Lin Ting lowered her gaze, unconsciously biting her lower lip.
Those usually cool, clear eyes were now veiled with a misty haze.
Inside the bag lay a shirt dress and a pair of white sneakers.
She glanced at the tags—everything was in her exact size. It was obviously compensation Lu Hesheng had prepared after getting her clothes dirty that morning.
Lin Ting quickly closed the bag.
It felt like she was the one who had eaten and taken without restraint.
Ever since the day she met Lu Hesheng, he had always been like this—doing things on a whim, yet effortlessly stirring people’s hearts.
Qin Liangyan had already seen what was inside and exclaimed in her ear,
“Listen, isn’t this that insanely expensive luxury brand’s latest seasonal piece?!”
“My idol wore this exact dress when she went to Paris Fashion Week. There aren’t many of the same style worldwide!”
Lin Ting replied, “Yeah… maybe people at his level of wealth just have a different understanding of ‘compensation’ than we do.”
Qin Liangyan looked like she had seen through everything, excitement lighting up her face.
“Listen, Lu Hesheng definitely has feelings for you. Have you ever thought about giving it a try?”
In her eyes, Lin Ting could enjoy a young, handsome body and reap generous girlfriend treatment.
Honestly, dating someone like Lu Hesheng wouldn’t be a loss.
She sighed dreamily beside Lin Ting.
“Campus romance is so beautiful—everyone’s all about pure love, not so much scheming or calculating.”
“Once you enter society, you might never encounter this again.”
Unfortunately, her best friend’s heart was as hard as stone.
Lin Ting said calmly, “Someone of his status probably just saw a drenched kitten by the roadside on a rainy day and casually held out an umbrella.”
She paused, long lashes lowered, hiding the emotions in her eyes.
“Once he turns around, countless prettier, more lovable kittens will rush over one after another.”
Seeing her like this, Qin Liangyan swallowed the words that were on the tip of her tongue, silently refuting her in her heart.
But Listen… how are you so sure he only wanted to hold an umbrella for you?
And you clearly care a lot about that umbrella.
In the evening, Lin Ting pushed open the dorm door. None of her roommates were back yet.
It was the crucial period from junior to senior year, and everyone around her had turned into spinning tops, rushing around for their futures.
Lin Ting neatly folded Lu Hesheng’s suit jacket. Together with the shoes and clothes, she stuffed everything deep into the wardrobe.
Maybe because her emotions had fluctuated too much that day, she tossed and turned for a long time before finally falling asleep.
Even then, her sleep was far from peaceful.
Her dreams were bizarre and chaotic—countless blurred figures swayed before her eyes, looking down on her with judgment, pressing so heavily that she could barely breathe.
In a daze, Lin Ting felt as if she had returned to when she was fifteen, the first time she took a train alone to Jingbei.
Back then, to the bustling city of Jingbei, she had always been an out-of-place intruder, carrying immense alienation and unease.
Not long after her mother, Ye Qingzhi, passed away from illness, a group of well-dressed, arrogant-looking people went to Nancheng to find her.
They said that Listen was of the Lin family’s blood and could not be left outside.
But in the Lin household, she lived in the smallest guest room, chose her words carefully when she spoke, and even softened her footsteps.
She learned to use a meek, obedient exterior to cover up the gradual withering of her heart.
Later, after starting high school and spending less time at the Lin house, Lin Ting finally gained some breathing room.
By chance, she met Nan Sanning and easily entered Lu Hesheng’s circle of friends.
Like a frog that had lived at the bottom of a well for too long, she caught her first glimpse of the colorful world outside.
It was a belated rebellion against her suppressed, gloomy life—and also the happiest days she ever had in Jingbei.
Lu Hesheng never shortchanged his friends.
Limited-edition sports cars, game consoles, exclusive club access—things others could only dream of—were things he was born with and happy to share.
Girls confessed to him one after another, yet not a single one ever received his special favor.
Lu Hesheng seemed carefree and surrounded by friends.
But everyone knew that deep inside, he had built an invisible wall—no one could truly get close, like a fog no one could ever see through.
Until one day, her stepmother had someone clean her room and threw away all of her mother’s belongings as trash.
The overwhelming sense of grievance and despair instantly drowned Lin Ting.
Without caring about anything else, she ran out of the Lin house, into a sparsely populated street, buried her head in her knees, and cried uncontrollably.
A well-defined hand and a pack of tissues suddenly appeared in her field of vision.
“What are you crying for?”
Lu Hesheng stood in front of her, not knowing when he had arrived. He bent down slightly and examined her face seriously.
His tone was as casual as ever, yet he spoke words that stirred the heart the most.
“Stop crying. It breaks my heart, baby.”
Lin Ting was crying so hard she was dazed. She lifted her head, eyes blurry with tears, and then looked toward the noisy crowd and imposing convoy of vehicles not far away.
So they had just happened to be riding their motorcycles past.
She shook her head, parted her lips, but couldn’t say a word.
The tears she had tried so hard to hold back instead flowed even more.
Someone in the distance teased impatiently,
“Young Master Lu, why did you suddenly stop to flirt with a girl?”
“The brothers are all waiting for you.”
Lu Hesheng directly placed a helmet over Lin Ting’s head, hiding her tear-streaked face.
“Can crying here solve anything?”
He swung his long leg over the motorcycle.
“Come on. I’ll take you to get some air—dry out those eyes.”
Lin Ting turned to look at his group of friends who were chatting animatedly.
Lu Hesheng said, “No need to worry about them. To them, one more person or one less person makes no difference.”
As if possessed, Lin Ting climbed onto the back seat.
Lu Hesheng turned around and naturally grabbed her flustered little hands, wrapping them around his lean waist.
“Hold tight. If you fall off, I won’t be responsible.”
The speed gradually increased. The scenery around them flew backward, and her tear ducts dried up in that very moment.
An indescribable sense of exhilaration and security climbed up her spine.
Lin Ting loved this feeling of throwing all her worries behind her.
Through two thin layers of clothing, she could feel the taut strength of his body and his warm body heat.
Her heartbeat instantly lost its rhythm.
Lin Ting tilted her head slightly, not daring to look at him anymore.
Yet the arms around his waist only tightened, unable to hide that surging flutter in her heart.
That was the first time Lin Ting fell for Lu Hesheng.
Later on, through a series of coincidences, she went out with Lu Hesheng and his friends many more times. Each time, she only dared to secretly glance at his back—and even that was enough to satisfy her.
Lin Ting began making up all kinds of excuses to deal with the Lin family.
She would rather squat in the corner of a bar doing homework with Nan Sanning and the others than return to the icy prison that was the Lin house.
Finally, one day, her growing recklessness displeased the Lin family.
Her stepmother issued a final ultimatum, coldly reminding her to recognize her identity—her existence in the Lin family had always been nothing more than a presentable bargaining chip for an arranged marriage.
Like a bucket of icy water poured down from above.
Lin Ting suddenly woke up.
So what if she liked Lu Hesheng? No one would ever love a girl with such a broken family and a fractured soul.
After that, Lin Ting began deliberately distancing herself from Lu Hesheng’s circle.
She put her mask back on, becoming the obedient, well-behaved girl everyone liked, trying to make up for her deep-seated inferiority with academic progress and first-place rankings.
The feelings that had just begun to sprout in her heart were buried by her own hands— deeply, in that summer night when she was seventeen.