Chapter 02

When Tang Yi first met Jiang Qiaosheng that year, the autumn in Pingcheng was the same as in previous years, entering a long rainy season in October, with one autumn rain after another, bringing the humid and cold water vapor to the city.

The sports day of the No. 8 High School was also slowly and enthusiastically progressing in this autumn rain.

Tang Yi had an old injury in her leg, so she did not participate in any events. She sat in the tent of her class all day, taking care of the supplies and reviewing her textbooks to pass the time.

Occasionally, she heard the cheers of the teenagers running outside, but she just glanced up and saw the flash of blue and white clothes passing by through the crowd.

In the afternoon, the rain briefly cleared, and Tang Yi lay on the table playing with her phone. Her seatmate Lin Yang suddenly ran over: “What are you playing?”

She spread out her phone, showing the game page of Snake.

Lin Yang couldn’t help but roll her eyes: “Aren’t you bored? You might as well come out and watch the competition with me.”

“No, there are too many people. I’m more comfortable staying here and guarding your things,” Tang Yi said, lying back down on the table.

Lin Yang didn’t insist, and sat with her for a while. Then she heard the broadcast calling for the 200-meter race for the second-year boys, and hurried out again.

Tang Yi’s greedy snake got stuck on the final level, seeing that she was about to pass it successfully today. She involuntarily sat up straight, eyes fixed on the phone screen, and every move of her hand was made with extra caution.

Just two steps left.

She pursed her lips, fully focused.

The footsteps beside her, sometimes far, sometimes near, failed to distract Tang Yi’s momentary concentration, but unfortunately, the casually uttered “classmate” led her in the wrong direction.

One wrong step, and it all goes wrong.

Tang Yi held back her anger and looked up at the culprit: “You—”

The boy stood outside the tent, wearing the school’s standard blue and white uniform. He was tall and slender, with a neat and clean short haircut, and handsome features. The sunshine after the rain shone through from behind him.

It dazzled Tang Yi’s eyes for a moment.

She paused for a while, but the boy didn’t notice, and smiled as he said, “Classmate, can I borrow two bottles of water? I’ll return them to you later.”

The young man in front of her was full of vigor, and his smile was breathtakingly beautiful, making it hard for her to look away.

At that moment, Tang Yi could not deny that she was an extremely superficial person.

She was lost in thought for a few seconds, until she heard the distant whistle and woke up as if from a dream, pretending to be indifferent and saying, “Okay, you can take it from the box yourself.”

“Okay, thank you.” The boy bent down and took the water from the box next to him, and his back formed a beautiful arc in the movement.

But the arc was fleeting, and he stood up straight again, waving the water in his hand at Tang Yi: “I’ll return it to you later.”

Tang Yi nodded and watched the boy’s figure walk away.

After a while, Tang Yi suddenly got up and went out, but the vast playground was bustling with people, and the boy had long since disappeared.

She stood there, and the lazy warmth of the autumn afternoon sun made it seem as if what had just happened was an illusion.

Lin Yang ran over from not far away: “You finally came out to get some fresh air, I was afraid you would mold in the tent.”

“It’s not that dramatic.” Tang Yi turned her gaze back and walked inside.

Lin Yang followed: “Are you really not going to watch the game?”

“No, I’m waiting for someone.”

“Who are you waiting for?”

“Someone just borrowed two bottles of water from our class and said he would return them later.”

Lin Yang laughed heartily: “You really believe it, it’s just two bottles of water. How can he really come back to return them?”

Tang Yi recalled the appearance of the boy, it was probably a case of beauty deceiving the eye, she was particularly insistent: “He won’t.”

That afternoon, Tang Yi didn’t leave the tent at all, but even by evening, the boy hadn’t shown up. Lin Yang laughed at her persistence and naivety.

Tang Yi had no words to refute, her mood like the autumn rain that came and went the next day, carrying a lingering sense of loneliness.

Due to the weather, the school sports day was dragged out for three days.

The last afternoon was the day Tang Yi went back to the hospital for a check-up, she took a leave slip to the senior three teaching building to get the class teacher’s signature.

When she came out after signing, the sky was drizzling with fine mist, not heavy but very dense, even though the weather forecast said there would be no rain today.

Tang Yi sighed, her leg still couldn’t do strenuous exercise, she could only estimate how long it would take to walk from here to the school gate.

There was someone coming down the side corridor, Tang Yi moved aside a little, looking down to send a message to her mother.

The sound of the other person opening an umbrella was clear, she looked up.

Coincidentally, the boy, whether intentionally or unintentionally, also looked back.

The black umbrella brim lifted slightly, revealing an extremely handsome face, with dark hair and eyes. At a closer distance than that day, Tang Yi could even see the faint arc of his chest rising and falling with his breath under his short-sleeved school uniform.

The boy had a hint of laughter in his eyes: “It’s you.”

Tang Yi’s heart was already in a mess, not knowing what to say, so she awkwardly responded with a “Hmm.”

He asked, “Are you waiting for someone?”

“No, I’m waiting for the rain to stop.” After saying this, Tang Yi felt that her words had an unconventional meaning, and her face couldn’t help but flush.

The boy didn’t make fun of her, saying, “This rain probably won’t stop for a while. Where are you going? I can give you a ride on my way.”

Tang Yi hesitated a bit.

The boy said again, “Consider it a thank you for the two bottles of water you lent me.”

Tang Yi then agreed, “Then, thank you.”

“It’s nothing.”

The rain was getting heavier and heavier, forming a continuous curtain of fine mist under the umbrella, whose brim was slightly pressed down.

Tang Yi hugged her backpack and couldn’t help but steal glances at him.

The young man’s edges were not yet profound and robust, but they were enough to support the outline of handsomeness. From her angle, his nose bridge looked particularly high and straight, leading down to his slender and fair neck. A light-colored mole on the side of his neck stood out clearly against the snowy white skin.

Tang Yi blinked a couple of times, not daring to look too much, and her gaze naturally fell on the hand holding the umbrella.

His wrist, like green bamboo, was adorned with a piece of red string, and a fresh wound that had not yet scabbed over cut across the raised veins on the back of his hand.

She stared at that scar all the way until they parted ways, only then realizing she hadn’t asked for his name, but by that time, the boy had already walked away under the umbrella.

All that was left for her was a tall, slender silhouette.

This autumn rain fell intermittently until the end of October, and Pingcheng entered the deep autumn of bare trees and yellow leaves. The No. 8 High school also welcomed the mid-term exams for the first and second-year students.

After the exams, the whole school participated in a thorough cleaning, with the health committee members from each grade inspecting the cleanliness of all grades before evening self-study. The final evaluation results would determine the winner of the floating red flag^[1]流动红旗(liúdònghóngqí) = Floating red flag, The floating red flag is a type of mobile red triangular banner used to reward outstanding groups (such as classes, units, etc.). for the next month.

In the evening, Tang Yi stood in the corridor, looking at the hustle and bustle in the schoolyard, blinking her eyes and only seeing unfamiliar faces.

She felt bored and entered the classroom again.

Tang Yi’s greedy snake was still stuck on the final level. No matter how hard she tried, she always fell short of victory. It seemed so close yet so far.

She refused to give up and started playing again.

The hallway outside had become lively at some point. Tang Yi lost the game again and laid her head on the desk, listless. On the white wall by the window was a portrait she had casually drawn.

The footsteps and voices outside were getting closer and closer. She glanced over and saw that face again in the crowd.

Wearing a senior high school uniform jacket, holding the scoring board used by the health committee, he was looking down and writing something. The setting sun framed his profile, making the lines of his face even clearer.

Tang Yi’s head buzzed, and in the midst of the noisy commotion, she heard the sound of her own pounding heart.

The boy didn’t look in her direction. After scoring, he followed the crowd to the next class. Tang Yi snapped out of it, hurriedly walked out of the classroom, stood by the door, and overheard him talking to someone familiar.

“Your class’s window…” The boy clicked his tongue lightly. “Deducted points.”

“Hey, Senior Jiang, you’re even stricter than Brother Lang.” The person begged, then said, “But by the way, why didn’t Brother Lang come today?”

“You’ll have to ask Director Wu about that.”

The group chatted and laughed, and soon walked away. It took Tang Yi a week to figure out the identity of the young man.

Jiang Qiaosheng, the class monitor of the Grade 3 science experimental class, had only come over to the Grade 2 side to help a friend that day.

Tang Yi was originally in the same grade as him, but in her first year, he wasn’t as well-known as he is now, and not many people knew him.

After the subject division in Grade 2, his grades suddenly soared, and he became famous, but at that time, she had taken a year off due to a car accident and didn’t know about this.

That night, on her way home from school, Tang Yi neatly wrote those three words on the blank space of her draft paper.

“Jiang, Qiao, Sheng.”

She softly pronounced it, marveling at the serendipity of fate, with a hint of amusement in her words.

Outside the window, the night was deep and quiet.

At that time, the seventeen-year-old Tang Yi still did not understand, that between her and Jiang Qiaosheng, it was like the wrong move she made in the game.

One wrong step.

Wrong step by step.

From the beginning, it was a wrong move.

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