Chapter 44: At the Age of Purest Romance, Only Pure Exhaustion Remains

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Due to the torrential rain, the sky outside was as dark as four or five in the morning.
The first few people to arrive in the classroom had already turned on all the lights, leaving the room brightly illuminated. There were still twenty minutes left until morning reading, and Jiang Nian had clearly arrived early.
At this moment, there were very few people in the class, most of them hiding behind erected bookstands, burying their heads in memorizing texts or solving math problems. Others were holding a book at the far end of the corridor, watching the torrential rain and pacing back and forth while reciting.
Jiang Nian stood at the classroom doorway, completely blocking Zhang Ningzhi's path. The hot water dispenser was at the other end of the corridor, which was completely empty.
OK, all eyes were now on him.
Although the system quest panel stated that Zhang Ningzhi = ex-girlfriend, Jiang Nian had never taken it seriously, treating it instead like a fan-fiction mini-game. A true troll never yields.
System: She is your ex-girlfriend.
Honest man: Okay.
Jiang Nian: Redo-di? (Puzzled face)
This is why there are so few trolls in the world—they are forever on the path of getting beaten up.
Zhang Ningzhi was clearly feeling unwell. Out of empathy—purely out of friendship-based empathy—he couldn't just ignore it, so he simply said,
"I'll go get hot water for you, I'm heading over anyway..."
"No, no, I'll do it myself." Zhang Ningzhi's face flushed even deeper.
"We're all friends, no need to be polite," Jiang Nian assumed she was just being shy, considering how timid she usually was. "It's completely normal for friends to help each other out."
"It's not that, I... I need to use the restroom." Zhang Ningzhi's face turned as red as the roots of her ears. She had run into a kind-hearted soul during an early morning thunderstorm, only for it to be Jiang Nian.
It wasn't that Jiang Nian was a bad person, but rather that Jiang Nian was somewhat... peculiar.
Jiang Nian felt awkward as well, stepping aside to make way.
"Oh, oh, go ahead."
Ha, fortune-telling right after leaving the house this morning said he was destined to be rich in gold, but it turned out he was just rich in neurosis. He, a great benefactor of nine hundred and ninety-nine reincarnations, had almost offered to help someone use the restroom.
Don't ask why, because he...
Zhang Ningzhi hurried out with her head down, but with a smack, her shoulder collided with the doorframe. Due to momentum, her grip on her water cup slipped.
"Ah!" she let out a soft gasp.
Jiang Nian was quick-eyed and fast-handed, being a sports enthusiast with two and a half years of practice under his belt. With a swift scoop, he caught the cup, though a piece of paper seemed to have dropped out along with it.
Hmm... and it was pink, too.
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It didn't quite look like paper either; the longer he looked at it, the more familiar it seemed. Seven Degrees... Before he could get a closer look, Zhang Ningzhi quickly squatted down, grabbed the item, and shoved it into her pocket.
"Th-Thank you, I'm going now." Zhang Ningzhi felt as though her face was about to explode from blushing, thinking to herself that if he asked about it, she would jump off the fourth floor.
No need for that, no need for that, you're being a bit extreme.
"Yeah, yeah." Jiang Nian handed her water cup back.
He didn't think much of it; a physiological period was a completely normal phenomenon. As for any stigma or shame surrounding it, that was entirely unnecessary, nor did he feel the need to say anything superfluous.
After putting down his schoolbag, he buried his face on the desk to sleep. The window beside him was open, and the cold breeze blowing in felt exceptionally pleasant. A minute later, he got up and closed the window.
Zhang Ningzhi returned to the classroom after getting her water, her face still somewhat warm.
Upon returning, she found Jiang Nian slumped over his desk catching up on sleep, which made her breathe a sigh of relief. What she feared most was sudden concern from friends, especially regarding such matters.
Especially from Jiang Nian.
She sat down nervously, suppressing her physical discomfort as she took out her biology review booklet to read silently. As long as her body stayed completely still, the pain would temporarily vanish.
"What the hell! You came this early?" Ma Guojun, wearing a Baidu Tieba green badge, walked into the classroom and immediately spotted Jiang Nian slumped over the desk. "Did you eat breakfast?"
Jiang Nian turned his head sideways on the desk and replied lifelessly,
"Ate at home."
"I'm so jealous of you, my mom made me buy it at school." The chubby guy sat next to Jiang Nian, wiping the cold sweat off his flushed little face. "Damn it, it's raining so hard."
"My boxers are almost soaked through. How come you aren't wet at all?"
"Came by car," Jiang Nian said listlessly.
"I came by car too. My dad dropped me off at the school gate—damn it, the umbrella I bought was too small." Ma Guojun shook the soaked corner of his left shoulder.
"What the hell, why is the window closed?"
Hearing this, Zhang Ningzhi in the front row suddenly turned her head. She remembered the window should have been open. Jiang Nian must have wanted it open—would he think she was the one who closed it?
"I closed it. I caught a chill from beating off last night," Jiang Nian casually fabricated an excuse.
"You... Ha, Jiang Nian, is there anyone left in this class you actually care about?" Ma Guojun abandoned the idea of opening the window. "I'm gonna tell Li Hua and Yao Beibei later."
"Whatever." Jiang Nian didn't give a damn and went back to sleep.
"Why are you so sleepy? What were you up to last night?" Ma Guojun nagged on like an old woman. After waiting half a minute, he realized Jiang Nian had already fallen out cold.
In the age of pure love, doing the purest and sleepiest things.
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In the front row, Zhang Ningzhi's breath hitched as she stared blankly at the biology review booklet on her desk. The neat, square characters suddenly rounded out.
They slowly blurred and eventually ran off the page altogether.
He was the one who closed the window.
She buried her head on her desk, pressing down on the biology booklet. Jiang Nian had clearly been holding his jacket in his hand when he entered the classroom, wearing only a short-sleeved shirt—why would he be cold?
Thinking of a certain possibility, her cheeks burned and her heart pounded wildly.
As the morning classes passed, Zhang Ningzhi became even more certain that Jiang Nian hadn't been cold at all. Fortunately, no one else opened that row of windows, sparing her from the chilly draft.
By past noon, Zhang Ningzhi felt much better. She felt even more grateful for the window Jiang Nian had closed; if it had been up to her, she certainly wouldn't have had the courage to speak up.
Boys really could take care of many things.
Although their relationship could only be considered that of ordinary friends, certain shared secrets hung in the air between them, pinning them together like buttons.
Whenever their eyes occasionally met during breaks, Zhang Ningzhi's heartbeat would inexplicably accelerate.
The web called friendship had already begun to spin alternative spider silk, silently devouring and expanding at a microscopic, invisible rate.
Jiang Nian returned from the cafeteria after eating through the pouring rain and found Zhang Ningzhi still at her desk.
"Why didn't you go eat?"
Having rained all morning, the classroom light was dim. There were only three or four people in total, mostly sleeping or doing test papers by the window, and no one had turned on the lights.
Zhang Ningzhi looked up and said softly, "Not hungry."
Blocked by the curtains, her seat wasn't far from the window, yet it received very little light. Jiang Nian let out an "oh" and sat down at his desk to play on his phone.
A few minutes later, he put his phone down and lifted his eyelids slightly. He fished a water cup out from under his desk, then extended his index finger and tapped Zhang Ningzhi on the back.
"What is it?"
"I'm going to fill up some hot water, do you want any?" Jiang Nian stood up and asked.
"Um, thank you." Zhang Ningzhi handed him her water cup, but at that inopportune moment, her stomach let out a loud rumble. She was instantly mortified, wishing she could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.
With an entirely normal expression, he said, "As a matter of fact, I'm eighty percent deaf in my left ear. Right now, I plan to go buy a drink—should I bring you back some white porridge from the cafeteria?"
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