After being rejected by his senior college crush, he picks up a young girl
"Xue Yang, I don't like you! Could you please stop bothering me?"
"When I told you I'd date you if you got into the same university as me, I was lying to you! Couldn't you even tell? Did you seriously think I said that to encourage you? Just think about how terrible your grades were back then. I only said that to make you back down because it was too difficult, and who would've thought you'd actually get into Yanbei!"
"Please, just let me go! Do you have any idea how much trouble your confession today has caused me? Because of this stunt, I don't even know how I'm going to show my face around university anymore. I'm about to start my internship soon, so please, have some mercy and spare me my dignity!"
"Xue Yang, get lost! Get out of my sight, I never want to see you again!"
"..."
Six years!
In order to follow in her footsteps, he had worked hard for a full six years. The year before the college entrance examination, he even collapsed several times from staying up late to study. Every single time, before his body had fully recovered, he would rush right back to school for classes without stopping. In his final year of high school alone, he lost twenty pounds.
Standing at six feet and one inch tall, he weighed only one hundred and ten pounds—so emaciated and gaunt that his parents were terrified something was wrong with his health.
Yet, now that he had finally caught up to her, she said: "Just let me go! Do you have any idea how much trouble you've caused me?"
He had a senior crush whom he had loved for six years.
Six years—even a block of iron should have warmed up by now. Yet, she was like a piece of ancient ice that had formed over ten thousand years; no matter how hard he tried, it wouldn't melt. It simply couldn't be warmed.
Xue Yang, get lost!
"..."
I don't like you!
I just wanted you to realize it was impossible and give up!
It was already past midnight. A girl stood alone by the roadside.
Her long, dark hair was tied into two charming braids that hung gracefully down her shoulders, paired with blunt bangs and a pink cat-eared hat on her head.
Who says that just because someone accepts your gifts, they have to accept you?If you don't like someone, you don't like them. Time will not change your mind, and receiving gifts from them certainly won't move you.
She wore a mask, revealing a pair of bright, sparkling eyes. She was dressed in a pink, heart-patterned Lolita outfit, her straight, fair legs showing beneath a pleated skirt. She wore white knee-high socks and small black leather shoes. At a closer glance, it looked a bit like a maid’s uniform. Her clothes were damp, and she looked pathetic, like a little kitten abandoned by its owner.
It was his first time leaving home, living in a school dormitory.
Xue Yang looked up at the sky, letting the drizzling rain fall onto his face, washing away the humiliating memories of the past.
He was eighteen, having just started his freshman year this September.
Xue Yang pretended to look up inadvertently, and his gaze happened to collide with that of the Lolita girl. He quickly turned his head away. Both of them were soaked by the rain, and both were alone on the roadside so late at night; there was a sense of mutual sympathy between two people finding themselves in similar straits.With a girl like that standing by the roadside, it was hard not to notice her.
"Get out of my sight. I don't want to see you anymore."
"Why wouldn't you wait somewhere like a convenience store? Besides, it's so late now."
Wiping the rainwater from his face, Xue Yang realized that the entire street was deserted, save for his own shadow stretched long by the streetlamp.
He would also give her other things—roses, stuffed animals, milk tea, designer handbags... and she accepted every single one of them.
Her suitors were countless, and Xue Yang was merely one of them—neither the best nor the worst.
They say a man does not shed tears easily, only that his heart has not yet been broken enough.
At that moment, Xue Yang finally understood that for six long years, he had merely been a clown dancing for others' amusement.She didn't explicitly reject you; she simply wanted you to realize the difficulty and back off on your own. There was never any question of her being interested in you, of giving you some kind of test, let alone of her growing to like you because of your persistence.
Under a large tree not far away, illuminated by the streetlamp, a petite and helpless figure was huddled into a ball, taking shelter from the rain.
If she were a student at the school, she should have already been back in her dorm sleeping at this hour. Past midnight, the dormitory auntie locks the doors, and no amount of begging will do any good.
Love is never something that can withstand being tested.
The past events were vivid and clear. With the cold rain washing over his face, Xue Yang felt as if he couldn't feel it at all, letting it pelt him as he long since lost the ability to tell tears from rain.
Whether in middle school, high school, or university, she had always been the campus belle.
From the moment she took his luggage from him, he had fallen hopelessly in love with her.
Xue Yang had always thought he stood a chance. And indeed he did—just a chance to be part of a game.
Chen Ying, starting today, I will never like you again.
She clearly knew that he had spent six bitter years pursuing her, yet when he finally caught up and confessed his feelings after all that effort, she used the word "troublesome."
"I just wanted to remind you, on rainy days it's best not to stay under big trees. It's very dangerous."
"Don't get me wrong, I'm a student at a nearby university, just offering a kind reminder."
Xue Yang stopped in his tracks and turned back.
No, that wasn't right. To be exact, there was still one more person.
Xue Yang walked past Little Milk Cat as if nothing was the matter, though in his heart he still cared somewhat.
It's over.
When Xue Yang had just started the seventh grade, she was already in the ninth.
From beginning to end, the person you liked only ever regarded you as a joke—a colossal joke.
Six years of living like a clown had come to an end.
No, the two of them didn't even know each other at all.
There were many boys in the school who, like him, had liked her for years, but not a single one dared to be like Xue Yang: when he liked her, he proclaimed it loudly for everyone to know that he was pursuing her.
"Young lady," Xue Yang called out toward Little Milk Cat.
Moreover, judging by her appearance, she seemed to have encountered something unpleasant, which was why she appeared here.
Don't think the whole world has abandoned you; the world simply doesn't have the time to pay attention to you.
What if she ran into someone with ill intentions? Wouldn't that be even more dangerous?
He did care after all.
His love was fervent and protracted.
Almost every once in a while, he would write her a confession letter, and every single time, she accepted it.
It was still raining, and she was just sheltering under a big tree like that. If thunder struck, wouldn't that be extremely dangerous?
She had never liked him from start to finish; his passionate feelings were nothing more than a massive nuisance to her.
Little Milk Cat shrank back slightly and didn't reply right away, instead casting a wary gaze at Xue Yang. She looked even more like a kitten now—a Little Milk Cat, fierce yet adorable.
"Nuisance"—what a wonderfully convenient word.
Was she waiting for someone?
"..."
The greatest sorrow in this world is when, in a relationship, you move yourself to tears while the other person couldn't care less.
Although his status as a university student made Xue Yang look less threatening, Little Milk Cat remained extremely vigilant, her large eyes staring unblinkingly at him as if she might suddenly bare her claws at him the next second.
Forget it, my own life is already an absolute mess, what right do I have to worry about others?
What if she was actually the bad guy, and he was the fish she had her eyes on?
...