Chapter 5

Throughout the entire Qingming holiday, Xu Xiyi’s parents were busy with their business and not at home. On the last day of the break, some girls from her class invited her to go shopping at Baisheng Center.

Baisheng was the most bustling commercial district in Xindu, with a street nearby called "High Street." In the past, due to economic development, that area had the tallest buildings, hence the name. Now it was a place of light luxury, with luxury cars coming and going on the roads. However, such a place had little to do with high school students like Xu Xiyi.

The girls wandered around the "Women’s Street" in the commercial district, browsing small items. As students, they didn’t have much money; after a long time of browsing, only Yang Bingbing bought a small handbag. Then everyone started to feel a bit hungry.

“Come on, let’s go to High Street for some hot and sour noodles,” said Yang Bingbing.

Zhang Xiaoli immediately frowned. “Please, that place is super expensive.”

“Exactly, a bowl that costs ** yuan here can sell for over a hundred there!”

“Wow, we can’t afford that.”

The other two girls also hesitated.

Yang Bingbing reassured them, “Don’t worry, I know a newly opened shop that’s cheap. You can eat for just twenty-five.” She tugged at Xu Xiyi’s arm. “Xuxu, what do you say? Want to go?”

Xu Xiyi tightened the straps of her backpack. Seeing the others were reluctant, she said, “Maybe we should just forget it.”

Yang Bingbing was clearly eager to go. She anxiously grabbed Xu Xiyi’s arm. “Don’t you love fried skewers? That place has hot and sour noodles, fried skewers, and spicy hot pot. Plus, there’s a boutique nearby having a clearance sale—it’s really not expensive!”

Hearing this, the girls were tempted.

The small shop was on the edge of High Street, by a crossroads.

Yang Bingbing wasn’t lying; the hot and sour noodles were cheap but crowded.

It was raining, and many feet came and went, stepping on used tissues on the ground. Though dirty and messy, compared to the upscale restaurants farther down High Street, it was filled with a lively, everyday atmosphere.

There were many such small eateries on the streets behind the second middle school’s back gate.

The wind was slanting with fine rain, and the traffic light at the intersection showed a long 90-second countdown. Vehicles quickly came to a stop. At the front of the line was a low-key black Porsche, its window slowly rolling down.

Lin Sheng rested his hand on the steering wheel and glanced at the hot and sour noodle shop beside him. Many people were queuing, including a few lively young girls, laughing and chatting, very conspicuous.

He raised an eyebrow.

He hadn’t expected to meet that girl just at a traffic light.

Through the light rain, he could see the girl holding a half-drunk milk tea, pulling and laughing with her classmates. He couldn’t hear their conversation, but she shyly hugged herself, looking at her friends with a mix of annoyance and amusement.

It was vivid.

Lin Sheng had seen Xu Xiyi’s smile before, but clearly, her current smile was much freer and more natural than when she was in front of him.

In his presence, that girl was always obedient, well-behaved, and reserved—never this lively.

The freshly lit cigarette was clutched between his second knuckle, ash building up in a ring. Lin Sheng watched Xu Xiyi from afar but did not smoke.

“Who’s got you so engrossed?” Chu Yuefei asked, following Lin Sheng’s gaze, teasingly.

In the back seat, Fu Xiaoyin immediately stopped reapplying her lipstick and looked toward the noodle shop—white steam blurred half the storefront, messy, with a few girls lining up for plain noodle soup, laughing and chatting, their topic unknown.

She scoffed and said, while touching up her lipstick in a small mirror, “Just a bunch of kids, what’s there to get excited about? Sheng Ge’s taste can’t be that bad.”

Chu Yuefei shrugged.

Chen Xia, however, glanced at Lin Sheng’s profile thoughtfully. After a moment, he looked at Lin Sheng and said, “You’ve been abroad so long; your tastes are pretty heavy, Ah Sheng.”

Lin Sheng’s hand hung out the window, flicking off the ash and casually replied, “I didn’t say a word, but you guys are good at guessing.”

At the hot and sour noodle shop, Yang Bingbing was teasing Xu Xiyi. “Share with us how you got a bigger chest. I’m really struggling with mine being an A cup.”

“Exactly,” Zhang Xiaoli leaned in and whispered, “Xiyi, did you eat a lot of peanuts? I heard eating peanuts makes your chest bigger!”

Xu Xiyi was surprised and regretted not avoiding peanuts before. Blushing, she pushed them away. “Stop teasing me, someone might hear!”

“Oh, why be shy?”

The girls laughed and teased, and as Xu Xiyi hugged herself and tried to dodge, she glanced back just in time to see a Porsche on the roadside and the man inside looking at her—Lin Sheng.

She was startled.

“What’s wrong, Xuxu?” Yang Bingbing nudged her elbow and looked where she was staring. “Wow, handsome guy!”

She excitedly patted Xu Xiyi. “Do you know him? He’s looking at you.”

Lin Sheng watched. Xu Xiyi was being pushed by her friends to greet him, shy but obedient. He knew high school well enough to read the situation at a glance.

He smiled a little and waited.

Finally, Xu Xiyi gave in, smiling politely and respectfully as she hurried over.

The light turned green. Lin Sheng pulled the car to the roadside to stop briefly. Xu Xiyi stood outside his window.

“Brother Lin.”

“Mm.”

Lin Sheng responded in a low voice, glancing at her jeans and white fleece cardigan, the red checkered umbrella from last time, and her black backpack. Her outfit was much like the other girls’—just an ordinary high school girl.

“Shopping with your classmates?”

“Mm.” Xu Xiyi casually pointed back with her milk tea cup. “We were just a bit hungry, so we came to eat.”

He looked past her at the simple sign of the hot and sour noodle shop. “Is it good?”

“I don’t know, it’s my first time here too.”

Lin Sheng nodded, a gentle, warm smile blossoming on his handsome face. Seeing this, Xu Xiyi relaxed a little and took the initiative to ask, “Brother Lin, where are you headed?”

He nodded toward the front, replying vaguely, “Up ahead.”

The conversation stalled there. Xu Xiyi didn’t know what else to say, and Lin Sheng, seeing her waiting obediently, didn’t press. “Your friends are calling you. You should go back.”

Xu Xiyi looked back. Yang Bingbing was urging her to quickly tell the chef if they wanted vinegar. She replied, “Right away,” then turned back to Lin Sheng. “Well... I’m off. Goodbye, Brother Lin.”

“Goodbye.”

Lin Sheng watched her run off in the light rain, her hair swaying behind her.

Chu Yuefei studied Xu Xiyi closely until she was far away. “That must be her—the neighbor girl you helped a while back.”

“Mm.”

“She looks so pure. Pretty young, huh?”

Lin Sheng said casually, “Still in high school.”

Fu Xiaoyin put away her lipstick case and looked at Xu Xiyi blending in with her classmates. A sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl, loose clothes, simple ponytail, radiating youthful energy from her clothes to her eyes.

Clean and bright.

She couldn’t help but sigh, “Such a good age—youthful and full of vitality. The future is full of hope.”

Inside the shop, it was crowded. The chef cooking the hot and sour noodles took advantage of the absence of the city inspectors to set up a table outside for the girls. Xu Xiyi and her friends ate the noodles while watching Lin Sheng’s car disappear into the busiest part of the district.

“The prices there are super high.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah!”

Yang Bingbing, recalling Lin Sheng’s car, turned and asked, “What does your brother do? His car looks so expensive.”

Xu Xiyi glanced at Yang Bingbing. In her childhood memories, the Lin family had always been quite well-off, with a strong cultural atmosphere.

“He’s a doctor.”

Zhang Xiaoli snapped her noodles in surprise. “Wow, are there doctors this handsome? I want to get sick quickly!”

Xu Xiyi lowered her eyes and poked at the noodles with her chopsticks, mumbling, “Getting sick won’t help; he won’t treat you.”

“Why wouldn’t he treat me? Do doctors pick their patients?”

“Exactly.”

Xu Xiyi blinked and murmured, “Well... not exactly.”

If “ugly” counted as a disease, then that would be treated.

—

Lin Sheng parked his car in the garage. A group of people rode the elevator upstairs together. Some had already arrived and were waiting above. Today was a childhood friends’ reunion in the residential compound.

Lin Sheng had been abroad for nearly ten years and had only recently returned.

He sat in the middle, speaking little, but whenever he spoke, everyone quieted down.

Children from military compounds rarely turned out mediocre—either exceptionally good or notably bad. None were to be underestimated.

Because of his family background and character, Lin Sheng had always held considerable weight among this group. Some bold childhood friends, a little drunk, teased him.

“I remember back in school, Ah Sheng’s love life was booming, with fans constantly chasing after him!”

“Yeah, whenever we met a pretty girl, we’d hand her love letters for him, leaving us with no chance.”

“But now, some of us are married, some dating. Brother Sheng, why are you still single?” Xiao Yufeng said, “This isn’t right.”

“Exactly, hurry up, Brother Sheng. My Beibei even went out to get soy sauce yesterday.” The speaker was two years older than Lin Sheng, teasingly.

Chu Yuefei laughed and added, “You don’t need to worry about that, the old commander is even more anxious than you.”

“The old commander’s nervous...” Chen Xia interjected with a teasing smile, “Could it be that Brother Sheng is worried about marriage?”

As soon as Chen Xia finished, Lin Sheng leaned against the sofa and gave him a cold glance.

Though Lin Sheng’s presence was low-key, he rarely lost his temper. The group continued to laugh and joke.

There was something strange about this circle: among the men, most already had partners, but among the women, including Fu Xiaoyin, most were still single.

In their youthful years, many harbored secret crushes on Lin Sheng.

From a young age, Lin Sheng was the most outstanding among the boys. Such a figure naturally invited daydreams.

Now at twenty-seven, having returned from abroad, Lin Sheng was more steady and low-key than in his youth. Time and experience had refined him. His calm and grace seeped from his eyes and breath.

Those youthful, humble crushes grew in darkness and silently faded without seeing daylight.

This was the fate of most adolescent infatuations.

—

After eating the hot and sour noodles, Xu Xiyi and her friends browsed the nearby boutique but soon felt too tired to walk. Zhang Xiaoli and the others hadn’t finished their homework and discussed going home to catch up.

“Xuxu, aren’t you in a rush to finish your homework?”

“I finished it the day before yesterday,” Xu Xiyi said.

The girls stared at her as if she were a ghost, thoroughly impressed. Yang Bingbing said, “Xuxu, you’re so diligent and serious. You should be in the top ten! Ranking twenty or thirty every time is too unfair with your attitude toward homework.”

That comment hit Xu Xiyi’s sore spot.

“Maybe... I’m just not cut out for studying,” she said sincerely.

The girls sighed when the topic turned to academics.

Some of the girls took taxis, some buses, and soon only Yang Bingbing and Xu Xiyi remained at the bus stop. They waited a long time, but no bus came. With rain and wind blowing into their collars, it was quite cold, and Xu Xiyi shivered violently.