Chapter 411: Chapter 378: Second Update, Requesting Monthly Pass
Chapter 378
Li Yan habitually took out a cigarette. As for this story, he could certainly understand it, and not only understand it, but the direct reminder also stirred up some memories in him.
Everyone has their youthful, radiant years, and those often become a valuable segment in later memories. Li Yan chose to forget them himself, but now that Qiao Huanxuan brought them up one by one, his heartstrings were plucked, and he couldn’t help but feel a bit sentimental.
After lighting the cigarette and taking a puff, he saw Qiao Huanxuan looking at him, feeling as though he should say something. Even if it was just a story, after listening, one should at least clap and give a cheer.
"Hmm, that girl is you, and the class president in the story refers to me?"
"What do you think?" Qiao Huanxuan retorted. Would I sit here wasting my breath telling someone else’s story?
"Right..." Li Yan wanted to smile to ease the atmosphere, but felt he couldn’t. Laughing would seem too frivolous. "This matter... I don’t remember it very clearly, and I’m not good at storytelling, so I can’t recount the story of those years from another person’s perspective like you can. But I can clarify a few key points..."
"Go on. First, about unrequited love. I don’t think so, but you were excellent at the time, and I was too..." Li Yan felt a bit embarrassed, as if he was boasting. "Anyway, I suppose we had mutual appreciation then. We were young, and naturally, there was some attraction and fondness, but at most, it was a hazy adolescent feeling, not unrequited love. Otherwise, upon seeing you again, I would have been very excited."
Though discussing matters from back then, it still felt somewhat inappropriate. Li Yan paid attention to her reaction, and seeing she had none, he continued, "Second, about others causing you trouble. As far as I know, I was unaware and didn’t ask anyone to drive away the guys who approached you. However, ultimately, because of me, it had a negative impact on you. I’m sorry about that. Third, regarding the gift, I think I regarded you as a good friend back then, with no other intentions, which is why I gave you an ordinary music box. But since you didn’t want it, I couldn’t give it to someone else, so I just discarded it."
Qiao Huanxuan remained silent for a while and then asked, "How did you know my birthday?"
Li Yan, who had just had a puff of his cigarette, was taken aback by the question. It had been so many years; how would he know? "Uh... Could the class president see everyone’s information from the teacher? Honestly, I really don’t remember. It’s possible I saw your records from the teacher or another girl told me... No, wait, I remember now!"
"Oh?" Qiao Huanxuan asked casually, realizing that back then it wasn’t a secret, and there were many ways to find out. "What do you remember?"
"At the end of junior high, it seems everyone wrote class yearbooks, a notebook with personal details and a few lines of blessing messages. I probably saw it there, and later in high school, I wasn’t the class president, didn’t have much chance to interact with you, and a fellow classmate might have suggested it, so I bought it. I think that’s how it was..." Even recalling his own past required analysis, and Li Yan was sweating a bit.
Qiao Huanxuan smiled faintly, "So that’s how it was... Seems like everyone said, the so-called years of unrequited love by the class president... were all a collective misunderstanding, and back then, some actions were just misguided good intentions..."
It was just a short-lived situation... Li Yan thought to himself, but then he had a doubt. If it was just a rumor about me liking her, why would she be so troubled after all these years? Why would her reaction now be... Could it be she...?
Thinking of a possibility, he didn’t dare to continue speaking.
This year seems to have a wealth of romance!
However, while romance is good, too much of it turns into a tribulation.
Unfortunately, he pretended not to have thought about it and continued smoking, planning to leave once he finished the cigarette, but Qiao Huanxuan still spoke: "There’s a sequel to that story. Do you want to hear it?"
Her words were somewhat ethereal as if lacking strength. Perhaps following up on the previous words, it seemed that after today, she might never speak of it again!
Even though Li Yan knew that continuing to listen might not be good, choosing not to listen now also didn’t feel right.
"Hmm, let’s hear it." He softened, not for the sake of old school friendship or teenage camaraderie, but because she still remembered him after more than ten years, he felt obliged to hear her out.
"At that time when he left, many classmates from junior high who had known about the birthday gift incident said the class president was heartbroken after being rejected by a girl. The unbearable heartbreak and daily torment of seeing the girl led to leaving home, into a life away from familiar surroundings..."
Li Yan felt a bit dizzy. Wasn’t this too far-fetched? He hurried to clarify — a denial that was a decade late: "That’s absolutely not how it was; they wronged you greatly!"
Qiao Huanxuan gave him a glance and continued the story. Although she was the heroine in the story, she couldn’t tell it in the first person, still using the third person: "Due to this rumor and since the class president had left, classmates no longer teased or disturbed her. Some who initially didn’t like her directly avoided her. In fact... the girl herself believed the rumor, thinking it was her fault that the class president dropped out and left home. She was very self-reproachful, believing that had she declined the gift in a more rational manner rather than hurtfully, such a result might not have occurred.
