“2017.11.08 Sunny”
Happy birthday. May every day bring you joy.
This was the wish she made.
— Excerpted from Tao Shuran’s Diary
She suddenly became the protagonist of this birthday party, and Tao Shuran felt utterly at a loss.
The breathing against her back was impossible to ignore. Liang Yuanjing was a full head taller than her. At that moment, he leaned down slightly. He probably did not even notice it himself, but his warm breath sprayed freely onto her neck.
Tao Shuran’s whole body tensed up.
The heat from the few burning candles nearly scorched her.
A teacher patrolling the floors in the teaching buildings soon noticed the light here. A startled exclamation rang out.
Fang Qingyi pushed her and shouted, “Ranran, make your wish quick! I see a teacher coming from across the way.”
Without thinking, Tao Shuran closed her eyes and blew hard, extinguishing all the candles.
Fang Qingyi grabbed the cake and ran out, not forgetting to direct them to clean up the remaining “tools of the crime” on the table.
The four of them split up into two groups again.
Liang Yuanjing pocketed the lighter from the table and took some cake decorations with it.
The teacher’s footsteps drew perilously close. The tension peaked in an instant.
Tao Shuran’s heart leaped to her throat. She had never done anything so reckless before.
However, the real madness she had not anticipated was still to come.
At the critical moment, Liang Yuanjing suddenly shrugged off his school jacket and draped it over her head.
He grabbed her wrist and, just as the teacher stepped through the front door, pulled her out the back.
The wind whistled past, stirring up fallen leaves everywhere and sweeping away the pounding innocence she left scattered on the ground.
In the endless darkness, all the brilliance gathered on the boy’s face. Tao Shuran stared dazedly at his profile.
Finally, they ran all the way down to the rooftop on the lowest floor.
The balcony door had a lock on it, but Liang Yuanjing handled it with ease. He shook it lightly and removed the lock.
He made a shushing gesture to her, gripped her wrist, and led her inside. He did not forget to restore the lock to its original position.
Tao Shuran stayed utterly quiet.
Liang Yuanjing glanced at her. It was then that his attention shifted back, and his gaze fell on their clasped hands.
He released her immediately.
He said softly, “Sorry.”
Tao Shuran withdrew her arm. Her other hand, hanging at her side, lifted slightly and pressed gently against her wrist where he had held it. It felt as if a tiny flower had sprouted there, now swaying lightly in the breeze, tickling her skin.
Perhaps because she said nothing, the silence made the atmosphere somewhat awkward.
Liang Yuanjing spoke first. “What wish did you make?”
She swallowed, mustered her courage, and said softly, “I wished to get into Qing University next year.”
Liang Yuanjing took interest and turned to look at her. “You want to go to Qing University?”
His sudden turn caught her off guard. As she lifted her eyes, she met his starry black gaze. Tao Shuran’s heart pounded; she lost all ability to think.
Even though reason told her skipping class at night was not what a good student should do, even though reason told her they were full of vulnerabilities right now.
But as soon as she saw him, she could not suppress her joy and delight.
She wanted to just gaze at him quietly like this, yearning for him to say one more word to her.
Tao Shuran asked softly, “Is that not allowed?”
Liang Yuanjing realized immediately that she had misunderstood. This sensitive girl—he did not actually have much impression of her.
Most of their encounters had been at Fu Changpei’s house. She was very quiet and diligent, never wasting a second on practice problems.
Sometimes she would timidly bring a question over to ask him. When she did, they stood too close. As he looked down, he could see her eyelashes fluttering like butterfly wings.
He smiled faintly and said in a voice so soft only they could hear—
“It will definitely come true.”
For some reason, when others said such words, Tao Shuran would only feel they were polite platitudes.
But when Liang Yuanjing said it, her disheartened, timid heart ballooned like a hydrogen balloon.
She lifted her eyes to him, about to say something, when voices drifted from nearby.
Liang Yuanjing shushed her, stood at the door with hands in pockets to observe for a moment. When light approached, he beckoned to her.
Tao Shuran followed him without hesitation.
They hid together in a narrow gap in the stairwell. By the sliver of moonlight filtering in, Tao Shuran’s eyelashes trembled as she caught the ambiguous particles floating in the air.
She truly hoped this moment could be stretched infinitely.
After a while, the voices in the corridor faded. Liang Yuanjing gave her a hand and pulled her out.
He pointed vaguely ahead. “Go straight down these stairs, turn left, and you’ll reach your classroom.”
Tao Shuran thanked him softly, head lowered. “I’ll head back to class first.”
It felt as if everything had been a fanciful dream of her own making.
On the way back to the classroom, Tao Shuran realized she was clutching Liang Yuanjing’s jacket to her chest.
The school corridors were lined with surveillance cameras. If some diligent teacher checked the footage the next day, the jacket had covered her completely.
Tao Shuran thought wistfully: Was he this considerate and attentive to every girl?
She sighed and slowly turned back.
Under the clear glow of moonlight, she saw Liang Yuanjing standing at the far end.
His back was to her. His tall figure cast a long shadow on the ground. He turned his head slightly, revealing his perfect profile as he spoke on the phone.
Out of politeness, Tao Shuran stopped behind him and waited quietly, holding the clothes.
The conversation drifted uncontrollably into her ears.
Tao Shuran did not know who he was talking to, but the tenderness on his face stood out starkly to her.
The call lasted a long time, and he never showed a trace of impatience.
“Do you miss me?”
Liang Yuanjing chuckled lowly, his voice close to the phone, seemingly extremely helpless yet brimming with indulgence.
“I do.”
“I miss you a lot.”
Tao Shuran felt as if she had plunged into an ice cellar and stumbled back a step.
It was then that Liang Yuanjing seemed to notice the movement behind him.
Just before he turned, she spun around and slipped out of his world once more, like a mere passerby.
At the stairwell’s corner railing, Tao Shuran squatted down, overcome with discomfort.
She felt her heart wrenching in waves of pain. This hurt came without reason, just like her inexplicable emotions.
You shouldn’t be jealous or resentful.
Tao Shuran told herself this inwardly.
But those feelings still bubbled up uncontrollably like boiling water. She hugged herself miserably, tears welling up, holding them back from falling.
She only thought silently to herself: Tonight had been truly happy.
And truly heartbreaking.
They did not see each other again after that night.
Tao Shuran finally understood the meaning of “passerby.” In his life, she was no more than a summer cicada’s cry or an autumn leaf—gone with the changing seasons and winds, leaving nothing behind.
She lowered her eyes and consciously distanced herself from his world, packing away all her delusions.
Yet as a legendary figure like him, talk of him never ceased in the class.
A belated winter sports meet was held, but when it started, Zhou Wu came over with strict orders: They were not to join the lower-year students in fooling around. Apart from the competitors, everyone else had to stay in class and study quietly.
The morning passed peacefully enough, with everyone doing problems in class.
In the afternoon, when word spread that Liang Yuanjing was competing in high jump, it immediately caused a small uproar in the class.
Wen Fangfang shot to her feet and dragged a few close girlfriends downstairs.
Fang Qingyi asked her, “Ranran, want to come with us and join the fun?”
Tao Shuran paused in her writing and shook her head.
“You guys go. I haven’t finished the problems Teacher Zhou assigned me.”
The class fell quiet at once. In contrast, the nearby sports field erupted in cheers.
Tao Shuran wrote her problems silently, but scenes from that night kept surfacing unbidden in her mind.
She could not help probing, could not stop wondering over and over: Who was that girl who made him so tender and affectionate?
So he already had someone he liked?
Unrequited love was like a green fruit dangling from a branch. Tao Shuran thought wistfully that today she had finally tasted its sourness and bitterness.
After finishing a page of problems, Tao Shuran picked up her thermos and walked slowly toward the water room.
She still could not control her heart. Her gaze inevitably drifted toward the sports field.
A voice inside seemed to tell her: Tao Shuran, go take a look at the field.
As if possessed, Tao Shuran arrived at the sports field.
Fortunately, it was packed with people, so she could blend in unnoticed as a passerby.
In the crowd, Tao Shuran spotted Liang Yuanjing at once.
He had just finished a long-distance race; the number tag on his back had not been removed yet. He hurried to the high jump area.
Cheers surrounded him nonstop. The boy’s deep brows lifted, his raised arms showing sleek lines. It was an irrepressible youthful vigor, a blazing flamboyance hard to forget.
Tao Shuran stood to one side, watching him quietly.
She watched his gaze burn like a torch as he sprinted, leaped, soared over the bar with powerful explosive force, arcing perfectly through the air.
Tao Shuran had once heard a high jumper say that every leap was actually building power to charge toward the clouds.
So, Liang Yuanjing, were you breaking through yourself for that dream every moment?
“Liang Yuanjing is so handsome!”
“Did you know he broke the school high jump record?”
…
Tao Shuran walked back slowly. Suddenly, the chatter stopped. Wen Fangfang stood in front of her with her group of girlfriends.
“Tao Shuran, what are you doing here?”
“Didn’t you say you weren’t coming?”
Tao Shuran lifted her eyes to her and asked mildly, “Am I not allowed to come?”
Her calm, breezy attitude only angered Wen Fangfang more. She thought of the class gossip lately, and how Tao Shuran was getting closer to Liang Yuanjing.
Wen Fangfang asked maliciously, “Do you know Liang Yuanjing has someone he likes?”
Tao Shuran’s gaze sharpened. A flicker of sorrow crossed her face unbidden. She turned away and said only, “I don’t know.”
“Do you like Liang Yuanjing too?”
Tao Shuran felt caught off guard by the interrogation and did not know what to say for a moment.
Her silence only emboldened Wen Fangfang further.
“Do you know the saying ‘a toad lusting after a swan’s flesh’?”
Wen Fangfang sneered, turned to speak to the others, but her mocking eyes raked over Tao Shuran’s face unabashedly.
With malice dripping, she said, “Some people are the best at putting on an act.”
Tao Shuran raised her head slightly and met her gaze directly.
“If you have a problem with me, say my name outright instead of sniping passive-aggressively behind my back like a spineless rat.”
“What do I have to fear? You think no one knows about the things you did at Xianyao No. 1 Middle School? Let me tell you, I’ve already had my friends dig up everything about you!”
Wen Fangfang flew into a humiliated rage, pulled a handful of photos from her pocket, and flung them viciously at Tao Shuran’s face. She shouted loudly, “Tao Shuran, you think you’re some fairy?”
“You’re just an ugly duckling. You think coming to Affiliated Middle School lets you transform? That hick, poor taste from your backwater hometown is etched in your bones—you’ll never shake it!”
The photos scattered in the air, piercing like icicles along with Wen Fangfang’s shrill words.
As Tao Shuran’s eyes fell on the printed images, her pupils contracted sharply. Even breathing grew difficult.
She opened her mouth to speak, but a spasm of pain twisted her stomach, forcing her to squat down.
In her vision, Wen Fangfang strode away triumphantly. Onlookers’ gazes shot in from all sides.
Tao Shuran crouched and picked up the photos one by one, along with her shattered heart.
Her tears finally spilled over, bringing a flood of past memories, heartache, and grievance.
…
Liang Yuanjing happened to pass by.
The high jump had ended in a rush. True to expectations, he took first place. Fu Changpei slung an arm around him, suggesting a celebration dinner that night.
The two were debating hotpot or barbecue when they suddenly spotted a girl crying in a corner.
Fu Changpei tugged at his sleeve. “Isn’t that Tao Shuran?”
Liang Yuanjing squinted and looked over. Sure enough, it was this girl. She kept her head down and her back hunched, with the oversized school uniform hanging down and almost covering her entire body.
The surroundings were always filled with laughter, but only she cried heartbrokenly here.
There was also a mess on the ground.
He glanced at it. It was a pile of photos. They were too far away to see clearly, and he had no intention of looking closely.
He slowly walked over and slightly turned his body, only asking, “Why are you crying?”
The familiar voice felt like a dream.
Tao Shuran lifted her head with red eyes and truly saw Liang Yuanjing.
She immediately panicked and lowered her head, wanting to gather all the photos. To her surprise, Liang Yuanjing’s gaze never fell on that pile of photos.
From beginning to end, he kept his body slightly turned, with his gaze naturally lifted. Not far away, the sun sank toward the horizon, and his pupils reflected the light of the sky.
Liang Yuanjing softly asked her what was wrong. At the same time, his other hand pulled something from his pocket and handed it to her.
Tao Shuran looked down. It was a cartoon-shaped Big White Rabbit milk candy.
Like coaxing a child, Liang Yuanjing softly asked her—
“Who bullied you?”