Jiang Yumo cannot become another person just because she had seen the future.
Even when mentioning Duan Ye, even if she tried to pretend not to care, a hint of shyness inadvertently overflowed from her eyebrows.
She grabbed the doll next to her and threw it at Yan Qing, her fair face turning red. “Stop talking nonsense!”
After playing around for a while, even in the air-conditioned room, the three of them were covered in a thin layer of sweat. Yan Qing was still savoring the passionate scene between the male and female lead in the novel, and lowered her voice to ask Jiang Yumo, “Can you satisfy our curiosity? Have you held hands with Brother Duan?”
Sun Mengting pretended to scold her, “Are you looking down on Brother Duan?”
Jiang Yumo : “…”
As for holding hands, they really hadn’t, but saying it out loud would make Duan Ye appear a bit cowardly.
To be fairly honest, before high school, Jiang Yumo really didn’t have even the slightest idea about dating Duan Ye, and of course she didn’t dare to date.
During the three years of middle school, she lived under the watchful eye of her Uncle. Did she dare to have any budding feelings? Of course not. Her impression of Duan Ye was not particularly deep, she only knew that he didn’t listen in class and liked to sleep. No one dared to provoke him in class, and when class ended, he would cause trouble everywhere. However, as long as he was sleeping in the classroom, everyone would consciously tiptoe around the area within a few meters around him.
Duan Ye seemed to have a natural aura.
An intimidating aura.
Not to mention the rumors about him, saying that he could take on several people alone and not be afraid, nor lose.
To adults, carrying such flags and banners1 is incredibly childish and laughable.
But it is more than enough to intimidate students of the same age.
In middle school, she and Duan Ye were both key students who were closely watched, but they were not very close. However, in the third year of middle school, Duan Ye changed and began to frequently borrow things from her, sometimes a universal charger, sometimes correction fluid…they slowly became familiar with each other. She was familiar with everyone in the class, but she was still surprised when Duan Ye confessed to her.
There is a river embankment in Ningcheng, and many people like to walk on the embankment.
That day, a classmate asked her out, and she thought it was to go shopping, but it turned out to be Duan Ye asking her out and buying her a cup of chocolate milk tea, and then taking her to the embankment.
It’s strange. Actually, since she was young, her personality is quite carefree. But in some aspects, she is also very cautious.
If it were another boy asking her to go to the embankment, she would definitely decline politely.
But it was Duan Ye…
Subconsciously, she felt that Duan Ye was not a bad person.
He didn’t look like a good person, but he was definitely not a bad person.
She wasn’t stupid, and she realized his intentions when she saw Duan Ye, but when she heard him say “Jiang Yumo, I really like you”, she was still a little surprised.
She didn’t ask why he liked her.
Instead, she shook her head and said something ironic, “My parents won’t let me date.”
Looking back now, she thinks she was a bit scheming, even her best friend Yan Qing said so. Yan Qing said that she had shifted the blame onto her parents to reject Duan Ye. After all, he couldn’t say a negative response like “Don’t mind about your parents.” However, she still let him continue liking her, as she didn’t say anything absolute like “I don’t like you, sorry.”
Jiang Yumo agreed with this.
She also felt that she was pretending in some ways.
Yan Qing also said that some people are born to be good at dating, and Jiang Yumo is one of those people.
After entering high school, Jiang Yumo and Duan Ye were not in the same class. Duan Ye did not give up, but the way he pursues her was different from others. He wouldn’t write love letters or leave ambiguous words on her message board, and he doesn’t even leave comments like “I was here” which is what everyone does nowadays… but he still checks her Qzone2 every few days.
Jiang Yumo felt that Duan Ye was also a bit scheming.
For example, he quietly plucked all her peach blossoms3 except for himself.
She received so many love letters in middle school that her hands were sore, but in high school, she didn’t receive a single one. 🙂
Over the past few years, everyone who knows her or doesn’t know her knows one thing: don’t mess with Duan Ye’s woman.
Woman…
Woman…
The word made Jiang Yumo feel speechless and helpless. She’s only sixteen or seventeen years old, for goodness’ sake!
Yan Qing, who has read countless romance novels, said, “This is what it means to be both speechless and uncomfortable, and full of dog food4!”
To put it simply, Duan Ye isn’t domineering at all in front of her, nor does he say anything strange, but wherever she can’t see, there are marks of him everywhere. Jiang Yumo doesn’t know what others think, but she really can’t bear it. Especially since everyone in school is afraid of Duan Ye, but this person who everyone fears is too good to her. Even Yan Qing’s cousin5 said that being liked by someone like this in their school days is pretty worthwhile.
By the way, Yan Qing’s cousin is also a fan of novels, and most of the sour and bitter journal entries circulating in Qzone are written by her.
“What about hugs?” Yan Qing asked with interest.
Jiang Yumo came back to her senses and gave an all-purpose and mysterious reply, “What do you think?”
It was profound and mysterious.
Leaving people wondering what the answer really was.
Sun Mengting knew that she wouldn’t be able to find out anything from asking Jiang Yumo, so she interrupted Yan Qing’s questioning and said, “Stop asking, she’s tight-lipped. Besides, we have important business to attend to, remember?”
Today is Jiang Yumo’s 17th birthday. It’s an important day, and the reason why they gathered here is for a mission.
…
A few minutes later, the three of them were standing in front of the wardrobe.
“What would you like to wear today?” Yan Qing rubbed her chin, flipping through the clothes until she found a thin-strapped dress. Her eyes lit up. “How about this one?”
Jiang Yumo shook her head. “No, this one is meant to be worn with a coat. It’s thirty-seven or thirty-eight degrees today, and if I wear a coat while walking down the street, people will think I’m crazy.”
“Then just wear the dress without the coat,” Yan Qing imagined, “and Brother Duan will be entranced by you.”
Jiang Yumo replied, “No, the bra straps can’t be covered.”
Yan Qing’s imagination was shattered. “You should buy those straps that the stores have, the transparent ones.”
Sun Mengting said, “My aunt has them, but just because they’re transparent doesn’t mean you can’t see them. I don’t think they look good either.”
The thin strap dress was vetoed.
Jiang Yumo had a lot of clothes in her wardrobe. She loved being beautiful, and her mother also loved dressing her up. The new styles in shops on the street were always bought for her, and after half an hour of trying on and selecting, she finally settled on her outfit for this afternoon: a white short-sleeved T-shirt, denim shorts, and canvas shoes.
No matter how many clothes a high school student have in their wardrobe, they are all regular styles, the kind that people can tell at a glance are for students.
Among her classmates, Jiang Yumo’s height is definitely not tall, because her parents’ height genes are not that high. She is seventeen years old this year and is probably about 1.6 meters tall. Her parents make her drink milk every day in order to help her grow taller, but whether it’s effective or not, they will have to wait until she is an adult to find out.
She has a small frame, and her legs are particularly straight and slender. She inherited her father’s skin, which does not tan no matter how much she is exposed to the sun.
Therefore, ordinary clothes, when worn on her, are different from those on others.
After choosing her clothes, Jiang Yumo went to the bathroom to wash her hair and take a shower.
Standing under the showerhead, her mind was in a mess, and she didn’t figure out what she should do.
There are also students at Fifth High who have dyed or permed their hair against the rules. Even Yan Qing secretly straightened her hair. Influenced by the aesthetic environment, Jiang Yumo was also very tempted. For a while, she wanted to go for a straight perm. A little brother who used to hang out with Duan Ye when she was in junior high didn’t go to high school, but instead became an apprentice in a hair salon after completing nine years of compulsory education. He recently went to a beauty and hairdressing school in another city to study. Before leaving, he promised Jiang Yumo that he would personally come back to straighten her hair with the best hair straightening solution and wouldn’t charge her!
But Jiang Yumo dismissed the idea before the little brother could come back.
She thought straight hair didn’t look good…
She’ll just wait until after the college entrance exam and go to the provincial capital to get her hair done!
That’s the happy decision she made!
“How about not tying your hair up?” Sun Mengting said to Jiang Yumo after blow-drying her hair. “Just leave it down, it looks so good.”
Jiang Yumo replied, “But then I’ll die from the heat.”
Finally, Jiang Yumo tied her hair up in a high ponytail and shook it in front of the mirror.
Yan Qing grinned and said, “The main event is here!”
At their age, they also love beauty, but their conditions are limited. Yan Qing also got her makeup from her older sister, but even though it’s called “makeup,” it’s not complete; she only has one BB cream, one powder, and one lipstick.
Originally, they had planned to do Jiang Yumo’s hair and makeup well for this afternoon.
Jiang Yumo squeezed some BB cream into her palm and thought, “I might sweat later, and if my face gets streaked, it’ll look so ugly.”
As someone who hadn’t even crossed the threshold of makeup beginners, she resolutely wiped off the cream with a tissue.
Yan Qing said to Sun Mengting, “She’s naturally beautiful and doesn’t need any makeup. Let’s just let her stay barefaced.”
By the time the three of them left, it was almost five o’clock.
When they walked out of the community, Duan Ye was already waiting.
Duan Ye was still riding his motorcycle, and he couldn’t possibly carry three girls, even if they could fit.
Jiang Yumo hesitated for a moment.
Duan Ye took out his wallet, pulled out a hundred yuan bill and handed it to Yan Qing.
This was for them to take a taxi.
Ningcheng was small and taxis were cheap, with a starting fare of only five yuan.
The destination for the dinner they were heading to would definitely not cost more than 15 yuan.
Yan Qing quickly waved her hand, “We have money, we have money.”
Although they would tease Jiang Yumo privately, they still felt nervous when they saw Duan Ye.
How could they dare to take his money?
Jiang Yumo had originally wanted to suggest that they split the fare, but the words got stuck in her throat when she saw Duan Ye’s sweating forehead. It was obvious that he had been waiting for her for a long time.
She didn’t like to disappoint people, let alone do anything disappointing.
After watching Yan Qing and Sun Mengting get into the taxi, she took the helmet that Duan Ye handed over and grumbled, “I’m going to die from the heat.”
Duan Ye sat on the motorcycle and whispered to her, “You can’t ride without it.”
He would definitely wear a helmet when he rode with Jiang Yumo, and he would also make her wear one.
Jiang Yumo stepped on the motorcycle’s footrest and sat behind Duan Ye.
Duan Ye looked at her through the rearview mirror on the motorcycle’s handlebar.
He twisted the handle and started the engine, and the motorcycle drove out.
One of my projects, Pampered by The Wealthy Big Shot After Transmigrating, will end soon have its last chapter posted on April 24. Because of this, I will post the next chapter of this novel on April 25 and update everyday from then on~ yay🎉
- an exaggerating way to refer to the rumors ↩︎
- the raw says 空间 (kòng jiān) which I guess refers to QQ空间 (QQ kòng jiān) also known as Qzone. It’s a social media in China that seems kinda like Facebook. ↩︎
- someone’s peach blossoms refers to the people who has romantic interest on that person ↩︎
- public display of affection ↩︎
- Yan Qing’s cousin mentioned here is her 表姐(biǎo jiě) who is elder female cousin from paternal side. ↩︎