Chapter 4

The classroom’s ceiling fan spun at full speed, making Song Jianan feel inexplicably restless. The mathematical symbols beneath her pen seemed to transform into mischievous musical notes, bouncing around uneasily. Her vision blurred, and a song she absolutely hated echoed endlessly in her ears, refusing to disappear.

Then, in the silent classroom, a soft voice suddenly broke everyone’s concentration.

“Report.”

The voice was quiet and low, yet it somehow pierced through the strange music filling Song Jianan’s mind. There was an indescribable sadness in it, but also an inexplicable sense of comfort. She looked up and heard the boy sitting in front of her ask, “Teacher, may I borrow a ruler?”

The proctor walked over from the back of the classroom, casually picked up the small ruler from Song Jianan’s desk, and handed it to him.

Startled, Song Jianan lowered her head again and began scribbling absentmindedly on her scratch paper, but her thoughts remained fixed on the person sitting in front of her.

A little while later, the ruler was returned the same way. The soft sound of plastic touching the wooden desk pulled her thoughts back to reality. Those long, slender fingers quickly withdrew again, leaving her with nothing more than his back to look at.

She held the ruler tightly, took a deep breath, and lowered her head to work seriously through the problems.

As always, the last two questions were the teacher’s ultimate weapons.

Resting her head on the desk in frustration, Song Jianan silently fumed.

These questions are so difficult they should’ve been given to Einstein. Is it really that satisfying to stump the rest of us?

Forget it.

Even if she skipped them, she’d still secure most of the basic marks. She decided to carefully check the entire paper from beginning to end.

By chance, she looked up and saw Su Li resting his chin on one hand, completely absorbed in gazing out the window.

The early autumn sky was an unbelievably vivid blue—a bright, profound shade stretching endlessly overhead. Thick clouds gathered in enormous clusters, drifting and reshaping themselves across the sky like the cotton candy she could never finish as a child, every fluffy strand carrying a little sweetness and happiness.

So that was what he was looking at.

Song Jianan chuckled softly before pulling her gaze away from the scenery.

Only then did she accidentally notice that more than half of Su Li’s math paper was exposed beyond the edge of his desk. The final problem was plainly visible.

Her heart skipped a beat.

She hurriedly lowered her head, terrified that the proctor sitting at the back would come over and rap on her desk. Yet she couldn’t resist wondering how he had drawn the auxiliary line. Relying on the brief glimpse she’d caught, she cautiously sketched on her scratch paper.

To her surprise, she actually managed to work out two possible solutions.

Su Li remained exactly as before, his chin slightly raised as he quietly watched the sky outside, completely oblivious to everyone around him.

He was always the first to leave the classroom after every exam, slinging his backpack over one shoulder without saying a word. Even when classmates stopped him to compare answers, he would only reply calmly,

“I’m not completely sure. I think it might be this answer, but maybe you should ask someone else.”

Or he’d simply say,

“The exam’s over. Just focus on preparing for the next one. If you let it affect your mood, it’ll affect your performance.”

Watching him, a wave of sadness suddenly rose from the depths of Song Jianan’s heart.

She began to hate her own insecurity and timidity.

Su Li sat right in front of her, yet she didn’t even have the courage to call out to him with a smile and ask,

“What did you get for Question Six on the multiple-choice section?”

So all she could do was secretly watch him from behind—how he held his pen, the way he daydreamed, and the peaceful expression on his face whenever he closed his eyes.

The three-day placement exams completely drained the students who had spent the summer playing and relaxing. The classroom became lifeless, while the homeroom teacher and subject teachers took turns lecturing them earnestly about the immense pressure of the college entrance examination.

Song Jianan, however, was troubled by her dramatic improvement in mathematics.

The math teacher praised her by name during class, and many of her classmates looked at her with surprise and suspicion.

Only Duan Jiachen grinned proudly and declared, “That’s all thanks to me forcing math down her throat over the summer.”

Beside him, Zhang Jingkang laughed awkwardly.

“Duan Jiachen, how come you never offered to tutor me? Song Jianan’s humanities grades are already amazing. Now that her math has improved too, she’ll probably rank either first or second. What are ordinary people like us supposed to do?”

Duan Jiachen pulled a funny face and laughed.

“You never asked me. Besides, Song Jianan helped me with English too. That’s called returning favors.”

Zhang Jingkang curled his lips into a teasing smile.

“Oh? Childhood sweethearts really are different. By the way, did your families arrange a marriage for you two when you were little?”

Both of them froze.

The entire class immediately burst into laughter.

Song Jianan’s face instantly turned red. Tugging at Zhang Jingkang’s sleeve, she protested a little louder than usual.

“Zhang Jingkang, what nonsense are you talking about? Duan Jiachen and I are just friends!”

Duan Jiachen also looked embarrassed.

“Don’t talk nonsense. Zhang Jingkang, if you want help with math, just ask me. Stop making things up.”

Just then, the homeroom teacher walked into the classroom.

Someone with sharp eyes immediately shouted,

“Oh no, the homeroom teacher’s here! I heard they’re going to start calling parents in for meetings. Better watch yourselves.”

With a loud rustle, everyone hurried back to their seats.

Duan Jiachen smiled helplessly at Song Jianan.

She smiled back.

In truth, that outstanding math score wasn’t really a reflection of her actual ability.

Many of the questions had come directly from the math exercises Duan Jiachen had made her practice during the summer, and the solution to the final problem had come entirely from that fleeting glimpse of Su Li’s paper.

Through a twist of fate, she had actually ranked second in the class.

She shook her head helplessly.

There was no way she could quietly slip by unnoticed now.

Song Jianan was alone in the teachers’ office tallying Chinese exam scores. The air conditioning made her so sleepy that she had to stand up every so often and walk around to keep herself awake.

The teachers’ office was arranged in standard cubicles, each one like a tiny private room.

She wandered around curiously until she noticed a stack of Chinese exam papers on the desk belonging to the Chinese teacher from Class Eight.

Unable to resist, she flipped through them.

Hmm…

It seemed the advanced class really focused on mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Chinese was clearly their weakest subject.

Still, the highest scores were astonishingly high, while the lowest scores were impressively low.

Then she came across a familiar name.

Su Li.

She smiled to herself.

His score was somewhere in the middle. As expected, Chinese wasn’t his strongest subject, though he still did much better than Duan Jiachen.

His essay was rather stiff and dull to read, but his handwriting was remarkably beautiful—firm yet elegant.

He wrote with a blue-black fountain pen. The ink was light in color, each character clear, steady, and restrained without being flashy.

Who even used fountain pens anymore?

Song Jianan couldn’t help smiling.

Su Li really was a special person.

As she casually glanced over the clutter on the teacher’s desk, a printed sheet posted on the wall suddenly caught her attention.

She stepped closer.

It was a contact list for the class officers.

At the very top was Su Li’s name.

Along with his cell phone number.

Her heart skipped a beat.

A small, unexpected joy quietly bloomed inside her.

She nervously looked out the window.

School had been over for quite a while, and no one was passing by.

She stared at the number for a long time before barely managing to memorize it. Still feeling uneasy, she grabbed a pen and hurriedly wrote it on the inside of her wrist, checking it over and over several times before finally leaving.

It felt like secretly grabbing two or three extra candies from her mother’s candy jar when she was little.

It was thrilling and nerve-racking, followed by the relief and happiness of getting away with it.

Pushing her bicycle out of the school gates alone, she watched the string of numbers on her wrist appear and disappear beneath the streetlights.

She took a deep breath.

A slow smile spread across her face.

Even if she had his phone number now, what could she possibly do with it?

He didn’t even know who she was.

Song Jianan didn’t know either.

But somehow, it felt as though she had moved a little closer to him.

After dinner, her father went into his study to read.

Song Jianan carried a plate of freshly sliced apples into her room, opened her schoolbag, and spread a chaotic pile of practice papers across her desk.

She barely read a few pages before losing focus.

Her eyes drifted to the carefully hidden phone number she’d written down.

Suddenly, the television in the living room became much louder.

It was the provincial station’s weekend entertainment show.

A celebrity on the program was being punished during a game while the hosts tried desperately to amuse the audience without offending the guest.

Only then did she remember—

Su Li’s older sister, Su Jin, was one of the hosts of the province’s highest-rated entertainment program.

She hurriedly picked up her water cup and walked out.

Her mother was lounging comfortably on the sofa. Seeing her come out, she asked impatiently,

“What are you doing out here?”

“Oh… getting some water.”

Her gaze swept across the television.

The beautiful female host dressed in white was smiling gracefully as she introduced the next game segment. The camera zoomed in on her face.

At first glance…

She really did resemble Su Li.

Especially the shape of her face.

It was almost identical.

Song Jianan’s heart suddenly pounded twice.

She quickly lowered her head and hurried into the kitchen.

Behind her, her mother’s voice called out,

“If you wanted water, you could’ve just asked me. I would’ve poured it for you. Once you’re done drinking, hurry back and study. Don’t think you can relax just because you did well on this exam.”

Song Jianan slowly filled her cup.

On the way back to her room, she glanced at the television once more.

But Su Jin was no longer on screen.

Under her mother’s endless reminders, she reluctantly returned to studying.

Her mind, however, was nowhere near her books.

She picked up her phone and stared at it for a long time.

She repeatedly entered Su Li’s number, but never found the courage to save it.

After thinking it over again and again, she finally saved the number under the name of another girl in her class instead.

After finishing her homework, she collapsed onto her bed in exhaustion.

She put on her headphones.

A melancholic violin melody flowed into her ears like countless intertwined silk threads. Every note fell gently like droplets of water slipping through a delicate net.

Then a woman’s sorrowful voice softly began to sing.

“I’m sailing on this terrible ocean, I’ve come for my self to retrieve…”

Song Jianan sat up and switched on the bedside lamp.

Watching its gentle glow quietly blend into the deep night filling her room, she felt as though the darkness itself flowed like water.

Almost on impulse, she grabbed her phone.

Without thinking about anything else, she typed a message.

“I really like Sinead O’Connor, and I also like Lisa Ono. What about you?”

She sent it to Su Li.

The warm light from the lamp mixed with the moonlight outside.

Curling the corner of her lips helplessly, she thought this was a deliberate little prank.

It looked just like a message sent to the wrong person.

Maybe Su Li would simply glance at it and delete it without replying.

So…

This was what it felt like to fall for someone at first sight.

To like someone you had never even spoken to.

This was what a secret crush felt like.

She buried her face in her pillow.

Then suddenly—

Her phone rang.

Less than three minutes had passed.

He had replied.

“Lisa Ono is alright, but I’ve actually been listening to Sinead O’Connor a lot lately. I really like her. Irish singers all seem to have such soulful voices. You should listen to more of them.”

Song Jianan stared at the message for a very long time.

She could hardly believe her own eyes.

She thought and thought, yet couldn’t figure out how to reply.

In the end, all she could do was secretly grin to herself like a fool.

At that moment, the happiness she felt was almost unbelievable.

It was just like something out of a fairy-tale romance in a movie.

Love at first sight.

As though that single glance carried with it the promise of a dreamlike future.