I Might Have Fallen in Love With My Childhood Sweetheart-Chapter 19 - 17 Don’t Be Picky

Qingran feeds stray cats, but not every day.

She feeds the cats at two different times—when she feels good, and when she feels bad.

If her mood is okay, Qingran would typically feed them once every other day.

Yesterday, Ruan Ruan came by, coincidentally there was a light rain, so Qingran did not come out.

Today, Qingran is in a very bad mood, although she wasn't punished this time, both Ruan Ruan and Li Qingmo got written up.

Afterward, Huang Qianyu's father found out his daughter had been hit by a male classmate and was immediately displeased, grabbing Huang Qianyu's hand and intending to take her to the hospital for an examination.

Fortunately, Zhao Yan and Ruan Ruan's mother were not the sort to be trifled with.

It was Huang Qianyu who started the trouble first, and with Wen Shiyi willing to serve as a witness, it wasn't just Mr. Huang who wanted to escalate the issue.

Old Wu ended up caught in the middle, and had no choice but to call the Head of Discipline; eventually, the parents discussed and came to a conclusion—to either expel everyone involved or take a step back.

At the end of the day, this was all because of Qingran, and her mood plummeted to an all-time low.

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freёnovelkiss.com.

After dinner, Li Qingmo cooped up in his room to write a thousand-word reflective essay, and Qingran went out again with the cat food.

Upon arrival, Qingran stealthily hid in the distance and checked the area, but without seeing Ji Yanchen's figure, she relievedly approached the spot.

After being absent for a day, these stray cats still recognized her as their regular feeder and gathered at Qingran's feet, meowing for her attention.

As the sun set in the west, the weather gradually warmed up, and these stray cats had finally endured through this cold winter.

The smallest of the stray cats, after eating its fill, rubbed against Qingran's feet. Her fingertips gently caressed its tangled grey fur.

The stray cats, satisfied after eating, began to leave one by one. Qingran packed up the small plates on the ground, ready to leave.

As she was about to go, whether intentionally or unintentionally, she glanced upward at the tree.

Qingran walked back with a slightly lighter step, her oppressive mood considerably eased. Given the circumstances, she had no other choice but to confront the situation directly.

Li Qingmo was leaning against the door frame, looking at his phone screen and yawning from time to time.

When he saw Qingran's leisurely returning figure, he then turned to walk back into the house,

"Brother," Qingran noticed him immediately and ran over to follow him, "I finished writing my reflective essay; do you want me to write yours?"

Li Qingmo stiffened for a moment, "...No need."

Over the years, Li Qingmo had become an expert at writing reflective essays.

Qingran noticed but didn't point it out.

Back in the room, as Li Qingmo sat on the sofa waiting Qingran to put away the cat food and wash her hands, he called out to her, "Qingran, come here."

Qingran sat across from him, drying her hands, "What's up?"

Li Qingmo scratched his head, and after a long pause, he asked hesitantly: "Do you... have someone you like? Ahem, I mean, of the opposite sex."

"What?" Qingran was startled.

Seeing her reaction, Li Qingmo's tense body relaxed a bit, and he gave a sheepish smile, "Better if you don't. You're still too young, put aside anything other than your studies for now and leave it until you're older."

Now Qingran understood, Li Qingmo was worried about her prematurely falling in love.

"Brother, don't worry about it so much."

More than premature relationships, she was more concerned about the sudden and unexplained drop in her grades.

Ever since that night she found out she was in a novel, her goal had always been crystal clear—she wanted to be admitted to University F. Even if she didn't follow the ending of the book and marry that mathematical genius, she had to see, she had to find out what the man Li Qingran was supposed to marry in her past life was really like.

Based on Qingran's previous grades, entering University F shouldn't have been a problem, but this sudden drop in Physics made her feel slightly uneasy.

She remembered that the Li Qingran described in the book didn't have good grades. Was it possible that the closer she got to the female protagonist, the more her fate would resemble that in the book?

As the moon climbed the branches, Qingran lay in bed with her eyes closed, struggling to fall asleep. In fact, this evening as she was leaving, she looked up unintentionally through dense leaves and saw a swath of black fabric.

She guessed who it belonged to...

Meanwhile, Xie Ying'an lay in bed, opening the school forum app. As expected, the post by an anonymous classmate from this afternoon had been deleted.

He squinted his eyes, opened his contacts, and made a phone call.

The call was quickly answered, and a young man's voice came through the speaker: "Brother An, what's up calling me so late at night?"

Xie Ying'an was straightforward, asking him: "Do you know who the administrators of our school's forum are?"

"Ah, that... uh..." The person on the other end seemed to think for a moment before answering, "Brother An, if I remember correctly, one of them is Senior Ji He from Class 2 of the third grade, and the other is Fang Jin from our Class 4 of the second grade."

"Thanks!"

Xie Ying'an hung up and opened his photo gallery. Fortunately, when he saw the photo at noon, he had the presence of mind to save it.

In the photo, he was partially shielding Qingran, and at that moment, their poses almost resembled a hug.

In the darkness, the unclear emotions flickered within the young man's deep eyes.

——

The next day was Saturday.

The second year of high school life no longer had weekends off.

As soon as the preparatory bell rang, Old Wu, holding his textbooks, was already standing at the podium.

His eyes swept across the classroom, and it quieted down.

"Students, this incident has left me very disappointed with our classmates..."

Old Wu spent half the class period talking about the cheating on the test and the subsequent fighting, and then he brought the discussion back around.

"It doesn't matter what your family background is, if you want to study well, then show it through your actions. If you only want to coast through and take over the family business, I advise you to transfer to another school as soon as possible. Our school, F High, has always been about nurturing talents..."

"Alright," Old Wu changed the subject, "Let's talk about the students in our class who will be participating in the physics competition."

"Xie Ying'an, Wen Shiyi, Wu Ning, and also Yang Yizhi and Ye Zheng, who had signed up from the start."

Qingran quietly flipped to the last page of her notebook, where she had written down five surnames the night before in her restless state: Yang, Ye, Xie, Wen, Wu.

The plot indeed hadn't deviated from the main line.

Xie Ying'an glanced at her, then lowered his eyes, a touch of displeasure in his expression.

He was someone who disliked restraints the most - ever since elementary school, he was reluctant to participate in any competition, big or small. Having been pushed into this one, it was no wonder he was in a bad mood.

Huang Qianyu behaved much more subdued this time, spending the breaks disinfecting his desk with alcohol over and over.

Ruan Ruan and Shi Fanfan had taken the day off, and Sun Xin and the others didn't look good either. A disciplinary record would upset anyone.

The close-knit group of girlfriends, who were usually inseparable during breaks, were oddly scattered today.

During the second period, mathematics, Qingran had a sudden bad premonition when she saw the math teacher coming with a stack of test papers.

As the test papers were handed out, Qingran's hand trembled slightly while holding her pen.

In the last ten minutes, she copied all the answers from the test paper onto her draft paper.

Xie Ying'an didn't rush to submit his paper today. After the bell rang, he and Qingran handed in their test papers to the math teacher together.

"Shall we go for lunch?" As they walked side by side out of the classroom, Xie Ying'an asked her.

Qingran nodded.

Xie Ying'an then smiled slightly: "Let's go together!"

The food in the cafeteria was as unappetizing as ever. Qingran was never picky since childhood, but Xie Ying'an was notoriously fussy.

The two sat close together. Just as Xie Ying'an picked up some shredded carrots from his plate intending to discard them elsewhere, they heard a familiar female voice.

"Qingran, Xie Ying'an, may I sit with you?"

It was Wen Shiyi.

There it was, the main male and female protagonists in the original book were going to share a table for a meal ahead of time.

Before Qingran could speak, Xie Ying'an had already shown a refusal, "Sorry, I'm not comfortable eating with people I'm not familiar with."

Wen Shiyi's smile froze for a moment on her face. She quickly recovered, smiling awkwardly: "Is that so? No problem, I see there are free seats over there."

After Wen Shiyi left with her tray, Qingran turned back. She seemed to foresee the doomed pursuit Xie Ying'an would embark on in the future.

A touch of schadenfreude rose within her, and she teased: "Since when do you have a problem eating with strangers?"

Xie Ying'an pretended not to hear the jest in her words, and boldly scraped the shredded carrots onto Qingran's plate before saying: "I always have."

Looking at the pile of carrots on her plate, Qingran almost wanted to roll her eyes, "You're such a grown person, can't you stop being picky?"

The girl seemed to have regained some of the lively spark they used to share in the past.

Xie Ying'an paused with his chopsticks mid-air, the unsaid words 'I feel like we've grown distant since the start of the semester' never left his lips.

Behind them at a table, Ji He frowned as he watched the two for a long time.

After Qingran and Xie Ying'an left the cafeteria, Ji He tentatively transferred the food he disliked from his tray to the girl beside him.

Unexpectedly, the girl stared at him with a death glare, words almost bursting through clenched teeth: "Ji He, are you trying to kill me?"

Ji He shivered and slid subtly away, "Don't... don't you like celery?"

"You don't know shit," the girl whispered, spraying rice grains as she spoke, "Stuff like giving unwanted food to someone, that's only something close friends or couples do... you..."

The girl suddenly frowned suspiciously, "You're not... harboring a crush on me, are you?"

Ji He: "..."

Would you mind looking at your own reflection in the vegetable soup from your bowl?

Ji He ignored the girl's teasing, his mind preoccupied with the phrase 'giving unwanted food to each other, that's something close friends or couples do.'

Could it be that God Ji's one-sided affection was going to end before it even started?