From high school to college.

All these years, Ling Ling had never lacked admirers, but she’d never fallen for any of them. Or rather, she’d only ever fallen for one boy.

She’d thought Cao Zijin was just passing through her life. She never expected him to take most of her youth with him.

That boy was ruthless.

Cao Zijin was a year ahead of Ling Ling. On the day of his graduation ceremony, Ling Ling’s band was invited to perform, and as the keyboardist, she was sure to be onstage too.

But then—

Just before the performance, Ling Ling accidentally caught her finger in the door of the dressing room. The injury was bad enough that she had to give up going onstage and head to the school clinic.

When she returned to the plaza from Y City University’s clinic, she happened to see Cao Zijin go onstage to present a bouquet.

This time, he was even more ruthless than he’d been in high school. He gave the flowers to a boy.

At that moment,

Ling Ling finally gave up on him.

The summer between her junior and senior years of college.

Ling Ling and Qin Man, her best friend from college, both earned their teaching certificates. They’d planned to teach music together at Y City No. 10 High School.

But then Qin Man got accepted, while Ling Ling was reassigned—to a school in a neighboring city, Z City Senior High School.

Two or three hundred kilometers apart.

Ling Ling spent the whole summer at home, troubled and unsure what to do.

Then one day at dinner, for some reason, her mother suddenly brought up her daughter’s love life—or, more accurately, her marriage prospects. With a perfectly serious expression, she said, “Ling Ling, you’re already twenty-one. How come you don’t even have a boyfriend?”

Ling Ling reacted as if someone had stepped on her tail. Her expression darkened. “Mom, weren’t you the one who told me not to date while I was studying? Why are you bringing this up now?”

“Well… in the blink of an eye, you’ll be a senior, and you’ll be starting your internship… I didn’t want you dating before because I was afraid it would affect your studies… But you’re barely studying now, so what’s there to affect?”

“You’re the one who says one thing and its opposite! You’ve got an answer for everything!”

“All right, all right. I’ve changed my mind. I’m telling you to start thinking about marriage. There, happy?”

“I don’t want to date…”

“You’re already twenty-one, and the legal age for women to marry has been lowered to twenty. I’m just afraid you’ll end up like me and not get married until you’re nearly thirty. Just imagine: my daughter’s only twenty, and her mother’s almost fifty. That’s no good… I’m getting old, and you’re my only daughter. I’m afraid I won’t live to see my grandchild born.”

“Mom…” Ling Ling understood her mother, but she was utterly helpless. It wasn’t her fault she was an only child.

A little while later.

Ling’s mother seemed to remember something. She slapped her forehead and said excitedly, “Oh, right! The son of the finance director at our bus company just got back from studying abroad. Maybe I can set you two up!”

“Mom, enough! I haven’t even graduated yet!”

“I’m only asking you to date him. It’s not like you have to get married right away!”

After talking with her mother,

Ling Ling couldn’t stop thinking about it that night. Afraid her mother might really drag her off to a blind date, she accepted Z City Senior High School’s job offer before dawn.

Late August.

Time to pack up and bail.

……

The last day of August.

Afternoon.

At Senior High School, as boarding students dragged their suitcases and carried their backpacks back to campus, ready to welcome the new semester, Ling Ling also set foot on these grounds, steeped in history and charm.

That said,

Ling Ling wasn’t happy at all. She was even a little dejected, and already regretting her impulsive decision to come here for her internship.

This southern city didn’t even have a high-speed rail station or an airport.

Apparently, the high-speed rail station had already been built, but it was still in the testing phase and wasn’t open yet.

Ling Ling had spent five hours on a long-distance bus, traveling three hundred kilometers to reach this small, third- or fourth-tier city. It wasn’t that she disliked Senior High School; she just couldn’t adjust to life in a small city.

She was an only child from a comfortable family in a major city, and she’d been a little spoiled.

Around five in the afternoon.

Ling Ling arrived at the arts department office in the administration building.

The person assigned to welcome Ling Ling was Xiao Yi, the homeroom teacher for the sophomore music class. She was a married woman in her thirties and seemed nice, but the generation gap left them with little to talk about.

Xiao Yi first took Ling Ling to the teachers’ dormitory so she could put away her luggage. Then she added, “There were supposed to be two student teachers… The other one’s from a big city too, and maybe she couldn’t take it, so she turned us down at the last minute… By the way, you’re from Y City, right?”

As she put down her luggage, Ling Ling forced a smile and thought, I should’ve turned them down too. But all she said was, “Yeah, I’m from Y City.”

“I’ll call you Little Ling… Young people these days all want to move to big cities. Not many would go out of their way to come to a small city like this.”

Ling Ling kept smiling. “I… really like cities with a sense of history.”

In reality,

she was screaming inside, I want to go home! She was even thinking about how to write her resignation letter.

But when she thought it over, she decided to stick it out a little longer and see how things went… After all, just a few days ago, she’d put on a brave face in front of her mom and declared she was off to conquer the world. She couldn’t come crawling home now.

A little while later.

Just as Ling Ling was about to unpack and clean the dorm, Xiao Yi suggested, “Little Ling, why don’t you leave the cleaning for later? I’ll show you around campus.”

Ling Ling wanted to refuse. She’d spent five hours on a long-distance bus, her butt hurt, and she didn’t feel like walking. But Xiao Yi was being so kind that she couldn’t say no. “Okay…”

Five thirty in the afternoon.

The sun sank toward the horizon, and dusk was beautiful.

The sunlight had softened, no longer scorching, but the air was still stiflingly hot.

Ling Ling was wearing a light gray shirt and jeans that day, mainly because she didn’t want to get a tan. After only a few steps, she was already drenched in sweat.

As they walked, Xiao Yi told Ling Ling about the campus. Ling Ling gave the occasional distracted reply, barely taking in a word. All she wanted was to get back to the dorm, shower, and change into clean clothes.

As they passed the basketball court,

the smooth rhythm of a basketball shot caught Ling Ling’s attention. She glanced over and saw a boy dribbling in for a layup all by himself.

The boy was about 178 centimeters tall and looked like a punk. He wore a faded black T-shirt, a pair of DIY uniform shorts, and Anta sneakers.

To explain what “DIY uniform shorts” means: Senior High School’s uniforms have long pants in every seasonal style. Some students get hot and cut theirs down into shorts.

However,

this boy’s shorts didn’t look like the ones other students had altered. Judging by the uneven cuts and the loose threads sticking out, he’d probably taken a pair of scissors to them himself.

Ling Ling thought, Hm… now that’s a tough guy.

Actually,

Ling Ling’s first impression of the boy wasn’t great. She liked bright, clean-cut boys like Cao Zijin, not scruffy punks like this.

Just then,

Xiao Yi noticed Ling Ling had lost focus. She followed Ling Ling’s gaze to the boy beyond the three-point line and lowered her voice. “Oh… that’s Lin Zishen from Class 3, Grade 11.”

Class 3, Grade 11… the same class Cao Zijin had been in…

Ling Ling was a little surprised. “You know him? Is he a student in the music class?”

“Not at all… He’s pretty famous at our school!”

Ling Ling could hear the distaste in Xiao Yi’s voice. “Is he… a bad student?”

“Mm… Actually, I might as well tell you now. In a little while, you’ll be teaching music to the Grade 11 classes, both arts and science tracks. You’ll run into Lin Zishen sooner or later, so it’s best to be prepared.”

Ling Ling was starting to feel a little intimidated.

As mentioned earlier, the No. 10 High School Ling Ling had graduated from was the best public school in a major city. It had a strong faculty and a good academic atmosphere. You could search the whole campus and barely find a handful of troublemakers, let alone any really bad ones.

She asked timidly, “How bad is he?”

“Very bad! During his whole first year of high school, he cheated on exams, dated a delinquent from the girls’ high school, and got into fights with people both on and off campus all the time… The scariest part is that he got into a fight with some gangsters over the summer and was stabbed. He only got out of the hospital less than two months ago… Be careful when you have him in class.”

After hearing Xiao Yi out, Ling Ling looked again at the lonely boy in the distance. She couldn’t help feeling both curious and afraid.

She’d never met a bad student in her life.

He didn’t just get into fights—he used a knife, too. She’d better keep her distance. She was so pretty; what if he got carried away by lust?

Poor little Ling Ling, she was so scared!