Su Ran clutched that Lemon Candy in her hand for one whole class period.
Lin Mo observed her from a forty-five-degree angle from the back row.
He saw that Su Ran’s right hand remained inside her desk the entire time, her knuckles turning slightly white from the force of her grip.
On the podium, the history teacher was speaking passionately about the Wuxu Reform.
“Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao realized that without reform, there was only a dead end!”
Lin Mo followed the teacher’s words in his mind, ‘I’ve realized it too.’
During the ten years before his rebirth, he had been like a startled bird, interpreting every signal from Su Ran as a threat.
Her giving him stomach medicine was her monitoring his diet.
Her anonymous reports of those who bullied him were an attempt to isolate him.
Her appearing while he worked overtime was her stalking him.
Thinking back now, he was like a student who got full marks in a reading comprehension test, except every single one of his answers had been wrong.
When the bell rang for the end of class, Su Ran stood up like a startled rabbit.
She used a bit too much force, causing the chair legs to scrape against the floor with a piercing screech.
Several students in the front rows turned to look at her, their eyes filled with that familiar sense of distance and a faint, lingering fear.
Su Ran pursed her lips tightly and stuffed the candy into the innermost layer of her pencil case. She pulled the zipper three times to ensure it was locked tight before hugging her books and walking quickly out of the classroom.
“She’s acting so strange today.”
Chen Yu leaned over, chewing on bubble gum. “What did you do to her in the stairwell?”
“I gave her a candy,” Lin Mo said nonchalantly.
“A candy?”
Chen Yu’s eyes widened. “Su Ran? The Su Ran who hasn’t accepted anything from anyone in three years?”
“Is that so? Then it seems she broke her streak today.”
Lin Mo stood up and walked over to Su Ran’s seat.
Most of the people in the classroom had already left, and the setting sun painted the desks a warm orange.
He bent down, pretending to tie his shoelace, and scanned the floor.
There was no candy wrapper, but on the inner side of the desk leg, there was an extremely shallow carving, looking as if it had been repeatedly etched with a small knife.
He leaned in closer to look. It was three numbers: 917.
That was… his birthday.
Lin Mo straightened up, his heart feeling as if it had been pricked by a needle—a sour, aching pain.
In his past life, he had died on his 28th birthday, yet he never knew that someone had carved that date onto a school desk ten years ago.
“What are you looking at?” Chen Yu shouted from the doorway.
“Nothing.”
Lin Mo walked back and asked with feigned casualness, “You said she hasn’t accepted anything from anyone in three years?”
“Right?”
Chen Yu got excited and continued as they walked toward the cafeteria, “Remember back when we just started tenth grade? A rich kid from the class next door gave her a luxury necklace. She didn’t even look at it before throwing it in the trash.”
“During the eleventh grade arts festival, the Student Council President handed her a bottle of water, and she just walked right around him.”
“Last semester was even crazier. You know Zhang Wei, right? She tried to get close to her by giving her imported chocolates. Su Ran told her in front of the whole class that she was allergic to theobromine, but that was a total lie.”
Lin Mo listened quietly.
He had heard rumors of these events in his past life, but at the time, they only deepened his impression of her as a girl with a perverse personality. Now that he connected the dots, it formed an entirely different picture.
She was using an almost obsessive method to build walls, keeping everyone out.
Except for him.
She had accepted that candy.
“So she actually took a lousy piece of candy from you?”
Chen Yu still found it unbelievable. “What brand? I’ll go buy a whole crate of it.”
“The brand is discontinued. You can’t buy it anymore,” Lin Mo said.
To be precise, it would be discontinued in ten years. Right now, it could still be found in the corners of small convenience stores, but it would soon be replaced by imported candies.
Like many old things, it would disappear silently, and by the time people thought to look for it, it would be too late to say goodbye.
—
At noon, the cafeteria was buzzing with noise.
Lin Mo ordered a simple meal of two meat dishes and one vegetable dish. He and Chen Yu found a seat by the window, and as soon as they sat down, they heard the conversation of several girls at the neighboring table.
“…Did she really take it?”
“I saw it with my own eyes. In the stairwell, Lin Mo handed it to her.”
“Based on what? Lin Mo is only moderately handsome, and his grades are only in the top ten of the grade. Someone as arrogant as her…”
“Shh, keep it down. She’s here.”
At the cafeteria entrance, Su Ran appeared carrying a meal tray.
Instead of packing her food to take back to the classroom as usual, she walked toward an empty seat against the wall, about 5 meters away from Lin Mo’s table, with two tables in between.
When she sat down, her back was perfectly straight. Her movements while eating were as standard as an instructional video.
Soup first, then vegetables, then rice—chewing each mouthful twenty times.
The process was so quiet it was elegant. For a young lady with a cold and aloof persona, this seemed perfectly normal, but Lin Mo noticed that the food on Su Ran’s tray had barely been touched.
She was nervous.
Just then, Chen Yu poked Lin Mo with his chopsticks. “She’s looking at you, and you’re looking at her.”
“Just eat.”
Lin Mo lowered his head to eat his rice, using his peripheral vision to catch Su Ran’s movements.
Every 30 seconds or so, Su Ran would cast an extremely quick glance in his direction. It happened so fast it almost felt like an illusion, causing a complex emotion to well up in Lin Mo’s heart.
It was like opening a long-overdue gift and finding a paper airplane inside that he had carelessly thrown away ten years ago—only to find that someone had smoothed it out, laminated it, and treasured it until now.
With a heart filled with unusual turbulence, Lin Mo finished his meal and stood up with his tray.
“Wait for me!” Chen Yu’s mouth was still stuffed with a chicken leg.
Lin Mo didn’t wait. He walked straight toward the tray return area, his path taking him right past Su Ran’s table.
When he was 5 meters away from Su Ran, he deliberately slowed his pace and spoke to Chen Yu in a volume she could hear, “How about you bring me a bottle of water during PE class this afternoon? I get thirsty easily.”
“Sure, what do you want? Mizone or Pocari Sweat?”
“Just mineral water is fine.”
Lin Mo added, “Oh, and make sure it’s ice-cold. I like it that way.”
He walked straight past without looking at Su Ran, but as he left the cafeteria, he stole a glance back.
Su Ran was looking down, typing rapidly on her phone.
—
The first period in the afternoon was self-study.
Lin Mo opened his math test paper, but he couldn’t concentrate no matter what he did.
He couldn’t help but wonder what the 28-year-old Su Ran had looked like.
In truth, he hadn’t seen her many times.
Once was at a university reunion. She had sat in the corner in a long black dress, holding an untouched glass of champagne, her gaze following him through the crowd.
At the time, he had used the excuse of going to the restroom to leave early.
Another time was at the convenience store below his office at 2:00 AM. She was holding a cup of oden, separated from him by a single shelf.
He had been so frightened that he ran away without buying anything.
The last time was at the scene of his death.
Thinking back now, every ‘coincidence’ might have been the result of her careful calculations.
Like a hunter studying the habits of prey, waiting patiently on the inevitable path.
“Lin Mo.” A low female voice suddenly sounded in his ear.
Lin Mo’s hand jerked, and as his thoughts were interrupted, his pen left a long streak across his test paper.
Looking up, he saw a pair of very beautiful eyes looking at him with a smile.
It was the Class Belle, Zhang Wei.
The Class Belle had put on makeup today, her ponytail was tied high, and the scent of shampoo drifted over as she leaned in.
“How do you do this problem?”
Zhang Wei pointed to the last major question on the test, her body leaning very close.
If it were the Lin Mo of his past life, he would probably have politely explained it and then continued with his work, but the current Lin Mo immediately looked toward the third row by the window.
Su Ran didn’t turn around, but the way she held her pen had changed.
Her standard grip had turned into a clenched fist, and the tip of the pen had poked a hole right through the paper.
“This problem…”
Lin Mo retracted his gaze and spoke in a voice that was soft but clear enough to be heard. “Sorry, I don’t know how to do it either. You could ask our Study Committee Member.”
He tilted his chin toward Su Ran’s direction.
Zhang Wei’s expression stiffened for a moment. “Her? Forget it. She never talks to anyone.”
“Just try it. She is the Study Committee Member, after all.”
Lin Mo chuckled nonchalantly. “Unless she doesn’t know how to do this problem either.”
Zhang Wei bit her lip and eventually walked toward Su Ran with her test paper.
Lin Mo watched as she stood by Su Ran’s desk and said something.
Su Ran didn’t even look up; she just shook her head.
Zhang Wei returned dejectedly. “See? I told you she’s a freak.”
Lin Mo didn’t respond.
He saw Su Ran, after Zhang Wei turned around, take out a small notepad from her pencil case. She wrote a few lines, tore the page out, crumpled it into a ball, and clenched it in her palm.
—
Before PE class, Lin Mo was changing into his sports clothes in the locker room.
While pulling on a T-shirt, Chen Yu said, “You’ve been paying a lot of attention to Su Ran lately.”
“Have I?”
“Yeah. Before, you’d walk the long way around just to avoid mentioning her. Now you’re giving her candy and staring at her.”
Chen Yu leaned in and lowered his voice, “Brother, take my advice. That kind of girl is best left untouched.”
Lin Mo’s hand paused as he tied his shoelaces. He asked in return, “What kind of girl is she?”
“Just… that kind.”
Chen Yu gestured. “Gloomy, keeps to herself. The way she looks at people is like she’s calculating how to dissect you.”
“Has she ever hurt anyone?” Lin Mo asked.
Chen Yu was stunned.
“Well, no, but don’t you think she’s scary? That rich kid in tenth grade? Two days after his necklace was rejected, he transferred schools. They said his family arranged for him to go abroad, but the timing was just too perfect.”
Lin Mo didn’t say anything.
He remembered the contents of the flash drive the police had shown him in his past life. Inside was an encrypted folder called ‘Clearance Records.’
The first entry read: ‘Wang Zhihao, Grade 10, Class 3. Intentions behind the necklace were impure. Father’s company has tax issues. Anonymous reporting materials sent to the tax bureau.’
The second entry: ‘Li Mingxuan, Student Council President. Fingers deliberately touched mine while handing over water. Has a history of plagiarism. Evidence sent to his advisor’s email.’
The third…
Every entry corresponded to a person who had tried to approach her, and Su Ran’s method of dealing with them was highly consistent.
Investigate their weaknesses and use legal but precise methods to make them disappear from her sight.
Like a gardener pruning weeds.
But with him, and only him, Su Ran’s methods were so gentle she didn’t seem like the same person.
Leaving stomach medicine, organizing notes, recording his preferences.
The most extreme thing she had done was anonymously report the people bullying him.
Why?
Simply because he had given her a piece of candy in ninth grade?
The reason was laughably flimsy, but within Su Ran’s obsessive logic, it was heart-wrenchingly reasonable.
“Anyway, just be careful.”
Chen Yu patted his shoulder. “My cousin at the Academic Affairs Office saw her file. It said she has Emotional Cognitive Disorder—the kind where psychological intervention is recommended.”
Emotional Cognitive Disorder?
That probably wasn’t a mental illness, was it?
As Lin Mo tied his shoelaces and stood up, an answer began to form in his heart.
Perhaps… she just didn’t know how to express her love.