She’s Crazy C08

Su Zai Zai quickly took a few steps back and unscrewed the cap of her bottled water, taking a few sips.

Quench her thirst first.

If she lost control and swallowed nervously in front of the handsome guy later…

That would be too embarrassing.

She screwed the bottle cap back on, glanced at her reflection on the black screen of her phone, then pulled a tissue from her bag to wipe the sweat off her forehead before curling her lips into a smile.

Hmm, this works.

A natural, beautiful smile.

She put her phone into her pocket, took a deep breath, and buried all traces of nervousness.

Then, she walked over, tilted her head, and greeted him, “Hey, Zhang Lu Rang.”

Hearing her voice, Zhang Lu Rang looked over. There was no trace of surprise in his eyes—like the surface of a lake at night, completely still, without a single ripple.

He gave a small nod in response.

Su Zai Zai instinctively tightened her grip on the water bottle, blinked, and asked curiously, “Do you live around here? I’ve never seen you at this bus stop before.”

“Yeah.”

“Which neighborhood do you live in?”

This was a residential area with many apartment complexes, so she had no clue where exactly he lived.

Upon hearing her question, Zhang Lu Rang glanced at her and vaguely replied, “Just around here.”

That look…

As if she were some kind of dangerous beast.

She was probably imagining it.

Su Zai Zai decided not to dwell on it and suddenly remembered the WeChat incident from yesterday. She carefully chose her words before asking in a roundabout way, “Do you have WeChat?”

She saw Zhang Lu Rang hesitate for a moment, rub the back of his neck, and then answer, “No.”

He must have felt guilty about lying, but between adding her on WeChat and telling a lie, Zhang Lu Rang clearly preferred the latter.

Ha.

If she had known, she would have just asked him outright why he didn’t accept her friend request. Now what? If she exposed his lie, he might feel awkward.

She never realized she was such a self-sacrificing person.

Su Zai Zai forced a smile. “Not planning to get one?”

“No.”

“Oh.”

Awkward silence.

She thought to herself, Zhang Lu Rang is probably the slow-to-warm-up type. If she takes a step forward, he’ll take two steps back. Well… for her future, she’d better take a step back first.

Clearing her throat, she made something up on the spot. “You should get one. There’s a public account on WeChat where you can check real-time locations of buses. That way, you can time it perfectly and won’t have to wait outside for too long.”

Zhang Lu Rang seemed surprised by this reason. A flash of embarrassment crossed his eyes as he looked away and replied softly, “Okay, thanks.”

“No problem.” Su Zai Zai waved it off.

Silence fell between them again.

She shifted her backpack to the front, took out her phone, and checked the real-time location of the Route 71 bus again—still about ten stops away.

Get stuck in traffic, preferably blocked completely—she secretly hoped.

The atmosphere felt a bit awkward, so she pulled up another topic. “By the way, isn’t the school sports meet next Thursday? Are you participating in any events?”

“Yeah.”

“What about Sports Night? Are you performing?”

“…Yeah.”

That surprised her. She paused for a moment, disbelief creeping into her voice. “Huh? You’re performing? What are you doing?”

Zhang Lu Rang didn’t answer this time.

Su Zai Zai glanced up at him and instantly chuckled in frustration. “What’s with that look? You act like I’m trying to steal your class’s performance idea.”

Zhang Lu Rang neither looked at her nor explained.

“Hmph, well, don’t expect me to tell you about ours either. Our program is amazing—the performers are both gorgeous and stylish. I’m already swooning over her.”

Seeing no reaction from him, she continued, “I heard she’s beautiful, top of her class, comes from a good family, and has a bright personality. She’s known as the number-one goddess of Z High School.”

Zhang Lu Rang was speechless. After a long pause, he finally said, “…You’re not talking about yourself, are you?”

If she was, then truly, he had never met someone this shameless.

Su Zai Zai widened her eyes slightly, feigning shock. “You guessed it! It’s me.”

“…”

“Didn’t expect that I have so many good qualities in your eyes.”

“…”

“Actually, I’m not as great as you think.”

“…”

Zhang Lu Rang’s brow twitched. Finally, unable to endure any longer, he put on his other earphone.

Seeing him put on both earphones, Su Zai Zai carefully studied his expression. He didn’t seem angry…

Relieved, she lowered her eyes, hiding her emotions beneath them.

Neither of them spoke again.

When the Route 71 bus finally arrived, they walked toward it at the same time. Su Zai Zai stood behind Zhang Lu Rang, student bus card in hand, ready to tap it.

As she scanned her card, she suddenly noticed that he wasn’t using a student card—he was paying with cash.

Zhang Lu Rang took off one earphone and stood near the rear door, gripping an overhead handrail with one hand. Su Zai Zai walked over and stood beside him, grabbing a strap as well.

After some thought, she asked, “Have you eaten dinner?”

“No.”

“Then let’s eat at Maoye Plaza together!”

Maoye Plaza was the stop they were getting off at. After that, they’d have to walk another half hour to reach school.

“No need, I’ll eat at the school cafeteria.”

“How did you know I actually wanted to eat at the cafeteria?” she raised an eyebrow, half-jokingly.

Zhang Lu Rang fell silent again, not responding.

A bad feeling rose in Su Zai Zai’s chest. Just as she was about to say something to smooth things over, the bus suddenly braked hard. She lost her balance and instinctively grabbed onto something nearby.

The only thing next to her… was Zhang Lu Rang.

Her face instantly turned red. She immediately let go, but the bus hadn’t fully stopped yet. She wobbled unsteadily, nearly falling over. She didn’t have time to care about anything else and hurriedly blurted out, “Sorry! I didn’t mean to… I just wasn’t standing steady.”

Zhang Lurang opened his mouth but hadn’t spoken yet when she continued, “And I was just joking with you. I never planned to eat in the cafeteria.”

The bus came to a stop, and a few people got off. Su Zaizai lowered her head and walked toward the back, finding a seat in the last row.

Zhang Lurang glanced in her direction.

Today, she had tied up all her usually loose hair, making her look much fresher than usual. Her palm-sized face looked even smaller with her bangs framing it, her eyes were dull, and the corners of her mouth drooped.

The bus started again.

At the same time, Zhang Lurang withdrew his gaze.

Sitting in the back, Su Zaizai grew increasingly anxious. She rubbed her fingers together, turned to look out the window, and, for the first time, felt the urge to cry.

She held back but still didn’t cry.

She didn’t dare to look at Zhang Lurang again and gloomily took out her phone to play a game.

When she opened the game interface, her phone briefly blacked out. In that moment, she caught a glimpse of her lips reflected on the screen.

Her mood sank even further.

She really wanted to slap herself for having such a loose tongue.

—

After getting off the bus, Su Zaizai immediately walked toward the snack street next to Maoye Plaza, randomly picked a shop to have dinner, and then got up to head back to school.

She didn’t really want to eat outside, but if she walked with Zhang Lurang and someone saw them together, he would probably be unhappy.

On the way, Su Zaizai kept thinking about one thing.

What kind of girls does Zhang Lurang even like?

He’s so quiet—shouldn’t he find someone talkative to balance him out?

But he seems to like peace and quiet, so maybe he thinks she’s too noisy.

Ahhhhh, it’s so weird! Why can’t she stop talking whenever she’s around him? She’s really not the type to be so outgoing—she can’t even control herself!

It feels like everything she does in front of him is wrong.

With no answers, Su Zaizai suddenly started recalling—when she accidentally bumped into Zhang Lurang on the bus today, what expression did he have?

She only remembered when she reached the school gate.

She had been too nervous at the time. She hadn’t even dared to look at him.

But she did remember that day on the track field when she grabbed Zhang Lurang’s wrist. The emotion that flashed through his eyes was impatience and… annoyance.

Too hard to win over.

Her looks probably didn’t even register in Zhang Lurang’s eyes.

So, she could only rely on her personality to win him over.

…If she even had one.

—

When Su Zaizai arrived at the classroom, it was not yet five o’clock, but there were already more than ten people inside. Some were chatting in small groups, while others were focused on studying.

She took a short break before picking up her physics workbook and painfully started doing her homework.

Halfway through, Jiang Jia entered from the front door, sat in her seat, and excitedly leaned over to ask, “Hey, Zaizai, did you add him yet?”

Su Zaizai was already on the verge of a mental explosion from the physics problems. Hearing this question pushed her even closer to the edge. Her pen paused, and her expression became unreadable.

She sighed and brushed it off casually, “I’ll talk about it after I finish this.”

Seeing that she was working on physics problems, Jiang Jia sympathetically patted her shoulder and didn’t press further. She silently took out her phone to play.

Suddenly, she noticed Su Zaizai’s WeChat username. “Huh? Why did you change your WeChat name?”

Since Jiang Jia didn’t have a saved note for her, she could see the username change immediately.

Su Zaizai let out an “Ah” but didn’t explain.

“What’s wrong with you? The original ‘Little Fairy’ was so nice. Why’d you change it to ‘Su Moron’?”

“…I literally just changed it to ‘szz.’”

“Isn’t that just ‘Su Moron’?”

“Get lost.”

After that little scene, Su Zaizai lost all motivation to do homework.

She thought for a moment, then briefly told Jiang Jia what had happened today and asked, “Do you think he doesn’t really dislike me? I mean, he basically always responds when I talk to him…”

“I don’t know either.” Jiang Jia thought about it. “But I heard from my classmates that Zhang Lurang is just like that. Even though he looks super cold, he pretty much responds when people talk to him. He won’t make people feel awkward.”

“Oh.” Su Zaizai felt a little disappointed.

“Zhou Xuyin is the really rowdy type, but he’s actually the kind of person who completely ignores you if he doesn’t want to talk. Compared to him, the girls in their class prefer Zhang Lurang.”

Thinking about it that way, Zhang Lurang really does have a way of drawing people in. Su Zaizai suddenly felt exhausted.

If she did manage to get him, she’d have to constantly worry about him straying.

The more she thought about it, the more her mood dropped. “I’m really scared that he dislikes me.”

Jiang Jia hesitated before comforting her, “He probably doesn’t.”

“I’m scared I’ll do something wrong, scared I’ll be too enthusiastic, and scared he’ll think I’m too distant.” Su Zaizai rubbed her eyes, unable to take in anything else. She murmured, “But what can I do? I’ve never chased anyone before.”

Su Zaizai had no experience.

So she had no sense of balance.

She had nothing but endless enthusiasm for Zhang Lurang.

The moment she saw him, all that enthusiasm found its outlet.

She couldn’t control it.

She couldn’t help but show her affection for him.

She had absolutely no control over it.