Outside the school gates in winter, bare branches rustled in the bitter wind, and unmelted snow clung to the skeletal plane tree limbs.
A thin layer of frost coated the iron fence gate, and students in uniforms hurried past, their shoes crunching over patches of ice, each puff of white breath instantly scattered by the northern gale.
Jin Xueli stood at the school entrance, half-dozing, watching the university students come and go.
There weren’t many day students at Su Li’s school.
From her observations, the chances of spotting Su Li in the morning were fairly high.
Of course, that was assuming Su Li had classes that day.
In the past, she’d considered staging a chance encounter with Su Li.
But Su Li was just too cold and aloof.
Her gaze seemed to pass right through everyone around her, as if they didn’t exist.
Jin Xueli didn’t mind that about Su Li.
She liked people who were different.
And Su Li? Su Li was very different.
After a long period of observation, Jin Xueli had mapped out Su Li’s daily routine.
It was as if Su Li’s schedule had been pre-programmed, and she followed it step by step, going to classes like clockwork.
Even so, Su Li wasn’t like the other university students.
At least, not like the other students in her own class.
She’d even spent a considerable amount of money to quietly infiltrate Su Li’s class group chat.
She’d watched all sorts of topics come and go in that chat, but she’d never once seen Su Li say a single word.
Oh, wait—that wasn’t quite right. For some reason, Su Li wasn’t even in the class group.
That was just how unique she was.
Sometimes people in the group would bring up Su Li, and some even thought she was putting on airs.
That made Jin Xueli furious. She’d sent a massive red envelope and then laid into that person hard.
After that, nobody in the group ever dared whisper about Su Li again.
Jin Xueli wasn’t sure if her actions had reached Su Li’s ears.
At the very least, judging by the current situation, Su Li hadn’t added her contact info.
Jin Xueli guessed Su Li had no idea about any of it.
Later, she’d also figured out why.
After all, if people in the class group dared to badmouth Su Li, then it made sense that Su Li’s relationships with others weren’t exactly great.
But that only made Jin Xueli find Su Li even more captivating.
Even when faced with others bullying her, she still lived on, strong and resilient.
Maintaining her own unique personality.
She didn’t dislike people like that.
And through her observations, Jin Xueli noticed Su Li wasn’t like the other students, going to classes in a rigid, routine way.
Instead, she was very casual, as if she hadn’t even come to school for the sake of schooling.
She believed Su Li wasn’t confined by the university, nor by some little diploma.
She’d come to the school to attend lectures purely for the sake of knowledge.
After all, according to what other classmates said, Su Li was very serious when she studied.
She always sat in the very first row.
She’d secretly asked other students to help sneak photos of Su Li—a hundred yuan per picture.
Plenty of kind classmates had helped her out.
And she’d amassed nearly a few dozen photos of Su Li.
Just looking at those photos of Su Li every day filled Jin Xueli with a deep, overwhelming sense of happiness.
Su Li was a well-known figure on campus—the type who could rival the campus belle.
Plenty of people who liked Su Li had confessed to her, but she’d ignored every single one of them.
Like a high, cold flower.
And a Su Li like that sparked a burning interest in her.
A powerful sense of possessiveness rose from deep within her heart.
Su Li was too beautiful.
And too aloof.
It was as if she didn’t belong to this world at all.
And the more she got to know Su Li, the more she felt like she’d found a reason to keep living.
Jin Xueli desperately wanted Su Li’s contact info so she could build a deeper connection with her.
In the past, if she wanted to meet someone new, all she had to do was have someone introduce her and slip them a little cash. Done.
But after adding people like that, she’d instantly lose interest, feeling bored and unimpressed.
And once she had them, she wouldn’t want to keep any kind of connection. Even becoming friends felt like an incredibly annoying hassle.
Su Li was different. She wanted a connection with Su Li.
Jin Xueli figured she should first learn Su Li’s interests and hobbies, and once they had common ground, the two of them could become good friends.
Then, after becoming good friends, she’d slowly move on to the next step of her plan.
She was confident their relationship would grow closer and closer.
But she’d spent a fortune investigating Su Li’s hobbies, only to discover Su Li didn’t seem to have any particular interests at all.
At least, nobody at school had ever seen Su Li playing sports.
And no one had ever seen Su Li playing games, binge-watching shows, or reading novels.
In fact, not even reading extracurricular books—nobody had ever caught her doing that.
Su Li’s life was extremely monotonous.
She went to class.
After class, she headed to the dining hall to eat.
After eating, she’d rest a bit, then continue with classes.
Then in the evening, she’d leave school.
Just from analyzing Su Li’s daily routine, Jin Xueli thought Su Li wasn’t much different from a high school student.
Su Li was a day student.
She had no special hobbies whatsoever. She was just ordinary—in fact, you could even say Su Li’s daily life was a bit too ordinary.
Come to class every day, then head home after school. As for what she did at home, Jin Xueli had no idea.
And from the information she’d gathered, even during breaks, Su Li would be reviewing her textbooks, like she was going back over what the teacher had just lectured.
A person like that? There was no way to find common ground.
Sometimes Jin Xueli even had doubts and considered donating a teaching building to Su Li’s school, just so she could sit in on Su Li’s classes as a student.
Once she heard what the teacher was saying, she’d have something in common to talk about with Su Li.
Actually, whether she listened to the lectures or not didn’t matter—what mattered was being there with Su Li.
She just worried that with her own brain, she wouldn’t be able to understand a word the teacher said. If that happened, trying to discuss things with Su Li would never hit the mark.
Not only would their relationship fail to improve, it would probably drift further and further apart.
A girl like Su Li—how were you supposed to pursue her?
Jin Xueli was frustrated.
She even considered reaching out to those online dating gurus for help.
Maybe they had some good advice.
But she couldn’t afford any trial and error.
This chance had to succeed. Failure wasn’t an option.
Jin Xueli felt a hint of anxiety.
She didn’t know how her older sister had come to know Su Li.
Since her sister could meet Su Li, then she could too.
Even if she wasn’t as clever as Jin Ke’er, Jin Xueli believed she was no worse than her sister in other areas.
Feeling a bit wistful, she breathed out a sigh, watching the white mist rise in front of her.
The next moment, the bus carrying Su Li pulled up to the stop.
Jin Xueli’s breath condensed into white fog in the freezing wind, and she suddenly clutched the edge of her scarf.
As the bus doors opened, Su Li stepped down the frost-covered stairs, the background of bare branches and lingering snow instantly fading to grey and white.
Morning light gilded her hair with flecks of gold, and the cat brooch pinned to her uniform collar caught the light in tiny sparkles.
She looked like a crescent moon cut straight from an ink-wash painting.
Even the sound of her shoe tips crushing through ice chips carried a rhythm of pure detachment.
She watched Su Li hoist her backpack strap up onto her shoulder, and as her breath curled past her lashes, even the winter mist she exhaled seemed unnecessary.
A person this cold and beautiful? She ought to be sealed inside a glass case and preserved forever.