Chapter 428 - 418: Jiang Yino’s Apology!
"Are you two done with your business?" Du Ruanqing asked with wide eyes, seeing Qin Fan and Jiang Yino walk out of the room one after the other.
"Not yet!" Qin Fan responded with a smile.
This exchange made Jiang Yino’s face turn bright red again.
Ignoring their conversation, she said, "Ruanqin, weren’t you going back to the dorm? Stop standing there and go!"
"No, Sister Yinuo, I came back looking for you!" Thrown off by Jiang Yino’s attempt to change the subject, Du Ruanqing pivoted as well.
"Looking for me?" Jiang Yino asked, furrowing her brows in confusion.
"Yes, Yinuo! You’re about to be famous! Right now, outside the dormitory area, there’s a heart made of roses aimed right at you, your highness! I already have Mingsi doing real-time surveillance! I just rushed back to report to you," Du Ruanqing said with a sly, gloating expression.
A heart made of roses? For me?
Hearing this, Jiang Yino was flabbergasted.
How could this be possible? Subconsciously, she assumed it was a surprise from Qin Fan and turned to look at him with a questioning gaze.
"It wasn’t me," Qin Fan said, shaking his head.
What a joke. Even if I wanted to be romantic, I wouldn’t resort to such childish, student-level stunts!
"Hey, Great One, I think you should go take a look too! After all, it looks like you’ve got a rival!"
After saying her piece, Du Ruanqing suddenly grabbed Jiang Yino and started running. "Sister Yinuo, hurry! Let’s go see what all the excitement is about! You’re something else, you know that? First, you conquer our Great One, and now someone’s staging this grand confession for you! You’re unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable!"
"What nonsense are you talking about? Let go, I can walk by myself!" Jiang Yino said, still completely bewildered. She pulled her arm free from Du Ruanqing’s grasp and quickened her pace. Despite her words, she was desperate to find out what was going on.
「Outside the dormitory area.」
A large crowd had formed, surrounding the vast open space in rings. In the center of the circle, a male student wearing glasses stood, looking clearly shy and nervous. At his feet, the name "Jiang Yino" was spelled out with rose petals inside a large, heart-shaped pattern also made of roses.
"Holy shit! This guy’s got some serious guts! Getting rejected after all this would be so humiliating, right?"
"Who’s Jiang Yino? Is she the class belle, the department belle, or the campus belle?"
"Where’s the girl? Hey, buddy, you can’t just stand there waiting! The roses are going to wilt in this sun!"
All sorts of comments buzzed through the crowd, but the student seemed to ignore them all, his nervousness only mounting.
Ordinarily, he wouldn’t have dared to do something so crazy. But a self-help book about love he’d recently read had spurred him on! Just as the book said, in the world of love, just like in society, fortune favors the bold. In the decadent ivory tower of college, his only advantage was having sat near Jiang Yino for three years of high school. If he didn’t press that advantage soon, he would have to stand by and watch her fall for someone else! He couldn’t bear to see that happen. That’s why he had to strike first. He would let his grand, crazy gesture win her over!
"Yinuo, you’re here?" Ou Mingsi shouted from the crowd upon seeing Jiang Yino arrive. "I don’t know! See if you recognize the guy." As she spoke, Ou Mingsi cleared a path through the crowd for Jiang Yino.
However, when Jiang Yino saw the instigator and the scene before her, she was completely stunned.
"Fang Kun, is it you?" Jiang Yino exclaimed in disbelief, staring at the person before her.
For three years of high school, he was always so shy, a typical bookworm completely buried in his studies. He’d even blush just talking to a girl! But now he’s pulling a stunt like this? Has he gone crazy? And he’s confessing to *me*?
"Yinuo! It’s me!" Fang Kun’s limbs trembled with nervousness.
He held up the slightly wilted bouquet of roses and dropped to one knee before Jiang Yino.
WHOOSH!
The gesture caused an instant uproar in the crowd. This was his ultimate move. Instantly, dozens of cell phones were pulled out, all aimed to capture the impending moment.
"Fang Kun, what are you... What are you doing? What is all this?" Faced with the sudden confession, Jiang Yino became flustered.
But after kneeling, Fang Kun seemed to calm down. It was as if Jiang Yino was the only person left in his world. He gazed at her with deep affection and said slowly, "Yinuo! For three years, we were together every day in high school! During those three years, I fell for you from the very first moment I saw you. I’ve had a secret crush on you for three years! But I never dared to confess because I knew high school romances were meaningless! I was also afraid of disrupting your studies and your life!
"It wasn’t that I was afraid to talk to girls in high school; it was because I only had eyes for you. I didn’t want to interact with any other girls, not even to speak with them more than necessary.
"For you, I gave up my acceptance letter from Fudan University and came to Jinling just so I could be by your side, to watch the sunrises and sunsets, to see the flowers bloom and wither! For three years, over a thousand days, your every smile and every laugh have lingered in my mind! I know that I have fallen in love with you! It’s love, not just a crush! Those three years of unrequited feelings have refined that crush into love! Yinuo, today, in front of the whole world, I’m confessing to you. I love you. Will you be my girlfriend?"
With deep emotion, Fang Kun held the bouquet out to the completely dumbstruck Jiang Yino, his face a mixture of urgency, anticipation, and faint, nervous apprehension.
"Say yes!"
"Say yes!"
"Say yes!"
As soon as Fang Kun finished speaking, the crowd of onlookers, who loved nothing more than a good bit of chaos, began chanting in unison. It was the kind of ruckus everyone seemed happy to join in on.
Ou Mingsi and Du Ruanqing were dumbstruck. What a scene this had become! Qin Fan was still standing right behind them! And this guy... he was completely clueless! Who makes a public confession like this without being one hundred percent sure? Wasn’t he just asking for a world of pain?
As for Fang Kun’s fate, the two of them knew there was no doubt he would be rejected.
Sure enough, listening to the crowd chanting "Say yes!" and seeing Fang Kun’s deeply sincere expression, Jiang Yino didn’t hesitate for long. Her eyes filled with apology and embarrassment as she looked directly at him and shook her head. "Fang Kun, I’m sorry."