10
Bai Jiayi made a dozen phone calls in front of the bay window in her bedroom, by the time it was approaching noon, the call finally got through.
The other party picked up, and there was a slight movement, then a dragging nasal, "Hello?"
On the other end, Lin Mian had just woken up. She wanted to hang up the phone and continue to sleep when she heard it was Bai Jiayi, and was quickly stopped, "Eh Mianbao! Don't hang up, I have something urgent to ask you."
Lin Mian turned slowly and sat up, half-squinting. She sat on the edge of the bed, looking for her slippers with her toes and rubbing her eyes and asked, "What's the matter?"
Bai Jiayi got straight to the point, "Did you stay overnight at Que Qingyan's house last night?"
Stay overnight...
Lin Mian then remembered that not only did she not stay overnight, but he also saw the ambiguous girl in her drawing.
He must have thought that she was academically improper, thinking about childish romance all day, and just wanted to chase him.
There was so much that happened last night. Now that she recollected it, an overwhelming sense of shame arose in her. One of her slippers was found, but Lin Mian didn't continue to look for them. She turned around and returned to her quilt.
"Lonely men and women, in the same room after a power outage. Isn’t this the perfect scenario?" Miss Bai, who was stuck at home, was finally able to enjoy some gossip. Hearing what had actually happened, she felt sorry for her and persuaded, "Mianbao, just forget it."
As Bai Jiayi said, the two of them weren’t in the same rank at all. Fortunately for now, it was only Mianbao's wishful thinking, and Que Qingyan didn't mean much to her, yet. If one day he was to tease her on a whim, she wouldn't be unable to resist at all and would fall to one blow. In the end, she wouldn't even know how she was eaten and wiped out in one go.
"Don't get hung up on him. Even if you can't find hardware in as good a condition as him, do you think you still can't find a good-quality man?" Bai Jiayi persuaded her implicitly, "Wait till someday you like someone again. If you’re with someone else, you’ll find that you can easily put him behind you, just like when you wrote dozens of love letters for that guy back in high school, haven’t you forgotten them now—"
"It's him."
Bai Jiayi was taken aback, "Who?"
"The person I wrote dozens of love letters to," after a pause, Lin Mian whispered back, "...that was Que Qingyan."
.
Nine years ago, Lin House.
The cards on the table had been played for three rounds, when a maid came in with a small silver food cart, bowed and replaced the tea with a new pot of scented tea. Ruan Lishu glanced at the card in her hand, saw the maid come in, and asked, "Miss Lan, is Mianmian still asleep?"
"Still asleep." The maid removed the dishes she had eaten, and added, "Sir called just now and said that he would come back late after socialising in the evening. He won't be eating at home."
Ruan Lishu responded, "I see, tell Mrs Zhang to make more soup and help sober him up when he comes back." After speaking, she paused, "Miss Lan, go and ask Mianmian to get up, she's slept all afternoon. Take some cake up with you."
There were four women around the card table, all of them were well dressed. Although they all seemed to be old, they were well maintained, and even the hands that touched the cards were white and delicate. The lady next to her heard her words and joked, "Lishu loves her daughter so much."
"If the one in my house was as good as Mianmian, I'd also be so lenient." Another lady joined the conversation, and suddenly remembered something. She turned to the person who hadn't spoken, and smiled carefully, "Ms. Que, it's Christmas vacation. Is Qingyan coming back?"
When they have nothing to do, most of the social activities of the wives were to get together to go shopping, drink afternoon tea, and play cards. When chatting about the Que family son, her tone was more or less envious.
The Que family had a relaxed family tradition, fully respecting their son's decision to pursue law and not business. The Que family’s son had already graduated from a first-class overseas university at the age of 20 and they had heard that he would continue to study his Ph.D. His achievements in academia were remarkable. Compared with the incompetent one in her own family, it was impossible to measure the difference.
Talking about her son, Que smiled comfortably, "Qingyan be off the plane at noon, and will pick me up later."
On the other side, the maid entered the bedroom on the second floor and called the little girl who was still asleep.
Lin Mian was taken away by her mother a few days ago, and they had just returned from a tour in Brussels. She had been asleep for most of two days due to jet lag.
The cake served was a small exquisite piece, which was placed on a porcelain plate. The maid brought three pieces up. Lin Mian ate one piece and she was full, she pushed the rest to the maid.
The little girl called her 'Auntie Lan' sweetly and softly, which was terribly inviting. The maid took the plate and moved to go downstairs. Before closing the door, she smiled and said, "Your mother is still playing cards and drinking tea in the tea room. There was snow just outside, so you must wear more when you come downstairs."
Unexpectedly, the little girl answered sweetly "okay" at first, and then immediately stepped in slippers out onto the terrace in the next moment. She was only wearing pajamas, without even one extra piece of clothing.
It was the afternoon, and there had just been a snowfall, which was thinly piled on the white-painted railings of the terrace and couldn't be distinguished without a closer look.
Lin Mian leaned on the railing and looked down.
She wanted to watch the snow from the terrace, but she caught a person in her eyes.
The Lin House was an estate with two villas. The building where the Lin Mian bedroom waa located and the building where the tea room was located were separated by a garden. From her perspective, behind the terrace on the second floor was a snow-covered garden with a withered tree and a man standing below it.
He was wearing a black coat, his legs straight and slender ended in black Doc Martin boots that sunk into the snow, the contrast was unusually striking.
The sky was dim, and the little girl stood on tiptoe and tried to stick her head out from behind the railing to say hello,
"He——llo——"
Hearing this, the man raised his head and noticed that there was a sixteen-year-old girl lying over the railing of the terrace on the second floor, with red lips and white teeth, and a pair of shiny eyes.
Seeing Lin Mian, he paused for two seconds and responded, "Hello."
His voice was soft and nice. Lin Mian clenched the hand holding the railing unconsciously and asked, "Why are you standing here? Are you waiting for someone?"
"Who are you waiting for? It's snowing just now and it's very cold outside. Would you like to come in?"
The little girl had a lot of questions, so she asked a lot of questions, and at the end she whispered, "You look so good-looking."
"..." Que Qingyan was startled, and laughed, turning away from her gaze and didn't turn back.
Lin Mian stared blankly for a few seconds, her fingers were frozen and numb, but she still didn't move.
Layers of clouds pressed in, and fine snow began to fall from the sky, floating onto the terrace and falling on Lin Mian's eyelashes and nose. She shrank back and asked in vain, "Are you still going to stay here?"
Que Qingyan put one hand in his pocket, and then raised his eyes to the little girl who was leaning on the terrace.
Not far away, Lin Mian even saw him raise his eyebrows, laugh low, and ask, "Why don't you go in?"
I'm looking at you.
Lin Mian unilaterally decided she'd answered this question in her heart, but she didn't dare to reply out loud. She thought for a while and stubbornly said, "May I get an umbrella for you? I can throw it to you from here."
For fear that he would refuse, she didn't wait after speaking, turned around and ran back to the bedroom with a lively heart. It took a long time to turn over the cabinet and find an umbrella before she walked out of the terrace and stopped.
The sixteen-year-old girl was heartbroken. Lin Mian held the umbrella and looked again, then secretly kissed the handle of the umbrella.
When she'd returned to the terrace with a blushing heartbeat, he was gone.
.
Bai Jiayi was silent for two full minutes, and asked in shock, "Did Que Qingyan read those dozens of love letters?"
Lin Mian remembered that she was rejected before handing him the stack of love letters.
And after so many years, Que Qingyan no longer remembered who she was now.
Reminiscing about everything she'd done after meeting him again, Lin Mian bit the toast while feeling guilty, and thought, fortunately, fortunately he didn't remember...
If you really counted how many absurd things she had done so far, you would find that there were really way more than one or two things. Pretending to be Xu Tong, sleeping in class, courageously chasing him, lying about the newspaper, and even having his students lie for her... If Que Qingyan knew everything, she would be punished, and the consequences would be...
No, she dare not think about it.
Lies beget lies. Mu Mian-lǎoshī was struggling between chasing love and cherishing life, and chewed the toast with melancholy.
The blank document written last night was still on the computer desktop. Lin Mian tore open a box of milk and stared at the title, On the Strategic Success Rate of Capturing the Beautiful Heart of Professor Que, for a while. Then she started poking through WeChat to send a message to Xu Zhu.
When chasing people, you must also pay attention to basic laws, and you must learn from practice one step at a time.
This was the truth that Lin Mian realized last night.
Mu Mian first lesson in chasing: Use all available opportunities.
Xu Zhu immediately replied to her message: 【The boss is going to give a class to graduate students this afternoon. Economic law will end at about four or five o'clock. Are you looking for him for something?】
Lin Mian thanked him and replied very sincerely: 【I want to see him.】
Xu Zhu thought that his old classmate was overwhelmed by his mentor's sophisticated temperament, and wanted to watch the class. He didn't think she had ulterior motives at all.
In fact, Lin Mian was indeed overwhelmed by Que Qingyan.
...she always wanted to look at him.
.
When Lin Mian went out in the afternoon, it was raining lightly, so she took an umbrella.
Her apartment was near K University. Lin Mian passed by when Que Qingyan should be starting the class. She wanted to pick a small corner and catch him after he finished class but who knew that the layout of K University was really complicated, except for the few routes she usually walked, she really didn't know her way around...
Lin Mian didn't know how many times she had walked back to her original position in the rain. She turned on her phone, and reconfirmed the address that Xu Zhu had sent over.
Calculating the time, he should be finishing the class...
“Xuémèi!”
Who's a xuémèi?
A clear voice came from behind her, and Lin Mian looked back blankly, holding an umbrella and looking at the boy not far away.
The boy was hiding from the rain under the eaves of one of the buildings, and she didn't recognise him until she approached.
It was the guy who saved her a seat in the International Economic Law class.
"I thought it looked like you from the back, but I wasn't sure so I was embarrassed to call out to you." The boy smiled bashfully and asked her, "Why are you here? Are you here for class?"
Lin Mian responded, she needed help and forced down the grievances in her heart, “Xué…"
“Xué……zhǎng.”
Male student: "..." Why do I feel like you are speaking to me very reluctantly?
Glancing at the address on Lin Mian's phone, the boy suddenly said, "Are you lost? No wonder I just watched you walk in circles several times." He pointed to a building a hundred metres away. "It’s in the old building for postgraduates, the building has been painted recently, so it’s hard to see."
As Lin Mian followed his gaze, a few students came out in twos and threes from the building behind a curtain of rain nearly a hundred metres away, followed by a familiar figure.
Que Qingyan walked out under an umbrella, which was conspicuously unusual among the group of students.
Lin Mian suppressed the corners of her lips that turned up unconsciously, turned her head to look at the boy, and suddenly said solemnly, "Xuézhǎng."
"You're hiding from the rain here, don't you have an umbrella?" She gave her umbrella to him, feigning concern, "I'll lend you my umbrella."
"..." The changed in her mood came too suddenly, and the boy was a little confused, "What?"
Lin Mian passed him the umbrella. With two steps between them, the boy looked at the girl with delicate facial features in front of him, took the umbrella, blushed and said, "Xuémèi, I forgot to ask when you fell asleep last time, that is, can I add your WeChat account—" ID?
Lin Mian watched Que Qingyan go further and further away and cut in hurriedly, "No need to return it."
"That's not..."
"Thank you."
Thanks for what? Who's thanking whom?? "Oh ah, wait—"
The boy borrowed an umbrella and received a thank you for nothing. Seeing Lin Mian turn and run into the rain, he couldn't stop her.
On the other side, a student was reporting the progress of their project to Que Qingyan as they walked. From the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a person in the rain without an umbrella, and he said 'huh' curiously.
Que Qingyan also noticed the rain-soaked Lin Mian. His expression didn't show much, but his eyes darkened, "Send me you progress I an email tonight, along with the literature review I requested before."
This sentence was spoken to the student, but what he was looking at was Lin Mian in the rain.
The student hurriedly responded and excused himself respectfully, and left first.
There was no one else in sight, Lin Mian watched Que Qingyan walk straight towards her holding his umbrella, then stop a step away from her and held the umbrella on top of the two of them.
The rain wasn't too heavy, so she wasn’t yet soaked after running in the rain for a while.
He had students with him before and Lin Mian couldn't say hello, now there were only three two of them left, but she didn't know what to say.
It rained a little bit, Lin Mian guessed that she must look a little miserable, but she didn't feel embarrassed and looked at him and whispered, "...Professor Que."
Que Qingyan's voice sounded above her head and asked, "Don't you bring an umbrella when you go out?"
Lin Mian was vague, "Mmm..."
"She wanted to share an umbrella with him, so she ran over even though it was raining." Such words cannot be said even under pain of death...
She thought for a while, then looked up and asked, "Professor Que, are you going back to the apartment later?"
He stared at her without speaking, so he should have acquiesced.
"Then, can I..." Lin Mian had no shame left, and her eyes were astonishingly bright, like a puff of water, "Can I borrow your umbrella and go back with you?" To show her sincerity, she immediately added a guarantee and earnestly said, "I can hold the umbrella for you."
Lin Mian took over Que Qingyan's umbrella, the long-handled black umbrella was a little heavy in her hand.
He was much taller than her. Lin Mian had to take into account his height when holding the umbrella and had to raise her arm up high so that she could hold the umbrella over his head.
Que Qingyan stayed where he was and didn't leave. Lin Mian raised her eyes to look at him and saw that he was also looking at her.
He had dark eyebrows and deep eyes. When he wasn't smiling, he looked calm but now he looked slightly moved, and his eyes were both smiling but not smiling.
Lin Mian's heart trembled as she watched him, and she felt as though her careful thoughts were read through in an instant.
Lin Mian was soaked in the rain, her black fringe was attached to her face, looking a little pitiful. Que Qingyan stared at her for a long while, then raised his hand to hold the upper end of the umbrella handle.
Lin Mian was trying to hold the umbrella high, when she suddenly felt that the umbrella was pulled down along with her hand that was holding the umbrella.
The man leaned down slightly, making his eyes level with hers.
The shadow on the top of their heads gradually deepened, and the umbrella slowly came down, like a barrier, blocking the noise of rain and bringing the two together.
"Xu Tong." The rain gradually increased, and Que Qingyan faced her face, barely a hand spam apart. He asked her, "Do you think I won't do anything to you, that's why you dare to take such liberties?"
"Strike up a conversation with one's own professor in public, which part of your law degree taught you this way?" After a pause, "tell me?"
His voice wasn't stern, but there was a kind of seductive gentleness when he woke so close.
She was caught off guard from being so close... it was extremely lethal. Lin Mian was completely taken aback.
She couldn't help but feel her ears reddened, and fought hard to say, "That, this isn't a public place..."
"..." Que Qingyan narrowed his eyes, as Lin Mian's voice got smaller and smaller.
He didn't look moved, as if he might really be angry.
Lin Mian's heart sank slightly, and she quickly changed her words, "I was wrong, I knew it was wrong, and I will never again...won't..." She blushed with regret and whispered, "Don't be angry, okay?"
Que Qingyan looked at Lin Mian with red eyes in front of him, his face relaxed, and he took the umbrella from her hand.
He rarely used his high-profile identity to intimidate his students, this was the first time ever. In the end, she wasn't malicious, so he just stopped talking. No matter how heavy the tone he took, it would be counterproductive.
"Oh, I was waiting in your office for a long time." A voice came from a distance, "Every time I go to court, you run out faster than anyone. Asking you to have a meal is impossible, are you so busy?"
Lin Mian turned her head when she heard the voice, and quickly wiped her eyes before looking at the person coming.
The man who walked over had a neat suit with a blue and white lawyer's badge pinned to the pocket. It was the champagne tie guy that Lin Mian had encountered in the elevator of the apartment.
Que Qingyan looked indifferent, and asked, "Didn't I already reject the dinner tonight?"
"Master Que, can you give me some face?" Champagne tie collapsed, "There will be no one else, just a few people from the law firm. If you don't go, I'll lose my head."
The words were not unfamiliar, Que Qingyan glanced at him, and champagne tie noticed that Lin Mian was next to him.
Champagne tie found a hook and said enthusiastically, "This is your student? You should come together."
"..." After just being scolded, Lin Mian was very mindful and said, "I'm not coming."
The other party hurriedly persuaded, "If I don't persuade you, your teacher won't come, so can you do me a favour, little girl."
Champagne tie dealt with all kinds of people every day. He liked to meet new people and could vomit nonsense to hell and back. His ability to infinitely raise problems had long been refined to perfection, and he directly put the responsibility on Lin Mian.
Lin Mian said in her heart, even if she went with Que Qingyan, she wouldn't go...
She had never dealt with such a person. Her first reaction was to look back at Que Qingyan, her eyes filled with requests for help.
Champagne tie thought the little girl was funny, Que Qingyan glanced over, and fell silent.
Lin Mian waited there, freezing when she heard Que Qingyan ask, "Do you want to go?"
"..." She was stunned, "Huh?"
He was asking her for her opinion. Lin Mian wanted to shake her head, but looking at his face she said, "Are you going?"
Que Qingyan turned his face to look at her.
Lin Mian didn't know what she was saying and just kept talking, "If you go, I will go."
Her voice fell off.
Lin Mian, "………………"
In the first few minutes after admitting her mistakes, she did it again. Lin Mian reacted and wanted to shake her shoulders and cry. In his eyes, you are a habitual offender with a long history, ah, can't you be more reliable?
She swore to God that she really didn't mean it.
"..." Lin Mian wanted to cry without tears, "If I said, I really didn't mean it, would you believe it?"
Really...
Watching Que Qingyan, the champagne tie held the umbrella and pinched the bridge of his nose with his free fingers.
He really wanted to laugh.
Champagne tie looked down to send a short message, his ten fingers moved quickly:【Seven o'clock in the evening, Jing Zhaoyin is paying, come along.】
Mass text.
【What's happening? Didn’t you fail to invite him again? Have to invite everyone to eat if you lose?】
【I have an appointment with my client for dinner, why?】
……
Champagne tie typed,【Watch a young girl bravely climbed the high mountains of the Dharma world, risking her life to chase love.】
I have terrible news....I think I am dropping this novel. I don't mind reading about silly girls chasing boys but I don't really like characters who just keep chasing and chasing for years and years when the other party hasn't given them anything - at all...
I'm sorry to everyone who was enjoying it so far, there is a link to the raws - although I'll be honest it's not the easiest thing to MTL, passable, but there's a lot of idioms and switching between first and third person.
I haven't actually bought this book yet, we are still in the free chapters. Whether I put up a chapter tomorrow it up to whether I get very very bored. I'll have a skim through the free chapters for that "Mr.Perfect" novel someone recommended. It is also a campus student/teacher romance, so hopefully it'll scratch a similar itch for those who were enjoying this.
In the meantime, if anyones into BL I'm still helping some of the guys over at Dummy Novels with Bite Your Fingertips which I've been enjoying, it's a high school psuedo vampire romance, the side characters remind me a lot of boys from when I was in high school. (Yes, I release chapters everyday and help with another novel, praise me, hahahahaha.............god I have no life.......)
