Chapter 3
Chapter 3
When we are young, I suppose none of us ever imagines that a love so deep in our youth can one day end in mutual loathing and bitter words.
At seventeen, Fu Chi had everything: brains, family background, looks, and a good temperament. He was the most dazzling presence at Hua’an No. 1 Middle School.
Back then, I didn’t understand why, amid all that noisy commotion, his eyes were the only thing I saw.
Only later did I realize that when everything in the world became him, there was nowhere for my gaze to escape.
And the Xu Man of those days was passionate and bold. No one would have believed Fu Chi would like me.
But through all those years, through springs and long summers, he followed close behind me.
He never avoided it back then, nor was he afraid of being called in by the teachers. He declared it openly, bright and unapologetic.
“I’m the one who likes Xu Man. What does that have to do with her? If you want to punish someone, punish me. She doesn’t know anything.”
“What puppy love? No, no, nothing like that. This is unrequited love. I’m still pursuing her.”
How happy must I have been then? The corners of my mouth would lift slightly, my eyes full of laughter as I looked at him, and I would secretly tug at the hem of his shirt. “Fu Chi, tone it down a little. Focus on your studies.”
Fu Chi wore a black shell jacket and stood there lazily, lowering his head to look at me. His fringe fell naturally, half-covering his narrow eyes, the corners of them tilted slightly upward. “Can’t. Ji Dongyang told me there are a bunch of guys at school thinking about you. I have to make them back off.”
How arrogant was he?
He would stand on the podium with his hands in his pockets, holding a piece of chalk between two fingers as he casually worked through a math problem no one else could solve.
As he wrote, he explained to the class in an idle tone, “Assume xm and fc intersect at point e…”
The moment he finished, the classroom erupted into teasing cries of “ooooh.” Amid the heated cheers, Fu Chi turned his head to look at me. The afterglow of sunset slanted in through the doorway, and the corner of his mouth lifted almost imperceptibly.
I raised my book and silently hid behind it, yet behind those pages filled with the scent of ink, the tips of my ears quietly turned red.
Back then, the spring breeze carried such tenderness. It held a young girl’s secret thoughts, tart as green plums, and brushed past a young boy’s white shirt.
His school uniform, filled by the wind, had once wrapped around the grandeur of our entire youth.
Back then, everyone envied us. They said we were born for each other, perfectly matched, certain to last forever.
The year of the college entrance exam, we got our wish and were admitted to the same university, though we chose different majors.
The first time Fu Chi waited for me after class, my roommate Zhou Zhen shook my arm in excitement. “Xu Man, holy crap, there’s a total hottie outside looking for you. I asked around for you. He’s Fu Chi from the computer science department.”
I looked out the window. Fu Chi was leaning against the railing, tall and striking, standing out among the people passing by as if he were a crane among chickens.
I smiled at him and thought silently, Fu Chi? I know him.
Back then, he spoiled me until I became completely unreasonable, more and more delicate. If I whined in the middle of the night that I wanted to eat something, then first thing the next morning, he would be waiting downstairs outside my dorm with it tucked against him, still warm.
In college, we were like thousands upon thousands of other couples, clingy and ardent.
When his kiss was about to fall, I would also complain in a huff, “You’re always coming to see me. I can’t even review properly. If I fail my finals, don’t even think about seeing me again.”
Fu Chi would laugh in a low, muffled voice. “Sorry, sorry. My fault. How about we go to the library? You do your practice questions, and I won’t say a word. Deal?”
Back then, Zhou Zhen described us as childish, yet so enviable it made her teeth itch.