Chapter 1
On summer nights in Haicheng, neon lights flicker and lights and shadows are dazzling.
He Xi smiled and waved goodbye to the man in the car. After the car slowly started and drove away for a distance, she walked towards the dormitory.
In the sultry weather, besides the humidity in the air, the most unignorable thing is the rich fragrance of osmanthus.
It wasn't a long distance, but after walking for a while, a thin layer of sweat appeared on her back.
When she arrived at the dormitory, she threw her bag on the desk, opened the closet, found a cool pair of pajamas, and went to the bathroom.
After more than ten minutes, the sound of water stopped.
After He Xi finished cleaning the bathroom and came out, she ran into Xue Meng, who had returned to the dormitory at some point. She saw that Xue Meng was staring at her chest with his lustful fox eyes.
She shifted her body, calmly adjusted her pajamas, and began to blow-dry her hair.
"Hey, I wonder which stinky man will get the advantage of this!" There was a hint of teasing in her eyes and words.
He Xi turned sideways to sweep her long hair over, then turned her head and gave Xue Meng a sullen look.
After the two of them became familiar with each other, this man became more and more unscrupulous. She felt embarrassed at first, but now she is almost numb.
Turning off the hair dryer, she shook her sore wrists. The long black curly hair that fell on her back like a waterfall swayed gently with her movements. The pure black and the extreme white were intertwined, inadvertently revealing a temperament of purity and desire.
"Is it Xu Ce who brought you back today?"
There was a gossipy air in Xue Meng's eyebrows and eyes. Seeing this, He Xi smiled and reached out to touch her forehead, which was close to him, neither admitting nor denying.
The air conditioner in the dormitory was blowing cold air. He Xi was sitting facing the air vent. After shivering a few times, she got up and went to the bed to get a small blanket.
Her bed was close to the window facing the road, and the dormitory was on a low floor, so her privacy was very poor. So when she entered the school, she pulled a small curtain for herself.
He Xi tiptoed to reach the blanket, but Xue Meng still followed her unwillingly.
Just when she was about to give in helplessly, a scream suddenly came from outside the window, startling both of them.
Xue Meng, who was a gossip detector, didn't bother to question her anymore. He pushed open the balcony door and rushed out.
"Xixi, come out quickly--!"
A few minutes later, Xue Meng's shouting was heard from the balcony. Judging from her tone, there might be some big news. He Xi lazily threw down the blanket and followed her out.
"What's going on? Breaking up again?"
"A breakup shouldn't be this grand," Xue Meng explained with a composed expression. "Did you see that boy? He's the internet celebrity from the science and engineering school next door."
He Xi sneered and turned to go back, but her arm was held in Xue Lishi's arms and she couldn't get away. Helplessly, she looked downstairs in the direction of her finger.
Under the dim streetlight, the boy stood tall, his hair shone with a warm orange glow from the refraction of the streetlight.
There was a vaguely familiar figure. In an instant, He Xi remembered the first time he met Zhao Lin. That man was full of thorns and looked gloomy and depressed.
She closed her eyes and wiped away the ripples in her heart.
"I don't know which beauty from our school has bewitched this male Bodhisattva. He's been hanging around downstairs every day lately."
Xue Meng tinkered with her own camera to take photos on campus. She would go to the school and back every day, always staying connected to the internet. Whenever there was any movement, she would always be the one to gossip and get in the front row.
"Then take your time to look at it." He Xi was exhausted after working non-stop for more than half a month. He turned around and went into the dormitory without even taking a closer look.
*
The cell phone on the desk, which was set to vibrate, was ringing. He Xi took it out of her bag and took a look - it was Beicheng's number.
In a flash, the tall figure downstairs in the dormitory building flashed into her mind, and she glanced out the window thoughtfully.
He Xi knew the eleven digits by heart. He had dialed and hung up the number countless late nights.
During the more than one year without contact, she forced herself not to think about him. Now she finally achieved some results, but she didn't expect to be brought back to square one again by a phone call!
"Tsk, the handsome guy is probably going to be trending again. I've even thought of a shocking UC headline: Crazy for love, a certain college idol is willing to be a pervert to win her heart!"
Xue Meng enjoyed watching the fun and the sounds of gossip spread from far away.
He Xi's wandering thoughts were awakened, and he woodenly swiped away the call on the screen.
"How about it? I took this photo with my phone at double the speed. It's very clear! I'll barely let you take a look."
Before she could react, Xue Meng's phone fell into her hands.
The boy's tall figure was somewhat deformed by the street lights, his line of sight was shifted, under his wispy bangs were a pair of sharp eyes, and his tightly pursed thin lips revealed that he was already somewhat impatient.
Even the most ordinary T-shirt and trousers on him can make one feel the Creator's preference for him.
He Xi recognized Zhao Lin at a glance.
"No way, our beautiful lady is...stunned?"
"Uh...you're overthinking it."
She raised her eyes and quickly suppressed her emotions, "She looks a bit pretty, but not that..."
She choked and didn't continue.
Facing Xue Meng's secret teasing, He Xi deliberately raised his eyebrows and made a slightly greasy "you know" expression, then returned the phone.
"Oh my, our He Xixi is a man-crusher and a love insulator!"
The two of them joked back and forth for a while, and then He Xi's phone, which she had casually thrown on the table, vibrated again. She glanced at it and hung up.
"My brother, that guy can call me eight hundred times a day, no matter what. It's so annoying!"
Seeing Xue Meng's eyes moving towards her like searchlights, she first found an excuse to get away with it and went to bed early.
She had turned her phone to silent mode, but the screen kept turning on and off silently over and over again.
The man seemed to have grasped her weakness and blatantly invaded her thoughts again and again.
"When did that...campus hunk downstairs show up?"
He Xi couldn't help it after all, he turned over and asked Xue Meng who was still playing games at the desk a little awkwardly.
"Why, are you... tempted by worldly desires? Doesn't that make Xu Ce a little pitiful?"
He Xi sighed in frustration after answering a question that was irrelevant to her and was still being questioned. "I'm just bored before bed, so what's wrong with gossiping?"
"If you say so, wouldn't some people have suffered from heart rhythm disorders long ago?"
As soon as Xue Meng said this teasing remark, before she could refute it, she realized that she was a little too excited.
But it was true that as long as she was involved with him, she seemed destined to be unable to remain calm, since the first time they met.
*
In the midsummer of the year when my second year of high school ended, heat waves were rolling outside the classroom and cicadas were chirping noisily.
He Xi threw down the pen in his hand only after seeing that most of the students who were studying in the class had left, and calmly packed up his things to go home.
It's been over a week since final exams ended, and the campus is still as bustling as it was during school hours. Students, carrying lunch boxes and thermoses, are mostly in a hurry, racing against time.
She raised her hand to block the sunlight from her head, ran to the shade at the corner of the wall, and walked along the wall towards the west gate of the school.
Lancheng No. 6 Middle School has an east-west campus layout. When she saw the west gate security booth from afar, a thin layer of sweat had already appeared on her cheeks.
Mr. He Erye, who was guarding the west gate, was sitting at the door of the security booth, fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan. When he looked up, he saw He Xi, who was looking listless.
"Girl, this is... are you being kept after school again?"
"No, I just did some extra homework."
Grandpa Er had always loved teasing her since she was little, and he still did so now. Under his deliberately skeptical gaze, she scurried out of the school gate.
The crisscrossing alleys are filled with self-built buildings of varying heights on both sides. This place is the famous urban village in Lancheng, and Lancheng No. 6 Middle School is surrounded by it.
When passing by Qiaojie Noodle House, He Xi took several deliberate glances inside. The small shop of more than 20 square meters was packed with students who came to eat.
My cousin Shi Xin was shouting and greeting people in the crowd. She was already accustomed to this kind of scene. She walked towards her own yard without stopping as she passed the main entrance of the noodle shop.
The sun was so scorching at noon that she hadn't walked far when beads of sweat started to run down her cheeks and neck. She was a little annoyed that she had been in such a hurry to go out in the morning that she forgot to bring an umbrella.
The ivy on the shady side wall of the alley is climbing wildly and growing fiercely, and the scenery here is particularly eye-catching in summer and autumn every year.
He Xi shrank as much as possible and hid in the shade of the corner. As she walked, she casually brushed past the crowded green leaves beside her out of boredom. The rustling sound mixed with the sound of her footsteps as she walked through the streets and alleys.
Turning the corner of the alley, a stray cat sleeping in the shade was startled by the noise. It looked up and yawned. After squinting its eyes to see who was coming, it stretched and moved closer to her.
"Mimi, I don't have any food with me right now."
When she went out in the morning, she only packed two exercise books and test papers, and the sausages and cat strips that she usually used to treat them were left in her schoolbag.
The kitten followed her for a few dozen meters without giving up, and then suddenly seemed to notice something and disappeared in a flash.
"You little heartless one."
He Xi shook his head and laughed when he saw this, and walked to the gate of his yard without stopping.
I pushed open the half-open gate and was about to walk into the house, but suddenly I felt something unusual - it felt like a pair of eyes were staring at me, and my back felt cold.
She turned carefully and walked a few steps outside, leaning out and looking around.
Who would have thought that by such a coincidence, her thieving gaze was fixed on the boy who was leaning against the neighbor's door not far in front of her.
In an instant, many speculations emerged in He Xi's mind.
Fights are common in the winding alleys of urban villages, and it is not uncommon to encounter small thugs.
The boy was wearing a white and gray plaid shirt and black trousers on a hot day.
In this sweltering heat, he leaned listlessly against the wall, his head slightly lowered so that his face could not be seen clearly, and he was twisting a piece of ivy leaf in his hand as if bored.
He was tall and thin, and because he lowered his head, his hair was blown by the wind and hung down in front of his forehead, making him look a little... pitiful.
Somehow she thought of the long-haired stray dog hiding at the door of her yard during the heavy rain.
"Alas--"
He Xi shook his head to get rid of the weird thoughts in his mind, held his breath and turned around to walk back, as if afraid of disturbing him.
Step by step, the distance is getting farther and farther.
"Bang—"
Just as she stepped into the yard, there was a sudden clanging sound from the opposite side, as if something had fallen to the ground in Grandma Li's yard.
She was conflicted for two seconds but finally couldn't help but turned back.
My neighbor, Grandma Li, is a widow. She usually picks up cardboard water bottles to exchange for money. I don’t know if she is at home at the moment.
He Xi glanced cautiously across, but unexpectedly, the boy who had been listless just now suddenly raised his eyes, his pair of phoenix eyes were cold and terrifying.
Her gaze on his face paused, and their eyes met.
In just a moment, she felt the coldness in his eyes, exactly the same as the chill she had just felt on her back. She looked away slightly uncomfortably.
The boy had a pair of sharp eyebrows that looked like they were painted, and his thin lips were tightly pursed under his straight nose. His eyes, which were slightly oppressive and set off by the slightly upturned corners of his eyes, gave him an aura that kept strangers away.
She silently apologized to the long-haired stray dog in her heart, because its round, wet eyes looked much cuter than the one in front of her.
After stealing a glance at Grandma Li's closed courtyard door, she felt relieved and returned to her own yard with a frown on her face. She didn't notice that the boy's gaze lingered on her for a moment, and the coldness in his eyes gradually turned into a hint of mockery.
He took one last look through the peeling iron gate at the deserted courtyard behind him, then turned and left.
The ivy leaves that had been trampled by him lay on the ground in tatters, and were carried away by the breeze.
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