Chapter 27: A Blatant Secret Crush

After the holiday, life returned to its usual rhythm.

Lin Yuran threw herself headfirst into intense studying and a fast-paced routine: school, the sanatorium, the hospital, home, constantly on the move. On days when school only ran for half the day, she’d stop by RanYe for a few hours to show Chi Ye her drafts and get his feedback.

Amid the hustle, the National Day holiday approached before she even realized it.

The day before the long break, the morning was bright and clear. But by the end of the last period, the weather turned in an instant. Gale winds swept through, thunder and lightning rolled in, and the sky burst open with heavy rain. The downpour thickened into sheets, crashing onto the pavement and kicking up a misty spray.

No umbrella or raincoat could hold up against this storm. Anyone who stepped outside would be soaked to the bone. So Lin Yuran stayed in the classroom, sketching while she waited for the rain to stop.

Plenty of students had also been trapped by the storm. The room was quiet, each person absorbed in their own task. Her phone buzzed.

Chi Ye had sent a WeChat message: 【Left yet?】

Lin Yuran replied: 【Not yet, still in class.】

She assumed he had something to say, but after a couple of minutes passed with no follow-up, she simply tucked her phone away and went back to her sketching.

A little while later, a commotion broke out in the classroom. 

“Oh my god, he’s so hot!”

“Is he here to pick someone up? Whose boyfriend is that?!”

“Which girl in our class has taste this good? That man is straight-up ethereal. I’m so jealous!”

Hearing the buzz, Lin Yuran looked up.

Chi Ye stood coolly in the doorway, silent and aloof.

He wore a black windbreaker, tall and relaxed yet strikingly poised. His zipper was fastened all the way up, but it did nothing to contain the untamed air about him. If anything, it added an extra touch of restraint, an elegant, aloof allure.

One hand in his pocket, the other holding a slightly rain-speckled black umbrella, he strode confidently into the room and stopped in front of Lin Yuran.

“Any more classes?”

His sudden appearance caught her off guard. Lin Yuran blinked and answered blankly, “Nope, that was the last one.”

“Then let’s go home together,” Chi Ye said naturally.

“Oh. Okay,” Lin Yuran replied, fluttering her lashes.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the envious stares from their classmates. Lin Yuran couldn’t quite describe what she was feeling. It was a mix of shy embarrassment and a strange sort of quiet delight.

As they walked toward the classroom door, she overheard the girl who’d just been gushing say to her friend, “So he is Lin Yuran’s boyfriend. Figures. Goddess Lin’s taste is unmatched. They look so good together.”

Lin Yuran paused for a beat. Her ears were suddenly warm.

Outside the classroom, the subtle flutter in her chest gradually faded. Once she relaxed, Lin Yuran remembered to ask, “Chi Ye, what are you doing here?”

“I had something to take care of at school. Just as I finished, I figured you were getting out. With rain like this, I thought I’d check in on you,” Chi Ye said offhandedly.

“Oh, I see.” Lin Yuran smiled. Thinking back on her classmates’ reactions, she turned to him and asked, “Chi Ye, why do people always assume you’re my boyfriend when they see us together?”

Chi Ye stopped walking, his dark eyes gazing steadily at her. He asked back with a hint of resignation, “What do you think?”

Lin Yuran choked. “I am asking! How would I know?!”

Chi Ye sighed inwardly.

The whole world can see it, why can’t you?

His car was parked just outside the teaching building. It was only a short walk, but with rain this heavy, they still needed the umbrella.

Chi Ye opened his black umbrella, and Lin Yuran naturally stepped beneath it with him as they walked into the rain.

When they reached the car, he opened the passenger door for her and held the umbrella steadily while she got in. Only after closing the door behind her did he head around to the driver’s side.

Even though it was a short distance, Chi Ye’s shoulder was soaked. Lin Yuran noticed immediately. He had tilted the umbrella toward her the whole time, leaving himself half exposed. Always the gentleman. She quickly pulled out a tissue and began dabbing the raindrops off his shoulder.

Chi Ye leaned in slightly, letting Lin Yuran wipe him off without a word, his dark eyes watching her silently.

Once Lin Yuran finished, she noticed that his fringe had also gotten wet, some strands had been caught by the wind and slipped past the umbrella’s edge. Droplets still clung to them.

Lin Yuran grabbed another tissue and reached up to dry his bangs.

Their eyes met. Her hand froze.

A flicker of light stirred in Chi Ye’s gaze, and a faint curve tugged at his lips. He asked softly, “Lin Nuotao… can you really not tell?”

A question completely out of the blue.

But in that moment, Lin Yuran felt like she almost understood what he meant.

Almost, but the clarity faded the instant she blinked.

“…Tell what?” she asked.

Chi Ye’s smile slowly faded. “Nothing,” he said quietly.

Outside, the rain poured harder, like buckets being dumped onto the windshield.

Lin Yuran sank into her seat, watching the rain droplets cascade down the glass. The storm showed no signs of letting up. If Chi Ye hadn’t come today, she’d have been stuck waiting for who knows how long.

The wipers swished rhythmically, and her thoughts began to drift.

Memories began resurfacing, memories of other rainy nights.

Back in high school, there was one night when she ran out during a downpour. Her umbrella didn’t even make it to the community gate before the wind tore it apart. The icy rain soaked her in seconds.

Still, she had no choice but to shiver her way toward an internet café.

Just outside the neighborhood, a black sedan pulled up beside her. The back door opened, and there he was, tall and lean, emerging through the rain. The freezing downpour was cut off by the black umbrella in his hand.

Chi Ye’s sudden appearance had felt like something out of a dream.

She had stared at him, dazed. “Chi Ye? What are you doing here?”

He took her schoolbag. “I was heading to the café too. Just happened to see you.” He gently nudged her forward. “Come on, get in.”

Inside the car, he handed her a clean towel from the glove compartment. “What happened at home? You really had to run out in weather like this?”

Lin Yuran was momentarily speechless. After thinking for a bit, she replied with a half-hearted excuse: “A rainy day is still a day. If I can go out on a regular day, why not in the rain? It’s not like rain eats people.”

Chi Ye chuckled and handed her his jacket. She was drenched, so she didn’t put it on. She didn’t want to soak his clothes too.

He told the driver to turn up the heat.

At the café, Chi Ye pulled a clean basketball jersey out of his bag. “I was going to wear this tomorrow. It’s clean so if you don’t mind, you can use it.”

She had no other choice. Her wet clothes clung to her skin, cold and uncomfortable. She accepted the jersey and went to the restroom.

After a hot shower and blow-drying her hair, she put on his jersey. The matching shorts were too big for her, but thankfully, her pleated skirt wasn’t soaked. She dried it with the blow dryer and put it back on. Looking in the mirror, the outfit actually looked pretty good.

The red jersey contrasted nicely with her white pleated skirt. Chi Ye was much taller, so the jersey fell just low enough to show a sliver of her skirt, very cute.

Just as she stepped out, Chi Ye walked in. He froze when he saw her. The cup in his hand slipped, clatter, onto the floor.

Flustered, he stammered for a moment before hurrying out. “I’ll get another one. Don’t move around too much. Careful, the floor’s wet. I’ll find someone to clean it.”

When he returned, she was already seated, doing practice problems. He handed her a cup of steaming goji berry, jujube, and longan tea.

“It’ll warm you up. Drink it while it’s hot,” Chi Ye said gently. “Or you’ll catch a cold.”

The rain poured on all night, and the air was damp and heavy.

The next day, her school uniform jacket still hadn’t dried. So she wore Chi Ye’s jersey the whole day.

That combo caught on, many girls at school tried it after, and it later became one of the undeniable ‘signs’ that the two of them were dating.

There were other rainy nights too, that each time she ran out, she somehow ended up running into Chi Ye’s car on the road.

She once joked, “Chi Ye, ever since you showed up, I haven’t really been caught in the rain again. It’s like… with you around, it’s always sunny in my world.”

Thinking back now, it had all been so sweet and innocent. She had no filter back then. She couldn’t remember how Chi Ye reacted, but she still remembered what he said.

It was odd and kind of confusing. She thought about it for ages and still didn’t get it.

He had said, “Getting top three in the grade is really hard. Should I lower the bar for your ‘sunny skies’ a little?”

— — — 

Downstairs at her apartment, Chi Ye asked, “You’re off for the holiday tomorrow?”

Lin Yuran nodded. “Yeah.”

“If you don’t have plans, come to the esports tournament our company’s hosting. Feel the atmosphere, the adrenaline, the competitive spirit. Might be good inspiration for your art. After the final round, we’re launching our team’s character blind boxes. You could sketch some iconic moments.”

“I was actually thinking the same thing.”

Chi Ye smiled. “Then for the next few days, I’ll be your chauffeur. Just follow my schedule?”

“Deal,” Lin Yuran said without hesitation.

To build hype for the main tournament, the Infinity Showdown hosted by RanYe would kick off with a celebrity match.

It was Lin Yuran’s first time attending such a large-scale event. She was excited and spent an hour that morning getting ready.

When she arrived with Chi Ye, Xu Jianwei and Qin Lang had just gotten there too. The event planners and managers stood waiting at the VIP entrance.

One of them stepped forward respectfully and reminded, “President Chi, your guest will be arriving shortly.”

Chi Ye glanced at his watch, then turned to Qin Lang. “Take the girls inside first. I’ll stay and greet someone.”

Qin Lang was curious. “Who’s so important you need to personally greet them? Let me see too.”

Xu Jianwei didn’t want to go in either. She clung to Lin Yuran and said she wanted to wait, because some of the celebrity players were entering through this way, especially top star Yin Xian.

So Lin Yuran stayed with her on a bench near the VIP gate.

Before long, a convoy of security vehicles escorted a black luxury car slowly toward the entrance.

Xu Jianwei craned her neck. “Who the heck is that? What an entrance!”

The car stopped. A man stepped out from the backseat, dressed in a sharp suit, radiating presence.

Xu Jianwei stared, speechless. “Holy sh*t… he’s so hot!!”

Lin Yuran prided herself on her taste, but even she couldn’t find the words to describe just how stunning that man was. She, too, stared in awe, echoing softly, “Holy sh*t, he’s hot…”

“I’ve never seen a guy this good-looking,” Xu Jianwei said, tugging on Lin Yuran’s arm, excited. “Tell me I’m not crazy, he’s hot, right?!”

Lin Yuran nodded fervently. “Hot, hot, hot…”

And then their view was suddenly blocked… 

By the perfectly sculpted back of someone equally as handsome.

……

T/N: Boss Chi Ye, you made your feelings obvious, but your crush is still oblivious hahahaha