On this day, Ke Chengwen was carrying the wheelchair while Fu Yangxi jumped upstairs with one foot. Mingxi followed with a bag of snacks and they all went upstairs while making a fuss.
As soon as they went upstairs, they saw Shen Liyao standing at the back door of the International Class.
Although he was in the next class, Shen Liyao often stayed in the laboratory and Mingxi would not take the initiative to look for him. It was not that easy to meet by chance, so the last time they met was the time when Shen Liyao and Fu Yangxi had a fight on the basketball court.
After more than a month, Shen Liyao was evidently thinner.
Compared with Fu Yangxi's lively spirits, he put on a down jacket, and the blue and white school uniform inside was meticulously pulled to the highest point of the collar. The wounds on the corners of the mouth and cheekbones that were beaten by Fu Yangxi were all healed, only a shallow mark remained. His cold eyes looked very gloomy.
"Can we talk?" Shen Liyao's gaze fell straight on Mingxi.
"Why?" Fu Yangxi glanced at him. He was very vigilant, a layer of frost forming on his face immediately. Did this guy with the surname Shen consider him dead? He was still here, yet he dared to come and ask such a question face to face?
Mingxi guessed that Shen Liyao had heard that she and Fu Yangxi were together. This should be the last conversation.
Everything had to have an end.
Mingxi thought about it for a while. Then, she held Fu Yangxi's hand and said, "I'll just take 10 minutes."
The jealousy and possessiveness in Fu Yangxi's heart were almost gushing out. 10 minutes?!
Ten minutes is 600,000 milliseconds. So many things can be said and done during that time!
Also, Little Mask genuinely liked Shen Liyao. Shen Liyao was the one Fu Yangxi guarded against. He was most afraid of Shen Liyao!
Of course he was worried!
But Fu Yangxi felt that he was being a bit stingy. Men couldn't be like this.
After a long time, he would become a jealous man and jealous men are easily dumped.
He held back his possessiveness, let out a cold breath, smiled at Mingxi and said, "Okay."
Mingxi looked at him with a gaze full of uncertainty. “Are you okay?”
Why are you suddenly smiling so grimly?
"It's okay, I'm not that stingy." Fu Yangxi said in a dominant manner.
Mingxi said, “Then let go—”
Fu Yangxi still held Mingxi's hand firmly.
He let go, put his hands in his pocket coldly and planned to leave.
After he turned around, he realized that he was still in a wheelchair— he couldn't get anywhere with his hands in his pockets.
Mingxi: “...”
Ke Chengwen: “...”
There was a crack in Fu Yangxi's cold appearance. He took out his hand to turn the wheelchair and entered the classroom with a blank expression.
Mingxi and Shen Liyao went downstairs.
As soon as the two of them left, Fu Yangxi hurriedly turned the wheelchair out of the classroom. It's too inconvenient to sit in a wheelchair. He said to Ke Chengwen with a black face, "Push me to the side of the corridor, hurry!"
Ke Chengwen: F*ck, didn’t you say you’re not that stingy?
As a single person, he couldn’t understand the world of lovers!
*
Mingxi and Shen Liyao walked into the alley between the two academic buildings. The surroundings became quiet, only the sound coming from the basketball court in the distance was faintly heard.
The cold winter wind blew from the alley to her face. Mingxi took off the scarf that was blown on her face.
Her scarf was also given by Fu Yangxi. It made her neck very warm.
This year’s winter was about to pass.
She had nothing to say to Shen Liyao, so she waited for Shen Liyao to speak.
Shen Liyao fixed his eyes on Zhao Mingxi for a long time.
It took so long that Mingxi couldn't help taking out the phone from her down jacket and looking at the time. She raised her eyes and said to Shen Liyao, “What do you want to say? Class is about to start.”
There was a long silence.
Shen Liyao opened his mouth and asked, "Do you really like him?"
Mingxi answered, “Yes.”
Shen Liyao didn't expect that Zhao Mingxi would not even hesitate to answer. She made a decisive choice without even thinking about it.
The fingers he put in his pocket were clenched and his heart seemed to have been cut by a knife.
Mingxi didn't know why everyone was asking this question. Ke Chengwen did not believe that she really liked Fu Yangxi and their homeroom teacher was also surprised at this. The question Shen Liyao asked was, "Do you really like him?"
"Fu Yangxi is a person worthy of being liked," Mingxi couldn't help but say.
When she said this, there were even dense emotions along with pride in her heart. It also carried with it the joy of discovering a treasure, though it was more of the joy she felt whenever she thought of how that person looked when he expressed his emotions.
She didn't look at the expression on Shen Liyao's face as she continued, “To me, Fu Yangxi is like an onion. Upon peeling off each layer, there is something inside that I admire, love and cherish. You don't know him, you only know his family background and his arrogant temper. So you don’t even know that he is the best person I have ever met.”
He was also the cleanest and most gentle person.
He was the only person in the world who would carefully watch out for Zhao Mingxi's fragility and would unconditionally favor her at any moment.
What Mingxi had never gotten before was the word ‘favor’.
She only got it from Fu Yangxi.
He only favored her.
So how could she not unjustly favor him?
Mingxi told Shen Liyao very firmly, “I'm very fortunate to like him, and I’m also very fortunate to be able to walk alongside him for the days to come.”
The wind in the alley was howling.
What Zhao Mingxi said couldn't be clearer.
Shen Liyao was determined to look at her. His body was cold and his heart felt like it was on fire. He didn't know what else he wanted to hear— maybe it was a turning point.
However, Zhao Mingxi didn't give him any chance to change her mind. She didn't even worry about his feelings and straightforwardly expressed her liking for Fu Yangxi in front of him.
"But have you ever thought that you might just like the fact that he is nice to you?”
Shen Liyao resisted the anger and jealousy in his heart and said to Zhao Mingxi word by word, “He spent money to get a plane just to bring you back to your hometown, he helped you drive away the Zhao family and he even celebrated your birthday. All this is because he wants to date you! You only got together with him because he treats you well. Is that called liking?!”
Mingxi looked at Shen Liyao. She shook her head. “You really don't understand anything.”
“It’s actually the other way round.”
"He is good to me not because he wants to date me, but because I am important to him. That’s why he is good to me."
"Similarly, I like him. Even if he’s not good to me and will not be able to treat me well in the future, I’ll still like him."
“Because he is him.”
Mingxi didn't get angry because of Shen Liyao's words, instead she just found it funny.
Shen Liyao probably didn’t understand what it meant to ‘like’ someone.
In his world, he was always looking at others from his pedestal.
But he was actually a bit pitiful.
He was accustomed to the kindness of the people around him and he regarded this kindness as purposeful. So he didn’t believe that Fu Yangxi was genuinely good to Mingxi and wouldn’t ask for anything in return. When Mingxi didn’t like him or even hurt him, he still didn’t turn away from Mingxi and leave—
Shen Liyao was not such a person himself, so he couldn’t understand this kind of emotion.
"You’re used to being aloof in your own world, so you don't even know how to treat someone well."
Shen Liyao's face turned pale with Mingxi's words.
His vitality surged as he stared at Mingxi.
Mingxi had nothing else to say to Shen Liyao. She turned around and planned to leave. Shen Liyao, who was behind her, suddenly muttered, “I may not know how to, but you can teach me.”
All his life, Shen Liyao had never said that he didn’t know something. He never had such a humble moment.
He stared at Zhao Mingxi’s silhouette.
However, Zhao Mingxi did not look back.
Shen Liyao's heart grew colder and colder.
He heard Zhao Mingxi pause and said, "But no one has the obligation to wait for you. I don’t have such an obligation as well."
"When you meet someone you like, don't do this anymore."
Zhao Mingxi left.
After a long time, Shen Liyao still stood on the spot, dark spots slightly covering his vision.
At this moment, he clearly realized that he had completely lost something very important.
He was never going to get her back.
He lost to Fu Yangxi.
*
Fu Yangxi looked down from the hallway with a stinky face. When he saw that Zhao Mingxi had turned back and was entering the academic building, he hurriedly turned the wheelchair and moved into the classroom.
Ke Chengwen: “...”
When Mingxi stepped into the classroom, Fu Yangxi was wearing his noise-canceling headphones, looking like ‘I am isolated from the world’ as he stared blankly at the book in front of him. Only after Mingxi walked over, pulled out the chair and sat down did he raise his dark eyebrows. “You’re back?”
After that, Fu Yangxi glanced at the wall clock and sneered. “15 minutes and 300,000 milliseconds more than what was promised."
Mingxi: "..."
Mingxi glanced at him. When she saw that the anti-noise switch of his headphones hadn't been turned on at all, she couldn't help but smile. “Aren't you curious about my conversation with Shen Liyao?”
"Not curious at all." Fu Yangxi was unusually cold.
Mingxi took out her notebook and exercise book from her desk drawer. “I see. Then I won't talk about it.”
Fu Yangxi: “...”
Fu Yangxi was itching to know. The moment he thought about how Little Mask had a conversation with the guy with the surname Shen, he felt that he might have to toss and turn because of it for a long time.
He waited for three full minutes. Seeing that Little Mask wasn’t going to take the initiative to say it, he closed the book with a ‘pop’, looked at Zhao Mingxi and pretended to be casual about it. “If you really want to say it, I can lend you an ear.”
Mingxi looked at him.
Fu Yangxi's carelessness and coldness gradually collapsed. He filled himself with righteous indignation and said, “You—”
Before he could finish speaking, Mingxi held up a book to cover their heads and leaned over to kiss his handsome face.
Fu Yangxi: “...”
Fu Yangxi touched the part on his face that Mingxi had kissed and said angrily, “Don't you think you can get away with just this—”
Before he finished his sentence, Mingxi leaned in and kissed him on his lips. “What about this one?”
The dry, soft touch; shocking upon contact; gentle as a dragonfly landing on still waters.
But it was enough to stir up people's hearts.
The tips of Fu Yangxi's ears suddenly turned into a burning cloud. He couldn't help turning his head away and said vaguely, "I guess that’ll do."
Mingxi whispered to him, “What else could we have talked about? I have nothing to say to Shen Liyao. I just rejected him for the last time and told him that I only like you.”
Fu Yangxi coughed and said to Mingxi, “We’re still in the classroom, and you are the pride of our class. Be serious!”
Nonetheless, he held his fist against the corner of his lips, and the corners of his mouth were almost up to his temples.
Everyone in class: F*cking hell…
…My eyes have gone blind.
...The boss is really scary when he is in love.
*
Mingxi didn't know whether her encounter with Shen Liyao was considered as the end of a chapter.
But in short, Shen Liyao did not appear in Mingxi's field of vision again.
After all, Shen Liyao was not a stubborn person. Since they have already made things clear, it would be very out of character for him to come and disturb her again.
In fact, Mingxi felt that he didn’t like her very much, just that there may be some feelings of that sort.
However, this kind of youthful love came hazy and unclear.
If you can't get it, you can't do anything.
As time passes, it’ll be gradually buried.
After a few heavy snowfalls and a lack of interaction, you’ll forget about it.
On this day, Ke Chengwen was carrying the wheelchair while Fu Yangxi jumped upstairs with one foot. Mingxi followed with a bag of snacks and they all went upstairs while making a fuss.
As soon as they went upstairs, they saw Shen Liyao standing at the back door of the International Class.
Although he was in the next class, Shen Liyao often stayed in the laboratory and Mingxi would not take the initiative to look for him. It was not that easy to meet by chance, so the last time they met was the time when Shen Liyao and Fu Yangxi had a fight on the basketball court.
After more than a month, Shen Liyao was evidently thinner.
Compared with Fu Yangxi's lively spirits, he put on a down jacket, and the blue and white school uniform inside was meticulously pulled to the highest point of the collar. The wounds on the corners of the mouth and cheekbones that were beaten by Fu Yangxi were all healed, only a shallow mark remained. His cold eyes looked very gloomy.
"Can we talk?" Shen Liyao's gaze fell straight on Mingxi.
"Why?" Fu Yangxi glanced at him. He was very vigilant, a layer of frost forming on his face immediately. Did this guy with the surname Shen consider him dead? He was still here, yet he dared to come and ask such a question face to face?
Mingxi guessed that Shen Liyao had heard that she and Fu Yangxi were together. This should be the last conversation.
Everything had to have an end.
Mingxi thought about it for a while. Then, she held Fu Yangxi's hand and said, "I'll just take 10 minutes."
The jealousy and possessiveness in Fu Yangxi's heart were almost gushing out. 10 minutes?!
Ten minutes is 600,000 milliseconds. So many things can be said and done during that time!
Also, Little Mask genuinely liked Shen Liyao. Shen Liyao was the one Fu Yangxi guarded against. He was most afraid of Shen Liyao!
Of course he was worried!
But Fu Yangxi felt that he was being a bit stingy. Men couldn't be like this.
After a long time, he would become a jealous man and jealous men are easily dumped.
He held back his possessiveness, let out a cold breath, smiled at Mingxi and said, "Okay."
Mingxi looked at him with a gaze full of uncertainty. “Are you okay?”
Why are you suddenly smiling so grimly?
"It's okay, I'm not that stingy." Fu Yangxi said in a dominant manner.
Mingxi said, “Then let go—”
Fu Yangxi still held Mingxi's hand firmly.
He let go, put his hands in his pocket coldly and planned to leave.
After he turned around, he realized that he was still in a wheelchair— he couldn't get anywhere with his hands in his pockets.
Mingxi: “...”
Ke Chengwen: “...”
There was a crack in Fu Yangxi's cold appearance. He took out his hand to turn the wheelchair and entered the classroom with a blank expression.
Mingxi and Shen Liyao went downstairs.
As soon as the two of them left, Fu Yangxi hurriedly turned the wheelchair out of the classroom. It's too inconvenient to sit in a wheelchair. He said to Ke Chengwen with a black face, "Push me to the side of the corridor, hurry!"
Ke Chengwen: F*ck, didn’t you say you’re not that stingy?
As a single person, he couldn’t understand the world of lovers!
*
Mingxi and Shen Liyao walked into the alley between the two academic buildings. The surroundings became quiet, only the sound coming from the basketball court in the distance was faintly heard.
The cold winter wind blew from the alley to her face. Mingxi took off the scarf that was blown on her face.
Her scarf was also given by Fu Yangxi. It made her neck very warm.
This year’s winter was about to pass.
She had nothing to say to Shen Liyao, so she waited for Shen Liyao to speak.
Shen Liyao fixed his eyes on Zhao Mingxi for a long time.
It took so long that Mingxi couldn't help taking out the phone from her down jacket and looking at the time. She raised her eyes and said to Shen Liyao, “What do you want to say? Class is about to start.”
There was a long silence.
Shen Liyao opened his mouth and asked, "Do you really like him?"
Mingxi answered, “Yes.”
Shen Liyao didn't expect that Zhao Mingxi would not even hesitate to answer. She made a decisive choice without even thinking about it.
The fingers he put in his pocket were clenched and his heart seemed to have been cut by a knife.
Mingxi didn't know why everyone was asking this question. Ke Chengwen did not believe that she really liked Fu Yangxi and their homeroom teacher was also surprised at this. The question Shen Liyao asked was, "Do you really like him?"
"Fu Yangxi is a person worthy of being liked," Mingxi couldn't help but say.
When she said this, there were even dense emotions along with pride in her heart. It also carried with it the joy of discovering a treasure, though it was more of the joy she felt whenever she thought of how that person looked when he expressed his emotions.
She didn't look at the expression on Shen Liyao's face as she continued, “To me, Fu Yangxi is like an onion. Upon peeling off each layer, there is something inside that I admire, love and cherish. You don't know him, you only know his family background and his arrogant temper. So you don’t even know that he is the best person I have ever met.”
He was also the cleanest and most gentle person.
He was the only person in the world who would carefully watch out for Zhao Mingxi's fragility and would unconditionally favor her at any moment.
What Mingxi had never gotten before was the word ‘favor’.
She only got it from Fu Yangxi.
He only favored her.
So how could she not unjustly favor him?
Mingxi told Shen Liyao very firmly, “I'm very fortunate to like him, and I’m also very fortunate to be able to walk alongside him for the days to come.”
The wind in the alley was howling.
What Zhao Mingxi said couldn't be clearer.
Shen Liyao was determined to look at her. His body was cold and his heart felt like it was on fire. He didn't know what else he wanted to hear— maybe it was a turning point.
However, Zhao Mingxi didn't give him any chance to change her mind. She didn't even worry about his feelings and straightforwardly expressed her liking for Fu Yangxi in front of him.
"But have you ever thought that you might just like the fact that he is nice to you?”
Shen Liyao resisted the anger and jealousy in his heart and said to Zhao Mingxi word by word, “He spent money to get a plane just to bring you back to your hometown, he helped you drive away the Zhao family and he even celebrated your birthday. All this is because he wants to date you! You only got together with him because he treats you well. Is that called liking?!”
Mingxi looked at Shen Liyao. She shook her head. “You really don't understand anything.”
“It’s actually the other way round.”
"He is good to me not because he wants to date me, but because I am important to him. That’s why he is good to me."
"Similarly, I like him. Even if he’s not good to me and will not be able to treat me well in the future, I’ll still like him."
“Because he is him.”
Mingxi didn't get angry because of Shen Liyao's words, instead she just found it funny.
Shen Liyao probably didn’t understand what it meant to ‘like’ someone.
In his world, he was always looking at others from his pedestal.
But he was actually a bit pitiful.
He was accustomed to the kindness of the people around him and he regarded this kindness as purposeful. So he didn’t believe that Fu Yangxi was genuinely good to Mingxi and wouldn’t ask for anything in return. When Mingxi didn’t like him or even hurt him, he still didn’t turn away from Mingxi and leave—
Shen Liyao was not such a person himself, so he couldn’t understand this kind of emotion.
"You’re used to being aloof in your own world, so you don't even know how to treat someone well."
Shen Liyao's face turned pale with Mingxi's words.
His vitality surged as he stared at Mingxi.
Mingxi had nothing else to say to Shen Liyao. She turned around and planned to leave. Shen Liyao, who was behind her, suddenly muttered, “I may not know how to, but you can teach me.”
All his life, Shen Liyao had never said that he didn’t know something. He never had such a humble moment.
He stared at Zhao Mingxi’s silhouette.
However, Zhao Mingxi did not look back.
Shen Liyao's heart grew colder and colder.
He heard Zhao Mingxi pause and said, "But no one has the obligation to wait for you. I don’t have such an obligation as well."
"When you meet someone you like, don't do this anymore."
Zhao Mingxi left.
After a long time, Shen Liyao still stood on the spot, dark spots slightly covering his vision.
At this moment, he clearly realized that he had completely lost something very important.
He was never going to get her back.
He lost to Fu Yangxi.
*
Fu Yangxi looked down from the hallway with a stinky face. When he saw that Zhao Mingxi had turned back and was entering the academic building, he hurriedly turned the wheelchair and moved into the classroom.
Ke Chengwen: “...”
When Mingxi stepped into the classroom, Fu Yangxi was wearing his noise-canceling headphones, looking like ‘I am isolated from the world’ as he stared blankly at the book in front of him. Only after Mingxi walked over, pulled out the chair and sat down did he raise his dark eyebrows. “You’re back?”
After that, Fu Yangxi glanced at the wall clock and sneered. “15 minutes and 300,000 milliseconds more than what was promised."
Mingxi: "..."
Mingxi glanced at him. When she saw that the anti-noise switch of his headphones hadn't been turned on at all, she couldn't help but smile. “Aren't you curious about my conversation with Shen Liyao?”
"Not curious at all." Fu Yangxi was unusually cold.
Mingxi took out her notebook and exercise book from her desk drawer. “I see. Then I won't talk about it.”
Fu Yangxi: “...”
Fu Yangxi was itching to know. The moment he thought about how Little Mask had a conversation with the guy with the surname Shen, he felt that he might have to toss and turn because of it for a long time.
He waited for three full minutes. Seeing that Little Mask wasn’t going to take the initiative to say it, he closed the book with a ‘pop’, looked at Zhao Mingxi and pretended to be casual about it. “If you really want to say it, I can lend you an ear.”
Mingxi looked at him.
Fu Yangxi's carelessness and coldness gradually collapsed. He filled himself with righteous indignation and said, “You—”
Before he could finish speaking, Mingxi held up a book to cover their heads and leaned over to kiss his handsome face.
Fu Yangxi: “...”
Fu Yangxi touched the part on his face that Mingxi had kissed and said angrily, “Don't you think you can get away with just this—”
Before he finished his sentence, Mingxi leaned in and kissed him on his lips. “What about this one?”
The dry, soft touch; shocking upon contact; gentle as a dragonfly landing on still waters.
But it was enough to stir up people's hearts.
The tips of Fu Yangxi's ears suddenly turned into a burning cloud. He couldn't help turning his head away and said vaguely, "I guess that’ll do."
Mingxi whispered to him, “What else could we have talked about? I have nothing to say to Shen Liyao. I just rejected him for the last time and told him that I only like you.”
Fu Yangxi coughed and said to Mingxi, “We’re still in the classroom, and you are the pride of our class. Be serious!”
Nonetheless, he held his fist against the corner of his lips, and the corners of his mouth were almost up to his temples.
Everyone in class: F*cking hell…
…My eyes have gone blind.
...The boss is really scary when he is in love.
*
Mingxi didn't know whether her encounter with Shen Liyao was considered as the end of a chapter.
But in short, Shen Liyao did not appear in Mingxi's field of vision again.
After all, Shen Liyao was not a stubborn person. Since they have already made things clear, it would be very out of character for him to come and disturb her again.
In fact, Mingxi felt that he didn’t like her very much, just that there may be some feelings of that sort.
However, this kind of youthful love came hazy and unclear.
If you can't get it, you can't do anything.
As time passes, it’ll be gradually buried.
After a few heavy snowfalls and a lack of interaction, you’ll forget about it.
