Chapter 15

Hearing Shen Jia was behind her, Shi Zhi took a deep breath and moved closer, linking arms with Fu Xiling.
She pulled Fu Xiling toward campus, applying force secretly.
"Take me to class."
The sunlight was a bit dazzling. Fu Xiling lowered his head and looked at Shi Zhi's expression at this moment, thought her cold look with lips pressed into a straight line was especially cool, like she was going to take him to blow up the school.
He couldn't help laughing and asking: "Boss Shi, did you hold Shen Jia's arm with this much force before? Seriously, you're about to pinch me numb."
Shi Zhi's temper wasn't great, and today Fu Xiling's huge bunch of balloons had made it especially bad.
She was actually dissatisfied, thought Fu Xiling's fake way of pursuing someone was too tacky, really embarrassing for her ex-boyfriend to see. So she didn't have a good tone with him: "Don't talk!"
They walked in silence for only a few steps when Fu Xiling asked again, "Did you ever learn martial arts?"
Shi Zhi: "..."
She had been holding back from responding, but then she heard Fu Xiling say, "Actually... you don't need to pull that hard. Shen Jia isn't here. I was teasing you."
That did it. Shi Zhi snapped and drove her elbow hard into Fu Xiling. He sucked in a sharp breath and staggered back half a step in pain.
Rubbing his side, Fu Xiling watched her storm off and couldn't help laughing. "You're not even giving me my breakfast back?"
The girl who had been strutting ahead had to stop. She turned back in a huff, marched over, and tried to stuff the paper bag into his arms.
Fu Xiling didn't take it. Instead, he caught her wrist.
He pulled out a sandwich from the paper bag and turned to leave. As he walked, he waved at her over his shoulder. "Buy one get one free. You eat the rest."
Shi Zhi stamped her foot. "As if I care!"
On the second-floor corridor of a teaching building not far away, Shen Jia stood with one hand on the railing, taking a call from his advisor.
Recently, because of the mess with Shi Zhi and Tao Jia, Shen Jia had slept badly for several days in a row. He was restless, couldn't focus on anything, and even the experimental data he handed to his advisor had the most basic errors.
Shen Jia had followed this advisor for almost a year and had never been criticized.
Today was the first time.
Perhaps because Shen Jia usually performed well, the advisor didn't speak too harshly.
This building was close to the school gate. With the past few days' extreme heat—blazing sun outside—many students would first duck into this building, then cross to other buildings through the corridor.
Running into acquaintances was inevitable. A junior student passed by and greeted Shen Jia.
Shen Jia forced a smile, covered his phone, and nodded in response.
He turned his head unintentionally and caught sight of a familiar figure passing below.
B University had great landscaping. The trees along the road were lush, and the sunlight made the concrete path shimmer.
On the wide pedestrian walkway, Shi Zhi was walking with another boy.
They were both in black T-shirts, acting intimate, laughing and tussling as they walked by.
Shi Zhi even jabbed the boy with her elbow.
Shen Jia almost doubted his own eyes.
He had been with Shi Zhi for half a year, and it felt like he'd never seen her so bright and lively.
And he'd never heard of her having any close male friends at school. When he'd pursued Shi Zhi, even the student leader in her department had told him she had high standards and was hard to chase...
Who was that boy—
Shen Jia almost unconsciously tuned out the call in his ear. Holding his phone, he stared blankly until the boy turned his head, and in that instant Shen Jia finally saw his face clearly.
Fu Xiling?
Shen Jia stood stiffly in place. Only when the advisor's tone sharpened on the phone and called "Shen Jia" a second time did he snap back, face pale, and stammer, "Sorry, professor—my signal just now wasn't very good..."
Before class, Shi Zhi ate the sandwich Fu Xiling had left behind.
After thinking it over, she decided she should say something to her elusive, bizarrely-behaving "partner."
She took Fu Xiling out of her blacklist, sent him a message, and warned him not to make such a spectacle next time:
"I want to make Shen Jia uncomfortable, not become famous at school."
Fu Xiling didn't reply until after the morning's two classes ended.
The noon sun was too fierce. Feeling her phone vibrate, Shi Zhi shaded her eyes with one hand and checked it as she walked.
Fu Xiling's message was basically irrelevant: just a ten-second video. When she played it, she could see lots of little kids happily holding helium balloons.
"I saved one for you."
"Downstairs at your dorm."
Shi Zhi looked up. Not far away, in front of the dorm entrance, there was a yellow balloon. Its string was tied to a tree branch. Someone had drawn a big goofy grin on it in marker. It swayed in the wind, annoyingly punchable.
She didn't claim it. She just glanced twice and went upstairs.
At lunch break, she heard her roommates say Shen Jia was waiting downstairs. Under the blazing sun, even the cicadas sounded impatient, screeching nonstop. In weather like this, staying outside too long could easily cause heatstroke—but Shi Zhi didn't show her face.
As if she hadn't heard, she sat on her bed, opened her laptop, put on her headphones, and calculated the weekend cashflow spreadsheet Lingling had sent over.
She didn't know what it meant for Shen Jia to come looking for her now. Still, while dragging formulas in Excel, her mind wandered, and she suddenly remembered how she'd first met Shen Jia.
That day had been hot too. After several snows in winter, the temperature suddenly rose. Even sitting in a classroom after taking off a down jacket, you'd feel a bit sweaty.
Back then, Shi Zhi would go sit in on classes in the finance department.
Living under others' roofs, she'd seen too many bottom-rung work environments and always felt that far too many people suffered from having no education.
She wanted to change her fate, to be smarter than others, so she forced herself to keep cramming knowledge into her head.