Zhou Yuwen had escorted Li Shiqi back to the school, and it was nearly seven o'clock.
It was time for evening classes, and the campus of Nan Da was exceptionally quiet.
The sky had already grown dim, and the lights had been turned on in the distant teaching buildings and the library by the artificial lake.
Zhou Yuwen walked silently beside Li Shiqi along the side road next to Wutong Avenue.
The magnificent wutong trees cast long, shifting shadows; an occasional breeze would rustle through them.
At such times, the leaves of the wutong trees made a rustling sound.
In fact, Zhou Yuwen and Li Shiqi didn't have much to talk about; in their past lives, they were two people who had no interaction, and in this life, they met by coincidence. However, she was a brilliant student from Nan Da, while he barely managed to get into a second-tier university—a mere ordinary student. What was there to talk about?
The only reason he had escorted Li Shiqi was out of concern that those few brash girls might impulsively seek revenge.
That was just the way it was.
Li Shiqi walked in front.
Zhou Yuwen followed behind.
They passed one wutong tree after another.
They walked under one incandescent streetlight after another.
The girl walked ahead.
The boy followed behind.
This actually created a hazy portrait of youth.
Li Shiqi actually wanted to talk to Zhou Yuwen. At the moment, her feelings for Zhou Yuwen were complex, with guilt from feeling that she had caused him trouble, gratitude, and also that slight thrilling stir of young love.
Li Shiqi had always lacked a sense of security, having had to protect herself all her life. A girl like her had never imagined that one day, there would be a boy who would shield her from the rain and wind.
But once such a boy appeared, she couldn't help but fantasize uncontrollably.
She walked ahead of Zhou Yuwen, frequently turning back to look at him, wanting to speak but then hesitating.
And Zhou Yuwen, who had a stereotypical impression of Li Shiqi, would always say at such times, "Don't look back."
"What's up? Have we reached the dorm yet?"
Zhou Yuwen's straightforward remarks left Li Shiqi with no choice but to shake her head, then continue to trudge ahead in silence.
At the time, Zhou Yuwen certainly hadn't considered that a girl like Li Shiqi could fall for a boy like him. Strictly speaking, Zhou Yuwen felt he might be classified as a jerk, but he couldn't bring himself to be thoroughly so.
He couldn't abide by the principle of not letting a good girl down, while not wasting time with a bad girl.
In Zhou Yuwen's view, if a bad girl was willing, then it was fine to waste a bit of time.
The problem was, she was a brilliant Nan Da student, the future most beautiful foreign minister, while he was someone who contemplated taking the easy way out every day, skirting responsibility. Why should he interfere with her life?
For the time being, Zhou Yuwen felt that he and Li Shiqi were people from two different worlds; there was no need to force a connection.
Zhou Yuwen, who had been through a marriage, felt that no matter how wonderful the girl was, he would no longer think about marriage.
From Wutong Avenue to the girls' dormitory, the road was very short—a mere five-minute walk—but for Li Shiqi, it felt very long. Out of her complex feelings for Zhou Yuwen, she wanted to speak to him several times.
Yet her chronically reserved nature left her unsure of how to talk to boys.
So they arrived at the girls' dormitory without her realizing it.
"We're here?" Zhou Yuwen looked at the new dormitory building and remarked with a sigh, "This is indeed a prestigious institution, even the dorm buildings are better than ours."
"No, not at all, your school is quite good too," Li Shiqi said timidly.
"Yeah, well, I'm heading off," Zhou Yuwen said with a smile.
Li Shiqi was conflicted; she actually wanted to treat Zhou Yuwen to a meal. No matter how she considered it, she should at least invite Zhou Yuwen to dinner. But Li Shiqi could only spend ten yuan a day, and now she only had five yuan left. If she invited Zhou Yuwen to dinner, she would overspend.
If Zhou Yuwen were to order something for thirty or fifty yuan, Li Shiqi doubted she could produce that much cash on the spot.
She didn't want Zhou Yuwen to see her in an embarrassing position.
But she really wanted to spend more time with Zhou Yuwen.
"Hey,"
"Oh right."
She hadn't yet spoken when Zhou Yuwen seemed to think of something and turned back again.
He pulled out a stack of red bills from his pocket.
"According to our agreement, I was supposed to give you a twenty percent commission for each person, but since you met the target of thirty people and then worked so hard today, I'm going to give you a thirty percent commission per person, which is nine hundred yuan. Then, with the extra two hundred yuan bonus I mentioned, and another two hundred yuan for providing the promotion channel, that makes it thirteen hundred yuan in total. Check if that's correct," Zhou Yuwen said as he handed the money to her.
Li Shiqi quickly waved her hands and said, "I don't want it, I caused you a lot of trouble, I don't want it."
"Why not take it?"
Zhou Yuwen asked.
Li Shiqi bowed her head and said nothing, feeling a bit of a sting in her nose at that moment, harboring a genuine sense of guilt towards Zhou Yuwen.
Yet Zhou Yuwen didn't think there was an issue, saying, "This is what you deserve, just take it."
"Who would have thought our class president is a crybaby, huh?" Zhou Yuwen said with a laugh as he looked at Li Shiqi, who kept her head down in silence.
Zhou Yuwen stuffed the money into Li Shiqi's hand.
Seeing that Li Shiqi was still not speaking, with her head bowed,
"Then I'm going to leave first."
"Let me treat you to a meal,"
Li Shiqi mustered her courage and finally spoke up as Zhou Yuwen turned to leave.
Zhou Yuwen was stunned for a moment, then turned to look at Li Shiqi.
She seemed to have made a great effort to speak up, hesitating and stammering.
"The spicy hot pot at our school's cafeteria, it's really good," she said.
Seeing her nervous expression, Zhou Yuwen smiled, "Forget it, I've been having some internal heat lately, won't eat it."
"Then,"
"I'll treat you to a movie!"
Talking to Zhou Yuwen felt harder for Li Shiqi than studying. Studying merely required memorizing things and then writing them down in exams. Yet speaking to Zhou Yuwen required her to think, to struggle to find the right answers; no matter how hard she tried, they didn't come and her mind was flooded with a thousand possibilities.
Suddenly, an image of a boy and a girl watching a movie together sprang to her mind and she blurted it out without thinking.
Zhou Yuwen paused, sensing something unusual.
After saying those words, Li Shiqi breathed a sigh of relief, but upon noticing Zhou Yuwen's expression, she felt a tinge of disappointment, "Is that not okay?"
"It's okay,"
In an instant, Li Shiqi smiled, a particularly attractive smile.
It's the tenderness of that bowed head,
Overwhelmed by the shy chill of the cool breeze.
There was definitely no time to watch a movie today, so Zhou Yuwen asked Li Shiqi if she was going home for the Mid-Autumn Festival, and if not, whether they could spend it together.
"Hmm!"
Li Shiqi, of course, was not going home.
And so they agreed, and Zhou Yuwen checked the time, then said he had to leave first.
"Hmm!"
After getting a definite response from Zhou Yuwen, Li Shiqi's heart inexplicably soared with joy, a delicate sensation like feeling the first gentle breeze of spring.
Like sipping on sweet, clear spring water.
Even when she returned to her dormitory, Li Shiqi's mind was still savoring the courage it took to say those words not long ago.
I'll treat you to a movie!
It's okay!
Everything felt so natural, and everything was so wonderful.
This was the first time Li Shiqi's heart had fluttered.
Fortunately, this flutter of the heart was reciprocated.