As Qin Yinan finished those words, the chopsticks in Song Qingchun's palm landed with a thud.
Then, she sprung up from her seat, bringing the conversation to an abrupt end. Her sudden movement made Qin Yinan also stand up with concern. "Song Song, what's wrong?"
Song Qingchun shook her head several times at Qin Yinan before she could croak a sentence out, saying, "I'm fine, I need to use the bathroom. Excuse me."
"I'll go with you then…" Qin Yinan walked over to Song Qingchun, but before his finger could even reach Song Qingchun's arm, she suddenly whipped her head around to glare at him. Her eyes were rimmed with red like she could cry at any moment. In a rather sharp voice, she said, "No need!"
Then, Song Qingchun, as if realizing her inappropriate outburst, blurted out, "Sorry, I just want to be alone."She then hurriedly fled from the scene.
In her hurry to escape, Song Qingchun's right ankle tripped on the table corner. The acute pain squeezed her heart, and her tears started to fall. She dashed to the toilet and locked the door. Then she slid down the wall and started to cry with her hands clamped over her mouth to dampen the sound.
The time of youth was beautiful because many things that were inappropriate or artificial could be done with such righteous abandon.
Unlike adulthood where you had to hold your tears in no matter how sad you were. Even now, when she was alone in the bathroom, Song Qingchun did not dare allow herself to weep openly.
She felt all the air in her body had been sucked out from her. If not for Tang Nuan's little trip down memory lane, she would not have realized her little interactions with Brother Yinan would have become the string that tied her Brother Yinan to another person.
She knew the only reason Tang Nuan brought this up was to hurt Song Qingchun, who had already given up on her Brother Yinan. She knew it was Tang Nuan's intention for her to cry, and even though she did not want to admit it, Tang Nuan was successful; she had indeed landed a critical blow.
She had always been bothered by why Brother Yinan would fall in love with Tang Nuan. Even though Tang Nuan was pretty, her school had not been lacking pretty faces. Now she realized, it was because of those paper notes, her paper notes!She was the person behind those notes. Qin Yinan had asked Song Cheng to go borrow the book by Xu Zhimo from the library for him, and due to his laziness, Song Cheng had passed the errand on to Song Qingchun. That was how she knew Brother Yinan admired Xu Zhimo. It was due to this that she had started reading Xu Zhimo and even wrote a poem to slip into the book before passing it to Song Cheng.
Every day after that, she would visit the library, paying special attention to that Xu Zhimo book. Finally, the book had been returned, and she realized the paper note her Brother Yinan had left in it.
After that, it was as Tang Nuan said, she and Brother Yinan would alternatively check out that Xu Zhimo book for their literal poetry book club.
Brother Yinan did not know he was corresponding with her, but she knew that, on the other end, it was Qin Yinan, and the only other person who knew that detail was… Tang Nuan. At the time, they had shared a friendly relationship, and young girls had a hard time keeping secrets, especially among a group of close sisters.
So… she had been so close to living her dream; she had been just one step away from getting together with Brother Yinan.
After all, he had already fallen in love with the person who wrote those paper notes…
