Give Me Heartthrobs 86

Chapter 86: IF Line – High School (Part 2)

Two people sharing one umbrella, walking towards the teaching building. Raindrops pattered on the umbrella, making the already quiet atmosphere between them even quieter.

Wen Yu turned to look at Ye Qizhen, even more surprised than that day. She had absolutely no resistance to her.

Ye Qizhen wasn’t as tall as Wen Yu, shorter by more than half a head, so she was particularly careful holding the umbrella, raising her hand high. It looked clumsy and strenuous.

Wen Yu noticed. “Let me.”

Ye Qizhen smiled at her. “Thank you.”

Wen Yu held the umbrella handle, rendered speechless by Ye Qizhen’s “thank you.” Looking at the dimples appearing as Ye Qizhen smiled, she suddenly understood intuitively why this girl was popular at school. She knew Ye Qizhen not just because of the rumors that they liked the same boy… Ye Qizhen had a very sweet smile, the kind that made everyone feel comfortable. She didn’t know if Ye Qizhen’s smile towards her right now was polite pretense, but she still found it comfortable and nice to look at.

Someone looked at them. Ye Qizhen felt the rate of turning heads was exceptionally high today, probably because of Wen Yu. Wen Yu was a walking topic in the school.

Just needed to cross one teaching building to arrive. Before long, the rain lessened. Summer rain was like this, as willful as a tantrum.

“Here.” Ye Qizhen found something to say; had to say something, otherwise it would be awkward.

Wen Yu closed the umbrella and handed it to Ye Qizhen.

Ye Qizhen looked at her face, almost forgetting to take the umbrella. It was the first time seeing her this close. She felt she was quite strange; she had zero interest in handsome guys, but couldn’t help looking a few more times at good-looking girls. For this reason, she even doubted her own sexual orientation a little.

“Thank you.” Wen Yu smiled faintly.

“You’re welcome.” Ye Qizhen replied politely. Although Wen Yu said thank you with a smile, there was still a coldness, giving the feeling that it was just to be even.

After interacting twice, Ye Qizhen inexplicably added a curiosity about Wen Yu. The outside world spread Wen Yu’s reputation unbearably, such as “slut” and the like, but she intuitively felt Wen Yu wasn’t like that. She started paying attention to Wen Yu. When going to the flowerbed to read or memorize words in the evening, she would look into the art studio.

The weather got hotter, and as soon as mosquitoes increased by the flowerbed, Ye Qizhen couldn’t read here anymore.

She swatted mosquitoes for a long time, suddenly hearing a sentence from the art studio: “Do you want to come in?”

Through the window.

It was Wen Yu talking to her.

Just like that, Ye Qizhen discovered a new secret base, which was the art studio. At meal times, there was almost no one in the studio; at most three or four people.

She also discovered that Wen Yu stayed in the studio almost every meal time, sometimes not eating, sometimes eating dry bread, never seen eating anything else.

“Why are you eating this again?” Seeing Wen Yu eating dry bread for the third time, Ye Qizhen couldn’t help complaining.

Wen Yu didn’t think anything was wrong. “Is there a problem?”

“Don’t you get tired of eating it?” Ye Qizhen said, “Want to try mine? Soup dumplings, let’s eat together, I bought too much to finish.”

Wen Yu subconsciously wanted to say no, but seeing Ye Qizhen’s harmless eyes, she wavered. “Mn.”

Ye Qizhen pulled a chair and sat next to her, looking at the drawing board. “You are practicing sketching.” Unknowingly, they got along much more familiarly, much more naturally than at the beginning.

Wen Yu bit a soup dumpling and nodded.

Ye Qizhen praised: “So amazing.”

Hearing her say this, Wen Yu asked, “Can you draw?”

Ye Qizhen almost choked. “No, I just think it’s amazing.”

Wen Yu looked at Ye Qizhen and smiled suddenly.

Ye Qizhen was still eating soup dumplings like a hamster, not understanding what the other party was smiling about, just feeling embarrassed being stared at so suddenly.

Wen Yu handed her a pack of napkins. “Wipe your mouth.”

Ye Qizhen reacted, embarrassed.

After finishing eating, Wen Yu still asked Ye Qizhen: “How much?” Her personality was like this, unwilling to owe anyone anything.

Ye Qizhen understood this mentality quite well, after all, she was like this too. But calculating things worth a few bucks was awkward, so she simply joked: “How about you treat me tomorrow?”

Wen Yu paused for a second, answering: “Okay.”

The more contact, the more Ye Qizhen felt Wen Yu wasn’t like what others said.

Fifteen minutes before evening reading, more people passed through the corridor. Ye Qizhen and Wen Yu walked upstairs to the classrooms together. It seemed that her walking with Wen Yu was a rare thing; bystanders loved looking at them.

Wen Yu deliberately kept a distance from Ye Qizhen. She was used to those chatters, never taking them to heart, nor attempting to explain.

Ye Qizhen’s classroom was on the fourth floor. Arriving at the third floor, she specifically said “Goodbye” to Wen Yu.

Wen Yu hooked the corner of her mouth slightly, thinking about something. She called Ye Qizhen back, “Wait.”

Ye Qizhen turned around. “Mn?”

Wen Yu: “Tomorrow evening at six, wait for me at the entrance of the art studio. Treating you to dinner.”

This must be the longest sentence she had ever said, right? For some reason, Ye Qizhen felt happy for no reason, smiling until her eyes curved. “Okay.”

The next evening.

Ye Qizhen was very punctual, arriving at the first-floor art studio ten minutes early. Soon, she saw Wen Yu also arriving early.

Wen Yu didn’t intend to approach, but signaled Ye Qizhen with her eyes.

Ye Qizhen understood and followed behind Wen Yu. Wen Yu walked very fast, so there was a small distance between them.

Walking to the back playground where there weren’t many people.

Wen Yu stopped and handed the food bag in her hand to Ye Qizhen. “Soup dumplings, promised to treat you.”

Ye Qizhen didn’t understand, asking, “Not eating together?”

The evening breeze blew quietly.

Wen Yu stood still. Looking at Ye Qizhen, she said blandly, “Don’t come looking for me in the future.”

When saying this sentence, she realized how insincere it was.

Even a bit uncomfortable.

After all, except for this girl in front of her, no one was willing to approach her.

Ye Qizhen’s expression froze. Holding the bag in her hand felt heavy. Even more confused, she masked her embarrassment with a smile, asking foolishly, “Why?”

Wen Yu was silent for a moment, also answering with a smile, “I’m still used to being alone.”

Ye Qizhen bit her lower lip quietly, unable to help thinking: Does she think I’m annoying, disgusting? Otherwise why say this?

Wen Yu looked at Ye Qizhen’s aggrieved and silent expression, then turned her head to look behind her. “I’m leaving.”

…

Midterm exam results came out.

Just after the results were announced, a group of people would gather in front of the bulletin board in the corridor. Most students would stop to look.

Wen Yu didn’t belong to the ranks of most people. But today she rarely stopped, scanning the names and rankings on the bulletin board line by line.

Then her gaze locked on a name.

Ye Qizhen.

Seventh place.

Quite impressive.

Ye Qizhen’s mood was slightly low. Tang Tang said she was insane—third in class, seventh in grade, with these grades what right did she have to be dejected in front of her?

Ye Qizhen couldn’t explain clearly. Maybe because of her period, maybe because some unpleasant things happened recently, her mood was as gloomy as the recent weather.

Yesterday when reporting grades to her family, her mother Chen Yin indeed lectured her severely, questioning why she fell out of the top five in the grade this time, whether she slacked off at school—simply suffocating.

But even more suffocating should be going home on the weekend. Ye Qizhen got a headache just thinking about it.

“Sweetie, are your parents going to the countryside this weekend?” Ye Qizhen locked her target on Tang Tang. She usually lived on campus and only went back on weekends, but this time she really didn’t want to go back and be nagged by her family.

“Yeah, going to Grandma’s house.”

“Can I stay at your house this weekend? We can do homework together.”

“First half okay, forget the second half.” Tang Tang almost rolled her eyes to the sky.

Ye Qizhen smiled. “So that’s a yes?”

Tang Tang made an “OK” gesture.

In the afternoon, plans couldn’t catch up with changes; Tang Tang’s parents didn’t plan to go to the countryside this weekend. Tang Tang naturally said it didn’t matter if her parents were home, but Ye Qizhen was thin-skinned, so she let it go.

With parents at home, Tang Tang guessed Ye Qizhen would be uncomfortable going, so she didn’t say more.

The day of the holiday was the liveliest time. Everyone couldn’t wait to scatter in a swarm, heading straight out of school. Especially students living on campus, cooped up in school for many days.

Ye Qizhen didn’t go home, wandering outside the school with her backpack. She had told her family that Tang Tang was home alone and she was going to keep Tang Tang company for the weekend.

What a perfect excuse originally.

Result…

A bit later, the liveliness passed, and most students went home.

The sky turned raven-blue, neither dark nor light.

Hungry, Ye Qizhen pushed open the glass door of a snack shop. “Boss, small wontons please.”

“Alright, wait a moment.”

Ye Qizhen patronized this snack shop basically every week. Cheap and delicious, very popular at No. 1 High School, good location too, right opposite the school.

Ye Qizhen ate wontons slowly. Sure enough, a bad mood affected appetite; clearly hungry but no appetite.

Drank a mouthful of soup with head buried, looked up again, she seemed to see Wen Yu…

Someone else came in, also wearing a school uniform.

“That was her just now. Her mom was a mistress to another girl’s dad in our class. Big fuss before.”

“I know, didn’t they fight at the parent-teacher meeting?”

“Yeah, the hair-pulling kind.”

“Let me tell you, never mess with her. Heard her boyfriend is a gangster.”

“Really?”

“Of course it’s true, xx saw her going home with that guy.”

“She lives off-campus, seems to be cohabiting with a man.”

“So open?!”

…

They were talking about Wen Yu. Ye Qizhen knew as soon as she heard. Similar rumors were discussed too much in school. The matter of Wen Yu’s mother being a mistress caused a huge uproar.

Ye Qizhen ate wontons uncomfortably tonight. Not only bad appetite, but also because a middle-aged man sitting diagonally opposite kept looking at her, smiling from time to time. Sensitive, she couldn’t eat the remaining small half bowl of wontons, preparing to leave.

Not sure if it was a coincidence, as soon as she got up, that man got up too, following her.

She became very vigilant instantly, surging with unease and fear.

On the street, lights were just coming on.

Wen Yu just came out of the bakery when she heard a loud voice: “Wen Yu.”

Like finding a life-saving straw, Ye Qizhen walked quickly towards Wen Yu, went up to link arms with her intimately, hugging her tightly. “Bought it? Let’s go back.”

Wen Yu reacted quickly, instantly understanding.