“Asking for sick leave again?”

The young female teacher held a sick leave form, saying this before signing it.

The office was full of students, lower-grade students, all very short with innocent faces.

But the boy standing silently at her desk, waiting for her signature, was different. In the middle of summer, he wore a jacket, his skin showing a certain paleness from lack of sunlight, his entire person wrapped in an oversized black coat, looking extremely unapproachable.

The female teacher signed her name on the sick leave form and asked as she handed it to him: “Why is it always you coming to ask for sick leave by yourself? Where are your parents?”

The boy’s hand extended from his sleeve, long, slender fingers grabbing the paper.

Just when the female teacher thought he wouldn’t answer, he said: “They’re on a business trip.”

After leaving the office, he looked down at the form in his hand.

Sick leave form.

Student name: Chi Yao.

His forehead was burning hot, but he had forced himself to stand straight just now.

He struggled all the way, packed his schoolbag, walked to the school gate to take a taxi, and got off at the hospital entrance. Some hospital staff recognized him and knew something of his situation, so they specifically crouched down and gave him a candy: “This is a gift for brave little boys.”

Chi Yao wanted to say that he wasn’t little anymore, and he didn’t like hearing such nonsense.

In his life, he hadn’t received many gifts.

But faced with the nurse’s kindness, he still said “thank you.”

He sat in the hospital lobby, waiting for the caregiver hired by Chi Hanshan to arrive, then, under the caregiver’s accompaniment, he was admitted to the hospital, put on an IV drip, and only then did he succumb to exhaustion and fall asleep.

Before drifting off, he vaguely heard doctors saying: “The fever is so high—how careless, he should have been brought in earlier.”

As usual, after two days on the IV drip, he returned home.

He turned on the lights, and the entire room was empty.

He was long accustomed to this emptiness, tidying up things in the house by himself. Remembering that the remote control’s batteries were dead, he took some change and went out.

But this day was different from any other day.

—Because when he pushed open the building door, he saw someone sitting at the entrance.

About the same age as him, thin, with a somewhat sharp gaze. From the voice, it was a girl, but with a boyish air about her.

Then he did the most childish thing in his life.

He argued with this strange girl.

“Let’s fight,” the girl finally said.

“Tomorrow at noon, I’ll wait for you here. Whoever doesn’t show up is a dog.”

Crazy.

He walked past her, out of the building, not taking these words to heart at all.

Later, he learned that she had just moved in and lived in the opposite building.

But that didn’t seem to have anything to do with him. His illness hadn’t fully recovered, a typhoon passed through, and he was hospitalized again. That somewhat absurd agreement was completely forgotten.

However, the wheels of fate quietly turned, and this girl who should have had no further intersection with him suddenly burst into his life after blocking that ball for him near the basketball court.

She often appeared in his hospital room.

Sitting in the chair next to his bed, talking nonstop.

“Chi Yao, you didn’t go to class today. The teacher covered Zhu Xia – Chapter Three. It’s a bit difficult. Have you read ahead and prepared? If you don’t understand, I can explain it to you again.”

“But it’s not free. I’ll charge you three ‘big brother’ calls.”

“I’m ready. You can call me big brother now.”

“…”

His home also frequently had a second person’s presence.

The girl sat cross-legged on the sofa: “You should buy some snacks.”

He said coldly, “I don’t eat snacks.”

“I know,” she said, “I want to eat them. I’ve finished what you bought last time. I suggest you buy more.”

“…”

He and Lin Zhexia in elementary school were extraordinarily childish.

They could argue eight hundred times a day, disagreeing about anything and everything. Only on the issue of He Yang were they consistently united against others.

After entering middle school, awareness of gender began to bud.

On a certain day, he suddenly realized that everything was the same as usual, yet everything was different.

Lin Zhexia had always been thin, but after entering middle school, she began her growth spurt. On weekends, she still often hung around at his place, but one day, when they were fighting over the remote to decide which channel to watch, she stretched out her hand toward his direction: “The program you want to watch is boring.”

Chi Yao also held his hand high, not giving her the remote. The height difference between them had become obvious in middle school: “You think your cartoons are interesting?”

In the end, Lin Zhexia got a bit frantic, and while she didn’t get the remote, her whole person fell into his arms.

He suddenly froze.

Feeling something, unprecedented, a subtle softness.

Lin Zhexia was wearing that pink and white school uniform she had complained about when she first started school.

She took the item from his hand, but he didn’t have the mind to care about any remote control. His fingers tensed inexplicably in the void. Looking down, he saw the girl’s pointed, fox-like chin, and… the faint outline of an undershirt visible through the thin school uniform.

In middle school, he was no longer the transparent person who frequently asked for sick leave.

Just a few days after school started, girls from other classes often wandered around their classroom door.

He Yang would often smack his lips and say: “They’ve come to see you again.”

“Hey,” he changed his tone, “with so many girls, isn’t there a single one you like? There’s even the class beauty from next door among them. I don’t understand you. What type do you actually like?”

Chi Yao chewed on the word “like.”

But he couldn’t continue thinking about it at that time. His concept of “liking” wasn’t very clear yet.

He was busy packing his things, then slung his bag over one shoulder and went out through the back door.

He Yang: “You’re leaving already? It’s not time to leave yet. If the teacher comes to take attendance later, I won’t cover for you.”

Chi Yao only said: “The bus is almost at the stop. If I wait until class dismissal, I might be too late.”

He Yang was confused: “What bus?”

The bus to the girls’ school.

If Lin Zhexia, who had cried before school started, were to walk out of school all alone at dismissal time, she would probably cry again.

He took the bus early, arriving just in time for dismissal, when the gates of that unfamiliar school had just opened.

He unconsciously tugged at his backpack, pretending to be casually passing by.

–

Another weekend.

The Nanxiang Street gang gathered at his home.

He Yang suggested: “Want to play a card game? This set of cards is very popular at school lately. Everyone gets assigned a number, and the people with the numbers shown on the cards have to do tasks.”

In the first round, he drew number 5.

He Yang read the task on the card: “Number 5 and number 7… hmm… hold hands for one minute.”

“That’s easy,” he commented, holding his card, “Who’s number 5, who’s number 7?”

He was 5.

As for number 7, Lin Zhexia, beside him, slowly raised her hand.

She showed her card: “I’m number 7.”

In the instant he learned she was number 7, his heartbeat suddenly lost balance, floating lightly to the clouds, then falling heavily back down.

His previously dry palm inexplicably increased in temperature. He felt an indescribable restraint and impulse.

This task wasn’t simple for him at all.

Lin Zhexia hadn’t thought too much about it. She extended her hand proactively: “Come on, grab big brother’s hand.”

He hesitated to put his hand on hers.

Lin Zhexia complained about his dawdling: “…Hurry up, it’s just one minute.”

The moment he grasped her hand, subtle electricity seemed to run through his fingertips.

In his palm, the girl’s hand was smaller than his by a circle, her joints soft and slender, the flesh of her fingertips soft and squishy.

He looked up, meeting Lin Zhexia’s clear eyes, recalling He Yang’s earlier question, “What type do you actually like?”

The answer to what he “liked” became clear in that moment.

He liked Lin Zhexia.

Perhaps, he had liked her for a very long time.

–

Because he feared she might be bullied again, he started to exercise.

Fearing she would be lonely going to school, he chose to stay in Chengan District.

Fearing she couldn’t sleep during thunderstorms, he was always concerned about every rainy day with thunder.

Fearing she would feel awkward, and also fearing losing her, he kept his “liking” from being discovered.

But what no one expected was that the life that should have continued was abruptly disrupted.

–

Jing City was a strange city.

The air was dry and cold, very different from Lianyun’s year-round humid climate.

An industrial feeling permeated the entire city.

The school he transferred to was also a key school. On his first day of transfer, his name was spread throughout the school. Some girls gathered courage to stop him, but before the words left their mouths, he interrupted first: “I have someone I like. Have liked it for a long time. Like so much that, in this lifetime, I could never like anyone else.”

The only advantage of Jing City is for him.

Perhaps it was that the words he couldn’t say out loud in Chengan could be said without restraint here.

Compared to the busy coursework and the back-and-forth trips to the hospital.

The gradually decreasing communication with Lin Zhexia felt like the last straw that would break him.

Today, like usual, they exchanged a few superficial words.

Then he sat in the hospital’s long corridor, watching the “Coward” contact name become a string of “typing…”

This “typing…” appeared and disappeared intermittently, continuing for a long time.

It looked like the person on the other end was typing a long message, but some intuition told Chi Yao it wasn’t like that.

Sure enough.

What finally appeared quietly in the chat interface was a single word:

-Oh.

When had they ever run out of things to say to each other?

His fingers suddenly tightened a bit, then he closed his eyes and slowly exhaled. He walked outside the hospital, took out a pack of cigarettes from his coat pocket, and with somewhat clumsy movements, lowered his head and lit one with a lighter.

The scent of tobacco spread.

Yet he felt nothing was relieved.

Because he still, madly, wanted to see her.

Before the New Year, he bought a train ticket back to Lianyun. But those days were filled with trivial matters, and he watched helplessly as the ticket expired.

Sometimes, he would call He Yang.

I wanted to borrow his perspective, to hear more about what Lin Zhexia had been doing lately.

Compared to chatting directly with Lin Zhexia, hearing from He Yang seemed easier for both of them.

“Her grades have been improving like crazy recently.”

“I thought after you left, my mom wouldn’t find anyone to compare me to when scolding me, but I didn’t expect my sister Xia to step up—”

“You have no idea how painful the critical hits she gives me are. My mom beats me every day while shouting, ‘Look at Lin Zhexia.'”

“Do you think sister Xia secretly mastered some learning method? How did she change so drastically, like she got a new brain?”

“…”

Besides studying, other things were mixed in.

“A new milk tea shop opened across from the neighborhood. Sister Xia can drink three cups a day.”

“What flavor?” he asked.

“Oat milk, I think,” He Yang thought and said, “Half sugar, double oats. I can even recite it from memory.”

He tapped the ash from his cigarette, silently noting it in his mind.

Even though he had no chance to take her for a drink.

He finished one cigarette, waited for the smoke smell on his body to dissipate, and prepared to enter the hospital. Just as he was about to hang up, He Yang said one more thing: “Also, someone confessed to sister Xia.”

He froze on the spot.

…

He and Lin Zhexia seemed to be growing further and further apart.

But in this moment when he could hardly breathe, he caught a breath of fresh air—he unconsciously touched the “lucky charm” that Lin Zhexia had once given him, which he carried with him. His hand hidden in his coat pocket, he gripped it tightly. This bit of air allowed him to survive.

He wanted to see her again.

He had to see her again.

And after this meeting, he would never, ever be apart from her again.

With this thought, he returned to Lianyun City. After enrolling at Lian University, he asked where she was, then pushed open the door of the bar.

Under the colorful lights.

He saw Lin Zhexia’s slightly dazed face.

The girl was dressed softly today, different from high school, her hair loose, gradually taking on “the look of a college student.”

With unspoken nervousness, he had thousands of words to say, but in the end, he only called her “Coward.”

At that moment, he recalled a distant scene.

The scene where the nurse crouched down to give him that candy.

He had been wrong then.

There were gifts in his life.

Lin Zhexia was that gift that appeared in his life.