Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I have known Shen Chen for seven years and have been in love with him for five.

I, Lin Weiwei, have been the quintessential “perfect child” in the eyes of parents since I was little.

My best friend, Xiao Qiu, once remarked that I score full marks in everything, and loving Shen Chen is my only failure.

Actually, I hated Shen Chen the first time I saw him.

Summer evenings in the north are somewhat cool. On the last day of August, Shen Chen’s family moved in across from us. As I pushed open the door to head to evening self-study, I saw Shen Chen holding his younger brother Shen Heguang’s hand. With that natural, rebellious air about him, I could tell at a glance that we weren’t the same kind of people.

In the small town where we grew up, no news could be kept secret.

Half a year later, my grandmother told me his parents were going through a divorce.

When I stayed up late at night doing practice problems, I could hear Shen Chen’s parents arguing over the brothers’ custody. They smashed everything they could get their hands on. The sound of shattering objects and the woman’s suppressed sobbing felt incredibly piercing in the dead of night.

Eventually, his parents divorced. Shen Chen went with his father, while Shen Heguang went with his mother.

His father was negligent and only cared about providing money. Shen Chen became irredeemably wild-fighting, skipping classes-he embodied every trait of a “bad student.” During a parent-teacher meeting, his father slapped him several times without hesitation. Shen Chen remained indifferent, as if he wasn’t the one being hit.

I told myself to stay far away from Shen Chen.

That lasted until May 31st, the day Shen Chen got into a fight with Ma Wei and their parents were called in.

Opposite him, Ma Wei’s grandparents, maternal grandparents, father, and mother stood like a fortress, shielding Ma Wei.

Shen Chen stood there alone, hands in his pockets, silent. He looked like a stubborn stone that neither oil nor salt could penetrate.

“Teacher, you know what this problem student is like. One piece of rat droppings ruins the whole pot of sauce,” Ma Wei’s mother added, embellishing the story.

While he stood in the office being lectured, I was there as the class representative, checking off homework assignments.

The homeroom teacher was a young woman who had just started working. At the height of her frustration, she said with a look of disappointment, “You’re both children from single-parent homes, Shen Chen. Look at Lin Weiwei!”

I was looking down at the assignments, but those words stung me.

I looked up and saw Shen Chen smiling at me.

Shen Chen naturally possessed an air of indifference, that aloof “bad boy” charm.

Precisely because he seemed not to care about anything, if those eyes were willing to offer you a smile, it felt like a prodigal son returning home. It gave you a sense of being favored that left you flattered and overwhelmed, as if all the sweetness in the world had been placed before you.

It wasn’t that I specifically wanted to help Shen Chen; I just felt uncomfortable with what the teacher had said.

“Teacher, I saw Ma Wei start it by insulting Shen Chen first,” I said, not looking at Shen Chen as I lowered my eyes to continue checking the homework. “He said some very nasty things.”

That wasn’t entirely true; the latter part of my statement was actually my internal critique of the teacher.

The teacher’s expression soured, and I walked out carrying the homework.

During PE class that day, Shen Chen bought two salt-water popsicles and handed one to me.

Amidst the jeers of our classmates, he didn’t thank me or even look at me. He just said, “For you.”

I kept that popsicle in my desk drawer. My hand couldn’t help but reach in several times to check how much it had melted. I touched the packaging until it turned from cold to warm, and I still couldn’t understand:

How could his parents have the heart to abandon him?

Our strange relationship was established just like that.

A top-three student and a bottom-tier delinquent, walking to and from school together.

Later, after high school graduation, Shen Chen got into the same university as me thanks to his failing grades and a laboratory building donated by his father.

In college, he was like a horse off its leash, heading down the path of a “sea king” playboy with no turning back.

He would kiss the school belle behind the playground, and he could make female teachers blush with just two sentences.

And I remained the top student by his side, his final exam savior, Lin Weiwei.

He would bring me black pepper beef over rice from the cafeteria because the girl working the counter liked him, so the beef was always piled high.

At the sports field, I would sit in the bleachers eating while Shen Chen leaned against the railing, dangling a popsicle from his mouth. With his long legs and lean waist, he was a sight to behold.

Occasionally, he would lean in close, and I would be enveloped in his shadow. He’d show me a photo of his latest girlfriend on his phone:

“Weiwei, what do you think of this one?”

“Not much,” I’d say, shaking my head while biting my chopsticks. She couldn’t compare to his first love, Su Yue-the rich young lady who had gone abroad as an exchange student.

“Alright then.” He’d laugh and ruffle my hair with a hint of doting affection. “If Weiwei doesn’t like her, we’ll find someone else.”