When Chi Yao finished singing, the entire stage seemed to have become his concert.

Someone in the audience shouted: “One more song!”

Chi Yao had already finished playing, the music had stopped, and in a moment of quiet, he lowered his hand, leaned close to the standing microphone, and unexpectedly responded across the distance: “Stop shouting, not happening.”

“I only learned this one song. Whoever wants to hear more can come up and play themselves.”

Hearing this, both the audience below the stage and the host preparing to enter couldn’t help but laugh.

After Chi Yao left the stage, Chen Lin applauded and said, “He played quite well!”

Lin Zhexia had already put down her phone.

Like a thief, she flipped her phone over and placed it face down on her knee.

And secretly prayed in her heart that no one had seen her sneaky photo-taking just now.

Chen Lin asked again: “Have you heard him sing before? I didn’t expect his singing to be so pleasant.”

Lin Zhexia responded with an “Ah” and said: “I’ve heard it, but not many times.”

Chen Lin indicated this answer was within her expectations: “That makes sense. Someone like him doesn’t seem like the type who would enjoy singing.”

Lin Zhexia followed Chen Lin’s comment and thought about the past.

In her memory, the first time she heard Chi Yao sing was when they had just started middle school.

That year, on He Yang’s birthday, to showcase his prestigious “middle school student” status, he took them to a KTV for his birthday. That was also the first time she had been to such a place without parental supervision.

Everyone had a great time that day.

Everyone sang songs, especially her, who hogged the microphone and sang several songs in a row.

Finally, someone called out: “—Hasn’t Brother Yao sung yet?”

The private room had no lights on, and the lighting was as dim as the current audience seats.

Middle school Chi Yao sat in the corner and refused: “Not singing.”

He Yang imitated a line from a movie: “It’s my birthday today, you’re not giving me face.”

Chi Yao raised his eyelids: “So what?”

Chi Yao: “If you have the guts, hit me.”

He Yang: “…”

Although this person was quite annoying.

But by this time, He Yang was gradually no longer a match for Chi Yao.

Thinking of this, Lin Zhexia also recalled that Chi Yao eventually did sing that day, performing a popular song of that time.

Sitting on the couch in the private room, her first thought was: So Chi Yao’s singing is this good.

But why did he end up singing after all?

She couldn’t remember the specific reason.

She only remembered that she had also joined the crowd in calling out: “Sing one song, we’ve known each other for so long, but I’ve never heard you sing.”

…

After Class 1’s performance ended, there were still three to five more programs.

At the end of the school celebration, the host made closing remarks.

By the time everyone dispersed, it was approaching evening. Various class teachers hurriedly returned to their classrooms to assign that day’s homework. Lin Zhexia was packing up her bag when Chi Yao and Xu Ting came over and stopped her.

Lin Zhexia: “What are you two doing here?”

Chi Yao glanced at Xu Ting.

Xu Ting: “Just you alone? Where are your two friends? Want to go grab a meal together? I’m starving—didn’t even have time for lunch.”

Lin Zhexia touched her stomach.

They hadn’t eaten much at noon either to prepare backstage early, so she agreed.

It was getting late, so they found a nearby noodle shop to eat.

“What are you eating?” Lin Zhexia flipped through the menu. “They have the Suzhou-style noodles you like.”

After speaking, Lin Zhexia noticed that Chi Yao hadn’t changed out of his performance clothes yet, with his school uniform jacket thrown over the shirt.

—He looked as if he had just run down from the stage.

The collision of order and disorder created a strangely strong contrast.

He leaned back and said, “You can order for me.”

Lin Zhexia stopped looking at him: “Then I’ll order Suzhou-style noodles, three delicacies. You don’t like the other mixed noodles anyway.”

The noodles came up quickly.

Xu Ting and the others began discussing today’s performance.

Chen Lin first mentioned the forum photos: “The forum is very lively today, lots of photo threads.”

Xu Ting happily took out his phone: “Really? I want to see.”

Ten minutes later.

Xu Ting was drinking orange juice with pulp, but shouted as if he were drunk: “WHY!!! No one took photos of me!!!!”

“Even Lin got secretly photographed, but there’s nothing of me!!!”

Lin Zhexia, unexpectedly called out: “What do you mean ‘even’?”

Xu Ting continued to wail: “So many pictures, yet not one belongs to me. I practically don’t exist on the forum, not even my name was left behind.”

“Wait, there is one comment that says ‘Are Xu Ting and Chi Yao close?’ They even spelled the ‘ting’ in Xu Ting wrong.”

Lin Zhexia glanced at his phone and saw a photo of herself.

Someone had taken a picture of her holding the script and commented: [Class 7’s Lin Zhexia looks quite innocent.]

She wasn’t comfortable with this kind of attention and only felt embarrassed, so she ignored her entry and looked further down.

Most of the subsequent comments were about Chi Yao.

[Absolutely killing it.]

[With that face and that personality, yet singing a love song, that’s breaking the rules.]

[Many people took secret photos, let me contribute one too]

Lin Zhexia saw the words “secret photos” and felt a bit guilty, couldn’t help but glance at her own phone.

Xu Ting noticed she was looking at her phone and turned the topic to her: “Did you take photos of our performance?”

Lin Zhexia hurriedly denied: “Of course I didn’t.”

She added, “Why would I take photos? It’s just a performance, of course, I didn’t take any.”

Xu Ting was dejected: “So! I truly!!! Don’t have a single photo left!!!”

“…”

In the end, it was Chi Yao who broke the awkwardness: “Are you done?”

Lin Zhexia wanted to completely avoid the topic of “secret photos,” so she actively started a new subject: “By the way, who chose the song?”

Xu Ting was channeling his frustration into appetite, stuffing his mouth full of noodles.

Lin Zhexia continued: “The song title sounds nice.”

Xu Ting’s mouth was too full to speak, only able to make “mmm” sounds.

“Mmm mmm mmm.”

“…Swallow your noodles before talking.”

Xu Ting finally managed to swallow the noodles and was about to answer when Chi Yao unexpectedly kicked the leg of his chair: “Didn’t you have something to buy?”

He was completely unaware that both Lin Zhexia and Chi Yao were strangely changing the subject: “Yeah, but I’m eating right now.”

Chi Yao: “You’re pretty much done eating.”

Xu Ting stared at his bowl: “I…”

Chi Yao looked at him.

After a while, Xu Ting said, “Fine, I’ll go buy it first, so I don’t forget later.”

“What does he need to buy?”

After Xu Ting left, Lin Zhexia asked in a somewhat unnatural tone because she was evading a topic herself.

Because of her own guilty conscience, she didn’t notice that Chi Yao was actually a bit unnatural too.

Chi Yao held his chopsticks: “Makeup remover wipes.”

“…”

“Those eyebrows of his,” Lin Zhexia couldn’t understand, “really need special removal?”

By the time Xu Ting returned after buying his things, the topic at the table had changed twice.

Lin Zhexia had only asked purely to change the subject, so even she hadn’t noticed that her earlier question still hadn’t been answered.

Xu Ting, having gone out for a while, had also forgotten and picked up his chopsticks to continue eating.

Not until everyone paid the bill and went their separate ways did Xu Ting remember on the car ride home that he still had something to say.

—It was Chi Yao. Unprecedented. Actively. Who chose the song?

At the time, he had selected several cooler songs.

All were rejected by Chi Yao with the excuse that they were “too complicated, no time to learn.”

Then one night, Chi Yao suddenly sent him a music link. When he listened, it turned out to be a love song.

Oh well.

Love songs are indeed easier to learn.

Xu Ting quickly put this question out of his mind and continued to wallow in the sorrow of not having been photographed—

Lin Zhexia felt that today had passed without a sense of reality.

Perhaps it was because Chi Yao on stage was too dazzling, or perhaps because the song was somewhat special.

That night, she lay in bed and couldn’t fall asleep for a long time.

Curled up under the blanket, she unlocked her phone, opened that photo, and, afraid that someone might discover it later, she posted it to her Moments with visibility set to “Only Me” to preserve the image.

Chi Yao in the photo looked somewhat distant, the light source too strong, causing some light to blur around the edges of his silhouette.

She thought for a moment, then typed five characters in the caption: The midsummer night’s wind—

Whenever the seasons change, time always seems to pass exceptionally quickly.

Starting from a certain day, the cold receded, dry branches sprouted new green buds, the entire city filled with flying orioles and growing grass, then a somewhat hot wind suddenly swept through, and summer was approaching again.

Because Tang Shuxuan’s senior was about to graduate, she counted the dates on her fingers every day: “It’s almost May, they have their college entrance exams in June.”

Chen Lin said to her, “You should think more about your college entrance exam next June.”

Tang Shuxuan: “Someone like you without a crush wouldn’t understand.”

Lin Zhexia was working on after-class assignments when she secretly took out her phone from her desk drawer to check the time: “It’s already April 30th today.”

Tang Shuxuan: “Yes, it feels like time passes so quickly.”

In Lin Zhexia’s phone calendar, there were several specially marked dates.

They were the birthdays of Lin He, Wei Ping, and Chi Yao.

Her birthday and Chi Yao’s were very close, both in summer.

Chi Yao was more than a month older than her, with his birthday in early summer in May. Her birthday was in June, and it was precisely because of June, the day of her birth, that Lin He gave her a name related to “summer.”

Because their birthdays were so close, every year when celebrating birthdays, she always felt as if she was celebrating together with Chi Yao.

May was approaching, which meant…

Lin Zhexia looked at the circled date on the calendar and thought, Chi Yao’s birthday this year was coming soon.

His eighteenth birthday.

A very special and important birthday.

For the next several days, Lin Zhexia kept pondering how to celebrate Chi Yao’s birthday.

“Chi Yao’s having a birthday?” After hearing about it, Tang Shuxuan offered suggestions, “Throw him a birthday party?”

“For gifts and such, boys probably prefer gaming consoles, you might want to consider that.”

“And doesn’t he like physics?”

Tang Shuxuan provided a bunch of suggestions, all of which were rejected by Lin Zhexia: “None of these work.”

Tang Shuxuan: “Why not?”

Lin Zhexia: “I’ve known him for so many years, I’ve already given him all the things you mentioned—not just gaming consoles and physics books, I’ve even given him stainless steel representing friendship.”

“Stainless steel… how did he react…”

Lin Zhexia recalled that year: “He told me to return it, or else he would return me as a friend.”

“…”

Precisely because they had celebrated so many birthdays together, making this year’s celebration special was so difficult.

Lin Zhexia finally sighed and said, “Let me think about it some more.”

That evening, she tried to sound out Chi Yao’s preferences.

She tapped that cat avatar and typed: Chi Yao, how have you been recently?

Chi Yao replied quickly—?

Lin Zhexia explained: I’m just checking in on you.

Chi Yao sent two messages—

Find a dictionary, look up—

Check the meaning of the word “recently.”

Lin Zhexia: …

It seemed impossible to approach this through Chi Yao directly, so she decided to take an indirect route and messaged He Yang.

Lin Zhexia: Da Zhuang, Da Zhuang

Da Zhuang: What’s up?

Lin Zhexia slowly typed: You’ve been hanging out with Chi Yao lately, have you noticed anything, like, found out what type of…

She meant to type “gift.”

But the input method had auto-suggestion, and her fingers were quick. By the time she realized it, the question “what type of girl he likes” was already sitting in their chat history.

…

Although this question was indeed something she had wanted to ask for a while but couldn’t bring herself to, what she had meant to type was “gift.”

How did it become this question?

Lin Zhexia felt her phone burning in her hand.

She quickly prayed that He Yang hadn’t seen it and was about to recall the message, but before she could, a line appeared at the top of the chat box: The other person is typing.

Lin Zhexia closed her eyes in despair.

It was too late.

He Yang had seen it.

She was done for.

What should she do? Say it was a typo?

But she was genuinely curious about the answer.

This question that she couldn’t directly raise with Chi Yao might be answered through He Yang.

As Lin Zhexia was both anticipating and hesitating, He Yang’s message came through.

Her heart was racing when she looked at the chat box.

Da Zhuang: I’ve never actually heard him mention this

Da Zhuang: Sigh, why think about such things?

Da Zhuang: With his communication skills, being single for life probably won’t be an issue.

Lin Zhexia’s heartbeat couldn’t quite keep up its pace anymore: …

In the end, she could only reply with two words: Indeed.

*Author’s note: I previously mentioned a half-year age difference, which I’ve now adjusted. It’s not half a year. But you’ve probably forgotten about that anyway!*