MTLY | Chapter 14
by _squishee◎She did it on purpose.◎
The warmth of the少年’s breath brushed against her, and Song Tinghuan suddenly did not dare move at all. Her pale fingertips pressed into the soft leather sofa as she leaned against the backrest and tilted her head slightly. All she could smell was the cool, clean scent of Jiang Yu’s body, mixed with a hint of dish soap’s fresh fragrance, faint and mellow, like oolong tea infused with lychee.
“Jiang Yu, you smell so nice.”
A cold drop suddenly landed at the corner of his eye. Jiang Yu’s fingers, pinching the eye drops, tightened unconsciously. Beneath him, the little girl curved her eyes, a faint pair of dimples blooming at the corners of her lips.
She was simply praising the scent on him.
Jiang Yu said, “Mm.”
“It smells like lychee oolong tea. When I was in Lingcheng, every year around June and July, my dad would make it for me. Lychee oolong that’s been chilled tastes especially good, and you can even freeze it into ice to make shaved ice with it.”
She seemed a little unable to hold back, wanting to share bits of her childhood with him, completely forgetting Song Mingcheng’s warning.
The little girl rambled on and on, even her tone turning lively. Jiang Yu could not tell the difference between that fragrance and the taste she described, and only frowned slightly. “Song Tingting, you…”
“Jiang Yu.” The eye drops, with a hint of borneol, seeped into her eyes. Song Tinghuan opened them, her pupils clear and soft. “Why do you always call me Song Tingting?”
Jiang Yu rested one hand on the sofa headrest and looked down at the girl’s tear-bright eyes.
Aren’t you called Song Tingting?
He did not say that. The girl’s gaze looked too soft, so soft he could not force out a single word with any emotion behind it.
“Jiang Yu?”
“Mm.”
“Do you actually not know that my name is Song Tinghuan?”
“…”
Jiang Yu did not know where Song Tinghuan got that sharp intuition. He smiled naturally, straightened up, and casually put the eye drops back on their cap. “Then don’t you go by Tingting?”
Song Tinghuan froze for a moment. The boy had a smile in his eyes, a pair of jet-black eyes, his low, magnetic voice biting down on the two syllables “Tingting,” tapping lightly against her eardrums.
“Or, what do you want me to call you?”
Song Tinghuan looked even more dazed now, the corners of her eyes red.
“Little rabbit?”
“…?”
She was not a rabbit!
*
Once April arrived, first and second year students also started evening self-study, and dismissal time was pushed from six in the evening to 8:30.
Every day, Song Tinghuan ate both lunch and dinner at school. Her circle of dining partners gradually grew, and she slowly became familiar with some other classmates in her class as well.
“Song Tinghuan.”
A boy from the desk behind her called her name. Song Tinghuan turned around. The boy was called Chen Yuan, handsome and scholarly, the same type as Liang Shiyi.
“Can you explain this problem to me?”
Song Tinghuan’s English grades were pretty good, though her speaking was a little weak.
“Sure.” Song Tinghuan nodded, turned back to take a pen from her desk, and seriously started explaining the grammar to Chen Yuan.
After a moment, she finished the problem and turned back around. Guan Linlin glanced at Chen Yuan behind her, then leaned close to Song Tinghuan and winked at her teasingly.
Song Tinghuan: “?”
Guan Linlin handed her a small note: [Does cy like you?]
Song Tinghuan looked confused: [Who is cy?]
Guan Linlin: “…”
Her little deskmate seemed to be completely clueless about liking.
Guan Linlin added two more words under the note: [Chen Yuan]
Song Tinghuan froze, clearly not expecting those two words.
Guan Linlin continued: [I’ve noticed it several times. Every time he looks at you, he turns red.]
Song Tinghuan did not understand.
At their age, this was exactly the time when young hearts started awakening, but Song Tinghuan truly seemed to have not had that spark at all. She felt nothing toward the boys around her. Everyone said someone was handsome, but she thought they were just so-so.
Oh, Jiang Yu was pretty handsome.
Thinking about what Guan Linlin said about Chen Yuan blushing, Song Tinghuan replied: [Maybe he just has fair skin.]
Guan Linlin secretly glanced back at Chen Yuan:
[He is pretty fair.]
[Actually, Little Chen is kind of handsome.]
[Damn it.]
Song Tinghuan: [Why are you cursing?]
Guan Linlin: “?”
Behind them, Chen Yuan softly called again, “Song Tinghuan.”
“Hm?” Song Tinghuan turned around. “Is there still a problem?”
“No.” The boy’s ears were red. “It’s just that, I know there’s a snack shop outside school that’s really good. For dinner, should we… should a few of us go try it together?”
Song Tinghuan was about to nod when she poked Guan Linlin. “Do you want to go out for dinner?”
Guan Linlin looked at Chen Yuan and smiled with the glee of someone watching gossip unfold. “Let’s go.”
“Okay.” Song Tinghuan nodded at Chen Yuan. “Then we’ll go together after class.”
A shallow dimple appeared at the corner of her lips, and Chen Yuan’s ears turned even redder at the sight. He lowered his eyes very quickly. “Okay…”
Beside them, Guan Linlin continued writing on the paper: [If cy doesn’t like you, I’ll cut off my head and use it as a soccer ball for you.]
Song Tinghuan looked blank. [But I don’t play soccer.]
Guan Linlin: “…”
*
As soon as the six o’clock evening self-study bell rang, the class swarmed out in a rush, with only one target, dinner.
Song Tinghuan and Guan Linlin went with Chen Yuan to that snack shop. Along with them was another boy Chen Yuan usually hung out with, called Fang Mingwei.
The shop was not big. The owner was from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and its main specialty was goldenfish wontons. The four of them sat by the window. Chen Yuan pulled out a tissue, wiped the table clean, then went to ask the owner for hot water to rinse the cups.
Guan Linlin leaned in to whisper to Song Tinghuan, “Didn’t notice it before, but Chen Yuan is actually pretty thoughtful.”
“Oh.”
Seeing how dazed Song Tinghuan was, as if she had not caught the point at all, Guan Linlin lost the urge to tease her. During the meal, Song Tinghuan ordered a bottle of lemon water. The cap was a little tight, and she tried twice without opening it. Just as she was about to grit her teeth and try a third time, Chen Yuan across from her said, “I’ll do it.”
“Ah? Oh… thanks.”
Song Tinghuan handed the water over. The boy had plenty of strength, and with a twist of his wrist, the cap came off. Song Tinghuan had not even reacted yet when Chen Yuan handed it back to her. “It’s a little cold.”
“Oh, thank you.”
Her voice was soft and sweet. Chen Yuan gave a low hum and quickly averted his gaze.
The waiter brought over the wontons. Song Tinghuan looked at the cilantro floating on the soup and only then remembered she had forgotten to mention it to the waiter just now. She held her chopsticks and slowly picked it out.
Across from her, Chen Yuan asked, “You don’t eat cilantro?”
“Mm.”
“Then next time I’ll tell the boss not to add it.”
What Jiang Yu and Li Yiliang saw when they passed by was exactly this scene, a boy and girl sitting across from each other at different tables, the girl’s voice soft, the boy’s ears red.
Li Yiliang bent an elbow over Jiang Yu’s shoulder, his face full of gossip. “Whoa, what’s this supposed to mean?”
Jiang Yu moved his shoulder and shook him off, the four words written clearly in his eyes, Don’t fucking touch me.
“No, aren’t you going to do anything?”
“Do what?”
“A premature romance.”
Premature, romance.
Jiang Yu looked at the two people whose atmosphere was sticky and cloying, and his fingers, tucked into his pants pocket, moved slightly. Or, should he really do something?
*
By the time evening self-study ended at 8:30, Song Tinghuan was, as usual, the last one to leave the classroom. Jiang Yu was still waiting downstairs by the first-year teaching building.
Song Tinghuan shuffled over. For the past two days, she had been thinking about something. He really did not need to wait for her every day like this. She was not a child anymore, and he did not need to pick her up and drop her off every day.
When he saw Song Tinghuan, Jiang Yu still habitually tossed his uniform jacket into her arms, then reached for the backpack on her shoulder. But tonight, Song Tinghuan did not go along with his motion to take off the bag.
“Jiang Yu.”
“Mm.”
The boy was still looking down at messages on his phone.
Song Tinghuan gathered her courage quietly. “I have something I want to tell you.”
“Mm.”
“It’s just…” Song Tinghuan bit her lip. “You don’t need to wait for me to go home after school anymore.”
The one who had been staring at his phone finally looked up, a slightly careless smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “Reason.”
“It’s just… I feel like I’m already a first-year high school student, and actually you don’t need to take me to and from school every day. You should have your own things to do too.”
Jiang Yu did not answer. He only looked quietly at the little girl across from him, and the scene he had seen outside the snack shop at dusk surfaced in his mind without warning.
“You don’t want to go to and from school with me, who do you want to go with?”
Song Tinghuan: “?”
“Your little boyfriend?”
Song Tinghuan: “??”
The words “little boyfriend” felt like a giant pot dropping from the sky, shocking Song Tinghuan beyond belief. “I… I…”
The girl was already thin-skinned, and now her pale face instantly turned red. Even her speech started to stutter.
“You what?”
Song Tinghuan took a deep breath. “I don’t have a boyfriend…”
“Oh, you don’t?”
The boy’s brows and eyes were smiling, his voice also a little careless. That carefree look made Song Tinghuan even more nervous. She reminded him in a small voice, “Don’t talk nonsense.”
“Oh.”
Maybe Jiang Yu did not quite believe her. Song Tinghuan held the strap of her backpack and emphasized again very seriously, “Jiang Yu, I really don’t have a boyfriend.”
She had never thought about dating early. That was true back in Lingcheng, and even more so now in Jiangbei.
Jiang Yu glanced at her. “Then who was that boy eating dinner with you tonight?”
The implication was obvious, I saw it with my own eyes, so don’t think you can make excuses.
Song Tinghuan blinked, as if remembering. “You mean Chen Yuan?”
“Mm…”
“Or Fang Mingwei?”
“Hm?”
Jiang Yu looked at Song Tinghuan, the corner of his lips tugging slightly. “Two?”
Song Tinghuan: “…”
The spring night campus gradually grew quiet, with security guards holding flashlights patrolling outside each classroom. The school had been cracking down hard on student conduct lately, especially early dating.
“Of course not.” Song Tinghuan denied it. “They’re all my classmates, not what you’re thinking. Don’t you eat with the girls in your class too?”
Jiang Yu felt he might actually have been a little too free lately, to the point where he had listened to Li Yiliang and stood here worrying about whether a little girl had a boyfriend. He was just about to say forget it, that he couldn’t be bothered to care, when he heard her ask that.
Don’t you eat with the girls in your class too?
Under Song Tinghuan’s accusing gaze, as if she did not believe he only ate with boys, Jiang Yu’s wicked little thoughts were stirred again. He nodded in all seriousness. “Oh, what a coincidence, I really don’t eat with female classmates.”
Song Tinghuan: “…?”
Song Tinghuan felt that Jiang Yu might not actually be talking nonsense. Although he was very popular with girls, the people he seemed to be close with were all boys, just like at that family gathering at the Jiang house, where it was also all boys.
Except for one legendary Han Jingjing.
Song Tinghuan had only seen Han Jingjing’s photos on the school forum. She was indeed very pretty. According to Guan Linlin, Han Jingjing was an arts student who studied painting. She had been away attending training for a while, and it seemed she had already come back, only she would not be attending classes until next week.
Song Tinghuan remembered that at the last gathering at the Jiang house, Jiang Yu did not let Han Jingjing come. Could it be that he was using reverse psychology?
“Jiang Yu.”
“Mm.”
“Recently…” Song Tinghuan hesitated, speaking tactfully, “do you feel a little bored?”
Jiang Yu’s motion of putting in his earphones paused slightly. Did he seem that obvious?
But if he was not bored, why would he care whether Song Tinghuan was early dating?
As if unwilling to admit it, Jiang Yu said vaguely, “Maybe.”
It really was!
So it really was because Han Jingjing had not been at school lately, and he had been left out, so he felt bored.
“Then hang in there a little longer. It should be soon.”
“What?” Jiang Yu did not hear clearly. A beam of light shot straight over from the teaching building, accompanied by the security guard’s booming voice: “Which class are you from? Why aren’t you going home yet?”
Song Tinghuan’s heart jumped, and her wrist was already caught. Jiang Yu gripped her wrist and led her straight toward the dark corner by the turn.
“Where did they go?” The security guard had already come over. Song Tinghuan was pressed into the narrow corner by Jiang Yu, still holding his uniform jacket in her arms.
The boy was tall and long-limbed, and she was completely wrapped in darkness.
Song Tinghuan could hear the security guard’s muttering voice, and through the fabric of his hoodie, she could hear Jiang Yu’s steady heartbeat.
Suddenly, she hissed softly.
“Shh…”
Jiang Yu pressed a finger to his lips, signaling for her not to make a sound.
But the earphone cord hanging in front of him had gotten tangled in her hair. Her scalp hurt from the tug, and Song Tinghuan had no choice but to lean closer. Her cheek was almost pressed against Jiang Yu.
Noticing something was wrong, Jiang Yu lowered his eyes, and saw the girl’s fluffy little head nuzzling and pushing at his chest.
Author’s Note:
Jiang Yu: She did it on purpose.
Song Tinghuan: ?