Chapter 1

Chapter 1

After watching the interview clip that had already climbed onto Weibo’s trending list, I cried even harder.

I’d finished my exams today, and after casually checking answers with two classmates who usually scored pretty well, I already knew I’d bombed.

And now this had to happen too, as if my life wasn’t tragic enough already.

Yan Fei called me, her voice so loud through the receiver it nearly shattered my eardrum.

“Qiao Xiaoyu! Have you been on Weibo? Pei Zhiyu and Little Princess are trending! Tsk, tsk, tsk!”

I let out a sob. “It’s everywhere. Who the hell could miss it…?”

Among all the interviews with students leaving the college entrance exam, Pei Zhiyu and Chu Siwei’s clip was by far the most popular.

No particular reason. The two of them just looked too much like the leads of a comic.

A boy who seemed a little aloof but was almost unfairly good-looking, and a sweet, energetic girl bursting with sunshine.

First, they cutely mentioned each other in their post-exam interviews. Then people dug up the fact that both of them were students in the advanced class at a famous high school.

The boy was even a top student who had already been recommended for admission to Q University. He was only taking the exam for the experience.

Childhood sweethearts. A perfect match in looks and talent. Equally brilliant. A dazzling future ahead.

The comment section was full of things like: [Is this an idol drama coming to life?] [This is what youth should look like at its most beautiful.]

[Can these two enter the entertainment industry? The industry needs some people with brains. Plus, they’re both good-looking anyway.]

[Quit it, upstairs. Talent like this should be handed over to the country, okay?!]

[I’m so jealous I’m dying. Another episode of Other People’s Youth.]

They were right. This really was someone else’s youth.

If I’d known it would be like this, I never should have overestimated myself and liked Pei Zhiyu for so long.

The light on my phone went out. The pitch-black screen reflected my tear-blurred face, my messy, bird’s-nest hair,

and the fresh, bright-red pimple that had just erupted on my forehead.

It was as brazen as the current state of my disaster of a life.

I tossed my phone away with a smack and buried my head in my pillow.

When I was little, I read a lot of pure-love comics and romance novels.

On the day I got into Qingtan High School, the moment I saw Pei Zhiyu during the freshman speech segment,

I decided he was the male lead of my comic.

Sunlight spilled over Pei Zhiyu, making him look as if he were bathed in holy light.

The fragrance of spring had never been so intense, and my heart kept pounding, thump, thump, thump.

I wasn’t Yuan Xiangqin, but he had to be my Jiang Zhishu, I thought.

What reason does a teenager need to like someone?

Besides, Pei Zhiyu was so good-looking, and his grades were so good.

Among the countless people who admired him, I was just as ordinary as the rest-but far luckier.

Because I had also gotten into the advanced class. I had even become his deskmate.

Aside from being somewhat cool and distant by nature, everything about Pei Zhiyu was wonderful.

He treated all his classmates equally, regardless of appearance or family background.

He was confident without being arrogant, humble without being servile.

He was honest and open, steady and composed.

Everyone liked him.

A year later, one afternoon after school, in a classroom flooded with sunset, with only the two of us there,

Pei Zhiyu wore a single earbud, his long fingers holding a pen as he worked through calculations on paper.

The only sounds in the classroom were the scratch of his writing and the roar of my own heartbeat.

A soft breeze lifted the fine strands of hair on his forehead. Everything was just right.

Just like a scene from a girls’ comic.

At last, I gathered my courage.

I said, “Pei Zhiyu, there’s something I want to tell you.”

Maybe the way I was clutching the hem of my skirt made me look too nervous. The boy seemed to sense something, and his beautiful brows drew together slightly.

“Go ahead.”

“Actually, I’ve always really liked-”

“Qiao Xiaoyu,” he cut in abruptly. His eyes were bright, yet there was a chill in them. “Is this all you think about all day?”

I looked up at him, a little at a loss.

His tone was calm, direct, and merciless.

“Your score on this month’s math test was already below average. If I were you, I definitely wouldn’t be getting distracted and daydreaming.”

The word “daydreaming” stung me so easily. I looked at Pei Zhiyu in confusion.

“I stayed here to explain the problems to you because I thought you wanted to study properly.”

Pei Zhiyu’s pitch-black eyes were like a silent abyss, reflecting me back in all my miserable, nowhere-to-hide embarrassment.

The secret feelings I had never spoken aloud were judged guilty by him without mercy.

Maybe it was the mortification of being rejected.

Maybe it was the shame of having my slipping grades exposed.

In that moment, I didn’t hate Pei Zhiyu for rejecting me. Strangely, I began to hate myself instead.

But he didn’t allow me any time to keep spiraling. He set down his pen.

“Can I explain the problems now? Or are you just going straight home?”

Qiao Xiaoyu, you can’t lose.

I swallowed down all my emotions and pretended to be calm. “Then explain them.”

Pei Zhiyu picked up his pen again, his voice as calm as ever, as if nothing in the world could stir a ripple in him.

“All right.”

And just like that, the first confession of my life was strangled in the cradle.