He Tingyun was every bit as privileged as his name suggested. He had never known hardship, and he was carefree and willful. That was until his second year of high school, when he transferred to a small town. The facilities were outdated, the desks and chairs rusted and worn, and even the water dispenser was a decade old.
Still, he adapted easily, as if he had lived there for seventeen years. The only problem was that his new deskmate never seemed to want to talk to him. After asking several times without getting a response, he teased her, "Are you a little fairy or a mute?"
Deng Ying was beautiful and refined, like a pearl beneath the dull gray sky. But what people passed around in whispers wasn't that she always ranked first in class, but that she had developed aphasia in her first year of high school after a friend transferred away.
She thought she would spend her school years studying and saving money. The long nights seemed endless, quiet and heavy, day after day, until a transfer student joined her class in her second year.
She hated him: hated his so-called talent, his relentless optimism, his stream of admirers, their increasingly close relationship, the way he pressured her to speak, and his abrupt disappearance without a word.
He had left again, as suddenly and silently as he had arrived, leaving behind only unfinished exams and books she hadn't finished memorizing, along with her teacher's answer when she asked about him.
"The provincial capital has much better educational resources than this place, right? There's nothing here worth keeping him around. He should have left a long time ago. I just didn't expect it to be so sudden, as if he were running away from someone."
Deng Ying thought of her confession the day before and fell silent for a long time. At last, her life was quiet again.
But the peace didn't last. Two years later, they met again. The student who needed a tutor had suddenly changed, clearly through someone's design. Deng Ying's face was expressionless, without a trace of surprise.
He Tingyun leaned against a piano, looking a little strange. "What? Don't you recognize me?"
"I don't." She was as calm as ever and turned to leave.
But He Tingyun smiled and stepped in front of her. "That hurts. I listen to the song you hummed to help me fall asleep every single day."
Deng Ying pulled up her music account, with its many works and millions of followers. "I've sung for lots of people. Are you one of them?"
He Tingyun: ...
P.S. This unrequited love belongs only to me.
Core theme: Study hard and make progress every day
