The sunlight was harsh, falling across tree leaves, the ground, and someone’s increasingly irritable mood.
It was like the final afterglow of a dying summer, the blazing sun bursting in one last flourish.
Ye Qingchang was truly growing tired of the bizarre thought patterns of boys who had never had any real interaction with the opposite sex—though she herself wasn’t much better.
“Who told you that dragging a girl out to stroll in the middle of the day, under this summer heat, was a good idea?”
The girl leaned on her knees, her glasses slipping from the sweat trickling down her face.
“Uh, I didn’t really know what else to do,” Xiao Yi’an said awkwardly, scratching his head.
Ye Qingchang seemed to have reached her limit. She shrank into the shade under a tree, absolutely refusing to take another step forward.
All she could think about was Zhu Niao enjoying the AC, Liu Xie napping under her dorm’s cool breeze, and Yang Shuli having dinner in a restaurant with Xu Nian—also in air-conditioned comfort.
Her mood plummeted. Even the way she looked at Xiao Yi’an was tinged with grievance.
She crouched in a small huddle beneath the tree’s shadow, her long dress spilling around her ankles and brushing the ground, beads of sweat clinging to her forehead and tangling her hair, her eyes full of resentment behind thick-rimmed glasses—
She looked just like a little aggrieved wife.
“I’m not going. If I walk any more, I’ll get heatstroke,” she declared.
Xiao Yi’an scratched his head again and squatted beside her, mimicking her posture.
Ye Qingchang even shifted over to make space for him.
“Think about it. You take a girl out without any plan, just to walk under the scorching sun—how is that any different from military training?” Her irritation overflowed as she grumbled.
She’d left the comfort of her air-conditioned dorm, left the literary club’s cool activity room—not to suffer this boot camp heat with him, but to date this guy.
“Sorry. I really didn’t know what to do,” Xiao Yi’an apologized again.
Well, at least he was good at admitting when he was wrong. That was something.
“Didn’t your white moonlight ever teach you anything?” Ye Qingchang snapped.
Then realizing she hadn’t taught him anything either, she quickly added, “Even if you haven’t dated online, you could at least learn from people who have.”
Xiao Yi’an was left speechless, crouching like a well-behaved student under her scolding.
Seeing him like that, Ye Qingchang let out a long sigh.
She was upset, yes—but she hadn’t forgotten why she was here: to make this guy fall in love with her.
“I’ll teach you,” Ye Qingchang said. “If you want to pursue a girl, you have to think from her perspective. Think about what you can do that will make her happy.”
“For example, right now—do you think I’d enjoy walking around in the blazing sun?”
Xiao Yi’an shook his head. “I don’t think you would.”
“Then why did you still do it?” Ye Qingchang gave him a look of disbelief.
The boy fell silent again.
Ye Qingchang paused, then continued, “You need to consider what she likes. Understand?”
“Got it,” Xiao Yi’an nodded.
“You don’t know a damn thing. How would you understand what I like?” Ye Qingchang reached out and tapped Xiao Yi’an’s forehead. “Quit letting that crooked brain of yours wander. Let me show you how it’s done.”
She adjusted her breathing slightly and pushed up her glasses.
Then, she gave a soft smile, her eyes filled with nothing but Xiao Yi’an.
“Xiao Yi’an, why do you like reading so much?”
“Because… because I want to learn something.” For a moment, Xiao Yi’an felt that something had changed in Ye Qingchang.
She became slightly blurry, almost dreamlike. As if she’d either put on a mask—or taken one off.
Strangely enough, she began to resemble that lingering figure he could never shake from his mind.
“But Xiao Yi’an,” Ye Qingchang leaned in a little closer, “I see you read such a wide range of books. You study so methodically… Are you secretly Sherlock Holmes or something?”
She shifted positions, moving from a crouch to sitting on the curb.
The hem of her skirt couldn’t quite cover her slender, fair legs, and the canvas shoes on her feet tapped softly as she swung them.
“N-No, not really…” Xiao Yi’an suddenly found himself unable to meet her gaze.
It felt as though his white moonlight was truly sitting right beside him at this moment.
And just like that, he turned into that shy, insecure boy who always needed someone to take care of him.
No, no—this is my literature club president. And wasn’t she a guy before? What the hell is wrong with me?
Determined, he turned his head to face her directly.
But Ye Qingchang seemed to take his earlier hesitation as a cue to move even closer. The bare skin beneath his short sleeves lightly brushed against the coarse texture of the girl’s gauzy fabric.
Ye Qingchang finally met his eyes and gave a gentle smile.
“Haha, so if you’re not Sherlock Holmes… does that make you Conan Doyle?”
Her silvery laughter sent tremors through the boy’s heart.
Some people’s hearts are like stone—unmoved by storms, unmoved by winds. But for those people, sometimes all it takes is one sentence from the right person to shake them to their very core.
“I…” Xiao Yi’an lowered his head. “I guess… I just mess around with writing, nothing serious…”
Ye Qingchang pulled her legs back in and wrapped her arms around them, resting her chin lightly atop her knees. She tilted her head and kept her eyes fixed on him.
“Xiao Yi’an, you’re amazing.” Her voice carried a hint of reverence. “I’ve always admired people who can write their own stories.”
“It’s not… It’s not even really a story… just nonsense…” Xiao Yi’an reflexively started denying himself again.
There was a quiet pause.
Oddly enough, Xiao Yi’an didn’t feel quite so hot anymore. The sun was still shining, filtering through the leaves and onto his head, yet—
“No.”
A sudden sensation and an unfamiliar touch—Ye Qingchang had cupped his face with both hands, lifting his head slightly in her palms.
“Don’t talk yourself down like that. You’re already really amazing, Xiao Yi’an. Why not try being a little more confident?” Her delicate brows drew together ever so slightly, as if cloaked in a faint melancholy. But her sorrow didn’t even seem to be for herself.
In that moment, the vague and distant white moonlight in his memory suddenly took form—suddenly came to life.
From the moonlit surface of the lake, a fairy stepped out.
“I really like you, Xiao Yi’an. I’d love to read your stories too. If you don’t mind… would you show me?” Ye Qingchang said softly, her eyes filled with hopeful sincerity. “Just think of it as helping me fulfill a small wish. I just want to understand you a little better.”
“…Okay.”
Of course, she hadn’t forgotten that her virtual pet was always writing little stories for fun.
Reality wasn’t far off from her expectations—treat Xiao Yi’an the same way she treated her digital pet, and this guy would fall head over heels in no time.
The fairy from the moonlight withdrew her hands, her eyes curving into smiling crescents from joy.
All she had to do was keep this slow and steady pace.
As long as her identity wasn’t discovered.
Haha. Like that’ll ever happen.
Such textbook flirting lines