Bo Jiangxin wanted to laugh.
With her “yellow brain,” how dare she talk about an early romance?
The little schemes she had in her mind about him were far beyond what “early romance” could describe; they were already at an 18+ level.
Just then, a teacher on duty walked past their classroom and saw two people inside, one of them being Bo Jiangxin.
“Bo Jiangxin, evening self-study is over. Why are you two still here?”
Bo Jiangxin replied, “We’re leaving right away.”
The duty teacher didn’t say anything, just reminded them to turn off the lights and lock the door when they left, then walked away.
Bo Jiangxin: “Let’s go first. We can talk on the way.”
Xiang Di stood rooted to the spot.
[Why didn’t the teacher suspect us at all? Do I look like a guy?]
Ignoring her frustrated inner thoughts, Bo Jiangxin urged, “Are you coming or not?”
Xiang Di snapped back to reality and immediately responded.
“Coming, coming, coming.”
Walking out of the teaching building, Bo Jiangxin asked, “Where do you live? I’ll walk you home.”
There was no way she’d really trouble him to walk her home, so Xiang Di quickly and politely said, “No, no, it’s fine. I’ll just take a taxi back myself.”
Bo Jiangxin asked calmly, “Do you think I’d let you go home alone? Tell me your address.”
Even though she knew he was only walking her home out of a male classmate’s obligation, she couldn’t help but feel happy.
She obediently gave him her home address.
Bo Jiangxin hummed in acknowledgment: “Let’s go.”
Oh my goodness, who would have thought that one day, she would be walking home alone after school with the boy she had a crush on?
The early spring night was cool.
Walking side-by-side with Bo Jiangxin in the school, Xiang Di raised a hand to brush her wind-blown bangs and then patted her somewhat flushed cheeks.
The two walked out of the school in silence, reaching the roadside.
However, Bo Jiangxin still hadn’t said what he wanted to talk to her about.
But Xiang Di felt that whatever he wanted to talk about, it didn’t matter anymore.
Because she would probably remember this night for the rest of her life.
The secret joy of unrequited love quietly sprouted in her heart.
Xiang Di silently gripped her backpack straps until she heard Bo Jiangxin call her: “Xiang Di.”
She immediately looked up: “Huh?”
Under the dim streetlights, the girl’s eyes were exceptionally bright.
“Next week in class,” Bo Jiangxin paused, then said, “You and I will go see Teacher Chen together and have him change our seats.”
Xiang Di blinked, not expecting that this was what he wanted to talk to her about.
It wasn’t entirely sudden, as she had already heard his conversation with the teacher before, where he asked to change seats. She had also already consoled herself at that time.
But when he said it to her face, she still couldn’t help but feel a pang of disappointment.
When truly sad, one often feels empty inside, with nothing to ask and certainly nothing to be angry about.
Xiang Di smiled slightly, asked nothing, and readily agreed: “Oh, okay.”
Bo Jiangxin frowned slightly.
Why didn’t she ask why he wanted to change seats?
And why couldn’t he hear what she was thinking right now? Did she really have no questions?
The bus arrived quickly. Bo Jiangxin was about to get on when Xiang Di said, “Um, maybe you shouldn’t walk me home? Otherwise, it’ll be really late by the time you get home yourself.”
Did she really not need him to walk her home?
Bo Jiangxin didn’t know because he couldn’t hear her thoughts at that moment.
Had it stopped working?
Since he couldn’t hear, he would follow his own plan.
Bo Jiangxin said, “It’s fine, I’ll walk you.”
He got on the bus before her, giving her no reason to refuse.
Xiang Di sighed and had no choice but to follow him onto the bus.
[Ugh, fine. Let’s just consider this the last dream.]
Although he didn’t know what she meant by “the last dream,” Bo Jiangxin could hear her again.
If it hadn’t stopped working, then why couldn’t he hear earlier?
After getting on the bus, Bo Jiangxin randomly picked an empty seat. The seat next to him was empty, and Xiang Di hesitated for a moment.
[…I still shouldn’t sit next to him.]
She clutched her backpack straps and sat in another seat, not next to him.
The bus drove along, and the whole way, Xiang Di just stared blankly at the night scenery outside the window, not thinking anything.
It was rare for her to be so quiet when they were together.
Bo Jiangxin initially thought he would be relieved that the world was finally peaceful, but he wasn’t.
Annoyed.
Looking at the back of her head, quietly resting against the bus window, he felt inexplicably annoyed by her sudden silence, instead of feeling at ease.
It wasn’t until the bus had passed several stops that he finally heard her stir.
She was humming a song in her mind.
Bo Jiangxin hadn’t heard this song before, and he didn’t know if the tune was accurate, but he clearly heard the lyrics.
[He never mentioned liking you, but every word you said was “I do.”]
[His response when he was lonely, yet you were so excited.]
[He kept avoiding the topic, but you foolishly and eagerly drew closer, crossing how many cities for him, just because he got himself wet. Oh, yeah, yeah.]
[Yeah, yeah—]
He only suggested changing seats; why did it feel like he had committed some unforgivable mortal sin?
And was she very enthusiastic about him? She hadn’t even confessed to him.
If he hadn’t accidentally drunk her milk tea, he probably would never have realized in his life that she liked him.
The bus arrived at its stop amidst her sad love song concert.
After getting off, it was just a few hundred meters walk to Xiang Di’s residential area.
Xiang Di was really too embarrassed to let him walk her any further.
She casually pointed to a nearly closed bakery on the side of the road and said, “Um, I suddenly want to buy a bread. You can drop me off here.”
Scanning the storefront, Bo Jiangxin said, “You go buy it. I’ll wait for you.”
After a silent journey, Xiang Di finally couldn’t help but grumble inwardly.
What did he mean by that? This dream wasn’t going to end?
Unable to figure it out, Xiang Di decided not to think about it and just walked straight into the bakery.
The bakery was about to close, and many unsold breads were on discount.
Since she was already there, Xiang Di thought she might as well buy a floss bread and a bottle of pure milk for breakfast tomorrow.
Bo Jiangxin saw her pick up a floss bread and casually asked, “Do you like floss?”
“Yeah,” Xiang Di asked, “Do you like it too?”
Bo Jiangxin hummed, “It’s alright.”
Xiang Di chuckled, “What a coincidence.”
It really was quite a coincidence.
Just as Bo Jiangxin thought this, Xiang Di, who was reaching for milk in the refrigerated section, suddenly chuckled secretly.
[Actually, I don’t like floss bread at all. I used to only like sweet bread, but because I knew you liked it, I only started liking it.]
[Coincidence created successfully!]
[I used to hate drinking pure milk too, but because I saw you drink a bottle of pure milk in the mornings, I also started drinking pure milk.]
[And I really love to sleep in. In my first and second years of high school, I often arrived at the classroom just in time and was always scolded by my parents. It wasn’t until I was in the same class as you in my third year that I started going to school early every day so I could see you earlier. My parents don’t know this and even praised me for finally learning to wake up on my own in my third year. I don’t dare to tell them that it’s actually because of you that I overcame my habit of sleeping in, but I also don’t dare to tell you.]
[Besides these, there are so many more. All the coincidences in our preferences are actually my long-planned schemes.]
[Sigh, though you’ll never know.]
The girl’s murmurs were tinged with optimistic nonchalance, as well as a touch of sadness.
He knew now.
As Bo Jiangxin was momentarily stunned, a bottle of milk was suddenly handed to him.
Xiang Di smiled and asked him, “It’s buy one, get one free for milk! Do you like pure milk? My treat?”
Her eyes were full of open brightness. It was she who liked him; in this second of eye contact, she should have been the one to look away.
But Bo Jiangxin was the first to avert his gaze.
She hid it so well.
On the surface, there was no trace.
She never said she liked him, yet in her heart, she liked him so much.
Bo Jiangxin suddenly felt his earlobes burning a little, and his face too.
It wasn’t the physiological burning sensation from self-study; it was psychological, and his heart suddenly felt a dull ache.
She hadn’t even confessed to him yet, but he was already starting to feel flustered.