How We Used to Be (9)

From that day onwards, her relationship with Su Zhinian slowly improved. After all, they shared the same house and the same school. Eventually, their schedule aligned so perfectly that they went to school and returned from school together.

Su Zhinian had a serious obsession with cleanliness; he did not like others to touch his things, so initially, he did not allow her to enter his room. However, she could not even remember when it was that he rescinded that ban.

Not only that, she remembered eating snacks in his bed, and she even knocked over ketchup on his mattress several times.

Now that she thought about it, that period was probably the only time in her life where she shared a friendly relationship with Su Zhinian.

During that time, if she was honest to herself, Su Zhinian treated her well, actually, more than well. He would leave the house in the middle of the night to buy supper for her, stand in line while it was pouring rain to buy Jay Chou's concert ticket for her, and he even got into a physical altercation because of her…

However, no matter how good it was during that period of time, it all eventually reverted to point zero.

This was about one month before the grade exam. Qin Yinan had returned to Beijing and he asked her out for dinner.

At the same time, she already knew she had misunderstood Qin Yinan. The girl she saw with him on Christmas was his course mate who needed his help to ferry her to the hospital due to her appendicitis.

However, confessing required courage. After that incident, she had met up with Qin Yinan for multiple times but each time she would swallow back the words that had reached the tip of her tongue. It was like water one degree away from reaching its boiling point; it simply would not go up that one last degree, stuck at 99 degrees Celsius.

It was already 9 pm after she finished the dinner with Qin Yinan. She told Qin Yinan, who drove her home, "Brother Yinan, I will get into the same university as you."

Qin Yinan turned to her with a face full of smiles, adding, "That's wonderful, Song Song, I will wait for you."

After he dropped her home, before they parted, Qin Yinan still pushed out his hand to ruffle her hair. It was an action he often did, but it was different that time. His hand stopped for quite some time caressing her hair, and the eyes that looked at her were unusually dear.

Her heart was running so fast at the time. Her sixth sense told her that her Brother Yinan perhaps liked her too. She looked him in his eyes and said, "Brother Yinan, after I finish the grade exam, I have a secret to tell you."

She was going to tell him that she liked him, that she had liked him for many, many years.

After Qin Yinan left, Song Qingchun was filled with the romantic stirrings of a young girl. She envisioned her many possible futures with Qin Yinan.

But, do you know?

Nightmare is usually only one step behind happy fantasy.

That night, her parents, housekeeper, and even Su Zhinian were not home. She was home alone. It was 11 pm and she had taken her bath and was ready to lie down for the night when she heard the front door open. Compelled by curiosity, she walked out of her bedroom and squatted down by the railings to peer downstairs. She saw a drunk Su Zhinian march through the front door.

His gait going up the stairs was very unsteady, in fact, he almost fell for a few times. She hurriedly ran over to help him.

…

Song Qingchun's face was blanched when she reached this part of her memory. If she had known what would happen next, she would have definitely left Su Zhinian to his own devices.