Twenty Eighth Year of Spring

Yu Hao first met Lu Huaizheng on the day he got into his very first high school fight. Seeing him covered in blood, she kindly urged him to go to the hospital. Instead, he lounged casually on a park bench, one hand tucked in his pocket, his head still bleeding as he teased her with a grin. Leaning close to her ear while gazing at the camphor trees lining the road, he asked, “Hey, Yu Hao... don’t tell me you actually like me?”

In her second year of high school, Yu Hao transferred away.

Years later, fate brings them together again when Lu Huaizheng becomes the subject of her research project. Dressed in a military uniform shirt, hands in his pockets, he leans across the desk until they are eye level, studying her with his usual carefree confidence.

“I can tell,” he says with certainty. “You still like me.”

Yu Hao is tempted to throw the stack of papers in her hands straight at his face. Yet she has to admit that Lu Huaizheng possesses a unique charm that never fades, no matter when or where she meets him. Because in all her life, she has never encountered another man quite like him, a man who is attractive without being frivolous, flirtatious without being vulgar, a true gentleman through and through.