Chapter Thirty-Nine
In the afternoon, sunlight streamed obliquely through the classroom window, falling on Xu Li's profile. He leaned slightly forward, discussing a problem in hushed tones with Leng Yuxuan. It was almost as if Xu Li was explaining the problem to Leng Yuxuan, his voice so soft as if afraid to disturb the dust.
Their shoulders were almost touching, and their hair occasionally brushed together, like two leaves that had accidentally bumped into each other.
Tan Yuze, who was twirling his pen in the back seat, slammed the metal cap against the table with a "thud." He stared at the two heads in front of him, which were almost touching, his Adam's apple bobbing. Suddenly, he sneered and used his foot to hook Xu Li's chair back halfway. "You two are practically one person. Why don't you just stack your books together and write on them?"
Xu Li didn't turn around, but the tips of her ears turned red, and she drew a sharp line on the paper with her pen. Leng Yuxuan was the first to react, laughing and trying to smooth things over: "Tan Yuze, what are you being so sour about? We're discussing the questions."
Tan Yuze slammed his pen down, leaned back, and the chair back slammed against him with a dull thud: "Me, being so sour? Do I have to be like that?" He turned his face to look out the window, where the sunlight fell perfectly on his eyelashes, casting a small shadow like two thin pieces of ice.
Two seconds later, he couldn't help but glance at Xu Li's nape out of the corner of his eye—there was a small brown mole there, appearing and disappearing between his collar and his hand as he wrote.
Xu Li finally turned around, her eyes shining brightly: "Then you do it, I don't know how to do this guide line." Tan Yuze was stunned for a moment, the corners of his mouth turned up, then quickly flattened them, and deliberately slammed the table with a loud bang as he stood up: "Move aside, let me see—don't block my light."
Leng Yuxuan suppressed a laugh and moved to the side, sunlight falling again between the two of them, like a warning line that had been drawn back. Xu Li lowered her eyes and quietly pushed the draft paper towards Tan Yuze, the corner of the paper just pressing down on Tan Yuze's fingertips, like a piece of reconciliation secretly handed over.
Tan Yuze's fingertips were pressed by the corner of the paper, like being tickled by a feather, making him instinctively curl up. He didn't look up, but just dragged the draft paper in front of him, his voice muffled in his throat: "This problem isn't drawn like this... Move the center of the circle half a grid to the left."
Xu Li hummed in response but didn't move. Instead, she moved her chair back half an inch, the chair legs scraping softly against the floor. Tan Yuze's knee was lightly touched; through the fabric of his school trousers, the warmth felt like a sudden spark.
He looked up and met Xu Li's smiling gaze—a smile tinged with apology, and something else, like warm water mixed with honey, scalding his ears.
"Why move so far?" Tan Yuze's throat was dry, and the mechanical pencil in his hand clicked, releasing a bit of lead. "Are you afraid I'll eat you?"
Xu Li didn't reply, but simply tapped the draft paper with the end of her pencil: "Then come a little closer, I can't see the auxiliary lines you drew." Her voice was very low, so low that only the two of them could hear it.
The back window wasn't closed properly; the wind billowed the curtains, then they fell back down, like the opening and closing of a curtain. Leng Yuxuan had already tactfully turned to discuss English vocabulary with the person behind her, leaving them with an abrupt silence amidst the noisy background.
Tan Yuze stared at the tuft of hair sticking up behind Xu Li's ear, then suddenly reached out and lightly brushed his fingertips against the end of the hair before quickly withdrawing his hand, as if he had just been shocked by static electricity.
“Your hair is sticking up,” he explained dryly.
Xu Li didn't dodge; instead, she tilted her head, making the tuft of hair stick up even more noticeably: "Then help me press it down."
Tan Yuze stared at him for two seconds, then suddenly smiled, revealing a sharp canine tooth. He raised his hand, but instead of pressing down on his hair, he pulled Xu Li's school uniform collar to the right, just covering the small brown mole: "This looks much better."
Xu Li's eyelashes trembled, like butterfly wings fluttering in the wind. He looked down at the question again, drew two crooked lines on the paper with his pencil, and then stopped: "Tan Yuze."
"Um?"
"Were you... jealous just now?"
The pencil tip left a black dot on the paper. Tan Yuze neither denied nor admitted it, but simply erased the black dot harshly with an eraser, leaving the paper rough. He suddenly reached out and lightly scratched the inside of Xu Li's wrist with his fingernail, as if leaving an invisible mark.
"Let's go home together tonight," he said. "I have something to tell you."
Xu Li's fingertips paused on the draft paper, the last stroke of the character "泽" dragging out long, like a line that refused to end. A bird flew past the window, its shadow lingering briefly on the desk before flying away again.
As soon as the school bell rang, the classroom scattered like a beehive that had been overturned. Tan Yuze slung his schoolbag over his shoulder, carrying it on one shoulder, with his other hand in his pocket, deliberately walking slowly. The corridor lights stretched his shadow long, like a river that refused to speak first.
Xu Li followed behind, dawdling, twirling the mechanical pencil in his hand. There was a faint ring of teeth marks on the pencil, which he had secretly bitten that afternoon, and he quickly wiped it off with his sleeve to avoid being discovered.
When they reached the convenience store at the school gate, Tan Yuze suddenly stopped and looked back at him. The streetlights gilded his eyelashes with a fluffy golden edge.
"Want some?" He raised his chin and pointed to the freezer.
Xu Li shook her head, then nodded, and finally added in a low voice, "...I want grapefruit flavor."
Tan Yuze smiled, took two bottles of soda from the freezer, and pried open the caps with a "pop," releasing grapefruit-flavored soda. He shoved one of the bottles into Xu Li's hand, his fingertips brushing against her palm like an unintentionally lit fuse.
The two walked side by side toward the bus stop, their shadows sometimes overlapping and sometimes separating under the streetlights. Xu Li took a sip of his drink, the coldness making him squint, tiny water droplets clinging to his eyelashes. Tan Yuze suddenly reached out and wiped the water from the corner of his lips with his thumb, his voice so low it was almost inaudible: "I actually knew the answer to that question this afternoon."
“…I know.” Xu Li pressed the bottle against her cheek to cool it down.
"But I want to hear you say it."
Tan Yuze didn't reply, but simply kicked a pebble on the roadside. The pebble rolled into the drain with a crisp sound. The bus arrived, but they didn't get on. They watched in tacit agreement as the doors closed, the headlights flashing across their faces like a brief searchlight.
"Want to take a walk?" Tan Yuze asked.
"Um."
They turned into the alley behind the school. The streetlights were broken, and only a sliver of light shone through the distant convenience store's lightbox. When they reached the old locust tree at the alley's entrance, Tan Yuze suddenly stopped, leaned against the trunk, and threw his schoolbag at his feet. The locust blossoms were scattered all over the ground, like a layer of pale blue snow.
"Xu Li," he called out, his voice a little hoarse, "if you had gotten any closer this afternoon, I would have..."
"What?" Xu Li stood half a step away from him, gently shaking the beverage bottle in her hand, the bubbles rising and then bursting.
Tan Yuze didn't answer, but instead reached out and grabbed Xu Li's wrist, pulling him towards himself. Xu Li staggered half a step, spilling a little soda that splashed onto the tips of their shoes.
The night breeze carried the scent of locust blossoms and the sweetness of grapefruit juice, mingling together like a harbinger of some kind of fermentation.
"I'm going to kiss you." Tan Yuze's breath was hot against his ear. "Who cares if it's a classroom or not."
Xu Li's eyelashes trembled. Instead of dodging, she rested her forehead on his shoulder, her voice muffled by the fabric: "...Then why aren't you kissing me now?"
Tan Yuze chuckled, his chest heaving as if a bird were fluttering inside. He released Xu Li's wrist, then cupped her face in his hands, his thumb tracing the small brown mole he had stared at countless times that afternoon. The sounds of car horns and the laughter of late-returning students echoed from the alleyway, but now they all seemed distant.
“Because—” he deliberately dragged out the word, watching Xu Li’s eyes light up in the darkness, “I need to confirm first whether you’re jealous too.”
Xu Li didn't speak, but simply tiptoed and touched Tan Yuze's nose with the tip of her nose. The gesture was so light, like a locust blossom falling on the water, yet it stirred up ripples.
“You guessed right,” he said softly.
The next second, Tan Yuze's kiss landed, carrying the sweetness of grapefruit-flavored water, and the recklessness and caution unique to teenagers. Xu Li's soda can fell to the ground, rolled twice, and finally stopped next to Tan Yuze's schoolbag, the bubbles still faintly rising.
The convenience store's lightbox in the distance flickered, as if someone had secretly pressed the pause button.
The soda can rolled to the corner of the wall with a soft "hiss," and the last little bubble rose to the surface and burst.
The only sound in the alley was the beating of a heart, mixed with the cheap sound system of a convenience store in the distance—an old love song from ten years ago, its melody broken and intermittent by the night wind.
Tan Yuze stepped back a little, his breathing unsteady, his forehead pressed against Xu Li's, his voice so low it was almost inaudible: "...It smells like grapefruit."
Xu Li hummed in response, then belatedly raised his hand to touch his lips, as if confirming some kind of evidence. His fingertips were trembling, though he himself didn't realize it.
"Why are you shaking?" Tan Yuze grabbed the hand, palm to palm, and realized that both of them were burning hot.
“…It’s cold.” Xu Li made up an excuse, but her eyes looked up—the branches of the locust tree cut the night sky into pieces, and the moonlight leaked down like a handful of broken glass.
Tan Yuze chuckled, "Xu Li, are you cold in the middle of summer? Do you want me to help you?"
Xu Li looked down and said, "No, no."
Tan Yuze reached into the side pocket of his backpack with one hand and pulled out a wrinkled school uniform jacket, which he had stuffed into it while playing basketball that afternoon. It still smelled of laundry detergent mixed with sunshine.
"Put it on." Without waiting for a reply, he draped the coat over Xu Li's shoulders, his fingers lingering at the collar for two seconds before flipping the tag inside—on which were written two lowercase letters in black pen: XL.
She looked up at him again, her voice very soft: "When did you write this?"
"Last semester." Tan Yuze turned his face away, the tips of his ears clearly red in the darkness, "I was afraid you'd mix up your clothes."
Xu Li didn't ask any further questions. She simply reached out and grabbed the hem of her coat, pulling it towards herself as if she were gathering something invisible along with it.
The two stood in silence for a while when footsteps suddenly came from the alley entrance, and a flashlight beam swept over—it was the patrolling security guard, who shouted from afar, "Who's there?!"
Tan Yuze instinctively pulled Xu Li into his arms, their backs pressed against rough tree bark, his heartbeat so loud it almost drowned out the security guard's shouts.
Xu Li buried her face in his shoulder and chuckled softly, "...like having an affair."
"Shut up." Tan Yuze gritted his teeth, but couldn't help but curl the corners of his mouth into a smile.
Xu Li nestled against him, looked up at Tan Yuze. Tan Yuze was very tall at 187cm, and Xu Li, at 167cm, wasn't short either. She looked up at the boy in front of her quietly, hugging his waist. Perhaps she was a little tired, she touched his abs and felt they looked great. He must have worked out a lot, as the muscle lines were smooth.
Tan Yuze froze for a moment, and the skin behind his ear instantly burned, hotter than the kiss from before.
The wicked little Li Zi was infatuated online, and Xu Li couldn't resist poking her.
This gave Tan Yuze, whose heart was already racing, an even more intense experience, and he blushed as he revealed it.
The security guard shone his flashlight twice, but didn't shine it deeper into the alley, and walked away cursing.
After everyone had gone far away, Tan Yuze let go of her hand and looked down at Xu Li—the other's eyes were excessively bright, and there was still a trace of soda on the corner of her mouth, which looked like tiny stars in the moonlight.
Tan Yuze looked at Xu Li with a fierce yet smiling expression and said, "You're not allowed to talk to Leng Yuxuan next time."
"good."
"Aren't you going to ask me why? Why won't you talk to him?"
"Because I know you have me in your heart, that's enough."
He raised his hand to wipe it, then stopped, and finally simply lowered his head and licked it off.
"Xu Li, what are you trying to do? I'm hard, you know that?" Then he took her down with another kiss.
"It's sweet." Tan Yuze commented, then casually picked up his schoolbag and took Xu Li's wrist with his other hand. "Let's go, or we'll miss the last bus."
Xu Li was pulled along for a couple of steps when she suddenly stopped: "Wait."
"Um?"
Xu Li stopped, took out a bracelet from her bag, shook it to make sure it was the same as before, and then put it into Tan Yuze's hand.
"what?"
"Here you are. Don't you like it?" Xu Li fastened the zipper, looked up and smiled at him.
Tan Yuze paused for two seconds, turned his face away and clicked his tongue, his ears turning bright red: "...I like it."
As the two walked out of the alley, the streetlights lit up one after another, as if someone had turned on the switches in advance.
The bus stop was deserted, and the electronic sign showed that the last bus was in three minutes.
Tan Yuze suddenly remembered something and took out a lychee-flavored lollipop from his schoolbag—he had won it in basketball that afternoon and had forgotten to eat it.
He unwrapped the candy and put it in Xu Li's mouth, deliberately lingering his fingertips on her lips for an extra second.
"The grapefruit flavor is too weak," he explained. "Change it to a stronger one."
Xu Li, with a candy in her mouth, mumbled, "...Then next time, how about lychee flavor?"
"Next time?" Tan Yuze raised an eyebrow.
"Mmm." Xu Li nodded, pressing the candy to her cheek with her tongue, her voice muffled but earnest, "Next time... let's go to my rooftop. There's no one there, and there are more locust blossoms."
The bus approached from afar, its headlights sweeping across the two people's clasped hands.
Tan Yuze didn't say anything more, but gently rubbed his thumb on Xu Li's wrist bone, as if stamping a silent seal.
The car stopped, and the door opened.
They boarded the bus and sat in the last row. The locust trees outside the window began to recede, and a tiny white petal stuck to the glass, only to be blown away by the wind.
Xu Li leaned against the window, the candy stick twirling between her teeth.
Xu Li turned her head to look at him, then suddenly reached out and wrote two letters on the fog on the car window: tyz.
After writing it, I quickly erased it, pretending nothing had happened.
But Tan Yuze saw it.
He bit into the candy stick and added a small "+" in the same spot.
Then she took Tan Yuze's hand, interlocked their fingers, and pressed their palms together, exchanging warmth.
As the engine of the last bus roared to life, no one spoke.
But they knew that tomorrow—
Tomorrow there will be new soda, new locust blossoms, and new approaches that need no excuse.
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