“Are you done?” He remembered saying these words at the time.
“If you’re done, you can leave.”
The people opposite were stunned. They thought the seventeen-year-old boy in front of them would be surprised, would lose his composure, but they hadn’t expected these two sentences: “You’re quite calm, kid.”
Chi Yao’s fingers curled slightly, and he said without revealing much emotion: “I’ll find out the specifics myself.”
“What needs to be faced, I won’t avoid.”
…
“Something happened at home.” Chi Yao didn’t intend to hide it from her, but skipped the details, saying self-mockingly, “It’s been going on for a while.”
He had said, “Face it.”
But for him at this moment, “facing” wasn’t an easy thing.
Lin Zhexia said, “Uncle and Auntie probably didn’t want to affect your studies.”
“Parents are all like this. If my mom and Uncle Wei encounter problems at work, they definitely wouldn’t tell me either. In their eyes, no matter how old I am, I’m still a child.”
Lin Zhexia didn’t know what to say. At times like this, she seemed exceptionally awkward.
And no matter what she said, it wouldn’t solve the problem.
Apart from wanting to stay with him, Lin Zhexia couldn’t think of any other way.
Moreover, the word “child” seemed to gradually drift away from them starting from this evening.
Children eventually have to grow up.
After a while, Lin Zhexia asked him, “Chi Yao, are you cold?”
“If you’re cold,” she continued, “big brother’s jacket is also available for you to wear.”
Chi Yao, even soaked by rain, rarely gave off a sense of being disheveled. He still looked like that proud Chi Yao: “Not necessary.”
Lin Zhexia carefully picked up his response: “…Because you want to strike this rain-soaked cool pose?”
She immediately added, “Your joke is heavy.”
“Don’t say it’s fine, last time you went home and caught a cold.”
“…”
This familiar conversation immediately took them back to the winter break of their first year in high school.
That winter, at the same spot, Chi Yao, in his thin sweater, had given his jacket to her, stubbornly claiming he looked cooler that way.
The atmosphere relaxed because of these words.
Chi Yao seemed amused by her. He propped one hand on the edge of the bench, turned his head slightly, and let out a light snort.
As they spoke, Lin Zhexia remembered something very important: “What time is it now?”
Chi Yao reminded her: “My phone is dead.”
She fumbled to pull out her phone, pressed the screen to light it up, and saw “11:58” displayed.
“It’s almost twelve,” she said a bit anxiously.
“What about twelve?”
“Your birthday! I wanted to give you birthday wishes right at twelve o’clock.”
There were just two minutes until midnight, and her twelve o’clock plan was completely disrupted.
According to the plan, she should have timed it perfectly to give Chi Yao the cake.
But now the cake wasn’t with her, and she and Chi Yao were still getting rained on outside.
…
As Lin Zhexia was wondering what to do, while putting her phone back in her pocket, she unexpectedly touched something with hard edges, covered with smooth plastic film.
After two seconds, she remembered it was the package of candles and a lighter that the bakery owner had forgotten to put in the gift box and had run out to give her in the afternoon.
“I have an idea,” Lin Zhexia handed the umbrella she was holding to Chi Yao, “hold this for a moment.”
Chi Yao sat and took the umbrella.
His hands were wet with rain, knuckles bent, subtly holding the umbrella high, tilting the umbrella surface toward her.
“What, performing magic again?”
When Lin Zhexia had celebrated his birthday in a previous year, she had specially learned a clumsy magic trick.
That trick was called making a rose appear out of thin air.
Although her magic that day had been full of accidents, the rose didn’t appear out of nowhere but slid out from her sleeve.
Lin Zhexia also recalled that forgotten embarrassing memory and said: “This magic trick definitely won’t fail, watch carefully.”
After speaking, she took the candles and lighter out of her pocket.
With a “click” sound.
In the dark, rainy night, an unexpectedly small light appeared.