Chapter 75: Valentine's Day
February 14th, the internationally recognized Valentine's Day.
No one really knows when it started, but nowadays there seem to be all kinds of Valentine's Days throughout the year.
There is the international Valentine's Day in spring, the Qixi Festival Valentine's Day in summer, and the White Valentine's Day associated with Christmas in winter.
Not to mention the various Valentine's Days created by businesses to boost sales, such as May 20th, which has also been labeled as a Valentine's Day.
That said, for most young people, especially those with girlfriends, these holidays are still celebrated.
But for a single guy like Li Nuo, Valentine's Day had nothing to do with him. Whenever a holiday like this came around, he preferred staying at home, browsing the internet, and chatting nonsense with people online.
For example, joking about how some places would be "full of artillery fire" that night, or how certain people would be eating bananas and drinking milk.
Some people even joked that they would sell flowers during the day on Valentine's Day, then sell condoms at night, and even poke holes in them afterward. The comments were so evil that they became funny.
The ridiculous conversations of internet users often made Li Nuo laugh out loud.
However, on this internationally recognized Valentine's Day, the most romantic tradition was still girls making chocolate by hand and giving it to the person they liked most.
Of course, some girls who could not make chocolate simply bought ready-made chocolates instead.
As someone who had been single since birth, Li Nuo had never received chocolate from a girl on Valentine's Day.
But that was normal.
Back in middle school, he had been a shy and lonely person. It was hard to imagine any girl liking someone like that.
As for now... things had not improved much.
After an entire semester, he still had not gotten to know many girls at school.
Back when he attended middle school in his hometown village, the number of girls he knew was even smaller. He could count them on one hand.
Most of them had only exchanged a sentence or two with him and had no real connection with him.
Except for one person.
That person was his middle school classmate, a girl named Shen Jiamei.
In his memory, she was a girl who smiled a lot and had a strong sense of justice. She often helped classmates who were having difficulties.
The reason Li Nuo got to know her was because she saw him being bullied by a group of troublemakers at school.
He still remembered the scene vividly.
With her small frame, she stood in front of him and stopped the bullies from continuing to harass him.
If he remembered correctly, she had learned taekwondo.
All he remembered was that she had thoroughly beaten up the people bullying him. Afterward, covered in dirt, she grinned at him and said, "As long as I'm here, I won't let anyone bully you again."
At that moment, she had seemed like a savior to Li Nuo.
For a long time after that, because of her presence, he was no longer bullied by those troublemakers.
That peaceful period lasted until the third year of middle school.
At that time, Shen Jiamei suddenly transferred schools because her family was moving away.
After she left, Li Nuo's school life returned to what it had been before, being bullied.
…………………………
Returning to the present, Li Nuo opened QQ on his computer.
Scrolling all the way to the bottom of his contact list, he found an account with a cat profile picture.
It was Shen Jiamei's QQ account.
After opening the chat window, he realized that their last conversation had been two years ago.
Their final chat record was from September 1st, 2013, when he had sent her a message wishing her a good start to the school year.
She had only replied with a simple "thank you."
After that, they had rarely spoken, and it seemed she hardly logged into QQ anymore.
Looking at the gray offline profile picture on the screen, Li Nuo somehow typed,
"Are you still there?"
Immediately afterward, he felt that sounded strange, as if he were asking whether she was still alive.
So he quickly withdrew the message.
However, just as he closed the chat window and planned to continue joking with internet users about Valentine's Day, QQ suddenly started flashing in the bottom-right corner of the screen.
It also made a notification sound.
The flashing profile picture belonged to Shen Jiamei.
For some reason, Li Nuo did not want to open it.
He even regretted sending the message in the first place because he had no idea what to say to her now.
After struggling internally for quite a while, he finally clicked it.
The chat window appeared in the center of the screen.
The other person had sent only two words.
[I'm here.]
Looking at the message, Li Nuo stared for a long time before replying.
[Is this really you?]
The response came instantly.
[What do you think, Nuonuo?]
The moment he saw the nickname "Nuonuo," he immediately knew it was really Shen Jiamei.
Back then, she loved calling him that.
According to her, it sounded more friendly and affectionate.
However, Li Nuo had never liked the nickname.
But now that he knew it was really her, he became even more unsure about what to say.
Before he could think of a reply, she sent another message:
[Will you be returning to Xinghua Village during the Spring Festival?]
Xinghua Village was Li Nuo's hometown.
Although it was also located within S City, it was in a different district far from downtown.
The trip back took about two hours by bus.
If there had been a subway system, it would have been much faster.
Unfortunately, S City was only a small third-tier city and had no subway system, only buses with hard seats.
Sitting on one of those buses for two hours was truly painful.
Even so, he would still return during the Spring Festival. Although his parents were gone, his grandparents were still there.
He also needed to visit relatives and pay New Year visits.
After all, during middle school, he had lived with relatives, and he did not want them secretly calling him an ungrateful person.
So he replied,
[Yeah, I'll be going back.]
[That's great. I'm planning to return to Xinghua Village during the Spring Festival too. Let's meet up then.]
[Didn't your family already move away?] Li Nuo replied.
[My parents still go back every year to honor our ancestors. I couldn't return with them last year because I was busy, but I can go this year.]
[I see...]
Only then did Li Nuo remember that Xinghua Village did indeed have a tradition of worshipping ancestors in the family ancestral halls during the Spring Festival.
Back when his parents were alive, they took him there every year.
After they died in the car accident, he rarely went anymore.
While he was recalling those memories, another message arrived.
[So you're studying at a high school in the city now?]
[Yeah.]
[Which school?]
[Nanqin High School.]
[Nanqin? How did you end up there?]
[It's a long story...]
Based on his grades back then, he should have been able to enter a much better school.
Unfortunately, because of the bullying, he had been unable to focus on studying during his final year of middle school.
Every day was spent worrying about being bullied.
As a result, he performed poorly on the entrance exams and ended up at Nanqin High School.
Those memories were painful, and he did not want to talk about them.
So he changed the subject and chatted with her about other things.
The two talked for a long time.
Only when she said she had to go out did the conversation finally end.
After shutting down the computer, Li Nuo stretched lazily and looked at the clock.
It was already seven in the evening.
Since she was going out at this hour, and considering what day it was, Li Nuo did not need to think hard to guess what she was doing.
However, An Ran'er had also gone out earlier that afternoon.
He had no idea what she had gone to do.
Still, he was not really anyone special to her, so he had no reason to ask too many questions.
Opening his bedroom door and going downstairs into the living room, Li Nuo discovered that An Ran'er had already returned.
She was sitting on the sofa, holding something in her hands and staring at it.
"When did you get back?"
After pouring himself a glass of water from the kitchen, Li Nuo walked into the living room while drinking.
The moment he spoke, An Ran'er jumped in surprise.
She turned around and said,
"Whoa! Why didn't you make any noise when you came home?"
"I never went out in the first place," Li Nuo said helplessly.
Then he pointed at the object in her hands.
"What's that?"
Before he could get a closer look, An Ran'er quickly hid it behind her back and acted as if nothing had happened.
"N-Nothing."
"Oh..."
Since she did not want to say, Li Nuo did not press further.
Instead, he asked, "By the way, what were you doing this afternoon? You seemed in such a hurry."
"Xiao Lu suddenly wanted me to go buy chocolate with her. I really don't understand her."
"Chocolate?"
Why would Ye Feilu buy chocolate?
Could it be...
Li Nuo took out his phone and opened WeChat.
The newest post on Zhou Qikuan's Moments immediately caught his eye.
[Receiving chocolate from the person you like on Valentine's Day is such a wonderful thing.]
Attached was a photo of him holding a box of chocolates.
Li Nuo had not expected their relationship to develop so quickly.
Still, wasn't Zhou Qikuan worried about his fiancée Su Wenwen seeing this post?
After thinking about it, he figured Zhou Qikuan had probably blocked her from seeing it.
The reason things had progressed so smoothly between them was likely because they liked each other.
Unlike someone like him, who was still stuck in a one-sided crush and could only envy others.
"Growl..."
The sound from his stomach interrupted his thoughts.
Turning toward An Ran'er, he asked, "By the way, have you eaten dinner yet?"
"N-Not yet."
"Neither have I. I'll make enough for both of us. Is egg fried rice okay?"
"Anything is fine."
"What's wrong with you?"
Only now did Li Nuo notice something strange. She had been acting oddly the entire time.
"N-Nothing."
"Really? Your face is really red. Are you sick?"
As he spoke, he reached out to touch her forehead.
"I really am fine! Don't touch me!"
Just before his hand reached her forehead, An Ran'er suddenly shouted.
"Sorry. That was inappropriate of me..."
Startled by her reaction, Li Nuo withdrew his hand.
Still, he asked worriedly, "But are you really okay?"
"I'm fine."
Looking at the concern on Li Nuo's face, An Ran'er realized she had overreacted.
After hesitating for a moment, she slowly brought the hand she had been hiding behind her back to the front.
In both hands, she held a piece of chocolate.
Stammering, she said, "T-This... is for... for you."
"This is..."
Only now did Li Nuo realize that she had been holding chocolate the whole time.
As for why she wanted to give it to him, his thoughts immediately started running wild.
"Could it be that you..."
"D-Don't get the wrong idea! I-I just happened to buy it while shopping for chocolate with Xiao Lu. It's friendship chocolate. That's right, friendship chocolate."
"So it's only friendship chocolate..."
A trace of disappointment flashed through Li Nuo's eyes.
But he quickly smiled.
"No matter what, thank you, Classmate An, for giving me chocolate."
"You're welcome..."
An Ran'er replied softly.
Holding the chocolate she had given him, Li Nuo felt as if he had just eaten honey.
Because no matter what the reason was…
This was the first time in his life that he had received chocolate from a girl on Valentine's Day.