Chapter 26 – Then

The signed item from Zhu Xingyan that Xu Mi brought back was held up by Bai Jia for close inspection. Even touching it, she was extremely careful. Her fingers gently brushed across his handwriting as she took a deep breath in disbelief.

“I never thought there would be a day when I could feel Zhu Xingyan’s presence up close.” She looked like a total fan-girl, inhaling deeply with an expression of pure bliss on her face.

Xu Mi pushed her away in disgust and snorted proudly, “We saw him in person yesterday.”

“How was it? Tell me everything!” Bai Jia immediately latched onto her and demanded details, wishing she could crawl into Xu Mi’s brain and experience every second herself.

“Did you take photos? Show me right now!”

Xu Mi had recorded at least 1 GB of videos and photos from yesterday’s premiere, almost the entire event on camera. Bai Jia watched them on her phone with great relish, letting out excited screams as she replayed the clips.

“Ah ah ah! Zhu Xingyan looks this handsome even offline! Even with such blurry pixels he’s still outrageously good-looking. He really is the favorite child of the creator.” She imitated an exaggerated American-drama tone and put on a dramatic performance. Xu Mi got goosebumps from her rant and simply tossed the phone to her.

After Bai Jia finished scrolling through every single photo and video without missing anything, she still felt unsatisfied and turned to question Song Shiyue.

“Shiyue! What about yours?! Let me see if you got any exclusive angles.”

“Shiyue didn’t take a single photo. Don’t even think about it,” Xu Mi mercilessly poured cold water on her. Bai Jia let out a shocked “Ah——” and looked incredulous.

“Song Shiyue! You are way too detached from worldly desires! You saw Zhu Xingyan in person and still managed to hold back from taking any pictures?!!” She questioned in disbelief.

Song Shiyue pressed her lips together and smiled lightly while continuing to organize her translation materials. Her tone was as calm as ever. “We were sitting too far back. The phone camera quality isn’t great, so the pictures wouldn’t have looked good anyway. I decided not to take any.”

“You fake fan!” Bai Jia accused dramatically. “You’re not sincere at all!”

“I should have just skipped my shift yesterday instead of wasting a premiere ticket on you!”

“Thank you, Miss Bai and Teacher Xu Mi, for making it possible for me to see Zhu Xingyan once.” Song Shiyue pushed her chair back to face them and expressed her thanks with proper sincerity. Her sudden formality caught Bai Jia off guard.

“Cough, it’s no big deal. Between us sisters, there’s no need to say thanks.” She waved her hand grandly.

“Okay, keyboard warrior,” Xu Mi seized the chance to tease. Bai Jia ground her teeth. The two looked ready to start bickering again, so Song Shiyue smiled and stepped in to smooth things over.

“Alright then, as a thank-you, how about I treat everyone to dinner tonight?” Before the other two could refuse, she blinked and added,

“Order whatever you want from the cafeteria.”

“…Alright.”

After National Day, the capital turned cold in the blink of an eye. In another short while, snow would start falling.

When she first arrived, Song Shiyue had struggled to adapt to the northern climate. The air always felt dry, lacking the warm, moist comfort of the south.

During that time Zhou Zongbai would tirelessly make trips to bring her things — sometimes a small humidifier, sometimes lotion, and once even a tiny money plant, saying it would increase the humidity if placed in the room.

Back then the two of them had only just arrived in the capital. Perhaps because they were fellow townspeople looking out for each other, they contacted each other more frequently than before. As the number of meetings grew, every Friday Bai Jia and the others would tease her, “Why hasn’t that handsome Tsinghua hometown guy of yours come looking for you today?”

Later Dali found out about it. Over the phone she exclaimed, “Aha! I knew that kid had bad intentions. Looks like he’s almost succeeded!”

Song Shiyue was momentarily stunned. Somehow, without her realizing, everyone around her had already begun to see her and Zhou Zongbai as unclear and ambiguous.

So the next week, when Zhou Zongbai asked if she wanted to go out for a meal together, Song Shiyue used the excuse of heavy coursework and declined.

After she refused two or three times, Zhou Zongbai stopped sending invitations. He only occasionally messaged her online to greet her.

This year, on the day of the capital’s first snow, he sent her a message asking her to pick up a delivery.

【You said last year that hand cream worked well for you. I bought another set online. Remember to collect it after class.】

Song Shiyue felt both grateful and uneasy. The delivery had already been sent without asking. Refusing now would seem overly deliberate.

After class she went with Bai Jia and the others to pick up the package outside the school gate.

It had snowed all night. A thin layer of snow covered the ground. With every step, soft footprints were left behind.

Everything around them was pure white — the fairy-tale moment of winter every year.

The three of them linked arms for fear of slipping and walked carefully along the road. Under such difficult conditions just to collect a delivery, Bai Jia could not help sighing, “Shiyue, that hometown guy of yours really is pretty good. Are you sure you won’t consider him?”

“A top student from Tsinghua, handsome, and he cares about you so attentively. Plus he’s from the same place. It’s perfect.”

“If we’re talking about conditions, the suitors from our own college aren’t bad either,” Xu Mi joined the discussion.

“You should know that many people in our department come from red-background families. Their family status in the capital is among the best. Their future careers will definitely be bright. Take that senior who came looking for Shiyue several times last time — his whole family are diplomats, and the previous generation was in business. They have influence on both sides. True high-cadre offspring.”

“Anyway, no matter which one you choose, they’re all excellent and more than worthy of our Song Great Beauty,” Bai Jia concluded proudly.

When Song Shiyue first enrolled and registered, she had caused quite a stir.

It started when the university magazine’s public account searched for new-student material and posted her photo.

The girl wore a white dress, her face fresh and without makeup. She pulled a suitcase as she walked through the school gate. Green trees formed a canopy overhead, and scattered sunlight fell on her. The scene was even more stunning than the entrance of a female lead in a youth movie. The aura of first love hit everyone right in the face.

One of the photos showed her smiling at the camera — bright and radiant. When she smiled, her eyes curved into two little crescent moons that could instantly capture anyone’s heart.

Not only the boys, but even Bai Jia and Xu Mi, who saw the photo at the time, held their breath for a few seconds and clutched their chests.

“My god, how can someone look like this! It’s practically against the rules to be this beautiful!”

The person in the lens had fair, smooth oval features, a slightly pointed chin, and a full forehead — the standard beauty face shape. Because she still carried a touch of baby fat, her eyes were delicate, with small fan-shaped double eyelids that gave her a refined, youthful, and extremely girlish look.

Later, when they saw her in person in the dorm, Bai Jia was momentarily speechless, struck speechless by the beauty that greeted her.

The photo from the opening public account had already spread through every school group. Countless people secretly inquired about her behind the scenes. News that a great beauty lived in their dorm quickly got out.

After that, the dorm phone never stopped ringing. For a while Xu Mi had no choice but to unplug the line. At the peak of flower deliveries downstairs, the suitors could have formed a basketball team. Their dorm was never short of fruit, milk tea, or snacks — people kept sending them straight to the dorm auntie. When they had too much they shared it everywhere. Even now, every time they passed the dorm entrance, the auntie would treat them with extra warmth.

This fervent trend lasted several months after the start of school. Only after Song Shiyue’s reputation as a cold beauty spread did the suitors who had tried every possible way to win her gradually lower their flags and drums. Others also backed off, and the surroundings finally quieted down.

Even now, some newly enrolled juniors who did not know the situation still came forward to show their affection, trying to pluck this moon hanging high in the distant sky.

But the moon was still the moon — forever cool and clear, forever suspended high above.

As Christmas approached, Zhou Zongbai invited her to dinner. Not long ago he had achieved excellent results in a university artificial-intelligence competition and had invited a group of friends out to celebrate.

Besides her, there were several other fellow townspeople from Fan City. Li Xun, whom she had met several times before, was also among them.

Song Shiyue found it hard to refuse. On Christmas Day, after finishing her tasks she packed up, took the bus, and headed out. It was the evening rush hour after work. The Foreign Affairs College was almost in the suburbs, and the route into the city was long and congested. The bus swayed along. When the sky outside darkened and the lights gradually brightened, she finally reached her stop and got off.

Cold air rushed toward her. Song Shiyue tightened the scarf around her neck. Standing in the bustling center of the capital, she looked up and saw the flowing electronic screen on the tallest building. It was playing a luxury-brand advertisement endorsed by Zhu Xingyan.

She could not help stopping in her tracks. Her gaze lingered.

When Zhou Zongbai saw her, the street was crowded. Amid the throng of people, the girl wore a white coat and tilted her head upward, gazing at the screen above. A large blue scarf covered most of her face, revealing only her delicate and gentle brows and eyes. That patch of skin was fair and smooth.

The surrounding crowd seemed separated from her. The girl stood there, unconsciously forming a still picture that drew people’s attention involuntarily.

Just like every time she stood on the lecture stage, with lights focused on her, dazzling and radiant, his gaze lingered for a long time, unable to move away.

“Do you like Zhu Xingyan?”

When Song Shiyue came back to her senses, Zhou Zongbai’s voice sounded beside her ear. She turned her head. The boy had already come to her side at some point. Following her gaze, he also looked up at that spot.

In the video playing on the large electronic screen on the building’s exterior wall, Zhu Xingyan’s figure was tall and sharp. His brows and eyes already carried the aura of a young man, no longer possessing the youthful innocence from his teenage years.

He was also slowly moving forward, slowly growing up.

Song Shiyue slowly withdrew her gaze, gathered her thoughts, and replied softly, “I like him, I guess. Our entire dorm are his fans.”

Zhou Zongbai had wanted to say something, but he immediately remembered that during high school they had been in the same class as Zhu Xingyan. His expression paused, and his eyes instinctively lowered.

The words he wanted to say but held back were swallowed between his teeth. Zhou Zongbai’s eyes were complicated. Song Shiyue met his gaze for a few seconds, then suddenly smiled and spoke first, “Where is the restaurant? Let’s go quickly. They’re probably getting impatient waiting for us.”

The dinner that evening had a harmonious atmosphere. All the boys were highly emotionally intelligent and kept the mood lively and considerate throughout. The girls were easy to get along with. At one point, Zhou Zongbai was coaxed into showing the award-winning robot he had designed for the competition. The small robot with a round head and cartoonish appearance stood on the table and greeted everyone in a childish mechanical voice.

“Hello everyone, my name is Rabbit Warrior. My goal is to protect the Moon.”

The whole table burst into loud laughter, repeatedly praising how cute the little robot was. Only Song Shiyue, amid the lively atmosphere, was momentarily stunned. Then she lowered her eyelids as if she had heard nothing at all.

The Foreign Affairs College’s holiday schedule was the same as other universities.

Early on, Zhou Zongbai had asked her online about buying tickets. Last year Song Shiyue had failed to get a ticket. As the Spring Festival approached, tickets were always tight, and with the large population flow in the capital, it was very difficult to buy return tickets.

In the end Zhou Zongbai had helped her get one. He had friends in the computer science department who had developed a ticket-grabbing mini-program with very high efficiency.

The two of them had gone home together that year.

This year when he asked again, Song Shiyue answered as usual.

【This year I might just buy a plane ticket home. My parents are worried about safety on the road.】

He replied with “Okay.”

There were only a fixed number of flights from the capital to Fan City every day.

Song Shiyue bought her ticket. On the day of departure, she suddenly saw the flight information Zhou Zongbai had sent.

He said he had also failed to get a train ticket this year either, so he bought a plane ticket instead.

The two of them happened to be on the same flight. The next day they met at the boarding gate. He acted natural and generous, as if they had simply run into each other as friends and it was convenient to look out for one another on the journey.

When they landed, Song Qing and the others came to pick her up. Zhou Zongbai walked out of the exit with her and politely greeted the two elders.

They parted ways in the parking lot.

On the way home, her parents could not help praising him.

“That boy just now seems pretty good.”

“He’s polite, looks proper, and seems quite smart too,” Zhao Siqian said, deliberately glancing at the silent person beside her as if speaking casually.

“We are not old-fashioned parents. Now that our child is an adult, it’s fine if she wants to date. If she meets someone suitable and nice, she can try spending time with him first.”

Song Shiyue, who had remained silent the whole way, finally spoke up to clarify, “Mom, Dad, we are just ordinary friends. Don’t overthink it.”

“Oh… I see.” There was a slight note of regret in her voice.

Song Shiyue rubbed her forehead, her thoughts complicated.

When she got home, her phone kept ringing with notifications.

The three roommates all returned home on the same day. Xu Mi arrived first and reported safely in the group chat early on. Bai Jia followed soon after. The two of them had already been chatting for a while when Xu Mi specially @mentioned Song Shiyue, asking her to take a photo of Zhu Xingyan’s signed item and show it to them.

That time when Song Shiyue mentioned she had been lucky early on and once received one of his signed photos, Xu Mi had immediately asked about it upon their return. Song Shiyue could only say it was kept at home.

Xu Mi had then said right away that when she went home she must take a photo and show it to them.

She had not expected that so much time had passed and Xu Mi still remembered it clearly.

Song Shiyue felt helpless. She could only set her suitcase aside first and look for the signed photo for her.

The items had always been stored in the drawer. Besides the signed photo, there was also that poetry collection and the hair clip — all the scattered objects related to him were neatly organized together inside. A small lock was fitted on the outside of the drawer.

She found the key on top of the wardrobe, unlocked it, pulled out the drawer, and after taking a photo of the signed item and sending it over, she could not help pausing. She took out the poetry collection in her hand and unconsciously flipped through a few pages.

She had rarely looked back on those years before. Those experiences seemed to have been deliberately sealed inside a time box, and touching them required courage.

Unknowingly, nearly two years had already passed.

Her heart had become calmer and calmer. She did not know whether it was because her life was busy and fulfilling as she moved forward, or because she was gradually letting go and no longer repeating the turbulent ups and downs and surging waves of that time.

She opened the poetry pages at random, but her eyes did not stay focused on the words. In her mind, scenes flashed by instinctively, like a memoir of old times.

The school auditorium, the camphor trees, the road intersection on the way home from school, and that summer — the concert that had burned even hotter than the high temperatures.

The regret about that night, the wind blowing in through the taxi window as it sped away.

Song Shiyue still remembered, even now, the temperature of that wind as it lingered on her skin.

The recollection came to an abrupt halt at this moment. Song Shiyue’s fingertips touched something hard. She lowered her head, her gaze freezing. Tucked between the yellowed, aged pages of the poetry collection, she saw an expired concert ticket.

— Zhu Xingyan “Daytime Star Flame” Tour Concert Fan City Stop.

Back then, when he borrowed this poetry collection and returned it, he had hidden a concert ticket inside.

This secret, kept for several years, was only discovered by Song Shiyue today.

It was as if a wave suddenly swept over her in an instant. Her chest rose and fell violently. She blinked unconsciously. A sourness rose in her nose, and tears unexpectedly fell.