The Broken Glass Jar (End of Volume 1)
Jiang Yichun stood under the tree in the library, sunlight filtering through the leaves and falling on her, but it couldn't penetrate the gloom in her heart.
She clutched the contract in her hand, her eyes scanning the crowd coming and going at the library entrance.
A familiar figure appeared in the crowd.
He Yinxin, wearing glasses and an ordinary sweatshirt, strode towards her.
Jiang Yichun stood still, waiting for him to approach.
He Yinxin walked up to her, lowered her eyes, and gently called her name: "Xiaochun, Jiang Yichun, good morning."
"I've come to see you."
Jiang Yichun met his gaze.
Two bright dark circles hung under his almond-shaped eyes, and the corners of his eyes were red.
She forced a smile and pulled him to a secluded spot in the library.
The two stood under the wall, staring at each other.
She began, "Good morning, He Yinxin, or..."
Should I call you Sister Xixi?
"Sister Xixi, you're so punctual! You finally didn't stand me up."
"That's true, after all, you are He Yinxin."
“An outstanding senior I deeply respect.”
Jiang Yichun strode forward and waved the contract in front of him.
"Senior, our contract has long been invalidated."
She raised her hand and slammed the contract she was holding onto him with a "smack".
The few sheets of white paper, stained with tears, slammed against his chest, then scattered like autumn leaves, falling silently to the ground.
He Yinxin's lips trembled as he slowly squatted down and collected the papers one by one into his hands.
Jiang Yichun didn't speak; her nose tingled, and tears welled up in her eyes.
She watched as he picked up the contract papers one by one and gathered them in his arms.
He treated something that was clearly worthless as if he were picking up checks.
He Yinxin stood up, clutching the messy contracts in one hand, and sighed, "Yes. I am Sister Xixi."
"You already know."
His indifferent attitude fueled the flames in Jiang Yichun's heart even more.
She sneered, "Yes, I know everything."
"Do you think I'm going to be stupid enough to wait for you to tell me?"
"Do you think I need you to tutor me on something like this, He Yinxin?!"
This liar, this liar, why is this liar so calm!
It was clearly him who lost his composure!
She practically screamed her last words.
He Yinxin didn't speak; he held the stack of contracts and kept his head down.
His mind went blank.
As time seemed to rewind, he felt as if he had returned to his adolescence, a time when he had made mistakes.
He tried to explain to his parents, but they started yelling at him without saying a word.
Is the explanation helpful?
What should I say to her?
Is it because of a coincidence?
Will she believe it, or will she blame herself like her parents?
His lips trembled, and he finally swallowed back all those words.
"**." Jiang Yichun couldn't help but curse, stepping forward and grabbing his collar. "He Yinxin, are you mute? Go ahead and explain yourself, explain yourself!"
"I want to hear exactly how you lied to me! How did you manage to pretend to be a woman to fool me?"
"You lied to me and you think you're the one who's wronged, huh? Have you no shame?"
She saw a tear slide down He Yinxin's cheek.
“I don’t feel wronged. I deserve it.”
"It was shameless of me to lie to you."
His once rosy lips had long since dried up, and now they began to twitch slightly.
"This is...this is a misunderstanding."
"Actually, I noticed you a long time ago, ever since... I ran into you on the day I was a senior in college, when you were eating pig's trotters in the cafeteria."
"Back then, you were eating pig's trotters with great relish. I... I don't know why, but I just felt that you were very free and attractive to me."
"So... I found out your name from others, and I often secretly watched you."
"Because of you, I realized for the first time that eating can bring so much joy. For the first time, those data-driven foods were just food itself to me, something that could bring me happiness."
"It also gave me my first bit of confidence to leave my home."
Jiang Yichun stared at him, a cold smile playing on her lips.
His gloomy face twisted again before her eyes.
The image that appeared before her eyes was that of the man who kept saying "I love you."
He kept saying he loved himself and his mother, but in the end he betrayed his marriage and his family.
Is love genuine, or just an excuse for betrayal?
Jiang Yichun didn't know.
She looked up and sneered, "I gave you so much courage, so why don't you even have the courage to face me head-on?"
He Yinxin's lips trembled: "I'm scared. I..."
I know you're afraid of people getting close to you.
I'm afraid you'll think I have ulterior motives, I'm afraid you'll reject me, I'm afraid you'll hate me.
But in the end, I still used this despicable method to get close to you.
He didn't say the rest of the words aloud. From the little things he did with her, he could glimpse her past and know the pain and shadows it had brought her.
He was unwilling to reveal those things hidden deep within.
He is not qualified.
He looked down at her, gave a dry laugh, and changed the subject: "It's weird, isn't it? I don't even dare to get close to you, I can only spy on you like a mouse."
"Until that day when I was not full at the dinner party, I wanted to eat pig's trotters, just like you."
Jiang Yichun snorted coldly, her fingertips pinching his collar, pulling it open: "Get to the point! I don't have time to listen to your nonsense confessions and self-blame!"
He Yinxin's lips trembled: "So I used a fake account to play 'pig's trotters' and that's how I met you. You mistook me for a girl, so I... went along with it... and learned from my cousin how to talk to girls, and even used my cousin's character 'Xi'."
"I thought chatting with you online would be enough, but... but I never expected to actually see you the next morning."
"I... I really just wanted to see you and then heal myself. My illness is real. I even treated you as a sociological experiment."
"It's not because I like you, it's just out of curiosity."
He knew her fear of love and her fear of liking someone, so he could only start with a "social experiment" to protect her desire for security.
He also understood that using the name of "love" could not change everything.
He continued to move forward with his own logic, racing in the opposite direction of his true feelings.
"What? What do you take me for?!" Jiang Yichun burst into tears. "So, in your eyes, I'm just usable experimental data, right, He Yinxin?"
"So, in your eyes, I'm just a number, right?"
"You don't like me, do you? You don't feel even a little bit of attraction, right?"
"You only enjoy the thrill of having me manipulated like a puppet, don't you!"
As she questioned him, the fear in her heart had long been suppressed by her longing for love.
She wanted to know if he loved her, even if it was just a simple "I don't want you to leave".
Even just grabbing her wrist, or showing a reluctant and absent-minded expression.
Her gaze returned to his trembling lips.
A shameful thought surfaced in her mind.
Hold me, kiss me, seal all my doubts with your lips, just like in those cheesy TV dramas and novels.
Even though I will still be afraid, still run away, and still... hate you.
But doesn't that prove that you like me?
I want you to like me.
The person before him didn't move. He stood there with his eyes lowered, his lips trembling as he uttered a few words:
“You were never data in my world, I… don’t get that kind of pleasure.”
"I am in great pain."
"I know I lied to you, so let's leave it at that. You go, and I'll go too."
"I lied to you, I don't deserve your forgiveness."
He stood there, his glasses already fogged up.
There was no holding hands, no hugging, and no sealing of the bond with a kiss.
Only a cold sentence remains.
Jiang Yichun couldn't see into his eyes, let alone into his heart.
She desperately wanted him to prove his love, but he was always worried that this love would hurt her.
The two, each harboring feelings for each other, drew a line towards the other, but the lines remained parallel and would never intersect at the same point.
The two of them each took a step back, but they gradually drifted further apart.
"Smack!"
Jiang Yichun raised his hand and slapped He Yinxin hard across the face.
"He Yinxin, even if you force a kiss on me, it's better than standing here like a block of wood, right?"
She gasped for breath, looking at the boy in front of her whose head had been turned to the side after being hit.
He Yinxin was panting heavily, gently rubbing the swollen part of his cheek with one hand. His glasses had been knocked to the other side.
The faint scent of her fingertips still lingered on the tip of his nose.
That fragrance could never mask the surging pain and confusion in his heart.
"Xiaochun, how could I force myself on you? We're not..." He took off his glasses and looked at her.
Jiang Yichun's overwhelming emotions had long since overshadowed her fears. She broke free from the tangled ropes and grabbed his collar.
She desperately craved the emotions that flickered in his eyes.
"Fine, you won't force a kiss on me, huh? Then I'll force a kiss on you!"
She stood on tiptoe and bit his slightly parted lips.
Before he could utter a word, she completely silenced him, leaving only her soft, moist lips rubbing haphazardly against his own.
Her lips smelled faintly of grapefruit candy.
There was no gentleness, only the stench of pain and blood.
There was no sweetness, only intertwined, mingled tears from who-knows-who.
There were no sweet words, only gasps of breath.
He Yinxin was completely captivated by the grapefruit scent on her lips, and even became enamored with her lustful anger.
He closed his eyes, slowly moved the hand holding the contract around her back, and gently hugged her, wanting to feel her skin and body temperature.
When those hands touched her back, Jiang Yichun trembled. She let go of him, her eyes glazed over.
She instantly regained consciousness.
He forcibly kissed He Yinxin, forcibly kissed a liar, forcibly kissed...
The guy I hate the most!
He Yinxin still stared at her with dazed eyes, a perverted sense of satisfaction appearing on his face.
The contract he had painstakingly picked up slipped from his fingers.
Jiang Yichun took a few steps back, panting heavily, his whole body trembling.
"Forget it, forget all of this!"
"He Yinxin, I don't like you at all!"
She brushed aside the stray hairs on her forehead, shook her head, and casually picked up a few sheets of white paper from the ground.
"Contract is void."
She stared at him coldly, then took a few steps back.
"He Yinxin, I hate you."
She tossed her ponytail, turned, and ran away.
He Yinxin stood there, staring blankly in the direction she had gone.
He rubbed his lips, which she had bitten until they bled, yet the scent of her lips still lingered.
The garden of spring he planted with his own hands eventually encroached on her high walls, but he presumptuously cut off the vines that had grown out of her control.
The giant guarding the high wall rushed out from inside the wall and questioned him why he no longer planted flowers.
He didn't know, so he could only bend down and pick up the remaining blank paper.
Perhaps, if the giant can see the flowers, then one's efforts will not have been in vain.
As expected, that's how it ended.
It's all over now.
He Yinxin forced a wry smile and walked towards the dormitory alone.
In the following days, he dared not send any more messages to Jiang Yichun, and Jiang Yichun did not take the initiative to contact him either.
The two occasionally brushed past each other in the teaching building and the cafeteria.
There was no eye contact, not a single word exchanged, only the gentle breeze brushing against their shoulders.
He Yinxin sat at the table in her dormitory, staring at the jar of mint.
He had already used up all the mint leaves to make tea, leaving only an empty jar.
Inside was that pink plush bunny.
He reached out and gently picked up the jar.
The flower language of mint is "reunion with you".
Reunion...
The memory of that forced kiss came flooding back again.
He shook his hand, and the jar fell to the ground.
"Clang!"
The glass jar shattered, scattering shards all over the ground, gleaming brilliantly under the fluorescent lights.
(End of Volume 1)
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