Chapter 11 - A Public Confession
The days trickled away like sand through an hourglass, quiet and unassuming.
When the students returned from the National Day holiday, the teachers—as if having already predicted that no one would actually finish the "National Day Gift Pack" of practice papers—didn't even bother to collect them. Instead, the reprieve was short-lived; a mere day after classes resumed, they were plunged into a grueling two-day examination cycle.
By some twist of fate, Lin Jiang found herself assigned to the same testing hall as Cheng Yuanchuan. To make matters more awkward, they were seated directly in front of and behind one another. In a sea of students dressed in muted, utilitarian school colors, Cheng Yuanchuan was a vivid splash of defiance in a bright red dress.
Though they had both been members of the school’s broadcasting station, their personalities were polar opposites—the former quiet and observant, the latter bold and radiant. They were nothing more than nodding acquaintances.
During the Chinese literature exam, Cheng Yuanchuan nudged the back of Lin Jiang’s chair with her foot, whispering a plea for the line preceding "Gazing at the Great Ocean." Lin Jiang didn't say a word, but she tilted her body slightly, revealing her scratch paper where she had scrawled the four characters of the opening line in large, legible script: *"East of Jieshi."*
Aside from that fleeting moment of academic complicity, there was no further interaction.
The efficiency of the teachers was terrifying; by the afternoon of the day following the exams, the results were already out. During the break, a student Lin Jiang didn't recognize passed along a message: the English teacher wanted her to come to the office to collect the graded papers.
Standing before the slightly ajar office door, Lin Jiang took a deep breath, mentally chanting a series of reassurances: *The English teacher doesn't eat people. If I did poorly, I’ll just work harder next time.*
When she finally pushed the door open, she was met not with a scowl, but with a wide, beaming smile from her teacher. Lin Jiang’s heart nearly skipped a beat—somehow, that smile felt more ominous than a cold glare.
"Ninety-six points. Not bad at all," the teacher said, sliding the paper toward her.
Lin Jiang let out a silent sigh of relief. The teacher continued, clearly pleased, "See? This is the benefit of being a class representative. Your progress is remarkable."
Lin Jiang offered a modest, somewhat sheepish response, but in her heart, she knew the credit belonged to Shen Yan. It was from watching him diligently memorize vocabulary every night that she had picked up the habit herself. Now, English phrases and sentence structures seemed to flow into her mind with far less resistance.
The teacher handed her two thick stacks of exam papers. "Tell Jiang Weifeng to come and get his. He hasn't shown up yet—probably knows he botched it and is too guilty to face me. Since you’re here, do me a favor and drop the papers for Class 16 off as well."
A strange, fluttering sensation stirred in Lin Jiang’s chest. To her own surprise, she felt... happy?
Clutching the two stacks of papers, she reached the stairwell. Seeing that the coast was clear, she used her knee to prop up the heavy bundles and began to flip through them. Suddenly, three bold characters leaped out at her: *Jiang Weifeng.*
His handwriting was somewhat cursive, yet it possessed a striking strength that seemed to pierce through the paper—wild, elegant, and unrestrained, much like the boy himself. Holding her breath, Lin Jiang peeled back the corner of the page to reveal his score.
*112.*
The bright red ink felt almost dazzling.
As they cycled home after school, Shen Yan asked about her results. When she told him, he showered her with uncharacteristic praise, noting that her leap into the top fifteen of the grade was a direct result of her improved English.
Lin Jiang, however, kept her eyes lowered, replying with a dry, "The revolution is not yet won; the comrade must still strive."
Shen Yan laughed, adopting the air of a proud parent and remarking on how she had finally grown up and improved her attitude toward learning. In response, Lin Jiang reached out and gave his back a sharp, playful pinch.
It was only through this exam that Lin Jiang truly felt the suffocating atmosphere of the third year. In the past, students would slack off for a few days after a major test, but this time was different. During breaks, the teachers were constantly surrounded by students seeking help; for subjects like Mathematics, one actually had to wait in line just to ask a question.
The morning calisthenics session became Lin Jiang’s only moment of reprieve. During the torso-twisting exercises, she would steal glances toward Class 16. He was always in the back row, standing as straight and tall as a verdant pine.
After the exercises, Lin Jiang accompanied He Lai to the school shop for snacks. On their way back to the classroom, they passed the basketball courts, where a group of boys was playing a heated game. The air was thick with the sounds of sneakers squeaking on concrete and the rhythmic cheers following every basket.
Suddenly, a loud, jarring voice cut through the noise: "Lin Jiang!"
It was Shen Yan.
Lin Jiang was in the middle of taking a bite of a grilled sausage. Before she could even turn around, the boys on the court began to hoot and holler. She couldn't help but roll her eyes internally.
Shen Yan had been the class monitor since they were children; he was loyal and well-liked, and boys in that environment loved nothing more than a good-natured ribbing. Whenever Lin Jiang used to wait for him after school, she had been the target of endless teasing. In middle school, she had even been cornered in the restroom by a group of "delinquent" girls who had a crush on Shen Yan and thought she was his girlfriend. She had only escaped by cleverly claiming to be his biological cousin.
When Shen Yan found out later, he had nearly choked on his food laughing.
Lin Jiang knew the excuse was cliché and terrible, but the truth was that she had known Shen Yan for as long as she could remember. They had grown up together, and by the time they reached puberty and understood the nuances of romance, their bond had already solidified into something akin to kinship. As Shen Yan had said recently, he had never even considered whether she was "pretty" or not. Lin Jiang felt the same; while many girls swooned over Shen Yan’s sunny, athletic charm, she was entirely indifferent.
Because of this, she usually didn't take the teasing to heart. But today was different.
As Lin Jiang turned around, the first person she saw wasn't Shen Yan. It was Jiang Weifeng, standing at the edge of the court with a bottle of Coke in his hand. Like the others, he was squinting slightly, his gaze fixed directly on her.
For reasons she couldn't explain, Lin Jiang felt a sudden, sharp pang of guilt, as if she had been caught doing something wrong. Her face flushed a deep, burning crimson.
In the nights that followed that encounter, she lost count of how many times she absentmindedly wrote his name on her scratch paper. Each time she realized what she was doing, she would hurriedly crumple the paper into a ball. Yet, driven by a thief’s paranoia, she didn't dare toss them into the classroom bin. Instead, she took them home, folding them into paper boats or other small shapes, and tucking them away in a discarded cardboard box.
She encountered him occasionally—sometimes in the middle of a frantic game on the court, other times leaning against the school gate with a few friends, a cigarette between his fingers.
One day, after her broadcasting class, she was heading back to her mother’s restaurant when she passed Guangming Plaza. She saw him there, skateboarding with a large group. The area around him was always densely packed with girls. Lin Jiang felt herself partitioned off from that vibrant, noisy world. She shook her head, forcing herself to look away from the crowd.
She had to admit that compared to those girls, she was far too cowardly.
For instance, because their "partner classes" shared the same teachers, a large QQ group had been created for announcements and assignments. She had clicked on his profile countless times, and she had long ago memorized his QQ ID by heart, yet she never found the courage to send a friend request.
Perhaps she was only suited to be a distant observer. When he wasn't there, she pined for him in secret, but whenever they were near, her only instinct was to flee. She couldn't even withstand a single, casual glance from him.
And yet, she couldn't help but wonder about the possibilities. After the incident with Lan Jingyu, they were, at the very least, acquaintances. But she didn't dare let her thoughts go deeper.
As the book said: *If one can avoid intense joy, naturally no great sorrow will strike.*
Time flowed on through her daily silence, until the day the story finally turned a new page.
That afternoon, after finishing a meal with He Lai, the two of them were leaning against the corridor railing, looking down at the courtyard and chatting idly. Suddenly, Li Na came sprinting toward them, breathless.
"Someone is confessing to Jiang Weifeng on the basketball court!"
In an instant, the world seemed to go silent.
Lin Jiang never quite remembered how she ended up at the basketball court. Perhaps He Lai had suggested it, or perhaps Li Na’s excitement had swept them both along. By the time they reached the court, a large crowd had already gathered.
A girl stood in the center of the court, clutching a bouquet of roses. Facing her was Jiang Weifeng, still holding a basketball.
Lin Jiang was suddenly reminded of the final scene in *A Chinese Odyssey*, where the Sunset Warrior and Zixia Fairy gaze at each other from the city wall. Her eyes felt strangely dry and stinging.
The girl had her hair pulled back in a high ponytail. She smiled with a bright, defiant energy, though her eyes were filled with an undeniable tenderness and bashfulness. Her voice was steady and full of conviction: "Jiang Weifeng, when I said I liked you the other day, I meant it."
Jiang Weifeng ran a hand through his hair, his brow furrowed in a deep frown. "And?"
"Last time was too informal. This time, I’m doing it properly. I like you. Will you be my boyfriend?"
As soon as she finished, the crowd erupted into cheers and catcalls.
"Boring," Jiang Weifeng muttered, making a move to leave.
"If you want to go, then go! I’m not giving up!" the girl cried out, taking two hurried steps toward him.
Jiang Weifeng let out a short, mocking laugh. "Classmate, you’re not my type."
"But you’re *my* type! And... and I’ll make you like my type!" the girl shouted, summoning every ounce of her courage.
The crowd cheered again, and some people even started a rhythmic chant of "Say yes! Say yes!"
"Suit yourself."
He walked away without a hint of hesitation. As he brushed past Lin Jiang, she distinctly heard him mutter a single word: "Disappointing."
With the protagonist gone, the crowd naturally began to disperse. Lin Jiang felt dizzy, her mind a chaotic whirl of emotions as she walked back to the classroom.
Finally, someone asked, "Isn't that girl from your broadcasting station?"
Lin Jiang opened her mouth, but her throat felt as though it were filled with ash. It took a moment before she could squeeze out a quiet, "Yeah."
"What’s her name?" He Lai asked.
Lin Jiang’s voice didn't even sound like her own. "Cheng Yuanchuan."
"Her name actually sounds quite nice with Jiang Weifeng’s," Li Na murmured softly.
Lin Jiang didn't hear whatever the girls said after that. She felt a cold wind howling through her heart.
*The wind sweeps through the mountains and rivers; the trees sway, and the waters surge.*
The incident caused a minor sensation in the grade, a brief ripple in the stagnant, deathly quiet waters of their senior year. Predictably, during the next morning’s calisthenics, Cheng Yuanchuan was publicly criticized over the school’s PA system.
As the Dean’s voice boomed from above, the girls in the ranks below craned their necks, whispering in hushed tones about whether Zhao Siyi or Cheng Yuanchuan was prettier. Lin Jiang didn't listen to much of the debate, but she noticed that by the time they were dismissed, the consensus seemed to favor Zhao Siyi.
That evening, Shen Yan talked about the basketball court incident. He mentioned how Cheng Yuanchuan had been waiting by the court with a bottle of Coke, which had annoyed Jiang Weifeng so much that he had quit the game early and gone back to class.
On a whim, Lin Jiang asked him, "Who do you think is prettier? Zhao Siyi or Cheng Yuanchuan?"
Shen Yan thought for a moment. "Probably Zhao Siyi."
Lin Jiang pressed further. "Then... who’s prettier, me or Cheng Yuanchuan?"
Shen Yan hummed for a long time before finally saying, "You two aren't even the same type."
Lin Jiang gave him a sharp punch to the arm, ignoring his cries of protest.
In truth, Lin Jiang hadn't seen Zhao Siyi in a long time, yet that girl’s face remained vividly imprinted in her mind. She wondered what choice Jiang Weifeng would ultimately make in his heart.
Following the confession, Lin Jiang often saw Cheng Yuanchuan hovering near Class 16, frequently delivering "love breakfasts."
One evening during self-study, Lin Jiang was deep into an English reading comprehension passage when He Lai tapped on her desk and handed her a pen. Lin Jiang, used to this by now, unscrewed the pen and pulled out a small slip of paper hidden inside.
The note asked: *Do you think Jiang Weifeng will end up liking Cheng Yuanchuan?*
Lin Jiang waited until the end of the period to write back: *I don't know.*
It was a question Wang Jiaqian had also asked her.
It happened on a Sunday afternoon when Wang Jiaqian had invited her out to pick a birthday gift for Gu Xiang. The two girls had been wandering the pedestrian street for a while when Wang Jiaqian suddenly asked, "Is there really a girl named Cheng Yuanchuan at your school chasing Jiang Weifeng?"
Lin Jiang was startled. "Even you know about that?"
Wang Jiaqian curled her lip as she looked at the gifts. "Hah, Gu Xiang has mentioned it to me two or three times already. You have no idea how much effort this girl is putting in. She follows him everywhere—pool halls, bars, you name it. She even went out and learned how to skateboard just for him. I heard she even went street-skating with them recently."
"I really admire her guts," Wang Jiaqian added.
Lin Jiang gave a small nod. "She used to be in the broadcasting station with me. We were partners for half a semester."
"Wait, really? That’s a coincidence," Wang Jiaqian said, her eyes widening. "Then... she couldn't be that '38.6℃' girl, could she?"
