“2018.09.24 Clear and cloudless”
She stole glances at you, yet feared being discovered.
—Excerpt from Tao Shuran’s Diary
“They’re all from our class.”
Liang Yuanjing crossed his arms, his gaze openly fixed on her.
“Which one do you like? I can introduce you.”
His smile looked a bit dangerous, his eyebrow slightly raised as he watched Tao Shuran with unclear intentions.
Seeing this, Luo Qiuya quickly tucked the photo into her chest, raised her hand, and said, “I like them all.”
“Handsome Liang, it was all me forcing Ranran to look at them with me. She didn’t want to look at all.”
Tao Shuran: ……
It felt like the more she explained, the worse it got.
Liang Yuanjing hooked his lip: “Is that so?”
Meeting his gaze, Tao Shuran pursed her lips and nodded slightly, feeling a bit guilty.
Right before class started, Luo Qiuya leaned over and whispered in her ear.
“Ranran, I heroically sacrificed myself for you. Don’t forget to introduce that handsome guy to me.”
Tao Shuran turned her head to look at her and muttered, “How is it for me?”
“Come on, you two just started dating. Do you want Liang Yuanjing to misunderstand that you like someone else?”
“I feel like Liang Yuanjing jealous looks like……” Luo Qiuya whispered super softly, “the kind that wants to fuck you to death in bed.”
Tao Shuran suddenly shot up from her seat, her arm banging on the desk. She widened her eyes, looking utterly startled.
The surrounding classmates were also startled by the commotion and turned their gazes toward them.
Luo Qiuya quickly pulled her back down: “Why are you so worked up, Ranran? I just spoke a bit coarsely, that’s all.”
Tao Shuran swallowed: “That’s way too coarse.”
“How far have you and Liang Yuanjing gone? Holding hands, hugging, kissing……”
“None of that.”
Before she could finish, Tao Shuran hurriedly interrupted. Her chest heaved several times, her flushed cheeks looked like she was shy, and she urged Luo Qiuya to face the blackboard properly.
“The teacher is about to continue class.”
The obscure and difficult calculus class finally resumed in a drowsy atmosphere. Watching Luo Qiuya pick up her phone again to slack off, Tao Shuran sighed softly in her heart.
None of that meant that, aside from the title, their distance was like ordinary friends.
Tao Shuran sadly slumped on the desk, her fingertips gripping the ballpoint pen turning white.
After a while, a noise came from Luo Qiuya’s seat next to her. She listened for a bit, then propping up her arm listlessly, turned her head to look.
But she met a sharp, gleaming face.
Liang Yuanjing propped his chin, not knowing how long he had been watching her. Seeing her finally notice him, a bit of amusement entered his voice.
“Back in high school, you were such a good little baby. Now in college, you’ve stopped studying?”
Caught slacking off, Tao Shuran stuck out her tongue, placed her hands neatly folded on the desk, and struck a pose of seriously listening to class.
But with a class like calculus, missing one key point was like a nine-ring puzzle—everything else couldn’t connect.
As she listened, Tao Shuran’s brows furrowed deeply, and she flipped back through her book more frequently.
After finishing a whole knowledge point, the old professor gave them ten minutes to do two after-class exercises on the board.
As usual, he picked two people from the roster to do them. This class’s grading was 4:6 for regular and final scores, so regular points were pretty important too.
While the teacher’s gaze lingered on the roster, Tao Shuran’s heart rate spiked. She kept her head down, her fingers gripping the pen tightly, silently praying not to be called.
The more you fear something, the more it comes.
The old professor read a number: “Student number 13, Tao Shuran, right? Come up and do this problem.”
The three from her dorm all shot her sympathetic looks.
Seeing those looks, Tao Shuran inwardly cried out that it was bad—she knew they probably couldn’t do it either.
Just thinking of going on stage made her palms sweat from nerves. As she passed Liang Yuanjing, she heard him prompt, “Substitution.”
Tao Shuran tilted her head slightly, gripped the chalk tighter. Though she didn’t know much, she followed his idea and used the substitution method.
But at a critical step, she suddenly got stuck. Standing on stage with her mind tense, she couldn’t proceed no matter what.
The old professor patrolled below, hands behind his back, urging, “Students who haven’t finished, hurry up. The two on stage, speed it up too.”
The classmate next to her finally finished the solution steps, tossed the chalk, and walked down briskly.
Tao Shuran pursed her lips and, after extreme hesitation, raised her hand.
“Teacher, I can’t do it.”
The old professor followed an encouraging teaching style and lifted his chin: “Try again. Don’t give up easily.”
But for a pure introvert like Tao Shuran, a problem she couldn’t solve was impossible to solve on stage in public. She wasn’t the type to suddenly have a flash of inspiration; she could only stand there awkwardly biting her lip.
Shame flooded her entire body.
Tao Shuran hated being the center of attention.
Every minute and second stretched endlessly long, so long it was like a thread pulling everyone’s breaths taut, the air thick and suffocating. She lowered her head, waiting for the teacher’s final mercy.
“Teacher, can I go up and finish it for my girlfriend?”
In the sticky air, a lazy voice broke through.
Liang Yuanjing had his long legs stretched out, hands lazily overlapped in front, turned his head with a casual smile.
“Don’t make it hard on her. I’ll do all the remaining problems.”
The old professor chuckled: “So confident?”
Liang Yuanjing raised an eyebrow matter-of-factly: “Of course. I’ve always been the one teaching her math.”
As soon as he said it, the class erupted in a chorus of “Oooohs.”
The old professor laughed: “Yo, a nurturing type.”
Liang Yuanjing neither confirmed nor denied it. He strode up with long legs, stood behind Tao Shuran, patted her shoulder reassuringly, naturally took the chalk from her hand, and wrote it out stroke by stroke.
Tao Shuran’s eyelashes trembled. The legs that had wanted to leave the stage were blocked by his solid back and couldn’t move.
Just like that, Liang Yuanjing raised his arm behind her, his open arms like he was holding her in his embrace.
This intimate contact choked off all the air she could breathe, but she survived the suffocation entirely because of her admiration for him.
With a perfect, smooth solution process, Liang Yuanjing lifted his arm slightly, tossed the chalk head decisively, took her hand, and led her back to their seats.
Tao Shuran looked up at him. Walking a step behind him, even craning her neck, she could only see his sharp jawline.
The old professor went up to inspect it. Probably finding no flaws in the answer, his expression relaxed.
In a light tone, he joked: “Classmates, see that? When finding a boyfriend, go for this growth type.”
The class shouted: “What do we do, teacher? We didn’t date one in high school. Is it too late to go back and repeat?”
The teacher tossed a piece of chalk at them, laughing as he cursed: “Repeat my ass?”
“Did you understand the differentiation formulas?”
Having become the class focus in another way, Tao Shuran slightly lowered her head, her heart filled with a shy feeling.
Sitting next to her, Tan Yueyi tugged her sleeve and whispered: “Ranran, you two really sweetened me up.”
At this moment, Tao Shuran began to realize that even if she and Liang Yuanjing weren’t really dating.
The fatally ambiguous pull between them was real.
In the last ten minutes before class ended, no one had much mind for listening.
Tao Shuran asked softly: “Are you going home for National Day?”
Liang Yuanjing propped his chin, his tone a bit casual.
“Nope, no point.”
She asked: “Then where are you going?”
“Somewhere random.” He answered casually, fingers tapping the desk idly. Seeing her eager gaze, he actually thought about it seriously.
“Maybe find a quiet island to stay at. I’ve been interested in diving lately.”
Tao Shuran said “Oh,” and after one topic ended, she racked her brains for the next.
“Why did you come to class today? I remember your class doesn’t have one with ours.”
“You even know that.”
Liang Yuanjing chuckled lowly: “Did you scout my schedule in advance?”
It was clearly just a joke, but Tao Shuran felt embarrassed because he had guessed her thoughts.
She lowered her head and stopped initiating talk. Liang Yuanjing turned to her instead: “What are your National Day plans?”
“None.”
Liang Yuanjing “Mm”ed, his gaze coolly fixed ahead.
After a while, Tao Shuran hesitantly raised her book, looked at him tentatively, and asked: “Would relearning the calculus book from start to finish count as plans?”
Liang Yuanjing burst out laughing: “Or come play with me?”
“I’ll find a tutor for you.”
Tao Shuran pursed her lips and said very softly: “I haven’t told my parents about us dating yet.”
The implication was that he couldn’t conveniently appear in her life yet.
Liang Yuanjing raised an eyebrow, not expecting this unexpected answer.
He chuckled, not minding much, and habitually leaned down to tease her.
“Oh——so I’m that unsightly.”
His drawn-out tone overflowed with youthful amusement. Tao Shuran, immersed in her own emotions, completely missed Liang Yuanjing’s mischievous smile.
She immediately explained: “No, it’s just that I don’t think it’s necessary.”
“Anyway, in the end, we’ll separate.”
As soon as she said it, she regretted it, feeling it was too buzzkill for such an unclear relationship.
Liang Yuanjing studied her and slowly said:
“In a relationship, if you’re always thinking about the outcome, it’s no fun.”
“Better to think about the process. I can learn warmth and delicacy from you, capture tiny moments of happiness in life.”
Liang Yuanjing paused, looking into her eyes sincerely: “And I can teach you a man’s true role in a relationship, how to become brave, unafraid of worldly gazes.”
“Oh, and if you’re interested, I can teach you to fly a plane, so you can soar the skies and dive the earth, becoming an omnipotent Tao Shuran.”
The bell rang just as the topic ended.
Under his guidance, Tao Shuran thought a lot. At this moment, she suddenly understood his intent.
Her inferiority, timidity, cowardice—he had seen it all.
And these flaws she tried so hard to hide from the person she liked were quietly guided to grow by him.
Tao Shuran looked up, eyes slightly narrowed, touched and a bit teary.
Her mind couldn’t help thinking of that phrase—she really liked a very, very good person, so good that even if it ended without fruition, one-sided, she wouldn’t have a word of complaint.
Tao Shuran smiled and asked: “Is flying fun?”
“Fun.” Liang Yuanjing’s eyes sparkled. “Way more fun than dating.”
Infected by his mood, Tao Shuran couldn’t help imagining the day she moved from theory to the restoration room for real practice.
Putting a personally restored artifact on display would surely be incredibly fulfilling.
Anticipation colored her eyes.
Liang Yuanjing turned his head to watch her quietly. He always felt that if you truly wanted to be good to a girl from the heart, leading her to the other shore of life was far more meaningful than illusory love.
As he thought this, two girls surrounded him.
Liang Yuanjing lifted his gaze, his attention pausing on them for a split second before he turned away. His thin eyelids flicked, and he reached out to tuck Tao Shuran’s long hair that had fallen over her shoulder.
In a casual tone, he looked at her and said: “Come on, exercise your rights as my girlfriend.”