Chapter 1

I met Lu Haoyang three years ago.

That summer, as usual, was scorching hot, but for me, it had never been so beautiful. It was because that summer I graduated from high school.

I had performed well in the college entrance examination and received a scholarship from the city. During the award ceremony, Lu Haoyang took the stage as the representative of the award-winning students. It was at that moment that I learned about the existence of Lu Haoyang in this world.

Lu Haoyang also knew me. To be precise, he knew the name Han Xiaoya. He didn’t know what Han Xiaoya looked like, whether she was tall or short, fat or thin, single or in a relationship, or why she had appeared at the scholarship ceremony that year. He only knew that Han Xiaoya was a fellow from the same hometown and also attended T University.

The first thing Lu Haoyang said to me was, “In the building opposite the one that says ‘Working for the Health of the Motherland for 50 Years’.”

The situation at that time was as follows: I was wandering around the large campus, trying to find the Student Affairs Office to apply for the scholarship continuation certificate, but I couldn’t find it no matter how much I circled around. When I had no way to go, I took out my phone and searched through the contact list. The first person I came across who also needed to obtain the certificate was Lu Haoyang, so I sent a text message to that number.

Actually, I didn’t have much confidence at that time. Even if that mobile number was out of service, I wouldn’t have been surprised, considering that I had forgotten how I obtained that number in the first place. Luckily, a few seconds later, Lu Haoyang replied to me.

I politely thanked him, and he simply replied, “You’re welcome.” And so, our first interaction ended just like that.

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Mbl plnsde ldnswdvla clvolld Nw Tysuydt yde xl oyp yzps vbaswtb y rbsdl nyzz.

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G rbsdl nyzz xyel vbl kxytl sq Nw Tysuydt kd xu xkde clnsxl xsal hkhke yde zkhlzu.

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And Lu Haoyang, at that time, was still a stranger to me, about 90% unfamiliar. How could I possibly go out and have fun with him and his classmates for several days?

After this interaction, Lu Haoyang and I didn’t contact each other for over half a year.

The third contact was during the summer vacation of our sophomore year.

At that time, the school organized an English summer camp, and a few of us from our class who were falling behind were assigned to the Computer Science class. Unfortunately, I was one of them. The School of Economic Management and the Computer Science Department were completely unrelated, and we couldn’t get in touch with them. So, at this time, I thought of Lu Haoyang again.

I called Lu Haoyang, and he agreed readily, willing to help us as an intermediary. But I didn’t know at the time that Lu Haoyang himself wouldn’t be participating in this English summer camp as he had plans to go to the UK for an exchange program.

After this contact, a few days later, Lu Haoyang sent a text message asking if I wanted to watch a movie together.

“Have you watched ‘The Founding of a Party’? Let’s watch it together.”

Once again, I declined, saying, “I’ve already seen it. You go ahead and watch it, it’s pretty good, with a star-studded cast. You’ll enjoy it.” Seven parts of it were true; the other three parts were unwillingness.

Lu Haoyang replied at the time, “Why has everyone seen it already? I’m trying to find a girl to watch a movie with, but I can’t find one.”

I found it amusing. A guy who was 6’3″ tall, handsome, and had been interning at Microsoft since his freshman year couldn’t find a girl to watch a movie with? He was quite good at bantering.

Indeed, Lu Haoyang was a person who loved bantering. When texting with him, a conversation couldn’t be finished without a dozen or so back-and-forths. And as a guy, he had excellent texting habits. No matter when you sent him a message, he would reply immediately. In every conversation, he always had the last word, never leaving a girl’s message unanswered.

After that failed movie invitation, we started to “dive” away from each other again and didn’t contact each other for a whole six months. Just when I was starting to forget about this person, I received a text message from him during a physical education class in the winter semester of our sophomore year.

This time, he texted me to ask if I wanted to do a winter break internship together, with a simple reason: we were fellow villagers, so it would be more convenient to do it together.

At that time, there was still some time before the winter break, and I hadn’t even started thinking about the internship. So I didn’t reply to him immediately. Little did I know, after the class ended, I opened my phone and found five or six text messages from him, asking if I agreed or not, and if I had received his previous messages.

I was speechless, amused, and annoyed. Why was this person like this?

I typed a reply and sent it out. However, at that moment, Beijing Unicom notified me that my phone bill was overdue, and my service was suspended.

What else could I say? I could only say that Lu Haoyang and I were two people who shouldn’t have gotten close in the first place. Otherwise, how could we encounter such a situation just when we started to show signs of getting closer? Even China Unicom couldn’t stand it.

I felt helpless and planned to recharge my phone to reply, but to my surprise, I received another text message from him at that moment. Seeing his impatient appearance, I became anxious as well, so I had to borrow my friend jiejie’s phone to send him a text message.

I asked Jiejie to help me send the message, just to convey the meaning, without carefully choosing the words. After a lot of fuss, he persistently persuaded me, and I finally agreed to do the winter break research together. He was very happy and chatted with Jiejie for a while before it finally ended.

While having a meal with Jiejie, I saw her sitting across from me, laughing uncontrollably while texting him. Occasionally, she would look up and say to me, “This guy named Lu Haoyang is really funny.”

I stuffed my mouth with boiled fish and replied, “Yeah, that’s how he is. His face is incredibly thick.”

Having a thick face was my only impression of Lu Haoyang at that time. This guy’s face was really thick. I always thought I had a thick face, but in front of Lu Haoyang, I realized what it truly meant to be shameless.

Once our partnership was established, Lu Haoyang completely disregarded the winter break research. He left all the preliminary work to me, and I never expected him to contribute anything. So, I carried the burden alone, even though it was exhausting.

Can a computer science geek do well in winter break research? As long as he doesn’t cause trouble, it’s fine.

We did stay in touch frequently about the winter break research. He was quite talkative and never seemed to stop talking. Combined with my outgoing nature, our conversations gradually became more uninhibited after half a month.

This state of affairs continued until the start of the winter break.

On my 19th birthday, which happened to be the day of the scholarship award ceremony, I was sitting in front of my computer playing a game when I received a text message from Lu Haoyang.

“So, today is your birthday. Happy birthday!”

Lu Haoyang wasn’t the first person to send me a birthday message that day, nor would he be the last. So, I didn’t pay much attention to his message and replied hastily, “Thank you! I hope you’re happy every day too.”

But this talkative person obviously couldn’t end the conversation there. He continued to ask me, “Have you arrived home? Are you coming to the scholarship award ceremony today?”

I told him that I was coming, and he immediately asked me very enthusiastically if I had finished writing my semester summary, mentioning that he hadn’t even started writing his own…

I glanced at the clock. It was already half-past twelve, and he hadn’t even started yet, even though he had a meeting at eight o’clock tomorrow morning.

In that instant, I thought about how wise it was not to ask him for help with the winter break research.

The next morning, as I was about to attend the scholarship award ceremony and just settled into my seat, I received a text message from him: “Where is the venue?”

I sighed.

The venue was at their high school, the best high school in our city, and yet he was still asking me this question at 7:55.

Just as I was about to reply, I looked up and saw him walking in.

Lu Haoyang was well-liked, which was expected. As soon as he came in, he greeted a few guys sitting behind me, who seemed to be his high school classmates. They were familiar with each other. However, what displeased me was that he completely ignored me.

At that moment, a guy sitting behind me asked him where he would be sitting, and several people invited him to sit next to them. I had something to say to him, and I don’t know what came over me, but in front of everyone, I shouted, “Lu Haoyang, sit next to me!”

Instantly, the previous noise in the room quieted down.

I looked up and saw Lu Haoyang looking at me, as well as the guys around him and even some girls… I felt a bit embarrassed, but the words were already spoken and couldn’t be taken back. Clearly, Lu Haoyang was also a bit taken aback by my action.

What’s even more unfortunate is that at that moment, the guy who had greeted Lu Haoyang earlier in the back row started whistling with a sarcastic tone.

Lu Haoyang looked down at me and asked coldly, “Why should I sit next to you?”

“…”

I didn’t know how to answer for a moment. I couldn’t tell him that I had something to say to him, especially with others listening, as I had no idea how they would interpret it.

I stood there dumbfounded, and then I heard Lu Haoyang ask again, “Is there a difference between sitting next to you and sitting in the back row?”

I instinctively replied, “No difference, so just sit next to me then!”

“…”

I didn’t see Lu Haoyang’s expression at that moment, but I imagine it must have been interesting.

After a few seconds of silence, he walked toward the back row. I thought he had rejected me, and I was thinking about how to discuss the winter break research with him. But unexpectedly, half a minute later, someone sat down in the seat next to me.

I turned my head and saw Lu Haoyang looking at me.