We ordinary people also need to fall in love.

"August 25, 1912, the Alliance..."

Chen Qiuhe pushed the notebook she had obtained from Li Mubai onto Li Mubai's table.

Have you been to this place before?

Li Mubai turned his head to look at her, and she pointed with her slender finger to a picture in the history textbook—the Huguang Guild Hall in Beijing.

He wrote "Never been there" in his notebook.

Have you ever been to the North?

"I've never been there before. I've been busy with school, I don't have time to go out. Do you want to go?"

"Yes! I want to go to the north to see the grasslands and see the snow. It doesn't snow in Pingyang in winter."

"Didn't it rain last winter?"

Li Mubai waited for a while, but Chen Qiuhe didn't reply. He glanced at Chen Qiuhe and noticed that she had her head down and seemed a little downcast.

Should I ask what happened? But I think I'll just leave it at that; it's better to avoid trouble.

Fortunately, Chen Qiuhe recovered completely in no time.

It was noon soon, Thursday, and Li Mubai decided to go to the convenience store to buy a bottle of jasmine tea as a reward for himself.

The school was busiest at lunchtime, with long queues at the cashiers. Li Mubai took a cup of tea from the freezer and prepared to pay.

"Shu, these sandwich cookies are the best."

Li Mubai turned around and hid on the other side of the shelf.

"Take some of this White Rabbit candy too, we'll share it with Chen Qiuhe and the others later. Let's go check out the other side."

Li Mubai pretended to be looking at the merchandise, but actually moved to a different spot to avoid them.

"Xie Shu, what a coincidence! Are you also buying something at the convenience store?"

It was Xing Yi's voice; he and his classmates had arrived...

"Hey Xing Yi, I'm here too. Why didn't you say hello?" Deng Yi teased.

"Haha, I didn't notice, I didn't notice."

While they were chatting, Li Mubai immediately went to the cashier to queue up. Right now, all he wanted to do was pay and leave to go back to his dorm.

This line is so slow! He started complaining about how the students in front of him were buying so many snacks. Why didn't they just buy one kind and pay quickly like him? Luckily, there were a few people behind him, so even if Xie Shu and the others joined the line, their view would be blocked.

When it was Li Mubai's turn, he put his drink on the counter, took out the fifty yuan he had prepared and handed it to the cashier. He had no choice; he only had fifty-two yuan left.

The cashier took the money and rummaged through the cash register. "Wait a moment, student, I'll go get some change."

Li Mubai felt a bit sweaty.

Deng Yi leaned halfway out from the queue and looked ahead. "Look, the person in front looks like the vice class monitor."

"Hmm." Xie Shu moved slightly to the left and saw the somewhat embarrassed boy in front of him.

"Vice squad leader?" Xing Yi asked curiously.

"Yes, Li Mubai, he used to be in our class," Deng Yi said.

"I don't remember, was there such a boy before?"

"You're just forgetful, but Li Mubai's presence was indeed quite low before."

……

Fortunately, the cashier returned shortly afterward, bringing back a bunch of coins.

Li Mubai grabbed a drink from the counter and ran away.

Back in his dorm room, Li Mubai took a sip of jasmine tea to calm himself down.

"Hey, what's wrong with you? Did you see a ghost in the middle of the day?"

"We ran into each other."

"Really? Where did you encounter her? Was she a female ghost?"

He's a coward...

The last period in the afternoon is art class.

"Li Mubai".

Li Mubai didn't even look up, and simply hummed in agreement.

"Li Mubai".

"What's wrong?" Li Mubai looked up at Chen Qiuhe with a puzzled expression.

"Okay, don't move, let me observe."

The art teacher assigned homework in class, asking each student to draw a portrait of their deskmate and hand it to the class monitor, then hand it to the art teacher the following Monday. Most students didn't have any paintbrushes and could only draw them after class, but Chen Qiuhe had prepared both paintbrushes and paper.

"You think I'll just stay still if you tell me not to? Wouldn't that make me lose face?" Li Mubai turned back and continued doing his homework.

"I'll give you candy." Chen Qiuhe took out five candies and placed them on his table.

"You have so much candy? Does your family own a shop?"

Chen Qiuhe smiled sheepishly, "Never mind, I've given you the candy anyway, hurry up and turn around so I can take a look."

"Just because you offer me candy doesn't mean I have to accept it! This is one of my few study times today."

"So what do you want?"

"We need to add sugar."

……

"Okay, here are five more for you."

Li Mubai wasn't actually greedy for Chen Qiuhe's candy; he just wanted to make her understand that there's no such thing as a free lunch, which showed his good intentions.

He turned to Chen Qiuhe and said, "Alright, now you can observe."

Chen Qiuhe stroked her chin, carefully looking at Li Mubai's face.

"Have you decided yet?" Li Mubai asked.

"Don't rush, I want to remember your face."

Li Mubai looked at Chen Qiuhe and noticed a beauty mark under her eye, which he found quite pretty.

Chen Qiuhe looked at Li Mubai and noticed that his eyes were very bright, like stars in the night, and quite beautiful.

No wonder Ye Manqi was captivated, she thought to herself.

"That's fine," Chen Qiuhe said.

Li Mubai then turned back to continue doing his homework.

"How are you going to draw me?" Chen Qiuhe remembered that the art assignment was for classmates to draw portraits of each other.

"How else can I draw it? My drawing skills are zero, so I'll just draw you a stick figure."

"Stickman?! If you dare draw me as a stick figure, I'll smash you flat!"

"Well, there's nothing I can do about it, this is my skill level."

"Watch me carefully first, and I'll teach you how to draw."

"Hmm...no need, I've already memorized your face. I'll draw it well, but don't get your hopes up too high. At most, it'll just be a stick figure turning into a human."

"That's fine too."

"Are you a very good artist?" Li Mubai suddenly asked curiously.

"You'll find out next week," Chen Qiuhe said, keeping everyone in suspense.

Li Mubai remembered that Xie Shu was also very good at drawing. When she was in the first year of high school, the teacher often asked her to draw hand-copied newspapers and blackboard newspapers.

She was like a well-rounded warrior, while he himself was a complete failure. Apart from being slightly better at Chinese and history, and being able to write some poems that no one else appreciated, he seemed to have nothing special about him.

If this were a game, Xie Shu might be a boss or a key character, while I'm just a random NPC waiting for the protagonist to come to me and offer him a quest.

The moon banished the sun and became the master of the sky. The stars came out to welcome their new king. Only when the moon was king did the stars dare to emit their faint light.

Li Mubai closed the book, shut his eyes, and recalled the last sentence he had read that day:

"No matter how much love there is, it can't withstand repeated disagreements. Sooner or later, patience will run out. If one day it accidentally becomes a 'bond,' then such a love is terminally ill. No one is at fault, no one is a bad person who knowingly commits a wrong, we just can't continue."

Would he end up like this if he were with someone else? Li Mubai didn't know, and he fell asleep with this question in his mind.