The Ice Pop Melted

[Youthful Campus Romance | 1v1 | Realistic | BE] That summer in eighth grade, Zhou Peng bought an ice pop for a girl named Jiang Shan at the plaza. They cost five for three yuan, and he got strawberry, melon, and chocolate. The moment she took her first bite, Zhou Peng knew he was done for. They got together later, and what they had was real. They were truly happy. And after that? The ice pops melted. Summer ended. The people who got lost in the crowd were never found again. In 2026, at the end of a class reunion, someone took out their phone and started looking through old photos. They came across a group photo taken at the plaza: five teenagers squeezed together, grinning, with fireworks bursting chaotically behind them. Someone in the corner muttered, “Damn,” very softly. It was Zhou Peng. He zoomed in on the photo and stared at it for a long time. Someone beside him leaned over. “Isn't that Jiang Zhi's sister? What was her name again? Jiang Shan... Didn't you two...?” Zhou Peng didn't answer. He placed his phone face down on the table and walked out of the private room. At the end of the hall, he took out a cigarette but didn't light it. He just stood there with it between his lips in the drafty winter hallway, for the time it would have taken to smoke a whole cigarette. Someone in the room was singing “Later.” A line drifted out: “How do you remember me, with a smile or in silence?” Zhou Peng put the unlit cigarette back in his pocket and went inside. Smiling, he said, “Wrong one. This cigarette has no flavor.” No one noticed his reddened eyes.