Early the next morning.
Pu Yu woke up a bit earlier than usual.
The sky hadn’t fully brightened yet, and a thin layer of mist floated in the alley.
She washed up quietly, went to the kitchen to heat up a few leftover pancakes from last night, cooked some porridge, and ate them with Grandma’s pickled vegetables.
Li Suhua came out from the inner room and saw her already wearing her backpack, ready to leave for school.
The old lady habitually furrowed her brow. “So early?”
“Mm, I want to get to school early to study,” Pu Yu nervously gripped her backpack straps. “I’ll head out first, Grandma.”
“Be careful on the way.”
“Got it.”
The door closed gently.
Pu Yu walked along the damp alley.
Even before she reached the breakfast shop, the rich aroma of soy milk and steaming vapor greeted her.
“Boss, four meat buns and two cups of soy milk, please.”
She paused, thought about the boy who said he wouldn’t eat breakfast, and added, “Make them extra hot.”
After buying breakfast, Pu Yu walked along the main road toward the town’s grain and oil shop.
Sui Sui, that little lazybones, was surely still struggling in bed.
Sure enough, when she arrived.
Uncle Xu shouted upstairs as soon as he saw Pu Yu, “Xu Suiran! Hurry down! Xiao Yu is here!”
Pu Yu thanked Uncle Xu and then stood obediently at the door, waiting for her.
Xu Suiran thought she was going to be late. After washing her face and brushing her teeth, she rushed downstairs with messy hair and her backpack on. “Let’s go!”
When they arrived at school.
There were still over ten minutes before morning self-study started!
Xu Suiran gave Pu Yu a resentful look. “Xiao Yu, you—mmm?”
Before she could finish, a large meat bun was stuffed into her mouth.
Huh?
A bun?!
Xu Suiran’s eyes instantly lit up as she took a satisfying bite. “Is this from the bun shop at your alley entrance?”
“Mm-hmm!” Pu Yu nodded with a smile.
“Alright, I forgive you for waking me up early. So delicious, so delicious, mmm!”
“And here’s the soy milk,” Pu Yu took the soy milk out of her backpack, opened the straw, and prepared it for her, saying seriously, “Skipping breakfast is bad for your health. You can’t be too lazy to eat just because you want to sleep.”
Xu Suiran responded perfunctorily and mumbled, “Have you eaten yet?”
Pu Yu answered naturally, “I eat every day.”
Xu Suiran crooked her finger, signaling Pu Yu to come closer.
Though she didn’t understand, Pu Yu obediently complied.
After leaning in.
Xu Suiran didn’t smell any trace of bun aroma on her.
“How do you pronounce ‘apple’ in English?” she suddenly asked.
Pu Yu had just opened her mouth. “A…”
Xu Suiran directly stuffed another bun into her mouth.
Pu Yu was completely stunned, while Xu Suiran grinned and said, “I’m a germaphobe. I won’t eat anything you’ve bitten.”
Aside from the buns her mother had made for her in her memories.
This was the most delicious bun Pu Yu had ever eaten.
As class time approached, the classroom gradually grew lively.
The morning self-study bell rang twice.
The seat beside her remained empty.
Pu Yu looked at the buns in her backpack, gradually losing their warmth, and felt uncertain.
Would he… really not come?
According to Sui Sui, Yuan Su skipping class was the norm.
Even when he did attend, it was mostly at noon or in the afternoon. Since transferring, no one had seen him attend a single morning self-study session.
Pu Yu lowered her gaze, withdrew her attention, and focused on memorizing vocabulary.
During the last few minutes of morning self-study, the classroom was filled only with the sound of turning pages and occasional yawns.
Maybe he really wasn’t coming today.
Pu Yu thought to herself.
But then the back door creaked open with a soft groan.
Yuan Su walked in just as the morning self-study bell rang.
Morning light slanted in from the corridor windows, casting uneven shadows across the side of his face, the line of his nose straight and sharp.
He looked like he had just woken up, with a few unruly strands of hair sticking up. His school uniform jacket was unzipped, revealing a white T-shirt underneath.
Even in this tired, detached state.
The contours of his face were still strikingly handsome.
Yuan Su walked straight to his seat, pulled out the chair, tossed his backpack down, and sat.
He glanced at the empty desktop.
His gaze paused briefly, then he glanced into the desk compartment with practiced nonchalance.
Inside were only a few of his old books with dog-eared corners.
Also empty.
Yuan Su’s movements froze for a moment.
Then, as if nothing had happened, he prepared to lay his head down and continue catching up on sleep.
“What are you looking for?” came a soft voice from beside him, tinged with a deliberately feigned cluelessness.
Pu Yu tilted her head to look at him, her clear eyes reflecting scattered bits of light.
Yuan Su: “…”
The boy’s eyes, which always seemed veiled in a thin layer of ice, swept over her.
They clearly spelled out the words “none of your business.”
Yuan Su turned his head back expressionlessly, too lazy to bother with her.
Just as he was about to stand up from his chair and leave—
Pu Yu almost instinctively reached out and grabbed the hem of his uniform.
“You never came, so I put it in my backpack to keep it warm.”
Yuan Su stopped moving, looked down at the uniform she was holding, and frowned impatiently.
“I said I don’t need it,” he replied in a low, hoarse voice, laced with irritation at being disturbed.
A brief stalemate fell between them.
Some classmates in the classroom had already noticed the commotion and were casting curious glances their way.
They only saw Yuan Su’s displeased expression and didn’t catch the specifics of the conversation.
Truly, anyone who sits next to him is unlucky.
Even the new classmate, who’s usually so quiet, gets yelled at by him.
Yuan Su tugged lightly, trying to pull his uniform back.
But Pu Yu held on even tighter.
She looked up at him stubbornly, steeled her resolve, and simply resorted to being shameless:
“Then throw it away.”
With that, she quickly pulled a plastic bag, still faintly warm, from her backpack and unceremoniously stuffed it into his desk compartment.
After stuffing it in, she turned back around and opened her math workbook.
Now she sat perfectly upright.
As if the person who had just tugged at someone’s uniform and acted shamelessly wasn’t her.
Right at that moment, the sharp bell for the end of class rang.
The classroom instantly erupted into noise.
Some rushed toward the cafeteria to grab breakfast, while others slumped over their desks to catch up on sleep.
Amid the noisy background, the steamed buns and soy milk lay quietly in the desk compartment.
Yuan Su remained silent for a long time.
So long that Pu Yu thought he really would throw the food into the trash.
But the next second.
The plastic bag was roughly torn open with a rustling sound.
He picked up a steamed bun, finished it in two or three bites, then stabbed the straw into the soy milk and drank.
Was that even thirty seconds?
Pu Yu counted silently in her head.
Definitely not.
Yuan Su casually tossed the empty soy milk cup and plastic bag into the trash bag hanging between their seats.
After doing all this, he lay his head back down on the desk, burying his face in the crook of his arm.
“We’re even.”
Yuan Su’s flat, emotionless voice was tossed her way.
Pu Yu turned her head, only able to see the boy’s silent back and a glimpse of his pale, cool nape.
“Mhm,” she responded softly.
It was good to be even.
In this unpredictable and turbulent final year of high school, in this small town where she was living under someone else’s roof, she didn’t want to carry any extra debts of gratitude.
Even if the other person was someone like this…
A boy who seemed cold and distant, yet had helped her time and again, almost without meaning to.