Summer nights come late, and the alley was still bright.
Lin Qingle kept her footsteps light, quietly following him from a few meters away. That brief moment of shock left her mind in chaos; she had no idea how to call out to him.
Time passed, minute by minute, and she began to suspect she was almost following him all the way to his house.
“Had enough of following?” The person in front suddenly stopped, his voice chillingly cold, though he didn’t turn around.
Lin Qingle was stunned for a moment, glancing around instinctively. When she realized they were the only two people on this street, she understood he was speaking to her.
Taking a deep breath, Lin Qingle jogged a couple of steps to reach his side.
“You knew I was here…” She touched her nose, her voice soft and a bit awkward.
Xu Tingbai tilted his head slightly, but he wasn’t looking at her; his eyes were unfocused.
“What do you want now?”
“Huh?”
Xu Tingbai’s brows knitted in a frown, and the disgust and rejection on his face were unmistakable.
Lin Qingle froze. She’d never seen him with such an expression, and she realized he might have mistaken her for someone else.
She hurriedly explained, “No, I—I didn’t mean anything. I just…”
“Then get lost.”
“…”
The gentle, warm smile she used to love on his face was nowhere to be seen.
After those harsh words, the young man continued walking forward.
His silhouette was thin and cold, distant as if keeping everyone at bay.
Lin Qingle stood there in a daze, her already chaotic heart feeling even more stifled.
The Xu Tingbai that Jiang Shuyi had described to her—a stranger—was real.
This realization hurt her more than she could bear.
“Xu Tingbai!” She snapped out of it and easily caught up to him, grabbing the edge of his shirt.
“Is this still not over?” His tone was icily discouraging.
Lin Qingle shook her head, then quickly spoke up, remembering he couldn’t see. “No, you’ve got it wrong. I… I’m Lin Qingle.”
The person before her remained expressionless, showing no reaction.
Forcing a smile, Lin Qingle asked, “Do you remember me? We were desk mates in elementary school, and we—”
“I don’t remember.”
“…What?”
“Let go.”
Xu Tingbai was very smart. Lin Qingle had always thought he was the smartest person she knew. So when he said he didn’t remember her, she didn’t believe him at all. But it was also true that he pulled her hand away with an indifferent look on his face.
The fan in the classroom whirred slowly, and complex, tangled math formulas lay on the page—dull and monotonous.
As the bell signaling the end of the last evening self-study session rang, Lin Qingle’s pen drew a long line off the side of a formula.
“Qingle, let’s go! Let’s walk home together,” Jiang Shuyi called out, waving.
“Mm.” Lin Qingle closed her book and tucked it into her bag.
The two of them left the classroom together, heading towards the school gate.
“Shuyi! Want to go for some late-night snacks?” A girl from their class ran up behind them.
Jiang Shuyi shook her finger. “Nope! I’ve gained a lot of weight recently, so I’m cutting back on late-night snacks!”
The girl glanced down at her own legs and said, “I’ve gained so much weight on my legs recently too.”
“And yet you still want to eat.”
The girl frowned, looking a bit pitiful. “Well, all this studying makes me hungry. But fine, if you’re not eating, I won’t either.” Then, she looked over at Lin Qingle, who was standing beside Jiang Shuyi.
She was quite curious about the new classmate. In fact, the entire class was, to some extent, curious about her—this new student was attractive, and the homeroom teacher had mentioned that her grades were also excellent.
“Hi, new classmate! I’m Yu Tingting.”
Lin Qingle, a bit distracted, still returned her greeting politely, “Hello.”
Jiang Shuyi: “Qingle, this is Yu Tingting, our class’s arts committee member. She used to go to Wu Xiao, so you probably don’t know her.”
Yu Tingting: “Not necessarily! I participated in every arts festival back in elementary school. I was pretty well-known—even people from other schools might recognize me!”
“Oh, please, I didn’t even know you back then.”
“That’s just because you have a bad memory!”
“Oh, you—”
…
The two of them started squabbling, but Lin Qingle didn’t hear a word. Her mind was stuck on the memory of that boy’s eyes, replaying it over and over.
“Will his eyes ever recover?” she muttered.
“What?” Jiang Shuyi turned to look at her.
Realizing she’d spoken her thoughts aloud, Lin Qingle snapped out of it. “Ah? Nothing…”
“Are you talking about Xu Tingbai?”
Since Lin Qingle had asked a lot about Xu Tingbai today, Jiang Shuyi easily made the connection. She gave her a knowing look. “You seem really curious about him.”
Lin Qingle looked down slightly. “We… were in the same class before.”
“Oh, I see. That makes sense why you’re curious about what happened to him.”
“Wait, who? Xu Tingbai?” Yu Tingting moved closer. “What happened to him?”
Jiang Shuyi: “Nothing. Qingle was just reminiscing since they were classmates in elementary school.”
“Oh…” Yu Tingting nodded. “I’d feel the same. His family used to be so well-off, and then everything flipped… I remember when his family’s troubles caused quite a stir around here—bankruptcy and a car accident. Oh, right, Xu Tingbai’s blindness happened because of that accident. Such a shame. I remember a lot of girls had a crush on him back in elementary school.”
As time passed, the story of the Xu family had been told and retold, eventually fading out of people’s daily gossip. When people brought up the golden boy Xu Tingbai now, it was usually just a fleeting remark before moving on to juicier gossip.
“What? You guys were crushing on each other back in elementary school? Don’t tell me you had a crush on him too!” Jiang Shuyi teased.
Yu Tingting blushed. “So what? He was good-looking and had great grades. Can’t a girl’s heart flutter?”
“Tsk tsk tsk, who would’ve thought! Yu Tingting secretly crushing on a guy from the neighboring school.”
“Hey, hey! Stop it! I mean back then. *Back then,* you get it?” Yu Tingting huffed, trying to distance herself from it. “Now, though? No way. He’s totally ruined… Who would like a blind guy?”
Lin Qingle froze, giving Yu Tingting a sharp look.
All at once, the frustration she’d been feeling since seeing Xu Tingbai earlier that day came rushing back, impossible to suppress.
“It’s not like he wanted this.”
Both Yu Tingting and Jiang Shuyi stopped, looking at Lin Qingle in surprise.
Lin Qingle stared intently at Yu Tingting. Though she looked gentle and harmless, her gaze was now strangely intense. She repeated, “He didn’t want this. And whether his life is ruined isn’t for you to decide.”
With that, Lin Qingle walked off.
Yu Tingting stared blankly at her retreating figure for a long moment before murmuring, “What’s her problem?”
Jiang Shuyi frowned. “Just watch what you say.”
Yu Tingting pursed her lips, looking aggrieved. “Did I say anything wrong…?”
After returning home, Lin Qingle’s mood remained low. She didn’t study and instead went to bed right after her shower.
Jiang Shuyi didn’t know the full details of what happened to the Xu family, but she could tell her that three years ago, the family went bankrupt, and that same year, Xu Tingbai was seriously injured in a car accident that left him blind.
What had she been doing that year?
Lin Qingle stared up at the ceiling, thinking back to three years ago. That was when she’d moved to another city with her mother and started junior high… So not long after she transferred, his family had met with tragedy.
Frustrated, Lin Qingle rolled over, thinking suddenly how things might’ve been different if she hadn’t transferred that year.
At the very least… she could’ve been there for him.
Just as he had done for her so many years ago, when he’d knelt in front of her as she cried uncontrollably, smiling as he handed her a piece of candy.
“Everything will be alright. Trust me.”
No one knew how those simple words had carried her through her entire childhood.
This time, Lin Qingle and her mother, Lin Yufen, returned to Xicheng for her mother’s job and to give her a stable environment to prepare for the college entrance exams.
But aside from her studies, Lin Qingle also had another reason for coming back: Xu Tingbai.
For the past three years away, she’d studied diligently, thinking that if she did well, she’d be able to go to the same school as him when she returned. Then she could proudly tell him she was a good student now, no longer the little kid who constantly needed his help with schoolwork.
But who would have thought that she’d make it into the best high school here, and he wouldn’t be there?
That weekend, Lin Qingle went back to the corner of Yueqian Road.
“Hey, young lady! Care for some rice noodles? Been serving this spot for ten years—best noodles you’ll ever taste.” At the corner, a lonely food stall stood, run by a man in his fifties, calling out to passersby with enthusiasm.
Lin Qingle paused in front of the stall, feeling a bit regretful for not continuing to follow Xu Tingbai that day. Now, she’d come back without any idea where he lived.
“Young lady? Want a bowl?”
She looked at the steaming broth in his pot. “Uncle, you’ve been setting up here for ten years?”
“Yes, that’s right. You might not believe it, but I’m well-known around here. Just ask anyone nearby—Old Yang’s noodles are famous.”
Lin Qingle: “Alright… I’ll have a bowl.”
“Coming right up! Eat here, or take it to go?”
“I’ll eat here.”
“Great.”
The rice noodles went into the pot.
Lin Qingle stayed standing at the stall and asked, “Uncle, can I ask you something? Do you know someone who lives around here, a person named Xu Tingbai?”
The rice noodle vendor gave her a look. “Young lady, you’re looking for that boy too, huh?”
“Too? So others have looked for him as well?”
The vendor replied, “Not anymore, but back when his family first moved here, quite a few did—mostly girls.”
“…Oh.”
“That boy was popular with girls,” he said, then shook his head. “But it’s a pity his eyes went blind. Nowadays, girls aren’t likely to spend time with someone who can’t see.”
Lin Qingle was silent for a moment. “Do you know where he lives? Could you tell me?”
“Where he lives…,” the vendor glanced up and then said, “Hey, look, here he comes. No need for me to say—you can ask him yourself.”
Lin Qingle looked in the direction he indicated and saw Xu Tingbai walking toward them.
He was wearing black again today, with a black cap that cast a shadow over his eyes, making them hard to see.
He seemed familiar with the area, walking at a steady pace. His right hand held a white cane, guiding his way. He was thin but walked with straight posture.
“Here you are,” the vendor seemed to have timed it perfectly, pulling out a packed rice noodle bowl from under the stall and handing it to him like a magic trick.
“Thank you.” Xu Tingbai’s gaze was unfocused, giving him a colder, more distant look. After taking the rice noodles, he turned and walked into the alley.
“Young lady, he’s leaving—why don’t you ask him? You…”
“Uncle, can you pack mine too?”
“Huh? Oh, sure, sure.”
By the time Lin Qingle grabbed her packed noodles, Xu Tingbai had already walked some distance. She jogged a few steps to catch up, then, without hesitation, grabbed onto the edge of his jacket.
Feeling the sudden tug, Xu Tingbai’s brow furrowed slightly. “Who is it?”
Looking up at him, Lin Qingle said softly, “It’s me, Lin Qingle.”
His eyebrows twitched slightly, but his tone remained cold and distant. “Let go.”
She released her grip.
She was a little afraid of him in his current state, but she didn’t want to back down either. She pressed her lips together and summoned her courage. “What a coincidence, running into you here again. I… was just here to buy noodles.”
Xu Tingbai didn’t respond. After a few seconds, he tapped his cane and continued walking forward.
“I heard this place’s rice noodles are delicious. It’s my first time trying them,” Lin Qingle followed along.
“…”
“The uncle said he’s been selling noodles here for over ten years. Is that true?”
He still didn’t respond, as though she was nothing more than thin air beside him.
Seeing his expression, Lin Qingle felt a pang in her heart. But she wasn’t foolish; she knew this wasn’t the time to ask him difficult questions.
All she wanted was to have a light conversation, something that wouldn’t make him feel like she’d changed.
“Xu Tingbai, I heard that these noodles aren’t good when they’re cold… It’s about ten minutes from here to my house, so they’d probably be cold by the time I get home. Where do you live? Could I… maybe eat at your place?”
Back when they sat together in elementary school, he often invited her over for meals. She was always too shy to go, but he was persistent and warm, telling her she was small and needed to eat more.
He’d always been the one inviting her in the past. This was the first time she was being so bold, expressing her wish to eat at his place.
As soon as she finished speaking, Xu Tingbai’s grip on his cane tightened suddenly, and he stopped walking.
Lin Qingle stopped as well.
“Are we close?” He finally spoke, his tone slow, laced with sarcasm and bitterness.
But Lin Qingle acted as if she hadn’t heard it.
Looking up at him, she was silent for two seconds before saying confidently, “Yes, we’re friends!”