Daydreaming about Me

Chapter 48

At 6:30 PM, in the luxurious barbecue restaurant next to the school, which is just over ten square meters.

Song Zhiming raised both hands, holding a skewer of lamb in one hand, and gave a speech: “I, Song Zhiming, never thought that in my lifetime I would have the chance to play basketball with Shen Juan,” he raised the skewer in his right hand to his mouth, using it as a microphone, “and even win. Thank you, everyone, for helping me fulfill this dream. You are all my lifelong friends.”

Yu Pengfei clinked his cup on the table: “I feel so great, I want to see Xu Jie and the others bow and apologize to us again.”

“And do extra laps,” Li Lin added.

They were standing far away at that time and didn’t hear clearly what Lin Yujing and her friends said exactly. Anyway, the head teacher of Class 7 was called over again, and after another round of negotiation, Ning Yuan and Xu Jie came over to bow and apologize to them.

Ning Yuan had no expression, while Xu Jie was so angry his face was as white as a cake smeared with cream.

After apologizing, the two began running downstairs, doing laps around the gymnasium.

There were still two more games in the afternoon after they finished the basketball game. The guys from Class 10 didn’t watch them; they just squatted at the entrance of the gym, watching them run lap after lap.

Li Lin, standing on the gym steps, gave them technical guidance in a very cheeky manner: “Hey, Boss Xu! Swing your arms! How can you not swing your arms while running! It doesn’t work if you don’t swing your arms, the motion isn’t standard! And running ten laps is very tiring.”

Xu Jie, with his bad temper, certainly couldn’t stand it. He stood at the door, panting heavily and glaring at Li Lin. Just as he was about to start cursing, Lin Yujing calmly walked over with a cup of hot milk tea: “Li Lin, can you stop bullying Xu? Do you have to tease him? The teacher said that if they talk again during their run, they will have to run an extra lap.”

Lin Yujing looked at her watch and kindly said: “What time is it? They have to run ten laps, and they’ve only done three so far.”

Xu Jie: “…”

Xu Jie felt like he had a lump of old blood stuck in his throat. He almost suffocated himself in frustration.

Today, the skyrocketing monkey learned two things: As long as you are good at studying, in the teacher’s eyes, even if you fart, it smells like a rainbow; and—never be deceived by a girl’s appearance.

Lin Yujing, who had already been labeled a dangerous person, was completely unaware. She was sitting in the barbecue restaurant, slowly nibbling on a grilled chicken wing.

She had never been to this restaurant before. There was limited time during the lunch break, and besides, who would have barbecue at noon next to the school?

Lin Yujing had always thought this place would go out of business soon. Maybe they would make more money if they switched to serving set meals.

But today, upon entering, she found the place surprisingly crowded. The small shop had six or seven square tables against the walls on both sides, filled to capacity, and the customers weren’t just students.

The food was indeed delicious. The shiso-flavored grilled wings, one per skewer, had a full, shiny appearance, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, with a layer of what seemed to be their special shiso sauce, sweet and fragrant without being greasy.

Lin Yujing had already finished three skewers.

She had played a basketball game, though only half a game, but her stamina was poor. Half a game had exhausted her, leaving her legs feeling weak. If it weren’t for Song Zhiming’s enthusiasm, she might have gone straight back to the dorm to shower and sleep.

But as soon as she entered the barbecue restaurant, the smell of the barbecue made her realize how hungry she was.

Lin Yujing was now tackling her fourth skewer of shiso-flavored grilled wings—holding the skewer in her right hand and using chopsticks in her left to slide the whole wing off the skewer by prying between the two bones.

The first three skewers went smoothly, but this one was particularly tight. The chopsticks pried the bones apart, but the wing didn’t slide off the skewer.

Feeling a bit frustrated, Lin Yujing pressed the wing into her bowl and pulled the chopsticks out, with a rather forceful motion.

Seeing this, Song Zhiming couldn’t help but say, “Lin, you don’t have to be so brutal with a chicken wing. You can just pull it off and bite it, we don’t care about manners.”

“It’s not that,” Lin Yujing paused, “it’s just that I don’t want to wash my hands.”

She really disliked eating with her hands because her fingers would get dirty, and there were no wet wipes available. Using napkins wouldn’t completely remove the smell.

Lin Yujing turned the skewer in her hand, preparing to battle with the chicken wing until the end, when Shen Juan reached over, took the skewer from her hand, and used a pair of clean chopsticks from the container on the wall to slide the wing off the skewer and into her bowl. “This chicken wing has been tortured by you.”

Lin Yujing was momentarily stunned, feeling a bit hesitant. Previously, she would have eaten it without a second thought, but now there was an inexplicable sense of unease.

The problems she had temporarily put aside for the basketball game began to flood back. But not eating it would seem too pretentious.

She quietly said thank you and picked up the chicken wing to take a bite.

Shen Juan raised his eyebrows slightly, seemingly not very satisfied with her thanks.

Although the basketball game took up the afternoon classes, evening self-study was still mandatory. However, the people in Class 10 were too excited. With the top two students leading the way, half of them skipped the evening self-study. Liu Fujiang was happy too, and considering the special circumstances, he turned a blind eye and let them go.

Lin Yujing and the others finished eating and chatting around nine o’clock.

It was her first time going out for a meal with her classmates. She found that Song Zhiming and Li Lin were really talkative, always telling jokes.

They had some drinks, and by the end, Song Zhiming was visibly tipsy. He raised his glass towards Shen Juan: “Master Juan—I heard your friends call you that, and it sounds really cool, so I’ll call you that too. Master Juan—”

Song Zhiming said, “I never thought you would come to play this game. You might not take me seriously now, and I don’t care about that, but from today onwards, I’ll consider you a brother. If you want, I can call you ‘dad’ like Wang Yiyang does.”

Shen Juan leaned back in his chair, holding his glass with a smile: “No need for ‘dad,’ I can’t afford to support so many sons.”

Song Zhiming downed another glass, starting to look a bit out of it: “Master Juan, since I’m calling you ‘master,’ you deserve it!”

Lin Yujing sighed while resting her head on her hand.

Old Gao glanced at the time and then at the almost-drunken Song Zhiming: “Let’s go, it’s nine o’clock. The girls should head back early.”

It was just about the time for the evening self-study to end, and the school gates were open. They went back smoothly, with the drunk Song Zhiming blending into the crowd unnoticed.

Shen Juan didn’t stay in the dorms. Lin Yujing thought he would leave directly, but he followed them through the school gate, past the garden, the library, and the school clinic, all the way to the dormitory area.

Li Lin and the others, either intentionally or unintentionally, walked quickly, leaving the two of them far behind.

As they approached the dormitory building, Lin Yujing finally couldn’t help but ask, “Aren’t you going home?”

“I am,” Shen Juan said, “but I’ll walk you back first.”

Lin Yujing opened her mouth: “It’s just a short distance, I can walk with Wen Zihui and the others.”

Shen Juan, with his hands in his pockets, paused: “I want to spend more time with you.” “…”

Lin Yujing almost choked on her own saliva.

She froze for a moment, lowered her head silently, and said nothing.

Her heartbeat started pounding again.

What is going on?

Can you have a little dignity, Lin Yujing?

Did he say anything special?

No.

He just said he wanted to spend more time with you. What’s wrong with that?

Isn’t that normal?

…

Okay… maybe it’s not entirely normal…

Lin Yujing sighed softly and began thinking about what Shen Juan had said this afternoon.

What does it mean to seem certain, certain about what? Does pursuing you mean confessing?

Can pursuing you be equivalent to liking you?

Lin Yujing had never received such a confession before. She recalled those girls who would block Lu Jiaxing every day to give him love letters and notes.

They usually said: “Lu Jiaxing, I like you.”

It didn’t seem like they said: “Lu Jiaxing, just letting you know, I’m going to start pursuing you now.”

Do school bullies chase girls in such a domineering, cool, and impressive way?

While she walked mechanically, her thoughts wandered far and wide until Shen Juan’s voice brought her back to reality: “This afternoon, when I was talking to Ning Yuan, were you there the whole time?”

“Ah?” Lin Yujing looked up and came back to her senses. “Oh, I saw you go over, so I followed. With teachers around, what could you do, get into a fight? Special situations call for special measures.”

They walked to the space between two dormitory buildings, and Shen Juan suddenly stopped: “What did you hear?”

His voice was a bit hoarse.

Lin Yujing stopped too, raising her head.

Shen Juan looked down at her, his dark eyes deepened by the night.

“I heard two names, something about a river,” Lin Yujing said honestly. “And something about dreaming, but you guys were talking in such a mess, I didn’t really understand.”

Indeed, she didn’t understand. At that time, Shen Juan’s expression was so dark and frightening that Lin Yujing thought he might snap and hit Ning Yuan. So she hesitated but still interrupted.

Shen Juan didn’t say anything, just stared at her silently, his thin lips pressed tight, his mouth set in a straight line.

Just as Lin Yujing wondered if he was considering whether to kill her to keep her quiet, Shen Juan suddenly laughed.

His low laughter echoed in the night, carrying a hint of depth: “One of those rivers, you’ve met him before, the one you almost thought I would beat to death.”

Lin Yujing thought for a moment and remembered the person.

A skinny boy, whom Shen Juan had slammed against the wall, so weak that he couldn’t even struggle, his toes barely touching the ground.

“Is he your comatose desk mate?” Lin Yujing asked.

Shen Juan nodded, his tone indifferent, revealing no emotion. “He’s my uncle’s… apprentice.”

Lin Yujing said nothing, quickly sorting through the known information. Shen Juan had mentioned before that his studio belonged to his uncle.

His almost-beaten desk mate, one of those rivers—whether it was Luo Qinghe or Nie Xinghe—was his uncle’s apprentice.

So at least, Shen Juan and he were once familiar, perhaps even on good terms, but now they were at odds, likely because of Shen Juan’s uncle.

Where had his uncle gone if he wasn’t at the studio? Who was the other river? Luo Qinghe and Nie Xinghe…

—Why must both of them be named “He” (River)?! And such similar names!

There are so many characters to choose from when naming someone. Couldn’t they pick a different one?

It’s so easy to confuse them!

Lin Yujing sighed wearily, recalling Ning Yuan’s words.

Can you sleep at night?

Don’t you dream?

Aren’t you afraid that one day Luo Qinghe will really—whatever happens, it sounds like Shen Juan is the one who should be feeling guilty like a villain.

Lin Yujing still remembered Shen Juan’s eyes when Ning Yuan said that. Dark, cold, with a hint of barely perceptible confusion and helplessness. Suddenly, she didn’t want to know anything anymore.

What could Shen Juan have done? Nothing, surely.

Her desk mate was someone who, even during street fights, remembered to complete his homework and would instinctively protect a girl he’d only met twice.

Someone who would buy a new rice ball for her when she dropped hers. Shen Juan was so gentle that he wouldn’t even hurt an ant!

Lin Yujing cleared her throat, trying to change the subject: “Is this considered the school bully’s secret history? Unknown secrets.”

Shen Juan raised an eyebrow: “I suppose.”

“Ah,” Lin Yujing nodded. “Then I won’t ask. In TV shows or novels, people who know the big boss’s secrets don’t survive more than three episodes.”

Shen Juan laughed again, his low laughter spreading: “Then what should we do? Let’s trade, you offer something as collateral.”

Evening self-study had been over for a while. Students who were supposed to go back to the dormitories had done so, and those heading home had left. By now, most of the people were gone. Occasionally, girls who had finished self-study stood at the door chatting or walked into the dormitory. They saw the two standing there, giggled, and went inside.

Lin Yujing was relieved that it was late, making it hard to see their faces clearly. One could only tell that it was a boy and a girl.

However, she still felt uneasy and tugged on Shen Juan’s sleeve, pulling him into the gap between the two dormitory buildings to avoid the other students’ gazes.

Shen Juan let her pull him along.

They stood in a one-meter-wide shadow, the dim light mostly blocked.

“I’d love to offer something in return,” Lin Yujing said, continuing their conversation, “but what can I do? I really don’t have any secrets, unlike you. People from He Ye Village have such complex minds. You’re a man with a story, Shen Tiezhu.”

“I don’t want secrets,” Shen Juan took a step forward, looking down at her, “how about something else?”

Lin Yujing was now backed against the dormitory wall, with Shen Juan standing in front of her. They were quite close, and his presence felt a bit invasive.

Instinctively, she wanted to retreat. She silently moved her foot back a bit, and her heel hit the wall corner, making a slight sound.

Beyond that was the cold wall. Feeling a bit embarrassed, Lin Yujing looked up. Shen Juan noticed her small movement, smirking at her with an expression that said, “Let’s see where you can hide.”

Lin Yujing averted her eyes, reluctantly continuing, “The secrets of a school bully are worth a fortune. It’s not appropriate to exchange them for something else…”

“I think it’s appropriate,” Shen Juan leaned closer, looking at her and whispering, “For example, holding hands can exchange for one secret, a hug for another.”

He paused, leaned down, his lips close to her ear, and his voice light and slow: “A kiss and I’ll tell you everything.”

The author has something to say:

Love has made Lin Cuihua, who has 5.0 vision, lose her ability to recognize: Our Shen Juan is so gentle he wouldn’t even hurt an ant!!

Ten minutes later, Lin Cuihua: Ahhhhhhhhhh, you beast!!