Misunderstand
Chapter 17: Misunderstanding
On the bus back to the resort, the atmosphere was as subtle as the calm before the storm.
Bai Ke sat alone by the window, her eyes fixed on the passing scenery outside. Lin Xiaoyu hesitated several times to speak, but finally sat silently beside her and handed her a bottle of water.
"You and Chairman Lu..." Lin Xiaoyu spoke cautiously.
"Nothing." Bai Ke interrupted her, his voice a little hoarse, "It's just a misunderstanding."
Lin Xiaoyu obviously didn't believe it, but considerately didn't ask any further questions.
Bai Ke closed her eyes and replayed Chen Yiyu's short text message over and over in her mind - "Sorry, I have to leave for something urgent." Every word was like an icicle, piercing her heart.
The bus returned to campus, and Bai Ke was the first to get off with her luggage, eager to escape this suffocating environment as quickly as possible. However, as soon as she turned on her phone, a series of message alerts rang out one after another.
In the student union group, a photo was forwarded repeatedly.
Under the moonlight, Lu Zihan embraced her, her face buried in his chest, his coat draped over her shoulders. The angle of the shot was perfectly chosen, capturing both her vulnerability and his tenderness perfectly. Anyone who saw it would be forgiven for thinking it was a pair of lovers embracing.
"Congratulations to Chairman Lu for winning the beautiful woman!"
"I've always thought you two are a good match!"
"A treat!"
The screen was flooded with messages of blessing. Bai Ke felt as if the blood in his body was rushing backwards.
She immediately clarified in the group: "Everyone misunderstood, we are not in that kind of relationship."
After the message was sent, the group was silent for a moment, and then it was flooded with more ridicule.
"I know, I know. I'm just shy!"
"Don't be embarrassed, Bai!"
In everyone's eyes, how could anyone refuse to be favored by the popular sweetheart Lu Zihan?
Lu Zihan called quickly: "Bai Ke, I saw the message in the group. Do you need me to explain it to you?"
His voice was still gentle, but Bai Ke felt inexplicably uncomfortable.
"No need, it doesn't matter." She hung up the phone, feeling powerless.
In the physics lab, Chen Yiyu was sorting through materials for his overseas exchange program when Li Meng pushed the door open, his expression complicated.
"Are you going to Germany?" Li Meng asked.
Chen Yiyu nodded and continued with the work in his hands.
"What about Bai Ke?" Li Meng looked at him directly. "Are you leaving just like that?"
Chen Yiyu paused and did not answer.
Li Meng pushed the phone in front of him: "Looks like you don't need to know. She's with Lu Zihan."
On the screen was the photo that had gone viral in the student union group. Embracing each other under the moonlight, they looked so intimate and perfect together.
Chen Yiyu's fingertips turned slightly white. He looked at the photo in silence for a long time, then gently pushed the phone away.
"Very good." He heard his own voice calm and without a trace of emotion, "Lu Zihan is very good."
Li Meng looked at him in disbelief: "That's all you're going to react to? You clearly..."
"I have to go to the Academic Affairs Office to submit the materials." Chen Yiyu interrupted him, packed up his things, turned around and left the laboratory.
In the hallway, his steps quickened, until he practically trotted down the stairs. At a deserted corner, he finally stopped and punched the wall. The pain in his joints was not even a fraction of the pain in his heart.
The girl who handed him an umbrella in the rain, the girl who took notes seriously in the library, and the girl who shone brightly in the debate competition, all ended up going to someone else.
Bai Ke tried various ways to clarify, but with little success. Every time she explained, everyone would give her an "I understand" expression, as if she was just shy.
What made her even more uneasy was that Lu Zihan began to regard himself as her boyfriend, waiting for her outside the classroom on time every day, bringing her breakfast, and being considerate to her in front of everyone.
"Senior Lu, we really need to talk." After class that day, Bai Ke finally couldn't help but call him.
Lu Zihan smiled: "You say."
"I've thought about it. You should clarify our relationship to everyone." Bai Ke looked him straight in the eyes. "We are not lovers, and we won't be in the future."
Lu Zihan's smile faded a little: "Bai Ke, I know you are still angry about the misunderstanding that day. But I am sincere to you, why not give us a chance?"
"It's not because I'm angry," Bai Ke shook his head firmly, "because I don't like you."
Lu Zihan, who had been confessed to countless times, was rejected so directly for the first time.
"Is it because of Chen Yiyu?" he asked, his voice turning cold.
Bai Ke didn't answer, but her silence said it all.
Three days later, the day arrived for Chen Yiyu to set off for Germany.
Bai Ke went to the airport anyway. She simply stood behind a pillar in the departure hall, watching Chen Yiyu check in. He had lost a lot of weight, and his entire body seemed to be covered in a faint layer of gray.
She really wanted to rush up and tell him that the photo was a misunderstanding and that he was the only one in her heart from the beginning to the end.
But he was about to leave. What was the point of saying all this?
The phone vibrates, a new text message.
Sender: Chen Yiyu.
"I wish you happiness."
These four simple words, like the final verdict, put an end to their story.
Bai Ke raised her head and watched Chen Yiyu pass through security and disappear at the end of the passage. He left with misunderstandings, and she was trapped in the cage of misunderstandings.
Back at school, Bai Ke opened the treasured box. Inside was the umbrella Chen Yiyu had returned to her, his organized physics notebooks, and the bookmark she hadn't given away. Each item held a memory, and now, they had become a piercing pain.
She gently closed the box and tucked it into the deepest part of her closet.
Outside the window, the early summer sun was shining brightly, but in her heart, a never-ending snow was falling.
Those unspoken feelings are ultimately frozen in this season.
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