Chapter 81 Sudden News
Cheng Xingye left the dinner party and drove to Jiangda Affiliated High School. That afternoon, Class 1 of the third year was just having their PE lesson. He didn’t have to search hard before he spotted that familiar petite figure in the crowd.
The young girl was dressed in the standard blue-and-white short-sleeved school uniform, jogging around the track. After exercising, her face was tinged with a delicate blush, vivid and almost radiant in the sunlight. When she finished her lap, she casually wiped away her sweat, but instead of heading to the snack shop as usual, she pulled a small vocabulary book from her pocket and began memorizing words as she walked back.
Perhaps she was too absorbed in her recitation; halfway along, she walked straight into a utility pole. The collision made her grimace in pain, her features scrunching up in a pained expression.
Cheng Xingye couldn’t help but find her both funny and endearing.
But just as a smile was about to form on his lips, he saw a tall, thin boy walking toward Lu Qingyue.
The boy seemed very familiar with her; he bent his head to say a few words of concern. Lu Qingyue even smiled at him, and the two of them walked toward the academic building, chatting as they went.
Cheng Xingye watched their backs as they walked side by side, talking and laughing, and suddenly felt his heart sink.
...
Life in the dorms soon reduced her days to a fixed routine—classroom, cafeteria, and dormitory became the entire world for a third-year student.
Lu Qingyue had always been self-disciplined, but in such a pared-down learning environment, her grades soared. She broke into the top twenty in her year for the first time in the midterm exams, becoming the dark horse every teacher talked about.
Sometimes, when she was weary from studying, she would still think of Cheng Xingye.
She remembered the silly jokes she used to send him after finishing homework at night. Most she’d picked up from Weibo or Douyin, some so awkward they were almost embarrassing. Perhaps she really had been hopelessly infatuated back then—anything interesting, she wanted to share with him.
Yet he never seemed to find her annoying. He would only smile helplessly, lips curling, when she made excessive requests, and say, “That’s enough, you know.”
But even as he said that, he always indulged her wishes in the end.
She had gradually learned to push her luck, trying every tactic to coax a reaction out of him, testing his patience, bit by bit, until she’d see him turn away with a carefully controlled, helpless little laugh.
Once those memories started flooding in, it was hard to hold them back.
Lu Qingyue sniffled, forcing herself to rein in her thoughts, to stop thinking about him.
She hadn’t really lost out, had she? At least, once, she’d been the recipient of his special affection.
...
Once people get busy, time flies. Lu Qingyue felt as if she had just stepped into her final school year, but when she looked up at the countdown on the blackboard, she was startled to find there were only sixty days left until the college entrance exams.
In mid-April, the school organized medical checkups for all the third-year students.
The hospital was set as Jiangda Affiliated Second Hospital. For convenience, the school arranged buses to ferry the students. There were twenty classes in just one grade at Jiangda Affiliated High, nearly eight hundred students in all. The checkups took almost the whole day, and by the time they finished, it was already past five in the afternoon.
On the way back, they hit rush hour, and traffic jams were everywhere. The driver changed routes, taking them over the river-spanning bridge.
The bridge connected the north and south of the city. It was a highway bridge, so traffic wasn’t heavy; though a fine rain was falling, most vehicles kept up a good speed.
The driver successfully ferried the students across. But just as they were about to leave the bridge, a sedan on the opposite side suddenly lost control, vaulted the guardrail, and crashed headlong into their lane.
In that split second, the bus driver instinctively jerked the steering wheel hard, but it was too late.
With a thunderous crash, the two vehicles collided. The bus, swerving right, spun out of control; its nose swung over the guardrail, teetering for a few seconds before it crashed down.
Cars on the bridge screeched to a halt. Some people ran to the railing to look down; others were already calling for ambulances. The scene was utter chaos.
...
“Breaking news: A vehicle carrying third-year students lost control on the River-Crossing Bridge...”
Cheng Xingye was just about to drive back to the school when the news report on the car radio made his heart jolt.
He gripped the steering wheel, anxiety gnawing at him.
But with so many high schools in the city, could it really be such a coincidence? Could it really be Jiangda Affiliated High School?
And even if it was, there were twenty classes in that grade alone...
Even if the accident involved his school, how could it possibly be Class 1?
He tried to calm himself, but the more he thought, the more frantic he became.
When he reached a traffic light, he couldn’t help himself—he made a U-turn and sped straight for the bridge.
...
The riverbank had already been cordoned off, several ambulances flashing their lights at the scene.
Fortunately, the bus had fallen close to shore, and the rescue team had already hauled it out of the water. Most of those who’d fallen in had been rescued.
The river in the twilight blazed with searchlights. Crowds gathered around the chaos of the scene.
Cheng Xingye reached the site in less than ten minutes. The crash site was cordoned off; traffic police stood at the perimeter, with medics bustling inside.
As he got out of his car, he happened to see Zhou Tingting, soaking wet, being helped into an ambulance. His mind felt as if struck by lightning; the taut string in his chest snapped.
Panic-stricken, he pushed through the crowd, searching frantically among the figures lying on the riverbank, rain and mist blurring his sight so he couldn’t tell who was who.
When he tried to cross the police line, an officer rushed to stop him.
“What are you doing?! You can’t go in there!”
Cheng Xingye shook himself free and, thinking quickly, pulled out his medical intern’s ID.
“I’m a doctor!”
Seeing this, the officer let him through at once.
Cheng Xingye ran forward, dizzy with fear, searching desperately in the pouring rain, but could not see any sign of Lu Qingyue.
Cold rain drenched him to the bone.
He felt as if the water was pouring straight into his heart; otherwise, why would his heart be shivering with cold?
He finally spotted the boy who’d always been hovering around Lu Qingyue and rushed over, grabbing his arm.
“Where’s Lu Qingyue?!”
Xiao Qingrong looked up, dazed, his face streaked with mud, utterly bedraggled.
He wasn’t even supposed to be on this bus—the bus for Class 2 was full, so he’d squeezed onto Class 1’s by chance. Who could have foreseen such a disaster?
Xiao Qingrong shook his head. With the chaos all around, how could he know where Lu Qingyue was?
Cheng Xingye let go and strode toward the riverbank, rain lashing his face.
Suddenly, someone shouted behind him, urgent and desperate.
“Is there a doctor?! Someone needs emergency help over here!”
He turned around, and his heart clenched.
Across a few meters, a familiar figure lay motionless on the ground.
The rain blurred his vision, the frantic movement of people around him faded into a hazy backdrop.
Under the misty rain, the girl was drenched, her face drained of color. Those lively eyes were closed, and she lay perfectly still, as lifeless as a porcelain doll that had lost its spark.