The Tender Beauty is Sweetly Doted in the 20th Century Novel!-Chapter 241 - 240: Looks Like You Need a Scolding

After hanging up the phone, Cheng Yuan paid for the call with a weary face and hugged the book as she numbly returned to the dormitory.

Actually, she wasn’t well at all.

She hadn’t really slept last night.

She had nightmares all night, waking and sleeping fitfully, and each time she opened her eyes, there was nothing but darkness, with the sound of Lin Zhishu’s suppressed crying and heart-wrenching sobs from their childhood haunting her ears.

Back at the dormitory, she placed her things down, took off her shoes, and crawled onto the bed to sit with her knees up.

Every noon, her roommates liked to visit the library, and she usually did too, but today she really couldn’t summon the energy.

Her stomach growled with hunger, yet she didn’t feel like eating at all.

She gazed at the bedspread, her expression vacant; if anyone saw her, they’d surely think there was something wrong with her mind.

But right now there wasn’t another person in the dormitory at all.

Cheng Yuan felt like she was starting to hallucinate.

Whenever she quieted down, the sound of Lin Zhishu, from their teenage years, either sobbing quietly or crying desperately in dark alleys, would occasionally mingle with the sound of her chatting casually with her sister, of course, also including the sound from yesterday.

Even though she hadn’t seen him in years, just thinking about him made his face vividly clear in her mind.

Cheng Yuan didn’t know what was wrong with her.

She had been desperately trying to suppress her feelings, not wanting to disturb him, not wanting to think of him, but nothing was going as she intended.

She simply couldn’t forget him!

Cheng Yuan painfully thumped her head, using such force that it made her dizzy and she lay down on the bed.

So hungry...

So sleepy...

So hard...

What should I do?

Her face showed an expression that seemed halfway between crying and smiling, her lips curved upwards while tears streamed down her eyes.

Tears quickly flowed down past her ears into her hair, itchy and uncomfortable, but she didn’t want to move at all.

Too tired, too hard.

If only she had never liked him at all.

If only she had met someone else when she learned what it meant to like someone.

But unfortunately, there aren’t so many ifs in the world.

The dormitory door suddenly opened from outside.

Her roommate, who usually went to and from class with her, Xia Yu’an had unexpectedly returned.

Even though she’d said she was busy today and didn’t want to go to the library.

Cheng Yuan lazily glanced out of the corner of her eye and knew it was her, without even turning her head.

Xia Yu’an held an armful of items, including a lunchbox in her hand.

She slammed the dormitory door shut with a "bang," scaring Cheng Yuan into an involuntary shiver.

As soon as she entered, she saw Cheng Yuan lying on the bed crying, her face so weary that she looked as though she was about to die.

Xia Yu’an was extremely upset.

She directly put on a fierce face and slammed the lunchbox down on the table next to Cheng Yuan’s bed.

"Cheng Yuan, get up and eat!"

Cheng Yuan barely had time to react before being roughly pulled up.

"We are women of the new era, striving to get into college not to die over a boy, now hurry up and eat, no more crying, don’t make me look down on you!"

Xia Yu’an impatiently supported her while quickly unscrewing the lid of the lunchbox.

Without using chopsticks, she picked up a large spoonful of rice mixed with vegetable soup and shoved it toward Cheng Yuan’s mouth.

"Open your mouth."

She snapped again.

Cheng Yuan’s eyes, red and swollen, brimmed with tears once more, "Anan... I’m so useless..."

Seizing the moment she spoke, Xia Yu’an immediately shoved the spoon into her mouth.

Forced to eat a mouthful of rice, Cheng Yuan’s mouth began to chew instinctively, and the hunger in her stomach suddenly became overwhelmingly intense.

Seeing her start to eat, Xia Yu’an shoved the spoon into her hand, "Stop talking, eat, talk after you finish."

Cheng Yuan clutched the spoon as if it were the courage Xia Yu’an was passing to her, immediately swallowing the food in her mouth before fiercely stabbing it into the rest of the dish.

Xia Yu’an said nothing more, silently sorting the books and notes she brought back onto the table.

"Better wise up and read more books than to idle your mind thinking here, do you think becoming a doctor is easy?"

"Ridiculous, at the start of school, you said your dream was to be a doctor saving lives, and now so soon you’re pining for a man. What, you plan to starve yourself?"

"With such poor commitment, you think you can be a doctor? Even regular people are stronger, those with terminal illnesses are optimistic telling doctors they want to live."

"Can’t save yourself, then talk of saving others? Don’t want to study, change majors now, there’s still time."

Her words were blunt, even harsh like scolding.

But Cheng Yuan felt her mind become more and more awake as she listened.

Suddenly she realized maybe she really needed scolding.

Ye Manman’s gentle comfort made her feel worse, now Xia Yu’an’s sharp reprimand made her not feel so bad.

The congestion in her heart eased, breathing became much smoother.

She silently and swiftly finished the meal in the lunchbox, during the process Xia Yu’an did not scold her further, but she had somehow come to understand.

Perhaps she shouldn’t suppress her feelings so much, liking someone isn’t wrong, nor should it be a shackle to her growth.

If she truly liked him, she should learn from him, study hard and serve the country properly.

Before, she was completely caught in a dead end.

"So, have you figured it out?"

Xia Yu’an kept reading, but would sneak glances at her now and then.

She saw Cheng Yuan’s brow relax, her eyes regain their luster, and couldn’t help but scold her once again.

"You really need to be scolded."

Cheng Yuan found it a bit ridiculous.

She wondered if something was off with her, Xia Yu’an kept scolding her, yet she found Xia Yu’an increasingly endearing.

"Sorry, Anan, you were right to scold me, I won’t do this again."

She apologized of her own accord, but Xia Yu’an was too lazy to even look, instead, she stretched out her hand.

"It’s fine if you know it, I don’t want to buy you a meal, return one of my meal tickets."

At their school, they used special meal tickets for eating, while there were more expensive tickets for choosing better dishes, they both used regular tickets, eating whatever the canteen offered.

Cheng Yuan didn’t mean to take advantage, and she felt especially embarrassed for wasting Xia Yu’an’s time that could have been spent quietly studying in the library. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

She quickly pulled out a ticket and returned it to Xia Yu’an, who unhesitatingly accepted and pocketed it.

Then she looked at Cheng Yuan in disdain, "Go wash your face, I wanted to say this morning, did you wash your face since waking up?"

They were all girls, and Xia Yu’an, although hot-tempered, loved cleanliness and looked very cute.

Although for some reason she always keeps her hair short.

But Cheng Yuan thought she might look better with long hair.

Under her disdainful gaze, Cheng Yuan picked up a small mirror and took a look, and that look startled her.

Her eyes looked like she’d been punched, with dark circles under them, and eye gunk clung to the corners from her earlier tears...

Too afraid to look at Xia Yu’an again, she dropped the mirror and darted off to wash her face.