Chapter 7: Since You Like Him, Win Him Back

Xia Xiran cried beautifully, tears streaming down her face.

Only when her heart was torn with pain did she realize what she had lost.

"I really regret it. If only I'd accepted him earlier." Xia Xiran bit her cherry lips, full of regret.

"But there's no medicine for regret now. Let's just think about how to make up for it," Yuanyuan reminded her.

Xia Xiran's eyes brimmed with tears. She stared blankly for a moment. "Make up for it?"

"Yeah! Since you like him, then win him back!" Yuanyuan said seriously.

"Right, I have to win him back." A small flame ignited in Xia Xiran's eyes.

But Glasses Girl gave a disdainful snort. "Why should Xiran be the one chasing after Jiang Muye? Boys don't like girls who throw themselves at them at all. They won't cherish them either, it's just for fun to them. Do you want to watch Xiran get dumped?"

Yuanyuan was immediately stumped. "Then what should we do? Are we supposed to just watch the Cold Campus Belle win Jiang Muye over!"

That single sentence made Xia Xiran's whole body jolt.

She'd nearly forgotten that Leng Ruoli was also in the picture.

"Could it be that the Cold Campus Belle said something to Jiang Muye, and that's why he didn't come propose this time? Otherwise Jiang Muye would've been there every day like clockwork, proposing no matter what!"

Xia Xiran bit her lip. She hesitated for a long, long time, then made a difficult decision.

"I'm going to talk to her."

Whoever tied the knot must be the one to untie it.

She wanted to find out exactly what Leng Ruoli had said to Jiang Muye that day, what had changed his mind and his decision.

Eight forty-five at night.

Xia Xiran knocked on the door of dorm room 502, where Leng Ruoli lived.

After a moment, the door opened.

Xia Xiran was met with a face so beautiful it didn't seem real.

The other girl's deep blue eyes gazed at her coldly. "What do you want?"

Xia Xiran was completely cowed by the other's icy aura.

Leng Ruoli wore no makeup at all, yet was still as exquisite and flawless as a porcelain doll.

Xia Xiran had always thought herself plenty pretty, but standing in front of Leng Ruoli, she was instantly outclassed.

As a girl herself, she couldn't help but adore that face.

Let alone boys.

With that thought, a shadow of dejection clouded Xia Xiran's eyes.

She'd never gone out of her way to approach a stranger, especially not someone who might be her romantic rival.

A faint blush spread across Xia Xiran's cheeks. She stammered, "Hi, would it be convenient to let me come in and talk to you alone for a bit?"

Leng Ruoli gave a faint "Mm."

Xia Xiran walked in.

Leng Ruoli lived in the most luxurious two-person room. It was much bigger than the other dorms, to say nothing of the decor.

It didn't feel like a dorm room at all—more like a hotel room. Just that princess bed alone looked incredibly comfortable.

"Go on, what is it?" Leng Ruoli picked up her coffee cup and took a delicate sip. Her skin, fine as porcelain, radiated a piercing chill.

As expected of the Untouchable Flower in the boys' hearts, the Ice Beauty of the school.

Xia Xiran mulled it over for ages before saying, "There are rumors going around school about you lately. Do you want to come forward and clear them up?"

"Hm?"

Xia Xiran flushed red. "There's a rumor saying you… like Jiang Muye!"

"Oh." Leng Ruoli gave a soft reply, then in a very calm tone responded, "I do need to clarify that."

Xia Xiran's eyes instantly lit up.

If Leng Ruoli was going to clarify, didn't that mean she didn't like Jiang Muye?

Phew, thank goodness. Leng Ruoli wasn't her rival after all.

Otherwise her chances of reconciling with Jiang Muye would've become slim.

As Xia Xiran secretly rejoiced, Leng Ruoli said composedly, "I need to clarify that it's not a rumor—I do like Jiang Muye."

The smile on Xia Xiran's face froze instantly.

She wondered if she'd heard wrong.

"You like Jiang Muye? Are you sure?"

Leng Ruoli said with absolute certainty, "Yes, I'm sure and certain."

"I thought you'd make him happy, so I suppressed my feelings for him. But now I've realized you're not even worthy of his love!" Leng Ruoli could no longer keep her composure.

Tears were already misting her eyes. Thinking of everything that had happened before, she wept in empathy.

"He likes you so much. When you had gastroenteritis and couldn't eat the cafeteria food, he ran to every little shop outside campus to borrow their kitchens, and specially learned to make porridge for you. But you—you didn't take a single bite!"

"You failed an exam, and he sat with you on the basketball court while you cried. And you still thought he was being a busybody."

"You had a fever, and nobody dared take you to the fever clinic, but he risked possibly being quarantined to take you to the hospital for treatment and an IV drip."

"A boy who's so, so good to you—why couldn't you cherish him properly!"

Leng Ruoli cried until her eyes were swollen.

Every time she saw Jiang Muye give to Xia Xiran without expecting anything in return, it cut her like a knife.

Xia Xiran's heart trembled.

The details she'd never paid attention to before—now, after Leng Ruoli said them aloud, all of them surfaced in her mind.

So she had been this cruel to Jiang Muye.

And yet Jiang Muye had never once given up on her.

Xia Xiran had always enjoyed his kindness, feeling that Jiang Muye treating her well was only natural—after all, he was pursuing her.

But the person she took completely for granted was a treasure in someone else's eyes.

Xia Xiran looked at the sobbing Leng Ruoli with a complicated expression.

Leng Ruoli's eyes had gone as red as a rabbit's. She bit her lower lip and said stubbornly, "I'm going to pursue him. I'm going to give him back all the happiness you owe him! No—doubled, multiple times over!"

Xia Xiran's face turned pale in a flash.

She was thrown into a panic.

Her greatest fear had come true.

"A girl chasing a boy is cheap. If you chase him, he'll definitely—"

Xia Xiran's words were immediately cut off by Leng Ruoli, who replied stubbornly, "There's nothing cheap about feelings—unless you just don't like him enough."

Leng Ruoli's red lips parted slightly. "The old me wasn't brave enough. Now I want to be brave once for my own love."

A girl pursuing a boy—what was there to be ashamed of?

The only reason she'd hesitated was that by the time she appeared, Jiang Muye was already hopelessly in love with Xia Xiran.

But now Leng Ruoli had realized that Xia Xiran would only ever hurt Jiang Muye.

Of the 99 times Jiang Muye had proposed to Xia Xiran, she hadn't dared watch a single one. But that day had been a coincidence—she'd witnessed Xia Xiran's heartlessness and coldness with her own eyes.

And she'd seen how desolate Jiang Muye looked in the rain.

So she had no intention of letting the big boy she loved be hurt by Xia Xiran over and over again.

Xia Xiran felt a heavy blow to her heart.

There's nothing cheap about feelings—unless you just don't like him enough….

No, she did like Jiang Muye.

So why couldn't she pursue him?

Was it because she couldn't let go of her pride? Or her face?

Jiang Muye had pursued her ninety-nine times.

Again and again he'd set aside his pride and pursued her with tremendous courage.

Why was she unwilling to do it even once?

Xia Xiran looked at the resolute Leng Ruoli before her and suddenly felt a deep sense of crisis.

God, just how many absurd, wrong things had she done?

Jiang Muye loved her so much—how could she have hurt him so cruelly?

Xia Xiran's breathing grew rapid.

Her heart ached sharply.

She realized something, and abruptly flung the door open and rushed out in a panic.

She had an important, proper matter to attend to!