Chapter 4

Han Ze and I have been together for two years, attending the same school, almost seamlessly integrated into each other’s lives.

He often waits outside the laboratory with milk tea and desserts for me, even my mentor knows that I have a little undergraduate boyfriend from the same school.

After recovering from my cold, I returned to the laboratory.

I don’t know what Jiang Xingran said, but that afternoon, as soon as I stepped out of the laboratory, I saw Han Ze waiting by the corridor.

I didn’t want to pay him any attention, but he followed me like a ghost, from the laboratory to the cafeteria, and then to the dormitory building.

Just as I was about to enter the dormitory, he finally reached out and grabbed my arm: “Xia Min, I have something to say to you.”

I turned to look at him.

“After our last argument, you haven’t spoken to me. I just wanted to annoy you, to let you know I was unhappy. I didn’t know that day was… was when your grandpa passed away…”

His voice suddenly paused, becoming more cautious:

“I know I was wrong. I won’t throw tantrums anymore, Xia Min, can we make up?”

I opened my mouth, but found I couldn’t say anything.

The sky had completely darkened, and a streetlamp cast a warm yellow light on Han Ze’s face, adding a touch of sincerity to the guilt in his eyes.

He still looked the same as before, naive and childish, as if arguing with me was the biggest setback he had ever encountered in his life.

So he came to find me, to explain, to apologize, to show his willingness to compromise and soften, thinking that things could just pass like countless times before.

I couldn’t let it go.

His naivety at this moment was almost cruel, forcing me to face the reality I had been avoiding without any warning.

These days, I left early and returned late, filling my time with various trivial matters to avoid thinking about experiments or classes.

As if as long as I didn’t think about it, grandpa was still alive in the small village back home, tending to his vegetable garden, waiting for me to return at the end of the month to tell me about the past month’s events.

As long as I pretended nothing had happened, the person who loved me most in the world hadn’t left me.

Seeing my prolonged silence, Han Ze reached out to grab me, but I shook him off fiercely.

I clenched my palm, speaking with difficulty: “Han Ze, you’re already twenty, not a child anymore. Do you even understand…”

“What this means to me?”

“I know, I was wrong, but I’ve already apologized!”

He was stunned for a few seconds, then suddenly became agitated, “Your grandpa died of illness, his death wasn’t caused by me!”

I stared at him in disbelief, and for a moment, a thunderous roar echoed in my ears, my mind rapidly flashing back to chaotic fragments of memories from the past two years.

The boy who found me in the rain, held me tight, whose eyes always sparkled when he looked at me-my memories had beautified him so much that I completely ignored-

He wasn’t, not at all, the pure and sincere boy I imagined.

On the contrary, he was arrogant and cowardly, selfish to the extreme.

I was dazed for a long time, staring at him, then suddenly laughed.

“Han Ze,” I said softly, “Look at your face now, it’s truly disgusting.”

“Xia Min!”

Suddenly, a figure appeared in the light, and before I could react, the person’s fist swung hard at Han Ze’s face.

When he stood in front of me, I saw Jiang Xingran’s stern expression.

Han Ze was hit and staggered, taking a few steps to steady himself, angrily shouting, “Jiang Xingran, are you crazy!”

“Who’s really crazy?” Jiang Xingran glared at him, his voice colder than his expression, “You pulled two dormitories together for a meeting last night, do you not know what you said?”

Han Ze’s expression suddenly changed.

The streetlamp flickered slightly, and Jiang Xingran stood in front of me almost protectively. After a moment of stalemate, Han Ze eventually left.

Before leaving, he gritted his teeth and threw out a sentence: “I knew it, you’ve always had feelings for Xia Min.”