[Qinghua University Quad — September 15, 11:04 AM]
The Europan oaks above the central path were beginning to gold at the tips. The September light came through them in long bright patches. Students moved through it in the loose mid-morning rhythm of between classes.
A boy by the fountain raised his phone and lowered it again. He raised it back up, twenty seconds later, with the angle adjusted.
A clutch of girls outside the dining hall stopped talking when they saw who was crossing toward the central path.
Lin Feng walked. Xiao Yue walked beside him.
Her hood was up. Her hand was in his.
The whispers carried, but in pieces:
"—is that—"
"—who's the—"
"—wait, is he holding—"
The sentences broke off mid-word. The rest of the path's onlookers watched without speaking.
Lin Feng kept his pace in sync with hers.
"Lin Feng."
"Yeah."
"They're filming."
"I noticed."
"I just want to make sure you noticed."
He glanced down. He could not see her face under the hood — the angle was wrong and the shadow was deep — but the line of her jaw was visible.
"I noticed."
"Okay."
She did not let go of his hand. The grip had not changed.
A girl on the path raised her phone openly now, no pretense. She held it in front of her face with both hands. Lin Feng walked past her. The phone tracked. He did not look at the lens.
"He couldn't get the campus belle..."
The voice was male, behind them, unhurried. Not directed at them. Directed at his friend.
"...so he found someone in his league."
A laugh from a second voice. They were past it before either of them turned. Xiao Yue's hand stayed exactly where it was. She did not slow down.
Meanwhile, the corner of Lin Feng's mouth twitched as a thought passed his mind. Xiao Yue is someone in my league… Am I the Emperor now?
"Lin Feng." Xiao Yue called him once more.
"Yeah."
"That doesn't bother me."
"I know."
"That's good. I'm not just saying it. I want you to know. So you don't worry about it."
He looked at her again. The hood. The curtain of hair on the side facing him. The line of her jaw.
"I'm not worried."
"Good."
A pause. Three steps.
"I've heard worse."
"From who."
"Everyone."
"For how long."
"Five years."
He didn't answer. She did not need him to.
The path curved past the fountain and toward the colonnade that led to Central Plaza.
The space here was wider. Stone benches lined the lawn. The campus café line had built up on the right, and the heads of the students in line were turning, one by one, the wave moving down the line in the direction they were walking.
"Lin Feng."
"Yeah."
"Are we going to Central Plaza?"
"Yes."
"That's expensive."
"That's the idea."
She did not ask for elaboration. She walked.
The colonnade dimmed the light by half. Their footsteps echoed off the stone. Somewhere ahead, the door to Central Plaza slid open — a server stepping out for a smoke break, his white shirt bright in the colonnade shadow. He saw them and froze with the lighter halfway to his cigarette.
--------------------
[Central Plaza Restaurant — 11:12 AM]
The host stand was a recessed alcove just inside the door. The young man behind it wore a black shirt buttoned to the collar and a name tag that read Wei Cheng.
He looked up. The look paused, held — then the practiced smile arrived a half-second late.
"Mr. Lin. Welcome back."
"The corner table by the window, please."
"Of course. Right this way Mr. Lin."
Wei Cheng took two menus from the holder and stepped out from the stand.
He did not look at Xiao Yue. He looked at her hood, at her hand in Lin Feng's, and back to Lin Feng. For half a second, hesitation appeared on his face, only for it to be absorbed in a customer service smile.
Lin Feng caught it.
Wei Cheng led them through the dining room.
The conversations around them did not stop; rather, they shifted. A woman at a four-top set down her wine glass. A man across the room turned the page of a newspaper too quickly. The espresso machine at the back went off in two-second bursts.
"—isn't that—"
"—the second young master—"
"—who's the—"
The fragments trailed off, each at a slightly different point in its sentence.
The corner table was at the east window. The light through the glass was clean midday, and it had been set with white linen and a small ceramic vase of something green.
Wei Cheng pulled the chair out for Xiao Yue. She did not slide into it. She sat. Her hood stayed up. She adjusted it once after sitting, so that the side of her face that faced the room was covered.
Lin Feng sat across from her. From his seat, the corner wall framed her — the wood paneling behind her shoulders, the window light on her cheek. The crowd was at his back.
She had taken the seat where she could see everyone.
Lin Feng noticed.
The waiter arrived with water, set the menus down, and waited.
Lin Feng did not open his.
"Green tea for the lady. Braised fish — light sauce, and river fish rather than sea if the kitchen has it. Also some steamed greens, a clear soup and jasmine rice."
The waiter wrote it down without looking up.
"And for yourself, Mr. Lin?"
"The same."
The waiter nodded and walked away.
Across the table, Xiao Yue's head had tilted under the hood.
"How did you know I like those."
"Why do you think."
She considered it. The hood obscured most of her face, but her hands were on the table, palms down, and they had gone very still.
"You think you're the only one who's been watching?"
She did not answer immediately. The stillness in her hands did not move.
"...When?"
"When what?"
"When did you start?"
"The when is not important." Lin Feng shrugged, looking confident, as if everything had already been settled inside his head. "What matters is that I know many things about you."
"You take the back-corner seat in every class. You don't move. Black coffee from before six every morning at the Starlight Café — the third table from the door, by the window. The window faces my front gate."
She did not move.
"You write in black ink. Always. You skip breakfast most mornings."
He stopped.
He had given her four facts. Lin Feng was about to open his mouth to say a fifth and a sixth one, but stopped and closed it instead.
Not now. I should not say that. Not when there's a lot of people here.
After all, that kind of secret is of national security level.
But I think, it should be less than two months away from now.
Xiao Yue's hands were still on the table. They had not moved. She watched his mouth open, hold, and close again on whatever he had decided not to say.
Whatever he had almost said, he hadn't. She watched him a beat longer, then let it go.
"How long?" she asked.
"A while."
"How long?"
"Long enough."
She closed her eyes. He could see the line of her cheek under the hood, the way her jaw had set.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"For what?"
"For not saying anything sooner."
She closed her eyes.
How long does "long enough" mean.
Long enough to mean before the messages this morning.
Or before the two years of being blocked.
Or—
— before the hallway in second year of high school?
No.
Definitely not before then. He was telling me to leave him alone. He couldn't have been watching me then.
None of them sound likely…
Most likely… it's a lie.
Then Xiao Yue opened her eyes. Her mouth remained closed, her eyes on her hands on the table instead.
Lin Feng waited.
She reached down beside her and pulled her bag onto her lap.
The bag was a black canvas thing, the strap worn pale where her hand had carried it. She opened it. She took out a notebook.
The notebook was thick. The cover was black, plain, no title. The corners were soft from being carried in the bag for years.
She set it on the table between them.
"You've been watching me," she said.
"Yes."
"Well, I've been watching you longer."
She slid the notebook across.
"Open it. Anywhere."
He opened it near the front.
The page that opened was dated, in tiny careful handwriting, May 10. The year was five years ago.
[Day 1. I found him! Four months of searching and I found him! He's at Jiangcheng No. 1 Middle School. Same age as me. His name is Lin Feng. Lin Feng. Lin Feng. Lin Feng. I have written it thirty-seven times already. Was it thirty-seven times? Nevermind. I actually lost count already. But yes, I found him. I found my savior! The boy who gave me a piece of bread, water and money. There are still [────]. He told me to stay alive. I am alive. I am alive because of him. I want to know him. I want to pay him back. I will pass the [────] so I can repay him a million times more. No, with everything I have!]
He read it through to the end. He went back to the top. Then he read it again.
He turned the page.
The next entry was three days later. The one after that was a week. The handwriting did not change. The dates filled in, page after page, observation by observation, written in the same small careful hand.
He turned more pages, faster now, scanning the dates. The first year. The second. The third. The fourth.
He found a Su Qingxue entry partway through the fourth year.
[Day 1,376. Valentine's Day. He started cooking at midnight. I watched through the window until 3 AM. He was making some chocolates for her. She took them with one hand without looking up from her phone. She didn't say thank you properly. He gave me bread when I was nobody. He gave her his whole heart and she treats it like garbage. I hate her. I hate her so much it scares me.]
He stopped reading there.
He closed the notebook. He pushed it back across the table to her.
"You're impressive."
"I notice things."
"I see that."
"It's kind of my thing."
Xiao Yue's tone was flat.
Her hands on the notebook were not shaking, but they were holding the cover hard enough that the corners had bent. She set the notebook on her lap and put her hands on top of it.
Across the table, Xiao Yue watched Lin Feng watch her.
Then she looked at the food settings on the table — the white linen, the small green vase, the chopstick rests carved to look like fish. These details were not in any of her notebooks.
The thought arrived without sentiment.
I don't care…
Now that I have my opportunity, I will not waste this.
I only have one day. Maybe two.
No. Probably tonight. If I can see the opening, she should have smelled the blood already.
That stepsister of his would certainly not wait.
I will not wait either.
--------------------
The food arrived.
The waiter set the dishes down and stepped back. Steam rose from the braised fish. The greens were glossy with sesame oil.
Then he set out a serving spoon and fork for each of them. Once he was done, he finally left their table.
The soup was clear except for the white scallion ring on top. The rice came in a small lacquered bowl with the lid still on, holding the heat.
Xiao Yue picked up the serving spoon and fork.
So did Lin Feng.
He served her first. He selected the piece of fish beside the gill and placed it in her bowl.
He then ladled her soup. He chose two of the greens and arranged them beside the fish. He did all of it without looking up.
Across the table, Xiao Yue selected a piece of fish from the side he had not touched and placed it in his bowl.
She ladled his soup, and a little of it spilled on the rim, and she paused — half a second — and continued. She then put two greens on the rim. After that, she finally set the serving spoon and fork down.
Meanwhile, Lin Feng set his serving spoon and fork down and picked up his chopsticks.
"Let's eat."
Xiao Yue made a small sound at that — and a nod — and then picked up her chopsticks and took a piece of fish Lin Feng had placed in her bowl. She then put it in her mouth.
Her eyes closed.
She held them closed for a beat too long.
When she opened them, she did not look at him. She looked at the bowl.
"Oohh! This is good," she said. "I haven't had this in a long time."
She took a chopstick full of rice. She drank a small amount of the soup, and the steam fogged the edge of the hood for a moment before clearing. She kept eating in small careful portions.
Lin Feng matched her pace.
For a while, neither of them spoke.
The jazz from the overhead speakers played something slow that he did not recognize. Somewhere across the room, a fork tapped a plate three times, fast, then stopped — a child being told to slow down.
Two tables over, the conversation had shifted to property prices in the southern district. The espresso machine ran in two-second bursts. The light through the east window had moved across the table by a knuckle's width since they sat down.
Halfway through their meal, a drop of sauce clung to the corner of her mouth.
Lin Feng saw it.
His hand moved. He reached across, brushed the sauce away with his thumb, and pulled back.
Xiao Yue froze.
He wiped his thumb on the napkin in his lap and picked up his chopsticks again.
Xiao Yue had not moved. Her ears, just barely visible at the edge of the hood, had turned pink.
He looked back at his plate.
Then she started eating again, slower this time. He also continued on his meal.
After a moment she said, very quietly, "I would have wiped it myself."
"I know."
"You didn't have to."
"I know."
A pause.
"But thank you."
It came out small. He could feel her watching him for a response. He took a piece of fish and chewed it. The fish tasted like fish. His mouth was dry.
She kept watching.For a few minutes, her mouth would open, as if to say something, only to close it. Then, she called his name.
"Lin Feng."
"Yeah."
"Why did you ask me to lunch."
"Because you returned the lunch box."
"That's not a reason — I returned it because it was yours."
"It was a reason for me," he said as he set his chopsticks down.
She went still. Her hand found the rim of her bowl. Her gaze settled on the chopstick rest.
Then she set her chopsticks down too. She wiped her mouth with the napkin — slowly, the cloth folded over her fingers. She put the napkin back in her lap.
"Lin Feng."
"Yeah."
"I'm going to ask you a question. You don't have to answer it."
"Okay."
"Why now?"
Lin Feng looked at her hood. At her shadow. At the strand of black hair against her cheekbone.
"I had a dream before I woke up today," he said.
"A dream? What did it say."
"It said the man I was going to become wasn't worth becoming."
"...And then?"
"Then I woke up as someone else. And decided to stay him, as myself."
She did not speak for a moment.
He could see her working. The hand on the rim of the bowl. The fixed gaze. The small line at the corner of her jaw.
"That's not a real answer," she said.
"Well, it's the only one I can give you today."
"Why."
"Because the real one would scare you."
Resolve hardened in Xiao Yue's face. "Try me."
He was quiet for a moment. He thought about himself, the transmigrator Lin Feng. About who he was. Where he came from.
Then a gentle smile appeared on his face.
"I'm not the man I was yesterday morning."
"In what way?"
He leaned forward, as if he was about to share with her some secret knowledge.
"I'm a time-traveler."
She stopped.
Xiao Yue looked at him, a look of disbelief and bewilderment etched on her face.
"Okay… allegedly you are a time-traveler, from when then?"
"From the future."
"And Mr. Lin, what exactly is the future like?"
"Very bad."
Xiao Yue's eyelids twitched, her hands retreating slightly closer to her.
"If you really did come from the future, tell me something about it then."
Lin Feng leaned back in his chair. "If I told you now, what would happen in the future then?"
Finally, Xiao Yue couldn't bear it anymore. She looked back down at her plate — but not before rolling her eyes at him and letting out a sigh.
--------------------
They ate without speaking for a while.
The light through the east window had moved across the table by another knuckle's width. Two tables over, someone laughed at something. And somewhere behind him, a chair scraped the floor.
Meanwhile, Lin Feng watched her eat.
Xiao Yue ate quietly. The strand of hair against her cheekbone had come loose and stayed loose. He watched her finish the fish, drink the soup, take rice — unhurried, for the first time all morning.
He matched her pace.
"The soup is better than the dining hall," she said.
She still did not look at him.
"I haven't been to the dining hall before," he said.
"Yes you have," Xiao Yue promptly replied. "You went there with that 'matchmaker' of yours last Friday."
For a moment Lin Feng was silent. Then he gave a small cough. "Well, that was a long time ago..."
Xiao Yue rolled her eyes again, but did not look away this time.
"So… what did I eat?"
"Spicy chicken," Xiao Yue said.
"You and that 'matchmaker' of yours sat at the table closest to the window too." She paused, then continued. "I was three tables away. And the two of you looked very close to each other. You even let her lean into your shoulder."
Zhang Tingting...
The moment he heard that name, Lin Feng reached for the original's memories. At first, he expected consultations, advice — the mundane matchmaker work.
It came with more than that.
Practice — that was the name they'd put on it. Su Qingxue's name came last, the way it always had: the excuse for the rest.
...Ah.
I… no, he did all of that?
He sat with it. The fish on his chopsticks went uneaten.
And then the second thing: Xiao Yue saw it all. And most likely, it should have also been recorded in her black notebook.
He did not look up at her.
Across the table, Xiao Yue watched him go still. She had only meant to needle him. Then she let out a small sigh.
"...The food's getting cold," she said, breaking the silence. "Let's finish our meal first."
"Yeah," he said as he started eating again.
Then Xiao Yue's hand slid forward and touched his arm. The pressure was light. A claim, careful and unhurried. She was not looking toward the room. She was looking at him.
"Lin Feng."
"Yeah."
"Don't deceive me." A pause. "And don't leave. I don't care what happened to you… or what you did in the past. With you chasing Su Qingxue. And everything else. Just… don't leave me…"
Lin Feng looked at her hand on his arm. He set his chopsticks down, took her hand, and turned his under hers — his fingers closing around hers, intertwined.
"I will keep things from you. Some of them for a long time."
Her grip did not change.
"But I will not lie to you about what we are. And I am not leaving."
The relief showed only in her hand — the slight loosening of a grip that had been holding more than she'd let on. Nothing moved in her face.
She did not answer.
She did not need to.
Suddenly, footsteps approached across the dining room floor — two sets, fast.
Then a voice cut through.
"Lin Feng!"
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[End of Chapter]