted his head with a smile, and caught up to her in two or three strides, scooping up her hand and holding it. Li Kuiyi didn’t want him holding her hand, she pulled free — but he was utterly shameless, clinging to her again, hooking her fingers, then curling them together so they were interlocked.

She’d been so tense just a moment ago that the nerves in her hand had gone numb. This time, she truly felt the warmth in her palm — he seemed to have learned from experience as well, the pressure of his hand neither too light nor too heavy. Even so, the skin where they touched once again grew damp with warmth, humid and faintly moist.

All the way until they reached the base of Li Kuiyi’s apartment building, neither let go. The motion-sensor light in the corridor still hadn’t been repaired — inside it was pitch black, with only a thin thread of pale moonlight reaching in, casting a faint, watery glow that was better than nothing.

“Li Kuiyi……” He Youyuan gently squeezed the tips of her fingers, his voice low and languid, sticky and soft as if coaxing her, his head drifting a little closer to hers.

“Mm?”

He called her name again, his breath curling around her: “Li Kuiyi……”

Li Kuiyi knew he was probably reluctant to leave, so she rubbed the back of his hand with the pad of her finger and said quietly, “I’ll wait for you to come back.”

Like a puppy, he let out a long, drawn-out “mm,” then lifted his bright, clear eyes and began to push his luck: “Then while I’m away, you can’t talk to other boys — deal?”

Li Kuiyi: “……”

“No deal. That demand is completely unreasonable and over the top.”

A barely perceptible note of grievance crept into his voice: “Then you can’t go to the zoo with other boys, can’t go eat at McDonald’s with other boys, can’t listen to other boys sing, and can’t tutor other boys. That works, right?”

Still over the top.

But Li Kuiyi thought it over carefully, and she supposed she genuinely wouldn’t do those things with other boys anyway, so she grudgingly agreed: “Fine. But if a boy asks me a question, I’ll definitely help if I can.”

He Youyuan drooped his eyes and pondered for a moment: “Then just give them a casual explanation — not as earnest as when you tutor me.”

Something’s wrong with him, Li Kuiyi grumbled silently.

Besides, he’d never know whether she was being earnest or not, so she gave a careless nod: “Sure, fine, whatever.”

He Youyuan brightened up, his eyes shining. “Your turn — it’s your turn to make demands of me.”

Who actually looks forward to having demands made of them?

Li Kuiyi couldn’t understand his thought process at all, but given that he was leaving tomorrow, she put on a serious air and actually gave it some thought — she felt she really was far too indulgent with him.

After a moment, she said: “I know training camp is exhausting, and the pressure is immense, so you need to find outlets. If you’re under pressure, you can talk to me about it, or go enjoy a meal at McDonald’s. But don’t do anything pointless……”

“What do you mean by ‘pointless’?” He Youyuan didn’t quite follow.

“Like smoking.” Li Kuiyi raised her eyes to look at him, feeling she ought to make clear the seriousness of it. “You know, two people spending time together is also a process of getting to know each other and filtering each other out. If you smoke, I’ll filter you out immediately.”

He Youyuan was so startled by the words “filter you out” that he froze for a moment — but then he realized: he doesn’t smoke anyway, so what’s he worried about?

“Okay, I won’t smoke.” He swayed her fingers. “So — can I call you?”

“Sure, but……you can’t call too much.” Li Kuiyi huffed.

He Youyuan let out a long, slow sigh, the corners of his mouth curving up slightly, his tone unhurried: “Alright, not too much. I’ll send you messages in a bottle — whether we manage to talk at all is entirely fate, okay?”

“What’s with the passive-aggressive tone?” Li Kuiyi gave his hand a twist.

“Passive-aggressive? I’d say someone’s being stubborn.” As he said it, He Youyuan reached out and flicked her on the forehead, then said with exaggerated menace: “I’m keeping count — you still owe me something. I don’t care, next time I see you, I want to hear you say it to my face. Be prepared.”

Li Kuiyi pressed her lips together and said nothing, only casting him a light, sidelong glance.

Having delivered his threats, He Youyuan’s head drifted close to hers again. Seeing that he was about to get clingy all over again, Li Kuiyi smoothly pushed him back and let go of his hand: “It’s getting late. You should head back — you have a train to catch tomorrow morning, get some good rest tonight.”

“You don’t feel even a bit reluctant.” The corner of his mouth turned downward.

“I genuinely don’t.” Li Kuiyi said with complete sincerity. “Because I’m already looking forward to the next time we meet.”

“You……”

He Youyuan had been about to say something, but these words coaxed him into helpless delight; he couldn’t stop smiling. He’d just said that the next time they met, he’d want to hear her say she liked him — and then she went and said she was already looking forward to the next time. He could only admit it: she was something else. With one sentence, she completely soothed the restless, anxious heart stirred up by their parting.

“You……you have to keep your word.” He Youyuan was so happy he even stumbled over his own words.

“Mm. Go on back now, bye-bye.”

“Bye-bye.”

He Youyuan backed away slowly, waving at her all the while, his gaze fixed on her as though he wanted to take his time saying goodbye. After retreating about ten metres, he came running back, pulled something from his school uniform trouser pocket, and pressed it into her hand. “Almost forgot to give you this.”

Li Kuiyi looked down — in her hand was a bunch of……garlic?

“What’s the garlic for?”

He Youyuan: “……Those are narcissus bulbs.”

“……Oh.”

He Youyuan explained: “When they bloom, that’s when I’ll be back.”

Ah, so that was it.

Li Kuiyi clutched the narcissus bulbs tightly, feeling a little guilty: sorry — I’ve made rather an awkward mess of what was clearly meant to be a romantic moment.

He Youyuan didn’t seem to mind. As he turned to leave, he reached out, ruffled her hair gently, and said softly: “I’m off.”

Li Kuiyi gave a small nod, watching his silhouette fade step by step into the darkness. She suddenly thought of two years ago — after their first reunion, she’d watched this very same boy’s back recede like the wind, racing into the night.

Back at home, Li Kuiyi took her phone from the drawer and looked up how to grow narcissus flowers. Unable to find a spare vase anywhere, she found a pretty beverage bottle, washed it clean, cut off the bottom with scissors, arranged the narcissus bulbs inside, added an appropriate amount of water, then placed it on the bedroom windowsill, right next to the aloe vera plant Zhou Fanghua had given her.

The next day, when she arrived at the classroom, she turned to glance at the seat near the back door. It was clean and empty — it was already vacant.

Her heart, too, was empty for a moment.

The end of term was drawing near, and the final exams were coming. During a break between classes, Li Kuiyi gathered a thick stack of practice papers she’d already reviewed and organized, clipped them together with a binder clip, and was about to put them in the storage locker outside the classroom. But when she opened the locker, she discovered several books inside that didn’t belong to her. She picked one up — it was a few volumes of the compulsory and elective Chinese language textbooks, and on the inside cover of one, He Youyuan’s name was written.

Why did he leave his Chinese textbooks for her?

Li Kuiyi absently picked up one of the compulsory volumes, and seeing that no one was around, she flipped through it casually. As she turned past the first few pages, her eyes suddenly went wide — she’d only just discovered that his Chinese textbooks contained an entirely different world: there truly was a lotus pond under moonlight, truly was Yu Dafu’s autumn in the old capital, truly was Su Shi and his guests drifting in a boat beneath the Red Cliff……These were no idle doodles — he had drawn with extraordinary precision, with light and shadow rendered clear and luminous, colors vivid and dazzling, and in one single instant, she was swept into the profound impact of another art form entirely.

It was so beautiful — she held her breath.

The scenes she had once conjured in her mind while reading these texts now leapt before her eyes in full colour, and the feeling of shared resonance was utterly exhilarating and deeply satisfying.

Li Kuiyi gathered all the textbooks he’d left for her, tucking them carefully together, pressed them to her chest, and walked back into the classroom with a light and buoyant step.

That evening at home, she took out her phone, wanting to send He Youyuan a message to tell him she really loved the little surprise he’d hidden in her locker. But the moment she opened her phone, a flood of notifications came cascading down. She tapped into QQ and found that all the messages were from He Youyuan — texts, photos, voice messages, sixty-four of them in total.

……There really was no need for quite that much enthusiasm in sharing.

Li Kuiyi ignored him, set the phone down, and started on her homework.

Far away in Beijing, He Youyuan finished tidying his dormitory bunk, went to shower, and came back to find himself sprawled sideways in a chair, staring unblinking at his phone for a long while — yet there was still no sign of a reply from Li Kuiyi.

That didn’t make sense — at this hour, she should have come home and seen her phone by now. Why wasn’t she responding?

Nearly half an hour passed. He Youyuan’s freshly washed, still-damp hair had almost air-dried on its own, and she still hadn’t replied. He didn’t dare call her either, afraid she was studying — she’d definitely get annoyed if he interrupted her.

She could study all she liked, but couldn’t she at least respond briefly first? Even a reply that just said “unsubscribe” would be fine.

He Youyuan flopped onto his bed in dejection and decided to give Li Kuiyi a small punishment. He thought: when she finally replied, he’d pretend not to have seen it, let her wait for an hour, and only then respond.

He tossed his phone to one side and picked up the little cat plush Li Kuiyi had given him, absentmindedly squeezing its paws one moment, then opening his hand and kneading its chubby little body with a firm, satisfying squeeze.

A boy sharing his dormitory noticed and made a teasing remark by way of conversation: “Mate, you’re quite the romantic type, bringing a stuffed animal along.”

The dormitory was a four-person room, and the other two roommates heard it and looked over as well. It was only their first day meeting, and nobody knew each other very well yet — chatting like this was actually a bit of an icebreaker, so the other three chimed in with a few playful jabs.

He Youyuan immediately put on a performance, casually dropping the line: “My girlfriend gave it to me.”

It was the first time he’d ever used the word “girlfriend,” and his heart gave a little lurch. Of course, Li Kuiyi hadn’t actually said she’d be his girlfriend, which made him feel a little sheepish — but he genuinely didn’t know how else to refer to her. To say “some girl gave it to me” would make him sound like an awful cad who was stringing someone along.

“Ooooh——” His roommates immediately jeered at him in unison.

A roommate named Zhu Xincheng started by laughing and calling him out, then grew curious about this languid, good-looking young man lying on the bed: “Hey, I’m not surprised you have a girlfriend — what I’m surprised about is, looking the way you do, why didn’t you go audition for drama school? What are you doing here in our fine arts world?”

He Youyuan replied at a leisurely pace: “Can’t help it — my acting is no good.”

“So what, there’s a whole trend right now for those untalented pretty boys.” Zhu Xincheng was the straightforward type and actually believed He Youyuan, launching into an extended tangent: “I’m telling you, there’s a guy in our class who auditioned for drama school, and he’s not even as good-looking as you……”

He Youyuan let one ear absorb Zhu Xincheng’s rambling while he fished out his phone and looked at it again, his fingers swiping back and forth across the screen, refreshing several times — still nothing from Li Kuiyi.

Infuriating.

Now that he was so far away, she was just going to give him the cold shoulder?

He picked up the little cat plush again and, as if taking revenge, gathered its few whiskers between his fingers and pinched them together, then opened his palm and gave its chubby little body three firm, emphatic squeezes.

Three squeezes in a row — and then, from inside the little cat’s body, a faint crackling of electrical current, followed immediately by a bright, clear girl’s voice.

“He Youyuan——”

The familiar voice rang out so suddenly that He Youyuan, completely unprepared, shot bolt upright from the bed. Zhu Xincheng had been in the middle of his nonstop chatter — he snapped his mouth shut at the sound, and like the other roommates, stared fixedly at the little cat plush in He Youyuan’s hand.

For a long moment there was nothing more, as if only a name had been called.

He Youyuan’s throat moved. Just as his heart was about to sink back into his chest, the voice rang out again:

“I like you.”

“Ohhh——” The roommates immediately slammed their hands on the table and erupted into loud cheering.

He Youyuan’s face went red. He burrowed face-first into his bed, overcome with sweetness and helpless confusion, and smothered the little cat plush beneath him. After a while, he climbed back up off the bed, ignored his roommates’ teasing and taunting, and took his phone out to the balcony.

By the time Li Kuiyi finished her homework and picked up her phone ready to reply to He Youyuan, she discovered with a sinking sense of doom that He Youyuan had sent her another twenty-seven messages.

……There was no replying to all of this. Truly impossible.