Unbelievable.
Jiang Ran was so shocked he couldn’t speak.
Although he had already had a premonition just now that, in this brand-new world line where the trajectory of history had changed, he might not have come to Donghai University to study.
After all, back then, a large part of the reason he had applied to Donghai University was because Cheng Mengxue had wanted to come here, so he had followed her.
Since, on this world line, Cheng Mengxue had died unexpectedly two years ago, then there was a high chance he had no reason to apply to Donghai University either.
But he never would have imagined!
He hadn’t even gotten into an undergraduate program. He had gone straight to a vocational college, a junior college!
No matter how one put it, he had scored 680 on the college entrance exam in the original world line… No matter how far he had fallen, surely he wouldn’t have fallen all the way to junior college, right?
For a moment, his mouth and throat went dry.
He recalled what Qin Feng had once said when evaluating Wang Hao:
“No matter how stupid someone is, can they really fail to score 500?”
Sorry, yes, they really can.
But…
Thinking about it this way, he could more or less understand why he had gotten mixed up with Nan Xiuxiu and that group of rainbow-colored girls who were her besties.
“Um, I want to ask something.”
Jiang Ran hesitated, but he had to ask.
Looking at Nan Xiuxiu’s fair little face, Jiang Ran asked softly:
“Um, we probably haven’t… haven’t… you know, right?”
He gestured with his hands.
Nan Xiuxiu instantly twisted around:
“What are you thinking!”
“Ow.” His arm hurt like hell.
“We’ve only been dating for four days! We haven’t even held hands yet, and you’re already thinking about that kind of thing!”
Nan Xiuxiu turned away:
“I’m very conservative when it comes to this! Unless you marry me, there’s no way I’m doing those things with you! Absolutely not!”
“Okay, okay, I know, I know.”
Jiang Ran gestured for her to be quiet.
“I was just asking casually.”
“You can’t even ask!”
“I know, I know. Stop making a fuss.”
【Very good.】
Jiang Ran felt relieved inside.
This was probably the only good news among the many pieces of bad news after the world line changed.
He did not like Nan Xiuxiu at all, nor did he want to have anything to do with this girl.
Nothing could comfort him more than being completely innocent and untainted.
【I’ve only been dating Nan Xiuxiu for four days. Nothing intimate happened. I didn’t take advantage of her in any way. We haven’t even held hands.】
In that case, there was no burden on his conscience whatsoever.
He would find a chance to break up with her.
He thought to himself:
I don’t have time to play along with you.
As of now…
Some junior college,
some magical-girl girlfriend,
he didn’t care about any of it. Not in the slightest.
Once he used the spacetime text messages to change the world line… all of this would become history that had never existed.
He would leap back to the original world line, save Cheng Mengxue, find Qin Feng again, and resume his original life at Donghai University.
Jiang Ran had no attachment to anything happening now. No reluctance at all.
Because he did not belong here in the first place.
His history was not here;
nor was his future.
…
On the taxi ride back, listening to Nan Xiuxiu chatter nonstop, Jiang Ran also figured out what had happened last night.
Yesterday was Nan Xiuxiu’s best friend’s birthday party, and she had invited the two of them to attend.
He was the only boy at the birthday party.
Nan Xiuxiu was a very traditional girl, so when it was time to sleep at night, Jiang Ran had a room to himself, Nan Xiuxiu shared a room with her best friend, and the other girls stayed separately in the guest rooms on the third floor.
In his WeChat chat history with Wang Hao, Wang Hao had cursed him out many times, constantly questioning why Jiang Ran hadn’t brought him along to such a fragrant party! His anxious look was like a baboon in heat.
But this was Nan Xiuxiu’s best friend’s birthday party, not Jiang Ran’s birthday party. Who got invited was up to the host. Jiang Ran still understood the principle that guests did not bring other guests.
In the end.
The reason that terrifying scene by the window had occurred was because Nan Xiuxiu’s best friend had been showering in the bathroom at the time, while Nan Xiuxiu also wanted to use the toilet… With no other choice, she could only come to Jiang Ran’s bedroom next door to borrow the bathroom.
Seeing Jiang Ran sound asleep, Nan Xiuxiu had tiptoed around without disturbing him.
She had planned to gently push the door open and leave quietly, but who would have thought she would happen to run into Jiang Ran leaping over from another world line and shouting on the phone with Wang Hao?
At this point.
The whole chain of cause and effect was clear.
But it still wasn’t enough.
Jiang Ran still had things he wanted to understand.
The taxi stopped outside the gates of Donghai Vocational College of Foreign Economics and Trade, and the two of them got out.
Jiang Ran raised his head, looked at the shabby, dilapidated school gate, and couldn’t help reciting:
“You might have been dead last in high school, but here, being dead last is merely the threshold for meeting me. Those rare, one-in-ten-thousand individual students your teachers talked about—there’s a whole sports field of them here.”
Nan Xiuxiu turned back:
“What are you babbling about?”
“Nothing.”
Jiang Ran yawned.
“You go back first. I’m meeting Wang Hao for a meal.”
On this world line, he and Wang Hao had applied to the same junior college. After both being admitted, they had become junior college classmates.
After saying goodbye to Nan Xiuxiu, he saw Wang Hao in the cafeteria.
The other party was madly wolfing down food. Jiang Ran twirled his chopsticks and began probing him for information:
“Wang Hao, my grades in high school shouldn’t have been bad, right?”
“They were great.” Wang Hao stuffed a bun into his mouth.
“Then why am I at a junior college?” Jiang Ran stopped twirling his chopsticks.
Wang Hao raised his head:
“Did you lose your memory?”
“Seems like a little…”
“You missed two exams.”
Wang Hao swallowed the bun.
“The day Xiaoxue got into trouble was exactly the day before the second day of the college entrance exam… It happened right in front of you at the time. You followed her all the way to the hospital and never went to take the exams.”
Jiang Ran let out a breath of relief.
No wonder.
He could accept that reason.
“But it seems Nan Xiuxiu doesn’t know about this.”
Jiang Ran asked again:
“She seems to assume my level was just this score.”
“Of course she doesn’t know.”
Wang Hao hugged his bowl.
“Why tell her about that stuff? If you hadn’t gone crazy yesterday, she wouldn’t have known about Xiaoxue either.”
“All of that is in the past, and it’s your psychological trauma. If you don’t bring it up, I won’t bring it up either.”
“That’s exactly the problem.”
Jiang Ran pushed his basket of buns over to him.
“How did I end up dating Nan Xiuxiu? How did she become my girlfriend?”
“Xiuxiu’s pretty good!”
Wang Hao accepted the xiaolongbao with a grin.
“After Xiaoxue passed away unexpectedly, you were in so much pain it was like you were about to die. Your parents were afraid you’d do something stupid, so they didn’t dare let you repeat the year. You just came to junior college with me wearing that dead look on your face.”
“During that period, you were depressed all the time. Your parents often called me and asked me to keep an eye on you because they were afraid something would happen.”
“From the time Xiuxiu met you in freshman year, she’s always stayed with you, circled around you, and tried to cheer you up. Over these past two years, I personally watched your condition improve bit by bit… To put it plainly, that was all thanks to Xiuxiu.”
“So when Xiuxiu confessed to you a few days ago, you agreed. I was really happy to see the two of you finally get together. What, are you dissatisfied with Xiuxiu?”
Jiang Ran said nothing.
He was more than dissatisfied with Nan Xiuxiu.
Of course… he would not interfere with Nan Xiuxiu, nor would he offer any opinions.
Because he did not like her.
So what she was like did not matter.
“【What’s in the past is in the past. Don’t keep blaming yourself.】”
“Xiuxiu really is pretty good. Sometimes I’m honestly even jealous of you.”
Wang Hao continued to talk at length:
“Look, not only is she so pretty, she’s also considerate, and her personality is—”
“Enough.”
Jiang Ran stood up and interrupted him.
“Keep eating. I’m going to Donghai University.”
“Huh?”
Wang Hao froze.
“Why are you still going there? Didn’t you just come back from there this morning?”
“I’ll explain later.”
Jiang Ran took out his phone, deleted that dating app, and instructed Wang Hao:
“Don’t tell Nan Xiuxiu where I went.”
He repeated it again:
“Whatever you do, don’t tell her!”