As Lin Mo finished the last dumpling, Su Qing naturally reached out and took his plate.
“Do you want more?”
“No thanks, I’m full.”
“Then I’ll do the dishes.” She stood up, carrying the bowl and plate toward the kitchen.
Lin Mo sat where he was, watching her wash the dishes. Her shoulders were slender, and they rose and fell slightly with her movements. He suddenly felt a surge of intense guilt—she had waited for him all night, heated up his food, and eaten with him, but all he could think about during the meal was the warmth of another girl’s fingertips.
“Su Qing,” Lin Mo said, walking to the kitchen door.
“Yes?” She didn’t look back, the faucet running with a steady *hiss*.
“Thank you… for waiting for me today.”
Su Qing turned off the faucet and faced him. Her hands were still wet, so she wiped them on a nearby towel.
“You’re weird,” she said without looking back, though a faint, almost imperceptible smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “Study hard and get into a good university.”
With that, she hung the towel on its hook. “I’m going back. I have Early Self-Study tomorrow.”
“I’ll walk you—”
“No need, it’s just a few steps.”
Su Qing walked to the door, changed her shoes, and opened it. Before stepping out, she paused for a moment without turning around. “Good night.”
The door closed softly.
Lin Mo stood in the empty living room. The documentary on the television had finished. He suddenly felt an emptiness in his heart.
***
Su Qing returned to her own home, closed the door, and leaned her back against it. The slight curve of her lips vanished. She walked into the living room and stood in the darkness for a long time without turning on the lights. Moonlight streamed in through the window, casting a cold, pale patch of light on the floor.
“Thank you for waiting…” she whispered, repeating Lin Mo’s words. Her voice was as soft as a sigh.
***
The next morning, Lin Mo walked into the Classroom with dark circles under his eyes.
“Whoa, what were you up to last night?” Zhou Xiaoyu immediately leaned in, her eyes sparkling. “Don’t tell me you were ‘studying’ late with the Study Representative?”
“You’re overthinking it.” Lin Mo stuffed his bag into the desk drawer. “It was just a regular group study session.”
“Tsk, tsk. Four people, two boys and two girls—what a perfect setup,” Zhou Xiaoyu teased with a giggle. “But how come I heard someone saw you and Shen Qingyue leaving the school gates together last night?”
Lin Mo’s movements paused. “Wang Hao and Li Wei were there too. They were walking ahead of us.”
“Is that so? But the witness said they only saw the two of you walking side-by-side, chatting and laughing.”
“We weren’t laughing,” Lin Mo corrected her. “We were just walking normally.”
“Oh, look at you getting defensive.” Zhou Xiaoyu laughed even harder.
Lin Mo ignored her and pulled out his Chinese textbook for morning reading. Just as he opened it, a pen lightly tapped his arm.
It was Shen Qingyue. She stood by his desk, holding a blue ballpoint pen. The pen had a soft silicone sleeve printed with a small Starry Sky Pattern.
“This is for you,” she said, placing the pen on his desk. “I noticed the pen you were using yesterday was cracked and might leak ink. This is an extra one I have, so you can… use it for now.”
Lin Mo was stunned.
“Also,” Shen Qingyue adjusted her glasses, her voice very soft, “your complexion still looks poor. Did you… not sleep well last night?”
“A little,” Lin Mo answered honestly.
“You should get some rest.” She looked out the window as she spoke. “Your health is your greatest asset.”
It was that phrase again. But this time, her ears didn’t turn red. She simply turned and quickly walked back to her seat.
Lin Mo picked up the pen. The sleeve was new and carried a faint, indescribable scent. He suddenly remembered Su Qing’s calm gaze from the previous night, and his heart felt heavy again.
***
At the same time, in the Student Union Office.
Su Qing sat at her desk with an activity proposal spread out in front of her, but her eyes weren’t on the paper. Her phone screen was lit, displaying several new messages:
[7:20 AM: Shen Qingyue arrived at school and went straight to the classroom.]
[7:35 AM: Lin Mo arrived at school.]
[7:40 AM: Shen Qingyue walked to Lin Mo’s seat, handed him a pen, and spoke for about 30 seconds.]
Attached was a blurry photo. In the classroom, Shen Qingyue stood by Lin Mo’s desk, looking down slightly as she spoke. Lin Mo was looking up at her, holding the pen in his hand.
Su Qing stared at the photo for a long time. Then she typed a reply: [A pen? What kind of pen?]
A new message arrived quickly: [Blue sleeve, Starry Sky Pattern. Shen Qingyue probably gave it to him.]
Su Qing put down her phone and leaned back in her chair.
‘A blue sleeve. A Starry Sky Pattern.’
She remembered that Lin Mo liked the starry sky since they were children. How did Shen Qingyue know? Was it a coincidence? Or… did she choose it on purpose?
Su Qing closed her eyes, her mind spinning out of control.
‘How did Shen Qingyue choose this pen sleeve? Did she look through shelf after shelf in the stationery store before finally picking this one? Did she wonder if Lin Mo would like it? Did she blush? Did she smile secretly?’
The more she thought, the more the fire in her heart burned. When she opened her eyes, her gaze was as cold as ice. She picked up her phone and sent a message to the informant.
[Come to the Student Council in 5 minutes, and bring those materials you mentioned yesterday.]
3 minutes later.
Su Qing held an old phone, looking at the photos inside. The images were a bit blurry, clearly taken secretly, but the two people in the frame were unmistakable—Lin Mo and Shen Qingyue, walking side-by-side on a campus path. The streetlights stretched their shadows long, and their young faces looked inexplicably harmonious in the dim light.
In one photo, Shen Qingyue was turning her head to say something to Lin Mo, while he lowered his head slightly to listen. In another, Shen Qingyue was handing a pen to Lin Mo, their fingers brushing together. The last one was from last night at the school gate, showing Shen Qingyue’s retreating back as she hurried away with red ears.
“President,” a younger female student stood before the desk, reporting in a low voice. “Their group studied until 8:00 PM yesterday. After it ended, Wang Hao and Li Wei left first, while Senior Lin Mo and Senior Shen walked to the school gate together. On the way… they seemed to be chatting happily.”
“Happily?” Su Qing looked up, her expression calm. “In what way were they happy?”
“Well… Senior Shen smiled twice, and Senior Lin Mo smiled too.” The girl’s voice grew even quieter. “I was far away, so I couldn’t hear what they were saying. But the atmosphere… was quite good.”
Su Qing nodded. “I see. You can go now. Thank you for your hard work. And don’t forget to take your phone.”
Once the girl left and the office door closed, Su Qing leaned back and closed her eyes. Her mind was filled with those photos. She recalled Lin Mo’s distracted expression during dinner the previous night.
He had said, “They were quite patient,” deliberately downplaying Shen Qingyue’s presence. He had said, “Shen Qingyue lent me her notes,” trying to attribute everything to studying. But what he didn’t say was that they had walked together for such a long distance. And he certainly didn’t mention that Shen Qingyue cared enough to notice he looked unwell.
“Group study…” Su Qing whispered the words, a hint of morbid madness appearing on her face.
‘So the reason he had been downplaying things was because he had a guilty conscience.’
‘So it turned out that the cold and aloof Shen Qingyue would draw little doodles, blush, and care for people in private. So she wasn’t just “good at studying” after all.’
Su Qing opened her eyes, picked up her phone, and tapped on another folder in her gallery. It was full of photos of Shen Qingyue—in the library, in the classroom, in the hallway, and even in bookstores outside of school. She flipped through them one by one, her gaze growing colder and colder.
Finally, she dialed a number.
“Continue keeping a close eye on Shen Qingyue. Especially when she is with Lin Mo. I want photos and recordings. I want everything.”
Hanging up, she walked to the window and watched the students moving across the playground below. The autumn sunlight was beautiful and warm, but she only felt cold. When Lin Mo had said “Thank you for waiting for me” last night, the guilt in his eyes had been real. But the details he had hidden were also real.
Su Qing gripped the window frame.
“Study hard…” she whispered, repeating the words she had said to Lin Mo the previous night. Then, she let out a soft laugh. “Yes, study hard. But who you study with and how you study… that might need to be reconsidered.”
She turned back to her desk, opened a drawer, and pulled out a thick notebook. When she flipped it open, it didn’t contain meeting minutes or study notes. Instead, it was a detailed plan titled *How to Make Someone Belong Only to You*.
Su Qing picked up a pen and began to write. After a while, she closed the notebook and locked it back in the drawer. Then, she took out her phone and sent a message to Lin Mo.
[Come over to my house for dinner tonight. My mom said she misses you.]
Sent.
She waited for 3 minutes, but there was no reply. She waited for 5 minutes, and still nothing. Su Qing put her phone away, her expression unchanging. Only when she looked out the window again, the last trace of warmth in her eyes had completely vanished.
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