Cheng Che ran all the way home, nearly two minutes faster than usual.
He was hot all over from running, sweat trickling down his temples, and hit a red light just as he passed the entrance to his residential complex.
He leaned on the roadside railing to catch his breath, not noticing the black Audi stopped in the lane beside him.
Inside, Wang Xiumei held the steering wheel and turned to glance at him.
After just one glance, she silently rolled up the window.
She wasn't an idiot.
Her own son, Zhou Hao, had already told her how famous Cheng Che had become at school.
His grades shot up faster than a drop tower ride, he grew more handsome by the day, and one speech at the flag-raising ceremony had left every girl at school staring. He was practically a campus celebrity.
Meanwhile, the son she had painstakingly raised for eighteen years...
Wang Xiumei glanced at the back seat through the rearview mirror.
Zhou Hao had his head down, playing on his phone. Some game filled the screen; the volume wasn't high, but the noisy sound effects came through quite clearly.
An inexplicable fury rose in Wang Xiumei, and she reached back to snatch his phone away. "Do a few more practice papers when we get home."
Zhou Hao stared, dumbfounded, at his empty hands. "Mom? I'm in a ranked match-"
"Is your ranked match more important than your college entrance exam?" Wang Xiumei tossed the phone onto the passenger seat. "Look at Cheng Che. He studies even when he's running. And what are you doing? Playing games. Aren't you ashamed?"
Zhou Hao opened his mouth, but ultimately couldn't get a word out.
He felt he was already innocent enough. Was a creature like Cheng Che someone a human could compare to?
Cheng Che ran upstairs and pushed the door open so hard it nearly hit the shoe cabinet.
Cheng Jianguo was watching the news on the sofa and jumped at the noise. "What's going on? Were wolves chasing you?"
"Practicing my sprint," Cheng Che said casually, changing his shoes and heading for the bathroom.
Jiang Xue happened to come out of the kitchen. She caught him by the arm and studied his face for a long while.
Her scrutiny made Cheng Che uncomfortable. "Mom, what is it?"
Jiang Xue said nothing, simply reaching out to pinch his cheek.
"My son's gotten even more handsome," she said in all seriousness. "Tell Mom, have lots of girls at school been writing you love letters?"
Cheng Che's seasoned face turned red.
Cheng Jianguo grinned beside them and twisted the knife:
"Your mom's so old-fashioned. Who writes love letters these days? They leave evidence and waste paper. Isn't it all QQ and WeChat now? Right, son?"
The sweat on Cheng Che's forehead flowed even harder.
He really had received a lot more friend requests on QQ lately.
At first, he thought they were classmates from other classes wanting help with questions, so he casually accepted a few.
But after being added, they chatted about this and that for ages before suddenly saying, "Cheng Che, I like you. Can I be your girlfriend?"
Cheng Che: "..."
Even more absurdly, someone with a boy's profile picture had added him, exchanged a few words, then said, "Bro, I think you're really handsome. Would you consider having a boyfriend?"
Cheng Che had been so frightened he deleted the person immediately.
"Nothing of the sort." Cheng Che wiped his sweat and turned toward his room. "I'm going to read for a while."
Cheng Jianguo called after him, "Oh, right, don't run after school on Friday. Your mom and I will pick you up, and we'll head straight back to our hometown."
Cheng Che paused.
Oh, right. Grandpa Xu's birthday banquet.
"Got it," he said.
After dinner, Cheng Che picked up his tennis bag and went out as usual.
"Off to play tennis again?" Jiang Xue asked from the kitchen.
"Yeah. I'll practice for an hour and come back."
"Go on." Jiang Xue didn't stop him. "It's good to have a hobby. Better than playing games at home."
Cheng Jianguo added:
"Exactly. Back when we were his age, those boys in our village had already learned to play cards and drink. My son plays tennis. Even saying it sounds classy."
Cheng Che left with a smile.
He was in a hurry and left his phone charging on the bedside table.
What he didn't know was that his QQ had already exploded.
At Guo Xin's home.
Guo Xin had just finished dinner and was sprawled on the sofa playing on his phone, both legs propped higher than his head.
His mother, Mother Guo, passed with a mop. Seeing her son in that sorry state, she felt anger well up:
"Your deskmate is Cheng Che, right? Can't you learn from him? All you do when you get home is lie around on your phone."
Guo Xin didn't even look up:
"I did learn. I improved. My talent's limited. Don't blame me. Blame yourselves for not matching your genes properly."
Mother Guo knocked his calf with the mop handle:
"Now you're blaming me? Always a smart mouth!"
"Ow-" Guo Xin clutched his leg and was about to make another couple of wisecracks when his finger suddenly scrolled across something on the screen. He jerked upright as though electrocuted. "Holy shit!!"
Mother Guo jumped and gave him another smack. "Are you trying to die? Making such a fuss."
"No, Mom, look!" Guo Xin held the phone in front of her, his fingers trembling. "Th-this..."
Mother Guo squinted at it. A music video was playing on the screen.
In the shot, a young man in a white shirt stood beside a classroom window, the light tracing his profile in clean, crisp lines.
Her eyes lit up. "Oh, what a handsome young man. If you were half as handsome as him, you wouldn't have to worry about finding a girlfriend in college."
Guo Xin was on the verge of tears:
"Mom, that's Cheng Che! My deskmate! Cheng Che!"
Mother Guo froze. "Cheng Che? The one whose grades improved so much?"
"That's him!"
"Isn't he just a high school senior? How's he ended up shooting a music video?"
"What do you mean, a music video? This is Yan Ruanning's song! My goddess! My goddess! Cheng Che's in the same frame as my goddess!" Guo Xin hugged his phone, looking as anguished as if he'd suffered a breakup. "That bastard Cheng Che didn't even tell me! He actually knows Yan Ruanning! And he didn't get me an autograph! I'm going to kill him!"
As he spoke, he opened QQ, tapped Cheng Che's chat window, and began furiously firing off messages.
"Cheng Che!"
"You dog!"
"Get out here!"
"Yan Ruanning's autograph! I want her autograph! Ten of them!"
"Or our friendship's over! Over!"
"Aaaaaaah how do you know my goddess!"
"Am I even still your deskmate?!!"
"You don't deserve me! You don't deserve me!"
Message followed message, making the phone vibrate nonstop.
The girls' dormitory at Spring City No. 13 Middle School.
At ten sharp, evening self-study ended.
Su Qingyue returned to the dormitory, put down her schoolbag, and went to the sinks first.
The faucet gushed. She cupped a handful of cold water and splashed her face, closing her eyes and letting out a long breath.
She didn't know what had gotten into her these past two days. She kept spacing out in class and couldn't settle down to work on problems.
Images of the flag-raising ceremony kept rising unbidden in her mind.
The person standing before the microphone, his white shirt, his short black hair, the sunlight spilling around him from behind as though edging his entire figure in light.
"Qingyue, are you done washing? I need to wash too."
Her roommate's voice came from behind her.
"Almost."
Su Qingyue turned off the faucet, dried her face with a towel, and stepped aside.
Before she could sit down, her best friend Lin Xiaoya suddenly sprang up from her bed, stared at her phone, and screamed.
"Aah-!"
All six other girls in the dormitory jumped.
"What happened? What happened? Is there a cockroach?"
"A mouse?"
The girls in the dormitory were all startled. One put her slippers on the wrong feet, another was hanging laundry and sent a hanger flying from her hand, and one who was about to wash up nearly squeezed facial cleanser onto her toothbrush.
Lin Xiaoya looked up, her face flushed bright red with excitement. "Yan Ruanning! Yan Ruanning released a new song!"
Everyone froze for a moment before their hearts settled back into place.
"Tch, I thought it was an earthquake." Zhou Qing rolled her eyes from the upper bunk while straightening the clothes that had been messed up. "It's just a new song. 'Midsummer Reply,' right? I listened to it this afternoon. The lyrics and composition are seriously top-tier, and the singing's great too."
Lin Xiaoya shook her head fiercely. "Not the song! Look at the MV! The MV!"
"What's wrong with the MV? It's not like you haven't seen her old ones. Is this really necessary?"
"Exactly. Which of her MVs isn't as beautiful as a painting?"
Lin Xiaoya slapped her quilt in agitation. "Cheng Che's in it! Cheng Che!"
That name was like a stone tossed into a lake.
"Huh?"
"Cheng Che?"
Lin Xiaoya stopped talking, jumped straight off her bed, and held her phone up in front of everyone. Several heads crowded around it all at once.
On the screen, the video had only just begun.
In an early-morning classroom, a young man stood by the window, his white shirt collar slightly open, one hand in his pocket as he looked outside in profile.
Light streamed in from behind him to one side, outlining an exceptionally clean silhouette.
It was Cheng Che.
"Holy..."
"What is this? Isn't he the white moonlight straight out of a novel?"
"Isn't this the Spring City promotional video? I thought they'd just filmed someone at random. They actually invited him specifically?"
The scene changed.
On a tennis court, a yellow-green ball carved a sharp arc.
Cheng Che ran along the baseline, swung his racket, and turned. Sweat glittered in the sunlight.
In the final shot, he turned back toward the camera as though looking for someone.
Everyone's heart skipped half a beat in unison.
"Those legs... that waist... how is that fair?" Zhou Qing murmured.
"I'm done for. My standards for a boyfriend have gone up again."
"Do you think he has a girlfriend now?"
"Probably not..."
"Then what are we waiting for?"
"Forget it. Would you ever get a turn with a guy like that?"
Lin Xiaoya had already collapsed onto her bed, rolling around with a pillow in her arms. "This is white moonlight! My white moonlight! A living one! The kind who plays tennis!"
"This morning you said your ultimate bias was the stray cat downstairs."
"That's different! The cat is my spiritual anchor. Cheng Che is my youth's reply!"
"Stop being so lovestruck-"
"Enough, enough. Let's watch it again."
"I want to watch too!"
The girls laughed and teased, while only Su Qingyue stood to one side without saying anything.
She suddenly felt her face grow very hot.
As though a ball of fire had burned from her ears to her cheeks, then down to her neck.
She turned back to the sinks and splashed her face with cold water several more times.
The mirror reflected her appearance: bangs clinging damply to her temples, eyes shimmering with moisture, as though she had just awakened from a dream.
She looked at the person in the mirror and suddenly shook her head hard.
"Su Qingyue, get a grip..."
An upscale residential complex somewhere in Spring City.
Zhao Lei's room was quiet. His desk lamp was on, and the science comprehensive paper he had just finished lay spread across the desk.
His mother, Qin Yu, knocked and opened the door, bringing in a plate of sliced fruit. "Finished? Here, have some fruit and take a break. I won't disturb you. Take your time studying."
Zhao Lei nodded. "Leave it there. I'll check my answers again."
Qin Yu set down the fruit plate and quietly withdrew.
Zhao Lei finished checking his answers. 101 points. A 101 in science comprehensive was a little lower than last time, but with the increased difficulty, it was still normal.
He let out a breath and pulled his phone from the drawer.
The QQ class group had 99+ unread messages.
He frowned. The college entrance exam was almost here, and they were still chatting so enthusiastically?
He tapped into it.
The more he read, the stranger it seemed.
"Did you see the video? Cheng Che is absolutely incredible!"
"I saw it! I saw it! I thought it was fake, but it's an official MV released by Yan Ruanning!"
"When did Cheng Che go shoot that? I never heard him mention it at all!"
"I was even asking him about problems between classes. He really kept this quiet..."
"I hereby declare that, starting today, Cheng Che is my dream guy."
Zhao Lei: ?
He exited QQ, opened Bilibili, and typed "Midsummer Reply" into the search bar.
The first result was Yan Ruanning's official music video.
He hesitated, then tapped it.
Bullet comments instantly flooded the screen.
[Dream guy incoming! High-energy warning!]
[Here for my white moonlight!] x999
[Heard there was a hot guy. I'm here to pass judgment.]
[Third watch. This guy is absolutely unreal.]
[Those looks, that aura, that tennis... why even bother with senior year? Just debut already.]
Zhao Lei watched expressionlessly. A dozen or so seconds into the video, the scene cut to a classroom.
Morning light spilled through the windows. The boy stood by the window with one hand in his pocket, turned sideways as he looked outside.
Zhao Lei stared at the screen, motionless.
Fucking hell.
Why did this guy have to look this good even in a music video?
He let go of his phone, leaned back against his chair, and closed his eyes.
After a long while, he raised a hand to rub his temples and gave a helpless laugh. "He really... won't leave the rest of us any room to survive."