When the ginkgo leaves blanketed Xinglan University, Lin Yanqiu found a small bronze bell at a secondhand market. It cost five yuan and looked like a curled-up kitten.
She had no idea the bell would glow in the dead of night, much less that it would pair her with “Wild Ferry, No One Crossing,” a razor-sharp jungler with a clear, cool voice who always sighed and told her, “Stay behind me,” whenever she fed the enemy team.
It wasn’t until she was by the library window that Shen Yanzhou slid a tuna sandwich toward her. Sunlight fell across the collar of his white shirt, and an identical bell dangled from his phone case. Only then did she realize that the master jungler who protected her in the game was the top student who was cold to everyone in real life, yet always especially patient with her.
Each night, the bronze bell revealed another image. From the library’s pointed roof to the railings of Lovers’ Bridge, it slowly pieced together the old dream of a Republican-era couple. Zhou Mingyu, a physics student, once taught Su Qingru, a literature student, to recognize constellations here. Now Shen Yanzhou, a computer science student, patiently taught her Sun Bin’s second skill.
“The bells are looking for each other.” He lowered his eyes to her, his gaze softer than moonlight. “So are we.”
From gaming friends to stargazing side by side, from a century-old token of love to the flutter of their hearts today, it turned out that some fated encounters had their foreshadowing written by time long ago.
