After years of practice, the boy in a wool hat had learned to listen to the conversations around him without batting an eye, as naturally as anyone else.
He no longer looked like he was up to no good.
Of course,
he really wasn't up to no good.
He knew what he was doing wasn't quite right.
It was like being a compulsive eavesdropper.
But he couldn't help himself.
Or maybe... he just couldn't let it go.
He kept thinking that he'd stuck with this for so many years; perhaps if he held on a little longer, he'd find the answer he was looking for.
If he gave up now, wouldn't all his efforts have been for nothing?
That thought had kept him going.
Besides, he'd gradually learned to pick out only the key words.
He automatically tuned out anything irrelevant.
He wasn't a tabloid reporter.
Much less a spy.
He didn't want to know other people's secrets.
But surely the things people chatted about on the street weren't secrets...
The boy in a wool hat's first reaction when he saw Zhang Tong was to pretend he hadn't.
It wasn't that he disliked Zhang Tong.
It was just that he'd never been as close to Zhang Tong as he was to the others in their dorm.
And during the last stretch of the previous semester, Zhang Tong had started dating a girl, so he spent even less time with them.
The boy in a wool hat wasn't the sort who warmed up to people easily.
He felt awkward greeting someone he wasn't particularly close to.
To avoid that awkwardness, he often chose to "pretend he hadn't seen them."
This time was no exception.
He lowered his head and looked at the goods in the shop.
A familiar