Not that I praise you to others, but you are wild, chivalrous, and gentle.
Such a combination of heroic and roguish qualities was truly rare.
-
This area was a university town. The food street was crowded at this hour, and the stinky tofu stall was found effortlessly. People with youthful faces were coming and going.
On the street, someone was live-streaming a street performance, singing Wang Feng's "Beijing, Beijing."
The cafe and the square are three blocks apart, like the distance from a neon light to the moon.
We pray here, we get lost here.
We search here, and we lose here.
Beijing, Beijing.
Cheng Buxi walked while listening. Ning Ci subtly enclosed her within his shadow.
The street was crowded with people, the streetlights dim, and the bustling atmosphere of everyday life swept over them.
When they sat down, she deliberately kept her distance. Ning Ci sat in a dominant pose, drawing frequent secret glances from young girls at the next table, but he ignored them, his eyes fixed entirely on her. His tone carried a hint of displeasure:
"Remember our first meeting? We were very close."
Cheng Buxi had her mouth full of stinky tofu, her cheeks bulging like a hamster's. She thought for a moment. "Were we?"
Ning Ci didn't hesitate. "The little woods."
Cheng Buxi recalled it and immediately said, "No, we were far apart in the little woods. I even hit you with a wooden stick, remember?"
Ning Ci was silent, then touched the spot over his heart, putting on an expression of great pain. He looked up and let out a long, profound sigh.
"We were definitely very close."
Cheng Buxi didn't bother arguing about how close they were, assuming he had misremembered. Then another thought struck her, and she hurriedly asked, "By the way, why do you go by 'Planting Trees'?"
Ning Ci countered, "That English code of yours—I studied it for over ten days and couldn't figure out what it meant. And you're asking me?"
His legs seemed overly long, and the simple, cramped table at the food stall was both narrow and low, stained with grease. A person so unrestrained and dashing in such an ordinary, lowly place seemed a bit wasted.
As Cheng Buxi watched him, she felt a mix of hidden guilt and envy. Guilt for calling him to eat at a street stall, and envy for his excellent physique, which made her envious.
She couldn't help sneaking several glances at his long legs, thinking to herself, Why do all these men have such long legs? Her older brother at home was the same—she always had to take quick, small steps to keep up with him. Why couldn't she grow to be 180 or 190 centimeters tall? She was so jealous.
Noticing her wandering eyes, which were almost lecherous, Ning Ci knew she was up to no good. He tapped her small iron bowl with his disposable chopsticks wrapped in a plastic bag, a very light tap.
"Hey, answer me. Don't go all aloof on me. Why that name?"
Cheng Buxi snapped back to attention at the tapping sound. She tidied the stray hairs around her ears, acting as if nothing had happened. "I couldn't think of one, so I just typed randomly."
Good heavens, it was random. Ning Ci opened his mouth, but couldn't find words to respond.
Cheng Buxi kept pushing. "Tell me! Why are you called 'Planting Trees'? Come on, tell me."
Ning Ci silently studied the curve of her lips. He'd heard somewhere that some people have lips naturally shaped for kissing, and wasn't that the case now?
Kissing... Why did that thought suddenly come to mind? Ning Ci grabbed the free tea in front of him and chugged two mouthfuls, trying to mask the wildfire of panic inside him.
He kept stalling, and Cheng Buxi grew impatient. "Just tell me! I'm really curious!"
Probably worn down completely by her persistence, Ning Ci stopped pretending and came clean. "Because when I was little, someone tricked me. She said that as long as I planted trees, the sun would always come out to accompany us."
"And then?"
"And then I believed it all. We agreed to meet the next day. I was supposed to bring a shovel, and she was supposed to bring a little sapling. But then it rained heavily that day. She didn't come. I didn't see her, and I never got to plant the tree."
"So your avatar is a Teru Teru Bōzu, to summon the sun?"
"Mm-hmm." He answered slowly and deliberately.
"And then? What happened next?"
"Next?" He let out a delicate laugh, drawing out the word. "After the rain stopped, I went back every day to wait, but I never saw her again."
The story sounded increasingly familiar, but she really couldn't remember. She had too many childhood playmates.
Ever since she went to the Lu family, she was like a little mascot, a classic example of a fox exploiting a tiger's might. Whether genuine or fake, whether to curry favor with the Lu family or simply to play with her, almost everyone was willing to befriend her.
Still, the story felt too familiar, as if she had experienced it herself.
"That... is a pity..." She followed along.
"Yeah, and there's something even more heartbreaking." A slight, bitter smile tugged at the corner of Ning Ci's mouth.
When he complained, his handsome eyebrows furrowed slightly, with a hint of childish pleasent.
"Hm?"
"Later, I found that person and told her about it. But she had completely forgotten everything. Tell me, isn't that infuriating?"
He lowered his lashes, his tone turning flippant again.
A strong wave of disappointment washed over Cheng Buxi. Her heart felt cold. So he had already found that person. She had been overthinking.
"After all, it's been so long. Forgetting is understandable..." Her voice was markedly lower in spirit.
"Understandable?" Ning Ci was almost laughing out of anger. "Don't make excuses. Even if she has a reason, I'm still furious. How could someone be like that? I've been thinking about her for all those years, and she doesn't even remember me."