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When Chi Yao finished singing, the entire stage seemed to have turned into his personal concert.
Someone from the audience even shouted, “One more song!”
Chi Yao had already finished playing, and as the music faded into a brief silence, he lowered his hand and leaned toward the standing microphone. Surprisingly, he responded, “Stop shouting. I can’t do another one.”
“I only learned this song. If anyone else wants to hear it, they can come up and play it themselves.”
Hearing this, both the audience and the host waiting backstage couldn’t help but laugh.
After Chi Yao left the stage, Chen Lin clapped and said, “He played pretty well, huh?”
Lin Zhe Xia had already put away her phone.
She held her phone upside down on her lap, feeling like she was hiding something.
In her heart, she secretly prayed that no one had noticed her sneaky photo-taking earlier.
Chen Lin asked again, “Have you ever heard him sing before? I didn’t expect him to sound so good.”
Lin Zhe Xia made a small noise of acknowledgment and replied, “I’ve heard him, but not many times.”
Chen Lin found this answer predictable: “Yeah, someone like him doesn’t seem like the type who’d enjoy singing.”
Following Chen Lin’s comment, Lin Zhe Xia recalled the past.
The first time she remembered hearing Chi Yao sing was when they had just entered middle school.
That year, He Yang’s birthday celebration took them to a karaoke place to showcase their newfound “middle schooler” status. It was also her first time entering such a venue without parental supervision.
That day, everyone had a blast.
Everyone sang, especially her—she hogged the microphone and sang several songs in a row.
Finally, someone shouted, “—Hasn’t Brother Yao sung yet?”
The lights in the private room were off, making the atmosphere as dim as the audience seats today.
Back then, Chi Yao sat in the corner, refusing: “I’m not singing.”
He Yang mimicked lines from a movie: “It’s my birthday today. You’re not giving me face?”
Chi Yao raised an eyelid: “So what?”
Chi Yao: “If you’ve got the guts, hit me.”
He Yang: “…”
Though Chi Yao was indeed infuriating, by this point, He Yang was no longer a match for him.
Thinking about it now, Lin Zhe Xia remembered that Chi Yao ended up singing after all—a popular song from that year.
Sitting on the couch in the private room, her first thought was: So Chi Yao’s singing voice is actually that good.
But why did he end up singing in the end?
She didn’t remember the exact reason anymore.
She only recalled that she had joined the others in shouting, “Sing one! We’ve known you for so long, and we’ve never heard you sing!”
...
After Class One’s guitar performance, there were still three or four acts left.
At the end of the school anniversary event, the host gave a closing speech.
By the time the event ended, it was nearing evening. Teachers rushed back to their classrooms to assign homework for the day. After packing up her bag, Lin Zhe Xia was stopped by Chi Yao and Xu Ting, who had arrived.
Lin Zhe Xia: “What are you two doing here?”
Chi Yao glanced at Xu Ting.
Xu Ting: “Just you? What about your two friends? Should we all go grab some food? I’m starving—I didn’t even have time for lunch.”
Lin Zhe Xia touched her stomach.
They had eaten very little during lunch because they had gone backstage early to prepare, so she agreed.
It was already late, so they quickly found a noodle shop to eat at.
“What do you want to eat?” Lin Zhe Xia flipped through the menu. “There’s Su-style noodles if you like them.”
After saying this, Lin Zhe Xia noticed Chi Yao hadn’t changed out of his performance outfit yet—he had simply thrown on a school uniform over his black shirt.
—This look made it seem like he had just run off the stage.
The clash between order and disorder created an oddly striking contrast.
He leaned back slightly and said, “You decide.”
Lin Zhe Xia stopped looking at him: “Then I’ll order Su-style noodles with three fresh ingredients. Anyway, you don’t like other types of mixed noodles.”
The noodles arrived quickly.
Xu Ting and the others began chatting about today’s performance.
Chen Lin brought up the forum posts: “The forum’s been bustling today. There are so many picture threads.”
Xu Ting happily pulled out his phone: “Really? Let me take a look.”
Ten minutes later.
Xu Ting, drinking orange juice with pulp, suddenly shouted as if drunk: “Why!!! No one took pictures of me!!!!”
“Even Lin Shao has people sneakily taking photos of her, but not me!!!”
Lin Zhe Xia, unexpectedly mentioned: “What do you mean ‘even’?”
Xu Ting continued to lament: “So many pictures, and not a single one of me! I couldn’t even find my name on the forum!”
“Well, there is one post—it says, ‘Are Xu Ting and Chi Yao close?’ But they even spelled ‘Ting’ wrong.”
Lin Zhe Xia glanced at his phone and indeed saw a picture of herself.
Someone had taken a photo of her holding her script, accompanied by the comment: [Lin Zhe Xia from Class Seven—looks quite innocent.]
Uncomfortable with this kind of attention, she felt awkward and scrolled past her own post to see what others had written.
Most of the comments were about Chi Yao.
[Killed it.]
[With that face and personality, singing a love song is just unfair.]
[So many people sneakily took pictures. Here’s my contribution.]
Seeing the word “sneakily,” Lin Zhe Xia felt a pang of guilt and couldn’t help but glance at her own phone.
Xu Ting noticed her looking at her phone and redirected the topic to her: “Did you take any pictures of our performance?”
Lin Zhe Xia quickly denied: “Of course not.”
She added, “Who would take pictures? It’s just a performance. I definitely didn’t take any.”
Xu Ting despaired: “So!! I really!!! Don’t have a single picture left behind!!!”
“…”
Finally, Chi Yao broke the tension: “Are you done talking?”
To completely steer clear of the topic of “sneakily taking pictures,” Lin Zhe Xia proactively started a new conversation: “By the way, who picked the song?”
Xu Ting, channeling his frustration into appetite, stuffed his mouth full of noodles.
Lin Zhe Xia added, “The song title was quite nice.”
Xu Ting’s mouth was too full to speak, managing only a muffled, “Mmm, mmm.”
“Mmm, mmm, mmm.”
“… Swallow your noodles before you talk.”
Xu Ting finally swallowed his noodles and was about to respond when Chi Yao suddenly kicked the leg of his chair: “Don’t you have something to buy?”
Completely unaware that both Lin Zhe Xia and Chi Yao were strangely shifting the topic, Xu Ting replied, “Yeah, but I’m eating right now.”
Chi Yao: “You’ve eaten enough.”
Xu Ting stared at his bowl: “I…”
Chi Yao looked at him.
After a moment, Xu Ting said, “Alright, I’ll go buy it now so I don’t forget later.”
“What does he need to buy?”
After Xu Ting left, Lin Zhe Xia, still avoiding the topic, asked a bit unnaturally.
Because she felt guilty, she didn’t notice that Chi Yao was also acting somewhat unnatural.
Chi Yao held his chopsticks: “Makeup remover wipes.”
“…”
“He drew those eyebrows on,” Lin Zhe Xia couldn’t understand, “and he actually needs special makeup remover?”
By the time Xu Ting returned from buying his things, the table’s conversation had shifted twice.
Lin Zhe Xia had only asked to change the topic, so even she hadn’t realized the previous question remained unanswered.
Xu Ting, having forgotten all about it after walking around, picked up his chopsticks and continued eating.
It wasn’t until they settled the bill and went home that Xu Ting suddenly remembered something he hadn’t said while on the bus.
—That song. Chi Yao had chosen it himself. For the first time ever.
At first, Xu Ting had suggested a few flashy songs.
All were rejected by Chi Yao with the excuse, “Too complicated, no time to learn.”
One night, Chi Yao suddenly sent him a music link. When he listened to it, it turned out to be a love song.
Well, love songs were easier to learn anyway.
Xu Ting quickly forgot about the issue and sank further into his sorrow over not having a single picture taken of him.
Lin Zhe Xia felt today had passed in an unreal haze.
Perhaps it was because Chi Yao had been so dazzling on stage, or maybe it was because the song felt special.
That night, she lay in bed, unable to fall asleep for a long time.
Cocooned in her blanket, she unlocked her phone, opened the photo, and, fearing it might be discovered later, posted it as a private-only social media entry to save it.
In the photo, Chi Yao looked distant—the light source was too strong, creating a halo effect around his silhouette.
After thinking for a moment, she typed five words into the caption: The wind of a midsummer night.
As seasons transitioned, time always seemed to pass especially quickly.
From one day onward, the chill faded, and dry branches sprouted green buds anew. The entire city came alive with chirping birds and lush grass. Then, a sudden wave of warm wind swept through, signaling the approach of summer once again.
Tang Shuxuan, counting down the days because her senior crush was graduating, said, “May is almost here. They’ll take the college entrance exam in June.”
Chen Lin advised her, “You should focus more on your own college entrance exam in June next year.”
Tang Shuxuan: “You wouldn’t understand—you don’t have a crush.”
Lin Zhe Xia, working on her homework, sneakily pulled out her phone to check the time: “Today’s already April 30th.”
Tang Shuxuan: “Right, it feels like time has flown by.”
In Lin Zhe Xia’s phone calendar, several dates were specially marked.
They were Lin He’s, Wei Ping’s, and Chi Yao’s birthdays.
Her birthday was close to Chi Yao’s—they were both in summer.
Chi Yao was a little over a month older than her. His birthday was in early May, while hers was in June. Because she was born in June, Lin He had given her a name related to “summer.”
Since their birthdays were so close, every year, she always felt like they were celebrating together.
Looking at the circled date on her calendar, Lin Zhe Xia thought, Chi Yao’s birthday is coming up soon.
His eighteenth birthday.
A particularly important and meaningful birthday.
For the next several days, Lin Zhe Xia mulled over how to celebrate Chi Yao’s birthday.
“Chi Yao’s birthday is coming up?” Tang Shuxuan offered suggestions after hearing about it. “Throw him a birthday party?”
“For gifts, boys usually like gaming consoles. Maybe consider that.”
“And isn’t he into physics?”
Tang Shuxuan threw out a bunch of ideas, all of which Lin Zhe Xia rejected: “None of those will work.”
Tang Shuxuan: “Why not?”
Lin Zhe Xia: “We’ve known each other for so long—I’ve already given him all those things. Not just gaming consoles and physics books, but even stainless steel items representing friendship.”
“Stainless steel… What was his reaction?”
Lin Zhe Xia recalled that year: “He told me to return it, or he’d cut ties with me as a friend.”
“…”
Having celebrated so many birthdays together, it was difficult to make this year’s feel special.
Finally, Lin Zhe Xia sighed and said, “I’ll think of something else.”
That night, she tried to probe Chi Yao for hints.
She tapped on his cat icon and typed: Chi Yao, how have you been lately?
Chi Yao replied quickly: ?
Lin Zhe Xia explained: I’m just checking in on you.
Chi Yao sent two replies:
Find a dictionary, flip through it—
Look up the meaning of “lately.”
Lin Zhe Xia: …
Realizing she couldn’t get anything out of Chi Yao, she decided to take an indirect approach and messaged He Yang instead.
Lin Zhe Xia: Big Zhuang, Big Zhuang
Big Zhuang: What’s up?
Lin Zhe Xia slowly typed: You’ve been hanging out with Chi Yao a lot recently. Have you noticed anything? Like, what kinds of…
She meant to type “gifts.”
But her phone’s predictive text kicked in, and before she could stop herself, the sentence “What kinds of girls does he like?” appeared in their chat history.
…
Though this was a question she had once wanted to ask but couldn’t bring herself to, she clearly had meant to type “gifts.”
How had it turned into this?
Lin Zhe Xia felt her phone burning in her hand.
She hurriedly prayed He Yang hadn’t seen it and prepared to recall the message, but before she could, a line appeared at the top of the chat window: The other party is typing.
Lin Zhe Xia closed her eyes in despair.
It was too late.
He Yang had already seen it.
She was doomed.
Should she say it was a typo?
But she was genuinely curious about the answer.
This question she couldn’t directly ask Chi Yao might finally get an answer from He Yang.
As Lin Zhe Xia wavered between anticipation and hesitation, He Yang’s reply came through.
Her heart raced as she looked at the chat window.
Big Zhuang: Actually, I haven’t heard him mention anything about that.
Big Zhuang: Forget about it. Why bother thinking about it?
Big Zhuang: With his level of communication skills, staying single forever probably won’t be much of a problem.
Lin Zhe Xia’s heartbeat slowed: …
In the end, she could only reply with two words: True.
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