Confession to You in Early Summer (GL) - Chapter 4

The 29th was a Friday. Yan Wei woke up looking at the dormitory ceiling, a strange impulse stirring within her.

Jiang Youyi continued to avoid Yan Wei. During class breaks, to prevent herself from being distracted by random thoughts, she actually started diligently doing her homework.

In math class, the quiz papers from yesterday were handed out. The math teacher told the students to first look at their incorrect answers themselves, and then called out Yan Wei’s name, “Yan Wei, please bring your paper up here.”

Zhou Xiaoxiao was a little worried. Yesterday, she had watched Yan Wei hand in her paper with many blank questions. Yan Wei was definitely going to be scolded.

However, the person being worried about had a calm expression. Yan Wei roughly scanned the test paper, folded it in half, and stood up with it in her hand. Her heel bumped into the chair leg, making a soft click.

Several students looked over, but quickly lowered their heads to continue looking at their mistakes. However, two gazes followed Yan Wei out of the classroom, witnessing the math teacher in the corridor sternly criticizing the good student for her lax attitude towards learning.

One of these gazes belonged to Zhou Xiaoxiao, and the other came from the female student by the window in the back row.

Jiang Youyi sat on the other side of the classroom, unable to hear the sounds in the corridor. She could only infer from the teacher’s and student’s expressions that Yan Wei was probably being reprimanded.

How odd.

After a short while, Yan Wei bowed slightly, as if acknowledging her mistake. The math teacher waved his hand, and the two walked back into the classroom one after the other.

Jiang Youyi lowered her head at the right moment, pretending nothing had happened.

Yan Wei returned to her seat, and Zhou Xiaoxiao immediately leaned over to whisper with concern, “Are you okay?”

Yan Wei couldn’t help but chuckle. Wasn’t it just handing in a blank paper and being taken out by the teacher for a private lecture? What was the big deal?

As a student, if you didn’t hand in a few blank papers, then your years of studying were wasted. Losing the recklessness that youth should have was the real regret.

This was a truth Yan Wei only realized after she went to university.

Now that she could re-experience the feeling of youth, Yan Wei thought it wasn’t bad, although she hadn’t intentionally handed in a blank paper.

However, it seemed that in Zhou Xiaoxiao’s eyes, this was a truly serious matter.

To prevent her deskmate from making a fuss, Yan Wei organized the incorrect questions on her test paper while saying to Zhou Xiaoxiao, “This kind of thing will happen often in the future, you should get used to it as soon as possible.”

“Huh?” Zhou Xiaoxiao looked completely bewildered.

Yan Wei didn’t explain further. She wasn’t joking with Zhou Xiaoxiao. These test papers were almost like celestial scriptures to her now. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to do them properly, it was that she simply couldn’t.

It had been six years since she graduated from high school. Choosing science subjects in high school had been her parents’ rigid requirement. Later, after Jiang Youyi’s accident, she had become particularly rebellious overnight.

She failed the college entrance exams miserably and repeated her senior year. Ignoring her parents’ scolding, she switched to the liberal arts class midway through, used her top city scorer results to give up the prestigious Qinghua University in the capital, and enrolled in the most famous law school in the country, located locally.

She studied law in university and continued her studies in graduate school, completely transforming into a liberal arts student, forgetting almost all the knowledge from her high school physics, chemistry, and biology textbooks. It would take time to pick it all up again.

Yan Wei began to compare the wrong answers and flip through the books to find solutions. Zhou Xiaoxiao turned her head distractedly, out of sorts for the entire class, not knowing what she was thinking. Yan Wei didn’t pay her any attention.

After class, Yan Wei was called to the office by the teacher of the next period. Jiang Youyi took her water cup to the front of the classroom to get some hot water. On her way back, she passed by Yan Wei’s desk. The blank test paper was openly spread out on the desk, with familiar red crosses and a low score, as well as a familiar name. But these two elements together were truly big news.

Yan Wei didn’t get a chance to talk to Jiang Youyi all day Friday. Jiang Youyi was a local and didn’t stay at school on weekends. After finishing classes in the afternoon, she packed her things to go home, but was stopped at the classroom door.

“What?” Jiang Youyi looked at the female classmate blocking her way, her face expressionless.

Yan Wei wanted to say something but stopped, stopped but wanted to say something again, and finally asked dryly, “Going home?”

Jiang Youyi: “…”

She shrugged, her backpack slung over one shoulder about to fall off. Wasn’t it obvious?

The top student didn’t seem very smart these past two days.

“You should go to the cafeteria to eat,” Jiang Youyi said.

Her attitude of refusing to communicate was too clear. Yan Wei only persisted for five seconds before retreating due to the awkward atmosphere. Jiang Youyi quickly walked past her and went downstairs around the corner.

Failed again.

Yan Wei felt a little frustrated and downcast.

The evening self-study on Friday wasn’t strictly checked. Many students skipped it to go online outside the school, leaving more than half the seats in the classroom empty.

After dinner, Zhou Xiaoxiao passed by the small shop downstairs in the teaching building and bought an extra bottle of yogurt to bring into the classroom. She was surprised to find that her top student deskmate wasn’t studying at this time.

She turned around and asked the female student at the desk behind her, “Isn’t Yan Wei here?”

The female student looked up, glanced at the empty seat next to Zhou Xiaoxiao, and said, “Didn’t notice, don’t think I saw her.”

The top student had really been acting strange these past two days.

Zhou Xiaoxiao leaned back on her desk, distractedly twirling her pen. She finished a box of yogurt in no time.

She threw the empty box into the plastic bag beside her desk that was temporarily holding trash, sighed looking at the extra box on the corner of her desk, and then buried herself in writing two problems.

Too annoyed, too restless.

Unable to continue her homework, Zhou Xiaoxiao simply put down her pen, picked up the box of yogurt, and returned to the dorm.

The female student at the desk behind saw Zhou Xiaoxiao get up and leave, blinking in confusion. Weren’t the top students studying tonight?

Yan Wei didn’t go to the classroom or stay in the dorm. No one knew where she had gone. When she returned, it was close to lights out. She didn’t talk to anyone, took a shower, and went straight to bed.

Zhou Xiaoxiao on the lower bunk threw away another yogurt box before going to bed, brushed her teeth, lay down, and looked thoughtfully at the bed board above.

Jiang Youyi didn’t return to school until Monday morning. Among the crowd of students going to morning self-study one after another, she walked alone towards the dormitory, looking out of place.

When she went upstairs, there was basically no one in the dorm. As before, she planned to sleep through the first two periods before going to the classroom, but unexpectedly ran into Yan Wei, who had just left, at the stairwell.

Jiang Youyi: “…”

She turned around to leave, but Yan Wei strode over and stopped her.

“How did you get the injury on your face?” Yan Wei was anxious, her speaking speed faster than usual, not giving herself time to think or hesitate.

Jiang Youyi didn’t answer, but asked in return, “Why are you still in the dorm?”

“Tell me first.” Yan Wei stared unblinkingly at the bruise on the corner of Jiang Youyi’s mouth, a large patch, and her lower lip was also broken, with a scab formed.

Jiang Youyi felt uncomfortable under her gaze. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly, her tone cold and hard. “It’s none of your business. If you don’t leave now, you’ll be late for morning reading.”

Yan Wei still didn’t leave, looking stubborn as if she wouldn’t give up until she got an answer.

It was a look she hadn’t seen before, a little captivating.

Ugh, don’t be captivated.

“What can you do even if you know? Express condolences on behalf of the classmates?” Jiang Youyi’s patience was running out, her tone clearly impatient.

This time, Yan Wei didn’t back down, saying in one breath, “No matter what, as long as you’re willing to tell me, I will definitely stand on your side.”

This was the longest sentence she had said since their reunion.

Jiang Youyi was stunned for a moment, then the corners of her mouth curled up in a smile, a smile full of sarcasm that made Yan Wei very uncomfortable, as if silently asking her: What do you even know?

But Jiang Youyi didn’t ask that question. She changed her words and said, “Want to help me as a friend? Stand up for me?”

Yan Wei: “…Mm.”

Actually, she wanted to say it wasn’t entirely that, but she had no right to.

Jiang Youyi’s smile gradually disappeared. She said, word by word, “I don’t need it.”

She turned sideways, wanting to walk past Yan Wei, while dropping a sentence, “Mind your own business, don’t be so full of misplaced sympathy. Not everyone is like stray cats and dogs needing others’ pity.”

Jiang Youyi’s patience had run out. Her words were harsh and hurtful. If it had been the old Yan Wei, she would definitely have been stung into silence.

But she was Yan Wei seven years later.

She wanted to change all of this.

Jiang Youyi didn’t manage to get away because Yan Wei grabbed her wrist. “What if I agree to it? Then I won’t be ‘anyone else’.”

For a fleeting moment, Jiang Youyi thought she was hallucinating.

Yan Wei’s focused and earnest gaze was truly captivating, just like when they had first become deskmates last semester. Once, she had skipped class and been caught by Yan Wei. Yan Wei had stopped her on the road and told her that skipping class was bad behavior, so earnest that it was a bit stubborn, and a bit cute.

But Jiang Youyi quickly came back to her senses, blinked hard, blinked away the sourness in her eyes, her tone colder and more distant than before. “Today is April Fool’s Day. Your joke isn’t funny at all.”

After speaking, she shook off Yan Wei’s hand and walked towards the stairwell, not going back to the dorm, but directly to the classroom.

She didn’t necessarily not understand that Yan Wei wasn’t joking with her, but if Yan Wei was just pitying her, she felt it was completely unnecessary, and even wanted to get angry.

Yan Wei wasn’t a merciful savior, and she wasn’t a pitiful person who needed to be saved.

Watching Jiang Youyi’s figure disappear around the corner, Yan Wei’s sudden courage deflated like a punctured balloon in an instant.

She seemed to know why Jiang Youyi was angry, but upon closer thought, she didn’t understand at all.

Perhaps, she didn’t really understand Jiang Youyi, so her self-righteous understanding and concern hadn’t had the intended effect, but had instead severely hurt Jiang Youyi’s self-esteem.

Yan Wei was unsurprisingly late for morning reading. The Chinese teacher made her stand at the door and asked her to recite a classical text. Yan Wei couldn’t remember the science knowledge, but she remembered the liberal arts stuff quite well and didn’t embarrass herself in front of everyone.

Zhou Xiaoxiao expressed great concern about her top student deskmate’s abnormality.

During the long break, Yan Wei got up to go to the restroom. Before leaving, she glanced at Jiang Youyi’s seat. She wasn’t there; she had gone out just now.

Jiang Youyi had an injury on her face, which was too conspicuous. She definitely wouldn’t go to crowded places.

Yan Wei climbed to the top floor of the teaching building. This floor was all laboratories, with few people, and there was a restroom with a broken faucet in the corner.

The person she was looking for was indeed here.

Jiang Youyi was leaning against the white tiled wall, smoking. Seeing Yan Wei find her, she was a little surprised, yet not so surprised.

They often came to this place last semester.

Jiang Youyi didn’t hide. She raised the cigarette butt in her hand, which was emitting white smoke, flicked off the ash, and said half-jokingly, half-sarcastically, “Caught in the act. Does the good student want to tell the teacher?”

Yan Wei had taken a deep breath before coming, mentally prepared. Her expression didn’t change as she walked towards Jiang Youyi, snatched the cigarette butt from her hand, and then put it in her mouth and took a puff.

The spark lit up and then went out, burning to the end. Yan Wei exhaled a smoke ring, blowing it in Jiang Youyi’s face.

Jiang Youyi watched Yan Wei stylishly put out the cigarette butt and throw it into the trash can not far away.

The series of actions was smooth and natural. After that, she turned her head and patted Jiang Youyi’s shoulder. “This brand of cigarette isn’t good, it has a strong smell and it’s too harsh.”

Yan Wei took out an unopened, exquisite cigarette case from her school uniform pocket and stuffed it into Jiang Youyi’s hand. This was a women’s cigarette that had just come out in recent years and wasn’t particularly famous yet. It was also Yan Wei’s own favorite brand later on.

“This one is lighter, the lingering smell isn’t obvious, and it’s not easy for teachers to detect,” Yan Wei said, then clapped her hands, turned around, and left.

Jiang Youyi was dumbfounded.