Campus Romance Story
During the early days of our youthful infatuations, Chu Chu’s world revolved around simple concepts like the law of energy conservation and chemical equations.
The most complicated things in her life were three-dimensional geometry and linear functions.
She didn’t understand why I was always so emotionally entangled, and I couldn’t fathom why she seemed immune to sadness.
Black Cat Mo’er: Chu Chu is a good girl, love, don’t hurt her. Hey girl, did you see that? I’ve announced to the world that you’re a good girl, so we won’t have to worry about lacking suitors in the future. Let those who don’t appreciate you step aside!
One of life’s greatest joys is having a group of like-minded friends to chat and gossip with. Chu Chu was one of those friends.
In fact, Chu Chu was a well-behaved, morally upright girl. She didn’t smoke, didn’t drink excessively, didn’t curse, and didn’t pretend to be pure. She was so kind-hearted that I was always worried someone would take advantage of her. However, she never felt that way, except for when it came to us, her gossipy friends. Despite being the only one in her dorm who always did the cleaning, she never complained.
During the time when we were all just beginning to understand love, Chu Chu’s world remained simple, revolving around energy conservation and chemical equations. The most complex thing was still three-dimensional geometry and linear functions. She didn’t understand why I was always so preoccupied with love, and I didn’t understand why she never seemed sad. After graduating from high school, we went to different universities, but we still met up occasionally.
The first time I noticed that her heart was finally stirred by something as melodramatic as life was during the winter of our sophomore year. She called me, her voice filled with excitement, so much so that she could barely form coherent sentences. She said, “I won the lottery! I went shopping at the supermarket two days ago, and it turns out I was the 8,888th customer. The supermarket gave me a year’s worth of sanitary pads, all ABC brand. Now, I can’t wait for my period every day!”
Lying in bed, I lazily replied, “It’s just a bunch of little angels with wings. I thought you had won a handsome guy with wings instead!”
She excitedly responded, “There really was a handsome guy! You guessed it! Let me tell you about this romantic story!” Her voice grew even more animated.
Later, over the phone, I learned about the entire encounter, although, due to Chu Chu’s talent for rambling storytelling, I had to piece together most of the details myself. But here’s the general outline:
That day, she went to the supermarket near her school to buy instant noodles. When she got to the checkout, the handsome guy in front of her noticed she only had one item and kindly let her go ahead. Coincidentally, she turned out to be the 8,888th customer. While Chu Chu was still processing what had happened, the supermarket staff pointed to a poster by the door and said, “Congratulations, you’re so lucky! All those sanitary pads are yours!” Chu Chu stared at the mountain of ABC products in disbelief. Everything had happened so suddenly that she couldn’t believe her luck.
As everyone in the supermarket turned their attention to Chu Chu, she suddenly remembered the polite young man who had let her go first. She turned to him and, with an apologetic smile, said, “I’m sorry, the 8,888th customer should have been you.”
The young man smiled awkwardly and said, “It’s okay. The prize was meant for you. Besides, I wouldn’t have any use for those things.”
Chu Chu suddenly realized the truth and said, “Well then, I won’t be shy about it.” She walked over to the pile of sanitary pads and started packing them up, but there were so many that she couldn’t carry them all. It seemed like the supermarket was planning to close down, given how many they were giving away. While she was pondering how to get all these little angels back to her dorm, the young man approached her again and said, “If you can’t carry them all, I can help you take them back.”
And so, Chu Chu and the young man, each carrying two bags full of sanitary pads, strolled under the rosy sunset, becoming a picturesque scene on D University’s campus.
At the end of the story, Chu Chu finally remembered to describe the young man’s appearance. She said he had bushy eyebrows, thin lips, small eyes, wasn’t exactly handsome, but was clean-looking, and his smile had a sunny warmth to it. His name, she added, was Wu Qi, which she found very pleasant to the ear.
My intuition told me that Chu Chu had fallen in love at first sight. After all, she described such an ordinary name as “pleasant,” and besides love, I couldn’t think of any other explanation. Chu Chu had finally met someone who made her heart race, and within ten minutes of hanging up the phone, I had shared the news with all our gossip-loving friends. Everyone started offering her advice, but Chu Chu thought our suggestions were too impractical. Even though Wu Qi had given her his phone number, she couldn’t just rush to confess her feelings. As a girl known for her virtuous nature, modesty was a basic principle.
For the next few days, Chu Chu composed nearly a hundred text messages to Wu Qi, but never sent a single one. She always felt that her excuses were too flimsy. At night, she would lie in bed, holding her phone, flipping it over and over. The battery indicator gradually went from full to almost empty. Chu Chu watched as the last bit of power drained away, feeling like her newly awakened heart was sinking into the ocean, suffocating.
Just when Chu Chu thought she would be lost in this sleepless night, her phone suddenly buzzed.
“Hi, do you remember me? I’m Wu Qi. How have you been these past few days? Are you still having a lucky streak?” Chu Chu’s little heart felt as if someone had pulled it out of the water, breathing in fresh air for the first time. Her whole world suddenly brightened. She spent half an hour carefully crafting her response: “No, I think it was meeting you that made me so lucky that day.”
After sending the message, Chu Chu waited anxiously. But despite waiting until she fell asleep, there was no reply. The next morning, she was gloomy all day, thinking she had taken too long to respond, and that maybe Wu Qi had fallen asleep while waiting. Had her message been inappropriate? Chu Chu tortured herself with all kinds of self-doubts, just like the soap opera heroines she never understood, obsessing over “loves me, loves me not.” This state of confusion frustrated her, but she couldn’t help herself.
In the afternoon, her seemingly dead phone finally came back to life, vibrating with frequent messages from Wu Qi. One after another, Chu Chu happily chatted with him. That afternoon, she also realized that Wu Qi had a great sense of humor. Wu Qi became the most fascinating person in Chu Chu’s world. No matter what she talked about, he always had insightful responses. It was clear that Chu Chu’s liking for him had turned into admiration. From then on, no matter what topic we discussed, Chu Chu would always find a way to bring Wu Qi into the conversation. She was so happy, as if he was already hers.
Chu Chu mentioned that he had asked her out to see a movie that weekend, and she worried about whether she should dress up. Before the date, she even bought new clothes and got her hair straightened. She wanted to leave a good impression on Wu Qi. After all, Chu Chu had been the class beauty once, though that was back in kindergarten. I thought Chu Chu looked the most beautiful when she smiled, her mouth curving into a heart shape.
On the weekend, Wu Qi came to pick her up at her school gate. They went shopping first, and he bought her a heart-shaped hair clip, which he personally helped her put on. He said, “Your smile is as cute as the shape of this clip.” Chu Chu’s face turned as red as a cherry. She had never worn such a pretty hair clip before, especially one that a guy had put on her. Chu Chu thought to herself, “Isn’t this moving too fast?”
By noon, they went to a fancy Western restaurant for lunch. The waitstaff wore clean shirts and trousers, and even their smiles seemed standardized—just right, making you feel comfortable but not overly so. The red-and-white tablecloths and delicate wine glasses added a touch of romance, and in the candlelight, Wu Qi’s face seemed to glow with tenderness. He said, “You look beautiful today.”
Looking at the small, exquisite dishes, Chu Chu gulped, awkwardly and carefully handling her knife and fork, afraid that one bite would finish the entire dish. She suddenly remembered that Wu Qi had once mentioned that his family was well-off, even somewhat prominent. The thought made her nervous. Could it be that the story of a prince meeting an ugly duckling was playing out in real life? But then she dismissed the idea. Life wasn’t as dramatic or as clichéd as a TV show. Even if Wu Qi was a prince, and she was an ugly duckling, so what? The prince would still choose a princess, and the ugly duckling was just a supporting character with a few lines.
After lunch, they went to see a romance movie. During the movie, Wu Qi tried to hold Chu Chu’s hand. She felt a warm sensation, her heart skipped a beat, and she reflexively pulled her hand back. Wu Qi awkwardly
cleared his throat, while Chu Chu took a big gulp of her soda.
We all thought that, based on Chu Chu’s descriptions, Wu Qi seemed like a decent guy. So when Chu Chu told us they were planning a second date, we had high hopes for them.
Chu Chu said they had planned to go to an amusement park, but while waiting for the bus, a woman suddenly appeared out of nowhere and slapped Wu Qi across the face. She started yelling at him, calling him a liar, accusing him of cheating her out of money and love. But she wasn’t calling him Wu Qi—she called him Wu Qiliang. Then the bus arrived, and Wu Qi quickly pulled Chu Chu onto the bus. The woman didn’t get on, but just before the doors closed, she shouted at Chu Chu, “You’ll be deceived too! This man is a liar, a big liar!”
The whole time, Wu Qi didn’t say a word. They sat in the back of the bus for a long time. When they arrived at the amusement park, they didn’t get off. Chu Chu sat beside him in silence. When the bus reached the final stop, Wu Qi finally spoke, “I’m sorry. I didn’t expect to run into her.”
After getting off the bus, they found a cold drink shop. Wu Qi explained that the woman was his ex-girlfriend. They had known each other for many years, back when he was still called Wu Qiliang. Later, he admitted he had been in the wrong and had cheated on her, leading to their breakup. The experience had left a lasting impact on the woman, and every time she saw Wu Qi, she would lose control and curse him for being unfaithful. She even sent anonymous threatening letters to Wu Qi’s subsequent girlfriends, which eventually forced him to break up with them as well. Although many years had passed, this incident was a mistake from his past that he couldn’t escape. His tone was filled with guilt, and Chu Chu didn’t know why, but she started to feel sorry for him.
Then Wu Qi asked Chu Chu, “Will you distance yourself from me because of this?”
Looking at his expectant eyes, Chu Chu didn’t even have time to think before shaking her head and saying, “Of course not. Those are things from the past. Everyone makes mistakes, but as long as you’ve learned from them, it’s okay. Besides, if you don’t love someone anymore, forcing yourselves to stay together won’t make anyone happy.”
Wu Qi lowered his head and added, “Chu Chu, there’s one more thing I haven’t told you.” He went on to confess another truth. He admitted that he might have exaggerated his family background a bit. He wasn’t actually a wealthy prince, just someone from a decent family with a decent background. The reason for his earlier claims was that he thought many girls only cared about money, but after getting to know Chu Chu, he realized how shameful his deception was. So he decided to come clean, hoping for her forgiveness, although he wouldn’t blame her if she couldn’t forgive him.
Chu Chu felt like too many things were flooding her mind at once, making it hard for her to process everything. She drank a large glass of cold drink in one go. Only after finishing it did she look up, smile, and say to Wu Qi, “I knew it! Life isn’t a soap opera. Next time, don’t take me to such expensive restaurants. The big plate chicken noodles near our school are just as delicious. I want to be friends with you as a person, not with your money.”
Wu Qi looked at Chu Chu’s silly smile and reached out to ruffle her hair. Then they went to the amusement park, rode the roller coaster, enjoyed the pirate ship, and finally, Wu Qi hugged Chu Chu inside the Ferris wheel.
That evening, Chu Chu called each of us to share the good news. We were all happy for her—she had finally met someone she liked. Although Wu Qi had made mistakes in his past relationships, as the saying goes: “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” As long as Chu Chu was happy, that was all that mattered to us.
That night, Chu Chu received one last text message from Wu Qi. It read: “Chu Chu, you’re a good girl. I can’t keep hurting you.” After that, he disappeared completely.
Chu Chu tried texting and calling him, even went to his supposed school to look for him, but all her efforts were in vain. No one knew of anyone named Wu Qi. When Chu Chu cried in front of me, my heart broke along with hers. How could someone just disappear like that? Could he really have been a con artist?
Chu Chu was heartbroken for a long, long time. We cursed that man called Wu Qi with the most vicious language countless times. But eventually, Chu Chu said, “Let it go. Maybe he really had his reasons.” You see, Chu Chu was a good girl. Even in her darkest moments, she tried to find the good in people.
A few months later, Chu Chu told me that a guy from her school who studied biopharmaceuticals had confessed his feelings to her. She wanted to test him for a while longer, to make sure he wouldn’t suddenly disappear, and to be certain she could forget the past and start anew before accepting him. I said, “Just don’t take too long! What if someone else snatches him up while you’re testing him?”
Chu Chu replied, “You jinx! If he runs away, you’ll have to go and bring him back for me!” Then, finally, her bright laughter returned on the other end of the phone.
By then, I had already started an internship at a newspaper. My editor asked me to cover a news story about a university student involved in a fraud case. A student named Wu Wei had scammed thirteen women out of tens of thousands of yuan. Some of these women had met him online, while others had met him by chance on the street. Two of the victims were even married women. Wu Wei said, “These women are really strange. If I start by telling them I’m poor, then later tell them I was lying and that I’m actually rich, they don’t get angry. They even say, ‘I like you for who you are, not for your money.’ But if I start by saying I’m rich and then later tell them I was lying and that I’m actually poor, they immediately cut ties with me, saying, ‘How can we talk about love if you can’t even be honest?’”
The editor then asked, “So why did you turn yourself in?”
Wu Wei replied, “Later, I met someone who told me she wanted to be friends with me, not with my money. At that moment, I realized I wasn’t even worthy of being her friend.”
After the interview, I looked at Wu Wei’s young face. He no longer looked like the man in the photos Chu Chu had sent me. He had grown a beard, and his smile was no longer as bright. But I couldn’t help but feel that his eyes now held something similar to what I saw in Chu Chu’s eyes. When that report was published, I looked at the newspaper and thought to myself, “Chu Chu is a good girl. Love, don’t hurt her.”
Thank you for reading! ” Sitestorys “
