“Huh?” Jiang Qiao snapped back to reality, grinning like a fool as she jogged over to grab his hand. “Let’s buy it, let’s buy it!”
Lu Xun turned his head away, a faint smile playing at the corners of his lips under the light.
In the end, they still couldn’t get a cake. Jiang Qiao held the bread Lu Xun had bought from the supermarket, pouting in disappointment as she muttered quietly, “Will wishes made on bread come true…?”
“I should’ve brought one with me,” she lamented.
Lu Xun murmured softly, “This is just fine.”
“How do you blow out candles and make a wish with this…?”
Jiang Qiao was clearly dissatisfied, her enthusiasm dampened.
Even though it was his birthday, Jiang Qiao seemed to care more about it than he did.
Lu Xun found a lighter from the drawer and tested it to make sure it still worked. Under Jiang Qiao’s puzzled gaze, he turned off the light.
The room plunged into darkness, with only a faint glow from the moonlight filtering through the window and scattering thinly across the floor.
Jiang Qiao took the lighter in a daze. Lu Xun’s calm voice sounded low in the darkness:
“Jiang Qiao, light the candle.”
Candle? What candle?
A dry, warm hand covered the back of hers, guiding her to ignite the lighter. A small flame illuminated a tiny space.
“……………………”
Half of Lu Xun’s face was outlined by the flame, his long eyelashes casting shadows. They were close, their breaths mingling, and someone’s heartbeat was audible.
[166, this is the feeling of falling in love.] Jiang Qiao clasped her hands over her heart like the legendary beauty Xishi.
166, sour and cynical, called her out: [You’re just shallow, that’s all.]
[Hehehe~~]
In the young man’s usually indifferent eyes, Jiang Qiao saw her own reflection. At that moment, something seemed about to break through the surface, but she forcefully suppressed it.
As Lu Xun leaned closer, the flame was blown out.
But Lu Xun didn’t sit back. He remained silent for a while, hesitating before saying, “Jiang Qiao, I…………”
Jiang Qiao suddenly exclaimed, “Wait, did you make a wish? You have to make a wish before blowing out the candle, or it won’t work!”
She took a few steps back, fumbling to turn on the light in the dark. The bright light dispelled the ambiguous atmosphere that had been hard to define just moments before.
Lu Xun closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them again, his usual detachment had returned. “I forgot.”
“How could you forget something so important? You…”
“Want to eat the bread?” Lu Xun interrupted her chatter.
“Yes!”
The bread wasn’t big, so they split it in half. Lu Xun stared at the crumb at the corner of her mouth for a long moment before looking away. “I’ll take you back after you finish.”
Lu Xun checked the time on his phone. It was already very late, and it wasn’t appropriate for Jiang Qiao, a girl, to stay any longer.
Jiang Qiao paused mid-bite. This time, she didn’t insist on staying. “Okay.”
“Oh, right!” She remembered something and hurried over to the small sofa.
Lu Xun watched as she pulled a brown paper bag from her white canvas tote.
As if sensing something, he stood up. Jiang Qiao handed him the paper bag with both hands, lifting her face with a smile that curved her eyes. “Here, your birthday gift.”
Lu Xun didn’t take it. Jiang Qiao hurriedly explained, “I didn’t buy it. I made it myself.”
Lu Xun knew he should refuse, just like he had refused many gifts from Jiang Qiao before.
But he took it anyway, just like that year during the first snow of Christmas, when he accepted Jiang Qiao’s Christmas gift—a pair of clumsily knitted gloves with rough stitches, even loose threads, that weren’t warm at all.
“I’ve never given you anything.”
Lu Xun was referring to her birthdays over the years.
“Good that you know. At least you still have some conscience, you dog.”
Jiang Qiao snorted twice, somewhat displeased and awkward, saying with tsundere pride: “Then you can just return it to me in the future.”
In the future…
Lu Xun’s fingers tightened around the kraft paper bag, his voice slightly hoarse: “Okay.”
He took a taxi to send Jiang Qiao home, watching the girl walk briskly toward the villa district until her figure disappeared from view before turning away.
He walked back.
There was a long distance from the beautifully maintained villa district to his old alley – a distance he could cover on foot.
But the distance between him and Jiang Qiao wasn’t something that could be bridged by walking.
Lu Xun took out a glass jar from his pocket. A beautifully colored rose bloomed brilliantly inside the glass.
The dried flower made with desiccant was well preserved and could last a long time in the glass jar.
On his eighteenth birthday, he possessed a unique rose in this world that would never wither.
But flowers are always deceptive. He didn’t know whether he should love it or not.
After the seven-day National Day holiday, the high school seniors returned to their three-point-one-line study routine.
The first mock exam was approaching. The homeroom teacher repeatedly emphasized that the results would be sent directly to each student’s parents after the exam.
Even those who usually studied casually became nervous, cursing while catching up on their studies.
It was acceptable to perform poorly academically, but public humiliation was unacceptable – especially for those wealthy and influential parents who valued face more than anything.
Jiang Qiao had been quite unhappy recently. Her parents had unusually returned home to monitor her studies, forcing her to attend classes and complete homework diligently these past few days.
But how much use was last-minute cramming? Jiang Qiao thought of Lu Xun – a comprehensively developed straight-A student who had recently won first prize in the Physics Competition, gaining quite some fame. Two major universities had secretly extended invitations to him.
She had just given him a gift, visited his home, and celebrated his birthday with him. She believed their relationship was developing well, almost like that of a real couple.
Anyway, Lu Xun was still her boyfriend – might as well make use of it.
So she naturally wanted Lu Xun to tutor her, treating it as an alternative, healthy form of dating.
While the teacher wasn’t looking, she secretly tossed a small note to Lu Xun that read: “Let’s go to the library after class~”
After throwing it, she watched eagerly. Not until nearly the end of class did Lu Xun open and read it. After reading, he folded the note without even glancing in Jiang Qiao’s direction.
After class, Jiang Qiao stomped over angrily: “Why didn’t you reply to my note?”
“I read it,” Lu Xun said.
Why reply when he’d already read it? Jiang Qiao understood his implied meaning but couldn’t even vent her anger. She simply couldn’t argue with Lu Xun. Frustrated and deflated, she asked weakly: “So are we going or not…”
Lu Xun pressed his lips together: “I have a part-time job at the coffee shop.”
Jiang Qiao: “…………”
She needed to be a understanding girlfriend, suppressing her disappointment with effort: “Oh…………”
“…Saturday and Sunday are possible,” Lu Xun added.
Jiang Qiao’s dimmed eyes instantly brightened: “You’re not working on weekends anymore?”
“I can skip the morning shift.”
He still had to work in the afternoon.
Half a day was enough – they could even have lunch together. That was already pretty good.
Jiang Qiao was easily satisfied when it came to Lu Xun. Perhaps because Lu Xun had rejected her so many times, even occasional compliance made her happy: “Okay, see you tomorrow!”
“…Mm-hmm.”
Ye Qingqing had signed up for tutoring classes and wouldn’t be walking home with her these days. With the family driver on leave, Jiang Qiao decided to walk home instead of taking a car.
On the way, she unexpectedly encountered two people. From quite a distance, she spotted Song Qingying and Jiang Chao walking side by side.