Daydreaming about Me

Chapter 41

Although Li Lin’s grades weren’t great, his ability to narrate was impressive. Over the next ten minutes, he vividly described to Lin Yujing the details of the incident, down to how many times both sides had exchanged insults before almost coming to blows.

Class 7’s average grades were mediocre, ranking in the lower-middle among the science classes, but still better than Class 10. The reason the Class 7 monitor suggested settling the matter with a basketball game was that their class had four members on the school’s basketball team.

In contrast, although Class 10 had more boys, only the sports monitor, Yu Pengfei, Song Zhiming, and a tall boy Lin Yujing had never spoken to were really good at basketball. The rest were just average and certainly no match for the school team.

“So, although we do well in extracurricular activities, it still depends on the type of activity,” Li Lin said, jabbing his finger at the table in frustration. “If Class 7 had suggested a gaming contest instead of basketball, anyone from our class could wipe the floor with them.”

Lin Yujing grew sleepier as she listened, feeling groggy and a bit headachey. She finally summarized his point: they not only had poor academic performance but were also bad at basketball.

However, there was one thing she didn’t understand: “Wait, isn’t the 4×100 relay award already filled out with the class name? Are they just waiting to write the winning class after the basketball game?”

Li Lin said, “Is this about the certificate? No, it’s about pride. It was their fault for dropping the baton, and they’re trying to blame us. We can’t stand for that.”

He looked serious, “They want to humiliate us. They might not even care about the certificate but want to see us lose, and then they’ll probably tear it up in front of us.”

Lin Yujing thought that the 4×100 relay certificate they had won was likely a lost cause.

When the bell for morning study rang, Liu Fujiang entered the classroom, and Li Lin finally stopped talking.

Lin Yujing’s world was peaceful again. She turned her head, continued to lie down, and flipped through her books, wondering what to do during morning study. Eventually, she pulled out her English book to memorize some text.

But she couldn’t concentrate. The classroom in the south had no heating, and she was cold, so she closed the English book, put her arms on it, and lay down, closing her eyes to sleep.

She felt as if she quickly fell asleep, though it seemed she was only half-asleep, vaguely hearing the voices of her classmates.

Suddenly, she felt a shadow flicker over her eyelids, and then a warm touch on her forehead, like a hand.

She frowned, instinctively wanting to open her eyes but resisted. The hand stayed for about two or three seconds before leaving, and she heard someone whisper in her ear, “Lin Yujing?”

Reluctantly, she opened her eyes. The light was harsh, and she squinted, seeing Shen Juan leaning close, saying, “You’re a bit warm. Should you go to the school clinic?”

She frowned, burying her head in her arms, “I’m not warm, I’m a bit cold.”

“I know,” Shen Juan whispered, “but your forehead is hot.”

Lin Yujing lifted her head, her mouth dry. She licked her lips and touched her forehead.

She couldn’t tell from her own touch, but she did feel worse than usual. The school clinic was near the dormitory, and she didn’t want to move, so she lay back down, “I’ll be fine after a nap.”

Shen Juan didn’t say anything more. After a while, Lin Yujing felt something heavy and warm cover her, with the scent of clean laundry.

She opened her eyes, slightly moving her head, her nose brushing against the collar of a black jacket.

Shen Juan was looking at her, raising his hand to gently pat her back through the thick layers of clothing, “Sleep.”

Lin Yujing slept for a long time. Initially, she felt half-asleep, being woken once by Shen Juan to take some fever medicine, then sleeping more deeply.

When she woke again, it was already noon. The classroom was quiet. She felt hot, pushing the jacket off, and sat up, turning her head.

Shen Juan was sitting beside her, reading. After accepting that he was indeed a studious person, Lin Yujing realized Shen Juan did study, although he always looked so relaxed that it had misled her earlier.

Noticing her movement, Shen Juan turned, “Awake?”

He put down his book and naturally reached out to touch her forehead.

Lin Yujing, sweating a bit, felt her clothes sticking to her. She instinctively dodged his hand.

Shen Juan’s fingers paused by her ear. He hesitated, then said, “Come here, let me check.”

His voice was low and gentle in the empty classroom. “…”

Lin Yujing wondered if her thoughts were too dirty because Shen Juan’s innocent “Let me feel” made her blush and her heart race, making her feel uncomfortable. Even though she knew Shen Juan’s words were completely innocent.

She cleared her throat and explained, “I sweated a lot…” Shen Juan raised an eyebrow, “So what?”

Lin Yujing’s voice was hoarse, her throat burning with pain, and she didn’t want to say much, “Dirty.”

Shen Juan made a dismissive sound, leaned forward, hooked her head with his hand, and pulled her toward him, “Why so much nonsense?”

Caught off guard and feeling weak, Lin Yujing was suddenly pulled into his arms, her head hitting his chest solidly.

Her nose bumped into his firm abdominal muscles, feeling their resilience.

She stiffened and hurriedly propped herself up on his legs, raising her upper body and instinctively looking up.

Shen Juan looked down at her with lowered eyes.

When she suddenly raised her head, the distance between them closed rapidly, startling Lin Yujing into letting go and falling back into his arms with a thud.

Her face was pressed against his warm, solid body, feeling the low vibrations of his chest as he chuckled, “Falling into my arms just because you’re sick?”

As he leaned back a bit to create some distance, he touched her forehead, “The fever’s gone.”

Lin Yujing felt incredibly embarrassed, her ears burning, thinking that her fever might be coming back. She kept her head down, unwilling to speak.

Shen Juan, looking down at her, said, “Still not had enough of hugging?” “…”

Lin Yujing straightened up, leaning against the table and looking at him.

The girl looked different when she was sick, a bit listless, her voice hoarse and soft, “Shen Juan, don’t take advantage of me being sick to bully me just because I can’t fight back.”

Shen Juan was taken aback.

He lowered his head and laughed, leaning forward again with a lazy, slightly roguish tone, “You really are feverish and not thinking clearly, Lin Yujing. Is that what ‘taking advantage’ means?”

“Why can’t it mean that,” Lin Yujing took her water cup from the table, twisted it open, and drank a few gulps of warm water, her throat feeling a bit better, “Classmate Shen, you should read more idiom dictionaries. There are many proper uses, don’t fill your head with so much dirty trash.”

“Alright,” Shen Juan leaned back against the wall, took out a small bag of medicine from the desk drawer, and placed it on her table, “Go have lunch, then go back to the dorm and sleep. I’ll get you an excuse for the afternoon.”

Lin Yujing looked down at the semi-transparent plastic bag, which contained several small rectangular medicine boxes.

She raised her head and called out, “Shen Juan.”

He replied indifferently, “Hmm?”

Lin Yujing looked at him, “Are you…” In love with me.

As she said half the sentence, Lin Yujing’s mind flashed with numerous lines from romance dramas where the female lead tearfully questioned, “Why are you so good to me? Why are you being so nice to me!!”

The male lead would passionately say, “Don’t you have any idea why I’m good to you? How could you ask such a question!!”

The female lead would cry, “Don’t be so nice to me, because I’ll fall in love with you! Do you know that?! Why are you doing this…”

And the male lead would shout hysterically, “Of course I’m being nice to you because I love you! I fell in love with you!!”

Lin Yujing shuddered at her own mental drama.

She looked at Shen Juan, cleared her throat, “Are you trying to get me to go easy on you in the monthly exams so you can take the top spot again?”

Shen Juan: “…”

Lin Yujing wasn’t feeling well and asked Liu Fujiang for the afternoon off.

Shen Juan went to the cafeteria to get her some porridge. Lin Yujing took it back to the dormitory, forcing herself to eat it, then took the cold and fever medicine and fell asleep. When she woke up again, it was dusk, and her cotton pajamas were soaked through with sweat.

Lying in bed, still a bit dizzy, Lin Yujing touched her forehead. It was cool. The fever had broken.

She got up, took a shower to wash off the sweat and fatigue, changed into clean clothes, and sat on the bed.

Having only had half a bowl of porridge for lunch, she was starting to feel hungry. Lin Yujing opened her cupboard, took out a packet of cookies, and slowly ate them.

Her mind wandered, feeling a bit lost.

Lin Yujing didn’t know what it felt like to be liked. Growing up, no one had ever liked her romantically, only as friends.

In middle school, boys had pursued her because she was pretty, and during those confusing years, many boys liked her, but it never felt genuine.

Lin Yujing never paid much attention to it. Whenever it happened, Lu Jiacheng and Cheng Yi would soon go talk to the boys, and they would never appear in her sight again.

In high school, there were some genuine suitors at her affiliated school, but Lin Yujing was straightforward and always kept her distance, rejecting them firmly without leaving any room for hope.

Her social circle was independent, making it hard for others to integrate, so there were no special situations.

By special situations, she meant meeting someone in a new environment, new family, new school, and new feelings, who would naturally make her feel dependent.

Because in such circumstances, she desperately needed someone to rely on. Someone she could lean on, vent to, and who could absorb all her negative emotions.

Dependency was unfamiliar to Lin Yujing because her family had always taught her that no one in the world could be relied on, not even her closest parents.

So, realizing that she was developing this unfamiliar dependency on Shen Juan, even with other emotions mixed in, made Lin Yujing anxious.

She didn’t want to fall for Shen Juan.

Her parents, Lin Zhi and Meng Weiguo, taught her the first lesson about love.

Lin Yujing sometimes wondered if Lin Zhi and Meng Weiguo were in love when they first dated and married.

They must have been.

Even if only for a moment, they must have loved each other. At least, Lin Zhi must have loved Meng Weiguo.

But years later, they despised each other so much that even their children, the result of their love, became unlikable.

Love was torn apart by her parents, laid bare for her to see, revealing its cheapness and fragility, then thrown aside, becoming worthless.

If this was how adults’ love was, what about teenagers at sixteen or seventeen? Wouldn’t it be even more changeable and unstable?

Lin Yujing threw the empty cookie packet on the floor, fell back onto her bed, and stared at the strip of light on the ceiling, squinting.

She raised her hand and patted her face twice.

“Study,” Lin Yujing muttered to herself, closing her eyes, “I love studying. Studying makes me happy. The two most beautiful words in my life… study…”

It’s probably a case of “what you think about during the day, you dream about at night.” That night, Lin Yujing dreamt of Shen Juan again.

Lin Yujing had already grown accustomed to this, and got up mechanically. She washed, dressed in her school uniform, and headed downstairs. As she walked out of the dormitory, she was thinking about what to have for breakfast.

Shen Juan was leaning against the pillar at the entrance of the dormitory building. He had changed into a dark gray jacket and was wearing earphones, with the white cord hanging down in front of him.

He noticed someone coming out and looked up to see Lin Yujing standing at the door.

Shen Juan raised his hand, holding a small plastic bag in front of her. Inside was a rice ball.

“There aren’t any rice dumplings with three salted egg yolks for now, but I have a rice ball with three salted egg yolks,” he said lazily, tilting his head.

Lin Yujing stood there in a daze, almost undoing the mental preparation she had done the night before.

Seeing her unresponsive, Shen Juan waved his arm slowly, “Did the fever fry your brain?”

Lin Yujing snapped back to reality, took the rice ball, and slowly unwrapped the cling film, saying in a low voice, “Thank you.”

Shen Juan raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

The two walked towards the teaching building in silence. Lin Yujing kept her head down and quietly ate.

Shen Juan had indeed put three salted egg yolks inside. The whole rice ball was a size larger than what she usually had, and the egg yolks from this place weren’t too salty, so it wasn’t overwhelming.

By the time they reached the entrance of the teaching building, she hadn’t finished the rice ball, with half of it left, and she was already full. Lin Yujing didn’t want to throw it away, so she put it back in the bag and carried it upstairs.

Liu Fujian arrived early today. When they entered the classroom, he was already sitting at the podium. Seeing them come in, Liu Fujian stood up, patted Shen Juan on the shoulder, and walked out of the classroom, “You two, come with me.”

Lin Yujing blinked, looked at Shen Juan, and mouthed, “Me?”

Shen Juan nodded, took the half-eaten rice ball from her hand, put it on the desk, and walked out first.

Lin Yujing followed him. The two of them entered the office one after the other, and Lin Yujing closed the door behind them.

The teachers from the biology office weren’t there at the moment. Liu Fujian sat at the desk with two forms in front of him. He glanced at them, then looked up and smiled at them for five seconds.

Then he sincerely exclaimed, “I really like you two.” Lin Yujing: “…”

Shen Juan: “…”

Lin Yujing analyzed the situation. This sentence was probably similar to Liu’s usual phrase, “What great kids!”

From her two months of experience, whenever Liu Fujian said something like that, it was usually followed by something unpleasant.

For example, the last time he said “What great kids!” it was because Shen Juan had ranked first in the grade.

For her, it was a complete disaster.

Liu Fujian paused for a moment, probably waiting for one of them to respond, but no one did. So he smiled and waved his hand, continuing, “It’s nothing, don’t worry. There’s nothing to be afraid of. I just wanted to ask you about something.” He paused and leaned forward, “Our school has a scholarship to encourage good study habits. Are you two interested?”

Author’s Note:

The relationship between parents greatly influences a child’s view of love. Shen Juan still isn’t flirtatious enough!

Every morning, the first thing is to cheer on Shen Juan! Go, Shen Juan!