The Best Of You (English Ver.) - Chapter 4
Sun Tiantian lost her first battle. Her mood was a bit complicated.
When she had lunch with her roommate outside the school, Cheng Duo patted her shoulder, “Don’t lose your hope, don’t feel sad. You can do it. I’m very optimistic!”
Xie Yan and He Miao also said the same thing, “We are all optimistic about you!”
Sun Tiantian, whose hands were holding her chin while thinking of something, noticed the reaction of the three people in front of her and laughed. “I’m not depressed. What are you talking about?”
She had already prepared for a long-term battle from the start.
Cheng Duo said, “You have been so quiet, I thought you felt devastated and lost your confidence.”
Sun Tiantian giggled, “No, I’m thinking about what I should do next. Shen Nianshen is so much ignorant than I imagined.”
“See, we are not lying to you. The level of difficulty in approaching Shen Nianshen is indeed very high. Think about it, from the freshman until now, so many girls chased after him. All of them are very beautiful, and he didn’t feel touched at all.” Xie Yan rubbed her chin with a doubtful expression, “No one knows what kind of girl he likes.”
Sun Tiantian smiled gently, proudly lifting her chin, “Who knows he is waiting for a girl like me.”
Cheng Duo patted Sun Tiantian’s head and laughed at her, “That’s enough, Donut! You’re too narcissistic.”
Sun Tiantian held her head with one hand, tilted her head. In her mind, she still could remember Shen Nianshen’s expressionless face. Even though he was cold and extremely indifferent, but he looked extraordinary. Besides, his face, when he was seriously listening to lectures, really charming.
Sun Tiantian could not help but bending her lips, her eyes staring at the ceiling, and again showed a stupid smile.
The three girls in front of her looked at each other, unable to stop themselves from smirking.
The girl who fell in love for the first time was terrifying.
After finished lunch, they left the restaurant. The four girls joined their hands and returned to school.
At lunchtime, some students who were usually in the dormitory come out to attend school events. The University became very crowded.
As they passed Yuehu Avenue in front of the University Building, they saw the Student Union and Student Activity Club opened registration for new members.
Recruitment of new members to the Student Union and Student Activity Club should have started in September when the school began. However, just as the school started, Sun Tiantian and other first-year students were sent for military training at Mount Muyang. The military training ended on the Chinese National Day Holiday. Therefore, recruitment had only officially started now.
The Student Union Booth and Student Activity Club were on both sides of Yuehu Avenue. Each club’s booth had one table and several chairs in front of it, on the table there were thick piles of A4 sheets paper.
No matter the Student Union or the registration of a new Student Activity Club, every registration point was crowded with students. This hype showed that everyone was very enthusiastic about their university life.
Xie Yan was a little excited and asked them, “Do you want to register? I have an interest in joining the Student Union.”
Cheng Duo said, “If you want to join, go and register on it. But I’m not very interested.”
Sun Tiantian: “I’m not interested, either.”
“How about you, Miao Miao?” Xie Yan sincerely took He Miao’s hand, “Please come with me. I’m afraid if I have to go there alone.”
He Miao was an introverted girl. She won’t be interested in participating in something like this, “I don’t like it either.”
“All of you are so cruel! None of you willing to accompany me!” Xie Yan pulled He Miao’s hand.
“Come on, accompany me to look around.” While speaking, she pulled He Miao to the Student Union registration point.
Sun Tiantian shouted, “You two go look around. Ah Duo and I will be waiting for you on the other side.”
Xie Yan replied no less loudly, “Okay! We will be back soon!”
Cheng Duo was not interested in the Student Union, but she was quite interested in the Student Activity Club. She pulled Sun Tiantian, “Let’s take a look there. It looks like the student activity club is quite interesting.”
The student activity registration booth was opposite the Student Union, and there were so many clubs offered. There was a dance club, badminton club, volleyball club, language club, music club, public relations club, animation club, and so on.
Cheng Duo took Sun Tiantian to look around. At last, she pointed to the animation club, “How if we join this one?”
Sun Tiantian shook her head, “I don’t want to, I’m too lazy.”
Besides being a university student, Sun Tiantian was a freelance comic artist. She often drew manga comics online. Even though she wasn’t very popular, but everyone must always have their dream. It was not an impossible thing that she will be famous one day.
She was busy enough to go to the classes while drawing the manga, not to mention that she also had to pursue her beloved Shen Nianshen. How could she still have time to join club activities?
Actually, Cheng Duo wasn’t very interested. After seeing that Sun Tiantian was not impressed in participating, she also discouraged, “Never mind, let’s wait for Yan Yan there.”
Cheng Duo walked along with Sun Tiantian to the side, just a few steps, suddenly a loud male voice sounded from behind, “Cheng Duo !?”
Cheng Duo was stunned. She looked in the direction the voice came from.
At the roller-skate club booth, Xu Li was very excited, “Wow! It turns out it was you, Little Sister!”
Cheng Duo’s whole body trembled, “You!”
She pulled Sun Tiantian toward the huge booth of roller-skate club, and Cheng Duo looked at Xu Li from head to toe, “Hmph! It’s been a long time, still so pretentious!”
Xu Li smiled and replied, “It’s been a long time, and you still so tomboyish.”
Cheng Duo was stunned and slammed Xu Li’s shoulder, “Do you want to die?”
Sun Tiantian was somewhat awkward when she looked at the interaction between these two people. She stared at Xu Li for quite a long time.
Was he the person she met in class this morning? He was Shen Nianshen’s friend.
Xu Li also noticed the presence of Sun Tiantian and suddenly laughed, “Wow, we quite have a fate, Beautiful Girl.”
Cheng Duo looked at Sun Tiantian, “Do you know this crazy person?”
Sun Tiantian nodded, whispering next to Cheng Duo’s ears, “He’s a friend of Shen Nianshen. This morning, I met him in the classroom.”
Cheng Duo was shocked. She narrowed her eyes and looked at Xu Li.
Xu Li smiled pleasantly, shook the registration form in his hand, “You two, do you want to participate in our club?”
Xu Li was the chairman of the roller-skate club, and he was worried about not being able to recruit the female students at his club.
Sun Tiantian’s eyes sparkled and asked him, “Is Shen Nianshen coming too?”
Xu Li smiled at Sun Tiantian, “Although not, but I can tell him to come.”
There was a saying, get the benefits of people close to influential people. Plus, get to know your enemy to win each battle.
In short, this afternoon, Sun Tiantian successfully entered Shen Nianshen’s inner circle. With the relationship between Cheng Duo and Xiu Li, every information about Shen Nianshen will be obtained easily from Xu Li.
Sunday, at 8 p.m. In the open area of the 7th-floor lecture building.
Sun Tiantian, Cheng Duo, Xu Li were sitting on a brick, under a banyan tree.
Xu Li was on the phone, and Sun Tiantian was glaring at him.
When the phone call answered, Shen Nianshen had just finished bathing and came out of the bathroom. He answered the phone while drying his hair, “Portable PowerBank? Do you need it now?”
Xu Li: “Yes! My cellphone is almost drained, please help to bring it for me.”
“Oh, where are you?”
“The seventh floor of the lecture hall, where I used to play roller-skates.”
Shen Nianshen answered, “Hmm, wait a minute. I’ll be there soon.”
The phone was hung off, Xu Li looked at Sun Tiantian and raised his eyebrows, “Done.”
Sun Tiantian smiled brightly, “Thank you, Xu Li.”
The distance between the male dormitory to the 7th-floor lecture building was not too far. It didn’t take a long time for Shen Nianshen to arrive there.
From afar, he saw Xu Li waved at him, “Ah Nian, here!”
Shen Nianshen brought the PowerBank, walked without hesitation. When he approached Xu Li, he realized that two girls were sitting next to Xu Li, one of them was the one who left her phone number this morning in the class.
His eyebrows slightly furrowed, glanced coldly at Sun Tiantian. He passed through Sun Tiantian, went to the direction of Xu Li, and handed over the PowerBank, “I’m going to leave.”
Xu Li reached for the power bank, quickly stopped Shen Nianshen, “No, no, no. Don’t leave so quickly.”
Shen Nianshen looked at him, “Is there any other problem?”
Xu Li: “Give me a hand, my club has recruited two new girls, but they can’t use roller skates. I can’t teach both of them by myself, how about helping me teach the other one?”
Shen Nianshen, “Not interested.”
After saying that, he walked away.
Xu Li began to worry, and he immediately held Shen Nianshen’s arm, “Please, it’s not easy for me to recruit two girls. I promised to teach them. If they can’t master it, they won’t register.”
“Then, just let them go.”
“Aiyo, please help me. Help me teach them just this once, can you?” After saying that, afraid that Shen Nianshen would refuse again, he immediately waved to Sun Tiantian, “Tiantian, come here! Ah Nian will teach you!”
Sun Tiantian went there while carrying roller skates, her face filled with a smile. When she saw Shen Nianshen, she bowed respectfully, “Senior! Sorry to trouble you!”
Shen Nianshen glanced at him, turned around, and left.
“Hey!” Sun Tiantian saw that he was going to leave, subconsciously pulled Shen Nianshen’s hand. Shen Nianshen frowned and roughly drew his hand, “Don’t touch me!”
His strength was so extraordinary, Sun Tiantian pushed away by him and almost fell backward. Sun Tiantian was shocked, looked at him with disbelief.
Shen Nianshen knew that he had gone a bit too far, seeing Sun Tiantian, he bit his lower lip and apologized sincerely, “Sorry.”
Sun Tiantian was shocked, but she shook her head, “It’s… it’s fine.”
Xu Li, who saw the whole incident, immediately said, “That… Ah, Nian is a bit hygiene freak, he doesn’t like being touched by other people.”
Sun Tiantian was a little uncomfortable by Shen Nianshen’s reaction earlier, answered with ‘hmm’, and looked at Shen Nianshen, “Sorry, I didn’t know about it.”
Shen Nianshen put his hands into his trouser pocket, his eyes looked at the distance with a depth look, “You guys have fun. I’m going back to the dorm.” After throwing these words, he walked away.
Cheng Duo was very angry. She pulled Sun Tiantian, “What the heck! Tiantian only holds his hand for a while, why he needs to be so fierce!” She checked Sun Tiantian’s condition, worriedly, “Are you alright?”
Sun Tiantian shook her head, her eyes still staring straight at Shen Nianshen’s back, “I’m okay.”
Cheng Duo took the roller skates from Sun Tiantian’s hands and threw them at Xu Li, “I don’t want to play anymore! It’s boring!” After saying that, she pulled Sun Tiantian to leave.
Xu Li hurried to follow onward, he considered of helping Shen Nianshen to explain, “Tiantian, don’t misunderstand. Ah Nian did it unintentionally, he doesn’t like being touched by others. So his reaction was a bit over the top.”
Cheng Duo was angry, “What the big deal if Tiantian only touched him a little, it’s not like Tiantian was going to eat him alive.”
“Ah Duo, never mind.” Sun Tiantian’s mood became more complicated; she talked to Xu Li, “I didn’t know that he has mysophobia. I accidentally touched him; please help me to tell him that I feel sorry.”
Xu Li didn’t know what to do; he just nodded.
Sun Tiantian smiled gratefully, “Anyway, thank you for helping me to ask him out. Don’t worry; we will remain in this club, we won’t leave you alone.”
Xu Li smiled lowly, “Thank God; you know, there had never been a single woman joined this club. All of this time, we only have that bunch of big men. All the junior always blamed me for not having charm and couldn’t recruit any girls.”
Sun Tiantian curled her lips and smiled.
Xu Li said, “Wait until the weekly briefing on Wednesday. I will let them see that I have succeeded in recruiting two beautiful girls.”
Sun Tiantian nodded and smiled faintly, “Then, see you on Wednesday!”
Xu Li: “Okay, I’ll back to the dormitory.”
Cheng Duo was still angry at Shen Nianshen, too lazy to glanced at Xu Li, she hurriedly took Sun Tiantian away, “Let’s go! Hurry up!” After saying that, she pulled Sun Tiantian to the direction of the Female Dormitory.
When he returned to the dormitory, Xu Li couldn’t find Shen Nianshen’s whereabouts; he asked his other roommate, “Where is Ah Nian?”
“Isn’t he went out to deliver the power bank for you?”
“Didn’t he went back?”
“No.”
Xu Li thought for a while and said, “Okay, I know.”
On the top floor of the Male Dormitory, Shen Nianshen leaned against the wall with his left hand in his trousers pocket. He lowered his head while his right hand was holding a cigarette.
There were no lights there; It was dark and black, only a small circle of light shined between his fingers.
He suddenly remembered the incident when he was eight years old. That night, he heard a door sound from outside; he thought his father had come back from work. He hadn’t seen his father for a long time; he bounced up from the bed happily, opened the door, and walked out of the room.
However, he didn’t find his father’s existence. All he saw was a strange man hugged each other with his mother.
He hid behind the door and saw that man kissed his mother. Later, his mother whispered, “Let’s go to the bathroom; don’t let my son hear it.” Then the two of them held each other and entered the bathroom.
He stood behind the door, listening to the strange noise coming from inside.
At that time, he was a kid; he didn’t know what his mother was doing. But in his mind, he knew that it was certainly not a good thing.
Shortly after that, his father returned.
In the middle of the night, he heard a flamed argument outside his room. He got off the bed and ran out of the room. He saw his father slapped his mother, scolded her as a lowly woman.
They argued bitterly until all the neighbors went out to see the commotion.
The next day, the two of them went to the Civil Registry Bureau to divorce.
Shen Nianshen was taken by his father to the hospital to do the paternity test. At the hospital, his father got angry again and slapped his mother.
Since then, he has never seen his father anymore.
His mother, who could not stand the gossip that befell her, left him.
Nobody wanted him; even his mother gave up on him.
Soon after that, his grandmother came from the village to find him and took care of him. She thought that this could prevent Shen Nianshen from people who like to talk and swear from his back.
But what happened afterward wasn’t merely good things, it was quite terrible.
Shen Nianshen went to school; her classmates said that his mother had stolen someone else’s husband, he certainly wasn’t that different from her mother, and he was an illegitimate child. No one cared about him; no one talked to him; even no one willing to sit with him. The teacher also didn’t like him; they always looked at him detestably.
Shen Nianshen always sat in the last row near the trash can; he spent his childhood in loneliness and unspeakable despair.
He would never forget that night; when he saw his mother making out with another man.
He saw it and heard it with his own eyes. Over the years, all of them couldn’t be erased from his memory.
Even a decade had been passed; each time he woke up from his nightmares, the fears and despair in his childhood always swallowed him, just like waves in the sea.
All of these were the most prominent secret that he hid inside his heart, a scar that was unseen and couldn’t be revealed.
Because of his mother, in recent years, he always had a physiological resistance towards women’s touch. He wanted to get out of his childhood fear; he tried it hard. However, there was no way, also no use. Because he still hadn’t succeeded.
The past was indeed like a big wave in the sea.
In the darkness, Shen Nianshen’s eyes turned red; his throat felt hot like a blazing fire; the pain was so intense in his chest that he couldn’t breathe.
He closed his eyes, leaned his head and body against the wall, trying to swallow all his emotions and bitterness.
After some time, he finally regained his calmness.
He crushed the cigarette with his hand, turned around and prepared to get down.
When he was at the threshold of the stairs, he coincidentally met Xu Li, who was going upstairs.
As soon as Xu Li saw him, he was very enthusiastic, “I know you must be here!”
Shen Nianshen only answered ‘hmm’, put back his hands into his pants pockets, and walked down the stairs.
Xu Li followed him, “That … Tiantian wants me to convey to you that she was sorry. She didn’t know that you are a hygiene freak; she didn’t intend to touch you.”
Shen Nianshen pulled his lips, didn’t say anything.
Xu Li turned his head to look at him; this person never shows any expressions or emotions.
Xu Li swallowed hard and said impatiently, “But you pushed her too hard, she almost fell to the ground. After all, she just a little girl.”
Shen Nianshen pursed his lips tightly, his eyes a little deep, but remained silent.
Xu Li noticed that it was no use to talk with him; he pulled his hair depressedly. For a moment, he didn’t know what to say, so he shut his mouth down.
When the dormitory lights turned off, Sun Tiantian lay on the bed and couldn’t fell asleep.
Cheng Duo was still angry, her voice came through, “Shen Nianshen is too arrogant! What so great of being the best student if he doesn’t know how to respect others! Tiantian, I think you better forget him. It’s obvious, some people born with handsome faces, but their characters are incompatible! “
Sun Tiantian blinked while staring at the ceiling, silent.
Cheng Duo stuck her head out of the mosquito net, “Hey, Tiantian, why aren’t you talking? What are you thinking about?”
Sun Tiantian sighed, “I don’t think about anything.”
“Don’t tell me that you still plan to chase after him?” Cheng Duo asked.
Sun Tiantian pursed her lips for a moment didn’t know how to answer this question.
Cheng Duo waited for a moment, seeing Sun Tiantian not answering, she lay back on his bed, “If it were me, I would give up on him.”
Sun Tiantian rarely turned quiet. After time passed, then she only sighed slowly.
The next day, Monday.
This morning’s class was at the Sansi Building, Introduction of The Art class, and her class was in 6608.
On the way to class, Cheng Duo asked Sun Tiantian, “About yesterday, how was your decision?”
“What decision?”
“Shen Nianshen, do you still like him?”
Sun Tiantian pursed her lips, didn’t answer.
Cheng Duo looked at her again and paused; she could only sigh, “I don’t know how to blame him, just a little touch, why should he becomes so excessive.”
As the words flowed, she looked up and saw a familiar face.
Em…
Sun Tiantian also saw him, “You… have you finished your class?”
When Shen Nianshen was going to leave the lecture hall, he saw Sun Tiantian and answered with a ‘hmm’.
Sun Tiantian looked at him, for the first time, she didn’t know what to say. After going through last night, her courage seemed to lessen.
Strangely enough, Shen Nianshen didn’t leave immediately, the two of them stared at each other for a moment.
Sun Tiantian felt a little awkward and said, “I have a class. Bye.”
After saying that, she passed through Shen Nianshen and walked into the building.
As she passed, she suddenly heard, “Sun Tiantian.”
Sun Tiantian stopped, her body stiffened. She turned and looked at Shen Nianshen.
Shen Nianshen suddenly lowered his backpack on one shoulder, opened it, and took out a box of milk from there.
What happened afterward made Sun Tiantian stunned, and her eyes wide open.