The only person left in the large room was Ji Yi.
She wasn't in a rush to get up and leave, so she stayed in her original seat and continued to sit there quietly. After a while, she lifted her eyelids towards the seat He Jichen sat in. She stared at it for a long time until eventually, her gaze was locked onto it.
Meanwhile, the waiter cleaned up the table noisily. The crisp sound of bowls and plates crashing into each other woke Ji Yi up from her trance. She gently blinked her eyes that were a little sore from staring for so long. Then she got up, picked up her bag, and left Yuhuatai Restaurant.
After hailing a taxi, Ji Yi arrived back at the school. She wasn't in a hurry to go back to her dorm. Instead, she headed straight for the sports field.
There was a group of people playing soccer on the field who shouted occasionally. Ji Yi walked around the group. After she walked through the innermost part of the field, she found a seat in a quiet area.
Ji Yi dazed out so much that she forgot what she was thinking about when she first sat down. After she snapped back to her senses, Lin Ya's words from that night rang in her ears, "Let me introduce everyone to my friend, He Jichen."
He Jichen… Ji Yi instinctively tightened her fists. The pain forced her to realize that the dinner wasn't a dream, and it really did happen. After four years, she actually bumped into He Jichen.
An indescribable sharp pain instantly engulfed Ji Yi's entire body. Image upon image of what happened four years ago flashed increasingly clearly before her eyes.
People say "time is the best medicine." Four years had passed and Ji Yi assumed those memories would've blurred over the years, but when He Jichen reappeared alive and well in front of her, she realized that the pain was always hidden deep within her bones.
It took a lot of energy for Ji Yi to finally compose herself. At first, she planned to sit there quietly on the field by herself for a while, but the skies suddenly released a flash of lightning and the drizzle of rain came crashing down.
There were often bursts of rain during the October evenings in Beijing. Ji Yi promptly got up and ran towards the dorms.
Just as she reached the front doors, Ji Yi saw Bo He. She wanted to call out to her, but then she saw a familiar silhouette.
It was He Jichen. He was holding an umbrella as he dropped Lin Ya off at the dorm.
Ji Yi ignored the increasingly heavy rain and suddenly stopped walking. She observed everything around her, took a few steps back, and hid behind a lamp post.
He Jichen and Lin Ya walked slowly. After Bo He and a few girls from that night's dinner said their goodbyes and ran upstairs, the two of them walked towards the dorm steps.
Both He Jichen and Lin Ya came to a stop.
Lin Ya didn't seem to be in a rush to go back to her dorm block, so she turned around, looked at He Jichen, and said something.
As she was quite a distance away and the sound of the rain was quite loud, Ji Yi couldn't hear what they were talking about. But from what she could see, they were happily chatting away, judging by Lin Ya's increasingly radiant smile.
Ji Yi's clothes were completely drenched. Since the incoming winds were so chilly, they made her whole body shiver.
Just when Ji Yi couldn't take it any longer, Lin Ya finally walked up the steps in front of the dorm.
After Lin Ya disappeared into the dorm, He Jichen continued to stand there for a while, holding his umbrella. Then, he turned around as though he was about to leave.