The university campus was quiet on a weekend morning.
Aside from a scattered few seniors hurrying toward the library, not a single soul was in sight.
After Jiang Zong and Lucy had abruptly left last night, the atmosphere inside the private booth had turned quiet and low, and it didn’t take long before everyone parted ways.
Lin Shuxue’s 8:00 AM biological clock hadn’t adjusted yet. When she opened her eyes, her roommates were still asleep. Thinking that moving around inside the room would disturb their rest, she decided to head out for a walk.
In a daze, her feet involuntarily carried her toward the convenience store she visited most frequently.
“Up so early on the weekend?”
The shop owner was a silver-haired elderly lady who was in high spirits. She spoke with a slight Jiangnan accent and smiled very warmly.
Word had it that she was the spouse of a retired professor at the university.
This convenience store was located in the most secluded part of the campus. Except for students who came to the nearby activity center for club activities, very few people ever patronized it.
Consequently, by showing her face often, Lin Shuxue had successfully made a lasting impression on the old lady.
“I woke up naturally. Good morning, Grandma,” Lin Shuxue responded with a smile.
She first picked out some oden and bread, grabbed a cup of soy milk, and walked over to a small table in the corner of the convenience store.
Along the way, she sent a message to her dormitory group chat.
“I’m at the convenience store. Let me know what you guys want to eat when you wake up and I’ll bring it back for you.”
She then put on her headphones, eating breakfast while listening to music.
Her roommates hadn’t replied yet, but she wasn’t in a rush. She scrolled through various media marketing accounts, contemplating how to begin the assignment left by her news writing class professor.
She was thinking intently, during which she faintly heard the voice of the old lady at the store entrance conversing with someone.
Presumably, another student had entered the store. She didn’t pay it any mind.
A short while later, a message popped up in the dormitory group chat.
It was Meng Shuyin who had woken up.
“I want a bottle of Starbucks cheese coffee-milk and a bag of milk toast! Xicun said she’s going out to eat later.”
An involuntary, faint smile surfaced at the corners of Lin Shuxue’s mouth as she typed back a quick reply.
She then stood up.
Walking toward the beverage shelves, she intended to grab two bottles of apple soda for herself as well, when she caught sight of a figure out of the corner of her eye.
She halted her steps.
Jiang Zong was wearing the exact same black button-down shirt from last night, down to the unbuttoned, crumpled collar folds which hadn’t changed at all. The faint scent of sweet lychee liqueur drifted through the air.
She had only smelled this fragrance on Lucy last night.
Had he… stayed out all night?
Recalling the final image Jiang Zong had left her with yesterday, Lin Shuxue froze.
Had Lucy accompanied him through the entire night?
It was quite strange. During their previous encounters, Lin Shuxue had always found him casually throwing a greeting her way to tease her a bit. Today, even though he clearly saw her, Jiang Zong remained frozen in place, behaving exactly like two strangers who didn’t know each other.
Since the other party had no intention of greeting her, Lin Shuxue simply pretended not to see him. She stood on her tiptoes, extending her hand to reach for the apple soda on the highest shelf.
Seeing the item Lin Shuxue wanted to grab, Jiang Zong’s eyebrows shot up as a ripple stirred in his heart.
Just two minutes ago, he had taken the last two bottles from the very front of that shelf.
Did she like drinking it too?
Such a coincidence inevitably forced him to recall yesterday’s chaotic mess. That was one of the rare moments where he had lost control.
Blame it on the dim lighting in the booth; blame it on how close they were to one another.
Blame…
Before Jiang Zong could finish his train of thought, an accident suddenly struck.
The shelves in this convenience store were set one tier higher than normal ones. The height of the topmost shelf proved a bit difficult for a girl of normal height to reach easily.
Furthermore, because the frontmost apple sodas had already been taken by Jiang Zong, Lin Shuxue had to stretch her arm out further to reach the ones inside.
Catching her off guard, her wrist brushed against an adjacent beverage bottle, which looked on the verge of tumbling down.
Lin Shuxue quickly closed her eyes and turned her head away, raising her arm in an attempt to block it.
The expected sound of a bottle crashing to the ground never rang out. Lin Shuxue opened her eyes in confusion.
The first thing that entered her sight was a wrist with distinct, sharp bone structure.
Jiang Zong had arrived by her side at some unknown point, steadily catching the beverage bottle that was about to hit the floor.
“Th-Thank you…” Lin Shuxue thanked him as she lifted her eyes. Locking onto Jiang Zong’s pitch-black pupils, she only then realized that the position they were standing in was a bit too close. She hurriedly took a step back.
As a result, she stepped right onto Jiang Zong’s shoe.
“Hiss…”
His exaggerated, dramatic voice rang out right beside Lin Shuxue’s ear. “Are you returning good with evil?”
Jiang Zong’s eyes brimmed with a familiar amusement, his tone adopting its habitual lack of seriousness, as if the ice-cold version of him from last night was merely a split personality.
“I’m sorry,” Lin Shuxue said blankly. “How much is it, I’ll compensate you.”
She was perfectly sincere when she said this.
Jiang Zong was wearing white shoes. She didn’t really understand what brand they were, but there was a distinct footprint mark on the surface. She had heard that guys cared quite a bit about their shoes.
“I came here to do a good deed, not to extort money,” Jiang Zong said indifferently. “Just sending them to a shop to be cleaned will do.”
Lin Shuxue pulled out her phone, opening her QR code scanning interface. “How much is the shoe cleaning fee? I’ll cover it.”
Seeing her posture, Jiang Zong let out a low laugh.
“Junior Sister Lin,” he called out to her.
He never called anyone by their name normally; the three ordinary words sounded like a playful sprite coming out of his mouth, laced with an amused cadence.
“If you want my WeChat, just say it directly. There’s no need to beat around the bush.”
Having said that, before Lin Shuxue could even react, he smoothly whipped out his own QR code, presenting it for Lin Shuxue to scan.
Along the way, he considerately pressed “Add Friend” for her.
He turned around to leave, leaving Lin Shuxue standing frozen in place.
He didn’t manage to leave.
By the time Lin Shuxue picked out the items for her roommates and went to the counter to check out, she discovered that a light, drizzling rain had started falling outside at some point.
Jiang Zong leaned against the doorframe, his head lowered as his fingers tapped away on his phone, seemingly busy.
Lin Shuxue glanced at the friend request she had just sent; it hadn’t been approved yet.
She had left in a hurry and hadn’t brought an umbrella, so she could only pray in her heart that the rain wouldn’t last too long.
The shop-owner old lady went to the back warehouse to fetch some items, leaving only Lin Shuxue and Jiang Zong inside the entire convenience store.
Before Jiang Zong could finish dealing with his counselor’s messages, his professor, a little old man who prioritized efficiency above all else in life, directly dialed his number.
Without dodging away, Jiang Zong answered it right there in that lazy posture.
“Yeah, just stepped out of the lab.”
Jiang Zong’s voice wasn’t loud, but the surroundings were perfectly quiet, allowing Lin Shuxue to hear him with absolute clarity.
“Wanted to hit up the convenience store to grab a bite to pad my stomach before running the machines again. It started raining.”
…So, staying out all night meant he had been cooped up in the laboratory?
Jiang Zong’s major was no secret in this university: Robotics Engineering. Lin Shuxue possessed a slight understanding of these types of science and engineering majors.
It essentially amounted to running experiments until you died, with a mountain of engineering data left to calculate.
“Have Senior Sister come over to deliver it instead.”
After Jiang Zong said this, he tilted his head to glance at the young girl spacing out against the checkout counter, adding:
“Tell her to bring two umbrellas. I have another person here with me.”
Unable to hear what the other side said, she only noticed Jiang Zong’s eyes crinkling into a smile, his tone turning lighthearted.
“How could that be? Just rescuing a stranded young girl, that’s all.”
He hung up the phone and spoke to Lin Shuxue.
“This rain won’t stop anytime soon. I’ve asked someone to deliver umbrellas over. The lab isn’t far from here, just wait a bit.”
Lin Shuxue offered a delayed thank you, though what she thought inside her heart was:
I’ve troubled him yet again.
Jiang Zong watched the young girl obediently offer her thanks, her exquisite brows gently lowering, a faint and clear smile resting upon her porcelain-like, jade face.
Last night’s imagery forcefully crashed into his mind once more.
It would have been fine if he didn’t think about it, but the moment he did, the girl’s warm breath, the faint scent of lavender clinging to her body, the slightly warm texture when their skin collided, and those two small, full lips observed from a hair’s breadth away all flooded back.
He tried to shake off these messy thoughts, but it felt as if a fire was blazing deep within his heart.
The continuous sound of the rain outside the door left him feeling even more restless. He twisted open the soda water in his hand, letting the crisp, sweet aroma of apple accompanied by the slight sharpness of carbonic bubbles flood down his throat.
Jiang Zong felt a trace of itchiness in his throat.
He bit down on a cigarette and pushed open the door to step outside.
The damp, muggy scent unique to a rainy day mixed with the fragrance of soil and green grass invaded his nostrils. Unfortunately, this breath belonging to nature was entirely incapable of suppressing his restless state of mind at this moment.
He stood beneath the eaves of the convenience store entrance, striking a flame to light the cigarette.
Jiang Zong’s addiction wasn’t heavy; he didn’t like drinking coffee, so he used cigarettes to refresh his mind, choosing mint for the flavor profile.
Mint refreshed the mind, yet at this moment, it was being used to calm his heart. He didn’t let the smoke hit his lungs, merely allowing the blend of mint and agarwood aroma to saturate his lips before flexing it away.
Behind the glass door, Lin Shuxue watched the white smoke dissipate into the curtain of rain, her brow furrowing tightly.
She followed him out.
Before the smoke could disperse, it caught her, causing her to cough repeatedly.
“Jiang Zong!” Lin Shuxue mustered up the courage to call his name.
Jiang Zong turned his head.
The young girl clearly couldn’t stand the smell of smoke; her willow-leaf brows knit into a tight bunch, the outer corners of her eyes flushed with a hint of red, welling with a few unshed tears. Even the gaze she threw his way as she called his name carried a somewhat pitiful undertone.
He held the half-burnt cigarette between his fingers, lowering his eyes to look at her.
As the smoke cleared completely, Lin Shuxue finally had an opportunity to inspect Jiang Zong’s face closely.
Dark circles hung beneath his eyes, indicating he likely hadn’t slept all night again. The stray hairs on his forehead hadn’t been styled, a few strands curling messily downward. The cigarette tip held in his lowered wrist glowed with a flickering spark. Fortunately, his face was handsome enough.
Even a lazy, weary posture like leaning his shoulders against the wall could display a trace of careless, decadent beauty.
She tentatively tugged at a corner of his black shirt.
Lifting her face to look at him, her tone was slow and gentle: “Smoking isn’t good for you.”
Especially smoking after pulling an all-nighter.
But before she could even utter those words, she was cut off by the other party’s somewhat cold laugh.
Jiang Zong independently lifted his wrist to take another drag. The morning wind swept into his thin shirt, making his clothes rustle loudly like a bird taking flight.
White smoke billowed up between the two of them along with the movement of his mouth opening.
Through the blurry haze of smoke, Lin Shuxue could faintly make out his exquisite, affectionate peach blossom eyes and the shallow scar at the end of his brow, illuminated by the flickering glow of the cigarette butt.
She watched as Jiang Zong’s eyes curved into a smile that was both roguish and unbridled.
Yet, the words that left his mouth carried a completely undisguised, mocking laugh.
“Do you want to manage me?”
Lin Shuxue blinked slowly, her brain a bit dazed. The word “I” tumbled back and forth in her throat for several rounds, but in the end, it never made its way out.
The brief silence caused a look of impatience to taint Jiang Zong’s brows. He took two steps forward to close the distance, leaning down to inspect her.
The girl clearly hadn’t realized what was happening; her deer-like pupils were filled with confusion, her long eyelashes fluttering, which only aggravated Jiang Zong’s irritability further.
…He wanted to taint this face with something else.
The mint note blended with agarwood rushed over her face. No matter how pleasant it smelled, it couldn’t change its fundamental nature as tobacco smoke. Lin Shuxue, who had just eased up, was caught off guard again, coughing repeatedly. The tears forced out by the coughing swirled in her eyes, blurring her vision.
She could only faintly discern the man standing before her, a nearly burnt-out cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth, as he spoke condescendingly.
“What right do you have to manage me?”
“Are we even that close?”