He.
After finally making it out of the subway, the rain had eased, though the air still felt stifling.
Lin Ci lay sprawled on Shen Xiyan’s back, watching as sweat trickled down his forehead, one drop after another. She hurriedly fished out a pack of tissues from her pocket, pulling one out and handing it to him.
“Here!”
“How am I supposed to wipe it when I’m carrying you?”
“Then… should I help you?”
“Mm, could you wipe near my eyes? Feels like it’s about to run in…”
“Oh~~”
Lin Ci, looking like a shy little wife, pinched the tissue and gently dabbed away his sweat.
Her movements were gentle, the tissue softly pressing against his face, then following the line of his chin as she helped wipe the sweat from his neck as well.
“Are you okay? You look exhausted. Want to take a break?”
“Hasn’t anyone taught you that asking a guy that is kind of rude?”
“No…,” Lin Ci shook her head, looking puzzled. “Why?”
Shen Xiyan fell silent, wanting to smack himself.
I’m guilty. I deserve to die.
Listening to Qin Sheng’s dirty jokes all the time, I’ve become greasy without realizing it.
Shame flushed through him, but it also gave Shen Xiyan a sudden burst of energy, so he kept carrying Lin Ci as they headed toward their apartment complex.
On the way, they came across a vendor selling candied hawthorn. Shen Xiyan bought two sticks and handed one to Lin Ci.
“Here, for you.”
“Thank you.”
Lin Ci accepted the candied hawthorn without hesitation, opening her mouth to take a bite.
The flavor was supposed to be sweet and sour, but now, mixed with Shen Xiyan’s presence, it tasted overwhelmingly sweet.
Wenwen had also bought two extra skewers of starchy sausage—nothing but starch, no meat, but so delicious!
Once they got in the elevator, Shen Xiyan was finally able to set Lin Ci down and asked, “Do you need me to explain things for you?”
“No need. They were already complaining when I ran out, and if you show up too, you’ll just be the scapegoat…” Lin Ci smiled. “Don’t worry, as long as I put on a bit of an act, they won’t notice a thing.”
“An act?”
“Yeah, it’s not like I can’t walk if I grit my teeth and push through. At home, I’ll pretend nothing’s wrong, then at school I’ll put on the ‘ow ow~~’ act.”
Just as she finished, the elevator doors opened. Lin Ci tried to stride out, but overestimated herself and, with an “ah,” tumbled forward.
Wenwen:
“Lin Ci-jie!”
Shen Xiyan: “Careful!”
Wenwen and Shen Xiyan both reached out, but Shen Xiyan was clearly quicker. His left arm swept out in front of her, and his right arm wrapped around her shoulders, catching her in his arms.
For a moment, Lin Ci couldn’t tell if her racing heartbeat was from fear or something else entirely.
“You okay? Don’t push yourself!”
Lin Ci’s cheeks flushed red. She straightened up quickly. “I’m… I’m fine. Do you want to come over for dinner tonight? My mom invited you.”
Shen Xiyan politely declined, “We’ll just eat at home.”
After all, they weren’t family. Even though they’d been neighbors for so many years, eating together still felt a bit awkward.
Shen Xiyan didn’t mind, but he had to consider Wenwen’s feelings. She’d definitely rather eat instant noodles at home than go next door and mooch a meal.
***
After all those years of eating at other people’s houses before Aunt took her in, the shadow still lingered.
“Then how about I bring some over for you?”
“No need, we’ll just cook something simple. Aunt’s not home, and we can’t even finish the three portions we bought earlier. If you bring more, we’ll never get through it all.”
“Listen to me!”
Lin Ci dragged out the last syllable, finally managing to sound a little like the “class monitor.”
Shen Xiyan, however, couldn’t quite accept it. “Listen to you?”
Lin Ci puffed out her chest and wrinkled her delicate little nose. “I am the class monitor! And I’m older than you, so technically, you should call me ‘big sister!’”
“You? Big sister?”
Shen Xiyan “fumed,” let out a soft laugh, and mercilessly mussed Lin Ci’s hair into a bird’s nest.
Lin Ci was “dazed,” not understanding why she was being bullied. She bared her teeth and claws, aiming for Shen Xiyan’s head, but Shen Xiyan grabbed Wenwen and dashed away.
Lin Ci was furious, pounding on the door with both hands.
“Open up, open up! If you’ve got the guts to mess up my hair, you’d better have the guts to open the door!”
Wenwen thought, That sounds so familiar. Where have I heard it before?
In the end, Shen Xiyan didn’t open the door.
Lin Ci frowned, too lazy to stoop to Shen Xiyan’s level. She placed a slender hand over her chest, the spot where Shen Xiyan had just caught her. “So tight, so sore, and… damp…”
The girl felt her ears burning, her heart racing.
Something’s wrong. What am I even thinking?
I’m just sweating from the heat!
Clutching her flushed face, she headed home. On the shoe cabinet sat a note and some spare change, saying her mom was out at a colleague’s wedding banquet and wouldn’t be back tonight.
For some reason, Lin Ci felt oddly happy. She didn’t even know why.
Humming, she bounced along the wall into the bathroom for a bath.
The “glistening with fragrant sweat” thing was just a filter—truth was, she always felt like she had a faint sour smell.
She could never compare to Qin Sheng, who always wore perfume. She worried that Shen Xiyan might dislike her.
Piece by piece, she stripped off her clothes in the bathroom, revealing flawless, beautiful legs, a slender waist that could be held in one hand, a cute and full chest, a swanlike neck, and hair cascading over her shoulders, falling effortlessly over her smooth skin.
She squeezed some gentle face cleanser into her palm, worked it into a fine lather, and gently massaged it onto her face. After rinsing it off, she checked herself in the mirror to see if any pimples had popped up.
Hmm… None. Perfect!
She hadn’t been sleeping well these days, always thinking about strange things before bed.
After coming out of the bathroom, she quietly took out her phone and searched on Zhihu.
How often do childhood friends end up together?
The related questions made her blood pressure rise.
[Why do childhood friends always lose?]
[Why can’t childhood friends beat the new girl?]
She clicked on the top-voted answer. The person sounded so logical and convincing.
The childhood friend has known the male lead for ten years, but in all that time, nothing substantial has happened. So, of course, we can assume that nothing will change in the next ten years, either.
People often think childhood friends have an advantage, but in reality, it’s the opposite. Childhood friends have a ten-year lead, but so what?
Some radioactive elements have a half-life of thousands of years; some only last a few minutes. How could you compare decay rates like that?
Feelings are the same. What you haven’t solved in ten years, someone else can settle in a day.
In stories about childhood friends versus the “sudden new girl,” the male lead and the new girl always close the distance at lightning speed in the first volume.
Lin Ci thought about the difference between herself and Qin Sheng, and then, to her horror, realized… it really was like that?!
Qin Sheng’s boldness was over the top.
Even if Shen Xiyan asked her to strip naked and spread her legs, Qin Sheng might just go along with it—she might even pose in an M shape and open herself up on purpose.
Her heart turned cold for a moment, but then she saw a reply under the “answer.”
Jinyi Nightwalker: [You people poisoned by Japanese novels and anime, if you don’t have a childhood friend yourself, don’t talk nonsense.
Plenty of childhood friends end up together! Isn’t it just that, in novels, it feels too “natural” for them to be together, so for drama’s sake, the author picks the new girl?]
Wow! That hit Lin Ci right in the feels.
Looking at the profile, this was even a top-tier author on Yuedian—no wonder their words carried weight!
Like! A big, hard like!
Any novel where the childhood friend can’t win is trash. She said so!
[Are there any good childhood friend romance novels? Please recommend!]
[Does Red Chamber Dream count?]
Jinyi Nightwalker: [Nonsense! The Jinling Twelve Beauties—main and secondary, and then some—thirty-six beauties on the list, all rare, stunning women.
The most outstanding ones are either childhood friends, maids, or concubines. That’s just a typical harem novel trope—how can that compare to sweet childhood friend stories?]
[Exactly! Exactly!]
The comment section erupted into a debate.