Chapter 57: I Like You (Please Continue Reading)

Before uttering that sentence, Fu Linxing was actually quite uneasy, fearing that Tao Zizi might read more into his words and then, as she had done with other boys before, respond with a teasing:
“You want to… with me?”

But given the current situation, he really couldn’t think of any other meaning behind her lingering after greeting him, so he took the risk and said:
“Do you want to play together?”

“Yeah.”

Fu Linxing felt no ecstatic thrill from being favored by a beautiful girl; instead, alarm bells rang loudly in his mind.

“Why?” he couldn’t help but ask.

Tao Zizi answered matter-of-factly, “You came to have fun, I came to have fun, and since we met, why not play together?”

Fu Linxing sighed helplessly, lowered his head, closed his eyes, and rubbed his forehead hard, suddenly understanding why his father often made that gesture.

Before he knew it, he was sitting on the carousel alongside Tao Zizi.

What a dangerous woman, to have such control over him. But what could he do? He held his forehead, blaming his damned curiosity.

At last, Tao Zizi stopped staring at him and gazed ahead at the carousel horse’s tail that they could never catch up with.

She wore a white blouse with accordion pleats, a navy blue knit cardigan adorned with a badge, a black-and-silver plaid skirt, and a matching plaid tie—a perfect autumn Japanese-style junior high school uniform.

Oh no, junior high, not high school.

My God, Fu Linxing thought, she was just a middle schooler, yet how did she grow such a splendid figure!

Usually dressed only in her school uniform, Tao Zizi already outshone her peers, but in this outfit, bathed in the fairytale glow of the carousel lights, she was breathtakingly beautiful—even her perpetually stern expression became forgivable.

Yet this made Fu Linxing even more wary.

Ever since he learned that his mother was the mysterious artist known as “”, women had become alien creatures to him that required utmost caution—especially beautiful ones.

“Do you come here often? Do you meet other classmates?” he asked Tao Zizi.

She sat on the adjacent carousel horse, keeping pace with him. “I have met them, but I don’t play with them. I don’t like them.”

“Hmm… It must be annoying being the subject of those rumors.”

“Not annoying, just don’t like them.”

The two of them bobbed up and down on their carousel horses, chasing the twinkling lights overhead like shooting stars.

For a moment, Fu Linxing seemed to anticipate her next words, a sudden surge of dread rising in his heart.

“I like you.” Tao Zizi tilted her head, looking at him seriously.

“No!” Fu Linxing almost shouted simultaneously.

Unfortunately, he was too late to stop her…

Tao Zizi’s horse descended, and Fu Linxing, drenched in sweat, looked down at her, “You mean like liking a stray cat you find on the roadside, right?”

She blinked, rising diagonally above him, then descended again.

Fu Linxing glanced nervously around, trying to spot his mother lurking nearby.

“Right?” he whispered again.

“I mean the kind of like where you want to play together,” Tao Zizi finally said.

He breathed a relieved sigh, thankful it wasn’t the kind of like that implied “doing something.”

Right… right?

Yes, yes!

“I have a special feeling about you,” Tao Zizi said.

They left the carousel and boarded the little train. Tao Zizi’s high ponytail swayed gently with the train’s bumps, the fine hairs at her nape glowing golden in the sunlight.

“Huh?” Fu Linxing’s neck stiffened, his chin dropping.

“I can’t really explain it, but my feelings are always accurate.”

“If you can’t explain what kind of feeling it is, how can it be accurate?”

“When I saw you just now, I had a revelation: today is the day we’ll become friends.”

“What kind of revelation is that!”

“I’ve been paying attention to you for a long time. You’re a good person. So I couldn’t just befriend you at school—people like me would bring you trouble. I kept thinking about how to approach you, and today finally gave me the chance.”

Faced with such a statement, as if carelessly tossing out all the awkwardness, Fu Linxing was at a loss for words.

“Suppose we become friends, then what?” he asked.

Tao Zizi’s expression finally wavered slightly. “Aren’t we already friends?”

“Let’s put that question aside for now. I want to ask, after becoming friends, what then? Do you… need my help with something?”

Perhaps paying a friendship fee? Playing Gwent together? Or attending some noble banquet? No, that last one was more likely a gathering of oddballs…

But Tao Zizi was still hung up on the first part: “If we’re not friends yet… let’s go play the log flume ride now.”

Fu Linxing couldn’t keep up with her leaps in logic. “Huh? Why?”

“Because after you see my chest faintly outlined under my soaked blouse, you’ll understand my true feelings.”

Hearing this, Fu Linxing’s gaze involuntarily dropped to the third button of her blouse.

Most middle schoolers with such development usually slouch and hide their figures out of unnecessary adolescent shyness. But Tao Zizi always stood tall, welcoming others’ gazes with noble grace and no hesitation.

Truly admirable!

However—

“Don’t you have some misunderstanding about making friends?” Fu Linxing wailed.

In the end, they didn’t go on the log flume ride but boarded the Ferris wheel instead. Compared to other rides, this was better suited for conversation.

They arrived early for their scheduled meeting, but before entering, Fu Linxing anxiously searched around, fearing that He Yue might have arrived early at the rendezvous point.

“Tao,” Fu Linxing sat upright in the cabin, “I… um… I think your views on gender might need some correction.”

Tao Zizi also sat straight, hands folded demurely on her lap. “What do you think is wrong?”

The Ferris wheel slowly began to turn, lifting them high above, away from the amusement park’s clamor.

“We’re still in middle school. Not every topic should immediately slide to extremes.

“Like breasts, doing… ah… those things—constantly talking about them so bluntly can come off as a bit frivolous,” Fu Linxing carefully chose his words. “I believe you’re not a frivolous person; you just use extreme methods to ward off those boys.

“But it can easily cause misunderstandings, even make people think you don’t respect yourself.”

Tao Zizi tilted her head, puzzled. “But their ultimate goal in dating is to do those things with me.”

Fu Linxing broke into a sweat. “I don’t think they think that far ahead… most of them, anyway.”

“Why be a couple if not to do those things? Why not just be friends?”

“Ah, right, right, I think they just want friendship, but the mainstream opinion doesn’t support pure friendship between boys and girls, so they have to confess. Early romance is just that kind of shallow thing…”

Fu Linxing spoke despondently, feeling as if his thoughts were being assimilated by her logic.

“No,” Tao Zizi said seriously, “early romance also leads to pregnancy and abortions.”

“Let’s move on to another topic…” Fu Linxing sighed. “First, I must clarify: our friendship doesn’t need to be based on breasts.

“Secondly, I still want to ask, why do you want to be friends with me?”

“No reason. I just want to be friends.”

“Become friends, then what?”

“Are we friends now?”

“You tell me what happens after we become friends.”

“Then we’re friends.”

Fu Linxing slapped his forehead, exhausted. “This isn’t some unscrupulous contract that requires a promise to activate, is it…”

Silence.

He looked up and was surprised to see a flicker of astonishment on Tao Zizi’s face.

“No way, did I really guess it right?” He instinctively stepped back.

“No,” Tao Zizi said, pointing outside the cabin at the sky that no longer moved. “The Ferris wheel is stuck.”