It was Lin Yi’s turn.
Jian Shuye tossed the draft back to Lin Yi.
For the first time, she spoke in a tone Lin Yi couldn’t quite describe, as if she had just seen a baby photo of Lin Yi with her bare bottom showing, leaving her at a loss for words.
“You read it yourself. I can’t bring myself to say it out loud.”
“Maybe we just shouldn’t read it at all,” Lin Yi said, taking the draft paper. “I think what the other side wrote is pretty good. Maybe we should just call it a day and leave…”
Jian Shuye didn’t move her head, only slanting her eyes, a hint of killing intent in them. “Dare to write it but not dare to read it?”
It wasn’t me who wrote it!
—Haki System, you read it yourself!
The pressure was passed to the System, but it gave no answer.
Helpless, Lin Yi could only brace herself and read.
As for the internal monologue… she’d just have to throw caution to the wind…
Lin Yi’s voice, much like her appearance, carried a touch of sweetness and a certain detachment from worldly affairs.
“The wisp of blue smoke from Ou Guan burning paper pierced through the softest layer of window paper under feudal ethics—not the earth-shattering passion of talented scholars and beauties, but the ambiguous, quietly growing, inherently fated hazy affection between young girls, where boundaries blur.”
Lin Yi swallowed her saliva and glanced at Jian Shuye.
Jian Shuye looked at her mockingly. “Keep going.”
“The young girls pretended to be husband and wife, taking their feelings as genuine. Worldly rules and teachings were but passing clouds. It was in their day and night companionship that boundaries slowly dissolved, friendship growing into love…”
“This is the true meaning, the core essence. It’s not about deliberately crossing boundaries, but rather that there were never any boundaries to begin with.”
Lin Yi stole a second glance at Jian Shuye, but the beautiful girl remained unmoved.
“It’s not ‘I fell in love with a woman,’ but ‘I fell in love with you, the one who was with me day and night.'”
“Ask all the paired couples in the world; they all begin with a single thread of affection, winding around the heartstrings. They shared a room, shared a bed, and thus came physical intimacy, day by day, cherished in the palm of the hand.”
“Hazy to the point of being poetic, pure to the point of being untainted by dust. This is not mischief, but the truest logic of infatuation.”
“So the most moving love is never a clearly defined label, but that when I look at you, my heart is full of tenderness.”
Lin Yi looked at Jian Shuye a third time, and the other party finally deigned to meet her gaze.
“Borrowing the burning of paper to weep at the grave, transforming longing until the tears run dry…”
“One might ask what the true meaning is worth. Pouring out heartfelt feelings with pen and paper, writing of the emotions in the quiet of the night…”
…
…
Lin Yi’s heart felt ashen.
Ji Yin and the female club member exchanged a look, and then the female club member blurted out, “A love letter?”
“It’s not!”
Lin Yi hurriedly explained, “This is writing about the feelings between Ou Guan and Di Guan. Don’t get the wrong idea.”
Ji Yin said indignantly, “And this is what you call ‘utterly lacking in literary cultivation’?!”
Jian Shuye lightly tapped the desk with her finger. “Score first.”
Ji Yin’s mouth twisted into a ‘へ’ shape. She plopped down on the desk, seemingly troubled by something.
Finally, the female club member stepped forward, placing a hand on Ji Yin’s shoulder.
“Isn’t it… actually quite good? At least the other side also sensed this ineffable feeling…”
“But, if we admit defeat now, we’ll have to…”
Jian Shuye reminded them, “You can return to the Literature Club. I, on behalf of the Student Council, will approve your application.”
“Hey! I haven’t even given my score yet, and you’re already declaring us the losers?”
Ji Yin jumped down from the desk and looked at Lin Yi. “Although… although I really can’t give a zero, I can’t bring myself to do it, but I absolutely won’t give a perfect score either!”
“It doesn’t matter.” Jian Shuye extended her hand. “Weren’t you pursuing a ‘special relationality’ anyway?”
“That’s different from this, completely different!”
Ji Yin bit her thumbnail, then snorted coldly. “Sixty points. I’ll give you a passing grade. What about you? How many points are you giving her?”
Jian Shuye looked at Lin Yi.
Lin Yi knew this girl had said before that her appreciation scores were either zero or one hundred, with no in-between.
Perhaps because victory or defeat was right before her eyes, or perhaps because Jian Shuye disliked these two from the Classical Literature Club, she made the decision. “The appreciation deviates from the topic. The language is affected and pretentious, bordering on incomprehensible. But… it can at least be considered words from the heart. Can’t give it a zero. Can only give it one hundred.”
Ji Yin had no objection. The reason they got zero was due to a technicality, so it wasn’t shameful.
Jian Shuye looked at the two across from her. “Starting today, the Classical Literature Club’s clubroom belongs to our Myriad Phenomena Club. The two of you can go report to the Literature Club.”
Ji Yin lifted her head. “Even so, we won’t go back to the Literature Club. At worst, we’ll just find another club to join.”
“Club President…”
“Don’t say it.” Ji Yin picked up her schoolbag. “Those people in the Literature Club have a grudge against us. Going back would just mean getting the cold shoulder.”
Jian Shuye flexed her fingers. “Perhaps one day, our Myriad Phenomena Club will also kick down the door of the Literature Club.”
Huh?
Lin Yi glanced sideways at Jian Shuye. She hadn’t mentioned this to her.
Was this so-called Myriad Phenomena Club some kind of demolition squad, planning to blow up all the boring clubs at Zhuming Girls’ High?
Scary. Too scary.
“That would be for the best.”
Ji Yin led the female club member to the door but turned back. “Jian Shuye, I know you. In the next Student Council election, your position as Student Council President is as solid as a rock. But let me tell you, it’s best to leave some room, not be so sharp and overbearing.”
With that, the two left the classroom without looking back.
Only Lin Yi and Jian Shuye remained in the classroom.
Jian Shuye stood up and walked a circle around the room, commenting as she went. “Hmm, the bookshelves can stay. We’ll have the equipment room replace the desks with new ones later.”
“Um…” Lin Yi said, holding her stomach. “Can I leave first? I want to clock out.”
“Stomachache?”
“More like a stomach upset.”
Jian Shuye, in her round-toe loafers, walked up to Lin Yi and leaned forward slightly. “Trying to run away?”
“Don’t call it ‘running away,’ that sounds bad. It’s called clocking out after work.”
“Stomach not upset anymore?”
“…”
Jian Shuye picked up her phone and tapped a few times. Lin Yi didn’t need to look to know Jian Shuye was sending her payment.
Lin Yi rubbed her fingers together. “Um, I wanted to ask you…”
Jian Shuye didn’t even turn her head. “You’re a nice person.”
“I haven’t even said what I wanted to ask!”
“It’s fine. I’m just giving a preemptive shot.” Jian Shuye put away her phone. “Many people are attracted to my wealth or my looks. I don’t care.”
Lin Yi deflated like a punctured ball, feeling a bit weary. “Why did you choose the fifty-eighth chapter?”
Jian Shuye countered, “Why did you write about Ou Guan and Di Guan?”
“Then why did you create the Myriad Phenomena Club?”
“Then why did you take my painting?”
…
Silence.
Jian Shuye, like an empress who had just finished watching a song and dance performance, waved her hand dismissively at Lin Yi. “You may withdraw. That’s all for today.”
Lin Yi didn’t get the answer she wanted and left her seat with a pout.
It seemed the door of the Classical Literature Club had some magic to it; everyone who passed through it had to stop and say something there.
Lin Yi was no different. She turned her head and said, “I took that… the painting… because that painting was of me…”
What greeted Lin Yi was Jian Shuye’s gaze, her eyes fixed on Lin Yi’s chest.
Lin Yi looked down, then covered her chest, her face flushing. “I’m ignoring you!”
She ran off with a pat-pat-pat sound.
After a while, Jian Shuye looked at the draft paper on the desk.
She extended a slender finger, picked up the appreciation written in neat, elegant, and fluid handwriting, and held it up.
Sunlight streamed through the window, shining on the paper, making every word written on it seem to glitter.
And Jian Shuye’s gaze fell on the last few words.
“Writing of the emotions in the quiet of the night.”
The handwriting is quite nice.
The Ultimate Solution to All Problems, Young Lady Jian Shuye, raised the corner of her mouth by about fifteen degrees.
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