I Might Have Fallen in Love With My Childhood Sweetheart
Chapter 50 - 46 Are You Waiting for Me?

Chapter 50: Chapter 46 Are You Waiting for Me?

Qingran got home to find Aunt Liu still hadn’t left.

Aunt Liu was mopping the living room floor, and when she saw Qingran come home, she put down the mop and headed to the kitchen to serve the food.

Qingran set down her backpack, washed her hands, and came out just in time to hear Aunt Liu saying, "Oh my, I’ve been hardly able to catch you and Xiao Mo lately; you spend more time at school than at home these days."

Qingran smiled and said, "The last two years of high school are critical, so naturally I need to spend more time studying."

While making orange juice, Aunt Liu laughed and said, "That’s true. Work hard for these two to three years; I hear it gets much better in college."

They enjoyed a pleasant meal, and after clearing the dishes, Aunt Liu prepared to leave.

As she reached the door, she seemed to suddenly remember something and stopped, "Hey, Ranran?"

Qingran looked over puzzled, "What’s wrong, Aunt Liu?"

Aunt Liu stood at the doorway without moving and said to Qingran, "Lately, I have been feeding the stray cats, right? Strangely, there’s been this tall teenager coming by every day. He doesn’t feed the cats; he just leans against a tree and watches them. Feels a bit odd."

Qingran felt a heavy thump in her heart, and after a while, she asked, "Aunt Liu, does he come by every day?"

Aunt Liu frowned and nodded, "At first, I thought he wasn’t good news, with his hair covering half his face and never getting a trim. But over time, it seems there’s nothing much to it—just that he’s reclusive. I’ve tried talking to him several times, but he ignores me."

Then Aunt Liu asked again, "Ranran, do you know him?"

"I do," Qingran replied, sipping the sweet and sour orange juice, adding, "He’s a senior from our school."

"Oh." Aunt Liu finally felt relieved and left.

In the spacious living room, Qingran was left alone.

She quickly finished her orange juice, dug through her backpack for her phone, something she hadn’t checked for days as she was mulling over why she did poorly on her test.

The phone booted up, and it took a moment for the network to respond. Once it did, all the messages flooded in, nearly crippling the two-year-old SIM card.

Qingran opened WeChat and started checking messages one by one. The person who had just added her and sent the most messages was Song Shize, from the hospital room.

Tuesday 12:36

Song Shize: Li Qingran, want to skip class and watch a movie this afternoon?

Tuesday 18:48

Song Shize: Li Qingran, classmate, wanna hang out?

Wednesday 21:03

Song Shize: Li Qingran, are you there?

Song Shize: Where are you? (emoji)

Song Shize: Red packet

Song Shize: Red packet

Song Shize: Li Qingran, fuck your grandpa, don’t you check your phone?

Qingran couldn’t be bothered to sift through more of Song Shize’s silly messages and hit the back button. Right next to Song Shize’s were messages from Ruan Ruan.

Wednesday 21:19

Soft girl: Ranran, Song Erhuo just bombed me with red packets trying to wheedle out if you were online or not.

Soft girl: Damn, he sent several hundred bucks.

That was all from Ruan Ruan, who seemed to realize Qingran was not online and didn’t send more.

Next was Xie Ying’an whose text came last night.

X:

Were you scared today?

X: Stay away from the ballpark; it’s too dangerous.

X: Don’t be afraid.

After sending these awkward few sentences, there was no more response.

Qingran’s fingers slid down the screen until she came to God Ji’s WeChat and stopped.

Tuesday 19:06

Ji: Wait

Just one message, one word, without even a punctuation mark.

Qingran stared at the character on her phone screen until it automatically dimmed.

Ever since they had that meal together, it had been several days since Qingran had seen Ji Yanchen. The school was not too big, but not too small either; yet, if one wanted to intentionally avoid someone, it was all too easy.

She knew that ever since the photo of Ji Yanchen was posted on the school forum, his every move had drawn the attentiveness of most of the female students.

And this was precisely what Ji Yanchen disliked the most.

Qingran didn’t know what her current state of mind was towards God Ji. Both she and he were the villains in the book, existing merely to add complexity to the romantic line between the male and female leads.

But all of a sudden, she, the little villain, had an epiphany and decided not to meddle in the affairs between the main characters anymore.

But what about Ji Yanchen, the big villain? As someone who knew the plot, was there a possibility she could help him?

At this moment, Qingran knew she couldn’t go out anymore.

She didn’t know how she had found herself under the old tree.

There was the tall, thin boy dressed in black standing solemnly under the tree, his eyes lowered, with his long hair covering his sharp, handsome features.

The smallest of the stray cats must have grown familiar with him; it was now sleeping by his feet.

A man, a cat, and an old tree composed a scene of their own.

Ji Yanchen appeared engrossed in his own world, the sound of Qingran’s approaching footsteps unable to bring him back to reality.

"Senior Brother Ji." Qingran walked over and called out.

Ji Yanchen suddenly returned to his senses, but the sleeping cat reacted quicker, running to Qingran’s feet and meowing.

Ji Yanchen lifted his eyes to look at Qingran, the soft night light adding a gentle aura to him, and upon seeing Qingran, his lips seemed to curl into a faint, barely visible smile.

Qingran hadn’t noticed when she had put on a hat.

She stopped a few steps away from Ji Yanchen, the young girl began to speak slowly with a smile, "Senior Brother Ji, were you waiting for me?"

Ji Yanchen nodded honestly, his voice hoarse and quiet, "I thought... you wouldn’t come..."

I thought, just like before, that even if I waited until midnight, you wouldn’t come.

Qingran didn’t know what to say. She had figured out why she flunked the test; these past days she had been crazily testing how far she could be from the female lead before triggering any plot, not really having time to think about anything else.

Today, if not for Aunt Liu mentioning he came here every day, she probably wouldn’t have made this trip.

Perhaps because Qingran had been silent for a long while, Ji Yanchen felt somewhat anxious. He looked at the stray cat, and somewhat awkwardly spoke up, "Ji He told me to let you know that I was waiting; I said I was, and you came."

So you sent me the word ’waiting’ just for that?

Qingran opened her mouth but didn’t know what to say.

How could she explain to Senior Brother Ji that she hadn’t seen the message he sent on Tuesday, and that she hadn’t looked at her phone in days?

"Senior Brother Ji," she explained gently, "It’s close to the midterms, I’ve been spending all my time studying recently."

Ji Yanchen was taken aback for a moment before asking, "Together?"

Qingran: "Huh?"

Ji Yanchen repeated earnestly, "I’m studying too, together?"

Qingran swallowed, her mind feeling as if it stopped working.

She understood every word God Ji said, but when connected together, why couldn’t she understand the meaning?

Does God Ji from F University, who is renowned, still need to study hard? With his brain on standby mode, his IQ is higher than that of an average person; if combined with diligence, does that leave anyone else any room to live?

Not to mention that he had already been recommended for admission by prestigious schools, and when he didn’t attend exams, the teachers would turn a blind eye.

While other students buried themselves in books, wishing to split a minute into two for use, he was playing with stray cats.

While other students were writing homework until deep into the night, he had the leisure to stand under the old tree, contemplating and waiting for someone.

Tch, life is just that unfair.

After another moment of silence, Ji Yanchen slightly tilted his head to look at Qingran, a glint of anxiety in his young eyes, reflected by the distant streetlight: "Can’t we?"

Damn! Is this the legendary ’tilt head kill’ tactic?

Qingran covered her pounding heart, smiling slowly: "It would be an honor."

Spending more time with Ji Yanchen was good, taking advantage of the plot not steering back on the normal track yet; perhaps she could find out the reason for his eventual dark turn.

The young man was startled, then also smiled, this time the dimple on his left cheek deepening.

This chapter is updated by freew(e)bnovel.(c)om

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.