Lin Zhexia felt as if she had been poisoned mute.

After Chi Yao finished speaking, she couldn’t squeeze out a single word for a long time.

Usually, when Chi Yao said one thing, she could reply with ten, but at this moment, she couldn’t respond at all.

Lin He and Wei Ping were focused on watching TV and hadn’t noticed their side.

The lively sounds of the Spring Festival Gala were transmitted from the television, drowning out the sounds between her and Chi Yao.

After a while, Lin Zhexia lowered her head to scroll through her phone.

Actually, no one had sent her messages, but she didn’t know why she was in this strange state of wanting to escape by scrolling through her phone.

She made something out of nothing, seeking one-sided conversations with Chen Lin and Tang Shuxuan-

Are you watching the Spring Festival Gala?

This year’s Gala is quite funny-

[smiling]

No one replied to her.

She continued blindly scrolling through her contact list.

As coincidence would have it, He Yang had just sent her several messages.

Da Zhuang: ddd

Da Zhuang: You’re at home, right?

Lin Zhexia replied: Yes

Da Zhuang: Is my bro Chi Yao there too?

Lin Zhexia continued to reply: Mm

Da Zhuang: ……

Da Zhuang: Want to come out and set off fireworks, my dad bought a lot

Da Zhuang: Also, can you stop replying one word at a time? You spend all day with Chi Yao, couldn’t you learn something else from him instead of just his bad habits?

Lin Zhexia moved her fingers: Oh.

Da Zhuang: ………

Da Zhuang: You two don’t bother coming, I’ll set off the fireworks by myself

After chatting with He Yang.

Lin Zhexia found a new topic, cleared her throat, and finally managed to squeeze out a sentence: “Ahem, um, He Yang is asking us to go set off fireworks.”

When she and Chi Yao went outside, several rounds of fireworks had already been set off.

The night sky occasionally flashed with rising fireworks, going “bang” as they bloomed in the air.

He Yang saw them coming and called out: “Come quickly, we’re about to start, who wants to light them?”

Lin Zhexia ran over: “Me, me, me, I want to light them.”

She took the lighter and carefully crouched beside the box of fireworks.

She was a bit scared.

But thinking that Chi Yao was standing behind her, that bit of fear didn’t seem like much anymore.

She pressed the lighter, and the fuse started burning with a “sizzle-sizzle-sizzle.”

Just as she was about to stand up and back away, almost at the same time, she felt a very light force from behind also guiding her backward—it was Chi Yao’s hand on her hood.

Three.

Two.

One.

The fireworks shot up high into the sky.

Lin Zhexia’s emotions came and went quickly. Looking at the continuously rising fireworks in the night sky, she had already forgotten the strange awkwardness from moments ago.

She said to Chi Yao just as she had in previous years: “Happy New Year—”

Chi Yao’s outer coat was black.

In the night, it almost blended with the surrounding darkness. The only difference was, at a certain moment, that profile illuminated by the fireworks.

He released his hand from her hood and replied: “Happy New Year.”

After the Spring Festival, the winter break quickly came to an end.

On the first day back at school, the first thing classmates did was catch up on holiday assignments.

Because of this unspoken task, as soon as the school gates opened, more than half of Class 7 had already arrived.

When Lin Zhexia entered the classroom, she realized for the first time that the class was so lively.

Tang Shuxuan and Chen Lin were huddled together, discussing what happened during the break.

Seeing her enter the classroom, they enthusiastically waved at her: “Long time no see—and, Happy New Year!”

“Happy New Year.” Lin Zhexia responded.

After putting down her backpack, she asked: “What are you talking about?”

Chen Lin said, “Talking about my brother.”

When Lin Zhexia heard the word “brother,” she almost flung the pencil case she had just taken out: “…”

Chen Lin glanced at her: “What’s wrong with you?”

Lin Zhexia: “Nothing, just a bit surprised that you have a brother.”

“My brother is ten years older than me, already working, and usually not in Lianyun City,” Chen Lin said, “so we’re not very familiar with each other.”

Lin Zhexia quietly placed her pencil case on the desk: “I see.”

She appeared calm on the surface, but was screaming internally:

It’s all Chi Yao’s fault for suddenly coming out with those words that day.

She is nearly overreacting today.

She had spent many Spring Festivals with Chi Yao.

But none had been like this one, so…

So…

She thought for a long time, but couldn’t find the right words to describe it.

Forget it.

Lin Zhexia stopped thinking about the New Year events. She organized her homework while listening to Tang Shuxuan talk.

Tang Shuxuan lowered her voice: “Do you know, there’s a couple in our class who started dating during the break.”

“I know,” Chen Lin said, “it’s too obvious, I felt something was up between them last semester.”

Tang Shuxuan shrugged, losing her desire to share gossip: “Well, then I don’t need to name names.”

Only Lin Zhexia listened in confusion: “Huh?”

“Who? Who and who?”

She asked again, “How is it obvious? I had no idea.”

Tang Shuxuan secretly pointed: “It’s who and who from the next group, didn’t you notice?”

Lin Zhexia followed Tang Shuxuan’s finger and saw a female classmate wearing glasses and their class’s math representative.

They both looked very shy. The math representative was standing next to the girl, scratching his head and talking to her somewhat bashfully.

Lin Zhexia belatedly realized: “They’re actually, dat-ing?”

Chen Lin couldn’t help saying: “Actually, I’ve wanted to say this for a long time—your reaction time to these things is long.”

Tang Shuxuan also said, “Yes, it is.”

Lin Zhexia: “…”

Chen Lin continued: “Besides, dating isn’t a big deal. Back in middle school, there were classmates secretly dating, though it was like playing house. Weren’t there any in your previous class?”

Lin Zhexia shook her head: “No, I went to an all-girls middle school; there were no boys.”

The only boys she had contact with all these years were.

Were those from Nanxiang Street who didn’t distinguish gender, like bros, childhood friends?

With Chi Yao being the leader.

During middle school, they would all link arms and go to internet cafes to play games, though she didn’t like playing their games, and even when she went along, she would just stay on the side watching TV dramas.

So when it came to matters of the heart, she understood less than girls her age.

Even to the point of some ignorance and deficiency.

Tang Shuxuan understood: “So you went to an all-girls school before, no wonder.”

She patted her chest: “Don’t worry, you can come to me with any emotional issues in the future, I’m Class 7’s emotion expert.”

Lin Zhexia looked at her: “Have you dated many times?”

Tang Shuxuan: “No.”

“…?”

“But often it’s people without dating experience,” Tang Shuxuan said confidently, “who like to advise others.”

After adapting to high school life, the first semester of tenth grade passed quickly.

Before they knew it, these new students had officially entered eleventh grade.

It was summer again.

Compared to the naivety and novelty when they first entered school, everyone in eleventh grade seemed to have become more like real high school students.

That greenness and immaturity had imperceptibly faded somewhat.

Stepping into seventeen, everyone began to secretly grow, in their estimation, in the direction of “adults.”

Lin Zhexia found that she gradually began to pursue “independence” and “autonomy.”

In her interactions with Lin He, she began to need more say.

Sometimes, Lin He might have just nagged a few more times about “the weather hasn’t fully warmed up yet, wearing just one shirt inside like that, you’ll be cold in the evening when school lets out.”

The usually obedient Lin Zhexia would rarely develop a kind of unnamed stubbornness: “Mom, I’m not cold.”

And.

When Lin He was repeatedly reminding her of something.

She would suddenly, uncontrollably, blurt out: “I know, my affairs, I can handle them well.”

Lin He would sometimes feel she wasn’t listening.

Wei Ping would then step in to smooth things over: “The child is growing up, having her ideas, it’s normal, don’t be angry with her.”

But between her and Chi Yao, things remained the same.

That desire to become an “adult” seemed ineffective in front of him.

As long as she was with Chi Yao, she would instantly revert to being that childish Lin Zhexia.

That morning, they went to the bus stop as usual to wait for the bus.

The familiar cicada chirping returned to their ears, and the weather was so stuffy that even the wind seemed still.

Lin Zhexia suddenly spoke up: “Chi Yao, do you believe in destiny?”

Chi Yao didn’t know what she was up to again.

Lin Zhexia: “I recently learned some fortune-telling techniques. Give me your hand, let me tell your fortune.”

Chi Yao was wearing a very thin shirt, his school uniform collar slightly open, standing out especially in the crowd.

Chi Yao: “Did you leave home today without taking your medicine again?”

Lin Zhexia fired back: “You’re the one who didn’t take your medicine.”

The two argued back and forth about taking or not taking medicine.

He Yang stepped two steps away from them, distancing himself.

He silently said: I don’t know these two people. Don’t know them, not very familiar, not friends.

Not long after the start of eleventh grade, an unexpected small incident occurred.

One day during class break, Chen Lin kept asking her: “Have you noticed anything different about me today?”

Lin Zhexia looked at her for a long time, couldn’t see anything different, and could only say: “You look especially beautiful today.”

Chen Lin: “Be more specific, where am I beautiful?”

Lin Zhexia: “You’re beautiful everywhere, to the extent that it’s hard for me to be specific.”

Chen Lin gave up and directly confessed: “Look at my ears.”

Only then did Lin Zhexia notice that Chen Lin was wearing a pair of very delicate earrings. The ear piercings were probably newly done, still reddish. She had bangs covering the sides of her ears, so they weren’t very noticeable.

Lin Zhexia was a bit surprised: “You got your ears pierced?”

“Does the school allow it?” she added, “won’t Old Xu catch you?”

Chen Lin: “No, we’re not monitored that strictly. Shuxuan got hers done a long time ago, and no teacher has said anything. And even if someone says something, just take out the earrings and replace them with transparent studs, no one can tell.”

Lin Zhexia nodded: “I see.”

Chen Lin encouraged: “Do you want to get one too?”

She continued: “I got mine done near the school, just in that commercial street, turn into the alley, there’s an accessory shop, many people go there to get their ears pierced.”

Lin Zhexia listened with some eagerness to try.

Girls, during puberty, always have a magical longing for ear piercings.

Perhaps it’s the love of beauty at work.

Perhaps it’s wanting to do something harmless but rebellious behind parents’ backs.

Or perhaps, it’s because “adults” wear earrings.

“I have thought about getting my ears pierced,” Lin Zhexia said, “I wanted to since middle school, but my mom wouldn’t let me.”

“She said if I dared to get them pierced.”

Lin Zhexia said slowly, “She would break my legs.”

Chen Lin: “Just do it secretly, it’s not a big deal. My mom initially didn’t allow it either, but after I got them done, she didn’t say much.”

The class bell rang.

The topic stopped there.

But during class, Lin Zhexia still briefly wandered in her thoughts.

She was somewhat persuaded by Chen Lin, and actually began to consider getting her ears pierced behind Lin He’s back.

But more than fearing Lin He discovering it, she was more afraid of another aspect.

—Getting ears pierced must be painful, right?

“It doesn’t hurt,” after school, Tang Shuxuan also joined the conversation.

She guaranteed: “I’ve done it twice, barely felt anything, don’t worry.”

Lin Zhexia: “But it still has to go through your ear…”

Chen Lin: “It doesn’t hurt, go ahead without worry.”

She wanted to go.

But she truly didn’t dare.

After school, she walked shoulder to shoulder with Chi Yao toward the bus stop, dragging her feet, her gaze constantly drifting towards the commercial street.

Chi Yao sensed her increasingly slower pace and reminded, “You might as well crawl to the bus stop.”

Lin Zhexia: “…”

The next second, Chi Yao said again: “Tell me, what do you want to buy?”

Lin Zhexia still wanted to back out: “Nothing I want to buy.”

“Nothing you want to buy,” he said, “yet you keep staring at the opposite side.”

Lin Zhexia finally gathered her courage: “Actually… actually I arranged to meet someone after school to have a fight in the alley of the commercial street, you have to come with me to admire my fighting prowess.”

Chi Yao: “Oh.”

He didn’t react much to the story Lin Zhexia casually made up.

Lin Zhexia: “That’s your reaction?”

“You want me to admire—”

Chi Yao changed his reaction as she wished: “Or are you afraid you can’t win and want brother to help you?”

…

The dead title jumped up and attacked her again.

Is there no getting past this title?

Lin Zhexia needed his help now, so she couldn’t offend him. She pretended not to hear and asked again: “So are you willing to go with me?”

Her reply was three words.

“Not willing.”

“…Reason?”

“I’m scared,” Chi Yao, with that face that looked like trouble and seemed to have a gang of minions behind him, said the most absurd thing in the most arrogant tone, “I get weak-kneed when I see others fighting.”