Chapter 7
The autumn sun, having shed the harshness of summer, became exceptionally gentle and mellow. Walking along the campus paths, the autumn air was exceptionally comfortable. The ginkgo leaves beside me drifted down slowly in the breeze; beneath my feet lay a thick carpet of fallen leaves, rustling crisply like autumn's unique whispers. The ginkgo trees were the most generous, offering up their year's worth of reserves to create a dazzling golden carpet; while the maple and tallow trees, not to be outdone, adorned the carpet with fiery red and ochre hues, like dancing flames. After returning from the old town, a certain invisible barrier seemed to have been broken down. Lü Xiaoyan remained silent, but that silence held less distance and more of a tacit intimacy. Qiu Yayu was still lively, but she had also learned to quietly accompany him when he was focused.
Autumn is approaching its most glorious peak.
That afternoon, Qiu Yayu had no classes and carried her books across the ginkgo avenue to the library. Sunlight filtered through the golden leaves, dancing on her. She couldn't help but stop, tilt her head back, close her eyes, and feel the gentle touch of the leaves against her cheeks and the warmth of the sunlight on her eyelids.
Not far away, Lü Xiaoyan happened to come out of the library and saw this scene.
Amidst the golden rain of leaves, a girl in a beige sweater tilts her head back, a serene smile playing on her lips, the sunlight casting a soft, fuzzy halo around her. She looks almost unreal.
Almost instinctively, he raised the camera he always carried with him, quickly adjusted the settings, and pressed the shutter several times. He didn't disturb her; he simply quietly recorded this scene, more moving than any landscape.
Qiu Yayu felt a continuous "click" sound, opened her eyes, and looked in the direction of the sound. When she saw it was him, a smile instantly bloomed on her face, like ripples spreading across a lake after a pebble has been thrown in. She jogged through the falling leaves to stand in front of him, a few small ginkgo leaves clinging to her hair and shoulders.
"You caught me again?" she said lightly, with a hint of smugness. "Have you thought of a title for this shoot? 'The Way Autumn Smiles'?"
Looking at her bright eyes and the tiny highlights on the tip of her nose illuminated by the sunlight, Lü Xiaoyan felt a gentle tickle in his heart. He put away his camera, not answering her question, but instead reaching out and casually brushing a fallen leaf from the top of her hair.
This sudden, gentle movement stunned both of them.
Qiu Yayu felt a slight tingling sensation on her scalp from his fingertips touching her, and a wave of heat uncontrollably crept up to her ears. Lü Xiaoyan also seemed to have been burned, quickly withdrawing his hand and putting it in his coat pocket, his fingertips still retaining the soft touch of her hair.
A subtle, ambiguous scent, mixed with the bitter aroma of ginkgo leaves, filled the air.
"Shall we...go for a walk by the lake?" Qiu Yayu broke the silence first, her voice a little lower than usual, with a hint of barely perceptible nervousness. "I heard the sunset will be beautiful tonight." She pointed to the Weiming Lake not far away.
Lü Xiaoyan looked in the direction she pointed, and the lake surface shimmered with golden light under the setting sun. He nodded: "Okay."
The two walked side by side on the path strewn with fallen leaves, their footsteps rustling softly. They didn't speak much, simply walking quietly, enjoying the unique tranquility and beauty of this autumn twilight. Occasionally, a fallen leaf would twirl and land between them, only to be gently blown away by the wind.
Arriving at the lake, I found a bench facing west and sat down. The setting sun was sinking at a visible speed, dyeing the clouds on the horizon a brilliant orange-red and purplish-red, the colors so rich they resembled spilled oil paint. The weeping willows by the lake were turning yellow, swaying gently in the evening breeze, their reflections shimmering in the colorful water, like a dream.
"So beautiful..." Qiu Yayu sighed softly, hugging her knees, resting her chin on her arm, and gazing at the sky in a daze. "It feels like all my troubles are insignificant in the face of such a beautiful view."
Lu Xiaoyan sat beside her, his camera on his lap, but he didn't raise it. He simply looked quietly at the sky and the lake, and then his gaze involuntarily fell on the profile of the person next to him.
The afterglow of the setting sun bathed the fine downy hairs on her cheeks in gold, and her pupils reflected the glow of the sunset, shimmering with a hazy, warm light. She was so focused on her gaze that she didn't notice his prolonged stare.
At that moment, the silent wasteland in Lü Xiaoyan's heart seemed to be completely ignited by the autumn twilight and the person beside him. A surging emotion that he could no longer ignore clearly surfaced.
He stopped struggling and stopped avoiding her. He simply looked at her quietly, as if trying to imprint her, this autumn, this twilight, deep into his soul.
Qiu Yayu seemed to sense his overly focused gaze and turned her head slightly. Their eyes met, and against the backdrop of the magnificent sunset, time and sound seemed to have been drawn away.
She saw that his deep brown eyes no longer held their usual indifference and aloofness, but instead reflected the sunset and her figure, carrying a deep and tender emotion she had never seen before.
Her heart skipped a beat, as if it were filled with something, a feeling of fullness, sourness, and an indescribable sweetness.
He didn't speak.
She didn't have any either.
All words seem pale and powerless in the face of such magnificent scenery and such clear sentiments.
As the last rays of dusk sank below the horizon, the sky gradually shifted from warm hues to a cool blue-purple. The lakeside streetlights lit up one by one, casting warm yellow glows in the deepening twilight.
A chilly autumn wind blew by, swirling up fallen leaves from the ground.
Qiu Yayu instinctively shrank back.
Lu Xiaoyan silently took off her thin coat, her movements slightly stiff, but she draped it over her shoulders without giving her a chance to refuse.
His body heat and faint, clean scent, still lingered on her coat, mixed with the smell of camera leather and developing fluid, enveloping her tightly.
Qiu Yayu clutched the hem of his clothes, which still held his warmth, and looked up at his profile, which was somewhat blurred in the twilight. Her heart softened.
"Thank you," she said softly, her voice carried on the evening breeze.
Lü Xiaoyan hummed in agreement, her gaze still fixed on the now-darkened lake, but her ears turned a quiet red in the dim light of the streetlights.
Autumn was deepening, and the nights brought a chill. But some things, amidst the falling leaves and twilight, irreversibly warmed and solidified. As dusk deepened, the streetlights cast warm yellow halos in the twilight, like gentle stars falling to earth. The coat, still warm and carrying the scent of Lü Xiaoyan, was draped over Qiu Yayu's shoulders, dispelling the chill of the autumn night, yet making her heart pound even harder.
The two remained seated side-by-side on the lakeside bench, neither suggesting leaving first. An unspoken understanding hung in the air, along with a palpable ambiguity. Their draped coats seemed to silently unveil the last, barely perceptible veil between them.
Qiu Yayu quietly clenched the hem of her coat, her fingertips feeling the soft texture of the fabric. She turned her head slightly, stealing a glance at Lü Xiaoyan beside her. He sat upright, his gaze still fixed on the dark lake surface. His profile was sharply defined in the interplay of streetlights and twilight, his jawline taut, as if he were trying to maintain a facade of calm. But she keenly noticed his hand resting on his knee; his fingers unconsciously curled slightly.
She suddenly remembered Su Xiaoxiao's teasing in the dormitory—"Those who are into art are all deep-thinking." But at this moment, she felt that his thoughts were not difficult to understand; they were just carefully wrapped up by his silence and habitual aloofness. And the way he put on his coat just now, and his slight awkwardness now, were like cracks in the tightly wrapped packaging, allowing her to glimpse the real, surging temperature inside.
"Lü Xiaoyan," she said softly, her voice exceptionally clear on the quiet lakeside.
He turned his head at the sound, his gaze falling on her face with a questioning look.
Qiu Yayu mustered her courage, met his gaze, and smiled gently: "Your coat is very warm."
It was a simple sentence, yet it felt like a feather brushing against his heart again. Looking at her face bathed in the soft glow of the streetlights, and at his own clear reflection in her eyes, Lü Xiaoyan's Adam's apple bobbed slightly. He wanted to say something, such as "You're welcome," or "It's cold tonight," but the words caught in his throat. In the end, he simply looked deeper into her eyes and then nodded almost imperceptibly.
That one look speaks volumes.
Qiu Yayu's smile deepened, and the uncertainty she felt from his silence vanished instantly. She turned her gaze back to the lake, watching the lights of the teaching buildings on the opposite bank reflected in the water, rippling in the evening breeze and breaking into shimmering spots of light.
"Su Xiaoxiao, the girl in our dorm who loves to shop," she suddenly started talking about funny things in the dorm, her tone light and cheerful, "She bought another scarf today, a bright yellow one, all fluffy. She said it looked like ginkgo leaves in autumn, but Shen Yuqi complained that it looked like the fur of the fat orange cat downstairs..."
She talked on and on, no longer engaging in a conversation that required his response, but more like a sharing, a natural outpouring. Lü Xiaoyan listened quietly without interrupting. He watched her ponytail sway slightly as she spoke, watched her expression come alive with her description, and felt as if the cold air around them had become lively and warm because of her words.
This was an experience he had never had before. He was used to being alone, used to quiet, used to using the camera to communicate. But now, listening to the girl beside him recounting those trivial, everyday things in her sweet voice, he found that this "noise" wasn't annoying at all, and even... gave him a strange sense of peace.
Night fell completely, and stars twinkled sporadically against the dark blue sky. The wind by the lake grew cooler.
"It seems... I should go back." Qiu Yayu glanced at the time and said with some reluctance.
"Hmm." Lü Xiaoyan stood up.
Qiu Yayu also stood up, took off her coat, and handed it back to him: "Thank you, it's much warmer now."
Lü Xiaoyan took it, her fingertips lightly touching hers again. This time, neither of them immediately pulled away. That momentary warm touch felt like a small brand.
On the way back, the two walked in silence as before, but the atmosphere was completely different from when they arrived. The arrival had been a quiet one, filled with tentative anticipation; now, it was a tacit, warm tranquility. The streetlights stretched their shadows, shortened them, and stretched them again, sometimes separating, sometimes overlapping, as if silently enacting a certain intimacy.
As we walked down to the girls' dormitory, the bright lights and the faint sounds of laughter foreshadowed our parting.
“Then I’ll go up.” Qiu Yayu stopped, turned around to face him, her eyes shining brightly under the lights in front of the building.
"Okay." Lü Xiaoyan nodded. "Get some rest."
"You too." She smiled, waved, and ran into the dormitory building.
Lu Xiaoyan stood there, watching her figure disappear behind the door, but didn't leave immediately. He looked down at the coat in his hand; it seemed to still carry her faint, sun-kissed, grassy scent. He slowly put on the coat, and the scent lingered even more clearly in his nostrils.
He looked up at the warm light shining from Qiu Yayu's dormitory window. After a moment, a familiar figure appeared by the window and waved vigorously in his direction downstairs.
He was too far away to see her expression clearly, but he knew she was smiling.
Lü Xiaoyan raised her hand and waved it gently towards the window.
Then, he turned and stepped into the late autumn night, his footsteps crunching on the fallen leaves. His back was still slender, but his steps seemed more firm and light than ever before.
This autumn has become completely different because of the appearance of one person.
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