Shine on Me

From June to January, it had already been half a year...

I had deliberately avoided thinking about tomorrow, but I never expected this moment would come so soon.

Nie Xiguang, you must hold your ground.

I quickly averted my gaze from that figure and stepped forward with a smile, greeting them, "Oh, what are you all doing here?"

Almost everyone was present—Laoda, Laoda’s husband, Xiaofeng, Siliang, Zhuohui, Rong Rong...

And Zhuang Xu standing beside her.

For a moment, it felt like I had returned to the old days...

But I had no desire to revisit those old emotions.

I looked at them with a bright smile.

Unfortunately, my perfect opening was swiftly ruined by Laoda. With a betrayed expression, she grabbed my ear and yelled, "Nie Watermelon, didn’t you say you were stuck in Suzhou working overtime and couldn’t get out?"

Ugh, Laoda, when will you ever stop pulling ears when you get excited?

Xiaofeng and Siliang also crowded around, bombarding me with questions: "Watermelon, why are you here?"

"Yeah, and dressed so beautifully—I almost didn’t recognize you!"

"You’re working in Suzhou? Laoda, when did you get in touch with Watermelon? You didn’t say anything."

"Weren’t you studying abroad? I changed my number in July and couldn’t reach you."

I answered them one by one.

"I’m in Suzhou."

"In July, I was abroad and couldn’t take calls."

"I didn’t go abroad to study. How did you all think that? It was just a study tour—basically, I went out to play for two months."

"Study tour?!"

A low, suppressed voice cut through, silencing everyone else.

It was Zhuang Xu.

"Yeah." I paused, finally turning my gaze fully to his face. "I went with Jiang Rui."

"Not studying abroad?" He took a step closer to me. Perhaps it was the lighting, but his expression was unusually dark, like a gathering storm.

"N-no, it wasn’t..."

Rong Rong suddenly stepped forward, inserting herself between us, and said to me with a bright smile, "Xiguang, Laoda was setting up the wedding venue today. Why didn’t you come?"

"I—"

She didn’t even give me a chance to speak. "You really should’ve come to learn a thing or two. I picked up a lot of tips—now I’ll know how to arrange things when it’s my turn. Setting up a wedding venue is so much fun."

So much fun indeed...

I smiled. "You all know how lazy I’ve always been."

"Oh, Xiguang, I owe you an apology for what happened before. I’m sorry I wronged you." Rong Rong looked utterly sincere. "Only after stepping into society did I realize how precious our college friendships were. Now that I’ve found my happiness, I hope you can find 'your own' happiness too! Don’t just keep looking at 'other people’s' happiness—you’ve got to work for your own!"

"Ye Rong!"

"Xiguang."

Two voices rang out almost simultaneously. I turned toward the one calling my name. In the gentle snowfall, Lin Yusen, clad in a black overcoat, was ascending the steps.

At this moment, I was so grateful to him.

Grateful that he was so composed, elegant, and radiant.

I turned and ran down the steps.

He paused in surprise, watching as I rushed up to him.

Breathing slightly heavily, I stopped in front of him and looked up, my mind a whirl of confusion, unsure of what to say.

"What’s wrong?" he asked, his tone unusually soft.I stared at him blankly, my eyes stinging. It took me a while to gather my thoughts. "...I ran into a college classmate."

He looked up toward the steps and froze, remaining motionless for a long moment. Gradually regaining my composure, I turned to follow his gaze. Zhuang Xu stood at the top of the steps, watching us under the neon lights, his expression inscrutable.

Lin Yusen suddenly took my hand.

"Your classmate? Come with me."

He pulled me along for several steps before I realized I should break free. But the moment I made the slightest movement, his grip tightened even more firmly.

He led me back up the steps, then released my hand with effortless naturalness.

The others were all staring at us, unable to hide their shock.

Xiaofeng's mouth fell open. "Xiguang, you..."

Siliang was the first to recover. "Xiguang, aren't you going to introduce us?"

Introduce what...

I looked up at Lin Yusen.

"So you have a nickname like that? You never told me." He gazed at me with a smile, his voice as gentle as the softly falling snow. Then he turned to Siliang and the others, offering a faint yet refined smile. "Hello, I'm Lin Yusen."

The leader of our group visibly faltered for a second.

"Haha, hello! We're Xiguang's college classmates." Then she pretended to scold me, "Xiguang, you said you couldn't help because of overtime, but you were actually with your boyfriend! Prioritizing love over friendship! You should've just said so—it's not like I would've forced you to come."

"Don't blame her," Lin Yusen said with a smile, coming to my defense. "Xiguang really was supposed to work overtime, but my good friend got married today and insisted on seeing her, so I brought her along."

The leader chuckled. "Oh, come on, I'm not really blaming her. Isn't prioritizing love over friendship the most natural thing?"

They had probably already assumed Lin Yusen was my boyfriend. I didn't want them to misunderstand, but right now...

I didn’t want to deny it either.

I turned to look toward the roadside. "Weren't you going to get the car? I don't see it."

Otherwise, we could leave right now.

"The car was blocked by another vehicle. The traffic police couldn't find the owner right away, and I was worried you'd be waiting too long, so I came back first."

"Oh, so it's stuck?"

Lin Yusen checked his watch. "If the owner isn't found soon, I'll have a driver take us back to Suzhou."

"Right." I nodded. I'd almost forgotten he was a local.

"Wow!" Xiaofeng suddenly slapped my shoulder. "Xiguang, your family even has a driver!"

"It's not my family's."

Siliang said with a knowing smile, "I get it—it's the in-laws', right?"

The atmosphere seemed to liven up instantly. Xiaofeng chattered away, asking all sorts of questions—where he worked, how we met... I answered some, but Lin Yusen handled most of them.

He remained smiling, effortlessly navigating the conversation.

Amid the noise, Rong Rong's cold voice cut through. "Zhuang Xu, where are you going?"

Everyone fell silent.

At some point, Zhuang Xu had already stepped down the stairs alone, walking through the snow.

"I'm going to hail a cab." He paused briefly but didn't turn back. "Why go somewhere else?" Rong Rong's voice was stiff. "Can't you get one here? We came here because it's easier to find a taxi."

"You can stay here."

With those words, he strode down the steps without another glance at us, his figure straight and resolute."Stop right there."

Rong Rong bit her lip, glanced at me, then quickly turned and chased after them.

"Uh, Xiguang, we're heading off too. See you early tomorrow at the wedding, it's at the hotel diagonally across," after a moment of silence, our boss was the first to bid me farewell.

"O-okay." I nodded, trying hard to focus my attention on her. "See you tomorrow."

Everyone said their goodbyes, and before leaving, the boss waved at Lin Yusen. "You should come with Xiguang to my wedding tomorrow too."

"Wouldn't miss it," Lin Yusen replied with a smile.

Their figures completely vanished into the night, and suddenly everything around us seemed to grow quiet, with only snowflakes silently drifting down.

I turned to Lin Yusen and asked, "Is the car still not ready? I want to return to Suzhou early."

"Return to Suzhou? I'm taking you out to have fun."

Huh?

He shifted his gaze from the distance to my face. "Did you think I'd bring you out happily only to take you back dejected?"

...

"Was I like that?"

He looked down at me. "You were almost in tears."

His voice was incredibly gentle. I hadn't been close to crying at all, but his words suddenly brought tears to my eyes.

"So, would you like to see the night view or watch a movie? Or... if you like gaming, we could go to one of those arcades? You know, the kind..."

I stared at him blankly, realizing I couldn't quite keep up with his train of thought.

He probably had never been to such places before and was trying very hard to describe it: "The kind where you can dance, shoot hoops, race cars, that sort of arcade?"

Why did every option sound so appealing... as long as it wasn't returning to that lonely dorm room...

I clenched my fists, suddenly overtaken by impulse: "How about we see the night view first, then watch a movie, then go to the arcade?"

"Nie Xiguang..."

He suddenly laughed, pulling out his wallet from his coat and tossing it to me. "You're so greedy. Quick, count it and see if I have enough money."

I must have caught his mood, because suddenly I felt both excited and exhilarated. I actually opened the wallet and counted, then pointed across the street. "There's a bank over there. I'll withdraw some money. You're too poor."

"Really not enough? There's still quite a bit left." Lin Yusen peeked at the wallet. "I'll go withdraw. Miss Nie, how much of my money are you planning to spend tonight?"

"No need, do you have my financial might?"

Holding my bank card, I ran down the steps.

The cold snowflakes landed on my face, and some of my senses returned. I turned back to look at him. He was strolling behind me and, seeing me glance back, waved as if urging me to hurry and withdraw the money.

So I waved back at him and dashed into the bank.