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He Jingxiu was two years older than Bo Ying, but only one grade ahead.
Mrs. Chen had heard some misguided theory that starting school a year later would bring more happiness to a child, so she delayed his enrollment by a year.
Because of this, Bo Ying met him in her second year of high school.
After He Jingxiu graduated from the college entrance examination, Bo Ying entered the final year of her own intense preparation.
That summer, she was confined at home with no freedom at all.
Private tutors occupied all her time, leaving her no room to breathe.
Her phone was also confiscated, and she didn’t even have the occasional chance to touch it.
Although she had money and could afford a new phone, she had no opportunity to go out. Even if she bought one, it would be discovered.
The night before her phone was taken away, Bo Ying sent a message to He Jingxiu, telling him she was going into seclusion to study and might not be able to use her phone for a while. She said she would try to write him letters and reminded him—You promised to wait for me until I turn eighteen. You can’t start dating after you go to university.
She knew He Jingxiu was on a graduation trip, traveling through many countries and cities.
At the end of the message, she asked He Jingxiu to send her pretty postcards, preferably with pictures of him.
After sending this message, Bo Ying waited a whole day without receiving a reply.
The next day, her phone was taken away.
Throughout the summer, Bo Ying waited for the postcard from He Jingxiu. By the end of the scorching summer, as the heat dissipated, she still hadn’t received his postcard.
When the new school year started, an informant was placed beside Bo Ying, arranged by her parents.
Her life became a two-point line between home and school, with no outings beyond campus.
By chance, Bo Ying had a classmate buy her envelopes and stationery, preparing to write a letter to He Jingxiu asking why he hadn’t replied to her messages. She couldn’t receive them since her phone was taken away, but he could write back to her.
Though writing letters might seem old-fashioned, words that penetrated paper were powerful.
She began writing letters to He Jingxiu.
Letter after letter was sent out, yet none received a response.
Bo Ying wasn’t someone who gave up easily. Finding it strange, she borrowed Chi Lü’s smuggled phone to send a message to He Jingxiu’s phone.
The message was successfully sent, and upon confirming this, Bo Ying’s eyes lit up.
During the afternoon break, she curled up under her desk, cherishing the phone like a treasure.
But before her smile could fade, He Jingxiu replied.
His message was harsh yet characteristic of him.
[Don’t write to me anymore.]
Bo Ying’s smile froze. Crouched under the table, she persistently asked why.
He Jingxiu replied with coldness but maintained decorum.
He said she was troubling him and told her not to contact him again.
Each word He Jingxiu sent was familiar to her, yet together, they seemed foreign.
She repeatedly read aloud each word and sentence he sent. After finishing, Bo Ying still couldn’t believe it.
Without thinking, she immediately called He Jingxiu.
However, the call wasn’t answered by him but by a pleasant female voice asking who she was.
At that moment, Bo Ying didn’t know how to respond.
She wasn’t his schoolmate or classmate, and perhaps not even a friend.
She had often heard people say that going to university changes a person.
After hanging up, Bo Ying kept pondering whether He Jingxiu had also discovered the wonderful world outside after entering university and forgotten their small, playful promise.
After all, it had always been her relentlessly pursuing him. He seemed never to respond.
After ending the call, Bo Ying slowly rose from under the table and spent the entire afternoon slumped over her desk.
Afterward, she never wrote another letter or sent another message to He Jingxiu.
Winter vacation.
Boyan returned home, giving Bo Ying a brief respite.
While taking her out for dinner, they spotted He Jingxiu and his friends, both male and female, from afar.
At that moment, a girl stood beside him, chatting happily.
Bo Ying gazed at his smile, suddenly awakened.
After returning home from dinner, Bo Ying packed away everything that held memories of him, sealing them away and never touching them again.
She didn’t know if this counted as heartbreak. Unlike others, she didn’t cry herself to sleep under the covers every night. She continued attending school regularly, exhausted but fulfilled every day.
In the final semester of her push, Bo Ying’s grades soared dramatically.
On the day of the college entrance exam’s conclusion, she got drunk with her classmates and was carried home by Boyan.
It was the first time since middle school that her brother carried her.
Their way home seemed endlessly long, and Bo Ying cried the entire way, soaking his T-shirt.
Fortunately, Boyan didn’t ask why she was crying.
The next day, Bo Ying received a graduation gift from her brother—a round-the-world plane ticket.
He arranged guides for each stop, allowing her to choose where to go first.
Without hesitation, Bo Ying departed the same day.
When the exam results came out, she scored higher than ever before in her three years of high school.
When filling out her university preferences, Bo Ying didn’t choose the university she had previously agreed on with He Jingxiu. Instead, she went to a southern university.
She had heard the south was warm and wanted to experience it fully.
Afterward, she never heard anything about He Jingxiu again. The phone taken from her by Pei Wanyu during her senior year never returned to her hands.
The phone was broken, its screen unable to light up ever again.
The person she once adored with all her heart during her teenage years, the light she chased, disappeared behind the clouds, never to reappear.
...
Opening the letter, Bo Ying quickly glanced at it and handed it to He Jingxiu. She then continued rummaging through the remaining items in the cardboard box.
This box was brought over by Boyan; it contained things she hadn’t touched since her college entrance exam.
Inside were her yearbook, notebooks from that time, and various miscellaneous items.
Earlier, when He Pom Pom knocked it over, only some things spilled out.
But the box was full, and she couldn’t find anything resembling a letter. Anxious, Bo Ying simply dumped everything out.
“Bo Ying.”
After reading the letter she had shoved into his hands, He Jingxiu’s eyelashes trembled slightly. He had no idea about any of this.
He grabbed Bo Ying’s hand, trying to calm her down.
Bo Ying directly shook off his hand, rummaging through the box. Seeing something at the bottom, she froze instantly.
Bo Ying’s lips quivered, hardly believing what she saw.
Her eyes were filled with stubbornness, and her pupils brimmed with tears. She muttered, “How could it not have been sent? I clearly put it in the mailbox...”
Suddenly, she stopped.
Mailbox.
Bo Ying’s pupils contracted, immediately grasping the key point.
“Where’s my phone?” She frantically searched. “Where did I put my phone?”
“Bo Ying.” He Jingxiu pressed her shoulders, his voice soothing. “Calm down first.”
His dark eyes gazed at her, a light in the night.
He Jingxiu’s voice was magical, instantly calming her.
He said, “I’ll find your phone. Sit down first.”
He raised his hand, gently wiping away her tears.
He couldn’t bear to see her like this. The Bo Ying he knew was a little sun who never cried.
His throat felt dry, his chest aching and swelling with indescribable pain.
Bo Ying clutched the letters that were never sent and unopened, sobbing as she asked, “Why did they hide the letters I wrote!”
Thinking of the mailbox, Bo Ying understood what happened.
Her letters were all stuffed into the mailbox at her doorstep and then sent out. Her activity space back then was limited to walks near her doorstep, so the letters could only be placed there.
Every day, someone in the villa area would collect the mail. She was certain they could be sent out.
And now, the appearance of these letters here was no surprise. Someone had secretly taken her letters out, causing them to disappear without a trace.
The phone was on the table.
He Jingxiu brought it to her, and without thinking, Bo Ying opened the memo app. But upon seeing the familiar string of numbers, she hesitated.
Bo Ying stared hard at those numbers, tightly biting her lips.
After a moment, she dropped the phone in defeat.
She knew that even if she made this call, no one would heed her questions, let alone respond to her.
In their eyes, everything they did was for her own good. They would only think that Bo Ying was being unreasonable.
Bo Ying silently cried.
Watching her, He Jingxiu felt as if something was squeezing his heart, the pain making it hard to breathe.
He sat beside Bo Ying, pulling her into his arms.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
If back then, he hadn’t been so young and arrogant, would they not have missed so many years?
He Jingxiu never received Bo Ying’s letters, nor any text messages or calls.
Had Bo Ying not mentioned it now, he wouldn’t have known at all.
After graduating from the college entrance exam, He Jingxiu was busy for a period.
When he returned to Beicheng to look for Bo Ying, he encountered her parents. They recognized him and didn’t say anything harsh, but they emphasized that Bo Ying was in intensive tutoring for her final year, a crucial time, and they didn’t want He Jingxiu to disturb her and waste her most important year.
He Jingxiu understood, knowing Bo Ying’s playful nature.
After careful consideration, he let them pass on a gift to her. Inside that gift was the answer to a question she had asked long ago.
“I didn’t receive it.”
Hearing He Jingxiu say this, Bo Ying looked at him with tearful eyes. “I had no idea.”
She had no idea that He Jingxiu had found time to visit her, met her parents, and even sent her a gift.