Chapter 2-5
5
Qiao Ruo was awakened by her phone ringing. She opened her eyes and saw that He Yajun had already sat up in bed.
"Sorry, I forgot to put my phone on silent. Did I disturb you?"
She wasn't fully awake; she paused for a moment before shaking her head: "No."
He smiled and patted her head: "You sleep a little longer, I'll go out to answer the call."
The thought of having to part with him soon made her very reluctant. She grabbed his hand and said, "I'm fine. If you don't feel uncomfortable, you can take it here."
"There's nothing inconvenient about it. It was Bai Qing who called."
He answered the call, spoke only a couple of sentences before hanging up, and then turned to her and said, "She and Jiang Ming are coming back today, and they want me to have dinner with them tonight."
Qiao Ruo had not been in contact with these two high school classmates for many years. In fact, apart from her deskmate Hu Lele, she had almost lost contact with everyone else: "They have a really good relationship, but I was quite surprised when I heard that they were together."
"You were in the same class as them before, didn't you notice anything wrong?" he asked, following her words.
She tried hard to recall, vaguely remembering seeing Jiang Ming and Bai Qing leave the classroom together after lunch, though two other classmates were with them. She'd heard the four of them would occasionally go out for lunch together, so she didn't think it was unusual. Jiang Ming was an outstanding boy, both academically and in appearance; she'd overheard female classmates excitedly gossiping about him more than once, and had no doubt that some of them secretly liked him. However, in her limited interactions with Bai Qing, she had never heard a single word about Jiang Ming from her. Besides, at the time, she thought Bai Qing was He Yajun's childhood sweetheart; if Bai Qing liked anyone, it could only be He Yajun.
“They’re perfectly normal.” Thinking about their happy and fulfilling marriage now, she couldn’t help but marvel at the wonder of life. “Maybe there are two kinds of love in this world.”
Which two?
"My feelings for you are love at first sight; Bai Qing and Jiang Ming definitely belong to the type that develop feelings over time."
He neither confirmed nor denied it.
"Hey, Ya Jun, do you know how it felt when they were together? Were you disappointed?" she suddenly asked in an enthusiastic tone.
He lay down, glanced at her, and said with a half-smile, "What do you think I should feel?"
She thought about it seriously for a while: "It's hard to say, but I think you two are childhood sweethearts. Now that she has a boyfriend, you'll definitely spend less time together. Even if you don't have romantic feelings for her, you'll still feel a bit uncomfortable and out of place."
"Hmm, that makes a lot of sense. It sounds like you don't mind at all that I have a girl I grew up with as a playmate. I thought you would be jealous."
"Now that you're with me, I'm overjoyed. I don't have time to be jealous. Besides, I've had enough of that kind of jealousy back in high school. I don't want to be jealous again."
He laughed and put his arm around her shoulder: "I'm growing to like your easygoing and unpretentious personality more and more."
She was overjoyed to hear this, but also a little shy. She then steered the conversation back to Bai Qing and Jiang Ming, continuing her gossip: "Who pursued whom?"
He tilted his head and squinted at her, not answering the question, but blurting out, "I've noticed that you and Bai Qing look quite alike."
Qiao Ruo was puzzled and carefully recalled Bai Qing's face, but she really didn't think she looked any similar to her.
She joked, "You're not only with me because you think I look a bit like her, are you? If that's the case, I'll be really jealous."
He was both amused and exasperated: "What I mean is, you're both the kind of people who are very persistent in relationships. Bai Qing has liked Jiang Ming for many years, since high school, right? Her feelings haven't changed over the years, and in the end, she actually succeeded."
She was stunned. It turned out that Bai Qing, like her, had also gone through a long period of unrequited love before finally getting the person she wanted. However, Bai Qing was still luckier than her, able to openly date and marry Jiang Ming, while the best outcome for her and He Yajun could only be being his girlfriend for life, and even then, it would be a relationship that couldn't be made public.
Not wanting to spoil the peaceful atmosphere with her melancholy, she could only smile and say, "May lovers be united in the end, I wish them all the best."
He said lazily, "They have indeed received quite a few blessings recently."
"How so?"
"Both of them got promoted and received a raise, and they also moved to a bigger house."
"That's wonderful," she sighed inwardly. It seemed that happiness came more easily to everyone else than to her. She wondered why fate had arranged such a bumpy and complicated path for her love life. She regained her composure and said, "They had a baby, right? I heard Lele mention them a while ago. I think it was a daughter."
"Who is Lele? Is he a boy or a girl?"
She paused for a moment, then burst out laughing: "Hmm, you've got the key point right. Lele was my deskmate in high school, her full name is Hu Lele, she's a real beauty and works in Beijing. By the way, she talked to me about you back in high school."
"?"
"Her exact words were: 'There's a guy named He Yajun in Class 4, he's good-looking, I've seen him play basketball, but...'"
He Yajun's curiosity was piqued: "But what?"
She suppressed a laugh: "But compared to Li Shuyun, she's still a bit lacking..."
"..."
"You should still remember Li Shuyun, right? He was our class monitor and the Chinese language representative. You guys played against each other in the second year of high school basketball games. He was even voted the class heartthrob by the girls in our class."
He glanced at her: "Your deskmate said your boyfriend isn't as good as the most handsome guy in your class. How did you refute her?"
"..." She touched her lower lip. "I didn't refute her. I have a crush on you, not an open one. How could I refute her? Besides, she likes Li Shuyun, so naturally she thinks no one can compare to Li Shuyun. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
He smirked and said, "You lot don't study hard. You like this and that. If you put a little more effort into your studies, you could all get into Tsinghua or Peking University."
She was speechless: "You sound just like our homeroom teacher, Lao Wang."
He didn't say anything, one hand behind his head, the other stroking her smooth arm back and forth.
She smiled ingratiatingly, "Why bring up those old stories? Let's not talk about them anymore. You still haven't told me whether Bai Qing and Jiang Ming's child is actually a daughter."
"Yes, little girl."
"What's your name?"
"My formal name... I've forgotten it. My nickname is Wanwan. It's said that I was born at night, which is why I was given this nickname."
"You and Bai Qing are such good friends, how come you don't remember her daughter's name?"
He dismissed it: "She's not my daughter, why would I remember her so clearly?"
"Okay, how old are you?"
"Born in May this year, about six months old."
She shifted her body, adjusting to a more comfortable position in his arms, her face pressed against his chest, and chuckled softly: "I don't even need to think to know that she must be both beautiful and adorable."
"Cute? She is indeed quite cute. Pretty... I can't tell yet. But she's very noisy. Every time Bai Qing calls me, she's crying."
She nudged him: "You have photos on your phone, right? Let me see them."
He took out his phone, found his WeChat chat history with Bai Qing, scrolled back, opened the photos, and handed the phone to her directly: "Look for yourself."
The baby in the photo is wearing a onesie with small blue floral prints. He has fair skin, chubby cheeks, a small nose and mouth, and bright, dark eyes. He is grinning happily, with his hands clenched into tiny fists on either side of his head. He looks very cute.
Qiao Ruo felt her heart melt: "So beautiful."
He Yajun chuckled: "But in Bai Qing's eyes, she's a little devil. She cries all the time, spits up milk all the time, and wakes up all night, which is a real pain for the whole family."
Qiao Ruo laughed and handed the phone back to him: "This is terrible. What if we have children in the future? Will it be like this too?"
He fell silent. She suddenly realized what her words meant. She had been chatting happily and had inadvertently blurted out this thought that had been hidden deep in her heart. She felt very uneasy and looked up at him. He had his eyes closed and seemed lost in thought.
She carefully chose her words, and then spoke with some difficulty: "Ya Jun, I was just saying that casually during our chat, I didn't mean to imply that I wanted to marry you and have children. I..."
"Shh," he opened his eyes and tightened his grip on her shoulder, "It's okay, no explanation needed."
She bit her lip and remained silent for a long time.
His gaze fell to her lips, and his hand moved up to gently caress them: "I should feel guilty about what you're doing. It's already unfair to you that I can't give you marriage. It's perfectly normal for you to want to get married and have children. If you're going to reflect on yourself, then I'll have to apologize to you."
The ticklish sensation on her lips made her tremble slightly. She steadied herself and decided to make things clear: "Ya Jun, don't worry, no matter what happens, I will not force you to marry me. I've said it before, all I want is to be with you, nothing else matters."
He didn't respond to the topic again, but raised an eyebrow and smiled: "It's such a rare and precious time, and we're just chatting under the covers. It's a sin."
He turned to face her, his fingers still gently brushing against her lips, teasing them from side to side, making her heart race. His warm breath pressed against her face and neck, intensifying her feelings. She tried to tilt her head back, creating some distance between herself and him, trying to escape the subtle, penetrating stimulation.
He didn't give her a chance to escape, grabbed the back of her head, and whispered in her ear, "There should be a third way."
"What?" She felt the heat of his body and had no time to think about the meaning behind his words.
He kissed her eyes and mumbled, "Love at first sight."
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