Tuesday.
Bai Lingyun and Xie Jingyi both chose to stay in the dormitory to study, saving the trip to the library and allowing them to sleep an extra ten minutes.
When Zhou Anran and Yu Xinyue arrived at the library at 7:55 AM, Chen Luobai was already standing outside.
The young man wore a black and white baseball jacket today. His eyes were drooping, looking rather listless, possibly due to lack of sleep. His whole demeanor exuded an aura of “I’m in a bad mood, don’t bother me.”
As Zhou Anran was walking towards him earlier, she noticed quite a few girls secretly glancing at him. However, perhaps sensing this unapproachable aura, not a single one dared to approach him or ask for his WeChat.
She slowly walked up to him and stopped.
Seeing her approach, Chen Luobai suppressed a yawn that was about to escape and said in a low voice, “You’re here.”
Zhou Anran looked up at him. Up close, she noticed his gaze seemed to have softened somewhat, but the weariness on his face was even more apparent. “Didn’t sleep well last night?” she asked.
“A bit,” Chen Luobai replied.
Why did you still come to the library today?
Is it just to have a chance encounter with me?
These two questions rolled around in Zhou Anran’s mind, but she didn’t dare ask them out loud.
On Sunday night, when texting him on her phone, she hadn’t dared to ask if he was joking with her. Now, face to face, she was even less inclined to ask.
Zhou Anran lowered her head and awkwardly managed to say, “Have you had breakfast?”
“I have,” he replied. The girl had her hair in a bun today, and as Chen Luobai lowered his gaze, he caught sight of her snow-white neck. “How about you?”
“I have to.”
“…”
At 8:00 AM sharp, the library opened.
Because there was an extra person, Zhou Anran sat at a six-person table this time.
She sat in the middle, with Yu Xinyue on her left and Chen Luobai taking a seat on her right.
As soon as they sat down, Zhou Anran saw He Mingyu approaching with several books, heading for the empty seat across from her.
The inexplicable feeling of guilt from Sunday night bubbled up again.
He Mingyu’s gaze lingered on her for a second before moving to Chen Luobai. Since the library had just opened and everyone was still moving about, he didn’t lower his voice much: “What a coincidence! You two ran into each other today as well?”
Zhou Anran: “…”
Zhou Anran didn’t know how to respond.
That familiar voice sounded lazily beside her ear, with a hint of amusement: “Yeah, I just happened to run into her.”
Zhou Anran: “…”
…That’s not true.
He Mingyu lowered his gaze, set down his books, and didn’t say anything more.
Zhou Anran lowered her head and opened her book, but found it difficult to concentrate immediately. Her thoughts and the words on the page seemed to be floating.
Suddenly, a notebook was pushed towards her by a slender, large hand.
On the blank page was a line of bold, familiar handwriting.
It was the handwriting she hadn’t seen since that love letter.
There was only a very short sentence:
“You made plans with him too?”
Zhou Anran’s momentary sadness from thinking about that “love letter” was instantly dispelled by this sentence.
What did he mean by “You made plans with him too?”
With his excellent Chinese grades and his skill at maintaining distance from girls, why would he use the word “too” followed by “made plans,” doesn’t he know it could lead to misunderstandings?
Zhou Anran wasn’t sure if she was overthinking, but she could indeed sense a hint of ambiguity in his recent interactions with her, and it seemed to be becoming more apparent.
Because she couldn’t be certain, and because she had to constantly guess his thoughts, it was quite tormenting. But being invited by him for a meal alone, being walked back to the dormitory by him, and being asked to come to the library together were all treatments she had never dared to hope for before and had never seen any other girl receive from him.
So amidst the torment, there was also sweetness.
That’s why she didn’t dare to point it out at all.
She feared that if she burst this bubble, the colorful illusion before her eyes would disappear without a trace.
Zhou Anran pursed her lips, not daring to mention the word “plans,” and wrote back on the line below: “No, it’s just another coincidence.”
After writing, she looked down carefully. Her small handwriting was just below his.
Zhou Anran felt somewhat grateful that she had practiced her handwriting as a child. Although it couldn’t be considered particularly beautiful, it was passable.
She pushed the notebook back.
Chen Luobai glanced at her neat and pretty handwriting, then his gaze fell on her fair profile and finally rested for an extremely brief moment on He Mingyu across the table.
He lowered his head.
A few seconds later.
Zhou Anran saw his reply.
It was another very short line—
“You and he seem to have quite a connection.”
Zhou Anran: “…?”
She was still a bit dazed when he took the notebook back again.
This time it was his right hand that reached over, and that small brown mole on his wrist flashed before her eyes.
Zhou Anran couldn’t help but secretly look at him.
The young man’s bangs fell across his forehead, his jawline still impeccably handsome, but even from the side, his expression was unreadable.
He lowered his head slightly, his long fingers gripping the pen, the tip crossing out the previous line with two long strokes, seemingly drawing a few more lines over the last two characters.
When he pushed it back, there was an additional sentence.
“I’m going to sleep for a bit, wake me up at 8:30.”
Zhou Anran’s gaze lingered for a moment on the “You and he seem to have quite a connection” that he had completely crossed out, making it almost invisible. Her heartbeat seemed to become unsteady again.
She paused, then secretly glanced at him again.
His face was still full of weariness.
Zhou Anran lowered her head and wrote back: “Do you want to go back to the dorm to sleep?”
This time he replied with four characters: “Trying to send me away?”
Zhou Anran gripped her pen.
Once again, she felt his choice of words today was somewhat ambiguous.
What did he mean by “send me away”?
She had no right to send him anywhere.
“No, it’s just that sleeping in the dorm would be more comfortable, wouldn’t it be uncomfortable to sleep hunched over?”
“I’m not going back. It’s rare to have a chance encounter, will you wake me at 8:30?”
After pushing the notebook back this time, Chen Luobai’s gaze also fell on her face.
Zhou Anran slightly regretted putting her hair in a bun today, because she felt her ears were getting a bit warm again. She stared at the phrase “It’s rare to have a chance encounter” for a few seconds. A strand of hair fell from behind her ear as she lowered her head to write a single character.
“Okay.”
After pushing the notebook back, Zhou Anran saw the corner of his lips seemingly curl up slightly. Then he closed the notebook, rested his arm on it, and buried his face in his arm, leaving only the back of his black-haired head visible.
He used to sleep like this in high school too.
Always liked to bury his entire face in his arms.
She had secretly watched him many times.
But this time, he had given her the right to wake him up.
With people all around, Zhou Anran didn’t dare look at him for more than two seconds. She withdrew her gaze, lowered her head, switched her phone from silent to vibrate mode, and set an alarm for 8:30.
As she was about to put it away, she unlocked it again, thought for a moment, and finally opened a food delivery app.
Zhou Anran managed to focus on her book for half an hour.
At 8:30, as soon as the alarm vibrated, she immediately turned it off.
Zhou Anran turned her head, her hand reaching out to push him, but as her fingertips were about to touch his arm, she pulled back.
After hesitating for a few seconds, she capped her pen and slowly reached out again, stopping just before touching him.
Capping the pen seemed to make it a bit too hard.
Poking him with this pen probably wouldn’t feel very comfortable.
Zhou Anran bit her lip, finally put the pen down, and reached out to gently push him.
The young man’s arm had a completely different feel from her own. Even through two layers of fabric, she could sense the underlying strength.
Zhou Anran lightly pushed him once.
No response.
She pushed again.
Still no response.
She added a bit more force.
Still no response.
Remembering how tired he looked today, Zhou Anran began to hesitate whether she should wake him up at all, but she was also afraid of delaying his studies. In the end, she steeled herself and pushed a bit harder.
This time there was finally a response.
The young man’s head lifted slightly, his pitch-black eyes opened, his brows and eyes full of irritation at being disturbed, even mixed with a few traces of obvious hostility.
He looked a bit fierce.
Zhou Anran quickly withdrew her hand.
No wonder nobody dared to disturb his sleep in high school.
Chen Luobai raised his hand to rub the corner of his eye.
As if recognizing her, the hostility in the young man’s eyes immediately dissipated, and he seemed to become docile in an instant.
Zhou Anran felt that using the word “docile” to describe him was a bit strange.
But for the moment, she couldn’t think of a more suitable word.
Just then, it was like a fierce beast suddenly turning into a gentle domesticated feline.
“Is it 8:30 already?” he asked in a very low voice.
Zhou Anran nodded.
Chen Luobai had only fallen asleep a short while ago.
He had been working on a big assignment until nearly 3 AM last night, otherwise he wouldn’t have chosen to nap at this time. But whether it was because she was sitting close, or because the notebook had picked up her scent when she touched it, a faint fragrance had been lingering in his nose.
He estimated that he had slept for less than ten minutes.
But if he slept any longer, the whole morning would be gone.
Chen Luobai stood up, his voice still soft: “I’m going to wash my face.”
The girl beside him obediently nodded.
When he returned after washing his face and sat down, he saw her slowly push a pack of tissues towards him. Her nails were neatly trimmed, her fingers slender, white, and delicate.
Chen Luobai pulled out a tissue to dry his face, then saw her push her notebook towards him again.
It still bore that neat and pretty handwriting.
“I bought some coffee, do you want some?”
Chen Luobai felt that he might not be fully awake yet, because suddenly he wanted to hear her say these words to him in person, in that soft voice with its slight grainy texture.
Perhaps seeing no reaction from him, the girl hesitantly turned her head to look at him, her eyes clear, still with that extremely pure, obedient look that made one want to bully her at first glance.
She blinked her eyes slightly in confusion.
Chen Luobai’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
He didn’t know where he had tossed his pen before falling asleep and was too lazy to look for it. He reached out and took the pen from her hand, lowered his head, and wrote a single character in her notebook.
“Yes.”
Zhou Anran looked at the notebook pushed back in front of her, then at her pen in his hand.
— He didn’t seem to have any intention of returning it to her.
Zhou Anran wanted to ask him for it back but was afraid of disturbing others. After hesitating for a few seconds, she simply took out a spare pen from her bag.
“Then wait a moment.”
Zhou Anran went downstairs to get four cups of coffee and came back up. She first placed one cup in front of Yu Xinyue, then put another in front of He Mingyu. After sitting down in her seat, she first wrote a sentence in the notebook: “You were sleeping earlier, so I didn’t know what flavor you liked. You can choose one of these two cups.”
Then she pushed the notebook and the two cups of coffee towards him together.
Chen Luobai glanced up at the cup of coffee beside He Mingyu, then slowly withdrew his gaze.
Two seconds later.
Zhou Anran looked at his new line of writing in the notebook in front of her.
“He gets one too?”
The feeling of guilt crept up again.
But since everyone was sitting at the same table, it wouldn’t be right to buy only for him.
Besides, if she only bought coffee for him, it would be too obvious.
Zhou Anran lowered her head and replied: “My roommate has one too, we’re all classmates.”
Chen Luobai stared at this line of hers, narrowed his eyes, and wrote back word by word: “All classmates?”
Zhou Anran: “…”
If not classmates, then what?
She wanted to ask him back like this but didn’t dare.
When his roommate referred to her as his female classmate in front of him, she didn’t see him object.
Zhou Anran kept her head down and replied with an “Mm” under his line.
The pen tip paused, and she began to hesitate again.
Just dryly replying with an “Mm,” lumping him together with others under the status of classmates, she seemed somewhat unwilling.
After accepting a bit of special treatment from him, she seemed to have become a little greedy.
She didn’t want to be just his ordinary classmate.
Zhou Anran put her pen tip down, wanting to cross it out, but then stopped.
But crossing it out would be too obvious.
She still didn’t dare to expose all her thoughts in front of him.
Zhou Anran hesitated for a long time, her inner thoughts going back and forth, and finally just added one of those cute emoticons that Yan Xingxi and the others liked to use after the “Mm.”
The notebook was pushed back by a small hand.
Chen Luobai saw that she had been writing for so long and thought it would be quite a long sentence.
Looking down to see just a simple “Mm,” he casually twirled the pen he had snatched from her earlier and let out an amused chuckle.
Chen Luobai’s gaze fell for another second on the small emoticon beside it, and the corner of his mouth curved up slightly again.
Zhou Anran waited for a while but received no reply, so she couldn’t help but secretly raise her head to look at him again.
She saw the young man close her notebook and place it under his notebook. Then he opened the “Jurisprudence” book he had brought, twirling her pen in one hand while lowering his head to seriously review.
His profile was still incomparably handsome.
But—
What about her notebook?
Was he not going to return it to her again?
Zhou Anran didn’t want to write randomly in her textbook, so she had to lean over a bit and say softly, “Notebook.”
“What?” Chen Luobai finally looked at her lazily.
Zhou Anran didn’t dare disturb others, so she had to lean closer to him again, raising her hand to point at his desk, her voice still very low: “My notebook, I only brought this one.”
Her voice was soft and gentle, sounding right next to his ear. Chen Luobai felt his ear tingle a bit: “Is that so?”
Zhou Anran nodded heavily.
Chen Luobai looked down at her without speaking.
A second later.
Zhou Anran saw him pull out his notebook and casually toss it in front of her.
“…?”
“Use this one.”