Chapter 20 By a twist of fate, she turned out to be the "sucker" everyone was talking about...

The air seemed to freeze, and Zhu Liushuang held her breath, listening to her own frantic heartbeat.

She was trying her best to control her emotions, but her voice still trembled slightly: "Senior, I am Zhu Liushuang."

Zhu Liushuang tilted her head back, her clear eyes looking at him, sparkling with light.

A hint of unease flashed across He Mingjun's handsome face. Quickly, the corners of his lips curled up slightly, as if it were a routine matter, and he gave her a seemingly gentle smile.

"You..." He raised his finger and pointed to Zhu Liushuang's noticeably pale lips, asking, "Are you feeling unwell?"

Zhu Liushuang bit her lip and shook her head, then nodded again. After a moment of hesitation, she finally found her voice: "It's nothing serious, maybe just a little low blood sugar."

She looked down and rummaged through her bag, pulling out a White Rabbit milk candy. She waved it at He Ming and said, "Just have a candy."

He Ming stared at the blue and white wrapped candy in Zhu Liushuang's palm, and a blurry image suddenly flashed through his mind.

"Yes, it's good that you're alright." He composed himself and nodded with a smile.

The atmosphere became awkward for a moment, and neither of them spoke. One of them unwrapped the candy and put the milky white candy into her mouth, while the other stood politely to her left and in front of her, watching.

To Zhu Liushuang's delight, He Ming did not turn around and leave immediately, but patiently waited for her to finish eating the candy.

Perhaps he was afraid she would fall again, perhaps it was out of friendship as alumni, or perhaps it was because they had just added each other on WeChat a few days ago... Whatever the reason, she only cared about the result.

Zhu Liushuang tightened her grip on the shoulder strap of the crossbody bag, leaving several marks on the leather strap: "What a coincidence, senior, what brings you here?"

"Oh, I'm here to give a lecture," He Ming said casually.

Zhu Liushuang looked puzzled: "Huh? I remember the next lecturer on the training schedule was Ms. Yu Huan from Zhonghe Accounting Firm!"

He Ming assumed Zhu Liushuang didn't know his workplace, so he explained, "Yu Huan is my colleague. She was notified at the last minute to go to Beijing for further studies and couldn't refuse. I'm giving the lecture in her place."

Zhu Liushuang nodded blankly, gripping her hand on the shoulder strap of her bag even tighter. Although she was looking forward to Yu Huan's lecture, everyone else seemed unimportant in front of He Ming.

Her expression was more composed than before, and a faint smile curved her lips: "What a coincidence, I happen to be a trainee in this training program. It's an honor to be able to listen to the senior's lecture."

He Ming glanced sideways at the closed lecture hall door not far away, then looked at Zhu Liushuang standing by the glass door frame, his eyes filled with a question.

According to Zhu Liushuang's own understanding: Since it's a training course, why are other people taking classes while you missed the first lecture?

Before He Ming could speak, she took the initiative to explain herself: "Oh, something came up at home and I was delayed, so I'm a little late today. Luckily... I made it in time for the senior's lecture."

Being late for training obviously wouldn't leave a good impression on He Ming. Zhu Liushuang awkwardly stepped forward and said softly, "Senior, I'll go in first..." Her slender index finger pointed to the back door of the classroom.

In the blink of an eye, He Ming saw Zhu Liushuang rush to the door, gently open it, and tiptoe inside, leaving him with only a slender, comical silhouette.

He Ming shook his head with a wry smile, then looked away.

With more than ten minutes to go before the second lecture began, he planned to wait for the previous lecturer to come out before going in, so he stood silently by the door waiting.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a business card with white background and black lettering lying at his feet. He couldn't help but squat down and pick it up.

The business card prominently displays the words "Master Xie Jingzhi of Gucheng" at the top. Below, it lists the doctor's titles and the diseases he specializes in treating.

He was very familiar with the name Xie Jingzhi; the old man had called him just a few days ago, urging him to come back to the suburbs for dinner.

He Ming carefully put the business card into his pocket. He guessed it must have been lost by Zhu Liushuang, and planned to return it to her after the lecture.

————

Zhu Liushuang worked overtime until midnight last night and got up early this morning, so she started yawning as soon as she sat down at her seat.

Tears welled up in her round, almond-shaped eyes, and her entire eye sockets were red.

Those who didn't know the situation might have assumed she had encountered something sad. For example, a student sitting to her right.

"Why are you so late today? Are you in a bad mood?" The speaker was an accountant from another unit.

Zhu Liushuang tilted her head and glanced at the other person. She couldn't remember the name, but she still replied politely, "Something came up. I didn't get enough sleep, so I'm not feeling well... By the way, did you take notes during that lecture? Can I borrow them to copy?"

"Look, that teacher's lecture was pretty boring, it almost made me fall asleep, and I didn't take many notes. Why don't you take a picture with your phone..." The other person dragged their notebook over and placed it between the two of them.

Zhu Liushuang took out her phone, adjusted the focus, and pressed the shutter button a few times. A suppressed gasp came from beside her.

"Wow...who is that guy? He's so handsome!"

Zhu Liushuang looked up and saw He Ming stride onto the stage. He was dressed in a white shirt and black pants, the most ordinary office worker's attire, yet he looked effortlessly stylish.

She glanced around discreetly; at least half the women in the room were watching him, and the noisy discussion in the hall grew even more heated.

Sure enough, whether in his student days or after entering society, He Ming was an undeniable presence in the crowd. Zhu Liushuang felt a pang of sadness.

So much so that she was completely dazed during the second half of the lecture, and spent the entire time staring at He Ming's handsome face.

His gaze swept across every corner of the lecture hall, and even a casual glance from him could make her heart race.

But the person only lingered on her face for 0.01 seconds before turning away. Perhaps even that brief gaze was just her imagination and delusion.

"Thank you all very much for listening. I was 'appointed in a time of crisis' to give this lecture today, so please feel free to offer any criticism or corrections if there is anything inappropriate." As the lecture drew to a close, He Ming rested his hands on the lectern and spoke with a serious expression.

Applause began to erupt from the audience. Those who knew how to navigate social situations had already started offering compliments and cheers.

"Teacher, you explained it very well!"

"Mr. He, would it be convenient for me to leave my contact information? Our company also has business dealings with Zhonghe..."

He Ming casually switched the PowerPoint presentation to the last page. His personal business card and the contact information for Zhonghe Accounting Firm appeared on the big screen.

He held up the microphone and said in an official tone, "The contact information is here, please feel free to contact us. You are welcome to come to Zhonghe to discuss cooperation matters."

"Do you think... is this his work phone number or his personal phone number?" the female accountant sitting on Zhu Liu's side whispered gossip. "Those people asking for his contact information, they probably have ulterior motives!"

Zhu Liushuang stared at the electronic screen from afar, silently shaking her head to indicate that she didn't know.

But actually... she recognized him with just a glance.

She knew the familiar 137 prefix and the last four digits 6799 by heart. This was He Ming's personal mobile phone number, which he had used since high school.

Like everyone else around her, Zhu Liushuang raised her phone, ready to take a picture of the business card on the big screen.

She zoomed in, and the words on the screen became clearer.

He Ming, Project Manager at Zhonghe Certified Public Accountants

The contact number is 13757...6779? Zhu Liushuang stared at her phone screen in disbelief, and hurriedly pressed the shutter button.

The photo cast a long, blurry shadow, but even with the image blurred, the phone number was still clearly etched into her mind when the details were magnified.

All the other numbers are correct, except for the last digit, which is off by one. Did she remember it wrong?

Zhu Liushuang stared blankly at the phone number, her nose tingling, and her eyes welled up with tears. Afraid that the people around her would notice her strange behavior, she quickly covered the right side of her face with her hand.

————

After the first semester final exams of her first year of high school, she accidentally obtained He Ming's phone number.

She remembered that it was June when the crape myrtle flowers were in full bloom, and the camphor trees on the campus of No. 1 Middle School were a vibrant green.

That day, Ye Xingzhi notified the members of the school broadcasting station to hold a semester summary meeting in the self-study room of the experimental building.

Zhu Liushuang arrived early, found an empty seat by the window, and then buried herself in doing English cloze tests.

Several more girls arrived at the study room one after another. Seeing that Zhu Liushuang was quietly focused on doing practice problems, the others didn't bother her. Instead, they found other seats and started chatting together.

Somehow, they started talking about He Ming.

Zhu Liushuang is like a radar specifically for He Ming; anything related to him always immediately catches her attention.

She kept her head down, her eyes almost buried in the thick workbook. But the black pen in her hand didn't slip at all.

"What a pity... Senior He is graduating soon, and we won't be able to see such a handsome guy again."

"I heard that the school originally wanted He to speak as a representative of outstanding students at the graduation ceremony, but he declined."

"Given his personality, it's understandable that he refused. I couldn't believe he even came as a guest at the Top Ten Singers competition; only our club president could get him to come..."

As the discussion subsided, Zhu Liushuang unconsciously raised her arms and leaned back, pretending to stretch, just to hear more clearly.

"Let me tell you a secret, my cousin and Senior He were in the same class. When they were filling out their yearbooks, Senior He wrote very perfunctorily, but he still left his contact information!"

"Did she show you her yearbook? Did you write anything down? Tell us quickly..."

"Let me tell you, would you dare to text or call your seniors?"

"No, no... He definitely won't reply if I send it, I'm not going to be that sucker."

Later, the girl who started the conversation couldn't resist the urging of those around her and gave out her phone number. She said one digit, and Zhu Liushuang remembered one digit.

Each time she wrote down a number, she would silently repeat it in her mind until she had recorded the entire string of numbers.

Her memories overlapped with reality, and the photograph before her clearly told her that her memory was flawed and that the number she once knew by heart was wrong.

Zhu Liushuang, like an ostrich, ignored the clamor around her and buried her head in her arms.

If she could, she would like to have a good cry.

Because—she was the "sucker" that others talked about who volunteered.

Zhu Liushuang mustered the courage to send a text message to He Ming after her college entrance examination results came out.

On the day the scores were released, Gu Chunling took half a day off to take her to the digital plaza to buy a domestic smartphone and also got her a SIM card.

Zhu Liushuang chose the phone number herself. She carefully selected a number that ended in 99, just to satisfy that slightly awkward little desire in her heart.

On the day she got the phone, Zhu Liushuang saved three numbers in her contacts: one was her mother Gu Chunling's, one was Tian Xingyu's, and the other was He Ming's, with the note "The Secret That Cannot Be Told".

She carefully typed down the string of numbers she knew by heart, and then checked them against the thick diary in the bedside table many times.

That evening, after much deliberation, Zhu Liushuang finally took the courageous step and sent He Ming an anonymous confession text message.

She vaguely remembered the contents of the text message:

Hello, Senior He. I apologize for bothering you. It's been over two years since we first met. While there's a high chance you might not remember me, you've always been a truly wonderful person in my heart. So wonderful that even though you graduated two years ago, I still think of you fondly. I remember our first meeting was when I was in a very embarrassing situation…

...

They all say that unrequited love is a chaotic battle fought alone.

This one-woman show called "liking" accompanied me tirelessly through my three years of high school. I wonder if, through my narration, you will recall a girl with short, ear-length hair? She received your kind help on many occasions.

The closest we've ever been is probably when you helped me with my suitcase, and we brushed past each other. I didn't even say thank you. I could only watch your back grow further and further away. I've always understood that this is probably the end of unrequited love. But I still want you to know... I like you a lot, I like you so much.

Later, Zhu Liushuang kept wondering whether her initial attraction to He Ming stemmed from the "suspension bridge effect" or something else. But "liking" someone is a very mysterious thing. All she knew was that she liked him.

She didn't know how much time had passed; so long that Zhu Liushuang felt her eyes were sore and her arms were numb. So long that the once noisy lecture hall returned to silence.

Two knocks sounded, and someone tapped on her desk.

Zhu Liushuang rubbed her sore eyes, slowly raised her head, a few messy strands of hair clinging to her flushed cheeks.

Suddenly, she fell into a pair of dark, pitch-black eyes.

He Ming leaned forward slightly, one hand on the table, looking down at her.

At that moment, she heard the bleak autumn wind from her first year of high school blowing past her ears.

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Author's note: I really hope that Senior He will see that confession text message in the future.

"Unrequited love is a chaotic battle for one person" — from the internet

Waaaaah, I suddenly realized there's so much more nutrient solution today! Thank you for the encouragement, little angel! But I don't even know who added it. Love you, love you!