During the National Day holiday, Wei Qingyue twisted his ankle playing ball. That letter was one he unfolded out of boredom while lying on the balcony at dusk.

He had received many letters and often tossed them aside casually. Wei Qingyue was completely uninterested in this kind of crush between middle school students. He didn't have a girl he liked, never had.

Growing up, the melodramatic things in life were already enough of a headache. He didn't know what was so interesting about liking someone.

If there was any coincidence, it must be this moment. The afterglow was gentle, like a pair of affectionate hands falling upon him, as he opened the first letter.

The girl's handwriting was like a primary school student's, excessively neat. Wei Qingyue's first impression was very poor, and he frowned imperceptibly.

“Greetings.

I know this letter might disturb you, but I couldn't help but write it. I think this is probably just one of the many letters you receive, a very ordinary one. So, if these words I've written can be seen by you, I'm already very lucky.

If you do open this letter, I don't know when it will be. I also don't know how the paper will pass through your fingers, or what you'll feel the moment these words meet your eyes. Maybe you won't feel anything at all.

But I want to tell you, I'm writing this letter at night.

I love the night the most. Many of my female classmates are afraid of the dark, but I'm not. The quiet and silence of the night actually make me feel very safe. Especially when I have something on my mind, the night is like a barrier that can block out all disturbances. I can think quietly by myself, and no one will know. So, I chose my favorite time of day to pick up my pen.

I wonder what time of day is your favorite.

It's autumn now. I wonder if you've noticed that if you stand on the corridor outside the classroom and look southeast, you can see the sycamore tree near the library. Its leaves have already turned yellow. When winter comes, it will surely be bare, like an old monk with a solid skull.

Actually, just thinking that the few scenic spots in our school might have also received your gaze makes me very happy. It's as if you've given them new flesh, blood, and soul (is that too dramatic?). Of course, it's not entirely like that. Even if you've never noticed them, I still really like the environment at Mei Zhong.

I feel like I've written a lot of nonsense—boring and childish. I hope a top student like you won't mind. I really want to stay up all night writing this nonsense to you, but that's impossible, because I also have to study and take the university entrance exams. I believe you do too. Allow me to be so bold as to ask, what is your dream university? I want to study in Beijing. With my grades, I naturally won't get into a top university. I'm probably the only person who wants to study in Beijing because of Mr. Yu Dafu's 'Autumn in the Old Capital'.

It's okay if you don't answer my questions. I'll be happy enough if you just see this letter.

If by any chance this letter is thrown away and someone picks it up and reads it, I think I would be utterly mortified. Whoever sees this letter, please don't laugh at me too much, thank you.

Sigh, there are stray cats outside, meowing. I've seen them during the day. They have crystal-black eyes. They'll look at you for a moment, then turn and walk away silently. My Grandma often gives them leftovers to help them out.

I wanted to have a timeless ending, but unfortunately, I was interrupted by the stray cats. So I'll end it here. All the best.”

The letter stopped abruptly.

'What is all this?' Wei Qingyue frowned as he read. 'Are girls' love letters like this?' It wasn't that he had never opened one before; they didn't seem to be like this.

But he had to admit, he had actually read it all patiently. Maybe, just maybe, it was simply because someone else liked the night just as he did.

Only then did Wei Qingyue notice that there was no salutation at the beginning and no signature at the end. In other words, if this letter hadn't been delivered to him, it could have been for anyone.

At the time, when the boy from the next class gave him the letter, he hadn't paid any attention to the girl's name. Now, no matter how hard he tried to recall, it was just a faint and distant voice.

But it wasn't important. Wei Qingyue knew this kind of behavior would eventually fade away; the only difference was how long it would take. He wouldn't reply, nor did he have much interest in knowing who liked him.

Especially one with such poor handwriting. For the life of him, Wei Qingyue couldn't understand how he'd read it so patiently.

He folded the letter and tossed it into the storage cabinet on the balcony. Osmanthus trees were planted in the residential complex, and their strong fragrance came in gusts with the wind, like a surging tide. The boy suspected that every residential complex had such pungent flowers. He got up and closed the window.

The holiday was long. The Municipal Library was crowded every day. Jiang Du came for several days in a row but didn't see the figure she wanted to see.

She returned home, disappointed. Even the food her Grandma made didn't taste good anymore.

In front of her desk was a pile of books and materials. She worked through them subject by subject, endlessly. Jiang Du would occasionally look up at the window and daze off for a while. The moment she thought about how she had actually written a letter like that to Wei Qingyue, Jiang Du immediately felt extremely embarrassed. She turned around, threw herself onto the bed, and covered her head with a pillow.

She stayed in that oxygen-deprived state for ten seconds before letting go. Every breath she took was accompanied by the sound of her own frantic heartbeat.

Jiang Du couldn't help but roll around on the bed.

'It's so embarrassing! How could I have written something like that?' The key was, the more she thought about it, the more embarrassed she felt. But the girl also knew clearly that she would have another "episode" and write again.

Outside, her Grandma was knocking on the door. Jiang Du shot up with a carp-like leap and quickly straightened her clothes.

After she opened the door, her Grandma's smiling face appeared. "Dear, Auntie Li from downstairs gave you a Xinhua Bookstore gift card. You can buy books with it. Here, take it."

Jiang Du's eyes lit up. She could buy books again, and in a way, they were free. She didn't like to take advantage of others, but she was still very happy that Auntie Li had given her the book card.

"Your mother..." Seeing her reaction, the old woman subconsciously started to say, but suddenly realized her mistake and cut herself off abruptly. Looking at her Grandma's evasive eyes, Jiang Du felt something rush into her chest, churning and surging. She almost blurted out a question.

But again, she didn't. She said nothing, just smiled sweetly as if she hadn't heard anything. "I'll give one of my little potted plants to Auntie Li as a return gift."

Those were flower seedlings her grandpa had brought back from the countryside during the summer vacation. Jiang Du had been raising them, and they were all thriving in their pots.

The holiday ended, and Jiang Du still hadn't seen Wei Qingyue at the Municipal Library. However, in the last two days, she unexpectedly ran into other classmates from her class. They chatted idly about their university aspirations and which wealthy classmates might go abroad. In the middle of this, Wei Qingyue was suddenly mentioned. Jiang Du was like a silent little insect, listening quietly, while inwardly regretting why she hadn't asked him that day which country he was planning to go to and which university he would attend.

On the afternoon of the last day of the National Day holiday, students returned to school one after another. By the evening self-study session, it was still bustling with noise. There were days' worth of idle chatter that needed to be let out.

That letter, it seemed, had come to nothing. As Jiang Du passed by Class One, she glanced over extremely quickly out of the corner of her eye. Unfortunately, it was too fast. Other than a blur of figures in Class One, she saw nothing.

The next day, Monday, during the flag-raising ceremony, Wei Qingyue was, shockingly, not there. Jiang Du widened her eyes and checked several times, but he was still nowhere to be seen.

This was very strange.

'He was a flag-raiser, how could he not be here on a Monday? The entire holiday, he hadn't shown up at the library either. Is he sick? Or... did he get into a fight?'

Driven by such thoughts, even the most honest and well-behaved girl could muster up a strange courage. Jiang Du hesitated for a few seconds, then quietly tugged on Zhang Xiaoqiang, who was standing in front of her. "My stomach hurts. Can you tell Teacher Xu later that I went to the restroom first?"

Heaven knows how she, Jiang Du, had also learned to lie. Her face was red, and her heart was beating fast.

Heaven must be punishing her. Just as she ran out, her stomach actually started to ache faintly. Jiang Du was astonished that the punishment had come so quickly. She was especially annoyed and had no choice but to run towards the restroom.

Actually, there was a small restroom on every floor of the academic building. Near the ginkgo forest to the left of the academic building, there was also an extra-large restroom. Sometimes, if people found the restrooms on their floor too crowded and didn't want to wait, they would come down here.

Sunlight was trickling sparsely into the woods.

Jiang Du suddenly saw a figure standing there, blatantly smoking. She hadn't seen him for the whole holiday. She didn't know if it was an illusion, but he seemed to have grown taller. For some reason, it reminded her of the trees in a primeval forest—no, of the unknown plants hidden beneath the trees, the kind that would shoot up unhesitatingly the moment they caught a ray of sunlight, not letting go of any opportunity to grow.

The boy saw her too. At first, his expression was blank, exuding a kind of intimidating aura. For some reason, his appearance struck Jiang Du as both novel and amusing, and she really couldn't stop her lips from curving.

'This guy, skipping the flag-raising ceremony to hide here and smoke. Why does he always act like a bad boy?'

As if seeing her faint smile, Wei Qingyue greeted her by name. Jiang Du pretended to be very calm, nodded, and asked, seemingly casually, "You didn't go to the flag-raising?"

It seemed she had even forgotten about her stomachache.

Wei Qingyue just smiled, holding the cigarette between his index finger and thumb. He took a few deep drags and said, "What a coincidence, you always catch me. Don't go snitching on me to the dean of discipline, or I'll beat you up."

'Listen to that. Are those words the top student should be saying?'

Jiang Du wanted to act more natural, but then she thought of the letter. The feeling was as if Wei Qingyue had suddenly seen her naked. He didn't know she was the one who wrote it... but it was still so embarrassing, so mortifying.

Her face flushed red. She was stunned for a moment before managing to squeeze out a sentence: "I don't like to gossip about others." As for the rest of what she wanted to say—to advise him not to fight with people, not to smoke like an adult—looking at his rebellious and indifferent expression, Jiang Du, for the first time, understood the meaning of: I wished to speak, but had forgotten the words.