"I just... didn't want you to get soaked." Ding Yebai said between ragged breaths.
Yang Zhi: "..."
Her pupils widened slightly, and the hand buried in her bag instinctively tightened around the umbrella.
What kind of feeling was this...?
Her heart thundered once, and then she couldn't feel anything else. Her gaze instinctively focused only on that person.
She stared straight at Ding Yebai standing below the steps, taking in his dripping-wet hair and pant legs, which were soaked through more than halfway. He looked up at her sincerely, his hand still gripping the umbrella handle tightly. He seemed extremely nervous, anxiously waiting for her answer.
The rain showed no sign of letting up. Pedestrians hurried past, and everything in the world continued growing as usual.
Yet at this moment, in the eyes of the two of them, it seemed as though there was only each other.
For a long while,
Yang Zhi lowered her eyes, her long eyelashes trembling lightly.
If anything in this world could be called "the most beautiful," then in her heart, this moment was the most beautiful and luckiest scene of all.
"Ding Yebai."
"Hmm?"
"Let's go back."
"Hmm."
Yang Zhi took her hand out of her bag, stepped down the stairs, and then took the initiative to walk beneath Ding Yebai's umbrella.
Ding Yebai: "You didn't..."
Hadn't she said she had brought an umbrella?
Even though he hadn't finished, Yang Zhi knew what he wanted to say. She straightened up, took a deep breath, tightened her grip on her shoulder bag, and smiled brightly at him. "Let's go. You came all the way here to pick me up, didn't you?"
You braved the heavy rain and came all the way here to pick me up with an umbrella. If I took out my own umbrella now, wouldn't you be terribly upset?
"...All right." Ding Yebai turned his head to look ahead, feeling a little happy.
They had only walked a few steps when the raindrops suddenly grew lighter.
Yang Zhi looked up at the sky and blurted out, "With this rain, you probably won't be able to hold your sports meet, right?"
Ding Yebai: "Yeah. Luckily, I finished my event this morning."
Yang Zhi: "What did you compete in?"
Ding Yebai: "The 1,000-meter race."
"The 1,000-meter race." The light in Yang Zhi's eyes dimmed slightly as she continued asking, "How did it go?"
Ding Yebai: "Not very well, actually. There were athletes ahead of me, and I couldn't outrun them. I only came in sixth. That's a terrible placing."
"I was asking how your body feels."
"...Huh?"
Ding Yebai looked at Yang Zhi in confusion and delight. "You..."
Yang Zhi firmly repeated herself. "I was actually asking how your body feels. It was a long-distance race, after all. When I ran the 800 meters back then, I was always exhausted. I wondered how you felt."
"My body is obviously much better than yours!" Ding Yebai hurriedly explained. "I'm a guy. Running a race is nothing to me!"
He felt so strange. It was almost as if this were a competition, and he had to prove that his stamina was excellent.
"That's good." Yang Zhi smiled calmly. "As long as you're not hurt. Besides, isn't sixth place pretty good? You said yourself that the people ahead of you were all athletes. They trained specifically for this. Different people excel at different things, so it's normal that you couldn't outrun them."
She paused, then looked ahead and said, "It's like if they competed against you in math and science scores."
Ding Yebai: "That's true."
There wasn't a single person in the entire senior class whose math and science scores could surpass his.
Yang Zhi: "In my eyes, you're truly very smart."
A fleeting trace of smugness flashed through Ding Yebai's dark eyes. Then his expression turned cold again. "Ha... I think I'm pretty smart too."
Yang Zhi's eyes crinkled with a smile as she gave him an exasperated sidelong glance. "You really aren't modest at all~"
Ding Yebai: "..."
Youthful pride was probably one of his hidden traits.
The two of them walked slowly beneath the umbrella like that until they arrived at Yang Zhi's home.
Grandma sat inside the house and looked at them.
"I didn't expect you to go looking for Yang Zhi, Ye Bai."
"Yeah."
After seeing Yang Zhi inside, Ding Yebai was about to leave.
He hadn't expected Yang Zhi to call him back just as he was leaving.
The two of them stood beneath the covered walkway, gazing at each other.
Yang Zhi: "I'm sorry, but I'll be going out of town to study next week, so I can't tutor you this week. We won't have classes during the National Day holiday afterward either, so get some good rest."
Ding Yebai: "Yeah. I know."
Yang Zhi: "I..." As she spoke, she took several test papers from her bag and handed them to Ding Yebai. "I found a few sets of specialized exercises for you. I chose them specifically based on how you've been doing on your recent problems. Work through them carefully, and if you encounter anything you don't understand, remember to ask me on WeChat."
Ding Yebai: "Yeah." He took out his phone. "But Sister Yang Zhi, we haven't added each other on WeChat yet."
Yang Zhi froze for a moment, then shook her head helplessly, wondering how she could be so foolish. Was she really as dense as a block of wood? She had always communicated through her senior sister before, and after all this time, she still hadn't added him on WeChat.
"Remember to do them seriously. If you want to improve your grades, you can't slack off. I hope you can score even higher on the next monthly exam than you did this time, all right?"
"Sure."
Ding Yebai gave her a firm promise.
"If there's nothing else, I'll be going." Ding Yebai tightened his grip on the umbrella handle. Realizing there was nothing more to talk about, he prepared to leave.
"Wait a second." Unexpectedly, Yang Zhi stopped him again.
Ding Yebai: "...What is it?"
Yang Zhi blinked her bright, limpid eyes at him, looking somewhat awkward. The corners of her mouth twitched uncontrollably.
"Ah... um... nothing."
"If it's nothing, I'll be going."
"Wait."
"..."
They went back and forth like this...
Ding Yebai: "Sister Yang Zhi, is there something you want to say?"
He could clearly tell that Yang Zhi had something to tell him, but she just wouldn't say it!
Yang Zhi's face flushed slightly, and her awkwardness was plain to see.
Her right hand, which she had kept hidden behind her back, finally emerged.
Huh?
She was holding a box of Bear cookies.
Ding Yebai: "What's this?"
Yang Zhi knitted her brows slightly and lowered her eyes, mumbling shyly, "Will you... think it's too childish?"
Ding Yebai: "For me?"
He was thrilled and delighted inside, but his face was unbelievably, unbelievably calm!!!
Yang Zhi: "Thank you for helping me out before. I thought I'd buy you something to eat. I looked around, and somehow ended up buying this box of Bear cookies. But after I bought them, I started regretting it. I kept feeling like you wouldn't like them."
"I like them!" Ding Yebai snatched the Bear cookies from her. Every pattern and every word on the box seemed incredibly charming to him. They were all works of art!!!
Seeing how happy he was, Yang Zhi secretly rejoiced as well. She clasped both hands behind her back, looking like a serene and gentle older sister.
"I'm glad you like them."
"I really like them. Thank you, Sister Yang Zhi... Huh?!"
The moment Ding Yebai finished speaking, he clamped his mouth shut. He had gotten so carried away that he couldn't even control his own mouth. How embarrassing!!!
It was just as awkward as Conan calling Ran "big sister," all right!!!
Yang Zhi stared in surprise for quite a while. Then she tilted her head slightly, tidied the hair at her temple, and smiled sweetly. "You're welcome."
Her voice was crisp yet warm. Just listening to it made people feel at ease.
Not to mention her healing smile.
Ah... this was wonderful.
She was so wonderful!
That was the first time Ding Yebai had ever been grateful to his older sister.
He was grateful that she knew Yang Zhi, and grateful that she was good friends with Yang Zhi.
Whether it was because he wanted to repay her kindness or because she was his close friend's best friend, he was deeply grateful that Yang Zhi had come into his life.
Because you came, everything in this story began moving in a better direction!
Recently, I watched the TV drama The Day of Becoming You and suddenly realized that switching bodies between a man and a woman was pretty fun.
Before you continue