Chapter 17

After a year, He Nuo wasn’t the only one who had changed. Shi Yan had also grown taller, and his shoulders grew wider; he had the exemplar inverted triangle figure people could only dream of. Shi Yan loved to keep up with the fashion trends, so he wore a pair of skinny jeans that accentuated his round, perky b.u.t.t, showing off his youthfulness. He no longer focused on his studies, and started to flirt with every girl he saw while he enjoyed the infatuated looks they gave him. That kind of excitement was much more enjoyable than his daily, boring schoolwork. Recently, he had hooked a new prey: a pretty, older sister who was in her third year. Even though she’s technically an “older” sister, she was actually younger than Shi Yan by two months because she had enrolled in the school a year earlier than the rest. The girl was rather obsessed, or rather it was widely known that people in love usually had a screw or two loose – even though they were only separated by one floor, she loved to write Shi Yan letters. As a result, Shi Yan’s mother discovered these letters. Shi Yan refused to acknowledge any intimate relationship with the girl, and told his mother that they had a platonic schoolmate relationship. Hence, Shi Mama went to the girl’s house and threw words like “seduce, wh.o.r.e, s.l.u.t, shameless…” around ruthlessly.

This matter immediately spread like wildfire within the school. This kind of news was nothing to Shi Yan, no one would dare to pick a bone with him other than his buddies who would use the gossip to tease him. On the other hand, the girl had to endure the disappointment, ridicule and anger from the teachers, students and her parents. The heartbroken girl went to look for Shi Yan to request for some comfort, but regrettably, her prince had already grown tired of acting in this infatuated drama, and had embarked on the start of a new relationship. The fragile girl reacted in the same way as the heartbroken leads you would see in dramas and movies – she turned and ran away crazily.

After she wandered about desperately for awhile, the stubborn girl wasn’t willing to accept the situation and returned to find Shi Yan. She knew that Shi Yan was on duty today, so he should be the last to leave. But “should” and “would” were two separate realities; the Shi Yan who was supposed to be on duty was flirting around with his new target at who knows where. As she sat in Shi Yan’s empty cla.s.sroom, the girl’s heart also felt desolate and lonely. She couldn’t stop the angst that leaked from her heart and the tears from streaming down her cheeks. Thoughts of her lover cruelly turned his back on her and her parents’ anger and poisonous words flooded her mind. The helpless girl thought that she had nothing left to yearn for in life, and the more she thought of this, the more upset she got, so much so that she forced herself into a dead end of pain. The world was so vast, yet she had no place in which she belonged. This was the only thought that ran through the young girl’s mind. Wherever she looked, only looks and words of ridicule from curious onlookers plagued her; her eyes slowly dulled, and the girl’s world collapsed right in front of her eyes. She stood up and opened the cla.s.sroom window, then climbed up a chair, a table, and finally stood on the windowsill.

When she heard the sound of the door opening, the romantic girls’ last thought was originally, “Please let me see him for the last time.” And thought that the heavens had heard her wish, so she didn’t bother covering up her surprise and happiness when she turned around to shout, “Shi Yan!” Disappointment poured in immediately, it wasn’t him.

He Nuo looked at the girl, and recognized her as Shi Yan’s ex-girlfriend. He knew that she was his ex because not too long ago, Shi Yan had his arms around another girl at the sharing area as he told him to lock up the cla.s.sroom after cleaning up because he wasn’t coming back. He Nuo had just finished cleaning the sharing area, and had returned to the cla.s.sroom to put some stuff down and pick up his bag.

When he saw that she was standing on the windowsill, He Nuo was slightly surprised, and hesitantly asked, “You?”

The girl didn’t say anything, but her tears flowed out.

“Shi Yan already left, you should come down.” He Nuo tried his best to speak in a calm manner as he was afraid of agitating her further.

“He’s on duty so he’s responsible for locking up, so he shouldn’t have left? You’re lying!” The girl stubbornly refused to believe He Nuo.

“He had something on so he had to leave first, he asked me to lock up.”

“I want to see him.” As she said this, the girl started to wail.

He Nuo was at a loss, he had never faced such a situation before so he didn’t know how what to say. In the end, he clumsily asked, “Won’t you be able to see him tomorrow? I’ll help you tell him tomorrow, then you can talk to him, ok?”

The girl spoke very softly, and He Nuo barely managed to make out the words, “There is no tomorrow.”

He Nuo smacked his head with his hand and thought, oh man, his prediction really did come true – she’s planning to jump. He didn’t know what happened between her and Shi Yan, and wasn’t sure about what she was thinking about right now, but he knew that he couldn’t stand by and just watch her jump down. He Nuo has little experience with social interaction, so he didn’t have much social skills to begin with. He didn’t know how to persuade people, and the first words that came out of his mouth were actually, “Then do you have any last words for Shi Yan?”

“Last words?” The girl softly repeated. Obviously, she had not considered this before.

When He Nuo saw this, he felt much more relaxed and knew what to do from there. He gently said, “You should probably have some words you want to say to him, right?” He pointed to a seat a bit further away from the window, “That’s his seat, there should be some pens and papers in his table, you can write what you want there.” He Nuo then casually walked over to his table at the back of the cla.s.sroom so that the girl wouldn’t feel nervous from his presence. When he saw that she was still hesitating, He Nuo slowly asked, “Why aren’t you writing? The third years will be finishing their night revision cla.s.ses soon, the gates will be locked then.” (The third years occupied one building by themselves and left school an hour later than the first and second years at 10PM.)

The girl saw the sincere look in his eyes, then finally walked over to the seat that He Nuo had pointed out. He Nuo silently breathed a sigh of relief, because he actually didn’t know which seat belonged to Shi Yan. He had just randomly pointed to a seat away from the window. Luckily, this girl knew where Shi Yan sat.