CH 81

When Miaomiao arrived at school early the next morning, the class president from their neighboring class was weeping near a bookshelf in their classroom, and Zhou Yuan was reading a chemistry textbook in his seat…

Miaomiao thought that this was an unusual event because Li Jiao was crying in their classroom, and Zhou Yuan was the only one present.

Isn’t this situation a little odd?

She originally wanted to avoid this type of situation. She felt that she needed to deal with this predicament immediately in order to forestall her classmates from getting into some conflict with Li Jiao or the adjacent class. Then, she strolled into the classroom.

“Well…May I sit here?” Li Jiao, the class president from their adjoining class, uttered as soon as Miaomiao traversed into the classroom.

Li Jiao was referring to Miaomiao’s desk.

Before Zhou Yuan could speak, Miaomiao said, “No. Because if you sit here, then I won’t have a place to sit.”

Miaomiao sat in her seat before saying to Li Jiao, “What do you want from me?”

Li Jiao looked at Miaomiao. With tears streaming down her cheeks, she said, “Miaomiao, even though our two classes often were at odds with each other, we still had a good relationship…You…Why are you…”

As she spoke, she sobbed profusely and uncontrollably.

Miaomiao had a feeling that she had to have done something terrible to make a girl cry in such a way.

“I need more details.” After speaking, Miaomiao thought that her roommates should have gotten up by now, so it would take them quite some time before their arrival to class.

“The headteacher will invite my parents to school…my mother…my mother will definitely…” While uttering that, she couldn’t help but cry again.

Miaomiao expressed her sympathy due to seeing her tears.

It was because Miaomiao herself often cried when she was at her lowest.

But she was able to take care of that problem during middle class. At that time, she had just taken up the mantle of class president, and there were many things that she had to handle in class; furthermore, the students were much more unruly and rowdy than the norm. Although she tried to be more strict with them, the headteacher would still deduct points from her due to her performance. Furthermore, the headteacher admonished her by saying that if she displayed any more strict behavior towards her classmates, then she would be harshly reprimanded.

She wished she could cry every day back then.

So whenever Li Jiao cried, Miaomiao would tolerate her display of sadness.

Miaomiao was calm now because Li Jiao really cried too much. Every time the two classes did something together, the two class presidents were forced to cooperate with each other and organize it. For the majority of the time, Li Jiao’s performance was less than stellar, which led to a scolding from the headteacher, and then Li Jiao would burst into tears. Eventually, the headteacher would cease scolding her, and Li Jiao would walk out with a triumphant but smug expression on her face.

As a result, Miaomiao was used to Li Jiao and her duplicity and tricks, for she often used crying as a means to escape trouble. Miaomiao turned to look at Li Jiao’s target, Zhou Yuan.

Miaomiao gently patted Li Jiao’s shoulder and said, “Don’t worry. I won’t tell your mother about what had transpired at school.”

Li Jiao was taken aback for a moment. Hearing Miaomiao’s words, she stammered a little and asked, “What did I do at school?”

Miaomiao briefly turned her gaze to Zhou Yuan, who was next to her.

Li Jiao blushed and felt guilty and chirruped, “Hua Miaomiao, you are too much. I know that you like Zhou Yuan, but we’re just friends. You cannot target me because of this!”

Miaomiao’s eyes widened in disbelief.

Sure enough, this girl’s thought process will never disappoint me! Her assumptions and conjectures are truly impressive!

Miaomiao didn’t notice the slight movement from the person next to her.

“Yes, I know you don’t care for Zhou Yuan. You came to our classroom with tears in your eyes in the morning because you’re in love with me; therefore, you want me to feel sorry for you…”

Pulling a tissue from the side, Miaomiao wiped away Li Jiao’s tears, “You are very beautiful, but you look terrible when you cry.”

Li Jiao was taken aback. She then glanced at Zhou Yuan, who hadn’t even glanced at her once from the beginning. She then left angrily.

Miaomiao poked Zhou Yuan’s arm as she watched her leave, “How long did you let her cry on her own?”

Zhou Yuan looked at her and said, “Did you want me to cry along with her?”

Miaomiao: “…” A man as cold as steel.

“If you ever get a girlfriend, you should treat her better. The other party isn’t easy to deal with,” Miaomiao sighed.

Zhou Yuan raised his eyes and caught her effervescent, playful gaze, and realized what she just did.

It seemed that the panic and feeling of loss from yesterday, the feeling of not being needed, had completely disappeared.

When Miaomiao noticed that his stare was a little bizarre, she asked, “Why do you keep looking at me?”

Zhou Yuan tore his eyes away from her, “I’m happy that you’ve grown up well.”

After all, she became more buoyant and exuberant, but she still handled things in her own unique way.

“Do you remember Jingjing and Deng Feng?” Miaomiao asked, pulling out the exercise book from her schoolbag.

“Yeah.”

“The four of us should get together sometime. By the way, Deng Feng is an athlete now. He competed in a marathon two days ago.”

“Okay.”   

“Jingjing wondered if you would like to go to the hot springs together. Our destination is the same hot springs we journeyed to when we were young. She told me that the roasted whole lamb there was extremely delicious.”

Miaomiao had no memory of eating roasted lamb at the hot springs as a child.

Zhou Yuan was astounded for a transient moment, and then he remembered their little trip to the hot springs. He remembered holding hands with Miaomiao at the time. He also remembered when she tried to jump into the water ahead of him.

Even though he had no desire to go, he still nodded unconsciously.

“Then, let’s go next weekend.” It was obviously too late to go during this week.

“Jingjing and you have always been in the same school, right?” Zhou Yuan wondered.

“When we were in elementary school, we were always in the same class. In middle school, Deng Feng and I were in the same class, whereas Jingjing was in the class adjacent to ours. Currently, Jingjing is in class 7, whereas Deng Feng is in class 8.”

“Got it.”

Miaomiao squinted her eyes, “Tell me something about yourself. I’ve rambled on too much about myself.”

“I have nothing to share. After I separated from you, I disappeared to college.”

“I’m kind of looking forward to college,” Miaomiao froze as she finished her statement. All of a sudden, something had flashed in her mind. 

She felt this feeling clearly.

“What’s wrong?” Zhou Yuan asked when he saw her in a daze.

Miaomiao recovered and shook her head, “It’s nothing.”

She suddenly remembered that she had always wanted to go to college since her childhood because someone had told her that she had to attend college to work with her mother. In addition, her mother said that she could see Zhou Yuan at college.

When Miaomiao was young, she always dreamt of attending college with Zhou Yuan.