Chapter 5: First Meeting

Jiang Mingzhi’s mouth was quicker than her brain. She spoke first: “Hello, are you a student from Gao Yi?”

The boy turned toward her at the sound of her voice. His eyes were bright and clear, without a trace of impurity, just like stars shining brilliantly.

His skin was fair, but not sickly pale, rather it had a healthy, rosy glow.

Jiang Mingzhi explained, “I’m transferring to Beijing No.1 High School soon, and I’m not familiar with the study materials you use here. If you have time, could you recommend a few books for me?”

The boy was Guan Jinxu, a student from Class 9. Pei Jinyang didn’t like him.

As for the reason, it was simply because they had competed in several contests and summer camps together, and Pei Jinyang had lost to him.

Pei Jinyang considered Guan Jinxu his rival, and Jiang Mingzhi, with some awareness, kept her distance. Therefore, she knew of him but wasn’t very familiar with him.

Guan Jinxu was tall, looking to be over 182 cm. He looked down at Jiang Mingzhi. Her eyes were full of a thirst for knowledge, not the typical shy and smitten look that many girls had.

He answered her questions kindly, casually pointing to two books on the shelf: “The difficulty level of these questions is quite high, but if you have a good foundation, you can buy them.”

Guan Jinxu’s nails were clean and round, his fingers long. The first joint of his middle finger was slightly thicker, evidence of years of writing.

Jiang Mingzhi took the books he pointed out and held them to her chest.

She grabbed the opportunity to ask him many learning-related questions, from mathematics to physics, biology to exams.

The boy answered one by one, and Jiang Mingzhi felt the innocence and friendliness of high school students.

From what she had heard about Guan Jinxu from Pei Jinyang’s friends, he came from a family with a red background and was arrogant.

But Pei Jinyang was wrong—Guan Jinxu wasn’t aloof or pretentious at all.

Half an hour later, Jiang Mingzhi carried a stack of study materials to the checkout counter. “Thank you so much for today. If it weren’t for you, I would have been lost. Let me treat you to a soda.”

Guan Jinxu politely refused, “No need.”

“Well then, let me pay for these two books of yours.”

Jiang Mingzhi took the books from his hands and put them together with her own.

“No need.”

The boy tried to take back his books, but Jiang Mingzhi hugged them protectively in front of her chest. “I want to pay. I don’t like owing people favors. I’ll feel bad if I don’t buy them for you.”

In truth, she hadn’t expected Guan Jinxu to be so easygoing. As long as it was related to studying, he would answer every question.

Pei Jinyang had said he was pretentious—where was he pretentious? He was clearly friendly!

Guan Jinxu didn’t want to continue the tug-of-war at the bookstore, so he allowed her to pay for the books.

When she handed his books back, she noticed that one of them was about military affairs, with a fighter jet printed on the cover.

—–

In the following days, Jiang Mingzhi buried herself in her studies. Fortunately, her brain was still sharp. Even though she had forgotten some knowledge points, she could remember them by watching online tutorials from famous teachers.

Occasionally, she would glance up from her textbook and through the bright glass window, she could see the New Year decorations in the front yard.

There were cheerful little lambs and beautiful red paper-cut lanterns.

The festive atmosphere was strong.

On New Year’s Eve, Jiang Mingzhi deliberately woke up a little earlier to prepare to paste the Spring Festival couplets with her mother.

Her mother and Uncle Pei had been so good to her. Why would she push them away because of a man who might change his mind?

Jiang Mingzhi thought while eating shrimp dumplings.

Qiu Tang asked, “Jinyang is back. Have you seen him?”

Jiang Mingzhi shook her head.

Qiu Tang replied, “Oh, he’s probably catching up on sleep. He came back around six this morning.”

Jiang Mingzhi put down her chopsticks, placed her hands on the table, and looked at Qiu Tang seriously. “Mom, I don’t want to know anything about his movements or news. Can you please stop telling me about him?”

Qiu Tang was stunned, clearly not expecting her daughter to say this. “Why? You don’t like him even though you haven’t met him yet…”

Then she realized, laughing, “Is it that you’re jealous, worried that I care about him?”

Jiang Mingzhi said, “No.”

Forget it, let her think whatever she wanted.

After the meal, Jiang Mingzhi and Mrs. Qiu went to the front door to supervise the servants as they put up the Spring Festival couplets.

The door was too high, and Qiu Tang didn’t dare to climb the ladder, nor did she want Jiang Mingzhi to.

“Move it a little to the right, a little more to the right.”

Jiang Mingzhi squinted her eyes to see if it was aligned. Suddenly, a tall and handsome figure entered her line of sight.

Jiang Mingzhi stood at the door, looking at the boy inside, backlit by the sun.

His hair was messy from just waking up, with some stray hairs sticking up. He wore a black bathrobe, with a brown little bear embroidered on the chest. His features were handsome but still carried the immaturity of youth; at seventeen or eighteen, he was in the rebellious phase, looking at Jiang Mingzhi with a cold, even disgusted gaze.

Jiang Mingzhi thought to herself, “Go ahead, be rebellious. In the end, you’ll still end up as my little dog.”

But this time, she didn’t need him to be her dog.

Inside, Pei Jinyang gave her a casual glance.

She was a girl so beautiful that she was unforgettable.

Her height wasn’t particularly tall, but she had the gentle, graceful temperament of a Jiangnan beauty, and she looked like someone who could be easily bullied.

When the wind blew, her black long hair swayed with it.

Along with the wind came the faint scent of her, so subtle that Pei Jinyang thought it was an illusion.

Pei Jinyang hurried toward her in three steps, his eyes—once full of tenderness—were now cold as he stared at Jiang Mingzhi.

Jiang Mingzhi found it inexplicable.

Although the two of them had indeed started as rivals, the situation wasn’t intense enough to warrant a full-on fight right away.

He had one hand in his pocket and the other stretched out toward her. “Where’s the stuff from my books?”

Jiang Mingzhi was confused. “What stuff?”

She had flipped through each page of those books and hadn’t seen anything extra.

Pei Jinyang’s hand stayed outstretched, his palm large, with slightly thick fingers—clearly the hands of a boy who liked to play sports.

“Give it to me.”

Jiang Mingzhi was speechless. She lifted her foot to step inside and then bypassed him to head upstairs.

Once inside her room, she pulled out the books that belonged to Pei Jinyang. “Here, I’ll return them to you.”

Pei Jinyang grabbed the books from her hands and immediately began flipping through them one by one.

The sunlight from the flower window in the corridor shone down on the two of them, landing on their feet. Jiang Mingzhi wiggled her toes.

The sound of pages flipping was quick. She didn’t know what he was looking for, but she wasn’t going to wait for him to finish his inspection—she hadn’t written anything on those books.

In a moment, she was grabbed by the collar and shoved against the wall. Even though she was wearing winter clothes, she could feel the cold, hard wall pressing against her back, a dull pain in her chest.

Jiang Mingzhi was completely stunned, staring at Pei Jinyang.

What was he doing?

“Are you sick?”

Pei Jinyang’s youthful face was cold as he looked down at her, and he spat out a cruel remark: “Where’s the stuff in my books? Didn’t your mom teach you to be mindful when relying on others?”