Chapter Ninety-Two: Still in Pursuit

Lu Qingyue had nothing to do, so she found a shady spot to wait.

The heat at the end of June was so oppressive it seemed to choke the breath from one’s chest. Standing beneath the trees, she fanned herself with one hand while searching for Lu Yi’s figure.

She was only looking around carelessly, never noticing that not far away, the person in the graduation photo kept his eyes fixed on her without blinking, as though afraid she might slip away at any moment.

On that midsummer afternoon, the shrill cries of cicadas were swallowed by the noisy chatter and laughter all around.

After waiting for a few minutes, just as Lu Qingyue was thinking that perhaps she should call Lu Yi, a senior girl in a bachelor’s gown suddenly walked over.

Perhaps seeing her standing there idly with nothing to do, the senior girl held out a phone with a bright smile and asked, “Could you help take a picture for me, little sister?”

Since Lu Qingyue had nothing else to do anyway, she figured it was only a small favor, so she took the phone.

“Sure.”

She lifted the phone and was about to adjust the distance when she suddenly heard the senior girl turn excitedly and call out to someone beside her, “Cheng Xingye! Take a picture with me!”

Lu Qingyue: “....”

Cheng, Xing, Ye?!

So you really are popular!

For no reason at all, Lu Qingyue had the strange, absurd feeling that someone had placed a green hat on her head in this scorching weather.

But she and Cheng Xingye were not actually boyfriend and girlfriend, so even if she felt uncomfortable, she did not seem to have any standing to be jealous.

Lu Qingyue stared at the phone’s viewfinder and suddenly felt very annoyed, the sort of annoyance with nowhere to go.

Still, she said nothing. She merely adjusted the angle carefully, aiming the camera toward the senior girl, ready to frame the two of them.

In just a few seconds, a familiar figure appeared in the viewfinder.

However, the person did not stop beside the girl from his class. Instead, he walked toward her.

The broad graduation gown drew nearer and nearer, gradually taking up most of the space in her viewfinder. By the time he stopped in front of her, the screen was almost entirely dark.

The phone in her hand was gently taken away.

Cheng Xingye calmly handed it back and, with polite but perfunctory courtesy, said, “No. Maybe next time.”

Only one graduation comes once in a lifetime. Where was there a next time?

Anyone with half a brain could hear the refusal in his words.

That senior girl had secretly liked Cheng Xingye for two or three years. She had originally hoped to at least get a photo together as a keepsake for graduation, but to her surprise, he still turned her down so quietly and without fuss.

Yet the way Cheng Xingye said it was measured and courteous, never letting her lose too much face. She could only force an awkward smile, take back her phone, and turn to look for her roommates.

Seeing her leave, Lu Qingyue blinked and slowly withdrew her hand.

Cheng Xingye lowered his eyes and looked at her blinking gaze and lightly pressed lips. His eyes then drifted downward, noticing the fingers she had unconsciously twisted together.

“Jealous?” he asked suddenly.

Lu Qingyue let out an ah, unwilling to admit defeat, and immediately retorted, “What would I be jealous of? The two of me together still wouldn’t be as big as your shoe size!”

Cheng Xingye: “....”

He had always known her tongue was sharp, but he had not expected that after more than half a year apart, she could casually pull out every instance of the verbal material he had once used to box her in.

In fact, after spending more than half a year with Lu Qingyue, he could already judge her mood from even the smallest change in expression.

Looking at her clear eyes, he could see the effort with which she maintained her composure.

His heart softened almost imperceptibly, and he tried a different wording.

“So, unhappy?”

Lu Qingyue gave a muffled snort and kept insisting, “I’m not unhappy!”

If Cheng Xingye still could not hear the stubbornness in her voice, then he would have been wasting his affection for her these two years.

He stared at her without blinking. For some reason, he found her little temper terribly endearing. His heart went soft, and he reached out to take her hand.

Unexpectedly, the moment he touched her wrist, she suddenly shook him off.

A cool touch swept across his palm, and he lowered his head instinctively to look.

On the girl’s slender wrist, he did not know when a delicate silver bracelet had appeared, with two tiny dangling charms that swayed lightly.

The charms flashed past his eyes, oddly familiar.

Cheng Xingye was just about to grab her and take another careful look when Lu Qingyue had already spotted Lu Yi in the distance, turned on her heel, and darted off.

She was small and slight, and once she slipped into the crowd, she was hard to find. Cheng Xingye watched until she was completely gone from sight before withdrawing his gaze.

Chen Shujie was being surrounded by people, all of them clamoring to hear about Cheng Xingye’s romance. Seeing him standing alone there, he hurried over and grabbed at his sleeve, saying in complete exasperation, “Brother Ye, you explain it yourself!”

Cheng Xingye turned his head, only to be met by a shameless grin as someone threw an arm around his shoulder.

“Brother Ye, do you really have a girlfriend?”

“Was that little girl just now your girl? She was pretty!”

“When are you going to officially introduce us to sister-in-law?”

A few close friends laughed and joined in the teasing. Cheng Xingye shot them a speechless glance.

“Could you all keep your mouths shut for once?”

Nothing had even been established yet. If they scared her off again, who was he supposed to go looking for?

But the others did not know what had happened between them. They were all very familiar with Cheng Xingye; they had known each other for five years, and none of them had ever seen him this unsettled. One after another, they could not help but egg him on and joke around.

“Tsk, tsk, so you dare do it but not own up to it? In that photo just now, your eyes were practically glued to her!”

“Come clean, then. Was that little girl just now really yours?”

Cheng Xingye was in a rare good mood, and even being teased did not annoy him. Instead, he curved his lips and admitted lazily, “Still pursuing her.”

The moment he said that, even Chen Shujie was stunned.

These days, Chen Shujie had been living in the dormitory in a state of constant dread, worried every day that a murder might break out there.

He had originally thought that after something like that happened, even if Cheng Xingye did not give up, he would at least rein himself in. He had never expected him to admit so openly and so straightforwardly that he was chasing Lu Yi’s younger sister.

But the people nearby did not know that the girl was Lu Yi’s own sister, and they exclaimed in surprise, “And there’s someone you can’t win over?”

With Cheng Xingye’s conditions, who could he not pursue and fail to catch? Since the beginning of freshman year, the number of girls who had chased him was probably enough to circle the library three times if they were lined up end to end. And now he was actually lowering himself this far for a little girl?

Cheng Xingye apparently had not expected there to be such a day either. He let out a long sigh, watching as Lu Qingyue’s figure, her arm linked with Lu Yi’s, went farther and farther away in the distance, and he mocked himself in a low voice.

“Isn’t one here already?”