Chapter 4

Chapter 4

After talking with the music director, I left.

In the evening, I suddenly realized I had left some documents in the desk compartment.

When I rushed back to the classroom, they had already dispersed.

But one person was still there.

Yu Sili was slumped over his seat, seemingly asleep.

All of his assistants were gone.

His head was buried in the crook of his arm, his fingertips resting on the back of my chair.

My desk and chair had been moved back-I had no idea who returned them.

The scene made me pause for a moment.

A boy, a school uniform, the setting sun.

The image seemed to overlap with the past.

But I knew very well, we had both changed.

I walked over quietly, not wanting to wake him.

The documents weren’t in the desk compartment.

Had the cleaning lady thrown them away?

I straightened up, ready to leave, when someone grabbed my wrist.

Yu Sili held me by the wrist and slowly lifted his head.

“Looking for this?”

His voice was cool and clear.

He pulled the documents out of his own desk compartment.

“…Thank you.” I took them and was about to go.

“Wait.” Yu Sili tugged at the corner of his mouth wearily.

-Even that habitual little gesture was exactly the same as five years ago.

“Classmate Li Li, I kept your documents safe, and you’re just going to brush me off with a single ‘thank you’?”

I stayed silent.

Yu Sili clicked his tongue. “You don’t even dare to speak. You’ve become timid.”

“How’s your mom doing lately?”

I opened my mouth, but that was the question I asked.

Yu Sili was a bit surprised, but didn’t think much of it.

“She’s great. We’ve recently been invited to do a family variety show.”

Yu Sili’s mother is called Chen Lan, a singer with a public image of both virtue and artistry.

“Nothing else to ask?” Yu Sili said. “Then I’ll ask.”

He sat down in my chair, touching the character “Li” carved at the corner of the desk.

“Can you explain to me what this means?”

I said, “My name.”

“Yours? Are you sure?”

His slender fingers moved to the underside of the desk.

Years ago, I had carved “Li” on the desk corner.

On the underside, I had carved “Yu Si.”

That secret had never been discovered.

“Li Li, you actually liked me, didn’t you?”

Yu Sili looked up, his eyes slightly red.

“I’m not a stand-in for anyone, right?”

He was desperate for an affirmative answer.

Like a drowning man grasping for driftwood.

I looked at him and suddenly smiled.

“Yu Sili, don’t be like this. If you act like this, you won’t seem like Yu Siqi anymore.”

Yu Sili’s face stiffened.

I continued, “I didn’t carve those characters on the underside. Don’t flatter yourself.”

Yu Sili asked, “Li Li, why on earth are you doing this to me?”

“For fun. Is that reason enough?”

Yu Sili stormed off, enraged.

To this day, he still doesn’t know the real reason I retaliated against him.

It’s a bit embarrassing to say.

After I discovered that Chen Lan was the driver who caused the accident, I tried to report it to the relevant authorities.

But Chen Lan’s influence ran deep, and she still remained in the shadows.

Her agent handled the matter.

At the time, the agent said something like this:

“Teacher Chen Lan currently has something very important to attend to and can’t meet you. We’re willing to offer compensation, an amount that will definitely satisfy you. But there’s one condition: just pretend this accident never happened, and don’t tell anyone else.”

What could be so important that Chen Lan couldn’t even spare the time to see me?

I found out soon enough.

-Yu Sili’s debut.

Chen Lan attended his debut press conference, glowing and radiant.

In that moment, my disgust for their entire family reached its peak.