Episode 5: Who's This Little Pipsqueak?

When He Tianran finally returned home and collapsed onto his bed in sheer exhaustion, he confirmed one thing to himself for the absolute certain.

That was, he seemed truly incapable of falling in love with anyone ever again.

He, who used to yearn for romance so deeply, suddenly felt that everything had turned utterly devoid of meaning.

"If you were still here, how would you lecture me?"

The thought had barely slipped past his lips when an affirmative answer arose almost instinctively within him:

"No, we wouldn't have run into this kind of problem in the first place."

Agreeing to Jiang Xixi's confession today was admittedly a bit rash, yet it was not an impulse decision born of a momentary heat of passion. He had not yet reached the point where he would accept just anyone who confessed to him; he merely felt that Jiang Xixi, in certain aspects, bore a resemblance to himself—the self from before he had ever met Wen Liang.

Even if this resemblance was minuscule, it still made him... unable to bear the thought of refusing her.

He Tianran had no intention of toying with anyone's emotions, nor would he ever stoop to such behavior. Right now, only a frantic voice echoed incessantly in his mind—

Be good to the person who likes you. Be even better.

And precisely at that moment, Jiang Xixi had appeared.

This time, he was desperately eager to bypass the acquaintance stage and establish a relationship directly. There was no messy mutual probing, no hazy, flower-in-the-fog guessing games. He could openly acknowledge her as his girlfriend and hold her hand without any reservations.

He Tianran regarded this as a form of compensation, an atonement, even though love was entirely absent from it.

He would force himself to fall in love with Jiang Xixi. That should merely be a matter of time.

After all, he still had so much time left ahead of him.

Didn't he?

As for Cao Aiqing, he no longer held any lingering illusions toward the goddess he had adored for nearly three years. Putting aside how the girl might view him, He Tianran simply couldn't get past his own internal barrier.

The mere thought of Wen Liang having imagined him together with Cao Aiqing in her mind sent a sharp, persistent ache through the boy's heart.

He did not want that imagined scene to become reality. If it did, his guilt and sorrow would only multiply.

Therefore, he placed this goddess high upon a shelf, out of reach, perhaps never to cross paths with her again in the future.

...

...

Saturday morning, the boxing gym.

Jiang Xixi sat obediently to the side, her eyes filled with curiosity as she observed the apprentices practicing in the gym. This was her first time ever visiting such a place.

"I didn't expect you to think of coming to a place like this. Girls usually find it boring, right? We originally scheduled to meet in the afternoon."

He Tianran was wrapping his hands in athletic tape beside her, beads of sweat streaming down his forehead, tracing his cheeks before finally dripping from his chin. His entire body exuded a damp sheen.

He had just completed his physical conditioning, and a visible wave of body heat seemed to radiate from him.

Jiang Xixi looked at him, her heart fluttering like a trapped bird. Blushing, she said:

"I—I just wanted to see you sooner."

He Tianran paused for a moment, then chuckled: "Then you picked the worst possible time to arrive."

"What?"

Jiang Xixi widened her eyes in confusion before she heard a boy shouting disdainfully from the ring:

"Son! He Tianran! Get up here and take a beating! The more you two flirt down there right now, the harder I'm going to punch you later!"

A burst of laughter erupted from the surrounding apprentices. Jiang Xixi turned her head and glared fiercely at the speaker; the young girl recognized him as He Tianran's desk mate, whose name was something like Xue Yong.

"Just joking, don't take it to heart. I'm heading up. Close your eyes if you're scared."

He Tianran patted her head, picked up a pair of red boxing gloves from the floor, knocked them together, and climbed up into the ring in two or three strides.

"Brother He, you can do it!! Beat him until his face looks like a stuffed pig!"

Watching his retreating figure, Jiang Xixi scurried to the side of the ring like a little tail, raising her small fists to cheer him on.

Her earlier glare had frightened no one, appearing instead utterly endearing, and now, using that marshmallow-soft voice to cheer him on, the circle of grown men watching immediately found themselves overwhelmed, each letting out a soft, involuntary sigh of "Ah..."

Xue Yong gritted his teeth, squeezing the words out through his jaws: "You damn well... if I don't beat you into a pulp today, my family name isn't Xue!"

He Tianran fired back with an equally heavy barrage of trash talk: "You're going to take the surname He in the future anyway, so isn't saying that completely pointless?"

Following the senior student's countdown inside the ring, the two men shifted their feet, tapped gloves, and instantly distanced themselves. The match officially began.

To be fair, Xue Yong had been practicing much longer than He Tianran, and since He Tianran had slacked off in his training for a period recently, he was immediately suppressed from the start. Although his reflexes allowed him to dodge most of the blows, the occasional hit that landed made him grit his teeth in sharp pain.

By the middle of the round, Xue Yong's tempestuous assault finally began to slow down. True to form, this fellow only cared about venting his temper rather than conserving stamina. Once this initial storm was weathered, he would struggle to keep it up. Seizing the opportunity, He Tianran launched a series of counterattacks, and soon, the two stood on equal footing.

He Tianran possessed swift reflexes and a high tolerance for taking hits. Every now and then, he would land a punch on Xue Yong, dragging the fight out until his opponent was entirely drained of temper.

Seeing her beloved gradually gain the upper hand made Jiang Xixi very happy, though she didn't dare shout too loudly. Whenever He Tianran took a hit, she would instinctively shut her eyes tight and mutter something under her breath.

The match ended somewhat abruptly. Amidst a flurry of oncoming punches, He Tianran's focus momentarily slipped.

For he thought he saw a familiar yet estranged figure slowly walking through the entrance of the gym.

Wen Liang.

Her once pitch-black hair had now been dyed a striking flaxen yellow. She wore a denim jacket over her upper body, a thin black leather strap fastened around her slender neck, and a sports bag slung casually over one shoulder. As her fair, slender legs stepped into the sunlight streaming across the floor from the windows, she looked breathtakingly radiant.

"Bang!"

Xue Yong landed a punch squarely on the distracted He Tianran. The boy staggered back a couple of steps, his mind spinning, though he knew this dizziness wasn't solely from the impact.

"Hey now! Our little junior sister has finally come to visit us!"

Someone shouted from beneath the ring.

Xue Yong stopped throwing punches as well. He glanced at He Tianran, paused for a few seconds, then took off his gloves and headed down to catch up with Wen Liang.

Jiang Xixi scurried back up onto the ring, asking with a hint of concern, "Brother He, are you alright?"

"Minor issue."

He Tianran shook his head, touching the spot where he'd been hit, which indeed felt fine.

Controlling his gaze to avoid looking in a certain direction, he stepped down from the ring, removed his boxing gloves, and said to Jiang Xixi:

"I'm a little thirsty. Xixi, would you mind running downstairs to buy me a bottle of water?"

"Yeah, okay!"

Jiang Xixi agreed obediently and scurried off.

Seeing her eager expression, He Tianran couldn't help smiling as he called out after her: "No rush, walk slowly!"

"Hehe, okay!"

Wen Liang was chatting away with the others when Jiang Xixi brushed past behind her. Curious, the younger girl cast a glance at Wen Liang's back, surrounded as she was by the crowd, before turning away and skipping off.

Once Jiang Xixi was out of earshot, Wen Liang cast a casual, seemingly indifferent glance in the direction the girl had left and asked offhandedly:

"Who's that little pipsqueak?"

Xue Yong cleared his throat and stammered, "Cough—oh, her? A junior."

"A junior? I didn't hear my dad mention that our boxing club took in any female members."

"N—not a member, she's family..."

"Family?"

"Ah, well... He Tianran's little girlfriend."

"Huh—?!"

Wen Liang withdrew one arm from where she had been crossing them over her chest and waved her hand slowly from side to side. The circle of senior students parted to reveal an opening, and outside it, He Tianran was sitting on the floor, slowly unwrapping the tape from his hands.

The next second, she walked straight toward him.