Jin Chao wore a black hoodie and a baseball cap, his head bowed as he stared at his phone. The brim of the cap obscured his entire face, and if he hadn’t sent a message to Jiang Mu, his figure would have blended seamlessly with the lamppost, making him nearly impossible to notice.
The moment Jiang Mu spotted Jin Chao, the corners of her lips lifted involuntarily, and she walked toward him.
Seeing that Jiang Mu wasn’t heading toward the bus stop, Pan Kai hurriedly followed.
Jin Chao didn’t look up until Jiang Mu stopped in front of him. Only then did he slip his phone into his pocket and lift his gaze. His eyes, sharper than they were in childhood, seemed to stir the air around him wherever they landed, and Jiang Mu’s emotions were easily swayed by his intense stare.
Suppressing a smile she couldn’t hide, she asked, “What are you doing here?”
“Just passing by.”
As he spoke, his eyes flickered to the side. Pan Kai had caught up and tugged at Jiang Mu’s school uniform sleeve, asking, “Aren’t you taking the bus?”
Jin Chao’s gaze shifted to the wrinkled sleeve of Jiang Mu’s uniform, and he uttered three words slowly: “Hands off.”
The matter-of-fact tone instantly put Pan Kai on the defensive.
Jiang Mu felt Jin Chao had every right to tell others not to touch this uniform, so she quickly pulled her arm back. Her reaction only deepened Pan Kai’s surprise. He shot a sidelong glance at Jin Chao and asked Jiang Mu, “Who is he?”
Jiang Mu turned and stared at Pan Kai for a couple of seconds before leaning in to whisper in his ear, “Seventh Day.”
Upon hearing those two words, Pan Kai’s eyes widened in shock, his expression one of sheer disbelief as he stared at Jin Chao.
Jin Chao’s gaze returned to Jiang Mu’s face, carrying an infuriating sense of pressure. Jiang Mu obediently stepped closer to him and said, “Let’s go.”
Then the two of them disappeared around the corner, leaving Pan Kai standing there, utterly bewildered and frozen in place.
After walking a few steps, Jin Chao casually glanced back, a cold glint in the corners of his narrow eyes. Pan Kai shuddered, feeling completely unsettled.
Noticing that Jin Chao wasn’t riding a motorcycle or driving a car, Jiang Mu asked curiously, “Did Tie Gongji take the motorcycle home today?”
Jin Chao shoved his hands into his pockets and replied, “Why do you ask?”
Jiang Mu cautiously probed, “Why don’t you get a motorcycle?”
Jin Chao’s expression remained unchanged as he countered, “Had enough of the ride this morning?”
Jiang Mu thought back to the high-speed ride earlier and honestly felt that being late next time would be preferable to that experience. She stammered, “Well, not exactly…”
Jin Chao led Jiang Mu along a side path, intending to take advantage of the quiet route to discuss how relationships could interfere with her studies.
Although Jiang Mu had been at the affiliated high school for nearly a month, many of the paths were still unfamiliar to her. Seeing how effortlessly Jin Chao navigated the darkness, she couldn’t help but ask, “You know this area pretty well, right?”
“Hard not to.”
“So, what do you usually do in these alleys?”
Jiang Mu’s intention was to point out that these alleys seemed to have nothing—no streetlights, pitch-black, not even a milk tea shop in sight. But the way she phrased it felt oddly suggestive.
Sure enough, Jin Chao responded, “What do you think I come to these alleys for?”As soon as the words fell, a pair of high school students ahead—a boy pinning a girl against the wall—were locked in an intimate embrace, lost in each other. Jiang Mu froze, her footsteps halting mid-stride. Jin Chao also paused, clearing his throat softly. The two students, hearing the noise, glanced their way before slipping off into another alley.
Jiang Mu’s expression turned slightly awkward. Jin Chao shot her a look and said, "Back in the day, people used to settle disputes here. What nonsense are you thinking about?"
Truth be told, Jin Chao had always been combative since childhood. As a kid, he’d frequently get into scuffles with boys his age right outside their home. Though it was mostly child’s play, he’d often reduce the other boys to tears while bearing his own bruises without shedding a single tear. Because of this, the adults in the neighborhood usually blamed Jin Chao, and he’d frequently get punished by Jiang Yinghan as a result.
Once, when she and Jin Chao were poking at snails with sticks downstairs, a boy from the neighboring building started throwing stones at Jin Chao. At first, Jin Chao ignored him, but the boy grew more aggressive. One small stone, caked with mud from the rain, landed on Jiang Mu’s newly bought leather shoes. She cried out, "How annoying!" In response, Jin Chao picked up a brick and charged at the boy, who burst into terrified screams. The boy’s parents stormed over to Jiang Mu’s house demanding an explanation, and in the end, Jin Chao was scolded once again.
Back then, she was still young and felt indignant on Jin Chao’s behalf, so angry that she bit off the ear of her stuffed toy rabbit. It wasn’t until she grew older that she understood the saying, "The crying child gets the milk." Yet she had never seen Jin Chao cry—not once—as if he were born without tear ducts.
Just as she was lost in thought, her shoulder lightened as Jin Chao took her heavy backpack from her.
These alleys rose and fell unevenly, deserted and without even streetlights. Jiang Mu thought about using her phone for light, but when she checked it, the battery was below ten percent. Silently, she put it away and said to Jin Chao, "Can you walk a little slower?"
Jin Chao, accustomed to moving with a group of rough-and-tumble guys, wasn’t used to accommodating others. But since he needed an opportunity to counsel Jiang Mu, he slowed his pace slightly. Observing how she squinted at things, he asked, "How nearsighted are you?"
"About a hundred degrees."
"Why don’t you wear glasses?"
Jiang Mu glanced at him and murmured, "I look... ugly in glasses."
Jin Chao raised an eyebrow but said nothing more. The air was so still that even the occasional passing insects were silent.
He had no experience handling situations like this and wasn’t sure how to begin.
When he was Jiang Mu’s age, Jin Chao wasn’t what you’d call a model student. Though his grades never slipped, he’d done his fair share of troublemaking. Still, his academic performance earned him some leniency from Lao Ma. He’d written plenty of self-criticisms but never faced serious punishment.
Back then, he was always rushing around, with no time for romance. Even so, he’d often cover for his buddies. His grades were enough to silence any criticism, and parents strangely trusted him around their kids.
In reality, he’d grown accustomed to seeing his friends sneak off with their sweethearts in pavilions, lost in affection. But when it came to Jiang Mu, it felt different—there was an undeniable sense of dissonance in his heart.
If Jiang Mu were a boy, he might have taken him out for a drink to talk things over, or even given him a stern scolding if necessary.But Jiang Mu was a girl. Speak too harshly and she might not be able to handle it, feeling embarrassed; speak too lightly and she might not take it seriously, completely tuning it out.
Especially during this critical period of her senior year of high school, when the pressure was already immense—who knew what crazy things a lovelorn girl might do?
Thus, in the dimly lit alley, Jin Chao had been walking with a slight frown the entire way, making Jiang Mu feel that he was burdened with worries, as if he had something important to tell her.
After a while, Jin Chao suddenly asked, "Have you ever thought about what kind of person you want to marry in the future?"
Jin Chao's intention was to use this topic to make her realize that the road ahead was long and full of obstacles, but Jiang Mu completely missed his point and instead found him a bit baffling.
She answered truthfully, "No."
She hadn't even decided which university to apply to next year or what major to choose—how could she possibly spare the time to think about such an abstract question as what kind of man she would marry in the future?
However, Jin Chao felt the situation was somewhat serious. Since Jiang Mu hadn't even considered a future with the boy she was currently seeing, it meant she was just playing around.
When it came to not taking relationships seriously, as a girl, she would inevitably be the one at a disadvantage.
Jin Chao fell silent for a moment before speaking again, "I had a buddy in my class back then who pursued a girl from the neighboring class quite enthusiastically. He brought her breakfast in the morning, bought her drinks in the afternoon, gave her plenty of gifts, and sweet-talked her into being completely devoted to him. But behind her back, the things he discussed with us were utterly distasteful. He even bragged about his relationship with the girl as a topic of conversation. Guess what happened later?"
Jiang Mu tilted her head and followed his lead, asking, "What happened?"
"The girl's mock exam scores plummeted. Her parents came to the school and made a scene, embarrassing everyone. The boy broke up with her, and the girl, feeling humiliated, threatened to drop out of school. What do you think about that?"
Jiang Mu hadn't expected Jin Chao to suddenly bring up a story about his former classmate and ask for her opinion. She blinked in confusion and said, "Well, even so, there's no need to drop out of school, right..."
"..." Jiang Mu's focus left Jin Chao momentarily speechless.
He paused for a moment, his voice echoing in the alley as he said to her, "Boys your age, feeling curious about the opposite sex, are mostly just acting on a whim. For them, winning over a pretty girl is like a trophy to show off. They hardly think about responsibility."
Jiang Mu, however, didn't agree. She retorted seriously, "It's not absolute, is it? There were couples in my class who were close and later got into Suzhou University of Science and Technology together. They're still together now."
As Jiang Mu spoke, she didn't watch her step and stumbled over a protruding gray brick. Jin Chao quickly grabbed her, his breath close as a shadow fell over her. He said, "For the vast majority of boys this age, their mental maturity hasn't reached the point where they can shoulder the word 'responsibility.'"
In the distance, colorful clothes fluttered on a clothesline on a second-floor balcony, and ivy crept along the earthen wall, extending into the unknown. The quiet, dim alley isolated them from the bustling traffic and the restlessness of the chaotic world outside. Time seemed to slow to a standstill. Jiang Mu looked up, her clear, autumn-like eyes reflecting Jin Chao's image, and her lips parted slightly as she asked, "What about you? Are you like that too?"Jin Chao's dark eyes quietly watched her, holding emotions Jiang Mu couldn't decipher. He said to her, "Hold onto me."
Beneath their feet lay uneven gray brick pavement. Jin Chao extended his arm to her, and Jiang Mu obediently grasped his sleeve. She heard him say, "The person you encountered wasn't me."
"Then how do you know the person I encountered couldn't be you?"
As the words left her mouth, Jiang Mu's grip on Jin Chao's sleeve tightened slightly. She thought of the damned non-blood relationship and awkwardly explained, "I mean, not someone like you?"
Jin Chao didn't look at her, a fleeting light appearing in his eyes as he seamlessly changed the subject: "You'd better go get a pair of glasses."
"No."
"Next time you walk on such roads, no one will be here for you to hold onto."
"I won't walk such paths with anyone else."
The evening breeze gently blew as they walked one after another. A small piece of fabric connected past and present - in his mind was a toddling girl, in her mind was a boy who would never abandon her no matter what.
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