Chapter 2

As far back as I could remember, I had never cried so wretchedly.

Being a wreck was bad enough. Worse, someone found me. My brother let out a howl and sprinted toward the teachers’ office. “Teacher! Lu Haohao is crying!”

I knew he cared about me, but could he please stop caring?

My homeroom teacher led me back to class by the hand and asked what had happened. My classmates all talked over one another as they described the scene, repeating “little foreign devil” again and again.

Every repetition made my face burn hotter.

Song Mingqi said obediently, “It’s all right, Teacher. I don’t blame Little Sister Haohao.”

He lowered his head and pinched the corner of his shirt. His voice faded. “She just doesn’t like me, that’s all.”

That day, under everyone’s eyes, my young self learned for the first time what it meant to be trapped with no graceful way out.

The teacher placed my hand over his and told us to be good friends.

I stuck out my chin and uttered the sentence that would be used to torment me for more than a decade.

“Song Mingqi, it’s not that I don’t like you.”

I hate you.

Song Mingqi’s damp eyes lit up. “So you like me?”

Heat rushed from my face all the way down my neck. I denied it at once. “I said it’s not that I don’t like you.”

Lu Lan was two grades above me and loved showing off random things I had not learned yet. “A double negative makes a positive.”

I glared at him, but Song Mingqi looked at my brother with admiration. Then he squeezed my hand, his eyes curving with his smile. “Little Sister Haohao, I like you too.”

…

I moved my finger away from Send, erased what I had typed, and wrote instead: Tired. Going to sleep.

After hesitating, I deleted that too.

Then I turned off my phone.

Like me or don’t. See if I care.

I lay in bed staring at the ceiling and thought savagely, If you don’t like me, I’ll yank every strand out of that yellow head of yours.

I let out a breath, rolled over, and closed my eyes. Did he like me or not?

“You said you liked me. Were you lying?”

Song Mingqi said that to me often, usually with reddened eyes and an injured accusation in their round depths.

In high school, I wanted to share classroom-cleaning duty with our fair-skinned class monitor and walk home with him afterward since we were going the same way.

Within days, Dad began volunteering to pick me up. Nothing I said could stop him.

At home, I tried persuasion and tantrums in turn. I told him I hated making him work so hard to collect me, then shouted that I wanted independence and refused to be controlled.

Nothing worked.

Then Dad accidentally let the truth slip.

“Song Mingqi is right. At your age, you should be concentrating on your studies instead of entertaining all these ideas. And I heard there’s been an exhibitionist on that road lately, targeting schoolgirls like—”

My thoughts caught up in an instant. “Song Mingqi?”

No wonder. My parents usually gave me plenty of freedom. Why would Dad suddenly lose his mind and insist on picking me up?

Dad knew that my feud with Song Mingqi was “one-sided.” The moment I challenged him, he clamped his mouth shut.

The next day, as soon as Song Mingqi entered the school grounds, I grabbed his backpack, dragged him to the bike shed, and demanded, “Did you tattle to my dad?”

He stared at me blankly.

Other people might be fooled by his face, but not me. I advanced on him aggressively. He retreated half a step until his back met the railing, looking helpless and cornered, like a respectable young woman set upon by a thug.

I gritted my teeth. “Were you the one who told my dad I was… I was walking home with a boy?”

His eyes widened as if this were brand-new information.

“You walk home with a boy?”

“Stop pretending!”

He pouted and spread his hands, his Chinese now perfectly fluent. “I really didn’t know. Our homes aren’t even in the same direction. Why would I follow you? I’m not a pervert.”

I stared into his eyes, trying to catch a trace of guilt. There was none.

His gaze was pure and clear as he looked calmly back at me.

Years of experience told me that this brat was a consummate actor. Yet looking into his eyes, I somehow began to doubt my own suspicions.

The scrutiny in my gaze eased. Song Mingqi seized the opening and leaned slightly toward me. “Hey, Lu Haohao, why do you walk home with the class monitor?”

I faltered. The suddenly shortened distance made me lean back without thinking.

“Do you like him or something?”

My face heated. “Don’t talk nonsense…”

Then inspiration struck. I looked up and glared at him. “I only said I walked home with a boy. How did you know it was the class monitor?”

His mouth opened, but no words came out. Rage surged through me. I clamped both hands around his neck and shook him hard. “You—you—you rotten dog! You set me up again! What do you gain from making my life miserable?!”

His pale face flushed red. He caught my wrists but did not struggle. Instead, he bent at the waist until his head was level with my shoulder.

The sound of footsteps and bicycle wheels approached. I gave him one last violent shake, released him, and threw down a threat. “Just you wait!”

I turned to leave before anyone came around the corner.

The footsteps drew closer. A bicycle seemed about to appear at any moment when Song Mingqi suddenly called after me:

“You said you liked me. Were you lying?”

I had not heard those words in so long that they had nearly faded from memory. Now they rang in my ears once more. My spine stiffened inch by inch as I turned toward him.

His head hung low. Even his hair seemed to join in the performance of utter dejection.

The rolling bicycle stopped. A small gasp took its place.

I ground my teeth and clenched my fists.

He had absolutely timed it on purpose. He had deliberately tripped me up. The damn dog had yellow hair, a white face, and a black heart.

I turned around. The girl pushing the bicycle had one hand over her mouth, her eyes shining.

Then another wheel emerged behind her. The grade director pushed his electric bike into view without a trace of expression and parked it.

He asked which classes Song Mingqi and I belonged to.