Chapter 152: Unrequited Love
He Mu Qing stared blankly at the familiar door number, the tear stains on her eyes already dried, the edges of her eyes a faint red.
She had fled back, as pathetic as a stray dog. Her courage always dissipated just as the few simple words were about to come out, like a bamboo shoot buried deep in the soil, struggling with all its might but stopping at the moment of breaking through the soil, never to grow into a verdant branch.
She looked at herself in the camera, her eyebrows furrowed into a line, her lips pouting high. This look was so ugly. The boy used to always tease her that her crying face looked like a Psyduck. The more he said it, the angrier she got, her mouth pouting even higher. That boy was so annoying back then. Well… he was the same now.
He Mu Qing’s mood suddenly improved a little. She rubbed her eyes, trying to make the redness and swelling go away. She gently knocked on the door and stood at the entrance for a while, feeling uneasy. The door opened, and an old woman with gray hair opened it. Her wrinkled face looked kind and friendly. “It’s Mu Qing. Didn’t you… take leave today?”
“Yeah, I finished my business, so I came back.”
“I see. Is it cold outside? Why are your eyes so red from the wind?” The old woman took off the reading glasses that were hanging on the bridge of her nose and squinted her dim eyes at He Mu Qing. She sighed softly. “Sigh, come in quickly. It’s warm inside.”
“Thank you. Um… is Teacher Huang not at home?”
He Mu Qing sighed in relief. She changed her shoes at the entrance and walked into the living room. The room had a faint smell of ink, and there were books everywhere. Even in the corners, there were a few books, new and old.
“You took leave today. Old Huang had nothing to do, so he went out to play chess with someone. I’ve corrected the test you did yesterday. It’s on the table.”
“Okay, thank you, teacher.”
The old woman looked up at He Mu Qing and then sat back down on the sofa, putting on her reading glasses and continuing to correct the homework on the coffee table.
The air conditioner was on in the room, and it was very warm. He Mu Qing took off her coat and put it on the sofa. She walked to the desk and sat down. On the desk were a few tests she had finished yesterday. There were red marks on the tests. She roughly looked at them. There were quite a few problems. She hadn’t done very well on this math test.
She pouted, but she really wasn’t in the mood to do any more problems. So she took out her notebook of mistakes and prepared to correct her mistakes first. The tip of her pen was on the blank paper, but she couldn’t sort out her thoughts. Time passed, and the dense problems on the test paper were in front of her, but she was immersed in another world, her brain uncontrollably wandering. She thought of the boy’s appearance.
The tip of her pen rustled on the paper. He Mu Qing suddenly came back to her senses. She stared blankly at the two words, Su Yu.
She curled her lips, and before the joy could reach her heart, a sour feeling welled up in her nose. She twitched her nose and smelled the fresh scent of grass in the sun.
“Mu Qing, you didn’t do very well on yesterday’s test. Why do you seem so distracted after the winter break?”
“Huh? Maybe a little.” He Mu Qing hurriedly took her pen and crossed out the name on the paper. The ink on the white paper became darker and darker. “I… I won’t do it next time. I’m sorry.”
“When your mom asked you to come here for tutoring, you refused to come.” The old woman put the corrected homework aside and looked at the girl with her somewhat cloudy eyes. “You suddenly agreed to come for tutoring, and you even said… you wanted to go to Qingchuan University? With your current state, you’re still far from it.”
He Mu Qing lowered her head and was silent. A girl’s thoughts were always hard to express to others. Her shy love was like a mellow wine, but she held the bottle tightly, not daring to let anyone smell a single bit of the fragrance.
The old woman’s son was a classmate of He Mu Qing’s father. The old couple were both retired senior teachers. They had nothing to do, so they opened a tutoring class. And since they were in the same neighborhood, during the time when He Mu Qing’s grades were not good, Mother He had always wanted to send He Mu Qing here for tutoring. But He Mu Qing was not willing, so it had never happened. The two old teachers were very responsible, and He Mu Qing’s current grades had a lot to do with this place.
“Su Yu is back for the New Year, right?”
He Mu Qing’s heart skipped a beat. Her expression became particularly unnatural, and her moist lips were a little dry, and she bit them until they peeled. “Yeah… he’s been back for a long time.”
The old woman slowly stood up and sat down next to He Mu Qing. The like in the girl’s eyes was exposed in front of her half-life of vicissitudes. She looked at the black ink that was smeared on the girl’s notebook of mistakes, just like the girl’s currently chaotic thoughts. She shook her head, and her wrinkled hand rested on the girl’s delicate hand. She had also been young once, and she roughly understood the girl’s thoughts.
“Since he can go to Qingchuan, it’s not impossible for you either.”
“I know. But I don’t know why. I’m just so sad. I seem to be…”
He Mu Qing raised her red eyes. The other party’s palm was very warm, as gentle and soft as the sunlight falling on her during an afternoon nap. She couldn’t hold back her tears again. Her nose was sour, and large tears fell down. The grievances that had been suppressed in her heart burst out like a flash flood. Her long, slender eyelashes were wet and drooping.
“I seem to be getting farther and farther away from him. Old Mo is gone too. Everyone is so far away. But I just want to be a little closer to him, like before, even just a little. Then the mango pudding he buys in the summer will still be cold when it gets to me.”
“Silly child. But you’ll go to Qingchuan sooner or later, right? To the same university as him. Then you can chase him again if you like him.” The old woman gently stroked He Mu Qing’s wet eyes. She didn’t know how long the girl had been crying in private. Her delicate skin was pink, which was heartbreaking.
“Do you think I chased your Teacher Huang back then? From when…”, she smiled, the smile lines at the corners of her eyes wrinkling as she recalled. “It’s been a long time. I seem to have forgotten too.”
Suddenly, a ringing sound came from the door. He Mu Qing subconsciously wanted to get up and open the door, but she was stopped by the old woman. “I’ll get it.”
The old woman walked to the door and looked through the peephole. She turned her head, took off her reading glasses, and pointed to the corners of her eyes, smiling kindly at the girl.
He Mu Qing immediately understood something. She kept wiping the tears in her eyes with her sleeve and pursed her cherry-pink, thin lips, trying her best to look as if she hadn’t just cried.
A moment later, the door opened, and a cold wind blew in. The temperature in the room suddenly dropped. She looked up with her half-dried, tear-stained eyes. The boy was standing at the door, tall and handsome. The messy hair on his forehead was blown by the cold wind, and a little sweat was dripping down. He was panting rapidly, but he still tried his best to wink at her and smile gently. It was the boy that He Mu Qing could catch at a glance even with her peripheral vision.
He Mu Qing looked straight at the boy. She didn’t want him to see her sad. A bright smile appeared on her lips. This was her silent confession.
I like you… I always have.
