Chapter 27: Basketballs and Hoops
Chapter 27
For the entire next day, Lin Jianzhi would pick up her phone from time to time and look at Zhu Liheng's profile picture and chat window over and over again.
There were no chat messages. She wanted to type and ask countless times, but ultimately didn't dare take that step!
She really felt that sometimes she thought too much. Zhu Liheng's kindness wasn't necessarily just towards her alone.
From that bowl of noodles two years ago, Zhu Liheng had shown absolute calmness and goodwill.
He was possibly just simply helping others out of kindness?
Her underclassman living upstairs had gotten drunk and encountered danger, so he simply moved her to a safe place.
Lin Jianzhi imagined that if she were Zhu Liheng, she would do the same.
Pure kindness, unrelated to love.
Thinking this way, Lin Jianzhi completely calmed down and felt that she was right not to act rashly.
She must not impulsively go ask over the slightest misunderstanding!
If she made a laughing stock and made everyone feel awkward, they might not even remain friends.
She didn't want to lose the hard-earned closeness between them.
At the same time she calmed down, Lin Jianzhi became sad again.
Zhu Liheng’s profile picture was of a basketball, probably the one in his room.
She didn’t understand basketball, she just felt using a basketball as a profile picture was very unique.
She didn’t know how long these back and forth emotions lasted, but eventually Lin Jianzhi exited WeChat and opened Weibo.
...
On the high-speed train from Jingyi to Yanling.
Zhu Liheng opened the WeChat chat window with Lin Jianzhi and just left it on the screen in front of him.
The display box at the very top lit up with the words “The other party is typing...” countless times.
Zhu Lihen waited and waited for half a day.
In the end, he discovered that the little crybaby hadn’t sent anything over.
He absolutely could not figure out what she was agonizing over that made her want to say something yet not say it.
Did she remember what happened yesterday or not?
If she remembered, why didn’t she just tell him openly.
If she didn’t remember, why didn’t she ask him?
Could it be that he had to take the initiative to explain the situation to her, that she, Lin Jianzhi, had kissed and hugged him like an octopus yesterday?
Wouldn't that scare the little girl into tears again!
He wasn’t by her side right now, who would comfort her if she cried?
Oh well...
Zhu Liheng finally flipped his phone facedown with a slap and started working on his laptop.
By the time the little scaredy cat had thought things through, he had already completed most of the data.
An hour later, Zhu Liheng arrived in Yanling and took a car to the research lab.
On the way there, he opened his phone again to check WeChat.
Well!
Still nothing.
After thinking for a bit, Zhu Liheng opened Weibo to take a look as well.
This time there was something.
The user “ZhuJianForever” had posted a photo, a very dreamlike pink basketball hoop.
There was no text explanation whatsoever.
Not only that, the user “ZhuJianForever’s” profile picture had also been changed to this pink basketball hoop.
Zhu Liheng was confused by all this.
What exactly did this mean?
Did she want to play basketball?
After carefully thinking it over, Zhu Liheng decided that the next time he was free he would take Lin Jianzhi to go play basketball.
It was pretty rare for a girl to like playing basketball though.
...
After posting the Weibo update, Lin Jianzhi’s face remained red for a long, long time.
She didn’t dare use that picture as her profile photo, she could only silently put it in her Weibo feed and fantasize a little.
It counted as couple profile pictures, right?
Next, she opened up Moments to look through the barrage of updates from her classmates yesterday one by one.
So many, many people were circulating talk about their relationship, some just guessing while others were absolutely certain like Lang Shu.
But no matter what kind it was, they were all accompanied by that photo.
The photo showed Zhu Liheng hugging her, hugging her in a very boyfriend-like way.
With a flushed face, Lin Jianzhi saved the photo to the personal collection folder in her phone’s album and tapped a red heart on it.
Then she enlarged the photo to observe it closely.
He was hugging her so tightly, pressed together.
Even if she couldn’t remember, she must have been ecstatic to the point of losing her mind at the time, right?
While Lin Jianzhi was immersing herself in the photo.
Knock, knock!
Someone knocked on her door as her mother Lin’s voice sounded from outside, “Little Jian? You there?”
Lin Jianzhi hurriedly called out, “I’m here!”
She was so startled that she felt a burst of panic over her little secret almost being discovered.
Lin's Mother: “Come out for lunch!”
Lin Jianzhi: “Coming!”
Without realizing it, it was already noon.
At the dining table.
Lin's Father looked at his phone, “The scores can’t be checked yet, but the full-credit compositions have been released.”
Lin Jianzhi absent-mindedly ate her meal while her mind was still on that photo.
Lin’s Mother casually asked, “What did you write?”
Lin's Father: “Let me read it, ahem! From an examinee in Jingyi City...”
“You’re like the wind of early summer, gently caressing my face and bringing warmth, also bringing the revival of all things...”
He hadn’t even finished reading the first sentence when “Pfft—!”
Lin Jianzhi sprayed out a mouthful of rice directly at her dad’s face.
Lin’s Father looked at her in shock, restraining the urge to beat up his daughter as he wiped his face.
Lin’s Mother also watched her in astonishment, “What are you doing? Choking?”
Lin Jianzhi excitedly set down her chopsticks and tears instantly welled up as she rushed over to snatch Lin’s Father’s phone.
She began reading that full-credit composition.
It was identical!
The one she had written!
Her college entrance examination composition had gotten full credit!
At the end of this article reporting the full-credit composition were professional commentary remarks.
‘The examinee’s emotions were rich, writing style delicate...’
Lin Jianzhi didn’t read or remember the parts that followed.
In truth, when she was writing this composition, she had fully channeled her feelings towards Zhu Liheng —
That admiration, infatuation, and desire to become someone like him!
Lin Jianzhi repeatedly checked every little detail of this composition as well as every punctuation mark.
Right! Right!
This was what she had written!
She had performed exceptionally well on the language portion of the college entrance exam!
After confirming everything, Lin Jianzhi was already crying so hard she was gasping for breath as her entire body trembled with excitement.
Lin’s parents had both been stunned speechless by her at first, but as their daughter became more and more emotional with that overjoyed and tearful expression, they both guessed what had happened and yelled out in unison.
Lin's Father: “Your college entrance exam composition got full credit?!”
Lin’s Mother: “Your college entrance exam composition got full credit?!”
At this point, Lin Jianzhi couldn’t even speak anymore as she cried with a completely flushed, tear-stained face.
“Waa—! I...Waa—!”
Lin's Father excitedly spun circles on the spot: “My daughter got full credit on her college entrance exam composition! My daughter is a literature goddess!”
Lin’s Mother excitedly hugged Lin Jianzhi tightly as mother and daughter cried happily together.
Lin's Mother squealed elatedly as Lin Jianzhi sobbed elatedly.
Lin's Father suddenly thought of something and loudly exclaimed, “When can we check the scores?! Oh right, I’m going to start preparing a celebratory feast right now!”
Such wonderful news called for early preparation to welcome that day on the 22nd when the scores would be released.
After crying, shouting, Lin Jianzhi sat back down to continue wolfing down her meal.
She was eating extremely quickly, at about a third of her usual speed, and finished everything on her plate in one go.
Then she rushed into her room and locked the door.
She was overjoyed and the first person she wanted to share the news with was Zhu Liheng.