Time Passed Us By - Chapter 1

It was a misty winter morning. The white school buildings seemed to have melted into the white fog, and only the faint flickering lights could be seen through the transparent or pale green glass windows, overlapping with numerous shadows.

The abrupt fog made many students arrive late. At the school entrance, the dean on duty couldn’t blame the students and only repeatedly told them, “Move faster! When you arrive at the classroom, don’t chat and start the early morning reading.”

Following the large group of students, Song Jianan pushed her bike into the garage, found a convenient parking spot, locked her bike, and took her school bag. Just as she fixed the directions of her bike handles and was ready to leave, she saw a tall, skinny boy standing in the front row of the parking spots. His back was very good-looking, his posture was quite lean, and the blue and white school sports uniform he was wearing fitted him very well with the sleeves rolled up to his arms, revealing the shiny surface of the watch on his wrist. He was struggling to squeeze some space for his bike. His movements were slow but graceful. Song Jianan couldn’t help but take one more glance at him, and then spun around and left.

Like the usual morning, as soon as the exhausting early morning reading ended, everyone dashed downstairs to get hot water. The hot water boiler was fully surrounded. The teacher who taught the first class walked in and waved her hands in disdain as she exclaimed, “Hurry up and go open the windows to let some fresh air in! For those who want to sleep, stop sleeping and go clear your head. Stand up and move around!”

After a gust of cold wind hit Song Jianan’s head, she shivered for a bit and struggled to get out of her seat. The class bell also rang, and the Chinese teacher slowly wrote “Ode to Ah Fang Palace” across the blackboard. In the middle of class, Song Jianan ripped off a piece of paper and quickly wrote, “I’ll go to the cafeteria to eat lunch with you. My parents are on a business trip.” She passed the note to the student in the row behind her and whispered, “For Zhang JingKang.”

Not long after, the note came back around. Besides the word “OK,” there was also a smiley face next to it. Song Jianan crumpled the paper softly and casually threw it inside her desk. Soon, the teacher’s dull voice came back to her, making her sleepy. Suddenly, she felt a warm sensation flash across the back of her hand. A thin shroud of light on her elbow slowly stretched out in all directions, getting longer and wider until her whole face was covered with the warmth of the winter sun.

Song Jianan’s mood instantly improved, motivating her to give 120% attention to the boring lesson.

The bell for the last class finally rang, but it was quickly drowned out by the English teacher’s voice. Accompanied by the sound of several closing books, she said, “Don’t move, students. Let me finish talking this part out.”

The class was in a commotion. There had already been students leaning back on their chairs, impatiently looking at the clock located in the back of the classroom. Some students also started to noisily flip the pages of their books on purpose. Rulers and pencil cases fell to the floor at the same time. Some boys in the back then shouted, “Class is over! Other classes are already being dismissed. There won’t be any food left in the cafeteria, and we won’t be able to get our bikes out!”

However, the newly graduated teacher didn’t even pause and kept talking. Song Jianan looked over her shoulder and met Zhang JingKang’s fiery eyes. Song Jianan smiled and mouthed, “Since we can’t get the food, let’s just go a bit later and take our time.”

Zhang JingKang gestured exaggeratedly, “No way, we’ll get out of here as soon as class ends. By running.”

The class next door had already been dismissed. Students were coming and going in the corridor. Some glanced at this class with eyes that could be filled with sympathy or gloating. There were also some pretty girls leaning against the wall, winking at some of the cute boys in the classroom. When the young English teacher finally said, “Let’s call it a day,” the class immediately erupted. In less than a minute, most of the students left.

At the doorway of the classroom, Zhang JingKang yelled, “Song Jianan, are you a pig? Hurry up, you’re so slow! There won’t be any pork ribs left if you’re late!”

Song Jianan felt like crying but had no tears, and nearly begging her deskmate, she said, “Big sis, just stand up and let me pass through first. I need to go to the cafeteria today and grab my food. Ay, do you not see that I already have my meal card in my hand?”

They ran into the cafeteria, where students were everywhere, sitting at tables and eating. There was a long line in front of the window, and people were passing by with ribs and chicken legs. Zhang Jingkang kept complaining, “That English teacher is so annoying. Why does she keep the class late all day long? This happens every time!”

Song Jianan was not focusing, leaning forward from time to time to see how many dishes had already been picked. But when she leaned forward again, a familiar figure flashed before her eyes. The same thin shoulders, with a sports school uniform casually draped over his shoulders and the sleeves of the white shirt underneath rolled up high as if he had just come from PE class.

He bent down and chose his dishes, then stood to one side of the line to let the next person come forward. Then, he took out the meal card from his pocket and quickly slid it through the card reader. Song Jianan watched him turn around with the plate. In the rowdy cafeteria, she could hear her heartbeat, heavy and rapid. For a moment, she couldn’t take her eyes away.

It was a kind of aloof expression. His face was so blank that it was almost clear, with narrow eyes staring forward without a focus. His hair spread across his forehead, either intentionally or unintentionally, blocking his sight. The curves of the corners of his mouth were gloomy and arrogant.

Such a boy can undoubtedly be regarded as a cold, arrogant, and delicate young man. At the age of sixteen or seventeen, he has the same clear and clean temperament as the peaceful night, making it difficult to predict what kind of soul he has at first glance.

He walked without looking up, perhaps out of habit, with his head slightly lowered. He passed through the crowd and walked out of Song Jianan’s sight in just five seconds.

However, strangely, not many people noticed him.

Because that boy was sitting and facing towards her at a table not far from hers, Song Jianan was not concentrating on her meal. She could see from the corner of her eyes that he was holding chopsticks with his left hand, eating very quickly but in an elegant manner.

After he finished eating, he stood up and took the plate to the bathroom, took out the earbuds from his pocket, plugged them into his ears, and went out through the door, still with his head slightly lowered, carrying an expressionless face.

She finally couldn’t help but ask, “Zhang Jingkang, who is that boy over there?”

Zhang Jingkang, with a piece of pork rib in her mouth, turned her head with difficulty and then told her incoherently, “Su Li.”

Song Jianan put down her chopsticks and tried to search for the name in her head. She knew the name wasn’t unfamiliar to her. When she couldn’t think of it for a while, Zhang Jingkang then turned her head and explained, “The class monitor of Class 8, our neighboring class.”

She let out a soft “oh” and finally remembered all the rumors about him: He was admitted to junior high school through the exams at ShiYan Middle School, ranked among the top in the city, was commended at the opening school ceremony, and it was no wonder that he was admitted to the best intensive science class in high school.

In addition, he comes from a wealthy family with a third-generation background. His father is a mayor, his mother is a director of the city’s Education Bureau, and his older sister is Su Jin, a famous entertainment channel host in the province.

Seeing her dazed look, Zhang Jingkang poked her hands with chopsticks and said, “Hey, Song Jianan, come back to your senses. You didn’t even recognize Su Li, I really admire you!”

Song Jianan shook her head as she said, “I really didn’t know, I haven’t seen him since the beginning of the school year.”

Zhang Jingkang chuckled, “You don’t even know that the girls in our class take the left staircase every day, just to get a closer look at him. Nonetheless, this guy is strange, he’s not sociable, but he’s popular. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be the monitor of Class 8.”

“Then there should be a lot of girls who like him, right?”

“That should be the case. I don’t know about the junior high ones, but there are indeed a few in high school, but they are all rumors. I also heard that someone confessed to him, but it ended in nothing.” Zhang Jingkang pouted and carelessly said, “I really want to know, what type of girl would this kind of guy even like?”

Song Jianan smiled and said, “Maybe a girl who’s very good at studying and also very pretty.”

“That’s nonsense. What kind of boy doesn’t like girls like that?”

Zhang Jingkang smiled and deliberately put her face in front of Song Jianan, “Song Jianan, do you know our school’s BBS? Recently, we’ve been having a lot of fun on it. Lots of our handsome alumni often hang out there and post messages after entering college. It’s really fun.”

Song Jianan hummed a sound in agreement yet didn’t care, but Zhang Jingkang kept going, “I think that Su Li from Class 8 also frequently hangs out on BBS. He’s even the moderator of Listening to Heavenly Music, recommending multiple songs on it. You also like listening to music. Are you interested in joining together?”

“What interest could I have? None.”

After returning from the office, most of the first-year high school group activity classes had already passed, and there were only a few people left in all the classes. Song Jianan walked around the long corridor, then crossed the bridge on the fourth floor, preparing to return to the classroom.

The winter afternoon was pitifully short. The dim sun shined on the smooth marble wall, casting her shadow. Song Jianan slowly walked towards the classroom. Class 10 was cleaning up and making a lot of noise. Suddenly, she noticed a person resting quietly against the railing opposite Class 8, with his head slightly tilted to one side. When she got closer, she saw that it was Su Li.

His hands were casually placed on the railing, and he looked up at the sky with a focused gaze, but it was also as if he wasn’t looking at anything. His hair hung neatly beside his ears, and he still had earbuds in his ears. She followed his gaze and saw large, thick clouds moving slowly across the sky. There was a shadow of the moon in the clouds, and the sky was a gloomy red.

This kind of scene, because of the crimson sunset glow, had a kind of sad grandeur.

This was what he was watching. Song Jianan stopped and looked silently towards the third floor from the overpass on the fourth floor. Then she saw someone coming to find Su Li. He took off his earbuds and went into the classroom. Song Jianan’s full view of the classroom was perfectly blocked by the angle from which she was standing.

She didn’t know why she had stood on the bridge for so long. At the time, Song Jianan just thought that Su Li looked very unhappy. He was a lonely man, with his arms supported on the railing, facing the sunset, eyebrows furrowed, and watching the sky.

He was unhappy, and the laughter and noise seemed very distant from him.

She was completely unaware that she was in a daze. Her eyes were fixed on Su Li and could not be moved away.

Later, when she described the feeling of seeing Su Li at the time, she said that she just couldn’t help but look at him. Any other person or object was just a foil, which didn’t need to exist and no longer existed.

This one glance instantly turned the splendor of her youth into a piece of blank paper. From then on, the white background was filled with his name in black writing, which couldn’t be erased and penetrated the back of the paper.