Chapter 9: Worry-Free Part Two

  Two

  In May 2008, the Wenchuan earthquake occurred. (△) News of rescue efforts filled the screen, and Lan C sat in front of the TV wiping away tears while praying. Next was the mock exam, where Lan C ranked 49th in the entire school and donated the 200 yuan scholarship she received to Wenchuan.

  Just out of the cafeteria after finishing lunch, she saw Zhang Chongyu standing at the door. Lan Yu was taken aback and smiled as she greeted him. Zhang Chongyu awkwardly raised the lunchbox in his hand to suggest they eat together.

  The number of people in the cafeteria near the middle school has decreased significantly. Most of them have their meals prepared at home and brought to school. Zhang Chongyu opened his lunchbox, and the aroma of meat wafted out. Lan Mu's eyes widened with envy as he took a glance, "Wow, it's beef!"

  "Want some food? My mom just made it." Zhang Chongyu pushed the lunchbox forward.

  "Good." Lan? C took a piece of meat into his mouth, and suddenly thought of Hongyi in his mind. The smile on the edge of his mouth gradually faded away, and a sense of loss surged up.

  "What's wrong, doesn't it taste good?"

  "No, it's quite delicious." Lan smiled and opened his mouth, "By the way, how have you been lately?"

  Zhang Chongyu swallowed the food in his mouth and said, "It's still like that, Xiao Yi is still ignoring me."

  "Sorry, I haven't been paying much attention to your affairs lately."

  Zhang Chongyu smiled wryly and picked up a piece of beef from his bowl to give to her, "Never mind, besides, no one can do anything about our situation."

  Blue... With a careless air, she poked at the rice in her bowl with her chopsticks, "Do you really love Xiao Yi that much?"

  "Love." He replied without hesitation, and then he let out a deep sigh. "But she seemed to have never noticed. You don't know, do you? Back when the three of us were still getting along well, I already had feelings for her. I mustered up a lot of courage to write her a love letter and slipped it into her book, but no matter how long I waited, she didn't respond. At that time, I thought about giving up, but every time I saw her smile, I couldn't help myself. The feeling in my heart was something I just couldn't suppress."

  "What did you just say? How many love letters have you written? Was that letter to Xiao Yi?" Lan's chopsticks fell to the ground, her voice was so loud that even the classmates sitting next to her couldn't help but take a glance at her.

  "I can write a few letters. I've only written one letter in my life, and it was to her." Zhang Chongyu said to himself, not noticing the girl's eyes suddenly drooping down.

  It turned out that the love letter was for Xiao Yi, and it was kept in a drawer like a treasure. She thought this was the most beautiful secret, and she didn't dare to mention it to anyone, but often laughed out loud in her dreams. Thinking back to the confusion at that time, Lan suddenly felt that life is full of coincidences, if not for that letter, she wouldn't have held onto so much hope for three years, only to slowly turn into despair.

  Undoubtedly, these three years have been a one-sided love with no result. At that time, I thought it was fortunate to have Du Hongyi following me around and making me laugh, otherwise these days would be even harder to get through.

  In June, the heat was so intense that it felt like it could evaporate people. Under the scorching sun, I walked from my dorm to the classroom and then opened my textbook under the creaky ceiling fan. Xiao Yi no longer chattered nonstop as soon as class ended, but instead sat quietly reading, slept on her desk after class, occasionally sharing a low-quality paper book with Lan, whose trashy plot always made the two girls burst out laughing during class. Zhang Chongyu would look over in our direction following the sound, and Xiao Yi would immediately put away her smile and turn icy cold.

  The middle school entrance exam has come and gone, I finished all the subjects very calmly, without any feeling of tension. On the contrary, the math test that I was most afraid of went very smoothly, almost filling up the entire answer sheet, hopefully this is a good omen.

  The night after the high school entrance exam, our whole class went to a KTV together. We were packed into a crowded room, and it seemed like no one was absent. Although I hadn't had any unpleasantness with my classmates in the past three years, there were few people I could really talk to.

  Blue C sat in the corner of the sofa, several more open and beautiful girls rushed to grab the microphone, while the boys on the side opened a few bottles of beer and started drinking heavily.

  A boy walked over with a beer and put it on the table in front of Lan, "Try some."

  Lan smiled politely and shook his head, "Thank you, I don't drink."

  "It doesn't matter if you don't learn it, it tastes good."

  "Qin Lang, don't force her to drink if she can't handle liquor. Don't corrupt her." Xiao Yi had just walked in and saw the scene, picked up the wine on the table and started drinking directly from the bottle. Tonight, she was wearing a white princess dress that caught everyone's attention.

  The boy just smiled and picked up Xiao Yi's beer bottle and took a big mouthful from the bottle mouth, looking very intoxicated.

  "Xiao Yi, don't drink anymore." Lan took the wine bottle from her hand, his eyes filled with worry. He then glanced at the familiar figure behind Xiao Yi and said, "He's here."

  Xiao Yi smiled faintly and sat down beside Qin Lang, her body naturally falling into his arms. Zhang Chongyu furrowed his brow, "Xiao Yi, I have something to say to you."

  "Say something here."

  Zhang Chongyu closed his eyes and took a deep breath, suppressing the raging anger in his heart. "Qin Lang, I want to talk to Xiao Yi alone."

  The boy named Qin Lang spread his hands and stood up sensibly to walk away, not forgetting to turn back and tease, "Xiao Yi, you'd better have a good talk with him, don't drag me down."

  Blue... awkwardly poured them a glass of juice and placed it on the table, then stood up, "You guys drink some juice and chat, I...I'll just go to the bathroom..."

  "Blue, you don't have to avoid her." Zhang Chongyu grabbed her wrist and made her sit back on the sofa, his eyes fixed tightly on Xiao Yi, "Xiao Yi, I want you to clarify things in front of Blue."

  Xiao Yi sneered and the hatred and disdain in her eyes were enough to swallow Zhang Chongyu whole. "Aren't I clear enough? We've already broken up, why are you still dragging Lan into our mess? Do you think this will change anything?" After finishing speaking, Xiao Yi picked up the wine on the table and took a sip, wiping the wine stain from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand. It seemed like she was muttering to herself as she said, "Besides, didn't you agree to break up in the first place?"

  Blue? C saw Zhang Chongyu's tightly clenched fist, she knew he was deliberately suppressing his emotions, but she didn't understand why he hadn't tried to keep Xiao Yi back then, Xiao Yi should have been heartbroken by now.

  Love is a luxury for people of their age. When you don't have it, you envy others, but when you have it, you feel that it's actually just so-so, not as glamorous as others see it. The young imagine love to be like a fairy tale, yearning to meet someone who truly loves them and spend the rest of their lives together.

  But real love is a horror book, you're clearly intimidated but can't help flipping through it. But at that time, they were in the season of flowers, what did they know about love?

  Zhang Chongyu is too gentle, this is the most proper evaluation of him. No matter what Xiao Yi says to him or what requirements she makes, he always smiles gently and says okay. Xiao Yi says let's go eat fish balls, he smiles and says okay. Zhang Chongyu, let's go travel, okay, Zhang Chongyu, let's break up, hmm, okay.

  Xiao Yi once burst into tears in front of her dormitory mates, which was shortly after she and Zhang Chongyu broke up. Xiao Yi cried out, "Is Zhang Chongyu a puppet on strings? No matter what I say, he doesn't object to it. Has he lost himself?" Lan didn't know how to comfort her, so she just kept handing her tissues for her to wipe away tears.

  That night, Zhang Chongyu still couldn't win back Xiao Yi. He had originally wanted to take advantage of his slight intoxication to tell her everything he wanted to say, but when he saw the unfamiliar coldness in her eyes, all the words in his heart were swallowed back, replaced by those that were neither painful nor itchy.

  Xiao Yi had also drunk a lot of wine, standing on the sofa holding the microphone and dancing without caring about her image, singing some incomprehensible songs. Zhang Chongyu pulled her down silently in front of all the classmates, turned around and said to Lan Er: You wait here for now, I'll send her home first. Lan Er patted his shoulder comfortingly, "Go ahead."

  There was no imagined heartache in her mind anymore. Looking at their silhouettes as they walked away with each other's support, she felt a lump in her throat, and for some reason, Hongyi's appearance suddenly flashed into her mind. It had been more than half a year since she last heard from him. His home became a mere decoration, his phone number was invalid, everything seemed as if he had never appeared in her world at all. However, in her diary, it was filled with thoughts of him...