Chapter 10 How do you know I've never liked anyone...?
The doorbell kept ringing, and Jiang Jiaoming's phone kept buzzing with messages.
He had a towel draped around his neck, his hair was still dripping wet, and the towel was soaked from his ears down his neck. He leaned on the sink with his long arms, staring at the constantly updated WeChat messages.
Zhang San: [Are you crazy? Open the door!]
Zhang San: [If you don't come soon, I'm going to call Liang Kongxiang!]
Would she dare to come?
Jiang Jiaoming chuckled, his hands still damp as he typed on his phone: "Go".
Zhang San chuckled and threatened him, "I'm banging on the door, I'm telling you!"
Just as he finished sending the message, Jiang Jiaoming walked into the bathroom while drying his hair. He seemed to hear a knocking sound on the door, accompanied by muffled shouts. He knew without listening that it was Zhang Bingjie.
As soon as the door opened, Zhang Bingjie's forceful slapping hand missed its target, causing him to lose his balance and fall forward to the ground. When he got up, his face was full of astonishment: "Are you kidding me?"
Jiang Jiaoming didn't waste any words with him. He closed the door, casually draped the towel aside, sat on the sofa, and picked out a movie to start playing.
Zhang Bingjie pulled down his pants to check his wound. Luckily, despite the cold weather, he was wearing thermal underwear underneath. He limped onto the sofa and grumbled, "You'd better give me an explanation."
Jiang Jiaoming casually replied, "What explanation?"
"Keep pretending." Zhang Bingjie rolled his eyes.
For several seconds, Jiang Jiaoming remained silent, seemingly oblivious to what he was hearing, focusing intently on selecting films and scrolling through them with the remote control.
Zhang Bingjie couldn't hold back any longer and started rattling off: "When exactly did you meet Liang Kongxiang? What's the reason you said you'd never see each other again? Are you treating me like a fool? Damn it, Jiang Jiaoming, we're practically inseparable since we grew up, and you even kept this from me? Are we even brothers?"
After he finished speaking, he belatedly realized something else, paused for a moment, his expression indescribable, and hesitated before asking him for confirmation: "You were going out every day during college to see Liang Kongxiang?"
"Yes. Are you satisfied?" Jiang Jiaoming asked calmly, then pressed play.
"Me...?" Zhang Bingjie was more than satisfied; he was so shocked he couldn't speak. After a while, he finally finished, "Damn."
Is this still the young master Jiang I know? Zhang Bingjie thought to himself, glaring at Jiang Jiaoming.
"What's it to you?" Jiang Jiaoming kicked him. "Go back to the set."
"Hey, what's wrong with me staying here for one night?" Zhang San's eyes held a hint of reproach, then a strange blush appeared on his face: "Now I don't even know how to face Liang Kongxiang anymore..."
"You really think highly of yourself." Jiang Jiaoming sneered, grabbed him by the back of his collar, and shooed him out the door in a few steps.
Jiang Jiaoming pretended not to hear and returned to the living room to continue watching the movie that had only started. He rested his elbows on his legs, leaned slightly forward, and stared at the screen.
His eyes, however, were unfocused.
Jiang Jiaoming can still recall the beginning of Zhang San's night riding story.
It was May of the second semester of my junior year of high school. The weather was hot. Zhang San, Li Si, Zhao Wu, and Qian Liu were clamoring in the group chat for a late-night snack. Jiang Jiaoming had no appetite for dinner. After taking a shower, he started doing his homework. After finishing, he belatedly realized he was hungry, so he asked for directions.
At that time, a new noodle shop opened along the river, and Jiang Jiaoming rode five kilometers there as if it were a sport.
When they arrived, Li Si waved from afar: "Here! Sit by the shop entrance. There's a breeze along the river; the evening breeze is the most comfortable!"
A well-decorated noodle shop with eye-catching advertising lights. Jiang Jiaoming stopped at the door, sat down and ordered. Zhang Bingjie, half-dead, was lying in front of the table, his eyes red and swollen, staring lifelessly at the river.
Zhao Wu kicked him, and Zhang San swayed, sighed, and said in despair, "Just kick me to death."
"He's beyond saving, get him to the hospital right away." Qian Liu brought over a bowl of condiments, glanced at Zhang San, and calmly commented.
Jiang Jiaoming was used to Zhang San's exaggerated manner, so he ignored him and opened his phone to check film news from home and abroad. The promising new director he admired had his short film shortly nominated for a youth film festival; it was close to winning an award, but it had already surpassed many of his contemporaries.
"...Jiang Jiaoming!" Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, Zhang San started to seek attention: "What are you looking at so intently?"
"The noodles are ready." The waiter brought them out just then.
Jiang Jiaoming pushed the object to Zhang San, trying to shut him up, but Zhang San covered his face with his hands and started crying: "I've been dumped."
Li Si snatched the bowl from Zhang San's hand, but Zhang San protected him with both arms. Li Si laughed angrily: "You're heartbroken every day."
"What do you know?" Zhang San said, "This time it's really different." His eyes were swollen, making him look like he'd been beaten up, and he looked utterly dejected. "I like her so much..."
Zhang San suddenly shouted, "I like her! I like her!"
Jiang Jiaoming turned his head away in disgust, to avoid getting Zhang San's spittle on him: "Alright. I'm not her, don't confess your feelings to me."
It's hard to understand how their feelings of attraction came about, or how they could be so sure that their budding emotions were love. Jiang Jiaoming believes they are simply driven by the boundless hormones of adolescence and are not worth paying attention to.
Qian Liu said, "Who knows, maybe one day she'll go blind and start to like you again."
Zhang San looked at him with a mournful expression: "You don't understand."
Jiang Jiaoming finished his meal, took apart the chopsticks, stirred it, and casually asked, "What do you know?"
Zhang San shouted for the waiter to bring the wine, took a sip with a melancholy expression, and his face scrunched up in wrinkles: "I understand the bitterness of love."
Jiang Jiaoming: "So why do you like her?"
He was baffled: "...What?"
Jiang Jiaoming spoke lightly, as if he had thought it through carefully, yet also as if he had expressed narrow-minded prejudice, with a one-sided and stubborn mentality: "The root of all suffering lies within yourself. To like someone is to consciously and willingly hand over the right to torment yourself to them. If you don't like someone, there will be no opportunity for you to suffer."
Zhang San looked at Jiang Jiaoming with the same look he'd given a fool: "How can you control yourself if you like something like this?"
"Why can't you control it?" Jiang Jiaoming picked out the scallions from the bowl.
Zhang San rolled his eyes inwardly: "What would a spoiled young master like you, who's never had a crush on anyone and is always being chased after, know..."
At the same time.
Jiang Jiaoming and Li Si spoke at the same time.
Jiang Jiaoming: "How do you know I've never had a crush on anyone?"
Li Si squinted: "That looks like..."
"Liang Kongxiang".
It is Liang Kongxiang.
A cool breeze gently caressed everything in sight, swirling the fallen leaves at Liang Kongxiang's feet and rustling through the bushes on both sides of the riverside avenue.
She was wearing a blue and white short-sleeved school uniform, with a backpack slung loosely over one shoulder. On her right shoulder, she had an earphone hanging down, looking intently at her phone screen, which was held horizontally. She walked very slowly.
One of her favorite photographers won a newcomer film award after switching to making short films. He posted a link to the short film on his social media account, and she quickly clicked on the video on her way home from tutoring class.
The wind on the river blew in gusts, making her hair fly to one side. Liang Kongxiang subconsciously used her other hand to smooth her hair and tuck it behind her ear, staring at her phone as she walked back.
After walking for a while, just as the short film was about to end, a voice suddenly came from behind her: "Hey."
Liang Kongxiang paused and turned around, seeing Jiang Jiaoming sitting on the bicycle behind her. She was taken aback and asked, "What's wrong?"
Do you have any tissues?
"What?" Liang Kongxiang pulled out her only earphone, thinking she hadn't heard clearly: "Sorry."
Jiang Jiaoming tugged at the oil stains on his sleeve. "Tissues. Consider the one I gave you last time as a done deal."
Liang Kongxiang looked closely and then noticed the yellow stain on his collar. Actually, she didn't need to wipe it; the pea-sized stain had already dried.
She stated objectively, "No need to wipe it."
Jiang Jiaoming was very rude. He clicked his tongue and said to her, "It's not your clothes, of course you don't cherish them."
Feeling wronged and burdened with such a huge accusation, Liang Kongxiang had no choice but to pull out a pack of tissues from the side, thinking it was better to avoid trouble.
Jiang Jiaoming took it but didn't open the package first. He held it in his hand, looking at it from front to back, then from back to front, before glancing at Liang Kongxiang: "If I remember correctly, this is the package I gave you, right?"
Liang Kongxiang didn't really remember it. It had been at least a month since she received the package of tissues. When she got home, she casually put the package on the table, or perhaps one day she just put it on the side of her schoolbag. "Yes, thank you."
Seeing that Jiang Jiaoming had taken it, she felt that it was a return to its rightful owner. After thanking him, she was about to leave when Jiang Jiaoming rode his bicycle and blocked her way.
The two looked at each other.
Liang Kongxiang was forced to stop, and looked at him calmly: "Is there anything else?"
“Yes,” he said, bracing himself on both legs to block Liang Kongxiang from view. Suddenly, he took off his coat and tossed it to her. Liang Kongxiang caught it instinctively, looking at him with confusion. Jiang Jiaoming straightened his short-sleeved shirt underneath. “You still owe me a thank you, remember?”
It was about the time on the stairs, Liang Kongxiang remembered.
"I'll help you this once, and you help me this tonight, then we'll be even." Seeing her serious expression, Jiang Jiaoming started to make up a story: "My dad is very strict with me. If he finds out I got my clothes dirty, I'll probably get a beating. Take them to the dry cleaners for me, and wait for me here at this time tomorrow. I'll come pick them up."
Liang Kongxiang clutched her thin coat, half believing Jiang Jiaoming's words. Jia Yan knew a lot of gossip and always whispered in her ear that Jiang Jiaoming looked like a rich young master, but in reality, his family was a mess. His mother had passed away long ago, his father didn't love him, and all his relatives were scheming against his father's company, all wanting to get a piece of the pie.
"What are you looking at me for?" Jiang Jiaoming stared straight at her. "Or do you like to keep owing me money?"
Liang Kongxiang glanced at her phone screen; it showed 10:30, which was getting late. "Okay, I'll wait for you here at 10:30 tomorrow."
She put her coat in her bag, put her headphones back on, and watched the remaining five minutes.
As I was changing my shoes at the door, Grandma was sitting on the sofa, forking fruit and watching a melodramatic love triangle. Hearing the noise, she stood up with the fruit platter in her hand and asked, "Why are you fifteen minutes late today?"
"I stood by the river for a while in the breeze," Liang Kongxiang said, hanging her schoolbag behind the door. "Is Mom asleep?"
"No, she went to take a bath." Grandma frowned at the bulging schoolbag: "What's in your schoolbag?"
Liang Kongxiang faintly heard the sound of water in the bathroom. A few seconds later, she realized what her grandmother had said. She glanced at the door, walked over, took her bag off, hung it on her arm, and smiled, saying, "My classmate's jacket."
If her grandmother hadn't reminded her, Liang Kongxiang would have almost forgotten about Jiang Jiaoming's coat. She was afraid it would get wrinkled if she left it in his schoolbag overnight. She didn't fully understand Jiang Jiaoming's personality, but she could guess what he would say—probably an exaggerated scolding for not taking good care of his clothes.
Thinking about this, she still felt a bit of a headache.
"Whose jacket?"
The bathroom door opened, and white steam filled the room, swirling around the woman. She had a calm face, resembling Liang Kongxiang by seven or eight points. She stood quietly at the door, her gaze fixed on the schoolbag on Liang Kongxiang's arm.
A note from the author:
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There wouldn't be many memories here; we'll switch to the now timeline tomorrow.
I'll be handing out the prizes for yesterday's quiz in a bit, hahaha, you guys are so clever!
OK, two questions today too.
1. Did Jiang Jiaoming chase after him on purpose? Do you think his excuse is lame?
A. It was intentional, it's bad. B. It was just a coincidence. C. Never mind, this is just Jiang Jiaoming's rhythm.
2. Will Mom suspect that Kong Xiang and Jiang Jiaoming are dating?
A. Yes, and she'll break them up. B. No, she doesn't care. C. She simply doesn't know.
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