Chapter 55: So My First Love Was Actually You

The teenager blinked curiously:

"What is it?"

Looking at his face that looked exactly like "Big Brother," Song Jiaru forcefully suppressed the urge to reach out and pinch it, saying seriously:

"First,"

She extended her slender fingers and waved them in front of the teenager,

"In the future, you must become an responsible man who keeps his word. Especially things you promised a girl, you absolutely cannot go back on them, understand?"

Being looked at by her focused gaze, the teenager's cheeks grew hot, and he unconsciously straightened his still-thin back.

Outside the screen, Xu Yunzhou rubbed his nose. Is she hinting at me that the things I promised her must be fulfilled?

"Second..."

She deliberately dragged out her tone. Watching the teenager nervously swallow his saliva, a trace of sly playfulness flashed through her eyes,

"You are never allowed to copy others and say dirty words anymore! Especially in front of girls, understand? That's not handsome at all."

"I-I'll remember, sister!"

The teenager hurriedly promised, the roots of his ears so red they seemed about to drip blood, his heartbeat so fast it was like beating a drum.

"That's a good boy."

Song Jiaru smiled in satisfaction, her brows and eyes curving into beautiful crescents.

Her gaze landed on the necklace in his hand, and she naturally took it over:

"This pendant suits you very well, I hope you will always fly freely and unconstrained."

As she spoke, she gently reached around the teenager's neck and put it on him.

This movement brought her extremely close. The fresh fragrance from her hair drifted over faintly, and her warm breath gently brushed past his ear.

The teenager was stiff all over, his heartbeat like beating a drum, even forgetting to breathe.

He only felt a surge of hot blood rush straight to the top of his head, his whole person about to burn up.

In front of the screen, Xu Yunzhou supported his forehead and sighed:

"Song Jiaru, you can't keep teasing him just because he looks like me... This child is probably going to have indescribable dreams tonight."

Song Jiaru responded wordlessly from the bottom of her heart, carrying a bit of innocence:

"Ah? Will it be like that? I don't understand... It's just seeing him looking so much like Big Brother, I couldn't help but..."

Right at this moment, the phone in her bag rang, breaking this ambiguous atmosphere.

She naturally reached out and rubbed the teenager's soft black hair; the touch was indeed as warm and soft as imagined.

"Excuse me."

After saying that softly, she walked a few steps away to answer the phone.

The teenager stood blankly in place, gazing foolishly at that graceful back.

The evening wind blew up her chestnut hair strands, outlining the lines of her slender neck.

His whole person was in a massive trance, his mind filled with only one thought:

This sister... smells so good, looks so pretty... like a fairy stepping out from the 2D world.

"Hey! Xu Yunzhou! Not bad! You can even fall into a fairy sister by tripping? And she even gave you a love token?!"

"Holy shit! What kind of dog shit luck did you step into!"

"Although that sister just now was wearing a mask, those eyes, that figure, that temperament... absolutely movie-star level! Xu Yunzhou, confess honestly, did you secretly hook up with a senior from some art school?"

His teammates only now gathered around clamorously.

Looking at that necklace that obviously looked expensive, they winked and jeered one after another, their tone full of envy, jealousy, and hate.

"Get lost, get lost, get lost! What love token! What nonsense are you talking about!"

The teenage Xu Yunzhou blushed like a boiled shrimp. Flustered, he pulled his collar high, trying to cover that necklace that seemed to still carry her body temperature.

But his heart was beating wildly, and an unfamiliar emotion, mixing embarrassment and secret joy, spread in his chest.

...

In front of the screen, Xu Yunzhou gazed at this wonderful encounter spanning across spacetime, falling into a long silence.

This memory fragment, covered in the dust of years, became vivid before his eyes at this moment as if cast by magic—

That evening when the setting sun melted gold, the parasol leaves rustling, the air mixed with the unique scent of green grass and a teenager's sweat;

That mysterious, beautiful figure who barged into his monotonous youth catching him off guard like the Moonlight Goddess with a startling glance;

That palpitating instant that made him truly experience for the first time what "a little deer bumping around in the heart" and "one glance lasts ten thousand years" meant;

The very person who had repeatedly haunted his late-night dreams for years, where he would repeatedly muster the courage to pull off her mysterious mask to see her true face, only to wake up shivering and disoriented the exact moment his fingertips were about to brush against her soft skin, leaving him with nothing but a bed full of unspeakable teenage embarrassment and restlessness...

Was actually the currently radiantly shining Queen of the music scene, Song Jiaru, whom he nurtured with his own hands!

"Well aren't you something, Song Jiaru..."

Xu Yunzhou gritted his teeth, but the corners of his mouth uncontrollably curled up into a trace of inexplicable smugness,

"It seems the appointment in Binzhou the day after tomorrow is destined to be attended. I have to go find you and properly settle this account—making me 'shudder' so many times for you throughout my entire adolescence. As the initiator of this, shouldn't you properly compensate me?"

Thinking of this, he suddenly felt a wave of heart-ache.

"It's just a pity about that necklace..."

Back then, when his love brain flared up, he actually gave such a meaningful thing to Su Qianran as a love token.

Although the value of that necklace itself was only a few hundred yuan, it was Song Jiaru's "lucky charm" worn close to her body in her early days, accompanying her in battles on countless large and small stages, witnessing her growth all the way.

To fans, this was simply a sacred relic, its symbolic meaning and emotional value long unable to be measured by money.

To him, it was even more the only physical evidence connecting the past and the present, proving the existence of some kind of destiny, an exclusive secret bond between the two of them.

Speaking of which, it's also ironic.

The reason he fell in love at first sight with Su Qianran back then was because her appearance wearing a black mask during the pandemic perfectly replicated the biggest fantasy of his adolescence.

So he became hopelessly infatuated, obeying her every wish.

He even got hot-headed and gave away this extraordinarily meaningful necklace, calling it by the beautiful name of returning the object to its original owner.

"Wait!"

Xu Yunzhou suddenly realized a terrifying fact upon closer thought:

When playing the game yesterday, he directed Song Jiaru to stroll around Chunxi Road. Seeing a particularly familiar-looking necklace at a handmade silver jewelry stall, he told her to buy it...

"So this fucking necklace was actually bought by me for myself?"

"Who exactly killed whom? I killed myself?"

(TL: "Who killed whom? I killed myself?" is a popular Chinese internet meme referencing confusing time-travel or self-inflicted plots, originating from the movie "Predestination" / "The Grandmaster".)

This classic line spammed crazily in his mind, making him not know whether to laugh or cry.

"It seems, no matter what, I have to find a way to get that necklace back..."

Xu Yunzhou looked toward the youthfully vibrant Song Jiaru on the screen, his eyes unconsciously softening.

Carrying a deep affection even he hadn't noticed, he murmured in a low voice:

"Jiaru, so my first love was actually you."

As soon as the words fell, he paused, a bit stunned by his own admission.

This conclusion seems a bit hasty?

He abruptly remembered Lin Ruoxuan, whom he had crossed paths with during a trip to Chengzhou back when he was only eleven years old.

Didn't that elegant, intellectual older sister also drop a massive boulder into the quiet, undiscovered lake of his prepubescent heart?

"Good grief,"

Xu Yunzhou couldn't help but support his forehead, conducting a soul-searching interrogation on himself,

"Was the seed of easily being attracted to 'older sisters' planted in me since childhood? Or is it that my life trajectory has been pulled by some invisible force since a long time ago, destined to be entangled with them?"

"Is this exactly the cycle of destiny, or... behind that mysterious 'Goddess Nurturing' game, there is a hand from a higher dimension manipulating all this?"

Right at this moment, the Song Jiaru on the screen turned her head with her brows and eyes curving after finishing the call, her tone carrying a sly smile:

"Big Brother, my first love is also you... you finally admit we are dating!"

"Cough cough! Cough cough cough..."

Xu Yunzhou didn't expect to be heard, his old face flushing red, and he hurriedly changed the subject,

"Right, uh—who was that on the phone?"

"It's a newly established media company!"

Song Jiaru's tone practically bubbled over with excitement,

"I don't know where they managed to track down my personal contact info, but they said they think very highly of me, desperately want to sign me, and they even promised that no matter what conditions I set, they can satisfy me!"

Xu Yunzhou's mind raced, a faint inkling beginning to take shape:

"Oh? What company talks that big?"

"Um... it's called Qingsheng Media. Apparently, the boss is a freshly graduated female college student named Song Jinxuan, and the company is based right out of Binzhou."

Song Jiaru said while looking at the information displayed on her phone.