In reality, Chen Jin Yao didn’t wear high heels very often.
It wasn’t that she never wore them, just rarely. Even when she did, it was usually during break times, and she kept flat shoes in her office for quick changes.
But this didn’t stop her closet from having several shelves displaying her collection of beautiful “crystal shoes.”
They sat there quietly, mostly just for admiring.
Chen Jin Yao didn’t see this as wasteful. Rather than waste, she considered it collecting. A woman’s closet would always be missing one piece of clothing, one dress, and one pair of shoes. It couldn’t be helped – just like during student days, even when you already had many, you couldn’t help but keep browsing bookstores for pretty notebooks and pens. You might not use them, but you had to buy them, and buying them brought joy.
The “crystal shoe collection” was all bought with Chen Jin Yao’s own money.
Yan Cheng would generously buy her anything, except shoes. He used to buy them before, but once when they were watching a Korean drama together, in the first episode, the female lead bought her boyfriend the newest running shoes.
Then in the next scene, the subtitles translated: They say if you buy shoes for your partner, they’ll run away with someone else wearing those shoes.
Chen Jin Yao clearly remembered that Yan Cheng had scoffed expressionlessly, seemingly dismissing such superstitious sayings.
It was the typical materialistic attitude, unsurprising, and drama plots were just for entertainment anyway. Then in the second episode, the female lead’s boyfriend cheerfully cheated on her and ruthlessly dumped her.
“Tsk.” Yan Cheng frowned, narrowed his eyes, his expression unreadable.
After a moment of silence, he took out his phone, lowered his eyes to open the calculator, subtracted what she had bought him from what he had bought her, calculated meticulously, then pushed the five-digit number in front of her eyes, saying lazily: “Transfer the money to me, consider the shoes as bought by yourself.”
“…” She had just praised him, but he showed his true colors, being so childish that she wanted to knock him dead with a hammer while gritting her teeth.
However, the dog was quite persistent: “Hurry up, hurry up.”
Chen Jin Yao cursed him as crazy in her mind, but her body honestly transferred the money to him.
Two minutes later, with a ding, the money was transferred back, with a few thousand extra to make it a round number, with a smiley face in the notes. Chen Jin Yao glanced at the screen, her mouth twitched, then turned to look at Yan Cheng with confusion.
Yan Cheng was as casual as ever, his tongue circling his teeth, speaking softly and matter-of-factly: “Next year’s New Year money.”
This time Chen Jin Yao’s eye corner twitched violently: “…”
Since then, Yan Cheng never bought her shoes again.
Of course, similarly, he wouldn’t let her buy shoes for him either.
They could swipe cards freely for anything else, but for this one item, they had to pay separately.
It was said that when Shao Congsi learned about this, he laughed at Yan Cheng for a while, calling him fussy.
Thinking about it now, the word “fussy” wasn’t wrong.
The hotel wasn’t far from Chen Jin Yao’s alma mater, East China Medical University, only about ten minutes’ walk. The large group moving together looked more like a tourist group than alumni returning to their alma mater to find memories.
In mid-June, the university was in its final exam period.
Some majors had already finished all their exams, with students dragging their suitcases home early. The huge campus was empty and quiet, with only cicadas endlessly crying in the trees along the roads.
“Li Dan, civil service is good, right?”
Most medical graduates still worked in profession-related jobs, especially since dentists made good money. Most people lived for such worldly things, so it was unexpected that someone from their class would choose the roundabout path of becoming a civil servant.
Being the only one, she naturally got a lot of attention.
Li Dan smiled, “It’s all about making a living.”
Old classmates meeting was like this – the humble stayed humble, while the show-offs couldn’t stop showing off. Only those who were closer and kept in regular contact, like roommates, would genuinely care about each other’s well-being.
After many years apart, everyone had changed and had new lives when they met again.
How was someone’s work, who was still single, whose kid could already run errands – they discussed such topics with great interest.
“Hey, Jin Yao, why wasn’t there any news about your marriage?”
Unexpectedly, someone brought the topic to her.
New shoes rubbing skin, Chen Jin Yao’s heel was already red. Yan Cheng’s jinx really came true. She had no choice but to slow down, gradually falling behind the crowd with Yan Cheng. There wasn’t much to say about her alma mater, as she wasn’t the one with emotional attachment to it. She just pulled him along, appropriately softening her attitude, swaying his arm, deliberately leaning against him, whining about pain.
It was a rare experience, watching Yan Cheng’s cool expression start to crack. She curved her eyes in pure enjoyment.
Yan Cheng: “If you don’t mind being in public, I can carry you.”
Just as he finished speaking, they heard someone up front mention her, pulling her into the center of attention. Chen Jin Yao composed herself, and when she looked forward, she found that those walking ahead had stopped and turned to look at her and Yan Cheng.
Their inquiring gazes felt like they could peel off one’s skin.
Everything suddenly felt tasteless. Chen Jin Yao slowly withdrew her gaze, calmly exhaling: “Mm, haven’t had the wedding banquet yet.”
“Eh, really?!” Xu Ting exclaimed dramatically from the crowd.
Such a response, appearing suddenly, was particularly jarring.
Yan Cheng frowned and shot back directly: “Haven’t you seen the world? We had a destination wedding. Were we supposed to invite guests to travel around the world with us?”
Xu Ting: “…”
Chen Jin Yao glanced at Yan Cheng, pursed her lips without speaking.
This was already his second time making up stories without preparation.
As they say, practice makes perfect – there wasn’t a single flaw.
Xu Ting’s expression turned unpleasant, muttering: “Well, everyone has their own fate.”
The wind carried this sour comment to everyone’s ears.
Yan Cheng lifted his chin, letting out an extremely disdainful “hmph.”
Chen Jin Yao: “…”
The class monitor reacted quickly, immediately laughing to ease the atmosphere.
Then, elbowed the troublemaker Gu Ci.
Gu Ci’s expression was indifferent, completely detached from the situation. This indeed had nothing to do with him, but his gaze kept drifting imperceptibly towards Chen Jin Yao. Remembering when he learned during their student days that she had someone she liked, then shifting his gaze to Yan Cheng beside her, he frowned thoughtfully.
The sunlight was harsh, burning their faces hot.
Xu Ting was humiliated by Yan Cheng’s harshness.
Some of her friends spoke up for her, trying to smooth things over, which gave her more confidence. She privately believed that Yan Cheng was the impolite one. She looked up at Gu Ci, hoping he would speak up for her like in the past.
But Gu Ci didn’t. He never looked at her once.
Yan Cheng, being perceptive, understood everything with just a glance.
After this little episode, when everyone continued walking, he remarked: “What a tale of love and hate.”
Chen Jin Yao: “????”
“That woman clearly has it out for you, she likes your class assistant,” he bent down close to her, “Look, connecting to what we discussed yesterday, isn’t it just that everyone makes different choices – some bid farewell to the past while others can’t let go.”
“But her actions are really quite stupid.”
Chen Jin Yao raised an eyebrow and couldn’t help slapping him: “Stop gossiping.”
To this, Yan Cheng just shrugged.
Later, everyone naturally split into small groups and went their separate ways.
There was a winding commercial street on campus, from east to west of the river, which became particularly lively at night.
The most popular place back then was still the most popular now.
Chen Jin Yao pulled Yan Cheng and stumbled upon this place. Among the rustling tree leaves, her attention was focused on the nail salon from the start.
As if there was a specific attraction trying to pull her in, walking under the shade, Chen Jin Yao raised her hand pointing towards the nail salon, “Honey, look.”
Yan Cheng looked in the direction she pointed, understood, nodded, and even seemed relieved, “Let’s go.”
“Good, good, good.” She nodded repeatedly.
Secretly delighted: everything was understood without words, what a wonderful feeling of being in sync.
Then, he led her into the… shoe store next next next next to the nail salon.
“…” Chen Jin Yao: “I want to do my nails.”
Yan Cheng glanced down at her, “Change your shoes first, then go.”
She suddenly smiled, turned to look at her heel, half-jokingly said: “Actually I did it on purpose, I was hoping you’d carry me when I couldn’t walk anymore. Didn’t expect you’d think of such a permanent solution, tsk tsk tsk.”
Hearing this, Yan Cheng didn’t even lift his eyelids, half honey half knife: “I can carry you anytime you want, no need for self-harm.”
Chen Jin Yao rolled her eyes: “Can’t talk anymore.”
Yan Cheng: “…”
As luck would have it, Xu Ting was also in this store.
They just exchanged glances, with no extra conversation.
Even so, there was still somewhat of an awkward atmosphere.
The stores on campus generally sold affordable items, similar to Taobao products, with prices around seventy or eighty yuan.
The shoe soles were stiff, not really comfortable to wear.
But compared to high heels, they were much better.
She was just looking for something to replace the high heels.
Chen Jin Yao sat on a small sofa trying on shoes, not being too picky. Yan Cheng found several white sneakers for her to try, going with her decision.
After a while, he sat beside her, elbow on his knee, head slightly tilted, eyes narrowed, staring at her ankle.
Xu Ting was still choosing, frequently glancing sideways.
At this time, there weren’t many customers in the store.
The owner stood nearby, eagerly recommending this year’s latest styles.
Chen Jin Yao calmly faced Xu Ting’s scrutiny. Soon, she turned to whisper in Yan Cheng’s ear: “Go to the supermarket and buy me some water.”
After a pause, she bent down to touch her reddened heel, “And buy two bandages.”
Yan Cheng examined the quality of the white sneakers, his distinctive knuckles rubbing the shoe’s heel area a few more times. After a while, he responded “okay.”
Then, handed the white sneakers to Chen Jin Yao, “These look good.”
Then, he got up and left.
The supermarket was at the end of this street.
It was quite a distance.
Chen Jin Yao didn’t dawdle long, directly putting on the pair Yan Cheng said looked good, telling the owner: “I’ll take these, how much?”
Owner: “Eighty-nine.”
“I’ll wear them out, give me a bag for my old shoes.”
The owner agreed repeatedly, leading her to the cashier.
While scanning for payment.
Xu Ting suddenly appeared beside her, asking: “Not waiting for your husband to pay?”
Hearing this, Chen Jin Yao turned her head to look at her incredulously, with a completely bewildered expression: “Why should I wait for him to pay? It’s not like I can’t earn money.”
Then, Chen Jin Yao felt a wave of relief.
Relief that she had sent Yan Cheng to buy water at the supermarket.
Otherwise, if Yan Cheng was present and she still paid, who knows what kind of pitiful image they might spread about her.
After their eye contact, Xu Ting was the first to back down. She laughed dryly, then turned back to continue looking at shoes with another classmate.
Chen Jin Yao left the shoe store, heading straight for the nail salon.
Passing by a fruit shop, right across from its entrance was a circular pillar supporting the balcony above, where Gu Ci was lazily leaning, eyes half-lowered.
Only when he saw her walking towards him did he put out his cigarette.
After exchanging greetings, he carefully organized his thoughts.
“Ahem, actually it’s nothing much, and I don’t mean anything by it, I just wanted to ask, is your husband the person you said you had a secret crush on during university?” Although he had accepted it, there were still other emotions controlling him.
Getting a clear answer would help him truly let go.
The cicadas’ uninterrupted calls were right beside their ears.
Besides that, everything around was quiet, with only occasional students passing by them.
The sun was slightly scorching, with sunlight largely shining on the ground blocked by the balcony, with just a bit falling on both of them.
Chen Jin Yao’s pupils flickered slightly as she looked straight at him, head held high.
She didn’t know the significance of his question.
After a moment of silence.
Chen Jin Yao licked her lips and said flatly: “No.”
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