The phone vibrated several times. Sheng Kuang glanced at the screen, saw it was a WeChat message from Lin Jing, stuck the barbecue skewer in his hand into the nearby trash can, took a wet wipe, and cleaned his hands and the corner of his mouth before picking up his phone.
The entire screen was filled with messages from her.
There weren't many words, perhaps fifty or sixty in total, and he read them over and over, from sentence to sentence, word to word.
Just as he was about to be able to recite them from memory, Chen Jing, standing beside him, leaned in curiously, "Sheng Kuang, what are you looking at? I've been talking to you for ages, and you're not even responding."
Sheng Kuang quickly turned off the phone screen, suppressed the panic in his heart, and scanned Chen Jing with a calm expression, "What did you just say?"
Chen Jing wasn't actually curious about what he was looking at. "Ah, I was asking if you wanted to play ranked matches."
"Not interested." Sheng Kuang refused without hesitation.
Chen Jing, who had been rejected ten times when asking Sheng Kuang to play ranked matches, stoically took a bite of his meat. Just as he was about to resort to his usual persistent tactics with Sheng Kuang.
Sheng Kuang, who could anticipate what he was going to do without even thinking, calmly stood up and walked away with his phone before Chen Jing could even speak.
Chen Jing: "..."
Back in the bedroom, Sheng Kuang took out his phone. He reread those few messages from beginning to end. As he read, he couldn't help but let out a low chuckle.
When he left the infirmary, he thought she would call him back.
After finally seeing her, he had wanted to spend more time with her, maybe take her for afternoon tea. But she hadn't shown any reaction to him at all.
By the time he walked out of the building where the infirmary was located, he was already regretting it. But since the girl hadn't kept him, he couldn't just turn around and sheepishly go back.
He had been quite frustrated at the time. He reached the school gate, hailed a taxi, and before getting in, he couldn't resist checking WeChat one last time.
The girl hadn't made a sound. After the car had driven a certain distance, his phone finally reacted. He excitedly told the driver to stop, pulled out his phone, and upon seeing the message, he was so angry he almost passed out.
The girl had contacted him not to offer him an olive branch, but to return his money.
He let out a cold snort. The driver, seeing he wasn't getting out, asked what he meant. He closed his eyes and, in a way that was as embarrassing as it could be, awkwardly told the driver, "Sorry, I'm not getting out."
The girl's reaction time was truly long. After about half an hour, she finally noticed something was wrong and asked if he had arrived home.
Because he lacked confidence and had been truly disheartened in the infirmary, he wanted to see if he was important to her.
He saw her message and pretended not to see it. He thought to himself, if the girl cared about him, she would definitely come looking for him again.
During the waiting period, he was truly bothered. He didn't communicate at all during the practice matches and went straight back upstairs after they ended.
This continued until he saw Jiang Zui's moments, until Lan Bowen called him down to look at data, and until he overheard Chen Jing and her chatting.
He felt quite pathetic. Although he felt as if he had been doused with a basin of ice water and chilled to the bone, the moment the girl indirectly inquired about him through someone else, he instantly felt as if he were being roasted on a fire and eagerly rushed over, being overly enthusiastic.
Then, like an idiot, he meekly told her a lot about what had upset him.
Sheng Kuang thought about the embarrassing things he had done and rubbed his temples with a headache.
The girl on WeChat hadn't slept yet and sent him another message.
It was a screenshot.
It was a screenshot of her phone's lock screen.
It was identical to his phone's lock screen, a picture of him and her taken that day on a whim.
Little Jing Jiang: Hehe.
Sheng Kuang lowered his eyelids, looking at the two words she sent, and curved his lips. He moved his fingers and began to type.
miracle: When you replied to me, sentence by sentence, does that count as having a response to everything?
After half a minute.
Little Jing Jiang: It does.
Sheng Kuang smiled again.
miracle: I've decided.
Little Jing Jiang: Decided what?
Sheng Kuang didn't type but directly pressed record and sent a voice message: "I've decided, starting now, I'm pursuing you."
He paused, then added, "Lin Jing, I'm pursuing you now."