Days went by one after another.

Before long, a year had gone by.

During this year, Nie Shanglin’s desk had seen yellow talismans for peace, green mung bean soup to cool off in the summer, hot water bags to warm his hands in winter, and all sorts of expressions of affection… uh… love letters?

“Dear Nie Nie~ You are the white cloud in the sky, stirring my heart~ You are the water plants in the lake, graceful and delicate~ You are the cilantro in the meatball soup, vibrant and alluring…”

“Pfft, hahahaha!” Yuan Yue laughed uncontrollably. “I’m telling you, Shanlin, who is this person? What a weirdo… Hahaha… cilantro..” cough, cough..”I can’t take it… oh, I’m going to die from laughing!”

Nie Shanglin shot him a glance and replied coldly, “Just read it and throw it away.”

Yuan Yue squinted his eyes in amusement. “Why are you being so heartless? Just look at this person, he has been so persistent for a whole year. That sincerity, it’s as evident as the sun and moon, a blazing devotion that’s unwavering to the end…”

“I hate cilantro.”

“…Huh?!” Yuan Yue jumped up in disbelief. “Damn it, you hate cilantro, and I had no idea?! I know exactly how many grains of rice you ate in kindergarten, okay?!”

At this moment, Mu Chenfeng, who had been eavesdropping, chimed in, “Yeah, yeah, Xiao Linlin, I didn’t know either! I even know how many strands of hair you have!”

Nie Shanglin looked up at the two of them with a blank expression and asked, “Then why don’t you tell me how many grains of rice I eat in one meal and how many strands of hair I have?”

The two were momentarily speechless, taken aback for a few seconds.

Yuan Yue was the first to speak: “Uh… that’s an exaggeration! Just an exaggeration! I was just trying to say how well I know you! By the way, when did you start hating cilantro?”

“Just now.”

As for the items on Nie Shanglin’s desk that clearly came from the same person, the onlookers had grown used to them. However, his closest friends still enjoyed teasing him about it.

Every time, Yuan Yue would read it out loud, while Mu Chenfeng would wait until he finished, looking touched with tears in his eyes as he said, “Oh my~ Every day is filled with so much love, Xiao Lin! To send all these things in front of everyone without ever meeting the person must mean they have some special skills. You should give in, Xiao Lin!”

But Nie Shanglin remained unfazed.

At first, the food Cheng Zhou sent ended up in the trash, but later, his close friends began to enjoy it. There was no way around it. It was free lunch, and it was pretty good. When they had nothing else to do and didn’t want to squeeze into the cafeteria, it was a waste not to take advantage of it.

So the days passed calmly.

It was only much later that Nie Shanglin learned about a fool named Cheng Zhou, who had spent the whole day grinning because he didn’t throw away the food he had made.

Time flew by.

Nie Shanglin was preparing for his college entrance exam, but Cheng Zhou was incredibly busy.

———

In life, one should never mistake a slight fondness for love, otherwise, even if the feelings aren’t that deep, they can ferment into something hard to let go of.

Once you dwell on it long enough, it becomes real.

Cheng Zhou gazed at the busy traffic beneath him, watching people hurry past, and smiled as he pulled out his phone.

“Hey.”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s break up.”

I let you go, and I also freed myself.

The author has something to say:

This story is a typical melodrama. When I first started writing in this style, there were many stories filled with betrayal and pain, which I found thrilling at the time. That inspired me to create my own. Nowadays, fewer young readers seem interested in this kind of writing, and I’ve started to lose interest too, but I still want to write it down.

I expect it won’t be very long—maybe a few thousand words. I originally planned to make it more painful, but now I want to make it sweeter instead.