30: Liking (2)

The specific procedures had already been communicated to each class monitor. Feng Jinyan, acting as his class's monitor, withdrew his gaze from the window and let it fall upon Ye Xiangwan, who was busy doing her homework in front of him.

He pursed his lips and kicked the leg of her chair.

Clearly, Ye Xiangwan had instinctively started to turn around, only to force herself to stop halfway through the motion.

Feng Jinyan: "..."

He didn't bother her further, but the moment the final bell rang, Ye Xiangwan was the first to swing her schoolbag onto her back and hurry out of the classroom. Feng Jinyan didn't even have time to call out to her, so he quickly grabbed his own bag and followed.

Ye Xiangwan reached home as fast as she could. Without even taking off her coat, she hurriedly opened her suitcase to pack the things she needed for the dormitory. Yet, despite her rush, just as she was snapping the suitcase shut, she heard the sound of a key turning in the front door lock.

Ye Xiangwan wiped the sweat from her forehead. Hearing the approaching footsteps, she closed her eyes in exhaustion.

"Ye Xiangwan, what are you doing?"

Her mother, Jiang Hongyu, blocked the doorway, her voice heavy with suppressed anger.

Ye Xiangwan pressed her palms against the suitcase, and a moment later, pushed herself up to a standing position.

"I’m moving into the dormitory."

"The dormitory?!"

Jiang Hongyu’s voice rose to a sharp pitch. "I haven't even settled the account with you regarding Longchuan, and now you won't even stay home after school?"

"I don't need you to watch over me," Ye Xiangwan said, her voice calm. "I can study well on my own."

"How can you be so arrogant?!" Jiang Hongyu stared at her. "I have seen too many students. Especially in this year's First High, do you know how many people scored within a fraction of a point of you on the high school entrance exam? They are all talents who possess both natural gifts and diligence!

"Your mother was smart and hardworking back then, too, but your grandparents didn't pay enough attention to me, so I missed out on my dream university with deep regret. I cannot let you repeat my mistakes. Xiangwan, society has progressed, and there are too many temptations."

Jiang Hongyu walked into the room, speaking with earnest, painstaking concern: "You are at a rebellious age, and it’s natural to have such thoughts. Mother is doing this for your own good. If your father and I put in the effort with you now, think of how proud we will be when you get into Tsinghua! Don't you agree?"

Ye Xiangwan stared at her mother without blinking for a long time. The lump in her throat grew increasingly painful. She turned around, grabbed her suitcase, and swept her hair back with her hand.

"If I don't get into Tsinghua, then I’m not a source of pride, right? And why must I compensate for your regrets?"

She let out a heavy breath and closed her eyes. "You have never once asked me what I wanted."

She had always felt that saying these words sounded overly dramatic, but today, she could no longer hold them back.

"You! You are simply unreasonable!"

Jiang Hongyu blocked the door. "No matter what a student wants, they must study hard! I have told you so much, why can't you listen? Do you have any idea how much effort your father and I put into transferring you to this school? It was all to find you a good environment."

"And that is why I don't have a single person I can talk to," Ye Xiangwan curled her lips. "Are you satisfied now?"

"Slap!"

There was a buzzing in her ears for several seconds. A burning, stinging pain began to spread across the left side of her face. Ye Xiangwan turned her head, pressing her tongue against her cheek. This slap had been truly heavy—perhaps because she hadn't resisted in a long time.

"Put that suitcase down!" Jiang Hongyu’s hands trembled with rage.

"No, I have to leave today."

Ye Xiangwan bent down, slung her schoolbag over her shoulder, and sneered. "Otherwise, wouldn't this slap have been for nothing?"

She kicked the front door shut without looking back, cutting off the woman’s shrill shouting. Her mother was a respectable person who only yelled at her within the confines of their home; outside, she was always a well-mannered, high-status figure.

Ye Xiangwan wiped her face, finally feeling a sense of relief, though the side of her face that had been slapped began to throb with pain.

The streetlights had not yet been lit, and the sky was dim. Pedestrians hurried home, and the aroma of cooking wafted through the breeze, appearing and disappearing. At the most vibrant time of the day, Ye Xiangwan walked alone with her suitcase to the dormitory building.

The dormitory warden was eating a bowl of mixed noodles in his room, nodding his head contentedly to the music playing on a small radio nearby.

Ye Xiangwan knocked gently on the window.

"Hey, what’s your name, little girl? Which class are you in?"

The warden opened the window, reached for a thick ledger in high spirits, and said, "Register all your information here."

He smiled kindly at her. "You got the key, right? Keep it safe. I was supposed to have a spare, but the school hasn't given it to me yet. Go on up and settle in."

The key?

Ye Xiangwan stood where she was, staring blankly at the warden for a long while.

Suddenly, her phone buzzed in her pocket.

"Ye Xiangwan!"

As soon as she answered, before she could speak, Feng Jinyan’s lazy, charming voice came through. "Are you planning to stay in the dormitory?"

Ye Xiangwan looked up and scanned her surroundings. "How do you know I’m staying in the dorm?"

"Don't worry about that. Can't get in because you don't have a key? I have the key." He changed the subject. "I want to eat that explosive chocolate cake from the school's west gate today. Get the smallest piece and bring it to my place soon. As fast as you can."

Ye Xiangwan stared at the screen in silence until it went black, but it soon lit up again.

A location pin.

Clearly, he wanted her to go to him to get the key.

The warden, who was eating his noodles, looked up with a smile, only to be caught off guard by the sight of a face that looked as if it had just come from a funeral.

"Oh my, that look scared me. Did you have a fight with your boyfriend, little girl?"

Ye Xiangwan: "..."

The girl, looking as if she had just had the worst day of her life, rushed into the cake shop with such frantic steps that the young clerk gripped the emergency phone in fear.

She couldn't get into an internet cafe as a minor, and she had forgotten her ID in her rush. After all, Ye Xiangwan had never imagined she wouldn't be able to return home or even get into the dorm.

The location Feng Jinyan sent was quite far away—a villa district far from the city center, with no bus stops for over ten kilometers.

She didn't care how Feng Jinyan knew she was staying in the dorm or why he had a key to the girls' dormitory, but if she didn't go, she would be sleeping on the streets.

She never thought Feng Jinyan would lie to her; she just inexplicably trusted him.

Leaving her suitcase with the warden, Ye Xiangwan hailed a taxi.

Half an hour later, stuck in an endless sea of traffic, rain began to slide down the car window. Ye Xiangwan pressed her screen, and her phone struggled to light up for a few last seconds before the battery died completely.

"..."

For the first time in her life, she felt like she had been cursed.

At this hour, she hadn't just hit the evening rush; she had also run into a traffic jam caused by an accident.