This game caused a small stir between Class 1 and Class 16. Wang Kailin’s flustered behavior on the court and his subsequent apology clearly showed that the match was closely tied to the rumors about Qiu Xuan.
In Class 1, no one would gossip directly to Jiang Chuhuai, but the secretive attitude of Class 206 added a layer of mystique to the whole incident.
In Class 16, everyone enjoyed watching Wang Kaillin’s misfortune, while also envying Qiu Xuan—for having a loyal good brother, who was also a fairly well-known figure.
As the female lead of this hot topic, Qiu Xuan was confused: “If you’re going to gossip, can’t you at least make your guesses a bit bolder?”
Su Liujun asked in return, “How bold?”
Qiu Xuan replied, “What do you mean by ‘good brother’? Don’t we deserve a little scandal too?”
Chen Zhi suddenly suggested, “Why don’t you just go ask on the Campus Wall?”
Qiu Xuan fell silent.
Su Liujun, who was connected to the gossip networks in both Class 1 and Class 16 thanks to her middle school roommate Bai Yifei, hesitated and said, “Actually, some people in Class 1 have been asking me about your relationship…”
Chen Zhi immediately guessed, “Bai Yifei, right?”
“Yeah,” Su Liujun was honest but felt a bit stuck in the middle. “I can only say that I don’t really know…”
This was a tricky situation. It was obvious Bai Yifei liked Jiang Chuhuai. If she talked too much, she might accidentally expose Qiu Xuan; if she said too little, what if Bai Yifei plunged headfirst into it and ended up running into a brick wall? That would be painful.
Qiu Xuan’s gossip radar was malfunctioning: “Who is Bai Yifei?”
Su Liujun was almost exasperated. “You’re asking that now? Her name comes up so often in our dorm, and after the Nickname Incident, she even asked me to apologize to you on her behalf.”
“Oh, sorry, I couldn’t match the name before,” Qiu Xuan didn’t pay much attention since that incident wasn’t really the girl’s fault. Now that she connected the dots, she suddenly became curious: “Is she also really good academically?”
“Of course, otherwise she wouldn’t be in Class 1.”
“Hm… what’s her personality like?”
“She seems especially aloof and solitary, but actually she’s quite gentle. A beautiful girl with a cold face but a warm heart.”
Such a perfect girl.
If she had been the female lead of this incident, the rumor would probably have been a scandal, not a brotherly bond.
It was as if having a scandal was a good thing. Qiu Xuan silently spat three times in the dark at her own twisted values.
Suddenly, a strange sensation welled up in her nose, very faint—if it weren’t so late at night and so quiet, she might not have noticed.
After the sourness, there was emptiness.
During the brief silence, Lin Xiqiao asked, “Xuan, you like Jiang Chuhuai. It’s not just the few of us who know that, right?”
Qiu Xuan thought seriously for a moment: “Probably. Maybe my sister knows too.”
Lin Xiqiao sighed inwardly at how much Qiu Xuan trusted them: “Probably?”
Qiu Xuan: “Yeah… I never said anything, but my sister is really sharp. She probably can tell.”
“Ah?” Lin Xiqiao speculated, “Jiang Chuhuai is smart too. What if he’s sharp enough to notice? If he knows how you feel, then this time standing up for you—could that be a response?”
One stone caused a thousand ripples. The vague thoughts that had flickered through her mind during the game flashed back—
Was he really playing that match with Wang Kailin just for her?
Why?
Because they grew up together?
Was there maybe a little something more?
What did that long glance mean? Was it seeking credit, or something else?
What exactly did it mean?
She couldn’t guess the specifics.
But she knew about magnetic fields; the magnetic pull of unrequited love and mutual feelings were completely different.
“It’s not a response,” Qiu Xuan’s intuition was always accurate. “He’s not as sharp as my sister.”
In this regard, he wasn’t perceptive.
Besides, with so many eyes on them and no one pairing them up, how could he possibly see it?
Lin Xiqiao worried for her: “Then what are you going to do?”
Qiu Xuan imagined the scenes from a youth drama set at No.1 High School and increasingly felt like the expendable character who just makes a fool of herself the more she tries. Suddenly discouraged, she said, “CP vibe is just some geomancy nonsense. Forcing a couple together never ends well.”
The other three looked helpless and confused.
Qiu Xuan hugged her little “thief” and turned around. “Forget it.”
–
As the Midterm Exam approached, the atmosphere in Class 1 was much more serious and tense than usual. Since these results would be an important reference for course selection, the top students didn’t even waste short breaks—they were either reviewing or practicing questions.
Jiang Chuhuai stared at his phone, frowning slightly.
Almost every break, as soon as the teacher left the classroom, he would pull his phone out from the desk and open a quiet chat window.
It all started from an unconscious comment by his roommate: “To vent, if it were me, I’d probably have offered myself by now. Any sign from Peipei?”
None.
Three days passed, and Peipei hadn’t shown any reaction.
If it weren’t for her hair being too eye-catching in the crowd, Jiang Chuhuai might have doubted whether she even showed up on the day of the game or knew about it.
But he clearly saw her.
Not just him, his roommates also saw. Yu Ye, who arranged the game for him, even commented clearly: “Nickname Blue-Haired Sister, I thought she was some Sha Ma Te, but she’s actually really cute.”
Another roommate, Li Congyue, asked, “What does she look like with black hair?”
Black-haired Qiu Xuan dated back to elementary school. Jiang Chuhuai replied, “Elementary school student.”
Yu Ye raised an eyebrow, thought for a moment, then praised with a smile: “That’s super cute.”
Jiang Chuhuai locked his screen and glanced at his cheerful roommates.
–
The night before the Midterm Exam, a rainstorm passed, bringing a sharp drop in temperature to Dongzhou.
After evening self-study ended, many parents came to bring winter clothes for their boarding children.
Lin Xiqiao returned to the dorm with winter clothes and saw Qiu Xuan still washing up in thin pajamas. Concerned, she asked, “Qiu Xuan, did your mom come to bring you clothes?”
To outsiders, Qiu Xuan seemed like a local from Dongzhou, but only she knew that her mother was at Nanjing University of Science and Technology and couldn’t keep up with the local weather changes here. Even if she knew, she wouldn’t be able to arrive in time.
She sniffled: “She’s a bit busy.”
Lin Xiqiao offered, “If you don’t mind, you can wear mine tomorrow?”
Qiu Xuan waved her off, “It’s fine, I have a fleece-lined sweatshirt.”
Her mother Wang Lianhua had brought it during the last Parent-Teacher Conference, saying it was for emergencies when the weather changed. Back then, Qiu Xuan even thought it was bulky and shoved it to the bottom of her suitcase.
“It’s fine in the classroom, but if you’re placed in the corridor during the exam, it’s going to be too cold,” Lin Xiqiao considered carefully and asked, “Where’s your exam room?”
Qiu Xuan hadn’t checked the seating chart in advance, just remembered the exam location: “I’m in Class Ten.”
At No.1 High School, small tests were taken in one’s own class, but big exams mixed students across classes. The desks would be moved into the corridors, spaced apart to avoid cheating, and no one would know each other around them.
Lin Xiqiao said, “Class Ten is on the fourth floor. It’s very windy. If you get placed in the corridor, it’ll be freezing.”
Qiu Xuan didn’t care much: “Hopefully, I won’t be that unlucky.”
–
The next morning, the sky was gloomy. The autumn wind swept fallen leaves across the road, creating a desolate atmosphere.
Walking across campus, the scent of mothballs from everyone’s winter clothes filled the air.
Qiu Xuan put her hands in her pockets and pulled her collar up tightly as she reached the exam room and looked for her seat by exam number. She rolled her eyes—it was the last desk in the corridor.
Really unlucky.
Candidates arrived one after another. Those assigned to the corridor expressed their complaints in various ways, but eventually sat down obediently. Almost everyone came prepared and put on down jackets.
Qiu Xuan sat in the very last row, so thin she felt almost crushed by the person in front of her.
She pulled the hood of her sweatshirt over her head, tightened it so only her pale face was visible, and silently prayed she could finish the exam quickly and hand it in.
The first subject was Chinese. Totally hopeless—she wouldn’t be quick at all.
While rubbing her hands and shaking her legs to “warm up,” a familiar face appeared in her shaking field of vision.
Jiang Chuhuai appeared at the stairwell at the end of the corridor. After waving goodbye to his companions, he looked up at each classroom’s door sign and walked down the corridor.
He wore a windbreaker that stood out sharply among the bulky down jackets and wrinkled coats.
No backpack. Left hand in his pocket, right hand hanging naturally by his side. The cuff covered the back of his hand, leaving only his slender fingers visible. In that hand, he carried a simple woven pencil case.
His windbreaker zipper was pulled all the way up, covering his chin. His lips were pressed together. Under fluffy bangs, his eyes looked colder than the weather.
Was he also taking the exam on the fourth floor? He came from Class Six, passed Classes Seven and Eight without stopping. Could he also be in Class Ten?
Qiu Xuan instinctively stopped her not-so-elegant leg shaking and slightly crouched, hiding behind the outline of the desk in front of her.
She even tried to tuck in her striking blue hair, but the sweatshirt hood covered it, so she hurriedly let it go, flustered.
When she looked up again, Jiang Chuhuai was gone.
But only for a moment. The black figure that had entered the back door of Class Nine stepped back a little, tilted his upper body, and looked over uncertainly.
Their eyes met. Qiu Xuan, showing only half her face, curved her lips into a small greeting.
Jiang Chuhuai glanced her up and down once, then turned and entered the classroom.
What was that look? Didn’t recognize the lady with no visible hair?
Qiu Xuan picked up her pen and doodled on her scratch paper.
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the boy at the desk next to hers glancing at her from time to time. She turned her head and raised an eyebrow, signaling him to “spill it if you’ve got something to say.”
“Can you stop shaking your leg? It’ll affect my exam,” the boy bluntly said.
Qiu Xuan couldn’t control herself but gave an empty promise: “Oh.”
She looked down, rubbing her hands, and continued doodling.
The boy pressed on: “And stop rubbing your hands too.”
Qiu Xuan gritted her teeth and was about to retort when suddenly her shoulder felt heavy. Something was draped over her.
Then a tall figure passed by the desks, slipped through the gap between the rows, and disappeared through the back door of Class Nine.
She looked down and saw that on her scratch paper, the outline she’d drawn was already clear. Though the facial features weren’t finished, the shape of the windbreaker was unmistakable.
Now, that windbreaker was draped over her.
She wasn’t sure, but the moment the cold wind was blocked, her body clearly felt the soft fleece lining wrapped snugly against her back.
She looked up. Before her was the long corridor and the orderly students waiting for the exam, but the image branded in her mind was the boy’s silhouette walking among them.
Wasn’t he supposed to be in Class Nine at the front? How did he appear behind her?
She was in the last row in this corridor, so apart from the stunned boy at the next desk, no one knew what had happened.
Qiu Xuan hugged the windbreaker tightly, Jiang Chuhuai’s scent filling her nose—light and refreshing, but not biting in the winter air.
She smiled kindly at the boy beside her and promised, “Okay.”
Now, she didn’t need to rub her hands anymore.