Chapter 38

He reached out a hand.
Jing Miao instinctively offered his hand.
“Let’s go home, Miaomiao.”
Both of them had storms in their heads and didn’t notice the hall had become packed.
They left straight through backstage.
Jing Miao walked beside him in a daze.
Even after getting into the car, he seemed elsewhere.
“Baby?”
Jing Miao turned slowly.
Xi Siyan leaned from the driver’s seat to fasten his seat belt. In Jing Miao’s eyes, Xi Siyan’s twenty-nine-year-old face and his twenty-two-year-old honor-wall face kept switching.
Jing Miao stared at him.
“Can gege play for me more in the future?” he asked.
Xi Siyan smiled, eyes flying with a brightness Jing Miao had never seen but somehow found deeply familiar.
In Jing Miao’s mind, many lines of “I like this so much” popped one after another.
Xi Siyan leaned over again, pinched his chin, and kissed him.
“Okay, Miaomiao. I love you.”
*Meeting you was my most beautiful accident.*
After centennial celebration came summer break, then freshman intake—one batch graduated, another entered.
No matter how lively the celebration, once everyone left campus and two months of vacation passed, the heat should have faded.
But modern internet culture left a different kind of afterglow.
On Bilibili, a video passed five million views in two months.
A well-known editing UP with a big fanbase turned out to be a Huada student in real life. By coincidence, she had recorded the full clip of Xi Siyan singing *Encounter* that day.
As a skilled editor and good camera operator, she had also been assigned camera duty for the drama club rehearsal.
From a perfect angle, she captured a perfect encounter.
The title was simple and blunt:
**“Huada Centennial: Live ‘Temple CP Encounter’”**
It looked almost like concert footage.
Clicking into the video, it opened on noisy ambience and a crowded hall. The UP deliberately kept outside sounds and unrelated visuals. Then after two camera shifts, the frame landed on Xi Siyan dragging over a high stool and sitting down with a guitar.
Danmaku flooded:
[Attention: Current crowd in this 1,000-seat hall estimated 70-80]
[Notice the audience count right now]
[Everybody stand and sing “Chaser of Light”]
In the top-right of the frame, sunlight poured down. On the left, more people were gathering.
At the golden-triangle center of composition: Xi Siyan and Jing Miao.
[Supplement: Campus Xi is tuning right now]
[UP’s audio/visual processing is god-tier]
[This desaturation effect—time-rewind vibe is insane]
[Old Huada alumni: didn’t Campus Xi play Encounter at a welcome gala years ago? Anyone remember?]
[Damn, faintly remember]
[“Let me play my past for you”?]
[He probably only knows this one song…]
[Knowing Encounter is enough if played like this!]
[Honestly guitar confession is so old-school but why do I love it]
[Because both leads are stylish…]
All background noise vanished with the sped-up tuning section.
Then came plain, focused soft singing.
One person sat still watching the other sing.
One person sang only for the other.
Danmaku auto-subtitled lyrics in red, yellow, blue, green, filling the whole screen. High-energy warnings flashed constantly: “watch their eyes,” “tears,” “look at the rings on their ring fingers.”
[Crying]
[Campus Xi’s folk tone is too heartfelt]
[Top-tier content deserves reward]
[This beats top ten car-crash confession compilations?]
[What do the rings mean SOS]
[Means married, thanks]
[The girl who shouted for PDA in the stadium still said ‘boyfriend,’ too careless]
[What stadium?]
[Go to P2]
[I’m confident: hi Campus Xi, tell me you and your wife’s story]
[Overripe sugar alert…]
[I’m confident too: hi Jing Miao, my baby son]
[Is this Encounter? Why do I hear a whole life story, sob]
[I’m crying help]
[Can someone explain why this sounds so heartbreaking]
[Heartbreak +1 I’m in tears]
[Heard little crybaby took 3 years off for illness, Campus Xi took care of him all that time sob]
[Help this is beyond “I love you”]
[Huada owes Xi Siyan attendance]
[That little boy’s focused expression kills me every time]
[Only each other in their eyes]
Bottom danmaku cycled introductions:
— The guitarist-singer is Xi Siyan, former Materials PhD at our school, now senior national engineer at the institute. Campus kings come and go; Xi Siyan stays forever!
— The pretty little listener is Jing Miao, current Math undergrad at our school, recently won first prize for Huada representing Chinese universities in the Asian Collegiate Advanced Mathematics Competition!
[I call this the divine pause]
[Best pause ahead]
[I felt Campus Xi’s nervousness in that pause]
[That pause was exquisite]
[Wrong note, but legendary]
White danmaku surged and occupied the whole screen. At the ending line “Meeting you was the most beautiful accident,” the entire screen started spamming that lyric.
[High energy incoming: watch what a sold-out hall looks like]
[“I brought my classmates to watch these two’s concert”]
[Camera shift was genius but seems to have missed what little beauty said]
The UP shook camera briefly—hall nearly full—then turned back to Xi Siyan touching Jing Miao’s face.
[How do they ignore everyone like that]
[Yellow-text warning incoming]
[As a current Materials grad, “ignoring the world” is core skill, don’t be shocked]
[Old song, new love]
[Huada celebrity-level stage presence]
[Crying, how did they meet?]
[Don’t miss P2!!!]
P2 was footage provided by someone else from the commendation conference: a plain achievement briefing, then crowd calls for confession, then what looked like a plain broadcast line.