Chapter 29
Once you got to university, dating was perfectly normal. It wasn’t like high school, where even the slightest romance counted as an early relationship and had to be kept secret, as if the sky would fall the moment anyone found out.
Lin Qi was the open-minded sort. She supported young people boldly trying things when they met someone suitable. Seeing that Yu Min didn’t want to talk much about it, she took her silence for shyness and comforted her earnestly: “What’s there to be afraid of? Your sister and the others won’t care. Relax. If anything happens, I’ve got your back. Who in this day and age doesn’t date in college? There are tons of them. You’re an adult; this is your freedom.”
The shop staff were there at the time too, and someone cut in to correct her. “There are plenty of people who don’t date in college either. I’ve never dated.”
Lin Qi shot back immediately. “That doesn’t count as never dating. It just means you’ve never officially made it official. That’s completely different from our Minmin’s situation.”
“Second Boss, did you date in college then?” an employee asked in confusion.
Lin Qi answered bluntly, “Do I look like I never have?”
“Not really.”
“Ah, then I did.”
“With a handsome guy?”
“No.”
“That can’t be. You’re so pretty; how could you not date a handsome one?”
“Do you have to date a handsome guy just because you’re pretty? What, the others won’t do?”
The employee didn’t catch the deeper meaning in her words and couldn’t follow her logic, so she asked bluntly, “I’m really curious. Second Boss, what kind of person do you like?”
Lin Qi said, “Good-looking ones.”
“Didn’t you just say you weren’t looks-obsessed? And now you want good-looking ones?”
“I never said that.”
“You literally just said it.”
“Fine. I’m fickle.”
It was the lunch break, and a whole crowd had gathered, talking over one another and getting more and more animated. They’d discuss Yu Min for a while, then someone else; by the end, the topic had gone completely off the rails.
Yu Min couldn’t stand listening to them banter. She wanted nothing more than to bury her face in her desk drawer; she was mortified to the point of death.
And yet Lin Qi just kept going, unstoppable.
“Hey, Minmin, you can’t handle a few words now? That won’t do. This time it was lucky it was only a love letter. Next time if someone comes to you in person, what will you do?”
Yu Min said stiffly, “I won’t date.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“……”
After that, Lin Qi even dragged Lin Bai Xin into it. Her mouth wasn’t tight; she spilled Lin Bai Xin’s old history and said Lin Bai Xin was the one who had truly never dated in college, that she’d cut herself off from that low-level desire, and that from childhood to now she’d never had a single relationship, completely devoid of any thoughts in that direction; she lived more austerely than an immortal.
Lin Bai Xin was a single-life advocate.
More accurately, she was a single-life advocate. Back when she was in school, the people who chased her or liked her could have lined up from this street to the next, but she simply wasn’t moved. No matter how others approached her or showed interest, she was always as steady as a rock, never wavering even once.
Lin Qi genuinely admired Lin Bai Xin. People were social creatures after all; there were very few who could live to that extent. Lin Qi was just a vulgar mortal and couldn’t be that clear-eyed.
When Lin Bai Xin was brought up, Yu Min slowly lifted her head and let her gaze settle on her through the crowd.
Lin Bai Xin never joined the discussion. She wasn’t interested in any of it and couldn’t even be bothered to listen to the gossip. She worked seriously, then went out to answer a phone call. When she came back in, she interrupted the idle chatter and said that a customer would be coming later, so they should get ready to receive them.
Afraid she might misunderstand, Yu Min privately clarified, “I don’t know that person.”
At first, Lin Bai Xin seemed not to react to who she meant; her mind was on work. A moment later, she understood and replied, “Got it.”
Yu Min added, “I won’t date him.”
Lin Bai Xin hummed in acknowledgement. “Up to you.”
For now, Yu Min’s main goal was still studying. No matter what other people’s college lives were like, it had nothing to do with her. She didn’t want Lin Bai Xin to overthink it, though Lin Bai Xin didn’t seem to care at all; from start to finish, she hadn’t once asked a single word about it.
In the end, the confession letter was still thrown away. The person involved couldn’t see it, and it wouldn’t be discovered by her classmates either. Yu Min was careful; she tore the letter into pieces before tossing it, so at a glance it looked like discarded scrap paper.
The letter was thrown into the living room trash can. When Lin Bai Xin opened the fridge to find something to drink, she glanced over without thinking. Her eyes paused briefly; while putting ice into her glass, she caught a missing fragment of a name on the corner of the paper.
Surname Xue, three characters, Xue Zhi something. It should have been the boy who wrote the confession letter.
Yu Min hadn’t even bothered to remember exactly who had written it. In her class, she only knew the monitor and the league branch secretary; whether the person who wrote the letter was even from her class was uncertain.
University classes weren’t arranged so that one class used one fixed room. Instead, two or three classes were assigned randomly according to the timetable. Yu Min hadn’t taken the trouble to remember those people, so it was hard to tell who was who.
Still, after the confession letter, there was no follow-up. The one who wrote it had the heart but not the nerve; after not receiving Yu Min’s reply, he didn’t do anything else. And that was the end of it.
In the tenth week, the class held a dinner gathering. The monitor organized it enthusiastically, intending for everyone to get to know one another better and deepen their class bond.
Yu Min was pulled into a class group chat without the counselor in it. The monitor even messaged her privately, hoping she would come and not refuse. Yu Min was the only commuter student in the class. In fact, she and most of her classmates were still strangers to one another, while the others had by then more or less learned each other’s names, and some had even gotten close. Yu Min didn’t fit in; she skipped a lot of activities, and outside of class, no one ever ran into her on campus.
Being too independent and withdrawn wasn’t really ideal. X University cared quite a bit about students’ mental health, so the monitor coming to find Yu Min wasn’t meddling; in the end, it was kindness.
Yu Min agreed, after first asking Lin Bai Xin’s opinion.
Lin Bai Xin said, “If you want to go, then go. No need to ask me.”
Yu Min said, “Dinner’s at eight in the evening. I might be back pretty late.”
“Okay. Just be careful.”
“It’s Friday night.”
“Want me to take you there?”
“No need. It’s just the street across from school; it’s not far.”
On the day of the dinner, Lin Bai Xin didn’t take Yu Min there, but she picked her up afterward.
They had hotpot for the meal, and there was alcohol too. Students who had just broken free of their parents’ strict control always treated alcohol as one symbol of freedom; some had poor tolerance, and after half a bottle of beer, they could barely walk straight.
Yu Min didn’t drink. She helped support a girl out, and just then Lin Bai Xin had arrived by car downstairs, so she also gave a lift to several students who had been drinking to the school’s back gate.
The dinner really was an effective way to socialize quickly. After that meal, Yu Min got to know quite a few classmates, and later, through those classmates, she gradually met other students in the same major.
Their class was Class 1, and they often had lessons in the same room as Class 2 next door. The study committee member of Class 1 was a boy, and that boy had a childhood friend in Class 2, also male, also surnamed Xue. He was 183 centimeters tall and looked rather refined and neat.
Yu Min didn’t care about him at all. That Xue-surnamed boy, setting aside his looks, had nothing particularly outstanding about him. He was the same kind of person as Yu Min: quiet, reserved, the kind who couldn’t kick up the slightest fuss even if you shoved three feet at him.
The monitor and the study committee member had somehow gotten together in such a short time and become a couple.
Yu Min was dragged into their romance circle against her will. The monitor was extremely generous; out of consideration for Yu Min, she saved a seat for her commuter classmate every day. Sometimes when she couldn’t make it in time, she had the study committee member save a seat instead. The study committee member was even more thorough, saving four seats at once, and he also saved one for the Xue classmate.
Yu Min didn’t like sitting next to men, so usually the monitor and the study committee member sat in the middle, Yu Min sat beside the monitor, and the Xue classmate sat on the other side.
Most of the time, she only talked with the monitor; occasionally she exchanged a few words with the study committee member. As for the others, it was the same as always: if nothing was happening, she kept quiet; if she had free time, she read.
Once, Lin Bai Xin had business near X University and passed by that area, so she dropped in to bring Yu Min the books that had been left at home.
It happened to be mealtime, so Yu Min dragged Lin Bai Xin to the cafeteria with her. While they were in line, they ran into the three of them from the class. The monitor was the first to greet them, and after learning that Lin Bai Xin was Yu Min’s sister, she even smiled and called her “sister.”
This chance meeting was nothing important, just an ordinary encounter. The five of them sat together for the meal, and Lin Bai Xin even chatted with the monitor and the others.
After they parted, Lin Bai Xin was going back, and Yu Min went to see her off; the monitor and the others didn’t follow.
“Xue Zhi Yu, we’re going to the classroom for morning self-study. Are you coming?” The monitor turned around and asked that Xue classmate.
Yu Min hadn’t noticed anything behind her, but Lin Bai Xin had sharp ears and caught the line. She turned her head back without a word, and only then did Lin Bai Xin properly look at Xue Zhi Yu in the crowd. She hadn’t paid him much attention before; only as they were leaving did she realize his presence wasn’t actually low at all.
“Are they all your classmates?” Lin Bai Xin asked casually.
Yu Min nodded. “Sort of.”
“Sort of?”
“One of them is from the class next door.”
“The boy with curly hair?”
“Mm-hm.”
Not understanding how Lin Bai Xin could tell so quickly, Yu Min said, “He’s friends with the monitor and the others.”
Lin Bai Xin didn’t explain. As they were almost at the car, she said softly, “You get along quite well with them.”
Yu Min didn’t deny it. Although the monitor and the others couldn’t compare with Li Xue Ting and the other four, they were at least among the few acquaintances she had at university. Compared with the other students, her relationship with those three could be considered good.
A few days later, Lin Qi got bored again and started paying attention to the aftermath of the confession letter. This cheap older sister of hers was even more responsible than Lin Bai Xin, who was a sister in name only. Romance needed guidance too; that was an important issue in adolescence. Lin Qi considered it her unshirkable duty to help Yu Min more, for example by helping her keep an eye on things.
Yu Min was sick of hearing it and simply covered her ears; as soon as Lin Qi opened her mouth, she treated her like a deaf person and blocked out her rambling.
“Oh no, she couldn’t really have started dating, could she?” Lin Qi worried. This time she didn’t go on about being open-minded anymore. “I was just teasing her, joking around. But the more I look at her, the more it seems like that’s really what happened.”
Lin Qi felt heartache. After these past few days of self-brainwashing, she had already come to think of Yu Min as her own little sister, and she couldn’t accept the possibility that Yu Min might be dating. She couldn’t help worrying; her little sister was obviously an honest, obedient kid. If the other person’s character wasn’t up to par and was bad to Yu Min, what then?
“Why aren’t you saying anything? Are you mute?” Lin Qi was good at externalizing her emotions; she forcibly dumped her anxiety onto Lin Bai Xin. “I’m asking you. What should we do? Should we interfere? But if we meddle too much, that doesn’t seem good either. The kid’s grown up; too much control hurts her pride. No, that won’t do.”
Unable to stand Lin Qi’s chatter, Lin Bai Xin treated it like the wind in her ear, put the checked bag back where it belonged, and moved away from her.
“Giving me the cold shoulder, huh?” Lin Qi hurried after her, completely oblivious. “What do you mean, not saying anything? I don’t have a plan, so think about it quickly. This really needs to be taken seriously. Don’t act like it’s nothing.”
Lin Bai Xin’s expression was blank. “Shut up.”
Author’s note:
Happy weekend, everyone.