Chapter 128 An Explosion of Jealousy

A feeling never before experienced quietly emerged as the two came into close contact.

Xia Xinyu had always been very restrained with her emotions. Otherwise, given their relationship, they could have been like other couples, indulging in unrestrained physical contact during peak hormonal surges.

But she knew she didn't have that kind of self-control.

Everyone said she was a sensible and disciplined good girl, capable of resisting all sorts of temptations. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to enter a school like Fourth High as a "doing homework expert" from a small town and maintain a competitive edge.

But only she knew how attractive things like shopping, games, TV dramas, and mobile phones were to her…

Well, except for mobile phones.

The WeChat notification sound rang, and Xia Xinyu opened her phone expectantly without wasting a second. Then, she saw a message from him.

Chen Yuan: Good night, sleep early.

Seriously, Chen Yuan, can you really sleep?!

And he’s stealing my emotes again…

But why isn't this gold ingot-swallowing one moving?

Oh right, it's a QQ emote.

Then how did he send it on WeChat?

With this question in mind, Xia Xinyu tapped the gold ingot-swallowing emote and found that it was actually a saved and cropped image.

He really likes this emote that much…

Xia Xinyu: Are you really going to sleep?

Chen Yuan: About to sleep

Xia Xinyu: What are you doing now then?

Chen Yuan: This, it's hard to explain

Xia Xinyu: You're not taking a shower, are you?

Chen Yuan: No, no, I was just a little sweaty, so I wet a towel and wiped myself down.

"..." Looking at this message, Xia Xinyu couldn't help but have the scene from before flash in her mind again.

Then, blushing, she shook her head, reminding herself to stay calm.

This was Xia Xinyu.

Seemingly able to shut out the world and focus solely on homework at Fourth High, she actually knew very well that when her mind wandered, she couldn't concentrate.

For example, right now, according to her biological clock, she should be asleep, but she was tethered by certain special emotions, making it impossible for her to fall asleep.

Unable to sleep, unable to get up, feeling sleepy, zoning out in class, falling behind in studies, and then getting worse grades on exams, losing confidence, and doing even worse on the next exam… Ah!

Startled, Xia Xinyu sat up in bed, already feeling anxious.

And the reason for her anxiety was that, as someone who was previously a blank slate, her lack of experience meant that the destructiveness of early love was much greater for her than for those with some experience in relationships…

Previously, when she learned that Qian Duo'er and Yu Xin Yue had both been in love, and Yu Xin Yue had even had three boyfriends, she realized that she was truly an oddity.

Moreover, she would be at a significant disadvantage in the upcoming academic competition.

To give a simple example, the three of them currently had similar grades, with Yu Xin Yue scoring slightly higher last time, with a total score of 638, 15 points more than her.

The three had similar academic abilities, and their rankings on exams varied.

If the three of them didn't engage in early love and studied normally, there wouldn't be much of a difference when they took the Gaokao (National College Entrance Examination).

But if the three of them were all in early love, then Qian Duo'er, who had already had one experience with love, would only regress a little. And the experienced Yu Xin Yue wouldn't be affected; after all, love was as easy as breathing for her. Maybe she would even improve because her love interest was better at studying. Only she…

Couldn't do it.

The result would be that she would be left far behind, perhaps not even scoring 600 points on the Gaokao.

She wasn't like Chen Yuan, whose math scores had improved since meeting her, and whose English had also greatly improved. He was also able to maintain sufficient focus on his studies…

Wait.

Thinking of this, Xia Xinyu suddenly felt a little unbalanced.

Why was he able to be so focused?

Could it be that he had been in love before?

And not just once, but twice, three times, four times…

During this period, Xia Xinyu, who was especially prone to wild thoughts, gradually felt sleepy as she nervously counted.

Because she realized she was starting to count sheep.

No, if this matter continued to plague her, it would truly affect her studies.

So, Xia Xinyu simply sought help from her newly acquainted friend, Zhou Fu.

After becoming friends, the two added each other on WeChat.

Xia Xinyu: Sorry to bother you, Fufu, are you there?

Zhou Fu: I'm here, hehe.

Instant reply?

But it was already 11:30 PM. Wasn't she sleeping this late?

And this "hehe" seemed very energetic.

Xia Xinyu: Why aren't you sleeping so late? What are you doing?

Zhou Fu: I'm reading manga, heh heh

Xia Xinyu: Aren't you going to be sleepy tomorrow?

Zhou Fu: Yeah, but tomorrow morning is Sherry Liu's class. Chen Yuan said it's okay to sleep in her class, so I dared to read it

Xia Xinyu: What manga are you reading? Is it that good?

Zhou Fu: A pure love manga

Xia Xinyu: Is that the kind with one male lead and one female lead?

Zhou Fu: Mine seems to have two male leads

Two male leads?

Oh, it's a manga with two male leads and two female leads, right?

So it's an ensemble cast, with several love lines, and everyone has their own love story…

Probably.

Should she ask her directly about Chen Yuan's past?

Wouldn't she think she was being a bother?

As she was thinking this, Zhou Fu proactively sent a message.

Zhou Fu: BTW, Chen Yuan hasn't been in a relationship in high school. I'm sure of that.

Xia Xinyu: If he doesn't date, and his grades aren't that good, what's he doing…

Zhou Fu: Hanging out with Zhou Yu, probably. They're really close, and the kind who are very easily jealous. If they're at school, it's hard for either of them to find any romance, haha.

Jealous?

Her wording wasn't very accurate.

It should be that they would be very jealous if the other got a partner, so they would try to sabotage the other's romantic prospects. A ‘mutually hindering’ type of bad friend.

Well done, Zhou Yu, human.

Zhou Fu: As for middle school, I haven't asked yet, because that requires a topic.

Zhou Fu: But Zhou Yu, He Sijiao, and I all didn't have any romantic experiences in middle school, so there's nothing to talk about oo.

Xia Xinyu: What about asking directly?

Zhou Fu: That won't work. Asking directly like that would expose you on the one hand, and it would feel a bit strange on the other.

Zhou Fu: This is better asked by the official girlfriend.

As soon as the words "official girlfriend" appeared, Xia Xinyu's typing fingers trembled, and her expression became flustered.

N-n-n-not like that yet!

Xia Xinyu: How... how should I ask?

Xia Xinyu didn't know why she had to ask someone else this question, especially someone with zero romantic experience like herself.

But she always felt that practical experience wasn't the only thing that could count as experience. Zhou Fu, who was well-versed in pure love manga, could also be called her senior.

And sure enough, the other party came up with a rather philosophical answer.

Zhou Fu: Although boys worry that girls will overthink, they also like it when their partner is occasionally a little jealous.

Ah, this…

It's too hard. Early love is harder than math. Xia Xinyu wasn't lying.

The reason she was embarrassed to ask was that she felt that if she asked, she might not be able to accept the result she got.

Moreover, if she asked in a very serious tone, Chen Yuan's personality would make him feel thorny, and then he would start to agonize over whether to lie or tell the truth.

He was trustworthy most of the time, but in this aspect, he might try to make her happy…

Too bad, why didn't she get more information from him during the Bo Long (name of chapter, not translated) period, when the two of them didn't have that kind of ambiguous feeling.

At that time, he would not only not tell her about his romantic experiences, but would even openly discuss the type of girl he liked.

Xia Xinyu: Not jealous, just curious haha.

There was no way she could be completely frank in this regard.

Zhou Fu: I was just saying

Xia Xinyu: Okay, I won't bother you from reading your manga, Fufu. Good night.

Zhou Fu: Okay, good night Xinyu

After this conversation, she understood somewhat.

Lost in thought, she opened Chen Yuan's QQ.

Then, she looked down through the statuses on his QQ space, but unfortunately, there were only five, and the most recent ones were all from a year ago, including three reposts of Waterdrop Crowdfunding (a Chinese crowdfunding platform).

One was a photo of the school gate taken on the day of middle school graduation, with the caption: "Won the promotion to high school bo5."

This status actually had hundreds of likes.

Probably because he usually didn't post statuses, but had a lot of friends, so everyone gave this one decent status a friendly like after entering his space.

And the last status was a personalized signature synchronized to his space.

(Blank line in original text)

Could it be that something happened on May 41, 2018?

But there's no 41st of May... Oh right, there's no 41st of any month.

Strange, I don't understand.

She couldn't see anything from his space statuses, so she started to open the comments.

There weren't many comments either, only a little over twenty.

When she first started scrolling, there wasn't anything unusual. They were all normal sightseeing comments.

Of course, not all of them were normal.

Feng Qingyang: Son, Dad's here!

Chen Yuan replied to Feng Qingyang: Don't call me son.

Feng Qingyang replied to Chen Yuan's reply: Filial Piety (Xiao)

Chen Yuan replied to Feng Qingyang's reply: Clam (Beng)

Looking further down at the comments on this thread, it was basically more of this incomprehensible stuff.

And they were actually able to send each other over thirty comments!

Finally, Chen Yuan's "Blacklisted, don't call me son, your dad can't see it" brought it to an end.

Can guys chat so excessively without affecting their friendship?

Oh well, I'll keep reading.

Honestly, the ones from high school were okay, very subtle, or as Chen Yuan put it, ‘abstract.’ But as she scrolled, her mood gradually became subtle. And after seeing that those comments all came from one person, her emotions gradually became difficult to calm.

This also confirmed that she wasn't a very magnanimous person.

And after looking at them again in chronological order, the unease in her heart grew even stronger.

Yang Tao'er: You have so few comments, I'm here~

Chen Yuan replied to Yang Tao'er: Welcome, welcome

Yang Tao'er: Do you like cats or dogs?

Chen Yuan replied to Yang Tao'er: I like Kun Kun.

Yang Tao'er: Happy New Year, get rich, send me a red envelope

Chen Yuan replied to Yang Tao'er: Happy New Year, get rich, send me a red envelope to recharge CF.

Yang Tao'er: Happy graduation, be sure to keep in touch

Chen Yuan: Definitely, no need to say more

Yang Tao'er: Happy birthday, I'll wait for you to come back to He Xiang to hang out again!

Chen Yuan: Okay, Boss Yang

These most recent comments happened on August 28th of this year. Xia Xinyu had actually scrolled to them at the very beginning, but because it was a birthday greeting, she didn't make too much of it.

But unlike with others, Chen Yuan replied to every message from Yang Tao'er, and his language was very polite.

More importantly, they had maintained this state of commenting and replying throughout middle school.

The last time was just two months ago, before Chen Yuan knew her. And judging by the looks of it, there would be a next time. There was no reason for it to suddenly stop.

Yang Tao'er must be a very good friend of his.

And someone from his hometown, a friend he often hangs out with after going back.

Outside of her sight… a super good friend.

………

Six o'clock, get up.

She slept well last night and was quite satisfied.

So, she was very energetic when she got up.

And after finishing some preparations and washing up, there was a sudden knock on the door.

Generally speaking, Xia Xinyu would come at 6:30, and always on time, to give herself plenty of time for self-management.

The only time it was different was because Xia Xinyu was picked up by her aunt that day, and she wanted to say goodbye to him before leaving, so he saw Chen Yuan, the lazy version with his hair sticking up.

So, Chen Yuan opened the door.

Then, he could tell right away that something was subtly wrong with her.

She didn't seem very energetic?

"Xinyu, didn't you sleep well?" Chen Yuan asked.

"... Yeah." When Xia Xinyu answered, her eyes were fixed on Chen Yuan.

Giving off a sense of resentment that said, "It's all your fault."

Should he use his Superpower to listen?

Forget it, let's leave some secrets for his heart treasure, and try to avoid eavesdropping on people's hearts as much as possible.

"Then shall we go out?" Chen Yuan asked.

Although there was some food that Xia Xinyu had packed at home, it was too heavy to eat this for breakfast, so he decided to eat out after leaving.

Xia Xinyu nodded, then turned her head and walked ahead, her high ponytail swaying gently.

She knew she couldn't blame Chen Yuan, since this was before he met her.

Besides, it was normal to have friends, even of the opposite sex... although she didn't have any.

But she was thinking about one thing, a somewhat "sad" story.

These two used to have a good relationship, looking just like herself and Chen Yuan at this time.

Although the other party's space was locked, and she couldn't enter, Xia Xinyu could guess that Chen Yuan was the same on Yang Tao'er's side.

In addition to commenting, there must have been a lot of communication on QQ. And when the two of them were in middle school together, there was even more face-to-face contact.

These words were a bit much, but it was her true thought. If the other person was also somewhat pretty, and the two had such a close relationship, at some point when the atmosphere was right, if they confided in each other and naturally expressed their feelings, wouldn't they directly become a couple with a lot of emotional foundation?

Xia Xinyu even thought about it a little more. The affection between the two was above friendship, and they both wanted to take it a step further. But because Chen Yuan met her, someone who was more important to him, the affection between the two of them naturally faded.

Then, no one was at fault.

Chen Yuan couldn't be called a "scumbag."

So, what did she care about?

Just as Xia Xinyu was thinking this, she suddenly realized that Chen Yuan wasn't beside her.

She turned her head and saw Chen Yuan holding onto the handrail, carefully going down the steps. After seeing her, he smiled and said, "Sorry, wait a moment."

"Sorry, I forgot." Xia Xinyu then realized that Chen Yuan was having difficulty walking because he had sprained his foot, which might even be swollen into a pig's trotter, so she quickly returned to his side, held his waist, and led him downstairs.

At this time, one of Chen Yuan's hands also wrapped around her shoulder…

They were touching.

The throbbing of her heart was so clear.

This was what hormones were clamoring for—more physical contact.

But there was no way around it. He was holding her because he was having trouble walking. She shouldn't overthink it…

Xinyu was really nice to hold.

Her shoulders were soft, her hair smelled good, and from this angle, he could see the nape of her neck, which Captain Levi loved the most.

Of course, Chen Yuan didn't necessarily want to take advantage of this opportunity to get in close contact.

He had a reason too. After all, Xinyu had helped him wash his hair yesterday, so she must have thought he was seriously injured.

So, Chen Yuan wanted to patch things up.

And...

To sell his injury a little to soften the heart of Xinyu, who was being a little petty for some reason.

He, Chen Yuan, was going to take advantage of her kindness.

"Generally speaking, the second morning is the most painful. It'll get better later," Xia Xinyu said soothingly.

"Yeah, it really hurts in the morning. I can't even lift it…" Chen Yuan continued to play the victim.

"Yeah, who told some people to keep playing basketball after twisting their ankles?" Xia Xinyu's concern was there, but not much.

Seriously, can't you coax me a little more?

You've changed, Xinyu. You used to tell me to "make the pain go away."

"Speaking of playing basketball." After going downstairs, Chen Yuan took out his phone, opened a group photo of Class Fifteen that Xinyu could see, "Is this okay?"

"Yeah, it's a great photo!"

Xia Xinyu naturally took the phone, looked at the people in the photo, and found that everyone was smiling happily. Including herself, she was also vigorously clenching her fist in celebration.

That's right, wasn't the reason Chen Yuan played basketball with an injury for this moment?

And a big part of the reason he wanted to show off was also because of her. Otherwise, he wouldn't have actively requested to take the first shot when he spotted her.

This moment was also one of her important high school memories.

"Swipe down on the photo. There's one of our class too," Chen Yuan said, because he had hidden that one inside beforehand, so he wasn't flustered now.

"Oh..." After Xia Xinyu did as he said, she saw another group photo and couldn't help but smile, "You guys even directly changed your jersey. Your classmates are so funny."

"The human Zhou Yu is next to me."

"Eek, there's a girl next to him too?"

"That's He Sijiao, Sister Jiao. They might be getting together recently."

"Ah this, aren't you guys not letting each other find romance?"

"What do you mean?" Chen Yuan asked, puzzled.

"..." Only then did she realize that this was the content of her chat with Zhou Fu. Xia Xinyu quickly changed her words, "From your usual descriptions, I thought you guys seemed like bad friends."

"Not to the point of bad friends."

I'm his bad dad.

"Are there any other photos? From the sports meet," Xia Xinyu continued to ask.

Chen Yuan casually said, "Not many, about seven or eight. Scroll through them and take a look."

He just handed her his phone without any hesitation.

Although boys worry that girls will overthink, they also like it when their partner is occasionally a little jealous…

Thinking of Zhou Fu's words, Xia Xinyu suddenly had an idea.

She took out her phone, directly stuffed it into Chen Yuan's hand, and then, holding Chen Yuan's phone, she said in a light and playful tone, "Come on, let's play a game."

"What game? I'm up for anything. Anyway, it's still early today. We can start a round."

Chen Yuan made an "OK" gesture, although he didn't understand why she wanted to switch phones with him. But he was the kind of expert gamer who didn't care about specs, so he didn't think this was a challenge at all.

But some games can't be played across iOS and Android platforms. That's crucial.

Xia Xinyu shook her head, and continued in that light tone, with some probing, "The game is that we each play with the other's phone for five minutes."

"..."

Seriously, this isn't a game. It's a dare!

And my "Bilibili" (Chinese video sharing website) doesn't have a password, so my B station (Bilibili) affiliation will be exposed!

So Chen Yuan didn't agree right away, and said with hesitation, "Um... okay, I think it's possible…"

With Xinyu's personality, she probably just wants to be playful and tease me. She wouldn't really look, since that involves privacy.

Xia Xinyu actually just wanted to be playful. With her personality, she wouldn't really switch phones with him to look, because that's a bit of an invasion of privacy.

After all, people have other family, friendship, and internet second personalities on their phones.

But Chen Yuan's hesitant look made her heart sink slightly.

His expression just now clearly meant that he had a ‘secret.’

"Chen Yuan."

Stopping in her tracks, Xia Xinyu grabbed his arm and put it down, turned her head to look at him. Not pretending to be jealous, but really asking with some jealousy, "The reason you don't want me to see... is because there are group photos with Yang Tao'er, right?"