Besides, this was for buying him a gift.
…
Thinking this way, her hand had already moved ahead; her fingers carefully crept to the edge of Chi Yao’s phone, then applied force to slowly pull it toward her.
Between her and Chi Yao, except for her secret of liking him, there were no other secrets.
They knew each other’s phone passwords, even payment passwords.
The first time Chi Yao told her his phone password was when they had just entered middle school, and Lin He refused to buy her a phone. At that time, a popular mobile game was trending in their class. Chi Yao found the game childish but still downloaded it and lent it to her on weekends.
From Monday to Friday, Lin Zhexia would remind him: “Don’t forget to claim my energy, check in, and if you have time, please complete the daily tasks for me.”
Back then, Chi Yao looked at the cute pet-raising game with disgust: “Come claim it yourself.”
Lin Zhexia: “I can’t. If I keep running to your house instead of doing homework, my mom will scold me.”
“You ask me to help you, aren’t you afraid I’ll scold you?”
“You won’t scold me,” Lin Zhexia of that time said with a smile, “Even if you do scold me, you’ll still end up helping me claim it.”
Chi Yao walked ahead of her, not saying a word.
Later, when Lin Zhexia’s enthusiasm for the game faded, the account was managed by Chi Yao.
He claimed energy for her for a long time, only to discover that Lin Zhexia had already forgotten about the game.
…
Recalling this memory, Lin Zhexia pulled the phone over and tentatively pressed that familiar string of numbers she knew by heart.
The next second, the screen successfully unlocked.
Lin Zhexia was about to click on a certain orange shopping app when her hand was suddenly pressed down.
In the dim light of the living room, with the projection momentarily darkening, Chi Yao’s voice and the warm palm pressing on the back of her hand were briefly amplified: “You coward, your courage seems quite big today.”
“…”
Lin Zhexia pulled her hand back as if burned, while moving slightly away, saying: “Weren’t you watching the movie?”
“Besides, you don’t even change your password?”
“Too lazy to change it.”
Chi Yao put the phone on the other side and added, “And with your brain, you wouldn’t remember if I changed it.”
That strange atmosphere between her and Chi Yao had unwittingly returned.
Was it because of liking him?
Because she liked him, she tended to overthink.
“Why?” Lin Zhexia suddenly asked.
Under the guidance of that strange atmosphere, she had no room to think and impulsively wanted to ask, “Why do you want me to remember?”
“I mean, why do you think I’m that stupid?” But she couldn’t bring herself to not think, and diverted the conversation, “It’s just a string of numbers, you’re the one who can’t remember.”
Lin Zhexia finally returned home and, after thinking for a long time, found a handmade cake shop online and decided to give Chi Yao a personally made cake.
She booked a production time online.
May 6th.
The day before Chi Yao’s birthday—
, spring passed, entering early summer, the weather imperceptibly began to turn hot.
Lin Zhexia spent an entire afternoon making the cake by hand, progress was slow, but fortunately the result turned out well.
She planned to take the cake to Chi Yao’s home at exactly midnight tonight to give him a “surprise.”
The bakery owner helped her pack the cake in a gift box. She asked for an additional card, with some cream staining her clothes, and she leaned on the counter to write birthday wishes.
She wrote Chi Yao’s name stroke by stroke, then wrote: Wishing you success in all your endeavors and happiness every day. I hope that in everything you do in the future, you’ll have endless courage.
Before leaving, the bakery owner ran to the door: “Young lady, I’m sorry, I forgot to give you the candles and lighter.”
Lin Zhexia looked at the cake box tied with a red ribbon in her hand, unable to find a place to put it, and feeling a bit troubled.
Fortunately, she was wearing a jacket today with large pockets.
And the candles and lighter were in a small packaging bag that could just fit.
“It’s fine,” she said, “I’ll put them in my pocket.”
On the way back to the complex, Lin Zhexia noticed while crossing the road that there seemed to be people gathered across from the complex again.
She glanced over, finding it inexplicably familiar—
Before turning eighteen, she thought life was a simple straight line.
She would continue growing up quietly in this carefree, simple straight line.
Even though within this straight line, some small accidents would happen, such as her awkward “liking” of Chi Yao.
But at that time, she thought she would continue living like this with the group of friends from Nanxiang Street, and with Chi Yao—