Chapter Thirty-One: Scumbag

Lin Yu stopped downstairs at the dormitory building, turned to look at Wang Wei's bruised eyes, and felt an indescribable sense of absurdity. "That's enough for now," she said calmly, but her gaze had already drifted elsewhere.

Sensing her distant attitude, the king hesitated before speaking, "About today..."

"I'm tired," Lin Yu interrupted him, staring at the mottled vermilion paint on the door. "You should go back and rest early too."

Seeing that she avoided talking about the farce in the cafeteria, a sliver of unrealistic hope rekindled in Wang Wei's heart. "Tomorrow is Christmas, and a new snow park has opened in the suburbs. We..." He reached out to take her hand, but she subtly avoided it.

"The throne." She finally looked him in the eye, her voice soft yet sharp as a blade slicing through ice. "You may not have understood me, but I mean, our relationship ends here."

She finally managed to say the words completely, and the white mist escaping from her lips slowly dissipated in the cold air. At that moment, the long-tense tension in her heart suddenly eased.

No longer did she have to rack her brains to deal with his ambiguous invitations, or force herself to remain calm during every accidental physical touch. The relief she felt was like finally unloading a heavy burden that had been weighing on her shoulders for so long.

"Why?" His voice was strained, as if he were making a futile appeal for his death sentence.

“I think you know the reason very well, there’s no need to humiliate yourself here.” She raised her hand to tuck a stray hair behind her ear, her tone indifferent. “But actually, I’m also at fault, and this is perhaps the price I pay for my impulsive actions. So, it’s time to end this farce.”

"I...I was wrong." Wang Wei took a step forward guiltily and grabbed Lin Yu's shoulder. "I admit I was being a smart aleck. That roommate always brags in front of me, and I couldn't help myself."

"It's okay, we can take it slow. I swear I won't force you again. Can you forgive me one more time, Yu Yu?"

"Forget it, Wang Wei, really!" Lin Yu remained unmoved, pushing away Wang Wei's arm and taking a step back to create a relatively safe distance for himself. "You know too, we're not really compatible, and continuing like this is just a waste of time."

"You never liked me at all, did you?" The king's fingers tightened suddenly, and his voice became sharp. "Being with me was nothing but vanity; you felt a sense of accomplishment having a boyfriend who would fawn over you like a dog."

Lin Yu's calm eyes were as clear as a mirror, instilling a sense of shame in the observer, as if their unwarranted sarcasm only hurt themselves. Under this gaze, the king suddenly grinned. "But what do you think I'd gain by lowering my dignity to please you?"

Knowing that there was no turning back on this relationship, he continued in a desperate manner, "Lin Yu, who do you think you are? There's no such thing as a free lunch. You have to give me something in return."

"To be honest, I didn't understand what dating was all about before. You were my first boyfriend." Lin Yu looked at the boy's distorted face. Surprisingly, she felt calm inside. "Being with you was indeed hasty, but at least I tried, and I never expected it to end so badly."

At this moment, he was like a rabid dog barking incessantly in a cage. She knew his days were numbered, and all she felt for him was disgust and a trace of pity.

"Perhaps you are right. I didn't realize the situation and entered into a relationship casually because I was greedy for the pleasure of being in love."

"But the throne, if I were to truly fall in love with someone, it would never be you, because your heart is filthy, empty, and utterly worthless."

The king's expression gradually contorted into a grimace. "Me, filthy? What boy isn't filthy? Have you been reading too many romance novels? Do you think you're Snow White, and only a prince on a white horse is worthy of you?"

Lin Yu gently lifted a corner of the dark inner world of the king, and the malice grew bigger and bigger like a snowball. His once gentle eyebrows and eyes were now squeezed together.

"I hate pretentious girls like you the most, pretending to be innocent and pure, and then casually judging others. Let me ask you this: what's your relationship with that bastard who hit me today?"

The streetlights cast his shadow long, like a serpent coiled around Lin Yu's feet. She leaned back slightly, avoiding the spittle he was spewing, and suddenly felt that even anger was superfluous.

“We’ve broken up, so I don’t need to answer any of your questions anymore.” When Lin Yu mentioned Chen Guang on the throne, a fleeting emotion flashed in his eyes, like a fine crack that had broken and then frozen on the surface of ice.

The streetlights shone a ghastly white light above the throne, and the veins in his neck bulged. "So that's why you wouldn't let me touch your lips. You were already hooking up with someone else, two-timing me right under my nose."

"Lin Yu, tell me the truth, did you two sleep together a long time ago?" Wang Wei's cheap pride was being torn apart by his own unfounded fantasies, and he fell into a state of hysteria.

Lin Yu continued to retreat, ignoring the slanderous accusations against the throne. People unrelated to her could not cause her any harm. Any lingering guilt she felt towards him vanished with the throne's vile words.

"If you want to know why he hit you, you can go find him. I'll tell you his dorm room number. I'm afraid you don't have that ability and will only make things difficult for me here."

She turned half her face to the side, the cold night wind brushing past her ear, but she only felt numbness and a huge emptiness.

"Your Majesty, let's part amicably. All grudges end today. If I hear or see anything unpleasant after today, I won't hesitate to tell my friends your house number."

This was the first time Lin Yu had faced such a fierce conflict and argument. Watching the crumbling figure of the king, she realized that her whole body was trembling uncontrollably. A metallic, sweet shiver rose in her throat, yet she felt a strange sense of cathartic release.

She pulled her collar tighter, mechanically bent down to pick up the kettle left downstairs in the dormitory, wanting nothing more than to fill it with hot water and go back to her dorm for a good night's sleep. However, after only a few steps, she caught a glimpse of a figure curled up on a bench around the corner.

Chen Guang, arms crossed, huddled in his coarse gray-blue sweater, almost blending into the night. The dim yellow light of the streetlamp enveloped him, and the frost formed from his breath on his eyelashes shimmered with tiny, crystalline sparkles in the light.

What are you doing here?

Lin Yu stopped five steps away, her fingernails digging into the rubber sleeve of the kettle handle. Chen Guang huddled under the streetlight, his thin sweater offering little protection from the night wind, the outline of his shoulder blades clearly visible beneath the collar.

"Where... is Yao Fangfang?" Lin Yu was holding back her anger, making it impossible for her to offer any concern. She could only awkwardly change the subject.

This pent-up frustration and awkwardness couldn't be openly expressed. Chen Guangming had clearly stood up for her; perhaps anyone else would be kneeling at his feet right now, gratefully praising his benevolence.

But Lin Yu felt as if he were a bird stripped of its feathers in the freezing snow, its purplish-blue, unhealed peck marks exposed, being scrutinized by Chen Guang's seemingly ardent but utterly cold gaze.

Lin Yu lowered her head in a huff, her fingers unconsciously fiddling with the stopper of the kettle. The bottle was loose, and white steam billowed out. She stared at the steam gushing from the spout, then suddenly pulled her fingers back as if she had been burned.

The lingering image of Chen Guang on her retina was turning into tiny icicles, piercing her repeatedly festering and healing pride. Those tender moments they once shared, mixed with his condescending denial, had become soft thorns stuck in her throat.

Lin Yu was already exhausted by her unrequited love for Zheng Qi and Chen Guang's wavering. She had hoped to use this new relationship to prove that she no longer needed Chen Guang and that she was someone who could be loved.

But his actions that afternoon were like forcibly reopening her healing wounds. Every punch he threw at the throne felt like it was landing on her, forcing her to accept a rescue she didn't want at all.

The ambiguous feelings between Lin Yu and Chen Guang in the past were shattered by his punch, causing Lin Yu's feelings for him to go to extremes, becoming either more hateful or more loving.

Why is he always like this? He treats her well like a boyfriend, yet he hides in the role of a friend and refuses to move forward. This made Lin Yu unjustifiably suspect Chen Guang's motives.

Was that help, tinged with negativity, truly out of compassion, or simply to satisfy his gratification of playing the savior?

Once the thought popped into her head, it spread wildly through her mind. She felt like she was trapped in a foggy swamp, completely bewildered by Chen Guang's unpredictable attitude.

She hated anything vague or uncertain, and feared futile efforts and pursuits. Chen Guang, who brought all this to light, naturally became an object of her dislike.

"Zhang Yunzhou took Yao Fangfang away." Chen Guang only answered Lin Yu with the second half of the sentence. Seeing her standing stiffly in place with her head down and no intention of trying to get closer to him, he could only pitifully get up and approach her.

"Isn't today... Christmas Eve? Everyone's out celebrating."

"Why aren't you celebrating the holiday? Did the big bad wolf steal your coat?"

Lin Yu made a sarcastic joke, watching him stand in the snow-covered ground, arms crossed, the white bandages on his knuckles trembling almost imperceptibly with each sway of his body. "Want me to contact the zoo for you?"

"If you opened a pesticide factory, you could definitely achieve financial freedom." Chen Guang joked, his voice trembling, while observing Lin Yu's reaction out of the corner of his eye.

He'd probably left his jacket at the infirmary, but his mind wasn't on that at all. After a brief silence, he pulled out the apple he'd gotten from the dorm supervisor.

This apple, which had miraculously survived today's chaos, was now being respectfully offered to Lin Yu by Chen Guang as a peace offering. "Merry Christmas! Bonbon!"

The moonlight shone on Chen Guang's bandaged palm, making the red apple look like amber encased in glaze, possessing a broken beauty. Hearing Chen Guang call her by her childhood nickname for the first time, Lin Yu sighed almost imperceptibly.

She even suspected that Chen Guang was deliberately faking his injury to gain her sympathy. But after hesitating for a long time, she couldn't help but ask, "How's your hand?"

She reached out and took the apple from Chen Guang's hand as if possessed. The touch between her fingertips seemed to be transmitting some kind of signal, and a tingling current ran up the inside of her arm and straight to her heart.

"No problem." Chen Guang quickly put his hands behind his back, lowered his head, and used the stray hairs on his forehead to cover his trembling eyelashes. "Want some cake?" He gestured with his chin towards the palm-sized cake box on the bench.

"Your birthday?" Lin Yu suddenly realized that after knowing Chen Guang for so long, he didn't even know when his birthday was.

At that moment, he looked like a fool, running back and forth between the school and the cake shop in such thin clothes, his whole body freezing cold, and he actually looked a little pitiful.

"Three days before Christmas Eve, the last day of Sagittarius, December 21st. It's the same day as the birth dates of national leaders Hu Jintao, Stalin, and Francis Ng."

Chen Guang repeated the story four times in various ways, repeatedly reinforcing Lin Yu's memory, determined to make her remember this day completely.

"Oh? On such an important day, why aren't you celebrating with the whole nation?" Lin Yu mocked, the kettle in his hand growing heavier and heavier.

She simply put it back in the corner. She took off her woolen gloves and tossed them to Chen Guang, then turned and walked towards the milk tea shop a few steps away.

Chen Guang lowered his head, picked up the cake, and followed closely behind Lin Yu. He struggled to squeeze his large hands into the obviously small gloves.

The yarn was stretched taut and deformed, his knuckles were forced to curl, and the wound on the back of his hand throbbed faintly. Yet, this pain inexplicably brought him a sense of warmth, tinged with an indescribable bittersweet feeling.

Chen Guang pressed his gloved hands against his cheeks, warming his frozen facial tissue. Lin Yu's faint, sweet scent seeped into his heart through his nostrils. "I wanted to have dinner with you, but it seemed like you weren't available at the time."

He thought again of how he felt when he heard Lin Yu's relationship on Zhang Yunzhou's phone call. His heart felt like it had been pickled for a year, the bloated sourness indescribable.

Recalling everything the two had gone through, the intense emotional turmoil and disorientation seemed to find their rightful place in Yao Fangfang's questioning.

"What's inconvenient? Is it your wallet?" Lin Yu asked knowingly, as if he wanted to rip Chen Guang's heart out, weigh it repeatedly, and turn it upside down from the inside out.

"It's hard to find pet-friendly restaurants in Linjiang," Chen Guang said meaningfully. "I'm worried that if you're walking your pet... hey you, the staff won't let you in."

Seeing that Lin Yu didn't respond, Chen Guang had no choice but to shamelessly continue to ask, "What were you two talking about downstairs for so long? I almost froze into an ice sculpture."

"Let's talk about international trade, let's talk about the collapse of the Soviet Union." Lin Yu walked quickly ahead, while Chen Guang, with his long legs, had to jog to keep up. His mocking words, carried by the cold wind, reached Chen Guang's ears. "Even if you freeze into an ice sculpture, you can make money just by sitting in the snow world."

"I'm frozen solid, who's going to study with you?" Chen Guang tried to use fond memories of the past to win back Lin Yu's conscience, but Lin Yu was clearly unmoved.