Waiting

Chen Lu picked up his phone as soon as he woke up, instinctively wanting to send a message.

A second before hitting send, he came to his senses and quickly slapped himself.

That morning, Chen Lu returned to the classroom. He looked at his three roommates, who had dark circles under their eyes just like him, then at the copy of "Jurisprudence" on his desk.

People said that if you persuaded someone to study law, you deserved death by a thousand cuts.

But it was one thing to apply to the same university to pursue a girl. Following her into a major like this had to be the joke of the century...

That familiar, beautiful figure was sitting some distance ahead and to his left. Staring at her back throughout class was another habit he needed to break.

Class had yet to start, and people were still trickling in. Every one of them looked first at Chen Lu and then at Mo Yuqing, as if by unspoken agreement.

It was as though they wanted to keep eating melons.

"Did you delete her contact info?" Jiang Chao leaned over and whispered.

Chen Lu shook his head, his expression somewhat gloomy.

"Damn, haven't you been a licking dog long enough? Why haven't you deleted it?" Jiang Chao was visibly at a loss for words.

Chen Lu turned to look at him. "I need time to let go. Seven years is too long. You think this is a novel, where I can just delete it because I say so? I wish I could be that decisive. It would mean I'd never had any real feelings for her in those seven years."

Li Sinian chimed in from beside them. "That's true. People say it takes twenty-one days to form a habit. Expecting Chen Lu to drop a seven-year habit in an instant just isn't realistic."

Jiang Chao leaned close to Chen Lu again. "I'll introduce you to someone, buddy! I'm short on everything except girls I know!"

"I can introduce you to a different one every day. If you see the same girl twice, I lose! If any of them are smaller than a D cup, I lose too!"

When Chen Lu slumped onto his desk, uninterested, Jiang Chao continued, "If you think the girls I know are frivolous, I can have my girlfriend introduce you to someone instead."

"I'm tired. Let me rest. Maybe if I rest for a while, someone who loves me will come along on her own."

With that, Chen Lu fell asleep.

Truth be told, seeing Jiang Chao made his heart ache. Jiang Chao had always been his wingman in his pursuit of Mo Yuqing, yet Chen Lu had failed to win her over, while Jiang Chao had ended up winning over her roommate, Liu Yan.

Chen Lu dared to sleep, but Jiang Chao and the others didn't. The last time Jiang Chao had slept when Chen Lu did, Chen Lu had done well in every subject, while Jiang Chao had failed his courses spectacularly.

People like you, who don't look like you're trying but still get great grades, are a cancer on the class!

Jiang Chao cursed him inwardly, then forced his eyes to stay open.

Just as he was about to fall asleep, his phone vibrated and woke him up again.

It was a message from a female freshman.

"Chao, do you know Chen Lu? I'm here to find him for a friend. I'm right outside the classroom now. Sorry for the trouble, but could you call him out for me?"

Jiang Chao stared at the message in a daze.

Did Chen Lu's words just become law?

He hurriedly shook Chen Lu awake. Whether or not it was love, as long as it could distract his good buddy, that was enough.

After waking up, Chen Lu walked outside in a daze. A girl saw someone come out and hurried over to him.

Everyone in the classroom immediately turned their eyes to Chen Lu, who was leaning against the doorway.

Given what Chen Lu had going for him, it was perfectly normal for someone to confess to him. He was good-looking in a delicate way and had a nice personality.

Although he wasn't the class monitor or a member of the student council, he was still well liked.

When he had been pursuing Mo Yuqing, he had made a point of keeping his distance from other girls, so few had confessed while knowing they had no chance. Now that Mo Yuqing had rejected him in public, it was no surprise that a girl had seen her chance and confessed the very next day.

Quite a few people kept turning around to check Mo Yuqing's reaction.

Everyone in the class knew that Chen Lu was Mo Yuqing's most devoted suitor.

Mo Yuqing, however, didn't look Chen Lu's way at all. She gave a little huff and stared out the window.

"Hello?" Chen Lu stared at the cheerful-looking, short-haired girl in front of him and greeted her blankly.

She was visibly taken aback when she saw him too, blinking as she looked at his face.

"Hello, senior! I'm a friend of Liang Zhirou's. She's working a part-time job right now and couldn't get time off, so she asked me to find out when you're free. She wants to thank you in person."

"She goes to this school too?" Chen Lu was startled, suddenly wide awake.

"Yep, we're both accounting majors."

"I'm free anytime after class."

"Then I'll tell her to wait for you outside the library!"

For some reason, Chen Lu thought the girl was grinning mischievously.

It looked like the smile his mother wore when the male and female leads got together in a TV drama.

With that, the girl sauntered away. "Don't forget, senior, my name is Lin Miaomiao!"

Chen Lu returned to his seat. He had barely slept all night, but now he was almost completely awake.

Could it really be such a coincidence?

Then why doesn't she live on campus?

"All right, stop turning around. She's already gone." Liu Yan rolled her eyes at Mo Yuqing. "She wasn't confessing."

"What's that got to do with me?" Mo Yuqing pouted and slumped onto her desk too.

After class, Chen Lu, who had never liked making people wait for him, was just about to head over early when his counselor suddenly called him back.

Their counselor had only just graduated from graduate school, but for some reason had already adopted the style of a mature woman, giving her the air of a middle or high school homeroom teacher.

She wasn't easy to deal with, but because Chen Lu was efficient, she was more lenient when it came to his requests for leave and the like.

The price was that she occasionally called him over to do the grunt work.

"Xiao Lu, come help me sort out the roster."

"Is it urgent? Can I do it later?" Chen Lu asked, somewhat speechless.

"Very urgent. A little later, and someone else will be approving your leave slips from now on. You can all get ready to welcome a new counselor."

"I'll help him!" Jiang Chao hurriedly stepped in to help his good buddy out.

"Not you. Don't you know how unreliable you are?"

Seeing that their other two roommates also had things to do, Jiang Chao could only watch Chen Lu in helpless anxiety.

Chen Lu asked Jiang Chao to pass on the message that he would be late. Seeing the thin stack of documents, he felt quite relaxed.

He thought that if he worked quickly, he might still make it in time.

But after he finished that stack, he was told that the tall stack beside it needed doing too.

He felt like dying.

Half an hour later, heavy rain suddenly began to fall outside. Chen Lu closed the window before the cold wind could blow in.

April weather was even more fickle than a girl's mood. Today it could be a sunny twenty-eight degrees, and tomorrow the temperature might drop to single digits.

For some reason, though, this eased the tension in Chen Lu's heart. It's been so long, and now it's raining. Liang Zhirou probably won't still be waiting for me, right?

More than he hated being stood up, he hated making someone else wait for him in vain.

After another half hour and more, Chen Lu finally finished the huge stack in front of him.

The rain outside had also let up considerably at some point.

"Thanks for your hard work, Xiao Lu. I can take care of the rest myself. I have an umbrella here; you can take it..."

Before she had even finished speaking, Chen Lu shot out like a streak of smoke and sprinted toward the library.

He didn't think a normal person would keep waiting there, especially since he was already more than an hour late.

But Chen Lu couldn't shake the feeling that he had to go and check.

Along the way, many couples strolled unhurriedly beneath shared umbrellas, as if rain like this did nothing but set the perfect mood for them.

Only one young man was racing through the rain, dodging the crowds and kicking up splash after splash.

He was utterly out of place in the scene.

Chen Lu had kept up his exercise over the years, and bringing Mo Yuqing meals had also required him to run around, so he was in fairly good shape.

Unfortunately, only his roommates had ever seen his just-right abs.

When he reached the library entrance, he saw a girl standing there timidly. She seemed a little cold, shrinking into her jacket from time to time.

Even so, she stood quite close to the front. Whenever a gust of wind blew, rain fell on her, and whenever someone walked past her, she lowered her head awkwardly and stepped aside.

Then she took a deep breath, as if gathering her courage, and returned to that relatively conspicuous spot.

Although she kept her head lowered, Chen Lu just managed to recognize her.

Chen Lu hurried over to Liang Zhirou.

She was still wearing the jeans from last night, but today she had properly put on a light green jacket. It seemed she didn't tie her long hair into a low ponytail when she wasn't working, letting it hang loose instead.

But that made the girl, who kept her head lowered, even less noticeable. Last night her figure could at least have earned her some points; today, no one could have guessed how stunningly beautiful she was.

The rain that occasionally blew in had already soaked part of her clothes, and her ears were red from the cold. Together with her delicate face, it made her look both adorable and pitiful.

"My counselor called me away to help. Sorry."

Hearing the somewhat familiar voice, Liang Zhirou finally raised her head. When she saw that it was Chen Lu, the corners of her mouth seemed to turn up slightly, and then she shook her head hard.

Chen Lu stepped forward and pulled her toward a spot sheltered from the rain. "Why didn't you wait for me inside? Every time the wind blows, the rain gets on you out here."

"I was afraid you wouldn't be able to find me."

For a moment, Chen Lu didn't know what to say. He just stood there, stunned.

So there really is someone who would wait for me? Even in the rain.

So not everyone is like Mo Yuqing, leaving if I'm just a little late.

At that instant, truly just that one instant.

Chen Lu felt something in his heart suddenly melt.

"After all, you're a fool who's willing to wait for someone in the rain just because of something they said."

No, I'm not.

Because you came through the rain too, I wasn't wrong to wait for you...

But the tongue-tied, foolish girl didn't say those words aloud.