“Who told this young lady we were here?”
Zhu Huaiqian turned his back, gritting his teeth, and asked the others in a muffled voice.
No one told her.
Gu Qishen straightened up slightly, his gaze falling on Zhu Zhixi.
The girl in the blue-and-white school uniform had clear, fair skin, and her high ponytail swung back and forth with each step.
Zhu Zhixi had run all the way here, her cheeks flushed with color, like a piece of mutton-fat jade tinged with a faint blush—warm and beautiful.
She was panting heavily, her legs feeling weak.
Seeing the baseball bat in Zhu Huaiqian’s hand, Zhu Zhixi’s heart was filled with anxiety.
She was terrified she had arrived too late.
She didn’t dare think about what could have happened.
She had a chance to change things, but if she had run too slowly, gone to the wrong place, or been even a second late, she would have regretted it to death, hated herself to death.
Seeing Zhu Huaiqian.
She was furious.
Hated him.
Annoyed.
She yanked him around, but Zhu Huaiqian shamelessly grinned at her.
Zhu Zhixi’s eyes suddenly reddened, a bitter feeling surging up her throat.
She and Zhu Huaiqian were twins. When they were young, she bullied him; when they grew up, he bullied her. It wasn’t until Zhu Huaiqian prepared to study abroad that the two seemed to mature overnight.
She never called Zhu Huaiqian “brother.” She was used to their constant bickering, and when she was angry, she wished she’d never see him again.
But when Zhu Huaiqian was sentenced, she was the one who cried the hardest.
Because of Zhu Huaiqian, she had died in her previous life.
Zhu Zhixi snatched the baseball bat from his hand and gave him a hard smack with it.
“Zhu Zhixi, are you crazy?”
Zhu Huaiqian yelped in pain. “Let’s go, let’s go…”
He strode away quickly, and the others naturally followed.
The fight, under Zhu Zhixi’s anxious watch, came to an abrupt end.
Zhu Zhixi stood still, her heart pounding wildly. Her calves were sore and heavy—she couldn’t move.
A shadow slowly crept into her line of sight. The unique freshness of a young man, carried by the hot late-summer breeze, washed over her. Zhu Zhixi lowered her eyelashes, her eyes still moist.
She knew it was Gu Qishen.
Someone gently took hold of the baseball bat in her hand. Her fingertips brushed against warm skin, and her delicate fingers immediately curled slightly, pulling away.
Gu Qishen leaned down slightly, brushing past Zhu Zhixi’s shoulder. The young man’s forearm was firm and strong, burning hot. The moment their skin touched, it felt as if her nerves had gone numb. The sound of Zhu Zhixi’s heartbeat gradually drowned out the cicadas and the wind in her ears.
Her breath was filled with Gu Qishen’s scent.
The baseball bat loosened and fell into Gu Qishen’s hand. He tilted his chin slightly, his gaze falling on the girl’s pink cheeks and her small, upturned nose dotted with transparent beads of sweat.
Zhu Zhixi curled her fingers into her palms, her eyelashes lowered, not moving at all.
The seventeen-year-old Gu Qishen belonged to her, but the twenty-seven-year-old Gu Qishen was Wen Yuqing’s.
A sour taste spread rapidly under her tongue, filling her entire mouth.
“Deep, let’s go!” someone called from ahead.
Gu Qishen didn’t respond. Instead, he curled his finger and gently wiped the sweat from Zhu Zhixi’s nose.
Zhu Zhixi instinctively flinched and dodged.
Gu Qishen’s hand hung awkwardly in mid-air, and he let out a faint, almost imperceptible sigh.
Forget it. This little girl was still angry with him.
The scent of jade dragon tea that had lingered in her nostrils was blown away by the wind as Gu Qishen left.
Zhu Zhixi’s stiff spine gradually relaxed, and faint creases appeared on her pink eyelids.
She looked up and found herself staring straight into a pair of dark, sharp eyes.
Xie Jin.
In Jiangbei First High School, a saying circulated: the most handsome face, the fiercest fights.
Later, in Jiangbei City, another saying spread: a vengeful sickly weakling, businessmen fear Xie the Cripple.
In the mouths of Gu Qishen and Zhu Huaiqian, Xie Jin was: bad.
Naturally, Zhu Zhixi didn’t have a good impression of Xie Jin.
At the time, after the incident, Xie Jin didn’t pursue responsibility, but during that period, Zhu Huaiqian argued with his parents every day.
Gu Qishen brought Zhu Zhixi to the Gu family. Zhu Zhixi wanted to see Xie Jin on behalf of Zhu Huaiqian, but Gu Qishen said it had nothing to do with her.
Later, Zhu Huaiqian disappeared for a month and returned only to drop out of school.
Xie Jin also dropped out due to his leg injury.
There was little news of him.
Xie Jin and they were from two different worlds.
Years later, when Zhu Zhixi heard news of Xie Jin again, it was that Xie Jin was opposing Gu Qishen at every turn, and opposing Gu Qishen meant opposing Zhu Huaiqian.
Zhu Zhixi heard many rumors about Xie Jin, with mixed reviews—women praised his good looks, while men feared his ruthless heart.
Strangely, the two never once crossed paths.
Until one Valentine’s Day.
Zhu Zhixi stumbled upon Gu Qishen and Wen Yuqing on a date. She stood outside, watching the two dance by the floor-to-ceiling window.
The biting cold wind swept over every inch of her skin, but Zhu Zhixi didn’t feel the chill—her heart was already frozen through.
It was at this moment that Xie Jin appeared, wrapping his black overcoat around her, shielding her from the cold wind and preserving a sliver of warmth in her body.
After so many years, Zhu Zhixi had even forgotten what Xie Jin looked like, yet intuition was the most unreasonable thing.
“Xie Jin?”
The man half-lowered his eyes, leisurely fastening the buttons of the overcoat, his expression unreadable: “Are you planning to freeze yourself to death out here, so that every Valentine’s Day from now on, Gu Qishen will remember you, his frozen fiancée, and feel a little sickened by it?”
For some reason.
Zhu Zhixi actually laughed: “You really have a way with words, Xie Jin.”
“The man who knows how to say sweet things is inside dancing with another woman.”
Xie Jin’s words were like soft knives—not fatal, but each one drew blood.
Zhu Zhixi’s eyes stung with tears once more.
A soft sigh whispered by her ear, Xie Jin’s tone softening: “Zhu Zhixi, the path of love can turn back. Gu Qishen isn’t the end.”
Facing each other, Zhu Zhixi lifted her gaze and met Xie Jin’s eyes. The man’s deep, handsome features stood vivid and three-dimensional in the thick of the night.
The steady face from her memory gradually overlapped with the youthful, vibrant, and unrestrained young man before her.
A faint smile touched Zhu Zhixi’s lips.
How wonderful.
Xie Jin had already withdrawn his gaze and was walking in another direction.
Zhu Zhixi stepped forward, blocking his path. Her throat tightened as she spoke: “I’m sorry.”
“I’m saying sorry to you on behalf of Zhu Huaiqian.”
This apology was long, long overdue.
Xie Jin’s eyes lifted slightly at the corners, arrogant and haughty. As if remembering something, he wiped the corner of his mouth with his pale fingers and clicked his tongue.
His brow furrowed slightly, as if annoyed.
“Here, take this money. You’re not in good health—use it to recover.” Zhu Zhixi rummaged through her pockets, pulling out a wad of cash and pointing to the corner of his mouth.
Not in good health?
This was the first time anyone had said he wasn’t in good health.
Xie Jin raised an eyebrow, lazily and leisurely scanning his gaze over the wad of cash before finally settling on Zhu Zhixi’s clean, delicate face.
Her small face was fair and tender, tinged with pink, utterly pure.
The girl’s dark pupils were distinct, her gaze sincere and clear, radiating innocence.
However, he was certain that this young lady was either mentally unwell or had poor eyesight.
A slender, pale hand took the money from Zhu Zhixi’s grasp. The bills were folded in half, and his two thumbs moved so quickly they left only a blur.
After counting, he let out a soft scoff—there was nearly three thousand yuan.
“Young lady, is this money for my injuries or are you planning to support me?” Xie Jin lifted his thin eyelids to look at her, his tone casual and teasing.
The warm breeze of late summer brushed against her face, and Zhu Zhixi suddenly felt flushed.
In her past life, she had never spoken to Xie Jin during high school. Xie Jin disliked Gu Qishen, disliked Zhu Huaiqian, and naturally disliked her as well.
In the years that followed, she had only seen Xie Jin a few times, and in her memory, he was sharp-tongued yet steady.
She never expected his mouth to be so shameless.