Chapter 15

Right before winter break, there was this one time when Bai Zifan came to pick me up by car. The speed kept climbing, and I reminded him to slow down.

Before I could finish, I saw cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. His pupils shrank, and his eyes were locked dead ahead.

“What’s wrong?”

“Sit tight.” His hands gripped the steering wheel steadily. The car suddenly swerved hard, barely dodging a huge freight truck. I was so scared my soul flew out of my body; I couldn’t even get a word out.

The next five minutes were like a nightmare. He kept changing lanes, fishtailing-each maneuver landing precisely in that razor-thin gap between life and death.

“Bang-”

A deafening crash sounded as the car slammed into the roadside crash cushion at an angle. In the rush of air from the airbags exploding open, I vaguely saw him throw his arm across my side to shield me. When I finally came back to my senses, the air reeked of burnt rubber mixed with the metallic stench of blood.

In that accident, I only got a few minor scrapes, but Bai Zifan’s right forearm was bleeding like crazy. He ended up getting seven stitches.

Later, the police discovered that my dad’s brakes had been tampered with on purpose. The culprit was a deadbeat who’d been in a lawsuit with my dad. He hadn’t known that lately it was Bai Zifan using my dad’s Audi to drive me around.

The police said that if Bai Zifan hadn’t controlled the impact angle so precisely, we might’ve shot straight into oncoming traffic. The consequences would’ve been unimaginable.

Bai Zifan said that as soon as he accelerated, he’d keenly felt something wrong with the brake pedal. It was really a life-or-death moment. All he could do was keep calm and do everything he could to protect me.

The whole thing scared my dad half to death. He said to Bai Zifan, “Good kid, when you graduate from college, come work at my company. You can pick any position you want.”

After a whole winter break of recovery, Bai Zifan’s injury finally healed. His part-time gig as my driver ended too. He threw himself completely into studying, and I barely saw him after that.

Because I’d fallen for him, I didn’t want to go abroad anymore. I went to the repeat-study class to find him and asked what university he wanted to aim for. He said he wanted to test into the Imperial Capital.

I went straight to my dad and told him I wanted to buckle down and study, that I wanted to get into a university in the Imperial Capital.

My dad looked at me, puzzled. “All right. If you can get in, your old man will send you there.”

I went back to the repeat class to stake him out and happily told Bai Zifan that I wanted to go to a university in the Imperial Capital too, that I wanted to go there with him.

“Are you crazy? Weren’t you going abroad?”

“I like you!” I blurted out my confession loudly, all riled up. “I want to be with you!”

He turned his head away. “I…I don’t even like you.”

I snatched the phone right out of his trouser pocket.

Brother Hao had told me that when I played the piano, Bai Zifan had been completely stunned-he didn’t even respond when called. Not only that, he had secretly taken photos of me with his phone.

Sure enough, his photo album was full of pictures taken in that dimly lit bar-side shots of me sitting at the piano.

“You like secretly taking pictures of me this much, and you say you don’t like me?” I shoved the phone right in front of his face.

The tips of Bai Zifan’s ears turned red, but he still tried to act tough. “It’s just a few photos. That means I like you? I’m just a car mechanic. How could I be good enough for a rich young lady like you?”

“I just want to be with you. Wherever you go, I’ll chase you there! If you go to the Imperial Capital, I’ll go to the Imperial Capital. If you’re a car mechanic, I’ll be the car mechanic’s wife!”

He couldn’t help it and burst out laughing. “What kind of girl has a face as thick as yours?”

“That’s exactly what I am-thick-skinned!”

He reached out, pinched the flesh of my cheek between his thumb and index finger, and gave it a little tug. “It really is thick! No wonder you’re my Little Penguin! Hahaha!”

“You’re so annoying!”

As the laughter faded, his tone suddenly turned serious. “If I can get into Imperial Capital Renmin University…we’ll talk then.”

When I heard that, I realized just how good that school was and how high his ambitions really were. My blood started boiling too.

“Let’s work hard together!” I was over the moon.

“Before the college entrance exam, don’t come looking for me again. Study hard. We’ll work hard together.” he said.

Full of confidence, I threw myself into my studies.