Lin Miao quickly returned to her dorm room. Lying on her bed, the Young Master’s words echoed in her head.
It was as if he was still whispering in her ear. She covered her stinging face, and couldn’t resist taking her phone from the nightstand.
Her wallpaper was still a picture of the Young Master smiling. She became even more sleepless staring at it.
Moonlight spilled in from the window. Her room was so quiet she could even hear Tan Jing’s rhythmic breathing, as well as her own heartbeat.
The Young Master had said that he’ll never find her annoying.
She remembered him showing her his call log. He constantly wanted to call her.
It’s so late, would he be home?
Lin Miao hesitated, and then messaged the Young Master: “Gege, are you home yet?”
Yu Jingxuan soon replied.
“Not yet, but almost,” with a picture attached. .
It was a photo of the city during the night. The thousands of lights were quite picturesque.
Lin Miao quickly saved it.
“So pretty.”
“Shuishui should go to sleep soon. You still need to wake up early tomorrow. Good girl.”
Reading the message, the last few words felt as if he spoke them beside her.
Her face was now flaming hot. Humans were such magical creatures. She was freezing on her bed two hours ago, and even her fluffy quilt had felt cold. Now, she felt that everything was wonderful, and her body was warm.
Following the Young Master’s message, she put her phone aside and shut her eyes. Yes, sleep early, you’ll have to wake up early tomorrow.
Meanwhile, the Young Master had arrived home. It was deep into night, and his grandma and mother were in the living room drinking yogurt.
They saw Yu Jingxuan the moment he came in.
“Tell us the truth, where did you go so late into the night?” The Young Master’s mother asked, half serious.
The grandma also looked towards him with the same gaze.
“I just went outside for a walk. Nothing else, it’s late, you guys should sleep.”
The two: “…”
Looking at her son speak so maturely, she commented, “Are you shy? Could it be that you’ve grown up and want your personal space, so you don’t talk to your old mom anymore?”
Yu Jingxuan looked at his ‘old mom’ who was drinking yogurt, “I had my space when I was young, too.”
Looking at the two’s expressions, the Young Master told the truth, “I went to meet up with Shuishui, nothing else. I’ll go to sleep now, you guys should too.”
The Young Master’s mother: “…” Oh dear, such a siscon, what can we do?
The Young Master climbed upstairs. The unknown number was an old one. It didn’t have a real name associated with it, so it was probably created before verification was required. Whoever sent this sort of message with this type of phone number purposely wanted to make Lin Miao uncomfortable.
Obviously, the person didn’t expect Lin Miao to contact the Young Master after such a spiteful message. If Lin Miao didn’t call him, there would certainly be some grievances if they continued their relationship.
There weren’t many who knew Lin Miao’s phone number and their relationship. However, he wasn’t sure whether they knew this through him or Lin Miao.
He recalled that the message mentioned something about calling everyday.
This detail felt strange to him. Lin Miao barely went on her phone, and their calls were more on a weekly basis, so why would they specifically say calling daily.
They probably wanted to sabotage their relationship, so it would be more effective if they used an actual fact.
Scrolling through his phone, he was reminded that he had tried calling Lin Miao daily.
They were mostly unanswered calls, but perhaps the unknown person thought those calls were from Lin Miao.
He went through his memory again, but no one could have gone on his phone.
Perhaps he was searching in the wrong direction.
The next day, he returned to his university. He had joined a mathematical modelling club, which kept him occupied.
There were three other people in the group: two boys and a girl around his age. She was a grade younger, but wasn’t accepted just from high test scores.
Meanwhile, Lin Miao didn’t mind the number. The Young Master said the message was fake anyway.
She had heard Tan Jing talk about blocking before, so Lin Miao asked Tan Jing to teach her how to do so.
Tan Jing was surprised. Why would someone as kind and easygoing as brother Shui want to block someone?
Lin Miao’s inquiry came out quite awkwardly. Although the message she received was fake, she was too embarrassed to keep it in case someone else saw.
Seeing her like this, Tan Jing asked no more and just taught her how to block.
Her training went as usual during the day. After she showered and climbed onto her bed in the evening, she remembered Young Master showing her his unanswered calls. She couldn’t help but turn on her phone and message him. She would normally contact him weekly, and since she met him yesterday, she technically wouldn’t be messaging him today.
The Young Master was reading when his phone rang.
He expected it to be another message from his school, so Yu Jingxuan casually grabbed his phone. Unexpectedly, he was met with Lin Miao’s message: “I miss Gege, is Gege asleep?”
Yu Jingxuan felt touched in his heart, but then realized she didn’t send the message with any intentions—she was as innocent as ever. However, it didn’t sour his mood. He replied: “Not yet, Gege also misses Shuishui. Are you not going to sleep? There’s also practice tomorrow.”
In his heart, he knew that she wouldn’t break her training schedule, and wouldn’t oversleep and skip her morning exercise. If it wasn’t for that message yesterday, he wouldn’t interrupt her resting cycles, either.
Lin Miao’s reply soon came: “I’m on my bed, going to sleep soon.”
Imagines of Lin Miao’s figure flooded his mind when he read up to “on my bed”. He felt his body tingle and warm up.
So this is the restlessness of puberty books always talk about. The Young Master thought self-deprecatingly as he laid on his desk.
Swiping his finger across the screen a couple of times, he replied: “Goodnight Shuishui, sleep soon.”
However, after sending the message, he scrolled up to Lin Miao’s message from before: “I miss Gege.”
Is this purely familial love? Or is it friendship?
Is there just a chance that Shuishui also has the same feelings as me?
Even a bit?
On the other hand, Lin Miao fell asleep after replying with a goodnight.
Time flew by on Lin Miao’s team. It was soon the last month of the Lunar year again.
This winter was especially frigid.
Lin Miao didn’t tell her parents in advance when she was going home so that they wouldn't have to drive her.
When she arrived back home, she saw a poster of her receiving her Olympic gold medal on a wall.
It was enormous and centered in the middle of the wall.
Lin Miao: “…” Looks so weird.
Little did she know that another person also has this poster in the same position.