Chapter 24: Forgotten Memories

Su Zijin was completely flustered, her bright eyes fixed firmly on the tips of her shoes.

"Classmate Zijin?"

Although Xu Ye found it amusing, he was more concerned than anything, so he called out to her gently. Could this silly girl really be so bothered by such a trivial matter? Fortunately, Su Zijin wasn't that fragile, and she immediately responded in a soft voice.

"...I'm fine."

Despite her words, she felt her face burning hotter than the midday sun, to the point where her entire body began to feel feverish. Xu Ye glanced at the soda can, then back at Su Zijin. *So, are we really that fated?* he wondered. *We’ve only met for the first time in this life, and we’ve already had an indirect kiss? And if tonight…*

*Pah, pah! Xu Ye, what are you thinking?* he scolded himself. *Can’t you see she’s already shy to the point of distress? Do you want to scare her off?*

"Ahem, well, Classmate Zijin... in this heat... it should have evaporated long ago, so it's really nothing to worry about." Xu Ye offered some nonsensical comfort. He had drunk from it, left it for a while, and then she had drunk from it. That meant there was a period of evaporation in between, so even if there was saliva left on the rim, it should have evaporated—or at least, part of it had, right?

Su Zijin lifted her head, looking at him with a deadpan expression. "Is a millimeter of distance still considered not having touched?"

"Hey, hey, Classmate Zijin, be normal!" *This isn't the internet, don't just start driving on this lane!*

Su Zijin took a deep breath, and it took a while for her complexion to return to normal. The two began to eat in silence, with Su Zijin sipping her drink every now and then because of the spice. Naturally, she didn't drink the wrong one again; she stuck to her own. Moreover, she wouldn't let Xu Ye drink from her bottle anymore—she poured the rest into a cup and set the empty can aside.

*Are you really guarding against me like a gentleman? Is that even necessary?*

After about an hour, they finished their meal. He hadn't realized she had such a hearty appetite; no wonder she had grown so tall.

"Are you full?" Xu Ye asked.

"Mm~"

"Then I'll go pay the bill." As he spoke, Xu Ye scanned the QR code.

Su Zijin suddenly asked, "Do you remember when we first met?"

Xu Ye paused, then answered with a smile: "Of course, that summer vacation after middle school graduation."

"Wrong. It was the winter of our freshman year of high school!"

Xu Ye froze, a loud "boom" echoing in his mind. "You mean... the time you were sick?"

He finally remembered—or rather, he finally recalled what he had forgotten. There was no discrepancy in their perceptions. Xu Ye had indeed met Su Zijin during that summer after middle school. But to Su Zijin, the Xu Ye from before the winter of their freshman year was just a passerby in her eyes. Aside from being annoying and dragging her down in games, he was no different from a stranger.

The real shift happened in December of their freshman year. She had fallen ill—nothing serious, but it required hospitalization, and she stayed for over a month. During that time, she couldn't log into the game, and because she only knew Xu Ye as a gaming friend, she hadn't given him her QQ or WeChat. Back then, she hadn't given him a second thought, spending her days reading books and playing mobile games, her life barely different from the past decade.

"Until I logged back into the game after being discharged."

"I found that some idiot actually thought I had died."

"You were leaving messages on different games every day, acting like you were mourning me."

Su Zijin looked at Xu Ye, her eyes curving into crescents. "It’s snowing here; it seems to be the first snow in over a decade. How about where you are? Did it snow?"

"I went to Mount Lu today. It was shrouded in thick fog and a sea of clouds; it was truly beautiful. Do you want to come and see it?"

"Poyang Lake is so beautiful this year, the water and sky are one color. I think it’s just as good as the scenery from the Pavilion of Prince Teng. Won't you reply to me? Don't ignore me—at least let me send you a few photos."

"The sky is so blue today, the clouds are so wispy, and the sun is just right. It’s just that something feels like it's missing..."

"Stop, stop, please don't bring that up..." Although he understood now—and perhaps this was exactly why Su Zijin had developed special feelings for him—having his dark history exposed in public was social death, wasn't it?

Su Zijin watched him with a faint smile. There was something she didn't say out loud. Back then, she had laughed as she read those messages. It wasn't mockery, but rather a feeling as if her heart had been struck hard. *So this is what it feels like to be cared about.*

But there were thousands of miles between them. He didn't even know if she was a boy or a girl, whether she was pretty, or even her real name. Why would he care about her? *What a fool.* Was there really such a dim-witted person in this world?

"Actually..." Xu Ye lifted his head, eyes filled with the memories of the past. "At first, I thought you didn't want to play with me anymore. You were so good at the game, and I really was quite bad."

"But later I thought, all your game accounts were high-level. Even if you didn't want to talk to me, you could have just blocked me, right? There was no reason to abandon your accounts entirely."

"So I panicked. I had no idea what had happened to you, and that's why I..."

Back then, Xu Ye really hadn't known his "good bro" was a girl; he had treated her entirely as a friend—a friend in reality.

"You were worried that something had happened to me, that I might have even died?" Su Zijin finished his sentence. Half of what she wanted to say was on the tip of her tongue, but her red lips moved, and she swallowed the words back.

She wasn't ready yet. After all, the internet and reality were different. And the most critical point: he still had that "white moonlight" in his past. So, even if she wanted to ask, she had to wait for a while—at least until she was truly certain he had forgotten that person. At the thought of that "white moonlight," Su Zijin’s brows knit together involuntarily.

"What's wrong? Do you feel unwell?" Xu Ye, who had been about to say something else, saw her frown and asked with immediate, nervous concern.

"No, I'm just a bit full."

"Then let's go for a walk. We can use it to help digest the meal, right?"

"Mm, okay~"

For the entire afternoon, Xu Ye took her to many places: Suojiang Tower, Xunyang Tower, Pipa Pavilion, and the Jiangzhou Museum. Although today was their first time meeting, there was no sense of estrangement. On the contrary, they were incredibly compatible and in sync. Sometimes, just a single glance was enough for them to guess what the other was thinking. It was a magical feeling, as if... it were fated?

No, it should be called a match made in heaven.