Eat Less Fish in the Future - Chapter 20

The water balloon battle had ended.

Before the final weighing comparison, everyone hurriedly wrung the water from their clothes.

Liang Yu reached up to smooth his hair back, leaned against the wall with his leg slightly angled outward, and began wringing water from his clothes.

Water droplets fell one by one, dripping onto the floor.

A girl nearby shrugged and said, “Look at Liang Yu, his body is too good.”

A group of girls gathered, discussing everything from his physique to his face, chatting enthusiastically.

Li Min looked at Zheng Yimian, who was studying her entry ticket, and nudged her, asking curiously, “Are you really this indifferent to a wet Liang Yu? Look how excited everyone else is, they’re almost pouncing on him.”

Zheng Yimian wasn’t really looking at the entry ticket. Her mind was like a broken record, constantly replaying Liang Yu’s words.

“What kind of… do you like?”

[If you figure out what kind of person you like, remember to tell me.]

She seemed lost in thought, flipping the entry ticket over. It was as if someone had suddenly changed the channel on a TV, and she began pondering another question.

It was too coincidental, it shouldn’t have been this coincidental.

… Was it him who had helped her on the bridge that time?

On the way back that night, Li Min walked beside Zheng Yimian and asked softly, “Mianmian, can I ask you a question?”

Zheng Yimian replied, “Mm, go ahead.”

“What do you think about everyone teasing you and Liang Yu these past few days?”

Originally, Li Min had thought that with all the teasing, something might actually come of it. But judging from Zheng Yimian’s behavior these past few days, she seemed to take the teasing purely as teasing, without thinking anything else of it.

She wanted to know Zheng Yimian’s thoughts, not out of simple curiosity, but to understand whether Zheng Yimian was resistant to the idea or not. After all these days, she didn’t know if Zheng Yimian had realized anything, but she had seen all of Liang Yu’s actions clearly.

Zheng Yimian was passive, so they could only rely on those around her to give a push.

“Teasing?” Zheng Yimian replied without much thought, “Isn’t it just because college life is too boring, so they’re looking for some fun? I often saw people teasing each other in middle and high school too. It’s fine, I don’t mind.”

“Although this is my first time being teased,” Zheng Yimian pursed her lips, “I understand. It’s because everyone is lively, and when they see opposite genders getting along well, they unconsciously…”

“No, no, no.” Li Min corrected her, trying hard to bring her back on track, “Haven’t you thought about anything else? For example… maybe people are teasing because they’ve noticed something?”

Zheng Yimian looked at her and asked, “Noticed what?”

Li Min eyed her, “You surely know what I’m trying to say.”

Zheng Yimian fell silent.

As a girl, although her personality had always been more passive, when it came to matters of the heart, no matter how passive or slow to react, she could always feel something.

After so many days, those little things, both obvious and subtle, those glances and interactions – it was impossible to say she hadn’t noticed anything at all, but… to say that in this short month or so, she had completely confirmed his feelings was also impossible.

Li Min looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to continue.

Zheng Yimian shook her head at Li Min, “I know what you want me to say, but I can’t say it out loud.”

To say… that Liang Yu might like her?

This feeling was like a tender new sprout. Its future survival through wind and rain was yet uncertain. How could she casually speculate?

Moreover, Liang Yu had never directly expressed that he liked her. What if he only saw her as a friend and she misunderstood? Wouldn’t that be too awkward?

Li Min understood, “I see. You feel you’ve noticed something, but you can’t be sure. It’s like there are a hundred steps, and someone taking two or three steps doesn’t prove love or sincerity. Only by continuing forward can you be certain, right?”

Zheng Yimian nodded, “And for this kind of thing, I prefer to take it step by step. When things develop naturally, the relationship will be more stable.”

Li Min nodded, and after a while, asked again, “So what do you think your relationship with Liang Yu is now? Just pure friendship?”

Zheng Yimian was silent for a moment, “Well… not that pure, I guess…”

To call it friendship seemed too shallow, but to say she liked him seemed too abrupt.

So accurately speaking, it should be the budding stage of goodwill.

But whether this goodwill would ultimately lead to friendship or love, she couldn’t be sure until that moment came.

“We’ll take it one step at a time,” Zheng Yimian finally concluded.

After returning to the dorm, Zheng Yimian went to take a shower. Luckily, there was one spot left.

While she was showering, Li Min was naturally in the dorm room, sharing the gossip she had gathered with her roommates.

Roommate A didn’t quite understand, “So what does Mianmian mean exactly? Is she accepting or rejecting?”

“Your comprehension skills…” Li Min sighed, lowering her head, “Do you remember Xiao Feng? Do you remember how many people Mianmian has rejected since we started school? She’s the type who would decisively reject someone if she felt she didn’t like them, to avoid giving false hope to boys… The fact that she’s being so passive, not rejecting Liang Yu, is acceptance in itself.”

Roommate B asked, “So what are they now?”

“They’re in the most romantic period of love – the ambiguous stage,” Li Min hugged her pillow dreamily. “The ambiguous stage is so beautiful. Those subtle interactions between two people, tiptoeing around that thin veil of uncertainty, lying in bed at night smiling secretly as they recall little moments… One look and you know what the other is thinking, no one says it, but everyone knows.”

Li Min fell back on the bed, covering her face. “Oh no, talking about this makes me want to find someone to date. First be ambiguous for a few years, create plenty of memories. This is when feelings are easiest to develop. How much foundation there is for the relationship later depends on this stage.”

Roommate A asked, “So what will Liang Yu do next?”

“What else can he do?” Li Min chuckled. “He’ll continue to dote on her, be sweet to her. When the time is right, he can confess. By then, the chances of Mianmian accepting will be higher.”

“That’s true,” someone agreed. “Mianmian is slow to warm up and quite passive. She won’t do anything she’s not prepared for. I think it’s already impressive that Liang Yu has gotten her to this point in such a short time. Didn’t Mianmian say before? Someone pursued her for three years, and she just rejected him for three years.”

“Two factors are very important when pursuing a girl,” Li Min held up two fingers. “First is sincerity, second is looks. Liang Yu has sincerity, and his looks are impeccable. It would be strange if he couldn’t win her over.”

Roommate: “That’s all well and good, but why did you suddenly start speaking with a Hong Kong-Taiwan accent?”

Li Min: “…”

Zheng Yimian had just arrived at the dorm when she heard a burst of giddy laughter.

She walked in and saw two people rolling around laughing. “What are you doing?”

Li Min sat up and raised her hand to conduct. “Ready — sing –”

Zheng Yimian: “…?”

The next second, three people started singing in unison. “Ambiguity makes one suffer, unable to find proof of love, when to move forward, when to give up, not even having the courage to embrace…”

“Love truly needs courage, to face rumors and gossip…”

“Do I love you or not, oh~ Love is known through time.”

Zheng Yimian was silent for a moment, then said sarcastically, “Oh, are you forming a group to debut?”

“No,” Li Min crossed her legs. “We’re just…”

As Li Min was speaking, a roommate got off the bed to get something. Halfway through Li Min’s sentence, the roommate suddenly screamed from the inner room. “Ah–”

The voice was high-pitched, accompanied by frantic retreating movements.

The roommate ran like the wind to hide behind Zheng Yimian, speaking shakily–

“There’s a spider inside!”

Zheng Yimian was almost deafened by the high-decibel scream. She rubbed her ears and said pitifully, “I thought it was something serious. You scared me to death. It’s just a spider?”

“Just? A? Spider?” Li Min was also frightened and shrank back into her bed. “You’re not afraid of spiders?”

Zheng Yimian turned back to ask her roommate, “How big is the spider?”

The roommate made a fist. “This big, it came in from outside the window. It even has patterns. Aren’t you scared?”

Zheng Yimian nodded sincerely. “I am scared.”

“Huh? Then what should we do?” Li Min hugged her small pillow again. “I can’t handle it. I can’t stand having a spider in my room. What should we do? How do we kill it? Why don’t you call Liang Yu to come?”

Zheng Yimian: “That would be too embarrassing, I…”

Before she could finish, the phone on the table lit up.

A message, from… Liang Yu?

Liang Yu: [I just heard screaming from your dorm. What happened?]

Zheng Yimian was silent for a moment, then said, “Our voices were so loud that even the floor above could hear.”

“Whether it’s loud or not, the floor above can hear,” Li Min said suggestively, urging, “Quick, quick, seize the opportunity! Otherwise, the spider will come out!”

Zheng Yimian: “…It can’t come out that quickly.”

After that, she edited a message to Liang Yu: [There’s a spider in our dorm room.]

Quickly, he replied with four simple characters: [Coming now. Wait for me.]

“Wow–” Her roommate covered her mouth, reading Liang Yu’s message in an exaggeratedly sweet voice, “Coming now! Wait for me!”

“Woah–” Li Min was on the bed, almost doing a backflip, her voice rising and falling dramatically like she was singing an opera.

The opera came to an abrupt halt as there was a knock on the door.

Li Min: “…”

Zheng Yimian smiled and shrugged, turning to open the door.

Liang Yu stood outside, asking, “Where’s the spider?”

Whether it was the lighting or not, from this angle, she could clearly see his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down as he spoke.

…..

Zheng Yimian pointed to the inner room and asked her roommate, “Where is it?”

“At the very back, next to the mop.”

Liang Yu nodded to show he understood and quickly walked into the inner room.

He seemed to have grabbed something, and soon there was the sound of a wooden stick hitting the wall repeatedly.

Liang Yu successfully chased the spider out and closed the window before coming out of the room.

“It’s been chased out, and the window is closed. It won’t come back in.”

After saying this, he told Zheng Yimian, “If there’s anything else in the future, just come find me directly.”

Before Zheng Yimian could respond, Li Min spoke up, “Oh, Mianmian, didn’t you last night…”

Liang Yu frowned and asked Zheng Yimian, “What happened last night?”

“It’s nothing,” Zheng Yimian shook her head. “It’s just that there are a lot of moths here. Sometimes they get into our dorm without us knowing. When we’re using our phones at night, they fly towards our phones…”

Last night, when one suddenly flew at her, Zheng Yimian was genuinely startled and almost dropped her phone.

“But,” Zheng Yimian added, “we chased the moth out this morning.”

Li Min chimed in, “Sometimes we bump into them when we go out. If you get up early, there are quite a few. It’s a bit scary.”

Liang Yu nodded, “I see.”

After he spoke, Zheng Yimian opened her mouth, unsure whether to thank him. Seeing that she was about to say something formal, Li Min quickly said, “Mianmian, why don’t you see him upstairs?”

Before Zheng Yimian could say “okay,” Liang Yu had already opened the door with a smile, “No need, it’s windy outside. I’ll head off now.”

After the door closed, the expressions on everyone’s faces in the dorm were more amusing than the last.

Thinking about it, Zheng Yimian summarized for them. “Your expressions right now look exactly like when we used to whisper during class in middle school.”

Li Min: “How could that be? Whispering is nowhere near as interesting as watching you.”

“…”

After Liang Yu went upstairs, he sat on the edge of his bed with his phone, looking for something.

After a while, he asked Zhao Yuan, “Didn’t you say yesterday that you brought a small folding lamp?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah.” Zhao Yuan’s fingers tapped on his screen. “I thought it would be very dark here, but I didn’t expect the lights to be on at night. The lamp I brought isn’t much use. It’s heavy, and I was planning to throw it away later.”

Liang Yu had one leg bent on the edge of the bed and the other stretched out casually. He said, “Then give it to me.”

“Sure.” Zhao Yuan looked at him for a second. “What do you want it for?”

Liang Yu was concise. “It’s useful.”

After finishing a game, Zhao Yuan reached into his backpack to feel for something, not forgetting to smirk. “I’m sure you find it useful, heh…”

The folding lamp was a square block. Zhao Yuan quickly found it and tossed it to Liang Yu.

He took the lamp and quickly left the room.

The next day.

After washing her face and brushing her teeth, it was time for breakfast.

Li Min leaned against the doorway waiting for everyone to get ready. As they were leaving, she said, “Hey, why do I feel like there aren’t many moths this morning?”

Zheng Yimian saw the folding lamp hung up at the end of the hallway. The light was very bright, attracting most of the moths.

She was stunned for a moment before softly replying, “Mm.”

After finishing breakfast, the class monitor tapped a bowl and announced. “The people who will perform base on yesterday’s competition are–”

Everyone held their breath in anticipation.