Chapter 57: The Troubles of Youth

  School is over, but the rain is still falling. I went back to my dormitory at night and packed up some things. Today is Friday, so I'm preparing to go home. The dormitory building has already quieted down, with most people having braved the rain to leave.

  Walking out of the dormitory building with an umbrella on a rainy night, Jialuo went to his maternal grandparents' home today, so I'm going back home alone. In this kind of weather, it's probably not easy to take public transportation or taxis, let me think about it again.

  "Luoxingye", a boy saw her and ran over from downstairs in the corridor without an umbrella.

  "Li Wei, you're looking for me? Why didn't you even bring an umbrella?" Seeing that it was a classmate from the same school, and one of the two who had fought in the afternoon, he moved the umbrella over, "If there's something to discuss, let's go talk about it under the corridor."

  The boy was clearly taken aback, and Xīn Yè thought he might have blushed, but his face was so covered in colorful marks that it was hard to tell. Every time Xīn Yè looked at him, she couldn't help but want to laugh - this school doctor was really something else! She suspected that the mischievous student had deliberately gotten into a fight and was now being teased by the doctor. Originally, his face was just bruised and swollen, and some medicinal wine would have been enough, but the doctor had used red medicine, purple medicine, and even stuck on two band-aids - now his whole face was best described as "a riot of color".

  Li Wei looked at the starry night and held back his laughter, touching his face, feeling embarrassed himself. "I said it was unnecessary, but the school doctor insisted on wiping it for me. He even wanted to bandage Liu Hai's forehead, as if Liu Hai had a head wound instead of just a nosebleed."

  When he said that, Xing Ye couldn't hold back anymore and burst out laughing. Li Wei looked even more embarrassed and hastily said: "Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh at you guys. Did you guys offend the school doctor or something? Otherwise, why would he take revenge on you like this?"

  Couldn't help but laugh again after finishing speaking.

  Li Wei thought to himself that he might have been pranked by the school doctor, as every classmate who saw them since they returned from the infirmary burst out laughing, even the teacher who wanted to criticize them couldn't help but laugh out loud, and just because of this, they didn't say much to each other, Liu Hai just let him hand in a self-reflection essay and considered it over.

  He came to the corridor under the starry night, put away his umbrella and asked Li Wei, "What's up? Are you looking for me?"

  Li Wei looked at Xing Ye's calm and smiling face, but suddenly found that he couldn't say all the words he had thought of saying.

  The starry night didn't rush him, it just quietly watched over him.

  "Do you know why Liu Hai and I fought?" Li Wei finally spoke up.

  "I didn't expect him to bring up such a question, so I had no choice but to tell the truth: 'I don't know, aren't you all always good friends who get along well?'"

  Li Wei fell silent for a moment, as if he had made a major decision. "We are good friends," he said, "but today we fought just because of one sentence. I jokingly said, 'What's so great about Luo Xingye? Is she ordinary too?' and Liu Hai punched me, his good brother."

  It suddenly dawned on me that I was also involved in this matter.

  Li Wei looked at Xing Ye with wide eyes, stunned, and couldn't help but feel a sourness in his heart. He asked softly, "Do you understand what I mean?"

  The stars twinkled in the night sky, and he nodded his head, but just as he finished nodding, he felt it wasn't right and shook his head again.

  "What it means is that he has a crush on you." Li Wei said, but instead of feeling relieved, he started to worry about Xing Ye's response.

  "Mm-hmm" Starry Night nodded repeatedly.

  Li Wei looked at Xing Ye and just nodded before falling silent. He asked again, "You understand, why don't you have any reaction?"

  Xīng Yè had already calmed down from his initial shock and asked calmly: "What reaction do you think I should have?"

  Caught off guard by the sudden question, Li Wei was at a loss for words. Yeah, how do you expect him to answer? Fine, willing to socialize with Liu Hai or not, go tell the teacher, Li Wei suddenly regretted his rashness.

  "Was it Liu Hai who brought you here?" Xing Ye asked.

  Li Wei shook his head.

  "Did he tell you himself that he likes me?" Xing Ye asked again.

  Li Wei thought for a moment and then shook his head again.

  "Is it that you've noticed your friend has a secret crush on someone and took the initiative to ask them out for him?" Xing Ye concluded.

  Li Wei opened his mouth, wanting to speak but didn't say anything, and finally just nodded.

  "Li Wei, why don't you go back? I understand your intentions for your friend's sake, and I won't mention this incident today. However, as a friend, what you did today was quite rash," Xing Ye said, taking on the role of a wise older sister. "Emotional matters are complicated, and you didn't even fully understand your friend's feelings before taking action. Maybe your friend doesn't appreciate your efforts and will think you're meddling. Besides, we're all students, and we need to prioritize what's most important right now. As an outsider, you should be advising him more, helping him develop a correct understanding, shouldn't you?"

  Seeing Li Wei off under the starry sky, he reopened his umbrella and walked into the rain.

  The troubles of youth, I didn't catch up with it in my previous life, and this life probably doesn't have that mood either.

  Just as he was feeling despondent under the starry night sky, a figure quickly slipped under his umbrella without him noticing.

  After lifting his head to see clearly who it was in the starry night, his first reaction was to lift his leg and kick. The person who came was that strange boy from last night.

  "Hey, don't move!" The boy seemed to have been prepared and quickly jumped away, standing in the rain and shouting "I really came looking for you, can you not overreact?"

  Looking around in the starry night, it seemed that he didn't need to be afraid of him since they were in his own school, so he asked: "Who are you? What do you want from me?"

  That person looked at Xing Ye and asked, with a slight smile, then ran to the umbrella of Xing Ye "Hey, don't move your hand, I just want to borrow your umbrella for a while."

  She leaned her umbrella towards him and exposed half of her body outside the umbrella, actually wanting to keep some distance from him.

  That person pushed the umbrella back again, "Don't guard against me like that? I saw you and that boy fighting over an umbrella just now, wasn't it very natural?"

  "Starry night furrowed his brow, 'How long have you been watching from beside? Who are you, after all?'"

  That person didn't answer her question, and instead said on his own, "Was he rejected by you after confessing to you? The way he walked away with that lost look, it's as if the words 'I've been dumped' were written all over his face."

  He saw him at night and didn't say anything serious, turned around and left.

  "Hey, don't be angry," the man caught up and ducked under the umbrella, seeing Xing Ye's unpleasant expression. "I'm really angry, just kidding with you, actually I was far away and didn't hear anything earlier."

  Staring at him coldly, she stopped in her tracks. This guy had given her the impression of being a cool and taciturn dude at the small restaurant last night, how did he become so poor today? Was it a split personality?

  "Alright, I'll tell you, my name is Lin Yan." The man said.

  "Lin Yan? Never heard of him." Xing Ye said frankly.

  "But I've heard of you, you're good at playing chess and cooking, right?" the man said.

  "Where did you hear that?" Xing Ye asked in surprise.

  "Can we find somewhere else to talk? I'm really uncomfortable like this."

  Lin Yan was more than half a head taller than Xing Ye, standing under Xing Ye's umbrella, he could only slightly tilt his head, otherwise his head would hit the umbrella.

  Xīng yè bǎ sǎn dì gěi tā, shì yì tā ná zhe sǎn, liǎng rén yī qǐ wǎng xiào wài zǒu qù.

  Translation:

  The starry night handed the umbrella to him, indicating that he should take it and walk together with her outside the school.