Four
It was Tuesday.
Ning Yi'en took leave from all evening self-study sessions from August until the first monthly exam.
The last period was self-study. When the bell rang, almost everyone in the classroom rushed to the cafeteria or the playground. Ning Yi'en didn't want to go downstairs in such a crowded place, and she also had a few questions left to finish, so she decided to finish them before going home.
Their classroom was in a great location; looking out the window, there was an unobstructed view of the sky—at five o'clock in the afternoon, the sky was dyed a bright orange-red by the setting sun, fiery and full of boundless energy.
I got stuck on the last few questions for several minutes. By the time I packed my bag to go home, some classmates had already finished dinner and returned to the classroom.
"Senior, senior." Ning Yi'en heard someone calling when he reached the back door of the classroom. At first, he didn't think it was calling him, but then he realized that there were no senior students left in the school.
"Ning... Ning Yi'en." The girl who spoke looked a bit young, not like a senior in high school. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Or you can go eat first, and I'll ask you later," she added when Ning Yi'en hadn't spoken after a few seconds.
“I’ve asked for leave from evening self-study and am going home. You see, maybe we should ask someone else, or maybe tomorrow?” Ning Yi’en didn’t consider himself a very helpful person, and he genuinely wanted to get home as soon as possible.
“I just transferred to this class yesterday and don’t know anyone,” she said. “Of course, if you find it troublesome, I can still—”
"Hey, little sister." She was interrupted halfway through her sentence by Luo Yao, who had just come in through the back door. He grinned and teased her, "If you call me brother, I'll tell you all about who in our class has the best grades, who's the best in which subject, and so on. If you want to know, I can even tell you who's a good match for you."
Then he glanced at Ning Yi'en again, his expression ambiguous, "Some people get good grades without even knowing how they did it."
The girl's face darkened, but she neither refuted nor responded.
Luo Yao ignored all of that and raised an eyebrow. "How about it? Call me 'brother' and I guarantee I'll find the most suitable person to explain these problems to you."
"I'm not in a rush. Let me look at the book." Ning Yi'en couldn't stand it anymore. Actually, she didn't mind the sarcastic tone directed at her, but she hated how this person treated others. "Would you mind coming to my seat?"
"Oh, okay, thank you, senior." The girl handed him the book.
Seeing that his flirting had failed, Luo Yao gave Ning Yi'en the middle finger as she walked away, saying, "Stop pretending, you're just putting on airs!"
"This problem requires establishing the system first... and then..."
"Do you understand?" Ning Yi'en put down her pen and looked at her. "You can write a few more questions like this later. If there are still any you don't understand, just come and ask me tomorrow."
"Understood, thank you."
"fine."
"Oh, right." She smiled, then realized she hadn't introduced herself. "My name is Tang Xuanling, also known as Ling Yuling."
"Okay, I'll be going now." Ning Yi'en straightened the table, stood up, and prepared to turn around.
Lu Yunian returned to the classroom while Ning Yi'en was explaining problems to others. Seeing someone sitting there studying, he silently leaned against the cabinet behind him and waited.
Ning Yi'en was completely unaware that someone was behind her, and as she turned around, Lu Yunian happened to lean in her direction again, and the two of them ended up nose to nose.
For a long time, neither of them spoke—feeling their hearts racing as they parted ways.
Ning Yi'en felt that she was probably caught off guard and was frightened, while Lu Yunian suddenly understood the feeling of being so handsome that he was speechless—a few strands of hair casually fell in front of his forehead, his nose was high and straight, and his eyes were deep and clear, sparkling like stars.
Just like their first meeting, it was like a gentle breeze after a rain, blowing away all the gloom and slowly soothing the soul. In fact, that day it might have just been Ning Yi'en's casual glance, but Lu Yunian remembered it for a very long time.
But clearly, the time, place, and posture are all very unsuitable for reminiscing now.
"Senior, uh, um, Ning Yi'en, I'm sorry. I..." Lu Yunian took half a step back, his speech still not fully processed, and smiled at Ning Yi'en while scratching the back of his head.
"It's nothing, I wasn't paying attention," he said, slinging his bag over his shoulder and waving to Lu Yunian and Tang Xuanling. "I'm leaving now, see you tomorrow."
After walking a few steps, he turned back to look at Lu Yunian. "Very handsome," he mouthed, but Lu Yunian didn't hear him clearly. He just stood there for a while after he left.
He didn't even realize that the sun had dyed a large patch of clouds on the horizon red, creating a rare and beautiful sunset.
"I will definitely become his best, best, and closest friend," Lu Yunian thought to himself as he gazed at the golden moon outside the window during evening self-study.
Lu Yunian thought of that day again.
It was a morning in March, to be precise, Wednesday, March 11th. A day Lu Yunian felt he would always remember.
The heavy rain lasted all night, leaving puddles of water on the uneven road surface.
Lu Yunian woke up late and pedaled his bicycle incredibly fast. The lanes next to him were full of speeding vehicles, moving so fast they looked like they were about to take off, splashing water repeatedly.
There was a deep puddle ahead, and the car behind him showed no sign of slowing down. Afraid of getting splashed with dirty water, Lu Yunian thought he might as well ride onto the sidewalk. However, he underestimated the height of the sidewalk steps and how slippery the ground was. He veered to the right and successfully fell off the sidewalk with his bike.
Actually, it wasn't that embarrassing. After all, he had fallen before when he was learning to ride a bicycle. He comforted himself, saying that his palms and fingertips were scraped and smeared with dirty water from the ground. Water splashed by passing cars also got on him. He thought the weather forecast would be warm, so he only wore his school pants and fell, scraping his knees badly.
It's okay, as long as I ride faster, at least I won't be late today.
He brushed the dust off his hands—the rubbing of the broken parts against each other made him wince in pain. He picked up the bicycle, got on, and pedaled hard, but the fall he had just made caused the chain to come off. He pedaled once but missed, and then fell again.
Unfortunately, a classmate passed by him at that moment, and a sharp laugh reached his ears: "Go Lu Yunian! Looks like I'm not the last one to get to the classroom."
Ning Yi'en arrived at this moment—"arrived" isn't quite accurate, she simply walked towards him, smiled, bent her knees, and extended her hand, "Classmate, do you need any help?" But in Lu Yunian's eyes, she was like an angel descending from the light, incomparably beautiful.
It seemed that the dark clouds were blown away by the wind at this moment, and the sun shone through the gaps in the clouds. Perhaps the size of the dispersed particles in the air was just between one and one hundred nanometers, and the Tyndall effect was formed, making the shape of the light beautifully clear.
Lu Yunian originally wanted to show off and say that he could do it, but the pain from his hands, knees and buttocks reminded him that he had no choice but to reach out to Ning Yi'en and use the strength to get up from the ground.
Ning Yi'en glanced at his hand briefly, then took out a pack of tissues and a few individually packaged iodine swabs from her bag. "You can treat it briefly first, but it's best to go to the infirmary when you get to school." She then squatted down to check the chain on his bicycle.
Looking up, he saw Lu Yunian clumsily handling the swab, and added instructions, "First, take a tissue to absorb the water on your hands, then gently dab it little by little. Then, break one end of the cotton swab open to let the iodine remain before wiping—is it a little hard to break? Let me do it." He then reached out and took the cotton swab from Lu Yunian, and bent down to untangle it.
Lu Yunian was a little stunned, standing there quietly watching, even forgetting to wipe his hands.
—His heart was beating so fast just now. Was it because of the person opposite him? Actually, Lu Yunian couldn't quite tell. Maybe it was just the suspension bridge effect. His heart rate must have accelerated when he fell. It must have been—But actually, even if someone stood next to him and told Lu Yunian, "You're falling in love," he definitely wouldn't have believed it at the time. After all, how could a boy like another boy?
The light fell perfectly on the boy's profile, making his already striking features appear even more striking. However, even with the warm sunlight, his appearance still exuded a cold, unapproachable aura. He was more like a delicate porcelain doll, every feature of his face seemingly flawless.
“Hey classmate,” Ning Yi’en handed him the cotton swab, “your bike chain is off. Do you want to take it to a repair shop, or should I fix it for you first?”
"How about I do it myself? I won't trouble you." Lu Yunian said, about to squat down and help, but Ning Yi'en stopped him.
"My hand is cut, and if it gets in the engine oil again, it'll really get infected. Let me do it, it'll be quick."
"Is that alright? Thank you so much."
"Um."
While Ning Yi'en was working on her bicycle, Lu Yunian stood beside her, feeling a little awkward doing nothing, so he took the initiative to start a conversation, "Hey classmate, are you a freshman or a senior in high school this year?"
"Senior year of high school."
"Oh, you're a year ahead of me. You'll be taking the college entrance exam soon. Good luck on your exam, senior."
How awkward and uncomfortable. Actually, Lu Yunian thought he was usually quite talkative, but for some reason he was a bit stiff today. Fortunately, the chain was easy to fix, so the awkwardness wouldn't last too long.
"I'm so sorry to have troubled you, senior. You even got your hands all covered in black oil."
"It's nothing, I'll just wash up later." His tone was actually quite indifferent, but it sounded very comforting to Lu Yunian. "I see you've hurt yourself a bit, is it alright? It would be best if you went to the infirmary later."
"Hey, it's nothing. I fell a lot when I was a kid, so I'm tough and it'll be fine." He scratched the back of his head and smiled at Ning Yi'en. "It's just that I'll have to sneak to the cafeteria during break again, and the breakfast there is really not good."
“A sandwich,” Ning Yi’en said, taking one out of her bag. “Do you want one? I made it myself this morning, I made too much.”
"Ah, ah." Lu Yunian paused for a moment. "Then thank you, senior." He then reached out and took the money. "How about we exchange contact information? I'll treat you to dinner this weekend to express my gratitude."
Ning Yi'en glanced at her watch. "Sorry, I have something urgent to attend to, so I'll be going now."
It was true that he had wasted a lot of their time, but Lu Yunian didn't insist. However, he still felt a little regretful when he thought about it later.
It was a very short period of time, perhaps less than fifteen minutes from the fall to the moment they said goodbye, but Lu Yunian had already recalled it thousands of times in his mind.
The air was fresh after the rain, and the sunshine after the clouds cleared was wonderful. That sandwich was the best Lu Yunian had ever eaten in his life.
But in reality, this past has been embellished countless times in his memories, ultimately becoming the most beautiful image in Lu Yunian's mind—perhaps the air that day was oppressive, perhaps the sun didn't shine on his senior's face at all, perhaps his senior never tilted his head to smile at him but only offered cold help, or perhaps Lu Yunian has never been good at observing life and would never know whether the sky that day actually had the Tyndall effect, or perhaps everything has been distorted in his memory, becoming a thousand times more beautiful than it originally was.
But it doesn't matter. Just keep the beautiful memories in your mind. No one says that memories have to be exactly as they were. Even if they are embellished a thousand times, they are still just memories—memories that make people incredibly happy.
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