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The teacher dismissed class ten minutes late. When Lin Zhan arrived at the bike shed, she found that only her bike was left.
She unlocked it, and as she pushed the bike out of the shed, she felt something was wrong.
Upon checking, she realized that...
The tire was flat.
Since she hadn’t asked if the tire was full when she borrowed it, Lin Zhan pushed the bike directly to a nearby repair shop. There was already someone else getting their bike fixed. In between repairs, the boss glanced at her bike.
“Is there a problem?”
Lin Zhan said, “It seems the tire is flat.”
After a quick inspection, the boss said, “It’s not flat, the tire is punctured.”
The boss felt the punctured spot: “Did you run over something sharp on the way here?”
“No,” Lin Zhan shook her head, “The bike was fine until I locked it; I didn’t feel it losing air.”
“You definitely ran over something,” the boss chuckled while repairing the bike. “According to you, it must have been someone else who punctured your tire, then?”
Lin Zhan paused.
But quickly asked, “How long will it take to fix?”
“Are you in a hurry?” The boss shook his head. “There’s someone before you; it won’t be fixed anytime soon.”
Lin Zhan checked the time and said, “Then I’ll leave the bike here and pick it up this afternoon.”
“Alright.”
Lin Zhan quickly walked out of the school gate and hailed a taxi by the roadside: “To XX Road, as fast as possible, please.”
The driver turned the steering wheel and said, “Little girl, it might not be fast; there’s a traffic jam ahead.”
“How long will it take approximately?”
“Half an hour, maybe.”
A journey that usually took over ten minutes would be delayed to half an hour due to the jam.
Lin Zhan took out her phone and checked.
It was already 12:20.
It would be 12:50 by the time she got there...
But getting out and running there now was clearly not a wise decision.
Lin Zhan decided to take the taxi first and then borrow a shared bike if she saw one along the way.
Unfortunately, fate had other plans; she didn’t see a single bike along the route.
The short journey took over half an hour due to the traffic. Lin Zhan thought that being a little late probably wouldn’t matter much; after all, there were always some unforeseen circumstances.
Finally, they were almost there. The car stopped steadily, and just as Lin Zhan was about to pay, she received a call from Luoluo.
Luoluo’s tone was anxious: “Hello, Zhanzhan, have you arrived?”
Lin Zhan pursed her lips: “Not yet, my bike had a flat tire, so I called a taxi at the last minute.”
“Flat tire? How could it be flat? Wasn’t it fine this morning?”
“It’s very strange,” Lin Zhan adjusted her backpack strap. “I’m about to get out of the car; let’s talk later. My painting is still in my bag...”
“Wait!” Luoluo was both anxious and angry. “It’s no use getting out now; the people selecting the paintings have already left...”
“What?” Lin Zhan frowned. “Who left? How do you know?”
“They started selecting paintings at 12:30. Those teachers were too busy and only had twenty minutes. They left immediately after selecting... I just heard about it from others in the cafeteria,” Luoluo gritted her teeth. “Why didn’t those people notify you earlier?!”
Lin Zhan sat in the car, the warm air making her a bit slow to react.
She hadn’t fully recovered her senses.
Luoluo said, “We just ran into Sun Qiqi’s dorm mates! They were telling us right in front of us that five of Sun Qiqi’s paintings were selected. Don’t you know we’re furious! Is it something to be proud of to steal other people’s things? Is it something to be proud of to use such underhanded tactics?”
Lin Zhan didn’t speak for a long time.
She turned her head to look out the car window. It was lively outside. A beverage cart was giving out free drinks to promote its brand.
A slender, well-dressed girl queued up and took one cup after another.
She secretly put the drinks into her backpack, but because the drinks weren’t sealed, she was worried they would spill, so she walked carefully with every step.
The sixth time she queued, a jogging teenager with headphones passed by her.
Her backpack was bumped, and the drinks instantly spilled, drenching her backpack.
She grumbled as she held her backpack, various colored liquids dripping densely from its edges.
Passersby all turned to look, scanning her up and down with looks of disdain.
She went to ask for more drinks, but by the time it was the person before her, the drinks were all gone.
She finally left with a scowl.
Ultimately, she got nothing.
Luoluo: “Hello? Zhanzhan? Are you still there?”
Lin Zhan snapped back to attention: “Still here.”
Luoluo’s tone was displeased: “So I guess it must have been her deliberately having others not tell you about the time crunch, and then secretly tampering with your bike. There are just too many coincidences, and she showed surprising eagerness for this painting selection.”
Lin Zhan responded: “Mm.”
Luoluo: “Should we tell the class advisor? After all, this counts as infringing on your rights...”
“No need,” Lin Zhan said. “Where would we find evidence?”
“We can always find evidence if we look for it. We can go check surveillance footage, and then...”
After thinking about it, Lin Zhan shook her head and quietly repeated, “No need.”
“Ah? Why? Aren’t you angry? Are you just going to let it go?!”
Lin Zhan: “I’ll tell you when I get back.”
If you take too many drinks, they’ll all spill.
If you greedily cling to things that don’t belong to you, you’ll lose everything.
It won’t be settled like this. Heaven will give a good ending to good deeds and retribution for bad ones.
Wasting time on such people is putting obstacles in your own way.
Lin Zhan took a deep breath and told the driver, “Please take me back to school.”
________________________________________
From the day she returned to school, Lin Zhan entered a silent state of work.
Inspiration is hard to come by; if you don’t seize that moment of passion to unleash it, the painting won’t be in its best state.
At first, Luoluo and the dorm leader thought Lin Zhan was discouraged.
But later they found that she ate and drank as usual, and still told jokes. Aside from a slight reduction in the time spent on these activities, everything else was fine.
After a few days, they realized that Lin Zhan was inspired and painting.
Painting is a very subjective process; you can find things to paint even without inspiration. But once inspiration strikes, the painting becomes fully three-dimensional, both inside and out. Unlike ordinary sketches or copies, it’s a painting with a soul.
Whether a painting has a soul can be seen not only by experts but also by laymen at a glance.
Lin Zhan spent half a month finishing that painting.
The upper part of the painting depicted a tree, for which she used many vibrant colors, not only bright but also rich in variety.
The lower part of the painting depicted a person, rendered in uniform, largely unchanging dark tones.
It was a magical tree, laden with rare treasures—jewels, gold bars, unpolished jade, treasure chests...
Beneath the tree sat a person. The net in front of the person already held a pile of treasures picked from the tree, yet he remained insatiable, continuing to pluck from the tree.
However, he didn’t know that below the net was an abyss. Clearly, having loaded too much, his net was already torn, and things were now falling out little by little.
But how could he be content?
He was attempting to pick the largest treasure chest from the tree. Once he put the treasure chest into the net, the heavy chest would tear his net.
With the net broken, all the precious treasures would fall into the abyss, and he would lose everything.
The painting only went this far.
A painting that reveals too much loses its charm; a little left unsaid, with room for imagination, makes the painting more ironic.
Lin Zhan named this painting “Want.”
—You want everything, but how can you get everything?
She put the painting on the table to dry and then went downstairs to buy food.
After buying food and returning, Luoluo and the others also came back.
A few people gathered around Lin Zhan’s painting, and Luoluo grandiosely put her hands behind her back and said—
“This is a painting that truly represents the real standard of our Weida University.”
________________________________________
Lin Zhan didn’t go on the opening day of the art exhibition. She heard the news intermittently from Luoluo.
Luoluo returned to the dorm and saw Lin Zhan scrolling through Weibo, indignantly saying, “I heard Sun Qiqi’s paintings were favored at the exhibition and sold for several thousand yuan, and some were even more expensive! How many days did she spend on those paintings? They’re nowhere near as good as yours...”
The youngest one pushed up her glasses: “I finally understand why she put so much effort into targeting Zhanzhan. It wasn’t about the person; it was about the money. Remove all the obstacles, and she can make tons of cash. When profit is at stake, who cares about principles and dignity? You can even abandon your face.”
“She’s quite clever,” the dorm leader sneered. “Seizing the opportunity to make a fortune.”
The big news during that period was nothing more than which painting Sun Qiqi sold next, how much money she made, how proud she was, and how she walked with her head held high.
“Her painting speed has gotten much faster recently,” Luoluo said, “and she skips many classes, focusing solely on painting and making money in the dorm.”
Lin Zhan wasn’t affected by her affairs. She continued to paint, immersing herself in the dorm whenever inspiration struck. When she had free time, she would go out with them to play and find inspiration.
Sophomore year concluded amidst this pervasive atmosphere of commercialism.
Lin Zhan never expected that before university ended, she would again embark on a journey back to W City.
This time, she was going back with Shen Xi.
They had originally planned to spend the New Year at his home, but unfortunately, something came up on their side, and Ye Qian and Shen Su were both absent.
So, this New Year, it would just be the two of them, relying on each other.
On the way to the high-speed rail station, they encountered a vendor selling roasted sweet potatoes.
Lin Zhan peeled back the scarf that Shen Xi had wrapped tightly around her, finally managing to pull it down below her lips. She pointed with her finger at a small sweet potato on the stove: “I’d like that small one, please.”
The boss put the sweet potato into a bag. Lin Zhan took it, warming her hands, and timidly asked, “Auntie, do you have a spoon?”
The aunt raised her face, her gaze piercing with an all-knowing sharpness: “You’re from W City, aren’t you?”
Lin Zhan was stunned for a moment, then nodded and said, “Yes.”
She then glanced at her own attire and Shen Xi, asking, “How could you tell?”
“Only people from your area eat sweet potatoes with spoons,” the aunt smiled at her. “My spoons are almost all taken by you guys.”
After walking away with the sweet potato, Lin Zhan, while swapping it back and forth between her hands to dissipate the heat, asked Shen Xi, “Do you eat sweet potatoes with a spoon?”
Shen Xi looked down at her and said, “I don’t eat sweet potatoes.”
Lin Zhan: “...”
Shen Xi saw her still switching the sweet potato between her hands, reached out, took it, and peeled it for her.
Lin Zhan was quite dismissive, raising her chin and asking him, “Didn’t you say you don’t eat them?”
“I’ll peel it for you,” he said. “Aren’t you saying it’s too hot?”
Lin Zhan paused, recalling something Zhang Ze had told her a long time ago—
“Shen Xi, he’s a bit of a clean freak. He doesn’t like to touch things others have touched, and he dislikes things that don’t look smooth on the surface, like potatoes, sweet potatoes... Don’t put these things in front of him. Let alone touching them, it’d be good if he doesn’t throw you out along with them.”
Shen Xi saw her lost in thought and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Lin Zhan pointed at the item in his hand: “Don’t you dislike sweet potatoes?”
“I don’t like sweet potatoes,” he handed the peeled item to her, then calmly added, “But I like you.”
________________________________________
On New Year’s Eve, they went to the riverside, which was packed with people waiting for midnight.
Lin Zhan saw someone drawing murals on the street and couldn’t help but go closer to watch. As she watched, she started chatting with the person and even helped draw a few strokes.
Her figure swayed gracefully with the evening breeze. Lights reflected around her, casting a soft, warm glow over her.
In the night sky, two or three stars floated freely, their light faint.
After finishing a figure, Lin Zhan smiled and looked back, waving to Shen Xi, signaling him to look at her.
She had drawn a Q-version character with a straight face. The Q-version itself was cute, but the character’s serious expression created a particularly harmonious and adorable contrast.
Perhaps from being out in the wind for too long, two faint blushes appeared on her cheeks.
Instantly, she stopped smiling and mimicked the straight-faced character in the mural, even putting her hands behind her back.
She mouthed to Shen Xi: “Take a picture...”
...
How could Shen Xi not understand that she was laughing at him, laughing at how similar the straight-faced character on the mural was to him?
Now, she was even asking him to take a picture of her?
Shen Xi’s long, lowered eyelashes trembled, but he still took out his phone and took several photos of her.
...
What could he do? He chose his girlfriend; he had to spoil her even if he had to kneel.
After taking the photos, Lin Zhan ran to his side to look at the finished pictures.
Several of them were blurry.
In a few, Lin Zhan’s eyes were closed.
“So annoying,” Lin Zhan said as she scrolled, “Even from such an awkward angle, I’m still so beautiful. Heaven is practically not giving me a chance to live, is it?”
Shen Xi: ?
A moment later, he also curved his lips and smiled.
“Yes, too beautiful.”
Lin Zhan bought a devil horn headband in the store and even got a matching one for Shen Xi. She turned her head and asked him, “Want one?”
Shen Xi immediately replied, “No.”
Lin Zhan said again, “Wear it? It’s so cute.”
Shen Xi refused again, “No.”
Even the store clerks started sighing for Lin Zhan.
Such a wonderful girl, why did she find such an unromantic boyfriend?
In such a joyful occasion, he was so disappointing, refusing without mercy.
They saw Lin Zhan lower her head, silently guessing: They’ll probably break up when they get back...
And then...
Lin Zhan happily scanned the code to pay and bought the devil horn headband.
Immediately after, she raised her hand, didn’t even say a word, didn’t even turn her head, and her boyfriend beside her had already taken two steps forward, sighing helplessly and dotingly, lowering his head.
She put the black devil horn headband on him.
It even glowed.
Finally, Lin Zhan added a concluding remark: “Hmm, looks good.”
Everyone watched Shen Xi straighten up in astonishment, wearing that small accessory that completely clashed with his cold face, and walk out the door.
Outside the window, a bell tinkled. Standing in the night, the stern young man... had a glowing horn on his head.
________________________________________
The chimes of the new year set sail amidst cheers.
A giant LED screen scrolled through everyone’s New Year’s wishes.
This was a park activity where people could send their hopes for the new year or reflections on the past year by following a WeChat account. The backend staff would filter and select messages to be displayed on the screen.
At this moment, the screen was filled with everyone’s grand declarations.
[New Year, make a fortune!]
[Hope to find a boyfriend in the new year, please, boyfriend, hurry up and appear, I’ve been waiting until the flowers withered.]
[New Year, please, extreme people, stay away and don’t annoy me :)]
[Peace and smoothness, blessings for a lifetime.]
[Baby healthy, family happy, can travel by the end of the year.]
...
Occasionally, there were voice status bars.
The staff randomly clicked on some.
First one: “Wow! This tech is so damn advanced!”
Second one: “Tomorrow I want to eat spicy chicken and crayfish!”
Third one: “My dream is to eat street food without getting diarrhea, and lose weight even when eating cream cake!”
...
Among a crowd of unfamiliar IDs, Lin Zhan found a familiar name.
Isn’t this... Shen Xi’s WeChat name?
Lin Zhan tugged at his sleeve, her exhaled white mist dissipating in the colorful lights.
“You wrote a New Year’s wish?”
“You actually wrote something like this? It seems this wish is really strong then.”
She knew he was always aloof and disliked participating in such things.
Shen Xi looked down at her, his eyes flickering, and whispered, “Mm.”
That voice message was finally played.
It was a soft hum.
Amidst the sounds of various people shouting excitedly about tomorrow, this voice seemed like a clear stream—so quiet it was almost inaudible.
The surroundings gradually quieted down.
Shen Xi’s humming was intermittent, and Lin Zhan couldn’t distinguish what song it was.
She quietly asked him, “Is this how you express your New Year’s wish?”
Shen Xi parted his lips, his expression still serious: “I’m singing it to you.”
To express his New Year’s wish, he sang a song for her.
For the new year, his wish was still her.
He wasn’t someone who liked to express emotions, let alone in such a public setting.
Lin Zhan paused, her earlobes burning. The voice message finally reached its end.
It was clear he wasn’t a great singer, but he had worked hard to learn, to distinguish each note and tone, and to find the rhythm of the entire song.
In the quiet background, his voice carried an inexpressible sincerity and stubbornness, pure and slightly naive.
It was like a child buying their favorite toy for the first time, so overjoyed and cherishing it that they couldn’t find an appropriate way to express it.
The more they wanted to express, the more they feared they couldn’t show even a fraction of it.
The last line he sang was displayed as a string of words across the entire screen.
Accompanying his soft hum, a shower of dazzling starlight fell upon the screen.
—”Thank you for being so dazzling, for being the star in my ordinary years.”
For him, this world was once just a planet.
Life had direction, but it was monotonous and boring, moving in straight lines. Everyone’s detached faces were a barrier, and he couldn’t find a way, always being isolated outside the door that connected him to the world.
Life was like a straight line, without ripples, every step moving in his predetermined direction.
It was she who told him that life could hold so many joys, so many happy expressions, such passionate struggles, and such touching love.
She didn’t teach him love.
She was love itself.
She made him understand that the four words “spend the rest of my life together” were actually more captivating than achieving fame and success.
________________________________________
Lin Zhan and Shen Xi spent that winter break holed up at his house.
After two years away from home, her family hadn’t called her once. Lin Zhan knew that Jiang Wan missed her, but Lin Zhengping would surely stop Jiang Wan—whether from calling or visiting her.
Lin Zhengping was sulking with her; no, rather than sulking, he was making a bet.
He was betting that Lin Zhan wouldn’t fly far from her safe harbor, betting that no matter what vows she had made or how determinedly she had left, she would eventually crumble under the feet of reality, return home obediently, and become a beautiful caged bird.
He was betting that she would eventually admit her mistakes, succumb to the world, and then respectfully obey his arrangements.
No, she wouldn’t.
She would definitely make Lin Zhengping understand that the dogmatism he once considered truth, and the utilitarianism he pursued his entire life, were all wrong.
She would not yield; she would definitely win.
________________________________________
Towards the end of winter break, Lin Zhan received a call from her teacher.
Actually, she knew even before the call—the national art award, hailed as the “highest belief” in the art world, a brutal competition held every five years, was about to begin.
“The teacher suggests you still participate. Even if you don’t win an award, it’s good to gain some experience... If you really can win an award, as long as you can make it into the top ten in our province, you’ll have a very high starting point,” the teacher said. “Not to mention more, I had a student three years ago who ranked eleventh in the province. Later, she received all sorts of newspaper interviews, art exhibition collaborations, big projects... After becoming somewhat famous, she painted some representative works, and now the price of one of her paintings is very high. That student’s name is Su Man; you should know her, right?”
Of course, Lin Zhan knew Su Man; she was already considered a very good young painter.
Teacher: “Your vision shouldn’t be too narrow; it should be long-term. Maybe you missed a few opportunities before, that’s okay. This one competition is worth more than a dozen others; its prestige is incredibly high. As long as you can create a good piece, refine it, we don’t know if it will achieve widespread acclaim, but at least you can stand out among painters.”
After hanging up the phone, Shen Xi asked her, “Are you participating?”
Of course, she would participate. From that flash of inspiration months ago, she knew that the painting “Want” would definitely be useful at a critical moment.
What did it matter if Sun Qiqi got the spot for the previous exhibition first?
Lin Zhan hadn’t lost anything; on the contrary, she should thank Sun Qiqi for giving her an inspiration, preventing her from being flustered at this moment.
Now, it was her home turf.
________________________________________
Soon after the third year began, the teacher requested that the competition paintings be submitted, from which three would be selected to represent Weida University in the competition.
It was then that Sun Qiqi belatedly realized something.
Because she hadn’t deeply researched much in the past six months, most of her paintings were sold based on her reputation and the patronage of old clients. The prices were indeed good, and it was quick and easy money, which gave her an unrealistic illusion.
Her painting became faster and simpler.
Knowing how important this competition was, she had set aside over a week to paint a good piece.
But she found that her hands had grown rusty, and some things she wanted to express simply couldn’t be conveyed, no matter how hard she tried.
After painstakingly finishing that painting, she realized it was the best one she had done recently.
Even if it didn’t meet her expectations, it should still be better than what others had painted.
She comforted herself with this thought.
But the next day, when she saw everyone else’s paintings, she felt that something was wrong.
The painting signed “Sun Qiqi” was placed slightly to the left, being compared with all the other paintings.
Why had she fallen behind everyone else’s standard just because she hadn’t attended classes for the past half year?
Many people were standing there at the moment, their gazes, filled with various meanings, rotating among everyone’s paintings, and some glances were directed at Sun Qiqi.
Under those gazes, she instinctively felt mortified.
These people must have hired someone to paint for them, right? Yes, absolutely!
“Alright, these three will do,” the teacher selected the three most rich and complete paintings and instructed, “These three students stay behind later.”
Lin Zhan went to the restroom midway and was told upon returning that her painting had been selected.
She wasn’t too surprised and told Luoluo, “Then you guys go back first; I’ll be back after I’m done.”
Luoluo didn’t forget to remind her, “Okay, come back early.”
Lin Zhan nodded, “Mm, I know.”
When she returned to the classroom, she heard muffled sobs.
Lin Zhan thought she was hallucinating, but the closer she got to the classroom, the clearer the sound became, interspersed with fragmented sentences, rendered incomprehensible by gasps.
She got closer and saw that the person crying was Sun Qiqi.
“Teacher, just give me, give me three more days, please? I promise, just three days, I’ll definitely turn in a painting better than these, all of them...”
The teacher sighed regretfully: “It’s not that I won’t give you a chance, but it’s due soon, and redoing it won’t help. Since you think this opportunity is so important, why didn’t you start painting earlier?”
“I was wrong, teacher,” Sun Qiqi cried, tears streaming down her face, grabbing the teacher’s sleeve. “Please give me another chance, okay? Even one night? Can we postpone it, please? You know, I can paint...”
“You haven’t been attending classes for a long time,” the teacher patted her hand, her tone gentle but her words merciless. “Competitions aren’t charity; rules can’t be changed just because you cry. Your previous paintings, though a bit hasty, always had spirit. Perhaps you haven’t been diligent. Your paintings now are like quickly sold commodities, and it pains me to see that.”
Sun Qiqi cried as if she were about to choke, continuously apologizing and pleading for a chance.
The teacher sighed, looking at her: “Stop crying. If I let you redo it, it wouldn’t be fair to the other students. You’re grown now; you need to learn to take responsibility for your actions.”
It was as if he was talking about this one incident, yet also about more than just this one.
Sun Qiqi’s eyes were red, tears and snot streaming down her face, as she sobbed loudly by the door.
Only she knew how much she had lost.
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