Ordinary Peppermint Candy

[Cool and distant on the outside, thoughtful on the inside top x sharp-tongued but soft-hearted, frank and sincere bottom]

A sweet campus romance, rekindled love after a breakup, happy ending

At the start of their second year of high school, a most unexpected guest appeared at the desk of Xie Jixing, the top student in their grade: Mu Yuye, assigned to him as a tutoring partner by the academic affairs office.

When they first met, Xie Jixing had brought a book of math competition problems, ready to start tutoring like a model top student. Instead, he found Mu Yuye crouched on the activity room floor, directing classmates as they unpacked a new classroom plant. With dirt on his fingers, Mu Yuye poked at a crooked pothos and asked, "Hey, top student Xie, take a look? These leaves keep leaning to one side. Can we use physics to straighten them out?" Xie Jixing stared at the absurdly crooked plant and tightened his grip on the competition book. "Take out last week's math test first."

Xie Jixing had expected their tutoring sessions to follow a predictable routine, but Mu Yuye always found a way to turn "studying" into "living." On Wednesdays, their tutoring days, he dragged Xie Jixing to the stray cat rescue center by the school gate and, holding up a five-kilogram bag of cat food, asked, "If we feed them a hundred grams a day, how long will this last?" At the campus culture festival, Xie Jixing prepared a math puzzle exhibition, but Mu Yuye pulled him into the creative market instead. He had Xie Jixing write custom sticky notes like, "May you be like a monotonically increasing function, with every step landing higher than the last." They donated all the money they earned to the rescue center. Mu Yuye even posted a photo of Xie Jixing writing with his head bowed, captioned, "A top student's idea of romance needs a few formulas to really hit the spot."

Xie Jixing's life began to change in quiet ways. Beside his competition books appeared a notebook filled with notes on how much food to give the stray cats. His evening study notes now featured not only function graphs, but also little cats Mu Yuye had drawn, each holding a pen in its mouth. During a safety drill, Xie Jixing tripped over a stray cat and cut his hand. Mu Yuye rushed over with red-rimmed eyes and fumbled to bandage it, looking even more distressed than Xie Jixing. Yet he still scolded him gruffly: "How can you be so clumsy? You should know to stay away from cats." They had planned to go to the library that weekend, but Mu Yuye took him to an old book market on the outskirts of town instead. Crouching by a stall, he found a copy of Math Stories for Fun and handed it over. "It's more interesting than your competition book. It teaches you to calculate the odds of winning the lottery. Learn it, and maybe we can win enough to buy cat food for the rescue center."

Xie Jixing had once thought his world consisted only of formulas, theorems, and competition rankings. But with Mu Yuye leading the way, he found himself crouching beside a cat shelter to count out food for the first time, selling math puzzle blind boxes at a charity market for the first time, and, when someone spilled ink on his notes during evening study, drawing little cats beside the stains instead of getting angry. Mu Yuye, too, was quietly making his way into Xie Jixing's world. He turned Xie Jixing's explanation of quadratic functions into an easy-to-understand method he called "the little flower's bowl." After improving his monthly exam score by more than thirty points, he wrote in the class journal, "Thanks to Xie Jixing for breaking complicated problems down into 'how many steps it takes to walk there.' It's a hundred times easier to understand than the textbook." At the winter sports meet, while pulling hard on the tug-of-war rope, he spotted Xie Jixing standing by the finish line with a sheet of scratch paper covered in notes on the "best angle for exerting force." The moment his team won, he rushed over and threw his arms around Xie Jixing without thinking. His classmates teased them, and he let go, blushing. But that evening, on their way home, he suddenly took Xie Jixing's hand. "They can tease us all they want. I really do want to hold your hand."

With the cool March wind blowing across the rooftop, Mu Yuye stopped Xie Jixing, clutching a cat-shaped keychain so tightly his fingertips trembled. "Ever since the day you crouched by the cat shelter and helped me figure out how much food they needed, I've wanted to feed cats with you, do homework with you, and make our days together more interesting. Xie Jixing, I like you. Not just as a friend." Xie Jixing looked at the unmistakable passion in his eyes and suddenly smiled. He realized that his heart had been racing out of rhythm ever since the first time Mu Yuye dragged him to the rescue center. He took the keychain and hung it on his schoolbag. The cool sweetness of a mint candy spread through his mouth. "I feel the same."

Their romance was hidden in countless little details. Xie Jixing slipped a small "problem of the day" note into Mu Yuye's textbook, with a drawing of the calico cat they often fed on the back. During breaks, Mu Yuye helped Xie Jixing organize his competition notes, writing "You can do it, my top student" in the margins. At the rescue center on weekends, one of them filled out adoption forms while the other brushed the cats and checked their health. The woman who ran the center smiled and said, "You two work together more smoothly than longtime partners." They blushed and didn't argue, only secretly holding each other's hands tighter.

On the day their college entrance exams ended, they found an introductory book on veterinary medicine at the old book market. Mu Yuye held it up excitedly and said, "I'll study this someday and help even more stray cats." He didn't notice Mu Yuye's mother's gaze from a short distance away. That evening, Mu Yuye's phone was locked in a drawer, and his mother said with red eyes, "You two aren't right for each other." When the exam results came out, Xie Jixing got into A University in their hometown, but learned from a classmate that Mu Yuye had been forced by his family to choose business administration at a university far away. At their high school graduation ceremony, they exchanged yearbooks across a crowd of people. Mu Yuye secretly slipped him a note showing two hands clasped together, with the words, "Wait for me. I'll come back." At the train station, Mu Yuye leaned out of the window and handed him the book on veterinary medicine and a ring engraved with the character "Ye." "Hold on to this for me. I'll definitely come back for it."

During their time apart, Xie Jixing took the old book and ring with him. After getting into A University's math department, he immediately joined the stray animal protection club. Using the feeding calculation method they had worked out together in high school, he combined it with mathematical models to create an "optimized supply plan for rescue centers," reducing wasted cat food by thirty percent. Club members said he seemed "like he had an invisible partner." He didn't explain. He simply printed the plan and placed it beside the cat plushie Mu Yuye had given him. At the rescue center, he found a stray cat so thin it was little more than skin and bones. He named it "Waiting for Ye," and went to feed it medicine and brush its fur after class every day, telling it, "Just wait a little longer. He'll be back."

While repeating a year of school in another city, Mu Yuye hid Introductory Veterinary Medicine behind his textbooks. At night, he used a flashlight to make notes, copying down information on treating skin conditions in stray cats in a small notebook. He thought, "This will come in handy when I rescue cats with Xie Jixing someday." On the day he filled out his university applications, he waited until his parents weren't looking and secretly changed his first choice to the veterinary medicine program at B University in their hometown. When his acceptance letter arrived, he laid his volunteer certificate and notes in front of his parents. "I like this major, and I like Xie Jixing. I'm not giving up."

Five years later, on the first day Mu Yuye returned to their hometown, he went to the old locust tree from their high school days. The cat shelter was still there. An orange cat was sleeping inside, and a bag of familiar-brand dried fish treats sat beside it. When he heard footsteps behind him, he turned and met Xie Jixing's eyes. Xie Jixing wore a beige coat and carried a bag of cat food. His hair was a little longer than it had been in high school, but his eyes were just as Mu Yuye remembered.

"You... came back?" Xie Jixing's voice trembled a little, and the bag of cat food nearly slipped from his hands. Mu Yuye nodded and took the yellowed copy of Introductory Veterinary Medicine from his backpack. Between its pages was the ring Xie Jixing had given him all those years ago, along with a newly engraved ring bearing the character "Xing." "I didn't lose the book. I kept everything you gave me." He handed Xie Jixing the ring engraved with "Xing." Their fingers touched, and both of them paused.

The orange cat rose and rubbed against their legs. Leaves from the old locust tree fell onto their shoulders. Mu Yuye looked at Xie Jixing with the same passionate gaze he'd had when he confessed on the rooftop all those years ago. "Xie Jixing, I didn't make you wait too long, did I?" Xie Jixing slipped the ring onto his finger, then held up his own ring engraved with "Ye," letting the two rings touch with a soft, delicate sound. "No. I waited just long enough for you."

All the feelings hidden in cat food, test papers, and old books, all the waiting and determination that had carried them through five years, finally found a home beneath the old locust tree. They were still the boys who used to calculate how much food stray cats needed and turn studying into living. Only this time, they would never be separated again.

What heavenly prodigies? What earth-shaking romance? All the words they couldn't say became an ordinary mint candy.

Theme: Love has no gender, and everyone deserves the freedom to pursue their dreams.