At the Age of Pure Love, All He Had Was Pure Sleepiness

Because of the torrential rain, the morning sky outside was as dark as it would have been at four or five in the morning.

The first few students to arrive had switched on all the lights, leaving the classroom brightly lit. There were still twenty minutes until morning reading, so Jiang Nian was clearly early.

Only a handful of people were in the classroom. Most had their heads buried behind the upright bookshelves on their desks, memorizing passages or working through problems. Others stood at the end of the corridor with a book in hand, watching the downpour and swaying as they recited.

Jiang Nian stood in the classroom doorway, blocking Zhang Ningzhi's path. The hot-water dispenser was at the other end of the corridor, where there was no one around.

Okay, all eyes were on him now.

Although the system's mission panel specified that Zhang Ningzhi was his ex-girlfriend, Jiang Nian had never taken it seriously. He had always treated it like a little fan game. A guy who lived for the laughs would never surrender.

System: She's your ex-girlfriend.

An honest guy: Okay.

Jiang Nian: For real? (Confused face.)

That was why there were so few people in the world who lived for the laughs. They were forever asking for a beating.

Zhang Ningzhi was clearly feeling unwell. Out of empathy-just the empathy one friend felt for another-he couldn't simply ignore her. So he spoke up.

"I'll get you some water. I need some too."

"No, no, I can do it myself." Zhang Ningzhi's face grew even redder.

"We're friends. No need to be so polite." Jiang Nian assumed she was embarrassed, since she was so timid. "It's perfectly normal for friends to help each other out."

"That's not it. I... I need to use the bathroom." Zhang Ningzhi blushed all the way to her ears. First thing in the morning, she had run into someone so helpful it ought to have earned him a lightning strike. And it had turned out to be Jiang Nian.

Not that there was anything wrong with Jiang Nian. He was just a little different.

Jiang Nian felt awkward too. He turned sideways and cleared a path for her.

"Oh, right. Go ahead."

Ha. Had my fortune told before leaving home this morning. They said I'd have plenty of riches. Turns out all I have is plenty of loose screws. A great philanthropist across nine reincarnations like me almost ended up helping someone use the bathroom.

Don't ask why. Because he was... him.

With her head down, Zhang Ningzhi hurried out, only to smack her shoulder against the doorframe. The momentum loosened her grip on her cup, and it slipped from her hand.

"Ah!" she cried softly.

Jiang Nian reacted fast. After all, he was a sports enthusiast with two and a half years of practice under his belt. He scooped the cup out of the air, though a piece of paper seemed to have fallen out.

Hmm. Pink, too.

Actually, that doesn't look like paper. Why does it look more and more familiar? Space... Before he could get a proper look, Zhang Ningzhi crouched down, picked it up, and stuffed it into her pocket.

"Thanks. I'll get going." Zhang Ningzhi felt as though her face was about to explode from blushing. If he asks about it, I'm jumping from the fourth floor.

No need for that. No need at all. You're getting a little extreme.

"Mm-hmm." Jiang Nian handed her cup back.

He didn't think it was a big deal. Periods were normal. There was no need to feel ashamed of them, but he wasn't going to make any unnecessary comments either.

After putting down his bag, he lay his head on his desk to sleep. The window beside him was open, and the cold breeze felt wonderfully refreshing. A minute later, he got up and closed it.

When Zhang Ningzhi returned to the classroom after getting water, her face was still a little warm.

Seeing Jiang Nian catching up on sleep at his desk, she finally breathed a sigh of relief. A friend's sudden concern was the scariest thing, especially over something like this.

Especially when that friend was Jiang Nian.

She sat down nervously and endured her discomfort as she took out her booklet of key biology facts to read silently. As long as she stayed perfectly still, the pain would temporarily fade.

"Holy shit! You're here this early?" Ma Guojun, who had a green badge on Tieba, walked into the classroom and immediately spotted Jiang Nian slumped over his desk. "Had breakfast?"

Jiang Nian turned his head on the desk and answered lifelessly.

"Ate at home."

"I'm so jealous. My mom makes me buy breakfast at school." The big, chubby boy sat beside Jiang Nian and wiped the clammy sweat from his flushed face. "Fuck, it's pouring out there."

"Even my shorts nearly got soaked. How come you're completely dry?"

"Got a ride," Jiang Nian answered listlessly.

"So did I. My dad dumped me at the school gate. Fuck, the umbrella I bought was too small." Ma Guojun shook the wet patch on his left shoulder.

"Shit, why's the window closed?"

Hearing that, Zhang Ningzhi suddenly turned around in the seat ahead of them. I remember the window being open. Jiang Nian probably wants it open, doesn't he? Will he think I closed it?

"I closed it. Caught a chill jerking off last night." Jiang Nian tossed out a random excuse.

"You... ha! Jiang Nian, is there nobody left in this class whose opinion you care about?" Ma Guojun abandoned the idea of opening the window. "I'm telling Li Hua and Yao Beibei later."

"Whatever." Jiang Nian couldn't give a flying fuck and went back to sleep.

"Why are you so tired? What were you doing last night?" Ma Guojun kept nattering like a gossipy woman, only to discover half a minute later that Jiang Nian had fallen asleep.

At the age of pure love, he indulged in pure sleepiness.

In the seat ahead, Zhang Ningzhi's breath caught. She stared blankly at the little biology booklet on her desk. The neat, square characters suddenly seemed to soften and round out.

They slowly blurred, then vanished from the page altogether.

He closed the window.

She lowered her head onto the desk, covering the biology booklet. Before he came in, he was carrying his jacket in his hand. He only had a short-sleeved shirt on. How could he have been cold?

As one possibility occurred to her, her cheeks warmed and her heart began to pound.

After a morning of classes, Zhang Ningzhi was even more certain that Jiang Nian wasn't cold at all. Fortunately, nobody opened any of the windows in that section, sparing her the chilly breeze.

By the afternoon, Zhang Ningzhi felt much better. She was also more grateful to Jiang Nian for closing that window. If she had been on her own, she would certainly have been too embarrassed to ask.

Boys really could do so many things.

Although their relationship could only be described as an ordinary friendship, certain secrets belonging to the two of them already hung in the air, fastening them together like buttons.

Whenever their eyes happened to meet between classes, Zhang Ningzhi's heart would inexplicably beat faster.

The web called friendship had begun to spin a different kind of silk. In increments too tiny to see, it was silently spreading and swallowing everything around it.

Jiang Nian returned from lunch in the cafeteria through the rain and found Zhang Ningzhi still in her seat.

"Why aren't you going to eat?"

After half a day of rain, the classroom was dim. Only three or four people were there, mostly sleeping or working on practice papers by the windows. Nobody had turned on the lights.

Zhang Ningzhi looked up and said quietly, "I'm not hungry."

The curtain blocked her spot, so although she wasn't far from the window

, there wasn't much light either. Jiang Nian murmured an acknowledgment, sat down, and started playing on his phone.

A few minutes later, he put his phone down and raised his eyelids slightly. He took his cup out of the compartment beneath his desk, then reached out with his index finger and tapped Zhang Ningzhi's back.

"What is it?"

"I'm going to get some hot water. Want some?" Jiang Nian asked as he stood.

"Yes, please. Thank you." Zhang Ningzhi handed him her cup, but her stomach chose that exact moment to growl. Mortified, she wished she could find a crack in the floor to crawl into.

His expression remained perfectly normal. "Actually, I've lost eighty percent of the hearing in my left ear. I'm going to buy a drink now. Want me to bring you some plain congee from the cafeteria?"

And more.

(End of chapter.)