Zhou Xiaoxiao also noticed the keychain on Jiang Youyi’s backpack. “Wow, Jiang Youyi, you bought this kind of keychain too! I never thought someone would have the same weird taste as Goddess Yan!”
Jiang Youyi picked up Yan Wei’s pencil case, stuffed the little dinosaur back inside, and denied expressionlessly, “No, only her taste is like that.”
Before Zhou Xiaoxiao could understand what she meant, Jiang Youyi threw down the pencil case and left.
“Huh? Why did she leave?” Zhou Xiaoxiao looked exasperated. Jiang Youyi was always like this, ignoring people when she felt like it.
She completely gave up on trying to communicate properly with Jiang Youyi and was about to ask Yan Wei where she planned to go after leaving school for the weekend. But when she turned around, she saw Yan Wei stand up, grab her already packed backpack, and say, “Xiaoxiao, I’m heading out first. Hope you and Yutong have a great weekend!”
Yan Wei hurried out of the classroom, and Zhou Xiaoxiao saw her heading in the direction Jiang Youyi had just left, a faint smile on her face.
Were Goddess Yan and Jiang Youyi that close?
Zhou Xiaoxiao zipped up her backpack and glanced at Yan Wei’s now tidy desk. Could it be that Jiang Youyi’s keychain was a gift from the goddess?
“Youyi!” Yan Wei quickly caught up with Jiang Youyi. “Where are you going now?”
Jiang Youyi looked puzzled. “What does it have to do with you where I go?”
“It doesn’t, but it will soon. Let’s make a bet. If you lose, you have to go somewhere with me. How about it?” Yan Wei walked alongside Jiang Youyi, taking two steps ahead and turning to face her while walking backward.
“Why should I bet with you?” Jiang Youyi’s face was full of refusal. She stopped walking and stared directly at the person who had also halted beside her. “Yan Wei, I’ve told you many times already—I don’t want to be friends with you anymore. Please don’t act as if nothing happened and talk to me so familiarly. It makes things difficult for me.”
The smile on Yan Wei’s face slowly faded. She pursed her lips, lowered her eyelashes like a child who had done something wrong, looking somewhat dejected and a little wronged, mixed with a complexity of emotions Jiang Youyi couldn’t quite decipher.
Jiang Youyi almost wanted to take back her words.
But during the moment she hesitated and struggled, Yan Wei adjusted her mood and put on a determined smile again. “Alright then, I was being unreasonable. I’m sorry, don’t be angry.”
After saying that, she turned to leave but bumped into a passing male student because she wasn’t looking where she was going.
“!” The boy reacted quickly, catching her arm before she fell and apologizing proactively. “Sorry, classmate, are you okay?”
Yan Wei quickly lowered her head, said “sorry” twice in a row, and hurried past him down the stairs.
Jiang Youyi’s hand, which had been halfway extended in the air, stiffly and awkwardly withdrew.
After leaving school, Jiang Youyi didn’t go straight home. She walked aimlessly forward, unconsciously passing the bus stop and feeling too lazy to turn back. She simply continued strolling along the street until she had walked past two stops. Coincidentally, the bus she usually took happened to stop there, so she got on and rode all the way to the city center.
When she left the school gate, the sky was just beginning to darken. By the time she got off the bus, the streetlights were already on.
Entertainment options in the downtown commercial district were just getting started at this hour. Jiang Youyi walked into the mall with practiced ease, took the express elevator to the fifth floor, turned right, and after a few steps, arrived at an internet café.
A new bookstore had opened across from the internet cafe. Though the two shops faced each other, their target audiences were completely different. Passersby seemed divided by an invisible barrier, forming two distinct camps.
Jiang Youyi pushed open the glass door, and the young attendant grinned at the sight of her. “Here you are! I saved a computer for you. Finally made it to the weekend—why the long face? Want a drink?”
“Latte, double sugar and ice.” Jiang Youyi casually tossed her backpack onto a nearby chair and dragged over a small stool to sit down. “What’s gotten into you today? Why are you grinning like a creep?”
“You’re the creep!” the attendant shot back with a laugh, unable to hide the springtime glow on his face.
Jiang Youyi turned away in disgust, letting her gaze wander aimlessly around the room until it suddenly froze.
“Your latte’s ready!” The attendant’s voice pulled Jiang Youyi’s attention back.
She looked at the two cups of coffee on a tray on the counter—one an extra-sweet iced latte, the other a hot, foamy cappuccino—and frowned in confusion. “What’s this? Buy one, get one free?”
Even if he was trying to console her over her tragic, barely-begun-and-already-ended romance, that was way too long ago.
Besides, she didn’t even like cappuccino.
Too fancy. Too pretentious.
The attendant winked at her. “That girl next to your computer—her uniform looks like she goes to your school, right? We’re such good friends—help me out and take this over to her. Tell her it’s from me, and your drink’s on me too!”
A surge of inexplicable anger rose in Jiang Youyi. “If you want to give it to her, do it yourself! Why drag me into it? I’ve never seen someone so cowardly about chasing after someone!” After grumbling under her breath, she grabbed her bag and turned to leave.
“Hey!” The attendant couldn’t stop her and stared helplessly at the two cups of coffee on the table. “Fine, don’t help. But why get so mad?”
The leg of a chair was kicked hard. Yan Wei turned around and saw Jiang Youyi, surprised as she took off her headphones. “Youyi?”
She had barely uttered the two words before a barrage of questions hit her: “What are you doing at an internet cafe with nothing better to do? Have you finished memorizing your textbooks? Done with your practice problems? Do you even know how far your grades have dropped? And you still have the nerve to come here and surf the web?”
A few regulars nearby naturally recognized Jiang Youyi and couldn’t help but laugh at her words. This delinquent girl who spent every weekend overnight at the internet cafe was actually lecturing someone else about their grades—what a rare and amusing sight.
“Hey, beautiful, don’t listen to her nonsense. Her own grades are terrible, and now she’s trying to police others!” A young guy in a leather vest with a shaved head grinned, a black lip stud gleaming on his lower lip. He wasn’t old, but it was clear he was part of the “street crowd.” His eyes hadn’t left Yan Wei since she sat down, and now he finally had a chance to strike up a conversation. “Wanna be friends? I’ll treat you both to a late-night snack!”
“Who the hell wants to be friends with you?!” Jiang Youyi snapped, grabbing Yan Wei’s arm. “Let’s go! Outside—I need to talk to you!”
Yan Wei had no choice but to let Jiang Youyi pull her up from the chair, obediently following along.
“What are you doing at an internet cafe instead of being at school?” Jiang Youyi dragged Yan Wei straight to the restroom and fired off questions without hesitation.
Yan Wei calmly retorted, “If you can come, why can’t I?”
Jiang Youyi: “You’re alone!”
Yan Wei: “So are you.” Then she lowered her head slightly, a bit hurt. “Besides, I wanted to ask you to come with me in the first place.”
Jiang Youyi recalled the unfinished bet from the hallway that afternoon and nearly choked. Was that even the point?! How could she act so aggrieved?
Before Jiang Youyi could retort, Yan Wei delivered another blow: “You said where you go is none of my business, so me coming to the internet café is none of yours either.”
Jiang Youyi trembled with anger.
Behind her back, Yan Wei secretly flashed a victory sign.