The Story of a Boy

Fang Qi just stood there, hugging the stiff Liguang from behind.

The person in his arms was still trembling, very, very slightly.

Like a... frightened little animal with nowhere to run.

That soaked light blue cloth strip was still wrapped around her head. Her long silver hair fell somewhat messily over her shoulders, with a few strands clinging to her cheeks... stuck there by her tears.

He didn't let go; instead, he tightened his arms, pulling her closer into his embrace.

"Liguang."

He spoke softly by her ear, his voice so gentle that even he was a little surprised.

"I want to tell you a story."

The person in his arms didn't move, nor did she speak.

Only that faint trembling seemed to pause for just a moment.

The girl in his arms didn't struggle, allowing him to feel slightly relieved.

At least... Liguang was still willing to listen to him.

He took a deep breath.

What should he tell her?

Tell her about his transmigration?

Tell her about this game world?

No, there was no rush.

Those things were too complicated, too outrageous.

If he poured it all out right now, it would only confuse the already fragile Liguang even more.

He needed to talk about something else first.

Something... that would make her understand why he had said to her, "How wonderful it would be if you were in my life."

"This story is about me."

He rested his chin on her shoulder, turned his face, and his lips almost brushed against her cold earlobe.

That little star earring was still hanging there, swaying gently.

"I'll start from when I was... very young."

The person in his arms still didn't move, but the wrist he was holding... seemed to relax just a little bit.

He began to speak, his voice very light and gentle:

"When I was a kid, my family wasn't exactly rich, but we were the ordinary, happy kind. Both my parents worked; they were busy, but they treated me well."

"In my memory, we lived in an old residential neighborhood back then. It was a six-story building with no elevator, and we lived on the fifth floor."

"There was a little convenience store downstairs. The proprietress had an orange cat, extremely fat, that loved to sleep on top of the ice cream freezer every day. It wouldn't run away no matter how much we petted it."

He held her gently, reminiscing about his childhood:

"As for me, I was a little brat for as long as I can remember. Really, the absolute worst kind."

"Every year during the Spring Festival, I would take my cousins and ring people's doorbells from door to door. We'd ring them and run, laughing the whole way."

"Once, I was caught by an old man. He dragged me back to my mom by the ear, and my mom gave me a couple of smacks right there. I howled in pain, but I still dared to do it again the next year."

The person in his arms seemed to move slightly.

Fang Qi held her and continued speaking, a smile in his voice.

"Another time, we were setting off firecrackers for the New Year. A few friends and I were playing on the lawn behind our neighborhood. We had those matchcrackers that bang when you throw them on the ground. I don't know who started it, but we began throwing them into the grass, and as a result—"

A hint of embarrassment entered his tone:

"As a result, the lawn caught fire."

"Seriously, the flames shot up in an instant, and us kids were completely dumbfounded. Someone yelled to run, someone else yelled to get an adult. I wasn't thinking straight and just went up and started stomping on it, trying to put it out."

"But after a couple of stomps, the fire got bigger and almost burned my shoes. I turned and ran, running faster than anyone else."

"Later, that whole patch of green lawn burned down, leaving a huge black scorch mark... The next day, the neighborhood committee came knocking on our door."

Liguang still didn't turn her head.

But he could feel that the stiffness in her back seemed to have faded a bit.

He continued.

"Later, when I went to elementary school, I was still the same. I'd talk back to teachers during class, run like a maniac all over the playground during breaks, often skip my homework, and getting my parents called in was a daily occurrence."

"But my personality was quite likable, and I could play well with both the boys and girls in my class."

"I'd play soccer and video games with the boys, and the girls... the girls also liked to hang out with me. I don't know why, maybe because I talked a lot and never let things get awkward?"

As he spoke, he suddenly felt the person in his arms stiffen slightly again.

It was very subtle, but he felt it.

The corners of Fang Qi's mouth curled up slightly.

"When I entered middle school, I was still the same. My grades fluctuated, and I had a ton of friends, both boys and girls."

"During my third year of middle school, a new girl transferred into our class. She was pretty, and a lot of boys chased after her, but she just liked chatting with me. I didn't think much of it at the time; I just thought she was interesting and liked listening to me brag."

The silver-haired girl in his arms clearly squirmed!

The fingers of the hand he was holding began to curl slightly!

He whispered in her ear:

"Later, she confessed her feelings to me."

The girl in his arms immediately moved subconsciously!

He saw her other small hand...

Quietly, slowly, and hesitantly reaching toward his waist!

Once. And again.

Her fingertips brushed against his clothes, then pulled back.

Touched again, and pulled back.

It was as if she was hesitating, testing the waters, bouncing back and forth between wanting to pinch him and not daring to.

Fang Qi smirked, pressing his lips together...

And then he grabbed that little hand that was testing his waist!

Liguang stiffened again.

Fang Qi didn't say anything; he just gently pressed her small hand against his waist.

Then, holding her somewhat cold, slender fingers, he made her gently pinch him.

He felt those slender fingers tighten for a moment.

"At that time, I was just a clueless brat."

He pressed close to her ear and said softly:

"I didn't understand anything about romance. When she confessed to me, I didn't even know what she was talking about. I just foolishly nodded and said, 'Oh, okay,' and then turned around and ran off to play soccer."

He laughed.

"And then there was no after that. We went our separate ways after the high school entrance exams, and we didn't even exchange contact info."

The person in his arms fell silent for a second.

Then, the hand he was holding softened. It just rested there obediently.

Fang Qi continued.

"For high school, I got into the city's key high school."

"A key high school, do you know what that means? It means those students knew nothing but studying all day long."

"Really, from morning till night, it was nothing but studying. Dating? No time for that. Wearing ugly uniforms, doing practice papers during breaks, memorizing vocabulary during lunch, having evening study sessions until ten o'clock, and those guys probably kept studying when they got home."

"I was dumbfounded. For someone like me who was used to being undisciplined, going to a school like that was pure torture."

The silver-haired girl remained motionless in his arms.

So he started telling her funny stories from his high school days.

He talked about a boy in his class who had a secret crush on a girl in the next class for three years without ever saying a single word to her. On graduation day, he finally mustered the courage to ask for her number, only for the girl to look at him blankly and ask, "Who are you?"

He talked about their homeroom teacher, a man in his fifties whose favorite saying was, "If you don't work hard now, you'll be moving bricks in the future." But one time, he threw his back out moving a flower pot and had to take half a month off.

He talked about how they secretly cooked instant noodles in the boys' dorm at night and got caught by the dorm manager. The manager confiscated the noodles, only to sit in the duty room eating them from a bowl himself. The smell wafted down the entire hallway in the middle of the night, making everyone complain bitterly.

He kept talking, and then suddenly felt...

The delicate figure in his arms leaned back a little.

It was a very, very light movement, but she was definitely nestling into his embrace.

Liguang...!

Fang Qi tightened his arms, wrapping her even closer!

Then, he continued telling his story.

"Later on, during the college entrance exams, I had good luck and got into a really good university."

"Don't underestimate your master. It was really good, ranked quite high nationally."

"But... once I got to college, I completely slacked off."

He pursed his lips and gave a self-deprecating smile.

"No one was managing me anymore, truly no one. My parents couldn't reach me, the college professors cared even less. All day long, it was just..."

"Playing video games."

"From my freshman year, I played games all day long. Staying up until three or four in the morning was a daily routine."

"Classes the next morning? I wouldn't go. Morning classes didn't exist to me. I'd sleep until noon, order takeout, and keep playing."

"Failing classes? I failed a lot of them. Let alone mandatory courses, I even failed two general education classes because of poor attendance. My counselor called me in for a talk, but it went in one ear and out the other. After the talk, I went right back to playing."

"Do you know why?"

He pressed close to Liguang's ear and whispered.

"Because there wasn't a girl like Liguang to keep me in check."

The girl in his arms trembled slightly.

"Really," he said softly. "If you had been there back then, watching over me every day, would I have dared to stay up late? Would I have dared to skip class? You definitely would have..."

He thought for a moment, then smiled.

"With you around, I wouldn't have been able to stay up at all. Every morning at seven... you would have been waiting downstairs at my dorm with breakfast in hand."

The girl in his arms didn't move, but she seemed to sniffle softly.

He carried on, continuing his own story.

"I didn't look for a girlfriend back then, either. My roommates were all dating, but not me."

"They asked me why I didn't try to find one, and I said I was too lazy to. Actually, it wasn't that I was too lazy, it was just... I was playing games every day, where would I even find one?"

"And at the time, I also thought... wouldn't getting a girlfriend just get in the way of my gaming?"

"But thinking about it now... it was really just because I hadn't met the right person."

His voice softened.

"If I had met you back then..."

He didn't finish his sentence.

The girl in his arms trembled again.

Fang Qi took a deep breath and continued.

"Later, thanks to my professors cutting me some slack, and the fact that most of my grades were hovering right on the passing line, I barely managed to graduate."

"After graduation, since my university was pretty good and my family pulled some strings, I found a relatively easy job. I worked during the day, and when I went back to my rented apartment at night... I kept playing games."

"Just like that, day after day, year after year."

"I never thought about what my future would be like."

"I never thought about who I would meet, or what kind of life I would live... I was just drifting through the days."

He paused there.

The delicate figure in his arms had completely relaxed.

Liguang was leaning softly against him, just like a little kitten... that had finally found its nest.

Fang Qi simply held her from behind.

The living room was very quiet, with only the sound of their breathing gently intertwining.

Then, he spoke softly again.

"Liguang..."

"Tell me, how wonderful would it have been if you were in that part of my life."

The girl in his arms gave a sudden jolt.

He continued, his voice growing softer and softer.

"If... if you and I were childhood sweethearts, how wonderful would that be."

"If I had you by my side since childhood, watching me be mischievous, watching me get into trouble, watching me grow up day by day..."

"If I had you since childhood..."

A hint of a tremor crept into his own voice.

"...how wonderful would that be."

The silver-haired girl nestled quietly in his embrace.

With her back pressed against his chest, her small silver head tilted back slightly...

...resting into the crook of his neck.

Beneath that soaked light blue strip of cloth, a faint red light faintly shone through, flickering gently.

She didn't turn around, and she didn't speak... she simply surrendered all her weight to him.

Leaning in very, very closely.

Fang Qi tightened his arms, wrapping her up very, very tightly as well.

The night outside the window was deep.

The living room was very quiet.

There were only the two of them, tightly embracing each other.