He confessed his feelings to her, but she didn't even give him a chance to say yes.
The recruitment event for new students of the Lan University Student Art Troupe has already been posted throughout the campus, inviting students with various talents to participate in the auditions. The auditions are scheduled for Friday evenings from 7 pm to 10 pm in the school's small auditorium.
Mu Chen, the newly appointed head of the student art troupe, also sat in the center of the judges' panel early on, carefully watching the performances and giving their scores.
Meanwhile, the club teacher called, urgently needing a roster, so Mu Chen had to arrange for one of the girls in the club to deliver it. But it was raining outside, so he also had to take on the responsibility of providing an umbrella.
Because it hadn't started raining when the interview began, none of the people sitting next to me had brought umbrellas.
Mu Chen glanced back at the audience seats and immediately spotted the girl in the purple hoodie sitting near the door. She was huddled together with her companion, whispering something, and a small floral umbrella sat on the table in front of her.
"Excuse me, may I borrow this umbrella for a moment?"
When she looked up at him, Mu Chen pointed to the small floral umbrella on the table in front of her.
However, the girl didn't reply; instead, she just stared at him blankly.
After a long while, Rui Yan finally snapped out of her daze when Dai Shuo gently bumped into her arm. "What did you say?"
Mu Chen smiled again and said, "Can I borrow your umbrella?"
"Sure, sure." Rui Yan quickly presented the umbrella with both hands.
Mu Chen thanked him, took his umbrella, and went out. After a while, he returned and sat back down on the judges' panel to continue watching the performance.
When all the performances were over and the judges were sitting together to tally the scores, Jiang Hailang handed Mu Chen a neatly folded piece of paper.
"A little girl asked me to give this to you."
Although Jiang Hailang knew what was on the note, when Mu Chen opened it, he still leaned over and teased, "Let me see what kind of heartfelt confession it is?"
What kind of heartfelt confession could there be? It was just that the girl named Rui Yan had gone back to her dorm with her classmates, but Mu Chen hadn't returned the umbrella he'd borrowed. And since she saw him seriously scoring the performances on stage, she felt too embarrassed to disturb him. So she borrowed paper and a pen from Jiang Hailang, who was sitting at the very edge of the judges' panel, wrote a note, and left her name and phone number.
When Rui Yan handed the note to Jiang Hailang and asked him to pass it on to the person sitting in the middle of the judges' panel, Jiang Hailang looked at her and smiled ambiguously.
A little embarrassed, she quickly unfolded the note and handed it over. "No, he borrowed my umbrella. I just wrote this note to tell him to return it when he's done using it. You can see for yourself..."
Jiang Hailang still smiled. He took the note and folded it neatly. "Don't worry, junior, I'll definitely pass it on."
*
Mu Chen returned the umbrella to Rui Yan the following evening.
He stood downstairs at the girls' dormitory and called her using the number she had left on the note. He introduced himself, explained that he was the guy who had borrowed her umbrella the night before, and that he was too busy during the day to return it so late. Only then did he ask if she had time to come downstairs to pick up the umbrella.
Rui Yan remained silent for a long time on the other end of the phone.
Just as Mu Chen was about to say that if it was inconvenient, he would deliver it another day, he heard Rui Yan on the other end of the phone say urgently, "I'm free, I'm free now."
When Rui Yan and Dai Shuo came downstairs, Mu Chen thanked him and handed him the umbrella, but Rui Yan was still standing there, tilting her head and staring at him. In the end, Dai Shuo reached out and took the umbrella, and the brief meeting ended pleasantly.
Later, I heard from Dai Shuo that when Rui Yan returned to the dormitory that day, he suddenly blurted out a series of four-character phrases: "A handsome young man, tall and elegant, ethereal and otherworldly in the twilight..."
*
However, for a long time, Rui Yan avoided Mu Chen. Not only did she never greet him when they met, she never even made eye contact with him again.
If it weren't for that night of meteor shower, Mu Chen would have thought she really didn't want to know him.
That night, Jiang Hailang's girlfriend at the time called and invited him to watch the meteor shower on the rooftop. Of course, they each watched it from their own dormitory rooftops.
Jiang Hailang then coaxed and dragged Mu Chen to the rooftop of the boys' dormitory.
Alone with a can of beer, I sat on the deserted rooftop for a long time, but I didn't see a meteor shower.
It was cold, and drinking cold beer made it even colder. Mu Chen stood up and was about to go downstairs when he suddenly heard excited shouts coming from the rooftop of the girls' dormitory in the distance. Turning his head, he saw shooting stars streaking across the sky.
"I want to marry a rich man."
"I want to marry two rich men. Hahaha..."
...
Amidst the chorus of wishes, a girl shouted, "I love you!"
Without beginning or end, without a name.
Then another female voice rang out: "Mu Chen, Rui Yan said she likes you."
Then came bursts of laughter, probably from the girls playfully teasing each other.
Mu Chen stopped in his tracks, but Jiang Hailang leaned closer. "Making a wish upon a shooting star, how romantic! Isn't Ruiyan the little girl who wrote you notes?"
Mu Chen ignored him, turned around and quickly went downstairs.
However, when Rui Yan saw Mu Chen again later, she still didn't recognize him.
However, Mu Chen quietly went to listen to Rui Yan's speech in the lecture hall, read the short articles she published on the school's official WeChat account, and carried her back to her dormitory when she got drunk and went to the basketball court to cause a scene...
*
Their paths actually crossed a week after Rui Yan's failed confession to Mu Chen.
That time, the student union organized a nighttime inspection of the dormitories. As soon as they reached the second floor of the girls' dormitory, they saw several girls carrying various weapons such as knives, swords, and sticks, running from one end of the corridor to the other, seemingly engaged in a fight.
Wu Qian, the senior student who was walking at the front of the student council members, shouted angrily: "Stop making trouble!"
Mu Chen answered the phone as he climbed the stairs. As he followed the other student council members up the last step, he saw Rui Yan chasing another girl with a sword in her hand. He was then startled by Wu Qian's angry shout and stopped abruptly.
Rui Yan also saw Mu Chen. She quickly hid her sword behind her back, lowered her head, and looked like a child who had done something wrong and was afraid of being criticized by him.
Wu Qian asked her, "What are you doing?"
Rui Yan glanced at Mu Chen furtively, then lowered her head and whispered, "I learned swordsmanship in PE class, and I was afraid I'd forget it, so I'm reviewing it."
Suddenly, someone nearby burst out laughing.
“If you want to practice, go outside. The dormitory corridor is not a place for you to practice. Which dormitory are you from?” Wu Qian said, picking up her notebook to write it down.
Rui Yan and the others lowered their heads and remained silent.
Later, it was Mu Chen who came to their rescue.
He walked over to Wu Qian and said to the girls standing in a row against the wall, "You should be mindful of the setting when you're studying. Don't practice in the hallway anymore."
Everyone bowed their heads and answered in unison, "Okay."
"Lights out soon, let's go back."
Mu Chen was looking at Rui Yan when he said this. Although she had her head down, he could still see her furrowed brows and puffed-out cheeks.
"Thank you, seniors."
The girls, carrying their weapons, turned and walked down the corridor toward their dormitories, their earlier playful and carefree spirit completely gone.
After checking the last dormitory, Mu Chen stood downstairs and sent a message to Rui Yan: "Come to the gymnasium with your sword at 2 PM tomorrow."
The other person, seemingly uninterested in what this complete stranger wanted to do, quickly replied with a "okay".
The next afternoon, Mu Chen opened a martial arts tutoring class for Rui Yan in the gymnasium. He slowly taught her the sword technique she had mentioned the day before, which she was afraid she would forget, move by move.
Back then, Mu Chen had asked Rui Yan why she chose martial arts as her elective in physical education class. It was because she was really bad at it; she couldn't even do a proper sword flourish. He had to give her emergency tutoring for her in the final exam of her freshman year physical education class so that she could barely pass.
Rui Yan said that one night she saw Mu Chen carrying a long stick used for martial arts walking by on the road, and she thought it was cool, so she signed up for martial arts classes.
After being ruthlessly exposed by Dai Shuo, Rui Yan admitted with embarrassment that she hadn't actually seen Mu Chen's face clearly that day.
Mu Chen knew that the night they were talking about was a few days after he borrowed the umbrella from her. At that time, he was carrying a long stick and walking along the zigzag path outside the dormitory area when he saw Rui Yan and Dai Shuo walking hand in hand from the opposite side.
Because Mu Chen had promised his PE teacher he would participate in the university martial arts competition, he trained at the gymnasium every night. However, he was delayed that day and, worried about keeping his teacher waiting, he walked rather quickly.
Seeing him walk quickly towards them, Rui Yan stopped and stared at him. As Mu Chen passed by them, he nodded slightly to her as a greeting, then quickly brushed past them.
He assumed they knew him too. Now he realized that Ruiyan hadn't recognized him at all back then.
Rui Yan said it was too dark at the time, and she couldn't see his face clearly. She only saw a tall, thin boy wearing a black tracksuit, holding a long stick used for martial arts. His hair flew freely in the air as he walked.
She was drawn to the scene, which is why her gaze followed him all the way until he turned the other corner of the Z-shaped intersection.
It was only after Dai Shuo reminded her that Rui Yan realized the boy who greeted her was Mu Chen.
However, Rui Yan assured Mu Chen, "I will definitely recognize you next time. I will overcome the obstacle of not being able to see clearly at night to recognize you."
Later, Rui Yan became an unofficial member of the Lan University Student Art Troupe. Not only did she frequently report for rehearsals, but she also made sure to attend every performance.
Mu Chen always managed to spot her in the audience and chat with her for a bit. Sometimes, after a performance, she would be mistaken for a member of the art troupe and take photos with the students backstage.
*
Mu Chen didn't actually know when he had fallen in love with Rui Yan.
It was probably after she made a wish upon a shooting star that he began to notice this girl who pretended not to know him but always secretly stood at the window watching him.
She probably said humorously while standing in the lecture hall, "If I am fortunate enough to become a nun someday, I will dress up beautifully."
She must have had too much to drink. Standing by the basketball court, she waved at him with a silly grin and called out, "Hey handsome, you're so good at shooting hoops!"
Anyway, he was deeply disappointed when Rui Yan confessed her feelings to him but then immediately changed her mind and said she would never like him again.
What does that mean? He confessed his feelings to her, but he didn't even give her a chance to say yes.
However, Mu Chen felt that it was good that Rui Yan no longer pretended not to know him after the confession. At least they had become acquaintances and friends, and he could figure out why she suddenly disliked him, so he could take things slowly.
If it weren't for what happened later, he and she would definitely have had a happy ending.
*
After the winter break, the Lanzhou University Student Art Troupe put on a skit about "saving food and opposing waste" in the cafeteria.
There were many students watching, but Mu Chen did not see Rui Yan in the crowd.
He knew that Ruiyan would never miss a performance in which he participated. But that day, he didn't see her from beginning to end.
After the performance, he asked Dai Shuo.
Dai Shuo sighed deeply and said, "Rui Yan has dropped out of school."
Mu Chen didn't know what had happened to Rui Yan that caused her to drop out of school and leave without saying goodbye.
He called her, but the message on the other end said: The number you dialed is out of service.
Later, Mu Chen stood downstairs at Rui Yan's dormitory countless times, looking up at her window, hoping that one day he could see her again from that window.
However, he never saw the girl named Ruiyan again until he graduated from university.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
