——”I still owe you a hundred yuan.”

Those words acted like a pardon, instantly making her appearance seem perfectly reasonable.

Deng Zhe gave her a strange look, then turned to glance at Lu Rangchen. “You two know each other?”

“We don’t.”

“We don’t.”

Two voices — one clear and soft, the other low and resonant — intertwined at the exact same moment, the two of them answering in perfect, unspoken unison.

After they spoke, Lu Rangchen looked over at Yunque with an unhurried air. “If she hadn’t brought it up, I would’ve forgotten.”

Caught in his lazily amused gaze, Yunque felt her expression tighten for no clear reason. She looked away and lowered her eyes, rummaging through her pockets.

Just then, another boy in Lu Rangchen’s group stirred up mischief with a teasing laugh, remarking that this was something — he’d never seen Lu Rangchen lend money to a girl before.

Deng Zhe grinned and chimed in. “Same, he’s never lent me any either.”

Lu Rangchen laughed with his usual reckless ease, first muttering “your uncle,” then lifting his leg as if to kick Deng Zhe. “You spend my money directly, you idiot.”

Deng Zhe laughed like a fool, completely delighted with himself.

Yunque’s cheeks flushed an unstoppable red.

Not only because of the exchange between the three of them, but also because of Lu Rangchen’s refusal to explain himself.

What embarrassed her most, though, was realizing that the hundred yuan she had tucked into her skirt pocket that morning was gone. It had been the hundred yuan Zhu Ping’an gave her — she had slipped it into her pocket carelessly and hadn’t thought much about it since.

She confirmed it. It was definitely gone.

Yunque looked at Lu Rangchen, not knowing what to do.

Lu Rangchen was busy bantering with the other two. Out of the corner of his eye, he happened to catch the way she seemed to want to say something but held back. Without thinking, he glanced over at her with a trace of a smile.

Seeing the girl’s embarrassed expression, he raised an eyebrow slightly. “What is it.”

Yunque pressed her lips together and said nothing.

For a few strange seconds, the two of them communicated silently through their eyes alone. Then she steeled herself and said, “The cash — I can’t find it.”

Afraid of being misunderstood, she quickly added, “But I have money in WeChat. How about I send you a red packet…”

At that time, WeChat had not yet developed the QR code payment feature.

To send a red packet, two people had to be friends on the app first.

Which meant that by saying this, Yunque had — possibly — implied something else entirely: that she wanted to add Lu Rangchen on WeChat.

As far as she knew, among all the girls in school who had pursued him, not a single one had managed to get onto his friends list. Which made her suggestion look very much like a melon-field-and-plum-tree situation — suspicious on its face.

As it turned out, her worry was well-founded.

Deng Zhe, true to form, locked eyes with the other boy in a look that said everything, clearly relishing the drama.

That boy was Zhou Chuang, who was always blunt at the best of times. Right now, his voice was practically dripping with admiration. “Clever approach — and it gets you a WeChat friend in the process.”

He nudged Deng Zhe’s arm, snickering. “Next time I pull this on my dream girl too.”

Deng Zhe laughed and threw out a curse. “You sneaky little thing.”

The two of them traded jokes as if no one else were there. They meant nothing by it — but the one who heard it most clearly felt everything.

Yunque’s cheeks quickly flooded with crimson.

The pride of youth left her with nowhere to hide. On instinct she furrowed her brow and said flatly, “I didn’t.”

But her voice was so faint it barely carried any force at all.

It was Lu Rangchen, standing beside her, who simply flung the book in his hand directly at Deng Zhe without ceremony. “Are you done?”

Deng Zhe yelped as it hit him.

Zhou Chuang made an exaggerated grab for the book before it hit the ground.

Deng Zhe rubbed his head and complained, “What the hell — that’s the new book I gave you, and you just throw it around like that.”

Lu Rangchen snorted with undisguised impatience. “Serves you right. That’s what you get for running your mouth.”

Yunque’s heart gave a small jolt.

She hadn’t expected Lu Rangchen to bail her out like that.

Her eyes flickered. She parted her lips. “How about I send you the money, and then you delete me—”

The soft, quiet words had barely left her mouth.

When she saw Lu Rangchen suddenly rise to his feet and stride out of the pavilion on his long legs.

The same dark sandalwood fragrance as that evening.

Rich, dry, intoxicating.

Like a wind that swept across the whole sky, it rolled through her world once more.

Yunque’s throat seized up as if something had lodged in it. She stood there, helpless, as he loomed over her from his full height, pulled out his phone, and fixed her with a clear, steady gaze. “QR code. Show me.”

—

That noon, Yunque ended up with Lu Rangchen’s WeChat just like that.

His display name was exactly as simple as she’d imagined — Chen.

His profile picture was a photo of his back.

White shirt. Dark hair. Hands in pockets, a grey bag slung across one shoulder. He gazed into the distance at a golden sunset — broad-shouldered, long-legged, full of wild, unfettered energy and arrogance.

Beyond that, his Moments feed was completely empty.

The tide of emotion within her surged like a hidden undercurrent, silently and secretly washing over the shore where her feelings lay.

She had the sudden illusion that she was a little closer to Lu Rangchen now.

But it was only an illusion.

Not once by the end of the second class that afternoon had she received a notification that Lu Rangchen had collected the red packet.

Yunque stared at their chat window, wanting more than once to check whether he had deleted her. But the message “remember to collect the money” never got sent — because Xu Linda, who had just come back from the bathroom, suddenly called out to her.

Yunque snapped back to the present at once. She quickly darkened her phone screen and tucked it into her desk, then turned to look at the startled Xu Linda with a carefully composed expression. “What’s wrong?”

Xu Linda dropped into her seat, brimming with excitement. “I know why Gaoge was crying at lunch.”

She lowered her voice. “I heard it from someone in Class A — apparently she went to find Lu Rangchen at noon again. She wanted to confront him about why he’d returned her gift. But Lu Rangchen just went ahead and laid everything out plainly.”

Yunque’s brow twitched.

She wasn’t sure if it was hearing Lu Rangchen’s name, or the fact that Gaoge had gone to find him again.

Xu Linda didn’t notice the subtle shift in Yunque’s expression at all, and kept going — saying that Lu Rangchen had rejected Gaoge outright, and that accepting her gift in front of everyone before had only been to spare her the embarrassment.

“The two of them were right there at the door of Class A at the time. Quite a few people heard.”

“Gaoge lost so much face. She turned around with red eyes and walked away.”

Xu Linda let out a huff. “And here I thought she was crying because of the argument with you. Turns out she brought it on herself.”

Yunque heard this and said nothing.

Her thoughts wandered for a few seconds, then she suddenly asked, “Does he care a lot about not embarrassing girls?”

“Of course.”

Xu Linda dug out a snack from her desk and opened it, handing Yunque a small pack of dried plums. “Don’t you know? A lot of the girls in our school admire him — and not just because he’s good-looking, smart, good at tennis, and from a wealthy family. It’s because he has good character and genuinely respects women.”

“There was a girl in Class A — a heavier girl — who was being bullied by her classmates. Lu Rangchen couldn’t stand by and stepped in, and after that, nobody dared to bully anyone in the class again.”

“And those disgusting boys who like to make crude jokes — he takes them down whenever he sees it.”

“He just has a very don’t-mess-with-me presence, so even the worst boys in his class behave a lot better.”

“No matter what kind of girl confesses to him or gives him gifts, he never humiliates them publicly. Even when he turns them down, he does it gracefully — and tells them to focus on their studies.”

“But he’s not a people-pleaser either. He’s quite cold toward people he doesn’t know well.”

“Still, whenever anyone needs something and asks for his help, he generally won’t say no.”

“He’s generous too — always treating the people around him.”

“Even with so many girls wanting to date him, he has absolutely no interest in any of them. Forget being a player — it’s not even close.”

“Tell me, who wouldn’t love someone who’s handsome, gentle, strong, grounded, and dependable? Isn’t that a thousand times better than that trashy, stingy school bully type?”

The so-called school bully Xu Linda mentioned had been considered the top guy at Nancheng No. 3 High before Lu Rangchen arrived.

He had always been a slacker, using his family’s wealth and connections to cycle through girlfriends like changing clothes — and yet a whole crowd of girls had still chased after him.

But unfortunately for him, once Lu Rangchen transferred to No. 3 High, all of that former glory became a thing of the past.

Yunque sat in complete silence, turning the snack wrapper over in her fingers.

After eating a few pieces, Xu Linda suddenly added, “Oh right — you definitely don’t have a crush on him.”

Yunque: “…”

Yunque spoke in a flat, subdued tone. “I’m done talking to you. I need to get back to my problems.”

With that, she picked up her pen again and turned to the next page of her practice workbook. On the surface she looked as calm as still water, but inside her thoughts were in complete disarray.

She thought: so it turns out she isn’t anything special.

He simply treats every girl with equal respect.

……

On the other side of the teaching building. Class A’s classroom.

September’s weather was unpredictable.

Just that morning it had been pouring rain, but by the second period of the afternoon, the clouds had parted and the sun was shining brilliantly.

Sunlight flooded the large classroom, turning it bright and transparent. Most of Class A’s students had gone out to get some air, leaving only a handful behind.

Deng Zhe had long since made himself at home in Class A, and the moment class ended he came over to chat with Lu Rangchen.

Two tall young men leaned against the windowsill.

Lu Rangchen stretched out his long legs to rest on the floor, lazily flipping through a poetry collection in an unhurried manner.

Deng Zhe was a different picture entirely — his mouth immediately going on about the fresh gossip he’d just heard.

He said two girls in Class B had gotten into a fight over Lu Rangchen during class that morning.

Lu Rangchen had heard this sort of story plenty of times before. What made this one interesting, though, was that one of the girls involved was the very same one he’d just exchanged WeChat with that day.

“Man, you have no idea how sharp she was when she spoke.”

“She just looked at Gaoge all calm and quiet, and then suddenly came out with, ‘So, are you going to bully me?’ Ha! I can’t even!”

“My friend said the whole class was stunned.”

“Who says something like that?”

“And it worked — hit her right where it hurt. Gaoge’s face went red instantly, like someone who’d been caught doing something wrong.”

“She didn’t say another word after that, just turned around and sat back down.”

“I mean, what did Gaoge expect? The girl was only doing someone a favor.”

Deng Zhe went on with obvious relish.

Lu Rangchen’s thick lashes hung low, his dark eyes like an ocean concealing unfathomable depths.

He suddenly remembered that girl’s damp-looking eyes when she looked at him — timid, soft, tentative.

And her appearance — so slight that a single gust of wind seemed like it could knock her over. She looked easy to push around.

Yet here was this same slight girl with quite a stubborn streak.

Someone like Gaoge, and she had handled her with a single sentence.

Perhaps it was the contrast he found interesting.

Lu Rangchen smiled for no particular reason, the corner of his mouth tugging up.

His hand stilled on the book. He tilted his head toward Deng Zhe, raised his chin slightly. “What’s her name?”

Deng Zhe was incredulous. “Seriously — are all you guys from the capital this heartless? The poor girl just cried over you, and now you don’t even know her name?”

“…”

Lu Rangchen let out a humorless, impatient laugh. “If you’re not using your brain, consider donating it.”

Deng Zhe finally realized who he was asking about. “You mean Zhu Yunque.”

At the sound of those three characters, Lu Rangchen’s brow lifted slightly.

Good brothers have a way of reading each other’s minds — Deng Zhe told him directly, “The ‘Zhu’ is the ‘Zhu’ from ‘Zhufuhe,’ meaning good wishes. And ‘Yunque’ — that’s the same ‘Yunque’ as in the book you’re holding right now.”

The narrow eyes tilted up slightly.

Lu Rangchen lowered his head and flipped back to the cover of the book in his hands — To a Skylark.

So.

Her name was Zhu Yunque.

He was quiet for a moment. Beside him, Deng Zhe was replying to a message from his sister, still muttering away — asking whether he had taken a liking to her.

Only then did Lu Rangchen raise his gaze, straightening up with an unhurried, languid ease.

He curved the corner of his mouth with shameless amusement. “Yeah, damn right I have.”

Deng Zhe laughed and let out a low curse.

The words had barely faded when an unseen breeze drifted through the window and turned the poetry collection to a new page — unbidden.

Lu Rangchen lowered his eyes to look at it, his gaze coming to rest, for no reason he could name, on the final stanza of the poem:

“Teach me half the gladness That thy brain must know, Such harmonious madness From my lips would flow The world should listen then — as I am listening now.”