Miumiu – Thank you for all your comments. It lifted my spirts. Enjoy this installment. What can I say ? Mu er and her convoluted thought processes…
In the evening, as we chatted in the dormitory, I asked all my three roommates, " Two people were talking to each other normally, suddenly one was angry. What could be the reason?"
Miss fourth replied, " It"s likely something poked at that person"s hidden pain."
Li"l second was pensive, " My family"s Miss Fourth is so intelligent."
I felt awkward. What pain ?
Then boss put her hand on my head and asked, " Blockhead, what emotional problems have you encountered? Why don"t you tell us so we can help a.n.a.lyse it for you?"
I shook my head, pretending a calmness I did not feel. " No need."
But my heart was stormy. If I was upset with Zhong Yuan today because he poked at a hidden weakness, did that mean I was fond of him?
My blood ran cold at the thought.
If that was the case, then that would explain why I felt lost when Zhong Yuan explained he was just kidding with me. Do I really like him?
I recalled that in the past few days, whenever Zhong Yuan was close to me, my heart would speed up and my brain would slow down. Whenever, he touched me , I would feel like I was singed by him. And I was always thinking about him. I had never felt this way before. It was as if this person"s existence had encompa.s.sed my entire life. Even when he wasn"t around, I would think about what he would be doing, or about all the things we had done together. I thought this was because he was always bullying me and this was my conditional reflex. But now it seemed like there was another reason for the way I was behaving.
There were clear indications that I, Mu er really liked Zhong Yuan. This conclusion made me feel miserable. Oh G.o.d! Would the great Mu er finally be vanquished in the hands of Zhong Yuan?
I thought about it carefully. There was no possibility that Zhong Yuan may like me in return. No! Not possible! Zhong Yuan was a very selective guy. He had countless beautiful women chasing after him. I was just some gra.s.s among the beautiful flowers. Apart from being trampled, I had no other role in this scenario. Moreover, the two of us were not at the same level. I would always be the one who was bullied. There was a huge difference of social status between the two of us. If we had feelings, that is, if the bourgeoise and the proletariat had feelings for each other… yes, yes, that is certainly possible!
But the problem was that at this point, only the proletariat liked the burgeoise…
I gnashed my teeth in frustration. I really hated myself! If you had to like someone, why did it have to be Zhong Yuan, a guy who exploited others as if it was his G.o.d-given right?
I did some deep self reflection and self criticism, trying to figure out what about Zhong Yuan had really attracted me. But I still could not understand why I liked him. There wasn"t a single feature on his body that I liked, except that he was really handsome. But what would I do with his handsomeness? And everyone knew that this little one was the most insecure creature in the world.
So I decided to ask a few people why they liked someone.
Boss said, " Because he is good to me."
Li"l Second answered, " Don"t ask me, I only like computer games."
Miss Fourth replied, " Because I am terribly unlucky."
When I thought about it, I found Miss Fourth"s reply the most appropriate. Why do I like you ? Because I am terribly unlucky! That"s why I am still entangled with you.
But I was even more depressed once I figured out the answer. Because the problem of bad luck was not something I could remedy. In other words, I didn"t like the idea of liking Zhong Yuan but there was nothing I could do to rectify that. It was a very sad realisation.
There was another problem I was grappling with. The problem was whether to let Zhong Yuan know that I liked him. I thought that once he knew about this, there could be several possible scenarios. If he was being kind, he would not laugh at me. Or, if he felt awkward with me, the distance between the two of us would increase. He would move further and further away from me, while I would stand silently looking at his back . None of these situations were palatable to me. So I decided to keep this truth from him and to pretend that nothing had changed between the two of us.
Basically, if he knew I liked him, I would be under a lot of pressure.
To summarise, I really liked Zhong Yuan, though I had no idea why. Although there was no way I could remedy the situation, I would keep it a secret and never let him know
Finally, I went to sleep.
……
In this season, all the picking garden would only have apples for the picking. In the morning, we took a taxi and after almost an hour, we finally arrived at our destination - the Green Garden Picking garden.
This place was primarily for tourists. I had heard there was an experimental garden here where they were growing the Red Fuji variety of apples. This variety was imported from j.a.pan and grown organically. No fertilisers or pesticides were used. Obviously, these were very expensive, but there were some arrogant rich people who were happy to be fooled. Zhong Yuan was one of them.
When we came to the park with Red Fuji, I was transfixed. The trees looked like they were on fire, with red apples cl.u.s.tered around their branches. Because there were many fruits, the branches needed to be supported with artificial struts. As I stood on the mound overlooking this section of the park, all I could see was the colour red. It looked like a sea of fire.
I screamed with joy and ran down to the orchard. I touched one, patted another one and circled around a third tree, I was so crazed by the apples. Zhong Yuan was not as affected as me. He just stood at a distance, taking photos with his phone.
After going around like a crazy person for a while, I finally took a basket and started picking the apples. Fresh apples tasted different. Each one was full of vitality and eating it improved people"s moods. I picked so many apples that after a point, I could no longer move my basket. Then I sat down under a tree and started eating. Fortuitously, Zhong yuan had the foresight to bring a fruit knife with him.
He s.n.a.t.c.hed the first apple as soon as it was cut. Given that he had bought the tickets to the tour, I was too embarra.s.sed to say anything. He ate the piece slowly and then threw away the core. Then he lay down on the gra.s.s under the tree and closed his eyes. I bent forward slightly to see this beautiful vision. The gra.s.s under him was dense, some of it already yellowed. The uneven gra.s.s covered his face partially. From my vantage point, I could see his forehead and his nose. Whichever way you looked at it, his face was like a work of art. The autumn sun rays fell on his body through the trees. It looked as if his body was covered with burnished gold, glowing slightly but not blatantly. His chest rose up and down as he breathed, and the motion gradually slowed and evened out. It seemed like he had fallen asleep.
So I leaned in closer.
I had never understood why Zhong Yuan seemed more and more handsome in my eyes. Now I knew. It was because I was falling in love with this kid. I tried to compare Lu Zijian and Zhong Yuan a few days ago to pull me back from this obsession. Sadly, I found out that in my eyes, Zhong Yuan was more handsome than Lu Zijian. Not only had he bullied me physically, he had even distorted my sense of aesthetics..
So now as I faced the beautiful man I had been obsessing about, I could no longer control myself.
Zhong Yuan"s face was serene. He was breathing evenly and I suspected he was in deep sleep. I knelt beside him, gently stroking his eyelashes with my index finger"
" His eyelashes are longer than mine", I murmured to myself.
Then I used my finger to smoot his eyebrows and murmured again, " Infact, if he isn"t furrowing his eyebrows, they are quite pretty."
Then I murmured praises about his five senses till my gaze landed on his lips. An evil thought suddenly rose in my heart. I"ve heard it said that you can secretly kiss a sleeping person without being caught. I was shocked with this idea that had suddenly come to me. What if…it wasn"t safe? But I really liked him. And I had this strong wish…. It was safe, I had seen it done on TV many times. There was no way I could ever do it openly. I didn"t dare to be upright and honest. So, it made sense to do it secretly. Besides, this beast had taken my first kiss. It was time to pay him back.
I shook him slightly and called out, " Zhong Yuan, Zhong Yuan…"
In response, he moved a bit but did not wake up. So I held my breath and bent forward so that our faces were now really close to each other. AT this point, my heart was beating so rapidly that I felt I would faint at any time.
This was when the accident happened…