Chapter 72
While waiting for dinner, Tang Yi-Bai wanted to go see Yun Duo's room . He did not have any indecent intentions — he just wanted to see the place where she had grown up .
After all, she had already seen his .
The layout of Yun Duo's room was very cosy . Her things were arranged neatly, and there were many books on the wooden shelves . He randomly picked one of the books and Tang Yi-Bai saw the underlines marking the page he had turned to . There was even a bookmark made from flower petals inside the book .
He smiled . "You must have been a good student since you were little . "
Yun Duo was a little proud . "I wasn't bad . I was already wearing a red scarf in first grade . "
"Me too . "
"Actually, you're better," said Yun Duo, "I didn't have the ability to win first prize at the Math Olympiads when I was a kid . Speaking of which, do you have any regrets? After all, according to the collective Chinese mentality, studying is number one . Many people only become sports students because they aren't good at studying . I don't mean any disrespect, ok? It's just fact . " As she spoke, her occupational habits intruded and she ended up using cautious interview lingo . And then she posited a tempting scenario: "If you had studied like everyone else and attended a college exam, you might have even been able to make it into Tsinghua University . "
Tang Yi-Bai returned the book to the bookshelf and said with a smile, "Tsinghua produces several thousand graduates each year, while there are only around 300 Olympic champions every four years . I've always thought that my ambitions are quite lofty . "
Yun Duo smiled . She liked this determined composure of his, wise and open-minded .
She found a large storage box . Inside it were the various things she had collected as she grew up — Black Cat Detective's little motorbike, Doraemon and Sailormoon stickers, postcards of 'My Fair Princess' and 'The Return of The Condor Heroes', a Cardcaptor Sakura pencil box, a cartoon pig ink stamp, soft toys from KFC, miscellaneous children's books, some game consoles, idol booklets, a cassette tape of Jay Chou, a half-sewn coin purse, and so on .
It was like a great treasure chest, full of precious memories .
Girls were more sentimental and liked to have concrete representations of their memories . Compared with hers, Tang Yi-Bai's childhood collection was rather sparse, his toys constantly discarded when they no longer suited him . Right now, faced with such a large box of memorabilia, he found it particularly fun and interesting . He touched one thing and picked at another, imagining a bun-like little Duoduo playing with these items . He could not help but smile, his eyes curving into half-moons and his gaze shining with a gentle light .
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Even as he smiled, he felt a little regretful . It was a loss that he had not known her earlier . . .
Yun Duo brought out two photo albums from a cabinet and the two flipped through them as they leaned against one another . The photo album recorded her development even more clearly . The very first chapter was a full-scale nude shot of her at 100 days old .
Tang Yi-Bai: "Ha . "
She initially thought nothing of it, but when he laughed, she suddenly felt a little awkward and blushed . She quickly turned the page .
Tang Yi-Bai smiled and said, "Don't worry, I'll take responsibility . "
Yun Duo scoffed lightly . "Who needs you to take responsibility?"
"Don't be angry . At most, I can let you see me in return . "
Yun Duo's face turned even redder out of embarrassment and some restlessness . "Who wants to see you?!"
Tang Yi-Bai grinned widely . "I'm talking about my 100-day portrait . Where has your mind gone to?"
"You . . . "
"Ok, ok, don't be angry . Why don't you hit me a little to vent?" said Tang Yi-Bai, clapping her hand to his face .
Yun Duo was exasperated and amused, "Cheeky . "
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Tang Yi-Bai held her hand to his face, keeping it there as he looked smilingly at her . His gaze was heated .
Yun Duo did not dare to make eye contact any longer . She quickly ducked her head and continued to peruse the photo album .
She turned to a photo and pointed at the skinniest girl in it . "See, this is from when we went for our autumn field trip to Qixia Mountain . "
"Which was also the first time we really met . " Tang Yi-Bai touched her little face in the photograph with his index finger . Suddenly, he sighed and said, "I regret it now . "
"Regret what?"
"Back then, I shouldn't have tried to be some unsung hero and just left like that . I should have stuck around and followed you home to wait for your family to give your hand to me in marriage as thanks and set a childhood betrothal . That way, you would have been mine since you were seven . " That way, I wouldn't have missed so much of your life .
Since it was destined for me to meet you and fall in love with you so deeply, then why should I resist? I might as well cradle you in my arms earlier .
Yun Duo bowed her head, the corners of her lips curved up into a smile . "This premise cannot be established . You weren't this shameless at 7 years old . "
They continued to look through the album — in the pictures, little Yun Duo slowly grew into big Yun Duo . "A girl changes 18 times growing up to become a woman" — this saying was fully embodied in the album . When Yun Duo was little, she had been small and thin, but by the time she graduated high school, she had already become a slender and graceful beauty .
University followed . As they turned the pages, Yun Duo suddenly said, "Tang Yi-Bai, I want to confess something . "
Tang Yi-Bai was currently hugging her around the shoulders and sniffing lightly at her hair . He replied, "Ok, what is it?"
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"Didn't I tell you before that you are my first love?"
Tang Yi-Bai froze and he asked a little nervously, "Is it . . . not true?"
He should have known that it couldn't be true . A girl as cute as her would definitely have been whisked away by some other pig long ago . . . Tang Yi-Bai thought irritably, unknowingly scolding himself in the process .
Yun Duo shook her head . "No, uh, that's not right, it's . . . oh, I don't even know how to say this anymore . You are my first love, but during my university days, there was some ambiguous feelings between me and one of my male classmates . "
"Ambiguous feelings? To what extent?"
"Well, our classmates often teased us about being together . He was the most popular guy in school, and there were actually many girls who liked him . Many of the girls around me liked him too, but they just liked to keep trying to match him and me together . " So saying, she pointed at one of the boys in a photo . "There, that's him . "
Tang Yi-Bai glanced down . Yes, he was indeed handsome . Of course, he would never outright praise a former love rival like this, so he merely said, "Not bad . Just so-so . . . and then?"
"The story is really quite cheesy and cringe-worthy . At first I was a little annoyed, but he treated me quite well . When the others made a fuss and teased us, he basically never argued back or tried to explain, so I thought he liked me . Girls, right? We have out pride and vanity . I have to admit that being liked by the most popular guy in school was something to be proud of . I guess that this probably contributed to my poor affinity with the other girls in university . The only one who stuck by me was Chen Si-Qi . But he never ever confessed to me, and I never confessed to him either . Anyway, here's a major twist . In our junior year, I accidentally saw him kissing one of our teachers . "
Tang Yi-Bai was shocked . "A teacher?"
"Yes, that teacher was 6 or 8 years older than him . I can't remember . Rumour had it that they got to know each other when the teacher was a home tutor for him . Later, they got together and began cohabitating since his freshman year . But they always kept a low profile so nobody knew . He told me all this himself . Yes, he came to me and apologised, admitting that he had been using me as a shield . "
This was a better outcome — at least Yun Duo hadn't had to go question the boy herself . Tang Yi-Bai knew there was a essential difference between the two . More at ease now, he asked, "So, you don't really like him that much?"
Yun Duo shook her head . "I don't like him . When he apologised, other than being a little angry that he had used me, I didn't feel much else . There was no jealousy or heartache, nothing like that . Later, I carefully analysed the situation and felt that we probably weren't very compatible anyway . Even though he was very handsome, he always gave off a cold and gloomy vibe, and he had an expressionless face to boot . I don't like that type . Still, I must admit that he is quite capable . He later joined the Department of Public Information . "
Tang Yi-Bai felt somewhat fortunate . Luckily, the slack-faced campus heartthrob's heart already belonged to someone else, and luckily, his personality was not the type Yun Duo liked . . . and again luckily, he had held Yun Duo back from being stolen away by someone else .
Yun Duo sighed . "At first, I was quite disgusted that he had used me, but thinking back on it later, they had not had it easy either . He contacted me a few days before on WeChat, saying he wanted to get married but his family disapproved, because his girlfriend is several years older than him . "
Tang Yi-Bai said, "I've also been confessed to by a girl a few years older than me . "
Yun Duo perked up with interest, her eyes blinking brightly at him . "How did you react?"
Tang Yi-Bai laughed out loud and bopped her on her nose . "How else would I react? I rejected her . "
"How did you refuse? I feel like you would be especially good at rejecting girls . "
"Well, I said to her, 'How could I like you? I never want to see you again' . "
Yun Duo was flabbergasted . "You- you went that far?"
Tang Yi-Bai grimaced . "The situation was a little special . I was in a very bad mood then, and I was still rather young . In my panic, I showed no mercy . Later on, we lost touch . If I ever see her again, I really want to say 'I'm sorry' to her . "
Yun Duo quickly nodded . "You really do owe her an apology . . . and I thought you would be good at cajoling girls . "
He laughed . "Just you . "