Chapter 26 Playing Hard to Get
It’s pink.
Since I’ve lived this long without noticing any physiological defects in my perception of color, it shouldn’t be that I’m mistaken.
But, what if? What if I really am mistaken?
I just couldn’t give up on refuting the facts I saw, so I changed my angle and went around to Lanhua’s side to look again.
Still pink.
The same cherry blossom pink as Xinran and Keling, Lili told me that’s the color of love.
If it were pink when facing Lianbing, I could accept it, but it’s pink when facing me too?
Does this mean she likes me!?
After deducing this conclusion, which made me break out in a cold sweat, I observed Lanhua’s appearance again.
She had already completely sunk into my palm.
Ah, don’t misunderstand, I mean she’s completely engrossed in playing with my palm.
As if an archaeologist discovered an ancient artifact, she held my hand tightly in a state of mental trance, with a decadent smile on her face, and a ‘hehehe…’ laugh, like a sleep-talk, escaping from her slightly parted lips, with a trace of drool at the corners.
But the most oppressive thing was that gaze that made me feel uncomfortable all over, her eyes fixed on my hand and unable to move away. My right hand, already warm from being enveloped by her hands, now felt like it was burning under such an ‘enthusiastic’ gaze.
And looking at her eyes, it was as if she couldn’t wait to get a microscope and see through every pore of my skin, to an almost frightening extent of seriousness.
She was too absorbed, not blinking at all, the whites of her eyes turning bloodshot.
I really don’t know why, but just holding hands, she could be having so much fun by herself… this kind of obsession is a little scary… it’s like she’s addicted and can’t break free…
Is she really infatuated with me to this extent?
It’s astonishing… my jaw almost dropped to the floor.
No, no, no, no! This must be one of those so-called three great illusions in life!
My past self has never experienced any of them: the misconception of a phone ringing (no one calls me), the misconception of someone knocking on the door (no one ever enters my room), and certainly not the idea of a girl liking me!
How could a girl I’ve never even spoken to suddenly like me? That’s like pie falling from the sky!
Uh, Lianbing doesn’t count… she became interested in me because of the Charm Magic Circle in my head, and her subsequent clinging to me was only because she wanted my corpse.
But Lanhua… she couldn’t possibly have been affected by the Charm Magic Circle, right?
Yes, she’s definitely not showing such a **face because she likes me… maybe it’s because, uh, what else could it be…
“…”
I can’t find any reason at all!
It’s not that I’m narcissistic, but her expression clearly shows she likes me!
The surprised, delighted, and shy look she had when she first met me, her inability to contain her joy after touching me, her cheeks so red they looked like they could bleed, and her silly smile while **my hand, no matter how I look at it, it means she likes me! It couldn’t be that she likes my right hand, could it? Huh?!
But! Why me?
Is this… good luck with romance?
It’s too strange, I hate unreasonable, unexplainable things!
Anyway, I’ll put the reasons aside for now. Being liked by a stalker is definitely not a good thing! It’s terrible, in fact! I know this best from reading so many novels and manga!
Get out of here, get away from her right now! My previous conclusion is still correct, I absolutely cannot get involved with her!
This sense of crisis made me instinctively take a series of actions that were most prudent at the moment.
First, I retracted my chin and put on a faint smile, softly calling her name.
“Classmate Lanhua.”
She didn’t snap out of it, which was as expected. So, I then took her hand with my left hand as well and called her name again, this time with a tone of slight confusion and questioning.
“Classmate Lanhua?”
Perhaps feeling my hand, Lanhua finally came back to her senses from her daze. After staring blankly at my hand for five seconds… she completely lost it.
“Ah? Ah… Ahhh! That, that, that… I, I, I’m not, not, not, it’s, it’s just, because you suddenly reached out, and it was the first time, so, I couldn’t help it, ah, my palms are sweating… Eek! I, I, I…”
Lanhua is in chaos! Lanhua is incoherent!
I felt her gaze flickering, her pupils spinning, and her cheeks red enough to steam.
Her words, more than spoken, seemed to be squeezed out like toothpaste, lacking any coherence, and I couldn’t understand what she was trying to express.
However, even so, she still didn’t let go of my hand. Just how persistent is she about my hand…
But, no matter what her reaction is, what I need to do won’t change!
I elegantly withdrew my right hand, placed it with my left on her shoulders, and said with a gentle smile.
“It’s alright, it’s nothing, and if anything, I bumped into you. You don’t need to thank me at all, hehe.”
First, I need to draw a line, telling her that it was my fault for bumping into her and that she doesn’t need to thank me, thereby avoiding any further contact that might arise from her attempt to thank me. After that, I need to immediately follow up with the next sentence, not giving her a chance to reply!
“Then I’ll be going now, Classmate Lanhua. It’s getting late, so you should also hurry home, hahaha.”
Tsk, this line is a bit too fake, the final laugh was all one note, completely unnatural.
But! With this, I’ve cleared the air!
“Ah, please wait…”
I pretended not to hear and quickly turned to leave the scene.
Well… as for her stalking me… I’ll deal with that later!
For now, let’s just get away!
I quickened my pace into the subway station, bought a ticket with fluid movements, and squeezed into the crowded Line 2 subway.
It’s a little past six in the evening, and the rush hour crowd should be thinning out, but the subway is still incredibly crowded. I was like a small fish swimming upstream, weaving through the throngs of people.
Getting this far should be enough. With so many people on the subway now, even if Lanhua followed me onto the train, she’d never find me. And since I deliberately crossed two carriages, she wouldn’t have a chance.
Then, just as the subway was about to depart, I was squeezed to the door and almost pushed out, only managing to stay inside the carriage with the help of a station attendant.
Phew… I can finally relax…
Leaning against the closing subway doors, I let out a long sigh of relief, finally relaxing.
Lanhua, hu…
I brought my right palm to my nose and sniffed. Amidst the smell of sweat, there was a faint milky scent, probably from some kind of lotion, as girls are very particular about their skincare.
My right hand still felt a little damp. Even though I shook my wrist repeatedly, the touch left by Lanhua still lingered on my hand.
Touching a girl’s hand should be a happy occasion, but this time I couldn’t bring myself to feel happy at all.
In comparison, Lianbing preferred to hold hands by interlocking fingers, but not all the way to the base of the fingers, just letting the joints between her fingers clasp together, shaking them as if playing a trick on me. Sometimes, if she held too tightly, it would hurt, and when I tried to pull my hand away, she would chuckle and then interlock her fingers even more deeply, rubbing my palm as if to compensate. It felt like she was teasing me.
In Ruansui mode, she would shyly and cautiously hold only my fingers, avoiding contact with my palm, but seeing her shy demeanor, her feminine charm was off the charts! It made my heart leap!
Xueqing’s hand was small, and I could hold her entire hand in mine. She would also cooperatively tuck her small hand in, making it easier for me to hold her. The warm feeling of a large hand enveloping a small one.
And Lanhua…
After she held my hand, I had only the illusion that the hand no longer belonged to me, it was as if it had been plundered!
I vigorously rubbed my cheeks with my right hand to make this feeling dissipate a little.
After standing like this for one stop, the subway slowly came to a halt. I changed from leaning against the door to leaning against a pole, and tried to shrink my body as much as possible to avoid being pushed out of the carriage by the flow of people.
If I want to go home, I can’t get off at this stop.
After a large group of people surged out of the carriage, another large group rushed in. Fortunately, I held firmly onto the pole by the door and wasn’t swept away.
The doors slowly closed. I released the pole and returned to leaning against the door. Although my back was sore from the impact, it was still better than being jostled like everyone else.
Phew… The subway started running again, and under the force, the crowded people began to sway like waves.
See, this is what I mean. If you’re in the middle, you’re like the filling in a meat pie, crushed miserably. And who knows if there are any pickpockets with sticky fingers in the crowd…
So, it’s safest to stay at the edges, like me.
Suddenly, someone broke through the crowd and bumped directly into me.
The moment I saw her, my eyeballs almost popped out!
It was Lanhua!
How did she find me?! That targeted breakthrough was too precise!
“Ow, that hurts…”
Lanhua, covering her nose, slowly raised her head. The expression on her face then completed a series of transformations from distress to surprise, to embarrassment, and finally to shyness. Her expression alone explained what had happened to her.
If a stranger saw this change in expression, they might think, “Ah, this girl bumped into me because of the subway’s jolting, hehe, what good luck~”…
But!
Now that I know Lanhua is a stalker, and she tells me this was all an accident?
I’m not that naive!
Lanhua hesitantly lowered her head and remained silent for a moment. Still looking down, she only raised her gaze to my face and said shyly.
“Ah… um, Classmate Juncheng… I’m sorry, it’s so crowded on the subway, I didn’t bother you, did I?”
“N-no, it’s fine…”
My tone was super natural!
The panic she showed when she first encountered me was completely gone. I don’t know if she had mentally prepared herself or had calmed down, but all that was left was a shy expression, and it was impossible to tell if it was genuine or not.
With another jolt, Lanhua was pushed forward by someone behind her and was about to bump into me when she managed to support herself with both hands.
Lanhua placed her arms on either side of my head, with an expression of strained effort, gritting her teeth. A strand of hair was caught in the corner of her mouth, making her look pitiful.
I almost felt like telling her that if she was tired, she didn’t have to hold on… but then I suddenly thought, could she be acting? Uh, but with a girl’s strength, enduring this pressure would indeed be difficult…
As I hesitated, the subway took a sharp turn. Under the force, Lanhua finally couldn’t hold on and pressed directly against me!
Her soft parts all made contact!
Unlike Xueqing’s meager physique, she had it all, with curves that could be described as voluptuous, perhaps a bit too much for a high school girl.
Speaking of which, when Lanhua wore knee-high socks, they already seemed a bit tight, leaving faint marks on her thighs, with a kind of fleshy feel… and now that thigh is pressing against my crotch!
This is extremely awkward! Hey!
Her face was right in front of my eyes, I could even feel her breath!
Ugh, too close!
“Hee…”
Huh? I heard a very, very quiet laugh…
Although the sound was very, very faint, almost inaudible in the noisy carriage.
However
