One Degree

Content Summary: First Encounter

On the electronic display screen representing the time, Arabic numerals were constantly changing.

Wei Congying drove the last lap like a maniac, accelerating continuously. The waves of noise turned frenzied, and the cries from the spectators of the race track were never ending.

Just a short while ago, a car that failed to turn the corner caught fire after falling off the track, and the fire had just been extinguished.

Wei Congying did not seem to be affected in any way, nor did he slow down, he was like an arrow off the string. The sound of the car stimulated everyone’s hearing. When he finally crossed the line, his childhood friend, Lin Fang’s legs were numb.

Only after he saw Wei Congying stop the car did he breathe a sigh of relief. It was unclear whether it was a breath or his soul which came out.

Their friend happened to see this and while cheering for Wei Congying, and laughing at Lin Fang, “Are you a wimp? We should share a little of A’Cong’s courage with you.”

Lin Fang, with the support of his girlfriend, held the handrail of the grandstand, barely stabilizing himself: “Damn it, he just ended his grounding. I’m the one who went to his house to take him out to have fun. If something happens to him, my father will have me buried with him, you get it?”

As he said this, Lin Fang massaged his legs and continued harping, “Damn it, had I known he was going to go racing again, I’d rather cut ties than bring him here.”

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Gzyp, vbl sdl sd vbl vaynj eke dsv jdso Nkd Wydt’p ekqqknwzvklp. Tl bye fwpv lmkvle vbl aynlnya, vssj sqq bkp rasvlnvkhl tlya yde awccle bkp byka, obknb bye clld xlpple wr cu bkp rasvlnvkhl blzxlv. Tl oyzjle iwknjzu wr vbl taydepvyde, vwadle bkp blye vs zssj yv vbl dlo alnsae sd vbl NOP yde pxkzle yv bkp nszzlytwlp, “Rpd’v kv nssz?”

Nkd Wydt tyhl bkx y rwdnb vs vbl nblpv, rswdnle sd bkx, tayccle bkp nszzya, naukdt okvbswv vlyap: “Ussz, ps nssz vbyv Nysgk¹[1] Mbkp kp ydsvbla oyu sq pyukdt R. oldv olyj kd vbl jdllp. Zsw olal eakhkdt esod vblal, Nysgk oyp kd vbl pvydep, xu pswz oyp nbypkdt yqvla uswa nya. Rq psxlvbkdt byrrldp vs usw, obyv okzz R es?”

“Psd’v nau yp kq usw byhl y nawpb sd xl.” Elk Usdtukdt vspple bkx vbl rasvlnvkhl tlya kd bkp bydep yde vlyple bkx, “Ps usw oydv vbkp lzela casvbla²Mbkp kpd’v zkvlayz. vs vyjl usw qsa y zyr?”

Mbkp rasrspyz schkswpzu eke dsv tlv Nkd Wydt’p yrrashyz, yde bl kxxlekyvlzu rwzzle Elk Usdtukdt swv sq vbl aynkdt hldwl.

Mbl nbllap nsdvkdwle; vbl asya sq vbl ldtkdlp yde vbl pxlzz sq cwadv vkalp zkdtlakdt yv vbl vkr sq vbl dspl pvkaale bkp czsse.

Tl oyp y dyvwayz vbakzz-plljla.

Xd vbl oyu cynj, Nkd Wydt eke dsv byde shla vbl pvllakdt obllz vs Elk Usdtukdt, yde eashl 60 uyaep rla bswa vs vyjl Elk Usdtukdt cynj esod vs bkp yryavxldv cwkzekdt ldvaydnl. Xd vbl oyu cynj, bl jlrv tskdt sd yde sd ycswv ‘usw’al vbl sdzu psd kd uswa qyxkzu,’ ‘usw nyd’v tlv bwav,’ yde svbla lzela-zkjl pvyvlxldvp.

Elk Usdtukdt tsv vkale sq zkpvldkdt yde rwv bkp yax sd vbl essa, vwadkdt bkp blye vs zssj yv bkx: “Nkd Wydt, eked’v usw alyzkgl vbyv usw qsatsv uswa tkazqaklde yv vbl aynl vaynj?”

Hearing this, Lin Fang braked the car without any thought of traffic safety, stopping the car right there, and gave Wei Congying’s head a chance for a passionate kiss with the seat.

The inertia threw them forward, then the seat belt pulled them back, resulting in their backs hitting the back of the seat. Unfortunately, the BMW seats were hard and that bump was quite painful for Wei Congying.

Lin Fang turned his head to look at the empty back seat, exclaiming about how he was done for. But immediately afterwards, he returned to normal: “Forget it, in any case, I was already ready to break up.”

That was what Lin Fang said, but he pulled up against the curb, unlocked the car door and said to Wei Congying: “It’s just one intersection from your apartment, walk back by yourself. Send me a message when you get home, got it?”

Wei Congying unbuckled the seat belt, gave a half-hearted response, and closed the car door, suddenly free. If he went home obediently, he wouldn’t be Wei Congying, and true to that sentiment he was walking with his hands in his pockets toward the snack stand.

April had not yet completely warmed up. He wore a denim jacket and inside, he had on a Arc’teryx black crew neck long-sleeve.

He could smell the scent of cumin and charcoal even before he walked up to the midnight snack stand. The owner’s business was doing well, and it was just after midnight when business was at its best. He finished his order and took his beer to find a seat.

In the end, he found a girl who seemed to be left out in a corner.

The table was small, and there were four or five empty glass bottles on the table top, so he asked if he could share a table. There were a few people who were drunk at the end of the table. They did not look up, hands on their forehead, seeming to have drunk too much, and only softly mumbled in response.

In truth, Wei Congying did not like bright colors, dark colors were his favorite. But he had to admit that the person in front of him looked very nice wearing a long orange dress. over it, she had on a long black knitted shirt. Her curly hair pinned behind the ear, Just from the ear Wei Congying could see, there were four earrings.

Wei Congying took out his cell phone and saw the message Lin Fang sent him not long ago.

The message was probably sent during the traffic light, reminding Wei Congying to go straight home and not to make light of his life.

Wei Congying ignored Lin Fang’s message. At the same time, his midnight snack was ready. He got up to go get it, and only when he came back did he realize he forgot to bring along a bottle opener.

Plastic chairs were not good for opening bottle caps, and when he felt annoyed and began to get up, the woman on the other side looked up.

Instead of calling her a woman, a girl might be more accurate. Although the makeup on her face was a little heavy, but she still looked like a college student at most.

If the wine on the table was hers, then she was a secret drunk. No redness could be seen from her face or neck, and only her eyes were slightly reddened. Wei Congying felt that the possibility of crying could not be ruled out. Her eyes were beautiful, clear and bright.

She suddenly smiled at me: “How come you came?”

Wei Congying paused, he swore he didn’t know the person in front of him. Perhaps this drunk had mistaken him for someone else. Thinking so, he didn’t reply.

She reached out, wordlessly asking for the bottle in his hand, then picked up the chopsticks on the table. With an easy pry, the glass’s bottle cap in her hand.

 It was a very practiced bottle opening technique.

The previous non-answer did not seem to affect her. After she handed him the bottle, she looked at him with her cheeks puffed, her eyes brewing with love: “I waited for you for a long time, from daylight until dark. They all said you would not come.”

Who said that?

Wei Congying labeled her as someone who liked him, but he saw how passionate she was, from her tone of voice to her eyes. But he had no impression of her whatsoever. With such passion, it couldn’t be that she had secretly been in love with him all this time, could it?

But she really seems to be very drunk, after saying this, she slumped to the table and completely fell asleep.

Wei Congying, who couldn’t quite understand the situation, was left to admire the top of her head.

Wei Congying sat across from her, beer paired with barbecue. To be honest, the barbecue was not that good. The spices were too much, the charcoal didn’t seem to be very good, and the taste of the charcoal attached to the surface of the food made the grilled taste that much worse.

In the end, some of it was shamefully wasted, and as usual, he made a donation to eliminate the guilt of wasting food.

The person opposite was still lying down. Just a little further away, an empty can rolled to the edge of the table, fell to the ground and traveled some distance, before it was finally stepped flat by a foot.

Lin Fang sent a message to him, asking him if he had arrived home, and for him to take pictures to show him.

He was more concerned about him than his own father and mother were

But concern was concern, Wei Congying pretended not to see the message. When he turned his attention away from the phone, he heard the sound of laughter coming from the side.

Very unpleasant laughter.

He looked up and saw several very drunken men who were behaving in a disgraceful manner lay their eyes on the girl across from him. She seemed oblivious to the situation she was in and was passed out.

Wei Congying has already finished eating and wanted to leave, but felt it would be wrong to leave the girl across from him alone here.

But if he took her away, what if she lured him into a badger game? He did not like that possibility either.

He picked a compromise, that is, he did not disappoint the girl’s affection for him, but also did not leave himself at risk – Wei Congying sent her to the police station duty room³[2] A place, where police, soldiers, security guards, rescue teams, firemen, etc. spent their time of duty, unless, or until, incidents possibly call them out. .

Wei Congying pulled her up from the chair, and she was briefly sobered by the movement of being pulled up. Her vision was blurred, but she could see the food tray on the table and said in a somewhat critical tone, “You’re wasting food.”

Wei Congying supported her, made a noise of agreement, and apologized, but in a disingenuous tone, “Sorry.”

When Shi Yun woke up in the morning, there was no part of her body that was not uncomfortable. She had drunk a lot of alcohol but not enough to blackout. The police officer on duty explained the situation to her, saying that a kind-hearted person who was passing by had brought her here.

She was covered with a jacket, a denim jacket, and the smell of barbecue could be faintly detected from it.

She was embarrassed and thanked the people in the duty room. She had spent the night on a bench last night and there wasn’t a single part of her body which did not ache.

The morning sunlight fell on her face, Shi Yun inexplicably had a feeling of being in a different world, tilting her head to feel the sunlight. The sunlight was not too harsh and carried a hint of the coldness of the previous evening, tinted everything a faint orange color after closing her eyes.

Suddenly she thought of the person she saw yesterday. His face…… bore a lot of resemblance to him.

Shi Yun bought a lot of breakfast at the street corner and asked the owner to deliver it to the police station in her place, as an apology for the trouble she caused yesterday.

Yesterday’s midnight snack place and the capital university’s old campus were very close, but it still took 20 minutes to walk back to the dormitory.

After graduating from undergraduate school, the dormitory environment had been greatly improved. In a dormitory of four people, Shi Yun had a better relationship with the dorm-mate who slept in the neighboring bed, a girl called Shi Yun.

As for the other two people in the dormitory, one was living in a laboratory unit to catch up on reports, and the other was being used as a free substitute teacher for their academic advisor.

When Shi Yun returned to the dormitory, doing her best to be light-handed and light-footed, Shi Yun was alone. She was not sleeping, instead, she had her glasses on and was sitting on the chair below, holding a notebook and catching up on her homework.

Hearing the sound of Shi Yun opening the door, she turned her head towards the person at the door and called out, “You’re back?”

“Mhmm, you’re up so early?” Seeing that she was already awake, Shi Yun didn’t continue deliberately lightening and slowing her actions.

Shi Yun continued clacking away on her keyboard, “I didn’t sleep all night.”

“You didn’t sleep all night?” Shi Yun took off the jacket which had been placed on her by that person last night and left it on her seat. She then walked behind Shi Yun to try and help her with her homework.

Shi Yun sighed: “I didn’t sleep all night, been catching up on my homework. I still haven’t finished…… Wait, I also broke up with my boyfriend.”

Shi Yun was stunned, she was not very interested in her roommate’s romantic life, but Shi Yun seems to have been with her boyfriend for a few years.

Shi Yun sat cross-legged on the beanbag and took her hands off her keyboard: “I suddenly felt he was like a grinch. We went out to eat at a restaurant yesterday and ran into a guy who was selling detergent. I wanted to say that I would not buy it, but he just had to discuss the ingredients list with others, and then use his chemistry knowledge to criticize that the other side’s detergent composition was detergent to water. At that time, everyone around us was looking at him, and I felt embarrassed.”

Shi Yun was only briefly stunned. She saw the gift Shi Yun placed on the table and thought of the student who had been pursuing Shi Yun for the past several weeks. She was not Shi Yun, and didn’t know if Shi Yun’s breakup was really because she suddenly lost interest, or if it was because she had fallen for someone else.

She merely made a perfunctory noise. She was no longer in the mood to help her with her homework and went to bed to catch up on her sleep.

Shi Yun seemed not to notice Shi Yun’s somewhat disgusted reaction, and asked: “Yesterday was Qingming and you went to burn paper money for your mother. Did you wear these bright-colored clothes when you went?”

Shi Yun once again replied with a perfunctory ‘mhmm’.

–

The day she met Wei Congying again, Shi Yun had a full day of classes during the day and went to the library at night to catch up on group assignments. The guy sitting across from her in the library study area kept shaking his leg.

After Shi Yun’s desk shook along with his leg for two minutes, she kicked him under the desk as a warning. He didn’t get mad, but lowered his head apologetically.

But he did not stop, shaking his leg seemed to be an instinctive habit.

Shi Yun looked at the unpleasant homework, and looked at the time on her cell phone before finally choosing to leave.

The May weather in the capital had not yet warmed up. Not a single star could be seen when looking up into the sky. The not yet full moon was hidden behind the clouds, the brightness of its light incomparable to the neon lights on the building next door. The power to the streetlights was unstable, and one light flickered a few times before it came on.

The floor of the dining hall was mopped every day, but it always seemed to feel a bit sticky against the bottom of their shoes. Shi Yun carried her fried rice takeout out of the dining hall and ran into Wei Congying.

At that time, Shi Yun did not know this was his name. He was standing under the streetlamp opposite the entrance of the cafeteria. The cigarette in his mouth had just been lit; the small red bright spot on the cigarette head glowing and fading. He wore a black short-sleeve that had a bright graffiti design on it, black trousers, the same color sneakers, and a thick silver chain hung around his neck.

Next to him, squatted a crying girl.

His expression was indifferent and carried some impatience.

---

Translator Note:

Hi, Z here! Hope you all enjoy my new project! We’ve got a FL with a white moonlight… hmmm. I’m quite intrigued to see how this develops~