Roxana High School was a no-name school in the city of Sinaia, with a total of only one hundred students. It was an ordinary school with ordinary teachers and ordinary students, just like a snowy winter - all the same[1].
The first time Baili Weibu met him was on the rooftop of the main teaching building.
She skipped class. The blackboard filled with formulas and numbers, and the math teacher splattering spittle everywhere, made her drowsy.
On a late autumn afternoon, hiding on the rooftop to bask in the sun was a great pleasure. Baili Weibu propped herself up with her hands on the ground, squinting her eyes as she looked up, and swayed comfortably with her feet dangling outside the guardrail.
"You might fall if there’s a gust."
Beside her, a slender figure appeared at some point, blocking the sunlight coming from the side. The sudden voice was gentle, but it startled her, and the earphones of her iPod, stuck in her ears, were pulled halfway when she turned her head.
"Relax, I'm not a teacher coming to catch you." The person beside her looked at her with amusement. A pair of eyes with attractive double eyelids twinkling like lake water, and his thin lips curved slightly, forming a charming smile.
He seemed to be Chinese, at least his appearance was Eastern. He was not older than twenty, with a height no less than 180 centimeters. He was wearing a well-tailored white shirt and jeans with a light blue plaid sweater draped casually on his shoulders. His black hair, reaching down to his neck, had a natural slight curl, and in the sunlight, there were a few strands of reddish-gold color hidden within. The combination of understated black and flamboyant gold complemented each other perfectly.
He stood at the edge of the rooftop, tall and confident, speaking fluent Chinese.
Baili Weibu had never known of any other Chinese person in the school besides herself.
"Who are you?" She pulled her feet back, scrambled to her feet in a fluster, and stared at him warily.
"Your gaze is like you're looking at a kidnapper," he turned towards her, took a step closer, and fixed his gaze on her. "Do I look that scary?"
"All beasts in human skin look good!" Baili Weibu blurted out, and told off as she backed away, "Who are you anyway? Stay right there! Don't come any closer! Or I'll call for help!"
Ignoring her warning, he took a swift step forward and unexpectedly grabbed her arm. With a gentle tug, she collided with a warm and broad chest.
Baili Weibu was momentarily stunned and cursed: "You loathsome scoundrel!" Then she promptly pushed him away, her face turning as red as a tomato.
"Being a scoundrel is better than watching you fall from this high up," he said without a trace of anger. There was obvious tolerance in his deep black eyes as he lifted his chin to point behind her. "Look for yourself."
Baili Weibu turned around skeptically and saw that there was a gap in the railings behind her, which she hadn't noticed before. If she had taken one more step back, she might really have fallen from a high altitude.
"You... I..." She wanted to say thank you, but the words just wouldn't come out. If it weren't for him suddenly appearing, she would still be comfortably sunbathing.
"My name is Cen Kaiwen[2], but everyone calls me Kevin. I just came from China and plan to study at Roxana. Today, I'm here to go through the formalities and decided to explore a bit," he said, holding out his hand towards her in a friendly manner, "What's your name? We'll be schoolmates from now on."
Baili Weibu breathed a sigh of relief, her expression much better than moments ago. She said in rebuke, "There are beautiful rivers and mountains everywhere here, why did you have to come to this lousy rooftop! My name is Baili Weibu."
"People surnamed Baili are quite rare," Cen Kaiwen remarked with some surprise, then added with a smile, "But you're very cute."
What does a surname have to do with being cute? This person's words were really inconsistent. However, being genuinely called cute by someone was always a pleasure.
Checking the time, Baili Weibu stuck out her tongue and waved to him, "Alright, take your time exploring. I have to go back. Since we're both Chinese, I won't hold today's incident against you. If you ever need help from a fellow countryman in the future, just come find me." Then she hurried downstairs.
Cen Kaiwen watched her hurriedly leave with a smile on his face. It took a miniscule time for the smile on his face to solidify and fade away.
He walked in silence to the rooftop's edge, gazing at the silhouette of the distant mountains, and spoke into the air, "I found her. Zero-level reaction, zero-level resistance, zero-level lethality, a completely unawakened hunter."
As the sunlight gradually dimmed, the wind coming towards him blew his fine hair away from his forehead, revealing an S-shaped golden mark, faintly glowing on his forehead.
A profound and even worldly aura, completely at odds with his age, permeated every line on his body, making him seem like an entirely different person from moments ago...
He took a deep breath and jumped off the rooftop.
Footnotes:
[1] qiān piān yī lǜ: Idiom - stereotyped and repetitive; once you've seen one, you've seen them all.
[2] The word cén means small hill. kǎi=joyful; kind. wén=language; culture; writing; gentle. So, Kaiwen can be interpreted as "amiable and cultured" or perhaps "friendly and knowledgeable."
Translator:
No points for guessing who Kevin is🦁
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