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Unrequited love can make your emotions fluctuate wildly.
You can’t sleep, you can’t eat.
You laugh like a lunatic for no reason, and just as easily… you feel like crying.
——From Su Zaizai’s Little Fairy Diary
Zhang Lurang also turned to walk back.
Hearing her question, he raised his brows slightly, puzzled: “Why would I want to add you?”
Su Zaizai didn’t know how to respond at first.
After some thought, she smiled sheepishly: “Because I want you to.”
“…”
Su Zaizai was utterly frustrated: “What are you afraid of?!”
Even adding a WeChat account made him act like he’d rather die than comply.
“Look, so many people want to add me on WeChat, and I refuse them all. Wouldn’t it make you happy, excited, or thrilled to have my WeChat? Don’t you feel honored? Like you’ve hit the jackpot?”
“…”
Seeing his reaction, Su Zaizai decided to take a more forceful approach.
“I’ll give you three seconds. If you don’t reject me now, you’ll have to accept my friend request tonight.”
“Su Zaizai.” His eyes were completely devoid of emotion.
“Three.”
“…”
“Two.”
“…”
“One.”
Her domineering attitude left Zhang Lurang feeling somewhat helpless.
After pondering for a moment, he finally let out a word: “Fine.”
Fireworks exploded in her mind, crackling loudly.
Before Su Zaizai could even cheer, she heard him speak again.
“But only if you pass both physics and chemistry on the mid-term exam.”
In an instant, Su Zaizai felt like she had plummeted from heaven to hell.
“Rang Rang, isn’t that going too far?”
“…”
“Zhang Lurang!”
“Then forget it.”
Su Zaizai immediately chickened out: “That’s not what I meant…”
At her words, Zhang Lurang lowered his head.
A flicker of amusement sparkled in his eyes.
Su Zaizai licked her lips and asked pitifully: “What if the combined score is 100…?”
This time, he was surprisingly easygoing.
Without hesitation, he agreed: “Mm.”
The patrolling teacher walked over from the other side.
Though he had agreed, Su Zaizai didn’t feel particularly happy.
After walking a few steps, she suddenly turned around and said gloomily: “I’m going back.”
With that, she trudged upstairs with a heavy heart.
Zhang Lurang stood there for a while.
It wasn’t until the teacher came over to remind him that he snapped out of his daze.
He walked into the classroom.
Thinking about Su Zaizai’s expression earlier.
He lost himself in thought.
Suddenly, he felt a twinge of regret.
Had he set the bar too high?
Perhaps he had been too harsh.
________________________________________
Although the exams were only two days away, Su Zaizai still decided to put up a last-ditch effort. As a result, she hadn’t sought Zhang Lurang’s attention much this week.
As soon as class ended, she buried herself in her physics or chemistry books.
During class, she listened attentively for the first time ever.
Jiang Jia lay on the desk, watching her solve problems.
A few minutes later.
Looking at her disastrously wrong answers, Jiang Jia couldn’t bear to watch anymore: “Stop writing. Even if you don’t get 100, he’ll definitely still add you on WeChat. Want to bet?”
Su Zaizai stopped writing.
Her eyes remained fixed on the problem, her delicate, curly lashes trembling faintly.
“He won’t,” she murmured softly.
Zhang Lurang knew she wouldn’t be able to achieve that score.
That’s why he had said it.
He had always found her annoying, so he wouldn’t give her more opportunities to bother him.
Su Zaizai understood this clearly.
But even though she might not reach the goal, she still wanted to try her best.
She could only cling to the faint hope that he would keep his promise—it was the only way to get closer to him.
“Jia Jia, why am I so persistent?” Su Zaizai rested her chin on her hand, speaking in a muffled tone. “Even if he adds me, he probably won’t reply to me when I message him.”
It was like being treated as nothing more than a decoration.
But thinking about the tiny chance she had…
It became an irresistible temptation for no apparent reason.
________________________________________
The Saturday after the mid-term exams.
Su Zaizai was sleeping soundly when she was abruptly yanked out of bed by her mother.
She let out a groan, resisting desperately and struggling to bury herself back under the covers.
The room fell silent.
But Su Zaizai could still feel her mother’s presence clearly.
After enduring it for a moment, she pulled the blanket off her face.
Her face full of grievances, she said: “I wake up at six every day at school—can’t you let me sleep in just a little longer?!”
Her mother sat on the edge of the bed, completely unapologetic: “How have I not let you sleep in? It’s only seven.”
Su Zaizai: “….”
“Get up quickly. I want to eat some boat congee from Xu’s today. Go buy it for me.”
Su Zaizai was filled with morning grumpiness but didn’t want to lash out at her mother.
Still half-asleep, her mind was foggy.
After a while, she finally responded in a muffled tone: “Why don’t you go buy it yourself, or ask Dad to get it for you? I’m too lazy to move.”
“Your dad’s too lazy to move, and so am I.”
“…” She also admitted to being too lazy to move…
“Two bowls of boat congee. Hurry back—I have work with your dad at nine.”
…Talk about parents.
But Su Zaizai actually wanted to eat some fresh shrimp rice rolls from Xu’s too.
She hesitated for a bit in bed before finally getting up and obediently heading to wash up.
After changing clothes, she walked out of her room.
Her father was sitting on the living room sofa reading the newspaper.
Su Zaizai walked over, poured some water from the cup on the coffee table, and took a sip.
Then she muttered casually, pretending to be nonchalant: “I don’t know how someone can call themselves a father when they send their precious daughter out to buy breakfast first thing in the morning.”
“…”
“Other people’s precious gems are held in the palm of their hands and spoiled.”
“Our family’s a bit different,” her father replied, turning a page of the newspaper.
“Huh?”
“Our family steps on them with their feet.”
Su Zaizai: “….”
Fuming, she grabbed her bike keys and stormed out the door.
________________________________________
The morning air was especially refreshing.
A humid breeze blew against her face, carrying the scent of grass.
Golden sunlight spilled down, but it wasn’t harsh.
Su Zaizai pushed her bike out of the bike shed.
Pedaling away, she headed toward the entrance of the residential complex.
Perhaps because it wasn’t yet rush hour, there were very few pedestrians along the way.
When she reached a crossroads in the neighborhood,
Su Zaizai suddenly noticed a boy standing on the lawn to one side.
He wore a black T-shirt and dark knee-length jeans.
His black hair was messy and tousled.
In his hand, he held a black rope.
Mesmerized, Su Zaizai stared without noticing a white blur dart past her.
By the time she snapped out of it, a large white dog had already run over.
It nearly crashed into her.
Su Zaizai quickly swerved.
Unable to control her bike properly, it tipped over, and she fell hard onto the ground.
Bam—
A loud thud.
Hearing the commotion, the boy turned to look.
His eyes widened slightly, as if he couldn’t quite believe what had happened.
Quickly, he ran over.
Tears rushed out of Su Zaizai’s eyes like a flood.
Wearing shorts and a short-sleeved shirt in the summer, her exposed skin had been scraped raw against the cement, streaked with blood.
Su Zaizai thought about how she’d only gone out to buy breakfast, wearing flip-flops, and now she deeply regretted it.
Because she saw that the nail on her right big toe had lifted slightly.
Blood slowly seeped out from underneath.
The sight shocked her into uncontrollable wailing.
Though Su Zaizai was afraid of many things, what she feared most was pain.
As Jiang Jia would put it:
“If you pull out one strand of her hair, she’ll cry for an hour.”
Zhang Lurang quickly ran to her side.
Seeing her like this, he felt somewhat at a loss.
He reached out to help her up.
Overwhelmed by the pain, Su Zaizai snapped, choking through her tears: “Don’t touch me! Waaah… If you hate me, fine—but why does your dog hate me too? It tried to attack me the first time we met!”
The Samoyed wagged its tail beside them, tilting its head and sticking out its tongue.
Zhang Lurang crouched down, his expression grim: “Let’s go to the hospital.”
Su Zaizai suddenly remembered what Jiang Jia had said.
That girl cried in the classroom all afternoon, and Zhang Lurang hadn’t reacted at all.
Su Zaizai could almost picture the next scene:
Zhang Lurang throwing a wad of cash at her and telling her to hobble away.
The pain coursing through her body robbed her of rational thought.
Like a clingy child,
She grabbed the hem of Zhang Lurang’s shirt and made a bold threat.
But her voice was soft and trembling, utterly devoid of intimidation.
Sobbing between hiccups,
“Zhang Lurang, if you dare leave me here, I’ll take your life.”