Chapter 16: The Trumpet

"Zhixi..."
Jiang Ying's voice was laced with a sob.
Lu Zhixi listened to her cry, listened to her call out.
After she left him, who would she be this intimate with?
The violent shaking of the bed caused her phone to light up, and the date on the glaring screen caught his eye.
He suddenly snapped back to reality—
There was no need for this.
Her past experiences had nothing to do with him. Her future experiences would have nothing to do with him either.
As long as he kept her obediently by his side for this period of time, that was enough.

*

Beijing had entered the height of summer, and everything intense seemed to be squeezed into this sprawling city.
The brilliant sunshine, the scorching heat, and the shrill chirping of cicadas made one dizzy.
At the same time, the cool air conditioning found everywhere, refreshing and sweet milk tea, and all kinds of artisanal ice cream greatly enhanced people's sense of happiness.
After the incident at the villa had passed, Jiang Ying felt that this summer had become exceptionally lucky.
Lu Zhixi had also become uncharacteristically free, spending all his time with her. When she needed to review literature and organize data, he would sit beside her reading a book; when she had to go to school for a group meeting, he would personally escort her to the door of the conference room, then sit in the campus café and wait for her.
Once, they ran into Xu Chengming on campus, and Xu Chengming had joked, "Yingying, your boyfriend is quite the protective one."
This afternoon was the same. The group meeting ended at 5:30, and the moment Jiang Ying stepped out of the college building, she hurried to the campus café.
There weren't many people in the café during summer break. A few teachers and students were scattered about, either reading or whispering to one another, while soothing music drifted through the air, creating a unique sense of tranquility.
Walking further inside, Jiang Ying quickly spotted the boy sitting in the corner, wearing a baseball cap, a black T-shirt, black trousers, and white sneakers. He was resting his chin on one hand, reading a printed manuscript.
She softened her footsteps, circled around from the other side, and pounced on him, hugging Lu Zhixi from behind.
"Guess who."
To avoid disturbing the other teachers and students, she spoke very softly, almost whispering against his ear, teasing him and trying to give him a start.
Lu Zhixi smiled and turned back to look at her. "You are..."
He feigned deep thought, playing along with her joke: "...a contradiction formed by the fusion of the ego instinct and the sexual instinct."
On the table sat the reading materials from Jiang Ying’s class last semester. She had forgotten to take them out of her bag before leaving, and since the book was thick and heavy, Lu Zhixi had brought it to the café.
The memory of the final exam was still fresh in her mind, and Jiang Ying replied without hesitation, "Beyond the Pleasure Principle!"
"Your memory is truly excellent. This reading material is very thick."
"The Personality Psychology course tests this concept every year. I read it five times before the final, and I can even recite some of the paragraphs."
Jiang Ying still felt a lingering fear when mentioning that course, but fortunately, the grades had come out yesterday, and she had scored a ninety-five.

They left the café together. They should have headed toward the school gate, but Jiang Ying pulled him around the main road and into a small path leading to the dormitory area.
"A package arrived, and I want to pick it up right away," she said mysteriously.
Lu Zhixi, naturally, had no objections and accompanied her all the way to the parcel lockers in the women's dormitory area.
There were more students here than in the teaching area, and they were almost all women.
Although girls were usually meticulous about their appearance when going out, they dressed very casually when coming down to the dorms to pick up packages. Most were wearing flip-flops, T-shirts, and loose shorts. Some of the T-shirts were clearly pajamas, and other girls had just come from the public bathhouse, their hair still wet, carrying buckets filled with shower gel, shampoo, and dirty laundry.
Lu Zhixi stood at the entrance to the lockers waiting for Jiang Ying. Every girl who walked past him had the same reaction—first, an expression of amazement, then an immediate check of her own attire, followed by a quickened pace to rush past him, some even covering their faces directly.
As everyone knows, when it comes to a face, as long as you hide it well enough, you won't lose face.
When Jiang Ying came out after picking up her package, she didn't see Lu Zhixi. She looked left and right for a moment before noticing him standing under the shade of a tree on a path not far from the dormitory area.
She ran over. "It's so hot, why didn't you stay at the locker area where there's AC?"
"There are too many girls there. It's not convenient."
Lu Zhixi looked at the bag in her hand. "What's this?"
Jiang Ying presented it like a treasure. "The little bear doll I gave you for your birthday last year has an upgraded version. I ordered it the moment I saw it, and I also bought several sets of little bear clothes so you can change its outfits. Do you like it?"
Last Christmas, which was also Lu Zhixi's birthday, they hadn't been together yet, but Jiang Ying had given him a birthday present: a Christmas-themed smiling bear, symbolizing happiness.
Later, after they became a couple, Jiang Ying felt it wasn't appropriate for the bear to always wear a Christmas outfit, so she found someone online who customized clothes for dolls and ordered a suit, a tennis outfit, and several sets of casual wear—all based on Lu Zhixi’s own style. She thought the bear was just as cute and handsome as Lu Zhixi.
Lu Zhixi smiled and said, "I love it. But if you give me this gift now, then for my birthday this year—"
His voice cut off abruptly.
"Gifts can't be repeated every year! I'll have something new for you then!"
Lu Zhixi fell silent. He took the gift bag from her hand and held her hand as they walked out of the school. "It should be my turn to give you a gift now."
Jiang Ying looked at him in surprise. "You remembered?"
"Of course. How could I possibly forget?"
Tomorrow was August 10th, Jiang Ying's birthday.
"I have a feeling this will be the happiest birthday I've ever had," she said.
Lu Zhixi kissed her forehead. "It definitely will be."
A heavy rain had fallen that night, and it cleared up on her birthday, leaving the air delightfully cool.
Early in the morning, the driver was waiting downstairs at the apartment building to take them to the wildlife park that Jiang Ying had been longing to visit. Lu Zhixi had even snatched up tickets for the nursery area the night before.
Jiang Ying brought her instant camera and had the zookeeper take many photos of them with capybaras, alpacas, leopard cubs, and lion cubs. The young zookeeper kept praising how well-matched they were and kept clicking the shutter, using up three packs of Jiang Ying's photo paper.
It was still four o'clock in the afternoon when they left the zoo. Lu Zhixi had long ago arranged for a car to wait in the parking lot, driving them to a restaurant located on the outskirts of Beijing. Behind this astonishingly large restaurant was a vast lawn, with small deer and rabbits roaming through the grass.
As soon as Jiang Ying got out of the car, she saw from afar a mountain of gift boxes piled in the center of the lawn, each wrapped in gorgeous, exquisite paper.
It wasn't an exaggeration—it was a small mountain, and she had to crane her neck to see the top as she stood before the pile of gifts.

"Zhixi, this... this is too grand." Jiang Ying was stunned.
Lu Zhixi had booked the entire venue; they were the only two guests in the restaurant. Uniformed servers bustled about, and in one corner, someone was playing the piano.
He took her hand and led her to the dining table, pulling out her chair.
Jiang Ying felt like a little girl who had wandered into a fairy tale; she was even a bit nervous, but Lu Zhixi told her tenderly that everything tonight was to make her happy, and she only needed to enjoy it.
That night, a private car brought all the gifts back to the apartment. The gift boxes, large and small, almost filled the spare room, sitting alongside the luxury bags and jewelry she had never used, an aura of extravagance wafting through the air.
Once they got home, Lu Zhixi's parents suddenly called, and he hurried into the study and closed the door. Jiang Ying sat in the room alone, unwrapping the gifts.
Looking at the logos before her, each symbolizing an astonishing price, a sudden, inexplicable anxiety rose in her heart.
It was a groundless worry, born from all the luxury before her—so extreme she dared not imagine it—and these days that felt too beautiful to be real.
She felt as if she were floating on a cloud, a little afraid of falling.
A moment later, Jiang Ying let out a self-deprecating laugh.
Worrying while being happy—wasn't that just looking for trouble?
She stopped thinking about it. After a bath in the bathroom, she lay on the bed playing with her phone. Before long, Lu Zhixi finished his call and returned to the bedroom. He kissed her and told her to wait for him in bed.

"This was my happiest birthday."
"I hope we can always be together."

Mist filled the bathroom.
Lu Zhixi pulled a bath towel around his waist and caught a glimpse of a notification for a new message on the phone sitting on the counter.
Two, to be exact.
One was a new post from someone he followed on Weibo.
The other was an email from the Huada University Academic Affairs Office.
He clicked on the post first, his gaze fixed on the two lines of text for a long time.
Only then did he open the email.

"Dear student,
Your application for withdrawal (Reason for withdrawal: transfer due to personal reasons) has been processed. The certificate of withdrawal has been mailed out. The tracking number is sfxxxxx. Please keep an eye out for it.
If you have any questions, please contact us.
Wishing you all the best.
Huada Academic Affairs Office
Contact Number: 010-5xxx-xxxx
Responsible Officer: Teacher Zheng"