Lin Ting stopped talking.
She couldn’t very well say she’d personally witnessed a girl confessing to him—and getting rejected. That would be way too awkward.
Her silence choked Lu Hesheng for a moment.
He smoothly changed the subject. After the speech, his voice carried a faint hoarseness.
“Junior, shouldn’t you return my suit jacket by now?”
“I lent it to you on a stormy day. You didn’t even look me in the eye, didn’t say thank you—and now you’re planning to quietly keep it for yourself?”
A deep flush of shame instantly spread across Lin Ting’s cheeks.
She had assumed that since someone else had worn it, Lu Hesheng wouldn’t want the jacket back. She hadn’t expected him to misunderstand her as someone who liked taking advantage of others.
“I just washed it today,” Lin Ting told a small lie, her fingers unconsciously twisting together.
Her mind raced for three seconds before she offered a solution.
“If you’re in a hurry, I can go back to the dorm and get it right now.”
Lu Hesheng let out a soft laugh and casually brushed a small leaf off her hair.
“No rush. I didn’t mean to blame you.”
He naturally tapped her phone with a finger.
“Add me on WeChat first. We’ll talk then.”
That sentence hit Lin Ting’s heart like a hydraulic jack, sending it crashing straight down.
…So he really had forgotten her.
She reminded him softly, “We’ve added each other before.”
Lu Hesheng paused. “Have we?”
As he spoke, he unlocked his phone and started scrolling through his WeChat contacts.
Lin Ting had never felt ten seconds pass so painfully slowly.
Lu Hesheng’s tone lifted slightly.
“Found it.”
“Class 2, Comprehensive Track, Grade 10. Lin Ting.”
“The last message was from me—‘Next Saturday, my coming-of-age ceremony will be held at Yunding Hotel. Little sister, do you want to come?’”
He read it out word by word, clear and distinct—like a public execution.
Looking at her, Lu Hesheng confirmed,
“This is your WeChat, right? Little Sister Lin Ting.”
He deliberately emphasized the last form of address.
Lin Ting nodded and gave a guilty little “Mm.”
Lu Hesheng held the chat history up in front of her and asked pointedly,
“Then why didn’t you reply to your big brother’s message back then?”
Her silent withdrawal three years ago was now being settled face-to-face by the very person involved.
For a moment, Lin Ting had no idea how to explain herself.
After all, back in high school, the people around him changed batch after batch.
Aside from Shen Xiao and Nan Jiyun—those childhood friends—Lu Hesheng never really paid attention to anyone else’s comings and goings.
Maybe no one had ever dared to leave Lu Hesheng on read before, which was why he remembered it so clearly.
Lin Ting gave up struggling and blurted out,
“I… I probably replied with my mind? If you didn’t receive it, that means you didn’t have me in your heart.”
The moment the words left her mouth, she regretted it and quickly covered her lips.
Stupid mouth—why say something so outrageous?
Speak too much and you’re bound to mess up. That was basically her in a nutshell.
Lu Hesheng laughed in disbelief.
“Lin Ting, you’re really something.”
Lin Ting took a step forward, tilted her head up at him, and tugged lightly at the corner of his clothes, speaking earnestly as she tried to comfort him.
“Don’t be mad. What happened in high school—let’s just let it stay in the past. I’ll return your clothes on time.”
Lu Hesheng didn’t respond. His hands subconsciously reached for a cigarette, only to realize it wasn’t in his pocket.
From the entrance came the clinking sound of keys. The building’s auntie came in to clear people out.
“You two still not leaving? We’re locking up.”
Lin Ting returned to her original rhythm of life.
There were fewer emotional ups and downs now—calm, yet full.
Aside from the handful of classes in her fourth year, most of her time was spent tutoring, with the occasional outing with friends to enjoy her last days of campus life.
Only Fang Zhixiao noticed that her usually robotic roommate seemed a little off.
Like she’d caught a case of unspeakable lovesickness.
“Listen, you’ve been staring blankly at the first page of your textbook for ten whole minutes,” Fang Zhixiao couldn’t help waving a hand in front of her face.
Lin Ting snapped back to her senses and hurriedly flipped the book to the middle.
During the break, she skillfully tapped into her chat with Lu Hesheng.
His profile picture was a vast expanse of snowy white. His Moments were set to three-days-visible, cold and empty—the whole account felt as lifeless as a fake one.
If he hadn’t personally searched for her WeChat that day, Lin Ting would’ve truly thought he’d changed accounts.
The remark read: Hesheng Gege—something she’d changed back in high school and never touched again.
That day, they’d been playing games in a KTV private room—Truth or Dare.
The spinner landed on Lin Ting. Her punishment was to call the first person in her WeChat contacts and say, I miss you.
Lu Hesheng was sitting right next to her and immediately caught a glimpse of her phone screen.
“Little sister,” he drawled deliberately, a teasing note in his voice, “why am I called ‘AAA Courier Brother Lu’?”
The room went silent for a second before bursting into laughter.
Lin Ting pressed her lips together, pretending to stay calm.
Little did she know that her reddened ears and trembling lashes had already been caught by Lu Hesheng’s gaze above her.
Fortunately, no one saw through the true intention behind that remark.
She wanted to put the person she liked at the top of her contacts—yet didn’t dare expose his real name. Cowardice, plain and simple.
Lin Ting explained, “That’s not your WeChat. He just happens to have the same surname as you.”
Lu Hesheng tapped his fingers meaningfully on the table.
“Alright then. Shouldn’t you give me a remark too? Something like ‘Hesheng Gege’—to tell us apart?”
She didn’t know how many of these subtle, unspoken confessions he’d encountered to be able to reject them so smoothly and politely.
In the end, she still changed the remark as he wished.
Within one point of false affection, she hid half a point of genuine feeling.
Lin Ting turned off her phone screen.
Since that day, she had taken the initiative to message Lu Hesheng:
When can I return the clothes?
Where should I return them?
Without exception, every message sank into silence.
She assumed he was busy—too busy to reply.
Fang Zhixiao, ever impatient, felt an overwhelming sense of frustration watching Lin Ting hesitate with her phone, like a eunuch visiting a brothel.
She leaned closer, sounding very reliable.
“Listen, unlock your phone. I’ll send it for you.”
Lin Ting knew that since entering college, Fang Zhixiao had gone through three boyfriends in three years—each one utterly devoted.
When it came to chatting with guys, Lin Ting had a natural trust in her.
Fang Zhixiao took the phone, glanced at the remark, and gave a look like she’d seen through everything. Then, full of confidence, she started typing.
Lin Ting:
【Big brother, say something already!】
A few seconds later, the top of the chat displayed: The other party is typing…
Lin Ting’s heartbeat unconsciously sped up.
Lu Hesheng:
【?】
【Did you lose your phone? Or get hacked?】