Chapter 408: Chapter 378: Second Update, Requesting Monthly Pass
Chapter 378: Twelve Springs
Li Yan habitually reached for a cigarette. As for this story, he certainly could understand it. Not only could he understand, but with such a direct reminder, it also stirred some memories for him.
Everyone has those flamboyant years of youth, which often become a precious part of later memories. Li Yan had chosen to forget them, but now being reminded by Qiao Huanxuan, his heartstrings were also touched, and he couldn’t help but feel a little wistful.
After lighting the cigarette and taking a puff, seeing Qiao Huanxuan watching him, he felt as if he should say something. Even if it was just listening to a story, after hearing it, one should clap or commend it.
"Hmm, that girl is you, and the class monitor you mentioned is me?"
"What do you think?" Qiao Huanxuan retorted. Would I sit here wasting my breath to tell someone else’s story?
"Right..." Li Yan wanted to smile to ease the atmosphere, but felt he couldn’t laugh, as it would feel too trivial. "This matter... I don’t remember it very clearly, and I’m not good at storytelling, so I can’t recount the story from back then from another person’s perspective like you. But I can clarify a few key points..."
"Go on. First, about the issue of a secret crush. I don’t think there was one, but you were excellent at that time, and I was also excellent..." Li Yan felt a bit embarrassed, as if he was boasting. "Anyway, we should have admired each other. Back then we were all young, having a good impression of you, an attraction to the opposite sex was definitely there, but at most, it was a vague adolescent emotion, not a secret crush. Otherwise, seeing you again, I should have been very excited."
Although they were discussing past matters, this still felt a bit awkward. Li Yan paid attention to her reaction, seeing she didn’t mind, he continued: "Second, about others causing trouble for you. I should not have known, nor did I ask them to drive away other boys approaching you. But ultimately, it was because of me that it affected you badly. I’m sorry about that. Third, regarding the gift, I should have seen you just as a good friend at that time without any other intentions, so I gave a simple music box. Since you didn’t want it, I couldn’t give it to someone else, right? So I just threw it away."
Qiao Huanxuan was silent for a moment, then asked, "How did you know my birthday?"
Just having taken a puff of the cigarette, Li Yan was stunned after hearing the question. So many years have passed, how would he know how he found out. "Uh... could the class monitor see everyone’s information from the teacher? Honestly, I really can’t remember, it might have been from your file seen from the teacher. It might have been some other girl who told me... No wait, I remember now!"
"Hmm?" Qiao Huanxuan also casually asked the question just now. Thinking about it, it wasn’t such a secret back then, there were many ways to find out. "What did you remember?"
"When we graduated from junior high, everyone seemed to be writing in each other’s yearbooks. Like making some notebook, writing down personal information and a few messages of blessings or something. I should have seen it from there. Later, when we were in high school, I wasn’t the class monitor anymore, there weren’t many opportunities to interact with you, and maybe other classmates suggested it, so I bought it. I think that’s how it was..." Li Yan was quite embarrassed, having to rely on analysis to recall his past.
Qiao Huanxuan gave a faint smile: "So that’s how it is... It seems, what everyone has always said, about the class monitor having a secret crush for many years... was a collective misunderstanding by everyone, and some things back then were good intentions that went wrong..."
That’s really all it was... Li Yan thought to himself, but then he had doubts. If it was just rumors of me having a secret crush on her, so many years have passed, what is she so conflicted about? Why is her reaction now... Could she have...?
Thinking of a possibility, he dared not continue speaking.
This year seems to be fated with peach blossoms!
But while romance is good, too much romance turns into disaster.
Unfortunately, he pretended not to realize, continuing to smoke, planning to finish the cigarette and then leave on some pretext. But Qiao Huanxuan still spoke: "Just now that story, there’s a sequel, do you want to hear it?"
Her words drifted as if without energy. Perhaps it meant, after today, she might never say it again!
Although Li Yan knew that continuing to listen might not be a good idea, choosing not to listen at this moment wouldn’t be good either.
"Hmm, tell me about it." He relented, not for the past classmate friendship or the friendship of youthful days, but since she’s remembered him for over ten years, he should listen to her confession.
"Back then when he left, quite a few classmates who advanced from junior high together knew about the birthday gift incident. So, at that time, there was also a kind of rumor, saying the class monitor was heartbroken because the girl refused him, and that ultimately he couldn’t take the heartbreak anymore, that seeing the girl every day was a kind of torment, so he left home and never came back..."
Li Yan felt a bit dizzy, this was too far-fetched, wasn’t it? He hurried to dispel the rumor—a rumor that was ten years too late: "It’s definitely not like that, they wronged you!"
Qiao Huanxuan glanced at him, continuing the story, although she was the heroine of this story, she couldn’t narrate it in the first person and used the third person instead: "Because of this kind of rumor, plus the class monitor was already gone, classmates no longer made a fuss or disturbed her. Some who originally had no good feelings towards her, directly distanced themselves. In fact... the girl herself also believed this kind of rumor, thinking the class monitor dropped out and left home because of her. This led her to be very self-blaming for a while, thinking that if she hadn’t rejected the gift so harshly and had communicated more rationally, perhaps there wouldn’t have been such a result.
