Chapter 20
Two years later, it was still an autumn afternoon. Sunlight streamed through the classroom window, casting a few rays of quietude on Li Muxue's face, a serene expression unique to young girls. She was intently taking notes, her long eyelashes casting a soft shadow beneath her eyelids, like a barrier isolating her from the outside world. While the other students chattered excitedly about the new semester in their final year of junior high, she remained like a forgotten ink painting.
"Muxue, can I borrow your math homework?" Su Suisui, the classmate, leaned over and asked in a low voice.
Li Muxue nodded gently, pushed the workbook over, but her gaze inadvertently drifted to the slender figure diagonally in front of her. Xu Chen was discussing the wave-particle duality of light with the boy in front of her, his smile clean and bright.
In the two years that have passed, many things seem to have changed, yet nothing seems to have changed. What has changed is the height and appearance of the two people, but what remains unchanged is the subtle relationship between them.
"Mu Xue, I..." Xu Chen couldn't remember when it started, but he changed his way of addressing her from "Xiao Xue" to "Mu Xue". After the bell rang, Xu Chen walked hesitantly to her seat, his voice so soft it was almost inaudible.
Li Muxue didn't look up, but silently packed her schoolbag. She could sense his unease; even his breathing seemed a little tight.
"There's a math quiz tomorrow, and I've compiled a list of key points..."
Xu Chen took a light blue notebook out of his schoolbag and carefully placed it on the table.
"No need, I can manage on my own, thank you!" Li Muxue's voice was as cold as ever, but her grip on the backpack strap tightened unconsciously. She stood up and walked out of the classroom without looking back, leaving Xu Chen standing there alone, still clutching the carefully prepared notebook in his hand.
Stepping out of the school gate, the autumn wind swirled up a few withered leaves, and Li Muxue wrapped her faded coat tighter around herself. She knew she shouldn't hold a grudge against Xu Chen; a few years ago, they were both just innocent children. But whenever she saw Xu Chen, she would remember his father Xu Zhenguo's face as he testified in the security office, her mother's weeping at night, her father's six wasted years in prison, being forced to move into that tiny 20-square-meter room, and so on…
Yet deep down, she could never truly hate Xu Chen. The little boy who had been chased halfway down the street by a puppy to protect her, the little boy who had wrapped an ice cream in a handkerchief and gently pressed it to her forehead to cool her down when she had a fever, and the boy now cautiously trying to get close to her, subtly overlapped in her heart.
On her way home, her bicycle chain suddenly broke. A light drizzle began to fall, and the streets were nearly deserted. Pushing her broken bicycle, tears streamed down her face uncontrollably.
"Mu Xue?" A familiar voice came from behind. Xu Chen stopped his bicycle beside her, one hand on the handlebars and the other holding a black umbrella. His voice was gentle: "I'll take you home."
That evening, in the light drizzle, Xu Chen pushed his bike and walked with her for a full half hour. To shield her from the rain, Xu Chen held the umbrella over Li Muxue's head as high as possible, while his own body was almost entirely exposed to the cool autumn rain. They didn't say much, but at that moment, Li Muxue felt the walls she had built around her heart crumbling little by little.
"Why do you always help me?" she finally couldn't help but ask as they approached Li Muxue's house.
Xu Chen stopped and looked at her intently: "Because I remember how much you used to laugh. I remember the forest park Uncle Li took us to, Aunt Qiao's sweet and sour pork ribs, and every Spring Festival our two families spent together." His voice choked up a little, "No matter what happened, those memories are real."
Li Muxue's tears welled up again, mingling with the rain on her face: "But I should hate you, shouldn't I? Hate your father for ruining my family."
“You can hate me,” Xu Chen said softly, “but please allow me to make amends, not to seek forgiveness, but simply because seeing you in so many predicaments breaks my heart, and I feel even more pain than you…”
She didn't say much, just a simple, "I'm almost there. You should go home quickly. Your home is in the new dormitory now, which isn't close to here..."
That night, Li Muxue developed a fever again because she had been caught in the rain, and her mother gave her a tablet of paracetamol.
She lay in bed, her fever gradually subsiding, as Xu Chen's words echoed repeatedly in her mind. She realized that her feelings for Xu Chen had long since transcended simple hatred or affection, becoming something more complex, something she didn't know what to call it.
From that day on, she began to secretly observe his profile during class, felt inexplicably irritated when he talked to other girls, and imagined in the quiet of the night how their relationship would have developed if that incident hadn't happened...
(To be continued)
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