Lemon Soda Candy - 91

Friday nights at the arcade were always bustling.

In front of the basketball shooting game, Chen Luobai grabbed basketballs one by one and tossed them into the hoop.

The boy was dressed entirely in black, his profile lines sharp, his nose bridge high and straight, making him exceptionally handsome. His throwing movements were fast and accurate, and before long, he had attracted a crowd of onlookers.

Both men and women.

One guy in a blue T-shirt, seeing him hit every shot, couldn't help but ask curiously, "Hey, man, you're so accurate. Any tips?"

Chen Luobai continued throwing balls without pause, not even sparing him a glance.

It was Zhu Ran, seeing the blue T-shirt guy looking awkward, who stepped in. "He's in a bad mood lately, not really talking to anyone. It's not personal."

The blue T-shirt guy took a closer look at Chen Luobai and noticed his jaw was clenched tight, his lips pressed into a thin line. He ventured a guess, "Bad breakup?"

Zhu Ran thought about it. "Something like that."

The blue T-shirt guy studied Chen Luobai for a few more moments and, for some reason, actually chuckled. "If even a guy who looks like that can get dumped, then I guess I shouldn't feel too bad about my goddess breaking up with me."

Zhu Ran: "…"

Ever consider you got dumped by your goddess because of your big mouth?

Zhu Ran didn't engage with him further either. He turned and reached out to stop the young master beside him. "Alright, that's enough. Do you still want your hand? I asked you out to have fun, not to watch you punish yourself."

After leaving the arcade, Zhu Ran and Chen Luobai went to a nearby late-night eatery.

Knowing this young master disliked noisy environments while eating, and especially since his mood had been at rock bottom lately, Zhu Ran asked the server for a private room even though it was just the two of them.

While waiting for the food, Zhu Ran opened a can of Coke and handed it to him. "Auntie Fang didn't stop you. You decided not to transfer schools because you were afraid of affecting her. So why are you walking around with a face like the world has wronged you?"

Chen Luobai hooked a finger through the pull-tab of the can but didn't respond.

Zhu Ran spoke again. "There's something I've wanted to ask you for a long time, but I wasn't sure if I should."

Chen Luobai didn't even lift his eyelids. "If you shouldn't ask, then don't."

"No, I'll burst if I don't ask." Zhu Ran kicked his stool lightly. "Are you really sure you like Zhou Anran, and it's not just because of that day…"

Zhu Ran was afraid mentioning the specific reason for Zhou Anran's transfer would upset him further, so he was vague. "...you know, and you feel moved and guilty because of it?"

Chen Luobai finally looked up at him. "What about before that?"

Zhu Ran was stunned. "What before that?"

Chen Luobai didn't deny feeling moved and guilty toward her, but—

"From middle school until now, have you ever seen me proactively start a conversation with any other girl, or proactively buy any other girl a drink?"

Before the feelings of being moved and guilty, he had already been drawn to her.

Or perhaps it was because he was drawn to her without realizing it that the incident with Zong Kai slipping the love letter into her book happened in the first place.

"And if it weren't for her, I probably wouldn't have admitted to writing the letter that day."

Even now, Chen Luobai wasn't entirely sure what he was thinking that day. It seemed he just didn't want to see her being questioned like that, didn't want to see her cry. He wasn't sure if that counted as "confusion arising from concern."

But what he was sure of was that if it had been any other girl in that situation, he would have handled it more rationally.

He would have stepped in to help her out, but he wouldn't have, almost unconsciously, said something as ambiguous as "The love letter was from me to her." Just like how, apart from her, he had never proactively bought a drink for any other girl alone.

Then the subsequent events would never have happened.

Old Zhao's sudden appearance was unexpected for all of them.

Chen Luobai fiddled with the Coke pull-tab, his mind suddenly conjuring the image of the girl's trembling eyelashes that day in the small supermarket when he handed her the drink. Back then, he had just thought she was timid.

His fingers tightened around the Coke can for a second. He looked up at Zhu Ran. "What did you feel the first time you saw my sister?"

Zhu Ran didn't know why he was shifting the topic to Yu Bingqin, but the answer to that question didn't even require careful recollection. The feeling of seeing Yu Bingqin for the first time was still deeply etched in his memory. "Really cool. Wanted to get to know her, wanted to understand her, felt drawn to her without even thinking about it."

Chen Luobai: "And what if, not long after, you suddenly found out she had liked you for a long time, had secretly done many things for you, even protected you without regard for herself?"

Zhu Ran imagined it and couldn't help but mutter, "...Damn."

He'd probably be trapped for life.

"Understand the difference now?" Chen Luobai asked him.

Zhu Ran nodded. "Understood."

The same action, performed by an ordinary person versus someone you're already attracted to, has a completely different effect.

Moreover, Zhou Anran was the opposite of Yu Bingqin; she was the kind of girl who seemed gentle and in need of protection. Being shielded by such a girl, the shock and emotional impact from that contrast would only be greater.

Zhu Ran had it figured out, but it only made his head hurt more. He wasn't good at comforting people either, so he ended up saying rather woodenly, "Well, what's done is done, and it can't be changed. You didn't want to affect her, and you've already arranged for someone to look after her. Now just focus on studying hard from afar like she is. After all, her grades are pretty good too, and I hear she's been improving. Maybe she'll even get into the same university as you."

After speaking, Zhu Ran carefully observed the person beside him. Seeing his expression finally no longer as dark and cold as before, he relaxed slightly.

"Wanna play ball with Ruirui and the others tomorrow?"

Chen Luobai pulled the tab off completely. "You guys play. I'm going to Wucheng to see her."

"Huh?" Zhu Ran was stunned again. "There's no school tomorrow. Where are you going to see her? On a day off, she might not even leave the house."

Chen Luobai: "I'll just try my luck."

Chen Luobai's luck was good the next day.

It was mid-October. Wucheng, like Nancheng, was still unbearably hot.

Chen Luobai arrived outside Zhou Anran's residential compound before 8 a.m. Soon after, he saw the girl emerge from inside the complex. She was wearing a little pinafore dress and seemed to have gotten even thinner, her face smaller than his palm. The little rabbit charm he had given her dangled from her backpack, swaying with her steps.

As she was exiting the main gate, an elderly woman happened to be pulling a small cart inside.

Chen Luobai saw her not rush to close the gate but instead pull the iron door wide open. When the old woman entered, she helped steady the cart.

The old woman seemed to thank her as she entered. Zhou Anran gave her a sweet smile before closing the iron gate.

Chen Luobai waited until she had walked a good distance ahead before pressing down his black baseball cap and following at a leisurely pace.

The subway in Wucheng was still under construction.

If Zhou Anran went to take the bus, it would be harder for him to continue following her.

Chen Luobai wasn't sure how she would react if she discovered him, but he was very sure he didn't want to make her cry again.

Fortunately, Zhou Anran didn't stop at the bus stop but walked all the way to a nearby shopping mall. Once there, she took the elevator to the fourth floor and entered a bookstore.

The bookstore had a full wall of floor-to-ceiling windows. She chose a seat by the window. Since she sat down, Chen Luobai didn't go in. Instead, he found a discreet spot leaning against a wall across from the bookstore.

The girl took off her backpack, pulled out some books and placed them on the table, then took a hair tie and put her hair up.

No. 2 High School didn't allow girls to have long hair. Wucheng No. 1 High had no such rule, but she hadn't been there long, so her hair hadn't had time to grow long. Tied up, it was just a small tuft at the back. When she lowered her head, one strand disobediently fell loose.

Zhou Anran tied it up again, then lowered her head to read seriously.

Chen Luobai stood across the way and watched her.

Within half an hour, he saw two of her friends enter the bookstore one after another and sit down beside her. One of them was the girl named Cen Yu, whom Yu Bingqin had found to look after her.

But it seemed she got along quite well with this Cen Yu. The moment Cen Yu arrived, she clingily hugged Zhou Anran's arm, chatted and laughed with her for a while before both lowered their heads to continue reading.

Chen Luobai remembered the day she transferred schools; her good friends at No. 2 High had been more and more upset.

It seemed people around her all liked her immensely.

Perhaps because her hair was genuinely short, during that half-hour, Chen Luobai saw that little strand of hair fall loose three times. She didn't seem irritated by it; each time, she slowly tucked the hair back, her eyes never leaving the book.

But when the strand fell for the fourth time, for some reason, she suddenly looked over in his direction.

Chen Luobai quickly took a step back.

A few seconds later, he realized she wasn't looking at him.

Zhou Anran was looking at a little girl, about five or six years old, near the escalator.

The little girl was half-crouching in front of the escalator, her short arm reaching between the moving steps. Zhou Anran, seeing this from the bookstore, probably thought it was unsafe, came out, pulled the little girl back, and spoke to her. Her expression was still incredibly well-behaved, but with an added touch of gentleness.

The little girl had probably dropped something between the escalator steps and pointed. Zhou Anran then half-crouched, picked up the item, and handed it back to the little girl.

Perhaps noticing the child was playing alone in the mall, she likely asked where her parents were. The little girl pointed to a woman in a store uniform standing at the entrance of the stationery shop next to the bookstore.

Seeming reassured, Zhou Anran didn't say more, ruffled the little girl's head, and returned to the bookstore.

Chen Luobai's gaze followed her back into the bookstore. He saw her sit down and lower her head to read with serious concentration again.

He stared at her for a while, watching that strand of hair fall loose once more.

Chen Luobai pressed down his baseball cap, turned, and went into the accessory shop next door to pick out a few small hair clips.

Coming out of the accessory shop, he returned to his previous spot. Just then, a toy ball rolled to a stop at his feet.

Chen Luobai bent down to pick it up and saw the little girl from near the escalator hopping over to him, hand outstretched.

"Big brother, my ball."

"Little one." Chen Luobai looked down at her. "Can you help me with something?"

The little girl tilted her head up. "With what?"

Chen Luobai held the toy ball in one hand and pointed toward the bookstore across the way with the other. "That big sister helped you pick up your thing earlier, right? Can you help me give her a gift? Just say it's from you."

The little girl looked back in the direction he pointed, then turned back. "Big brother, why are you giving the sister a gift? Is she your girlfriend?"

The corner of Chen Luobai's mouth lifted. "You know what a girlfriend is?"

The little girl's eyes darted around, a mischievous, knowing look on her face. "Of course I do! It's someone you live with, give gifts to each other, like my mom and dad."

Chen Luobai smiled, but for some reason, the smile faded from his lips. "The sister isn't my girlfriend."

The little girl looked confused. "Then why are you giving her a gift?"

"Never mind." Chen Luobai glanced down at the hair clips in the bag, then handed the toy ball back to her. "You're still too little. Even if you gave it to her, she wouldn't accept it."

In the end, Chen Luobai mailed those hair clips to Cen Yu, who gave them to Zhou Anran in her own name.

After that, every so often, Chen Luobai would make a trip to Wucheng. His studies were demanding, and with both schools' schedules overlapping, he didn't actually have many opportunities to see her.

But her personality was so soft, Chen Luobai always worried Cen Yu might miss something. Fortunately, each time he went, aside from feeling she had gotten thinner, there didn't seem to be anything else unusual.

At school, he occasionally heard people mention her.

He heard she became friends with Zhang Shuxian because one day, after Zhang Shuxian had an argument with someone and skipped lunch, Zhou Anran, who was still just an ordinary classmate at the time, brought back a cake for her.

He heard from a male classmate that she had lent him a pen during an exam.

He heard from a female classmate that during last year's sports meet, when she got a scrape, Zhou Anran had given her iodine swabs and band-aids.

……

Chen Luobai only found out later that she had always remembered those few times he had helped her.

But his help was something Fang Jin had required of him since childhood, a habit formed over time. Her gentleness and attentiveness seemed more like an innate part of her character.

Because of her introverted and quiet nature, compared to more outgoing and lively girls, she might not attract attention at first.

But once you noticed her, you would discover she had a warm, gentle light about her that made it hard to look away.

Being liked by her, discovering she liked him before it was too late—that was actually his good fortune.

He realized he had fallen completely, utterly hard during the second semester of their final year of high school.

It was early March. Because the holiday schedules of the two schools differed, No. 1 High had make-up classes that Saturday. Chen Luobai went early to the area outside her school and, around the usual time, saw her walking slowly toward him, backpack on, sporting an exceptionally silly new hairstyle.

She was probably very sensitive to the cold. In winter, she would let her hair grow long, then cut it short again when the weather warmed up.

She had cut it short once during the second semester of their second year. That haircut hadn't been great either, but not like this time, this was bad enough to affect her looks.

The question, "What kind of girl do you like?" was one Chen Luobai had been asked countless times by countless people.

Back then, out of boredom, he had casually thought about it. But not seriously, so he never came to any conclusion.

But at that moment, he realized liking someone had no standards at all.

It was being unconsciously drawn to her.

It was thinking she was utterly adorable even when she had a ridiculously silly haircut.

Or rather, Zhou Anran was his standard.

Time was tight during their final year, but Chen Luobai still tried to squeeze in visits to see her. He watched her hair grow long again, no longer looking so silly. He watched her seem to get thinner again. He watched her, while queuing for bubble tea with friends, lower her head to memorize vocabulary from a small book.

In late May, just before the college entrance exams, he carved out time for another trip to Wucheng, wanting to see her once more before the exams, to see how she was holding up.

But his luck seemed poor that day.

Chen Luobai arrived at Wucheng No. 1 High School in the afternoon, just before their classes ended. Soon after, he saw her friends from here come out arm in arm, but she wasn't among them.

His heart tightened slightly, afraid something unexpected might have happened to her.

Fortunately, just then, another girl called out loudly, "Why just you guys? Where's Zhou Anran?"

Chen Luobai took a few steps forward and heard Cen Yu reply, "She's gone crazy with studying. Got stuck on a problem and refused to come down to eat. Asked us to bring her a sandwich later."

Chen Luobai's heart relaxed.

He couldn't help but think, Which problem is she stuck on? I wonder if I'd know how to solve it.

Chen Luobai looked at the bustling entrance of No. 1 High, hesitating whether he should find a way inside.

But his luck was bad today. He was afraid it might be worse if he ran into her directly.

The exams were imminent. He didn't want her emotions affected.

Although he didn't know if he could still affect her emotions anymore.

The sunset over Wucheng was beautiful that day. Chen Luobai guessed she would like it if she came out and saw it. Before leaving, he took a few photos.

The following days passed smoothly, the college entrance exams passed smoothly, and he smoothly achieved the top science score in the Southern Province. Yet, his heart remained unsettled.

Over these two years, he had half-witnessed how hard she worked.

He didn't want her efforts to be let down in the slightest.

Fortunately, the news from Yu Bingqin was good: Zhou Anran scored 695.

Chen Luobai had long decided to apply for the law school at University A. Knowing she had a high score, he didn't try to steer her toward University A either. She had worked so hard these two years; she should have her own goals to strive for. He hoped she could shine on the path she chose for herself.

And since University A's law program was currently ranked first domestically, he shouldn't lower his standards and choose another school for her either. Given her personality of always considering others, if he really did that, it would probably bring her pressure, instead of being moved.

Anyway, the school wouldn't be an obstacle. Wherever she went, he could go see her anytime.

Perhaps there was still unfinished fate between them.

Zhou Anran ended up applying to University A, just like him.

After everything was settled, Chen Luobai unexpectedly learned that she was treating Zhang Shuxian and the others to a meal at that recently famous restaurant in Wucheng.

The day he went to Wucheng to find her, Zhu Ran pestered him into coming along.

Zhu Ran thought he was going to confess to Zhou Anran, but that wasn't it.

Back then, she hadn't even dared to talk to him. A rash confession might scare her, Chen Luobai feared. He planned to first re-enter her life as a classmate or friend, then take it slow from there.

But he didn't expect to overhear that sentence.

The sentence where she told her friend she didn't like him anymore.

The plan for an "accidental meeting" fell through.

Chen Luobai wasn't sure if appearing before her, knowing full well she didn't like him anymore, would count as a disturbance.

After returning to Nancheng, he was down for a while.

He canceled all travel plans. Apart from going out to get his driver's license, he spent the rest of the time holed up at home reading.

But he thought of her while learning to drive.

He thought of her while reading.

He thought of her even when doing nothing.

And she was in his dreams when he slept.

In mid-August, Chen Luobai went to Wucheng again.

He stayed at his uncle's house for a few days, never quite deciding whether he should go see her or not.

Knowing she didn't like him anymore, continuing to secretly watch her like before really didn't seem appropriate.

On the fifth day in Wucheng, his aunt asked him to accompany her shopping. Chen Luobai knew she was worried he was bored staying home. Not wanting to refuse the elder's kindness, he went along, albeit without much enthusiasm.

The weather was still unbearably hot. His luck seemed to have turned good again.

He arrived on the first floor of the mall at 6:40 p.m.

At 6:42 p.m., Zhou Anran also appeared on the first floor of the mall.

The girl was wearing a little black skirt, similar to what she wore the day she brought him medicine in their second year. Perhaps because the exams were over, she hadn't cut her hair short again, instead wearing it in a high bun.

Maybe she was meeting friends. As she entered, she looked around. Just then, a little boy, about three or four years old, came toddling toward her, and she steadied him.

Somehow, the two of them, one big, one small, ended up chatting right there at the entrance.

The girl bent down slightly, her eyes curved in a smile.

Chen Luobai felt he was somewhat sick.

Because seeing her smile so sweetly at a little boy of three or four made him intensely jealous.

It seemed he still couldn't accept her eyes no longer holding him, couldn't accept only being a stranger to her in the future, couldn't accept that she might one day smile that sweetly, that adorably, at some other guy.

Even more, he couldn't accept that in the future, she might blush and feel shy in front of another guy, just like she had with him that year in the school supermarket.

Since she had liked him once.

Maybe she could like him a second time.

If he didn't at least try, he truly wouldn't be able to accept it.

His aunt had already entered a shop with great enthusiasm to browse. Chen Luobai turned to Yu Bingqin, who also seemed unenthusiastic. "Sis, help me out again."

Yu Bingqin succinctly tossed out one word. "Speak."

Chen Luobai: "When University A's freshmen start, can you go pick her up for me? Later, during the club recruitment, if she's willing, recruit her into your club."

Yu Bingqin followed his gaze and immediately saw the slender, pretty girl standing near the entrance. She didn't need to ask to guess who it was. Her tone was flat as she retorted, "And recruit you along with her, right?"

At the mall entrance, the girl, having heard something the little boy said, laughed sweetly again.

The corner of Chen Luobai's mouth unconsciously lifted. "Mhm.”

---

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