A Twenty-Eight-Year-Old Girl's Heart

At twenty-eight, Chi Ying ran into Xu Weiran, the boy she’d had a crush on in high school, at a class reunion. On the day after the college entrance exams, she had confessed to Xu Weiran. He turned her down, and the whole thing became public knowledge. It wasn’t entirely his fault. Who could have known there’d be a street interview happening right outside the school? Her bad luck meant that the moment she was rejected got recorded. Fortunately, after graduation, the classmates rarely saw each other, and Chi Ying hadn’t felt too embarrassed. They say time is a butcher’s knife, but for Xu Weiran, it was more like a beauty knife. He had grown even more striking than he’d been in high school, with an air of wealth and refinement that was impossible to hide. It was hard to connect him with the aloof, antisocial boy who used to sit in the corner of the classroom. Chi Ying’s heart raced. She cursed herself for being so hopeless. At twenty-eight, she still had a teenage girl’s heart. She kept a calm expression on her face, and after using the restroom, ran into Xu Weiran in the hallway. It seemed he had been waiting for her. Chi Ying still pretended not to care. But as they passed each other, Xu Weiran suddenly spoke. “The day after the exams, you confessed to me…” Chi Ying’s eyelid twitched. Before he could finish, she blurted out, “It’s been so many years. Who remembers who they liked when they were young and naive? Don’t take it too seriously.” Xu Weiran lowered his eyes. His throat felt tight and rough, but he still managed to say what was on his mind. “If I could do it over again, I think I would say yes.” Chi Ying: “?” What was going on? Was he acting out some scene about two lovers who’d missed their chance? What Chi Ying hadn’t expected was that, that very night, she really would return to her high school days with Xu Weiran. This time, she was going to find out why Xu Weiran had rejected her.