Tang Yunzheng was certain Su Mianmian wouldn’t throw away his gifts. After all, there was a cabinet in her room where she kept every gift he had given her over the years.
The last time he’d seen it, he’d been a little surprised.
With his hands in his pockets, he tilted his head and looked at Su Mianmian with complete confidence.
But the very next second, Su Mianmian raised her arm and lightly tossed the two gift boxes, one after the other, into the trash can a short distance away.
With two sharp rustles, Tang Yunzheng felt as though his dignity and pride had been thrown into the trash along with the gift boxes.
His anger surged.
“Su Mianmian, you’ve got some nerve. So you’re throwing a tantrum at me, huh? Fine. From now on, whoever tries to make up first is a dog!”
He kicked the trash can hard, as if to vent his anger, then stormed off.
Su Mianmian watched him go and shook her head silently. He was taking his anger out on a trash can. How had she never realized how childish he was?
She had just started walking when a fresh, fruity scent drifted up behind her. A pair of hands covered her eyes.
“Hey, gorgeous. Guess who?”
Su Mianmian’s lips curved.
“Anna?”
“Ellie?”
Just as she was about to guess Lucy, Song Zhi let out an exasperated “Ugh!” and dropped her hands.
“Boring. You’re no fun at all.”
Su Mianmian’s eyes curved with a smile.
“You’re the one who’s no fun. You do this every time.”
Song Zhi thought about it and realized she really did. She laughed so hard her shoulders shook, and when she finally managed to calm down, she said, “Oh, right. What did you do to Scumbag Tang just now? I saw him taking his anger out on a trash can from across the street.”
Ever since Tang Yunzheng had publicly said on Su Mianmian’s birthday that he only thought of her as his childhood sweetheart, Song Zhi had automatically changed his name to Scumbag Tang.
Su Mianmian felt uncomfortable whenever Tang Yunzheng came up now.
“What do you mean, what did I do to him? I’d be grateful if he’d just leave me alone.”
Song Zhi could tell there was a story there. She nudged Su Mianmian with her shoulder.
“What happened? Tell me everything.”
Su Mianmian had always told Song Zhi everything. It didn’t seem like a big deal, so she simply told her about everything that had happened over the past few days.
Song Zhi was so furious she nearly leapt to her feet.
“Ugh, Lin Jiaojiao is such a little green tea[1]Chinese slang for someone who presents a sweet, innocent image while behaving manipulatively, especially in romantic rivalry. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3736078_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3736078_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });! She could’ve just used a knife, but instead she chose to be a nasty bitch?”
“And she dared call you as bland as plain water? What, is she the only woman in the world with any femininity? Where does she get the nerve? And with makeup that heavy, too—what, was she off to stop bullets?”
Su Mianmian glanced silently at Song Zhi, genuinely curious about how her mind worked. She’d told her all that, and this was the one thing Song Zhi had taken away from it?
Song Zhi didn’t notice that Su Mianmian had drifted off. She was still firing off one clever insult after another.
“If her eyes are that useless, she might as well donate them. Couldn’t she open those dog eyes of hers and take a good look? Is there anyone as beautiful as our Mianmian, even when she’s as plain as water? If you hadn’t kept such a low profile back then, you’d have been A University’s campus belle.”
Seeing Song Zhi get more and more carried away, Su Mianmian cut her off.
“Enough. Can we stop talking about her and change the subject?”
Song Zhi also thought mentioning Lin Jiaojiao was bad luck. She swiftly changed tack and began complaining about Tang Yunzheng instead.
“Scumbag Tang really lives up to his name. He’s rotten through and through. Mianmian, you were right to give it to him just now. Don’t you dare go soft on him later.”
…
After that, Tang Yunzheng truly didn’t send Su Mianmian a single message, nor did he come looking for her outside the dorm again.
As for news about him, even when Su Mianmian didn’t want to hear it, people insisted on bringing it to her.
Just then, her other roommate, Tan Huilin, was standing in front of the makeup mirror, applying blush and speaking in a sarcastic tone.
“I have to say, Young Master Tang’s girlfriend is quite something. Great figure, knows how to act cute—and she’s right by the school gate, practically draped all over him. She has no sense of propriety at all.”
Tan Huilin had once had a crush on Tang Yunzheng. After Song Zhi caught her with secretly taken photos of him on her phone one time, she’d fallen out completely with both Su Mianmian and Song Zhi.
Now that Tang Yunzheng wasn’t with Su Mianmian and had found himself another girlfriend, of course Tan Huilin seized the chance to gloat.
Song Zhi couldn’t stand listening to her. She gave a cold snort.
“You spend all day in front of the mirror putting on makeup, and you still can’t cover up that mean, ugly face of yours.”
“So what if Tang Yunzheng has a girlfriend? He could find a hundred girlfriends, and you still wouldn’t be an option.”
Tan Huilin’s mouth twitched with anger.
“At least that’s better than being someone who was secretly in love with him for years, only to find out he thought of her as nothing but a childhood sweetheart.”
Song Zhi glanced at Su Mianmian. She saw her head bowed, looking dejected, and assumed Tan Huilin had gotten to her.
In a flash, she jumped off the bed and pointed at Tan Huilin’s nose.
“Tan, are you made of keyboard keys? Why are you such a nasty, punchable pain in the ass?”
“Someone like you wouldn’t last two lines in a novel!”
Tan Huilin was always a bully who picked on people she thought wouldn’t fight back. She usually only dared to run her mouth. Now, seeing Song Zhi’s expression change, she feared Song Zhi might lose her temper and give her a hard smack, so she shrank back.
“I wasn’t talking about you. Why are you getting worked up?”
Song Zhi raised her fist at Tan Huilin.
“If you go after Mianmian, it’s the same as going after me. Run your mouth again and I’ll show you what it means when they say a wok is made of iron.”
With that, she gave a cold snort and walked over to Su Mianmian’s bed.
“Mianmian, don’t listen to Tan Huilin’s squawking. One of these days, we’ll find you a man more handsome than Scumbag Tang and make all those people who love watching a spectacle die of jealousy.”
Song Zhi had been talking for a while, but Su Mianmian still hadn’t reacted. Song Zhi thought, Oh no, has she been upset enough to fall into depression? She pushed aside Su Mianmian’s long hair.
Su Mianmian looked up, bewildered, and took an earbud out.
“Zhizhi, were you talking to me?”
Song Zhi’s mouth twitched. So she’d been jumping around and making a fuss all this time, worried that Su Mianmian’s tender little heart would be poisoned by Tan Huilin’s words, when Su Mianmian hadn’t heard a thing?
When Su Mianmian saw that Song Zhi wasn’t answering, she frowned.
“I’m listening to an unabridged French original. There are a few really obscure words in it, and my head hurts.”
“Oh. Then go ahead.”
Song Zhi silently put the earbud back in Su Mianmian’s ear. A headache was good. A headache was much better than a broken heart.
…
Ever since Song Zhi had said she would find Su Mianmian a man more handsome than Tang Yunzheng, she had been keeping an eye out over the past few days.
After all her efforts, she realized that Cheng Yuli, the law department’s heartthrob, seemed very interested in Su Mianmian.
He hid it well, but several times when she and Su Mianmian were walking together, Song Zhi had noticed Cheng Yuli stealing discreet glances at Su Mianmian.
Cheng Yuli was every bit as handsome as Tang Yunzheng, but the two had different kinds of good looks.
Tang Yunzheng was wild and rakishly handsome, while Cheng Yuli looked refined and scholarly, with the sort of charm you’d expect from a handsome young man in a Korean drama.
That day, Song Zhi heard that Tang Yunzheng was taking Lin Jiaojiao to see a movie.
She thought her chance had come. At the perfect time and place, she cornered Cheng Yuli in the corridor.
“Classmate Cheng Yuli, if a huge windfall dropped from the sky, would you take it?”
Cheng Yuli looked at Song Zhi with clear eyes.
“What do you mean?”
Song Zhi shushed him and, putting on an air of mystery, beckoned him closer with a finger. When Cheng Yuli cautiously leaned down, Song Zhi’s lips curved.
“I know who you like. If I gave you a chance right now, would you dare ask her out?”
Cheng Yuli looked at Song Zhi’s pink lips, and a faint blush crept over the tips of his ears.
…
Su Mianmian had no idea what Song Zhi was up to. Song Zhi had asked her to go to a movie, but then something had come up at the last minute, so she’d told Su Mianmian to go ahead without her.
Su Mianmian found her seat with the ticket and sent Song Zhi a message.
“Hurry up. The movie’s about to start.”
As soon as she sent it, a handsome young man with a vaguely Korean look sat down beside her, holding a huge tub of popcorn and carrying two cups of milk tea on his wrist.
Su Mianmian raised an eyebrow.
“Sorry, classmate, but I think this seat is for my friend.”
Only then did Cheng Yuli look up. His gaze settled on Su Mianmian, and he visibly paused.
“Your friend must be Song Zhi, right?”
They looked at each other and realized at the same time what had happened.
Su Mianmian pressed a hand to her forehead.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know beforehand…”
Cheng Yuli smiled faintly.
“It’s all right. Since we’re here, let’s just enjoy the movie.”
He even politely offered her one of the cups of milk tea.
“You can have some popcorn, too.”
Holding the popcorn, Su Mianmian had a sudden urge to chew it up as if it were Song Zhi.
She wanted to leave early, but that seemed rude. As she hesitated, someone behind her shoved the back of her seat hard.
Su Mianmian turned around on instinct and unexpectedly found herself face-to-face with someone she hadn’t seen in a long time.
Tang Yunzheng’s dark eyes held a hint of challenge as he silently watched her.
Lin Jiaojiao, sitting beside Tang Yunzheng, was clearly just as surprised to run into Su Mianmian there. She glanced at Cheng Yuli beside her and curved her red lips into a smile.
“Mianmian, what a coincidence. Are you watching a movie with your boyfriend?”
References[+]