Volume 1 Chapter 7: The Secret of Manuscript and a Brush with Kisses

  Monday, my foot had almost recovered. As soon as I arrived at school, my deskmate bombarded me with questions like a madman. "When did you and Shuang Lan start?" "Who confessed first between the two of you?" "Where was your first date?" "So those love hearts from the past few days were all bought by him for you?" "Are you both each other's first time?" "Not even considering me as a friend, not telling me anything at all, I'm so angry."

  "You're asking so many questions at once, which one should I answer first?" I feel like the words jumping out of Ye Xin's mouth aren't questions, but a string of bombs being thrown at me one after another, and I'm about to be stunned by her.

  "You have to answer one by one, this is the punishment for hiding from me, your dear deskmate. Come on, confess everything." She regarded Shanshan as her most important confidant, and good friends should share secrets with each other.

  So I started telling her from that time watching the movie, all the way to what happened with Lan Lu these past few days. Almost everything was told to her without reservation. Except for that one time at the coffee shop when I fed Lan Lu cherries, which I secretly omitted because it's too embarrassing and it's a sweet memory that belongs only to me.

  We know that we are afraid of being discovered by our classmates and teachers, so we will have an underground love affair. Ye Xin immediately raised her hand to swear that she would never reveal this secret.

  "Of course I believe you, actually I didn't tell you because I was afraid of making you angry." I quickly pulled down her hand.

  "Why?"

  "You used to like Lan Lu a bit too, I was afraid that if you knew he had confessed his feelings to me, you would no longer care about me."

  "Oh my, the liking I have isn't the kind you think it is. I just think he's not only good at studying but also has a nice personality, so I somewhat admire him. This school isn't without other boys, and there are many girls who like Lan Lu, I don't want to join in on that commotion. But Shanshan, I really do admire you!"

  "What?"

  "Those female classmates who tried every means to get close to Dan Lanlu, didn't expect that you, someone who transferred in less than a few months, would snatch him away. Just thinking about how they would react if they knew our class monitor had already been taken makes me feel so delighted!"

  "Don't exaggerate, okay?"

  "By the way, did Shuang Lan say why she likes you?" Ye Xin curiously leaned in close to me.

  "How was I supposed to know? Oh dear, don't ask me." I covered my ears with my hands and hid my face in embarrassment behind a book.

  "Shan Shan, do you still remember that boy who knocked you down with a football?" My deskmate asked me suddenly in all seriousness.

  "Of course I remember." My injured left shoulder is still bandaged up after all.

  "What do you think of him?"

  "Despicable." Nonsense, of course I despise him. He hurt me and was ridiculed by the people in the imperial palace. How could I like him?

  "Ah! You really dislike him?" Ye Xin cried out in disappointment.

  "What's the big deal? Oh, you won't, don't tell me you have feelings for him..." It's almost a semester since they sat at the same table, I roughly understand what she's thinking about, looking at her sly appearance, it's clear that she has a crush. Sure enough, she nodded and then looked embarrassed.

  "You're too unfair to me, he's the one who hurt you and my deskmate! That day I saw Ye Xin scolding that boy for my sake, now she's telling me... Ah, girls' hearts are like needles at the bottom of the sea."

  "You're like this, I don't even dare tell you another thing."

  "Don't mumble."

  "It's just that I agreed to go out with him last night." Closing her eyes, summoning up the courage, Ye Xiang finally finished speaking, then opened her eyes and waited for my reaction.

  "What?" I gaped in astonishment. "You two have only just met and you're already dating? The legendary love at first sight?"

  "No. He was supposed to come find you on Friday, to ask how you were doing. But you weren't at work that day, so I went out and talked to him for a bit. Later he asked for my phone number, and I thought it wasn't a big deal, so I told him. Unexpectedly, on Saturday he called me at home and asked me out to play. Yesterday morning he called me again, and as we were chatting, he suddenly said he liked me and asked if I could be his girlfriend."

  "You agreed with him just like that?"

  "Can't I finish speaking, there's more to it. I told him to let me think about it, and then I made several calls to your home, wanting to discuss with you what to do, but no one answered. Yesterday, I was really fed up, when he called again in the evening, I thought that I really had a good affinity with him, and I wasn't without feelings for him either. Trying it out wouldn't be regrettable, so I agreed."

  "I didn't expect so many things to happen when I wasn't around." I still think it's a bit too fast to start dating after knowing each other for only four days. However, Ye Xin also has a point, love is originally beautiful because of impulsiveness, if you think too much before acting, then it's not love anymore.

  During class, Shuanglanluo passed me a note saying to meet her in the school library at noon today. Since Aunt Yuan's house is in a suburban villa area, it takes about half an hour by car from school, and these days I've been driven to school by the driver and then picked up after school. I had already told Shuanglanluo that this semester I wouldn't need her to send me back home since I'm living with Auntie. So sometimes we would sneak into the library during lunch break to enjoy a brief world of our own.

  When I arrived at the library, Lan Lu was doing math homework there. Seeing me coming, she put down her pen and smiled brightly.

  "Wow, you finished the test paper so quickly?!" "So speedy! I don't even know where my paper is hidden." Math is my most headache-inducing subject. I like doing English and language arts, but when it comes to math, I feel sleepy.

  "Shanshan, can I tell someone that we're dating?" Shanlan asked cautiously.

  "Who is it?" I replied casually.

  "It's just that my bike broke down, so I had Huang Lin take her to school."

  "Why tell her?" I don't know why, but hearing her name makes me uncomfortable, my brow furrows. I just told my good friend this morning, what's the relationship between Huang Lin and us, why does she have to know too?

  "She suddenly ran to my house yesterday, saying that she couldn't do a few questions. Later, she saw the big head sticker I posted on the album when we went to Century Park for fun and asked me how I had photos with you together. At that time, I lied to her that it was just a class activity. Then she said she also wanted to take a big head sticker and asked me to accompany her in the afternoon."

  "Doesn't she have classmates? Why does she need you to accompany her?"

  "I also just want to take a photo with Sha Shan alone." Jian Lan's pure face had a serious expression, saying firmly.

  Although I'm still feeling unhappy, after hearing my boyfriend's silly but sincere words, my heart can't help but feel sweet. "So what do you plan to do?"

  "I want to tell her when school is over in the afternoon."

  "But she knew, would other classmates also know?"

  "I'll let her help us keep it a secret, I think Huang Jin shouldn't say anything." Only Lan Lu would be so naive to think that, treating others like childhood friends. I think she's getting close to him with ulterior motives!"

  "Is she still taking your car to school?"

  "Uh-huh."

  "By the way, when she was sitting in the back seat, did she hug your waist?" I suddenly thought of a very serious problem, whether my exclusive privilege had been taken away. Before, when I sat behind him, I always liked to hold him and quietly stick to his back.

  "Huh?" Lan Lu didn't expect me to ask him this suddenly, and he was stunned for a few seconds. "No, there was once when we were driving downhill too fast, she grabbed my arm, but I told her at the time that I'm afraid of being tickled, so it's best not to touch me."

  "That's more like it, you're mine now, so no other girl is allowed to touch you, or I'll ignore you." I nodded in satisfaction, saying bossily. Then I spread out the practice book I had brought and sat down across from Lan Lu, focusing on doing the exercises. "Lu, I don't know how to do this question." I handed over the book, pointing at one of the application questions.

  "Didn't the teacher just give us a similar example in class?" said Dan Lanlu quickly after glancing at the question.

  "But they forgot!" I muttered, biting the tip of my pen and blinking my innocent big eyes.

  "First, take a look at the notes I took. Next time in class, you can't be lazy and must copy down every example problem the teacher gives, got it? Otherwise, I won't do homework with you anymore." Shuang Lanru punished me by pulling my hand over and lightly slapping my palm with her pen a few times.

  "Why don't we just choose a few difficult questions? It's so annoying to copy everything." I frowned and hesitated, trying to negotiate.

  "No way." Seeing me like this, Shuang Lanluo rarely didn't soften his heart, and his tender face was full of persistence. He thought I was just afraid of trouble and took math lightly, which is why I always stayed at around 70 points.

  "Oh, so Blue Law also has a bad side, I finally saw it today."

  "I also thought Sha Shan was a diligent girl." When I said this, Shuang Lan Yu not only didn't get angry, but instead smiled slyly and picked up my Achilles' heel on purpose.

  "I really hate math, don't you dislike me now?" I suddenly leaned forward, my face close to his, our eyes only 7-8 centimeters apart, staring at him as if interrogating him.

  He probably didn't expect me to suddenly appear in front of him, staring blankly at the beautiful girl in front of him, her face involuntarily flushing red. Seeing that I was still waiting for his answer, his thin lips lightly uttered two words, and even his star-like eyes were tinged with a faint shyness.

  After hearing the satisfactory answer, I was about to sit back in my own seat when Lan Lu whispered my name softly, his face flushing as he looked at me with an unusual glint in his eyes. As I watched him draw closer and closer, I couldn't help but wonder why he was acting so out of character - normally, if we accidentally made eye contact, he would be even more flustered than me, constantly dodging away. Thinking he was going to tease me again, I didn't back down, wanting to see what kind of prank he had in store this time. But something felt off - he hadn't done anything yet, so why was my breathing getting more and more rapid, my stomach tightening up into knots? His face was almost pressed against mine now, but Lan Lu still kept leaning in closer...

  At this moment, the sound of high heels walking came from a distance, and it seemed to be coming in our direction. Shan Lanlu paused for a moment, then quickly sat back in his original position, hastily starting to tidy up the work spread out on the table, without saying another word to me. I looked at him with confusion, only to see that he was also flushed red like me, breathing rapidly. Only Shan Lanlu knew that when Sha Xiang approached him just now, he had an urge to kiss her, his rationality hadn't reacted yet, and his actions had already started to put it into practice. Fortunately, the passing footsteps woke him up.