After posting this comment, as if still savoring it endlessly, Yan Luqing did not swipe away, staring at the screen until that short video replayed four times before reluctantly swiping to the next.

When the two set out it was early morning; now it was exactly the time when the sunlight was brilliant. Yan Luqing seemed to be dazzled by the sunlight outside the window, and her body shifted slightly inward, her phone also changing angle to face away from the sun—this made it even more convenient for Gu Ci to see, simply like handing it right to his eyes, forcing him to look.

Gu Ci just looked at her from this angle as she scrolled through videos.

Every time she came across a video she commented, as if only by leaving behind something could she feel at ease.

Coming across those obviously staged couple-showing-affection daily-life videos, fake as if cameras were stuck to their foreheads, Yan Luqing commented: 【The two words “envy” have already been carved onto my tombstone.】

Then she scrolled to another filter-monster like the long-haired woman just now, only this person was singing.

Yan Luqing’s phone was on mute, she did not even hear the song before commenting: 【Sorry, as soon as I see you talking you’re not a beauty anymore, but when hearing you sing—true beauty [rose]】

Scrolling to someone’s bungee-jumping video, she typed: 【There’s a chance of injury when tying the bungee cord to the legs; I usually tie it around my neck～】

Gu Ci: “…………”

#What is this

……

When Yan Luqing commented until she was running out of words, she lifted her head and moved her neck a little.

She turned her head to look at Gu Ci, and discovered the brim of his hat was still pressed down, probably not awake, so with diminished interest she turned back to look at her WeChat again.

Makka Pakka prompted in Yan Luqing’s ear that her yellow bubble had leveled up several times, and the experience was still soaring continuously.

Now, because her comments had harvested too much laughter, yellow had surpassed the other colors by an unknown amount, and when looking at other people’s bubbles, the yellow emerging had also increased a lot.

However, the pink had barely moved.

Makka Pakka had said before, pink was the hardest one to change, because the pink algorithm was different from the other emotions. It included liking, love, expectation, longing, and being moved, these kinds of less direct and more complex emotions, and everything Yan Luqing collected would not be classified into this.

Because the algorithm was complex, it could only level up by people’s emotional reactions to her. And so far, Yan Luqing had almost never gained such emotions.

Yan Luqing’s mind went blank thinking about these things, just about to casually poke Big Black or Little Black’s bubbles for fun, but when she accidentally swiped down, she entered the chat box with Gu Ci.

She discovered… at this very moment, the kind of regular transparent bubble above Gu Ci’s avatar had once again become white, opaque, and irregular bubbles, streaming out one after another.

Yan Luqing instantly felt curious, tapped a few times——

「？」

「？」

「？」

Yan Luqing: ? So many question marks?

……Wasn’t he sleeping?

Was he being confused by something in his dream?

Last time when she played like this, she had only gotten one question mark. To be able to make Gu Ci send out so many in a row this time, it seemed this matter really confused him badly.

*

Before arriving at Dieye Mountain, Yan Luqing in the car briefly searched in the original owner’s memory for traces of high school classmates.

Yan Luqing very much disliked searching in the original owner’s memory, unless necessary she would not do it.

The first reason was that the feeling was very bizarre, like water had entered her brain; the second reason was that the original owner’s thoughts were very strange, looking at her memory was like watching a documentary of a perverted psychology record.

But after all, these people were also the original owner’s classmates. Yan Luqing did not know the exact degree of closeness she had with each person, lest when meeting later awkward situations would arise, so she still recalled a little.

And with this recall, she discovered the original owner was truly solitary, without a single friend. During school she did not take the initiative to make friends, and moreover displayed aloofness. When the illness flared repeatedly and she could not control it, she would take leave from school at any time, not attending for a while, then suddenly returning. Everyone basically treated her as transparent.

The only thing she had ever taken the initiative to do was to add this class group chat, because Gu Ci was in the group.

From the information obtained in the memory there was only one point: she and her classmates were equivalent to strangers.

Fortunately, these past few days Yan Luqing had been observing the bubbles of each person in the group chat, so she more or less had a sense of things.

This time, for the so-called “old classmates reunion activity,” there were about a dozen people. When they arrived, that group had come earlier, and were standing under the shade of trees not far from the parking area, all chatting warmly after months of not seeing one another.

Yan Luqing and Gu Ci got out of the car one after the other; the chatter immediately ceased.

Under the wide-eyed gazes of everyone, the two still walked forward at a steady pace. From the corner of her eye Yan Luqing saw Gu Ci’s figure in a black sports tracksuit, his legs long beyond belief, his body proportions astonishing.

She had not finished sighing before hearing Gu Ci suddenly ask: “These classmates, do you still remember them?”

“……”

Yan Luqing suddenly felt as if in front of him she had no secrets at all.

But if she answered at this moment that she did not remember, then she could not explain her insistence on dragging Gu Ci out to “relax.”

“……Of course I remember some.” Yan Luqing pretended to be at ease, saying lightly, “After all, being classmates for so long, going out to be lively with familiar people is always better than staying cooped up at home.”

As she spoke, the two reached the shade of the trees.

A girl with a bob haircut, very cute, her cheeks rosy, was the first to come up to Yan Luqing.

“That… you are Yan Luqing, right?” Her big eyes were full of surprise and joy. “Heavens, it’s been so long, you’ve actually become so beautiful! Just now we were all stunned. If it weren’t for you saying earlier that you were coming, and you being beside Gu the Great Campus Prince, we really would not have recognized you at all!”

“……”

After saying this excitedly, the girl slapped her own forehead. “Aiya, I almost forgot to say, you surely don’t know who’s who among us, but it’s not too late to get to know us now! Hello, I’m Xia Yutian, and the one who looks the same as me is my twin sister, Xia Xuetian.”

Xia Xuetian’s temperament was quite like her younger sister’s, and she also greeted Yan Luqing warmly: “Big beauty, come, we’ll introduce you to everyone.”

Above.

Vivid enactment of a situational drama: “Familiar·People.”

sos——

Help——!

Just as Yan Luqing’s scalp was tingling with awkwardness, she heard from slightly behind her, at Gu Ci’s standing position, a very soft, low laugh.

The tail tone was irresistibly magnetic, the words unspeakably cutting.

“It is quite familiar.”

Throwing down this fatal strike, Gu Ci was immediately surrounded and swept away by several boys beside him.

……

In the time after, Yan Luqing felt as if her soul had been split in two halves, one half endlessly regretting that unthinking phrase “familiar people,” the other half following the twin sisters with unique names to get to know everyone.

This time the ratio of male to female was very even, six girls and six boys. Besides the Yu-Xue twin sisters, among the girls there was also one called Yin Ning’an, who was dressed with particular care, even down to the strands of hair that were evidently permed with effort.

Yan Luqing paid special attention to her, because before coming, in her observations, this one’s bubbles among all the girls were the most related to Gu Ci.

After Gu Ci had sent the message that he would be coming, Yin Ning’an’s bubbles had been constantly yellow and pink, either “Finally going to see Gu Ci,” or “Heavens heavens,” “ahhhhhhhhhhh” these kinds of meaningless screams. Even the whole day yesterday, Yin Ning’an seemed to be choosing clothes and packing her luggage for herself, her bubbles being things like “Would Gu Ci like this one?” “Gu Ci seems not to like things this flashy…” and such.

Seeing this made Yan Luqing rather emotional for a while.

The remaining two girls stood slightly behind Yin Ning’an, one on her left and one on her right. This placement, subtle yet clear, highlighted Yin Ning’an as the main character, obviously serving as her follower-sisters.

At the scene, the only one who needed to recognize people was Yan Luqing. After all, Gu Ci’s popularity during student days had been astonishing. Though there had been several months of being out of touch, after he casually brushed it over with some excuse unknown, everyone very quickly put the matter behind them.

Among the boys’ group she did not pay much attention, just greeted briefly and that was it, only having a deeper impression of two people, one named Pei Ze and one named Tao Qingzhou—because these two practically wished to stick themselves onto Gu Ci and plaster against him.

Yan Luqing even wanted to say: you two might as well stick one in front and one in back and serve as medicinal plasters for Gu Ci.

That he had good relations with girls was as it should be, for he was born with a face that could snatch away everyone’s peach blossoms.

So under this great premise, that Gu Ci’s relations with the boys could also be this good was truly strange.

“Our reserved hotel is just a little ahead, let’s not chat here anymore,” Yin Ning’an’s voice was of that soft kind, her face turned toward the boys as she suggested, “How about we first go put down our luggage?”

Gu Ci’s plaster number one, Pei Ze, said: “Okay. Besides, you girls also need to change clothes, right? Today’s plan is mountain climbing, you three this…” He looked at Yin Ning’an and her two sidekicks, shook his head, “Dresses and heeled shoes, how are you going to climb?”

One of Yin Ning’an’s sidekicks seemed to have a good relationship with Pei Ze, and at once laughingly pretended to go hit him. Pei Ze dodged while saying, “Don’t touch me don’t touch me, hey, I’m a man with a wife now!”

The boys all “tsk”ed at him together, saying toward the girls: “Pei Ze this guy has gone crazy recently, ever since he got in a relationship, three sentences can’t go without mentioning his wife.”

Plaster number one immediately pulled a long face: “It was my wife who pursued me—my, wife, pursued, me! Don’t make it sound like I’m some licking dog, okay!!!”

Everyone immediately burst into loud laughter, and Yan Luqing also could not hold back.

This kind of feeling of youths gathering together indeed had a magical charm. In a season when fallen leaves covered the ground, still fresh and full of vitality.

At the very first moment of her smiling, Yan Luqing instinctively searched in the crowd of boys for Gu Ci’s eyes.

——He was always an existence easily seen anywhere. At this moment, the smile on his face was not as exaggerated as everyone else’s, only faintly resting at the corners of his lips and eyes.

And when Yan Luqing saw those eyes behind the lenses slightly curved, her gaze happened to collide with Gu Ci’s in midair.

*

This trip was planned to last four or five days, so everyone had brought changes of clothes, and the girls’ luggage was generally more than the boys’.