Chapter 81: Song Nianqiang’s Choice

"Why are you following me again? What do you want?" With a frown, Cao Jianjia questioned, noticing that Song Nianqiang's expression was off. Still, she didn’t give up. She extended a hand politely to Song Nianqiang and declared, "Hello, my name is Cao Jianjia. From this moment on, I’m going to pursue you!"

After saying this, Cao Jianjia’s face remained composed and her breath steady, but Song Nianqiang was stunned. He stood there, staring blankly at her for a few seconds, then turned and walked away. He may have refused Jiang Ningzhi, but her place in his heart was unshakable, and now she liked him as well. One Jiang Ningzhi was enough to make Song Nianqiang’s head spin; if another girl joined in, he seriously considered skipping school altogether.

"Song Nianqiang, don’t go! I haven’t finished speaking!" Cao Jianjia called, chasing after him once more. Song Nianqiang turned with a bitter smile, knowing he had to reject Cao Jianjia decisively now, or he’d never have peace. A girl as outstanding as Jiang Ningzhi, perhaps even more so in figure, was relentlessly pursuing him—he couldn’t handle it.

"Please, big sister, can’t you just be my real big sister? Spare me! Tell me what you see in me, I’ll change it immediately, if I don’t change I’m a coward!" Song Nianqiang pleaded, his face full of misery, but Cao Jianjia paid no heed to his words. "Hehe, drink this bottle of cola and I’ll leave. If you don’t, I’ll keep following you!" she threatened. Most people would be thrilled to have such a beautiful girl trailing them, but Song Nianqiang was different.

He never knew when a new task might appear, and every night he had to practice the Maoshan Taoist arts—this had become his routine. If he had a tagalong like her, he would lose all freedom.

He stared at Cao Jianjia for several seconds, trying to read her face, then took the cola, twisted off the cap, and downed it in one gulp. Without so much as a word, he turned and left. "Stop right there!" Cao Jianjia’s shout echoed behind him, but Song Nianqiang ignored her and hurried to his classroom.

It was already lunchtime, yet the classroom was still full of students, heads buried in their books. Song Nianqiang, bored, slumped across his desk, pulled out his phone, and started reading a fantasy novel called "Roaming the Otherworld with a Zombie." It was quite good. (Just a little personal indulgence.)

"Song Nianqiang, we’ve come to tutor you together!" Cao Jianjia’s sweet, syrupy voice drifted into his ears. Song Nianqiang looked up, his heart tightening; one girl was enough to overwhelm him, and now there were two. He simply closed his eyes and resigned himself to whatever they wanted.

Jiang Ningzhi still hadn’t recovered from her disappointment, her face rarely showing a smile. Cao Jianjia was more lively, and though Song Nianqiang had rejected her, she now pulled Jiang Ningzhi along as well. "Get up!" Cao Jianjia poked Song Nianqiang with her delicate, pale finger.

"Why are you here again! Please, let me go!" Song Nianqiang was truly at his wit’s end. If it had only been Cao Jianjia, he might have managed, but now she had brought Jiang Ningzhi along. Seeing Jiang Ningzhi’s affectionate gaze, Song Nianqiang sighed inwardly, "If I must die, so be it!"

"Hehe, today we’ll tutor you in English. Get out your English textbook!" Cao Jianjia dragged Jiang Ningzhi to sit directly in front of Song Nianqiang; every time he looked up, he would see Jiang Ningzhi, leaving him utterly embarrassed but helpless. He couldn’t very well ask Jiang Ningzhi not to sit there—it would hurt her feelings. If he really said that, she’d probably never speak to him again.

"English textbook! English textbook!" Song Nianqiang muttered, but couldn’t find it. He hadn’t even glanced at his new book since receiving it, afraid that even one look would make him vomit blood. Now that he needed it, it was nowhere to be found.

"Use mine," Jiang Ningzhi said, summoning her courage at last. Seeing her haggard face, Song Nianqiang’s heart ached, and he wondered again if he was making a mistake.

"Alright, use Ningzhi’s book then. Now, let’s start with a test." Cao Jianjia rattled off a string of English sentences. They were simple enough for a middle schooler to understand, but Song Nianqiang was different—he had hardly attended English classes, and if it weren’t for learning Chinese pinyin as a child, he’d scarcely remember the alphabet.

"Can’t you make it even simpler?" Song Nianqiang scratched his head with a smile. "Oh, you’re hopeless! Ningzhi, your turn!" Cao Jianjia was defeated by Song Nianqiang’s invincible ignorance; even the simplest conversation was beyond him, and even the top student Cao Jianjia had no way to deal with him.

"I love you!" Unexpectedly, Jiang Ningzhi blurted out the legendary confession. Song Nianqiang was caught completely off guard; even he, as clueless as he was, knew what those words meant. Yet he had already resolved not to accept any girl, so he sighed deeply and replied, his tone firm, "I don’t know what that means."

Cao Jianjia hadn’t expected the usually shy Jiang Ningzhi to be so bold, confessing to Song Nianqiang in front of the entire classroom. And Song Nianqiang, acting foolish, rejected her once again. Cao Jianjia was so angry her chest heaved, nearly exploding on the spot.

"You don’t know? Fine, Song Nianqiang, let me tell you: ‘I’ means me, ‘love’ means love, and ‘you’ means you. Put together, it means ‘I love you’!" Cao Jianjia, exasperated, laid it all out. Song Nianqiang had tried to feign ignorance, hoping to dodge the issue, but now he had no escape. He stared blankly at Jiang Ningzhi, at a loss for words.

"Song Nianqiang, listen to me. I’m pretty decent; I admit I like you a little, but I know my place. I won’t compete with Jiang Ningzhi for you. But tell me, what about her doesn’t match up to you? You’re just a little troublemaker, while she’s one of the most beautiful girls in our school, top of her class. Her family may not be great, but it’s good enough for you, coming from a single-parent home! I don’t get it, what’s wrong with you? Didn’t you secretly like Jiang Ningzhi? Now she’s pursuing you, and you still act aloof!"

With arms akimbo, Cao Jianjia delivered her speech in one breath. She genuinely felt Jiang Ningzhi deserved better. Many students pursued her, some far more outstanding than Song Nianqiang, but Jiang Ningzhi had never spared them a glance, her heart set solely on him. Yet Song Nianqiang, for reasons unknown, had rejected her twice.

"I…" Song Nianqiang looked at Cao Jianjia, then at Jiang Ningzhi. He suffered in silence; who didn’t wish to hold Jiang Ningzhi in their arms? But could he give her happiness? If he tried, he would only bring her endless trouble.

"What? Say it if you dare!" Cao Jianjia’s anger hadn’t subsided. She had initially wanted to compete with Jiang Ningzhi for Song Nianqiang, but after this brief contact, she realized Jiang Ningzhi was beyond hope—she had to help her, for better or worse, so that Jiang Ningzhi could either win or finally give up.

"I have nothing to say." It took Song Nianqiang a full three minutes to utter these words. His heart was heavier than anyone’s; watching the girl he loved drift away, who could share his pain? Maybe the big guy could, but with his personality, if Song Nianqiang confided in him, Jiang Ningzhi would know by the next day. So after living all these years, Song Nianqiang found, to his misery, that he didn’t have a single person he could confide in. Perhaps that, too, was a kind of sorrow in life.