The sky was clear, and white clouds drifted lazily.
Zhuang Zi'ang and his new friend, Su Yudie, had filled themselves with snacks, treating it as lunch.
They sat on a bench in the mall, basking in the afternoon sun.
Su Yudie's azure blue pleated skirt fluttered in the breeze, revealing two segments of her snow-white, lotus-root-like calves, and her feet swung restlessly up and down.
"Zhuang Zi'ang, are you going back to school this afternoon?" Su Yudie looked up at the sky.
"No," Zhuang Zi'ang replied decisively.
The rebellion in his bones had been ignited; he planned to skip half a day of classes.
After being a good child for over a decade, he could finally let loose.
Being with a good friend was much more interesting than being at school.
For the first time in his life, he experienced such joy and found it incredibly stimulating.
"Then where should we go this afternoon?" Su Yudie leaned closer to Zhuang Zi'ang.
The faint, sweet scent of the girl wafted into his nostrils.
Unbeknownst to them, the two had transformed from strangers into "us."
Zhuang Zi'ang thought for a moment, then asked, "Do you like fishing?"
Su Yudie frowned and shook her head repeatedly, "No, I've never caught a single fish."
"Then I'll take you fishing by the river; I'm an expert," Zhuang Zi'ang boasted.
Every summer vacation, he would spend some time in the countryside, going fishing with his grandfather, which was a very leisurely and enjoyable part of life.
In truth, he was not an expert; the number of fish he had caught in his life could be counted on one's fingers.
"Alright then, you have to catch a really big, fathead fish for me," Su Yudie's lips curved into a beautiful smile.
Ready to go, Zhuang Zi'ang went to a fishing tackle shop and bought a very cheap fishing rod for over a hundred yuan.
In the past, he might have felt pained by the expense, but now it was too late not to spend the money.
Passing a convenience store, Su Yudie tugged on Zhuang Zi'ang's sleeve, "Let's buy some more snacks; we can eat them by the river."
"Are you a reincarnated hungry ghost?" Zhuang Zi'ang was quite speechless.
Su Yudie looked at the convenience store's glass display window, pleading piteously, "Just a few small snacks, please?"
Zhuang Zi'ang surrendered, "Alright, alright, whatever you say."
"Yay, go buy them quickly!" Su Yudie was as happy as a child.
Zhuang Zi'ang walked into the store and casually bought some nuts, beef jerky, and cookies from the shelves.
After all, they had just met, and he wasn't sure what the girl liked to eat.
Next to the convenience store was a small bookstore. When Zhuang Zi'ang came out, he found Su Yudie scrolling on her phone, looking at some boring, stale jokes and laughing to herself, bending over backward.
"Wow, what you're looking at is so profound," Zhuang Zi'ang teased.
Su Yudie, of course, understood he was being sarcastic and said nonchalantly, "Life is good when you're happy; why bother being so profound?"
"You have a point. The more knowledge one has, the happier one isn't necessarily," Zhuang Zi'ang agreed.
"Exactly! Whether they're scientists, thinkers, or philosophers, they all have to die in the end," Su Yudie said casually.
As a young person, she seemed to have no taboos about the word "death."
Zhuang Zi'ang was startled at first, then muttered to himself, "Hmm, I'm also a person who will die."
The school was built against a mountain, and at its foot flowed a river that ran through the city.
The green water flowed gently, with ripples shimmering.
The afternoon sun shone down, and the river surface reflected specks of golden light.
Zhuang Zi'ang baited his hook, cast his rod with a flourish, then sat cross-legged on the pebbles by the river.
He was like Jiang Taigong fishing by the Wei River, calm and composed.
Suddenly, a burst of silver-bell-like laughter came from his ear, breaking his concentration.
"Keep your voice down, or you'll scare away my fish."
"I'm sorry, this joke is too funny, quickly look at it," Su Yudie handed her phone to Zhuang Zi'ang.
"Someone as profound as me, looking at such childish jokes with you?" Zhuang Zi'ang said dismissively.
"Just take a look!" Su Yudie pleaded playfully.
Zhuang Zi'ang glanced at it dismissively, and those two glances led him down a path of no return.
"Hahahahaha…"
Unconsciously, their two heads huddled together, looking at extremely childish, stale jokes, and their idiotic laughter rose and fell.
Su Yudie had a very low laugh threshold; even very ordinary jokes could make her burst into laughter.
Zhuang Zi'ang considered himself a person with a relatively high laugh threshold, but being influenced by the girl beside him, he couldn't hold back either.
Afraid of laughing too loudly and disturbing the fish at the bottom of the water, he held back with great difficulty.
"Zhuang Zi'ang, get out your snacks, I want to eat," Su Yudie requested.
Zhuang Zi'ang took out the plastic bag beside him, "There are nuts, cookies, beef jerky. What do you want to eat?"
"You pick for me; I like them all."
Foodies are not picky eaters.
Zhuang Zi'ang casually reached in, pulled out a pack of cookies, and handed them over.
Su Yudie tore open the packaging, eagerly took a bite, "So crispy! You have a piece too."
"I'm so full, I can't eat," Zhuang Zi'ang drew out his words.
Su Yudie directly picked up a piece and stuffed it into his mouth, even complaining, "So wishy-washy."
The cookies were crispy and sweet, but no matter how sweet, they couldn't be sweeter than the girl's smile.
Zhuang Zi'ang completely forgot his identity as a fishing expert and just kept looking at jokes with Su Yudie.
Watching them once wasn't enough; they had to review them again.
Like two silly fools, they sought the purest joy until their necks were so strained they couldn't bear it anymore, and he finally looked up to stretch.
He suddenly remembered his main task, raised the fishing rod, and the bait had long been completely eaten.
The passage of time, like petals falling one by one, and the shadow of the sun on the ground, grew increasingly slanted.
In the past, during classes, Zhuang Zi'ang found the afternoon particularly hard to endure, but today, from noon until sunset, it felt like the flick of a finger.
A setting sun on the horizon gilded the faces of the young boy and girl.
"I need to catch the 6:10 bus home," Su Yudie stood up and stretched.
"I haven't even caught a fish yet," Zhuang Zi'ang grumbled.
"I think you look like a big fathead fish, so silly," Su Yudie teased.
The two left the riverbank and returned to the snack street along the long stone steps.
Passing a dessert shop, Su Yudie stopped again, staring blankly at the exquisite cakes in the display window.
"No way, are you hungry again?" Zhuang Zi'ang said in surprise.
"No, no, you said you don't have a good relationship with your family. Why don't you buy them a cake? Eating sweets brings happiness," Su Yudie said with sincere eyes.
If anyone else had made such a suggestion, Zhuang Zi'ang would have flatly refused.
More than a decade of familial estrangement could not be mended by a small cake.
But meeting Su Yudie's gaze, the words of refusal were on his lips, yet he couldn't bring himself to say them.
This girl was genuinely trying to help him mend his relationship with his family.
She believed that human warmth could overcome the indifference of the world.
Finally, at Su Yudie's suggestion, Zhuang Zi'ang bought a strawberry cake. It was a bit expensive, and he felt a pang of regret when paying.
The two walked to the bus stop at the school gate, and the Route 19 bus happened to pull up.
"Zhuang Zi'ang, goodbye," Su Yudie waved and then jumped onto the bus.
"Goodbye, my friend," Zhuang Zi'ang also waved.
But the sound of his words was only audible to himself.
What an interesting girl.
Oh no, I forgot to get her phone number.
The bus gradually drove away, eventually disappearing into the traffic.