Chapter 80

Class Gao San A403, curtains drawn, movie playing.

"The Chorus of the Spring" was soothing, but Zhang Nizhi was distracted. She leaned her head against a small mountain of books and glanced at the empty seat beside her.

On the similarly piled desk, an empty space held a black gel pen lying across it.

It seemed like the owner had carelessly tossed it aside in haste.

She glanced at her phone—QQ still showed the message from ten minutes ago: asking how many days he'd taken off. Jiang Nian hadn't replied yet. Waiting always made her uneasy.

(Jiang Nian): "Two days."

Zhang Nizhi looked down at her phone, and her apple cheeks instantly plumped with joy.

"Did you take your homework home?"

She had a keen sense of boundaries, never prying into private matters. She constantly guarded her distance from Jiang Nian, never asking impertinent questions.

Like why he suddenly returned to his hometown—well, if he chose to tell her himself, she'd be delighted.

If he didn't say anything, that was fine too. Secrets were personal.

(Jiang Nian): "Forgot. I'll copy yours."

Zhang Nizhi's lips curled slightly, and her heart bloomed again—spring warmth, flowers opening, grass growing, orioles flying.

"No way."

(Jiang Nian): "Then copy someone else's."

"No!"

(Jiang Nian): "Then I'll still copy yours."

Zhang Nizhi was speechless—he was so childish. Not knowing what to reply, she sent a sweating little yellow bean.

This emoji was shared by Yao Beibei, who said it meant "bros, enough already."

Or else, "I'm done with you again."

Zhang Nizhi felt this was more like a rest note.

Putting down her phone, she suppressed the sour plum candy feeling in her chest. Quietly, she pulled out her homework from under her desk and planned to write a bit using the phone's dim glow.

Before doing any of this, she sneakily glanced around.

She saw the class's attention was clearly lower than yesterday—some were playing on their phones. A few even had small lamps on, doing homework while occasionally glancing at the movie on screen.

With this, she felt at ease.

Lin Dong was playing on his phone, feeling somewhat gloomy.

He was so outstanding—math representative and sports star. Yet, not a single person liked him? That couldn't be right.

Love didn't have to happen, but flirting had to.

Chen Yunyun and Wang Yuhe in his group were pretty enough, but they were too familiar. Everyone was just groupmates—rabbits didn't eat the grass beside their burrows.

Still, if you were hungry, it wasn't impossible.

After all, proximity gives advantage.

Speaking of moonlight, he couldn't help glancing toward Zhang Nizhi's seat. He'd once thought, maybe she didn't know how outstanding he was.

If he could just find a chance to show off, bro, he'd win for sure!

But who could've guessed that Jiang Nian, that bastard, had won first place in both long jump and long-distance running, then walked off right after, making the monitor collect his award and certificate for him.

Didn't Old Liu say no absences were allowed?!

He half-listened as Chen Yunyun and Wang Yuhe in his group whispered about girls' dorms, while half-watching the movie projected on the blackboard.

Zhang Nizhi was too far—far away as the sky.

Buzz—his phone vibrated.

Lin Dong looked down—it was the girl he'd been flirting with last month, finally replying.

She was also a student at Zhennan Middle School, a Gao Er junior, with a sweet voice.

(Skinned Liuli): "Today's sports day—I wore a pretty dress."

He instantly brightened, pressing his phone to his lips and tapping the voice button with a muffled hand. A gravelly, bubbly voice rolled out like Siberian potatoes.

"What kind of dress?"

The junior's online name was "I've Spent Three Thousand Watts of Glass for You"—clearly a soft, cutesy little sister.

Heehee, I really want to lick you from head to toe.

In this cold classroom, with these idiots who don't appreciate my talent,

Only Liuli, the adorable little Liuli, could bring him warmth from this world.

She'd flirt, coo, praise his grades, and even chat late into the night.

Cough, cough—he wouldn't tell anyone he knew a little junior who'd come to him through E.

Every day he spent a little time chatting with Liuli—either after school when returning to the dorm, or after lights out, exchanging messages back and forth.

Liuli was his unique spiritual comfort, his driving force for studying.

Lin Dong loved it when Liuli called him "Academic Genius Brother"—in that moment, his vanity soared. The more they chatted, the more comfortable and compatible it felt.

Of course, he wasn't stupid—he never showed his face or used his real name.

Even his QQ number was a secondary account.

Just as they were chatting happily, Sun Zhicheng rushed in through the back door, pale and panicked, leaving the whole group stunned.

"What's wrong, Sun Zhicheng?" Chen Yunyun turned to ask.

"Holy shit!" Sun Zhicheng twisted open his water bottle and gulped down a mouthful, speaking in an exaggerated tone, "Man, you won't believe what I just—"

"Did you walk into the wrong bathroom?" Lin Dong looked up.

"No! Guess what I saw at the third-floor corner!" Sun Zhicheng lowered his voice, "You wouldn't believe it—holy motherfucker!"

"A massive, legit big flying pillar! Pitch black, damn! His leg hair was as thick as my hair, wearing a JK skirt—and he froze me right there in attention!"

"Pfft! Thought it was something big." Chen Yunyun sneered and turned away.

Lin Dong was also uninterested. Sigh. Little Liuli is still better.

Jiang Nian blew the dust off the bedside table and wiped it once with a tissue dampened with water.

No need to wipe too carefully—just two nights of sleep.

The desk, the nightstand—these useless items didn't need wiping at all. The bamboo mat was clean; winter hadn't arrived yet, so a blanket at night was enough.

Opening the wardrobe, the smell of camphor balls and dust hit him.

Ah, just make do with it.

Zzz! The phone on the bed vibrated—Xu Qianqian replied.

Ten minutes ago, he sent a message. Classic opener: "What are you doing?" Calm and steady, because Jiang Nian wasn't sure if Old Xu even knew he'd arrived.

The two families weren't far apart—just a few mu of rice paddies between them. From the rooftop, you could see both houses.

Deep into the night, a few dog barks came from outside the courtyard.

Xu Qianqian only replied with a little yellow face emoji: "【Little one is cute too】."

Stop insulting Han, Xu Qianqian!

(Jiang Nian): "I just got to my hometown. Climb onto the rooftop—the one with the light on is mine. Since you're probably busy shedding little pearls, I'll allow you not to climb up."

Xu Qianqian really was shedding little pearls—she'd shed them all.

Ever since returning to her hometown yesterday, she'd spent the morning with Old Xu cleaning her mother's grave. They'd also burned some paper money stained with chicken blood—the yellow paper didn't burn cleanly.

She had to crouch on the ground, using a stick to stir the burning paper.

Her mother had passed away five or six years ago; pure grief was rare now. Crying couldn't solve anything. She'd rather her mother received more money than shed more tears.

So during the day she burned the paper especially carefully—perhaps she hadn't noticed, but the smoke had irritated her. As they left, Old Xu told her not to look back once she walked forward.

Her eyes had been uncomfortable since afternoon; she'd even gone to the clinic for medicine.

"Are you crazy? What are you doing here?"

"I'm burning money for Auntie. What's wrong with that?" Jiang Nian replied confidently, "Didn't Auntie tell you I'm her favorite treasure?"

"Get lost!" Xu Qianqian suddenly had the illusion that her mother hadn't left yet. Her lips curled slightly, then she replied, "You're a loser. Stay away from me."

The two exchanged barbs for nearly seven or eight minutes, their attacks growing fiercer.

"Bro, I'm not bragging—I won two championships in one day, easy."

"Heh. What dirty tricks did you use?"

"Holy shit, you like me that much? Are you spying on me?" Jiang Nian replied seriously, "Baby, stop your stalking. Don't love me too hard."

Xu Qianqian: ". You got banned last year."

"Hey, come on, bringing that up is boring." Jiang Nian sent a sweating little yellow bean emoji—he'd stolen it from Baby Zhizhi.

Isn't it normal to steal emojis among friends?

Add to favorites.

Xu Qianqian ignored Jiang Nian. He was the kind of guy who, when you asked if he had any dreams, would just reply, "I want to be your dad." A boring little creep—the more you paid attention, the more he'd pester.

Her eyes stung; she closed them.

Zzzzzz—the phone vibrated continuously.

She really didn't want to respond to Jiang Nian, but his phone vibrated over ten times. She couldn't figure out what he'd sent to trigger so many messages.

If it was an emoji spam attack, he was dead!

She opened her eyes.

Her phone was filled with Jiang Nian's messages—mostly one image per line, mixed with his weird speech quirks, making them feel wildly erratic.

"【Image】 I found some leftover fireworks. Holy shit."

"Must've been left over from before New Year's. There's even sparklers—but how do you light this thing? Can't find a lighter."

"【Image】."

"I found the lighter. 【Image】. Awesome—it's windproof!"

"Xu Qianqian, wanna hear a bang? They say if you make a wish under a shooting star, it comes true. Just humor me—mainly, make a few wishes for me."

Xu Qianqian read each message one by one until she saw he'd actually carried the fireworks up to the third-floor rooftop. She bit her lower lip and typed back.

"Are you insane? Playing fireworks at this hour!"

"Aren't you afraid the neighbors will yell at you!"

The moment she sent it, Jiang Nian called. She jumped, frantically turned down the volume, and her heart pounded twice like a drum.

Luckily, Old Xu in the other room didn't react—he must've fallen asleep.

"You're gonna die, Jiang Nian!" she gritted her teeth.

Eventually, she answered, covering the receiver to muffle her voice.

"What are you doing!"

"Come out! Look out the window!" Jiang Nian's voice crackled through the phone, cheerful and slightly unhinged, with the faint whistle of night wind.

The dog barks outside the window blended with those from the phone—both reminding her that the two of them weren't far apart.

"Nope. Boring."

"Just take a look—it won't kill you. I'm really lighting it now." Jiang Nian urged, cheerful, "Hurry up, hurry up!"

Xu Qianqian said she wouldn't look—but still opened the door to the second-floor hallway and stared into the dark night.

"Where?"

No sooner had she spoken than a firework shot into the night with a sharp crack, trailing a yellow streak before bursting with a loud pop in the sky.

Sparks rained down like a beard studded with stars.

Under the murky night sky, fireworks exploded in succession—like a tree of fire and silver blossoms blooming, illuminating her face, stirring her once-dead heart to sudden life.

The moment Jiang Nian arrived, the atmosphere was gone.

His voice came through the phone, in sync with the fireworks.

"Pretty, Xu Qianqian?"

"Mm." She tilted her head up to gaze at the fireworks in the night sky and said sincerely, "Jiang Nian, when the neighbors hit you, remember not to sell me out."

Supplementary chapter, stayed up until six, will wake up and continue.