Looking back, Gu Ci was certain he had liked Chen Jinyao. As for why he liked her, so much time had passed that he probably couldn’t remember the details now. Broadly speaking, it was during his youth when their eyes met, and his heart skipped a beat.
But at that time, with his mild temperament, he hadn’t turned this attraction into action. He vaguely knew she had someone she liked, so he chose to remain silent, yet still naturally stayed by her side as her senior class assistant. However, the longer they knew each other, the more Gu Ci came to admire her.
Everything seemed to develop in an off-track direction, or perhaps it had been heading this way from the start. Undeniably, interacting as friends was the safest approach. Without any major incidents or conflicts, given enough time, they might have even become like siblings. But these were just speculations.
Later, Gu Ci planned to confess at his graduation. However, life is unpredictable. Before graduation, he received an opportunity to study abroad – the only such opportunity in the entire college went to him. It was a rare chance, like getting directly admitted to a master’s or doctoral program. If he took it, at least the first half of “future prospects” would be secured.
Then, some things happened quite coincidentally. Someone noticed his feelings and asked Chen Jinyao if they were together. After receiving a negative answer, they pressed on, saying what he wanted to say: “I think the class assistant likes you.”
After others broke the ice, Chen Jinyao began keeping her distance from him. Without any words needed, her attitude was crystal clear.
So after much consideration, Gu Ci chose the career opportunity others coveted. He struggled with this decision, even continuing to hesitate afterward. His roommate, unable to watch anymore, told him: “When you have something certain and something uncertain in front of you, you should choose the certain thing. Don’t call me selfish, but people should think more about themselves.”
His roommate used the most cliché ‘there are plenty of fish in the sea’ theory: “Besides, you’ll meet more people in the future.”
Inexplicably, he agreed with his roommate’s words. But his roommate had one more suggestion: “Why not confess before you leave? There might be a chance!”
Gu Ci thought about it but shook his head, “No, once I leave, I don’t know when I’ll be back.”
As the saying goes, you can’t have both fish and bear’s paw – something must be given up. If not attributing it to personality, the specific factor might have been his lack of confidence in himself, or perhaps he didn’t like Chen Jinyao enough.
Following his roommate’s words, Gu Ci gained a new perspective. Not only did he avoid getting stuck, but he ventured into another unknown territory, one that functioned like a black hole. He created an inequality: attraction doesn’t equal love. Holding onto this inequality, he embarked on his journey to America.
Who knows how many people humans, being emotional creatures, might be attracted to in their lifetime?
But in reality, it was indeed hard to meet another one. Until now, when Chen Jinyao carelessly said something that seemed unimportant, Gu Ci was stunned for several seconds before suddenly understanding.
As for what great truth he realized, probably only he knew. He glanced sideways at Chen Jinyao, seeing her chattering with the man beside her about what to eat, while also introducing Shanghai’s delicacies. The man beside her had dropped his defenses, leaning forward with raised eyebrows to listen, his face showing no trace of hostility or harshness.
Gu Ci slowly withdrew his gaze, his eyes narrowing.
Actually, attraction is the beginning of love. If you grab hold of it, there might be a future, but if you don’t, you can only let it slip away. People always say there are many unseen landscapes ahead, but you might not necessarily encounter someone who makes your heart flutter again.
Fortunately, so much time had passed, and time was like medicine for wounds. No matter how deep the previous attraction was, meeting again now seemed to bring no extra feelings. But Gu Ci had to admit, agreeing to attend their class reunion initially did include thoughts of reconfirming this attraction and some hopeful thinking. Honestly, this was understandable…
Gu Ci looked at them again, composed himself, thought for a few seconds, then rather abruptly asked, “By the way, how did you two get together?”
“Ah? Us…” Chen Jinyao shifted her attention to Gu Ci, blinking, unconsciously starting to answer: “We were arranged…”
Before she could finish, Yan Cheng patted her shoulder twice, interrupting her. She choked, turned to glare at him, then turned back, pressed her lips together to reorganize her words. Just as she was about to continue, she heard Yan Cheng’s voice by her ear. He took her hand, caressing her fingertips, and answered the question with an oddly lovesick young man’s tone: “We just fell in love normally through dating. I pursued her.”
Chen Jinyao was flustered by his righteous lie: “…”
A moment of silence fell, and she could only cover for her husband. After avoiding eye contact for a while, she simply lowered her lashes and nodded along, “Mm.”
Yan Cheng glanced at Chen Jinyao with a smug “well-taught” expression, only showing restraint after Chen Jinyao kicked him in frustration. But his restraint was limited to his expression, “Ah, it took quite a while to win her over.”
He sighed, though who knew what he was really showing off about.
“…” Chen Jinyao had to maintain a blank expression, silently sighing inside. She felt Yan Cheng was overdoing his act.
She elbowed his waist, signaling him to stop while he was ahead. Yan Cheng pursed his lips, lazily clicked his tongue. Finally, he made no more exaggerated additions.
The sunlight outside was blindingly bright.
Actually, some things can be seen from body language and the atmosphere of interaction.
Gu Ci turned his face away to look elsewhere, finally smiling in acceptance, “That’s nice.”
Yan Cheng: “…”
Chen Jinyao: “…”
Back at the hotel, after meeting and greeting the class monitor and others, Chen Jinyao pulled Yan Cheng back to their room. They had booked the room themselves, with Yan Cheng specifically choosing a suite on the top floor. While the hotel couldn’t overlook all of Shanghai, it offered a view of the city’s landmarks across the winding Huangpu River.
After watching them enter the elevator, some of the dozen or so people gathered started discussing: “Feels like the class rep has changed a lot.”
Someone agreed: “After so many years, of course there would be changes.”
“True, but her husband is quite handsome.” As soon as these words were spoken, they realized the inappropriateness and glanced secretly at Gu Ci, but saw his expression remained normal, showing no discomfort.
They immediately let out a breath, relaxing their tension, thinking: Although back then everyone knew about it except Chen Jinyao who played dumb, now it seems time has indeed passed.
“Not just handsome, he also has an air of nobility about him.”
Hearing this, another person was confused: “How can you tell???”
“Sister’s been around long enough not to have this bit of insight?”
Everyone paused, then burst into laughter together.
“Chen Jinyao’s family is wealthy, of course she’d marry a rich man.” This comment carried a sour tone, causing the laughter to stop abruptly, leading to awkward glances, with no one picking up the conversation.
Gu Ci looked at Xu Ting who said this, slightly frowning.
Only when someone brought up another topic did the atmosphere become lively again.
Meanwhile, the subject of their discussion was lying on the tatami by the floor-to-ceiling window, overlooking the scenery. Chen Jinyao squinted at the bright sunlight outside, “It would be better to look at night.”
She paused, then suddenly turned back to look at Yan Cheng, who was organizing their luggage. Her round eyes sparkled with uncontrollable excitement: “Honey, let’s go out in the evening, how about visiting the City God Temple!!!”
Yan Cheng very calmly glanced up at her, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, just stating objectively, “Then what do we do in the afternoon?”
“Sleep.” She blinked, saying it matter-of-factly.
“…” The man’s expression was somewhat speechless, as if saying, are you sure you want to waste this precious time sleeping.
But Chen Jinyao’s eyes were steady and seemed to speak, conveying her inner thoughts without words: when traveling, the first thing to do is to rest and gather energy.
“I slept too late last night, you don’t know how tired I am.” Chen Jinyao said this way, “I’m only talking to you now through sheer willpower.”
Yan Cheng snickered, obviously not believing her, “If you hadn’t exclaimed about the room’s amazing view three minutes ago, I might have believed your nonsense.”
Chen Jinyao: “…”
Yan Cheng: “Alright, I believe your nonsense now.”
“????” This sudden turn was too unexpected, truly catching her off guard.
Yan Cheng gave her a sidelong glance: “After all, you lack exercise too much.”
He had tried to get her to move more, go running and such, but she basically wouldn’t listen. Occasionally when he took a firm stance, she would wear him down. As the saying goes, for every measure there’s a countermeasure, and usually he would compromise.
Like “you can run one less lap,” what use was that kind of compromise!
Bringing up this old topic successfully riled up Chen Jinyao, this exercise-averse person. She puffed her cheeks, not very friendly: “Being tired has no connection with lack of exercise, thank you.”
“There’s a very strong connection.” Yan Cheng lifted his eyelids, implying something.
…
The two happily bantered, in perfect harmony. Both tacitly maintained silence about their awkward morning act of joining hands to fend off a potential rival, which was stupid and foolish.
Various signs also indicated that they might have been overthinking things.
So at times like this, letting bygones be bygones was the best choice. This way, neither he nor she would feel awkward.
“Give me half a day to rest, and I can show you around Shanghai for the next few days,” Chen Jinyao said, then felt she was being too childish. She buried her face in her palms, sighing deeply for quite a while.
One takes on the color of one’s company – it was all Yan Cheng’s fault.
Yan Cheng raised an eyebrow, walked to her side, and placed his warm palm on her head, gently messing up her hair, “Alright.”
Honestly, Yan Cheng truly doted on her.
Chen Jinyao thought she should appropriately show her gratitude at this moment.
However, in the next second, the man’s deep voice sounded by her ear: “If you’re not afraid of not being able to wake up in the evening to go to the City God Temple.”
Chen Jinyao: “……”
“Heh.” He chuckled softly, “Just kidding.”
Then, he yawned himself, “I’m tired too.”
Chen Jinyao’s eye twitched, her face becoming expressionless.
However, the reality was…
She really didn’t wake up before dinner time.
In fact, they even had dinner delivered directly to their room.
The City God Temple visit was postponed to tomorrow, the day after, or any day after that.
Yan Cheng knelt on the bed, confessing: “I know what you want to say.”
Yan Cheng: “Let me say it for you.”
Yan Cheng: “Men are all full of buffs.”
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