On the day I met her, the cicadas were noisy and harsh, the sea was a flat mirror, and the wind was disintegrated by the hot air, melting into strands and scattering in the corners of the city.
It was the hottest summer in the coastal area in ten years. The whole city felt like bathing in a hot pot. Half a month without rain, and the leaves of the acacia trees on the side of the city road were scorched by the sun. The remaining flowers fell to the ground—gray, gray, yellow and yellow—impossible to distinguish their original color.
The wall clock pointed to five o'clock. The children didn't have time to change out of their uniforms. They rushed out in droves with schoolbags on their backs, gathered in the canteen downstairs to pay fifty cents for bags of crispy noodles, and squatted on the ground in twos and threes to play with the Three Kingdoms character cards that came inside.
A little boy suddenly raised his head, looked at the gym and shouted in horror, "Run! The land devil is out!"
The children ran away with a collective wail, leaving behind colorful snack packaging bags.
The afterglow of the setting sun shone warmly on the stone pavement in front of the gym.
Lu Chuan had just showered inside. His hair wasn't dried yet, and the tips were still wet and dripping. When he heard the child's words, his expression remained indifferent and cold.
In the summer evening, the streets and alleys of Binhai City were full of people. Half the city was immersed in fragrant oil stains—seafood from food stalls, barbecues from night markets, and food trucks walking through the streets. At dinner time, the exhaust vent behind the restaurant seemed to never stop, steaming outward.
Lu Chuan stood quietly for a while. The sky in the distance was rendered by the setting sun, plated with a layer of light red and light yellow—light and faint, like a half-cooked egg yolk. He looked away from the sky and turned into the pastry shop next door.
"Matcha ice cream." He handed over the predetermined receipt.
The clerk was a little girl in her early twenties. She handed him the cake that had been packaged long ago with a red face. "Here you go."
Lu Chuan carried the cake out. Before leaving, he heard the whisper of the clerk behind him.
"He's a part-time coach at our taekwondo gym next door. I noticed him on the first day he came. His profile is so good-looking."
"Have you taken a fancy to him? The summer school ends tomorrow. If you want to confess, do it quickly, otherwise who knows when we'll meet next time."
"Who dares to talk to him when he's so cold? And the ice cream cake looks like it's for a girl. Maybe he already has a girlfriend, so I won't go......"
A bold clerk shouted from behind, "Handsome guy, are you buying cakes for your girlfriend?"
Lu Chuan pretended not to hear. He tied the cake and the key together and fastened them to the handle of the mountain bike parked by the door.
The location had been set by Pan Jingshu a week ago. He was sitting in Shaxian snacks during his lunch break that day, eating half of his noodles.
She stared at his noodle bowl with resentment, her delicate eyebrows raised. She refused to sit on the half-dry chair in the small restaurant or eat half-clean food, but tried to pull him to the tea restaurant opposite to eat cake and black tea.
Lu Chuan didn't like sweets, but Pan Jingshu forced a piece of half-cooked cheese on him. That afternoon he had training, and there was always something surging in his throat.
Pan Jingshu's birthday villa was borrowed from her uncle, who was a friend of the wealthy. That day in the tea restaurant, she gushed to Lu Chuan about its area and market value, that it was built on the hills next to the longest and most beautiful coastline of the coast, and that every brick and tile was exquisite. It would be difficult for ordinary people to buy a single wall after working all their lives.
She looked calm, as if she was talking about a trivial matter. This trivial thing wasn't worth making too many waves on her face in her eyes.
Lu Chuan could easily see the joyful light in her eyes—a vanity that even good upbringing and elegance couldn't hide.
The villa was built on a mountain. It was difficult to ride uphill, so Lu Chuan locked his bicycle under an acacia tree halfway up and hiked the rest.
The summer evening breeze was soft. Most of his hair had dried along the way.
The villa was built on the top of a hill and overlooked the most precious and beautiful bay of the coast. Lu Chuan's eyes fell on the indigo bay. The sea and the sky were one line. The color of the sky was light, the blue washed clean. In front of the villa was a row of lush green acacia trees planted on the tree-lined road. He raised his head. The leaves of the acacia trees swayed in the azure sky.
The first time he saw Di Ran, there were mountains in front of him and the sea behind him. She was not a god three feet high, but a green leaf that shaded the sun in the scorching heat, with pink and white velvet flowers sandwiched between them, making the unbearable summer more gentle.
A girl in a light yellow cartoon dress sat on a rockery in front of a tree.
Lu Chuan raised his eyes and swept over. He saw her calves under her dress first.
For no other reason—the legs were too white, like an old popsicle just taken out of the freezer in the hot summer, white and transparent. The skin was so thin you could see the light blue blood vessels beneath. The girl had short hair, much thicker than most, with a separate layer cut and tied up at the back of her head, pulling up a playful tuft.
She held a dwarf popsicle stick in her mouth, hugged her knees with one arm, and dangled her other leg in front of her. Her fingers tugged at the silk threads that had come loose from the lace socks, which were milk coffee colored, making her ankles look narrow and white.
The weather was too hot. Her neck was a thin red, her cheeks transparent white, flushed with light pink. Sweat from the corners of her forehead slid down her cheeks along her delicate eyebrows and almond-shaped eyes, all the way down to her pink lips. She lowered her head and stared blankly at the Donald Duck pattern on her chest.
Maybe Lu Chuan's eyes stayed on her for a few more seconds. She raised her chin to look back at his gaze as if she had sensed something. His eyes were clear and cold, with the arrogance and ruthlessness of not putting everything in front of him, everything behind him, and nothing in his eyes.
She seemed to feel that Lu Chuan was not a threat, so she glanced back slightly, as if staring him away from her territory, like a proud little peacock with only her toes spread open.
Lu Chuan retracted his gaze.
Pan Jingshu was wearing a purple chiffon skirt. Her straight black hair was soft and draped around her waist, making her skin look particularly white.
She held a glass of champagne and waved to Lu Chuan. "Lu Chuan, come here."
A diligent boy next to her had a bad tone and stared at Lu Chuan. "Jingshu, who is he?"
The boy's hostile gaze and Lu Chuan's calm eyes met and rubbed in the air. Obvious sparks appeared.
He glanced at Lu Chuan's clothes, smiled disdainfully at the corners of his mouth, and deliberately said, "This won't be your friend, right? I don't think so."
There was obvious contempt in his tone.
Pan Jingshu was about to speak when the boy asked again, "The T-shirt is good. Where did you buy it?"
Pan Jingshu looked at Lu Chuan's T-shirt and couldn't help frowning.
She had specially told him to dress more decently today, but Lu Chuan just wore a black T-shirt casually, which was incompatible with the atmosphere of the villa's golden accessories and splendid clothes.
Lu Chuan's expression was light. "I don't remember."
His voice was slightly deep, a little clearer than the dull and muted quality of a boy's voice during puberty.
The boy was aggressive. "Don't you remember or are you embarrassed to say it? Also, you can't go out to change clothes for dozens of dollars."
Pan Jingshu's voice was raised, with anger. "Guan Yu!"
She looked around and saw someone looking over. Her anger contained a little more embarrassment, as if the person Guan Yu was mocking was not Lu Chuan but her.
Guan Yu grinned, looked at the cake in Lu Chuan's hand, and sneered. "This is the cake you bought? There are so many of us—who can eat it?"
Pan Jingshu was embarrassed by him. Her face stiffened, and she pursed her lips, saying nothing.
She circled the three words "boyfriend" in her mouth a few times. After a long time, she said softly, "Guan Yu, Lu Chuan is just a friend I invited. Don't talk nonsense."
Lu Chuan glanced at her, his eyes cold.
He put down the cake and said happy birthday to Pan Jingshu coldly, then turned around and left without hesitation.
His figure was tall and thin, with half of his beautiful muscles exposed under his sleeves. His expression was so bland that it didn't have the slightest taste, like a bowl of white noodles boiled in water, without complicated sauces, only a little salt, revealing a gentle and clean youthful quality.
Guan Yu saw that Pan Jingshu's eyes were always on Lu Chuan. Anger rose in his heart, so he grabbed him.
He smiled kindly, but his hands secretly applied force. "What are you in a hurry for? Let's leave after eating the cake."
Money can make ghosts push and grind. Guan Yu called the cake shop. Twenty minutes later, the refrigerated truck came up to the top of the mountain with cakes and a cart of flowers.
Red roses were neatly spread all over the ground. The cake was mint green color, dotted with off-white pearl grains. When it was pushed out on the cart, the twilight was just falling. The barbecue stove in the garden was lit, and the invited master gathered around to grill Orleans chicken wings. The greasy aroma drifted in with the sea breeze.
Lu Chuan leaned against the stone pillars of the garden, looking at the hazy gray sky after the sunset in the distance.
Guan Yu looked at the roses at his feet and the four-layer cake in front of him. He looked at Lu Chuan mockingly. "Jingshu's boyfriend, I didn't have time to ask just now—what gift do you give Jingshu on such an important day today? You shouldn't come empty-handed, right?"
Before Lu Chuan could speak, Guan Yu took out a rectangular box from his pocket and opened it with one hand. It contained a crystal clear diamond necklace.
"If you don't prepare, then don't mind if I give Jingshu a gift, right?" Guan Yu asked defiantly. "It's not anything valuable. Don't think too much about it."
"Guan Yu, don't make trouble. So many people are watching. What are you doing?" Pan Jingshu's face was red. She stomped her feet anxiously. She looked like a little girl, but her eyes were straight, not taking them off the necklace for a long time.
Guan Yu smiled. "Let me help you wear it."
Everyone whispered.
"Guan Yu is too much, right? What does it mean to give this kind of thing in front of someone else's boyfriend? But Jingshu's boyfriend is really cowardly—he can endure it."
"But Guan Yu has too much capital. You don't know how rich his family is. Donglaishun Shopping Center was opened by his father. What's the use of that person being handsome? It's too shabby to get nothing. Look at Guan Yu—cakes and flowers, and diamonds, just giving them away. He must have seen Guan Yu give diamonds and gotten stage fright, so he didn't dare to speak."
Lu Chuan was silent, as if the trivial words around him had nothing to do with him.
He just moved his gaze to Pan Jingshu. Pan Jingshu didn't notice him at all. She was watching the diamonds in Guan Yu's hand.
Guan Yu fastened the diamond necklace and gently brushed the pads of his fingers over Pan Jingshu's beautifully shaped collarbone. "You're so beautiful when you wear it."
A slender figure walked on the stone at the gate. It was the girl in the yellow skirt from earlier.
She came in when she smelled the oil aroma of roasted wings, with the popsicle stick still in her mouth. Her eyes restlessly glanced around to find where the smell was coming from.
The voices around her were too quiet. She observed for a while to understand the boring farce in front of her. Her comfortable and lazy expression gradually converged back, and she suddenly raised her chin like an arrogant wolf.
The sea breeze brought salty and humid air. The girl lazily walked over with her arms swinging through the crowd. The people around her seemed to be afraid of her, giving way to an open space like she was a plague god. The proud little peacock shook its beautiful tail and stared at the scene in the center of the venue with an amused expression.
Lu Chuan's eyes were calm and fell on her inadvertently.
The girl looked at the cake, her eyes shining with slyness. She grinned at the corners of her lips—a little devil smile. The bad smile with her cute and immature cheeks wasn't obtrusive at all, as if it were the evil essence hidden in her body, but not hidden deep enough, all grinning out along the corners of her red mouth.
She took a step forward, took out the wooden stick of the dwarf popsicle from her mouth, and inserted the stick into the mint-colored cake in front of her that had not been touched by anyone. Under Guan Yu's slightly trembling gaze, she pointed with her white and slender index finger. "Guan Yu, when did Pan Jingshu change her name to Nana?"
The coast was surrounded by the sea on three sides. The coastline was tortuous and long, and the wind blowing from the sea had always been salty.
However, today's wind brought some other flavor, like a cup of sea salt-flavored milk tea, melted by the girl's sweet voice. As if at a certain moment, the color of the whole summer became green and bright.
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