Wen Qing's movements came to an abrupt halt.
She looked toward the window ledge and asked, "Is something the matter?"
The stream of people outside the window flowed on without end, and the sunlight on the window in front flickered on and off.
"Mm, there is something."
Wen Qing's brow furrowed slightly, and a bit of temper rose up in her.
Then tell me what it is already.
But Zhou Shixu said nothing more, his eyes lowered, gazing at the ends of her hair.
"I already asked what it was."
The moment her impatient tone surfaced, Zhou Shixu could tell she was probably trying to send him away.
"Is being a volunteer that busy?"
"Mm."
As if to make the excuse more believable, Wen Qing added, "There's a lot to prepare."
"Will you still be busy after the competition?"
"Depends."
The conversation ended, and Wen Qing picked up the pen on her desk, intending to keep working on problems.
But the shadow outside the window lingered stubbornly.
After scribbling through one math problem, she spoke up: "Aren't you leaving?"
Zhou Shixu, instead, replied with a hint of a smile: "Depends."
"Depends on what?"
"On whether you're still busy after the competition."
Wen Qing's hand, which had been pinching the pen tip, lowered again. This time she didn't stare at the window ledge; instead, she raised her eyes and looked straight into Zhou Shixu's:
"What do those two things have to do with each other?"
"Mm, it has to do with—"
Zhou Shixu looked at the brow Wen Qing had just furrowed, his gaze gradually drifting down to her puzzled eyes, and only then finished the second half of the sentence:
"Whether you'll still talk to me in the future."
As if some secret thought quietly growing in her heart had been discovered, Wen Qing abruptly looked away from him.
And yet a trace of secret delight slowly spilled out.
"Why wouldn't I talk to you?"
Though phrased as a question, Wen Qing's tone carried certainty.
It was like when she was little and sulked with her parents, secretly resolving to study hard and become a cold, distant person.
When in truth, she only hoped they would notice her coldness and hurry over to coax her.
Her gaze drifted down to Zhou Shixu's knuckles, which were resting against the window ledge.
There was a thin callus on his middle finger.
Slightly raised at the joint.
Noticing Wen Qing's gaze, Zhou Shixu tapped his index finger lightly, twice.
Sure enough, the moment he moved, Wen Qing's gaze shifted elsewhere.
"Can we go back together tonight?"
"I don't know."
"Not happy?"
Wen Qing pulled a strip of candy from her drawer, took one out, unwrapped it, and popped it into her mouth.
"Just a little."
And it really was just a little.
Watching her instinctively crunch down on the candy, Zhou Shixu's gaze dropped to the strip of candy in her hand:
"Not sharing?"
A strip had ten candies, and this one was clearly missing some.
Wen Qing pulled the strip all the way to the end and found only one left, so she simply held the whole strip out in front of Zhou Shixu.
Wen Qing's seat was almost entirely against the window, so from Zhou Shixu's angle, he could see just the corner of her drawer.
The shiny plastic wrapper glinted in front of him.
Wen Qing had loved this brand of candy since she was little, so even from just the corner, Zhou Shixu could tell it was a brand-new strip.
He let out a somewhat exasperated laugh: "You give others a whole strip, and me a single candy?"
"When did I ever give anyone a whole strip?"
"Last time, in my classroom."
Wen Qing held the strip with only one candy left, her fingers unconsciously crushing the empty end.
They must be really close, huh—he even knew she'd given away a strip of candy.
"Oh, that little deskmate of yours? She seems pretty likable. What's wrong with giving her a strip of candy?"
Except for the one extra candy, nearly the whole strip had been crushed flat in Wen Qing's grip.
"Little deskmate?"
"Right, didn't you get a new deskmate? Didn't you just toss Xu Jinqi to the back rows?"
"Did he tell you that?"
"Yeah, he said you had the nerve to just ditch your old deskmate and go sit in your old spot all by yourself, living the good life."
After coming back from Class 1 that day, Wen Qing had even sounded Xu Jinqi out indirectly.
The moment she asked, he launched into dramatic, tearful complaints, going on and on about how Zhou Shixu had abandoned him.
"And you believed him?"
"What else? He'd have no reason to lie to me."
"Do you know he did badly on the exams?"
Wen Qing thought of Xu Jinqi's heartbroken expression. "I know."
Xu Jinqi had embellished the story, and she had let her imagination run wild.
In her head, the whole situation had long since spiraled into something completely out of control.
"Do you know our class picks seats by grades?"
"I know."
"So?"
Wen Qing was utterly confused by his words. "So what?"
"I was the first one to pick."
The motion of her pinching the candy wrapper finally stopped, and a plausible explanation suddenly sprouted in Wen Qing's mind. "So someone else chose to sit next to you?"
Zhou Shixu took the strip of candy from her—only one pathetic, pinched-out piece left.
"Mm. It changed after just one class that day."
Her previously jumbled assumptions were overturned by that single sentence from Zhou Shixu.
Then what did that sentence in his notebook mean?
"And then you didn't walk with me for days. When I saw the tin of biscuits, I thought you were feeling better, but then—"
He ignored her for days again.
Wen Qing's puzzled mind was suddenly pierced by Zhou Shixu's words.
So he was asking why she hadn't come to find him yet?
She pulled the unopened strip of candy from her drawer and pressed it into Zhou Shixu's palm.
Zheng Shiyi happened to return to her seat just then. Wen Qing looked at her and suddenly spoke up:
"Little Shiyi, didn't you tell me this morning that the volunteer thing tonight was canceled?"
Watching Wen Qing wink at her frantically, Zheng Shiyi nodded in a daze.
"Fine, since things worked out, I'll reluctantly walk home with you tonight. If you're scared of the dark in the future, tell me in advance."
Zhou Shixu tucked both strips of candy into his school uniform jacket, looking at Wen Qing's expression—clearly smiling, yet feigning haughtiness.
"Mm. Scared of the dark."
Probably for a very, very long time.
·
One suspected the school must have hired a feng shui master—sports day turned out to be the hottest day on record.
Only the last few rows of the bleachers had any shade.
Standing in the sun for barely a moment, sweat was already about to drip.
And students weren't even allowed to hold umbrellas in the stands; the whirring of little handheld fans could be heard from several steps away.
The school store's cold water had been completely snapped up.
Volunteers, besides wearing armbands, also had to put on red vests.
Making the heat all the more unbearable.
Wen Qing's face was flushed from the sun, and she felt the hair on top of her head practically steaming.
She instinctively looked at Duan Huaian beside her.
Almost everyone had been sunburned red, yet his face was still pale.
Noticing Wen Qing's gaze, Duan Huaian looked over with a smile. "What's wrong?"
"How are you still so pale? Aren't you hot?"
"What do those two things have to do with each other?"
"Of course they do—if you're hot, you turn red."
Wen Qing turned on her little fan, the blades spinning gently.
"I am hot. But the paleness seems to be natural."
"Ugh, I'm heartbroken. So jealous."
Duan Huaian watched Wen Qing as she fanned herself.
The fan's breeze blew past the hair by her ears, and the sunlight shone directly on her face, her cheeks tinged with a faint red.
A red full of life.
"You're pretty fair too."
Wen Qing turned off the handheld fan in her hand to save the remaining battery: "Me, I'm fair sometimes and dark sometimes."
Duan Huaian opened a bottle of water and held it out in front of her: "Olive skin?"
"Nonono, I'm dark compared to fair people, and fair compared to dark people."
Amused by her random remark, Duan Huaian mimicked her tone from just now:
"Heartbroken, envious."
"Copycat much?" Wen Qing said, standing on tiptoe to look at Zheng Shiyi at the athletes' staging area in the distance.
"Yep."
"Then when little Shiyi comes over later, you shout her name with me."
"Deal."
The sports meet judges used the most primitive method—the PE teacher blew the whistle, and the race began at the sound.
Every time, Wen Qing marveled at the PE teacher's superhuman lung capacity.
A whistle blast.
In the 400-meter race, everyone sprinted at full strength almost from the start.
Wen Qing and Duan Huaian waited at the finish line.
Perhaps the effect of never having skipped morning exercises was showing—Zheng Shiyi charged straight into the lead at once.
From far away, Wen Qing could see she was at least 50 meters ahead of second place.
"Zheng Shiyi! Go! Run faster!" Wen Qing's voice was practically a shout.
The friend groups of the other competitors around the field were all cheering too.
Wen Qing raised her voice, amplifying the volume together with Duan Huaian.
The two of them deliberately timed their shouts for the quiet gaps after everyone else had finished yelling.
Zheng Shiyi, still far from the finish line, heard their voices from a distance.
She nearly doubled over laughing mid-run.
In the end, a runner like her hadn't drunk as much water as the two volunteers.
The teacher organizing the volunteers looked at the three of them—one unnaturally pale, one nearly glowing red in the face, and one who'd just finished running, couldn't stand up straight, and kept laughing.
He promptly assigned the three of them to the indoor basketball games in the stadium.
As it happened, Chen Zhi was competing in the basketball games right then, so the three of them were more than happy to oblige.
The gymnasium had the air conditioning on.
Though it wasn't exactly cool, compared to the weather outside it was heaven versus earth.
The basketball tournament had already gone through several rounds and seemed to have reached a fever pitch.
"Huh, Chen Zhi actually hasn't been eliminated yet." Zheng Shiyi remarked as she watched, gleefully schadenfreude.
Just as her voice fell, Chen Zhi happened to sink a shot.
Seeing the three of them arrive, he even made a point of waving hello.
Seemingly struck by his cringe-worthy gesture, Zheng Shiyi rolled her eyes and turned away.
Wen Qing was watching the two of them clown around when her shoulder was suddenly chilled by something cold.
She whipped around to see Xu Jinqi standing behind her holding a bottle of ice water.
"Cold, cold, cold."
Xu Jinqi handed her the ice water and glanced around: "Where's Sang Nianning?"
"Got called over to help with the awards ceremony. What, missing our little Sang already?"
"As if."
Wen Qing took the bottle, half of which was still ice, so cold it chilled her palm.
"How did you guys get water this cold? Impressive skills."
"Froze it at home last night. This is the last bottle."
Wen Qing pressed the bottle against her cheeks, flushed from the sun: "Such foresight. You're being nice for no reason—out with it, what do you need my help with?"
Xu Jinqi immediately put on the look of someone about to burst into tears:
"Little Zhou hasn't talked to me all day. Qing-jie, help me out—bring him a bottle of water later, okay?"
The ice water pressed against her cheek, slowly thawing, a few drops rolling down the bottle and clinging to her face.
Wen Qing wiped her cheek casually and looked at Xu Jinqi with a smile: "The way you talk, you'd think he's usually such a chatterbox."
"This time is different. It really is different."
Wen Qing's gaze swept around and landed on Zhou Shixu, who was waiting in the rest area for the next game.
As if sensing what was happening on their side, Zhou Shixu was looking over.
Wen Qing shifted the water bottle in her hand, using the end she held to block his view.
Although she was happy the misunderstanding had been cleared up.
But whenever she saw Zhou Shixu, Wen Qing would think of his words—why haven't you come to find me yet.
Words that had once made her angry now seemed pitiful when she thought back on them.
Now, the moment her eyes met Zhou Shixu's, Wen Qing's cheeks would start burning again.
Seeing her space out without a word, Xu Jinqi wailed dramatically: "Boss, you can't just abandon me! If Little Zhou stops hanging out with me, wouldn't he lose one of his only two friends?"
"That would be great."
Wen Qing couldn't help laughing at Xu Jinqi's stomping-foot expression.
Chen Zhi's game had ended long ago, and now he was bickering with Zheng Shiyi, insisting he was going to take first place.
Halftime break.
The final game just so happened to be Class 10 versus Class 1.
Xu Jinqi and Chen Zhi both returned to their respective teams.
Before leaving, they didn't forget to remind them over and over—water, water, water.
There weren't many people in the stands.
Most of the students were still outside, fiercely competing in the remaining events.
The group took the opportunity to sit in the front row of the bleachers.
The last time Wen Qing had seen Zhou Shixu play basketball was back in middle school.
He was much taller now—so much so that for a moment, Wen Qing couldn't reconcile the person before her with the figure in her memories.
The ice water in her hand was still giving off a chill, slowly numbing her palm bit by bit.
With the heavy academic pressure of high school and neither class having any athletes, the score gap never opened very wide.
"Qing, which side do you want to win?" Zheng Shiyi leaned close to Wen Qing and asked softly.
"I don't mind either way. But didn't you just make another bet with Chen Zhi?"
"Duan Huaian has something to do and asked for leave. I bet with Chen Zhi—if he wins, I'll buy milk tea for the four of us; if he loses, he pays." Even as she spoke, Zheng Shiyi made sure to gesture about Duan Huaian bringing the milk tea.
"You and Chen Zhi just love picking on poor Duan Huaian. Meanwhile, I get to reap the benefits. So satisfying."
The sound of a basketball slamming against the rim abruptly pulled the three girls' attention back to the court.
The atmosphere in the arena instantly boiled over.
Cheering was nonstop.
Once focused, it was hard to look away.
Wen Qing didn't really understand basketball rules—she only knew that making a shot earned points, and the farther away the shot was made from, the more points it was worth.
She hadn't expected Zhou Shixu to be this popular.
There were barely any people in the gymnasium to begin with, and the chatter was almost drowned out by people calling his name.
She felt a little annoyed.
The game entered its climax.
Almost everyone's eyes followed the ball as the two classes stayed neck and neck.
It all came down to the decisive final shot.
Wen Qing set the water bottle she'd just picked up back down at her side.
Judging by how things were going, there'd probably be overtime.
The instant she put down the water and looked up, she saw the basketball graze past the rim.
A figure swiftly caught the ball bouncing off the rim and slammed it in.
"Zhou Shixu! Zhou Shixu! AHHH!!"
"So awesome!!"
"Class One! Class One! Class One!"
"AHHH!!"
The cheering was loud enough to shatter eardrums.
Wen Qing gripped her water bottle, droplets of condensation rolling off its surface and down her palm.
It was happening again.
The roar of the crowd was about to swallow her whole.
The person at the center of all the attention was slowly withdrawing from the middle of the field, walking toward the rest area just a step away from the stands.
He stood there.
His gaze fixed, unblinking, on Wen Qing, who was frowning slightly and glaring back at him.