Many years later, Yunque could still remember — within the sparse, meager stretch of her seventeen-year-old youth — that deep and vivid memory.

The red sun sank in the west, spreading the dusk sky with crimson-gold evening glow.

A breeze blew past, swaying her skirt hem and her fringe.

Young and red-faced, she stood behind the boy she liked and, with painstaking care, clipped the small black bear keychain onto the zipper of his schoolbag.

Then the red light turned green.

A few people ahead turned back and called for the two of them to hurry over.

Lu Rangchen answered casually, then in an instant lowered his gaze to look at her, tilted his chin upward. “Let’s go.”

The boy’s voice was calm and pleasant to listen to.

Patient, as though he were dealing with a soft, small creature.

Yunque made every effort to suppress her accelerating heartbeat and walked unhurriedly at his side, blending back into the sweeping crowd of people crossing the road.

……

Their destinations were different.

That day, the five of them parted ways in front of the school gate.

Xu Linda’s family driver had long been waiting at the school gate to pick her up. Lu Rangchen, meanwhile, went back to school with Zhou Chuang and Deng Zhe to continue training.

The five of them waved goodbye to one another.

Xu Linda was the first to get in the car.

Lu Rangchen shoved his hands into his pockets, turned, and walked toward the school gate, with Deng Zhe and Zhou Chuang straggling along behind him.

Yunque should have walked in the direction of the subway entrance.

But for some inexplicable reason, her feet lingered in place a moment longer.

It was in just that one moment that she watched from a distance the small black bear hanging from the boy’s schoolbag, swaying gently with each of his steps in the last glow of the setting sun.

Like the wordless, joyfully surging flutter within her that she could not put into words.

Only — it was a pity that her old phone had long since run out of battery, leaving her no way to capture that scene.

She could only silently hope that the image would be engraved deeper and deeper in her mind.

—

That same evening, Yunque took a photo of the little bear keychain.

Her phone’s camera resolution was terrible; the best she could do was barely salvage it with a filter, but she didn’t mind at all. She even posted it to her Moments, set to visible only to herself.

The caption she wrote was: “The first matching item with him.”

Only once those words were typed out, they felt far more embarrassing than she had imagined.

Yunque stared at it for a few seconds, then deleted that Moments post and reposted it without any caption.

It was at that moment that Feng Yanlai pushed open the door and came in carrying a bowl of washed grapes and a carton of milk.

Yunque’s heart gave a sudden lurch. She quickly put her phone away and shoved the little bear into the desk drawer.

Feng Yanlai found it completely unsurprising. “You’re just playing on your phone — what’s there to hide? It’s not like I’m going to scold you.”

Yunque: “……”

The mother and daughter had spent these years apart from each other, and compared to Zhu Ping’an, it was far harder for Yunque to grow close to Feng Yanlai.

Feng Yanlai understood her daughter’s temperament and had planned from the start to work on their relationship slowly. Just then, the exam results had been released, and she wanted to take this opportunity to have a good talk with her.

She set the fruit dish on the desk, then casually brought up the exam.

Yunque didn’t resist.

Whatever Feng Yanlai asked, she answered honestly.

For instance — this time’s top student for the year was Lu Rangchen; she had a new deskmate, a boy who ranked second in the class; and also, one of the people at dinner together that evening was Lu Rangchen.

Feng Yanlai was a very perceptive woman.

Hearing all of this, she was surprised — but not to the point of pressing her with questions. She simply offered a faint, half-visible nudge.

“Associating with such an outstanding classmate is a good thing, and your mother supports it — but make sure to maintain proper boundaries.”

Yunque lowered her gaze. “I know.”

Feng Yanlai reached up and tucked a loose strand of hair behind Yunque’s ear, then smiled slightly. “Don’t be nervous. I didn’t come here to lecture you. I just want to know — why did your grades improve so dramatically this time? As I remember, your best result before was only ever in the top twenty of the class?”

She wasn’t misremembering.

That had indeed been the best and most consistent result Yunque had ever achieved before.

So once Feng Yanlai found out she had ranked first in the class this time, she called Zheng Guoxiong to confirm that Yunque hadn’t lied about her ranking before she felt at ease.

Of course, Zheng Guoxiong had not been stingy with his praise of Yunque either.

He said she had been working extremely hard during this period.

Feng Yanlai was happy — but she was no fool.

Yunque had long anticipated she would ask, and she had no intention of avoiding it.

She hesitated for a moment, gathered her courage, and said, “I used to get bad results on purpose.”

The air went still for an instant.

Feng Yanlai seemed to have already sensed this, and she was not surprised. “Just so I would come back?”

Yunque said nothing.

She didn’t look at her either.

The answer went without saying.

In the silence, Feng Yanlai suddenly felt a pang of defeat, and more so, guilt — guilt that Yunque had needed to resort to such an extreme method just to escape a life she didn’t want.

But it was already too late. Yunque had grown into someone far too independent, stubborn, and closed-off.

She never truly leaned on anyone.

Yet equally, once she had set her mind on something, she never gave up easily.

In that regard, she was rather like Feng Yanlai.

Feng Yanlai didn’t know whether to feel glad or melancholy. She simply let out a sigh and said, “I understand.”

“……”

“But I hope you can promise your mother — in the future, if you want something, or if you want to do something, say it out loud. Whatever I’m capable of, I will definitely fulfill.”

It seemed she hadn’t expected this reaction.

Yunque’s expression flickered in brief surprise.

Feng Yanlai looked her in the eyes with sincerity. “If you can keep your word, then so will I.”

Those words worked like bait, effortlessly drawing out the desires within her heart. Almost involuntarily, Yunque said, “Can I ask for a new phone?”

She was, after all, still a young girl.

Feng Yanlai couldn’t hold back a laugh. “All of that, and in the end you just want a new phone?”

Yunque’s gaze retreated a little. She explained softly, “The battery on the one I have now has degraded really badly.”

She paused, then added, “If it’s not possible, forget it.”

“Of course it’s possible.”

Feng Yanlai picked up the old Android phone to have a look. Objectively speaking, she said, “This phone of yours really does need replacing. Find a time, and I’ll take you to buy one.”

The conversation came to an unexpected close there.

Feng Yanlai still had some accounts to settle, so she didn’t continue chatting with Yunque. She reminded her to drink her milk, then turned and left.

The bedroom door closed.

The air settled into quiet again.

Yunque gradually came back to herself, and blinked.

Suddenly she had the illusion — that this day had been her lucky day.

—

Feng Yanlai kept her word.

The very next day after school, she picked up Yunque and took her to the mall to buy a new phone.

The two of them went to Wanda Plaza. Yunque had originally planned to just buy an Android phone and be done with it, but unexpectedly, after Feng Yanlai accompanied her through several rounds of browsing the mall, she ultimately decided to buy her an Apple phone.

And it was the 5s — the same model as Lu Rangchen’s.

Though hers was white, with the most standard configuration.

Not too big, not too small; it sat in the palm elegantly and prettily.

And now she had another thing matching Lu Rangchen’s. That evening, Yunque couldn’t quite contain a subtle excitement, and just before falling asleep, she climbed out of bed specifically to clip the little bear onto her phone case.

Perhaps there is always a bit of that dramatic, middle-school-daydream quality in girls her age. For some inexplicable reason, Yunque took that little bear as her lucky charm: every time she looked at it, she would think of Lu Rangchen, think of the dinner they’d had together, the breeze they had walked through.

The next day at school, when Xu Linda found out she had gotten a new phone — and a new-release 5s at that — she was incredibly envious.

As soon as the morning self-study period ended, she moved over and sat in Pang Shuo’s seat to be near Yunque.

Xu Linda excitedly played with the new phone, sighing with admiration. “This one hasn’t even dropped in price yet, has it? Your mom is so good to you — she bought it at full price.”

“She doesn’t really know much about phones. She just saw I needed one urgently and bought it.”

Yunque told it straight.

Xu Linda was so envious she could only keep sighing. “Ugh, doing well on exams really does give you the confidence to ask for things. I asked my mom for a new phone too, and she told me to get lost.”

Yunque was organizing papers and couldn’t hold back a laugh at that.

Xu Linda noticed the little bear hanging from her phone and suddenly seemed to remember something. She leaned in close and said, “Oh right, I found out something from Deng Zhe yesterday.”

Yunque: “?”

Xu Linda lowered her voice. “You know that evening when we all had dinner — well, Lu Rangchen and Zhou Chuang couldn’t originally come. It was Deng Zhe who said we should celebrate you ranking first, so Lu Rangchen went and asked the school team coach for an hour’s leave and came out.”

She clicked her tongue. “I’ve never seen him do that for anyone. You’ve got quite the face, Yunque.”

The corners of Yunque’s eyes and brows were tinged with surprise.

Xu Linda grinned and bumped into her. “Well? Aren’t you happy?”

Yunque found it very hard to conceal her expression in that moment.

She could only press down hard on the corners of her lips and say quietly, “I’m a little… overwhelmed with gratitude.”

After all, she and Lu Rangchen hadn’t known each other all that long in any formal sense.

Familiarity — they weren’t all that familiar either.

But then again — perhaps Lu Rangchen simply looked after her more because of the connection between Feng Yanlai and Cheng Liru, and nothing else.

Xu Linda wasn’t having any of that reasoning. “What does it matter that the parents know each other? My family knows Gaoge’s family too, and she and I can’t stand each other, can we?”

This girl had a carefree spirit, and once she got going she had no reservations.

Fortunately, Gaoge wasn’t in the classroom at the moment.

Yunque was rendered speechless. “You genuinely have no fear of offending people.”

Xu Linda didn’t care. “Even if she heard me, it’s fine. She’s been too lazy to bother with me lately.”

She couldn’t help but gossip a little, lowering her voice. “Rumor has it Pang Shuo has been chasing her very directly and has been driving her up the wall. She’d rather avoid him whenever class is over.”

She paused, then added, “You separated the two of them with your exam ranking — be careful that Pang Shuo’s petty-minded nature makes him resent you.”

Speak of the devil.

Xu Linda had barely finished saying that when Pang Shuo came back.

Seeing Xu Linda sitting in his seat, Pang Shuo frowned with an extremely displeased face. “Don’t you have your own seat? Why do you insist on invading other people’s territory?”

Xu Linda had always been the lively, rough-and-tumble type in the class, and even faced with a sour expression, she could laugh it off and fire back. “Blame it on Yunque being your neighbor. I just enjoy sitting near her.”

Pang Shuo let out a cold snort. “If you enjoy being near her, earn the grades to be near her. “

He was impatient. “Get up.”

Having her dignity challenged like that, Xu Linda was visibly furious. She sprang to her feet. “It’s just a seat — what’s so great about it? As if I actually enjoy occupying your territory.”

The tension between them was escalating.

Yunque tugged the hem of Xu Linda’s jacket.

Xu Linda rolled her eyes at Pang Shuo, jutted out her chin resentfully, and dragged herself back to her own seat.

Yunque assumed the small clash was over and done with.

But no sooner had Pang Shuo sat down than he started grumbling in a whiny, nagging tone. “Some people have no idea how they got their grades, yet they have the nerve to gather friends around them.”

The boy’s words weren’t very clear, and Yunque only caught them faintly.

Her fingertip paused on the surface of her papers. She glanced at Pang Shuo out of the corner of her eye.

Pang Shuo met her gaze, gave her a contemptuous look up and down, and let out a light scoff.

Yunque: “……”

Only then did she realize — he had just been mocking her.

As it turned out, Xu Linda’s warning that Pang Shuo would look at Yunque with resentment was correct. Over the following days, Pang Shuo went about proving in every way possible just how much he disliked Yunque.

For instance: deliberately pushing the gap between their desks wider; muttering sarcastic comments when the teacher had Yunque read an English passage aloud during class — saying she was “really putting on an act”; and when assignments were being handed back during a break if Yunque wasn’t at her seat, Pang Shuo would just skip her entirely, pull out only his own paper, and pass it over his shoulder to the person behind him.

This sort of thing happened quietly several times.

Not exactly a grave injury — but genuinely grating.

Yunque wasn’t without irritation. But more than anything, she found him childish, and she couldn’t be bothered to get into a quarrel with him.

Besides, time was pressing. She wanted to move to Class A next semester, and to do that, her final exam results would have to be even stronger than this last one.

But this attitude of ignoring him — in the eyes of Pang Shuo and the group of envious classmates — came across as a guilty conscience.

Yunque never knew what they were saying about her behind her back.

Until that Friday.

Lu Rangchen returned from a competition.

Because of the tennis league, he had been away from school all week.

Not seeing him at school all week, Yunque had worked up the courage the night before his match and sent him a carefully considered WeChat message.

The gist of it was: good luck in the match, take care of yourself, get some rest.

Lu Rangchen replied quickly.

But he only said a simple “thank you.”

Yunque had originally wanted to say more, but when she saw those two characters, her resolve instantly deflated.

She thought — he was probably very busy.

Or perhaps the two of them simply weren’t all that close to begin with, and she had been overreading things.

Once a thought like that takes hold, it’s very hard to go back to one’s earlier state of mind.

For example — after Lu Rangchen returned from the competition, when Xu Linda invited Yunque to go find Lu Rangchen for lunch together to celebrate the school team taking first place, Yunque refused without a second thought.

Xu Linda stared at her in disbelief, as though she had gone completely mad. “Have you lost your mind, Yunque?”

Yunque said nothing.

They were surrounded by classmates, so Xu Linda couldn’t say too much, and could only give her a barrage of meaningful looks. “You’re really not going????”

Yunque remained silent.

Only at this point did she realize the smallness of her own pettiness.

No matter what the circumstances were, it was genuine that Lu Rangchen had accompanied her to celebrate ranking first. But now, in return, she inexplicably didn’t want to see him.

Perhaps she was, at her core, ungrateful.

She could accept when someone was good to her.

But she could not tolerate even a slight hint of coldness from the same person.

Yunque silently despised herself in her heart.

But she shook her head firmly all the same. “You all go eat. I’m feeling a little under the weather. I want to nap at my desk during lunch.”

Then she transferred one hundred yuan to Xu Linda. “If we’re treating, remember to include my share.”

“……”

Xu Linda was practically speechless.

But seeing how resolute she was, she could only say fine.

And so it was that at noon that day, Xu Linda went alone to find Deng Zhe and the others.

Yunque sat in the classroom nibbling on bread and working through problems, yet she couldn’t help but check her phone from time to time.

But the phone had no activity at all.

Xu Linda hadn’t posted a single Moments entry about Lu Rangchen either.

After a few rounds of this, Yunque found it all pointless, completed a set of papers, and laid her head on the desk to rest.

Just drifting about in that groggy half-sleep for a while.

Her phone suddenly erupted in violent vibrating.

After a long time of that, Yunque finally woke up. She squinted and pulled the phone out from under her desk, finding it was a call from Xu Linda.

Xu Linda was hollering urgently. “What the hell, Yunque, you finally picked up.”

Yunque’s mind flickered slightly.

She slowly sat upright, a little disoriented. “I was just sleeping. I didn’t hear it.”

Xu Linda was beside herself. “Unbelievable. Lu Rangchen actually got into a confrontation with Pang Shuo over you, and you’re in there napping!”

Hearing “Lu Rangchen.”

Yunque’s heartbeat stumbled, then pounded.

She didn’t know what to do. “A confrontation over what?”

The words had barely left her mouth.

When from the other end of the phone came a familiar male voice.

The boy’s voice was rich and magnetic, laced with laughter as he teased Xu Linda. “Were you a loudspeaker in your past life?”

Xu Linda immediately huffed in annoyance. “Then you explain it to her yourself.”

The air went abruptly silent.

Yunque’s nerves were strung tight, her entire mind suddenly lost.

She hadn’t even managed to compose what her first word should be — when Lu Rangchen’s easy, unhurried, richly magnetic voice came through the receiver, settling into her ear with a tingling, buzzing warmth.

“Yunque.”

He called her name once.

It was plainly nothing more than a light murmur of her name. Yet it carried a kind of indulgence that was unlike anything she’d felt with anyone else — impossible to describe.

Yunque’s lashes fluttered lightly, and words suddenly failed her.

Several seconds passed before she managed to push out a single “I’m here.”

Lu Rangchen made a sound of acknowledgment, as though puzzled — and a little displeased — his voice carrying clear displeasure. “Why didn’t you come eat with us?”

“……”

Yunque fell silent.

As if he had long since anticipated she would be like this, Lu Rangchen’s tone turned lightly mocking, playful and teasing. “Is the good little darling studying again?”

The three words “good little darling” caught Yunque completely off guard.

She sat there in a daze, clutching her phone.

Her mind had gone entirely blank.

And from the other end of the call came bursts of wicked laughter from the others — Deng Zhe most of all, laughing the loudest, utterly full of that gossipy, love-of-spectacle energy. He said that’s right, that’s right, Yunque is such a good little darling, Lu Rangchen’s good little darling.

Lu Rangchen laughed in exasperation at that, and told him to get lost.

That voice — both warm and magnetic — resonated against her ear, as though he were right beside her, whispering secrets close to her face.

Yunque, without realizing it, had gone red. “No, I’m just a little tired.”

She wasn’t lying.

Last night she’d stayed up fiddling with the new phone and didn’t sleep until very late.

Lu Rangchen seemed to have moved away from the others; when he spoke again, the background noise was noticeably quieter.

He was brief. “Alright, go rest then.”

“……”

Yunque’s heart sank a little.

She wanted to say something — but Lu Rangchen said, “I’m crossing the road right now. If there’s anything, we’ll talk when I’m back.”

Whether those words were a brush-off or genuine, she had no way to tell. Either way, he said them and then hung up the call.

Listening to the cold, steady dial tone, Yunque’s thoughts were like a kite cut loose from its string — drifting aimlessly in the air, lost.

She inexplicably felt — that Lu Rangchen seemed to be in a slightly bad mood.

But she didn’t dare pin that mood on herself.

Five minutes before class resumed that afternoon.

Xu Linda finally returned, to Yunque’s relief.

It seemed she had a whole stomach’s worth of things to say, but the moment she spotted the full-of-grievance expression on Pang Shuo’s face as he walked in the door, she swallowed it all back and rolled her eyes in spectacular fashion.

Being glared at like that made Pang Shuo even angrier. Having nowhere to vent, he could only shove his desk even farther from Yunque.

The desk legs scraped against the floor with a sharp, grating sound, drawing eyes from all around them.

Yunque: “……”

In her entire life, Yunque had never encountered someone this ridiculous.

After class, she received a message from Xu Linda: 【Come, let’s talk outside.】

Yunque capped her pen and followed her out of the classroom, making their way to the open-air corridor on the third floor.

The two sat down on the steps, and it was only then that Xu Linda laid out the full account of what had happened at noon.

In short: Pang Shuo and a few other boys from the class had been saying bad things about Yunque behind her back, and Lu Rangchen had overheard.

Xu Linda had been there too at the time.

She had just collected her food and was looking for a seat ahead.

She hadn’t even found a seat yet when she heard Pang Shuo behind her shout an obscenity at Lu Rangchen, the loud voice bringing the entire cafeteria into stunned silence.

Xu Linda spun around in shock, and saw Lu Rangchen standing with a food tray, looking down at Pang Shuo from above.

Behind him were Deng Zhe and Zhou Chuang.

Three boys all over 180 cm tall — they were a particularly striking sight.

By comparison, Pang Shuo looked utterly wretched.

All of the tomato-and-egg dish from Lu Rangchen’s tray had been spilled all over Pang Shuo’s head. Pang Shuo was glaring at him with furious eyebrows, but Lu Rangchen showed not even a trace of remorse — lazily curling the corner of his mouth. “Sorry about that — didn’t see there was someone here.”

Pure Beijing drawl, provocative and unambiguous.

Pang Shuo was practically beside himself with rage.

But Lu Rangchen wasn’t someone to trifle with; the boys sitting nearby all cowered and didn’t dare say a word, leaving Pang Shuo to rage impotently alone. “What the hell did I do to you? Are you crazy, Lu Rangchen?”

Lu Rangchen had his hands casually in his pockets and smiled languidly — not deigning to respond — and the look on his face was maddening.

Deng Zhe taunted Pang Shuo. “Aren’t you the one who’s out of his mind? Happily trashing a girl’s reputation behind her back, are you?”

Zhou Chuang also jumped in with his cheeky manner. “That’s right, I heard every word. You two were at it for quite a while.”

“Saying Yunque must have cheated to get such good grades.”

“And saying she acts all prim and proper, like some refined, standoffish young lady, but behind the scenes she’s been cozying up to guys left and right.”

Zhou Chuang’s smile had a delinquent edge to it, the kind that looked ready to pick a fight at any moment. “Cozying up to who exactly? Go on, let’s hear it.”

As he said this, Lu Rangchen just stood there with an air of careless ease, his long, hawk-like eyes half-lowered, his gaze resting on Pang Shuo — unhurried, but with the weight of a thousand pounds.

Pang Shuo was so cowed by that look he didn’t dare let out a single word.

Several of the other boys rushed to explain: “No, no — that’s not what we meant. We were just discussing, not targeting Yunque specifically.”

Hearing Yunque’s name.

Xu Linda finally grasped what was going on.

She tried to push through the crowd to say her piece, but Deng Zhe made a sharp sound and grabbed her by the arm, pulling her back. “You’re a girl — what are you charging in for? Lu Rangchen’s right up front. What’s the rush?”

Xu Linda grumbled under her breath, still defiant. “Because that bastard keeps bullying people.”

Lu Rangchen was at the front, and seemed to hear those words. His eyebrow arched slightly.

He gave Pang Shuo a lazy smile. “Ah, so that’s how it is.”

The boy’s expression looked mild on the surface — but beneath it, his eyes were cold and calculating.

Pang Shuo was cornered and flustered, his face visibly panicked.

In the end, it was a boy from the senior year who stepped in to salvage the situation.

That person had some kind of rapport with Lu Rangchen, and laughingly declared it was all a misunderstanding — he vouched for Pang Shuo, said there was no malicious intent, and promised he wouldn’t let him speak carelessly again.

And so with that hard barrier wedged between them, Pang Shuo and the other boys were finally able to extricate themselves.

Afterward the crowd dispersed, and the senior boy even proactively bought drinks for Lu Rangchen and the others — his way of offering an apology on Pang Shuo’s behalf.

At this, Xu Linda let out a disdainful snort. “Can’t believe someone would still stand up for someone as disgusting as Pang Shuo. Truly speechless. If someone hadn’t stepped in, Lu Rangchen and Deng Zhe would have dragged him off.”

Yunque sat there dazed for a long time, unable to come back to herself.

Even already knowing Lu Rangchen had stood up for her behind the scenes, in this moment she was still swept by that powerful wave of being “overwhelmed with gratitude.”

Yunque asked, “Was he in a bad mood because of that this afternoon?”

Xu Linda deliberately teased her. “Oh, so you noticed he was in a bad mood too.”

Yunque’s fingertips trembled slightly, her expression a little unnatural.

Xu Linda sighed. “I don’t know what you’re thinking. Lu Rangchen took an hour’s leave from school for you — you clearly could have gone, but you didn’t.”

“I don’t understand you at all. Any other girl would cling to an opportunity like that for dear life. But you — not only do you not seize the moment, you push it away.”

Xu Linda gave her a withering glance.

Yunque lowered her gaze, her eyes empty, her thoughts somewhere else.

After a good while, she gathered her fingers and spoke slowly. “Then what am I supposed to do?”

Or rather… what did Lu Rangchen want her to do?

“Go find him.”

Xu Linda answered without a moment’s hesitation. “If I were you, I’d go find him. He got tomato-egg all over his trousers standing up for you. You should at least thank him for that — take his trousers off him and wash them.”

The suggestion sounded a little outrageous, but thinking about it more carefully, it wasn’t entirely unreasonable.

Lu Rangchen was fastidiously clean — to the point of having a cleanliness fixation. Yunque couldn’t imagine how he was enduring it all afternoon.

What’s more, at noon she really had been rather unworthy of him. By any logic, she should see him at least once.

With that thought, a vague, tentative anxiety stirred in Yunque’s chest.

But Xu Linda wasn’t pushing her. This was, after all, something between only the two of them.

She simply took it upon herself, on the walk back to the classroom, to generously analyze the situation for Yunque, just a little.

“Who knows what he’s thinking. Maybe he’s just into you acting this way.”

“I’ve never heard of him being upset over any girl not coming to see him.”

“If you look at it that way, you hold a rather special place with him.”

Yunque listened in silence.

She gave nothing away — no sign of whether she was happy or not.

Then the second class of the afternoon started.

Xu Linda sent her another message, telling her not to pay attention to Pang Shuo — no matter what he said, don’t take it to heart. And after the dressing-down Lu Rangchen had given him, he probably wouldn’t dare show off anymore.

Yunque obediently replied with a simple “okay” and didn’t look at Pang Shuo once for the rest of the afternoon.

Not that she was short of other ways to be reminded of him — the smell of tomato and egg kept drifting her way from his direction.

Every time she caught that scent, her mind involuntarily conjured up the image of Lu Rangchen standing up for her.

Back and forth a few times.

Yunque ultimately couldn’t hold herself together, and just before the end of school, sent Lu Rangchen a WeChat.

Yunque: 【Are you training tonight?】

After sending the message, she slid her phone under her textbook.

About a few seconds passed.

Lu Rangchen replied: 【Yeah.】

Yunque’s brow gradually eased, and she replied with an “okay.”

She assumed their conversation was over at that, but nearly ten minutes later, her phone vibrated again.

School had already let out by then, and Yunque no longer needed to hide anything.

She took out her phone openly.

Lu Rangchen: 【Yunque?】

“……”

Yunque couldn’t figure out what he meant by that, so she replied with a question mark.

Then added: 【It’s me. What’s the matter?】

This time it was Lu Rangchen’s turn to be baffled.

He sent a string of ellipses: 【I thought it was Lin Zhinian.】

Yunque’s fingertip stilled.

Lu Rangchen sent her a screenshot — a screenshot of his WeChat contact list.

One glance, and Yunque immediately spotted her own profile picture: identical to someone else’s.

What was stranger still was that their WeChat display names were also somewhat similar.

Yunque’s display name was “skylark” — the English word for her name.

The other person’s name also started with the letter “S” in English.

In an instant, Yunque seemed to understand something.

Sure enough, Lu Rangchen’s next message confirmed it: 【I thought the person who sent me the good-luck message was Lin Zhinian.】

The unspoken meaning — he seemed to be explaining that the reason he had been so cold that day was because he thought the person who had messaged him was Lin Zhinian.

The answer landed in her mind without warning.

Yunque’s thoughts swayed.

Her mood was like bungee jumping — plunging to the depths, then being pulled back up again by his own hand.

Just at that moment, Lu Rangchen added: 【Not tired anymore?】

Yunque’s fingertip curled slightly.

Sensitive as she was, she understood the implication almost instantly.

Yunque replied: I’m not tired anymore.

Then, almost against her own will, wrote: 【Are you still crossing the road?】

The words made no rational sense — like a morse code known only to the two of them, decipherable only by the other.

After a pause, Lu Rangchen said: 【Already across.】

Lu Rangchen: 【Nobody’s at Training Hall Three right now. Want to come?】

—

Training Hall Three was the practice ground assigned specifically to the school’s tennis team.

Lu Rangchen basically went there with his friends the moment school let out.

Yunque had only heard of the place before; she’d never actually been there herself. And so this time, going there alone felt more than a little nerve-wracking.

She didn’t know what the two of them would talk about when she saw him.

But she simply couldn’t help but go.

Only — she was painfully shy around strangers, and the awkwardness of it all weighed on her. Her only option was to stop by a bubble tea shop and buy a few drinks to bring along — at least that way there’d be something to talk about.

Besides, it also gave her a reason to thank Deng Zhe and Zhou Chuang.

Those two had, after all, spoken up for her at noon.

As it turned out, having something to carry in her hands really did give her an extra measure of backbone.

Yunque quickened her pace the moment she left the bubble tea shop.

But even at that speed, she still couldn’t keep up with the boys from the tennis team.

By the time Yunque arrived at Training Hall Three, there were already people inside laughing and chatting away.

The uneasy feeling crept back up through the soles of her feet.

Yunque peeked inside with some embarrassment, and one of the boys spotted her and cheerfully called out to ask who she was looking for.

Yunque was about to say Lu Rangchen.

But in the next instant she thought — there were probably lots of girls who came looking for him. She swallowed the words back.

The young girl’s face was flushed, clear and pure as still water. She shook her head and retreated slightly.

She said softly, “It’s nothing. Thank you.”

With that, Yunque picked up her several cups of bubble tea, ready to leave.

But the moment she turned away, her back pressed against a chest that was warm, firm, and supple.

A warm breath, mingled with the restrained yet indulgent scent of dark, woody sandalwood, fell over her gently.

He stood there blocking her way, with no intention of moving aside whatsoever.

Yunque held her breath, her pulse racing like she was running an eight-hundred-meter dash. She forced herself to turn her head — and in the next second found herself looking directly up into Lu Rangchen’s gaze, deep and unhurried, falling upon her face.

Like a hunter catching his prey.

The boy’s eyes held a thinly veiled ambiguity — clear and patient as they watched her — the corner of his lips curved faintly upward. “Going somewhere again?”