Chapter 182: Transition
Time quickly passed, and it was Friday again.
An Han sold her old phone secondhand for 500 yuan, used the new iPhone she had won from the blind box, and even managed to ease some of her financial stress.
Although she wasn’t used to the new phone’s system, she didn’t really play mobile games, so switching platforms didn’t cause any problems.
However, getting a new phone didn’t make her very happy. Since she couldn’t show it off to the person she cared about, she felt an empty space in her heart.
Evening came, and class ended.
It was now December, and this year’s temperature was much colder than usual. Cold air from the north had swept in twice already.
Even though An Han was wearing a thick cotton jacket, her exposed hands, ears, and nose were slightly red from the chill. Her feet, even with warm socks, never seemed to get truly warm.
The dry autumn and winter weather also made her cheeks a little flaky, with some faint white dry skin.
She exhaled into her hands to warm them, shoved both hands into her coat pockets, lowered her head, and slightly curled her body as she walked under the eaves of the teaching building. Looking up, she saw the light rain falling quietly in the dark night.
It had been fine inside the classroom earlier, but now that she was outdoors, the drizzle made the cold even worse. Her feet were freezing, and even though she kept stomping them, it didn’t help at all.
“I forgot to bring an umbrella…” she muttered, then turned to Long Xing. “Do you have one? Lend me one?”
“The rain’s not that bad,” Chen Junjie interrupted. “Don’t be such a wimp!”
Saying that, he stepped right into the rain. He was only wearing a thin jacket, and the moment he entered the drizzle, he shivered from the cold, then immediately took off running.
Long Xing sighed helplessly as he watched him go, then turned to An Han. “Want to wait here? I can go back to the dorm and grab one for you.”
“Okay… I guess.”
An Han pressed her legs together and huddled up tightly, as if doing that could make her feel warmer.
She had always been sensitive to both cold and heat, and after becoming a girl, she seemed even more afraid of the cold.
I kind of miss my thermal underwear from home…
Watching Long Xing and Wang Sheng jog off, she let out a heavy sigh and rubbed her cheek with her fingertips, feeling the dry skin there. “I should probably buy some moisturizer or skincare cream…”
“But I don’t really know about that stuff… Which brand is good?”
Frowning, An Han pulled out her new phone and awkwardly tried to use it with one hand. In the end, using a large phone with small hands was too difficult, so she unwillingly took her other hand out of her pocket.
She found a product review post online about moisturizing skincare, then leaned her back against the wall and crossed one leg over the other as she stood reading.
“No rush, since it’s raining, the air won’t be that dry for a few days.”
“Su Peng doesn’t come to hang out with me anymore…”
“When he does talk to me, it’s just a few words before he leaves.”
After reading just a few lines of the post, her thoughts started drifting far away.
“Well, that’s good, I guess~ But his affection level didn’t drop at all. Maybe he’s planning something again.”
She mumbled to herself, but her expression became even gloomier. It wasn’t that time of the month, but she still couldn’t lift her mood, like someone going through withdrawal.
“If we don’t see each other for too long, his affection level will definitely go down, and the system won’t be able to force me to like him anymore.”
“This feeling right now is just the system’s influence!”
Outside, the rain grew heavier. The light drizzle turned into a steady downpour. Long Xing, who had said he would bring her an umbrella, still hadn’t come back even after five or six minutes.
She knew that going back and forth would take at least fifteen to twenty minutes, but her heart was already impatiently longing for the warmth of her small rented apartment.
Most of the students in the teaching building had already left, leaving only An Han staring longingly into the distance.
She sighed, if she’d known the rain would get heavier, she should’ve just run back to her rented apartment earlier when it was still drizzling.
Even if the rain had gotten heavier after leaving the campus, that would’ve been better than standing here doing nothing.
“Based on my limited experience reading romance novels, this is when Su Peng should suddenly appear out of nowhere to surprise me.”
An Han quickly turned around, but instead of Su Peng, she saw Ren Chi walking toward her from the back of the building, holding an umbrella. So it wasn’t Su Peng’s footsteps after all.
“What’s this? You look disappointed to see your teacher?” Ren Chi smiled as he walked up to her. “No umbrella? You probably could’ve made it back earlier if you just ran.”
“I didn’t want to get wet… I hate the cold.”
“Then remember to buy some thermal underwear,” he said casually, showing concern as her counselor. “In this season, it’s always better to wear more. I heard it’ll get warmer next week, it should be a bit better then.”
“Mm.”
Ren Chi smiled and opened the umbrella. “Where are you living now? I’ll walk you part of the way.”
“No need, Brother Long said he’d bring me an umbrella.”
“If you’re living off-campus, be more careful, okay? If you ever run into some creep or weirdo, call the police right away, or you can call me too.”
He was just doing his job as a counselor, giving her a few words of advice. Then, seeing her red nose and ears from the cold, he sighed helplessly.
“Come on, just message Long Xing and let him know.”
“…Okay.”
An Han could clearly feel that Ren Chi’s gaze didn’t have any strange emotions or desire in it, so she stepped under his umbrella, expressionless, eyes down, watching her own feet as she walked.
Ren Chi was quite talkative. After only a few steps, he asked, “I heard you won an iPhone on Monday?”
“Yeah.”
“Pretty lucky! After everyone heard about it, that blind box vending machine in the cafeteria got emptied every day.” He pointed at himself and chuckled. “I bought one too, got a phone screen protector.”
“Mm…”
Even though showing off her luck should’ve been something to be proud of, An Han couldn’t feel happy at all.
Maybe because she knew it was the system’s reward, or maybe because she hadn’t been able to show it off to the right person.
Ren Chi noticed her low mood and carefully asked, “So… is it true what people in class are saying? That you’re dating Su Peng?”
“How could that be!” An Han immediately got worked up and denied it without hesitation. “We’re both guys, okay! How could I be dating him! He— oh, right, you know I’m a girl…”
Ren Chi shrugged.
“But I’m not planning to date anyone… It’s just a rumor.”
She lowered her head and began twirling a lock of her hair around her finger. Her hair was too short. After wrapping it twice, it pulled against her scalp, giving her a small sting of pain.
“Why wasn’t Su Peng in class this afternoon?”
“He said he’s been sick for a few days, and it got worse today, so he went to the hospital,” Ren Chi replied, his eyes glancing at her awkward mid-length hairstyle.
“Are you planning to grow it out?” he asked in a kind, older tone. “You should trim or take care of it a bit, your hairstyle looks kinda… non-mainstream.”
It had been months since her last haircut, and her hair now covered her eyes, reached past her ears on the sides, and looked like a small broom at the back.
“I’m too lazy to take care of it, and I don’t want to cut it either.”
She brushed her bangs aside and looked ahead. “I’m almost there.”
“Alright, then go ahead.”
An Han jogged through the curtain of rain and reached the edge of the street in the village area. From here, she could walk the rest of the way home while staying under the eaves, sheltered from the rain.