Habit is a Terrible Thing

At this point, Long Aotian looked at Li Qingxue seriously: "Don't ever try to string someone along, because your brain might not be able to keep up with it."

He had figured out that Li Qingxue's way of thinking was sharp when it came to studying and business.

But when it came to love, she was hopeless.

People like her wouldn’t understand what love truly was until they had an epiphany on their own.

"I wasn’t deliberately stringing him along. When he confessed to me the first time, I rejected him because I never planned to date during high school."

Hearing this, Long Aotian became intrigued and moved the leaf covering his eyes: "He confessed more than once?"

"Ninety-eight times over the three years of high school."

"Holy crap!" Long Aotian was stunned. This guy wasn’t just a simp, he was a super simp. Thankfully, he finally came to his senses and cut his losses.

But Li Qingxue was something else too. To have someone confess to her 98 times and reject them every single time, only to still be unable to distinguish between love and friendship—that wasn’t just being slow, that was downright clueless.

"So, the way he treats me now is how friends should treat each other. It’s just that I’ve gotten used to his special treatment, which is why I feel uncomfortable with his sudden change."

Long Aotian sat up.

The sun was getting stronger, and it was no longer comfortable to keep lying down.

"Exactly, that’s pretty much it."

Li Qingxue sighed: "I still feel a bit empty inside."

"Being the one who’s favored is always nice. You’ve grown accustomed to having that person by your side, and it’s hard to adjust to the sudden change. You just have to follow your heart."

"Thank you. Talking to you has made me feel less upset." Seeing Long Aotian get up, Li Qingxue also stood up from the ground.

"You young people always take things to extremes. A small issue makes you sad and miserable, and before you know it, you’re talking about life and death."

People who haven’t been beaten down by life are like that.

In everyone’s life, there’s always some unspoken regret deep in their heart.

But what can you do?

You have to keep moving forward. You can’t dwell on past regrets forever.

Especially in the adult world, there are too many things you can’t control. For the sake of survival, it doesn’t matter whether you like it or not.

When it hurts, when you’re tired, you wipe away your tears and keep pushing forward.

At times like that, regrets feel so trivial.

Who has the energy to feel sad or upset over someone’s change in attitude, adding unnecessary pain to your life?

Li Qingxue didn’t deny that his words made a lot of sense. After listening to him, she did feel a lot better.

But he was the same age as her, so why did he always talk like an adult?

Especially that last line: "You young people."

"You’re young too."

"True!" Long Aotian didn’t argue and waved his hand: "Goodbye."

"Goodbye." Li Qingxue also waved at Long Aotian.

Then she took a deep breath and started walking home.

After listening to this male classmate, Li Qingxue had finally realized the problem.

She had never really set her attitude straight.

If she had maintained a proper friendship with Ye Liangchen after rejecting his first confession, the following 97 confessions wouldn’t have happened.

She had taken Ye Liangchen’s kindness for granted.

She had mistaken his affection for her as mere friendship.

And in doing so, she had kept sending him the wrong signals.

That’s why the 97 confessions followed.

Now that Ye Liangchen had come to his senses and placed her in the position of a normal friend, she really shouldn’t disturb him. They needed to maintain some distance—a safe, normal distance for friends.

If she hadn’t met this male classmate, she would have gotten angrier and angrier, and might have gone straight to Ye Liangchen.

Then, without realizing it, she would have sent him the wrong signals again.

On the other hand, if Ye Liangchen still rejected her advances, she would have developed a rebellious mindset, just as the male classmate had said.

Unable to figure out the problem, she would have blamed Ye Liangchen.

She would have accused him of giving up on their friendship just because she didn’t reciprocate his feelings, of no longer being kind to her...

And then she would have felt more and more upset, more and more wronged...

She would have started overthinking—did she have to like him back to keep their friendship alive?

Under the influence of such rebellious thoughts, she might have even developed other feelings for Ye Liangchen, just to continue enjoying his unconditional kindness...

She wasn’t sure if that counted as love, but one thing was certain—it was just habit and possessiveness at work.

Thinking about this, Li Qingxue shuddered.

Because the way the male classmate described what it feels like to like someone—she had never felt that way about Ye Liangchen.

Habits were truly terrifying.

Thankfully, she had been enlightened now.

From this moment on, she would adjust her attitude to that of a normal friend.

She couldn’t take Ye Liangchen’s past affection and kindness for granted anymore.

No one should feel obligated to give and be kind to her unconditionally.

With this in mind, Li Qingxue took out her phone, found Ye Liangchen’s QQ number, and sent him a message.

She was quite good at taking advice.

Meanwhile, Ye Liangchen, waiting at home, was itching to check his phone.

But his phone hadn’t made a single notification sound yet.

He didn’t dare look, afraid that if he did, he wouldn’t be able to resist sending Li Qingxue a message.

After all, in his dreams, Li Qingxue had become his bride.

And more importantly, she was his first love.

Did he like her?

How could he not be happy and thrilled at the thought of finally being with his first love?

Not contacting Li Qingxue for two days had taken every ounce of his willpower.

Because he firmly believed that impatience would ruin his plans. To eventually make Li Qingxue chase after him and to win her over, he had to endure now. He had to play hard to get!

Just then, his phone buzzed.

Looking at the vibrating phone, Ye Liangchen took a deep breath and finally picked it up.

The moment he saw the message, Ye Liangchen jumped out of bed: "Yes, this is great!"

The message was from Li Qingxue: "I’m sorry, Ye Liangchen. It was my fault before. I’ll change from now on. We’re still friends, right? [Apologetic smile emoji]"

"She’s realized her mistake. It seems she’s remembered how good I was to her, hahaha..."

He quickly typed out a response, then deleted it all and simply replied: "Yes."

Because now, he had to maintain a cool and aloof demeanor, quietly waiting for Li Qingxue to start her "chasing the husband to the crematorium" phase...