I Might Have Fallen in Love With My Childhood Sweetheart-Chapter 8 - 6 Lan Mei and Childhood Sweetheart

When class ended, Ruan Ruan came over with her water bottle to fill it up with Qingran at the back of the classroom. On the way, she leaned in close to Qingran and whispered, "Ranran, did you really grow up with Brother An since childhood?"

"Mm."

"Then you're Brother An's childhood playmate, and Brother Mo is someone else's playmate."

"Mm." Qingran tightened the cap on her cup filled with boiling water, then belatedly let out a puzzled "Mm?" "Why do they say Li Qing Mo is the other playmate?"

Ruan Ruan was adding brown sugar ginger tea to her cup, her period was almost over, and although her stomach wasn't hurting much anymore, perhaps because she was upset about changing seats today, she felt a dull pain again.

Ruan Ruan quickly screwed on the cap of her cup, not bothering to fill it with more water. She glanced over at Xie Ying'an's seat, but he was not in the classroom. She breathed a sigh of relief, straightened up in an instant, and asked, "Ranran, you really didn't get a chance to check the school forum yesterday?"

"No." Qingran didn't see it because she was drunk last night, and even if she wasn't, she probably wouldn't have looked.

"Everyone is suspecting that Brother An and Brother Mo are together..." As she met Qingran's surprised gaze, Ruan Ruan quickly raised three fingers, swearing, "Of course, I've never suspected it. How could Brother An and Brother Mo have anything going on? Their friendship is purer than a revolutionary's."

Qingran did not speak, her words halted as she looked over Ruan Ruan's shoulder.

Finally, Ruan Ruan had a hint of realization. She stiffly turned her head and saw Xie Ying'an and Su Chen standing right behind her as they entered through the back door. Su Chen's hand slipped to his waist and he secretly gave her a thumbs up, while Xie Ying'an's look was colder than a chilling winter wind blowing on her face.

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The situation was somewhat awkward for a moment, but then the class bell rang right on time, signaling the start of class. Qingran breathed a sigh of relief and quickly nudged the stunned Ruan Ruan back to her seat.

This class was taught by their homeroom teacher, Old Wu, who taught chemistry. He liked to ask students questions during class, so everyone sat up straight, fearful of being called on if they didn't know the answers and fearless if they did.

In the middle of the class, Old Wu indeed asked a few students questions, including Wen Shiyi, who answered quickly and correctly, leaving Old Wu quite satisfied.

As the end of class approached, Old Wu mentioned that several schools would be holding a physics competition, with 32 seats available for F High School. Class one had the most, with five seats. As there was no substantial reward mentioned, the interest among the students was lacking.

Old Wu, seeing their lackluster response, felt a toothache coming on. He smacked his podium with a thud, "Perk up! You've been getting worse year after year. Now you're in the second year of high school and already counting down to the university entrance exam. Are you going to face your studies with this attitude..."

In the last few minutes of class, Old Wu served three big bowls of "chicken soup for the soul," so much so that when class ended, everyone's steps toward the cafeteria weren't as eager as usual.

Qingran sat with Xie Ying'an and Li Qing Mo in the cafeteria, eating together. Normally, Qingran would not sit with them for lunch, but today Ruan Ruan was too scared to even come eat. Just as Qingran happened to see Li Qing Mo scooching over to Xie Ying'an's side, she pulled Qingran over as well.

On Qingran's left-hand side was the school bully who fought recklessly, and across from her was the school hunk with otherworldly looks and top-notch grades—she could feel the frequent glances from others around her.

Li Qing Mo passed the carrots he didn't like eating into Qingran's plate, and then asked her, "Where's your girlfriend? Not eating?"

Qingran glanced over at Xie Ying'an, who was seated opposite her and was about to put his carrot strips into her plate as well. Hearing Li Qing Mo's words, he turned his head to glance at Li Qing Mo, then lightly chuckled with an ambiguous meaning, "Perhaps she's feeling guilty!"

He then turned back to meet Qingran's gaze, which held a hint of a plea, and he squeezed his chopsticks twice in acknowledgment.

"Feeling guilty?" Li Qing Mo's curiosity was piqued, "Bro, do you know what's going on???"

Xie Ying'an quietly ate, not responding to him.

Qingran also sped up her eating, "Bro, you better eat quickly."

Li Qing Mo looked at both of them suspiciously. A man's sixth sense told him that they definitely had secrets from him. He felt a bit sad that his own baby sister whom he cherished was keeping secrets with another man.

After lunch, there was more than an hour's break before the afternoon classes, and most students would choose to take a nap on their desks.

Qingran also took out a bag hanging beside her desk, which contained a pillow. She planned to snooze on the desk. Xie Ying'an didn't have the habit of napping, and usually, he would be called by Su Chen and others to play basketball at this time. Today, however, he did not go.

Qingran's pillow was embroidered with a little pig wearing black shorts, one hoof raised high as if greeting someone, and next to the hoof, it read "I'M Q R."

Xie Ying'an couldn't help but take another look, knowing full well whose handiwork it was. Qingran said, "Good afternoon," to him and lay on the table facing away from him, falling asleep.

Suddenly, Xie Ying'an remembered the previous summer vacation. He didn't want to get involved in Liu Luo Xi and Li Qing Mo's capers because they were too noisy. He chose instead to stay in the study with this quiet little girl, reading books.

The little girl read books with concentration and discipline, always carrying a notebook and dictionary with her. Whenever she encountered an unfamiliar word, she would record it in the notebook and look it up in the dictionary, never taking out her phone.

Since the Xie Family and the Li Family moved out of the compound, they hadn't had the chance to be alone together for five or six years.

Xie Ying'an, as if possessed, also picked up a book to read on the sofa next to her. Having company, Qingran seemed very happy, eagerly recommending some good books she had read. Xie Ying'an found each one and read them.

The way they got along felt very comfortable to Xie Ying'an. They didn't talk much, yet they had shared topics. Occasionally, they would chat about the exotic allure of distant lands described in the books, and she could speak endlessly and effortlessly about them.

The two of them were sitting closer while discussing, and he could smell her elegant scent, which was faint, more like grass than flowers.

She was very quiet when reading a book, silently chuckling when it pleased her, and furrowing her brows when she was dissatisfied.

He couldn't help but glance in her direction, with the light from the window casting upon her profile, she looked exceptionally serene and beautiful, embodying the peace of the years...

At that moment, his previous jealousy of Li Qingmo having such a well-behaved sister vanished, and he thought, it's a good thing that she's Li Qingmo's sister.

...

Xie Ying'an took out his phone from his pocket, opened WeChat and sent a red envelope to Li Qingmo, who replied almost instantly.

Tight-lipped: "?"

X: "Buy me a pillow like Qingran's."

Tight-lipped: "Don't disturb your brother's gaming team!!!"

Tight-lipped: "Wait, why would you know about Ranran's pillow???"

Tight-lipped: "She didn't bring her pillow to school, did she???"

X: "Mine doesn't need any lettering."

Tight-lipped: "Hahaha~"

Tight-lipped: "I insist on printing I'M X Y A."

Tight-lipped: "Almost fooled by you, I didn't agree to buy it for you, but if you call me brother, maybe I'll consider it."

Xie Ying'an glanced at the phone and then turned it off immediately, as he was born three months earlier than the Li siblings.

As a child, Li Qing used to follow him around calling him brother. Once in primary school, he didn't want to anymore, and during adolescence, every time Li Qing recalled running behind him as a kid, he felt it was a disgrace...

The afternoon hours were indeed sleep-inducing, and Xie Ying'an also lay down at his desk facing in Qingran's direction, closing his eyes to feign sleep.

Not long after Xie Ying'an lay down, the girls in front pretending to read books could no longer keep up their act. They whispered to each other for a while, and all took out their phones to check the school forum.

The latest post on the school forum was captioned "The school heartthrob isn't in an early romance, is he?".

The content read, "Want to know the relationship between the school heartthrob and the high school sophomore goddess and top student L Q R. Does anyone have the scoop? It can't really be what I'm thinking, can it??" followed by a bunch of crying and heartbroken emojis.

An unclear photo was the featured image of the post, which was sneakily taken by some girls in the front row moments ago, showing Xie Ying'an and Qingran napping at their desks, their heads very close together, much closer than Xie Ying'an would usually maintain with others.

Within two minutes of a refresh, numerous people had replied.

Second floor: Holy shit!

Third floor: A big, bold HOLY SHIT!!

Fourth floor: A big, bold and underlined HOLY SHIT!!!

Fifth floor: Is it real? Can you really tell that's the school heartthrob from just one head in the photo?

Sixth floor (anonymous): As a diehard fan of AN, I truly recognize him, crying, crying, and crying... But I refuse to believe that AN would engage in an early romance, no one is worthy of AN, tagging Fifth floor.

Seventh floor: I just want to know who the sophomore goddess and top student is? (Emoji) lust

Eighth floor: To win over the Gao Lingzhi flower, the junior girl has some impressive skills, (emoji) jealousy twisting out of shape

Ninth floor: "Agreeing with Seventh floor, need to know, waiting online!"

Tenth floor: "Pfft! Don't slander the male god, it's definitely that girl BB sticking to him like a fly; if my male god liked her, I'd live stream myself eating shit! This post is proof!"

Eleventh floor: "Agree with Tenth floor, my male god goes through this kind of forceful pairing every year, he probably can't even recognize who the girl is, it's truly disgusting to him."

Twelfth floor: "Screenshot taken, looking forward to your live stream @Tenth floor."

...