The Childhood Friend is No Match for the Heaven-Sent One (Three)

High school classes were incredibly intense, and the precious few minutes of recess felt like a lifeline. However, there were still people willing to sacrifice those minutes to solve a few more problems. For example, his childhood friend and desk mate—Xie An.

Kang Cheng propped up his chin, spinning his pen listlessly, occasionally glancing at Xie An, who was engrossed in correcting her wrong answers, his mind drifting aimlessly. He recalled Xie An's unusual behavior at the school gate this morning. The ballpoint pen spinning on his fingertips suddenly dropped, but before it hit the ground, a fair hand caught it steadily.

"How can you not even hold a pen properly?" Xie An caught the pen in her spare time, casually placing it on the edge of her book. She didn't look up at him, but her voice carried a hint of helplessness.

Kang Cheng simply stopped looking at the pen. He slumped onto the desk, resting his chin on his arm, and nudged a few centimeters closer to her. Tilting his head, he carefully observed the person in front of him. After entering the classroom, Xie An had returned to her normal self, as if the scene at the school gate had just been his imagination. It wasn't that he hadn't asked her what those words meant, but the girl had only replied that she suddenly remembered a novel she had read and had momentarily felt like acting in front of him. After saying that, she had even provocatively asked him if her acting was good, which made Kang Cheng so angry that he didn't look at her for two class periods. In the end, he only forgave her after she promised there wouldn't be a next time, magnanimously choosing not to hold a grudge.

Only Kang Cheng knew that when he heard that annoying answer, he had felt an incredibly strange sense of relief. However, for some reason, he still couldn't forget Xie An's sorrowful expression at that moment. It was as if the entire world had abandoned her. She was as fragile as a withered lotus, struggling to escape the mud, taking her last gasps of breath as she stood silently in the dark, stubbornly seeking an answer from him.

"...What do you want me to answer?" Kang Cheng's warm hand covered Xie An's slightly cold back of the hand, muttering as if talking in his sleep.

Xie An's finger twitched slightly, leaving a crooked black streak on the clean paper. She glanced at the dozing youth, a bitter smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. Pulling her hand out of his palm, she stopped looking at him.

[How could you make such a low-level mistake? It will be troublesome if he gets suspicious.] System 001 suddenly spoke up, its tone not very pleased.

Xie An wasn't angry; she knew the system was worried about her. This newly merged plane held many mysteries, so 001's anxiety was understandable. But to her, since she was already here, she might as well make herself at home—life had to be lived anywhere. Xie An lowered her eyes, using her index finger to gently hook the pinky of the youth resting on her desk, her voice lazy: "I just couldn't help it. I'm not made of clay, after all."

"Having already been tormented once, no matter how much I pretend to be deeply affectionate, deep down, it still hurts a... tiny bit."

001 fell silent for a long time, seemingly accepting her answer. Its shota voice carried a hint of awkwardness: [Anyway... it's better to be careful.]

"It's fine, the male and female leads will meet this afternoon." Xie An stopped teasing Kang Cheng's palm, her voice indifferent: "He won't have the mind to pay attention to me anymore." What a pity, she wouldn't be able to tease this "big dog" in the future. Xie An propped up her chin, feeling a bit sentimental.

Of the six worlds she had been through, Kang Cheng was considered the most normal male lead. At least before meeting the female lead, his concern for Xie An was genuine. It was precisely because she had once been sincerely favored by this youth that Xie An in the original plot couldn't accept the gradual process of losing him.

Was Kang Cheng at fault? No. He just happened to fall in love with someone else when his heart first began to flutter. A person's feelings are naturally limited, let alone love and friendship being two completely different concepts. Love is exclusive and exclusionary.

Was Luo Xiaoxi at fault? Also no. She just happened to fall in love with the sunny boy who had helped her many times. They loved each other, and Xie An, caught in the middle, naturally became the villain. Although Xie An in the plot was driven mad with jealousy over Luo Xiaoxi, she had never actually done anything heinous. Yet, no one cared.

Kang Cheng only felt that she had become unreasonable, bitter, and annoying. He stopped paying attention to her feelings, didn't bother to comfort her, and only chose to be cold and distant. As the male lead of a doting novel, once he fell in love, only Luo Xiaoxi existed in his eyes. He forgot his old promises, marching forward without looking back, having no time to spare for Xie An, who was left behind. Feelings clearly have many forms; if love couldn't be given, friendship still remained. But he didn't even want to leave her a shred of his final tenderness. He left so decisively, without a word of explanation, leaving only indifference.

If she had known she would lose him, if she had known losing him would be so painful, she would rather have never met Kang Cheng. To have and then be stripped of it was truly too cruel. Xie An couldn't bear it. Thus, she imprisoned herself. She was both the captured criminal and the judge who sentenced herself to life imprisonment. She stubbornly clung to the past, even as that past conspired with the present to torture her, tormenting her until she was barely recognizable, yet she stubbornly refused to let go. She didn't harm anyone, but she ruthlessly trampled on herself. She was so weak that she would rather chew on expired memories to sustain herself than open her heart to someone else again. Because it was simply too painful.

Xie An devoured the memories engraved deep in her heart until they were no longer enough to satisfy her, until harsh reality stabbed her in the eyes with a knife.

On the day the university admission results were announced, Xie An heard that Kang Cheng and Luo Xiaoxi had been admitted to the same key university. She really wanted to tell him that she had passed too. Look, I'm not inferior to her. Look, I've been so good. Even though you weren't by my side, I studied seriously, slowly catching up to you. Look at me. Why won't you turn around? Why won't you turn around and look at me just once?

The surprise confession Kang Cheng prepared was truly beautiful. Colorful balloons, all kinds of fresh flowers, and brilliant fireworks. Classmates dressed in mascot suits surrounded them to offer congratulations. Xie An thought he must have put in a lot of effort. Surely even more effort than that night in eighth grade when he prepared that tiny chocolate cake for her. What about this time? How long had he saved up his allowance to prepare this?

She cherished that memory deeply, as if it had just happened, but in the blink of an eye, the person beside him was someone else. She watched Kang Cheng blush, nervously pulling out a bouquet of red roses from behind his back, stuttering his confession to the girl in front of him. She watched him, amidst the teasing of their friends, carefully embrace the blushing Luo Xiaoxi as if she were the most fragile treasure in the world. Xie An thought, he really liked Luo Xiaoxi. That was wonderful.

Tears rolled down her cheeks, and her vision blurred. She didn't want to watch anymore. Standing outside the crowd, Xie An, with red eyes, quietly backed into a corner. Wiping away her tears, she stood in the dark alley, silently watching the brilliant bursts of fireworks. Actually, fireworks were a lot like Kang Cheng—dazzlingly beautiful but fleeting. When the fireworks faded, she curled her lips slightly, muttering to herself, "I won't wish you happiness either."

How foolish. He didn't seem to need her blessings anyway. For no reason, Xie An suddenly felt both pathetic and laughable. She leaned against the wall and laughed, laughing so hard her shoulders shook violently, laughing until she could barely breathe, laughing until tears streamed down her face. In the midst of everyone's wild celebration, she was the only one quietly grieving.