Chapter Thirty-Three: Four Hundred and Fifty-Two Days

The car drove away from the city, heading towards the distant suburbs. Outside the window, all was shrouded in darkness and silence.

Zhang Yunzhou glanced at Yao Fangfang in the passenger seat and saw her looking out the window. He reached out and turned off the stereo. The music stopped abruptly, and silence washed over him like a tide.

Yao Fangfang leaned back in the passenger seat, gazing at the remaining afterglow of the city on the distant horizon, and above that, the unobstructed dark blue sky.

She rolled down the car window a crack, and a rush of fresh air instantly filled the air. The cool scent of withered grass and earth sent her newly cut short hair flying wildly, whipping against her face.

"Aren't you cold?" Zhang Yunzhou asked with concern.

"It's not cold, just a little stuffy." She shook her head. Her voice was like snowflakes falling into the night, soft yet icy.

Zhang Yunzhou drove the car up a secluded hillside on the outskirts of the city. He stopped the car and turned off the engine. The headlights went out, and the world suddenly fell into an extreme darkness and silence, with only a faint green light emanating from the dashboard, outlining the blurred contours of each other.

This was only his second time here. The last time he came was to spend New Year's Eve at a nearby guesthouse with his childhood friend. Back then, he discovered that this was an excellent spot for stargazing, and he secretly vowed that next time he would bring a girl he liked here alone.

He took a deep breath, rolled up the car window, and let the last breath of crisp air wash away the restlessness and turmoil brought from the city. The dashboard lights went out, making the starry sky outside the window even clearer.

"Look," Zhang Yunzhou said softly, pointing ahead.

Following his gaze, Yao Fangfang looked through the windshield and was suddenly confronted with the vast starry sky. She blinked and took a soft, almost imperceptible breath.

Without the interference of light pollution, the Milky Way was clearer than ever before, like a ribbon studded with billions of diamonds, adorning the dark sky.

The stars were no longer the sparse and dim presence they were in the city. They were dense and dazzling, shimmering with a cool yet vibrant glow. The rich layers of light were breathtaking. The vastness and tranquility of the universe unfolded slowly before their eyes with a gentle yet firm presence.

"So beautiful," Yao Fangfang murmured to herself, gazing out the window.

"Mm," Zhang Yunzhou responded, but his gaze did not follow her eyes; instead, it quietly lingered on her profile.

Through the bright enough starlight, he could see the faint shadows under her eyelashes, the delicate and pert nose, and the slightly reddened earlobes kissed by the night breeze.

“It really is very beautiful.” He repeated it again, his tone exceptionally serious.

Yao Fangfang paused for a moment, then turned her face, her expression questioning.

"Your new hairstyle." Zhang Yunzhou pointed to his hair and smiled. "It suits you very well."

She subconsciously raised her hand to touch the ends of her hair that had fallen to her ear, remembering that Qu Lei had once said that he liked her best when her hair was long and flowing.

"It's just been shortened a little," Yao Fangfang said calmly, her tone unreadable. She turned back to face the car window, ending the conversation.

She admitted that she did it on purpose, cutting off the long hair that she had kept because of her ex-boyfriend's favoritism, as if she were also cutting off all of yesterday's memories.

Looking at Yao Fangfang's expression, Zhang Yunzhou felt an inopportune sense of relief, which was quickly overwhelmed by a deeper heartache. He hated the person who had hurt her, and he felt even more heartache for the weariness that was hard to hide in her expression at this moment.

"But no matter what you are like, you're fine." His heart was pounding in his chest, but he tried to make his tone sound calm and natural.

Yao Fangfang didn't reply, turning her gaze back to the window. Silence spread through the carriage, but it was no longer awkward. Instead, like the gentle night, it seemed to embrace many unspoken words.

The warmth inside the car was a world apart from the cold outside. A layer of white mist gradually condensed on the glass, turning the starry sky into a hazy dream.

"If you fail after 452 days... will you feel resentful?" she suddenly asked, still gazing out the window.

Zhang Yunzhou was stunned for a moment before he reacted. "No, I respect your choice."

His voice was firm, each word clear. It sounded like a promise, yet also like talking to himself. "So we should cherish every minute we spend together, and not feel any burden."

A shooting star streaked across the sky, leaving a silvery-gray tail, piercing the deep blue night in an instant before fading away silently. It was as fast as an illusion.

Yao Fangfang remained gazing upwards, her eyes fixed on the direction where the shooting star had disappeared, her face expressionless. There was no gasp, no closing of her eyes, and no girlish, devout wish. Her profile appeared somewhat pale in the starlight, her eyes like a still, deep lake.

"Not making a wish?" Zhang Yunzhou asked softly.

Yao Fangfang slowly turned her head, her eyes showing a detachment beyond her years. "Making a wish on a stone that you don't even know where it will fall next seems meaningless."

Moreover, Heaven would never show any mercy to someone like her.

There was no sadness or self-pity in her words, only a cold, almost cruel, clarity. It was as if she had already come to the realization that wishes are the most useless thing in the world, and that she could only rely on herself.

Zhang Yunzhou's heart felt as if it had been scalded by the cold tail of a meteor. Gazing at Yao Fangfang's calm and composed profile, he suddenly understood the sorrow beneath that indifference, a resolute self-protection forged in loneliness.

He was silent for a moment, then smiled gently. "You're right, it's just a stone." He continued, going along with her words. "It just looks beautiful, a fleeting moment of brilliance."

He seemed to be trying to change the subject. Yao Fangfang glanced at him sideways, somewhat surprised that he didn't insist on the romantic notion of making a wish.

He wasn't as domineering and fiery as Qu Lei, nor was he like most of the boys she had ever met. He was more like a slow, penetrating presence, calm, accepting, and approaching silently.

The atmosphere lightened because of this unexpected candor. They stopped talking and simply gazed side by side at the distant, brilliant starry sky.

Occasionally, a vehicle would drive by from the foot of the mountain, its headlights flashing like a fleeting arrow of light, cutting across the horizon and then quickly disappearing, which only accentuated the tranquility of the moment.

A short while later, Yao Fangfang gently moved her arms. "Are you cold?" Zhang Yunzhou noticed keenly.

"A little."

"Shall we go back?" he asked softly, as if he had brought her here tonight simply to see the starry sky. He simply wanted to share with her everything beautiful he saw without reservation.

"Um."

Zhang Yunzhou started the car, the engine roared, and the dashboard lights came on again. He carefully turned up the heater a little. The car turned around and drove down the hillside.

On the way back, the two didn't talk much, but Zhang Yunzhou was clearly enjoying the silence. He didn't turn on any music and just focused on driving.

The car was parked in the shade of the trees outside the university gate. Yao Fangfang unbuckled her seatbelt, opened the car door, and a blast of cold air rushed in.

"Wait!" Zhang Yunzhou called out to her with a smile, got out of the car, took a paper bag from the back seat, and handed it to her. "I brought some local pastries with me on my business trip. Try them with your roommate."

Yao Fangfang took it without hesitation and replied softly, "Thank you."

Zhang Yunzhou smiled, then handed over a small box, his tone relaxed and natural. "Merry Christmas Eve."

This time, Yao Fangfang hesitated for a moment and didn't immediately reach out. Her gaze swept over the gifts and Zhang Yunzhou's face, carrying her usual subconscious distance.

“It’s nothing valuable, but you might find it useful,” Zhang Yunzhou added, his voice filled with gentle patience and no hint of reluctance.

She seemed to weigh her options for a moment, and after a brief silence, finally reached out and took it. "Thank you." She stood by the door and nodded gently to him. Her tone was still calm, but less wary than when she arrived.

"Please put in a good word for Chen Guang with Lin Yu." When I ran into them at the school gate earlier, I noticed the injury on Chen Guang's knuckles and his disheveled appearance. I couldn't help but ask a few more questions before I finally understood what had happened.

"He's actually not a bad person, he just has a short temper."

"I understand." Yao Fangfang lowered her eyelids, paused, and added, "Their personalities still need more work..."

"Goodnight, Fangfang," he said, nodding and smiling.

"Good night." She turned around and walked quickly toward the dormitory door.

In the dormitory, Zhang Yimeng and Qian Zan were already asleep, while Lin Yu's bed remained empty. Yao Fangfang quietly sat down at the desk, turned on the lamp, and looked at the small box in her hand. After hesitating for a moment, she slowly opened it.

Inside was a simple black digital clock with a dark screen, and next to it was a small folded card. She picked up the card and unfolded it; it bore Zhang Yunzhou's neat and crisp handwriting.

She picked up the digital clock and lightly touched the button on the side with her fingertips. The screen lit up instantly. The pale blue numbers were displayed quietly and clearly.

350.

Yao Fangfang was momentarily lost in thought, instantly recalling Zhang Yunzhou's vow of 452 days. Counting from the day he made that vow, 102 days had unknowingly passed. And the end of this countdown corresponded precisely to the day their vow ended.

The gift was so straightforward, yet it bypassed all the frivolous romance and rash promises. He didn't ask for any response, but silently and concretely presented a span of time and an almost obsessive patience.

It is stable, precise, and possesses an undeniable presence, lying quietly in Yao Fangfang's palm, measuring each long and measurable day from this moment to the future.

Outside the window, fine snowflakes began to fall silently, and the whole world fell into a gentle tranquility.

Zhang Yunzhou didn't leave immediately. Leaning back in his seat, he gazed at the faintly lit window, his fingers unconsciously tapping the steering wheel. He knew Yao Fangfang must have seen that number. At this moment, he only hoped she could feel all his heart and patience.

He recalled the hopeless look in Yao Fangfang's eyes as she gazed at the shooting star, and a stronger, more tender feeling welled up within him. He thought that perhaps in the remaining 350 days, he didn't need the shooting star to grant him a wish; the only thing he needed to do was to make Yao Fangfang believe that he was worth this time.