On an early summer night, a few fireflies drifted through the distant grove.
Pei Chuan remained silent for a long time before speaking: "I'm fine. You should go back."
What difference would asking make? Today was already over, and his coming here had been meaningless from the start.
Bei Yao studied his expression curiously. The young man's face was extremely cold, his eyes harboring only desolate light.
Would someone fine drink alcohol? Would someone fine come to her school just to see her?
She approached him, lifting her gaze to meet his eyes. "Pei Chuan," she said seriously, "has anyone ever told you that you should speak your mind instead of bottling things up?"
She couldn't help smiling. "If you keep it bottled up too long... you'll end up looking as fierce as you do now."
His lips pressed into a tight line.
"What's really wrong?" she asked, her voice blending with the summer night breeze, gentle and accommodating.
"I'm fine." He couldn't take it anymore. He'd promised himself just one look—why ask and humiliate himself?
Pei Chuan turned and walked away.
"Hey..." Bei Yao hesitated about whether to follow.
Never mind, never mind. If he wanted to be in a bad mood today, she'd just consider it him borrowing against tomorrow's goodwill.
At the end of the camphor grove where it met the school gate, a group of boys was heading toward the entrance.
Someone teased laughingly, "Han Zhen! So? Now that you've become a man, did you get the campus belle's sweet kiss?"
Pei Chuan froze mid-step.
Han Zhen said, "Stop talking nonsense!"
"Hahaha, look! Han Zhen's blushing!"
"Han Zhen, Han Zhen, does the campus belle smell good? Are her lips soft? Her waist looks so slim—have you held her? A beauty like Bei Yao, tsk, what's she like?"
The words were too provocative. Before Han Zhen could frown and respond, the teasing boy took a heavy punch to the face.
At the camphor grove intersection, a boy in black clothes grabbed the boy's collar and punched him again in the face.
Blood streamed from the boy's nose.
Everyone was stunned. Then they hurried to break up the fight. None of them recognized the boy who was throwing punches, but they were terrified by his ferocity.
He seemed possessed, slamming the boy's head against a camphor tree.
Again and again. Seven or eight boys couldn't pull him away.
Han Zhen, shocked, joined two others in dragging the boy back by his arms while the rest protected the beaten boy.
The victim broke down: "What the hell is wrong with you, you psycho..."
Han Zhen felt the muscles in the boy's arms bulging beneath his grip. Extreme rage made them twitch. He couldn't hold Pei Chuan back. All of Pei Chuan's fury and agony twisted his features into something cold and savage.
Pei Chuan knew he'd gone mad. He'd been mad since yesterday when he learned that news...
Han Zhen failed to restrain him. Seeing the beaten boy's face pale with fear, Han Zhen had no choice but to quickly step in front of him.
Pei Chuan's fist stopped an inch from Han Zhen's face.
The two boys locked eyes for a second.
"Get out of my way," Pei Chuan said. He recognized him—Han Zhen. The boy whose photo appeared beside Bei Yao's in that post.
Han Zhen saw eyes that were both cold and piercing.
"What if I don't?" Han Zhen said. "Whoever you are, whatever issue you have with him, this isn't the way to solve it."
For a moment, Pei Chuan wanted to beat him to death.
Was this defender of so-called justice the one she liked?
Pei Chuan had never believed in justice. His mind echoed only the bloody-faced boy's lewd question: What was Bei Yao like?
Pei Chuan struck.
To hell with it all. To hell with everyone dying together."Pei Chuan!" The tension had barely lasted half a minute when Bei Yao arrived and found a boy with a bleeding nose. Seeing Pei Chuan about to strike Han Zhen again, her heart nearly stopped.
What were they doing?
Pei Chuan stood with his back to Bei Yao.
Han Zhen noticed that the moment Bei Yao called the young man's name, the ferocity and anger in his eyes vanished completely, replaced by endless shame and desolation.
Pei Chuan didn't turn around. He didn't want Bei Yao to see him in this state of jealous madness. Shoving off the two boys holding him back, he walked toward the entrance of No. 6 High School.
Bei Yao met Han Zhen's gaze: "I'm sorry. Please have your classmate see a doctor first. I'll cover the medical expenses. That boy earlier... he wasn't in a good state emotionally. I need to check on him first. My apologies."
She ran along the path to the end of the camphor grove near No. 6 High School.
Under the hazy warm yellow streetlights, Bei Yao saw his silhouette at the edge of the illuminated path.
"Pei Chuan!"
His footsteps halted, and he closed his eyes briefly.
Breathless from running, Bei Yao reached him and blocked his path: "What's wrong with you! Why were you hitting people?"
He opened his eyes, his dark pupils reflecting her image.
The one he most wanted to hit was clearly Han Zhen. Yet it was precisely the fear of this scene - how would she see him?
Though early May had already ushered in summer, this night felt unusually cold.
Pei Chuan lowered his gaze: "They were discussing you and Han Zhen."
Bei Yao: "..." Since when did she have anything going on with Han Zhen? She didn't even know about it herself.
The young man's eyes dropped further, settling on the shadows of camphor trees under the streetlights. His lips were pale, whether from shame or something else. She had asked him to speak his mind, and now he had.
A wild guess formed in Bei Yao's heart - was his earlier anger because of her?
She asked: "What about me and Han Zhen?"
The young man's lips grew paler. He suddenly looked up, his gaze making her feel like she had cornered him.
"Your eighteenth birthday gift." Did she need him to spell it out? How thoroughly did she need to expose his feelings before she'd let him be!
Bei Yao said: "You mean the first kiss?"
Pei Chuan clenched his jaw tightly.
He didn't want to say another word to her. His heart felt gripped in someone's hand - every additional word from her caused him fresh pain.
Suppressing both laughter and shyness, Bei Yao looked at him with almond-shaped eyes shimmering like water: "That wasn't supposed to be real originally. But later I changed my mind and thought it made a nice birthday gift after all."
He turned to leave.
Oh, such a temper!
At 11:12, fireflies emerged from the grass while camphor leaves drifted down overhead.
She had come prepared. Wearing white sneakers, she stepped onto the bricks encircling the nearby banyan tree, placing herself directly in his path.
The three bricks gave her about ten centimeters of height. At 165cm this year, combined with the brick platform, she reached up to cup his face, gently rising on her toes.
Blush spreading from her cheeks to her ears, she closed her eyes.
The summer breeze was gentle.
His world froze in that instant.
The crescent moon hid itself as the streetlights cast their overlapping shadows. Fireflies passing through the camphor trees shyly concealed themselves too.
Clumsily pressing her lips to his, she lightly brushed them again.
"...Is the school belle fragrant? Are her lips soft?"
"Her waist looks so slim - have you held it?"
He suddenly recalled these vulgar comments from Han Zhen's friends, his body stiffening like wood.
Cradling the young man's face, her cherry-pink lips softly met his pale ones. Bei Yao's heart raced wildly.
She opened her eyes.Her gaze lifted slightly, meeting his pitch-black eyes.
Pei Chuan said, "Do you know what you're doing?"
Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. "Yes."
Pei Chuan's body stiffened like unyielding steel, his Adam's apple bobbing. "You're a girl. You can't just kiss people so casually."
Bei Yao: "...Oh." She said, "But it wasn't casual. Only with you."
After speaking, her almond-shaped eyes blinked, youthful shyness seeming to overflow from them. Bei Yao began feeling uncomfortable too—she shouldn't have acted so impulsively.
She jumped down from the two pitiful bricks and headed back to the dormitory.
Her mind was in chaos. If she didn't return soon, she'd be in trouble when the dorm aunt did room checks.
She had only taken two steps when someone pulled her back.
Under the lush hundred-year-old banyan tree, her back pressed against the trunk. The boy's embrace was scorching as she was firmly trapped between his arms and the tree. Her face was lifted, and Pei Chuan lowered his head.
The moon emerged from the clouds again as Pei Chuan slightly pulled away.
His fingers combed through her loose hair.
Cradling her small face, he lowered his head once more.
Her world seemed to explode with fireworks, momentary lights bursting in brilliance.
He was panting.
Those descriptions she'd once read gradually awakened from dormant memories.
Dazed, she thought: So... this is how you kiss?
~
When Bei Yao returned to the dormitory, the dorm aunt had already completed room checks long ago.
The girls' dormitory lights were off. Bei Yao unlocked the door with her key, and the girls with their various thoughts secretly peeked out from their blankets.
Chen Feifei whispered: "Yao Yao, we covered for you with the aunt.""
Bei Yao softly responded: "Thank you." She began washing up in the dark, then climbed into bed and angrily buried her small head under the blankets.
The temperature under the covers rapidly rose. On this early summer night, every breath seemed to increase the heat. Even though it was stifling, she refused to uncover her head.
She gently touched her lips, biting them in slight vexation.
Pei Chuan was so infuriating.
She would hate him for a month.
Who fiercely kisses a girl then says "Sorry, it was my fault. If you're... angry, hit me to vent your frustration"?
He even said: "I'll go apologize to your mother. It was my wrongdoing."
"About tonight," he said haltingly, "if you feel unhappy, just forget it."
Ahhhh!
She had been rendered speechless, nearly crying from anger.
How could Pei Chuan be so detestable.
She kicked him and ran away.
Served him right!
Forget about celebrating his birthday—she would starve and thirst that air plant originally intended as his gift!
When steady breathing sounds filled the dormitory, Bei Yao turned on her phone and saw 00:15 on the screen, feeling even more annoyed.
Sleep, sleep.
If he wanted her to forget, why should she remember!
~
Pei Chuan stood under the tree all night.
If her initial kiss came from innocence, the later intensity was his fault—a moment of passionate confusion. Her kiss had been pure, just simple lip contact, but he...
Pei Chuan leaned against the banyan tree.
No one knew how many years this tree had stood at Sixth High School. It had already been a large tree when transplanted during the school's founding.
He remembered her expression.
Bewilderment, innocence, delight, and shyness.
Those were the eyes of a girl not yet seventeen—pure and untainted.
He'd known her since they were four, aware she hadn't interacted much with boys. Perhaps even the boundaries between liking, fondness, and trust remained blurred in her understanding.But after his wild obsession, he calmed down again.
Pei Chuan wondered, what could he give her?
A platonic romance in their youth? Or a distorted marriage years later?
If it were romance, there were people more suitable and romantic than him. If it were marriage... he could give her nothing.
His family background was poor—he had almost forgotten how a complete family interacted and didn't know how to give her the best home.
His body... was ugly.
What she saw was merely a facade propped up by sheer will.
She evoked tenderness, yet also stirred inner turmoil.
He wanted to love her with everything he had, but he possessed nothing.
Without the resolve to burn all bridges, he shouldn't taint her or leave such memories in her heart. Only then could she meet someone better without any burden.
By daybreak, dew had dampened Pei Chuan's shirt. Frowning, he walked out of No. 6 High School's campus.
The worst part was, Bei Yao was still angry.
Did she dislike his... transgression?
Or were his words what upset her?
If it were the former, she could punish him however she wished.
If it were the latter—if it could still be the latter—if she were willing, he would do his utmost to give her the most beautiful romance of her youth.
Even if she ended up not loving him and leaving him, he would still give her everything he had.
OpenNovel