Those Sweet Times
Chapter 61 Part 1
The regional phase of the collegiate compet.i.tion started on the 12th day of the first month on the lunar calendar. The winner of each province would move onto the regionals; there would be eight teams for each region. The compet.i.tion would only last for one day, producing the regional champion by the end of the day.
Starting from regionals, all matches would be played offline. The location for Xiang Nuan"s regional compet.i.tion happened to be at Nanshan City.
The organizer for the compet.i.tion was short on funding and couldn"t provide any lodging so Xiang Nuan planned to stay at school.
She left home one day ahead of the compet.i.tion and took the long bus ride by herself to Nanshan City. While she was on the bus, Lin Chuyan messaged her, asking about the bus schedule and saying that he would meet her at the bus stop.
Xiang Nuan touched her wavy hair and searched inside her bag to find an old rubber band to pull her hair into a ponytail.
She wouldn"t give Lin Chuyan another chance to make fun of her hairdo.
……
When Xiang Nuan stepped off the bus, she saw Lin Chuyan right outside the open door. The moment she appeared, he smiled at her and his squinting eyes seemed to have a light shining from within.
Xiang Nuan felt a sensation of bliss for a moment. Whenever Lin Chuyan smiled at her, it would always elicit the same emotion, like the dog mentioned in biology books that would drool whenever it heard a ringing bell. It was simply a conditioned reflex.
Lin Chuyan helped Xiang Nuan pull her luggage out of the bus. He lifted the straps of the backpack on Xiang Nuan"s back to see how heavy it was. Then without even asking her, he took the backpack and threw it over his own shoulder.
“It isn"t heavy.” Xiang Nuan said in a small voice, but was touched by the gesture.
Lin Chuyan said: “En.” But he still carried her backpack and pulled her luggage. There were quite a few people getting off the bus. Seeing that someone could b.u.mp into Xiang Nuan, he grabbed her shoulder and pulled her closer to his side.
Her body stiffened when Lin Chuyan"s arm reached over her shoulder. She lowered her head without saying anything.
Lin Chuyan sensed her uneasiness and put his arm down right away: “Let"s go.”
He led her to a fancy red Ferrari. Xiang Nuan"s eyes lit up: “Wow, so beautiful…...Lin Chuyan, is this your car?”
“No.”
“Then let"s go.” Xiang Nuan pulled on his sleeve: “It"s good enough just to look at it.”
Lin Chuyan was amused: “It"s my dad"s car. Get in.” As he put the luggage away, he asked: “Do you need the backpack now?”
“No.”
“En.” He put the backpack together with the luggage.
Xiang Nuan got in the car, fastened the seatbelt, then asked Lin Chuyan: “Does your father know that you"ve taken the car out?”
“He knows.”
Lin Chuyan had to admit that there was a good side to his one-sided crush on Xiang Nuan. Ever since his father learned that he had a crush on a girl, his father had told him that he could use the car anytime and didn"t need to pay his father even if he damaged the car. In his father"s words: “You"re my son after all. I can"t stand to see you being single the rest of your life. Alas! It"s not easy to be a parent.”
Even though his father allowed Lin Chuyan to use the car freely, he still wouldn"t give Lin Chuyan extra money. When his mother wanted to give him a ten thousand RMB red envelope for his love fund, his father vetoed the suggestion.
To Lin Chuyan, his mother was a good mother, except for one thing-- --She listened to her husband too often. He figured that in a more normal family, the mother would give the son some money anyway behind her husband"s back, but not his mother……