Confession to You in Early Summer (GL) - Chapter 19
Zhou Xiaoxiao seemed to sense the suppressed aura emanating from Yan Wei and cautiously took two steps back, tentatively asking, “Why don’t you give her a call?”
“Forget it,” Yan Wei deflated. “If she’s busy, then I shouldn’t bother her.”
Zhou Xiaoxiao hummed in agreement, retreated to sit by her bed, picked up a book to read, and munched on potato chips while reading.
A few minutes passed, and Zhou Xiaoxiao successfully finished a large bag of potato chips by herself. She threw away the bag and went to the washroom to wash her hands, only to see Yan Wei staring at her with a resentful expression when she came out.
“What are you doing?” Zhou Xiaoxiao leaned against the doorframe, as if facing a formidable enemy.
Yan Wei: “Lend me your phone.”
Tsk, knew it wouldn’t be that simple.
Zhou Xiaoxiao chuckled inwardly and took out her phone to hand it over.
Yan Wei got down from the upper bunk, took the phone, and went into the washroom, specifically pulling the glass door shut.
Zhou Xiaoxiao sat on the edge of her bed, looking at Yan Wei’s figure leaning against the windowsill with her head down. A strange thought suddenly floated into her mind.
Yan Wei in this state looked like a little girl who had fallen in love.
Ugh.
Zhou Xiaoxiao promptly stopped her wild thoughts, nipping this bizarre idea in the bud.
How could a top student have an early romance! Especially with another girl!
Zhou Xiaoxiao plopped onto the bed with a thud and pulled the blanket over her eyes.
Zhou Xiaoxiao’s parents were worried that smartphones would affect her studies, so they had given Zhou Xiaoxiao an old-fashioned button phone. It only had calling and texting functions, a flip phone with a small two-inch color screen, quite trendy.
Yan Wei hadn’t used this kind of old phone much, so she was a bit clumsy with it. Fortunately, the principles were the same. After a few tries, she figured out the key layout. Simple typing wasn’t a problem, just a bit slow.
She had originally wanted to send a text message, but after deleting and rewriting it repeatedly, Yan Wei was still unsatisfied. Finally, with a determined heart, she made the call.
A few beeps sounded, then it connected, and Jiang Youyi’s slightly deep voice, altered by the electricity, came from the other end. “Hello?”
Hearing Jiang Youyi’s voice over the phone for the first time, Yan Wei’s mind went blank. A sudden thumping vibration came from her chest, and she couldn’t remember a single word of the draft she had prepared earlier.
Having never experienced such nervousness, she actually lost her basic language skills.
Yan Wei also hadn’t expected the apprehension to come so suddenly. The facade she had built up in front of Jiang Youyi was so vulnerable.
The sound of breathing in the earpiece moved further away, probably because Jiang Youyi had taken the phone away to look at the caller ID. Then her voice came back, “Zhou Xiaoxiao? Is something the matter?”
“It’s me,” Yan Wei finally spoke.
The other end was silent for a few seconds, time stretched out, like a heartbeat falling to the ground.
Yan Wei heard Jiang Youyi repeat, “Is something the matter?”
“Can’t I call you if nothing’s wrong?” Yan Wei adjusted her breathing.
Even she didn’t realize that her tone of voice carried a hint of coquetry and grievance.
There was a clicking sound on the other end, like putting something on a table, followed by the sound of a door closing and locking. Then Yan Wei heard the reply, “You can call.”
The call fell into a brief silence again.
Yan Wei didn’t know what to say, and Jiang Youyi was even more speechless, but neither of them wanted the silence to amplify the awkwardness, so they spoke at the same time, “You…”
“You go first.”
Yan Wei wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but she felt Jiang Youyi’s tone was a bit gentle in that sentence.
The atmosphere was subtle. Yan Wei held the phone, leaning against the corner of the wall, her heart pounding.
She took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled, involuntarily lowering her voice. “I just wanted to ask if you got home okay?”
This sentence was a hundred thousand miles away from her original intention.
“Mm, I got home. Teacher Xu took me directly to the entrance of my building,” Jiang Youyi patiently replied to Yan Wei. “What about you? Are you doing homework?”
“I’ve already finished a set of practice problems,” Yan Wei said.
Jiang Youyi complimented her, “That’s amazing!”
Yan Wei: “…”
Phone calls cost money by the minute. She wondered how many minutes a bag of potato chips could cover.
Yan Wei still wanted to say something, but a knock suddenly came from the earpiece. Jiang Youyi spoke quickly, “Something’s come up here, I’ll text you back later.” Then she hung up the phone.
Yan Wei was stunned by the accelerating beeping sound in the phone, and it took her a while to come back to her senses. Then she embarrassedly covered her face.
Her heartbeat was still fast, an uncontrollable feeling.
The other person was clearly just a seventeen-year-old girl, while she came from the future seven years later, her soul seven years older than Jiang Youyi. Why was her aura so much weaker during a phone call?
What was she nervous about?
Returning the phone to Zhou Xiaoxiao, Yan Wei climbed back into bed and fell into deep thought. Half an hour later, she suddenly asked, “Xiaoxiao, did Jiang Youyi send you a text message?”
Zhou Xiaoxiao picked up her phone and looked at it. “Nope.”
“Oh, thank you,” Yan Wei’s hand holding the pen paused, and she added, “If she sends you a message, please tell me.”
An hour passed, and Yan Wei asked three times in succession, receiving the same reply each time.
Zhou Xiaoxiao was annoyed by her questions and directly handed over her phone. “Do you have something you need Jiang Youyi for? Why don’t you just call and ask?”
Yan Wei was hesitating whether to follow Zhou Xiaoxiao’s suggestion when the phone screen lit up in front of her eyes, indicating a new message notification.
She took the phone and opened the latest unread text message. The sender was indeed Jiang Youyi.
Can you come out now?
Yan Wei’s heart skipped a beat. Jiang Youyi’s words were clearly not meant for Zhou Xiaoxiao. She remembered the rapid knocking Jiang Youyi had heard before the call ended, and an uncontrollable panic inexplicably surged in her heart.
She clicked reply and typed a few words clumsily: Where are you now?
Before she could press send, Jiang Youyi’s second text message came in: Sent the wrong text just now, sorry.
How could Jiang Youyi make such a mistake?
Yan Wei didn’t reply to the text message and simply made a call.
It was picked up before a single beep could finish. Yan Wei asked head-on, “Where are you right now?!” Because she was too anxious, her suddenly raised shout almost cracked, startling Zhou Xiaoxiao.
The other end clearly paused, as if not having thought about what to say, mixed with the hesitation of picking up the phone quickly. After a few seconds, she replied, “Home.”
“Bullshit! Does your home have cars driving into the living room and honking?! Tell me quickly, where are you right now!”
Yan Wei furiously flipped down from the upper bunk, holding the phone in her left hand and grabbing the ladder with her right, quickly landing. Hearing Jiang Youyi give a street name, she said urgently, “You wait for me, I’m coming to find you now! If you dare to run before I get there, see if I don’t break your legs!”
The sight of the usually composed top student being so furious and spewing harsh words scared Zhou Xiaoxiao. Jiang Youyi on the other end of the phone was also stunned and didn’t dare to make another sound.
Yan Wei hung up the phone and shoved it into Zhou Xiaoxiao’s arms, grabbed her jacket and some change, and ran out, leaving Zhou Xiaoxiao alone in the dorm, utterly bewildered and dumbfounded.
Author’s Note:
Zhou Xiaoxiao: Who am I? Where am I?