Confession to You in Early Summer (GL) - Chapter 6

Students who hadn’t participated in the hike before couldn’t truly understand the pain of walking 17 kilometers. The freshmen who had been so excited at the beginning all received a painful lesson.

They had been so cheerful at the start, but by the end, they were so painful that they had to crawl on their knees to finish the entire journey.

However, the sophomores, who were well-prepared, didn’t seem to be much better off. The first half of the journey was filled with laughter and joy, but in the second half, they were pulling each other along, not wanting to continue but unable to stop.

Yan Wei couldn’t continue after walking halfway. Her feet were blistered, and every step was excruciatingly painful. She simply found a seemingly clean rock by the roadside and sat down to rest for a while.

This outdoor activity was truly a double test of physical strength and willpower. Yan Wei could study in the classroom all day without getting distracted, but her body couldn’t withstand a 17 kilometer hike and had to stop and massage her calves to rest.

Jiang Youyi had already left without a word after the incident with the water, not saying a single extra word. She was probably almost at the end of the trail now.

Zhou Xiaoxiao sat down beside Yan Wei. Around them, classmates were gradually overtaking them, and some, like Yan Wei, couldn’t go on and stopped to rest in twos and threes.

“Yan Wei, isn’t your home in Yizhou? This hike ends this afternoon, are you going home?” Zhou Xiaoxiao took a sip of water and chatted casually with Yan Wei.

Yizhou was a 4 or 5 hour drive from Fudou. Yan Wei usually boarded at school and didn’t go home often, only returning during the long holidays. With a three-day Qingming Festival break, after accounting for the time spent on the highway, there were still two days to rest.

“Yeah, I’m going back,” Yan Wei replied, her mood a little down, but she didn’t let Zhou Xiaoxiao notice.

Zhou Xiaoxiao’s home was in the city, but her parents didn’t care much about her, so she usually boarded at school on weekends too. But she should be going home for the Qingming Festival.

“Oh,” Zhou Xiaoxiao responded, sounding a little disappointed.

Yan Wei asked her, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Zhou Xiaoxiao sighed as she swung her legs. “It’s just that my parents have gone back to their hometown for Qingming and didn’t take me with them. I’m left to stay in the dormitory by myself, and everyone else has gone home. I’m so lonely!”

Yan Wei couldn’t help but chuckle, but unfortunately, she had to go back. Otherwise, it would be nice to stay and keep Zhou Xiaoxiao company.

“There are a few students in the next dormitory who live far away and probably won’t go home. You can ask them to hang out together. Two or three days will pass in a blink of an eye,” Yan Wei said, standing up after resting.

Zhou Xiaoxiao shrugged and didn’t respond.

The remaining half of the journey was particularly difficult for Yan Wei. If she hadn’t been concerned about her image, she would have wanted to give up and lie down on the spot, pretending to be sick, and ask the patrolling teacher for a ride.

But in the end, she persevered and finished the entire journey, arriving at the parking lot with Zhou Xiaoxiao before 6 o’clock.

The students from Class 11 were already there, only Yan Wei and Zhou Xiaoxiao were missing. After being tortured by the 17 kilometers, the girls looked visibly haggard. Some were playing on their phones, while others were chatting.

The school had strict rules about phones, and teachers were absolutely not allowed to bring them to class. But for this rare outdoor activity, Teacher Xu turned a blind eye to students using their phones.

The boys were howling and making a ruckus in the bus, not looking the least bit tired.

Yan Wei and Zhou Xiaoxiao got on the bus and found that the only two empty seats were separate, one in the middle of the bus and the other at the back, one in front of the other.

Two girls were sitting by the window, and Jiang Youyi was sitting in the back seat.

Since they came later, Yan Wei and Zhou Xiaoxiao had no reason to ask others to move to the aisle seat. Yan Wei glanced at Jiang Youyi and turned to Zhou Xiaoxiao behind her, saying, “I don’t know Zhang Yutong very well, so I’m not comfortable sitting next to her. Why don’t you sit next to her?”

Zhou Xiaoxiao had no objections to Yan Wei’s arrangement. The front was better than the back, and Yan Wei was letting her have the better seat.

However…

“Jiang Youyi doesn’t seem to be in a good mood. Are you sure you’re okay with that?” Zhou Xiaoxiao was a little worried. Jiang Youyi’s emotions were too obvious. She hadn’t talked to anyone since she got inexplicably angry just now.

Yan Wei smiled, “It’s okay.”

“Alright,” Zhou Xiaoxiao said dubiously.

Yan Wei and Zhou Xiaoxiao had agreed on their seating arrangement, and Yan Wei walked directly towards the back of the bus. Jiang Youyi was listening to music with her earphones on, and amidst the noisy environment, she was alone, looking out the window, appearing exceptionally quiet.

Someone sat down in the empty seat next to her. Jiang Youyi didn’t turn around until the bus started, and then she realized that the person sitting next to her was actually Yan Wei.

Yan Wei took off the backpack she had been carrying and held it in her arms. She opened the zipper and rummaged around inside. She lowered her head, and a few strands of her long bangs, tucked behind her ears, half-covered her face.

Her forehead, nose bridge, lips, and jawline outlined a soft yet varied curve. Her youthful face exuded a youthful aura, yet she was more mature and steady than most of her peers.

And excellent.

Jiang Youyi added silently in her heart.

Before Yan Wei found what she was looking for and looked up, Jiang Youyi timely turned her face away, as if the previous glance was just a casual glimpse. When the reflection in her pupils disappeared, it also erased the traces elsewhere.

A hand held two band-aids and extended them in front of her: “Did you scrape your knee just now?”

There was a small hole in Jiang Youyi’s pants, with a little blood seeping out.

Earlier, she had been tricked by Yan Wei and had walked away angrily, even leaving the cola she had just bought.

Yan Wei had seen from a distance that she had fallen. Although she had immediately gotten up and walked around the corner at a faster pace, Yan Wei had noticed that her steps were uneven, with a slight limp.

Thinking about what had happened just now made Jiang Youyi angry. What did Yan Wei mean?

She couldn’t accept a girl of the same sex confessing her feelings, yet she insisted on being friends with her, making ambiguous gestures that could be misconstrued as something more, but were still within the boundaries of friendship.

If she liked someone, she should be together. If she didn’t like someone, she should keep her distance. It was self-deception and harmful to both parties to choose to be friends instead of lovers because they couldn’t be lovers.

She didn’t want to deceive herself by saying she didn’t care, so she wanted to distance herself from Yan Wei, but how could Yan Wei just act like nothing had happened?

Jiang Youyi ignored the band-aids that Yan Wei had handed over and lowered her head to play with her phone, her fingers tapping rapidly on the screen as if she were playing some kind of rhythm game.

Jiang Youyi hadn’t been able to concentrate since earlier, and she had made several mistakes. When one game ended, her score was the lowest it had ever been, and she was both annoyed and agitated. She wanted to lose her temper.

That hand finally retracted.

Jiang Youyi turned off the screen, stuffed her phone into her school uniform pocket, and turned her head to look out the window, ready to sleep.

Suddenly, the person next to her leaned over and lifted her pants leg without warning.

Jiang Youyi was caught off guard and was more surprised than angry. She instinctively wanted to pull her leg back but was held down by Yan Wei, who seemed to be doing it effortlessly. “Don’t move.”

Yan Wei’s words were like a spell. Jiang Youyi indeed stopped struggling, but her calves were tensed, and her fingers were digging into the seams of her pants, like a tamed but wary cat.

Jiang Youyi was wearing a pair of loose-fitting nine-point jeans. She was already thin, and with a lift of her pants leg, it easily rolled up to her knee, revealing a thumb-sized scrape.

The wound had stopped bleeding and was redder than normal skin, covered with a thin layer of blood crust.

Yan Wei didn’t offer any meaningless concern. She simply tore open a band-aid silently, gently covered the wound, pressed down the two wings with her thumb, and then put the pants leg back down, saying to Jiang Youyi, “Be careful when you shower these next few days, don’t get the wound wet.”

Jiang Youyi: “…”

After saying that, Yan Wei retreated to her seat, leaned back against the backrest, and closed her eyes to rest.

The half-hour car ride seemed to be over in the blink of an eye.

When the students in front had left one after another, Yan Wei stood up. When her feet touched the ground, they ached so badly that she had to hold onto the back of the front seat to steady herself.

After getting off the bus, Jiang Youyi walked past Yan Wei without saying a word.

It was almost 7 o’clock, and the sky was just starting to darken. Many parents were waiting at the school gate to pick up their students.

Yan Wei had to take the school bus home, so she had to go back to the dormitory to pack her suitcase.

Zhou Xiaoxiao waited for Yan Wei to go back to the dormitory together. When she saw Jiang Youyi walk away, she approached Yan Wei and whispered, “Jiang Youyi just stuffed something into your bag.”

“Huh?” Yan Wei was surprised. “What was it?”

Following Zhou Xiaoxiao’s instructions, she took a brand-new ointment from the small pocket on the side of her backpack. She glanced at the ointment’s main indications and couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow and smile.

It was an antiseptic ointment for external wounds. Why didn’t she keep it for herself and secretly give it to her?

Yan Wei and Jiang Youyi had been in the same class and even the same dormitory since their first year of high school, but they didn’t interact much.

Last Qingming Festival, it had rained for several days in a row, so the hiking activity was arranged for after the holiday. That day, Yan Wei had also gotten blisters on her feet and broken the skin. She had been so sore at night that she couldn’t sleep, and the next day, her feet were infected and inflamed, so she had to go to the school infirmary. Everyone in the dormitory knew about this at the time.

What surprised Yan Wei was that Jiang Youyi even remembered this.

Looking up and not seeing Jiang Youyi, Zhou Xiaoxiao asked curiously, “Why did she give you the ointment?”

Yan Wei put the ointment back in her backpack and smiled, “I asked her to buy it for me. I forgot to ask her for it just now.”

Zhou Xiaoxiao felt something was strange, but she was more concerned about the reason why Yan Wei bought the ointment than the inconsistency in Jiang Youyi’s attitude. “Did you get hurt?”

“Yeah, kind of,” Yan Wei said casually. “Just a little scrape, it’s not serious.”

Zhou Xiaoxiao nodded and didn’t ask any more questions.

Yan Wei and Zhou Xiaoxiao returned to the dormitory, and Jiang Youyi came out with a backpack, ready to leave.

“Jiang…” Zhou Xiaoxiao was about to greet Jiang Youyi, but Jiang Youyi dodged her head and quickly walked past, turning around the corner and going downstairs.

Zhou Xiaoxiao frowned, “What’s wrong with Jiang Youyi?”

One moment she was giving Yan Wei things, and the next moment she was ignoring her.

Yan Wei curled her lips into a smile.

“What are you laughing at?” Zhou Xiaoxiao was confused.

Yan Wei stopped smiling and shook her head, “Nothing.”

She just saw a blushing Jiang Youyi.

T/N: Hmm… our Youyi is feeling shy. 🤭