The scarf was long. Wen Qing only had to lift her hand slightly before her fingertips touched its soft edge.
It felt like very soft wool.
Xu Jinqi hurried to catch up, trying to stop Zhou Shixu from taking another impulsive step forward.
Only to find that he had suddenly stopped.
His eyes lowered, staring at the end of that scarf.
The wind was too loud, so Wen Qing didn't notice anything unusual a hundred meters behind her.
She reached out, grasped the end of the scarf, and lifted it gently, then wound it twice around Duan Huaian's raised hand.
His fair, slender hands now became a round, club-like bundle.
Wen Qing's laughter drifted into his heart on the wind.
"I'm not that cold—you wear it. Otherwise, if I take it, what if you freeze silly by the time you come tomorrow morning? You still have exams."
"Worried about my exams?" Duan Huaian didn't put the scarf back around his neck. Instead, keeping his hand where it was, he tucked the other one in too.
The scarf promptly became a hand warmer.
"I'm worried about you turning silly, obviously."
The two resumed their halted steps and walked on.
Wen Qing kept her back to Zhou Shixu and Xu Jinqi the whole time.
But Duan Huaian saw them clearly.
And he recognized who they were.
Uncharacteristically, he didn't remind Wen Qing that her friends were behind her.
Perhaps people are simply selfish by nature.
The next day, before the exams even began, Wen Qing had barely sat down at her desk during morning reading when Zheng Shiyi's wailing forcibly jolted her awake.
Before she could even turn to ask, she heard Chen Zhi behind her repeating, "We're doomed, doomed, doomed."
"What's wrong with you two? The exams haven't even started and you've already surrendered?"
Zheng Shiyi spoke to Wen Qing, looking like she wanted to cry but had no tears left: "Chen Zhi said he couldn't sleep last night when he got home, so he was scrolling through short videos. Guess what he scrolled past."
Wen Qing racked her brain but couldn't think of any video content that could make the two of them wail nonstop during morning reading before the mock exams had even begun.
"He said he scrolled past a video of three seniors from last year's class kowtowing to the Confucius statue the night before the college entrance exam."
Only then did Wen Qing begin to grasp the situation through the fog: "Did they do badly on the exam?"
"Three seniors—counting the one filming, four in total. All of them had to repeat the year."
"What?"
She had considered that the results might not be great, but Wen Qing never imagined it could be this bad.
A one hundred percent failure rate, practically.
Then it occurred to her—the two apples she'd left.
Besides her own, the other one had been placed for Zhou Shixu.
But surely things couldn't get that eerie.
As it turned out.
It really was that eerie.
Of the four, three had collectively dropped in rank, leaving Duan Huaian standing in place.
When the homeroom teacher talked to the students whose scores had dropped, the three of them nearly carried the statue in to lodge their complaints.
But the eeriest part of all wasn't even that.
Zhou Shixu, who had almost never fallen from first place in the grade throughout all three years of high school.
Placed third.
At first, Wen Qing thought it was probably due to her own mental state.
Until she saw Zhou Shixu's scores.
There was no way it was his mental state.
There could only be one explanation.
Never, ever worship the Confucius statue before an exam.
Confucius didn't know math, or English, or physics, or chemistry, or biology.
He probably only knew classical Chinese, at best.
The moment she saw the score sheet, Wen Qing blamed the apple she had left for Zhou Shixu's drop in scores.
It sounded absurd, sure.
But Wen Qing was unwavering on this matter.
For several evenings after school, she avoided walking the same way as Zhou Shixu.
Terrified that if she ran into him, her guilt would show on her face.
Terrified that he'd find out she'd slipped an apple in for him.
Terrified that he'd notice she felt something different about him.
Terrified that he'd sense that love—impossible to explain, hopelessly tangled up inside her.
For several nights in a row, Wen Qing rushed out the stairwell early, dodging Zhou Shixu as she hurried home.
Until that evening.
Chen Zhi and Zheng Shiyi had made another bet over the next morning's breakfast.
During the last period of evening self-study, just before dismissal, the two of them openly started playing the water bottle game.
A mineral water bottle with a little water left inside.
You pinch the cap and toss it up.
Let it tumble through the air a few times.
If it lands standing upright, you win.
The moment the dismissal bell rang, Zheng Shiyi had to rush off for something urgent and told Wen Qing to take her place.
Chen Zhi was practically a school champion at this kind of game.
Wen Qing's competitive spirit surged up again.
Their battle grew so intense that Duan Huaian, who was halfway out the door, turned back to watch them compete.
Most of the class had already left.
The two of them crouched on the ground, taking turns tossing the water bottle on the empty stretch of floor near the corridor.
Halfway through, Wen Qing felt a bit drowsy and rubbed her eyes.
When she lifted her gaze, the fluorescent lights overhead seemed to dim a little.
She thought her eyes just hadn't adjusted yet.
Until a pair of sneakers appeared at her side.
The brand Zhou Shixu always wore.
A simple style, but expensive.
Aside from him, Wen Qing couldn't think of anyone else at school who would wear them.
"Thud."
As the bottle hit the ground, the droplets scattered along its walls slowly trickled back down to the bottom.
Wen Qing flashed a smile at Chen Zhi in front of her, raising her brow smugly.
"My breakfast and little Shiyi's tomorrow morning—don't forget to bring them."
As if he hadn't expected the game to end so quickly, Chen Zhi only froze for a moment before demanding a rematch.
Otherwise, if Zheng Shiyi found out he'd lost that fast, she'd tease him to death at morning reading tomorrow.
The person standing at her side showed no sign of rushing her. Wen Qing tapped the bottom of the bottle lightly with the cap:
"Fine. But if I win this round too, you owe me one more breakfast."
"You can eat two?"
Wen Qing lifted the bottle slightly and pointed its bottom in Zhou Shixu's direction.
Chen Zhi understood instantly.
The second round began.
With a flick of her wrist, Wen Qing sent the bottle tumbling just a light 360 degrees through the air.
It landed perfectly steady.
The match was over before it even started.
Afraid Chen Zhi would refuse to accept defeat and demand another round, Wen Qing slung her bag over one shoulder and tugged at Zhou Shixu's arm with the other, urging him to leave.
The moon was bright, the stars sparse.
The leaves no longer swayed.
Though there was no wind, wisps of chill still brushed against her cheeks.
Before Zhou Shixu could even ask, Wen Qing spoke up first:
"I wasn't avoiding walking home with you these past few days on purpose."
"Mm."
"Aren't you going to ask why?"
"It doesn't matter."
Wen Qing looked at the rare trace of gloom in Zhou Shixu's eyes.
Stubborn as ever, refusing to admit it.
She'd left her scarf in the classroom again, having rushed out too quickly.
She zipped her school uniform all the way up, then slowly tucked her chin into the collar.
Barely two steps past the school gate, Zhou Shixu stopped in his tracks.
Wen Qing stopped too, turned around, and walked back to face him.
"Why aren't you walking?"
The top of her uniform collar brushed lightly against the tip of her nose.
Zhou Shixu reached out and grabbed the collar of her uniform.
The back of his hand brushed against her slightly flushed cheek.
With his other hand, he pressed the zipper and gently pulled it down a little.
Before Wen Qing could even feel the cold wind slip in, a scarf still warm with his body heat wrapped around her cheeks and circled her neck twice, soft and light.
The scarf carried a faint fragrance.
Like the lingering scent of mint left over from washing.
Wen Qing had complained to Zhou Shixu about it several times.
The housekeeper his family had hired this time wasn't careful.
She always left a lingering scent when doing laundry, and wasn't skilled at cooking either.
She didn't even really know Zhou Shixu's tastes.
Zhou Shixu had even explained it to her specially.
The laundry detergent they used at home was the kind with a long-lasting scent.
That originally faint fragrance now gathered at the tip of Wen Qing's nose.
Somehow—
it was unexpectedly rather pleasant.
Chen Zhi, though she often bickered with Zheng Shiyi,
was genuinely loyal.
The breakfast she bought the next day was from that xiaolongbao shop with the impossibly long line.
Almost as soon as the bell rang ending morning reading,
Wen Qing came bouncing over to find Zhou Shixu to eat.
Pushing against the flow of the crowd, she had just struggled up one flight of stairs when she saw Zhou Shixu standing at the stairwell landing, about to come down.
"I said I'd bring you food, so why are you coming down?"
"Coming down to find you."
The paper bag was set on the hallway railing and opened.
Wen Qing took out a box and handed it to Zhou Shixu along with a pair of disposable chopsticks.
After a whole period of morning reading, the buns had long lost their scorching heat, but the white foam box still held some warmth.
The temperature of the soy milk slowly warmed her palms through the paper carton.
Winter was cold, and standing on the outer corridor meant there was no avoiding the wind.
Wen Qing had almost her entire hand tucked into her jacket, only her fingertips exposed as she lightly held the chopsticks.
The small bits of skin exposed to the air had been blown red.
The soy milk sitting on the railing was picked up by Zhou Shixu.
Wen Qing cried out in alarm: "That's mine, I've already drunk from it."
"Mm."
Responding he did, but Zhou Shixu showed no sign of putting it down.
Wen Qing looked at the chopsticks in her hand and spoke with feigned indifference:
"Fine, drink it if you want. It's not like you haven't had my leftovers befo—hey—what are you doing?"
Before she even finished speaking, Zhou Shixu had already packed everything from the railing back into the bag and turned to walk deeper into the corridor.
"It's cold. Let's go inside."
The corner of the stairwell was sheltered from the wind, but unavoidably drew the gazes of many students coming up the stairs.
Holding the box in one hand, Wen Qing began eating facing the wall in a posture of self-reflection.
The outer corridor outside Class One's door was open-air.
The temperature was low in the morning and the wind was strong.
Most students took the interior staircase after finishing breakfast.
Footsteps came in one wave after another.
A box of xiaolongbao had eight buns.
Normally Wen Qing and Zheng Shiyi would share one.
After all, there was still an uninterrupted stream of snacks for the rest of the morning after breakfast.
Right now, Wen Qing was struggling a bit to finish a whole portion alone.
From her wall-facing posture, she slowly turned left and stood on tiptoe to peek into Zhou Shixu's box.
Two left.
Zhou Shixu's gaze had barely left her the whole time.
When Wen Qing rose on her tiptoes, he roughly understood her intent.
The footsteps of passing students echoed around the two of them again.
Zhou Shixu lowered the box in his hand and slowly pushed it toward Wen Qing, until it was nearly level with the one in her hands.
Only after completing this series of motions did he speak:
"Can't finish it?"
"Mm." Wen Qing nodded while rotating her chopsticks halfway around, and used the unused end to pick up three buns for him.
Zhou Shixu watched her movements, brows furrowing slightly, but his hand holding up the box didn't waver in the slightest.
Seeing the returning students growing more numerous, Zhou Shixu finally asked:
"Been busy with something these past few days?"
Hearing Zhou Shixu's question, Wen Qing couldn't help biting down on her soy milk straw.
"Not really. My mom wants me to come home early."
"So you weren't going to wait for me?"
Her lips leaving the straw, Wen Qing lifted her gaze to look at him.
"Didn't have time to wait. Can we walk together today?"
Zhou Shixu avoided her eyes, his words falling into Wen Qing's ears one by one:
"Did you not have time, or were you in a hurry to go with someone else?"
"Why would you ask that?"
How could he even ask that?
Wen Qing stepped forward, suddenly crashing straight into Zhou Shixu's gaze.
But before she could make out the look in his eyes, he looked away again.
"Haven't you made lots of new friends?"
"And so why do you assume that if I'm not with you, I must be with someone else?"
If it weren't so inconvenient with people coming and going, Wen Qing would have wanted to grab Zhou Shixu's face and turn it toward her, to see clearly exactly what he was thinking.
"Hasn't it always been like this?"
She had never once made a point of looking only at him.
Making new friends as a matter of course, roughhousing with others as a matter of course, walking home with other people as a matter of course.
"Explain yourself."
His words dropped, firm and resolute, yet Zhou Shixu said nothing more.
What could he say? What was there for him to say?
Was it really just about the new friends?
What he truly minded—
went far beyond new friends.
Seeing him silent, Wen Qing spoke again:
"You think I've made so many new friends that I abandoned you to walk home with someone else. Is that it?"
The instant her voice fell, Zhou Shixu lifted his eyes slightly, his gaze landing on Wen Qing's neck.
Before he could raise his head,
even firmer words crashed into his ears:
"I didn't."
He finally lifted his head, his eyes level with Wen Qing's, his tone no different than usual:
"You did."
Hearing those two words, Wen Qing knew she should be angry.
Angry that Zhou Shixu didn't trust her, angry that their relationship seemed so fragile in his eyes.
But when she truly looked into Zhou Shixu's eyes—
all her anger died out.
Zhou Shixu's emotions were showing, which was rare for him.
She couldn't tell whether there was resentment, but the hurt was plain to see.
"Why would you think that?"
Was it because I avoided you too much, giving you the false impression that I don't like you?
The students going up and down the stairs kept multiplying, the noisy sound of footsteps ringing in Wen Qing's ears.
It made her desperate to hear Zhou Shixu's answer.
A full five minutes.
The pre-class bell rang, and still she hadn't heard Zhou Shixu's answer.
Wen Qing took another step forward.
So close that if the dean had been there, he would surely have judged them to be in an early romance and called their parents.
She spoke again:
"I've asked you this directly, and you still won't answer? Are you trying to avoid the whole thing?"
"No."
She was leaning too close, far too close, and Zhou Shixu didn't dare look at her anymore.
How was he supposed to answer?
By saying that when he saw her walking home with someone else, he was nearly driven mad with jealousy?