Li Mo
There are only seven days left until the college entrance examination.
The numbers on the countdown clock were alarming, but the atmosphere in the classroom became strangely relaxed.
Instead of constantly emphasizing practice questions and knowledge points on the podium, Yuan Hai began to remind everyone to pay attention to their diet, ensure adequate sleep, and adjust their mindset.
"I've learned most of what I needed to learn. Now the most important thing is to stay steady." He adjusted his glasses, his gaze sweeping over every young and tired face in the audience. "Relax and believe in yourself."
An atmosphere mixed with the sorrow of parting and the revelry of the pre-liberation era began to permeate the classroom.
I don't know who started it, but thick yearbooks and colorful markers began to be passed around between desks.
Everyone laughed and joked, leaving their signatures and blessings on each other's blank school uniforms, some in a flamboyant style and others in neat handwriting.
Liang Xinchong's blue and white school uniform jacket naturally became a "disaster area".
The back, arms, and even the hem were covered with all sorts of names and graffiti.
Zhang Shan drew a crooked basketball, Lin Shusen wrote "May your future be bright and promising," and even Qin Yue boldly signed her name on her sleeve.
But he always used his arm or hand, intentionally or unintentionally, to protect that small area on his left chest.
When someone tried to get a signature, he smiled and stopped them, saying, "This won't do, leave it blank."
Everyone thought he was arrogant, or that he had some special particular opinion, so they would just laugh it off and let it go.
Finally, school was over, and the classroom gradually emptied out.
The afterglow of the setting sun shone through the window, bathing the tables and chairs in a warm golden hue.
Li Mo was tidying up the last few notes when a tall figure loomed over her and stopped beside her desk.
She looked up and saw Liang Xinchong.
He didn't speak, but pointed to the left chest of his school uniform jacket, the spot he had kept so clean, his eyes filled with a stubborn, unyielding expectation.
“Here,” he said, his voice low but unusually clear, “sign here.”
Li Mo looked at him, then at the empty seat he cherished, and understood what it meant.
She pursed her lips, instinctively wanting to call him childish, but the words caught in her throat as she looked into his earnest eyes, bathed in the setting sun, and swallowed them back.
She lowered her eyelashes and took out one of her favorite, darkest ink pens from her pencil case.
"You insisted on making me write while I was dressed like that, but I took off my coat before I wrote."
"I want it."
Liang Xinchong leaned forward slightly. "Sign it."
Li Mo pursed her lips and opened the pen cap.
The pen tip touched the soft fabric, producing a faint rubbing sound.
Li Mo's handwriting was neat and strong; each stroke was deliberate as she solemnly wrote her name where her heart beat.
Li Mo.
After finishing the last stroke, she withdrew her hand, capped the pen, and said in a calm tone, even with a hint of reproach, "Childish."
But Liang Xinchong seemed to have obtained the most precious treasure in the world.
He looked down at the brand-new, still-wet name on his chest, and couldn't help but smile up, revealing a radiant grin.
That smile was more dazzling than the sunset outside the window, carrying a pure, contented silliness.
He stretched out his finger and lightly and carefully brushed it across the name, as if afraid that it would be scratched if touched.
“Here,” he looked up, his gaze fixed intently on her, as if declaring a most important secret, his voice carrying an undeniable solemnity, “is where the heart is.”
Therefore, your name should be placed in the place closest to my heart.
He didn't say it aloud, but Li Mo understood.
The classroom was quiet, with only the chirping of birds returning to their nests outside the window and the clearly audible breathing of each other.
June 6th, the eve of the college entrance examination.
The tension and repression of the day are completely released in an almost carnival-like manner after nightfall.
Someone shouted first, and the entire senior high school building was instantly set ablaze.
Good luck on the college entrance exam!
"Yuehai High School, victory is assured!"
"Class XX, the best!"
At first, there were only sporadic shouts, but they quickly turned into an overwhelming wave of sound.
Students poured out of the classrooms, leaned on the railings in the corridors, waved books, test papers, and even glow sticks they had bought overnight, and shouted themselves hoarse at the teaching buildings downstairs or across the street.
The colorful fluorescent lights traced dazzling paths in the night, like restless youthful souls.
Liang Xinchong was also squeezed into the crowd, holding a green glow stick in his hand, waving it vigorously with everyone and shouting slogans wildly.
The noise and crowds became the best cover.
In the midst of the crowd erupting once again in cheers as a giant banner was unfurled by a certain class, he seemingly unintentionally moved closer to Li Mo.
As Li Mo was looking down at the bustling crowd, she suddenly felt her left hand, which was hanging by her side, being gently grasped.
Her heart skipped a beat, and she instinctively tried to pull her hand away, but she felt his little finger moving very quickly across her palm.
It's itchy.
She immediately understood what he was doing, but she didn't pull away, letting him hold her.
Amidst the deafening shouts around him, and in the flickering light of the fluorescent glow, he secretly wrote his name in her palm with his little finger.
Having done all that, he immediately let go, as if nothing had happened, and continued waving his glow stick and shouting with the crowd, only his ears showed an unnatural red under the flashing neon lights.
Li Mo curled her fingers.
Why would she date such an immature boyfriend?
She didn't look at him, but a very faint smile curved her lips.
Just then, the homeroom teacher, Yuan Hai, and several other teachers passed by on patrol from the other end of the corridor.
Amid the noise, his gaze seemed to casually sweep across the crowd, landing precisely on Liang Xinchong and Li Mo, and he might even have caught Liang Xinchong's subtle movement just now.
However, Yuan Hai said nothing.
His face no longer held its usual seriousness, but instead wore a gentle, almost tolerant expression, as if he were watching a flock of fledglings about to leave the nest, performing their final ritual.
He even nodded to the shouting students, then whispered to the teacher beside him and calmly walked away as if he hadn't seen anything.
Before the shouting frenzy had completely subsided, energetic music and cheers echoed from the direction of the playground.
To relieve stress for everyone, the school, for the first time ever, set up a temporary stage on the playground, where art students volunteered to perform.
Almost all the boarding students and day students who hadn't gone home yet flocked to the playground.
The playground under the night sky became a sea of joy, with glow sticks gathering into a shimmering galaxy.
On stage, songs sang one after another, including pop and rock, creating a lively atmosphere.
When the intro to the last song began, everyone was silent for a moment, then erupted into even louder cheers.
It's "The Sea of Stars".
"Will our love be like the stars guarding the sea..." The person on stage led the singing, and thousands of people in the audience spontaneously began to sing along.
At first the sounds were somewhat chaotic, but they quickly became orderly and loud.
Li Mo and Liang Xinchong were separated by the crowd and stood in different places.
But when the chorus started, their eyes met briefly in the air, separated by the throng of people.
"I come to you, you are the stars and the sea..." Liang Xinchong looked at Li Mo and sang along silently, his eyes bright and firm.
Li Mo looked at him, as if the touch of his name still lingered in her palm.
Amidst the deafening chorus around her, she softly, almost inaudibly, began to hum along.
At that moment, all the anxiety, fatigue, and uncertainty seemed to be temporarily dispelled and sublimated in this vast sea of youthful stars.
They are about to head to their respective battlefields, and it seems they are also heading towards the future they promised each other.
Under the night sky, the singing was loud and clear, and the fluorescent lights were flashing. This was a special night for them, the night before the college entrance examination.
-
Three days later, the college entrance examination ended, and everything came to a close.
Below the teaching building, snow-white exam papers and book pages were thrown out of the windows, like a grand avalanche, fluttering and sweeping across the entire campus.
Cheers, screams, and shouts of relief merged into one, announcing the end of one era and the beginning of another.
Graduation season is also the season for confessions of love.
Freed from the constraints of "puppy love," the secret crush and admiration that had been building up for three years could finally be openly expressed.
Liang Xinchong and Li Mo were prominent figures in their grade. Their desks, bags, and even the love letters and small gifts that were handed to them by others were piled up like small mountains.
Li Mo carefully organized her own documents, putting away all the exquisite envelopes and thoughtful handicrafts.
Several gifts that were specially wrapped for Liang Xinchong somehow ended up with her, and she carefully kept them all.
When she handed the envelopes with the obvious girl's handwriting to Liang Xinchong, he was leaning lazily against the corridor railing, looking at the noisy crowd downstairs, without even lifting his eyelids.
"Here you go." Li Mo handed the envelope to him.
Liang Xinchong glanced at it, his brows furrowing almost imperceptibly, and said indifferently, "Throw it away."
Li Mo said with some helplessness, "It's still someone else's good intention."
Upon hearing this, Liang Xinchong finally turned his head, his gaze falling on her calm and expressionless face, and a small flame inexplicably ignited in his heart.
He stared at her, his tone carrying a barely perceptible hint of probing and sourness: "So many girls give me gifts, don't you mind at all?"
Li Mo met his gaze, her eyes clear, and answered matter-of-factly, "I don't mind."
Liang Xinchong was infuriated by her "magnanimous" demeanor and almost blurted out, "I mind."
He thought of the letters from other boys that he had secretly slipped to Li Mo, and his heart felt like it was stuffed with cotton, making him feel suffocated.
Li Mo felt his jealousy was completely unreasonable and couldn't help but retort, "...That's because you're petty!"
“It’s not that I’m stingy,” Liang Xinchong took a step forward, getting closer to her, his gaze intense, his voice low and earnest, “It’s that I like you more.”
Without a word, he grabbed her wrist, gently pulled her towards him, wrapped his arms around her waist, rested his chin on the top of her head, and, like a child who hadn't gotten candy, sullenly accused her: "You just don't like me that much."
His embrace carried the scent of sunshine and laundry detergent, along with a touch of youthful stubbornness.
Li Mo did not struggle, letting him hold her, listening to the somewhat aggrieved heartbeat coming from his chest.
A few seconds later, her cool voice rang out in his arms, carrying a soothing quality:
"I like you."
Those four simple words, like a feather brushing against the tip of his heart, instantly soothed most of Liang Xinchong's anxiety.
But he greedily wanted more. He loosened his grip on her slightly, looked down into her eyes, and asked persistently, "Then what do you like about me?"
Li Mo was stunned.
She remembered asking him the same question a long time ago, in the dimly lit corridor of Mingde Building.
He hesitated for a long time before giving her a "vivid" answer.
Now, it's her turn.
She began to think about it seriously.
She found herself unable to summarize her feelings for him with any single word.
She pondered for a long time, so long that the expectation in Liang Xinchong's eyes was gradually replaced by disappointment, and the corners of his mouth drooped slightly.
Just when he thought he would never get an answer and was about to comfort himself with "It's okay, it's enough that I like you"—
Li Mo suddenly turned her head and gently and quickly pressed her soft lips against the corner of his slightly pursed lips.
Instantly separate.
Liang Xinchong was completely stunned, his mind went blank.
Li Mo tilted her head slightly, her fair cheeks flushed with a faint blush, and her usually cool eyes now held a soft light of honesty and bewilderment.
She looked at him, her voice soft, yet reaching his ears with unparalleled clarity:
I don't know what it means to like someone.
"But I want to kiss you now."
With a bang, Liang Xinchong felt all the blood rush to his head, and his heart was beating so fast it felt like it was about to break free from the confines of his chest.
All the disappointment, grievances, and unease crumbled in the face of her clumsy yet incredibly sincere confession and that proactive kiss.
He looked at her flushed cheeks and her eyes that reflected his image, and a huge wave of joy and satisfaction overwhelmed him.
He chuckled softly, tightened his arms, and pulled her even closer into his embrace, as if he wanted to meld her into his very bones.
"Mmm," he buried his face in the crook of her neck, his voice hoarse, filled with an overwhelming tenderness and amusement, "This answer... I really like it."
Two seconds later, he said again, "Give me another kiss? I didn't react in time."
Li Mo: "..."
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