Past and Future
The school sports meet, filled with passion and shouts, has come to an end. Jin Can and Ge Ouchen walked out of the school gate side by side, and the campus behind them gradually returned to tranquility.
Thursday afternoon, the sun was shining brightly and a gentle breeze was blowing.
The atmosphere of the holiday quietly permeated the air, and the relaxed and free atmosphere enveloped them, allowing their two hearts, which had been tense due to the competition and exam preparation, to slowly relax.
This was a "victory celebration" that belonged only to them, a fact they both understood without saying a word.
"Hehe, System Master, let's make a deal, okay? Can you turn off the bullet comments?" Jin Can said casually, once again trying to bargain with the system.
Ten seconds later—
bite--!
The Empress system is currently offline and is expected to re-launch tomorrow at 8:00 AM Beijing time.
[Host, please enjoy your date. Have a wonderful day!]
Don't leave us behind!
The barrage of comments disappeared halfway through, and the golden world fell silent for the first time in a long time.
Yay!
It's truly a world for two!
They didn't actually have a specific destination; they just followed the crowd onto the subway and eventually arrived at the most bustling commercial street in the city center.
At noon, they went to KFC. Jin Can ordered the game-themed meal he really wanted and also tried all the snacks he wanted.
The happiness of young people is that simple.
Our first stop after lunch was the largest Xinhua Bookstore in the city.
This used to be a place Jin Can avoided the most, but now she can wander among the bookshelves with a calm and curious heart.
Jin Can saw Ge Ouchen walk straight to the deepest part of the philosophy section, pull out a book as thick as a brick from the bookshelf, called "Critique of Pure Reason", lean against the bookshelf, and quietly start reading.
The atmosphere was peaceful and beautiful.
Sunlight streamed through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, casting a warm glow on Ge Ouchen. His expression was focused, his lips slightly pursed, as if he were deep in thought; he seemed frozen in time, like a tranquil portrait painting.
Jin Can looked at the bookshelf next to him, which was filled with Nobel Prize-winning works of literature, and stopped with great interest, flipping through those books that he once thought were out of reach.
He was holding a sample copy of a collection of essays by a well-known author. He quietly walked up to him, stood on tiptoe, and glanced at the incomprehensible contents of the book.
"Brother Dog, can you understand it?" she asked softly.
Ge Ouchen shifted his gaze from the book to her face.
"I'm afraid you'll laugh at me, but it's actually a bit abstract."
A shy blush rose on the boy's face, and he added in a low voice:
"I feel that the author of this book seems to be trying to express that when using finite logic to understand the infinite universe, rationality itself will fall into the paradox of self-contradiction."
“When I saw Zhou Yu reading the original book before, I was curious and wanted to find out the background of these people for you.”
"The operation has failed, Commander. I am too dull to see through the enemy's intentions."
Jin Can was amused by him and nodded as if she understood.
The two didn't say anything more, just stood and sat quietly by the same bookshelf, each looking at their own books.
The only sounds in the air were the soft rustling of pages turning and the faint scent of ink.
For some reason, Jin Can felt a sense of peace he had never felt before at this moment.
After leaving the bookstore, they went into a boutique filled with a dazzling array of goods.
This place became Jin Can's domain, where she flitted among various cute yet useless trinkets like a cheerful chipmunk.
She picked up a cute Shiba Inu keychain and stuck her tongue out at Ge Ouchen, mimicking its movements; then she suddenly pointed to her favorite character, Gu Zi, and began to tell Ge Ouchen all the good things about the character.
Ge Ouchen looked at her with a slightly helpless expression and a gentle one.
Jin Can smiled broadly, feeling extremely happy. She felt that the usually tense and tedious studies and system tasks had all turned into warm honey at this moment.
Tired from shopping, the two went to a beverage shop on the street corner and bought two cups of milk tea.
Afterwards, they sat idly on a bench in the square, chatting casually, watching the fountain rise and fall, and watching the pigeons stroll leisurely among the crowd.
"Look at that pigeon, it's so fat, it waddles when it walks." Jin Can was extremely excited, with a little bit of white milk foam on the corner of his mouth.
Ge Ouchen casually reached out and gently wiped the cream from the corner of her mouth with his fingertips.
He glanced at the fingertip again, then brought it to his lips, touched it with his tongue, and licked away the sweetness.
"Did your heart flutter this time?"
Jin Can's laughter stopped abruptly, her cheeks flushed red, and her heart skipped a beat.
Ge Ouchen seemed to have been burned and quickly withdrew his hand.
Both of them sensed the ambiguity and uncertainty unique to adolescence, but neither knew how to respond to the subtle tension that was permeating the air.
As Ge Ouchen gazed at the girl in front of him, whose cheeks were flushed and whose eyes darted around, her appearance suddenly overlapped with that of Jin Can, a second-grade elementary school student with braided pigtails and a round face that seemed to be overfed.
Because he was a late bloomer, short, and had a withdrawn personality, he was isolated by his classmates.
During a break between classes, several boys deliberately ran around the classroom and knocked over his desk, sweeping his pencil case and books to the ground.
Instead of showing any remorse, they laughed and continued kicking his pencil case as if they had discovered a new toy.
Ge Ouchen didn't want to cause trouble, so he remained silent and waited for them to finish playing before going to retrieve his belongings.
Upon seeing this, Jin Can immediately rushed over like a small cannonball, forcefully shoved one of the boys to the ground, and shouted in a childish yet forceful voice, "You are not allowed to bully people!"
She picked up his pencil case, then turned and started fighting with several people, saying, "Apologize to me!"
"Holy crap!"
"Jin Can, are you sick?!"
"You don't actually like him, do you?!"
The teacher naturally criticized everyone, including Ge Ouchen.
Afterwards, she took a White Rabbit candy out of her pocket and awkwardly stuffed it into his palm.
“Here you go,” she said. “Eating this candy will make you happy.”
Then, she unwrapped the candy herself and secretly put one in her mouth behind the teacher's back.
From that day on, a ray of light shone into his world.
Whenever someone tries to cause him trouble, Jin Can will jump out.
"I've got Dog Bro under my protection!"
"You can't even beat me, yet you're still being stubborn!"
When Jin Can was a child, his fists were chubby and he was very strong. He never lost a fight with boys.
Thinking of that scene, Ge Ouchen couldn't help but laugh.
Back then, Jin Can was so festive that you could fall in love with him at first sight.
She barged into his world without warning or reason, like a golden sun beginning to shine upon him.
From that moment on, he stopped holding back and joined the battle alongside Jin Can.
It wasn't until he became an undisputed good student in the eyes of the teachers that bullying him not only drew criticism but also risked being favored and reprimanded by the teachers. Only then did this situation gradually disappear.
All his striving for improvement and his obsession with becoming stronger, perhaps at their deepest level, was simply to prevent Jin Can from standing up for him anymore.
She was indeed a formidable fighter, but he saw the bruises on her fair skin clearly, and they pained him deeply.
He always thought that as they grew up, he would be the one pulling her forward.
He hoped he had enough ability to protect this light.
Now, he has witnessed her growth and her transformation.
She transformed from a struggling student who constantly tried to copy her own homework and needed repeated reminders to study, into a role model who could speak confidently in front of the whole class and became a shining star at the sports meet, commanding with composure.
She became better and better, more and more radiant.
Only today, seeing her radiant appearance, did he suddenly realize the truth.
It turns out that the person who needed the other person more was always myself.
Without her, his world would still be a cold wasteland.
It was her appearance that made this barren land bloom with a unique and warm flower.
He wanted to go to the same university as her, and he wanted to walk with her on the streets of the same city, just like they were doing now.
I want to spend my whole life with her like this.
This thought has never been stronger than it is now.
It was so intense that he suddenly felt a deep-seated fear.
His competition results will definitely secure him a place at Tsinghua or Peking University through the guaranteed admission program, and he is confident even if he takes the college entrance examination.
Even though Jin Can ranked among the top ten in his grade this time, it will still be extremely challenging for him to consistently gain admission to a top university amidst the fierce competition of the college entrance examination.
A huge gap still exists between the two.
A terrifying thought surfaced in Ge Ouchen's mind—
She gave up the guaranteed admission to university, focused on achieving a high score in the college entrance examination, and aimed to get into the best university she could get into.
The thought only lasted a second before he rejected it himself.
Controlling scores in the college entrance examination is extremely difficult.
More importantly, if he truly gave up the higher platforms he could have reached, the top universities and the broader academic world that he could have accessed, for her sake...
One day in the future, when the passion fades and the pressures of reality hit, can he really guarantee that he won't resent her for it?
There are countless such cases online.
He dared not gamble.
This sacrifice is unfair to both her and him.
Therefore, the best solution is to let her catch up with me on her own and stand at the same level as me; the worst-case scenario is that I will have to work hard in the future, keeping an eye on everything and guarding against any suspicious people who might get close to her.
However, he still very strongly and urgently hoped that she could achieve the first goal, because all the students who could get into No. 2 Middle School were already quite good.
But... he wasn't sure.
He didn't know whether her enthusiasm for learning this time was due to the so-called system or just another fleeting interest.
Can she truly go all in and persevere to the end?
What if this is just a brief "sudden awakening" in her long life?
What if, once the novelty wears off, she reverts to being that lazy, complacent girl again?
What if she doesn't need me at all...?
Anxious, uneasy... A warm drop of liquid, without warning, slid down from the corner of his eye and landed on the back of his hand.
Ge Ouchen was stunned.
He turned his head abruptly, and in an almost disheveled manner, raised his hand to wipe away the untimely tear.
"Brother Gou, what's wrong?" Jin Can keenly noticed his unusual behavior.
She walked around to stand in front of him, her clear eyes reflecting his reddened eyes.
"No," the boy's voice was hoarse and annoyed. "I got sand in my eyes."
This flimsy excuse was something even Jin Can himself didn't believe, let alone Jin Can.
Jin Can silently took out a pack of tissues from her pocket, pulled out a tissue, and handed it to him.
Ge Ouchen took the tissue and wiped his face haphazardly, but he couldn't wipe away the turbulent waves in his heart.
He desperately wanted a promise, a guarantee.
He needed to know if she truly intended to walk alongside him in the future.
Is there really a place for him?
After a long silence, Ge Ouchen finally raised his head. His eyes, which were always cool and resolute, were now filled with complex emotions.
He looked at Jin Can, his voice carrying a hint of urgency that he himself was unaware of, almost like an interrogation.
"Golden".
"Um?"
"Your efforts this time..." He paused, as if searching for the right word, "...will this momentum continue?"
Jin Can seemed to freeze after hearing this, not understanding why Ge Ouchen suddenly brought it up.
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