"I've been staring at you too. How are you going to respond?"
His gaze drifted downward, the corners of his mouth slightly raised, carrying an abstract focus and tenderness even without smiling.
Cheng Buxi choked, her face turning crimson, heart racing. She no longer looked at him but instead asked, "Are you close with people from the PE college?"
"Oh, sis." Ning Ci shrugged. Although the question wasn't wrong, it slightly showed his inner disagreement. He said lazily, "Who says you have to be mortal enemies with the opposing team just because you're competing? I'm such a cheerful and sunny guy; having a few friends is quite normal, isn't it?"
Look how proud he was—his little tail was about to stick up to the sky. "Mm-hmm, whatever you say."
She understood.
Ning Ci laughed and pulled her shoulders closer, blocking the envious and jealous gazes of those two girls. "Come on, I'll walk you back."
-
The streets were bright, the night breeze gentle.
The streetlights twisted their shadows like braids.
Before parting, Cheng Buxi remembered she was still wearing his thin jacket, a gray zip-up with no logo. The fabric was clean and fresh, and it smelled nice.
Just as she was about to take it off and return it, Ning Ci said, "Keep it on. It's cold at night. Taking it off might make you catch a chill."
He really was thorough and attentive.
Cheng Buxi wasn't used to being indebted. She said softly, "I'll wash it and return it to you."
Ning Ci smiled and said it wasn't necessary—how could it get dirty from just one wear? But seeing her determined expression, he didn't insist. "Alright, as you wish."
After all, there was plenty of time.
He also asked when she would go to the welfare home to see the kittens. The cat-abusing psycho hadn't been caught yet.
Cheng Buxi said it would be tomorrow since it was the weekend. She asked, "Will you come too?"
Ning Ci said yes.
They agreed immediately.
-
The next day, she slept until noon. The dorm was empty.
Someone had brought two cactus plants from the education building and placed them on the windowsill, round like hedgehogs.
When she was little, she was most afraid of cacti because she once ate a snack from the coffee table, was caught by her stepsister, who had a violent temper and threw the whole pot at her. She still had a shadow from that.
If she remembered correctly, her stepsister was about to graduate. She had heard earlier that her grades were poor, she didn't even pass the high school entrance exam, and ended up in vocational college. Her grades were too bad to study abroad, and she seemed to be studying accounting. Over the years, she and her father rarely contacted each other; their family bond was thin.
At that time, the cactus hit her chin. Since they were both kids, the strength wasn't huge, but she still bled a lot.
That day, her father was home. He scolded her stepsister symbolically. Her stepsister had been pampered her whole life and couldn't bear such suffering. Her loud cries brought the stepmother. If the stepsister was overtly bad, like a powder keg, then the stepmother was a gentle knife that drew no blood but cut deep.
This wasn't a small matter, but the stepmother intervened, and her father didn't pursue it. Lightly, the matter was brushed aside.
Cheng Buxi had early memories. It was from then on that she began to feel uncertain about her father, this character who had abruptly entered her life, and even felt he was unreliable. Her feelings faded. Perhaps she also carried his thin-bloodedness in her bones. In any case, she never forgot this incident.
That day, her father took her to a nearby military hospital for treatment. They were received by a very young physician, in his early twenties. Although he wore a mask, his superior bone structure was hard to conceal. After careful treatment, fortunately, no scars were left.
But while physical scars could be healed, what about the emotional ones?
Who said time could heal and wash away everything? So many years had passed, yet the sharp pain on her skin from back then had never worn away.
On the contrary, it would come out periodically to disgust her.
She turned over, frowning.
She didn't expect the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes to be a cactus. And judging by the look of things, she would inevitably see it often in the future. Just thinking about it made her heart itch.
Fang Xinyi had called her several times, but she didn't pick up. After waking up, she called again. Each time, she hung up after only two rings. This young lady usually had no patience. Cheng Buxi called back, her voice a little hoarse: "Hello?"
She answered quickly. "Baby, where are you?"
She was back in the dorm.
There was the sound of rustling clothes on the other end, along with her boyfriend's urging. Cheng Buxi patiently waited for her to finish dressing. Then she exclaimed, "Have you been sleeping until now? Oh my god."
Cheng Buxi glanced at her watch. No wonder Miss Fang was so surprised. It was almost eleven. Ever since her brother returned, her biological clock was completely off. She had a full schedule of early classes as a junior, so she rarely woke up at this hour.
After talking for a while without getting to the point, she asked in a low voice, "What's up?"
The flirting continued on the other end. Fang Xinyi was worried about missing the first afternoon class, ideological and political education, and begged her to cover for roll call: "Baby, I'm still outside and won't be back. If they call roll in the first class this afternoon, cover for me."
Cheng Buxi agreed, used to it.
The lovey-dovey couple was kissing through the phone, completely ignoring everyone else.
It wasn't that she envied them; she was just lonely after being single for so long.
Lonely—while staring at the ceiling, Ning Ci's face suddenly appeared in her mind. When she was with him, she never felt lonely. On the contrary, she couldn't bear to miss a single blink.
As soon as this thought appeared, she felt her head buzzing.
She lay there blankly for a while, then quickly dispelled this absurd idea. She must have been sleeping too long. She quickly got out of bed.
-
She came to the classroom early to save seats. The seats on her left and right were empty. A boy passed by several times, wearing square-framed glasses, looking honest, hesitant to speak, with admiring eyes. When he noticed that the seat next to Cheng Buxi had a bag on it, he ultimately resisted approaching her and didn't have the courage to sit beside her. Finally, he sat in the seat to her right rear with resentful eyes.