Chapter 24

On December 20th, it snowed in Xiangwu City. The snow came quietly and fell heavily. By the time Song Cheng returned to the dorm, a thin layer of snow had already covered the flower beds.

Few students had umbrellas. Those with hats wore them, while others used books to shield themselves or held their heads with their hands. Everyone ran toward the dormitory building with various makeshift head coverings amidst the rustling snow.

Li Xueshan’s scream came through the crack of the dorm door. Song Cheng pushed it open to find Li Xueshan bouncing around like a small ball, hugging Lu Wei and Zhou Ying, her cheeks flushed with excitement.

Song Cheng asked, “What’s wrong?”

Li Xueshan exclaimed, “I received his confession! We’re together now!”

Song Cheng lost interest immediately: “Oh.”

Li Xueshan stuck out her tongue at her and muttered, “All you think about is studying.”

Their roommate from Class 5, who used to be obsessed with training, was now solely focused on studying, completely missing the romance of the first snow and love.

The practice questions lay abandoned on the desk, and Song Cheng hadn’t turned to the next page for a long time because she kept daydreaming about the scene in the evening study corridor.

In her mind, there were images of Wen Xiangyi in a pure white down jacket catching snowflakes and Wen Xiangyi on the snow slope, picking up a snowboard and looking back with her gaze.

Wen Xiangyi had worn heavy snow gear and large goggles at that time. Song Cheng privately thought Wen Xiangyi looked much cuter like that than usual.

So, the following year, when they went skiing again, she secretly added several hats with ears—like cat ears, with pointed tips—to her gear. When they reached the base of the snow-covered mountain, Wen Xiangyi looked at her with a smile, pinching the ears of the hat. Song Cheng calmly replied, “The store said this model has the best quality.”

Wen Xiangyi pinched the hat’s ears again, and Song Cheng’s poorly told lie made her ears warm and itchy.

Fortunately, Wen Xiangyi didn’t instruct her to buy a new one and wore the black knitted hat instead.

Wen Xiangyi grew fond of the black cat ears.

Song Cheng was mesmerized.

So… cute.

Wen Xiangyi looked up but couldn’t see her own head. Her fair face showed discomfort, with her eyelashes trembling as if a light snowfall had settled at the bottom of her eyes.

Song Cheng thought she had long forgotten, but this small matter followed her back to high school. It popped up between two math problems and clawed its way into her thoughts.

Known:

– Wen Xiangyi doesn’t like skiing but always takes her there.

– Wen Xiangyi must see that she enjoys skiing.

Therefore:

– Wen Xiangyi goes skiing for her.

Song Cheng sniffled.

It turned out Wen Xiangyi had been so kind to her. She no longer held any resentment towards Wen Xiangyi.

She also wanted to be good to Wen Xiangyi. At least while they still had some connection.

The next morning, before Song Cheng got out of bed, Zhou Ying and Lu Wei came back from the balcony: “The snow has stopped, but it’s so thick outside!”

When Song Cheng brushed her teeth and went to the balcony, the world had turned white. The playground visible from the dormitory building had disappeared from view. By the time classes started, excited classmates found out that physical education classes had also vanished from the week’s schedule along with the playground.

Chen Zihao, standing on a basketball under his desk, lamented, “Not clearing the snow from the playground is a huge conspiracy!”

The PE teacher was spared from being ill, and the physical education class was officially and rightfully occupied. Some were happy, and some were sad.

During the big break, the snow removal on school roads was incomplete, and considering the temperature, the running exercises were canceled.

Upon hearing the news, everyone cheered. Many people immediately ran out, and it turned out they all went downstairs to play in the snow.

On the first floor of the Z-shaped classroom building, the courtyard snow had become a playground for many people. It was unclear who started it, but soon, snowballs were flying everywhere.

Qin Li, eager to join, asked around, “I want to play too. Are you going?”

Wen Xiangyi: “No.”

Song Cheng quickly added, “No.”

Qin Li said, “Song Cheng, come with me.” She thought Song Cheng must be good at throwing snowballs and could help her hit others.

“No.” Song Cheng gave what she thought was an airtight reason, “I’m not feeling well. I’m prone to catching colds and can’t touch the snow.”

Qin Li was hurt: “If you want to refuse me, just say so. Don’t treat me like a fool.”

Song Cheng was anxious.

Although she had never emphasized her frail health, shouldn’t everyone have noticed by now?

Since her rebirth, she had been carrying out her plan, a long-term strategy to subtly discourage Wen Xiangyi from any wrongdoing.

For this reason, she stopped training, stopped playing basketball, and became lazy during running exercises. She mimicked her friends by using hot water to warm her hands, but she didn’t even work up a sweat.

In fact, she even ran the 800 meters in physical education slower than Wen Xiangyi. Was there anything they still didn’t notice?

Forget it, Qin Li was careless and wouldn’t hold it against her. With Wen Xiangyi’s observation skills, she must have realized her frailty. Thinking this way, Song Cheng felt it made sense.

Duan Jia stood up: “I’ll go with you.”

Qin Li: “You’re so nice, Jia Jia.”

The two of them went out arm in arm, happily. Song Cheng, holding a pen, glanced at Wen Xiangyi’s back. Yep, she was still there. She lowered her head and continued working on her problems.

Today, her main task wasn’t studying but keeping a close watch on Wen Xiangyi.

She hadn’t forgotten that today was still the first snow, and someone had their eyes on Wen Xiangyi.

Lin Hang’s figure appeared at the door of Class 5.

He took a deep breath and anxiously peered through the window of Class 5. When he saw Wen Xiangyi, his eyes immediately brightened.

He grabbed the first person coming out of Class 5: “Hey, can you help me call Wen Xiangyi out? Thanks.”

“She’s studying. What do you need her for?”

Lin Hang was taken aback. Only then did he shift his gaze from Wen Xiangyi and notice who he had stopped: “It’s you?”

How did he end up stopping Song Cheng?

Lin Hang hadn’t forgotten that last time he got close to Wen Xiangyi under the pretense of running exercises, it was Song Cheng who reported him to Teacher Liu. He reasonably guessed that Teacher Liu had told his homeroom teacher, which is why, when his grades dropped, his homeroom teacher asked if he was dating early, making him behave cautiously recently.

Lin Hang asked warily, “What do you want?”

Song Cheng retorted, “You stopped me, asking what I want?”

Lin Hang: “……”

He gave up trying to communicate with Song Cheng and instead stopped another familiar boy: “Hey, Chen Zihao! Good buddy, help me call Wen Xiangyi.”

Chen Zihao turned to go.

Song Cheng calmly said, “He’s not allowed to confess.”

Chen Zihao immediately turned back: “Good buddy, I can’t help you with this.”

Not only did he not want to help, but if Lin Hang chased their class flower away, he’d be considered a traitor and would be dealt with by the guys from Class 5.

Lin Hang’s confession plan hit a setback before it even began. He bitterly complained, “You people from Class 5 are too unreasonable and have no sense of humanity.”

Chen Zihao was stunned and turned to ask, “Sister Cheng, what does he mean?”

Song Cheng, remaining composed, replied, “It seems he looks down on us.”

Chen Zihao hadn’t figured it out yet when Xie Rixin and others came over. They were all eager to start a snowball fight and pushed him:

“Didn’t we say to go downstairs? Why are we blocking the class door? Let’s go. Why are you talking to him for so long?”

Chen Zihao said, “Lin Hang says he looks down on our class.”

Lin Hang: “Wait a minute?”

At this moment, a snowball flew from behind Lin Hang and hit Song Cheng squarely. The snowball burst, scattering snow all over the place.

Wen Xiangyi was going to get water with a cup and witnessed the scene.

Looking at the snow scattered around Song Cheng’s feet, she frowned disapprovingly and looked at Lin Hang with a neutral expression: “You’re the class leader of Class 6? If you want to have a snowball fight, go downstairs, not at our class door.”

Lin Hang was speechless and felt heartbroken. In Wen Xiangyi’s eyes, he was just the “Class 6 class leader”!

“It wasn’t me who told them to throw it…”

But the two boys from Class 6 were already having too much fun. Seeing Wen Xiangyi come out, they couldn’t stop in time. The second snowball, thrown too late, hit Wen Xiangyi’s arm.

Song Cheng’s calm expression changed instantly.

She pulled Wen Xiangyi behind her, picked up the snowball from the ground, and accurately threw it at the terrified boy’s face.