“Hmph…”
Lin Xinyuan rubbed her face as she stepped out of the dormitory. Beneath her mask, the white, tender “baby fat” on both cheeks remained flushed—it was hard to tell if it was from being pinched or from sheer embarrassment.
Indignant, she strode ahead at a quick pace. Behind her, the other two girls exchanged glances and smirked, their eyes full of mischief.
“A-Yuan, don’t walk so fast, okay?”
Li Tang called out teasingly. She covered her mouth, trying her best to stifle her laughter at the girl in front of them.
Hearing this, Lin Xinyuan shuddered all over, her anger flaring even more.
“Stinky A-Tang… I’m ignoring you guys!”
“Hahaha!”
As the sky turned dark, the girls’ crisp laughter rang out along the campus road, accompanied by the sounds of playful bickering. Passersby turned toward the noise, greeted by the sight of three young, beautiful figures.
Many boys nearly dazed off looking at them; once they snapped out of it, they could only sigh, shake their heads secretly, and turn to leave—
“Brother Feng!”
Before even reaching the basketball court entrance, the young girl spotted the young man through the perimeter fence. Her eyes lit up instantly. She immediately abandoned the two “female hooligans” who had been bullying her and hurried toward him with light, brisk steps.
Seeing this, Li Tang put on a look of righteous indignation: “Tsk, choosing a guy over friends. Hmph!”
As soon as the words left her mouth, she couldn’t help but glance in the same direction. Something caught her eye, and her expression brightened as well, causing her to unconsciously quicken her pace. However, she caught herself and looked back at the somewhat dazed Liu Qingyan: “Hey, A-Yan, walk faster! Otherwise, there won’t be any seats left when it gets crowded!”
With that, she forged ahead even faster.
Liu Qingyan looked at the spectator stands, which currently only held a scattered few people, and her lips twitched. A look of speechlessness crossed her pretty face.
Honestly…
Thinking this, she shook her head helplessly, a faint curve appearing at the corners of her mouth.
Then, Liu Qingyan’s gaze instinctively drifted toward the court. She saw a tall figure sitting directly on the ground next to a refined-looking young man. Her eyes grew complicated.
Suddenly, as if sensing her gaze, the man turned his head. His rugged face broke into a wide smile, and he raised his arm, waving vigorously.
Liu Qingyan’s hand moved instinctively to wave back, but then, as if remembering something, her fingers clenched tight. In the end, she didn’t reach out. She simply gave the man a small nod and walked toward the stands alone…
“Strange…”
The rugged man scratched his head, unable to understand the situation.
He wasn’t sure if it was just an illusion, but he felt that ever since a certain day at the end of last semester, her attitude toward him had grown much colder…
Though she still greeted him and came to watch him play, he could clearly feel that she didn’t want to have much direct contact with him anymore.
Unable to figure it out, he felt a wave of frustration. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.
After staring at them for a while, he glanced again at the distant figure. Feeling even more restless, he pulled a cigarette out and put it in his mouth.
He flicked the lighter and took a sharp drag. The hit was so strong that he actually choked.
“Cough, cough, cough…”
The man frowned, unable to stop coughing. The others nearby were startled until they realized he had just choked on smoke.
Chen Ze couldn’t help but roast him: “I say, Ce-zi, since when do you choke on a cigarette? I thought you caught some plague or something, scared the hell out of me!”
Sun Ce shrugged. With the cigarette still in his mouth, he pulled another one from the pack and offered it to Chen Ze: “So you’re saying you can smoke? Come on, have one with me.”
“Uh… forget it, forget it!” Chen Ze’s eyes instinctively flickered toward the stands. Even though he saw his girlfriend looking down at her phone, he shook his head fearfully. “You know how it is, brother… the ‘internal authorities’ won’t allow it!”
“Psh, then what are you yapping for?”
Sun Ce rolled his eyes, then looked at the others. Xiong Wei, Zeng Yan, and the rest all shook their heads.
“Ce-zi, didn’t you quit? Why are you back on them?”
Xiong Wei was puzzled. He remembered this guy had quit last semester because of a girl. He had bragged about it endlessly back then, claiming how “family-oriented” he was becoming…
He really hadn’t touched them for a while, so why start again right at the beginning of the new semester? Did something go wrong with that pretty girl? It looked like they were almost a “thing”…
Hearing Xiong Wei’s question, the others looked at Sun Ce with equal curiosity.
“It’s nothing, just felt like it…”
Sun Ce was clearly tight-lipped about the matter. To be honest, he didn’t even understand the reason himself. He had asked the girl, but she never gave him a straight answer, only telling him he was overthinking things. Besides, he didn’t feel like sharing his relationship problems with everyone else.
Seeing that no one else wanted to smoke, Sun Ce’s gaze finally landed on the young man who had remained silent. He cocked an eyebrow: “Old Qin, want one?”
“No thanks, I’ve quit.” Qin Nanfeng smiled and shook his head, his eyes fixed in one direction. “Besides, she’s here. If I dare to smoke, I’ll get a lecture.”
Hearing this, Sun Ce and another classmate were stunned.
Those words… it sounded like he actually had a girlfriend.
But that was impossible!
Who was Qin Nanfeng? He was the campus’s famous “Saint of Love”! Of course, that wasn’t exactly a compliment—many people secretly called him a scumbag behind his back.
Regardless, Qin Nanfeng’s attitude toward his previous girlfriends had always been formulaic, as if he were just playing a part. When the time came, he would break up without a second thought.
Could a guy like that—one who sounded like a total player—actually catch real feelings for a girl? To the point of changing his habits?
The Great Saint Qin’s sincerity? Is this some ‘Try Not to Laugh’ challenge? They couldn’t believe it.
“She’s here.”
Qin Nanfeng didn’t care what Sun Ce and the others were thinking. He stood up with a smooth, agile motion and started walking in a certain direction. “I’m heading over. When your two classmates arrive, call me.”
“Huh?”
Sun Ce was dazed for a moment. When he snapped back and looked where Qin Nanfeng was going, his expression froze.
He muttered to himself: “Holy crap… are you for real?”
The boy next to him also looked incredulous.
Not far away, a slender figure was walking quickly toward Qin Nanfeng. Finally, the two of them… walked away holding hands?
“Huh? What’s the deal?” Sun Ce was bewildered. He looked at Xiong Wei, hoping for an explanation.
“Cough, well… Old Third has ‘seen the light’! Yeah, seen the light! That’s all.”
Truthfully, Xiong Wei didn’t know how to explain it either. If he started from the beginning, it would be a long story, and the whole situation was far too complicated. It wasn’t something he could easily detail, so he brushed it off.
Seeing Xiong Wei’s hesitant look, Sun Ce obviously didn’t buy it, but the others all seemed to be in agreement.
At this point, Sun Ce could only half-believe it, though it still felt impossible. He couldn’t say he knew Qin Nanfeng perfectly, but he generally understood the guy’s character.
How could someone who once said, “You can’t treat them with sincerity, just have some fun,” truly fall for someone and change for them?
Sun Ce didn’t know, but today he had indeed seen it with his own eyes. He had never seen Qin Nanfeng look at a girl with such a tender gaze, yet that young girl had managed to evoke it.
Wait… why does that figure look so familiar?
Sun Ce rubbed his eyes, but he couldn’t pin down who she reminded him of. It was just a lingering sense of familiarity.
Probably just overthinking it…
Thinking this, he shook his head, continued smoking, and stared blankly toward the stands.