It looked similar... very similar!
As a hopeless English student, Song Yunshen could understand only a few words of the letter written in English.
But the handwriting...
Unfortunately, it was only in English. Song Yunshen frowned slightly, troubled.
It would have been better if it were in Chinese. After all, handwriting habits in English and Chinese weren't necessarily exactly the same.
But there was indeed a strong possibility that the owner of this letter was also the owner of his Future Diary!
At that thought, Song Yunshen's spirits immediately rose, and he hurried to look for the signature.
The next second, he was dumbfounded.
Why wasn't it signed?
She hadn't even written her class!
Come on, girl... this was a mailbox!
If she didn't write her name and class, how was the student who took her letter supposed to write back to her?
Song Yunshen was speechless. How was he supposed to find her?
He hurried out of the school building and looked toward the school gate, but the graceful figure from earlier was already nowhere to be seen.
After thinking for a moment, Song Yunshen hurried back to the English Club, went to the sign-in sheet by the door, and bent his head to look through it.
The English Club's sign-in sheet was three pages long, with around seventy or eighty members from all three high school grades.
First-years made up the largest group, with around forty.
Next were the second-years, numbering a little over twenty.
There were only a dozen or so third-years, but the college entrance exam was already over, so those dozen or so could be disregarded.
Song Yunshen took out his phone and quickly photographed the sign-in sheet.
Excluding the third-years, the English Club had 68 members.
Of those, 42 were girls.
Taking out those who hadn't signed in yet reduced the number of suspects to 33.
Hmm... that was still a bit much.
Song Yunshen helplessly rubbed his forehead, wondering how his high school life had ended up like this.
It had somehow turned into a detective game.
Just as Song Yunshen was still wondering how to find his future ex-girlfriend among those thirty-odd girls, a figure walked in from outside.
"Huh? Song Yunshen?" Seeing Song Yunshen, Jiang Wenpei stopped in her tracks and looked him up and down. "It's rare to see you at the English Club."
"Teacher Jiang?" Song Yunshen looked at Jiang Wenpei, also a little surprised. "What brought you to the English Club, Teacher?"
"I'm the faculty adviser here." Jiang Wenpei looked speechless. "You've been in the English Club this long and didn't know?"
Song Yunshen: "..."
As someone who coasted along, signing in every Saturday and leaving immediately, he really hadn't known that Jiang Wenpei was the English Club's faculty adviser.
Jiang Wenpei was speechless too, but she didn't pay him much more attention. She went straight to the English mailbox and took out the dozen or so letters inside.
"Teacher Jiang, why are you taking all the letters?"
"To write replies for the students." Jiang Wenpei sighed. "The English mailbox was set up with good intentions, but unfortunately, too few people write letters, and even fewer are willing to reply. So the teachers have to write replies to the ones left over."
"Really?" Song Yunshen's eyes lit up at once. He hurriedly handed her the letter in his hand. "Teacher Jiang, could you take a look and tell me who wrote this one?"
"Hm?" Jiang Wenpei looked puzzled. "You took a letter?"
"Yeah."
"What did you take a letter for?"
"What else? To write a reply!" Song Yunshen said without blushing or missing a heartbeat.
He certainly wasn't going to admit he'd taken it because the girl was pretty.
"Who are you trying to fool?" Jiang Wenpei chuckled. "You and Xu Zhuoyue never pay attention in English class. Did you think the teachers didn't know?"
"I'm turning over a new leaf," Song Yunshen said with a perfectly straight face. "My dad said if I bomb the English final again, he'll find me an English tutor for summer vacation."
"Really?" Half believing him, Jiang Wenpei took the envelope and glanced at it. "Hmm, the handwriting does look a little familiar."
"So who is it?" Song Yunshen asked impatiently.
"I usually see a lot of letters. How could I remember them all that clearly?" Jiang Wenpei shook her head. "Besides, quite a few students really don't write their names or classes. They just come to the English Club to collect their replies after I've written them."
"The person who wrote this letter is a girl, a very pretty one. You should remember her, Teacher." Song Yunshen gently prompted Jiang Wenpei, trying to jog her memory.
But Jiang Wenpei immediately sensed something was off and looked at him sidelong. "How do you know she's a girl, and a pretty one at that?"
Song Yunshen: "...I guessed. After all, her handwriting is so pretty."
"Don't tell me you deliberately took her letter because you saw how pretty she was?" As expected of a woman with a boyfriend, Jiang Wenpei immediately caught a whiff of something unusual and narrowed her eyes.
"How could that be?!" Song Yunshen vehemently denied it. "Teacher Jiang, you have no evidence. How can you make baseless accusations and sully an innocent student's name?"
Jiang Wenpei shook her head helplessly and returned the letter to Song Yunshen. "Anyway, I don't know who wrote it either, but if you want to reply, that's easy enough."
"How?"
"Once you've written your reply, just put it together with her letter on the cabinet over in our activity room." Jiang Wenpei pointed to the bookcase in the corner. "That's where I usually put replies after I write them. Students who want to read their replies go straight there to collect them."
"Oh, I see." Song Yunshen nodded in understanding, though he still felt somewhat helpless.
He had clearly already seen her, yet he couldn't confirm her identity anytime soon. What a nuisance.
"Then I'll be going, Teacher Jiang."
"Aren't you staying for the activities?" Jiang Wenpei asked. "There are some little games this afternoon to practice speaking and listening."
"No, no, I have something to do at home this afternoon." Having found out the basics, Song Yunshen planned to slip away quickly. He waved and made his escape.
He left the English Club.
With his backpack on, Song Yunshen retrieved his beloved bicycle from the bike shed beside the school gate and pedaled toward Tangning New Residence.
On the way, he sent Yan Zhenxia a WeChat message to let her know he was on his way over.
Riding into the hot afternoon wind, Song Yunshen sorted through his thoughts.
His future ex-girlfriend was very likely a member of the English Club.
Although he hadn't managed to learn her class or name this time, he had at least obtained a letter she'd written herself.
And the pool of targets had shrunk from all the pretty girls in the school to the 33 girls who had come to sign in at the English Club today.
Song Yunshen refused to believe he couldn't do it. If worst came to worst, he'd track them down one by one.
Surely he could find her before the end of the semester?
With that thought in mind, Song Yunshen soon returned to his residential complex. He parked his bicycle downstairs and headed for the East District, where the tenant lived.
"Building 17, apartment 1001..." Song Yunshen muttered the address to himself. He soon reached the tenth floor, stood outside the door, and knocked.
He didn't have to wait long. Footsteps sounded inside, and soon the door opened.
A particularly youthful, fresh-faced girl poked her head out. Her big eyes blinked, and her face still had a little baby fat, making her look especially cute.
"Who are you?"
"I'm the landlord's son." Song Yunshen was momentarily taken aback. He hadn't expected such a pretty girl to answer the door; it was a little unexpected. "Yan Zhenxia asked me to come take a look at the water heater. Is she your mother?"
"Mm-hm." The girl nodded and instinctively took another look at Song Yunshen's face before turning back inside. "Mom! He's here!"