Chapter 22: The False Everyday Life Comes to an End
At this point, a proper scum of society should be saying, “Listen to me, I can explain!”
Indeed, there’s been a huge misunderstanding! I absolutely must clarify this!
To gain the upper hand from the very first step, I approached Li Nai with full confidence, reaching out to grab her shoulder.
“Li Nai! Listen to—”
But she dodged. Li Nai looked at me with disdain, as if I were an idiot, and said,
“Is this the Xiao An you were talking about? I remember you said she was three or four years old… Honestly, can you mess up even this? How dense are you?”
She then moved past me to Xiao An, crouched down, and said to her,
“Xiao An, my name is Li Nai. I’ve heard a lot about you from your silly dad. You truly are very cute. Here, sister will give you a Christmas Gift.”
Li Nai took a small gift box from her shoulder bag and gave it to Xiao An.
“Thank you, sister~”
Xiao An thanked her sweetly. Li Nai smiled, patted her head, and stood up, saying,
“Well then, I’m going to class now.”
“Uh! Wait!”
“Juncheng, don’t forget your homework. I’ll see you at cram school.”
“Oh, okay—”
Li Nai didn’t say anything further. She glanced at the blue-eyed girl who had remained silent the whole time, then left without looking back.
Is she not giving me a chance to explain?
“Well, Juncheng, I’m leaving too.”
“Oh, thank you for your help this time.”
“Hoo~ I said I’m leaving, but you don’t look as reluctant as you did when she left?”
“Well, I’m more familiar with her…”
“Just because you’re familiar?”
“Then what else could it be?”
Lan smiled and didn’t ask further. She chatted with Xiao An, just like Li Nai had, and then prepared to leave.
“Juncheng, I’ve already saved my Phone Number in your phone. Remember to stay in touch~”
“Huh?”
I quickly took out my phone and opened the contact list. It was indeed logged with an unfamiliar number, and the note read, ‘Lan – You can call me that.’
When I looked up again, she had already gotten into the car that was waiting for her and driven away.
I thought I wouldn’t have any more connections with her, but Lan still left something behind…
“Dad?”
“It’s alright, let’s go home, Xiao An. Is there anything you want to eat?”
“I want pineapple buns!”
“Okay, I’ll make you a hot pineapple bun when we get back.”
“I want to learn how to make pineapple buns too!”
“Heh, no problem.”
I held Xiao An’s hand as we walked on the road home… When we got back, there was no need for explanations; everyone already knew what had happened.
Nana, who couldn’t find Xiao An last night and also couldn’t reach me, thought I had encountered some accident. She immediately used her network to search for me everywhere.
Then, in the morning, she finally found the hotel where Lan and I had stayed overnight.
Only after confirming that both Xiao An and I were safe did she feel relieved and return to tell everyone else.
I was lectured on the spot and made to memorize Nana’s Phone Number. As for Xiao An’s change, everyone found it incredible, but they seemed to accept it naturally, saying that Xiao An had become even cuter this way.
So, women’s focus points are really strange.
That evening, I watched the news but found no headlines like ‘Shocking! Popular Singer Lanhua’s Secret Boyfriend!’ It seemed the news had been suppressed in advance.
However, Lan added me on WeChat first and then started sending me her selfies and voice messages… This familiar method of harassment made my stomach ache, but this time I couldn’t afford to ignore it passively. I had to pretend to be happy and reply to her messages.
After replying for a while, I suddenly remembered Li Nai and felt it was better to explain. So, I sent her a string of messages… In the end, she only replied with, ‘I know.’
Who knows if she really knew… Anyway, when I saw her over the weekend, her expression seemed to have softened, which made me relieved.
Ordinary days slipped by, one by one. 2018 passed, and 2019 arrived.
On the second day after New Year’s Day, I sighed looking at the atmosphere in the classroom.
Recently, the atmosphere in the classroom had become increasingly heavy. Although the “death-knell calendar” counting down the days to the college entrance examination had been removed, no one dared to relax.
This was because we were about to become the first cohort of students to take the college entrance examination without a clear division between arts and sciences.
Originally, this shouldn’t have been my concern, but who knew I’d transmigrate and spend an extra year here…
The total score for the college entrance examination remained 750 points, with 300 points (Chinese and Math) taken during the exam. English could be taken twice during the school year, and the higher score would be used for the college entrance examination.
The rest were academic proficiency tests, after which one could choose any three subjects from Physics, Chemistry, Politics, Geography, Biology, and History. The scores of these three subjects, combined with the scores of Chinese, Math, and English, would form a total score for ranking and university admission reference.
This meant… one had to study everything.
What was even more frustrating was that everyone else had already taken the academic proficiency tests once, and some had even finished. As a transfer student in my third year of high school, I had to take all the subjects again during the final exams, with another chance at the end of the next semester…
Studying alone in silence yielded no progress, so I had to beg my dear goddess, Li Nai, for help.
After school, I immediately asked Li Nai out and treated her to a famous dessert shop, clasping my hands together and pleading with her,
“That’s it! Please teach me how to study!”
“…Aren’t I always teaching you?”
“That’s not enough… There’s only one week left! The exam is next Monday! Please, great god, give me some advice!”
Six subjects! Plus English! I felt like I was going to explode!
“Really… What’s there to say? Focus on reviewing your three strong subjects and English, aiming for good scores. For the other subjects, just aim for a passing grade.”
“…No…”
“What?”
“I don’t have any strong subjects.”
“What!”
Feeling a bit embarrassed, I handed her my report card. Li Nai frowned, took it, and looked. She was immediately shocked and said with a mix of anger and amusement,
“All subjects are just barely passing… You did this on purpose, didn’t you?”
“No, really…”
I only got exactly sixty points… I had already exerted my full strength.
Incidentally, this score placed me between 90th and 100th place. The reason for this relatively high ranking was, as I mentioned earlier, some students focused their revision on only three subjects to get good scores (the other three had already passed the passing line in previous academic proficiency tests). Since the monthly examination was ranked by total score, my uniform sixty in all subjects placed me higher than those who were “specialized” in certain subjects.
“There’s no other way, then… Right. What major do you want to pursue?”
“What major?”
“If you want to pursue a certain major, you need to take specific subjects. For example, if you want to enter the Physics department, you must take Physics… Haven’t you researched this beforehand?”
I hadn’t thought about this at all. I didn’t even have the idea of going to university. If it weren’t for Nana, I wouldn’t even have come to high school.
“Li Nai, what’s your major?”
“Bioengineering… Why are you asking me about my major?”
“Then I’ll major in the same as you.”
“I was already planning to attend the same university as you. It would be even better if we were in the same major.”
What was said carelessly, but heard with intent, Li Nai’s face showed a hint of surprise, and she murmured in disbelief,
“You… you want to go to the same university as me?”
Huh? What’s with that expression… Does she think I’m overestimating myself?
I pouted slightly with annoyance and said,
“Yeah, my objective was to go to the same university as you. If I can’t get in, then I won’t go at all.”
…I see. Then Biology is a required subject. For the other two… choose Geography and Chemistry. I will intensify your studies in these three subjects to the maximum during this time.’
Then, the hellish tutoring began again—it reminded me of the final exams at the end of the second semester of junior high, the sleepless nights I spent studying with Lily.
Li Nai’s attitude, however, seemed to have changed slightly.
C boy
book.SFA
SF Light Novel
She seemed to have become gentler?
Occasionally, while I was doing problems, she would space out. When I called out to her, she would flusteredly ask in a wavering voice, “What’s wrong?” She had become quite strange…
On the other hand, Lan continued to harass me tirelessly every day. Was this girl really an idol singer? She seemed to have nothing else to do every day.
Although I didn’t feel like I was being watched, this incessant barrage of messages was quite exhausting.
Finally, I endured this arduous period. The subjects I focused on reviewing were all above eighty points. Although my English score was a bit low, I still had one more chance, and overall, I did quite well. This made me incredibly relieved. Li Nai seemed even happier than I was and even celebrated with me.
However, in my heart… a seed of unease had been sown. Both Lan’s attitude towards me and Li Nai’s attitude towards me were very… peculiar.
I somewhat realized that they might have developed some feelings for me. Who knows when their affection levels increased? Did I have the legendary ‘passive girl-charming’ skill?
But no matter what… at this time, I hadn’t truly taken these emotional matters to heart.
There were still many things I needed to worry about, such as getting Xuan’er to eat normally, raising Xiao An, investigating Zi’ai’s whereabouts, protecting Keling’s safety, and… finding a way back.
These matters were all very important, leaving me no time to attend to anything else.
Moreover, since arriving in this world, I had countless… countless times reminded myself not to project my memories onto the people in this world.
Although their appearances were unchanged, neither their memories nor their inner selves were the girls I knew.
And I was destined not to stay in this world, unable to make any promises to them.
The one who made me promise was the her from another world… For their sake, I had to return no matter what.
But even knowing this, I still couldn’t completely treat them as strangers, which is probably why what happened later occurred.
It all started with her…
It started with her sudden return, my younger sister, An Xinran.
She returned like a typhoon, like a tornado. She completely shattered the everyday life I had built.
I never dreamed that Xinran, who was once my haven, would become the violent storm that ravaged my heart…
