After dinner, Li Jingqiu asked Lin Ting to deliver some apples to Duan Ling’s house.
She said these apples were grown by her friend and never treated with ripening agents, making them both fragrant and sweet as well as healthy—something hard to find outside.
Lin Ting leisurely carried a bag of bright red apples across the courtyard to Duan Ling’s home.
His family had just finished eating as well and were still sitting in the main hall, except for Duan Xinning.
She stepped inside. “Aunt Feng, Uncle Duan, my parents asked me to bring some apples over.”
Duan Ling was near the door and took the heavy bag of apples.
Aunt Feng told him to wash the apples to eat and waved to Lin Ting, “Come in and sit for a bit. How’s university? Are you settling in okay?”
Lin Ting sat beside Aunt Feng and affectionately wrapped her arm around hers, rubbing gently.
“It’s pretty good, a lot freer than high school.”
“You’ve lost weight.” Aunt Feng touched her face.
Duan Ling placed the washed apples on the table.
Lin Ting picked one and bit into it.
“I’m just wearing black pants today to look slimmer.”
Although she ran often, she had been eating more and more—basically balancing intake and expenditure—so her weight hadn’t changed much.
Lin Ting didn’t say more about it, instead glancing around and asked, “Where’s Xinning? I don’t see her.”
At first, she thought Xinning might have gone to wash her hands or to the bathroom and would return soon.
Aunt Feng looked upstairs and said, “She’s upstairs on the phone. Said a friend needed to talk to her. She’s made three calls since she got back.”
‘Friend?’
Lin Ting felt Xinning was lying.
It was rare for friends to call on the very first day of vacation; usually, they would chat over WeChat.
Even if they did call, they wouldn’t make three consecutive calls.
So it was probably Xia Zimo contacting her.
They were a couple, after all—very clingy.
But Lin Ting would never expose Xinning’s lie.
She changed the subject, “Duan Ling, my computer at home is broken. Can I borrow yours?”
They hadn’t brought a laptop this time because they had a desktop at home.
Duan Ling also took an apple but didn’t immediately eat it.
Instead, he held it in his palm, gently rubbing the red skin with his fingertip.
“When do you need it?”
He didn’t ask what she needed it for.
“Now.”
Since a desktop is inconvenient to move, she’d have to use his room.
Duan Ling slowly stood up and said, “Alright, come upstairs with me.”
Lin Ting quickly finished her apple, threw away the core, and didn’t forget to say to the elders, “Aunt Feng, Uncle Duan, I’m going upstairs first.”
Even though Duan Ling hadn’t been home for several months, his room was still neat and tidy.
Lin Ting followed him inside.
The broken computer was just an excuse; her real reason was to talk to him alone.
Duan Ling first pulled back the curtains to let sunlight in, then bent over the desk to open his computer and enter the password.
Lin Ting looked at his profile and suddenly asked, “Duan Ling, do you have someone you like?”
His hand paused on the keyboard.
After a few seconds, he slowly looked at her and softly replied, “Yes. I do have someone I like.”
She looked away and sat at the desk, eyes on the screen but her mind elsewhere.
“Why do you like… her?”
“I don’t know. I just do.”
Lin Ting turned her gaze back to him as she asked, “What if she doesn’t like you?”
Duan Ling smiled faintly and replied, “If she doesn’t, then she doesn’t. I don’t like her just because she likes me.”
Lin Ting tapped the keyboard lightly and unevenly.
“Have you thought about telling her?”
His smile grew even more faint.
“Better not. What if she doesn’t like me, and after knowing I like her, she stops talking to me? It’s better like this—we can still see each other normally.”
She blurted out, “She won’t.”
Soon after, Lin Ting realized she had sounded too definite, as if she knew the “she” in Duan Ling’s heart was herself.
She hurriedly added, “I think she won’t.”
Duan Ling probed gently, “Then what do you think I should do to make her like me?”
Lin Ting was caught off guard that he was asking for advice, nearly breaking her composure.
“You’re asking me? I don’t know. I have no experience chasing anyone or having a crush. I can’t help you.”
He didn’t agree, “You’re a girl. You understand what girls think better than I do. Maybe what you like, she’ll like too.”
She paused, “Duan Ling, there’s no need to hang on to one tree forever.”
“Are you telling me to give up?”
Lin Ting hesitated but said, “I’m not saying give up lightly, just… I want to be honest with you. The day I went to get the book from you, I saw the box on your bookshelf.”
After thinking it over, she decided to be upfront—even if things became awkward between them later, she didn’t want him to bear it alone.
Duan Ling turned away toward the window and murmured, “So you saw it.”
She worried he might think she was snooping, so she quickly explained, “I didn’t mean to peek. It just fell down.”
He lowered his eyes.
“Oh.”
Just an “Oh”?
Did he not believe her?
Lin Ting anxiously tugged at his sleeve, “Don’t you trust me?”
“I do.” Duan Ling turned back and faced her.
His expression revealed little emotion, “What do you intend to do?”
Lin Ting grew nervous again.
He took a few steps closer. “No, I should ask you—do you like me?”
She hesitated, wanting to say something.
He glanced at her with a voice that seemed tinged with loneliness.
“I understand. Keep using the computer, I’ll go buy some stuff.”
Then he left without waiting for a reply.
Lin Ting chased after him but ran into Duan Xinning, who was coming out of the second-floor living room after finishing a call.
Xinning wasn’t surprised to see Lin Ting coming out of Duan Ling’s room; it was something she’d done since they were kids.
“You’re here. Why didn’t you call me?”
Xinning had been on the phone in her own room and hadn’t heard their conversation.
“My parents asked me to bring apples over, and I just arrived.” Lin Ting’s eyes flickered as she recalled earlier events.
“I went upstairs because my computer broke, so I wanted to borrow your brother’s to transfer some files.”
Xinning noticed nothing odd, only that Lin Ting’s explanation seemed unusually detailed.
Usually, Lin Ting didn’t explain much unless asked.
But Xinning didn’t think too deeply.
Lin Ting took the chance while Xinning wasn’t paying attention to frequently glance downstairs.
Duan Ling’s figure had long disappeared from the stairway.
“I have some things to do, I’m going now. Remember to come down and eat the apples—they’re very sweet.”
No sooner had she finished speaking than she dashed downstairs.
She didn’t go home but ran out of the courtyard looking for Duan Ling.
He had said he was going to buy something, likely at the Zhang Ji Supermarket at the street corner.
Lin Ting rushed into the store.
“Aunt Zhang, have you seen Duan Ling?”
Everyone in the neighborhood knew each other, so she knew the shop owner.
“No, I haven’t.”
Aunt Zhang was moving stock herself.
She ran the small supermarket personally without help.
“When did you come back?”
“Today.”
Lin Ting had energy to spare, so she helped Aunt Zhang carry a few cases of water inside, then stood outside the store looking around while calling Duan Ling.
He didn’t answer.
She opened WeChat and messaged him, asking where he was shopping, but he didn’t reply.
What was going on?
Lin Ting wished she could stare holes into her phone screen.
Suddenly, the Niuzha Shop across the street played a song loudly—called “Playing Hard to Get”—which startled her.
“Just listen to the music, but why so loud? Don’t they know it disturbs people?”
“That’s just how they are. Don’t mind it.” Aunt Zhang opened the freezer and handed her an ice pop.
“It’s hot. Aunt Zhang invites you to have a popsicle.”
“Thank you, Aunt Zhang.”
Lin Ting sat on the bench in front of the supermarket and unhesitatingly opened the ice pop.
Aunt Zhang sat beside her and smiled, “Time flies. In the blink of an eye, you’ve grown up and gone to university.”
Lin Ting nodded.
Aunt Zhang chatted casually, “Have you found a boyfriend at university yet?”
For some reason, Duan Ling’s face flashed through Lin Ting’s mind, and she gripped the ice pop tighter.
“Not yet.”
The older generation liked to ask about grades when they were kids; now that they were older, they preferred asking about romantic relationships.
“Boss, how much is this?” Someone came into the supermarket to buy something.
Aunt Zhang stopped chatting and went to the register.
“I’ll go inside first.”
Just then, Lin Ting saw Duan Ling.
She almost immediately walked up to him and asked, “I called you. Why didn’t you answer? And I messaged you too. You didn’t reply.”
He said, “I didn’t bring my phone. I put it on the desk when I started the computer.”
Lin Ting thought carefully.
His phone was indeed on the desk.
“You go out without your phone? How do you pay? On credit?”
They never carried cash anymore.
He looked down at her calmly and said, “I’m not really out to buy things. Just wanted to get some fresh air. Why did you come looking for me?”
Lin Ting suddenly realized she’d been too impulsive, chasing after him without thinking how to handle things.
She should have let him be alone.
So she dropped the topic from earlier.
“I was buying something too, just wanted to ask where you were.”
Duan Ling’s eyes swept over her unfinished ice pop.
“So you went out just to buy a popsicle?”
Lin Ting: “I just suddenly felt like eating one.”
He faced away from the sun, his face in shadow, the corner of his lips faintly curved.
“You have quite an appetite today—just finished dinner and an apple, and you still went out to buy a popsicle.”
She was speechless.
“Remember to bring your phone next time you go out.” Lin Ting said this and then ran off.
Duan Ling watched her run away.
On the second day of the holiday, their parents wanted to make it lively and planned a barbecue in the courtyard.
They also asked Lin Ting’s family to invite friends, so she directly called Jin Anazi and Xie Qinghe over on WeChat.
The guests arrived in the afternoon, and the barbecue started at night.
Lin Ting sat by the grill and instinctively left a seat next to her open for Duan Ling.
Unexpectedly, Duan Ling sat opposite her, not looking at her, and grilled a sausage and chicken wings.
Lin Ting glanced at him.
When the sausage was done and cool enough, he handed it to her.
“Try it.”
Lin Ting’s heart lifted and her eyes brightened.
He hadn’t distanced himself after what happened yesterday; otherwise, he wouldn’t have grilled sausage for her.
She opened her mouth to bite the sausage, but Duan Ling quickly dodged and placed the sausage in her hand without feeding her as before.
He continued grilling other food, seeming to realize they couldn’t be too close and needed to keep an appropriate friend’s distance.
Everyone else was focused on the barbecue and didn’t notice them.
Lin Ting quietly finished the sausage with a heavy heart.
On the third day of the holiday, feeling bored, Lin Ting lay on her bed and messaged Duan Ling first.
Lin Ting: “Xinning said she wants to bike to the seaside today to see the ocean. Do you want to come with us?”
It took ten minutes for Duan Ling to reply.
Duan Ling: “You guys go. I want to stay home and read today, so I won’t go.”
Lin Ting tossed her phone aside.
On the fourth day, Lin Ting stayed overnight at Duan Ling’s house, but he stayed in his room the entire night and she didn’t even see him.
On the fifth day, Duan Ling washed the bedsheets and hung them on the balcony, but the wind was too strong and blew them down into the courtyard.
Lin Ting happened to be going out, saw them, picked them up, and went to find him.
“Your sheets fell down.”
Duan Ling said thanks but didn’t say much else and didn’t engage her in conversation.
On the sixth day, Lin Ting could no longer tolerate Duan Ling keeping his distance, so she messaged him to come downstairs and meet her in the small alley behind the courtyard.
The alley was quiet, with few people.
It was so silent she could hear her own heartbeat.
Not even two minutes later, Duan Ling arrived.
Lin Ting curled her finger at him, “Come closer.”
He walked forward slowly.
“Closer.”
Duan Ling stepped forward again.
Just as he was about to reach her side, Lin Ting closed her eyes, steeling herself.
“Let’s be together.”
His steps faltered.
“What are you two doing in the alley?” Li Jingqiu and Aunt Feng were returning from shopping, passed by the alley, and heard voices.
Curious, they peeked inside and saw them.
Lin Ting stepped out calmly and lied, “Nothing. We just saw a cat when we passed by and went in to check.”
Duan Ling also walked out and smiled, “Yeah, we just went in to see a cat.”
“Where’s the cat?” Li Jingqiu looked into the alley.
Lin Ting: “It ran away.”