That afternoon, Cen Jin returned home with her father. When they parted in the parking lot, Li Wu appeared calm and showed little reluctance. Yet, just after leaving F University's main gate, Cen Jin, sitting in the passenger seat, received a text from the boy: "Let me know when you get home."
Cen Jin's eyes curved into a smile. She glanced at her father, who was focused on driving, then tilted her phone slightly to reply: "Are you back at the dorm?"
The reply came: "Yeah, got my military training uniform."
Cen Jin asked: "What's it look like?"
Li Wu replied: "Camouflage pattern."
Cen Jin: "Seems similar to what we had before."
He proactively asked: "Want me to take a photo wearing it for you?"
Cen Jin paused briefly, then covered her mouth with a soft laugh upon realizing: "No need. Your new roommates would think you're strange."
Li Wu said: "When you asked for my school uniform photo before, you weren't worried about people finding it weird then."
As if she really had some peculiar preference, Cen Jin felt her cheeks grow warm: "You were so young back then. What's wrong with family asking for a photo?"
After a brief silence, he replied: "But at that time my roommates all thought I was sending it to an online crush."
The words plucked at her heartstrings like a plectrum, making them vibrate sharply: "So you admitted it?"
Li Wu replied: "I said it wasn't true, but they didn't believe me. Later I just went along with it."
She deliberately chided him: "So your mind was full of all these random thoughts back then, no wonder you only ranked 89th in the first monthly exam."
The boy confessed straightforwardly: "Yeah, besides studying, it was all you."
Cen Jin couldn't withstand such frankness, such unreserved honesty. The corners of her mouth simply refused to come down. Had her father not curiously asked during a red light, "Jinjin, what are you looking at that's making you so happy?" she might have smiled all the way until getting out of the car. She quickly pretended to be composed, gathering her phone and switching to Weibo interface: "Just funny videos."
Not daring to be so unrestrained, she waited until arriving home and hiding in her room before adopting an elder's tone to admonish: "Although you're a university student now, you still need to persistently focus on your studies."
Li Wu reverted to being the obedient child: "Okay."
Cen Jin continued her reminders: "Remember to get along harmoniously with your roommates. Although university doesn't involve as much classroom time as high school, dorm relationships aren't simpler than in high school."
Li Wu acknowledged: "I just went to check out the library with Xu Shuo."
Cen Jin asked: "How was it?"
Li Wu said: "Feels like I couldn't finish all the books here in four years."
Cen Jin recalled her alma mater's library: "Of course. Did you see the Guanghua Building?"
Li Wu: "Yeah."
He was walking the paths she had once walked, under bright sunlight and dense green shade—Cen Jin imagined it thus, and suddenly felt reconciled about Li Wu's supposedly inappropriate school choice. She sighed softly and replied: "A new starting line, Li Wu. Keep running freely—this time you don't need me to lead the way."
After a moment of silence in the chat box came the reply: "Then stand still."
Cen Jin laughed: "I can't stand right now."
Li Wu replied: "Then sit still."
Cen Jin knew what he wanted to say but couldn't help asking: "Why?"
The boy responded without hesitation: "Wait for me to run to you."
―
After military training, Professor Zhang from the faculty connected with Li Wu, along with his roommate Xu Shuo.
Xu Shuo's academic performance wasn't exceptionally outstanding, but he had won several physics competition awards during middle school. He belonged to the type gifted since childhood, endlessly curious about all things, who had chosen this path determined to dedicate his life to it. In broad direction, this serendipitously aligned with Li Wu's aspirations.After diving into the lab, the two freshmen lacked sufficient theoretical foundation and could only compensate by reading extensive literature and materials. They mostly assisted their senior peers, learning operational mechanisms and data recording.
Apart from attending required, elective, and general education courses, Li Wu went for morning runs on the track every day, silently reciting English in the thin mist. The rest of his time was largely spent in the library, studying specialized books. Of course, he also joined a niche club—the Bridge Club—using card games as one of his few extracurricular pastimes.
The theater troupe next door, impressed by his good looks and voice, tried several times to recruit him, but Li Wu always declined, citing no time for rehearsals.
When Cen Jin learned of this, she nearly laughed out loud at the office, teasing him: "Your mental age must be at least forty."
The young man replied matter-of-factly: "So you should stop complaining about my young age."
Seeing how adept he was at seizing opportunities, Cen Jin couldn't resist putting him down: "I don't like middle-aged or elderly men either."
Li Wu responded: "Averaged with my physical age, I'm just right for your age group."
Cen Jin paused her typing, smiling without a word. After a while, her smile gradually faded, replaced by a sense of detachment and loneliness, as if realizing "a grown son is no longer one's own."
She could feel that the vibrant university life was making this kid increasingly cheerful, confident, and full of youthful energy.
Just as she had anticipated, with the vast world opening up to him, he no longer needed only her beyond his studies.
Although Li Wu vividly described and reported his daily life to her every day, she remained an outsider, a mere observer.
He would also ask about her work and life, but Cen Jin couldn't elaborate. She usually summarized briefly in a couple of sentences, mainly because her repetitive corporate slave life had little worth detailing—mostly negative complaints that would only dampen spirits and make him worry prematurely about future social life.
She preferred not to talk about it.
The consequence of her silence was that the young man felt neglected. Occasionally, when reaching a tipping point, he would call or send voice messages, wanting to hear her voice. At home, Cen Jin would answer and chat for a while, but when working overtime at the office, she mostly hung up directly, sometimes without even a word in reply.
After a few such instances, the young man felt slightly dissatisfied but wouldn't confront her directly. Instead, he channeled his frustration into exercising in the dorm.
The other two dormmates greatly admired Li Wu's abundant energy, feeling as if he and Xu Shuo had seventy-two hours a day to arrange their schedules.
Especially after a busy day, he could still calmly do several sets of crunches on his bed without breaking a sweat.
Although roommate Zhong Wenxuan was used to it, he couldn't help asking: "Aren't you tired, Li Wu? You even had basketball class this afternoon."
Li Wu stopped his movements, exhaled sharply, picked up his phone from beside the pillow, and after confirming that Cen Jin still hadn't sent any messages, said with a stern face, "Not tired," and continued.
Around midnight, the hormone-driven boys would occasionally chat about girls in their class or beauties from other departments.
Zhong Wenxuan, with his amusing northeastern accent, said: "That senior named Gu Yitong from our School of Economics and Management is really pretty. She's from the same hometown as Xu Shuo—the Jiangnan water towns really nurture good looks."
Xu Shuo asked: "Got a photo?"
Zhong Wenxuan quickly scrolled through his Moments: "Yeah, she just posted a selfie today. Hold on, I'll send it to the dorm group."
Xu Shuo opened it and glanced, commenting flatly: "Just average. You see this type all over the streets where I'm from."
Zhong Wenxuan exclaimed in amazement: "Damn, I'm gonna aim for grad school in your area then."Zhong Wenxuan again sought validation from Li Wu: "Li Wu, have you seen it?"
Cen Jin was busy with work, while Li Wu had nothing to do and was focused on a puzzle-based mobile game: "Not yet."
"Take a look," Zhong Wenxuan complained. "I picked the prettiest one."
Xu Shuo said, "How could Li Wu find it good-looking? She's not even as pretty as Li Wu's sister."
Li Wu's fingers paused, then he heard another roommate, Wen Hui, ask, "What does Li Wu's sister look like? I've only heard Xu Shuo talk about her. It's all my fault for arriving too late on registration day and missing the chance to see the beautiful sister."
Xu Shuo recalled, "How to put it? Unforgettable at first sight. She's the kind of mature, charismatic older sister I like."
Zhong Wenxuan said, "I don't really remember that. I just remember her limping."
"She just had a leg injury, okay?" Xu Shuo asked, "Li Wu, your sister's leg has healed by now, right?" Wen Hui was dying of curiosity: "Li Wu, do you have a photo of your sister?"
Li Wu directly closed the game interface, remained silent in the darkness for a moment, and said, "She's not my sister."
Xu Shuo was surprised: "Then who is she to you?"
Li Wu said, "She was my sponsor during high school."
Sighs filled the dorm room. Xu Shuo instantly turned into a question bank: "Then you two must be really close. She couldn't even walk properly but still came to see you off for registration. Is she a local? Is her family wealthy? Is she married?"
"None of your business." Li Wu uttered these four words sternly, as if driving an ice spike into the air.
Ever since the two had been inseparable and called each other brothers, this was the first time Li Wu had been so harsh with him. Xu Shuo couldn't help but freeze for a moment before grumbling, "I was just asking."
―
After returning to work, Cen Jin was swamped with tasks. Holding an important position, the projects she took back were mostly "difficult cases" waiting for her return to resolve one by one.
The daily "schedule brief" from the male college student on WeChat became one of the few joys in her busy days—like an ivory tower the size of a phone screen, where she could squeeze in and relive the small happiness of her student years.
Sometimes, Li Wu would also send her photos, such as new dishes in the cafeteria, a sky at dusk fading from red to purple, or the small medal he won in a club bridge competition.
While finding it adorable, Cen Jin also felt somewhat troubled, unable to think of anything equivalent to share in return. The recent exhaustion had worn away her already limited romantic inclinations. She could only casually offer a few words of praise to avoid disappointing the young boy.
Autumn turned to winter. After over a month of nonstop work, Cen Jin's workload gradually stabilized, and she regained her previous sense of order and rhythm.
In her free time, she went to a mall and bought a laptop of the same model as hers, planning to give it to Li Wu on his nineteenth birthday.
During a meeting that day, Li Wu silently sent a voice message again. Cen Jin glanced at the screen and immediately declined it.
After a moment's thought, she explained the reason: Busy.
There was no further response from the other side.
Cen Jin lowered her eyes and waited for a while, then flipped her phone face down and rested her chin on her interlaced hands, continuing to watch the large screen.
―
On New Year's Eve, Yishi experienced its heaviest snowfall in years. The sky and earth merged into one color, with snowflakes swirling like goose feathers all day long, only easing by dusk.
Buildings and streets were draped in silver, and vehicles on the road moved cautiously.
Despite the freezing cold and poor road conditions, Li Wu patiently transferred between several subway lines to hurry back.He wanted to give Cen Jin a surprise, so he didn’t inform her in advance, planning to call her only after arriving at the building where she worked.
By the time he reached the city center, light snow had begun to drift down again, illuminated by the city lights like shimmering stardust.
Li Wu emerged from the subway station, hands tucked into his pockets as he walked toward Jiuli Tower. The thought of seeing Cen Jin soon made his smile unstoppable, his breath forming continuous puffs of white mist in the cold air.
As he approached the crosswalk, the traffic light abruptly turned red.
He halted with the crowd, pulled his phone from the pocket of his gray overcoat, and opened WeChat to glance at his pinned contact. He stared at it, contemplating the right moment to let her know.
After a moment’s thought, he slipped the phone back into his pocket, fingers brushing against the small gift box in his other pocket. Then he lifted his head again, his gaze casually drifting over the crowd toward the opposite side of the street.
In the next instant, his dark eyes sharpened with focus.
The woman he had been longing for day and night was standing right across the street, waiting for the same red light.
But she wasn’t looking straight ahead. Instead, she was slightly turned, chatting and laughing animatedly with a man beside her. The man, dressed in a tailored suit and standing half a head taller, looked down at her with a smile. They stood close together. A moment later, he suddenly raised his hand, lingering near her temple for a couple of seconds before lowering it again. She seemed briefly surprised, touched the same spot on her own hair, then pointed toward the front of his suit jacket. In response, the man’s smile deepened as he brushed off his chest.
Li Wu guessed he might have gently removed a snowflake for her.
In that moment, the falling snow seemed to freeze in midair.
The green pedestrian signal began flashing, its little figure briskly alternating legs.
Crowds from both sides surged toward the center of the road, converging into a stream—except for one person who remained completely still.
Li Wu’s jaw tightened until it ached, his eyes rapidly reddening. His legs felt rooted to the ground, utterly unable to move. He stood there, watching as the two of them walked toward him, so engrossed in their conversation that they paid no attention to their surroundings.
In that split second, he realized it: in Cen Jin’s multiple-choice questions of life, he wasn’t even option A. He didn’t even qualify as option D—there was no place for him at all.
Just as the woman was about to turn her head, a deafening chime seemed to crash inside his mind. Li Wu jolted as if waking from a nightmare, his senses snapping back. He turned and strode quickly away from the spot.
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