CH 90

Miaomiao was frightened. She was choking all of a sudden and began drowning in the water. She woke up immediately after this realization had struck her.

Immediately afterward, she felt as if someone was holding her, embracing her, and she was lifted right out of the water before she knew it. Zhou Yuan asked, “Is he really that important? Even if falling in love with him will hurt you?”

Zhou Yuan had no idea that she was drowning. He was under the assumption that she simply dipped her head under the water to think about Deng Feng.

Miaomiao was still coughing from the choking. Her eyes and face were tinctured with a reddish tint.

Zhou Yuan angrily picked up a towel from the side of the pool and wrapped it around her.

Miaomiao thanked him, “Thank you for the assistance right now.”

Zhou Yuan: “You’re welcome.”

Miaomiao had sensed Zhou Yuan’s unhappiness, so she explained, “I was under too much pressure during this time. When I entered the pool, the warm water relaxed me and calmed my mind, so I fell asleep. I usually do not fall asleep that easily.”

Her sudden elucidation had stunned Zhou Yuan, “You fell asleep? So that means that you were drowning?”

“Yes. What else do you think I was doing? I’m not going to choke myself and hold my breath for fun, right?” Miaomiao smiled and said, “But thank you anyways.”

Miaomiao said, “How about we soak in the water for a bit longer? This way, we could speak to each other so that I wouldn’t fall asleep so quickly.”

They had already paid for two hours of soaking time, but they had only basked in the hot spring’s warmth for half an hour. The business wasn’t willing to refund them; therefore, they didn’t want to waste and squander their money.

Miaomiao slipped out of her bath towel and entered the pool again.

“Zhou Yuan, here.” Miaomiao said.

Zhou Yuan hummed and entered the pool. Both of them basked in a spot that wasn’t too far away from each other, but they weren’t too close either. Zhou Yuan wasn’t an idiot. Miaomiao donned her swimsuit and edged closer to the pool, but Zhou Yuan noticed her slight nervosity.

Therefore, he chose to distance himself a little from her.

Miaomiao was soaking in the hot spring. Her voiced was interlaced with laziness and lack of care as she said, “Zhou Yuan. What’s the matter? Why are you so unhappy today? Can I help?”

After giving her a piercing gaze, Zhou Yuan realized that she had no idea about the quandary she had caused.

Zhou Yuan began uttering, “I…”

Miaomiao had a premonition of what he was going to say. She couldn’t help but say, “You have someone you like, don’t you?”

Zhou Yuan peered at her, observing her reactions. He became curious and wanted to know what she would do after hearing his answer.

“Yeah,” Zhou Yuan nodded.

Is that love, or is it merely a predilection? Or is it a simple like for someone?

He wanted to have the other person’s full attention. He even childishly wanted the other person to look at him all the time; her gaze had to be fixed on him at all times. 

He yearned for the two of them to grow closer. It wasn’t the same kind of closeness they had now.

It’s the other kind of liking.

Miaomiao pressed her temple. Despite her skepticism, she still wanted to believe that he could handle his own emotional issues independently and nonchalantly since he was a calm and mature individual.

Miamiao looked at the youngster in front of her and noticed his bad mood. She had a very ominous feeling in her heart.

“That…Does she like you?” As she asked, she secretly hoped in her heart that the other party would like him, too.

When she wasn’t busy at school, she mostly hung out with Jingjing and Deng Feng. As a result, she mostly dealt with their own relationship problems.

If Zhou Yuan started getting his own relationship problems, then this would only serve to exacerbate her stress.

Zhou Yuan mused for a while and replied, “She already has someone she likes.”

Miaomiao: “…” Are you following in Deng Feng’s footsteps? It’s the exact, same dilemma. They both have someone they liked, but their feelings aren’t reciprocated.

Miaomiao produced a pot of rice she had cooked earlier today, reheated it and presented it to Zhou Yuan*.

“We are still young and insecure at heart. You may just like her for some very superficial reasons, rather than for who she truly is. Almost like an idealization or a romanticization, we usually fall in love with the character that we imagine them to be. Some people do tend to gravitate towards comfortable delusions and lies and delusions rather than uncomfortable truths, after all. So, they would rather fall in love with a false image rather than facing the truth.”

“What?”

Miaomiao expounded further, “I mean, sooner or later, she’ll wake up one day and fall in love with you.”

Zhou Yuan looked at Miaomiao and said, “That makes me feel much happier.”

“By the way, is the person you like a fellow student from our student, or is it simply someone you know?” Miaomiao was an adolescent girl who wanted to indulge her curiosity.

In order to sate her curiosity, she wanted to know what kind of girl could make Zhou Yuan fall madly in love.

Because Zhou Yuan radiated an aura of intelligence that made it seem as if he was very strong and all-powerful. But she was unable to picture a girl who could make Zhou Yuan fall in love.

Is it because puberty has arrived? Why does everyone seem to have some sort of relationship problem?

Zhou Yuan remained silent for a while. When he found that Miaomiao was nonchalant and relaxed, he asked, “You…”

At first, he wanted to ask what she liked about Deng Feng, but since she probably would not tell him directly, he tactfully asked instead, “What sort of guy do you like?”

“I like cute boys.” The atmosphere between them became very harmonious, so Miaomiao continued, “I cannot resist cute boys. I find them irresistible.”

Zhou Yuan looked at his own reflection in the hot spring’s water, “…”

“I never told anyone this, but there was a boy I liked in my junior high school class. He had good grades, spoke very arrogantly, looked cute, and had the temperament of a puppy.”

Miaomiao’s voice was laced with a hint of joy. Zhou Yuan twinged with discomfort and asked, “What happened?”

“Later on, he became my deskmate for half a semester. He was completely different from what I had imagined. Like I had delineated earlier, I fell in love with an idealization of him. I fell in love with a false image that I had conjured up in my mind.”

Zhou Yuan: “…” Honestly speaking, that didn’t improve my sour mood.

Miaomiao then continued, “Now that I have told you my secret, what about you? What type of person do you like?”

Zhou Yuan: “She’s a very nice person.”

Miaomiao: “Your answer is too perfunctory. Please consider answering like I did. My response was much more sincere. However, if you have someone you like, you can’t always keep helping me in the future.”

If Zhou Yuan did, in fact, like someone, then they shouldn’t be too close, or there would be some misunderstandings, which could arouse jealousy in the other person.

This stunned Zhou Yuan for a moment. He never expected this sort of response from Miaomiao. His first reaction was to ask if she was already aware of something, “You…”

Miaomiao said, “What’s wrong?”

Zhou Yuan, “…Do…Do you think I’m cute?”

*This is referring to the advice she gave to Deng Feng in the previous chapter.