Zhao Dailin was two years older than Yu Hao, thirty this year, and was Yu Hao's senior during graduate school. The reason she remembered Lu Huaizheng was because she had once found a photo of Yu Hao from her high school days at her house.

It was a large group photo. In the picture, a row of boys, all wearing matching blue basketball uniforms, stood with their arms around each other's shoulders.

Zhao Dailin's eyes were immediately drawn to the slim boy in the middle with outstanding features. Upon closer inspection, wasn't the smiling girl next to him, held in front with the boy's arm around her neck, Yu Hao?!

The boy's body was half-tilted, one hand even pinching Yu Hao's cheek. His smile was exceptionally pure, and his handsome face, under the bright sunlight, was particularly eye-catching, turning all his teammates beside him into mere background props.

Zhao Dailin asked curiously, "Was this your first love?"

Yu Hao didn't answer. Zhao Dailin took it as a silent admission. It had to be her first love; how could they take such an intimate photo otherwise? And looking closely at the picture, the boy wasn't looking at the camera at all, but was smiling gently and brightly as he looked down at the girl in his arms.

She examined the boy's features in the photo closely. He had the makings of a classic handsome guy, with perfect bone structure, clear facial contours, and smooth, clean lines. His smile made even an "old auntie" like her heart flutter. Plus, he was on the school basketball team; he must have been a major heartthrob at school.

Knowing Yu Hao was emotionally reserved, Zhao Dailin couldn't help but ask, "So, what was it like? Dating a guy like that at a young age must have been super cool, right?" The two of them were standing in front of a bookshelf at the time. Yu Hao's hand was gliding back and forth over the neatly arranged books. Hearing the question, she paused slightly, pulled out a book, casually flipped through a few pages with her head down, then put it back. Without even looking up, she suddenly said out of the blue, "His name is Lu Huaizheng."

That year, Yu Hao was in Class Five, and Lu Huaizheng was in Class Eight, but he just loved running over to Class Five. The boys in Class Five loved to tease, saying that Lu Huaizheng was a person of Class Five in life and would be a ghost of Class Five in death. You couldn't blame them; even during the girls' volleyball matches, Lu Huaizheng would cheer "Go Class Five!" This made the girls from Class Eight so angry they wanted to skin him alive. During basketball games, however, he didn't hold back one bit, beating the boys from Class Five until they howled. On the court, red-faced, they would threaten him—

"Lu Huaizheng, you just wait! Next time you come to our class, we're not letting you in to see Yu Hao!"

The young man was full of spirit on the court, his vertical leap astounding. He would jump into the air, grab a rebound with a hook shot, then land steadily back on the ground. Hunching his back and turning sideways to protect the ball, he would shamelessly taunt the players behind him with a wicked grin, "You guys can't make it to the finals anyway. Lose to me, or lose to Class Ten. Take your pick."

Arrogant. Truly arrogant.

The boys from Class Five's fighting spirit was ignited. Emotions ran high as they swarmed to attack him— "Get that bastard!!!!"

The group of boys played as if it was all a game, their bond incredibly strong. When it came to a critical moment, none of them held back, using every trick in the book and giving their all to win. But they still couldn't beat the three school team members from Class Eight. Lu Huaizheng was also the captain, and the three of them had perfect chemistry, their tactics seamlessly coordinated, completely routing Class Five.

Every time Lu Huaizheng scored, the girls from Class Eight on the sidelines would cheer for him at the top of their lungs as if they were on steroids. He had a great personality and would respond to them. When he was in a good mood, he would smile; when he was feeling perfunctory, he would just give a lazy wave. He was nothing like Fu Donghui from Class Five, for whom the Class Five girls would scream their lungs out without getting so much as a glance in return.

Before the first half was even over, the score gap had already widened significantly.

The boys from Class Five began to use all sorts of threats and bribes on Lu Huaizheng, even shouting to Yu Hao on the sidelines in an elder's tone, "You're forbidden from seeing this kid anymore!"

In response, Lu Huaizheng bounced the ball off the back of one of their heads. "Who do you think you're threatening?"

Joking was joking, but when they actually lost, they would all graciously congratulate the other team with a friendly punch to the chest. Then, the rowdy group of boys would leave the school with arms slung over shoulders to go stuff their faces.

Rumor had it that Lu Huaizheng came from a well-off family; his aunt was rich, and the clothes he wore were never cheap. He was easygoing and approachable, often laughing and joking with his friends while eating late-night snacks at the barbecue stall near the school gate. Occasionally, girls would join them, but Lu Huaizheng never invited Yu Hao.

He wasn't breathtakingly handsome, but his looks grew on you. He had thick eyebrows, elegant brow bones, deep-set eyes, and a clear gaze. He was as bold as a leopard, daring to joke with anyone and everyone.

Although his grades were average, he was exceptionally good at history, getting a perfect score every time. He could also draw a world map from memory and recognize currencies from all over the world. He was the best at basketball and had a sunny smile, but if you really provoked him, he had a stubborn and reckless temper. He had little interest in academics, but he knew a lot of things—it was just that most of what he knew wasn't on any exams.

To be honest, he wasn't a good student, but his personality was very likable.

...

Yu Hao never expected to see him here, much less that he was the childhood friend of Lin Chang that Song Xiaotao always talked about—a twenty-eight-year-old Air Force captain. Of Lin Chang's three childhood friends, Song Xiaotao mentioned Lu Huaizheng the most. But she had never used his name, or perhaps she had, and Yu Hao had just ignored it out of disdain.

"He joined the army during his sophomore year of college, got into a military academy while serving, and joined the Air Force special forces after graduation. A while ago, he went to study in Venezuela—he was the only one—competing against the most elite special forces soldiers from around the world."

She remembered one day, during a casual chat, a girl pestering Song Xiaotao, asking, "Is he handsome? Are soldiers all the cold and stoic type?"

Song Xiaotao said with a blush, "Very handsome. And not stoic at all. He loves to joke around and is very witty. You'll never run out of things to talk about with him."

Her final conclusion was that a man's charisma is forged through experience and time.

Seeing her reaction, the girl teased with a smile, "Do you regret choosing Lin Chang so early?"

Song Xiaotao didn't hide her feelings at all, admitting frankly, "He is very charming indeed, but his job is too secretive. My Lin Chang is better. I can see him every day, he hands over his steady paycheck, and he occasionally goes on business trips, which gives me a little break—" Here, she paused and raised an eyebrow. "The other day, you asked how I got a ride to the institute in someone else's car. It was him who drove me."

In fact, aside from his usual snarky remarks to Yu Hao, Lu Huaizheng was impeccable in how he handled everything else. He was one of those rare, poorly-performing students who were still liked by the school administration. Although he was mischievous, he was always exceptionally polite to his elders. This was mainly because the basketball team he led had won many honors for the school, so every teacher would give him a friendly pat on the shoulder as encouragement whenever they saw him.

Back then, a few of the prettiest girls in their year had formed a gang—no, a group—that often performed Girls' Generation dances at school arts festivals. His deskmate, Hu Siqi, was one of them.

Whenever Yu Hao passed their classroom on her way to the teachers' office, she would often see him holding a phone, sprawled in his chair, with a crowd of boys behind him, all craning their necks to watch an NBA live stream. Sometimes Hu Siqi would tease him, trying to snatch his phone, only to be impatiently brushed aside by Lu Huaizheng. "Stop it, I'm watching the game."

Hu Siqi wouldn't give up. "Then beg me."

Lu Huaizheng, his eyes glued to the phone, replied nonchalantly, "Stop trying to get attention from me. Next thing I know, those boyfriends of yours will be coming to settle scores with me again."

Hu Siqi snorted and shot him a glare, muttering, "What do you mean, 'boyfriends'! The nerve!" Then she ignored him and started chatting with the girl in front of her.

Hu Siqi did indeed change boyfriends frequently, and all the boys in their class bet that Lu Huaizheng would be next. But a year went by, and no such rumors ever surfaced.

Yu Hao didn't know what happened after that; she had transferred schools at the end of her first year. She never found out if the two of them got together, but knowing his personality, if it wasn't Hu Siqi, it would have been some other girl. Witty, humorous, and sunny—it was easy to fall for him.

The wedding banquet was held on the top floor, in a glass-walled venue where you could look up and see the vast expanse of stars.

Right then, however, Yu Hao's gaze was fixed ardently on him as he walked in her direction. Zhao Dailin would later say her expression could only be described as drooling, utterly ravenous.

Unfortunately, he didn't spare her a single glance.

He was taller than before, the lines of his face sharper and smoother. The crisp white collar of his shirt accentuated his defined jawline, giving him a clean-cut and sharp appearance. His back was straight and tall.

The way he walked from behind used to be so sloppy. He wasn't that tall back then, around 1.8 meters, and being on the basketball team, he liked to walk on his toes, as if to hide his true height. He seemed much taller now. His hair was also cut short, a thin layer of black stubble clinging to his scalp, jet-black in color. It used to be a light chestnut brown; when he slept on his desk, it looked like a fluffy ball, just like a Golden Retriever.

Yu Hao felt he had changed a lot, and yet not that much. She could still see traces of his old self in his face. If not for the black suit that made him look so slim, sharp, and austere, she might have deluded herself into thinking she was seeing that handsome boy from the past again, the one who loved to lean against her classroom's back door and crack jokes with people.

The banquet hall was noisy with the chatter and laughter of guests, and the host was testing the microphone, saying, "Testing, testing."

Lu Huaizheng was now standing right behind Yu Hao's chair. She felt as though her ears were filled with a humming static, but his cool voice still managed to cut through it and reach her with perfect clarity.

The person's voice was excited. "Guess who I just ran into downstairs?"

"Who?"

"That friend of yours from Tsinghua University, Zhou Siyue. That's his name, right?"

"Yeah. Did he say hi to you?"

"That friend of yours is awesome. I think I only met him once, the night before you went to join the army, but I can't believe he still remembered my name."

"He's had a good memory since he was little."

That person sighed. "You've got a good memory too. Ah, well—to each their own. Let's not talk about it."

A soft chuckle seemed to follow. "Where is he?"

"On the ninth floor, at the children's playground in the mall with his son."

"Alone?"

"There's a beautiful woman sitting next to him. I don't know if it's his wife."

While the two men chatted idly over there, the young women at this table couldn't take their eyes off him, their excitement unconcealed. At the bachelor party, he had been the last to arrive and had been called away shortly after, so they hadn't even had a chance to speak to him. They were now contemplating whether to go up and ask for his phone number after the wedding.

Zhao Dailin was growing irritated listening to them, especially since the person next to her had been completely zoned out this whole time. She slammed her phone on the table and menacingly reached for the coconut milk in front of the other girls. "Give me the coconut milk!"

Her hand bumped into a waiter who was approaching from behind to serve a dish. Just as the plate was about to fly straight into Yu Hao's face, the waiter, with lightning speed, stuck out his behind and managed to catch it, holding it steady in his hands. Only a few drops of broth spilled, and he even looked quite proud of himself.

Zhao Dailin stared, dumbfounded. "Dude, have you trained for this? That's seriously professional."

Then she noticed her line of sight was blocked by a long, clean hand, positioned right in front of Yu Hao.

The others noticed too, and their gazes all followed the arm to its owner.

It was Lu Huaizheng.

It was unclear when he had noticed what was happening. He was still chatting idly with someone else, discussing things the women at the table found hard to follow, yet he had casually stretched out a hand to shield her head. The movement was so natural and practiced that it almost gave everyone present the illusion of watching an old married couple.

After the waiter served the dish, he retracted his hand as if nothing had happened, tucking it back into his pocket, completely unfazed.

The young women at the table exchanged glances, so much so that even the waiter couldn't help but shoot Lu Huaizheng a look before leaving, concluding, 'This guy's reflexes are on par with mine.'

Lu Huaizheng, however, acted as if nothing had happened. After finishing his conversation, he turned and walked away.

Once he was a safe distance away, Zhao Dailin nudged Yu Hao with her elbow. "Hey, how long are you two going to keep this up? Just go over and say hi. What's with this whole act of pretending you don't see each other?"

It was obvious he didn't really want to acknowledge her either.

That alone made her hesitate to act rashly.

"I'm not going. He holds grudges."

Yu Hao said this with her mouth full of a greasy duck tongue, her voice muffled.

Zhao Dailin looked at her skeptically, then turned her head to look at the handsome, smiling man who was effortlessly mingling with all sorts of people at the banquet.

Nonsense. He was clearly very charming.