The next day, Su Mianmian walked out of the classroom discussing a project with a male classmate.
Tang Yunzheng spotted them from a distance. Feeling annoyed, he strode over and abruptly pulled Su Mianmian away.
“Come here. I need to talk to you.”
Su Mianmian had been planning to return his necklace anyway, so she arranged to continue discussing the project with her classmate in the cafeteria later.
Once the young man had walked off, Tang Yunzheng’s expression darkened further. He furrowed his brow and scoffed.
“Su Mianmian, who was that guy?”
Her tone was distant.
“What’s it to you?”
Tang Yunzheng’s brow furrowed even more.
“I’m just warning you not to get too close to those guys. Most of them have bad intentions.”
Tang Yunzheng had said things like that many times before. Su Mianmian used to think he objected to her spending time with other boys because he had feelings for her.
So she had willingly let him set boundaries for her, even relishing his little displays of possessiveness.
Now, hearing it, she found it inexplicably ironic, and her voice turned even colder.
“Then who should I get close to? You?”
Tang Yunzheng could tell that Su Mianmian was in a truly foul mood today, and his own voice grew impatient.
“Su Mianmian, what’s that supposed to mean? I’m trying to help, and you won’t even take the advice. And why did you leave without a word last night? I went to all the trouble of inviting so many of my buddies to celebrate your birthday.”
Clutching several books, Su Mianmian continued silently down the stairs.
“Sorry. Something came up at the last minute, and I didn’t have time to say goodbye.”
“What could be more important than your birthday?”
Su Mianmian didn’t stop walking.
“It’s just a birthday. It’s not that important.”
Su Mianmian and Tang Yunzheng had argued plenty of times over the years, but this was the first time he’d seen her being so sarcastic.
“Can’t you just talk to me normally?”
Su Mianmian stopped and turned to face him.
“How am I not talking to you normally? Ask yourself honestly: yesterday, were you really celebrating my birthday, or were you using it as an excuse to introduce your girlfriend to everyone?”
Tang Yunzheng’s eyes flickered.
“Can’t it be both? Xiaomianmian, you and Jiaojiao are both very important to me. I thought you’d be happy if I introduced her to you on your birthday.”
Su Mianmian couldn’t tell whether Tang Yunzheng was genuinely clueless or just pretending. She laughed.
“I was happy. Thank you for going to all that trouble.”
Then she walked around him and continued on. Tang Yunzheng stood there stunned for two seconds, then hurried after her and grabbed her by the arm.
“Su Mianmian, could they have been right? Do you like me? Are you jealous of Lin Jiaojiao?”
His voice was loud enough that several students passing nearby heard him and turned to stare curiously. Su Mianmian flushed and yanked her arm free.
“Who likes you? Could you stop flattering yourself?”
At that, Tang Yunzheng seemed relieved. He licked his back molar with the tip of his tongue, a roguish look on his face.
“I knew it. There’s no way you’d be into me. We’ve been friends for so many years—purely comrades-in-arms, best buddies. Our relationship has nothing whatsoever to do with romance.”
His words only made Su Mianmian feel worse. She took the necklace from her pocket.
“So please don’t give me things like this anymore.”
Tang Yunzheng took the necklace from her, bewildered.
“Wait, what’s wrong with this necklace? Why can’t I give it to you?”
Su Mianmian frowned.
“What do you think? It’s a heart. Who gives a heart necklace to a buddy?”
Tang Yunzheng opened the box and saw that it was indeed a heart. He slapped his broad palm against his forehead.
“Damn, my mistake. I just told the sales assistant it was for a girl and asked her to pick something. Who knew she’d choose a heart?”
Su Mianmian’s heart felt as if it were steeped in lemon water, sour bubbles rising inside her. The birthday gifts she’d looked forward to for so long hadn’t even been chosen by him. Someone else had picked them out for him, and he hadn’t so much as looked at them.
What more was there to misunderstand? All these years, she’d been the only one harboring those feelings.
Tang Yunzheng kept talking.
“Wait here. I’ll go to the jewelry store tonight and exchange it for another one. This time I’ll supervise them myself, so they don’t pick some weird design.”
“No need.”
Su Mianmian pressed her lips together.
“It’s not like you have to buy me anything. Besides, I have plenty of jewelry like this at home.”
With that, she stopped paying him any attention and walked away alone.
For days afterward, Su Mianmian deliberately avoided places Tang Yunzheng might go, doing her best to see him as little as possible.
During that time, Tang Yunzheng messaged her several times, asking her to meet him at the library or cafeteria. Su Mianmian glanced at each message, then deleted it.
On the day school let out for the Mid-Autumn Festival[1]A Chinese lunar-calendar holiday centered on the full moon, family reunion, and traditionally sharing mooncakes. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3736074_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3736074_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); holiday, Su Mianmian had just walked out of campus when she spotted Tang Yunzheng leaning against a car, with Lin Jiaojiao nestled beside him in a fitted knit dress.
They were both attractive, and with the flashy sports car beside Tang Yunzheng, they drew a crowd of curious students passing by.
Su Mianmian glanced over from a distance and was just about to take another route when Tang Yunzheng called out to her. A few quick strides brought him to her side.
“Why are you trying to avoid me? I’ve been waiting ages. Come on, let’s go have dinner together.”
Su Mianmian resisted the idea with all her heart.
“I’m not going. I have something else to do.”
“Don’t give me that. What could you possibly have to do?”
As he spoke, Tang Yunzheng grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the car.
“You left so suddenly last time that Jiaojiao barely got to talk to you. She came all this way to see you today. Let’s go have dinner, just the three of us.”
Su Mianmian thought, If the two of them are dating, fine—but why drag her along as the third wheel? She instinctively tried to pull her hand away.
“I really can’t. Uncle Cheng is coming to pick me up any minute.”
“I already told Uncle Cheng to go home. We’ll all head back together after dinner.”
Su Mianmian was at her wit’s end. They were only a few steps from Lin Jiaojiao now, and refusing again would make it look as if she were deliberately hiding something.
“Fine, I’ll go. Just let go of my hand first. What will people think if they see us like this?”
Only then did Tang Yunzheng reluctantly let go. When he heard that she’d agreed to have dinner with them, a smile curled his lips.
“Let them see. It’s not the first time I’ve held your hand.”
“Not the first time, but it’ll be the last.”
Tang Yunzheng hadn’t heard her clearly.
“What did you say?”
Su Mianmian rubbed the hand he’d squeezed painfully.
“I said you have a girlfriend now, so we should keep our distance. Don’t hold my hand again.”
Hearing Su Mianmian say they should “keep our distance” struck Tang Yunzheng as strange. It was as if something had quietly slipped away from inside him, too quickly for him to catch it.
But the feeling lasted only a second or two. Once Lin Jiaojiao came over and looped her arm through his, he forgot all about it.
The three of them went to a popular restaurant.
Throughout the meal, Lin Jiaojiao and Tang Yunzheng clung to each other like conjoined twins, even feeding each other bites of food.
Su Mianmian truly couldn’t understand why they’d invited her. Was it just to force-feed her affection?
She kept her eyes down and her thoughts to herself, wanting only to finish quickly and leave.
After the meal, Tang Yunzheng went to the front desk to pay. Su Mianmian and Lin Jiaojiao waited for him outside the restaurant.
“Su Mianmian, you like Tang Yunzheng, don’t you?”
Out of nowhere, Lin Jiaojiao said it to her. Gone was the sweet, smiling expression she’d worn in the restaurant; her face had turned sharp and spiteful.
Su Mianmian looked at Lin Jiaojiao in surprise, unsure how to answer.
Lin Jiaojiao’s alluring eyes curved slightly.
“I could tell when you had your birthday. What, did you go there thinking Tang Yunzheng was going to confess to you?”
Su Mianmian’s face went deathly pale, as if Lin Jiaojiao had ripped away a veil meant to hide her shame in front of everyone. She felt humiliated to the core.
Her good upbringing told her not to start an argument with someone like this in the middle of the street.
“Talking to me like this only makes it seem as if you’re not very confident in your relationship with Tang Yunzheng. If that’s the case, you shouldn’t be coming after me. You should focus your attention on him.”
Su Mianmian turned to leave. But Lin Jiaojiao, stung because Su Mianmian had hit a nerve, remembered how easily Tang Yunzheng had held Su Mianmian’s hand at the school gate. Jealousy surged through her.
She grabbed Su Mianmian’s hand.
“Don’t make yourself the main character. You know what they say about a toad? It doesn’t have to bite you to make your skin crawl. Childhood sweethearts—sure, that’s a nice way of saying backup option!”
“You!”
Su Mianmian’s cheeks flushed with anger. She instinctively tried to wrench her hand free of Lin Jiaojiao’s grip. But she had used only the slightest force when Lin Jiaojiao suddenly went with it and fell to the ground.
Just then, Tang Yunzheng came out after paying. The moment he saw Lin Jiaojiao on the ground, he hurried over to help her up.
“Jiaojiao, are you okay?”
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