As she was about to board the high-speed train, her mother reminded her, "You're a young girl going away to college, somewhere unfamiliar. If you run into any trouble, go to Jiang Tan."
Jiang Tan was the son of her mother's friend, a year older than Xu Yichi.
After his mother died, he moved away, and Xu Yichi never saw him again.
She pictured the gentle, elegant boy he'd been six years ago.
She nodded solemnly.
On the day she arranged to meet Jiang Tan, she carried the sweet cakes her mother had specially prepared and waited for him beneath the trees.
A girl beside him was teasing him. Jiang Tan answered her absentmindedly, one hand in his pocket.
As he approached, he had an unlit cigarette between his lips. He glanced at Xu Yichi. "Thanks."
He was a completely different person from before, rebellious and utterly roguish.
Back in her dorm, Xu Yichi deleted Jiang Tan's contact information.
*
Later, Xu Yichi ran into Jiang Tan at a party.
He sat in the center of attention, lounging deep in a soft sofa, his eyelids drooping with indifference. He didn't even look at her.
They both dropped out in the first round of the game.
In the narrow, airless corridor, Xu Yichi and Jiang Tan stood face-to-face.
A spark flared in the dimness. Jiang Tan lowered his head and fiddled with the lighter in his hand. Its flame blazed before her eyes.
Jiang Tan turned away. Over the sound of her uneven breathing, he asked with a half-smile, "Have you been enjoying avoiding me?"
A jaded rogue who refuses to be tamed x the cure for all ills
Theme: Growth and love.
