Chapter 12

I am thirty years old now, but I will always remember him-remember Chen Yabai at seventeen.

I remember how he pinned Lin Sui to the ground and beat him, his brows fierce and unyielding, and only when the patrolling police arrived could they pull Chen Yabai away. I also saw him hoist a red flag, gazing up at the sky, his eyes lazy and relaxed as he basked in the sunlight. He was someone who could always rise-passionate, bright, and clear.

I reported Lin Sui’s actions to his school. It turned out he had been forced to take a leave of absence and stay home because of serious incidents like secretly filming in the bathroom. But no one on our side knew; everyone still thought he was that unattainable student from a prestigious university. My aunt had always carefully hidden the truth for him. Since childhood, she had spoiled him like a treasure.

During the time I stayed at their house, they were likely aware of Lin Sui’s filthy intentions. Indulgence and turning a blind eye were the greatest accomplices.

Perhaps from the very beginning, I was the target. They bullied me because I had no one to rely on, thinking I was just a little girl they could manipulate at will. But someone was there to stand up for me.

We copied and sent the hospital examination report and the police case file to the school. Lin Sui was expelled from the school. The local TV station reported on Lin Sui’s criminal acts; his gentle exterior was torn away, revealing a black beast’s heart within.

My uncle and aunt no longer dared to call me shameless, because now they didn’t even dare to step outside their door. My mother once sighed and said, “Lin Yu’an, that’s enough. Don’t go too far. For a girl, if this kind of thing gets out, how can you go on living? Family scandals shouldn’t be made public.”

I was silent for a long time, then said, “What did I do wrong?”

This was what Chen Yabai said to me that day: “You did nothing wrong. You are the victim. Someone is holding your hand and walking with you on the road to justice, that’s all.”

When my cousin Lin Sui was being escorted into the police car, he turned to look back at me and Chen Yabai, who were watching him coldly in the crowd. He smiled faintly, almost chilling to the bone.

It was only much later that I understood what that smile meant.

My cousin had always been very smart. In high school, his grades in physics, chemistry, and math were always near perfect; that was how he got into a university everyone envied. His major was related to circuits. In June, when everything seemed calm and the cicadas began to sing, I thought I was about to step into a grand summer with Chen Yabai.

But the fire was caused by a circuit malfunction.

After moving out of Lin Sui’s house, I lived in my father’s old apartment.

My mother wanted to stay with me, but whenever I saw her lips open and close with sighs and worries, I felt irritated, so in the end, I lived alone. Chen Yabai often came by after school to do homework with me. The owner of the fruit drink shop on the corner liked him a lot and would always hand me two cups of watermelon juice.

Once, Chen Yabai brought out his hand from behind his back, holding a little yellow kitten in his palm, looking at me in confusion. He said he’d found it on the street, and since I seemed bored, he brought it to me. He named the kitten Ah Hua.

I thought for a moment and asked, “Chen Yabai, are you worried that I’ll get depressed?”

Chen Yabai kept smiling, his brows raised, shoulders shaking. He said, “No, I’m just afraid I won’t have a good enough reason to come see you.”

I was stunned, and we both turned our heads away at the same time. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that the tips of his ears were the same color as the pink sunset falling on the windowsill.