Same-city express delivery was very efficient. The dress Jin Zhao had mailed to him back then—he received it the very next day.

High school students had to attend classes during the day, and after evening self-study it was already past nine when they got home. The aunt at home said there was a package for him and that she had put it in his room.

Meng Yanxi hadn’t expected Jin Zhao to really send it.

He knew she liked him; otherwise, she wouldn’t deliberately arrive ten minutes early every day to put goji chrysanthemum tea on his desk. Rain or shine. Even on Sundays when there were no classes—on Saturdays she would put down an extra bottle.

Giving that dress might not have been appropriate; he knew that himself. But just like those bottles of goji chrysanthemum tea that he didn’t actually like to drink yet still drank with delight—wasn’t youthful infatuation like that? There would be this and that kind of subtle awkwardness, but none of it could compare to that faint, barely-there sweetness when the grain of white sugar at the tip of the heart slowly melted.

He didn’t like the smell of chrysanthemum, yet he looked forward to that bottle of goji chrysanthemum tea every day; she was clearly so beautiful when she put the dress on, yet she returned it to him.

“Sent to the wrong address. Refused.”

Meng Yanxi cast a flat glance at the sender’s name on the shipping label and called the aunt over.

The aunt was startled for a moment—the recipient clearly said Meng Yanxi. Still, she didn’t say much, took it away, and planned to have the courier take it back the next day.

But early the next morning, the box that had been placed in the entryway was gone.

When Meng Yanxi went downstairs to eat breakfast, he only said lightly, “It wasn’t sent to the wrong address. I took it back.”

He took it back.

Together with that dress, along with his youthful sincerity—he took it all back.

He took it back for half a semester.

His younger sister was so happy she wished she could grow wings and fly a couple of laps—finally she didn’t have to dance anymore. During that time, Meng Zhuxi would laugh loudly and run around the house whenever she had nothing to do.

Meng Yanxi felt stifled, had endured her for a long time, and finally erupted on the day of Lidong.

That day was the weekend; school was out. Meng Zhuxi was downstairs watching TV, laughing loudly one moment, wailing with laughter the next. Meng Yanxi was so annoyed by her that he went downstairs with a cold face and asked, “What kind of nonsense is making you so happy?”

Meng Zhuxi sat on the sofa, happily kicking her legs, and said, “Nothing at all. When someone’s in a good mood, everything they see makes them happy—unlike some people, who, when they’re in a bad mood, find everything annoying.”

That girl really could be so annoying at times that he wanted to feed her poisonous mushrooms—she always aimed straight for the lungs when she spoke.

Meng Yanxi directly pulled the power switch.

Meng Zhuxi was still small and couldn’t reach it; Grandpa, Dad, and the aunt were all out. She was so angry she sat on the floor and bawled loudly.

Meng Yanxi’s mood didn’t improve.

After coldly watching Meng Zhuxi cry for a while, he felt a bit soft-hearted and turned the power back on for her. The little girl was still sniffling.

He went over and patted her head, awkwardly coaxing her with a couple of stiff words.

Although Meng Zhuxi was annoying, she didn’t hold grudges; she was soon coaxed and even pulled him to watch cartoons together. “Ge, look, this fox is really miserable, really miserable, really miserable—look at how miserable he is. Will that make you feel a bit better?”

Meng Yanxi: “……”

The aunt had come back from buying groceries, and he got up and went out.

“Ge, where are you going?” Meng Zhuxi turned her head and asked. “There’s lamb soup for lunch today.”

Meng Yanxi didn’t turn his head. “Drink your soup.”

Meng Zhuxi didn’t bother with him anymore. Even after Meng Yanxi walked into the courtyard, he could still hear his sister’s carefree laughter.

Meng Yanxi stepped on his skateboard and went out. He clearly had no direction, yet when he stopped, he was already at the entrance of Jin Zhao’s residential complex.

Maybe he had come too many times during the summer; his muscles remembered the way.

He stood at the entrance of the complex for a while, then followed the others inside.

Around ten in the morning, many elderly people were taking their morning walks in the complex. Meng Yanxi sat alone on a bench in the central courtyard, legs stretched out. As the elderly passed by, clapping their hands, he could hear fragments of idle chatter.

That family’s son married a pretty wife, it’s just that the bride price was a bit high—three hundred thousand.

That family’s daughter came back to her parents’ place to sit her confinement month; her in-laws are decent enough, they even gave some financial support.

Meng Yanxi sat alone for a while, then prepared to leave, stepping onto his skateboard.

“Young man, don’t practice skateboarding inside the complex—it’s easy to hit someone,” an old grandmother suddenly ran out to stop him.

Meng Yanxi tugged at the corner of his lips coldly. He didn’t really want to bother responding. But deep down, he still respected the elderly and cared for the young, so he got off the skateboard and carried it in his hand.

The old woman was very satisfied.

At that age, they especially liked it when someone took their words seriously.

The old woman sized up Meng Yanxi and suddenly recognized him, warmly asking, “It’s you, young man. Here again to look for a classmate?”

Back in the summer, when he came to the complex several times to look for Jin Zhao, the elderly here had asked him, and he had only said he was looking for a classmate. After an entire autumn, the old woman still remembered him.

Meng Yanxi said lightly, “My classmate moved.”

The elderly were thoroughly familiar with every household in the complex—once you asked, they would definitely inquire further. She immediately pressed on, “Which family?”

Another old grandmother came over clapping her hands and chimed in familiarly upon hearing it. “The Jin family, right? In the past few months, they’re the only ones who moved.”

The old woman immediately looked at Meng Yanxi. “Your classmate is Jin Zhao?”

Meng Yanxi was silent for two seconds, then gave a soft “Mm.”

“Jin Zhao is good—pretty girl, obedient and sensible, and her grades are good too, studying in Class A at Sui University Affiliated High School.” Halfway through praising, the old woman suddenly reacted. “You’re classmates with Jin Zhao—does that mean you’re also in Class A at the affiliated school?”

Meng Yanxi nodded.

“Oh my, that’s amazing! So handsome and so smart! Hurry and tell Grandma how you study—come, come, sit here!”

The old woman pulled Meng Yanxi back to sit on the bench in the central courtyard.

Meng Yanxi was inherently cold in temperament. At school he didn’t even explain problems—could anyone really expect him to explain to elderly people in a residential complex how he usually studied? Of course, he had nothing to say.

It was just that their enthusiasm was hard to refuse. He sat there like a posed figure, listening to the two grandmothers chat idly.

The topic naturally turned to the Jin family.

“Has their house been sold yet?”

“Probably not? I saw Jin Wenhui bringing people to look at it last week. I heard the price was fifty thousand higher than the market—didn’t work out.”

“Fifty thousand? They must be crazy for money.”

“Good feng shui, that’s why. They produced a daughter in Class A at Sui University Affiliated High School—haven’t you noticed that everyone who comes to look at the house is a student’s parent?”

“Heh, only now he remembers he has a daughter.”

Meng Yanxi lifted his eyelids slightly.

The two old grandmothers’ enthusiasm for chatting completely flared up, their conversation spilling out.

“Exactly. Little Jin Zhao is really pitiful, having a father like that. The old saying says it well—better to follow a beggar mother than an official father. A man doesn’t carry a child for ten months; he can never love a child the way a woman does.”

“Wasn’t it all instigated by that stepmother of hers? She herself had just given birth less than a year earlier and was already rushing to try for another daughter. When she miscarried, she blamed it on little Jin Zhao, even called the police to arrest her. And her father didn’t interfere at all—just let the police car drive into the compound, right up to downstairs. My heavens, his daughter was only sixteen or seventeen! A young girl who’d never been through anything—how could she withstand a scene like that? If she were a fragile one, she might’ve jumped off the building on the spot.”

“Isn’t that right? That middle school student who jumped in the neighboring complex wasn’t it just like this? His situation wasn’t even that dramatic—he couldn’t take it after his own mother said a few words to him.”

“Ah, what a sin. Fortunately, the police later investigated it clearly and cleared little Jin Zhao’s name.”

“Cleared what? Didn’t you hear Lin Yao later keep insisting it was ‘benefit of the doubt’? Saying the police let her go only because they couldn’t find evidence, but that didn’t prove it wasn’t little Jin Zhao who did it.”

Meng Yanxi listened in silence, sharp veins blooming on the back of his hand.