Xu Xing was mentally prepared.

After severing the red strings—Liu Peilian was no longer in pain, Fu Dai no longer in love, Wang Zicong stopped crying, and his girlfriend was no longer clingy… It was as if everyone had been freed from the mire of emotions.

Only he still liked Lu Che.

Xu Xing attributed it to the fact that he alone could see the red strings. Because he knew of their existence, they didn’t affect him.

·

The next morning, Xu Xing stood in front of the mirror outside the balcony, having finished freshening up. He looked at his perfectly composed reflection, took a deep breath, tidied himself, and carried on as usual.

If anyone were to ask him what heartbreak felt like, Xu Xing could genuinely answer: heartbreak equals regret. From today onward, the two words “Lu Che”—a name he had written down countless times—would not accompany him in his long future but would instead become a symbol of regret in Xu Xing’s life.

Maybe, in some quiet, lonely night in the future, he would regret untying Lu Che’s bowknot, reminiscing about his hugs and kisses. However, had he not severed the red strings, he would have been tormented by endless guilt day and night.

Early that morning, Xu Xing returned to the classroom and sat upright in his seat, attempting to drown himself in a sea of exercise papers piled on his desk.

Before the morning self-study bell rang, his classmates began returning to the classroom. Wang Zicong walked in with a soft, fluffy piece of bread in his mouth and a cup of fragrant milk tea in hand. The sweet aroma drifted through the air, immediately capturing the attention of Xu Xing, who thought he had already lost himself in his exercise papers.

Xu Xing looked up at Wang Zicong, dazing at the milk tea in his hand.

Wang Zicong misinterpreted his gaze and held out the milk tea to him generously. “Want some?”

Xu Xing shook his head and lowered his head to continue working on his paper.

That overly sweet milk tea was on his blacklist—it was in the “once and never again” category. But because of Lu Che, he had drunk it twice.

Wang Zicong, puzzled, sat down, took a sip of his milk tea, and then turned to ask, “Xingxing, is that app I downloaded last time still on your phone?”

With his old, limited-storage phone, Wang Zicong often used Xu Xing’s phone to play games, as Xu Xing rarely used it.

Xu Xing responded, “I deleted it; you can re-download it.”

As he leaned back, reaching into his bag to grab his phone, he felt someone return to the seat behind him.

Xu Xing froze.

In the past, Lu Che would’ve immediately snuggled up to him upon returning to the classroom, but today, he broke from routine, dragging his chair back and slumping over his desk as soon as he sat down.

Even Wang Zicong, oblivious as he was, noticed that something was off with Lu Che, but he didn’t connect it to Xu Xing since Lu Che had dinner with them last night and returned to the dorms together.

Wang Zicong took another sip of sweet milk tea, feeling his mood lift as the sweetness spread, and opened Xu Xing’s app store.

“Hey?”

Wang Zicong handed Xu Xing the phone. “Xingxing, it’s asking for your ID password again. Do you remember it?”

Xu Xing stopped writing, frowned, and said, “Let me see…”

Wang Zicong wasn’t optimistic—he had been Xu Xing’s deskmate for nearly three years and had never seen him remember a password.

He continued, “Why don’t you ask Lu Che? Didn’t he say he’d help you remember your passwords?”

Xu Xing hesitated, then smiled awkwardly at Wang Zicong and went back to guessing his password.

Wang Zicong: “??”

Lu Che, lying on his desk, didn’t respond to Wang Zicong’s words aside from a slight movement of his fingers.

It was still freezing outside, with a biting wind.

The entire senior year cohort braved the cold wind, their movements chaotic against it. After morning exercises, everyone hurried back to their classrooms, closing doors and windows tight to keep the warmth in and the cold air out.

Just before the bell was about to ring, the quiet classroom suddenly erupted with a yell—

“Damn it, how many times have I told you? Is it that hard to close the door when you go in and out? Or do you just love sitting in the cold?”

The entire class fell silent, everyone turning to look at the back door, where Lu Che had risen and was scolding a boy who had repeatedly left the door open.

Xu Xing turned as well, catching his first glimpse of Lu Che that morning: he still looked as handsome as ever, but the sharp lines of his face seemed colder than usual.

Lu Che had a terrible temper, and when he was genuinely angry, no one dared to intervene.

The classroom felt frozen in that tense silence. Then, Lu Che lifted his chair and slammed it onto the desk with a loud bang. He moved his desk to the back of the third row, next to Ke Di’s seat.

Ke Di’s small talk with Lu Che eased the tension somewhat.

This minor incident gradually faded as the subject teacher entered to start class. Only two people found it hard to stay calm: the boy who had angered Lu Che and was now extremely nervous, and Xu Xing, who saw Lu Che’s outburst as nothing more than a pretext to move further away from him.

Xu Xing lowered his head, mist forming in his eyes, blurring his vision. He blinked until his sight cleared.

Despite his mental preparation, Xu Xing was easily shattered. The empty space behind him would no longer shield him from the cold. Luckily, the classroom door was shut tightly, keeping the chill at bay.

Xu Xing thought, keeping their distance was for the best. Before the red strings appeared, they hadn’t interacted much.

Xu Xing buried his overwhelming emotions, trying to focus on his exercise papers. As a new member of the broken-hearted, he stumbled through learning how to heal himself. His unreliable friend Tang Mian once told him that the way to get over a breakup is to transfer your feelings to someone.

Find new love and let the old one fade away.

Xu Xing had no new love, so he threw himself into his work.

Until, after school—

Xu Xing found two meal cards in his bag and, stunned, looked back instinctively, only to find Lu Che and Ke Di’s seats empty.

Xu Xing pursed his lips and carefully pulled out a meal card. When he looked down and saw that it was his own card, he let out a quiet sigh of relief. He was now trying his best to avoid anything related to Lu Che.

Standing up, he absentmindedly said to Wang Zicong, “Let’s go, time to eat.”

Wang Zicong looked at him curiously. “Aren’t we waiting for Lu Che?”

Xu Xing shook his head lightly.

When Xu Xing and Wang Zicong arrived at the cafeteria, Wang Zicong, with his ever-changing tastes, went to a different counter, leaving Xu Xing standing alone in line at the second counter, waiting to order.

Just then, Tang Mian and Liu Peilian walked by with their trays. Tang Mian spotted Xu Xing and enthusiastically greeted him, “Hey, wuli Xing Xing! Why are you by yourself? Where’s Lu Che?”

Xu Xing, tired of explaining and not knowing how to, shifted the topic and responded vaguely.

After Tang Mian walked away, Xu Xing heard someone else greet him from nearby. “Hey, Class Rep! What a coincidence!”

Xu Xing turned and saw that it was Ke Di, waiting in the queue next to him at the same food counter. As soon as Xu Xing saw Ke Di, he instinctively looked around to confirm Lu Che wasn’t there. Then he began to worry that Ke Di might ask, “Where’s Che-ge? Why didn’t he come with you?”

Fortunately, Ke Di didn’t.

Ke Di was a chatterbox, filling the awkward silence with casual topics as they waited. His line was slightly faster, and when it was his turn to order, Xu Xing heard him say to the cafeteria auntie, “Two orders, packed to go—add an extra serving of rice.”

Xu Xing casually asked, “You’re not eating in the cafeteria?”

Ke Di replied, “Che-ge asked me to bring it back to the dorm—I’m heading back to eat with him.”

“Oh,” Xu Xing murmured, glancing down awkwardly. When he heard Ke Di listing off the dishes he wanted, Xu Xing looked up again. Ke Di first ordered the popular dishes at that station—fried chicken wings, braised fish…

Xu Xing frowned slightly, but when Ke Di added, “Auntie, just make the second order exactly the same,” Xu Xing couldn’t hold back and interrupted, “Did Lu Che… not tell you what he wanted to eat?”

Ke Di turned back, puzzled. “Nope. Che-ge said anything would be fine.”

The cafeteria auntie had just finished packing the two orders, and it was Xu Xing’s turn to order. He stopped Ke Di, took one of the meal boxes, and said to the auntie, “I’ll order another to-go meal.”

Xu Xing could recite Lu Che’s standard menu by heart. He ordered stewed beef with potatoes, sweet and sour pork, cumin chicken, and an extra serving of mapo tofu.

Once the auntie had packed it all up, Xu Xing handed it to Ke Di, saying, “Here.”

Ke Di took it with a grin. “Oh, are these Che-ge’s favorite dishes? Thanks, Class Rep! I’ll be off, then!”

Xu Xing nodded. As Ke Di turned to leave, Xu Xing suddenly called out, “Ke Di…”

“Huh?”

“Um… Don’t tell Lu Che that I picked out those dishes.”

“Huh? Why not?”

“Just… consider it a surprise. Let him praise you a bit.”

“Pfft, okay~”

Because Xu Xing worried that if Lu Che knew he’d picked the dishes, he might lose his appetite.

Ke Di left the cafeteria with the packed meals, and Wang Zicong came over to Xu Xing after ordering his own food. Xu Xing was standing by the utensil counter, carefully picking out clean utensils. Wang Zicong noticed the to-go box in Xu Xing’s hand and asked curiously, “Xing Xing, why are you packing food to go? Isn’t that more expensive?”

Xu Xing didn’t respond, focusing instead on finding two clean spoons. He hadn’t picked out his own utensils in quite a while.

After lunch, Xu Xing and Wang Zicong returned to the classroom. Wang Zicong, knowing his routine, took the teacher’s notebook to copy the daily physics problem onto the back blackboard. Xu Xing, with no desk behind him, found it difficult to turn and see the problem, so he waited for Wang Zicong to finish, intending to borrow the notebook later.

Not wasting time, he resumed trying to retrieve his phone’s ID password. Determined, he opened his phone, intending to find the password in his chat history with Lu Che. But as soon as he opened Lu Che’s chat on WeChat, he froze.

Probably due to a network delay, when the WeChat interface loaded, Xu Xing saw Lu Che’s previously pinned avatar turn into a blank black image.

When Lu Che first added him on WeChat, he’d used that exact black avatar.

The shared profile pictures they once had were no longer matching.

Xu Xing stared at it in a daze, then went into his profile settings and changed his own avatar.

---

Wang Zicong dutifully finished copying the daily problem on the blackboard, a task he’d never missed. However, that afternoon, during Lu Che’s spot-check, Wang Zicong’s seat number still ended up on the board.

At that moment, Wang Zicong was happily slurping jelly while chatting with Tang Mian, who was sitting in the empty seat behind him.

The moment Lu Che walked onto the podium, the girls in the class instantly fixed their gazes on him. As they watched, he wrote two seat numbers on the board for that day’s spot-check. One of them was Wang Zicong’s.

At first, Wang Zicong thought Tang Mian was joking, but when he turned and saw his number up there, he panicked and turned to Xu Xing. “Xing Xing, Lu Che must’ve made a mistake! Can you talk to him for me?”

Wang Zicong had initially agreed to copy the daily problem for Lu Che under the condition that Lu Che wouldn’t spot-check his seat. They’d cooperated smoothly so far, and Wang Zicong hadn’t had to do his own problems for a long time. Having to catch up now would be endless—it was terrifying.

Xu Xing paused, then glanced at the board. Lu Che’s actions gave him the sense that Lu Che was setting everything back to the way it was, retrieving all the feelings he’d once misplaced on Xu Xing.

Xu Xing clenched his pen, feeling both helpless and unable to offer much help to Wang Zicong.

Left with no choice, Wang Zicong borrowed Xu Xing’s notes to get by. Xu Xing gave him a task to take up, then pulled something out of his bag. “Here,” he said, handing it over, “drop this back off with Lu Che.”

Wang Zicong looked down to see Lu Che’s photo on a magnetic-striped meal card.

The distance between Xu Xing and Lu Che kept growing.

In the last class that afternoon, a P.E. session, Xu Xing sat in the bleachers, unable to stop himself from watching the energetic boy on the field.

Freed from the red string’s influence, Lu Che was once again the center of attention. He dominated the basketball court, intercepting, maneuvering around people, and scoring—his airborne leaps the most striking sight on the field.

Applause filled the air as Lu Che’s teammates cheered, but he seemed unaffected. Carelessly brushing his hair, he looked nonchalant, his face glistening with sweat, yet still cold and distant.

Xu Xing suddenly realized that Lu Che hadn’t changed at all. Lu Che wasn’t pouting, clinging, or smiling at him anymore. Xu Xing was back to being one of “the others” in Lu Che’s world.

---

That evening.

After evening study, Xu Xing returned to his dorm. As he walked in, he saw the blanket he’d given Lu Che neatly folded at the foot of his bed.

It was still so cold…

If he’d known, he would’ve waited for this cold snap to pass before untying Lu Che’s “bow.”

Xu Xing sighed silently. The blanket seemed to carry a faint trace of Lu Che’s scent—so subtle that, in the end, even Xu Xing couldn’t be sure if the blanket had ever truly held his scent at all.