Chapter Eighty: Shall We Go Our Separate Ways?

At this moment, Wen Yichen truly felt a bitterness he could not voice. He had intended to use this opportunity to send Xia Manman away, but unexpectedly, his plan had backfired.

The three of them walked on in silence, but the quiet made both Jiang Muwen and Wen Yichen uncomfortable. Not only did they feel ill at ease, but a heavy awkwardness hung in the air.

“By the way, Jiang Muwen, you said earlier that you had a question for me. What was it?” Wen Yichen finally broke the silence. It was a rare moment for him to initiate a conversation, but it only made Jiang Muwen even more embarrassed—she wanted to ask about his relationship with Xia Manman, yet with Xia Manman walking right beside him, how could she bring it up?

Of course, she could not.

Jiang Muwen glanced up at Wen Yichen, then forced a bitter smile. “It’s nothing…”

With that, the atmosphere sank once more into an enigmatic silence.

After a while, Xia Manman took the initiative to speak. The girl had a talent for finding topics; she could start with today’s class, segue into the math competition problems from a few days ago, and then recount an amusing story she’d seen at home. Given more time, she might well have discussed the origins of the universe and the extinction of dinosaurs.

For most of the journey, it was Xia Manman talking incessantly. Every time Wen Yichen tried to interrupt, Xia Manman would beat him to it.

He barely listened to a word she said—he cared nothing for any of it. The only thing that mattered to him was Jiang Muwen, walking quietly at his side.

But Jiang Muwen seemed completely absorbed in her own gloom. She stared down at her toes in disappointment the entire way.

The more animated Xia Manman became, the more distressed Jiang Muwen felt. It was as though her heart had been pulled out and ruthlessly dragged back and forth across the ground.

Jiang Muwen did not utter a word, and the air around her seemed to grow heavier with each step. Wen Yichen noticed her reaction; he reached out and gently tugged at her sleeve. “What’s wrong?” he asked softly, his words light as a feather falling on still water, sending gentle ripples across the surface.

Jiang Muwen was startled, then abruptly returned to herself. She reined in her emotions and forced a smile. “It’s nothing.”

“Wen Yichen…?” Xia Manman called out tentatively, sensing that his attention was entirely on Jiang Muwen. A faint trace of jealousy crept into her heart.

Xia Manman’s call brought Wen Yichen’s attention back. He looked down at her and spoke calmly, “We’re heading to catch the bus now. You don’t go the same way as us, right?”

His words caught Xia Manman off guard for a moment. Indeed, she did not share their route; she had only claimed to walk with them because she liked him.

It was obvious to anyone that Wen Yichen was politely asking her to leave. With no choice, Xia Manman managed a smile. “Yeah! I’ll turn at the next intersection.”

Once Xia Manman parted ways with them, Wen Yichen and Jiang Muwen fell into silence again. Wen Yichen wanted to find something to say, but he was naturally reticent, and his mind was blank at the crucial moment.

They walked home together in quiet. After dinner, Jiang Muwen sat at her desk scrolling through her phone as usual. Just as she was about to put it away and start her homework, she noticed Zhou Yao had posted something new.

Curiosity got the better of her, and she clicked on it almost involuntarily.

The next moment, a photo appeared on the screen. Two people were in the picture—one facing the camera, the other with their back turned. The girl facing the camera was Xia Manman, and even from the back, Jiang Muwen immediately recognized Wen Yichen. She couldn’t tell what they were doing, only that Wen Yichen was grabbing Xia Manman’s arm. Judging by their clothes, this must have been taken on the day Wen Yichen went to the math competition.

Jiang Muwen was not easily shaken, and she could have handled just seeing this photo. But Zhou Yao had added fuel to the fire, captioning the image with nothing more than a “shh” emoji, which immediately set the comments section ablaze:

“Is this for real?”
“I knew there was something going on between them!”
“99999”

The flood of emojis and comments made Jiang Muwen’s heart tremble, and her mind went blank. Her gaze drifted downward, only to see that Wen Yichen himself had left a comment: “Delete this.”

Wen Yichen’s comment only made Jiang Muwen more confused. What did he mean by “Delete this”? Her mind buzzed and went utterly blank as she stared dazedly at the screen, unable to recover for a long while.

If it was true…

Jiang Muwen looked at her phone, suddenly afraid to let her imagination continue. Given her fanciful nature, she was sure she could picture their wedding if she let her thoughts run on.

She locked her phone and set it on the desk. At this point, she felt more uncomfortable than sad. Mechanically, she pulled her homework from her bag, thinking perhaps she could distract herself by working.

But half an hour passed, and she had not written a single word. Until she figured out the relationship between those two, there was no way she could concentrate.

The more she thought, the more stifled she felt—perhaps this was what it meant to have a secret crush. When you like someone in silence, you can’t even be openly jealous. She had no right to question anyone; all she could do was be quietly sad. She had never possessed anything, yet it felt as if she kept losing it over and over again.

Finally, Jiang Muwen couldn’t resist and picked up her phone, opening her chat with Wen Yichen. She truly wanted to know what was going on between him and Xia Manman. If not as a secret admirer, then at least as a childhood friend, she had the right to ask, didn’t she?

With that thought, she prepared to type her question. But just as she was about to enter her message, she saw at the top of the chat interface the words “The other party is typing…” Jiang Muwen’s heart skipped a beat, and she withdrew her poised thumb, waiting expectantly for Wen Yichen’s message.

She watched as he typed and deleted, typed and deleted, until finally he sent just one message: “Are you there?”

Reading his message, Jiang Muwen felt a strange discomfort, as if a knot had formed inside her heart that she could not untangle. After a long moment, she tapped a few times on the screen, then gently pressed “Send”:

“I have something to do tomorrow night—can I skip tutoring?”