I Like You

"You're still lying to me."

"I already know everything. That girl was someone you hired to trick me."

"You even gave her five hundred yuan, didn't you?"

"..."

Lin Yu opened his mouth, wanting to deny it, but he couldn’t find the words.

The fact that Tang Manman could say all this meant she already knew everything. There was no point in trying to argue.

"Why did you lie to me about having a girlfriend?"

Tang Manman sniffled, her nose red from crying. Gone was her usual gentle, timid demeanor—now she pressed on relentlessly.

Why did I lie to you?

Looking at Tang Manman’s tear-streaked face, Lin Yu truly didn’t know how to answer that question.

How could he explain it to her?

Tell her the truth?

Admit that he did it because he was afraid she’d fall for him, so he faked having a girlfriend to crush any hope she might have?

Wouldn’t that sound ridiculously conceited?

He’d probably just come off as arrogant.

Or should he tell her the truth about this world?

Explain that this was just a comic book world, and he had to stay ten thousand miles away from her to prevent the story from collapsing into chaos?

If he said that, he’d probably get locked up in a mental institution.

Lin Yu was at a loss, unable to come up with a proper response.

"Say something!"

After waiting a moment and getting no answer, Tang Manman’s voice trembled as she pressed him again.

"Say what? What’s there to say?"

Under her relentless questioning, Lin Yu couldn’t think of a good answer, so he abandoned logic altogether and turned the tables, adopting a defiant, careless attitude.

"So what if I lied to you?"

"You’re gullible, so I felt like tricking you. What’s the problem?"

Lin Yu channeled the unreasonable arrogance of a delinquent, snapping back at her.

"And another thing."

"What’s with this whole act of yours?"

"I thought you didn’t like me."

"Yet here you are, barging in first thing in the morning to interrogate me over something so trivial?"

"Don’t you have anything better to do?"

"Get out of here!"

"Stop making trouble for no reason!"

Lin Yu lashed out at Tang Manman in one breath, then tried to slam the door shut before she could react—playing the coward and retreating into his shell.

Oh, right!

And that damn Cheng Ya!

Screw you!

Give me my money back!

The dark-blue steel security door flew toward its frame under Lin Yu’s pull.

But in the next second—

A sound.

The door stopped moving.

"I like you!"

"Wh-what?"

Lin Yu gripped the door handle with one hand, his shocked gaze cutting through the half-open gap. Tang Manman stood there, crying even harder now, and for a moment, he couldn’t believe his ears.

"Tang Manman, what did you say?"

Lin Yu asked again, disbelief thick in his voice.

"I said,"

"Lin Yu,"

Tang Manman sniffled, her voice trembling.

"I like you."

...

If the human mind were an endless plain, then one’s convictions and stubbornness would be the towering mountains rising from it.

The clearer the belief, the deeper the obsession—the higher and more unshakable those mountains became.

But right now, Lin Yu suddenly realized that those once-imposing peaks had blurred into obscurity.

It was as if a thick fog had rolled in, carried by Tang Manman’s tearful words straight into his mind.

The mist spread quickly, turning into layers of hazy gauze that draped over those sky-piercing summits.

Stay away from the four female leads?

Couldn’t see them anymore.

The hardships of a long-distance relationship?

The gap between their futures?

Even those seemed to fade into the background.

All rational voices in his ears scattered like dust in the wind, dissolving into faint, indistinct whispers.

Lin Yu looked at Tang Manman outside the door—her eyes brimming with tears, hopeful yet nervous—and felt his heart melt.

His lips trembled uncontrollably, and he bit them nervously.

Staring at her delicate face, flushed from either crying or embarrassment, the emotions in his chest grew brighter, sharper.

Swallowing hard, Lin Yu took a deep breath, ready to speak from the heart—

But then, a soft, almost teasing voice whispered gently in his ear.

"Senior year of high school is a critical time. I wouldn’t want Manman getting into a relationship—it might affect her grades and ruin her future."

"Don’t you agree?"

"Lin Yu?"

That gentle sentence sent an icy gale howling through Lin Yu’s mind.

No—

Not just a gale.

A full-blown storm.

The violent winds tore away the delicate mist, leaving the mountains of conviction and reason standing stark and undeniable once more.

"Hah."

"Hah!"

Lin Yu let out two cold laughs—the second louder, as if the first hadn’t been bitter enough.

"You like me?"

He pointed at himself with one finger, sneering.

"So what?"

"Is that supposed to be some grand achievement?"

"Tang Manman, I’m sure plenty of people at school like you too."

"What?"

"Are you going to take responsibility for every single one of them?"

"Tang Manman."

"You like me."

"That has nothing to do with me."

"Do you understand?"

"I don’t like someone like you."

"Just look at you."

"Dull, boring, stiff as a board—flat as a plank too. You’re just not interesting, got it?"

"Can you stop clinging to me from now on?"

Lin Yu forced his voice steady, straining to sound annoyed.

Across from him, Tang Manman seemed stunned.

Her face visibly paled, her slightly reddened eyes wide and unblinking.

Lin Yu could see it clearly—how the hope in her eyes shattered, how the sparkling gemstones turned into lifeless rubble.

Unable to bear the sight, Lin Yu lowered his head and pulled the door shut.

His voice was hoarse as he muttered one last thing:

"Get lost."

"And don’t ever bother me again."