Before the National Day holiday was the sports meet. No one from Class Five signed up for the 800-meter race, so the sports committee decided to draw lots. As a result, Yu Hao was the unlucky one. Yu Hao had been frail since childhood; she'd be out of breath even after running fifty meters. The event was in the afternoon that day, and after a morning of sun exposure and without a proper pre-race warm-up, she fainted right at the finish line.

Lu Huaizheng was in the adjacent field preparing for the triple jump and reacted the fastest. He immediately rushed over, picked her up, and carried her to the infirmary. As a result, he didn't even get to participate in his competition. When he returned, the referees had already moved on.

Lu Huaizheng had two events, and he missed one. Only the 100-meter final was left. The girls from Class Eight even pushed his arm and complained to him for a long time. Yu Hao felt guilty, so she promised to help Class Eight with their blackboard newspaper a few times after the sports meet. Every blackboard newspaper she made won an award, and the propaganda committee member of Class Eight had mentioned it to her several times.

Sometimes, Lu Huaizheng would come back after playing basketball and see her still working on the blackboard newspaper in their classroom. He would casually toss the ball into the hoop, place his hands behind him on a desk, push his body up, and sit on the desk with his long legs dangling to admire the blackboard newspaper. Her brushstrokes were very gentle, graceful, and vivid, the opposite of her personality...

'Mhm, she was a very wooden person.'

Lu Huaizheng had poked her forehead and called her wooden countless times. He was a real rascal. The more prim and proper she pretended to be on the surface, the more he loved to tease her, and the more he liked to see her wooden reaction.

He used to always ride a black mountain bike to class, dressed in simple, black clothes, looking especially cool.

He especially liked waiting for her at the school gate, straddling his mountain bike with one foot propped on the ground. If he ran into a guy he knew, he'd chat idly for a bit, or he'd just wait alone with his arms crossed. From a distance, Yu Hao would watch his face, which looked exceptionally clear in the thin morning light. When he smiled, the contours of his side profile were soft, like a vibrant young poplar tree by the roadside.

One day, a girl from Class Eight passed by and yelled at him unabashedly: "Lu Huaizheng! Aren't you going back to the classroom yet!"

"In a bit." After speaking, as if remembering something, he held the handlebars, turned his head, and called out to the girl, "Hey, I have to leave early this afternoon, help me erase the blackboard."

"You're skipping class again?!" the girl exclaimed in surprise.

"Training."

"I'm not gonna help you, go ask Hu Siqi to do it for you!" the girl said stubbornly.

"Forget it then, I'll find someone else. What bad luck, to be in the same duty group as you two."

The girl turned back, her expression changed, and she smiled again, her eyes and brows full of delight, "I'll help! I'll help!"

The young man waved lazily, "Thanks."

Then he waited a little longer. When he saw Yu Hao appear, he smiled, put his foot on the pedal, and zipped in front of her like a slippery loach. He stopped the bike, propping himself up with one long leg, and said to her with a smile, "Why are you so late?"

After speaking, he took a bag of small bread rolls from the handlebars and handed it to her, "I bought too much. If you've already eaten, save it for after the second period."

Yu Hao took it and said thank you, "Why haven't you gone in yet?"

"Waiting for you."

When he said this, he looked down at her with a smile, his eyes exceptionally bright. Yu Hao felt his gaze was quite meaningful. Unsure how to respond, she subconsciously looked away. Lu Huaizheng wouldn't let her have her way. Straddling the bike, he deliberately leaned down to meet her eyes. Seeing that she couldn't avoid it, Yu Hao lowered her head and said hurriedly, "I'm going to class."

Then he grabbed her arm and pulled her back. He leaned back slightly and turned to look at her, "What's the hurry?"

His warm, dry palm was gripping her slender, soft arm. Her heart skipped a beat. He didn't seem to care at all and pulled her a little closer to him. "I heard your class has an 800-meter fitness test this afternoon? I bought you a Snickers bar to replenish your energy. Don't faint like you did at the sports meet." He then glanced away, scratched the tip of his nose lightly, and mumbled, "I won't be here this afternoon, so there'll be no one to carry you to the infirmary."

The two of them weren't actually that close at the time, but from Lu Huaizheng's attitude, everyone could tell he wanted to pursue her.

At first, people always liked to joke about him and Hu Siqi, but later on, Lu Huaizheng wouldn't let those guys say it anymore. It was because one time, Yu Hao was passing by the entrance of Class Eight, carrying a stack of test papers. Lu Huaizheng was leaning against the doorway chatting with a few guys. One of the guys nudged his shoulder with an elbow and said, "Hey, hey, hey, Hu Siqi has a new boyfriend again. I heard he's a top student this time."

Lu Huaizheng was wearing a baseball jacket at the time, his hands stuffed in his pockets, looking absent-minded. Who knows what he was thinking? "And?"

Just then, Yu Hao had walked behind a pillar and heard their conversation.

"I always feel like Hu Siqi's favorite is still you. Hey, you were deskmates for so long, you never had any crooked thoughts?"

Lu Huaizheng gave him a sidelong glance. After a moment, he scoffed, "What crooked thoughts could I have? It's not like you don't know who I like."

The guy sighed deeply, "Hey, I know you like Yu Hao, but with Hu Siqi's figure, why don't you just sleep with her, no strings attached? Otherwise, what a waste..."

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Yu Hao walk past them, holding a large stack of freshly graded test papers.

...

After she had walked far away, Lu Huaizheng kicked the guy hard. The guy reacted quickly, knew he had misspoken, and apologized and begged for forgiveness.

Lu Huaizheng couldn't contain his anger, kicking and cursing at the same time, "What kind of nonsense are you spouting? Don't fucking drag me down!"

Yu Hao never took the guys' private crude talk to heart. However, Lu Huaizheng was passionate and sincere towards her, even getting into fights for her. If she said she wanted the stars in the sky, he would find a way to pluck them for her, but he never once asked her to be his girlfriend. So it couldn't be considered a first love.

...

The two of them didn't exchange a single glance that day, right up until the end of the wedding banquet. Lu Huaizheng helped Lin Chang greet friends and relatives, so busy he looked like he was the one getting married, while Yu Hao sat in her seat, motionless.

When the newlyweds came over to toast, Lu Huaizheng, holding a bottle of red wine and dressed in a suit, stood behind the two. His expression was as distant as could be, even more so than when looking at a stranger. At least when he looked at people like Professor Han, he was still smiling.

But Yu Hao never looked up. After the group, surrounding the newlyweds, had left, she dazedly fell back into her chair. She looked no different from a drowned rat just pulled from the water. No, it was worse. A drowned rat at least knows to shake the fur on its body to show some bravado. She had completely admitted defeat.

Zhao Dailin saw her looking so dejected and sighed inwardly at how pathetic she was. Look how calm he was.

But in all the years she had known Yu Hao, she had never seen her like this.

Yu Hao came from a good family and was a beauty with skin like ice and bones like jade. The boys who flocked around her since childhood were certainly not from poor backgrounds, and it was known that ordinary people would indeed have a hard time moving her. The young girls in the institute all said Yu Hao's heart was made of stone. So many boys pursued her with all sorts of tricks up their sleeves, yet she had never once even been touched.

She just never expected a character like Lu Huaizheng to exist.

Zhao Dailin suddenly thought of someone: the youngest history professor in the neighboring department—Shen Xiyuan. This person was modest and polite. He had visited their Research Institute a few times, and the young girls all felt he and Yu Hao were a good match. It was only a matter of time before they got together.

Compared to Shen Xiyuan's gentle, jade-like demeanor, the lazy air about Lu Huaizheng just made you want to conquer him.

When this man was calm and serious, his brows were sharp and his eyes cold; he seemed abstinent and self-restrained. When he smiled, his eyes and brows were warm yet unrestrained; he looked like a devil-may-care rogue.

Suddenly, she somewhat understood why Yu Hao hadn't had a boyfriend these past few years.

Zhao Dailin stared at the figure in the distance and inexplicably felt that the old saying was right—

If your first love is high quality, it's hard to find a husband.

After the wedding ceremony ended, the guests dispersed after eating and drinking their fill. The elders, especially, couldn't stay up late and left early.

Lu Huaizheng had obviously drunk too much. When everyone had left, he took off his suit jacket and loosened his shirt collar. He leaned back in his chair alone, legs spread, looking indolent and lazy, closing his eyes to rest.

His alcohol tolerance was actually worse than Yu Hao's. He had drunk before. That time when Class Eight won the ball game was the only time he brought Yu Hao, an outsider, to a dinner party, which made all the boys from Class Five call her a little traitor. Going to a dinner party with the other team after losing the match, they jabbed at her conscience, questioning her again and again: "Which class are you from, which class!"

As soon as he touched alcohol, he exuded an air of impropriety. When he stared at you, his jet-black eyes were filled with deep affection. Usually in this state, he was just pretending to be drunk, acting crazy to tease her. When he was truly drunk, he was just a big, quieted bear who would just lie on the bed and sleep soundly.

That was when he was a minor.

Now he was an adult. Every move he made carried a man's composure and charm. This slightly tipsy state was the most dangerous.

When Yu Hao returned from the restroom, he hadn't left yet. He was leaning comfortably in his chair, his head turned to look out the window. One hand rested on the edge of the table. The lines of his neck were taut, the hollow of his neck distinct. Outside the window, neon lights flickered. The city's bustle and the cold stillness on him contrasted under the moonlight, as quiet as a painting.

Just then, the phone lying on the table rang abruptly.

He came back to his senses, turned his head, and glanced at it. He quickly picked up the phone and stood up, snatched the black suit jacket from the back of the chair to hold in his hand, and pushed the chair back with his foot. As he was about to answer the call, his peripheral vision swept over the doorway, probably not expecting anyone else to be there. He subconsciously looked over. His finger suddenly froze, pausing on the green answer button, unmoving.

Their gazes met unexpectedly.

The phone was still buzzing, but his gaze was fixed motionlessly on her face.

In that instant, Yu Hao experienced what it meant for something to feel like a lifetime ago.

Across the torrent of years and time, the uninhibited and high-spirited youth of the past and the extraordinarily handsome man before her overlapped once more. Scenes from the past rushed toward her like a monstrous flood. That feeling, both strange and familiar—even the feeling of a hundred claws scratching at her heart was not enough to express her current emotions.

In that brief moment, it felt as if heaven and earth had changed, and everything had become void.

Both of them were stunned for a moment. After a while, they both tacitly looked away.

Yu Hao turned her head to look out the window.

Lu Huaizheng put the phone to his ear and started walking out. He didn't pause as he passed by her, going straight past her to press the elevator button at the entrance, answering the person on the phone in a mild voice:

"Still upstairs."

"Yeah, coming down now."