Courage

"Send it! Send it!" she shouted after typing the words, her finger about to touch the send button!

Jiang Xueli went to the sink, filled it with hot water, untied the elastics holding her double ponytails, and set them on top of the phone beside her.

The phone still showed her chat with Lin Zhengran.

Only, the line in the chat box—"Lin Zhengran, today is my birthday..." —still had not been sent.

Her long hair fell over her shoulders. Jiang Xueli looked at her listless, dull-faced self in the mirror and sighed. "No wonder Big Dummy keeps saying I'm always yelling and shouting. Maybe he really wasn't wrong. What am I even doing?"

Jiang Xueli washed her hair and dried it clean.

While blow-drying it, a sudden whim struck her, and she tied her waist-length hair into a single ponytail in front of the mirror.

Then she clasped her hands in front of her, imitating a certain pure young girl.

Blushing, she treated the mirror as if it were Certain Person. "B-Big Dummy... today is my birth..." She closed her eyes, and her words once again went against her heart. "It's not like I absolutely need you to go with me, but I just happened to pick up two Movie Tickets!"

Jiang Xueli stared blankly at herself in the mirror and complained, "So the ending's the same after all. Turns out it wasn't because of the hairstyle?"

She tied her hair back into double ponytails, feeling that a single ponytail still did not suit her. After finishing blow-drying her hair, she sat on the sofa, looked at her phone, and once again opened Baidu to search for a sentence she had searched many years ago.

"What is a tsundere?"

Baidu Lady's answer was still: A god from ancient times!

In the past, Jiang Xueli had not cared about the words "from ancient times" in front. She had only seen "god," so she had thought it was a very high evaluation. But now, she suddenly became interested in why it was a god from ancient times.

Search: "Why is a tsundere called a god from ancient times?"

Baidu Lady displayed:

Why is a tsundere called a god from ancient times? Because in the past, the tsundere personality was a very popular kind of personality. A young girl's half-resistance, half-invitation, her shyness, and her stubborn mouth were all very cute elements to boys.

But this personality has a fatal flaw. That is, if someone is tsundere to the extreme, the tsundere themself can never take the initiative to speak, nor can they take the initiative to take the most crucial step. This gives other people an opening. So the final ending can only be missing each other, ultimately separating from one another and handing the person they love over to someone else.

Jiang Xueli's originally lifeless pupils suddenly trembled when she saw this string of explanations, especially when she saw the final word, "separating."

Her eyes widened. Perhaps a sleepless night had left her mind somewhat exhausted.

Unexpectedly, a few scenes that had never happened in reality flashed rapidly through Jiang Xueli's eyes.

In those scenes, Lin Zhengran and He Qing laughed and fooled around, grew up together, embraced, kissed, and lived together. The self who did not take the initiative could only grow more and more distant from Lin Zhengran as the two of them drew closer step by step, until finally, in the hall of their wedding, she sat below the stage and stared at them in a daze.

"Wishing you two a happy wedding!!"

Downstairs in the residential compound, many people suddenly shouted.

Jiang Xueli abruptly stood up in terror from her drowsy haze. Her eyes blurred, and when she wiped the corners of them with her arm, tears actually fell.

Hearing where the shout came from, Jiang Xueli ran to the balcony to check. It turned out there was a pair of newlyweds-to-be in the residential compound accepting blessings from their friends.

Her reddened, tear-filled eyes fixed on that happy couple.

In her daze, she saw them as Lin Zhengran and He Qing after they had grown up, and she opened her mouth. "Big Dummy, don't..."

When she came back to herself again, Jiang Xueli stared blankly at the unfamiliar couple downstairs. She slowly clenched her fists and gritted her teeth, her gaze firm.

As if she had made some kind of decision, she turned and ran out of the house.

Those lively double ponytails seemed to sense their owner's feelings, bouncing tensely with her steps as she went downstairs.

As Jiang Xueli went downstairs, she took out her phone, found Lin Zhengran's number, and called without hesitation.

The call connected quickly.

Lin Zhengran sounded bored. "Mm? What is it?"

Jiang Xueli shouted, "Big Dummy! You're at home right now, right? Come downstairs now, I have something to tell you!"

"What is it? I just came back to the compound from the supermarket, and I was just about to..."

"I'm coming to find you. Don't go home yet, wait downstairs for me a bit!" she interrupted.

Jiang Xueli hung up and ran hard toward Lin Zhengran's home. The scenes that had surfaced in her mind just now were incomparably clear.

It was as if that truly was the ending after her hesitation and indecision. As Jiang Xueli ran, she wiped her tears, her gaze becoming even more resolute as she looked ahead.

Big Dummy, even if we end up separating in the end, at least I want to hear you say with your own mouth that you don't like me, not just hand you over to someone else like this.

After crossing the intersection between them, Lin Zhengran stood at the entrance of the residential compound with the things he had bought.

Seeing Jiang Xueli sprinting over, panting for breath, Lin Zhengran asked curiously, "Why are you in such a hurry? Is there something urgent?"

After Jiang Xueli saw Lin Zhengran, half of her heart suddenly settled down.

Her footsteps slowed. She hid the Movie Tickets behind her and tried hard to regulate her breathing, then walked up to him like that.

Lin Zhengran asked, "Say it. What is it?"

There was a blush on Jiang Xueli's face. It seemed the essence of tsundere was affecting her. She knew Lin Zhengran's personality very well. Even if she gave him the tickets, he probably would not go with her, because Lin Zhengran hated doing boring things like this the most. This was also why Jiang Xueli could not bring herself to speak.

But, "B-Big Dummy!" Her sudden shout startled Lin Zhengran. Jiang Xueli stretched out her arm with no regard for anything, closed her eyes, and with her mind blank, said, "Can you go to the movies with me?!"

After saying it, even she was shocked by her own behavior. Once she calmed down and opened her eyes, she looked at Lin Zhengran's stunned gaze, so embarrassed she wished she could disappear into the ground.

Jiang Xueli quickly hid the Movie Tickets behind her again and turned her head to the side, feeling like she could never face anyone again. Her face was bright red as she stammered, "I-I mean, I just picked up two Movie Tickets from the trash can. I was thinking, wouldn't it be a waste if I didn't go watch it?"

She laughed "hehe," finding herself a way out, her nervous fingers clenching tight.

"But it's not really a big deal if they go to waste, anyway. It's some overdone romance movie. Elementary school kids these days wouldn't even watch this kind of film, so whether we go see it or not doesn't—"

She froze, suddenly stopping mid-sentence and looking at Lin Zhengran again. She said softly, "Can you go watch it with me...? Though I know you definitely won't agree."

Lin Zhengran's shocked expression turned calm. He let out a long breath and took the two movie tickets from her hand. "I thought it was something serious. That's all?"

"Hm?" Jiang Xueli didn't understand.

"Th-that's... th..." She stammered and hemmed and hawed, feeling as if she'd been insulted. Clenching her little fists, she leaned forward, raging helplessly. "That's all?! You're calling this a small thing?! Do you know how much resolve it took me to say that?! Big Dummy! Big pighead! Why does someone like you have girls who like you?! Even if you don't want to go watch it with me, you could at least—"

Lin Zhengran said, "I can go watch it with you."

A car drove past on the road.

Jiang Xueli, who had been cursing up a storm, stopped there, her mind blank as she stared at him in dazed disbelief. "What did you say...?"

Lin Zhengran said softly, "I said I can go watch it with you. Today's your birthday, right? Going to see a movie with you is basically half a birthday present from me."

Thanks to the big shots "Wo Kuai Yao Shi Qu Li Zhi Le," "Cultivator Green Goat," "Wei Nian Nujiao," "Primate," "tdcmffhi," "Chao Xixi," "Filth Demon," "Ran Under the Moon," "Hardcore Otaku," "Don't Let You Have Seen Me," "Leaf oo," "Qian Feng," "Little Prince of Day Laborers," and "arkone" for the monthly tickets.

Thank you for your support. As usual, asking for monthly tickets and follow-up reads.