Back Then, I Adored You

Everyone knew his temperament back then and sensed clearly at the ice-skating rink that he was in a foul mood so, when walking past him, they only dared to call out, “Brother Sheng,” before scurrying away as fast as they could.

Wu Hao was the only one who stopped to converse with him, namely because his girlfriend had brought along a new friend.

“Brother Sheng, this is my girl’s desk mate, Qin Zhi’ai.”

As Wu Hao walked up to tell him this, Gu Yusheng didn’t even bothered to look up and merely lit a cigarette hanging from his mouth; his fingers, however, had quivered slightly upon hearing Qin Zhi’ai’s name and the fire from his lighter burned his pinkie finger.

Although it hurt, the pain forced him to compose himself. Looking down, he took a puff of his cigarette and blew out a smoke ring but, because of the emotions washing over him, the ring came out sloppy. When he finally calmed down, he looked up and took one glance at the girl standing next to Wu Hao.

Without speaking to her, he nodded his head slightly and looked away.

After Xu Wennuan pulled the girl away, Wu Hao took a cigarette out of the pack he’d been holding between his fingers. Placing it in his mouth and lighting it, he said, “Brother Sheng, what do you think? Don’t you feel that Xiao’ai lives up to the title of Campus Belle?”

What a strange question to ask. How does it concern me as to whether or not she lives up to the title of campus belle?

Gu Yusheng’s eyelids fluttered, and he ignored Wu Hao.

Wu Hao, of course, also knew that he was in a foul mood and, not wanting to get into trouble with him, after noticing that Xu Wennuan had already slipped into her pair of ice skates, he said, “Brother Sheng, I need to go rescue my girl,” and quickly took off.

Gu Yusheng continued leaning against the wall quietly and, as if the deafening DJ music in the ice-skating rink didn’t exist, he puffed one cigarette after another.

His father had smashed the ashtray so hard into his back that waves of pain had not stopped rippling through his body. At one point, he winced and quickly looked away from the colorful lights on the ceiling of the ice-skating rink. Coincidentally, Qin Zhi’ai passed by before him and his gaze landed on her face. As if she could detect this, she turned and took one look in his direction.

Their eyes met and his fingers trembled, causing the ash on his cigarette to fall off.

He looked down hurriedly and stomped out his cigarette. With his head still down and his hands in his pockets, he continued to stand there silently for some time before turning and leaving the rink without a word.

Not knowing what the situation was like back home, he didn’t feel like returning there, so he headed to his favorite internet cafe.

Getting a single room, he laid on the sofa with his jacket covering his head and fell into a deep sleep. By the time he woke up, it was already midnight. As he turned on the computer and typed in his password to log in to his game, surprisingly, the image of how Qin Zhi’ai’s eyes had looked into his at the ice-skating rink from that afternoon flashed across his mind.

Her eyes were bright and lively, as if they could speak, and they were so alluring…

But the incident at the ice-skating rink was not what had made him start to notice her. It was one particular time after they had seen each other several times.

On that day, a group of them hung out at the internet cafe all night. Having played computer games until the wee hours, Gu Yusheng was getting tired and, leaning lazily against the chair with his earphones on, he began watching some American dramas. Suddenly, a girl ran up to him.

With his earphones on and the volume turned up, he hadn’t clearly heard what she’d been saying, but right after that he saw her place a bottle of green tea before him.

What does this mean?

Puzzled, he glanced at her. She remained silent, and then he figured it out.