Xue Yang slept for a very, very long ti.
From 12:00 p.m., he slept straight through until 6:00 a.m. the next morning. Six a.m. was his biological clock; for the past few years, he had woken up promptly at this ti almost without fail.
He awoke to find himself alone. Outside, the winter sky was still dark.
For a mont, Xue Yang thought it was only 6:00 p.m., but the date on his phone clearly read: January 2, 2015.
He could deceive himself, but technology deceived no one. You could say he had slept straight through New Year’s Day.
In his slumber, he seed to have had a long, long dream. In the dream, a beautiful young girl lived with him. She would act coy and affectionate, and he would cook for her.
She would warm his bed, and he would hold her and kiss her without restraint.
He would make her a beautiful Christmas tree, take her skiing and to hot springs, stroll through the streets, and go shopping... they would do so, so many things together.
Xue Yang sat blankly on the bed, his expression as vacant as a walking corpse’s.
A large part of his heart was empty, a void that no amount of sleep could fill.
He looked around the room. Lin Xi’s belongings were still there, untouched. Inhaling her unique scent that lingered in the air, Xue Yang knew he hadn’t been dreaming.
He gently caressed the notebook Lin Xi had written in. Her elegant handwriting was on the pages, just like her.
"Silly girl, promise you’ll get into Yanbei University. I’ll wait for you here."
Afterward, Xue Yang dressed and went downstairs. The piercing north wind howled. He had never found the northern winters to be particularly cold before, but at this mont, he finally felt it.
It’s so cold. A bone-chilling cold, so intense it made his very soul tremble.
Just as he reached the landing, he ran into the elderly man and woman from next door, who were returning from their morning walk.
"Good morning, young man," the old woman greeted Xue Yang with a smile.
"Good morning, sir. Good morning, ma’am," Xue Yang replied politely.
It seed he hadn’t seen the elderly couple for the past few days.
"Is your little girlfriend ho?"
"She’s not ho. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, it’s nothing. My granddaughter really liked the clothes I bought from your little girlfriend last ti, and I wanted to ask where she got them so I could buy so more."
"You’re saying... my girlfriend sold you clothes?"
"Ah, yes. Such a pretty and well-behaved little girl. She said she wanted to buy you a Christmas gift but didn’t have enough money, so she was thinking of selling so of her unworn clothes at the nearby market. It just so happened that an old woman like saw her, so I bought them. It seed she still didn’t have enough, so I even suggested she could work as a temp at Yonghui Supermarket. I don’t know if she ended up going or not."
Yonghui Supermarket, a temp job?
Xue Yang suddenly rembered. On Christmas Eve, when he was returning from the university, he had passed by Yonghui Supermarket to buy a pair of matching bracelets and had seen a Santa Claus who looked very familiar.
It seed that Santa Claus had been Lin Xi. The next day, it must have been a different person because Auntie Shen had arrived.
That silly girl. She had done so much for him where he couldn’t see.
"Young man, you’re a lucky one. With a girlfriend who loves you so much, you must be sure to treat her well."
"Thank you, ma’am!" Xue Yang said sincerely.
If she hadn’t told him, Xue Yang might never have known about the things Lin Xi had done. That was just like her, always preferring to give silently.
"Alright, alright. But young man, you still haven’t told where the clothes were bought?"
"Ma’am, we buy all our clothes from ’Chao Fashion’."
"And where is this store?" the old woman asked humbly.
"It’s on Taobao. You can just search for it. Your granddaughter should know how."
"Hah, I hope you don’t mind saying this, young man," the old woman said, a little embarrassed. "My granddaughter is all grown up now and doesn’t co back very often. Last ti, I told her I bought clothes for her to get her to co pick them up. So I thought, if I buy her a little more, maybe she’ll co to pick them up next ti. We’re old and can’t easily go see her, so we have to use this thod to get her to co see us."
Xue Yang froze for a second. At that mont, he thought of his own grandparents. It seed he hadn’t called them in a very long ti either.
"Ma’am, I can teach you how to buy it."
Xue Yang was a patient teacher, and he only left to catch the bus after the old woman had learned how.
Because he had spent ti teaching the old woman how to shop online, Xue Yang was late to class for the first ti since starting university.
Master Miejue’s brow furrowed tightly, but in the end, she let him into the classroom.
After he sat down, Cui Hao nudged his arm. "Xue Yang, what’s with you?"
Xue Yang was confused. "What?"
"I’m asking why you were late today."
"I accidentally overslept, so I was late," Xue Yang said naturally.
This excuse was quite normal for so university students, but it was absolutely not normal for Xue Yang.
"Even though you look the sa as usual, I just feel like sothing’s off about you. Did sothing happen?"
As expected of his bro, Cui Hao could always tell when sothing was wrong with him.
Xue Yang dodged the question. "Starting today, I’m moving back into the dorm. Happy?"
Cui Hao imdiately seized on the key information. "Did you and your girlfriend break up?"
"How is that possible? We will never break up," Xue Yang stated firmly.
"Then why did you suddenly decide to move back to campus?"
"She went ho."
"Huh?" Cui Hao didn’t quite understand what he ant.
Master Miejue’s gaze seed to drift in their direction, and Cui Hao imdiately clamped his mouth shut.
He impatiently waited until class was finally over, then imdiately pulled Xue Yang aside to question him.
"Let’s go. Ti to eat."
Xue Yang stood up and headed toward the cafeteria.
"Hey, wait for ! And what did you an by that just now?"
Doesn’t "went ho" just an they broke up? Or am I misunderstanding sothing?
The two of them horsed around all the way to the cafeteria, just like when the sester first started. The originally bustling cafeteria fell quiet upon their arrival. Or rather, it fell quiet because of Xue Yang. The noise quickly returned, though.
"Xue Yang, do you feel like the cafeteria is a little weird today?"
"Is it?" Xue Yang looked up and glanced around. Everyone was busy eating. "Seems normal to ."
However, he didn’t know that the mont he lowered his head, everyone’s eyes involuntarily drifted back to him, only more discreetly this ti.
"Did you get up to sothing outside these past three days and get caught by the school’s gossip squad? Co on, spill it. Confession earns you leniency, but resistance gets you the maximum penalty."
"I went to Kou City two days ago and slept at ho all day yesterday. Where could I have gone?"
"Really? That’s strange then."
After getting his food, Cui Hao started shoveling it into his mouth. Nope, I have to figure out why everyone’s acting so strange today.
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