Flirting Under Favor (GL) - Chapter 33

Friday finally arrived. Wang Lin’s heart was already burning with impatience. As soon as her afternoon class ended, she drove back to her residence, quickly packed up, and rushed downstairs like the wind. Reaching her car, Wang Lin placed her hand on the door handle, pausing slightly, as if hesitant. She gripped and turned the handle a few times, finally opening the door, driving away, heading straight for K City.

When she arrived in K City, Mu Fan had already returned from work. When she opened the door and saw Wang Lin, she was surprised, and after the surprise came a sense of relief. She had thought Wang Lin wasn’t coming. Without her knowing, her heart had already come to hope Wang Lin would visit. She liked her too, of this there was no doubt.

She gave a radiant smile: “You’re here. Why didn’t you tell me beforehand?”

“To give you a surprise,” Wang Lin said. Seeing Mu Fan’s smile cleared her gloomy heart considerably.

“I already knew you were coming. What’s the surprise?” Mu Fan moved aside to let Wang Lin in. “Have you eaten?”

But Wang Lin didn’t move. She stood still, head bowed, as if building up some emotion.

Mu Fan frowned and asked: “What’s wrong?”

Wang Lin’s breathing started to become rapid. Mu Fan could clearly hear her breathing, her chest rising and falling dramatically.

Mu Fan felt a sudden, inexplicable panic.

“Mu Fan.” Wang Lin’s head was still lowered. Mu Fan couldn’t see her expression. She spoke softly, quietly, “What are we?”

What?

Mu Fan forced herself to remain calm, keeping a smile on her face: “What do you mean, what?”

“A relationship.” Wang Lin suddenly lifted her head, staring straight at her, her eyes firm and brooking no evasion, “What kind of relationship are we?”

“Wang Lin, we are—”

“Do you like me?”

“We’re friends.”

A terrifying silence. The stillness all around was unnerving.

Wang Lin looked at Mu Fan, an expression of unbelievable despair washing over her face.

Mu Fan’s mouth was slightly agape, still holding the shape for the “ah” sound from “We’re friends, ah.”

Do you like me?

We’re friends, ah.

Mu Fan tried to salvage the situation: “We’re very good friends.”

“I know.” Wang Lin’s voice was hoarse, fighting back tears. She had asked so directly, yet Mu Fan was still evading the question.

Wang Lin continued: “You still haven’t answered me.”

“I do like you. You’re so likable,” Mu Fan said, rubbing her shoulder with her hand, trying to soothe her.

“There are many kinds of liking. Which kind is yours?”

Mu Fan knew she couldn’t evade it any longer. She fell silent. After a long time, she said, as if talking to herself: “Which kind is yours?”

Wang Lin used the protagonist from The Intimates (自梳 – Zì Shū) as a comparison: “The kind Yuhuan feels for Yihuan.”

“Wang Lin,” Mu Fan said softly, her expression extremely strained, “Do you know what you’re saying?”

“I know. I’m not a child!” Wang Lin said angrily, throwing a fit. “So, what about your feelings for me?”

“I just see you as a good friend, as a little sister. Didn’t you also say I was like a big sister? Maybe you just have a dependency on me and mistakenly think it’s love.”

Wang Lin’s head was buzzing. Mu Fan’s words repeated over and over in her mind. Her head was swelling as if it were about to explode. She looked up at Mu Fan. Her eyes slowly filled with tears, blurring her vision.

“Is this a refusal?” Wang Lin felt a deep sense of loss, as if her soul had been taken. She lowered her head, and large tears streamed down, splashing onto the floor. “But, but we even kissed.”

Mu Fan’s heart felt as if it had been slashed by a sharp knife, the pain making it nearly impossible to breathe. Yet, she uttered words that couldn’t have been more awful: “I am a normal woman with a female sexual orientation. You are attractive, and it’s understandable that I couldn’t restrain myself for a moment. It doesn’t mean anything.”

Wang Lin was completely stunned by her statement.

“You bastard!” she shouted, stepping back a few paces, distraught. Tears poured down her face. She turned and ran away.

She ran all the way downstairs in the hotel, leaving a trail of tears on the ground. She ran out of the hotel. The front desk was confused. They didn’t remember Wang Lin but wondered if someone who came to catch a cheating spouse had succeeded. She mentally created a whole drama, sighing with pity.

Wang Lin ran to her car and sobbed uncontrollably, resting her head on the steering wheel.

How awful.

How could she say that?

She was utterly heartbroken.

The two bodyguards nearby saw her distress. Si Qing motioned for her colleague to stay put and walked to Wang Lin’s car. She poked her head in and asked: “What happened?”

Wang Lin yelled: “Go away!”

As a bodyguard, Si Qing should theoretically be unperturbed by favor or disgrace, but she was still startled by Wang Lin. Nothing else, just because this was the first time Wang Lin had acted like this.

Si Qing didn’t say anything more, dutifully standing guard nearby, waiting for Wang Lin to calm down.

After a long while, Wang Lin moved to the back seat, resting on the seat. She said in a hoarse voice: “Take me back.”

The sound tore at Si Qing’s heart. She didn’t need to guess who was the cause.

“Okay.”

/

Watching Wang Lin’s grieving figure run away, Mu Fan was lost in a daze. Everything felt like a dream, as if she were in a dream.

I’m dreaming, right?

Wang Lin confessed, and she refused.

It was all so sudden.

She closed the door, sank to the floor, leaning against the door panel, and bit hard on the back of her hand, unsure if it was to suppress her sobs or because she felt self-reproach for the terrible things she had just said.

The fabric on her knees was quickly damp.

Is this what it feels like to reject someone?

My heart hurts so much.

/

Wang Lin’s inner state plummeted after returning to S City. As soon as she got home, she locked herself in her room. The soundproofing in the bedroom was very good, but Si Qing could still hear the muffled crying coming from inside.

Wang Lin cried herself to sleep, soaking a large part of her pillow and the corner of the quilt. When she woke up, her eyes were burning with pain. Wang Lin didn’t want to get out of bed or move. The housekeeper knocked on the door to call her for breakfast. She said hoarsely, “I’m not hungry.”

“Miss, please get up and eat a little. Don’t hurt your health.”

“Auntie, I’m really not hungry.”

“What could be more important than eating?”

“I’m not hungry. You all go eat.”

Si Qing outside the door gestured to the housekeeper not to urge her anymore, knowing that nagging was useless, but she was also helpless.

Wang Lin picked up her phone, wanting to see if Mu Fan had sent any messages, a pathetic sliver of hope rising in her humble heart.

Nothing.

Wang Lin couldn’t help it. Tears flowed again, involuntarily, as if they would never stop.

Through her tear-blurred vision, she sent a message to Mu Fan.

“Why?”

“Why did you reject me? Am I not pretty enough? Am I not cute enough?”

“There must be a reason.”

She waited for a very long time, from morning to noon, and from noon to night. She hadn’t eaten all day.

“Miss, please get up and eat a little. Otherwise, I’ll have to tell General Manager Lin. General Manager Lin is busy; don’t make her worry.”

The housekeeper’s tactic finally worked. Wang Lin finally got out of bed, dragging her exhausted body.

She was unusually serious: “You are not to contact my mother!” The housekeeper had contacted Lin Jia [her mother] once before when Wang Lin cried after Mu Fan had ignored her. Later, she subtly expressed her displeasure to the housekeeper, implying she would be replaced if it happened again. She hadn’t expected the housekeeper to bring it up this time.

The housekeeper opened her mouth but said nothing. But she couldn’t help but ask:

“What happened?”

“Nothing.”

“Did you fail an exam?”

“Did you have a fight with a friend?”

No matter what the housekeeper asked, Wang Lin always denied it.

Si Qing stopped the housekeeper from asking further. Even with Wang Lin’s gentle temper, any more questions might lead her to become annoyed and explode.

After dinner, Wang Lin returned to her room and checked her phone. Mu Fan hadn’t replied.

She was very sad because Mu Fan had rejected her.

She was very angry because Mu Fan was avoiding her and ignoring her. She should at least explain clearly!

Wang Lin continued to send messages: “Say something!”

She waited from evening until early morning, and from early morning until midnight. She didn’t know when she fell asleep, only that the tears hadn’t stopped.

Mu Fan seemed to have vanished. Wang Lin checked her phone repeatedly, reading their chat history over and over. Each time she read it, her heart was cut by a knife.

The next afternoon, she messaged Mu Fan again.

“Say something! Why!”

The third morning, she messaged again.

“Say something!”

She asked again and again, but she didn’t have the courage to call her directly.

She went to class in a terrible state. Even classmates she rarely interacted with asked her what was wrong. She just said: “Nothing.”

When Li Ruhuan asked, she also just said: “Nothing.”

But Li Ruhuan guessed what had happened. But what could she do even if she guessed?

In the evening, Wang Lin still cried, a sense of resentment building in her heart.

Why is she ignoring me? Why! Even if she doesn’t like me, she shouldn’t be so disrespectful!

A battle raged in her heart. Finally, she deleted Mu Fan as a friend. To be firm for once.

She logged into the game and deleted Mu Fan’s game friend account as well.

Bad woman! Goodbye!

The day after deleting Mu Fan, she started to regret it, but adding her back was absolutely impossible.

She cried intermittently, crying whenever she thought of Mu Fan in her spare moments. She couldn’t understand why.

Why is Mu Fan so heartless? She remembered Mu Fan’s past gentleness, always giving her a faint smile, always easily catching her inner thoughts, and satisfying her without her even having to ask. Her voice, her scent, her hugs, and her kiss…

The kiss.

Thinking of the kiss, she remembered Mu Fan’s words: I am a normal woman with a female sexual orientation. You are attractive, and it’s understandable that I couldn’t restrain myself for a moment. It doesn’t mean anything.

Heh.

She gave a self-mocking laugh. Maybe it really was as she said.

I am truly pathetic.

She tried to comfort herself, tried to hate Mu Fan, telling herself she was a bad woman and not worth this. But it was useless. She still cried intermittently, couldn’t eat or sleep well, and looked haggard.

Whether she wanted it or not, the memories kept flooding back, crashing through her emotional defenses, crushing her again and again.

Mu Fan hadn’t appeared in the game again. Wang Lin considered deleting her Little Flower Girl character and leaving the game world.

But what did the Little Flower Girl do wrong? She’s so cute. Why should she be deleted? If she were deleted, the Little Flower Girl would be sad too. Like me.

She felt an inexplicable sympathy for a game character, her own character, and at the same time, pity for herself.

I’m cute too. Why is she treating me like this?

She stared at the screen until her eyes ached.

The Little Flower Girl on the screen stood quietly, occasionally tossing her writing brush into the air and bouncing (her idle animation).

So cute.

Wang Lin thought, I’ll let her stay in this game world.

Her character couldn’t feel her actions at all, but she was so moved by her own decision that she burst into tears again for a while.

She logged out and uninstalled the game.

The uninstallation prompt asked if she wanted to clear the game screenshots as well. She hesitated for a moment and clicked no.

That folder path is complicated, she thought. I just won’t look at it.