Chapter 70: She knew what she had to do

“Did I interrupt your chat?”

Luo Yueli’s voice in the night wind was clear and melodious, gentle and pleasing to the ear.

But to Shen Ran’s ears, it held none of that refreshing, delightful quality.

“No… not at all.”

She knew who she had been on the phone with.

Thankfully, Luo Yueli hadn’t heard.

“Were you talking to a boy you like?”

Shen Ran instinctively wanted to deny it.

But she quickly thought… she didn’t know how long Luo Yueli had been there.

During the call, she had been smiling the whole time.

To deny it outright…

If Luo Yueli had seen that, then…

It would undoubtedly be a lie…

And a deception.

Luo Yueli was very smart. Shen Ran felt… she was the smartest girl in the dorm.

She didn’t think she could hide it from Luo Yueli.

Better to…

Just admit it.

“We actually get along pretty well, he’s just a friend I met playing games.”

“A very interesting person.”

“No wonder I saw you smiling the whole time you were talking.” Luo Yueli left her sentence half-finished.

Shen Ran spoke very sweetly, very obediently, very compliantly.

That part, she didn’t say.

“A boy? You like talking to him?”

“Mhm, it’s a boy. Talking to him is quite interesting.” Shen Ran nodded as she spoke.

There was nothing to hide about this.

It would probably even be fine to say his name outright.

But…

Shen Ran didn’t quite dare, like a child who had stolen something.

She felt the purity of moonlight in Luo Yueli right now, that was true, but more than that… it was the chill of moonlight.

Shen Ran instinctively sensed a trace of unease.

“Then that’s liking him, isn’t it?” Luo Yueli smiled. “Talking to a boy like that means you like him.”

She still only said half.

She didn’t tell Shen Ran that when a girl talks to a boy like that, then…

She must be very afraid of losing him.

All reserve and sharp edges are suppressed by the emotion called ‘liking.’

She starts to become sweet and obedient.

“Shall we go, Shen Ran, back to the dorm?”

“Ah… yes!”

Walking beside Luo Yueli, Shen Ran quietly let out a sigh of relief.

She had been a little worried Luo Yueli would keep pressing.

The two walked side by side and soon reached the dormitory building.

Just as they were about to pass through the access control and enter the lobby on the first floor, Luo Yueli’s footsteps suddenly slowed.

“Shen Ran, do you… have a childhood friend?”

“A childhood friend?”

Shen Ran paused for a moment before saying, “No.”

After saying this, the figure of Su Yichen surfaced in the girl’s mind.

Wasn’t Luo Yueli’s childhood friend… Su Yichen?

Could it be about the call just now…

That’s impossible…

I didn’t put it on speaker.

“What’s wrong? Lizi, don’t you have a childhood friend? Why are you asking me that?” After thinking, Shen Ran decided to tentatively ask a question.

“Yes, Yichen is my childhood friend…”

“But I actually don’t really know how to get along with a childhood friend. Shen Ran, do you know how two people should…”

“Be?” Luo Yueli tucked the hair that had fallen by her ear behind it, asking softly.

Shen Ran scratched her head, feeling troubled.

What? Don’t you have a childhood friend? And for so many years too.

You’re asking me this kind of question?

It’s like someone in a passionate relationship… running to ask their perpetually single friend how to date.

Are you just showing off that your childhood friend is Su Yichen?

For a moment, the word ‘versailles’ popped into Shen Ran’s head.

If she had a childhood friend like Su Yichen, Shen Ran felt she’d die laughing in her dreams.

Good grades, good personality.

Wise and steady, with eyes that see everything clearly, possessing a sharpness and a restrained edge that doesn’t belong to a man his age.

It makes one feel especially at ease.

Shen Ran remembered again today at Shujiao garden, when she saw Su Yichen, he just casually lifted his eyelids, as if glancing so carelessly, yet she felt completely seen through in that one look.

Shen Ran knew, her heart skipped a beat at that moment, just like the first time she saw Jiang Jingjie…

She hadn’t even felt that then.

When the girl saw Jiang Jingjie at the freshman welcome gala, she just felt a favorable impression, a desire to get to know him.

But that one glance from Su Yichen left her…

Full of amazement.

Shen Ran felt she would never be able to forget Su Yichen’s seemingly casual glance in her entire life.

But Su Yichen was usually very reserved, and after getting a bit more familiar… communicating with him had no airs at all, even his speech… seemed a bit cute.

Aside from being a little short and his looks not being exceptionally outstanding, there was practically no flaw to pick.

Also, those glasses were really too ugly.

With a childhood friend like that, would you still need to ask others?

But…

Looking at Luo Yueli’s slightly furrowed willow-leaf brows, the hint of confusion in her expression.

Shen Ran felt… Luo Yueli was probably asking seriously.

Perhaps, she really had some doubts.

But… if it’s Su Yichen, would there really be these problems?

That boy, he seemed capable of anything.

It seemed like there was nothing he didn’t know.

Lizi isn’t going to him, but asking me…

Could there be a conflict?

“As for getting along with a childhood friend… I think it should be a very close relationship.” Shen Ran thought for a moment and said, “Um, haven’t you read novels?”

“Novels? I do read them… but not many with childhood friend settings.” Luo Yueli said.

The two entered the lobby, slowly walking towards the stairwell.

When Luo Yueli read novels, she avoided the “childhood friend” trope.

How could “childhood friends” possibly become lovers?

Wasn’t that a betrayal?

She couldn’t understand it.

Why did that pure relationship, in those novels, always have to develop into emotional and physical entanglement.

She couldn’t accept it.

“Oh… you haven’t read any.”

“I’ve read some. In most cases, the two have no secrets between them, they understand each other exceptionally well.”

“The emotional intimacy and mutual understanding surpass that of ordinary lovers and couples.” Shen Ran answered based on what she had read and some of her own thoughts for Luo Yueli.

Perhaps this was just Lizi’s one-sided confusion. Perhaps Lizi… likes Su Yichen a bit?

After all, her childhood friend is Su Yichen… That boy, once you start interacting with him, he’s really captivating.

Exceptionally talented, seems to know everything.

Like fine wine wrapped in sugar, just one sip could make you drunk to death.

Shen Ran didn’t know about other things, but if she had a childhood friend, and that childhood friend was Su Yichen…

She would definitely look for him every day.

“Surpassing that between lovers and couples…”

“The level of intimacy and mutual understanding?”

Hearing this, Luo Yueli was momentarily stunned.

As if she had figured something out, the girl’s tightly furrowed brows… suddenly relaxed.

An intimate relationship surpassing that of lovers and couples…

If Shen Ran said so, then… it must be right.

What is written in novels and accepted by people…

Is what can be done.

Luo Yueli’s steps up the stairs were incredibly light.

She knew what she should do now, and understood what she wanted to do.

What she wanted now was no longer just talking.

“He was always mine.”

The girl’s words fell with decisive weight.

[Finally, she began to do what she wanted to do… regardless of right or wrong.]