Chapter 347 - 344: Fool, I Like You Too

Chapter 347: Chapter 344: Fool, I Like You Too

"You dunce..."

Shen Ying lowered her head to smell the fragrance of the roses. The hair on her forehead fell forward, obscuring her expression.

Wang Ming swallowed nervously again and again. Shen Ying had accepted the flowers but hadn’t said whether she would accept his confession. He couldn’t help but feel anxious.

"Shen Ying, so... what’s your answer?"

"Weren’t you just calling me Ying a moment ago? Why is it ’Shen Ying’ now?" she asked, suppressing the emotion in her heart as she looked up with a smile.

Wang Ming’s breath hitched. He said awkwardly, "The mood’s gone. If I call you by just one name now, I’m afraid you’ll find it cheesy."

"Who said I’d find it cheesy? I like it when you call me by one name. Hmph, from now on, you’ll call me Ying. Got it?"

"Huh?"

Wang Ming blinked, then a look of joy spread across his face. "Does that mean... you’ll be my girlfriend?"

"Mhm..." Shen Ying blushed and nodded.

"HOLY SHIT, HOLY SHIT, HOLY SHIT!"

Wang Ming was so happy he started jumping on the spot, his eyes filled with disbelief. His first instinct was to lift Shen Ying up and spin her around, but he was afraid his actions would displease her.

’The crucial thing was... he... he... he... he’d actually succeeded?!’

"What are you doing, you dunce."

"I-I-I’m just too excited, too happy," Wang Ming stammered, so nervous his teeth were chattering.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!"

He let out a huge shout, his voice momentarily drowning out the fireworks exploding over the square. Many people instantly turned to look in their direction.

"Stop shouting~"

Being stared at by so many people at once, Shen Ying felt her ears burn. Even though they were in a corner of the square where no one could really see them, she couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of embarrassment.

"Quick, run!"

She grabbed Wang Ming’s hand and pulled him to a different spot, right under everyone’s noses.

Old Wang stared blankly at his hand being held by Shen Ying. It wasn’t his first time holding a girl’s hand; he had held Zhang Yuanyuan’s before. Though both were soft and delicate, the feeling was different.

It was just as Old Jiang had told him: when you hold the hand of a girl you like, your palm gets so nervous it won’t stop sweating.

The thought that Shen Ying was now his girlfriend, and that in the future they could hold hands whenever they wanted, just like Jiang Xia and Lin Yanwan, made his heart pound with excitement.

"...Ying, I’m sorry."

"Why are you apologizing to me?" Shen Ying asked, looking at him in confusion.

"I was just yelling my head off. A lot of people must have been cursing us out in their heads, calling us psychos," Wang Ming said seriously.

Shen Ying burst out laughing. "You dunce, let them curse. It’s not like they know it was us, and it’s not like we’ll lose a piece of flesh over it."

Wang Ming was deeply touched. Compared to Zhang Yuanyuan, Shen Ying’s personality was so much better.

"Don’t just apologize to me for any little thing from now on, okay? Always having ’I’m sorry’ on the tip of your tongue makes it seem like we’re strangers." She swayed their linked hands, which hadn’t separated since she first grabbed his.

"Unless you actually do something wrong," she added with a radiant smile.

Wang Ming scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment. "I’ll try my best... my best not to make you angry."

"And what if you do make me angry?"

"Um, I’ll kneel on a durian, or a washboard... you can punish me by not letting me hold your hand for a week, but you can’t refuse to talk to me."

Hearing his dead-serious tone, Shen Ying couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh. ’This dunce is so amusing.’

"What a dunce," she whispered.

The two of them found a bench and sat down. Their butts felt a bit cold, but it was bearable.

"When did you start liking me?" she asked with a smile.

"Back in high school, when Old Jiang and Yanwan were dating, we were kind of forced to see each other. To be honest, my attention was on Yanwan at first, too, but then I slowly found myself drawn to you," Wang Ming replied after a moment’s thought.

"Oh, so that’s how it is! You secretly had a crush on Yanwan? Did you only turn your attention to me after the ’goddess’ was snatched away?" Shen Ying used her free hand to pinch his waist, but his thick windbreaker and sweater made it impossible to get a good grip.

"Believe it or not, I’m going to tell Jiang Xia right now," she threatened, wrinkling her cute nose.

"No, no, no, it wasn’t a crush! I just thought she was pretty, stunning at first sight. But those two only have eyes for each other. And later, I realized I only had eyes for you."

Wang Ming bit his lip and continued, "Back then, I messed with you every day just to get your attention. Whenever I was alone, my mind was filled with images of you beating me up."

Shen Ying chuckled softly. "You’re a pervert, liking to get hit."

"I like being hit by you," Wang Ming whispered.

"I’m not some violence-crazed maniac. Why would I hit you every day?" she huffed softly.

She suddenly realized he had truly changed a lot in the last six months. She used to think he was dull, but now he even knew how to say sweet nothings to make her happy. Shen Ying could feel just how important she was to him.

It was as if he wanted to shelter her from all harm, to treasure her completely at all times.

"Actually, I knew you liked me for a long time," Shen Ying said, looking down at their intertwined fingers. She let out a soft breath, which turned into a white puff of mist in the cold night air.

"When it comes to feelings, girls are much more intuitive and sensitive than guys. There’s a saying in a lot of romance novels: ’If a boy is always trying to get a girl’s attention, and it’s not just because he’s a jerk, it means he likes her.’"

She looked up into Wang Ming’s eyes and said with a grin, "And you were quite the jerk back then, too. You’d always blurt out some pointless comment that made me want to hit someone."

"Heh heh heh..." Wang Ming gave a goofy laugh. ’Looks like I managed to leave a pretty deep impression on her back then after all.’

"Wang Ming."

"Huh?"

"I didn’t mean to reject you back then," Shen Ying said suddenly, her gaze fixed on the brilliant fireworks exploding in the sky.

Wang Ming looked down, his hand unconsciously tightening its grip. "Why are you bringing this up?"

"Because you’re my boyfriend now, so I have to make things clear. I don’t want you to have any lingering doubts."

Shen Ying exhaled softly. "Maybe I was just too rational back then. If I was going to date a guy, I would want it to be with marriage in mind. But we had just graduated from high school. You were in the Imperial Capital, and I was in Yu Du. We were worlds apart."

"I didn’t want to hold you back in your studies, and I didn’t want you to always be focusing your energy on me and affecting our futures." She turned her head to look at Wang Ming, her gaze softening.

"A lot of people say long-distance relationships don’t work out. There are so many amazing people in university, and you never know when someone’s heart might wander. I was worried we didn’t have a future, so I thought it was better to just nip those feelings in the bud."

She smiled, her tone filled with emotion. "Back then, I even thought that if you still hadn’t dated anyone after four years of university, and I hadn’t found anyone I liked either, I would confess to you myself. I was even worried that your standards would get higher in the Imperial Capital and you wouldn’t want me anymore."

"Ying... I like you. I’ll always, always like you," Wang Ming said, swallowing hard.

"You dunce. I like you, too."

She turned, wrapped her arms gently around Wang Ming, and her soft voice, filled with affection, echoed in his ear.