On Saturday evening, Cen Jin went to pick up Li Wu as usual.
She had called ahead, and by the time she arrived, the boy was already waiting at the school gate. He stood straight in the wind with his hands in his pockets, his face sharply defined by the interplay of light and shadow.
Cen Jin recalled Chun Chang's text demanding she hand over more "school uniform photos" of Li Wu and couldn't help but chuckle.
The boy seemed to have noticed her car too. The moment it stopped, he walked over without hesitation.
After getting in the car, Li Wu habitually sniffed but detected no familiar fragrance.
Thinking he might have a stuffy nose, Cen Jin asked, "Are you catching a cold?"
Li Wu said, "No."
Then Cen Jin understood. "Oh, I didn't buy any snacks."
Li Wu nodded slightly, his expression unreadable in the dim light.
As Cen Jin drove off, Li Wu glanced at her, seeming to hesitate before speaking.
The woman kept her eyes on the road, her usual talkativeness replaced by a subdued aura that made her appear more unapproachable.
Li Wu's mind began to race, his heart pounding like a drum. Too nervous to probe further, he turned to look out the window, letting the neon lights streak across his vision.
Cen Jin was indeed holding some resentment toward Li Wu. A whole week had passed since his exam results came out, yet he hadn't volunteered any information about his scores despite her silent expectations.
She was waiting to see when he would finally bring it up.
Clearly, the boy remained consistent in his ways, dealing with everything through his trademark silence as always.
After they returned home, Cen Jin finally surrendered. She stopped Li Wu just as he changed into slippers and was heading toward the study.
Settling on the sofa, she tilted her chin slightly toward the adjacent armchair. "Sit."
Li Wu's recently calmed heart began to flutter again. He had developed a psychological aversion to that particular chair - it was where she had dismissed him exactly one week ago.
Nevertheless, he obediently took the seat and placed his backpack on the floor.
Cen Jin crossed her arms, her expression slightly stern. "Is there something you need to tell me?"
Alarm bells immediately went off in Li Wu's mind. His confrontation with Wu Fu remained vivid in his memory, and he wasn't entirely confident that Wu Fu wouldn't expose him to Cen Jin.
Steadying his emotions, he ventured cautiously, "About what?"
Cen Jin tilted her head, studying him with scrutinizing eyes. "If I didn't ask, were you planning to keep hiding it from me indefinitely?"
Li Wu frowned, his palms growing warm. "I don't know what you're referring to."
Cen Jin closed her eyes briefly before speaking plainly, "Your midterm results came out on Monday. Why haven't you told me about them until now?"
Relief washed over Li Wu, lightening both his body and mind. "I didn't do well, so I didn't mention it."
Cen Jin seemed momentarily speechless at his "didn't do well" response. "So you were just never going to bring it up?"
Li Wu replied, "I would have told you if you asked."
"Tell me now."
Li Wu immediately opened his backpack, retrieved a narrow score slip from his pencil case, and handed it to Cen Jin.
This wasn't her first time seeing his results - she had already viewed the digital version - but holding the physical copy felt different, more tangible and satisfying.
Feeling pleased, she pretended to be seeing it for the first time, adopting a tone of pleasant surprise and approval. "Hmm? Didn't you do quite well here?"
Li Wu remained silent for a moment before saying, "I didn't make the top thirty."
Cen Jin looked at him. "Did anyone demand that you reach the top thirty in your first exam?"
He paused. "...No."
Cen Jin's lips curved slightly. She looked down at the slip again before raising her eyes to ask, "Can I keep this score slip?"She explained, "I want to paste it in my life journal as a record, to commemorate your first successful exam. If it's inconvenient, I can make a copy."
Li Wu was slightly taken aback: "Okay."
The tension completely dissipated. He lowered his head slightly, his lips curving upward.
"Li Wu, you're amazing," Cen Jin examined his score repeatedly, her tone suddenly softening as if extremely satisfied, and she ruffled his hair: "Keep up the good work."
Li Wu's ears turned bright red. It turned out that happiness, like heartache, could be suffocating.
The next second, the woman returned to her normal tone: "Do you have a lot of homework this week?"
"Yes."
"Go work on it, I'll stay here by myself for a while."
Li Wu hummed in agreement, quickly stood up, and headed to the study. Finally, he could turn his back to her and smile without restraint. He had been fighting against these nearly overflowing smiles for so long, it was exhausting.
Hearing the sound of the study door closing, Cen Jin immediately took out her phone and sent a message to Chun Chang:
"I praised him as you taught me, but this kid doesn't seem to have much of a reaction."
Chun Chang replied: How is that possible? You didn't adopt some aloof monster, did you?
Aloof monster? Cen Jin thought for a moment and agreed with her: A bit, he basically never initiates conversation with me.
Chun Chang said: Are you sure you praised him word for word as I taught you? 'You've worked hard studying lately, achieving such results shows your efforts haven't been in vain. You've only been at Yi High School for such a short time and you're already so outstanding, I'm really proud of you. You're simply amazing.'
Cen Jin: No, that's too cheesy. I only said 'you're amazing.'
Chun Chang: That's the most meaningless phrase in parent-child relationships.
Cen Jin felt helpless: I really don't know how to praise kids, it's too difficult.
Chun Chang: Then give me his WeChat, I'll praise him for you. I'll absolutely shower him with compliments until he's bursting with confidence.
Cen Jin: Again? He's not even an adult yet, leave the kid alone.
Chun Chang: What's wrong with me? What's wrong with wanting another handsome guy in my friends list?
Cen Jin: Nothing wrong, but no way. Please don't disturb our Tsinghua and Peking University candidate.
She leaned back on the sofa: Besides, he doesn't have WeChat.
Chun Chang was shocked: What kind of caveman is he? What kind of controlling family was he born into that he doesn't even have WeChat?
Cen Jin had nothing to say.
―
During dinner, Chun Chang's accusations still lingered in Cen Jin's mind, so she asked: "Li Wu, do you use WeChat?"
The boy across the table looked up: "No."
She asked again: "Do your roommates use it?"
Li Wu replied: "Yes."
"..." Cen Jin found it strange: "Haven't they asked you about WeChat?"
"They have." "And you just said you don't use it?"
"Mm."
Cen Jin fell silent: "Register for one."
Resting her cheek on one hand, she scooped some rice with the other before putting it back: "It's convenient for communication. Almost no one sends text messages anymore."
"Mm, okay." Li Wu continued eating.
"Do you know how to register?"
He paused: "I probably do."
Cen Jin glanced at him and asked again: "Do you have QQ?"
Li Wu stopped focusing on his food and looked at her somewhat confused: "No."
This time, Cen Jin looked at him as if he were an elderly grandfather. Her feelings were quite complicated: "Hurry up and eat. After dinner, we'll get all this sorted out."
After the meal, they returned to the living room.
Cen Jin directly took his phone and installed both of these extremely common social media apps.She deftly entered the information and, when it came to the step of choosing a username, handed the phone back to him. "Here, enter your own screen name."
Li Wu lowered his gaze, furrowing his brow in thought for a moment before looking back at her. "What should I call myself?"
Cen Jin chuckled and shrugged. "How should I know?"
She said, "Just pick whatever name you like."
Li Wu found it troublesome. "I don’t know. What’s your screen name?"
"Me?" Cen Jin pointed at herself. "My English name at the company." As she spoke, she took out her own phone and opened her WeChat profile page to show him.
Li Wu focused on the name field—only three letters: Gin.
He had no clue what to choose, so he typed in two characters: his real name. Then he handed the phone back to Cen Jin. "Done."
Cen Jin took it and glanced at the screen, wearing an "I knew it" expression. She passed the phone back to him. "And the profile picture, along with other miscellaneous details—you handle those yourself."
The boy began editing his personal information, staring intently at the screen as seriously as if he were conducting scientific research.
Cen Jin found it amusing and waited a moment before asking, "Done?"
Li Wu looked up. "Done."
"Add me then—Gin0802."
Li Wu instinctively asked, "Is your birthday August 2nd?"
"Yes," Cen Jin accepted his friend request. "What about you?"
"January 2nd."
Cen Jin raised an eyebrow slightly. "During the New Year holiday?"
"Mm-hmm."
"Then I’ll make a note of it," the woman lowered her eyelids, adding a note for him and softly reading it aloud, character by character: "Li... Wu... zero... one... zero... two... OK, now I won’t forget your birthday."
In those fleeting dozen seconds while she was distracted, someone had already curled the corners of their lips, a typhoon of secret delight sweeping fiercely through.
Exiting the notes page, Cen Jin glanced at the overly blank chat interface and sent a sticker as a greeting.
Hearing the notification, Li Wu quickly tapped to open it—it was a round-faced, round-eyed cat saying "hi~," looking adorably silly.
He stared at the screen for a moment, then looked at Cen Jin. She happened to be looking back at him. Their eyes met, and she raised her free hand, wiggling her fingers slightly back and forth: "Hi."
—Imitating the cat.
Li Wu couldn’t help but laugh—a bright, clean laugh, as if everything had come back to life.
But as soon as he laughed, he quickly turned his face away, shyly lowering his eyes. His thick, long eyelashes were like a futile attempt to hide his feelings, while the dimple at the corner of his mouth instantly betrayed him.
"Wow, you finally laughed," Cen Jin sighed dramatically, as if she had achieved a major breakthrough in an experiment. "Getting you to laugh once is no easy feat."
—
Before going to bed, Li Wu hesitated for a while but couldn’t resist his curiosity. He tapped open Cen Jin’s Moments.
It felt like opening an extremely precious private diary—this act of peeking filled him with a sense of shame, yet it was also faintly thrilling.
His finger paused on the first post.
It was a photo, posted on Monday afternoon. She had taken a picture of her divorce certificate and openly shared it with everyone:
"Starting today, I’m a free person [Yeah]"
The words were as light and cheerful as if she were announcing good news.
Li Wu’s heart raced uncontrollably; he couldn’t stop the smile from spreading to the corners of his eyes and brows. He abruptly sat up in bed, so excited he even felt a bit parched.
After staring at the post for a while, he rolled out of bed, tiptoed out of his room, and went to the fridge for some water.
He gulped down half a bottle in one go, but it still couldn’t dilute his exhilaration. Li Wu decided to go to the study and read for a while to shift his mood.Passing by the coffee table, a glint of reflected light flickered in his peripheral vision like a twinkling star.
Li Wu stopped and glanced sideways, discovering it was a packet of passport-sized photos.
They had been carelessly left on the coffee table, with several already slipped out of the envelope, abruptly catching his eye.
Bending down, Li Wu picked up the outermost one and suddenly felt his ears grow hot.
The person in the photo was Cen Jin.
The woman wore a faint smile, her skin fair and luminous, her eyes sparkling as she gazed gently at him. Perhaps it was over-edited, far less beautiful than she was in person.
Yet he couldn't bring himself to put it back.
Li Wu's gaze returned to the coffee table, scrutinizing the remaining photos with an inscrutable expression.
Gradually, his breathing grew heavier and quicker. Without much internal struggle, he set down his water bottle, leaned over to adjust the remaining photos, carefully shifting them outward to recreate their original arrangement.
But the one in his hand was gently curled into his palm.
Clenching both hands, Li Wu hurried away from the scene like a criminal, so tense he could barely breathe.
As if having just finished a long run, he collapsed into the study chair, lifted his T-shirt collar to fan himself twice, and after calming down for a while, finally admired his unexpected acquisition again.
After gazing at it for who knows how long, he carefully tucked the photo inside his pencil case.
The teenager was exhilarated, his mind suddenly sharp and agile.
He flipped his test paper over with a rustle and began solving math problems. Even the challenging questions that had stumped him during the day now seemed easily conquerable. He wrote furiously, smoothly and effortlessly.
After writing down the calculation results, Li Wu realized he'd left his water bottle in the living room. He hurried down the hallway again to retrieve it.
Confronted once more with the carefully fabricated scene, he felt both ashamed and foolishly grinned, quickly snatching up his alibi.
All this coming and going naturally caught Cen Jin's attention.
Propping herself up on the soft quilt, she switched to the main monitor to check, then glanced at the door. It was already half past midnight - what was that kid still doing?
Puzzled but unwilling to get out of bed, she sent him a WeChat message: What are you doing? Shouldn't you be asleep?
Li Wu didn't reply immediately.
Outside her door, the noises instantly ceased.
After a while, a message finally came through.
Li Wu: Can't sleep, doing some problems.
How could there be someone so passionate about studying? Cen Jin was amazed.
She didn't want to discourage his enthusiasm, but had to regulate the teenager's schedule: Do you know what time it is? Go to sleep!
Li Wu responded quickly: Okay.
Sounds of lights switching off and doors closing followed in sequence, then silence returned.
Cen Jin leaned back against the headboard, about to finish reading the interrupted brief, when another message came through on WeChat, again from the account with the default avatar.
Li Wu: Did I disturb you?
Cen Jin replied with four question marks: What do you think？？？？
In the other room, dimly lit, the teenager lay with his arms behind his head, heart bright and clear. His lips quirked up - apologetic and regretful, but still smiling.
He typed with one hand: Sorry. Won't happen again.
Just for today, just for this night, let this be the reward for his first victory, allowing him this one moment of recklessness.
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