Chapter 55: The Ex-Boyfriend (Transition Chapter)

When Jiang Ying rode in Lu Zhixi's car for the very last time back to Huada University, Lu Zhixi waited by the school gates and did not leave.

She could feel his gaze tangling upon her as if it had physical substance, like a rope unwilling to be snapped, longing to follow her a little further, and then a little further still.

Jiang Ying knew that if she were to look back, Lu Zhixi would undoubtedly rush over in the next second to hold her in his arms, but she did not do so.

She merely kept walking straight along the main avenue lined with ash trees, until both of them had completely vanished from each other's field of vision.

For a very long time, Jiang Ying had no reliable person by her side to guide her on how to choose her path in life or how to escape painful predicaments.

And for a girl like her, lacking family support, she had very few opportunities for trial and error.

Therefore, in the youth of her life thus far, Jiang Ying had arrived at this empirical truth:

"Acknowledge that you will be weak, confused, and hesitant, but under no circumstances should you ever abandon your rational judgment. Even if you are crying and shouting, screaming at the top of your lungs, you must walk forward along the path you believe is right."

She used this sentence as the conclusion to the acknowledgments section of her undergraduate graduation thesis.

The mid-May thesis defense concluded successfully, and Jiang Ying's thesis was selected as an outstanding graduation thesis. She spent a little more time adjusting the length and, under Professor Lin's guidance, submitted it to an overseas journal. Fortunately, it was not long before she received a reply from the editorial office.

Zhou Anning finally accepted a full-scholarship master's offer in criminology from a university in the United States. It was glaringly obvious that finding a job after graduating with this major would be difficult, but after hesitating for many days, she still decided to follow her heart.

"When we reach the mountain, there will be a road through; no amount of money can buy a sister's joy."

After saying this, Zhou Anning nonchalantly confirmed her acceptance of the offer.

Since the official graduation was in July, Jiang Ying and Zhou Anning seized this window of free time to live in Dali, Yunnan for a month as a graduation trip, following a senior schoolmate from Huada, Feng Xuxin, to tour the local area.

Come to think of it, Jiang Ying and Feng Xuxin had met because back when Huada was famous for several campus couples, apart from her and Lu Zhixi, Feng Xuxin and her boyfriend at the time were also among them.

Yet campus romance was simply like that: upon every graduation season, couples who had loved deeply broke up, while classmates who had always been single swiftly went on blind dates, married, and had children; none of this was rare.

In Dali, Feng Xuxin lived an extremely austere life, carrying a small tie-dyed blue cloth bag every day, wearing long cotton sleeves and trousers, donning small sunglasses while sipping small coffees, possessing very much the intellectual aura of a recluse avoiding the secular world.

Once Jiang Ying and Zhou Anning arrived there, they immediately changed into matching outfits, joining Feng Xuxin to host a music concert in the vegetable market and sitting in the vast wilderness with people from all directions to drink coffee and chat.

Before leaving Dali, the three of them took a group photo together, pasted it onto the message board of a Dali cafe, and added the note:

"Long live freedom!"

After a month of uninhibited play, the two returned from Dali to Beijing and began setting about packing up the dormitory, moving away from a place they had lived in for four years.

Huada's dormitories had always been for four people, but in their freshman year, the other two roommates felt that studying psychology was not only immensely difficult in terms of coursework but also offered an uncertain future, so they successively transferred to other departments, leaving just the two of them to rely on each other in this dorm.

"Actually, I don't have any sentimentality about parting ways during graduation season."

Zhou Anning told Jiang Ying while packing her clothes.

"People who are destined to part will separate one day, and people who are destined to stay together will never scatter no matter what."

Jiang Ying agreed wholeheartedly.

From primary school until now, those classmates who once seemed to have a pretty good relationship with her had gradually lost touch, but Meng Shao and her had never stopped contacting each other.

The two didn't need to be in touch every single day, but whenever there was a need, a simple greeting would bring the other person to help at a moment's notice, and neither would feel awkward about it.

Jiang Ying chatted idly with Zhou Anning, sorting the miscellaneous items from her desk into boxes.

Most of them were moving into the graduate dormitory, but a remaining few left her in a dilemma.

These things were primarily gifts given by Yu Siyan, and Jiang Ying was now hesitating whether to mail them back to Chengdu or take them to the graduate dormitory.

Jiang Ying reached out to unhook the gingerbread man hanging from her desk lamp, but she hadn't expected that the gingerbread man was tied loosely. Failing to catch it securely in time, the gingerbread man happened to land on the smooth surface of a folder on the desk, slid smoothly to the edge of the tabletop, traced a graceful arc through the air, and successfully hit the floor, shattering into two halves.

Jiang Ying hurriedly squatted down to pick it up, attempting to piece the gingerbread man back together for a rescue, only to suddenly discover a small rectangular slip of paper falling out from the fractured edge.

She picked up the slip of paper, unfolded it, and froze instantly.

The note read: made by alex

Huh???

Wasn't this a gift from Yu Siyan?

Why on earth was this thing hidden inside it???

This mystery was swiftly solved, because Jiang Ying soon discovered another handmade terracotta gingerbread man pendant inside the drawer of her desk.

This gingerbread man had been cunningly wedged into the side of the drawer, squeezed tightly among her various small notebooks. Had she not been packing up her belongings, she never would have discovered it.

As a future criminology graduate student, classmate Zhou Anning immediately conducted a detailed analysis of the time, cause, and motive behind this mysterious incident.

"The craftsmanship of this shattered piece is much more exquisite than the original, with even coloring and harmonious hues. Evidently, the suspect spent a considerable amount of time meticulously preparing these instruments of the crime.

"Combining this with the recent personnel traffic in our dormitory, the suspect is locked down as your ex-ex-boyfriend, Lu Zhixi."

"As for the time..."

Zhou Anning reconstructed the crime scene.

The timing should have occurred during Jiang Ying's last bout with the flu.

After Lu Zhixi helped her put on her clothes and shoes, he had held her in his arms while sitting by the desk, waiting for Zhou Anning to simply pack up some intimate apparel so she could change during her hospitalization.

At that time, Jiang Ying had been delirious with fever and fell asleep directly while held in Lu Zhixi's embrace, while Zhou Anning was buried deep inside the wardrobe packing things, the wardrobe door happening to block her line of sight.

Lu Zhixi must have utilized this prime opportunity to commit the crime, removing the gingerbread man Yu Siyan had given Jiang Ying and hanging the one he had made himself on the desk lamp.

Zhou Anning further deduced that, given Lu Zhixi's malicious personality, he surely wanted to destroy the evidence of the one Yu Siyan gave her and grind it into powder. But paper could not wrap up fire, and to avoid facing severe condemnation from Jiang Ying if this came to light in the future, he ultimately tucked his rival's gift away stealthily into a place where she could hardly ever find it.

Even if she discovered it one day...

Jiang Ying stared at the gingerbread man she had accidentally broken into two pieces.

It had two round brown eyes, a smiling line for a mouth with two patches of blush at the ends, and wore a small red bow tie around its neck.

In truth, a closer look revealed that the gingerbread man crafted by Lu Zhixi was not entirely identical to the one made by Yu Siyan.

He had intentionally refrained from using black paint for its eyes, instead granting this little gingerbread man the exact same eye color as his own.

When Jiang Ying gazed at this little gingerbread man, she would experience the illusion of locking eyes with Lu Zhixi's beautiful pair of eyes.

The sweet smile lingering on this little gingerbread man's face felt just like the smile Lu Zhixi wore when they played tennis together that day, when parting at Huada's south gate, blooming because he had obtained her affirmation.

Jiang Ying guessed that when Lu Zhixi hung this gingerbread man on the desk lamp, he must have hoped in his heart that she would discover it.

That way, not only would he gain an extra opportunity to speak with her, but he could also childishly prove to her once again that even at handicrafts, he was superior to Yu Siyan.

She laughed abruptly.

As she laughed, her eye rims grew moist.

When Lu Zhixi grew a little older, would he think of himself as a fool when he remembered how he once fought for petty jealousy over a girl to this extent?

Jiang Ying thought that perhaps one day in the future, she would have the opportunity to know the answer to this.

Yet it was also possible that she would never know the answer to this question for the rest of her life.

*

Having successfully graduated and emptied the dormitory, following all of this, Jiang Ying's life entered a state of absolute tranquility.

This tranquility did not resemble the false stability she had struggled to seek and painstakingly maintained throughout her senior year; rather, as various relationships reached their conclusions, she either figured things out or let them go, her life entirely stepping into its next phase, accompanied by an inner order that gradually solidified into peace.

During the summer holiday after her senior graduation, Jiang Ying returned to Chengdu to accompany her father, Jiang Zhiwen, and stayed with him for a week.

Jiang Zhiwen was now living a down-to-earth life as well, recently dating a woman around his age in their residential compound.

That auntie had a daughter who was already working and married. She had divorced last year because her husband's personality was excessively overbearing, and she had lived alone ever since. Having her own house and savings, she sought no benefits from Jiang Zhiwen, only looking for companionship that brought joy.

Meanwhile, Jiang Zhiwen possessed a gentle and kind disposition, and after his life got back on track, he still cut a handsome figure as an older man, which happened to suit her preferences.

Upon confirming that her father was doing rather well, Jiang Ying returned directly to Beijing and moved into the graduate student dormitory.

Her roommates would only move in after the semester started, allowing her to briefly experience the life of living alone. Because she was simultaneously working in Professor Cheng's and Professor Brown's research groups, her life was actually quite busy, spending her days immersed in the library reading literature and processing data. Only occasionally, when she needed to accompany Professor Cheng to meet test subjects, would she leave the Huada campus to go out for a walk.

Perhaps because life felt somewhat dull, Jiang Ying re-registered a secondary Weibo account to record some trivial, interesting tidbits.

That alternative account which Lu Zhixi had peeked at for a full year had been deleted by her.

With the summer passing and the graduate semester commencing, she met new classmates and new teachers.

Her social circle continuously expanded and refreshed, and while she forged some friendships with pleasant ties, she had yet to encounter anyone who inspired a desire to deepen the connection.

People around her came and went, allowing the exclusivity of certain relationships to gradually reveal itself.

Whenever life grew even slightly leisurely, Jiang Ying would invite Meng Shao to hunt down high-rated restaurants on review apps and indulge in a lavish meal.

Should she encounter troubles or joys in her academics, she would contact Zhou Anning for a video call or voice chat.

Zhou Anning, having transformed into an overseas student overseas, had fixed weekly complaining agenda items that included endless readings, classrooms as cold as refrigerators, lemon water so sour it felt like it stripped her soul—though it possessed miraculous efficacy against drowsiness—and the fact that there was, once again, another damn shooting in the neighborhood.