Chapter 35: Sadness â His Ge looks so beautiful when crying
On the TV, the female lead bid a tearful final farewell, then turned and stepped into the rain, leaving the male lead heartbroken and desperate. The screen’s light cast a ghostly glow on Jiang Yunianâs face, reflecting an identical soul-lost despondency.
Hearing his careless ridicule, Jiang Yunian froze for two seconds, and his eye rims turned red instantly. The laziness on Jiang Yanâs face gradually shifted. Acting faster than he could think, he extended a long arm, supporting Jiang Yunianâs back as they sank into the sofa, thighs touching, body heat mingling. Jiang Yunian was almost entirely pulled into his embrace, breath sticky against his ear. “Why are you crying?”
“…”
Jiang Yan repeatedly rubbed the red corners of his eyes, gazing into those watery, shimmering pupils. A thought moved in his mind, and an indescribable pleasure rose, followed by intense displeasure. “Who bullied you?”
Only he could bully his Ge; what were other people to dare?
Jiang Yunian, who was originally just feeling a bit sad, felt his inner grievances suddenly burst like a dam upon being held in this half-coaxing, half-forcing manner. A crystal-clear tear rolled down from the reddened corner of his eye, sliding across his fair cheek. This teary-eyed, hazy look made Jiang Yan lose his mind even more.
His Ge looked truly beautiful when he cried.
Jiang Yan held him tighter, letting his tears soak his shirt. He waited until those eyes were slightly swollen and the crying spell had passed before using the back of his hand to gently wipe away the tear stains.
“Speak.”
Jiang Yunian sniffled. His reason returned, and he felt embarrassed realizing he was crying at his age. His post-crying voice carried a soft, waxy nasal tone as he stammered that the scholarship was gone, given to Zhang Hao. It was a bit cute.
All that fuss for a few lousy bucks? Jiang Yanâs mouth twitched, but he didn’t show it. “Results are out?”
Jiang Yunian shook his head and repeated the professor’s words. Zhang Hao getting the award was practically set in stone.
“Zhang Hao?” Jiang Yan narrowed his eyes slightly, hiding a trace of disdain in their depths.
Jiang Yunian nodded. The Hehai Award selection requirements were nothing more than top grades and being a student in financial need, but these were just application thresholds. The final decision lay in the hands of the reviewing teachers. A student like him with no background or connections had no right to interfere.
Moreover, Zhang Hao’s performance over the past two semesters was indeed commendable; awarding the scholarship to him seemed reasonable. Jiang Yunian just felt it was a pity. This scholarship was enough to cover his living expenses for half a semester. And it wasn’t just about money; with only one spot per major, the prestige went without sayingâit would look very impressive on a resume.
“It’s just a few thousand kuai,” Jiang Yan said indifferently, pulling out his salary card from his pocket and stuffing it into Jiang Yunian’s soft palm. “Don’t cry, it’s all yours.”
Jiang Yunian held the cold, hard card, warmth surging in his heart, but he couldn’t take it. Jiang Yan disliked him resisting everything he gave; that disguised rejection at the mall the other day had almost made him lose control. He ignored the refusal, forcefully closing Jiang Yunian’s fingers around it, and lowered his head to blow a breath onto his red eye rims.
“Crying like this, I thought that woman rejected Ge.”
Jiang Yunianâs closed eyelids trembled, only then realizing how close they were and how ambiguous the posture was. Almost at the same moment, he broke free from the crook of his arm. He shook his head, not wanting to mention that matter, and whispered that he was going to wash his face. Just as he turned, he was pulled back into the warm embrace by the shoulders. Jiang Yunian pushed against his chest, not using force, because it was useless.
Jiang Yanâs pitch-black pupils wrapped around him without blinking. Amidst his nervous and helpless squirming, the strength suddenly relaxed.
“Pretend I never said those words the other day.” As if compromising, Jiang Yan rested his chin on his shoulder, his eyes staring into the void with zero warmth. “No matter who Ge likes, I respect Ge‘s choice.”
Jiang Yunianâs heart softened. How could he blame Jiang Yan? It wasn’t like he didn’t know his personality; he inevitably had a bit of a young master’s temper. Hearing these words, he felt relieved but also a bit guilty. Regardless, he didn’t want a rift to form between him and Jiang Yan because of this. Having thought it through, Jiang Yunian hugged him back after a long time, saying he understood everything and just wanted some quiet.
After hugging for a while, Jiang Yan let him go, watching him walk into the room and close the door. Once the door panel completely cut off the line of sight, the gentleness on Jiang Yan’s face vanished, replaced by a suppressed ruthlessness between his brows.
He silently took out his phone and sent a text message.
[Get out here]
In the boxing gym, the sandbag was being smashed with loud thuds. Jiang Yan was shirtless, beads of fine sweat oozing from his cold white skin, his muscle lines fluid and powerful. His gaze was resolute, his jawline tensed coldly. Every punch landed solidly on the sandbag. The final punch forcefully dented a hollow into the bag.
Seeing the sandbag ruined, Zhou Shu couldn’t watch anymore. “That little paparazzo looks easy enough to handle, is he that hard to nail down?”
Jiang Yan didn’t speak, delivering another heavy punch to the sandbag.
“If you ask me, just tie him up and lock him away for a few days, won’t he be obedient then?” Zhou Shu shamelessly offered a rotten idea. “Don’t you love playing that game?”
When he was chasing He Qing before, this guy hadn’t offered fewer rotten ideas. Otherwise, how could they hang out together? Aside from his mother having a distant adoptive relationship with the Zhou family, they shared this same birds-of-a-feather nature.
“What do you know,” a desire for conquest rose in Jiang Yan’s eyes. “I want him to be willing.”
At this statement, even Zhou Shu had to whistle “impressive.” Encountered a great saint of love, heh.
Having destroyed a sandbag, Jiang Yan seemed tireless and told him to sub in.
Seeing the “beat to death” posture just now, Zhou Shu swallowed hard. Only a fool would be a human punching bag for him to vent on.
“You might not want your life, but I want mine. What if I get broken and my wifey dislikes me?”
Jiang Yan sneered, “You’re getting engaged, and you still care about that?”
Hearing this, Zhou Shuâs face darkened. Since parting on bad terms at school last time, He Qing hadn’t given him a good face for a long time, not even giving him a chance to explain. He avoided him all day. They agreed not to block each other, but now it was greatâHe Qing had deleted him on WeChat directly, ending it all.
He had been suffocating for days, and now he was completely ignited. Zhou Shu took off his tank top, put on boxing gloves, and leaped onto the ring.
“Come.”
Two days later, the list of Hehai Scholarship winners was released, and sure enough, his name wasn’t on it. Jiang Yunian’s last shred of hope was extinguished. Fortunately, he had adjusted his emotions over the past two days, so seeing the result wasn’t as painful.
Scholarships were there every year; missing it this time meant there was a next time. One failure didn’t mean he could slack off. Life had to go on; hard work was the norm.
If there was regret on this side, Zhang Hao on the other side stopped acting completely. He posted on his WeChat Moments continuously, showing off massively, and even changed the permission from “three days visible” to “all visible.” He was truly basking in spring breeze. Coincidentally, the National Scholarship was announced at the same time, and Lu Yuanbai from their department deservedly won.
At the regular meeting, Zhang Hao started by congratulating the President. Seeing this, other members also offered their blessings. Jiang Yunian sat silently in the corner, watching this scene with a faint smile. He was genuinely happy for the Senior.
Zhang Hao had sharp eyes; he spotted the outcast Jiang Yunian at a glance. Or rather, his showboating was specifically to mock Jiang Yunian. Although with his family’s conditions, there was no need to be serious about this amount of money, the Hehai Award’s prestige in the industry was comparable to the National Scholarship. Only a fool would give up such solid honor to someone else. Thinking of Jiang Yunian working himself to death in the library pretending to be diligent all day, only for the award to fall into his own handsâit was equivalent to slapping Jiang Yunian, whom everyone favored, right in the face. He felt incredibly invigorated.
Unable to hold back, he walked over with the posture of a victor, looking down from high above at the seated Jiang Yunian like looking at a defeated rooster. “Why aren’t you congratulating the President?”
His voice was bright, causing many people in front to look back.
“It’s fine if you don’t like my Moments, but you should at least give the President some face, right?”
Jiang Yunian looked at him, winning the award yet still unforgiving, and didn’t want to respond. But with so many people watching, not stating his position seemed bad. Just as he stood up, he saw Lu Yuanbai walk down and cut off Zhang Hao’s words. “The Junior already sent me a message yesterday.”
“Besides,” Lu Yuanbai smiled calmly, “there’s no need to advertise it everywhere. It’s better to be low-key.”
Was this pointing at him, or was he being modest? Zhang Hao couldn’t be sure. Lu Yuanbai also hadn’t liked his Moments, but he was a busy man in the lab, so it was normal to overlook it. Zhang Hao couldn’t afford to offend him, but he wasn’t afraid either. It was just getting carried away with success and indulging in a few words of bravado. Before leaving, he didn’t forget to hypocritically invite Jiang Yunian: “You’ll come to the award ceremony, right?”
Jiang Yunian: “…”
Knowing he couldn’t possibly come, Zhang Hao was deliberately disgusting him. With his back to Lu Yuanbai, he pulled a disdainful smile and walked away feeling refreshed.
Meeting Lu Yuanbaiâs gaze, Jiang Yunian smiled helplessly and congratulated him sincerely.
“Congratulations, Senior.”
Lu Yuanbai seemed quite regretful too. He had thought he would stand on the podium with him, delivering acceptance speeches as grade representatives. Regarding this, he just patted Jiang Yunianâs shoulder gently, offering encouragement: “Don’t lose heart, there will always be opportunities.”
Jiang Yunian nodded calmly. “I know. Thank you, Senior.”
The award ceremony was set for Friday night at 7 PM in the Administration Building’s lecture hall. Every department would send representatives; it was a major event. However, just two days before the ceremony, an accident happened.
At 11 PM, Hao Meng hurriedly sent a message telling Jiang Yunian to check the forum immediately. Confused, he logged into the account whose password he had almost forgotten. In moments, he understood what had happened.
The pinned highlighted post on the forum had a striking title: [Chemistry Department Year 2 Class 2022 Zhang Hao Faked Impoverished Student Background, Used Backdoor to Steal Scholarship]
The post detailed Zhang Hao’s family background in full: his parents were partners in the internet-famous restaurant “Chef Zhang.” With such conditions, Zhang Hao’s spending on food and clothing far exceeded the consumption ability of a needy student, and his private hobby was collecting trendy toys. Besides this, an explosive piece of news was released: the Department Head was actually Zhang Hao’s biological aunt! This person was exactly the head of the Hehai Award review group. It wasn’t hard to imagine if there was black-box manipulation involved.
The poster had clearly done ample preparation. Almost every allegation was accompanied by detailed evidence, the chain of proof so complete it rivaled a private detective. Many students replied asking if the poster had a feud with Zhang Hao and wanted to put him to death. The poster did not respond to any of this, nor did they reveal any information other than about Zhang Hao. But more people expressed anger, righteously attacking Zhang Hao for scorning fairness and demanding a strict investigation.
There were one or two comments drowned in the comment section, likely from students speaking up for him, saying Jiang Yunian should have won and that Zhang Hao used connections to push him out. Some radical netizens even forwarded the post to short video platforms. Everyone commented and liked it, and for a time, the wind and clouds surged, the popularity climbing straight up.
The post was made at 7 PM, right during the after-dinner break. Four hours had passed since then. By the time Jiang Yunian finished reading it all, he was dumbfounded.
Who did Zhang Hao provoke to have his foundation exposed like this?
Aside from surprise, he felt a trace of something wrong. Why expose it at this critical juncture? The timing was too pointed. Anyone who knew them slightly would guess that the biggest competitor for this scholarship was Jiang Yunian. If he didn’t know clearly that the whistleblower couldn’t be himself, he would have suspected himself.
But on second thought, with Zhang Hao’s nature of bullying the weak and fearing the strong, he likely had many enemies. It could be considered reaping what he sowed; there was nothing to sympathize with.
As he was pondering, there was a sudden knock on the door. At this time, only Jiang Yan would come knocking. Jiang Yunian stared at the overwhelming public opinion on the forum, and an unlikely thought suddenly flashed through his mind.
“Come in.”
Jiang Yan said from outside that the door was locked. It had been like this these days; locking the door upon entering had almost become a habit, though his memory hadn’t quite caught up. He got out of bed to open the door. The person stood at the door in gray cotton pajamas, holding a cup of honey water, looking harmless to humans and animals.
This was also Jiang Yan’s habit. As long as he came back early, he would make a cup of honey water and knock on his door.
Jiang Yunian took it but didn’t close the door. Instead, he called out to Jiang Yan, who was preparing to leave.
Jiang Yan turned around, his expression calm, showing no abnormality. “Does Ge also feel lonely sleeping alone?”
At this moment, Jiang Yunian didn’t take his seemingly joking truthful words. He directly told him everything about the forum incident. watching Jiang Yanâs expression, which showed no surprise at all, the guess in his heart deepened a few degrees.
After listening, Jiang Yan just said faintly, “That’s what he deserves.”
Jiang Yunian’s heart sank abruptly.
The other party seemed completely unaware that what he did was problematic, his expression terrifyingly calm. “Is Ge not happy?”
Happy? Or schadenfreude?
He should be happy, but why, upon meeting Jiang Yanâs quiet eyes, could he suddenly not feel happy at all?
Jiang Yunian pursed his lips, making the final confirmation. “Was it…”
“Yes.”
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