Chen Yuan clamped the end of the hook with a pair of pliers and gave it a hard tug, but it wouldn’t budge.

A voice from beside them made both Jiangg Yao and Chi Yu look up.

Standing beside them were two beautifully dressed young women. At first glance, Jiangg Yao was taken aback. The woman was tall, and her towering presence felt almost imposing as she looked down at them. Jiangg Yao’s eyes traveled up from her figure to her face and found herself staring in surprise.

‘This girl… she’s gorgeous.’

The sea breeze tousled her hair, pressing a few strands against her left cheek. A distinct beauty mark rested just below the corner of her eye. Her face was a delicate, fair, and soft oval.

Her lips were a soft pink, her nose had a prominent bridge, and her cheeks were faintly flushed.

A single glance was enough to bring to mind the “white moonlight” from novels—pure and bright with a touch of iciness, yet without any actual chill.

Her figure was also insanely good. She wore an avocado-green base layer under a snug gray windbreaker. Jiangg Yao’s eyes scanned her from head to toe.

‘And I can’t ignore the curves of her chest. Compared to me, she’s not lacking in the slightest!’

As she was sizing the other woman up, the woman’s gaze also landed on her face. Their eyes met.

Both could sense a flicker of surprise in the other’s expression.

“Rourou!” Chi Yu exclaimed in pleasant surprise upon seeing her. “What brings you out here fishing?”

“I was getting tired of writing my thesis, so I came out with a friend to relax,” the woman called “Rourou” replied with a smile.

Only then did Jiangg Yao notice another young woman following behind her. This one, however, had a bit of baby fat on her face.

‘Compared to the woman in front of me, she pales in comparison.’

“Exactly. It’s good to balance work and rest, and today is perfect weather for fishing,” Chi Yu said warmly, clearly an old acquaintance of theirs. “But I’m not the one who caught this fish. Miss Jiangg—my client—got a bite just five seconds after she cast her line!”

“…”

Jiangg Yao didn’t say anything. She was still squatting beside Chen Yuan, who kept his head lowered.

Her gaze remained fixed on the young woman.

Instead, it was Rourou who spoke up first, offering a polite compliment. “Amazing. A Gelatinous Fish that big must have taken a lot of work to land.”

She looked at Yaoyao.

Yaoyao gave a polite nod but didn’t say anything.

“Hey, is that you, Chi?” the girl with the baby fat exclaimed in surprise.

“Hey, Man.”

“Hehe, we’re here to crash one of Yilu Fishing’s exclusive spots. You don’t mind, do you, Chi?”

“Of course not! Be my guest!” Chi Yu said magnanimously.

While the women were chatting, Chen Yuan was still over there, yanking hard on the hook. His mind was entirely focused on the fish, and he paid no attention to what was happening around him.

“Finally got it out. It almost swallowed the hook whole. This fish is really greedy.”

Chen Yuan held up the bloody hook still clamped in the pliers, muttering to himself. He then picked up the fish and asked Chi Yu, “Chi, where’s our bucket? I need to get some water and put this fish away.”

“Right! I put the bucket on the steps. I’ll go get it for you, Mr. Chen.”

With that, Chi Yu took off running. Her customer service was certainly top-notch.

Whenever a client made a request, she was always quick to act.

But as Chen Yuan, holding the fish with a smile, was about to let Jiangg Yao feel how heavy it was, he turned his head.

His gaze fell on the young woman standing nearby—

And “Rourou,” who had just finished chatting with her friends and was about to go fish somewhere else, also happened to look over—

In that instant.

Both of their expressions froze in astonishment. They stared blankly at each other, and it seemed as if time itself had stopped.

Rourou’s eyes widened, filled with disbelief. She even blinked, as if to make sure she wasn’t mistaken.

“Yuan… Yuan!”

At this cry of surprise, Chi Yu, who was fetching the bucket, turned her head. The girl with the baby fat glanced over curiously. And Jiangg Yao’s brow furrowed instantly; she sensed something was amiss.

In this world, a meaningful encounter…

…is never something that happens when you’re ready for it—after you’ve washed your face, put on your best clothes, and sat down primly in a nice spot, your heart full of anticipation.

It always appears by a twist of fate, in a moment you could never have foreseen.

Chen Yuan stood holding the fish, staring at the young woman in front of him. His mind went blank for a long moment before the corner of his mouth twitched.

“Rourou… It’s been a long time.”

The sea breeze blew relentlessly.

Jiangg Yao’s gaze darted wildly between the two of them. She was completely baffled, yet she had a sharp sense of—danger!

…

Many, many years ago, when Chen Yuan was just a little kid, a very pretty older girl lived next door. But back then, he didn’t yet understand what “pretty” meant.

He didn’t have much of a concept of beauty and ugliness.

He just knew that this older girl was very nice. She spoke gently, she seemed to know so much, and he was happy just being with her, even if they weren’t doing anything.

Because Mrs. Chen had been very strict with him as a child, he spent most of his time studying and rarely had the chance to go out and play. After finishing his regular homework, he had to study for his other classes. After finishing that, he had to start studying material for the next grade level.

If he hadn’t lacked any truly outstanding talent, Mrs. Chen probably would have enrolled him in all sorts of extracurricular classes—Math Olympiad, the game of Go, whatever it took to make him the best among his peers.

Studying, of course, was tedious, especially at an age when he was most active and restless.

But as long as he was studying with the pretty older girl from next door, the tedium was bearable.

In his memory, whether at his house or hers, the study always had two desks: one large and one small.

When their parents were busy, the two of them would study together.

He’d be buried in his homework, and when he looked up, he would see the girl from next door reading, doodling, secretly reading a novel, memorizing vocabulary, or listening to her MP3 player.

The pure white headphone cord would be wrapped around her ear, trailing down her fair neck and disappearing into her sleeve before finally ending in her pocket.

Young Chen Yuan knew the headphones must be playing a light, melodious song, because her toes were tapping along to the beat, tapping again and again on the wooden floor.

When he got bored with his homework, she would come over to tease him, asking if there were any pretty girls in his elementary school class, telling him funny stories from her school, or asking, “Want to listen to music together?”

The days passed, one after another.

Outside the window, there was cold rain, heavy snow, or brilliant sunshine.

Spring, summer, fall, winter—the seasons turned.

They celebrated New Year together, ate sweet rice balls for the Lantern Festival together, and went door-to-door collecting lucky money. While the adults, all teachers, chattered away in the living room, the two of them would sit to the side, cracking open melon seeds.

They played badminton together in the alley outside.

This older girl from next door was named Ke Bing. She was four years older than Chen Yuan.

When Chen Yuan was still just a little kid, she had already blossomed into a graceful young woman.

When he was in middle school, she was in high school. By the time he got to high school, she had already transferred to a school somewhere else.

All that was left was a silent, empty house, which was later assigned to other faculty members.

Chen Yuan would occasionally recall their shared laughter, but it was usually only when a close friend asked him, “Is there any girl you like?” that an image of Ke Bing would flash through his mind.

‘But was that really a crush?’

Before he had a chance to really understand the feeling, she was gone.

It was true, though: after knowing a more mature and gentle older girl like her, he lost all interest in the girls his own age at school.

In the romance anime he watched, the protagonist always seemed to have a childhood friend—usually a cute, tsundere-type girl. He never thought he had a childhood friend himself, but upon careful recollection…

…he realized he did.

It was just that, with the passage of time, even the memory of her face had grown hazy.

…

“I never expected to run into you here. What a coincidence.”

Chen Yuan was too awkward to know what to say. He was hit by a wave of unfamiliarity. More than five years had passed in the blink of an eye, and the Ke Bing before him had changed dramatically.

Her hair was in a high ponytail, her clothes were beautiful, and she was even seven or eight centimeters taller than before!

To be honest, he hadn’t recognized her at first glance.

“I can’t believe it. Oh my gosh… it’s really you! Yuan, you’ve gotten so tall!”

A delighted light shone in Ke Bing’s eyes, and her reaction was much warmer than Chen Yuan’s. Her lips curved into a smile she couldn’t suppress, and she looked as if she wanted to reach out and measure his height.

But she stopped herself, feeling the gesture would be inappropriate.

She was utterly astonished.

It wasn’t just because she had run into an old friend in such an unexpected place.

Most importantly, the little boy from back then, whose cheeks were so soft and tender, had now somehow grown to be 1.8 meters tall. And his features… they were beyond what she remembered or could have imagined.

‘Yuan… has grown up into such a handsome young man!?’

She was overcome by an incredible sense of unfamiliarity.

When she had called out “Yuan,” if he had denied it, Ke Bing would have been certain she’d mistaken him for someone else!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep