Chapter Fourteen Unrequited Love
Two weeks before the exams in the first semester of sophomore year, Lin Yu unfailingly secured a spot in the last corner of the lecture hall before 9 a.m. Because it was on the top floor and the classrooms were spacious, resulting in insufficient heating, very few people were studying there.
She first took out her textbooks, test papers, pencil case, thermos, snacks, and hand warmers one by one from her backpack and arranged them neatly on the table. Then she put the breakfast she brought from the cafeteria on the table next to her. Finally, she left only an empty backpack cover, which she threw into the seat in front of her.
Lin Yu unwrapped a lollipop and put it in his mouth, listlessly propping his head up as he waited for Zheng Qi. It was as if the day would only truly begin once Zheng Qi arrived, and everything before that was just a rehearsal.
Normally, Zheng Qi would appear around 10:15, but today he was a little late. Perhaps he had overslept, Lin Yu thought to himself. As soon as he looked up, he saw Zheng Qi push open the door and walk in.
Just as he was about to stand up and wave, he noticed that there was someone following behind him. This person was half a head taller than Zheng Qi, and followed behind Zheng Qi with a bent posture. An empty messenger bag was slung across his waist, and he was wearing a white down jacket.
Her coat was half-open, revealing a half-wheat-colored neck peeking out from her gray-black turtleneck sweater. Her medium-length dark brown hair was slightly curly, as if it hadn't been styled, with two strands hanging down to cover her eyebrows and eyes.
He casually brushed his long, slender fingers back, revealing his sharply defined features. He had a high, straight nose, and thick eyebrows set against his prominent brow bone.
Her eyes were deep-set, with long, narrow, fan-shaped corners that slanted upwards. Her chin was sharp, with a sharply angled jawline. Her lips were of moderate thickness, with a faint smile at the corners, giving the lower half of her face a somewhat feminine appearance.
Lin Yu looked closely and realized it was Chen Guang, her classmate. In almost a year of being classmates, the only words she'd exchanged with Chen Guang were a few "borrow"s and "thank yous," far less than her familiarity with Zheng Qi from the next class. She shrank back, instinctively not wanting Chen Guang to notice she was studying with Zheng Qi, but she also realized there was no way to avoid it.
While Lin Yu was struggling with his inner conflict, Zheng Qi led Chen Guang over in a few steps and naturally sat down next to Lin Yu. "This is my roommate, he came here for last-minute cramming. You two are in the same class, you should know each other, right?"
Lin Yu watched as Chen Guang plopped down on the belly of her backpack, then belatedly lifted his buttocks, yanked the deflated backpack out, and tossed it onto the desk in front of her. She mentally gave him a big X after their first encounter, and her expression remained sullen.
"Oh, I think there is such a person."
Chen Guang leaned forward, pressing his arm down on Lin Yu's test paper, crumpling a corner of the paper. He snatched the lollipop from her mouth and sneered, "That's a bit hurtful. I'm handsome and intelligent, and the people who have a crush on me line up all the way to the school gate!"
This guy is so annoying and arrogant, that was Lin Yu's second impression of Chen Guang.
Chen Guang frequently skipped classes, and when he barely passed exams, he often resorted to shady methods. A class typically had around thirty students, with large lectures sometimes exceeding several hundred. Therefore, even though Chen Guang was physically striking, Lin Yu's impression of him remained merely that of a good-looking male classmate.
"You look darker in white," Lin Yu retorted, her words leaving Chen Guang utterly speechless.
He didn't expect that on their first meeting, this girl would attack his flawless appearance. She stared at Lin Yu with her mouth agape in disbelief, and her hand loosened, causing the candy to fall to the ground and shatter into pieces.
"Country girl."
"Li Kui".
"Local tyrant".
"Mine."
After watching the two exchange a few rounds, Zheng Qi burst out laughing. Lin Yu then snapped out of his daze, pursed his lips, and blushed with embarrassment at his earlier lapse in composure.
Taking advantage of the situation, Zheng Qi pushed a cup of milk tea in front of Lin Yu. "Drink it, it's Li Kui's treat!"
Lin Yu's palms were sweaty with shyness as he took the milk tea and shook it. The black pearls thrashed about at the bottom of the cup, like countless Chen Guang's heads fighting each other.
From then on, their self-study sessions turned into a three-person affair, and Chen Guang, true to his name, became the biggest third wheel in the history of Linjiang without even realizing it.
......
It is said that triangles are stable, and this stability lasted until Yao Fangfang discovered Zheng Qi and his girlfriend through her dormitory window.
It was early summer, and the two walked hand in hand on the rubber track of the playground below their dormitory, their bodies close together. The girl was a little taller than Lin Yu, and she gently rested her head on Zheng Qi's shoulder, her long, black hair cascading down Zheng Qi's back.
They were wearing matching red and white checkered shirts, and as they passed by Lin Yu's dorm window, the hems of their shirts were lifted by the evening breeze from the sports field. Lin Yu's dorm was on the third floor; from that height, the people on the sports field were probably not clearly visible.
Years later, she couldn't even recall how she felt when Yao Fangfang pressed her head down and made her look out the window, but the image of the two of them cuddling together, along with the red and white checkered pattern, was so beautiful, like a slow-motion scene from a movie, that it was deeply etched in Lin Yu's mind.
The clothes they wore were somewhat similar to the ones Lin Yu wore when he enrolled, but whether it was the price or their style, the ordinary clothes didn't look tacky on them; instead, they made them look youthful and vibrant.
Lin Yu immediately made a silent decision to throw away his own tattered, identical outfit. No, of course he couldn't just throw it away; he had to cut it a hundred times with scissors first.
She felt as if she had been struck dumb by Thor's hammer, her body charred and raw, unsure how to react. She could only stand there, stunned, at the window, her hands gripping the windowsill tightly, her palms smeared with grime from the sill. For the first time, she seemed to directly perceive the immense gap between herself and them.
Upon reflection, while the matter seemed somewhat sudden, it was also quite reasonable. After all, Zheng Qi had never mentioned his relationship status to her, and Lin Yu had always subconsciously avoided the topic during the past six months of their relationship. Given this, why would Zheng Qi proactively reveal whether he was in a relationship?
Yao Fangfang sighed, turned around and put her arm around Lin Yu's shoulder, half-jokingly comforting him, "Well, another good cabbage has been eaten by a pig. Settle down, Banban."
Lin Yu knew Yao Fangfang was trying to be considerate of her feelings. But in reality, those two downstairs were nothing like pigs; they were clearly two crystal-clear baby bok choy, worthy of being served at a state banquet.
Even though he was seething with envy, Lin Yu had to admit that the girl was gentle, elegant, and had an outstanding temperament. Standing next to Zheng Qi, they were a perfect match, like components in a mortise and tenon joint. In contrast, he was at best a hodgepodge of Northeastern stew, steaming hot but utterly unpresentable.
Thinking of this, she quickly drew the curtains, shutting out all discordant elements. Then she wrapped her arms around Yao Fangfang's slender waist, buried her face in her shoulder, and chuckled self-deprecatingly, "Life is easier when you're just an audience member!"
For the next two weeks, Zheng Qi never showed up in the study room again. Instead, Chen Guang took over Zheng Qi's spot without fail and shamelessly occupied Zheng Qi's original seat.
Without fail, he also brought two cups of bubble tea and wore a white shirt. However, as the weather gradually warmed up, the hot bubble tea became iced bubble tea, and the white down jacket was replaced by a white T-shirt.
Lin Yu thought that Chen Guang probably really liked white. After looking at this color for a long time, it seemed to have become his exclusive symbol, and it had become perfectly suited to him.
"Zheng Qi can't come today either. His girlfriend is going back to school. They've probably just arrived at the airport."
Chen Guang handed over the milk tea in his hand. Lin Yu looked at Chen Guang's newly cut buzz cut, which was close to his scalp. He looked less charming, and his exposed facial features appeared particularly sharp.
"His girlfriend isn't from around here?"
"Just kidding, he's a top student from Tsinghua University."
Lin Yu took the milk tea and looked at Chen Guang in disbelief. She had imagined that only someone outstanding could be worthy of Zheng Qi, but she never thought it would be someone this outstanding.
She was so outstanding that she was miles ahead of me, so outstanding that even Zheng Qi standing next to her would be considered to be climbing the social ladder, so outstanding that even my sulking seemed a bit ridiculous.
He was like a tire that had burst on the highway, limp and uncontrollably rolling rapidly toward the road, his hands weakly supporting his face as he slumped onto the table.
Chen Guang had no time to ponder her inner thoughts; he simply urged her relentlessly, "Drink up, and then highlight the key points on this test paper for me."
Lin Yu was already uninterested because Zheng Qi wasn't there; he was busy studying his notes and didn't bother to deal with Chen Guang. "I don't like pearls. Can you give me taro next time?"
"Oh! Next time, see? This is much better. You should say it out loud whether you like it or not. You used to be too gloomy." Chen Guang patted Lin Yu's head on the back of his head with satisfaction.
"This is a study room, please be mindful of discipline." Lin Yu turned his head and swatted away Chen Guang's claws that were hovering above his head.
"There's no one in the classroom right now."
"You look really dark in white."
Chen Guang paused for two seconds, then gave Lin Yu a sharp rap on the head. "Sorry, I take back what I just said. You're at least fifty percent sunny." Seeing Lin Yu looking at him with confusion, he continued, "Because you're always two-faced."
“Wrong, neither of my Yin and Yang are human,” Lin Yu retorted sarcastically.
"Stop talking nonsense and highlight the key points for me." Chen Guang ignored Lin Yu's low spirits and irritability, displaying the ugly face of a ruthless capitalist.
He didn't play it hard, and Lin Yu pretended to cover his head. "My head hurts, I can't draw."
Seeing Chen Guang seemingly disregard the proper boundaries between men and women, reaching out to touch his head again, Lin Yu hurriedly dodged, forced to submit. "Can you understand what I'm highlighting?"
"I have a brilliant plan." Chen Guang dismissively withdrew his hand, pulling out several blank sheets of paper from his bag and waving them in his hand. "Do you know what these are?"
"People born after Cai Lun should know this." Lin Yu glanced at him disdainfully.
Chen Guang was clearly quite pleased with himself and didn't take Lin Yu's mockery to heart.
"The exams have been going on for two days in the lecture hall downstairs. After they're over, some people throw their scratch paper on their seats, and then I just casually... understand?"
Lin Yu saw Chen Guang wave his hand in front of his face twice and honestly shook his head. "I don't understand, do you want to save a little bit of toilet paper?"
"You're really stupid!" Chen Guang looked at Lin Yu as if he were an idiot. "I copied the key points onto this and brought it into the exam room. I sneaked in the scratch paper during the break when the papers were being handed out. Which teacher would check the scratch paper? It was completely undetectable!" Chen Guang looked up, waiting for Lin Yu to bow down in sincere admiration.
“That’s called copying, not transcribing.” Lin Yu once again marveled at Chen Guang’s cunning in never using his skills in his studies.
"I'm not afraid of a straight shadow even if I'm crooked; I never do anything petty or underhanded." Chen Guang was like a dead pig that wasn't afraid of boiling water; no amount of ridicule could shake his determination to cheat.
Lin Yu was quite disgusted by Chen Guang's shamelessness and even more worried about his intelligence. "There are so many key points, even if your family owns a paper mill, you couldn't possibly copy them all."
Chen Guang habitually ran his hand through his hair, only to find nothing. He awkwardly scratched his scalp with his fingers. "So you need to explain it to me from the beginning. I won't write down what I can remember."
"I'm busy." Lin Yu refused to collude with Chen Guang.
"Oh, you have time to explain problems to Zheng Qi, but not to teach me? How can you be so hypocritical?"
“I’m your real classmate, he’s just a sycophant. I treat you to milk tea every day, while Zheng Qi just eats all your breakfast and then comments that the soy milk is too bland.” Chen Guang went on and on, listing Lin Yu’s evil deeds and his own good deeds, hoping to win back what little conscience she had left.
He touched a nerve with Lin Yu, but she still instinctively defended Zheng Qi. "Zheng Qi even tutored me in linear algebra and calculus."
"I can share my cheat sheets with you, and I can even teach you how to play basketball!" Chen Guang racked his brains to find his few advantages, determined to compete with Zheng Qi like a job applicant.
Lin Yu was too lazy to deal with him. Who would want to learn basketball for no reason? She would rather practice Tai Chi. Besides, Lin Min had taught her since childhood that she was lazy and ignorant of farming. Apart from her not-so-good textbooks, she said no to anything related to entertainment.
"If that's the case, then Zheng Qi can even teach me the saxophone!"
Seeing Lin Yu glaring at him, Chen Guang glared back, not to be outdone. The two of them, like two black-eyed chickens, involuntarily drew closer as they stared at each other, their noses touching, their breaths mingling, and the air became humid and ambiguous.
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