Chapter Ten: Autumn Excursion (Part Three)

The tour bus slowly started and drove out of the school campus.

The boy and girl, forced to sit together, needed to chat about something to break the silence between them.

If they were complete strangers, He Tianran wouldn't mind just dozing off right away, but doing so with Cao Aiqing would be somewhat impolite. No matter what, he had to at least go through the motions, right?

"Aiqing, how do you feel you performed on this month's mock exams?" He Tianran casually initiated a conversation.

Cao Aiqing was wearing a pink and white sweater today, paired with slim-fit jeans and white sneakers, looking simple, fresh, and rosy.

"I feel like... I didn't do as well as last month's..." Cao Aiqing evaluated herself, then asked, "What about you, Tianran? You surely won't get a zero this time!"

Speaking of zeros, that was simply because He Tianran had been living in a decadent haze at home last month, directly skipping the entire examination week.

"I should be able to sit a bit closer to you this time, haha."

He Tianran knew the girl studied diligently; she had scored over six hundred and forty points on the last exam, nearly a twenty-point increase compared to when they used to share a desk.

"Don't say that. I have a hunch we'll still end up sitting together." Cao Aiqing encouraged him.

"Relax, aren't we sitting together right now..." He Tianran smiled. Studying hard was a given, but some things were better left to nature. He crossed his arms and sighed, "In the blink of an eye, another month has passed..."

"Yeah, another month..."

Cao Aiqing quietly chimed in. Ever since He Tianran returned to school after the National Day holiday, he seemed like a completely different person, creating a subtle and invisible sense of distance between them as if he were deliberately keeping her at arm's length. This made the usually sensitive girl somewhat troubled.

She had wondered if this situation was caused by the question he had asked her last time.

But thinking like that, wouldn't she be a bit too narcissistic?

Perhaps it was because he had gotten a girlfriend!

Thinking this, Cao Aiqing found it logical, yet the fact that he got a girlfriend on the very first day back at school made her seriously doubt whether the question He Tianran had asked her back then was sincere at all!

"He is so annoying for doing this!" The thought crossed the girl's mind for who knows what time.

For some reason, whenever Cao Aiqing got close to He Tianran, her mind loved to wander. She quickly shook her head to clear away the distracting thoughts, looked at He Tianran, and for a split second, hoped he would say something more.

Unfortunately, the boy did not notice her gaze. He wore his earphones, scrolling through his music library on his phone, seemingly planning to fall asleep once he found a suitable track.

Again, like this!

This month, every time He Tianran saw her, it was just a few brief pleasantries. Even when they ran into each other in class or on the path, any initiative she took to greet him never exceeded ten sentences.

So what if you have a girlfriend!

I didn't provoke you!

Hmph!

Cao Aiqing grew more irritated the more she thought about it. The person was right in front of her, yet she pulled out her phone—

Crybaby: `..(｡•ˇ‸ˇ•｡)…`

He Tianran looked at the emoticon message popping up on his phone and froze.

He glanced sideways at Cao Aiqing; Cao Aiqing was looking sideways at the scenery outside the window.

He found that sometimes Cao Aiqing was even more childish than Jiang Xixi. At the very least, the latter would certainly never resort to sending messages while sitting right next to each other.

Troublemaker: "Do you want to listen to music together?"

Crybaby: "No!"

Troublemaker: "Then I'm going to sleep. Wake me up when we arrive."

After reading the message, Cao Aiqing turned her head and, sure enough, saw that He Tianran had truly closed his eyes, intending to sleep.

She leaned back against her seat. The glass of the car window reflected a young girl's face. She didn't blame He Tianran for his perfunctory attitude; if she had a boyfriend, she would also hope he kept his distance from other girls—perhaps she would even be stricter about it...

Judging others by oneself; this logic was actually quite easy to understand.

Yet she just felt that... her heart felt rather uncomfortable.

A young girl's thoughts were sometimes beyond her own comprehension.

...

...

When He Tianran woke up again, the bus was already close to its destination. The boy felt a heavy weight on his shoulder. He looked sideways and saw that Cao Aiqing had unexpectedly fallen asleep leaning against his shoulder!

The girl's long eyelashes trembled slightly, and a cascade of dark hair fell over He Tianran's arm, making it feel as though the two of them were intertwined.

Her sleeping face was serene and innocent, and there was even a trace of drool on her cherry-red lips. This didn't make He Tianran feel repulsed; instead, it brought a certain phrase to mind: "tasting the fragrance."

"She likes sweets, does her mouth taste sweet too?"

He Tianran was startled by this fleeting thought and quickly steadied his fluttering mind.

Yet once such a thought arose, how could it be reined in?

He could only let his imagination run wild, and naturally, he recalled the kiss with Wen Liang that night.

Remembering the joy and shyness of that night, as well as the pain and sorrow after parting, all of He Tianran's inappropriate fantasies faded away like the receding tide.

"I can no longer have other thoughts about Aiqing. She and I can only be friends..."

He Tianran gave his own thigh a hard pinch. Right at that moment, the bus had reached the stop, and the deceleration and braking made the students sway slightly, prompting signs of waking from Cao Aiqing.

The boy made a split decision: he threw his head back, closed his eyes tightly, and feigned sleep.

"We've arrived at Quanling Mountain, students, time to get off!"

The driver parked the bus and shouted loudly.

He Tianran felt the weight on his shoulder suddenly lighten, which was presumably Cao Aiqing's reaction upon waking up and realizing she had been leaning on him.

And indeed, Cao Aiqing now had disheveled hair, a flushed face, and eyes filled with a mixture of daze and panic.

She hurriedly untied the hair tie from her wrist, first tidying her hair into a ponytail, and then stared at the "deeply sleeping" He Tianran for a few seconds before finally recovering from her embarrassment.

"Classmate He, we've, we've arrived."

Not daring to speak too loudly, Cao Aiqing tentatively called out twice.

He Tianran didn't dare wake up too quickly for fear of giving himself away, planning to wait until she called him a few more times.

To his surprise, after waiting a moment longer, the sounds of people passing by echoed in his ears one after another, but he simply couldn't hear Cao Aiqing calling him again.

What's going on?

Could it be that she left first?

That shouldn't be; he was sitting on the aisle side, and there was no way she could have gotten out without him knowing.

He Tianran decided to wait a little longer, but this wait brought bad news, for he heard the teasing voices of a few punks from further ahead—

"Campus Belle Cao, trust us, this guy is just pretending to sleep! All of us saw him looking at you with that lovestruck expression the entire way here, and he even took pictures of you! He turned into a stiff corpse acting all righteous the second he saw you waking up. You can't wake someone who's pretending to sleep, hahaha..."

"..."

Damn you guys! What do you mean looking at her the entire way? What pictures?

Hearing their scheme exposed, He Tianran simply opened his eyes, only to see the backs of those few scoundrels walking off the bus.

To his side, Cao Aiqing was glaring at him with a flushed face.

He Tianran scratched his head and stammered:

"I-I wasn't... I was just afraid you'd feel awkward..."

Looking on the verge of tears, Cao Aiqing extended a fair, tender palm and said weakly:

"Th-The photos... phone... hand it over..."