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Lin Kaige quickly emerged from the restroom and saw Shen Yihuan staring intently at a couple on the other side. Her expression was slightly annoyed, her brows furrowed, displaying a willfulness and abandon she usually didn’t show.
He paused slightly, raising an eyebrow, not rushing over. He stood openly behind her, observing.
Many people thought Shen Yihuan was just a sweet and obedient little kitty. Her face was her most deceiving weapon, innocent and naive.
Lin Kaige used to think so too, until an accidental opportunity led him to see a photo of Shen Yihuan from high school.
At fifteen or sixteen, she already possessed striking features and a silhouette that could stun.
Standing in a crowd of students in blue and white school uniforms, she wouldn’t be overlooked. She had her arm linked with a girl beside her, her cheeks flushed from the sun, looking lazy and carefree. Her eyelids were droopy, but the corners of her mouth were upturned, as if she was telling a joke to her friend, exuding a raw yet natural mischievousness.
It was the first time he’d seen a young girl with such a nonchalant swagger, her lowered eyes and curved lips utterly captivating.
She was different from the Shen Yihuan Lin Kaige later came to know.
But he knew Shen Yihuan was definitely not a docile and obedient cat. She was a little leopard who had deliberately retracted her claws, hiding her ferocity and arrogance.
Lin Kaige followed her gaze. The man was talking to a female doctor in a white coat, only his back visible.
He leisurely walked over and squatted against the wall next to Shen Yihuan, becoming the second mushroom.
“Ex-boyfriend?” he asked in a low voice, with a playful smile.
Shen Yihuan’s eyelids lowered and then lifted, giving him a blank look. She simply couldn’t be bothered to pretend in front of him anymore.
“Yes.”
“He’s quite handsome. How long have you been broken up?”
Shen Yihuan had no intention of answering such a boring question. Suddenly, her expression soured, adding to her irritation.
The female doctor smiled gently and opened her arms to Lu Zhou, in a gesture of embrace.
Then, Lu Zhou put his lighter into his pants pocket, opened his arms slightly, and hugged the female doctor. His hands gently tapped her back twice before letting go.
They were too far away for Shen Yihuan to hear what they were saying, and she didn’t understand why she was peeking.
She only felt a growing sense of frustration, sweeping through her chest. Along with the irritation came a burning sensation in her nose. The breakup three years ago had taken away all the tenderness and pampering that belonged only to her.
She gently bit her lip, her jaw tightening. “Let’s go.”
“Not going to look anymore?”
Shen Yihuan stood up and walked straight ahead.
Lin Kaige, tall with long legs, ran a few steps to catch up, intimately hooking his arm over Shen Yihuan’s shoulder. “Hey, you don’t still like your ex-boyfriend, do you?”
“Shut up.”
“Oh,” he chuckled mischievously, “not pretending anymore?”
Stopping abruptly, Shen Yihuan looked straight up at him, her imposing presence undiminished. “What exactly do you want? What’s my relationship with him got to do with you?”
Lin Kaige was momentarily stunned, belatedly realizing he had angered her. Their group of friends was used to being playful and shameless, sometimes their jokes went too far.
He scratched the back of his head, uncharacteristically embarrassed. “...I just wanted to get to know you better, otherwise, how am I supposed to pursue you?”
“...” This time, Shen Yihuan was genuinely bewildered. She blinked. “Huh?”
“You didn’t know I was pursuing you, did you?”
She was helpless. “No, you were too subtle.”
Moreover, Shen Yihuan truly thought he was gay and never considered him in that way.
I treated you like a sister, but you wanted to flirt with me?
Lin Kaige, who had countless romantic conquests, never thought he’d hit such a wall while pursuing a girl. He stared at her for a long time, then finally laughed in exasperation, pointing at her and asking.
“So how did your ex-boyfriend pursue you? What counts as not subtle? You teach me.”
“I pursued him.”
Shen Yihuan said, patting his shoulder. “But I don’t plan on pursuing you, so I can’t teach you.”
Lin Kaige: “...”
________________________________________
When they walked out of the hospital, the air finally carried a cool night breeze. The wind blew away the sticky feeling on Shen Yihuan.
Then she remembered Lu Zhou’s hug with that doctor.
Her heart felt clogged with cotton, neither rising nor falling, stifled and resentful. She even wanted to rush over and scold Lu Zhou, but she was the one who initiated the breakup back then.
Going forward like that, without any clear relationship, would truly be laughable.
The old Lu Zhou wouldn’t have been like this. The old Lu Zhou only had her in his eyes. Even from a distance, she could feel that intense love that almost made her want to escape.
Lin Kaige had gone to the garage to get the car. She waited at the entrance. She waited and waited, but he didn’t come, until a text message arrived on her phone.
Gorky: Three cars rear-ended each other at the parking lot entrance and it’s jammed. Go inside and wait for me for a bit.
The summer night sky was unusually clear. She tilted her head and watched the sky for a while.
She used to hear people say that after death, people turn into stars in the sky. She wondered if her grandmother was up there, shining brightly and watching over her.
She gently exhaled. Lin Kaige would still be a while, and she hadn’t eaten dinner, so she decided to go to the convenience store across the street to buy something.
The streets were bustling with traffic. Shen Yihuan pushed open the convenience store door and stepped inside. Her steps paused as she looked up and saw a familiar face. She stared at him for a few seconds, then remembered his name.
“Yu Chengjia?”
“...Yu Jiacheng.”
“...” Shen Yihuan pursed her lips. “Sorry, I have a bad memory.”
“You know so many people, it’s quite something that you still recognize me,” he said, with a hint of resentment in his tone.
He and Lu Zhou had been close friends since childhood, in different classes in high school. Shen Yihuan was famous throughout the school back then, with a group of shady friends. In her first year of high school, she pursued Lu Zhou with great fervor. After they got together, she still went out and played everywhere, indulging in her love for freedom.
Their relationship was entirely held up by Lu Zhou alone.
In Yu Jiacheng’s eyes, Shen Yihuan was a scumbag.
Shen Yihuan pretended not to notice the emotions in his words. After greeting him, she went to pick out snacks on her own.
She carried a small basket, buying a bottle of mineral water, a stick of gum, two bags of potato chips, and then chose a pork cutlet bento to have the cashier heat up.
“Hello, that’ll be 41 yuan in total.”
“Alipay,” she said, opening her phone.
“I’m sorry, our machine is broken here. Currently, we can only accept cash,” the cashier said, pointing to the notice board at the entrance and adding, “It was also announced when you came in.”
“...” She had bumped into Yu Jiacheng then, and hadn’t heard any announcements.
She rummaged through her bag. Besides a few coins for change, she had no extra cash. But the pork cutlet rice was already in the microwave.
“Excuse me, I don’t have cash. Can the machine not be fixed for now?”
“Yes, our new machine hasn’t arrived yet. You can borrow some cash from that gentleman over there, and then transfer it back to him,” the cashier said with a smile.
Shen Yihuan turned to look at him. Yu Jiacheng had also heard the cashier’s words and was looking at her, waiting for her to speak.
Shen Yihuan cleared her throat, awkwardly opening her mouth. “Um, Yu Chengjia.”
“Yu Jiacheng.”
“...”
Shen Yihuan cursed inwardly, thinking she should just wait for Lin Kaige and borrow money from him.
The convenience store door opened, and Shen Yihuan looked over at the sound.
Lu Zhou, hands in his pockets, walked into her line of sight. His brows were slightly furrowed, his T-shirt collar revealing a hint of his collarbone. His dark eyes were looking at her, his pupils clear and indifferent, devoid of any emotion.
Shen Yihuan’s heart skipped a beat. She silently held her breath, that stifled air trapped in her chest, even her breathing amplified. She could only breathe carefully.
She blinked rapidly, stunned for half a second.
“Long time no see.”
“Mm,” he replied, his voice slightly hoarse and deep, with a heavy nasal tone.
Yu Jiacheng gestured with his chin towards him. “Brother Lu, she doesn’t have cash.”
Shen Yihuan felt like she wanted to shut him up.
Yet, she couldn’t help but feel a strange glimmer of hope and expectation.
His cool gaze swept over the notice board. Lu Zhou walked to the cash register and pulled his wallet from his pants pocket. “How much?”
Shen Yihuan smelled his cigarette smoke, and a faint hint of alcohol – a hospital smell, and a perfume she didn’t recognize, which swallowed all the unspoken words.
“41 yuan exactly,” the cashier said.
He pulled out a fifty-yuan bill, and then a coin.
Shen Yihuan’s gaze uncontrollably followed his hand, distinct knuckles, full of strength, very fair skin. She had the illusion that those hands were also cold.
But she knew Lu Zhou’s hands were warm, even in winter. When they were deskmates in high school, she always held Lu Zhou’s hands to warm herself.
“Here’s ten yuan in change.”
He put the change into his pants pocket, paused, then turned his head to ask, “Do you have change for the way back?”
Shen Yihuan was still distracted.
Until those hands bent, tapping twice on the cash register. “Shen Yihuan.”
His voice was like ice, deep and hoarse, grating in his throat.
“Ah,” she snapped back to reality, looking a bit flustered. “Yes, someone’s picking me up.”
He left without another word.
That scent on him once again moved away from Shen Yihuan. She recognized it now—that perfume must have belonged to the female doctor from earlier.
________________________________________
When Shen Yihuan walked out with a bag of things, Lin Kaige had just driven the car out. She pulled open the car door and got in as if escaping, only then belatedly remembering she hadn’t paid Lu Zhou back.
She ignored the burning gaze behind her.
“It’s been three years, hasn’t it?” Yu Jiacheng said, standing by the window, watching Shen Yihuan get into the passenger seat of a man’s car.
“Three and a half years.”
“Hmm?”
“Three and a half years since we last met.”
They broke up three years ago, but it had been three and a half years since they last saw each other.
Lu Zhou later went to military school, rarely allowed out. It was hard to even meet him. Sometimes he finally had a holiday, but Shen Yihuan would be out playing with friends.
Shen Yihuan was a wild fire in his barren youth. She was bright and dazzling, and he was uncontrollably drawn to her, only to be burned all over.
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