Touching Campus Love Stories: Your Mistake, My Love
The school year had just begun, but summer seemed reluctant to leave. The cicadas, those artists of nature, continued to sing on the branches, filling the air with a melody that only made me feel more anxious and uneasy.
I hadn’t spoken more than five sentences to anyone, and those were mostly replies to questions. People said I was “stingy with words,” and they would go on and on about it. When a kind girl mentioned it to me, I just smiled slightly without saying anything, leaving her surprised at my silence.
I focused solely on my studies. I diligently raised my hand in class and remained at my desk after class, watching my classmates laugh and joke around. After school, I would rush home, bury myself in homework, and then, with no interest in anything else, hurriedly put my books back on the shelf, quickly washed up, and went to bed.
This was a true reflection of my first week in junior high. Due to my aloofness, no one wanted to approach me. But I wasn’t completely oblivious. During recess, when I sat alone in the large classroom, I truly felt the taste of loneliness. Loneliness is like a poisonous sweet potion; even just a whiff can intoxicate you.
Just when I was feeling utterly bored, Xi appeared. She burst into my view with a determined and dazzling presence, forcing me to smile under her relentless charm.
“Please, just smile! A bun was walking down the street, got hungry, and ate itself. Isn’t that funny? Come on, give me some face…”
“The Leaning Tower of Pisa? Do they make pizzas there?” (Deep in thought…)
“Xu, let me help you move this box! It’s so heavy, and you’re so weak. Let me share the load.”
“Xu, I really like you. From childhood to now, except for one other girl, you’re my best friend! Deal, best friend!”
Xi, you were so full of sunshine that standing next to you made even me, your friend, feel proud!
I don’t remember how many times. After school, Xi and I would walk hand in hand to a nearby garden. After some playful banter, she would always sit down with me beside the most beautiful flowers, facing me with her purest, most hearty smile, patiently listening to my endless complaints about the day’s misfortunes, and then earnestly helping me understand everything I didn’t. It always felt like in those moments, the younger Xi was more like an older sister, while I became the naive little sister.
“Xu, you must understand that life is full of obstacles. If you always face everything with a depressed and sorrowful attitude, you’ll only bring yourself unnecessary troubles and worries.
“You are yourself. Xu, don’t care too much about what others say. As long as you believe it’s right, that’s enough. Keep going, don’t look back, because you can’t turn back.
“Xu, this is life. Steer your course well, don’t let life control you, and you’ll become the master of your own life. Do you understand?
“No need to thank me. We’re good friends; there’s no need to be formal.”
And so the days passed peacefully and happily, like flowing water.
However, the more beautiful something is, the more likely it is to come with entanglements. Even Xi once said that the god of fate holds countless red strings in his hands. These strings tightly wrap around the necks of people. Two people share one string, and if the god wishes, he only needs to move a finger, and the string will immediately strangle the two, causing them pain and making it impossible to escape until they decide to cut the string completely.
Xi and I, naturally, became two children tightly strangled by this red string.
One beautiful evening, as the sun was about to set, I finished updating the blackboard in the classroom and was about to go home when I suddenly heard faint sounds of scolding and intermittent sobbing coming from the empty music room next door. I didn’t want to meddle, but I accidentally heard my name mentioned, so I quietly approached and carefully listened.
“Xi, I’ve always considered you a good friend, whether or not you’ve treated me the same. But I really didn’t expect you to get so close to ‘her!’ You know I’ve never liked her, yet you still…” The girl paused, her tone full of anger.
“No… Chen, you have to believe me, I… I just saw an experiment online that said if you could become friends with the coldest person in the class, it would prove that you had great social skills. I targeted Yin Chuxun and that’s why I approached her. Please don’t…” A voice that was all too familiar stammered, unable to continue the last sentence.
The girl named Chen fell silent.
I stood frozen.
So, all the care and warmth she had given me were just part of her test?
I silently laughed—a sorrowful laugh. I calmly pushed open the door to the music room, not thinking about the consequences, just walking forward, right or wrong, never looking back to waste time on regrets. I didn’t have the patience for that.
The two girls inside were stunned, especially Xi, whose tear-stained face had never looked so distorted. She stared at me in shock, while I looked at her coldly, my lips tightened into a pale, distant line.
Then, I turned around, no crying, no running, just walking calmly, feeling the pain in my heart. I didn’t want to know what expression Xi had behind me; I only knew that the more I looked at her, the more it would hurt, until finally, my heart would shatter.
I became alone again. No friends, no companionship. Only books to keep me company.
The sunlight outside was blindingly bright, but I crouched in a cold corner, watching ants come and go.
Now I hated the bright morning sunlight because it was “Xi.”
At the thought of this word, I instinctively loathed it. I shook my head vigorously, trying hard to drive the word away. Once it was finally gone, I sighed in relief and continued to watch the ants.
“Where on earth is my watch!” Xi’s voice rang out, annoying as ever. “Whoever took my favorite watch, if I find out, I won’t let you off!”
Classmates began gathering around Xi, chattering and speculating, their eyes scanning everyone’s faces with suspicion. Xi stood there helplessly, on the verge of tears, as if that watch were her lifeline.
But after a flurry of activity, the culprit wasn’t found. The crowd dispersed quickly, as if afraid they’d be suspected themselves.
Xi stood alone by her desk, looking like a lost bird, desperately waiting for someone to claim her, but only receiving their resolute backs.
This is the price you should pay! I thought viciously, feeling a surge of satisfaction.
Her eyes suddenly locked onto mine, and I saw a flash of hurt. She hurried over, bent down, and whispered in my ear, “It was you, wasn’t it? Xu, I know you’re still angry about last time. Who wouldn’t be? But it wasn’t like that! I was just…”
“What do you want?” I cut her off impatiently, “Protect me? But I see it as you constantly deceiving me! No one took your watch, thanks. Just because you’re suspicious doesn’t mean you’re right. Do you think accusing me will protect me?” My anger flared as I slammed my desk, walking out without looking back, leaving her standing there in a daze. I didn’t think much of it, nor did I try to read her expression. I just walked away, refusing to give myself any chance to forgive her.
·1·
When they first met, he made a mistake writing a character, causing her to correct it in front of the class. He then invited her to dinner, thanking her, saying he would’ve been embarrassed otherwise. She refused, so he brought candy to her dorm, and everyone ate his candy, cheerfully waving him off, leaving the two of them to “talk.”
The dorm leader jokingly said, “We’re leaving our little eighth sister in your care.” Back then, there were eight girls in the dorm. Her face flushed, but he beamed like a blooming morning glory.
Once, they quarreled, and he said, “If I had known you were this stubborn, I wouldn’t have written that character wrong in the first place.” She was stunned, “You did it on purpose?”
He laughed, “What do you think? Do you really believe a genius like me would mess up such an easy word?”
“What if I hadn’t noticed? What if someone else pointed it out?” She pressed on.
He laughed even harder, “Then I’d keep making mistakes until you, silly girl, came to tell me. If someone else had pointed it out, I wouldn’t have bought them candy. Problem solved!”
“Oh my gosh, I’ve been living in your schemes,” she fumed, “Was everything—everything else planned by you too?”
“Don’t slander me!” he replied, “My feelings are genuine. Every ‘mistake’ I made was an act of love!”
—This was the happy tale of two junior classmates, celebrating the joy of their first meeting, “mistaken notes, and the gentleman’s glance.”
·2·
Think of Xiao Qiao, how smart and graceful she was. “If you want Zhou Yu’s attention, sometimes play the wrong notes.” How wonderful and charming that is, belonging to youth, to the early summer strawberry-like joy.
I love you, I don’t say it, but the strings under my fingers do. They don’t say I love you, they say “I played
the wrong note, did you hear it?” He heard it, and he saw her heart, her delicate affection. He didn’t say it either, he just looked at her, his gaze filled with unsaid words like blossoming flowers. She played, she didn’t speak, he listened, he didn’t speak, but both hearts understood. They understood, they connected, with a kind of unspoken communication, as clear as the breeze and the moonlight, gentle and affectionate.
“Little girl, you played the wrong note.” “Yes, I meant to!” How playful the words, how tender the innocence. “The tune was wrong, Zhou Yu looked over,” so mischievous, so cute, so full of love. He has feelings, she has intentions. Where their eyes meet, how gracefully the lotus sways; as she lowers her head and plucks the strings, how the peonies blush and the herbs release their fragrance.
Who, in their first love, hides a beloved name deep in a narrative, leaving only an unexpected guess, as a messenger bird to test the waters. “It’s my fault for not imagining enough—” Names have nothing to do with imagination. Clearly, he already knew she was fooling herself, and the invisibility cloak she held up, he had long seen through; her invisibility robe was in plain sight to him—he saw through it! Her defenses were like the “Maginot Line”—utterly useless. Her heart, her soul, were already in his heart, in his eyes. Who is whose Buddha, who is whose love—no need to ask, no need to wonder.
He only knows that he crossed out the word “call”—protecting her feminine modesty—and replaced it with “find”—giving her an escape route from embarrassment. He understood she had overcome the pride and restraint of a girl, and he was telling her—I won’t expose you, I’ll just pretend you “found” my number, but never “called,” ha ha, he he.
He wanted to say, expand, grow, spread out, this love! He didn’t demand directly either, but made another deliberate mistake—he wrote “broad” as “wide,” and then ticked both words, telling her—that’s how it should be, that’s what I want…
A deliberate mistake, so deep, like the Peach Blossom River—no need to overcome the pride and modesty of a girl, he was already the red among the green in her heart.
·3·
A letter, so short, yet so long; a few words, yet containing so many meanings.
At the end, he signed his name and date, a bright and clean name, without any embellishment. Just like the beginning, where he addressed her with a single name. The clean name seemed to hold nothing, yet contained everything. He dated it with a historian’s precision—year, month, day—and added the word “night,” letting her imagine the beauty of the night outside and his thoughts within the word “night.”
But there was something specific—she was his silly girl, and he stubbornly added three more words “Saturday night.” In college, this was when classmates visited each other, boys and girls went on dates, and he wanted to tell her—I’m not going anywhere, I’m here writing to you, thinking of you, and you?
Would she understand this meaning? He didn’t care, he was too caught up in expressing: I only have a date with you.
·4·
Young people’s misunderstandings are the greatest beauty. Young people’s beauty is born from these misunderstandings. Love has its own destiny; whether you believe it or not, it’s there.
Even with “misunderstandings,” destiny is stronger. My playing was wrong, revealing my beauty, showing your charm; your glance carried a thousand feelings, pouring out endless affection. Soft feelings like water, that’s me; passionate with grandeur, that’s you.
At your best, I loved you; at my best, you loved me. Loving was enough, love has destiny.
You go to the skies to pluck stars, I only guard a season of small peach blossoms, and that too is destiny. Love has a thousand years of destiny, you have ten thousand years of passion, I have a billion years of waiting.
In the next life, I will wait at this station for you again, just to receive your “mistake,” my glance. I love you, I won’t look back in this life, but in the next, where my gaze lingers. The fragrance of flowers remains, my pen, ink, and paper remain, so don’t forget the road you came on. My appearance is that wrong note, your gaze I welcome with a smile as water, held in my heart, without trace, but full of love.
That first love was like snow, falling gently, seeping into every detail of your world.
Thank you for reading! ” Sitestorys “
