The sudden gust of wind disheveled many things. The clouds in the sky looked like torn cotton, strewn casually in the air.
The withered branch had gathered enough strength to sprout new leaves on one side, but ultimately couldn’t withstand the wind’s force and snapped with a crash, shattering on the ground.
“Holy crap, am I still alive?” Wei Lai lay on the ground, her mind blank, still in shock.
Suddenly, she felt a gust of wind brush past her. Looking up,
she saw Shen Shuyu, her ponytail flying, rush into the pile of broken branches and debris where Yu Mo was.
Perhaps out of professional instinct from her previous life, at the moment danger struck, Yu Mo chose to push Wei Lai, who was beside her, away.
Most of the broken branch had fallen onto her back.
Her clean, white sports uniform was covered with tiny pieces of bark.
“Yu Mo, are you okay?” Shen Shuyu brushed the dead bark off Yu Mo while helping her sit up from the ground.
Yu Mo, stunned by the impact of the branch, sat on the ground and looked at Shen Shuyu before her.
A few strands of stray hair covered the side of her face. Her usually calm, unruffled eyes were filled with an urgency Yu Mo had never seen before.
A flash of memory passed, and Yu Mo felt this look was familiar.
She seemed to have seen this look at some point before.
Shen Shuyu, seeing Yu Mo’s unfocused eyes and her delay in responding, felt her heart tighten.
Carefully, she softly called out: “Yu Mo?”
Yu Mo couldn’t remember when she had seen this look from Shen Shuyu.
Maybe it wasn’t in reality at all, but in a dream.
Yes, only in dreams would Shen Shuyu be so worried and concerned about her.
Yu Mo shook her head. The shock hadn’t subsided, and she was still a bit sluggish. “I’m fine.”
“Really okay? Does anywhere hurt badly?” Shen Shuyu was still uneasy. She took Yu Mo’s arm herself to check her.
Shen Shuyu’s fingertips, with her unique coolness, landed on Yu Mo’s skin.
Yu Mo felt it was unreal, yet so familiar.
So many times in their shared bed, she had truly been touched by these hands.
Yu Mo was slightly stunned, staring distractedly at Shen Shuyu’s downturned profile.
The sunlight behind her was harsh, casting a soft, white glow on her.
Under her long lashes, a pair of silver-tinted eyes were intently checking her body for any wounds.
If only, in her previous life after getting injured, Shen Shuyu had been this anxious about her. How wonderful that would have been.
A bitter sourness welled up in Yu Mo’s heart.
Her previously unfocused pupils refocused. Looking at Shen Shuyu’s hand on her arm, she said coldly: “Let go.”
Shen Shuyu turned a deaf ear. “Lower your head. Let me see the back of your neck.”
Yu Mo watched Shen Shuyu gradually drawing closer. Resentment and bitterness intertwined in her eyes.
Her heart pounded like a war drum.
“I said I’m fine!” Yu Mo growled in a low voice. Just as Shen Shuyu was about to touch her neck, she slapped her hand away.
“Yu Mo…” A flash of shock crossed Shen Shuyu’s eyes.
She looked at Yu Mo’s cold profile. A cold wind blew over the barren grass in her heart, a chill seeping through her whole body.
“Yu Mo, what are you doing!” Li Qingqing had witnessed Yu Mo’s sudden outburst and walked up to Shen Shuyu’s side, indignant.
“I thought the Academic Representative should have known yesterday, when I rejected her, that I don’t like being casually touched.” Yu Mo’s voice was cold. “Besides, doesn’t the Academic Representative think it’s very impolite to rush up so abruptly like that?”
“She was just concer—”
Li Qingqing wanted to step forward and argue, but Shen Shuyu held her back.
She had been too anxious just now, acting without thinking, which had upset Yu Mo.
Shen Shuyu stood up on her own. Looking at Yu Mo, who had raised her thorns against her again, she said calmly, “I’m sorry, I was rash.”
Thinking about it, Shen Shuyu found it a bit laughable. She was already accustomed to Yu Mo’s cold resistance towards her.
Yet this was only her second day of knowing Yu Mo in this life.
Yu Mo froze.
In all the years she had followed Shen Shuyu in her previous life, she had never heard the word “sorry” from her mouth.
She was proud, conceited, always aloof, and insufferably arrogant.
Never at fault.
The lingering wind blew again, stirring up the dust that had settled on the ground.
Mischievously, a grain of sand flew into Shen Shuyu’s defenseless eye, causing a sharp pain.
“Shuyu, what’s wrong?” Li Qingqing saw Shen Shuyu frowning and lowering her head and quickly asked.
Yu Mo heard Li Qingqing’s question, and a bit of involuntary worry rose in her heart. She pretended to casually glance at Shen Shuyu, whose back was to her.
In Yu Mo’s line of sight, Shen Shuyu slightly turned her head towards Li Qingqing, her slender, scallion-like fingers gently rubbing her unbearably painful eye. “Something got in my eye.”
Upon hearing this, Yu Mo’s slightly suspended heart settled down.
Then, looking at Shen Shuyu’s back, she let out a mocking snicker.
Such a fussy, pampered young lady.
“Yu Mo, are you okay? Oh my god, you scared me to death just now!” Feng Ruoyu helped Wei Lai over to sit beside Yu Mo, voicing her own lingering shock.
Yu Mo pulled her gaze back from Shen Shuyu and answered with a smile, “I’m blessed with great fortune. I’m perfectly fine.”
“My Little Momo! For your great kindness to me, Wei the Strategist, I’ll never forget it!” Wei Lai’s face was full of gratitude as she reached out and tightly hugged Yu Mo.
“Academic Representative, you ran really fast just now,” Zhou Qin said to Shen Shuyu, who was crouching to the side. Seeing Shen Shuyu’s small face creased, she asked nervously, “Academic Representative, what’s wrong?”
Hearing Zhou Qin, Wei Lai and Feng Ruoyu also gathered around Shen Shuyu.
“It’s nothing, the wind blew sand into my eye.”
As she spoke, Shen Shuyu’s tear-streaked finger brought out a tiny, coarse grain of sand.
“All better?” Li Qingqing asked, looking at the sand on Shen Shuyu’s finger.
“Mm.” Shen Shuyu raised her head to look at the four of them and nodded.
Yu Mo watched these three friends who put beauty before loyalty, sitting where she was and looking at them resentfully.
But inadvertently, she caught a glimpse of Shen Shuyu’s slightly turned face.
Her clear, pure eyes were covered with a faint layer of mist. The usually aloof and cold-eyed girl now had reddened eye corners.
It was like an unintentional tinge of fragility, enough to make anyone’s heart ache with pity.
All the more so for Yu Mo, who had seen this sight countless times in the intimacy of the bedchamber.
The sunlight filtered through the leaves, warming Yu Mo’s cheek.
She quickly turned her head away, looked at the broken branches all over the ground, and cursed through gritted teeth: “Damn.”
“Academic Representative, you should still go rinse it at the sink.”
“Maybe go to the School Infirmary. It wouldn’t be good if your eye got hurt.”
“Doesn’t Yu Mo have antiseptic medicine? Would you like to use some, Academic Representative?”
…
Listening to these people chattering with suggestions,
Shen Shuyu glanced towards Yu Mo with a faint, inexplicable hope.
She was still looking down expressionlessly, showing absolutely no concern for her.
A trace of disappointment spread out in Shen Shuyu’s heart, gradually filling it.
“No need. Thank you all for your good intentions.” Shen Shuyu shook her head slightly, politely and amiably declining.
A crowd had gradually gathered around. Not far away, the PE teacher, who had rushed out of the office upon hearing the commotion, was about to arrive.
Shen Shuyu didn’t want this matter to be exposed under everyone’s watchful eyes. She took Li Qingqing’s hand to stand up and said to her softly, “Let’s go.”
The trio led by Wei Lai watched Shen Shuyu and Li Qingqing’s departing backs, gazing for a long time.
“The Academic Representative is a little different today.”
“Just now, she made my heart skip a beat.”
“Actually, the Academic Representative isn’t as unapproachable as she usually seems, right?”
“Yeah, she was pretty friendly just now.”
…
A University Affiliated Girls High School didn’t have evening self-study for Grade 10. The sky had just begun to dim, with a faint line of golden light still hanging in the distant sky, when school was dismissed.
Amidst the bustling crowd, Li Qingqing linked arms with Shen Shuyu and walked out of the school gate with her as usual.
Shen Shuyu looked at her family’s car parked not far away, pursed her lips, and said to Li Qingqing, “Walk me home today.”
“Sure, we haven’t walked home together in a long time.” Li Qingqing readily agreed. After all, it was only a fifteen-minute walk from school to the community where they both lived.
“Yeah, it’s been so long.” Shen Shuyu looked at the endless brick walls lining the road on both sides.
The road was lined with trees, their shadows swaying.
Yu Mo had walked this path countless times with her.
Shen Shuyu gently turned her head, seemingly inadvertently looking towards the less crowded east side.
The setting sun still held its last ray of light, projecting from the west, filtering through the newly grown leaves on the trees, and falling upon the only young girl on this road.
“Looking at her?” Li Qingqing followed Shen Shuyu’s gaze and asked.
Shen Shuyu nodded.
Cloaked in brilliant golden light, Yu Mo suddenly disappeared from Shen Shuyu’s sight at the end of the road.
Having left Shen Shuyu, Yu Mo was still the bright, sunny girl Shen Shuyu remembered.
Only, she was no longer hers.
“She treated you like that today, and you still like her this much?” Li Qingqing stood shoulder to shoulder with Shen Shuyu, asking in confusion.
Shen Shuyu gazed at the small path where Yu Mo’s silhouette was no longer visible.
She had once thought that God giving her another chance was mercy.
But now she understood it was punishment.
“I owe her. I’m willing to endure it all.” Shen Shuyu’s voice was soft, yet it carried a weight that couldn’t be ignored.
The evening clouds hung low and hazy. The dim light faintly illuminated the edge of the sky. Shen Shuyu and Li Qingqing slowly walked into the residential community.
The winding, secluded path was lined on both sides with meticulously pruned greenery by the gardeners. The wind blew, rustling the clusters of green leaves.
With silence all around, this was the only sound.
Li Qingqing looked at the beautiful Slate-Blue Villa that was Shen Shuyu’s home and voiced the worry that had been weighing on her mind: “Shuyu, have you ever thought about it? One of you from Upper City, one from Lower City. There will be huge difficulties in the future.”
“I know.” Shen Shuyu nodded softly.
The class divide between Upper and Lower City, whether in her previous life or this one, was an almost insurmountable obstacle between her and Yu Mo.
In her previous life, Yu Mo had braved thorns and hacked through obstacles, using all her strength to run towards her.
Then in this life, it would be her turn.
“I will resolve all of these,” Shen Shuyu said with conviction.
She would clear away all the barriers along the way, and then welcome her in.
Give her the dignity and glory she deserved,
flowers and love.
“Must it really be her, no one else?” Li Qingqing didn’t understand.
Shen Shuyu looked at the still-ignorant Li Qingqing and nodded, “Yes, it’s her and no one else.”
Her eyes seemed to hold an army of thousands.
“Must be who, and no one else?” The door behind Shen Shuyu was slowly pulled open.
Shen Lin wore a white silk nightgown, her slightly curled long hair resting on her shoulders.
Carrying a hint of languidness, she appeared at the door, her expression faint as she looked at Shen Shuyu and Li Qingqing outside.
