A whistle blew from the track.
The training instructor raised his arm and waved over enthusiastically, his voice loud and energetic: “Have you had enough of lying around? If you’re done, come over and gather!”
Groans echoed one after another. Scattered groups of people slowly stood up from the grass and trudged toward the track like they were heading for an execution.
Yan Chen finished the remaining popsicle in two or three bites, pushed off the parallel bars with one hand and jumped down, tossing the popsicle stick into the trash can on the way.
Dong Xi stood on the track with his hands on his hips. When Yan Chen walked closer, he handed him a bottle of water with a smile: “Brother Yan, you have friends on this side of campus too? I never heard you mention that before.”
Yan Chen twisted the cap open and replied flatly, “What friends.”
“There.” Dong Xi jerked his chin toward the back: “Over there, I saw someone standing there watching you the whole time. Isn’t he here for you?”
Yan Chen glanced back while taking a sip of water.
In the distance stood a tall, slender figure. He was too far to make out the features, only the backdrop of deep and light green made his white clothes stand out. He looked light and fresh, like a newly sprouted bamboo shoot, and was quite pleasing to the eye.
Yan Chen withdrew his gaze indifferently and capped the bottle. “I don’t know him.”
None of his friends looked like some glowing white figure.
“Oh, okay then.”
Dong Xi shrugged and suddenly remembered something else: “By the way, someone in the dorm next door is having a birthday this Saturday. They invited our dorm to join for a meal. Are you coming?”
Yan Chen: “I have class, no time.”
Dong Xi: “Yeah, your double major class, right? Don’t worry, they said it’s a dinner thing, so it won’t affect anything during the day.”
The instructor clapped again, urging them to hurry.
With a “swish” sound, Yan Chen ripped the label off the bottle, set it aside, and turned to rejoin the group.
“No need. I’m going to the library tonight. You guys have fun.”
–
Chi Dongting spotted Ye Wenyu under the shade of a tree from far away and ran over, panting: “I’m here, I’m here! Have you been waiting long? Are you hot?”
Ye Wenyu shook his head, his eyes still looking toward the track.
The crowd from earlier had mostly dispersed, and the place he was staring at was now empty.
Chi Dongting came running back, sweat on his forehead: “That’s good! Here, have a popsicle, it’s a new flavor.”
Ye Wenyu looked down at the popsicle, and an image of that person sitting on the parallel bars with a popsicle in his mouth involuntarily popped up in his mind.
The lip color wasn’t too light or dark, just right. The lips were full, the shape perfect. Even the movement of chewing and closing his mouth drew a flawless lip line.
‘…Perfect?’
The moment that word crashed into his thoughts, even he was stunned.
The people on the track had mostly cleared out, only a few scattered here and there.
Chi Dongting walked while unwrapping the packaging, took a big bite of the popsicle, and let out a long, chilled sigh: “Ah…refreshing~! This flavor’s nice, sweet and sour. Wenyu, do you want to try it next time?”
Ye Wenyu: “Mm.”
How could there really be someone who matched all his expectations perfectly?
How is it possible that there is really someone who seemed to grow meticulously according to his every wish?
Chi Dongting: “It seems like it’s part of a series. I saw several with similar packaging. If we’re going to eat them, how about we buy all of them next time and try them one by one?”
Ye Wenyu: “Mm.”
It was like he was “custom-made” for him, every detail matched his picky preferences exactly.
Chi Dongting: “Speaking of popsicles, it reminded me…my mom said a while back she wanted to buy a place near the school for me, but then never mentioned it again. Maybe she forgot with all that rent coming in. I need to ask her.”
Ye Wenyu: “Mm.”
‘No, it wasn’t just a perfect match.’
He went way beyond his expectations, far exceeded the standard of excellence he held in his mind. That face was too good-looking. How could someone look even better than the best he had imagined?
Chi Dongting: “I have to talk to my mom about the renovations too. I don’t want her just randomly handing it off to some unreliable designer again.”
“Mm.”
Ye Wenyu absentmindedly lowered his head, his gaze falling on his palm.
Water droplets from the popsicle wrapper had melted and soaked his hand. The cold temperature barely pulled him back to reality.
Was it real?
Was it not just his imagination?
Could it be the sunlight was too good today, the shade of the trees too dense, and it dazzled his eyes, made him see wrong…
Even Chi Dongting, as slow as he was, could tell Ye Wenyu’s brief replies were perfunctory.
“Wenyu?” He clicked his tongue and nudged Ye Wenyu with his elbow. “I’ve been chattering all this time. Say something, will you?”
Ye Wenyu’s eyelashes trembled quickly. He turned toward him and asked in a daze: “What is it?”
Chi Dongting: “Shouldn’t I be the one asking that? You’re totally out of it, you can go into a daze even while walking? What are you thinking about?”
“…Nothing. I just didn’t get enough rest at noon, so I’m a bit sleepy.”
Ye Wenyu casually made up an excuse: “What were you saying just now?”
Chi Dongting had rambled so much earlier he’d forgotten himself: “Forget it, it wasn’t anything important. I was just talking nonsense.”
Then something suddenly occurred to him: “Oh right, Wenyu, remember that painting I pointed out to you last time? The one hanging in the finance building’s main hall…you can see it clearly just walking past the entrance.”
Ye Wenyu: “I remember. Why?”
Chi Dongting clicked his tongue: “When I went in to pay my tuition just now, I took a closer look. Honestly, it’s pretty bad, like a mess of random strokes. I guess we only thought it looked nice because we always saw it from a distance…”
Ye Wenyu quietly listened as he tore open the popsicle and took a bite.
The orange fragrance filled his mouth, the coolness slipped down his throat and straight into his lungs, and together with Chi Dongting’s rambling, it cooled down his overheated mind once again.
His active thoughts surged wildly, but eventually, with the return of reason, they gradually cooled down, inevitably giving rise to an uncontrollable regret:
Why didn’t he go up and confirm it right away?
The coldness of the melting popsicle flowed from his throat down into his stomach, and Ye Wenyu couldn’t help but frown.
This feeling of missing an opportunity and being full of remorse was truly unpleasant.
Now the person was gone, and he knew nothing about him. If he had to wait for the next random encounter, how long would that be?
–
The Foreign Affairs teachers were notoriously strict, and the weekly translation assignments were so large they could be counted as short essays.
So every weekend, Chi Dongting’s computer would routinely have two windows open: one was the homework document left untouched all day, the other was the chat window filled with his angry exclamation marks flooding the screen.
In the quiet dorm room, only the clacking of his keyboard could be heard.
Chi Dongting: [Bird language stuff!]
*”Bird language stuff” to mean gibberish/ words one doesn’t understand.
Chi Dongting: [You know that big iron ball in Qiushi Square? It’s telling us that studying! is! freaking! useless!]
Chi Dongting: [I might as well go home and collect rent! Why even write this crap!]
Their dorm originally had four people, but after Lin Xiang and Chen Danyu got into relationships, they moved out. Now only Ye Wenyu and Chi Dongting were left in the dorm.
Lin Xiang: [Wenyu’s not in the dorm?]
Chi Dongting: [He’s here.]
Lin Xiang: [Then what are you worried about homework for? You’ve got an academic god right next to you.]
True.
But Chi Dongting glanced back, then turned away listlessly.
Chi Dongting: [Sigh, forget it / pulling face jpg.]
Lin Xiang: [What, did you guys have a fight?]
Chi Dongting: [How could that be?]
Chi Dongting: [I just feel like Wenyu’s had something on his mind these past couple of days, so I’d better not bother him.]
Chen Danyu: [What’s he thinking about?]
Chi Dongting: [No idea.]
Lin Xiang: [Too much pressure from studying? But that stuff should be a piece of cake for Wenyu.]
Chen Danyu: [You said it’s something small, so it probably isn’t a big issue. Just comfort him a little more.]
Chi Dongting: [How do I comfort him?]
Lin Xiang: [Play games with him? Maybe if he’s happy, his worries will disappear, and he might even help you with the homework.]
Chi Dongting: [Wenyu doesn’t play games.]
Chen Danyu: [Just try it, if it doesn’t work then stop.]
‘Try….. then I’ll just try it.’ Chi Dongting closed the document, opened the game with practiced ease, and turned back to call out, “Wenyu, do you want to join me for…”
But before he could finish, Ye Wenyu, who had been quietly sitting there, suddenly stood up and started packing his things.
Chi Dongting blinked in confusion: “Wenyu, are you going out?”
“Mm.” Ye Wenyu closed his laptop and unplugged the charger. “I’m going to the library. I’ll be back tonight.”
Chi Dongting: “?”
The dormitory door opened and closed again.
A gust of wind swept through the room, and Chi Dongting’s hand, which had tried to reach out to stop him, froze midair.
In the blink of an eye, the only person left in the empty dormitory was a heartbroken soul who couldn’t finish his translation assignment.
–
The straight-line distance from the dormitory building to the library wasn’t far, but in between was Changxin Lake, which required a detour along the lakeside path.
If Ye Wenyu walked properly along the lakeside trail, the time it took would be no more than twenty minutes.
But he didn’t hesitate to choose another route, one that added almost half a lap more.
As he approached the South Gate sports field, he could already see several sports students scattered about, either training independently or warming up for practice.
Ye Wenyu slowed his steps, his gaze quietly sweeping over every boy on the field.
Stretching on the track, lying on the grass panting, slacking off in the corners, even those buying water at the vending machines… he missed no one.
Unfortunately, he still didn’t see the person he was looking for.
This wasn’t his first visit in the past few days.
Ever since that day, he had added the South Gate sports field to his fixed triangle of dormitory, library, and classroom buildings.
To be precise, not just the sports field, even the nearby sports department’s supermarket and cafeteria had begun to see his figure.
But judging from the results so far, all his efforts to increase the chances of a random encounter seemed useless.
He hadn’t seen that boy again, even though the sports field had been crowded with students training.
Was it just that much of a coincidence that the boy only trained that one day?
Impossible. Ye Wenyu dismissed the thought as soon as it surfaced.
The only thing he was sure of was that the boy was a sports student. And as a sports student, there’s no such thing as only training for one day.
So, was it just the wrong timing every time he came?
After days of fruitless searching, it was hard for Ye Wenyu not to feel a bit anxious.
He closed his eyes, then withdrew his gaze and quickened his pace toward the library.
