My pupils shrank.
If it were before, I probably wouldn’t have guessed it even if I cracked my brain open.
But now, I already had a name in my heart.
After thinking it over for a bit, I nervously typed the name on my phone keyboard and sent it out.
[Ning Ran]: Is it Wen Xu?
Before long, a reply popped up from the other side.
[Shen Zhugong]: Whoa!! How’d you guess that?!
My fingers trembled slightly as I typed back.
[Ning Ran]: It’s really him?
[Shen Zhugong]: Yep! You know how Teacher Hao has always thought highly of him. At dinner, one classmate suddenly started saying that Wen Xueba is too aloof and blah blah blah. Then Teacher Hao just went, “Don’t be fooled by Little Wen’s cold face—he’s actually a very warm-hearted student. Last year, when Bu Yaolian stole Ning Ran’s work, it was Wen Xu who reported it!” And then he said something like, “Look at him, does good deeds without even leaving his name—what a good kid!”
[Shen Zhugong]: Anyway, the compliments were flowing like a waterfall.
[Shen Zhugong]: We were all super shocked at the time. I mean, Wen Xu really doesn’t seem like the kind of person who meddles in other people’s business. You weren’t even close with him last year, right?
[Shen Zhugong]: But seriously, I didn’t expect you to guess it on the first try. Pretty smart, huh?
……
I was completely dumbfounded.
Never in a million years did I think Wen Xu would turn out to be that mysterious good Samaritan I’d been looking for all this time.
Shen Zhugong sent me a few more messages after that, but I wasn’t in the mood to read them. I rolled around in bed, eventually ending up by the bed rail. From there, I looked down at Wen Xu, who was sitting in front of his computer, fingers flying across the keyboard. My emotions were all over the place.
Logically speaking, doesn’t he like me? If that’s the case, shouldn’t he have bragged about it a little after doing such a good deed? Why didn’t he mention a single word of it?
While I was staring at Wen Xu’s back, lost in thought, Qi Yiming, who had just climbed up to his bunk, suddenly asked, “Ning Ran, why are you staring at Wen Xu?”
Me: “……”
Wen Xu clearly heard Qi Yiming’s comment too. His hands paused on the keyboard. Just as he was about to turn around and look at me, I quickly turned my face away, guilty as hell, and muttered to Qi Yiming while staring at the wall, “W-Who’s staring at him? Don’t talk nonsense.”
“Yeah yeah yeah, you weren’t looking, haha.” Qi Yiming flopped onto his bed with a laugh, clearly not taking it seriously.
But I nearly had a heart attack. My heartbeat was racing.
Right at that moment, someone tapped on the rail of my bed. I reflexively turned my head—and there was Wen Xu standing in front of me, speaking in a low voice: “Ning Ran, are you okay? Your face is really red.”
Instinctively, I touched my face.
Crap. It was burning hot.
“N-Nothing, I’m just gonna sleep!” I blurted out, panicking, then quickly turned away and pretended to sleep, back facing him.
That night, I couldn’t sleep at all. My head was a mess.
To be honest, I’d been feeling a little off these past few days too. My heart would start pounding and I’d get all flustered just looking at Wen Xu’s face. Before, I always came up with excuses to brush it off. But now that I knew he was the one who helped me back then, besides feeling grateful, something else had stirred in me.
I didn’t know what it was, but I knew it wasn’t a good sign.
So, in the next few days, I started avoiding Wen Xu.
I knew that this might “worsen his condition,” but at this point, I couldn’t care less. I needed to catch my breath first.
—
On Saturday night, Wen Xu wasn’t in the dorm. I quietly logged onto the anonymous forum and instantly got a message from [g5d6o4gpu1].
[g5d6o4gpu1]: Doctor, he’s been avoiding me lately… But I don’t know what I did to make him act like that.
[g5d6o4gpu1]: Could it be… that he found out I kissed him 8 times in the tent that night while he was sleeping?
……
Thanks for the info. Now I know.
So Wen Xu did notice I was avoiding him. Well, I wasn’t exactly being subtle about it—he’d have to be blind not to notice.
But seriously?! He secretly kissed me again while I wasn’t paying attention? This dude really needs to fix that bad habit!
Before I could process that bombshell, another message popped up from him.
[g5d6o4gpu1]: Doctor, I don’t want to wait anymore. I’ve decided—I’m going to confess to him right now.
As soon as I finished reading that message and was still stuck in a state of total shock, my phone started ringing.
The caller ID: Wen Xu.
