“Doudou, is Song Yanling at your place?” Song Yi asked anxiously, her eyes peering into the house, just meeting Wen Zhixu’s gaze.
“Not here. What’s wrong?” Jian Shichu followed up.
At this moment, Wen Zhixu walked over to Jian Shichu’s side. Song Yi showed no intention of coming inside and stood at the doorway, her eyes red with anxiety, on the verge of tears.
Twenty minutes later
Jian Shichu led Wen Zhixu out of the garage. In the quiet garage, the car door slammed shut with a bang. Wen Zhixu was wearing her clothes, the zipper pulled all the way up to cover her neck.
“Where does she usually go?” Jian Shichu asked Song Yi.
Song Yi said, “She mostly just eats something around this street.”
“Got it. We’ll split up and search.” Jian Shichu gripped Wen Zhixu’s hand. The uphill slope from the garage faced the cold wind; as a car drove down, Jian Shichu pulled Wen Zhixu behind her to dodge it.
Song Yanling had gotten into a huge fight with Song Yi. Song Yi’s slap had driven her off. They often argued, but Song Yanling was always the one to compromise in the end.
She seemed born to know how to coax girls and was skilled at placating her own sister, so Song Yi naturally never held grudges against her.
But this time felt like touching Song Yanling’s reverse scale. Eighteen didn’t mean mature, and eighteen didn’t mean sensible—this age was just when one developed their own thoughts within their little world.
She couldn’t imagine facing a broader world, and this age was a turning point.
Wen Zhixu and Jian Shichu split up at the intersection to search, while Song Yi headed upward. Searching like this offered slim hope.
Song Yanling had come here after fights with Song Yi before, hiding in a dessert shop to eat ice cream. Once finished, she’d figure things out and head home.
But not today. Song Yi had checked once already at the start, and that dessert shop was closed. Deep down, she felt utterly helpless. Some words only Jian Shichu could say to persuade her; Song Yi didn’t know how to even start.
Chongqing’s nightlife was always vibrant, with people coming and going at the food stalls on both sides and all-night hotpot shops. Wen Zhixu checked every single shop along the way.
Song Yanling wouldn’t stray beyond this street, Song Yi had said—this girl was loyal to her favorites. If she liked a food, she’d fixate on it; if she liked a place, she’d keep going back.
After circling around, Jian Shichu stood in place and called Song Yanling. Same as before—no answer, no hang-up.
This kind of bullheaded stubbornness was infuriating. She glanced back and realized she was standing right under the sign of that closed dessert shop.
Jian Shichu pulled out her phone and searched the shop’s name. There was a chain location a kilometer away. She flagged down a taxi at the roadside and stepped right in.
Midnight, and the barbecue stalls along the street were still packed, the savory aroma adding warmth to the chilly night.
Meanwhile, Song Yi and Wen Zhixu crossed paths while searching. Both were exhausted; Wen Zhixu panted lightly as they both looked toward the roadside.
“Sorry to drag you out so late, Xiao Xu.”
Wen Zhixu shook her head. “No worries. Finding her comes first.”
“Let’s sit for a bit. I’ll grab us some hot drinks.” Song Yi’s gaze landed on a nearby beverage shop.
Wen Zhixu headed inside and, upon sitting down, sent Jian Shichu a WeChat message.
Jian Shichu got the message just as she was about to step out of the taxi. She paid up front, and the car pulled to a steady stop across from the shop.
She glanced across the street first—the dessert shop was open. Ten seconds left on the green light. She sidestepped onto the crosswalk and hurried across.
As she went to reply to Wen Zhixu, Song Yanling’s silhouette appeared in the dessert shop’s glass door. Jian Shichu let out a heavy breath and typed back:
[I found her.]
Jian Shichu looked up into the cold wind. Song Yanling sat by the window, eating ice cream in this freezing weather, her face blank. But Jian Shichu could sense something else beneath it.
Song Yanling seemed like a playful scatterbrain who acted without thinking, but she picked up on things fast—a little reasoning, and she’d get it.
The dessert shop was mostly empty now. When Jian Shichu opened the door, she held it for the delivery rider to exit first, then headed to the counter.
Song Yanling didn’t notice her in the meantime. Jian Shichu bought the same ice cream and sat down across from her.
Song Yanling lifted her eyelids faintly, glancing at her without surprise. “Doudou-jie, why are you here?”
Her tone was flat, like she wasn’t asking why you’d come but rather, you came to catch me, didn’t you.
Jian Shichu scooped a spoonful and tasted it, her brows furrowing slightly. The chill hit her stomach like ice.
“I’m here looking for you. How can you stand eating this?”
Jian Shichu set it aside—she couldn’t handle it, though Song Yanling clearly could.
Song Yanling finished hers and slid Jian Shichu’s dish over, grabbing a fresh spoon. “If you were me, you could eat it.”
“Eat less.” Jian Shichu leaned back, hands in her pockets as she eyed her. “So, what happened?”
“You’ve all figured it out, right? That’s why my sister wants to ship me abroad.” Song Yanling’s reply was calm, laced now and then with a maturity beyond her years.
“Figured what out? I haven’t.” Jian Shichu smiled faintly.
Song Yanling lifted her eyelids. “Doudou-jie, still playing dumb with me?”
“I say just spit it out. I don’t care, but my sister has to poke me with all that ‘for your own good’ crap. Weird how you just inexplicably like someone.”
“That’s not bad at all.” Jian Shichu’s hand rested on her knee.
Song Yanling looked stunned. What was so good about it?
“Doudou-jie, you don’t think it’s weird?” Her spoon paused midair.
Jian Shichu said, “Weird how? You’ve noticed the thing between me and Xiao Xu, haven’t you?”
“No, I mean—you might oppose the age gap, or the friend thing with Bai Xue.”
Jian Shichu gave a listless smile. “So you want me opposing it?”
Song Yanling said nothing, popping the spoon in her mouth and swallowing another big scoop. The shop’s warm air had softened the ice cream’s edges.
Slowly, she said, “Not exactly. Doudou-jie, why do you like Xiao Xu-jie?”
“That’s a long story. The initial feeling’s different from now.” Jian Shichu answered seriously.
“You were uni classmates, right? Fell for her right at the start?” Song Yanling got gossipy—prying into others cheered her up a little.
Jian Shichu thought it over. Song Yanling stared at her eagerly, so she took a breath and braced herself.
“A little earlier. Real feelings kicked in during uni.”
“Even earlier? How early? Don’t tell me it was a crush, and you chased her all the way to Beihai for university!” Song Yanling’s voice spiked with shock.
The girl bussing tables glanced over. Jian Shichu’s face stiffened; she coughed lightly. “Can you keep it down?”
“It really was! No wonder my sister can’t figure out why you’d move so far alone.” Song Yanling lit up like she’d found new land, buzzing with excitement—the ice cream in her mouth even felt warm.
“Spill. Were you one of Xiao Xu-jie’s readers?”
She grabbed Jian Shichu’s arm and shook it.
Jian Shichu got shy too, brows twitching. Seeing Song Yanling perk up, she gently pulled her hand back.
“Yeah. Saw her name in a magazine. Junior high summer break.”
“Does Xiao Xu-jie know?”
“Nope.” Jian Shichu had never outright said it, dropped tons of hints, but Wen Zhixu never caught on.
Song Yanling’s eyes went wide. “How’d you pull that off? Pining for someone that long.”
“Hard?” Jian Shichu couldn’t really answer. To her, Wen Zhixu was special—maybe that first magazine feature, or maybe after they met.
Fate’s like that—invisible, intangible, but it ties together people who shouldn’t connect.
Song Yanling went quiet, mulling it over. After a beat: “Sometimes I wonder if I’ll still like her in a few years. I can’t even tell what this feeling is. If it fades, I’d be the irresponsible one.”
“So until I’m sure I won’t do something stupid down the line, I can’t confess.”
Jian Shichu listened quietly. That was always her take on Song Yanling—this kid had her own mind.
Jian Shichu said, “Even if you confess later, make sure it’s built on shared values and goals, not just her being hot.”
Song Yanling met her eyes. She got it.
“I know. Our life stages are worlds apart.” Song Yanling said, “I wouldn’t dare bring it up with her now. My sister wants to send me abroad to ‘gild’ me, but even gilded, I couldn’t catch up to her. Hell, I don’t know if I’ll even keep liking her forever—I really don’t. So I hide it, scared everyone’ll see. I need to figure out in the real world what this feeling means, what responsibility means—then I can tell her. If she’s with someone by then, I’ll wish her well. If not, I’ll take care of her.”
Jian Shichu looked at her without saying a word. Back when she first met Wen Zhixu, she was only nineteen, also harboring unspoken feelings that shared something in common with Song Yanling’s, but not quite the same.
“So, were you upset today because of Song Yi?”
“She always puts on that whole President Song act in front of me—who could put up with it? I’m not like Uncle De, calling her ‘President Song’ every other word and fawning all over her.” By this point, Song Yanling’s mood had actually completely lightened up.
Jian Shichu doesn’t need to persuade her much; Song Yanling will understand on her own.
Song Yanling took the lead: “Doudou-jie, have you already come out?”
“Stop right there. My topic ends here.” Jian Shichu leaned back again.
Since Jian Shichu said to stop, Song Yanling wouldn’t make a fool of herself. She held the spoon in her mouth, gazed out the window, and sighed.
“If you think it’s not hard to like someone for a long time, then I think it’s not hard either.” Song Yanling quirked her eyebrows, a tsundere look on her face.
“Yo, not necessarily.” Jian Shichu responded slowly.
Song Yanling frowned: “You don’t believe?”
“I don’t believe it.”
“Then let’s give it a try. I’ll go abroad, and when I come back, we’ll come here again.”
Jian Shichu couldn’t help but laugh. “Alright.”
Is it really that hard to like just one person? For Jian Shichu, it’s not a question of difficulty—it seems like no one but Wen Zhixu will do.
