Chapter 073

He Ye set the alarm for six fifty.

She was woken up by Lu Jin around six o’clock. Her body had gotten used to him, so she chose to indulge him before fully waking up.

This was a luxury hotel, but He Ye still didn’t trust the soundproofing of the guest rooms. Since her two college roommates were sleeping next door, she tried to keep quiet.

The dim light of the night light highlighted Lu Jin’s eyes and eyebrows.

He seemed to enjoy watching her.

He Ye glanced back at him, a bit annoyed.

With moist eyes, Lu Jin leaned down and kissed them, saying, “Don’t worry. I won’t embarrass you in front of your roommates.”

This morning, Lu Jin was indeed gentler than before, like a spring breeze that brushed by when she was waking up.

“What time is it?” He Ye asked lazily, not wanting to stretch her arms.

Lu Jin sat next to her, drying his short hair with a towel in one hand while checking his phone with the other. It was 06:48.

He turned the screen towards her.

He Ye thought, as expected of a top student from Tsinghua University, even his time management was excellent.

Lu Jin helped her cancel the alarm and asked, “Are you sleepy?”

He Ye shook her head. She had slept for two hours on the plane and five hours in the hotel, so she felt okay.

She was in a good mood, excited for her roommate’s wedding and happy to have a super capable boyfriend.

After showering, blow-drying her hair halfway, and putting on her bridesmaid dress, He Ye came out to find Lu Jin had also changed his clothes.

Surprised, she asked, “Aren’t you going to sleep for a bit?”

She and her roommates would go to Meng Qiao’s house first, wait for the wedding ceremony, and then head to the hotel with the bride and groom for the wedding banquet at 11 o’clock.

As her male companion, Lu Jin only needed to attend the wedding banquet.

“I’m not sleepy either,” Lu Jin replied, pulling open the curtains.

Bright morning light flooded the room. He turned and saw He Ye in her beautiful snow-white dress, glowing softly.

This was the first time she wore such a formal dress in front of him.

Feeling nervous, He Ye grabbed her phone and said as she walked out, “Cousin Meng Qiao is here. I’ll go meet Wang Ran and the others first.”

“I’ll take you there, then we can grab breakfast,” Lu Jin said.

He Ye agreed.

They waited in the corridor for a few minutes, and then Wang Ran and Guo Leyan came out, also dressed formally.

Lu Jin greeted them politely and turned his attention away.

Guo Leyan kept stealing glances at him.

When they met last night, Lu Jin wore a shirt. Today, he had on black casual pants and a simple black T-shirt. At just 24, he looked like a college student.

Lu Jin accompanied the three girls to Meng Qiao’s cousin’s car.

Since they were in a rush, He Ye glanced at her boyfriend and got into the car with her roommates.

Guo Leyan tilted her head, still looking at Lu Jin.

Wang Ran teased her, “If you keep staring, He Ye might get jealous.”

Guo Leyan told He Ye about her confusion from last night, saying, “I really feel like I’ve seen Lu Jin somewhere before.”

Meng Qiao’s cousin, who was driving, joked, “All handsome guys look alike. Many say I look like Daniel Wu when he was young.”

The three girls in the back row were surprised by his humor.

While in the car, He Ye texted her parents and grandparents about her itinerary to avoid worrying them.

Wang Ran noticed Guo Leyan looking through her phone and asked, “Wow, you still have all the photos from our freshman year?”

“Of course! I got a new phone with 512GB, but I transferred all my old photos to the cloud album. Otherwise, 512GB wouldn’t be enough for me,” Guo Leyan explained.

Wang Ran said, “Hey, even in military training uniforms, He Ye looks great.”

He Ye heard and came over.

Guo Leyan started to lose focus as the three of them began reminiscing about their college days.

When they arrived at the bride’s house, there was no time to look at their phones.

Meng Qiao also invited two local bridesmaids, who were good helpers for the bride. Since He Ye and her friends were far away, they mainly watched and helped with small tasks.

At ten o’clock, everyone headed back to the hotel.

He Ye took the chance to text her boyfriend: [We’re back. Where are you?]

Lu Jin replied: [I went out to rent a car and just got back.]

He Ye: [Okay, just head to the banquet hall around 10:30.]

Lu Jin: [Is everything going well on your end?]

He Ye: [Pretty good! I even got a big red envelope.] 

Lu Jin smiled.

After the bride threw the bouquet, the bridesmaids sat down to eat.

He Ye finally reunited with Lu Jin.

He had changed into a shirt, looking cool and handsome, drawing a lot of attention.

While eating and chatting, Guo Leyan asked Lu Jin directly, “Have you ever been to Shanghai during college?”

He Ye’s heart skipped a beat.

Lu Jin, looking surprised, shook his head and said, “No, I studied in Beijing.”

Wang Ran handed a piece of lobster to He Ye, saying, “Eat up! Don’t think about it. You must have mistaken him for someone else.”

While chewing on the lobster, Guo Leyan glanced at Lu Jin with disbelief, feeling sure she wouldn’t forget a handsome guy like him.

After the wedding, the bride, Meng Qiao, was leaving with the groom. Wang Ran and Guo Leyan planned to travel to Chengdu together, but they felt it would be awkward to tag along with He Ye and Lu Jin, so they decided to go their separate ways.

The four girls met for the first time after graduation, but they had to part quickly.

“It’s okay. When Ye Zi gets married, we can all be together again. Lu Jin, you need to work hard and get our Ye Zi married as soon as possible!” Meng Qiao said, her eyes red from emotion after their hug.

Everyone except He Ye looked at Lu Jin.

Lu Jin smiled, “Okay, I hope I won’t keep you waiting too long.”

He Ye gently twisted his arm.

That night, He Ye and Lu Jin checked into a different hotel.

As He Ye lay on the bed, clutching the sheets, her phone rang several times with messages.

Her attention was drawn away.

Lu Jin glanced and saw that it was her college roommates chatting about their travel experiences.

He quickly muted the notifications and turned the screen down.

He Ye, after taking a shower, leaned against the headboard of the bed and checked the group chat.

Lu Jin didn’t eavesdrop on her conversations with her friends. He brought a notebook and, while He Ye was busy, he sat at the desk reading emails.

He Ye scrolled up the chat, ready to catch up.

As she was browsing, she saw a photo.

It was posted by Guo Leyan, who tagged her in it.

He Ye enlarged the picture.

It showed the familiar campus of Jiaotong University, in front of the dormitory where she had lived for four years.

It was raining, and some students walked by with umbrellas. A man stood under a tree on the roadside, dressed in black, tall and thin. Only half his face was visible under the umbrella, making it a bit blurry.

Guo Leyan wrote: [@He Ye! Come and see, is this your Lu Jin? I remembered when I found this photo. I came back from the cafeteria that day and suddenly saw a super handsome guy there. He really fascinated me. But when I secretly took a photo, he seemed to notice and lowered his umbrella while tilting his head up! I remember I screamed at you when I went upstairs, dragging you to the balcony to see the handsome guy, but he was gone!]

Wang Ran: [I think I remember him.]

Meng Qiao: [Yes, even though Le Yan often calls us to look at handsome guys while walking, she rarely goes crazy in the dormitory.]

Guo Leyan: [Looking at this photo, it was the first semester of my sophomore year, November 8, 2015, 8:35 am!]

He Ye didn’t remember this at all, as she might have been studying early in the classroom or library back then.

In 2015, the pixels of mobile phone cameras were much lower than now.

This photo was a bit blurry, but after being with Lu Jin for so long, He Ye recognized his familiar figure and half of his face.

Guo Leyan: [Ye Zi must be hiding something from us! I don’t believe it’s just a coincidence that a top student from Tsinghua University, who should be in Beijing, suddenly shows up at our Jiaotong University and stops in front of our dorm!]

He Ye didn’t believe it either.

She didn’t read the rest of the chat but looked up at her boyfriend, who was focused on some documents with his back to her.

Checking the calendar, she noted that it was a Sunday, the same day he planned to visit her.

So, even after they broke up, he still sought her out?

How many times had he come?

High-speed rail, high-speed rail.

He Ye suddenly glanced at the phone Lu Jin had left on another bedside table.

She turned off her phone and asked Lu Jin, “My phone ran out of battery and turned off. Can I use yours?”

Lu Jin turned around and replied, “Sure, the password is still the same.”

He Ye smiled and moved to his side. After unlocking the phone, she pretended to browse for a bit, then went to the bathroom and locked the phone.

Lu Jin looked at the bathroom door and then at his girlfriend’s phone charging.

He had no secrets in his phone that he felt his girlfriend shouldn’t see, so he didn’t suspect anything. He just remembered the battery indicator in the corner of the screen when he set her phone to silent.

Lu Jin was usually very perceptive about these things.

But he was so absorbed in his work that he couldn’t even focus on simple math. He may have glanced at the screen, but his mind didn’t register it.

After a moment, Lu Jin looked away and returned to his work.

Just a bit more work, and he could relax again tonight.

In the bathroom, He Ye leaned against the sink, nervously using Lu Jin’s phone.

She noticed he hadn’t installed the “12306” app (which is the official platform for booking train tickets in China), so she clicked on a commonly used blue payment app.

This app allows users to buy train or plane tickets easily.

However, “12306” only shows order records for the last year, from May 1 last year to May 1 this year.

Even so, in those first six months, Lu Jin had traveled to Shanghai frequently, either leaving on Friday night or Saturday night and returning on Sunday.

She wanted to check records from earlier.

After taking a deep breath, He Ye clicked on the “Bill” section.

Here, users can search for their expenses over a certain year.

He Ye searched for November 2015.

Lu Jin’s expenses for that month appeared, and as she scrolled, she saw several “train tickets.”

[Train tickets/transportation/11-01 fare 662]

[Train tickets/transportation/11-07 fare 662]

[Train tickets/transportation/11-08 fare 662]

…

[Train tickets/transportation/11-28 fare 662]

[Train tickets/transportation/11-29 fare 662]

These tickets were for travel from Beijing to Shanghai and then back.

He Ye tilted her head, tears falling like rain.

She often heard the phrase “rain” being used to describe crying, and now she understood it truly means crying like this.

But she didn’t want to cry; she wanted to keep watching.

He Ye took off a towel to wash her face, wiped her tears, and changed the date on her ticket.

This time, she started in September 2014.

There was no need to check all the details; just seeing the words “train ticket” and the familiar ticket price told her it was a trip to and from Shanghai.

There are twelve months in a year.

She selected the year and month, confirmed it, scrolled down the screen, and started over.

He Ye’s hands were tired, but the frequency of “train ticket” appearing remained about eight times a month.

Just after searching for “2015,” there was a light knock on the bathroom door next door.

He Ye paused her tears.

A voice came from outside: “He Ye, I heard you crying.”

He Ye cried even harder.

She opened the door, grabbed his phone, and threw herself into his arms.

Lu Jin held his girlfriend with one arm and took the phone with the other. When he saw the screen, he guessed what was going on.

He couldn’t remember the faces he had passed by at Jiaotong University, including her roommates. He might vaguely remember a few boys who wandered around her dorm carrying milk tea and breakfast.

But Lu Jin couldn’t control whether others remembered him, even if they had only met briefly.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” He Ye asked while sobbing.

Lu Jin touched her wet face and whispered, “It’s not necessary.”

That was a crush he chose for himself.

He could have a crush on He Ye for one year, four years, six years, or even longer.

“He Ye, you don’t need to feel touched.”

“I didn’t do anything for you.”

No matter how many high-speed trains or flights he took, Lu Jin did it just for himself.

If he didn’t go find He Ye, he would feel very uncomfortable and unable to concentrate on anything.

So he went to see his special leaf ^[1]refers to He Ye, as in a cherished person for him..