Chapter 89: The Entrance Examinations Ended

On June 9, the national college entrance examination came to an end.

As one of the testing sites, Jiang University Affiliated High had not even finished its final subject before anxious parents were already gathering outside in droves.

Lu Qingyue had chosen physics, chemistry, and biology; biology was the last exam of the day, and by the time it was over, the clock had already struck six fifteen.

When she came out, the students who had chosen the liberal arts, along with their parents, had already dispersed. At a glance through the crowd, she spotted her family, who had come to pick her up.

Xi Yu, standing far off, waved at her with lively excitement. Even Lu Jichen, who was always busy and never had time to spare, had taken leave to come.

Even Lu Yi, who had always been cool and distant, was leaning by the car door. Rarely, he curved his lips in her direction, smiling with unguarded brightness.

With the exam behind her, Lu Qingyue felt light as air and ran happily toward them.

The moment she reached them, Xi Yu pulled her into a tight embrace.

“Happy?”

Three years of high school, thousands of days and nights of effort, had finally drawn to a close at this very moment.

Lu Qingyue nodded hard, her joy plain for all to see.

“Where are we going now?”

Lu Jichen patted her head. “We’re going to have a big feast and celebrate our little point-point’s happy graduation!”

The instant she heard there would be a feast, Lu Qingyue’s eyes lit up at once.

Then Lu Yi, standing nearby, cut in, “I graduated this year too. How come I don’t see you celebrating for me?”

The three people who had been cheering a moment before all froze.

After a few seconds, Xi Yu asked, puzzled, “Did you graduate this year?”

Lu Yi: “...”

Fine. I shouldn’t have said anything.

The three of them, with one extra person in tow, chatted and laughed their way into the car and headed for the bustling commercial district.

Behind them, on the campus road, a black sedan waited silently for a while before turning around and driving away.

...

With the college entrance examination over, Lu Qingyue had thought she could finally enjoy some peace and quiet. She never expected one thing after another to keep coming.

First, the people from Class One back then shouted about having a meal together; then the key class they had formed only in their final year of senior high rented a private room for karaoke.

Lu Qingyue had originally planned to sleep for three straight days after the exam. Instead, starting from the very next day, she found herself rushing from one gathering to the next without stop.

Class One’s dinner was held at a large open-air eatery on the street behind the school gate.

By the time Lu Qingyue arrived, most of the class had already gotten there.

Zhou Tingting had left an empty seat beside her and called for her to come over. The class monitor was ordering dishes, while the others were idle, gathering in twos and threes to chat.

After finishing the order, the class monitor looked up and asked, “Is everyone here?”

“I think so!” someone replied after counting the heads.

“All right, then let’s start serving. It’s our last meal together, so eat well and drink well, everyone!”

As soon as he said that, everyone burst into laughter.

“That sounded kind of weird, didn’t it?”

But as they laughed, the atmosphere gradually began to quiet.

Maybe this really would be the last meal at which they could all gather together.

Graduation meant that people who had once spent every day and night side by side would, in the blink of an eye, scatter to the winds across the world.

The classroom that had always been filled with jokes and mischief, and the playground where they had been punished to run who knew how many laps, would soon be sealed away in memory.

The campus would remain lively forever, only their figures would no longer be part of it.

The meal left everyone feeling a little nostalgic and melancholy, and the mood never really rose.

By the time they finished, it was already past eight in the evening.

No one seemed eager to leave. Some were gathered together chatting, while a few boys and girls slipped quietly out of the private room.

Everyone who noticed understood without needing to say a word.

Three years of living together day and night inevitably bred hidden feelings. Even if they might soon go their separate ways, they still wanted to seize the last warmth of youth in this summer that would never be forgotten.

Those hunting the tail end of first love had left; the rest, with nothing much to do, were either chatting or scrolling through Jiang University’s forum.

The forum had been lively these past few days, with people discussing where to go for graduation trips, which universities they wanted to attend, and some secretly confessing their feelings.

But today, someone had started a discussion on the front page:

“Everyone has someone unforgettable in their youth. Come here and talk about the name you can never forget.”

The post had gone viral almost as soon as it was published, already piling up over a hundred comments.

Zhou Tingting scrolled down a bit, then couldn’t help poking Lu Qingyue’s arm, exclaiming with both admiration and envy,

“Lu Qingyue! You’re amazing! Look how many people can’t forget you!”

Under the post, quite a few replies had left the name Lu Qingyue. At a glance, there were at least seven or eight.

Still, that was not surprising. Besides being beautiful, Lu Qingyue had also become famous in the grade as a dark horse.

From an ordinary class at the beginning to entering the key class, from ranking outside the top fifty to steadily holding a place in the top twenty, every step she took was firm and dazzling.

Beauty naturally helped win favor from the opposite sex, but excellence was an even more moving quality. So after almost every mock exam ranking came out, several love letters would appear in her drawer.

Hu Qiuyue leaned over with a grin and draped an arm around her shoulders.

“No wonder they call you the April of the world, the killer of high-school boys! But speaking of which...”

She exchanged a look with Zhou Tingting and asked with obvious gossiping delight,

“In our April’s youth, was there anyone whose name you could never forget?”

Ever since Lu Qingyue had cut off contact with the senior instructor who had supervised their military training, they had never seen her grow close to any boy again.

Now that graduation had finally come, they could not help wanting to ask whether, during the past three years of high school, there had ever been anyone who could touch the heart of their dark horse.

Hearing this, Lu Qingyue thought about it seriously.

After a few seconds, she sighed. “Wang Houxiong, I guess.”

All the sleepless nights she had endured in this life would make her remember that name forever.

Zhou Tingting and Hu Qiuyue: “...Wow.”

No wonder she had become the dark horse! Just look at that pure, disciplined spirit, single-mindedly devoted to study. It was not something academic underachievers like them, whose heads were full of nothing but romance, could compare to!

Tonight was a night of celebration for both graduation and adulthood, and everyone wanted to experience the joy of being grown up. So the class monitor ordered two crates of beer and left them by the wall for everyone to take as they pleased; by now, they had almost all been cleared out.

Seeing that everyone had more or less finished eating, the class monitor stood up to pay the bill, while the others left in twos and threes.

Lu Qingyue had also drunk a little just then, her thoughts loosening pleasantly. She leaned lazily against Zhou Tingting, preparing to message Lu Yi to come pick her up later.

Before she could even send it, she suddenly heard Hu Qiuyue say beside her,

“The person up ahead looks really familiar... Damn! Isn’t that our chief instructor?!”

Zhou Tingting looked closely and, sure enough, it was him. She immediately shook Lu Qingyue’s arm hard.

“Yue’er, Yue’er! Wake up! Someone’s here to pick you up.”

Lu Qingyue’s mind was sluggish. At the words, she lifted her head in a daze.

“Who?”

Zhou Tingting said, “Your Wang Houxiong.”

Lu Qingyue: “???”

Following Zhou Tingting’s words, she turned around in utter bewilderment.

At the entrance of the open-air eatery stood a tall banyan tree. Beside its thick trunk was parked a black sports sedan.

In the blurred night, she saw Wang Houxiong—no, damn it, it was Cheng Xingye—leaning against the car door with long legs, calmly turning his gaze toward her.

Just as he had done every time he waited for her at the school gate before, without a word of notice or warning, he appeared in every unexpected encounter.

Lu Qingyue blinked, somewhat doubting whether her eyes had mistaken the person.

But Zhou Tingting and Hu Qiuyue were already so excited they could hardly contain themselves, almost on the verge of tears.

“Damn it! The chief instructor is handsome enough to make me swoon again!”

“Love is too enviable. Can I join you two?”

Lu Qingyue: “???” Isn’t the three-person version of love a little crowded for you?

She pressed her lips together in resignation, said goodbye to Zhou Tingting and the others, then slowly walked toward him.

Just as she reached him, the man straightened up.

Under the bright streetlight, his eyes were rendered deep and clear, like a piece of cold, translucent colored glass.

The shadow cast by his tall frame covered her.

He lifted a hand, the tip of his finger catching the loose strands by her ear and tucking them gently behind it. Then he asked in a calm voice,

“Did you drink?”